4.23.12

Good morning family! This week was alright. Things are getting kinda tough here. My companion really wants to be transferred or for me to get transferred. He is pretty sick of me. I am tryin to be good for him. So it was kinda a bad week because we were both not very excited cause he is all depressed and he doesn´t talk and so my mind just starts thinkin about a lot of stuff... mostly home haha. But we will see what happens. I am trying to be a good companion.

Luiz was all set to be baptized on Sunday. We went over the baptismal interview questions with him and he was very excited. We set up the interview to be on Saturday night. He was so excited and was happy. Then we went back on Saturday for the enterview and he said everything changed over the night. I guess he went and talked to his old pastor from his church and talked about how he was going to get baptized. The pastor told him that he shouldn´t because he was already baptized once and that he shouldn´t play with God. So that put a lot of doubts in his mind and he backed out. But our District Leader did an interview any way and helped him get rid of his doubts. He exlpained the whole restoration and everything again helping him understand that if Joseph Smith was a prophet then his other baptism didn´t mean anything. It helped and Luiz said he would pray again all night until he got an answer. I am very happy for him. He has a lot of faith. He is a great guy.

I have a question about dad´s work though... will we get free gas from shell now? And I got an idea from Elder Sanders for a job for me... Do you think it is possilbe for me to work in the oil fields there in texas. Elder Sanders said that you just drive around checkin meters and makin sure everything is goin good. Maybe Dad can get some connections now for somethin like that.

  And another question for Dad. My companion was telling me that he eats pine cones down there in the south of brazil. I guess there is a huge pine cone down there that they take everything off except the core... then eat the core. I laughed at him and thought that was weird haha. But then he said that they eat the same thing in Uruguay. So i wanna know if you ever ate pine cones in Uruguay on your mission?

  Mom, I am not sure about the ´why´ of the release date. I know that i was supposed to leave on June 23rd 2010, but because of visa problems i had to go to the Provo MTC and i think on the 23rd they didn´t have space for me there so it got pushed back to the 7th of july. There are about 10 or so other people that will go home on the 12th with me. So I think it is just easier to send me home with them. I hope that you all have a fantasic week.

 I love you all!! Love Isaac

4.16.12 Apple Pie

Well it sounds like things are crazy back at home! I guess my prayers
were answered. From the emails you guys were sending it sounded like
you were pretty serious about the change and so I was praying that
everything would work out for the best and that you would get the job
at Shell. I am excited! That will be way cool. I don´t know how I feel
about you guys not living in Idaho anymore... That will definately be
weird. But I am happy for you. It will be awesome to get to know
another part of the US. Maybe I could go to school there in Houston
when I get home.. I don´t know if that would be possible but I could
keep dad company if I went there. (I don´t like BYUI too much, it was
just the easier thing to do)

Mom, I liked what that recent convert said. It is very true about not
being converted at baptism. We find a lot of people that want to be
completly converted before they get baptized.. which just isn´t
possible.. I believe before baptism you need to have a testimony of
the restoration and of the plan of salvation and of the gospel. You
need to commit to live the commandments and repent of the ones you
were breaking. Then you go into the waters of bapitsm promissing that
you will keep the commandments and basically live the Gospel
principles. Baptism is the start of the path, not the end. Some people
don´t understand that. They think that they need to know everything
and go to church for 5 years to get baptized. But what you need is a
desire to make a covenant with God and the desire to keep that
covenant.

Oh, I talked to Elder Eberhardt and he said that for sure I am going
home on the 12th and that he is fixing the problem and switching the
tickets. You guys will get a new email or whatever telling you the
flight plans. He said it is a slow process and that he is working on
it and it will all be taken care of.

Speaking of coming home.. I was talking to my companion about apple
pie... I really want one of those when I get home. That is just about
as american as you can get I think. So just be prepared to make me one
haha.

Our investigators are doin well. We are teaching an 82 year old man
named Luiz. I haven´t ever taught anyone that old before. He is
partially deaf and so we have to shout the lessons to him haha. And it
was pretty tough for him to understand my accent for a while, so I
would just sit there and tell my companion to say what I wanted to
say. But now he is warmin up to my accent and we can communicate now
haha. He went to chruch yesterday. That was awesome! He absolutely
loved it. He participated in the Gospel principles class and bore his
testimony yesterday at the pulpit. (yesterday was fast sunday for some
reason) And he told the gospel principles teacher that God sent two
servents of Jesus Christ to his house and that he felt in his heart
that this is the path. We will talk to him about getting baptized next
sunday after church. He is so awesome. He is a funny old man.

Things are going great here in timon. I love it. We are going to a
place called Encontro dos Rios here in a little it. IT is where two
rivers meet (poty and parnaíba rivers) and I think it will be fun. It
will be nice to leave here for a day.

I hope that Abigail has a great birthday on Saturday! I am excited for
you! I will think for you and I hope you can feel my love. I will send
some love vibes to ya haha.

Have a great week this week! Thank you for all you do for me and for
the prayers and everything. You are all the best!

Love Isaac

4.9.12 Happy Easter

biscuts and gravy!! Me and elder Sanders (from missouri) made them
A sweet spider that I found in a tree at my house.

the americans watching conference in Teresina. starting from the back from left to right Elder Plewe and E. Pearson (LZ´s) middle row E. Howe from D.C. E. Smoot, and me... In the front E. Sloan from SLC (no relations to jerry) E. Sessions (lived with him in Tianguá) and E. Sanders

Good morning family!

This week was pretty good... We were able to find 13 new people to teach.. along with some new families. I am excited for that. There seems to be some good stuff goin on right now. It is weird because the blessings come in waves it seems like. There will be a stretch of people who just don´t want anything and don´t do anything, then for some reason a wave of awesome investigaters comes in. So we are getting really busy again with teaching and making sure everyone gets the time they deserve. I love it when we have a ton to do. (it helps me not think about june haha)

So we have been trying to teach an help the rest of Raimundo and Julienes family get baptized. We have just been focusing more on their dad, Ribamar. He is thinking about getting baptized in a different church so we have been trying to help him understand about the restoration and how baptism should be done in the right church with the right authority. He kinda just blew us off and said something along the lines of, I really like my church, I feel good there, and I think I will stay there.´ He had already investigated a lot of other churches and is satisfied with his so far. The last lesson we taught, (about a week ago) I just kinda pleaded with him to just investigate one more church. Just give us a shot and see how it is. He said one day he will go to our church, but didn´t really committ to anything. Last monday we did a Family home evening with them but Ribamar wasn´t there till the very end. But last night his son sent a text message to us saying that his dad will be home tomorrow (today, monday) and the he asked if we could come over again and do a Family Night with him. I think he liked what he saw. I think his heart is softening a little. People don´t usually go and invite us over for things like this, so we will see what comes out of it tonight. I am way excited though!

I gave a talk in church yesterday. They told my Saturday night that i would speak... so I didn´t have much time to prepare much, especially with a busy schedule. So I kinda just winged it haha. Before I talked I knew I should talk about the Resurrection. I ended up sumerizing the suffering and crucifixion of Christ, and then talking about the Resurrection and how that is such a huge blessing. I used our family´s experience from 2003 about Grandpa and Uncle Kevin in my talk and how I know that because Christ lives, we all will live one day together. I am greatful for the atonement, and that we will all live together if we live the gospel. I know the resurrection is real.

I got my birthday card with a letter in it from Grandma Flash. I love it! The other elders love the musical card as well. The brazilians think it is awesome ha. I do too. Tell Grandma Flash thanks.. and that I love her. I would write back, but I am out of envelopes and paper.

I hope Mindy has a great birthday on Wednesday!!! I can´t believe she is 19! It isn´t as weird when Paige or Bailey have a birthday, but when Miranda and Abby have birthdays, I just feel old. But I hope that your day is a great one. I will think of you a lot on wednesday.

I also missed Bailey and Chad´s anniversary. I remembered this week that it is at the end of march. I hope you guys had a good day. I love you, Clarks!

I remember now that you guys had been talkin about school and a job for me. I was thinkin about that this week. I think it would be good if you guys could get a start on that for me. I don´t remember what needs to be done for school, but I am sure you guys know. Just do whatever and sign me up to live wherever if it is necessary to do that right now.

Oh and Elder Eberhardt is brazilian. That is why his english isn´t too great. I will send him an email and see if I get a reply from him.

I love you guys a ton!

Love Isaac

4.2.12 Conference

Hey guys,

Things are going well here in Timon... Yes, I am stayin here for at least another transfer... I wonder if President just forgets about me sometimes... I guess that would be alright cause I could understand it as I am not doin anything wrong to get attention.. haha. Elder Cruz is still my companion. When the calls came he seemed pretty disappointed. It is tough to stay with someone for a long time. I am just used to it by now, but I knew he really wanted a change. I will try to make things good for him.

I really enjoyed General Conference this weekend. We went to the stake center in Teresina to watch it. And yes, we did get to watch in English. I loved the messages. The over all theme that the Spirit taught me was this... Just hold on. Have faith. Don´t lose focus of eternal goals. Keep repenting. And you can do it. I got the idea that this life isn´t going to be easy. And it shouldn´t be. But it is very very possible and with the Gospel in our lives, we can get through it all. I am greatful for the talks given. I loved them all.

I talked to Elder Donizeti (my old comp) and Elder Smoot. Elder Donizeti will be released on the same day as me and he said it is the 12th. Elder Smoot said that he was with an elder that was gettin close to go home and his family got the travel plans for him that said he was going home a month later than he thought, but that was wrong. So I am still stickin with the 12th of June. But I guess we will see. It would be nice to not have so much confusion. Just know that some day I will come home.

I am doing well and am happy. We are working hard and I am givin it my best down here. I´m gettin kinda sad that the end is in sight. It will definatly be weird to not be a missionary anymore. I love this work, and I love bein in Brazil. There are some great people down here. I know that the Gospel is true. I know that it is the only way we can be saved in God´s kingdom someday. I know that Jesus is our Savior. He lives!

I love you guys a ton! Have a great Easter!!!

Love Isaac

Oh, and mindy, if you want to ever do that hike again with someone I will go with ya. I really want to go on that hike. It looks awesome

3.27.12 Woo!

That is so awesome that the Brooke was born!! That makes me happy. I am glad she
came a little early too. I didn´t like waitin for Miles to be born haha. She
looks just like Leslie when she was born. At least from the pictures. I am
excited to see all three of my neices and nephews.

Transferrs are today, but nothing has happened yet. We will see. I might run back here to email you guys a little later because I just called the secrataries, but they weren´t in
the office yet. So, I will call them a little later to find out what all the
confusion is about the release date. I am not too worried about it, but I am
sure it would be nice for you guys to know when you can expect me to get off the
plane. And maybe by that time I will know if I am staying in Timon or not.

This week was good. Monday we went and played bowling, as you saw in the
pictures, and I ate a milkshake. I think it gave me food poisening because I got
messed up inside. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom that night. Then on
Tuesday, Sister Dias made me and Elder Sanders (he was also messed up) go to the
hospital. We had to take some taxis there and I ended up paying for them. It was
pretty pointless and a waste of money because the hospitals here are dumb.
Everyone goes for tiny problems and so you don´t get the care you need. I just
went in and told him what happened, and he gave me a perscription for like a
poweder I mix in with water to regulate my intestines or something. I think just
my peptobismo was workin just fine. So i wasted 80 reais for nothin.... haha,
but thats alright. Then we got to work normally from Wednesday on. It
was a good week.

Our investigators are kinda weird. I can´t figure them out.
There was one kid named Bruno that has just been a pain. He wants to
know a lot about the church but won´t commit to anything. My companion was kinda
gettin irriated on Saturday with him. Bruno just wasn´t accepting anything and
was just bein lazy. After the lesson we were both like, alright, we are gonna
drop him. We were frustrated. But then on sunday we were just in the middle of
Priesthood Meeting and I hear the door open and in walked Bruno by himself.. I
was way surpised and way happy. It´s weird how peoples hearts can get touched.
We went and visited him after church, and he didn´t like everything, but he
liked it alright. I donpt know if anything is going to come out of it, but I am
glad that Heavenly Father is slowly opening his heart. We also had 6
people in church... we are getting better. The best part is that there was 15
minutes left and a member calls me and my comp out. She said that a girl´s dad
was outside. So we go out there and he is talking to another member. I got there
at the end of the conversation, but he said, I need to go to a church, and I
will keep comin back here. So that was awesome and he went in and watched that
last of the sacrament meeting. We visited him and he accepted to prepare for
baptism on the 14th!!! I was happy about that.

on a side note, that lesson with
him was really weird. We were teaching and a lady walked into his back yard and
was lookin through the back door to us. She just got done usin crack... So she
was talkin and doin weird things. The neighbors threw water on her to make her
leave haha. But she was weird... So we just finished up really quickly because
it was hard to concentrate with her back there. But he accepted to be baptized
and that is what is important. I was very happy, and his daughter couldn´t stop
smiling. It was a good day.

I love yo guys so much. Have a great spring
break... or i hope your sprink break was good! I dont know when it
is.
love isaac
ps... root for kansas for me... if they didn´t lose
already