9.19.11 email and pictures

Hey everyone!

This week was a good one. We had another baptism. Her name is Natalia and she is Hébert´s aunt. We started to teach her after Hébert got baptized because she felt the spirit very strongly at his baptism and wanted to learn more. She is not way smart, haha, but she is humble and I it made me happy to see her get baptized. We are working on Hébert´s parents now. His mom should be baptized soon. She is ready and goes to church every week, the only problem is that her ´husband´ doesn´t want to get married. I think she will have to separate from him :(... but that is better to do than to continue breaking the commandments. Elder Godoy said once that it is better to feel the pain for a couple of months than for eternity. We will see what happens.

So the baptism was supposed to be on Saturday. The other Elders went to the church in the morning to turn on the water to the font so it would be already for the baptism. (they had one too). But after a little the relief society went to clean the church and turned off the water to the font. We went to check on the water at noon to see how things were going and the relief society presdident told us she turned the water off to clean the church because apparently the only place water was leaving waas from the font. So she cleaned a little and then the water in Tianguá shut off for some reason. The font wasn´t even close to being full. So we had to wait at the church all day to know when the baptism was going to be (depending if the water came back on) It came back on at 7ish which didn´t give any time to fill the font. So elder cunha and I went back to the church at 1130 at night to fill the font during the night to do the baptism in the morning before church. We called the bishop in the morning if he could be there or one of his councelors and he told us to wait until after church to do the baptism. Some times it seems like the members don´t like to have baptisms here haha.

But anyway, things are going really great down here. We are having a lot of sucess right now. Miracles happen when both the missionsaries in the companionship want to work. my comp and I get a long pretty well. He still gets really mad really easy and it is still really funny. Elder Cunha and I like to push his buttons. But we do really good work together and I am havin a great time in Tianguá.

Dad, when I was getting close to serving a mission all of the scriptures seemed to talk about missionary work for me too. It is way cool to see how the scriptures take on different meanings in different situations. Right now all of the stories and scriptures seem to always have an answer to a problem of an investigator. It is really cool to get answers from the scriptures and then share that with an investigator to help them out.

Mom, it sounds like your school year is getting off to a good start. Do you think that that spanish class you took will help you with the little Mexican boy? I hope so. I hope that he gets up to speed in his learning. I am sure you are the perfect teacher for him. I am glad to hear that the student teacher is working out well. She will be a great teacher for sure. She is being trained by one of the best!

I also liked what you said about being a young womens leader. I agree it is very important to have a good relationship with those you lead. Some of my leaders here like to use their calling as a way to boss us around and do things their way. I do what they say, but I would be a lot happier doing it they showed they actually cared about the people they are leading. What you say and teach will have more meaning if you have a good relationship with them.

I was hoping Bailey´s baby would be born by now. I want to see him! He better be here next week. Bailey, try to have him before next Monday so I can see him. OK?

I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all so much! you are the best family in the world. I am blessed to be a part of it!

Love Isaac

Me and my big knife with Captain Moroni

Painting for a service project

Service Project

Alexandra's baptism

Natalia's baptism

Cool Spider I found

Elder Robertson with Tiangua in the background

9.12.11

Good morning family!

This was a good week. We had another baptism. Alexandra is her name. Her older sister was baptized 16 years ago and they were living in Fortaleza and moved here a month ago. Her older sister took her to church and we started to teach her. She already wanted to be baptized and she is a really smart girl so she understood everything we taught way fast. She was just ready to be baptized I guess haha. I am way happy for her.

Wednesday was a holiday here. It was Independence Day. It was nothing like the 4th of July there in the states... Haha. I think I was more patriotic than all of the Brazilians, and it is their holiday. There isn´t much patriotism here. I think maybe it is just because they got independence from Portugal really easily. From what people tell me is people came here, and the Portuguese didn´t have any problem with that. So they started Brasil. The way people celebrate Independence Day is just like any other holiday. Don´t go to work, and drink away.haha.

We did a service project on Wednesday for a member here. We painted his house for him. It was a job. and really really messy. The paint he used is a powder, and you mix it with water and in the end it is really really watery. I was covered in it. But, it comes out of clothes really easily because when it dries it turns back into powder. It looks really bad on walls too, but I guess it is cheap so whatever. I was glad to help him out. We painted his house in 4 hours. I will send pictures next week. (I forgot my cord from the camera to the computer in our apartment.)

I gave a talk in church yesterday. I talked about Prayer. I only had to talk for 7 minutes so that was really easy. I guess it went well. No one said anything after, so they either didn´t understand me or they didn´t like it haha.

I got some letters this week! I got the one from Paige, that had a picture of Leslie in it. And I got the FHE activity you guys did. My companion liked guessing too. haha.. He didn´t do too well.. haha. And I got the letters from Grandma from the family reunion. You can post on Myfamily that I say thanks a lot and that I love you all! Also, thanks to Paige for the letter and picture. I wrote back already and I will get it in the mail. I will wirte some more letters to everyone, but I haven´t had time yet to get them all written.

It sounds like the honey harvest went well! I liked the pictures. It looks really good. The honey here in Brazil doesn´t have a very strong flavor. They have bees here, but there are two types of honey here. From bees, and from sugar cane I guess. It isn´t honey, but it is really similar I guess.

Thanks, Mom, for sharing your thoughts from Sacrament meeting. I liked the definition of joy. I can testify that that is true. I am finding some of the greatest joy in my life out here. I love it so much. Sometimes I don´t want to think about going home haha. It is really good to be a missionary.

To answer your questions. The new areas are Caixias, and Araguaína, both in Maranhão. The furthest south is I think Araguaína now. It is clear on the western edge of the mission kinda in the corner. I am still in Tianguá. I don´t think there were any transferrs last week. I think he did them all two weeks ago.

Oh, and I went to the fair once just to walk around with my friends when I was in college. It wasn´t that cool I thought haha.

Dad, good luck on the new semester and ward! I am sure you will love it. What apartments are in your ward again?

I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

Love Isaac

9.5.11 Pictures and Fast Week letter

Bruno, Neto, and i forgot the other kids name... oops... and me... But Neto was my first baptism and I found him in Sobral still active!

Leila´s baptism. don´t worry, she really is happy to be baptized. sometimes Brazilians don´t like to smile..

me and denis. I was so happy that he was baptized. he changed his life COMPLETLY!

Bom dia meus amados!

This week went by REALLY fast. it seems like yesterday that I was emailing you last time... But it was a great week. here is how it went...

We went and visited Denis everyday to help him get prepared for saturday´s baptism. He is the man. haha. He always has a funny story for us.. I will tell you one that he told us. So he was riding his bike down his street and he was coming up to a parked car. He saw an old man on the sidewalk walking the same direction that he was riding. But as he was coming up to the parked car he knew that another car was driving in his same direction and he looked back to see if he could make it around the parked car before the moving car caught up to him. As he looked back in front of him the old man had moved off of the sidewalk right in front of Denis on his bike! haha. Denis nailed him. There wasn´t any time for him to react and both Denis and the old man went flying haha. Denis thought that he killed the guy, but then realized that if the old guy was talking, then he wasn´t dead haha. Both of them were OK and the old man was just a little scratched up haha. But I laughed pretty hard visualizing how that all happened ha.

Anyway, Denis was baptized on Saturday night and confirmed Sunday. I was able to baptize him and confirm him. It was the first time I have ever confirmed anyone, and I was nervous, but it was good.

Oh, I wasn´t transferred yet.. if you couldn´t tell...

So this week we focused more on our recent converts because we had kind of been forgetting them. They are all doing great so far. Chagas is going to help us out and his friend, by introducing us. Ebert is the only one that is struggling... He hasn´t been confirmed yet and is up and down if he really wants to be a member of the church. He knows its true, but he just is in a tough situation with his family. But his mom is listening to us and she wants to be baptized as soon as her lazy boyfriend will get married to her. He just wants to keep having ´fun´ for a couple more years without commitment. It is annoying.

It sounds like your week was good. I am sad to have missed the party at Grandma and Grandpa´s house. Let them know I love them.

I am excited to see how the honey turns out... You are expecting 75 pounds?? That is a lot of honey. Will you sell it at the farmers market or something? Are you allowed to send some to me?? ha. I hope dad doesn´t get stung. Tell him to use gloves..

Well, maybe today there will be more transferres today. President opened the 2 areas last week so I won´t go there. That is alright, I kind of wanted to open up an area, but there are a lot better qualified elders that have more experience than me. I am really happy here in Tianguá though. I kind of want to be transferred, and kind of don´t at the same time. I guess I will just be happy with whatever happens ha.

I will attach pictures in another email because it isn´t working on this email.. But I hope you have a great week! I love you all very much! I hoping Bailey has her baby soon! I want to see pictures of him. Thank you all so much for all you do!!!

Love Isaac

8.29.11 Stake Conference

Oi família!

This week was a great one! Things are going great here in Brazil. To start out, Leila was baptized yesterday night after stake conference! She was having a lot of problems in her life finacially and with her ´husband´ Denis, another investigator. She had separated from him and was having a real tough time. I think that all of her problems won´t be completely solved because she got baptized, but I know that she will be able to deal with them better and she will have the strength to bare the burden. Denis will be baptized this coming Saturday. He has really progressed. He changed his life 180 degrees. I love seeing the change he made. I think when Leila sees that he repented and is giving it his best to be a good husband and father, she will give him another chance and hopefully they can get married. That Elder Ferreira and my plan anyway.

So yesterday was stake conference in Sobral. It was a great day. We left Tianguá at 730 in the morning and got to sobral at 9. The church payed for a bus for everyone. It was packed and I had to stand up the whole way there and back. But thats alright. The speakers at stake conference were the stake president, Sister Dias, President Dias, and Elder Godoy of the 70. It was a great meeting. Elder Godoy is the man. His talk was about an hour long, but it seemed like 5 minutes. He talked to the youth about dating, and to the parents about loving each other and expressing their love, and then he spok to everyone about sharing the gospel. It was a great talk. He said that the most important calling a guy can have is to care for his wife. He said, well what about being a good dad? He responded that his kids won´t be happy if their mom isn´t with them for eternity. And so the most important thing is to love and care for his wife. I thought that was a good thought.

It was also way good to go back to Sobral, because that is where I started here in Brazil. I saw Neto, my first baptism. I almost cried haha. It was so good to see that he was still going to church and he was sustained to receive the Melchezidek Priesthood! Some other members of that ward complemented me that I finally learned Portuguese too haha. The first question people asked is `How is your Portuguese?` haha I just said, `Alot better.´ ha. but it made me think of the day that I will be able to see all of the people I helped prepare for baptism maybe durning this life, but probably after and I am just thinking that I will be the happiest guy to see them in the Celestial Kingdom if I do my part and they do theirs.

Also, we had 6 invesigators there. That was awesome. It isn´t the standard of excelence for the mission, but I am way happy about that.

Oh, and there weren´t any changes in the Stake Presidency here.

My companion is funny. He gets really mad, really easy. Not at me. We don´t fight, just if one tiny thing goes wrong, he kinda freaks out haha. for example, he paid for an activity with his money and the bishops counselor didn´t pay him right away, so yesterday and this morning he was saying that he was going to call the stake president to get this guy released and he was just complaining and was really mad. it was funny. I was just like, hey man, relax... he is gonna pay you back haha. He didn´t like that too much so I left. But then the councelor showed up at our apartment 5 minutes later with the money and then my comp was happy.

Anyway, I am doing great! I love it down here. There could be a transfer here today or next week. I don´t really know. People went home today, but the transfer doesn´t end til next week.. so who knows. President is opening 2 areas in the mission that haven´t ever had missionaries in there before. I think it would be cool to go to one of them. I don´t know if I could open an area too well, but it would be pretty cool I think. But I love it here in Tianguá and things are going really great here so I don´t really wanna be transferred.

How is Bailey doing? and Paige? I hope everything goes great for them both, especiallly Bailey this coming month.. I am excited to see a picture of him! Oh, a kid showed me a baby that was born like 2 weeks ago in sobral. It looked like a frog and it was a really creepy looking baby. I guess them mom took medice to abort the baby but it didn´t work and he was born really really ugly and only lived for 3 days. So the moral of the story is don´t take abortion medicine. That is my advice to Paige and Bailey. haha

I love you all very very much and thanks so much for all you for me!! Até proximo!

Love Isaac

8.22.11 Photos

And another of the baptism with all the Elders in Tianguá and Chagas and Wesio (recent convert)

Hébert´s baptism

looking off into the distance on top of the plateu. Tiangua is on top of a plateu and this place is where people go hang glyding. You can see for miles. I am looking in the direction of Sobral... FYI

So our kitchen has a problem... The pipe is all backed up and whenever the lady above us uses her kitchen sink, it ends up in our kitchen. I did some investigating with a spoon and found huge chunks of meat in the pipe. Also a bunch of rice and lunches for probably a month. it was a very lovely sight and smelled wonderful. haha. I almost threw up. And the problem still is not fixed. We are just dumpin drain-o type stuff down the drain all the time, but with out success... I think we will have to call the plumber....

Chagas´ Baptism

Me and Elder Ferreira da Silva at the ´cave´ ... It is just below the other picture where i am sitting looking off into the distance....ha

Baptismal font in the back yard of the house we rent for church

8.22.11

ola!

This week was pretty good! Chagas was baptized! He is 19 years old so now he needs to start preparing for a mission. He is a great kid and is pretty funny. He didn´t want to wear the white jumpsuit for the baptism. When he showed up to the church I gave him the clothes and he just set them down... A little later I showed him the bathroom so he could change and gave him the clothes again. He just stood there smiling haha. Then I asked if there was a problem or something.. and he just laughed and said he was embarrassed to wear the jumpsuit ha. So I told him that every member wore the exact same type of clothes for their baptisms and that no one will laugh... but he still wouldn´t put on the clothes haha. So I told Elder Cunha to run to our house and grab my white pants and shirt so he could wear those. He liked that idea better... It was funny to me because he is way shy and he just stood there smiling without saying anything... But, in the end he was baptized in white clothes so its all good.

In other news... Denis went to church and loved it. He is a great guy. He will be baptized on the 3rd. He is progressing so well. Also Leila, his ´wife´ will be bapitized this coming sunday after stake conference in Sobral. They are separated for right now and living in different houses so we decided to baptize them both now and then get them married.. .if they want. Leila isn´t a big fan of Denis right now because she still thinks he drinks and stuff... I hope she can forgive him and see the change in his life because they have a little 2 year old that needs the support from 2 parents. I think it would be very unfortunate for him to be raised by parents who aren´t married or separated.

It sounds like the race Dad did was fun! I hope his feet stop hurting though. Elder Sessions and I are going to start running in the morning... maybe. He did cross country in high school too and so he likes to run. We will see if he can motivate me in the morning though haha.

I haven´t gotten any letters yet from Paige. . I will see President Dias this week at the Stake Conference so maybe he will bring some letters. I hope so.

I sent a letter to Jesse Grandpa this week. I hope it gets to him in time for his birthday. I don´t know how long it takes to get to you guys there from Brazil. But, let them know that they should expect a letter from me.

Mom and Dad! I hope you have a great anniversary in 2 days! I am so happy that you two married in the temple and that you keep all your covenants! How many years is it now? I love you both so much and I will think about you a little more on the 24th.

I hope that everyone´s week is great! I love you all!

Love Isaac

8.15.11

Hey family

I guess I will just answer questions from your last emails and that will cover just about everything. So here are the answers...

I have only stayed in the house one day on the mission when I myself have been sick. I had a fever and diarrea (I have never known how to spell that word). I only had to stay home for one day though, and I was able to leave for a ward activity the same night so that was good. I have been blessed with really good health. I randomly get a runny nose every once in a while, but thats about it.

Our investigators are doing great! We worked way good this week and found some good people. Ebert was baptized yesterday after church and that was really good. He was way close to not being baptized but me and my companion went there and just gave him a way spiritual pep talk haha. After that he was way excited to be baptized. He is 14 and really wants to make the right choice. He reminded me a lot of Joseph Smith´s story.

Another guy who is awesome is called Denis. So the first time we met him he was an alcoholic. He knew it was wrong but just couldn´t figure out how to stop. We taught him like 2 times and he wasn´t showing much progress. Then we went back another time and he told us his wife (they aren´t legally married yet) and his son left to live with her family because her family didn´t see any future in Denis and they don´t like him very much. And he also got fired from his job because of his drinking problem. When we showed up he was very sad and very lonely. We talked a lot about the Atonement and baptism and how he can repent, and be baptized to start his life over. To be born again. He loved that idea! haha. So we explained to him that we are going to help him and invite him to do things that will help him come closer to Christ. So we are teaching him and he is just a completly different guy in just a week and a half. He completly stopped drinking, stopped smoking, and whenever he feels the desire, he says a prayer or reads the Book of Mormon or a little pamphlet we gave him. He went out everyday and found little odd jobs selling fruit and doing little construction projects and he is looking for a better job to support his wife and kid. He is doing great. I really like this guy. He has the goal to be baptized on Sept. 3rd.


People hide from us because here the people are just way to nice to say no. It is a culture thing. We never get rejected and if we ask to talk to people they always invite us to sit down or enter their house. Not always, but 80% of the time. No one says a flat out ´no´ though. You just have to learn their excuses to know what ´no´ is. In this mission we can set a baptismial date in the first 5 minutes of a lesson. You can say something like, Hey, we have a message about Christ. Christ was perfect and was baptized. Do you want to follow his is example by being baptized too? And they always say yes. Then we can say can we help you prepare for baptism on [enter date here] and they will say yes. This usually doesn´t work because they don´t have a testimony of anything really, but it is possible. That is why people will run away or hide because they don´t want to say no.

Yes we walked Chagas to church. Yesterday he showed up by himself. He will be baptized on the 20th. (this coming Saturday)

Sometimes we knock on doors. Or clap at the gate.... haha. Just if we don´t have much to do and we are walking sometimes we just randomly stop at a house if it looks like there is a whole family there. Or if we feel like we should stop.


My shoes are doin good. One pair has holes on the bottom but that will only be a problem when it rains again. They are great shoes. Both pairs are Doc Martins and I love them. I would recommend them. Most Americans use Eccos. My shoe advice would be to get shoes with a thick sole and comfortable in the inside. A thick sole on the bottom is good when it rains because sometimes you can´t dodge the puddles and so water won´t get in your shoes. And if I needed to, I would not be able to buy good shoes here in Tianguá. I would have to wait until I got transferred to Teresina or São Luis. Those are bigger citys with shopping centers.

Zone conference is every 3 months. District meetings are every Tuesday morning. I rarely go to Teresina. The only times I have gone there are when Elder Mazzagardi came here around Christmas time, and when Elder Goodoy was here in Febuary I think. We only go there for big meetings. For Zone Conference President and the assistents travel to all the zones. And for interviews President comes to us. In smaller missions it would maybe be easier to go to President, but we have to travel by bus everywhere and it is expensive for everyone in the mission to travel to Teresina for everything.

President Dias and his wife have completed 2 years of their mission. They have one more year. He started in June 2009 when this mission was created. I will probably leave Teresina the same time he does. I could have a new mission president for a week or two.

That is all the answers to your questions I think...

I am glad Miranda got home safely. That is good. Everything sounds good back home. Is Brian´s new wife a member?

I hope your week is great! I love you all!!

Love Isaac