12.26.11 Pictures and a short note

House visitor...there are a lot of visitors in our house
Baptism of Jefferson

me and a tortise at lunch yesterdayService project
We cleaned up a backyard with machetes.
Service project group
Iguana in a tree. I want to catch one and eat it. I heard they are good.
Christmas phone call
Christmas lights in palms over a nativity
Butterfly that emerged from a cocoon in our bathroom
Tortoise

Hello!It was so great to hear from you all yesterday! I was way happy afterwards. You all sounded great. It made me excited to get home this summer! I miss you all a lot. Thank you for all of the pictures too! Leslie and Miles together are really really cute. I liked leslies hair... she looks like a Who... haha. And Mom, you look great too!! And looking at the pictures of blue.. he is fat. Haha you guys have 6 months to get him slimmed down or else l will have to do it. ha. It looks like it was a great christmas. I am excited that I will be there next year! I hope you all have a great new years this coming weekend. I love you all so much!

Have a great day.

Love Isaac

12.19.11

Hey family!
To start off... I am really sorry, but Skype is not gonna work out... The problem is, is that I am in Timon. The internet is extremely slow, and I think that would be a problem, and as of now, I haven´t found any computers with a webcam and microphones. I am sorry that that will not work out. I really wanted to do Skype... maybe for Mothers Day it will work out...

So here is the plan we have. You can call the church at 7pm Sunday my time. I am sure you guys know how to call brazil by now so I will let you figure out how to call this number..086-3212-1051.... If that doesn´t work, the area code might be 099 and not 086. But I am pretty sure the area code is 086. Again, sorry the skype thing isn´t gonna work out.

This week was a little better. Tuesday we had our district meeting and then I went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Brazell. he is from Spokane washington. He is a really good guy. We had a good day and helped out his area a little. It was nice because it rained in the morning, so it wasnt quite as hot. Then wednesday was back to normal in my area. Nothin too crazy happened on Wednesday or Thursday, just normal stuff. Friday was pretty busy. We had to go to Teresina in the morning for a meeting with President and our Zone. We all got DVD players!! woo!! haha. we are supposed to use them to help out our study. I am not too sure what the church was thinkin when they thought to give all the missions a DVD player. I guess they have a lot of trust in the missionaries. At least in this mission, I am pretty sure they will be used for other purposes. Then later that day we had to go to Caxias which is about an hour and a half away. My companion had to do an interview there. It was a long day and we weren´t able to work in my area that day until 8 at night. Saturday we had a baptism! His name is Jefferson, 14 years old. He had been going to mutual and all the activites and church every sunday. A while ago he set his own baptismal date for the 17th. He is a good kid. I like him a lot. I am pretty sure that his parents will be following his example soon. They are showing good signs of progress. That is about all that happened here. Everything is going well.

Yesterday it was 111 degrees. I saw it on a sign that shows the temperature. I can´t decide what is worse.. idaho winter, or timon everyday. haha. I am missing the snow though... just for this week. I hope you all have a great week and a very merry christmas!!! I love you all and I can´t wait to talk to you on Sunday!

love isaac

12.12.11 Tough/good Week and Pictures

Church building in Timon

Youth in Timon at Family Night

Field where they play football

Bird that flew into the house

Ola!

This week was rough... but it was good at the same time. I don´t know exactly.. but the work isn´t going how I expected. We are havin a tough time finding new people to teach. That is hard to not have people to teach in Brazil. We just need to be a little bit more couragous and just open our mouths and talk to everyone... young or old, men and women. We both just want to teach families and men, but all the men here just chill at the bars. So it makes it tough to talk to them. I hope that we will have some success this week in finding more people to teach.

It was good though because one of our investigators, Jefferson, is progressing well. He is 14. His older sister was baptized a little bit before I showed up here. He has been going to mutual and activities every night and he is just a stud. We didn´t even have to invite him to be baptized. About 3 weeks ago he just said that he wanted to be baptized on the 17th of December. That was the first time for me that an investigator set their own date haha. But I am excited for him. We are also teaching his mom and dad. They are both seeing the change in their kids´ lives. Their hearts are being softened. We left a really good lesson with João (the dad) on saturday. We talked about how he can gain a testimony and I shared with him the faith experiment from Alma 32. He liked it a lot.. We will see what happens. He basically said that he will join the church someday. We just need to help him make that ´´someday´´ soon.

Vera (Bianca´s mom) stopped progressing... I don´t know what is going on inside her head. I think she is just scared to make the full change. We told her 3 kids to keep baring testimony to her and keep inviting her to church. We will continue to go there to teach her every once in a while... She is moving to Curitiba soon and we want to have her baptized before. We will see what happens.

To answer your questions... My suit is still good. I need to take it to the dry cleaners though.. I only wear it on Sunday´s for church and then change out of it, and i use it for zone conferences too. It is holdin out so far. I think maybe I grew because the pants are kinda short now.. but that is alright. My luggage is great. no problems there. About Miranda and those boys... my vote is Schenk. haha. Graydon is awesome, but I vote Schenk. (I take it graydon and tawnie didn´t get married???)

I will talk to my companion about the times. I think either will work, but I will talk to him. Also... President Dias said we can use Skype this year... I don´t know how that works, but I will look into it. Since Christmas is on Sunday, i would have to use skype on saturday in the lan houses. So you just tell me your preference... skype on saturday, or a phone call on sunday. Either will be fine with me.

Everything is going great down here though. I am loving it. Sometimes it is hard, and I get frustrated, but it is all worth it. I know that i am doing what I need to be doing. I am seeing many many miracles here. I wouldn´t trade the experiences i have, good or bad, for anything. I love serving the Lord here in Timon!

I love you all very much and I hope you all have a great week getting ready for christmas and doing your crafts and fun things! Thank you so much for all you do!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BAILEY on tuesday!!! I love you so much and I will be thinking about you on the 13th.

Love Isaac

12.5.11

This was not the best week ever, but it was ok. We are working on getting new investigators through the members, but so far the members aren´t helping out too much. There is one guy who helped us out a ton though and gave us 5 referrals. I was happy about that. The members name is Elton. He is a really good guy. He is getting ready to serve a mission next year and he loves to walk around with us and visit people. He is a great help.

We are teaching a lady whose name is Vera Lucia. She is the mom of Bianca who was baptized a couple of weeks ago. I know that Vera knows the church is true, but she is having problems switcing from her old habits to new ones. She has been part of another church for most of her life... I don´t know if she is worried about what the people from that church will think.. or what.. but she has the desire to go to church and be baptized... but it is just taking the next step of faith that she is worried about. If you could, pray for her. It will bless her family tremendously when she is baptized!

Last P-day we went to the church and played american football with the youth here. It was really fun. It was the first time anyone has ever played so it was fun to teach them a new sport and play with them. We are going to play again today. There are a couple of kids here who are naturals. It is sad to see because they only play soccer here. I wish they had more options, but it is tough. Soccer is so popular here because you can play it anywhere and you only need a ball. There is always a game goin on in the streets or in some open field.

I am glad that Mom´s suregry went well. I am praying for you to recover fast. I am glad the got the lumps out before it did anything to your spine or anything else.

I have a question... what time would be a good time for you guys to call me on Christmas? I think it will be easier this time for you guys to call the church. Church here is from 9-12...Then I have lunch. and I can be back at the church anytime between 2:00-9:00pm Timon time that day...Anytime during the day is good for me. Just let me know what is good for you guys and I can make the plans here to be open at that time.

Thank you for the scripture Dad. I like to read them. They help me out a lot!

I also have an invitation for you guys... Study chapter 9 of Preach my Gospel in Family Home Evening and personal study and think of how you can help out the missionaries there find more people to teach. Missionary work is at its best with the members are full time finders, and the missionaries are full time teachers.

I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week!

Love Isaac

11.29.11 A Good Week in Timon

Good morning!
This week was pretty good. Neither of us know the area so we are just working on that. We are focusing on getting to know the members here to get their trust and help. My other companion fought with the bishop the day I showed up and so I haven´t ever had a good relationship with him, just because I was companions with my companion.. haha. But the first day of the transfer we went and found the bishop and talked and so now everyone is on good terms.

We got a list of recent converts from the church yesterday, so we are going to go and visit them this week to invite them to an activity and see if people in their families are ready to hear the gospel. I have had some sucess doing that before... Speaking of that, Fernando (from my first area Sobral) went to the temple last week! I don´t know if you remember but we found him because his wife was less active and he was just ready to go. I don´t know if I talked about him before because I was transferred 5 days before his baptism.. but now he went to the temple and I am pretty sure he got sealed with his wife. He is a stud.

My new companion is awesome. We already get a long great. He is from Curitiba... my second companion from there... He was born into the church. He doesn´t know his biological dad because his dad didn´t want anything to do with a baby, so he left and never came back. But when he was 3 his mom met a guy in the temple that was perfect for her and he adopted my companion and gave him his last name and a little bit after they were all sealed together. My companion is a really really good teacher. He knows how to connect with people and make them feel important. I am going to learn a lot from him.

For Thanksgiving we had Zone Conference. (not because it was thanksgiving, but because of coincidence) So we got a bigger lunch than normal so that was good. There are a couple of Americans in the zone, so we wished each other happy thanksgiving... and moved on haha. I got my package too! It was great. I didn´t want to wait till christmas... Thank you for everything! I am sure my brazilian friends will like the presents. You send two pairs of shorts so I gave one to Elder Cunha who asked for them, and the other to my companion, because I didn´t need more.. I hope that is ok. And everyone is loving the candy. The ensigns are great and the book by Elder Holland is awesome. I love the quotes in there.

I like to give things to the people I live with, but it isn´t me who is buying the stuff. The elder I live with now wants that umbrella and a yankees hat, but he doesn´t need them. I get the feeling that he is just taking advantage of an american haha. Because the first day here he just started asking for things... i didn´t even know him at all ha... I just told him I will see what I can do. So don´t feel like you need to send those things. if you want to you can though.

And I see elder Smoot and Elder Plewe every now and again. I have seen Smoot more often. I only saw Elder Plewe the day Elder Bednar was here because the entire mission was here. He has been in São Luis his entire mission and that is really far away from all the areas I have been in. The last time I saw him before that meeting was in Portland when the assistents there dropped him off in his area.. haha. He is doing good though.

And the last question.. I am still junior. I am happy with that though. I don´t want to be a leader or anything. I like just helpin out ha. It is better.
Thank you for everything you guys have done, and continue to do! .

I love you all very much!
Love Isaac

11.21.11 Transfers

So I just got called and I am staying here in Timon, but my companion got transferred. My new companion will be Elder Veloso. He will get here tomorrow at 8 at night. i am excited! I wasn´t sure how I was going to live with Elder Bezerra for very much longer... haha. But it is all good now. I also got to know Elder Veloso in Parnaíba. He is a good missionary and knows how to work. It will be good.

11.21.11

Good morning!
This week was ok. We had a baptism on Saturday! so that was good. Her name is Bianca. She is 13 years old. Her 2 older brothers were baptized pretty recently. I don´t know exactly when, but she wasn´t ready at the same time as her brothers I guess. The youth here are amazing and got her to come to church every week, and she was atending seminary everyday. She was basically a member already. We call these types of people ´´dry members´´ ha. But now she is really happy. Her mom came to the baptism and church the next day... so I hope that she will be baptized too.

It sounds like your week is going to be busy. That is good. When you see Dane say this to him... Isaac mandou um abraço. And tell everyone else hello and that I love them. This is my last Thanksgiving on the mission... next year I will be home to celebrate with you guys. They don´t have thanksgiving here. They know what it is because of american movies and stuff, but it isn´t a holiday here. The closest thing to Thanksgiving is Christmas. On Christmas all of the family gets together and has a big dinner. But I hope you all have a great holiday and eat a little extra for me. (I will probably be eating rice, beans and chicken.)

Things are kinda rocky right now. One of the elders that works here in Timon went home because of his knees, and so now we are in 3. It is annoying. And the other elder that we are with now got his wisdom teeth taken out, and so he isn´t able to leave the house. And my companion is a little difficult. He doesn´t like to be forced to obey the rules, so if he doesn´t want to obey, he won´t.. haha. So what I have to do is just show him that I want to obey without saying anything because if I say something he will feel like I am forcing him and he will do exactly the opposite of that thing. (I learned this when I got to know him in Parnaíba.) So it is annoying, but we get a long and laugh and talk a lot. So that is good.

There isn´t very much more news down here... There will be a transfer today... but I am sure I am staying here haha. There are a lot of good missionaries going home today. But hopefullly the other elder gets transferred so we are just in 2, or he gets another companion.

I hope you all have a great week in Wyoming! I am sad to miss it, but have a great thanksgiving! I love you all very much. Oh, and tell Kay Grandma thanks for the letter, and also the Kuhn family thanks for their letters. I will write them back, but it will be slow because it looks like the mail system is on strike again. (your package should be here though, so that won´t be a problem)

But I love you all so much. And thank you for everything!
Love Isaac
ps, i would send pictures, but the stupid computers here are full of virus and my memory card got a virus. I have to find a place to fix it now... sorry...