Still working hard

WOOOOOOOOO
I feel like I just got done reading a book! :) It is so awesome that so many things are happening at home! Sounds like there was a fun vacation with mom and dad and I'm sure that there was a party happening at home with the two rascals at home. :)

DANIELLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats on winning your first game with tori! That is weird to think that I played with tori way back when I was in High school! ha good times high school. But Congrats on playing singles as well! It is a whole different game and there are so many differences with singles matches. Way to stick it out and keep fighting! I loved playing singles but never got a ton of practice. Mainly just playing one on one with dad, and how dad would just play around making me run from left to right! haha Did you enjoy it Danielle? Are you all going to play together! Sounds like Trev is wanting to start playing as well. Trev is going to be 6 feet 6 inches so he is going to have quite the advantage :)

This week Elder Batista and I decided to go on a road trip. It is really nice to have a companion that likes to do other things than sleep all P-day! So we went on an adventure and we ended up in the central of the city! ha It is so cool to walk up and down the streets of Fortaleza! There are SOOOOOOOOO many people and there are so many things going on! There are tons of huge buildings and huge shopping centers! We as missionaries cant go into the shopping centers but they sure are huge! Also, water bottles are really out of style now in Brazil! The new cool thing is coconut water! and it is sooooooooo good! You walk down the streets and we they have refrigerators jammed full of coconuts! So for 50 cents you can buy coconut water! They take a knife and chop part of it off and you drink it straight out of the fruit! It is really tasty! And cheap as well.

Mom, I have been showing lots of people the pictures of our family and you have tons of compliments coming your way! We were at the house of our bishop and I was talking to his wife and showing her pictures of our family. Then She looked at our family pictures and said where is your mom? She said she saw three sisters, two brothers (including Dallin :) and my dad. She did not believe that you were my mom! She said that you looked incredibly young! Then I got to brag about you, how you are doing all of the tri-athalons, always exercising and how you are such an example for me! I told her how we trained together and they were in awwwww. They said that we have a really close family and that they can see it!

So here in the mission we have been working working working and we have seen a lot of good turn outs and we have helped tons of people better their lives. But here is our area we have the problem of marriages. We have been working with so many awesome families but no one has the desire to get married. This has been holding back the baptisms a lot. We have been trying to work with families more than just a child, because the chance that they will stay active is a lot higher in a family. But we were going around spreading the word talking to people on the streets and we meet a lady and she said we could come and teach her family! So we went to her house later that night and when we got there her husband answered the door and we shared a lesson with them... we then asked if they were married (half expecting a no) and they said yes! My jaw dropped! I think this is the second second entire family we have taught that the husband and wife are married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they loved the lesson and want to go to church this next week! So awesome!

We were bringing a family to church this last Sunday and it was a family with 3 girls. So we went to pick them up and of course no one was ready. So we waited a bit.... waited a bit more.... waited a bit more until we had about 15 min to make a 30 min walk to church. We headed to church and I was thinking how can we go faster... because all of our members with cars are at church. And the little girl( 9 years old) we were bringing was tiered after about 2 min and didn't want to go more. So I ran over to her and threw her on my shoulders and we put it into gear! It was really fun, and we also made it to church in 17 min! Only 2 min late! I was sweating pretty bad but its all good! They were able to partake of the sacrament. :)

Well you have another letter coming your way this week. I love you all and keep loving each other!

Elder Heath

P.S. you all look great in the pictures! PARABENS with your baby bump Cassie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two week update....

March 12th:

Hey hey hey!!!

So the big news about transfers this week is........... I am staying in my first area Sitio Sao Joao, but My new Companion is....................ELDER BATISTA!!!!!!!!!!! And let me just start by saying we had a pretty interesting day at transfers today. So I made plans for a member to pick us up so we didn't have to take the bus with all of Elder Batistas bags. So we get there and we are talking, we decide it is time to go. So we go to get My comps luggage and they were not where he left his luggage. I thought it was a pretty big deal and so we went searching until we found out that someone that is leaving for their house took his bags. So some Elders at the airport found his bags, and we waited for them to bring his bags back. Until they were not the right bags! ha So Elder Batista has with him a guitar, scriptures, and what is on his back. And somewhere in Ceara his bags are lost..... Pretty exciting first day. I am beat from running all around. But he is pretty relaxed about the whole situation so we are just waiting for someone to recognize that they grabbed the wrong bag.

But I am super excited to work with him. I get to guide our area here and I'm loving that responsibility. But a little about Elder Batista is he has one year and nine months on his mission and so he is packing up his bags to go home....oh wait... he doesn't have them... :) and he is big into Japanese anime, and playing this card game magic. We grabbed a bite to eat la at burger king in downtown, and Elder Batista sat down and this other elder came to our table and they both whipped out their card decks and started playing.... It was pretty interesting :)

I'm getting to know the people here is SSJ really well and it is going to be really hard to leave this area. Everyone here is just like family and everyone loves telling stories of my first weeks here and how I tried to talk to people, but no one understood what I was saying ha

Yes I got both e mails last week. Sorry I'm horrible about writing back. I kinda just sit down and start typing. I don't know if you guys want stories, responses, what I'm thinking... but If there is something in particular let me know :) And hopefully the letters that we went will be arriving soon this week, because I have not missed one week this month sending letters. Did you move houses? ha

The weather here has been changing, ad it rains every night and every morning. I like it a lot, I think hearing the rain at night is really relaxing and I sleep a lot better. And during the day it sprinkles but doesn't really rain. But the HUMIDITY KILLS ME!!!!!!!!!!!! It is crazy hot! Dad you are exactly right, I shower here, dry off, put on new garments and I'm sweating still! I am pretty costumed with the weather but I still sweat like crazy! I think I always will.

Thanks for the sports update, I love hearing about something other than soccer haha The sports part of my life is striving on you dad! Thanks a ton for keeping me alive!

This last week we went in a Jungle part of our area which was pretty crazy. Elder Matos and I were doing a little exploring and we found some pretty crazy things. There was a sofa in the middle of all these bushes, and we found some really cool looking butterflies that were bigger than my hand! And we also saw some crazy Brazilian bugs that I was pretty sure were going to kill us. So we got out of there pretty quick ha

This last p day Elder Matos and I decided to do something new.... so we found this investigator that has a studio to record music. And we went there and professionally recorded some music. We did three songs and I played guitar, Matos on the drums and we both sang. It was super awesome and it was really nice to play guitar again too! We were a little out of practice and so it wasn't the best but we had a blast! I will try to send some pictures next week on what happened and how nice this studio is! When we opened the door it was like walking into America! Air conditioned room, with dry wall, wood floors, and state of the art equipment. It was pretty awesome! We are waiting to hear what we did for about a week. :) Elder Matos rocks the drums!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But everything is great here and we will see how week one goes with Elder Batista!!!!

I love you all and wish you all the best!

Elder Heath

March 19th:

Hola minha familia otima!

That is awesome that the letters finally arrived! I was getting a little worried that they would never show! But the mail system just is a little different, and we are pretty far away from each other. Sounds like we have a family of bakers at home! Pretty soon mom you wont need to bake anymore, if Danielle and Trev keep up the baking! It also sounds like you have lots of goodies around the house from the baking too, I bet dad is loving that :)

Mom you were exactly right! I am the junior guide here in Sitio Sao Joao! Ha Elder Batista is a really awesome teacher and he has lots of energy while we are in our appointments which is really cool! We are planning to have a talent show here in 3 weeks to get more people excited with church activities. And I am thinking about doing what mom did with Sister Stapleton and some other women with the swim diving to Adrea Bocelli ha We will see. But Elder Batista is a good guy, he is a little burnt out and so that is keeping me on my toes keeping track of time and where we are going. The first couple days we were marking appointments and he wasn't writing anything down so I asked him what was up. He said that he didn't need to because I was writing them down.... But when we are in the lessons he has a lot of good things to say which is awesome!

So you want to hear some mission experiences do ya? I have a great one for you! So 2 weeks ago this woman (23 years of age) came and visited church with her friend. So we started talking to her and we marked a date to go over to her house and leave a message with her. So we got there and she has a little 2 year old baby and her friend was there with her 3 year old and lets just say it was not the quietest lesson we have every had. The kids were running, crying, wearing our bags, wanting to read scriptures, and all the above. It was really difficult to keep the spirit there with us. But we taught the first lesson about the restoration through Joseph smith, and how we have the Church of Jesus Christ today. We were wrapping up and we invited her to visit church again this week and she said no...... I thought to myself really? (because she loved church last week) Then we asked why, and she said she didn't like the message we left with her and that she didn't want us to come back............. In my mind I was just like what! Serious? Am I getting punked? SO after we talked to her and we asked if we could just come back tomorrow to talk really fast about what she read and how she felt after she prayed. She said ok not really wanting us to come back. So we finished that day and we decided e needed to say a prayer to help her. SO together Elder Batista and I said a prayer and then after I prayed fervently for her, and I was pretty confused what happened, so I prayed for help. We returned the very next day and She opened the door with her baby, and we could tell she was stressed about something. So I was thinking oh boy.... this is going to be fun.... So we sat down and said a prayer and we started talking to Her. When we asked about if she prayed she said ya. And then she said she felt something different when she prayed. And EVERYTHING CHANGED!!!!!!!!!! She started smiling and she expressed that she felt peace and comfort when she prayed. And without asking anything she said that she wanted to visit church this week and that she wants to continue with the lessons and she asked for us to return the next day to talk with her! And again In my mind I was thinking, WHAT? SERIOUS!!? ha so she is coming to church this next week and she will be baptised this next week. But that is just proof of the power of prayer. She said one prayer and through this prayer Our Heavenly Father spoke to her and completely changed her mind on everything. The power in prayer is very strong, and will always help us in our lives. I am also reading in Alma 18 (i think) about Amon and how the heart of king Lamoni was completely changed when he said a prayer as well. It was a cool coincidence that I was reading that same chapter when It was happening in real life!

But I know that Our heavenly Father is always helping us in our lives and when we decide to ask him, that is when we will find the truth. We just need to act. :)

I love you all and I love being a missionary!

Elder HEATH

fotos

1 Elder BATISTA

2 crazy house in Brazil, the put the heads on the wall so noone would enter!

3 studio

4 studio
5 burning my 6 month tie!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't be a febuca

hahaha I think dont be a fubeca was one of the first phrases that I learned in the Sao Paulo CTM. Ha When I open the e mail and read that I just read dont be a fubeca and my mind instantly thought it was from President Souza and I was thinking... wait I have not been a fubeca! Ha Kinda gave me a little scare for a second. But ya everyone that is a lazy missionary is a fubeca. That is really funny that Josh's bro served here in Fortaleza. You should ask him if he served in Palmeras, or Castelo or ward Fortaleza during his mission. Because If he did then he more than likely lived in the same house I am living in right now! This house has been owned by missionaries for over 20 years!

With the hand written letters, I have written a hand written letter three weeks in a a row and sent them to you. I hope this doesn't mean that they got lost in the mail, because that would be super sad. Hopefully you should be receiving them right about now, this week. And I have been including more about my mission for you guys :)

What Seth said about fans is completely correct! Fans have saved my life here, from the crazy heat and from the man eating mosquitoes! It was a pretty interesting experience my first couple of weeks here. I was getting quite a few bites but then it all stopped. Having that fan really does help keep the bugs away. But just the last couple of weeks I was waking up and I had like blood stains on my clothes and I wasn't bleeding and didn't have any bug bites and I was stumped on how that blood got there. I asked my comp and he said he had the same thing... it is from the mosquitoes at night. I guess I have been hunting mosquitoes at night and smooshing them on my clothes haha. he said it is normal.... not so sure normal for me yet but at least it was an explanation. :) ha But I put the fan on high power and I have not had any more sleep killing bugs or any problems so its all good now :)

Here there is no rule on what we can eat... The advised us never to eat from the people that make and sell food on the side of the street. But we can eat fish if we want. It is a little different in our area because we don't have any restaurants or things like that so we usually just go to the grocery store and buy and make food. I am learning how to make some mean noodles with fresh tomato sauce! It is sooooo good! I have gotten lucky and I have stayed healthy for most of the time here. There was one day where Montezuma's revenge came to get me... . but we don't need any details with that. ha Other than that I have been perfectly healthy. I have been jump roping and doing push ups, sit ups, pull ups, and walking 18 miles a day working. So I'm keeping fit too :) I'm still the arm wrestling champion in our house too ;)

With the flooding I think the only way to keep dry is stay inside. And we definitely can't do that so..... having wet shoes to teach the gospel is a sacrifice we make :) The Rain coat we bought is really good and keeps me completely dry... but it gets pretty darn hot after wearing that puppy all day. Elder Powers here brought 2 umbrellas and so I bought one from him cheap which has been helping too. But like Kenton said... It rains hard and that rain destroys umbrellas. But here umbrellas are like 4 bucks so its super cheap.

And Of course I want those pictures of Danielle and I!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant believe I forgot those!!!!!!!!!!!!! They would be awesome to have if it is possible! It is kinda interesting how much pictures mean here on the mission! But I would love to have them!

Thanks a ton for the letter and I hope that everything is going awesome! Sounds like everyone is having a great splendid time!

Love Elder Heath

Carnival anyone?

HELLO FROM BRASIL!!!

So first of all.... is Danielle wearing high heels or something because if you are not I think you are as tall as me!!! ha You look very beautiful in you prom dress and with your hair all done. I hope you are wearing glass slippers because you look just like Cinderella! Thanks a ton for the pictures! I love getting pictures! Sorry I am not going to be able to send pictures this week... I am having problems with virus´ and these internet cafes are full of virus´. If you guys have any ideas im open for how I can send pictures home without destroying my card...

Thanks a ton for the package and I will let you know right when I get it, we will see how much time it takes :) Im Excited!

So during carnival here is was pretty calm im my area. We had a lot of kids running around and throwing eggs everywhere and dumping flour on each other. This last week when we were coming back from district meeting we were on the bus and I was just gazing out the window just looking at everything. When I saw a group of kids around the next corner and they were packing! I made eye contact with one of the guys and he ran to his pile of eggs and he threw an almost perfect egg at us. The window was open and so I went to close the window and it was just in the nick of time.... because the egg hit my window. And there were kids throwing flour at the buses too. But that was pretty much our carnival. We heard that people knock on doors and when they open them everything starts throwing eggs in the house, so we bought a box of eggs to be prepared, but noone came so.... now we are enjoying scrambled eggs :) We got pretty lucky being in our little town, nothing bad happened so that is always good.

And the rain last week is continuing this week! Walking here to e mail was crazy! We were soaked when we got here and the guy kinda gave us a look like really? but its all good :) And there were lots of frogs in the brown water, maybe some paranas, some anacondas, you never know ;) We saw a dead rat floating down the river too ha.

This week has been really awesome and the Baptism did come through! Erison was baptized yesterday and he is such an awesome young man! He is 18 and he was prepared by the lord a ton before we meet him. His brother is a member and so he already knew everything about our church. And He is really into reading and philosophy and so he was already reading the book of mormon and keeping the commandments so we were pretty much there to answer his questions and help him receive an answer from our heavenly father about our church. For example When we were explaining the book of mormon I explained about Moroni putting the plates in the ground... Erison stopped me and said, and Moroni is the son of Mormon who had the responsibility of compiling all of the records of the prophets here in the Americas into one record which is the book of mormon? And I was in aw. ha Then Explaining more about Joseph Smith and how he received the plates, when Erison said, and Joseph Smith translated the plates with the power of God so we can read the words of the prophets? We hardly had to do anything. But he really wants to serve a mission like his brother is doing right now, Which is awesome! He might have the chance to leave on his mission before I leave my mission!

Those were some awesome stories that you shared with me! I love hearing stories that seem so impossible but they happen. It is so cool how we are really guided to meet people and that we are placed in certain places to help others in our path.

And about coming to Brasil that would be super cool. There are already a lot of people that want to meet you all and I think it would be really neat!

Im out of time but I love you all and have an awesome next week! Good luck with everything going on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Heath