Monday, July 23, 2012

Branden. The New Trainer!

Hey ya'll! This is Cassie. I want to apologize for the lack of posting that has happened over the last month! Branden is doing great and loving the mission, I just have been a little bit of a slacker posting his letters. So here are all the letters from July, and a few from June. Sorry for the overload! 

July 23rd, 2012

Dear Baby shower/wedding crew,

Parabens TONY AND CINDY!!! FELIZ CASAMENTO!!!! I cant wait to see all the pictures of the wedding! Sounds like there was a lot of work put in and sounds like it was quite the Romantic wedding! Must of been special to have everyone together for the occasion also. And I want to hear more about the baby shower and what happened! What exactly happens at a baby shower? ha When you have Kylie,Cassie, you have to put on all the baby clothes and send me tons and tons of pictures of your angel! I am planning on making another photo album of just her! ha 

The life of a trainer is the BEST! And it is so much easier when my comp is a super stud! He already knows everything and he is already ready to handle this area solo! ha He is picking up Portuguese pretty fast and the only hard part is understanding people here in Ceará. Because everyone talks sooooooooooo Fast and everyone talks incorrectly. That makes it a little hard sometimes but he is picking up really fast! 

No, after we threw the eggs we just threw them away. Our floor in our house isn't always the cleanest place on earth haha My clothes are surviving! ha I am learning how to sew and how to scrub out stains! It is amazing how many stains get on white shirts. But they are all great! And ya, I am eating tons of fruits! there is a juice called acerola that I have been making almost everyday! 

We have a big group that we are teaching and we had a miracle happen this week! We have been teaching a man (37 years old) for about two months. He is super intelligent and he has been going to church and loving it. But when we spoke about baptism he always closed up. So this week Elder Young and I started praying on how we could help him. The next day we went to teach him and in the middle of the lesson the answer came. We were teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we hit the part about baptism we felt that we needed to invite him to be baptized. My first thought was.... but he will just reject it..... but we went for it and he accepted! He said that he was hoping that we would invite him to be baptized this week, because he said he couldn't reject the way that he was feeling. So we had an awesome baptism this last Saturday and his whole family(who are all members) went and it was a really special meeting. That night after the baptism we went home and Elder Young and I practiced confirmations, how confirm someone in Portuguese, and Elder Young confirmed Henriki on Sunday! It was awesome! Then the other miracle that happened was another one of our investigators came up to us after church and said he wanted to talk. So we went to talk and he said that he has a really strong desire to be baptized, and that he had been rejecting his feeling for a while as well. But he wants to be baptized this next week! 

Eu sei que essa é a Igreja de Cristo. Eu sei que deus, ele responderá todos de nossos oraçoes quando pedimos com fé. TAmbem eu sei que o espirito Santo trabalha em nosso coraçao, e ele está aqui para nós guiar em nossas vidas. Eu sei que familias poderao ser eternas tambem, e que atravez nossos exemplos e açoes que nos podemos levar outras familias para morar com deus. Eu amo sendo um missionario de deus!

I love you  all!!!!!!!!  Elder Heath

P.S. I learned something that has been really helping my prayers. We always teach that we should thank for our blessing, we should ask for what we need. But this week I have been shoring my testimony in my prayers, and sharing what I have learned that day through my testimony. It has really helped my prayers. :) You all should try it :)

Photos
1 making cement to make a wall
2 baptism
3 baptism

4 Paisley tie day!


July 16th, 2012

What a SEMANA!

Thanks you Mike, Betsy, Mylo, for the Birthday wishes. And everyone last week as well! I had an awesome birthday this year! So there is a Brazilian tradition called eggs on the head!!! And basically it is exactly what it sounds like! You throw eggs on the head of the birthday boy. Ha And because I turned 20 this year.... guess how many raw eggs...20! I had seen other missionaries do it, and it looked fun so I thought why not.... right? It was nasty!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the tenth egg I had egg down my back, on my face... but it was pretty funny. :) I think I will bring this tradition home with me... so look out!!!!!

The big news.....(Drumroll....) I m a FATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My New Greenie is Elder Young!!!! I definitely got the best missionary of the group. We had a training before we got our comps.... and Presidente Souza pulled me aside and said, your companion will be a leader in the mission, so train him well! That kinda put a little pressure haha But Elder Young is from Pleasant Grove UTAH!!! I don't know if anyone has been to sammys there (super perto de Provo) but he lives close to sammys there! He is an awesome missionary and he is on FIRE!!!! Fogo nos ossos!!!! (not fire in the bears ;) He is a wrestler, and he says that he is shy but he is opening up a lot haha His Portuguese is coming along very well and we are already teaching together! He is Fearless! He goes and talks to everyone in the street, if they understand him or not he always has a big smile on. ha He does something really funny... when he doesn't understand what someone says... he laughs, puts on a huge grin and looks to me. But he really is picking up the language really really fast! ill send a picture of him for everyone to see. It was also really cool, because when we got our comps, my trainer is training now with me as well. So we got to share the good old stories, and he is training one of Elder Youngs good buds from the MTC. We also had Elder Youngs Greenie dinner at a members house! I am trying to start this tradition in Brazil too. We had lots of salad, green rice, grapes, sprite and it was awesome! When we walked in everyone was hiding to make a surprise and Elder Young was a little scared haha It was awesome!

This week with Elder Young and I closed a wedding too! We have a family of 6 people that we have been working with that are going to get married at the end of august!!! I am so excited to help another family enter the church! This week we are also doing tons and tons of study getting Elder Young all ready! It seems like yesterday that I was in his position all stressed about lessons. When I was being trained I made a list of all the things that I liked about my trainer and things that I would of liked hoping that one day I would be able to train someone. That is helping a ton with our training!

Eu sei que a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos santos dos Ultimos dias é a Igreja veirdadeira na terra. Eu Sei que familias poderao ser eternas e que nos temos todo o poder de escolher e seguir o caminho certo em nossas vidas. Eu sei que eu amo minha familia mais de qualquer outra coisa no mundo!

Elder Heath
Photos
1 batismo!

2 Elder Young (meu filho),Elder Heath,Eçder Matos(meu pai),Elder Coons(meu Irmao)

3 Greenie dinner with Elder Loureiro and Elder Carreira!

 ps Congrats Danielle going out for soccer and making that penalty goal!!! I cant wait to tell my Brazilians buds about you!!! Good job trev too reading and getting it done at scout camp! ps.... my record was 9 with 5 required!!!! muahahaha 

July 9th, 2012

WOW!
Now it is a fact! I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY ON THE EARTH!

Thanks you everyone that sent me Birthday wishes! It was really nice hearing from everyone! I sure do miss every single one of you, but the harder I work here the faster the time passes and the faster I will see all of you again! Even with a couple new members of the family!

This last week has been full of lots of excitement! I have been lost in the work that I just remembered yesterday that my Birthday is in 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CRAZY! There are some pretty funny traditions that people do for birthdays.... if we do some this week I will let you all know :) I am waiting for the package still but I got some early presents this last week!!! First of all we had three baptisms on Sunday that were really awesome!!! They were three friends that are always at the church playing soccer and they have tons of member Friends. We taught them and they were very very excited to be baptized! They are also talking a lot about serving missions here in 2 years!!!  And also President Souza called me and gave me a present too!!!! He called me to advise me that I get to move up in the missionary world and not be Junior anymore!!!! haha! Starting tomorrow I will go to Aldeota and I will pick up my GREENIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha I get to TRAIN AN ELDER!!!!!! I'm so pumped for this! I don't know who I will train, and I will only find out when I see him! We do this big meeting where they learn lots of things about the mission. Then all the trainers go into a room, and the now missionaries in another room. They then call a trainer... he walks in.. then they call the greenie! haha Im super excited for this! Tomorrow 10 Americans, 4 Brazilians, and 2 from Paraguay and getting here. So we will see what will happen :) One of the Elders is, Bonds......Elder Bonds haha Then President called me the next day and called me to be District leader too! So I will be staying here in my area and I will get to train for the next 2 transfers!!! I think it will be really nice to be with an Elder with fire in his bones!!!! 

Sorry that I have not been sending pictures lately... I have made the choice to not walk around with my camera anymore. We are not in the best place to walk with valuable items. But everyone loves the missionaries so we are all ok ;) Did you get to see all of the pictures that I sent with Elder Garcia? Did the baby clothes get there for Cassie? haha 

Well I love all of you and thanks you so much for the Awesome e mail!!!!!!! I love you all FAMILY!!!!!!
I know that this church is true and I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that he faced many trials but he was given all the strength to overcome them. I know that Jesus Christ and his atonement help us everyday in our lives!

Elder Heath 

July 2nd, 2012

Hey hey hey,

So don't be worried about why my e mail is so late. I was with a missionary that is going home today and I have been accompanying him all day. We ran into some bad traffic and we got home a little late, but Prez Souza said that we could be here. ha Today was a pretty crazy day visiting tons of people with Elder Passos and eating TONS OF FOOD!

No, I have not gotten the package yet, but I'm sure it is on its way :) Haha I didn't buy new sandals... I super glued them and they have been working out great so far. And this week has been an awesome week in our work! I gootta run, but I love you all and everything is alright with me... just a little rushed today :) Thanks for the loving e mail!

Elder Heath :)

June 25th, 2012

Hey hey hey!!!!!!

That is awesome that you got my package! That is too bad that Elder Garcia came when you were all out of town. He told me that he was planning on going to the temple every week, so hopefully he will pass by the house sometime. Ya, that video was made way at the beginning of my mission. My Portuguese has gotten a little better over the last 9 months haha. Elder Baltazar is quite a character. That house that you all saw was also the biggest house in the mission!!!! haha And now, I think I am living in one of the smallest houses in the mission! On Saturday our faucet to our sink broke and water isn't coming out.... so today is p day and we had no clean plates or anything to use..... So we got creative! the only other place in our house where water comes out is the toilet... and the shower. So I took the plates and cups and washed everything in the shower ahah. Elder Lins and I also had an interesting thing happen when we were walking to the super market today. I was wearing my sandals and one of them broke in the middle of the trip!!!! And there was no way to walk with it broken.... so I walked barefoot for a bit until we got to the market. ha there I asked the lady if I could have a plastic sack..... she looked at me all weird, but said ya. I explained to her what happened. Then I wrapped the sack around my foot and the sandal and the cashier busted up laughing! ha I will admit, it looked pretty ridiculous walking home with a plastic sack around my foot.... but it worked perfectly! ha

This week here was really good! We got to meet a lot of new people because of our awesome members and we are looking at some awesome baptisms here in a little bit! :)  So this week I have been reading a lot in Genesis and reading about Noah and the arc... which is funny enough because this last Friday we had the GREAT RAIN happen here in Ceara! IT started at about 8 in the morning and did not stop all day! And when you think of a hard rain, double that  and that is how hard it was raining. We had a baptismal interview that morning as well! I am the only one in our house that has an umbrella and so we went the two of us under one umbrella. interesting huh... We were on the way and  the rain was so hard that it broke my umbrella!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and we just started taking rain like crazy! We just ran then! We made it and did the interview all soaking wet. It was raining so hard it was hard to hear others inside! haha After the interview it stopped raining and so we took the chance and headed home fast! But like always that didn't last long. We made it to a store that had umbrella and then everything was perfect after we got umbrellas. haha But our street in front of our house was a river! 2 feel of water!  It was crazy! All the rain left Elder Lins a little sick but we went to work anyways haha It was fun being in the rain!

We had 4 new people visit church this week and we are looking forward to teaching them this week! I am learning a ton of new things, methods to teach and to help others come unto Christ. I Know that this is the True church of Jesus Christ on the earth. I know that Jesus suffered everything for us.... and that I know one day we can all return to live with Christ, Our heavenly father and our families in exaltation! I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet that restored the true, full gospel of Christ for each and everyone. 

Love Elder Heath

pictures,
1 lunch!

2 our personal river in front of our house

3 Elder Lins 24th B day!!!!!

June 18th, 2012

Hey hey hey!

How is the BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can almost feel that cool wind breeze at the coast! You got a little sun burnt as well? Man you all must of had a really good week up at the coast! Did anyone get in the water? And I didn't hear anything about Tillamook ice cream...... That makes me worried. haha Happy Fathers day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a gift, you get to go to the beach for your special day! Sounds like you got the high treatment as well. You had a delicious cake being secretly made, lots of goodies, and you got to spend time with our family! Put a cherry on top of that and its good to go! How did the crabbing go? Did you guys stay out there all night long, pulling up those big crabs? Here in Brazil I have not eaten crab, or lobster. We hardly ever see crab and when we see it the places that sell them seem kinda iffy. I would like to, but maybe to eat more seafood I need to be closer to the beach. Elder Empy that we saw in the temple, his area right now it literally the beach! That has got to be pretty difficult. But where I am and I think in Ceará there is tons of fish. In all the markets and in all the streets people are selling fish. We have eaten it a couple times in members houses, and I love it! Brazilians really know how to make sauces and really put flavor in food! Hopefully I will learn someday. :) My companion and I were talking the other day about food that we miss that we would like to eat/make. And we both decided that tacos are defiantly at the top of that list. And then next to that is french toast with real bacon!!!!!!!!!!!!! So this week we are going to see what we can make happen.

Sounds like the sports world is pretty crazy right now, Nadal is breaking records and the ultimate team the heat is winning as usual. Have you been watching the tennis matches? Have you been playing with the babalot racket? How is it?

Yesterday I got a phone call from one of our families in my first area that are coming to visit us here! They said that they wanted to stop by to see how we are and that they would also bring us dinner! Woo Hoo! cant argue with that. I have been thinking that it is going to be really hard to leave Brazil with all the friends that we have made. But I don't need to worry about that for a good amount of time. :)

Exciting news in Brazil..... the buses are on strike so we are just going by foot.... elections are coming up here soon for a new president. Did you know that here if you don't vote you have to pay a 125 R fine? Crazy.... The work on the temple in Fortaleza has officially started.... hmmmm I also found out that Brazilians don't believe that the wright brothers were the first ones to fly. That someone names santos dumont (from Brazil) was the first. haha Everything seems pretty calm here though. nothing crazy is happening in Brazil :) This month there is a national party that is taking place that is really cool too! A fiesta da juinia. Tons of people have these couple dance competitions. And there clothes are big dresses with tons and tons of colors! It is cool seeing them practice in the street!

This last week was a little difficult because all of our investigators were not able to go to church. I think the hard rain scared some... but we will go back and this week explain clearer about the importance of church. :) I have learned so many things here on the mission that have made me such a better person. Everyday with our studies, prayers, sharing our testimonies I feel closer and closer to our Lord.

I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Heath