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!
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!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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
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