Branden sure has a sweet tooth...

August 6th 2012

Thank you so much for the package!!!! I know it seems expensive sending the package and having to pay again.... but just the taste of those Reece's cookies, peanut butter, American BROWNIES!!!!!!!!!! SWEEDISH FISH!!!!!!!!!! It is worth all the money in the world!!!!! I have been making pancakes everyday with peanut butter!!!! :) I found another way to not have to pay for the packages. The reason I have to pay is because the price of everything inside. it was about 75 this last time.... But what missionaries are starting to do is.... the family can split the package into two. Because if the packages are separated, individually it costs 35 dollars and it should pass. Anytime you want to test it... feel free ;)

I loved the guitar music as well. Now when we sing hymns I am playing along too! I think I will play a special musical number at a baptism this week too!!! :) Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like everything is going awesomely at our house! With the baby on her way, that has gotta be crazy exciting! We have a member in our ward that has a date for the 22nd of August! It is so crazy to think we will have another family member!!!

This week was an awesome week! I have two highlights that I would like to share with you!!!

1. We found a family just doing a contact in the street. A family that has stopped going to church for almost five years. We started teaching them and the dad served a mission and the parents were sealed in the temple. But the four children never were baptized. We taught them the restoration and we had a really cool experience. We really tried to involve the father in the lesson to get his missionary fire back. Until we started to read James 1:5 and the father quoted it. Then explained the whole vision and story of the restoration to his children. It was a really emotional lesson to see this father teach his children about what he knows to be true! They all went to church for the first time in five years too!!!

2 I finished my study of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese this week. I finished the last chapter of Moroni and I had this strong feeling to go to my bed and say a prayer about the Book of Mormon. I stopped and thought... why do I need to pray about it if I already know that it is true? But I decided why not :) SO I went and said a prayer. I felt this strong desire to pray... but when I knelt down I did not feel a thing.... I sat on my bed and thought.... why would I have such a strong desire to pray and then not even feel anything during my prayer. But then I remembered that Our heavenly father responds our prayers in his time. So I went back to studying, then we went to comp study. After that Elder Carreira (lives with us) came in and gave me a piece of paper. He said that he felt inspired to write this paper to me. The whole paper was about answers to prayers. This note that he gave to me was my answer to my prayer. It was incredible. I felt so good reading the letter he wrote me. I know without a doubt in my heart that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. And that through him we have the fullness of the gospel. I know that our Heavenly Father always answers our prayers, we just need to listen and be patient to receive the answer.

Elder Heath

Quote of the week. ``when the time to decide arrives, the time to prepare already passed`` President Monson

Finally got his birthday package!!

Wow!
Now it sounds like you all had a crazy week! Full of EFY Family visits, baby stories, scout camp, ward callings, taking care of cousins! I hope that you all took lots of pictures to send! I love getting the family letter every month and hearing form all the family, and to also see how old everyone is getting... (in a good way :) ) We have such a beautiful family!

This last week just flew by! Elder Young and I had to do some divisions this last week with our district to help some missionary situations, and we had interviews with President Souza and I also......... GOT MY PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally ehhh? But the swedish fish, brownies, cookies are all delicious! I have been sharing with some good member families and now everyone is asking for more! haha The process to get me package was pretty fun! We learned this last week that for us to grow and become missionaries/men better we need to ask for tests in our life and so we can use our faith and learn a lesson. ha So I did exactly that... and the very next day my prayer was answered! ha The day of the interviews I got a letter saying that my package was here! woo hoo!!! I looked at the date that the package got here in Brazil.. the 7th... and the date it was leaving... the 26th!!!!!!!!!!!!! the same day I got the list! So we went running to the post office to tell them to keep the package! Its a good this Elder young is a good sport! haha We got there and they said.... its a good thing you got here now, because your package was going home in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa2 hours!!!! ha so I gave them the note and they said I would have to pay a little money to take the package. I asked how much and he said......180 reals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RIDICULOUS! (like 90 American dollars!) I obviously didn't have the money with me so I asked them to extend the date. they said ok.I went to the bank and took out money the next day... so I took 90 dollars out of my account if you can put more in please :) I got the money and went back to pick up the package. I got there, paid for it, they had the package in front of me.... then said oooops we need your CPF for you to take your package out............. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (CPF is like social security number) But I'm obviously not Brazilian and so I don't have one. They said without the number I cant take the package. We conversed for a while until I was ready to just grab the package and head for the door! Elder Young and I were planning  haha All in all they gave me my package :) haha and now I am happy! When we were walking home Elder young looked at me and said... you asked for a trial last night right? haha we busted up laughing.  but thank you!

We also had a baptism that was really special last Saturday! A young man (27) that we have been teaching for a long while! It was really interesting to see the conversion of Giliarde. He was really excited and during the week he even asked us if we could move his baptism to Friday so he didn't have to wait any longer. There was a church dance Friday so he had to wait... ha But it was really special! I asked him how he was feeling after the baptism and he started crying, saying that he felt so different and so good. I couldn't help it and the tears came. It is so awesome knowing that all our work is really changing and helping others. There is not a better feeling in the world!

Eu sei que o autoridade de Deus fui resturado na terra quando Joseph Smith fui chamado um profeta. Eu sei que o Dom de linguas existe. Eu sei que o poder de um testimunho é um das coisas mais poderosas que temos. Tambem eu sei que Thomas Spencer Monson é nosso profeta que esta aqui para nos guiar e ajudar em nossa dia a dia.

Elder Heath

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

Weekly update! and a photo!

June 4th, 2012

HEY HEY HEY MY FAMILY!

Man sounds like you all have had a busy week! 

Danielle congrats on getting the calling of being in Seminary council! That will be an awesome learning experience for you, enjoy every meeting with Brother Hales! Danielle, what car have you been using going to school and everything? And you have gotta send me the videos that you make for seminary council too! haha

Mom, and dad im glad that you two had a good getaway. haha Walking in gardens, massages, the ocean, hopefully some tilamook icecream too ;) That is one thing that I miss is the ocean, and that cool breeze there ha. I tell people here that the ocean where I go... hardly no one goes in the water. The first thing I always hear is... IS IT BECAUSE OF SHARKS!!!!!!!!????... ha no, because the water is so cold! People don't believe it, but that is just because it is so dang cold here! haha 

Man, hearing that everyone is graduation high school is crazy! Time passes so dang fast, and Danielle is next to graduate next year! wow!

So this week was awesome! My first week with Elder Lins in an area that I am still getting to know. haha We have a huge area and we had some fun times this week finding streets. But in the middle of all our running around we encountered another amazing family! A mother a father and their three sons, and a little baby. They visited the church without an invite about 2 years ago just to see what it was like and the said that they loved it. They said they didn't know anyone so the stopped going. So we knocked on their door and they welcomed us in and they are really interested in the church. And this last Sunday they all went to church and we made sure they got to know lots of people! :) They are not married but we explained the law of chastity and they are excited about marriage too. It was so funny when we said the word marriage. The moms face lite up with happiness! We could tell she wanted to get married :) But we are seeing the Gospel change their lives and also in the lives of the family we baptised last week. We had our first FHE with them last week and they absolutely loved it. Fancisco and Lucas also received the priesthood yesterday as well! I am so happy for them and I love passing by there. 

This week we didn't have too many lessons out of the ordinary... but there was one lesson that was a little weird. We were teaching a mother and a daughter and one of her friends came in. We stood up to greet her and she tried the kiss on the cheek greet with me, and I was not expecting it at all. So just reaction I stepped back to avoid it, but she didn't see it so she kinda tripped. ha She was super embarrassed, but we explained that as missionaries we don't do the kiss greet and then she was all good. But we had a good laugh about it. Missionaries gotta watch out! 

I think I forgot to talk about it in my last letter but there is a sister here that lives in Moses Lake! Sister WEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you know here? I think she is about 27 and she is in my mission. She knows christian and jordan. I just meet here the other day, it was a cool connection to talk about moses lake CHIEFS!!!!!!!

Well my time is running out, but I love you all and it you have not sent the package yet, I need some contact stuff. I am on my last bottle. Just the normal kind :)

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Heath    P.S. a cool Brazilian song I learned on the guitar ``So os locos sabem`` you guys should look up! Its super good!

I love you soooooooooo much!

 

 

June 11, 2012

 

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! 

That is some crazy news! I am wondering how that new boundary line was made, sounds like it is pretty crazy and sounds like we will be getting some richlanders in our ward! But now we will be with the Flints which is awesome! Have you heard anything about Elder Flint? Dad, congrats for being worthy to receive a calling to be in the bishopric! That is so awesome! So are the Szendries, Pratts, Desanties, Gearhearts in our ward? Who is still in our ward? That will be interesting to come home to a different ward, But you all will be there and so that is all that matters. :)

Danielle, when you go to Rexburg for EFY there are 2 places you should go to!!!! First there is a chinese restaurant that is awesome right in front of the Big I center. 5 bucks for TONS of food!!!!!!!!! haha And there is also sammys! They have awesome milk shakes!

SO this last weekend we had an interesting change up here in Brasil. The temple of Manaus was dedicated by Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Christofferson. So we were able to watch (in the church) the celebration of the temple. Where tons of people danced and there were lots of the culture shown. There were kids dressed as monkeys, birds, fish, and all types of animals doing native dances. Then it showed a little more culture, of how the germans integrated to manaus, so there were some proper dances and there was even one dance where everyone was in jeans and cowboy hats. :) It was really interesting! Kenton participated?????? That is weird.... he is in the south of brasil and manaus is more toward the north. He must be a stud missionary to of traveled all the way there. There was one missionary (Elder Sant) that went to richland high that is serving there in manaus and he appeared on the tv. It was really cool to be able to watch the celebration and also the dedication on sunday. The whole country of brasil didnt have sacrament because all the members watch the dedication. Was it like that in the US? We heard that the Fortaleza temple was on stand by until the temple of manaus was dedicated, so now.... they should be starting to build! They are going to build it right next to central! And right next to our mission library! That will be really convenient for the missionaries here in 2 or 3 years... ha I hope one day that I can come back to visit the Fortaleza temple! Maybe with me Family :)

This week we had some really cool experiences. We are starting to teach more people in the chapel and it has been awesome! Here in Brasil all the houses are very open to let all the wind go through the house. So when we teach people in their houses a lot of times the neighbor is blasting music, or there are motorcycles passing and sometimes it takes away the spirit;. So we found a solution... lets teach in the chapel! It has been really cool and definitely a lot more reverent.

There was a story of 2 missionaries that happened just this last week!!!! They had a baptism all set up, and so that morning they went and filled up the font to be ready for night time. They font had a window and so they left the window open to have some ventilation. They left to work and then came back for the baptism that night. They started the ceremony and they proceeded to open the font all ready. When they opened the font they found a 4 foot long snake in the font !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha Im pretty sure they freaked out. They called the firemen and they took it out and they were able to continue with the baptism but....... only in brazil! ha

I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Elder Heath

 

Baptisms and a new companion!!

May 21st, 2012

FAMILIA!

Dad Parabens with your marathon! Running and finishing in 3:39 is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!! You should see the looks that I get when I tell people that you are running your 15th marathon! And when I convert the 26 miles to kilometers for them to understand it is funny. Someone this week was doubting that running 26.2 miles was possible! I told her that for me its impossible but for my superman dad its a piece of cake! I love seeing the reactions of people here when I show them pictures of us playing tennis, and the photo of mom and I doing the tri athalon! People don't believe that you two are old enough to be my parent :) They think that you are brothers and sister! ha And everything thinks that it is really cool how much our family works out and exercises! GO FAMILY!

So this week we had some BAPTISMS! It was a pretty darn crazy experience! So in the morning on Saturday we went and cleaned the font and we filled it up to the top! We left to teach some more and then we came back at 7 o'clock that night to prepare a little for the baptism at 7 30! We put all the chairs in place and get all the hymn books out and then we waited for the people to come! It was a good turn out and we got all ready for the baptism. The moms were there with the cameras and everyone was ready! So we started the meeting and we got to the part of the baptism. I went to baptise first one of the young men and I opened the door and my jaw dropped to the floor! The water was GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just stared and I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Ok, it wasn't all gone but there was about one foot of water left! I stopped and thought for a second! I was really happy that in the CTM we went over tons of situations that could happen during baptism. So I explained to the young men that we will stand and I will say the prayer and then after they will just have to lay completely down in the water. :) The water was just enough to do that. So we went right ahead and it worked perfectly! ha The baptisms were great and they were all confirmed on Sunday as well! It was an awesome experience!

I am glad that you liked the song that we sang haha Must of been inspiration to sing it for you all. And last week I sent the lyrics so you can read them. There is a scripture in there and a phrase in Portuguese :) Dad, that is awesome that you could understand what we were saying! That is really impressive! haha

So there is an elder here that is from Spokane that is returning this next week. His name is Elder Garcia and he is really awesome! He said that he will be going to the temple in Richland this next month and so I gave him your number and our address. I am going to send some pictures home to give to you all. And I told him that you would make him lunch or something.... haha Sorry I said that but you will love him! I told him to call and see when everyone is home! I wen on a division with him and he is a really good missionary!

But I love you all and I hope that everything is going great at home!

Elder Heath

May 28th, 2012

Hey Family!!!

Oh man a Bridal shower!!!!!!!!! That is crazy that Jessica and Todd are getting married! Marriage for me still seems a little distant in the future haha But I'm happy that the shower went well and that they opened a bread shop near costco! You should tell them to make SWEET BREAD! There is this sweet bread that almost every bread shop here makes! It has some sugar glaze on top and coconut! OH MY GOODNESS IT IS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha It doesn't go exactly with the healthy thing but its so good!

Congrats on the 26 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so blessed to have such amazing parents. You two are the best example that I ever could of asked for! Have fun in Salem (try to avoid any black cats or witches ha) and dont kill dad with all that pollen in the air ;)

ha I liked the joke that you made dad... that it has been a year sense I have worked! hahaha On September 7th I learned the real meaning of work haha. But ya, the time has passed so fastly!!!!!!!!!!!!! It seems like I was at home training just the other day with you all. We don't receive money for being a missionary but seeing a family change their lives and watching others receive blessing from the gospel doesn't have a price.

21 days ago we found a family that had never been to church and had never really had a faith. When we came in the first thing they said was we are not going to church with the Mormons and you can try but we will never wear those goofy shirts and ties to church. haha this family has not missed a Sunday of church and this last friday we helped them be married in the central of Fortaleza, and then on Saturday we helped them fufil a covanent with their Heavenly Father through baptism. It was a really special day, and this family is so awesome! They have such big desires to go to church and to follow every single commandment. It was kinda funny when we were going to their wedding they were so nervous! They have been living together for 12 years and they have an awesome family but they had the wedding nerves. It was pretty funny to see. I ca'nt even imagine when it will be my turn, I am super excited! But after the baptism I was talking with the father of the family and I asked him how he felt. He looked at me with teary eyes and said`` this feeling I have is enough to beieive in everything`` (rough translation) haha It was really special and I got a little teary eyed as well.  After we had dinner at their house and they were telling us about how 21 days ago they didn't want to go to church, never thought in being married, paying tithing, following commandments.... then you guys came and 21 days later you two did all of this! haha It was funny but I love this family so much!

The food is pretty calm here in my area, but there is tons of ice cream! Of all kinds, chocolate, fruits, all!

I love you all and I know that Christ lives!

Elder Heath

p.s. I also have a new companion!!!! Elder LINS!!!!!!!!! he is a Brazilian and I just meet him 2 hours ago. I don't know much but he is SUPER SMART! He is a computer programmer and he seems like a good missionary. He has 1 year and 8 months! so one more year than me! I will let you know more next week! love you!

Mother's Day!!

HEY HEY HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man it was so awesome to hear all of you yesterday! It is so funny that when I heard you call I stopped and that feeling when you are at the top of Tremors ready to go down came over me. haha I was so excited to talk to you all! Sorry if my English wasnt up to par but I was trying. haha It was actually really hard to talk and think in English. I think that menas that I need to practice my English a little more. My companion felt pretty good correcting my English for me. But it was so awesome! That time passed SOOOO FAST! I wrote a list of things to tell you all just in case I couldn't think of what to say, but I didn't say any of them. So today in my letter home I will tell you all about them! haha

Could you understand what we sang in the song? Did you like the song? I was thinking all week what I could do for you on your special day, and I figured that we are always singing anyways so we should sing to my special mom :) We were practicing waiting for a member to make lunch and we were writing the words, I think the member thought we were crazy but its all good. :)

Ha, did you understand the portuguese? Did Dallin translate for you? ha I have been trying to get a brazillian accent so badly! I still sound like an american but I will get it there with practice. You think my english has an accent? Oh boy, that is exactly what I want!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! But you could all understand right? ha

My companion wanted to ask if you all understood him? And two days ago, if mom understood him. He has been practicing a lot and I have been helping him. He has a friend that is going to BYU right now and I think he is thinking about going there after the mission as well so he is trying to learn English as well. It is amazing how much it is a dream of so many Brazillians here to go to BYU. Just in my ward there are about 6 people learning English so they can study at BYU. It really is an amazing College. Maybe BYU will be in my path when I get back too :)

Dad, I wanted to tell you as well that today I was brushing up on my Spanish as well! One day I want to learn Spanish! There is a guy from Uraguay that is going to get married to a Brazillian in our ward. He served a mission and everything but he doesn't speak anything of Portuguese! So I remember a little Spanish from class and from dad so he hung out with us during church and I was able to translate a little for him. I'm not going to lie, his accent was super heavy and I have a TON I need to learn in Spanish but It was an adventure trying to understand him :)

Mom, I am glad that you had a wonderful mothers day, and I know you had 4 wonderful kids at home that love you so much! And you have one more here in Cecilia Brazil that Loves you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm working hard and keeping the rules for you :)

Hey, about the package, Just to re-state, a heavy duty jump rope would be awesome to get a little more into shape haha, and some oreos to gain it back ;) The guitar capo that is in our house. And I thought a little I don't need the hymn music for the guitar. And Elder Mauricio said if the wallet is more than 10 bucks don't worry about it. :) and I was craving Rasberry Jelly the other day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I don't know if it is in season yet, but if you could score some that would be awesome!!!!!!!!!!!  

 

But I love you all so much and it was so good to hear your voices again! Just another 8 more months and then we will talk again! I will practice my English a little more for you all by then :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!

 

ELDER HEATH

Sorry about the wait.... here's Branden's last few letters. :)

April 23rd, 2012

 

Oi!

 

TRANSFERS CAME THIS LAST FRIDAY AND CURRENTLY I AM IN CECILIA FORTALEZA WITH ELDER MAURÌCIO!!!!!!!!!!! My new comp is from sau paulo and he is really awesome!

 

Before we received the phone call I was feeling pretty darn ready to see a new area and to meet more people or to have a chapel. But when I actually got the call that I was leaving I stopped and thought... maybe I don't want to go. Staying in this area for so long, I got really attached to a lot of people and I made a lot of really good friendships. I never thought that Saying goodbye would be so difficult to everyone. There is one family that helped me so much with the language and always feeling welcomed and they were always there for me. Almir, Alini, Victoria, Sabrina, nana. When we went to their house to tell them I was leaving The words came out and a tear came from my eye. It was really sad, and the little 2 year old started crying as well. I was thinking ow crazy the life of a missionary is. We get so attached to the people here and we have so many good times together, then one day we have to pack up and leave and maybe never return! crazy!

 

But We had a really cool experience yesterday at church. We have been doing activities and those have been getting the ward excited! So we have had more and more people visiting church on Sunday. But there was this girl that had visited church for 4 weeks now but every time we went to her house to teach her, she was never home. But during her Sunday school she went p to the teacher and she said I don't know why I feel this way, but I feel like I need to be baptized today! The teacher ran to get up and to talk too us. We found out but we had not taught this girl anything! How can we baptize someone we have not prepared? So we stopped, said a prayer and we started talking to this investigator. She said she has this special feeling and it was like some small voice was telling her that she needed to be baptized that day. So we decided to do what we could. We went to talk to her parents about baptism and they have lots of family that are already members and they were very open to the idea of baptism, and that if she feels that way she should follow her feeling. That alone was a miracle because that was a first for us. Then we went on a wild chicken race to find our district leader to do an interview! We searched and searched and searched..... and finally found them walking. We pulled over our car, and they did the interview in the car. Because there were no other member close. She passed the interview and so everything was good to go with the baptism. It was amazing to how much she knew about the church, from going to church for 1 month and from having other family members in the church! We basically didn't need to teach her anything! We went back, ate a little lunch and then we had the baptism at 4 that afternoon! It was a miracle! This goes to show that when someone has the will to do something you can always find a way, because Our heavenly father will prepare a way for us!

 

I love all of you!

 

Elder Heath

 

April 30th, 2012

 

Familia!

You guys look awesome in the pictures that you sent me! And it sounds like once again you all had a busy week! Stealing swing sets and buying ophnoes and tennis matches! Sounds like my family is having an awesome time! That makes me happy! But this week has been Awesome! I will explain a little about what has happened! My New companion is from Santos which is close to Sao Paulo. And he lives right on the beach! He has one year and 8 months here and he is an awesome missionary! We have a lot in common! He loves singing and he Speaks English FLUENTLY!!!!!!!!!! And he hardly has no accent which is really cool! So we have a good time singing in English in the streets! We decided that we are going to try out to sing with the Mormon tab after the mission! He also sings with SOUL! We have a good time singing music from Remember the Titans! ``Aint no mountain high, aint no valley low``! haha but he also has a personality really similar to mine. He likes talking to everyone and he has lots of good examples for lessons! We now bring our hymn books with us to start lessons to invite the spirit! haha its awesome! 

Our new area is a lot different than my last area. We don't have any dirt roads here and there are a lot more shops and main road here. And we have a chapel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woo hoo!!! Air conditioning!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a lot different than having church in our house church! Our area is also pretty stinking big! Lots of walking and I'm getting buff legs! I have also been doing push ups everyday and I'm up to about 50 now at one time! haha But we also live with 2 more missionaries in a little house. It is ok though, we are never in our house haha. One other Elder who is our LZ (brazillian) lived in provo for 2 years as well. cool stuff!

But we had 9 people at church this week and we are looking at having lots of baptisms this next week! We are definitly getting blessed with references and this week it seems like everything went perfectly! haha Everyone read and everyone went to church! I love it! Definitely a good way to start off a new area! I am also teaching an English Class here! It is funny all the questions people have, and how in English we don't have rules! You just have to memorize words haha

But I love my life and I am learning a ton of things! Keep busy and achieving all you want!

YOUR Elder Heath 

Also next week I will send information about the calling time and what is happening! I will try to plan it for about 3 o'clock your time. I am sending this letter at 4 46 here :) 

 

May 7th, 2012

Hola!!!!

 

Man it is good to hear from my beloved family!

 

So really quick I will update you guys on the phone call. Ya it is going to be the same thing as Christmas. We will call you and then you will call us back! Man its going to be nice in that air conditioned room! ;) So I am going to be calling at 7:00 pm Brazil time on Sunday . So I believe that is 3:00 your time :) But before that we are going to call on Saturday to set up the call. I will try to call the cell phone around the same time. 3:00 your time. :) We will get everything squared away haha there is one downside though. We have a new rule that we can only talk for 40 min. I don't know what happened or why, but what presidente says is for our good...

 

Sounds like this week you all are getting to spend some good family time together! Dad, the name teancum timbers sounds really really familiar. As you are going up to blue wood is it on the right hand side, where you go down a little and there is a river and everything? Maybe I am remembering another place. But I'm sure you MEN had a good time camping! I loved fathers and sons so much! I remember going with dad, Jordan and christian and Neal and Preston. Good old times! Do you remember that time christian and I were breaking rocks and one flew back and hit me in the forehead and left a huge goose egg? haha oh boy. And Mom you played mario cart! That is awesome! It is on here in a year and 4 months! haha That coconut icecream sounds delicious!

 

This week was awesome! Our mission President has been making a new focus in the mission. We are going and re activating members in our areas more. And at first this sounded a little strange but it really was inspiration. There are so many non active members here in Brazil it is crazy! Because of missionaries baptising people that don't have testimonies and just want to baptize. So we have been working with the less active members and we found a great family two weeks ago. We started teaching them again and they decided to come back to church because they knew something was missing in their lives. It was awesome to see them and one other ls active family come back to church. But later this week we were visiting with the first family and found out that their daughter was not baptized yet. We spoke to them about baptism and the daughter was really excited! It was a really special meeting to have the whole family smiling together watching the baptism of their daughter, or sister.

 

I love you all and I know that this church is the true church of Christ. He is our Salvador and redeemer. I love him. I also know that the power of the priesthood is real! and that we need to be worthy to use our priesthood at all times.

 

Elder Heath

 

photos

1 Baptism with new comp

2 THE HULK!!!!!!!!

3 Showing brazillians how to stick pull! haha