Monday, April 23, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving. 11/21/11

Happy Thanksgiving :)
Well everything this past week was pretty good. Alex and Brenda are still planning on the baptism. We interviewed them yesterday and they are so legit. Alex is kind of bigger, so we had to find a batismal suit that fit him and he was all excited when he tried it on, so it was exciting. We're having members baptize them, so it is gonna be so legit. Were finishing off a family and they are so amazing. They already talk about the temple. 
Rose has a testimony so strong. She has been baring her testimony like every visit, not only to us, but to Alex and everyone. It is so cool. It makes me so dang happy.
Today I have been on the mission for 4 months. Pretty crazy huh? I'm loving it. The language is still kicking my but but I'm getting it. This past week was the exact opposite of it. It rained and was pretty cold the whole week, but we did get some fans and actually got a whole bunch of new things for our house mattresses. We're living like kings now ha ha. But ya everything here is going very well. We have a couple new families that we're teaching that are pretty cool, and we're staying busy for sure.
Wow it sounds like you are gonna have a full house this week. That will be dang fun. They don't really know what Thanksgiving is here, but this Thursday the girl who's house we will lunch at, cooks super good and so it will be pretty much a Thanksgiving meal.
The zone conference was good. The president just talked at it and said that there is some changes that are gonna happen soon, so they will be good. But it was super good. I can't believe that I only have 3 weeks left with Elder Swanson. It is nuts, and next week I have to be senior comp. All week I'm in charge of all the lessons and everything. I'm pretty nervous, but it will be fun.
That play was this week huh? That sounds like it must have been pretty dang good. ha ha Ya they kinda do look alike huh?Well I'm not 100% sure on the scripture yet. I will look and get back to you next week ok? But that is way cool that they are doing that.
Well tell everyone at Thanksgiving hi for me and that I love them. Have a good week and I will too. This week is gonna be sick {*note: sick means awesome :) haha.}. I'm very thankful for everything you do for me. Thanks.
Love,Elder Furrows
We played some soccer last p-day, and this is my first umbrella that I will have gone through in Brazil :)and these are some sweet bats that are always outside the church.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Flippen Hot! 11/14/11

Hey hey!
This week has been super good. We have been working super hard and we have had some sweet things happen. We got a baptismal date for Aléx yesterday and he will prepare to be baptized not this Saturday but the next. And we moved Brenda's to be with him too, so that is super cool. They were talking about going to the temple and everything. It was so sweet. This is what it is all about: Eternal families! And Rose was bearing her testimony to him and everything. It was just super cool. 
We had a cool zone conference that our LZ´s put on, and this week we're having another that president and the assistants will come to, so it is gonna be a sick week. This past week has been so stinking hot. I have never sweated so much in my life ha ha. It's all good though. Oh ya, our fan broke in our house and the fan in the houses in the states might only serve one purpose, but here they have 2. One, to keep you a little cool and 2, to keep the bugs off of you. So ya I have not really slept at all this past week at all but, it's all good. It is all part of the experience right? So last night was probably the hottest night, and I got in bed at ten thirty like normal, but I could not fall asleep. I was hot and I was getting attacked by bugs and what not, so about 12:30 rolls around and I'm still up and the bugs are buzzing in my ears and I'm ready to freak out, and so I get up and I move my bed into a different room with a window and then that helped a little with the heat, but then I was so itchy I couldn't sleep. So I got up cause I remembered that my comp said he had some anti-itch cream, so I go searching for it and I find this cream and it was all in Portuguese, so I just took a wild guess and put it all over my legs. Well turns out it was this cream that you put on you, you know when you get the rash thing from walking and it gets rid of the fungus, so that was all over my legs, but I slept good after 
that, so maybe it did the trick. haha. It was pretty funny. 
Well I'm loving the mission. Loving the work. Hope you have a great week. I will 
talk to you in a week.
Love, Elder Furrows
So the pics:
1- Is when we were doing some service.
2- Is me and Elder Swanson's planners. Mine is the one on the right with the tree of life and everyone following the rod, and his is the left one with the great and spacious building because this is his last one, so he is going into the world and I'm staying here. ha ha.
3- I had to clean the baptismal font.
4- And this was after the baptism. We went to their house and had some 
snacks.

Rose's Baptism! 11/7/11

Hey hey family. Well this past week was flippen sweet. We baptized Rose! It was so awesome. I was dang scared because I baptized her and her name is about a mile long, and then I had to say the prayer and everything. It was nuts, but it was so flippen cool. Then on Sunday I  stood in on her receiving the holy ghost. Oh it was so awesome. Alex is 
not getting baptized yet because he is never home, so it is hard to teach him but he will be baptized for sure in the near future. Their family is so legit. I love them! So last night we had a family night with some members and Alex and Rose and it was so amazing. The members house who we had it at are some of the coolest people in the world, and they helped us out so much. It is amazing how the members can do what they do here. 
So ya, we watched like the History of Joseph Smith movie and it was so intense and the spirit was so strong there. It was hard to contain it in their little apartment. But ya after a day like yesterday I can see what missionary work is all about. Me and Elder Swanson were just walking home and nothing could get us down, we were just content. So it was an awesome weekend. Everything went just how we 
wanted it to. Saturday morning we had a service project and cut a tree for this lady and then went to the church and cleaned the font and that 
was fun. 
So everything was just good this week. The language is coming along pretty good. We went to transfers on Tuesday and i was talking 
with a lot of the Brazilians so that was cool. We lost one of the duplas 
in our area, so now there is only 4 of us. And Elder Wilson got a new comp, Elder Espinosa. He is super cool. He doesn't really speak a lick of English, so I walk with him to lunch and it is good practice for me to talk with him. 
So this transfer we don't have any conferences or anything, so the next time I will go to Vitoria will be at the next transfer and I will be getting a new comp, probably Brazilian. Crazy 
right? But I'm excited. Elder Swanson's parents are coming to get him, so I will get to meet them. That will be way fun. But everything on the mission life is going good right now. I love it out here and I love the spirit that I feel and I love the people here. They are so amazing and 
they sacrifice so much to be members of the one true church. They will 
receive blessings so great for their willingness, I know it. I love the 
gospel and everything about the mission and this church. It is the 
perfect organization. 
Well love you guys. Hope you have a great week. Sorry that there is no pictures. My computer is messed up. I'm gonna try 
switching and see if I can send some, but if not then I will get them to you next week. Love, Elder Furrows
(He sent this after)
Here are a couple pics of the baptism. Sorry my computer is still not working and I had Elder Swanson email me these. Sorry about the 4 emails ha ha.

Update!!!

Hey Guys!! :) This is Aubree {from here} {I keep up the blog.. even though there has been some serious slacking! haha. I'm done with school so now I will catch everyone up!} 
BUT FIRST!!!!
I updated a few posts from before... the pictures were either blurry or small, so I updated them and now the pictures are normal and clear! :) to see them click here and here!
Enjoy them, and I hope you've been enjoying this blog! :)
*Aubree*

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Happy Halloween! 10/31/11

Hey hey family! Well it sounds like things are still going right along back home. That's good. Happy Halloween. ha ha. Ya they don't really celebrate it down here, and it is not today. It is like the 2nd of Nov. Day of the Dead is what it is called. I think if my translations are correct. ha ha. Well I'm sure if anyone can make the whole property a spook ally, it will be Rusten. I can't believe he went to Dr. Slaughters! I don't even like to go there. ha ha. 
Ya Sheen kinda told me about the shower thing. That sounds like you had a good time. Ya Travis and I always chat back and forth. It is fun. I can't believe Austin is about ready to take off. Tell him good luck for me and give him a hug ha. I bet that music was amazing. They are both so good at playing their instruments, it would have to be. My whole group of friends huh? Who is all left still, I don't even remember? 
Ya I'm not too sure about that whole Skype thing. I'm sure that you can use mine, but we will have to be able to look it up and add each other, and I'm not sure I remember my user name and stuff, but get on and check it out. 
Ya I finally finished it. It is such a good book! It's probably one of the only books that you can read as many times as you can and learn something new each time! You got that letter huh? That is good. Ya I kinda spaced sending it til then. ha ha. 
Alright so the turtle farm was legit. It was right on the ocean and it is not really a farm. I just don't know what else to call it. It is kinda an exhibit type of deal I guess, but they have all these turtles and they tell the life story of them and how they have to make it to the ocean and just everything. It was super cool. 
So this week was a pretty dang cool week. We found this lady one day while we were knocking doors and she had just barley finished praying for guidance and help in her life, and right as she said amen we knocked her door, so that was pretty sweet right? Then we gave this other lady a blessing on the first visit for her back and that was pretty crazy, but such a cool experience. So with Rose and her family, it was a crazy week. So Wednesday we gave her the baptismal interview and she passed, and she is ready to be baptized but come Saturday we were at the church waiting for her and she was not showing up or answering her phone or anything. And finally she answered and she said that her and Alex got in a fight and she didn't want to be with him anymore and so she didn't feel as if she was in the right mind set to be baptized. So after a half hour of marriage counseling from two 20-year-olds who have never been married, we had kinda calmed her down, so we finished the night and all of us missionaries sang a song and had 
cake and everything for the baptisms and for two of the elders in my district that are leaving this week. 
Oh by the way I'm finished with my first transfer. Crazy right? So Sunday morning we went to get Rose up for church and it was like 7:30 and we went in and gave her some more marriage counsel and then told her to get ready and then we left and she still didn't show up to church and she was still mad and Alex and everything, so we went there afterwards and everything was all good. They had made up I think, and she asked us when is the soonest that she could be baptized 
so this Saturday if all goes as planned, she will be baptized and Brenda too. 
That is about all that went on this week. ha ha. It was a fun week that's for sure, and Elder Swanson and I will stay here to finish up our training. The next transfer is the 13 of Dec. and Elder Swanson's parents are coming down here to pick him up so I will get to meet them. I'm pretty excited for that. 
Well love you guys. Have a great Halloween and a great week!
Love, Elder Furrows
So the first picture is in this really crappy part of town that I thought was cool. The next two are at the sacrament meeting in Interlagos. They have the meeting on the roof, it was sweet. Then there are just some others. The last one is us making banana pancakes.

Oh Brazil.... 10/24/11


Hey! Everything this past week has been pretty dang good. Rose and Alex, her husband, came to church this week and her husband liked it a lot, but their baptismal date is for this weekend, and we're not so sure about it. They are still not sure they want to, but we're praying hard so we'll see. The only thing that they didn't like was how the sacrament meeting was so irreverent, and I'm not gonna lie, yesterday I almost went up to the pulpit to tell everyone to shut their flippin' mouths. It's frustrating sometimes cause you get everything so perfect and they come and you pray like crazy that it doesn't rain on Sunday morning so they will be willing to come cause they said if it rains they don't want to walk in the rain. So it doesn't rain and they show up and then the members screw up like that. I don't know, we're all pretty mad. We're gonna have a talk with them, but it's all good, what do you do. 
So Adonias, we dropped this week. He stopped smoking, but that was all he ever did. He wouldn't ever do anything else we told him, and just had no desire, so we had to drop him. It was kind of sad. 
So this last week I have been taking over lessons and starting and doing stuff like that, and not gonna lie, the first couple of times it was a complete failure. I sucked it up, so it's a good thing that it can only get better from there right? ;) So we taught this drunk guy this week and I thought that he was gonna kill us. We were out on his porch teaching him and he was like, "I need to grab something out of my house." And we're like, "We're almost done. Just wait two seconds." And he was all like, "No." And got up and he was like, "I just need 
to grab my 38." And I was freaking out, but he just grabbed a bible and 
we left. I'm sure he doesn't remember a thing we said to him ha ha. Then we found some other people this week who are pretty good. We're gonna go back this week and see if they kept our invites, so we'll see. Tell Rusten good work on the talk. I'm sure it was flippin' amazing, and thanks for sending a package! Love you. ;)Wow you are just a working machine in this potato harvesting deal, aren't you? haha.
Oh, one thing before I forget. The way we talk on Christmas is through Skype, so you will have to create an account or something. So this week there isn't gonna be any pictures, sorry. Last night we loaded up and came to São Mateus to come to this turtle farm thing that we're gonna do today and so I don't have my cord to plug into my computer, but next week I will for sure. 
So last night we went to the sacrament meeting of the branch in our area which is at 5 at night and it was legit. It was on top of this lady's house and it was all open and everything super cool. I will send pics next week for sure. Oh I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday for the first time on the mission. That was cool.
Well there are a lot of fruit and cool things like that. If you came here you would think that it is a city, but it is farm land to them. Where we live it's funny the reaction I get when I tell them how many people are in our city. They honestly can not fathom that, it is funny. There is not really any crazy animals that I have seen yet. No monkeys, but they say there are close by. There is a lake though that has crocs in it, so that is super cool. And yes, I eat a lot of mangoes and mango juice. It is so good! They have like 17 different types of mangoes. It is sweet.Well thanks for the support and the email. Wish me luck this week and 
pray for Rose and Alex please. They need the help. Love you guys so much!
Love, Elder Furrows

New Investigators. 10/17/11

Hey hey! How are you doing this week? Everything here is going very good. Well that snake story obviously we had to go back and take a picture and throw some stuff at it or else we just wouldn't have been satisfied with ourselves, but the coolest thing about that day was right after that happened we knocked on Rose's door and her whole family is so legit. Ya I'm definitely blessed to be here! There are a ton of missionaries that are stuck in the states or had to serve in the states for a while. ha ha. Spud harvest, you're just a working women, that's funny. I'm glad you liked it so much. It is way fun. 
Yupp I have heard that Pelligrini is doing awesome. he had 2 baptisms this past week to. that is cool you guys all went to women's conference together. Sounds like you are just having the time of your lives together, just you girls and your girls nights ha. Ya that mail strike thing is still going on. Freaking Brazilians, no just kidding ha ha. Idk, they will get there sometime. I have sent a letter every week, so don't worry. :) Ya there is a rainy season and it is right now. It is raining like crazy and then it's always super hot right after and humid, but it's all good. You know what I realized that I have never ever asked you about your mission mom! Will you tell me some stuff about it? Maybe in a letter so I have time to read it, but I want to know about it. Yupp, the people here, or the members at least, are super strong and they do give all that they can for sure!
Alright so this past week has been really cool. We had some dang good lessons and we taught Adonias, the man whose family is all members, and he is a super funny guy, but we had to get serious with him this last week and burn him, so hopefully that will help. Then Rose and her family are all way awesome. They are progressing dang good, and her husband is interested and he was all, "I prayed to know if it's true and I don't think I have gotten an answer, but I just can't stop thinking about the Book of Mormon." And so we explained to him some stuff and he is super excited to read, so that is cool. Then this last week we had our first zone conference it was so good. We left our house at 2 a.m. to catch the bus and didn't get back until the next morning at 6:30 a.m., so it was a long day, but it was way good. Then on Saturday we got permission from president to go to a soccer game to support Rose's brother who is the goalie for the city team. So we went to that. It was the cuppo do espirito santo, but they lost, but it was still way cool. 
So everything here is going really well. I have lost all the weight that I put on in the ctm, so that is good. Um besides that that is all I can think of really. Well Saturday night we were on our way back to our house and we got there like a half hour early and so we just dropped off our bags to go back out and do contacts and the first guy that passed us on his bike stopped in front of us and was like, "Where do you live?" And we're like, "Right here in this bairro." And he was all, "You realize I could kill you two right now?" And we're just like, "Crap, why didn't we just stay in the house?" And so we're all, "Sir, have you been drinking?" And he was all, "Ya a little." And then we realized he was just drunk off his butt, so we told him to go home and then he was like, "Alright, have a good night. God be with you." ha ha. That was pretty fun. 
Well hope all goes well this week now that you're gonna be super bored with no more potato harvest to do ha. Well love you. Have a good week.
Love, Elder Furrows
So these are really the only new pictures I took this week. The first one is Elder Arudjo and I. He is my district leader, and this is on the way home from zone conference. The second is at lunch one of the days where we had chicken feet soup. It was yummy. ;) ha ha Not. Then the last one is at the soccer game. That was the toilet, no door, nothing! Just a hole in the floor, and that nasty thing! It was so funny.