Last e-mail in the MTC! 9/14/11

Yes, the time sure does fly. Everything here is going very well. I'm loving it more and more each day, and getting more anxious every day too. I can't wait to get out in the field. ha ha Don't worry about the no email last week. No one got one except like 2 kids ha ha. 

We will fly out on Tuesday morning. We have meetings all day Monday and then we're off. 

The rice is just regular white rice. It's the beans that are so good ha. My allergies are fine. I don't have them at all, and yes please. I would love that CD. I'm sure I could find a way to play. Just wait a little bit on that and I will figure out what to do in the field. 

Ya I heard about Zack. That really sucks. Tell him I'm sorry, but that he needs to get back out there. That is cool that Krissy got married. I'm sure that was beautiful. Wayne's backyard was looking so good that last time we were there. I bet it was amazing. ha ha That is funny about Rusten's little friend. That poor kid, but I bet they had fun. Tell Rusten and JoDee happy birthday for me and that I love them so much. 

K so this week has been a pretty good week. we baptized our fake investigator on Saturday and taught some more members that same day. It's always intense doing that. Then Sunday I had to give a talk in church, so that was cool and then at the fireside that night it was really good. I got some really cool quotes that i liked. They said that "Your mission won't be successful if you don't bring at least one soul unto the gospel, and that soul is your own." So that was good, and then Monday was such a good day. We went out on the streets to place Book of Mormons and it was such a neat experience. We got out and me and Elder Brown said a prayer and we headed out and we were trying to talk to people as we walked by, but no one was really stopping and talking to us. Mainly because every Monday the Americans go out and go tracting and they know this. So we walked up to this guy sitting on the curb and started talking to him and he said he didn't like the church, so we're like "whatever" and then we went up to this lady sitting in front of the bank and started talking with her and she said she is evangelic and loves her church, but we kept being  persistent and at first she was just like laughing at us kinda, but then we bore our testimonies of it and she completely changed and she took it and seemed like she would read it. Then we talked to a couple more people and they weren't interested  until this one guy and we talked to him and the spirit was definitely talking through me because I was talking and understanding everything that he said, and then I gave it to him and it was just really cool. He seemed very interested, and then the last guy we gave one to it was just kinda the same as the first lady. So we were out there for an hour and a half and it was way cool. 

I'm so excited for Friday when we get to go for 3 hours to the down town where no one knows anything about the gospel or very few. So that's cool. I leave and I will be in Vitoria the next time you get an email from me, crazy huh? Today was a good day we went out and had lunch with our instructor and went to the temple for the last time for 22 months. I'm gonna miss it. I love this temple. It is so beautiful. 

Well I love you so much. Hope you're having a great week. Talk to you next week.

Practice for the Field. 9/6/11

Well this is kinda awkward. I get in here and no email. ha ha just kidding. It is the Brazilian Independence Day tomorrow, so they changed our P-Day to today. This week we were back to the Sao Paulo Temple and it was sweet. I was able to do initiatory today in Portuguese and it was so awesome. The Sao Paulo Temple is definitely my favorite. It is SO pretty, so that was very good and then it has just been a normal day besides that. 

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to teach members that were playing investigators, and that was so intense. It was pretty cool. As long as they were talking about gospel stuff, I could understand a lot of what they would say and then I could get my point across to them when I was teaching, so that has been a very cool thing. Then on Saturday night we got to practice doing street contacts just in the gym with the different instructors, and that was very helpful because this next Monday we're going tracting outside the ctm and then Friday of next week we get to go to Paulista, which is like the main street of Sao Paulo, and go tracting for like 3 hours, so I'm super pumped about that, but super nervous at the same time for sure. Then I will be out in the real field the next week! I have two weeks from today. 

So that was a good practice and then Sunday was a fast and testimony meeting and that was awesome. The testimonies that are born are so powerful. I love it, and then later that day the branch pres came up to Elder Pellegrini and told him to tell me that I'm the new assistant to the president so that happened also on Sunday. Pretty crazy day. Besides that nothing too crazy has happened. We challenged a district to a sweet game of volleyball tomorrow. Winner takes our teacher because they have the same night teacher that teaches us during the day so that will be intense ha ha. 

Well that's really about all. The weeks are flying by and I am pretty sure that they are only gonna start going faster. I'm loving it here. I am so happy to serve the Lord and for the opportunity that he has given me to serve in such a beautiful place as Brazil. Well hope all is well back home the next email will be better hopefully because i will have some good tracting stories to share. Love you. Thanks for everything. Here is my mission home address. You will probably want to just send all letters there from now on cause they will take too long to get here unless you send them within the next 2 or 3 days so here it is:

Avenida João Baptista Parra, 633
Salas 1501/1502
Edificio Enseada Office
Praia do Suá, Vitoria, ES
29052-123 (And I add Brazil at the bottom :D)

{So If you want to send him a letter or package, now you can if you didn't know his address :) haha.}

Feeling the Spirit Through Good Music. 8/31/11

Hey hey!
How is everything going this week? Everything here is going very good, and yes we did go to the campinas temple again this week. It was so amazing. Ya they had Sao Paulo closed for cleaning, so today was the last time that I will get that opportunity to go there. It is the prettiest temple ever. I love it there. Oh I have to tell you a story before i forget about it. So today after we went to the temple, my district decided that we would go out to eat instead of eating at the CTM, so we went to the Rodigio Grill thing and it was so dang good, and then on our way out we were standing in line to pay and I was in the back and this sweet old lady and her husband were behind us in line and I didn't realize, but my collar on my suit was sticking up in the back and the old women said as best she could in english - I know I'm not your mom but I'm going to help you out- and she reached up and fixed my collar for me and I was like, "thank you so much. I'm pretty far from home and I don't have a mother here in Brazil to look out for me." and she was just really sweet, so don't worry I'm being looked out for. That blows my mind that Rusten is already starting school. That is way cool. I bet that he is loving it.
Ya we got new companionships like 3 days after Elder Bennion left so I got put with Elder Brown, he is a stud. He definitely makes up for what I lack in the language. Speaking of which, that is coming along pretty good, so that is good. We commited our first fake investigator to baptism this last week and took away all of his coffee so that was cool.
I'm glad that you got to make it to Zack's farewell. I'm sure he really appreciated that. I can't believe that all my freinds will have gone on missions. It is such a blessing to have such great friends. I look up to every one of them so much.
So last night for devotional my district and one other one had to do prelude music for it. It was so good, we sang Abide With Me Tis Ev´n Tide and that was all in Portuguese, and then we sang Be Still My Soul and that was half and half, and then the last one was the best. It was Joseph Smith's First Prayer, but we sang it to the tune of Come Thou Fount and also the second half to If You Could High To Kolob, so that was way cool. The spirit is so easily invited into the room when you sing good music and it is always so strong when you give it your all. Well I'm glad to hear everything is going well sorry that this is so short. I love you and I love the Lord and I'm so happy to be here.

Elder Furrows

Andy's 1st e-mail to the clan! ha. :) 7/27/11

This is Andy's 1st e-mail to us! :) I went through and fixed punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc. haha. Don't worry... he's just like every missionary! haha. They don't have good handwriting, but they write really good e-mails and you can tell they LOVE their mission! :) ENJOY!:

Well everything is going very well. You're going to have to forward this to everyone because I only have 30 min to email and I am only supposed to email you really just while I am in the MTC, but everything is so amazing here! I love it so much and I love the spirit that you are always feeling so strongly. The flight was pretty long, but it was alright. I didnt sleep much but I had this little girl by me that was like 12 and she could speak english alright so we talked most of the time. When we got off the plane I expected it to be hard to get though customs and everything but it wasnt bad at all! We just grabbed our bags, and dont worry my hand was fine when I was carrying it, and we grabbed them and headed out to go like past security I guess and there was this little brazilian waiting for us and he couldnt speak a lick of english, but we got everything taken care of ok. It took us a while to find another elder that we were waiting on. His name is Elder Tanner and he had to fly the whole way by himself on a different flight than us. Even i felt pretty bad for him, but he said it was all good. So the other 3 elders that i flew with was Elder Pelligrine, Elder Bennion, and Elder Brown. They are all three from utah and they are all cool kids. It is us 5 in our district and guess what? I'm the district leader. It is kinda intimidating at first, but it is all good. I think it wont be too tough. The MTC is beautiful. It is just right in the city and it is all gated in and just so dang nice. Well i guess everywhere is the city. This city would blow your mind it is so huge, but the ctm is just a little sancturary and it is sweet. The days are suprisingly going by way fast! I thought it would go slow for the first little bit, but it has been going way fast so that is good. The language is pretty tough but for what they have taught us, we have learned it all pretty good. they are trying to teach us the language of the spirit first before the language or at least with the language cause that is the way we will learn the fastest. I love it here, and I love the spirit as my constant companion. It is so crazy how you are always feeling the spirit here I love it. Our p days here are so legit. I'm so happy I didn't have to go to provo cause they have to stay in the mtc and everything, but here at the ctm they give us 2 hours to go out on the streets and just go to the vendors and the stores and to just mingle with the people, but I haven't done that yet. We're doing it right after this. Oh and also, we get to go to the Sao Paulo Temple and it is the most beautiful temple that I have ever seen in my life! Just everything about it is so pretty inside and out, but mostly the inside. we definitely have to come back when I'm home and go through it!

The trip over to the temple was fun. The drivers here are crazy so they keep you on your toes and we got to see some favelas which were awesome. After the temple, we went to the distribution center and i bought some scriptures and a bible in portuguese and a case, they are pretty sweet, and I should have just waited to buy garments down here they are so much cheaper but it's all good. The food here is great. I really love the rice and beans they are so amazing! But the brazilians say that it is nothing like the real food it is kinda like brazil's version of a cafeteria, but I think it is the best cafeteria food I have ever eaten. ha ha. the brazilians are way cool, they want to learn english just as bad as we want to learn portuguese, so we are always talking with them. It's way fun. There are alot of them going to my mission so I'm sure we will be comps in the future. Well everything is amazing down here I'm loving the people, the food, the language, and most importantly I love the gospel and the spirit that I am always feeling. Hope everything is going well back home. Eu ama voce!