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.

Temples. 8/24/11

Wow it sounds like you have had an intense week, but that is good that you're busy. It always makes things more fun. Of course Rusten would want to live in CA on the beach. I can see him diong that for sure. I bet the wedding was amazing! That temple is so cool.

Ya so we went to the Campinas Temple today and it was so flippen legit. It is massive and it's not like the Sao Paulo one, where it's right in the middle of the city, it is up on top of a hill in the country, or the closest you can get to being country in Brazil. It took about a little over an hour to drive there, and the drive was way cool. It was really thick jungle for the most part and then every once in a while, you would see a little fevela so that was way cool. The temple was just so massive and the celestial room was so amazingly gorgeous. It blew my mind when I walked through the door. I wanted to just stay there forever. The spirit is so strong in there, and you can really just think and clear your mind and talk with the Lord while you are in there and I love it.

I never would have imagined how much I would pray till I got out here and it mind as well be just one continuous prayer. ha ha. But everything is going very well. The language is coming alright. I can get my point across, at least when I am talking about gospel stuff. It just takes me some time, but it will come.

Elder Peleegrini is doing very well. He has totally changed for the better, so that's good. I thought that I told you that Elder Brown and I are comps now. He is a cool kid. he is from Murry. We get along pretty good. One of my teachers might be moving to Utah to be a translator for the church, so I told him that I would take him skiing when I get home. There isn't much going on here besides that. Just staying busy and learning a ton about the gospel and everything else, and there is no place else I would rather be.

I concecrated some oil this week in portuguese so that was a very good experience. We have this thing here called TRC and we practice with fake investigators and one of our investigators we invited to be baptised this semana, so that was cool. He said it might take him some time though, but other than that it the same and I love it.

That's cool that Ty and Sheen got a new car, and that they got so much out of there's. Good for them. And that blows me away that Rusten is already about to start school! That's awesome. Tell him good luck for me. Well, eu ti amo todos voces.

Têm bom semanalove.

Elder Furrows

Starting to Teach Lessons! :) 8/17/11

Well I'm very glad that all is well back home. It is just another week here at the ctm, but I'm loving it more and more every single day that I am here. It is definitely a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, so I'm getting humbled, I would say every 30 seconds or so. ha ha. But it's good for me. The language is tough, but I'm getting it ok. Elder Brown and I taught our first whole lesson in portuguese this week, so that was dang intense! I have come to a realization that I need to grow up and put all my faith in the Lord if I want miracles to start happening because that is what it is going to take. So I'm praying as much as possible and putting a lot of faith in the Lord and putting forth all the effort that I can. I know that it will all work out if I put my faith in Christ. That's one thing that they make sure to teach you here. If you put your faith in Christ, then things will work out. I love it here. The spirit is always so strong and you can always feel it.

We are going to the Campenis Temple next week because they are cleaning Sao Paulo, so that is awesome.

The pic of Cam's wedding looks like it was beautiful. Tell them congrats for me. Oh ya, you are going to Cali! That's so awesome. I hope you guys make it safe and sound.

We got two new kids from Provo in our district. Elders Litchfield and Hill. One is from Oregon and the other is from Cali, and we also got some brazilian roomates. They are flippen cool! It's so fun to talk to them.

Ya that sucks about Anthany. I feel so bad for him. I hope it all works out for him. How is Todd doing? Good to hear about Charlie hope he comes around. My hand is doing so good! Only one week till I can stop wearing my brace. woot woot! I'm so ready to get it off. The doc just looked at it and asked how it felt and I said good and he sent me on my way pretty pain free.

Ya I could definitely find some way to listen to it. You can send them to me out in the field and I would love that. I am half way done with the ctm this Saturday. I'm so ready to get out of here and preach the good word, but I'm really not ready because I need to know a lot more portuguese, but it will come. Well I hope Rory's wedding goes great. Tell them congrats for me.

love,

Elder Furrows