I took a spoonful of the milk candy...

March 31, 2014

Oi! So if you try Mom, I’m sure you can learn Portuguese... the basics are pretty easy if you already know Spanish... por exaplo... “como tu estas” is “como você está”... it’s basically the same language! 

It’s probably a good idea for Jackson to get an automatic car because May probably wouldn’t want to drive a stick shift. I think in all the time I’ve been in Brazil I still haven’t seen an automatic car... I don’t think they exist here, haha.

I was wondering about the NCAA tourney last night... here it’s almost time for the World Cup... it’s all we talk about during our lunches with members, haha. People here are crazy for soccer. 

So anyways... sounds like you’ll have to put together quite the party for Jackson and May... if you plan parties like Dad planed your 40th, you guys will have left over drinks until I get home, haha. 

So this week one day when we were eating lunch we were offered to try this dessert... milk candy... just by the sound of it I was kinda worried... like how do you go about making candy out of milk? Leave it out in the sun until it gets hard? Anyways.. after she offered us the milk candy and brought it over to the table, I couldn’t tell if she really wanted us to eat it, or if she was kidding... it was in a jar with these brown hard clumps mixed with brown/clear liquid... it basically looked like someone poured milk into a jar... left it on the sidewalk for 2 years... and now we were going to eat it... she told us that when she tried it she didn’t really like it, but she’d let us try it too.. however... Elder Granville doesn’t even like fruit juice.. let alone hard milk... so naturally when she put the milk candy in front of Elder Granville, he passed it to me... and being American.. everyone in Brazil thinks you have an infinite capacity to eat all types of food. So being a proud American, I took a spoonful of the milk candy and put it in my mouth... I’ve had the taste of throwup leave my mouth a few times in my life, but I think this was the first time I had the taste of throwup enter my mouth. Words can’t describe a food that disgusting. There’s no way anyone in Brazil likes that stuff... it had to be expired or something. Even Elder Granville said he knew it was expired, but he wanted to see me eat it anyways, haha. 

So to answer your questions... no baptisms this week... we have some really good investigators.. one of them had a date for this week, but still isn’t sure if God exists... so it’s kinda complicated haha... but he’s been going to church for 3 weeks now and he reads the Book of Mormon and prays... so hopefully he’ll be baptized in the stake center this week in between sessions of conference. So on our P-days sometimes we watch movies like SharkTale or Tarzan or church movies cuz our president let’s us watch Dreamworks and Disney movies rated G.. so that’s fun or sometimes we clean the house all day because the animals leave a mess.... life’s complicated here in Brazil.. and as far as Pórtuguese goes, I feel like I’m getting it down.. I can say all the things I want now and understand people during the lessons and all... but when people use a lot of slang with a lot of accent.. it’s still kinda hard to tell what they’re saying... but it’s ok because even Brazilian missionaries can’t tell what some of the locals here are saying sometimes haha... anyways I hope you guys have a good week... tell Brock and Joe I said “hi” next time you see them. Até mais!

Elder Udy

It's crazy the change the gospel made in her life...

March 24, 2014

Oiiiiii tudo bem? So did the missionaries meet with those ladies yet? When they go over there you should go with them.. nothing like a good lesson with a good member...  O and you should tell that girl that came to church to invite her friend Ellie. Before you know it Slippery Rock will be the stake center! 

This week we got a reference from one of our investigators. When we went to the house, there were 2 ladies that accepted pretty much everything and were really curious. When we came back for the next visit they said they were telling their friend about the first visit and how they thought it was interesting, so they brought her for the second. And their friend had more questions than they did! And they were all in church the next day!... and they’ll all be baptized here in about 2 weeks. However, if no one invites people to come to church or listen to the missionaries.... then they probably never will... but just one invite can lead to lots of baptisms...

So I’ll tell a story since Jackson always tells me to tell stories and show pictures. So the new elder in our house Elder Moroni said that in his other area.. where he came from before here... in 15 days in the one neighborhood there were 10 deaths. I think it’s spelled Bonjarjim. its pretty nuts there tho.. theres some areas of the mission here that are pretty nuts... so that wasn’t really much of a story, so I’ll tell another. So we have this family we are teaching that is always at church.. but this week they weren’t at church.. so we were wondering what happened. So last night we went over to their house so see why they weren’t in church.. and apparently what happened was the the mom got mad at the step dad (they aren’t married) and locked the house up and left without the step dad knowing.. when the step dad got back to the house and realized it was locked he just slept there on the sidewalk... (saturday night) so when we passed by sunday night he told us the story about how he was locked out and all.. so then we started to talk with him on the sidewalk in front of his house. So we were talking and talking and while we were conversing the mom and kids came back... and within 3 seconds of seeing him she just starts screaming at him and didn’t stop for 30 minutes! Basically she was mad because he doesn’t work and drinks and smokes and she says he’s a free loader and she doesn’t want these things in her life anymore, she wants to be baptized and change, and he keeps smoking and drinking. So after we entered the house she just kept screaming and yelling at him saying that she wants him to leave now and never come back and she shouldn’t have to leave her own house locked up to send a message to him that she wants him to leave. She wants to change and be baptized, but he’s stopping her. It was pretty intense while she was yelling at him for 30 minutes.. She said a lot of words I didn’t recognize.. my companion said I was lucky I couldn’t understand everything she was saying. But it’s pretty crazy the change that the gospel made in her life from drinking and all to having this desire to change and kick her boyfriend out of her house. You never know who will accept the gospel. 

O and here we don’t have a choir but we don’t have a lot of things so its ok.. sounds like you guys will be singing the whole conference with 6 songs haha. Anyways tell the fam I said hi.. O and I’m glad no one got hurt cutting down the tree. Looks like Brother Shaffer cuts trees better than he cuts hair, haha. Até mais! Eu amo vocês. 

-Elder Udy

There was a group of people standing under a drain...

March 17, 2014

Looks like Cole learned well in his youth (referring to Cole learning from his brothers when playing in the church b-ball tournament)... one long red sock and all... they really do pay attention when they’re young haha. Looks like they had fun... maybe they didn’t win it all, but at least they looked good haha. It's about time Jimmer got traded, maybe he’ll get to play more now...or maybe not, haha.  I got the package you sent, thx :) but I haven’t gotten my patriarchal blessing you sent, hopefully I get it this week. We only get mail one day a week at the district/zone meeting. That’s cool that the Balls got sealed.. 

So Elder Granville and I both stayed in the area.. And Elder Chaves is still living with us... only Elder Ricks left and the new companion of Elder Chaves is Elder Moroni haha... quite the missionary name.. we´ll have to get him used to our house.. when we were at the mission conference 4 weeks ago Sister Souza (mission president’s wife) was talking and asked who had a new house that’s really nice.. and half the mission raised their hands haha, I had no idea.. I thought every house in the mission was full of animals...and insects.. and larva haha.. but there’s hope for a better house to come.. but the ward here is really good, so its worth it. They’re always willing to help us and pass references. 

So I played basketball for the first time in.. well a long time. It was last p-day me and Elder Ricks played with this Brazilian guy.. o and last week one day it started pouring rain as we were walking to our lunch.. so we took shelter in front of a house and on the other side of the street was a group of people standing under a drain...which at the time was more like a water fall... taking showers.. don’t worry they had clothes on.. but we didn’t know if they were getting cleaner or dirtier because this water wasn’t quite crystal clear haha.. but anyways..

So we have some investigators progressing. We hope to see a lot of them be baptized this transfer. The hardest thing is finding people that are willing to listen.. but they’re out there.. so don’t forget to give references to the missionaries! Até mais.

-Com amor, Elder 2

The animal of the week was....

March 10, 2014

       O Cole, haha, skippin seminary and part of first period when mom sleeps in.. just like all the greats have done in the past... sounds like Jackson’s doing better.. his leg is going to be extremely small when he starts walking again, haha. Take pictures of his leg when he gets off the crutches. 

       The winter camp out story made me miss the good ol´days. The best part of winter camp out though was being miserable, haha.. I think of all the young men’s activities I remember.. the winter campout is the one I remember the best.. but it was pretty awful.. I had to walk miles through the blizzard of the century with Brother Goetman to rescue some gear.. and defrost my shoes for an hour in the morning after sleeping on a wood board with 8 people... but now I’m dying of heat here, haha. Life goes on. 

       So we asked the mission office for another fan this week cuz we were sharing one between the 4 of us... and I guess you’re supposed to have one for every missionary... which makes sense because with only 1 fan we’ve been dying of heat at night and during study. 

       So this week one day we were eating lunch in our house and all of a sudden everyone started screaming in the roads.. so naturally we all dropped what we were eating and went to see what it was... and there was this girl (15ish) running after these two other girls.. and the 15 year old was screaming they robbed me, they robbed me... so someone in the road said.. get your dad! so she goes to the side of the road and knocks on the door screaming for her dad, and then this huge (tall and fat) 65 year old man comes to the door, and she says Dad I got robbed, I got robbed... and her dad went back into the house for literally 3 seconds and returned with a machete and started running down the street with a sword, haha. But naturally he wasn’t able to run very far and the girls got away. I just couldn’t believe that he keeps a machete/sword next to his door, haha. It was like 2 and a half feet long! 

       So the animal of the week was larva. Our kitchen was full of them one day. These little white worms that look like pieces of rice...but alot more gross. Anyway I took some photos. I’ll send some pictures so you guys can see all the fun we’re having in our house, haha. O and this week I had potato juice... it was like mashed potatoes in liquid form, haha. I don’t think it was supposed to be juice.. but it was liquid and it tasted like potatoes haha... and only the Americans ate it haha, Elder Chaves and Elder Granville couldn't handle it. O and this week is transfers, so next P-day I think I’ll have a new companion because word on the street is Élder Granville will get transferred to be mission secretary. I’ll try to send pictures. Até mais! 

Com Amor, Elder Udy

Ants, Baptisms, and Carnival

March 3, 2014

        Sounds like you're having fun at BYU, haha. I'm sure Jackson's roommates love you for making them food, haha. Tell them I said hi :) .. How long are you going to live the college life? Sounds like you're having fun in Provo, haha. I can imagine that Jackson's roommates didn't have any dish rags haha.. all we have here is one sponge that was yellow but is turning black.... but don't worry we're going to buy a new one because our mission president promised us that if we clean our houses until they're perfect, we´ll have a beautiful wife one day. So we decided to clean our house better, haha. So one night this week when we got back to the house we found about 200 gigantic ants with wings crawling out of this hole in the wall next to our sink. So naturally we all ran to grab our cameras... and after we took pictures, we decided we should probably do something about all the ants.... so not knowing what we should do I suggested that we spray them with my insect repellent.. its like deet a million, so I thought it might kill them on impact... but instead it just caused them to go nuts and start flying around in our kitchen... and we discovered that there was about 100 more ants that hadn't come out of the hole yet.. until we sprayed it, haha. So we all grabbed a broom or dust pan or whatever and started batting them out of the air until we killed them all... but don't worry we still had to pick up all the 300 mammoth ant corpses. Haha I hope I can send the video through email so you guys can see... O and this all happened the day after last p-day when we cleaned the house to perfection haha. 

Winged Beasts

        So this week we had 3 baptisms. We had planed for 5 baptismal interviews but on the night before the interviews the grandma of 2 of the girls we baptized locked herself in her house, and when we talked with the mom of the girls we baptized she said sometimes her mom is bipolar and freaks out. So we don't really know what to do. But anyway... 2 of the girls we baptized are part of a family.. we are teaching them all.. the dad is a less active that hasn't been to church in years and the mom is an investigator. Whenever someone asks her if she's a member yet, she always says "no, but I will be after I get married to my husband," haha. And the dad of the girls is returning to church wearing a shirt and tie, so we're pretty happy about this family. Also, we baptized a guy named Rafael that lived in Spain for 2 years and he's been teaching me some Spanish haha.. I don't know how to write it, but I've been learning the basics.. I'll be tri-lingual! haha. So yeah, I'll try to send you some photos. 

        So during carnival here everyone's pretty nuts haha... in most the roads..well almost all the roads.. there's people covered in flour and egg haha. They all throw eggs and flower at each other. We were visiting someone yesterday and when we were in the road this kid came up to us and said he was going to throw this egg on my head, and my companion looked at him like he was going to kill him... and then he went away haha. It's pretty crazy right now but carnival is only for one week. It'll be over this Wednesday. So yeah, pretty much everyone is crazy right now. Elder Rick and Elder Chaves told us a story of a guy they met yesterday on the side of the road. He was just sitting there alone so they went over to him and sat next to him and asked him his name. He looked at them kinda funny and said.. do you want the name that my parents gave me.. or the name that..... (he just pointed up to the sky without saying anything)... and Elder Ricks said Hmm whatever you want me to call you 

I guess.. so the man paused for a second and said ok.. You can call me God. WHAT?!? haha 

I thought it was pretty funny. But anyways I'll try to send some pictures. Continue ser super Mãe. Até próximo semana. 

Com Amor, Élder Udy