Finding lots of married couples to teach

        Nossa, looks like I missed out haha (on the wedding). Sounds like everything went well :) Cole looks so tall dressed up next to Jackson's friends. Do you have a photo of Jackson and May smiling in wedding clothes in front of the temple or something like that... I want a picture to use to teach about the law of chastity and temple marriage. So if there's a photo like that send it :) Sounds like everything went pretty much perfect. 

How was MIT? Looks like you checked it out for me... only about 5 more years haha. I've always wanted to got to the (TD)Garden too.... but makes sense that you guys would go there after I'm gone. Looks like everyone enjoyed the trip though haha. How long's the honeymoon? Are they staying on the beach? So I got the letter with Jackson and May's wedding announcement this week. My zone really liked it haha. Everyone kept talking about the food and parties I'd be missing out on. Then this week I got sick for 4 days including Saturday and one of the missionaries I live with would say... just imagine.. you're here on your mission, dying of sickness, walking all day in the sun, giving your all to the Lord, and you family is having a party eating good food and getting ready for a wedding in the temple. However, I didn't even know you guys were also sight seeing at my favorite basketball team's venue and my college of choice haha. But sounds like you guys had fun :)

So here we're getting ready for transfers already this week. This Sunday we´ll know where/who is getting transferred and Monday is the transfer. So the family we're teaching went on vacation this week. I don't think they'll be baptized until next transfer. However, we're finding lots of married couples to teach too. Oh, last week in the missionary choir I sang tenor. And there were about 40 people. 10 in each section. It turned out pretty good. And in the part that's acapela the tenors are divided in tenor 1 and 2.. I was the higher part. Anyways, have a good week. Have fun at the party... all my friends emailed me and said they're going haha, so I'm sure they'll be there.. Have a good week. Good luck with the party :) Até mais, tanha uma boa semana.

<3 Élder Udy

Mission conference with Elder Neil L. Andersen

May 19, 2014

Oiiii! Nooossa Jackson’s car is pretty sweet. And I’m sure May is glad that it isn’t stick shift, haha. So today was the day that Elder Andersen came to talk to our mission and the Fortaleza East mission as well. We all went to one of the churches in the Fortaleza East mission to have the meeting. There were over 340 missionaries with the 2 missions combined. Our mission has 206 missionaries and Fortaleza East has the rest. So to get there by 7:30 we had to be in our chapel at 6:00 to get on the bus that our zone and one of the other zones rented... so to get to the church by 6:00... or a little before 6:00 to be safe... we woke up at 330... and we haven’t been home yet... so I kinda forgot to bring my camera with the memory card to send you the photos :/ .... so idk if the party is this week or next but I’ll send the photo next week if you still want it :) or you can use some photoshop to try to find a picture that works.. You’re the "google queen," I’m sure you’ll figure something out if May´s mom still wants to make the cutouts. O and I sent you the song that we sang today. They recorded it... I haven’t listened to it yet (the recording), but live it was pretty good... so hopefully the recording sounded good too. 

But anyways, I hope the wedding hype is going good. Hopefully this week we will baptize that family.. They have 3 kids, 12, 5, and 3. They would be the first full family that I baptized in the mission :) Remember them in your prayers :) Elder Andersen taught us about how we need to help our investigators realize the role that Jesus Christ has in our lives. Too many people don’t understand clearly why he suffered for us, or how we need to use the atonement in our own lives in order to have eternal life. If all the investigators of missionaries had a clear objective of why it’s important to live the gospel, they would sacrifice more to go to church, or read scriptures. They would give more value to spiritual things. And the best way to understand that is reading the Book of Mormon. It was a good experience to listen to an apostle talk about missionary work.

Sounds like the missionaries in Slippery Rock are having some success and being well fed haha. I would give up a lot of p-day to eat Bob’s subs haha. But anyways, I’ll try to send some photos next week. I know I always say that, but I’ll really try haha. Have a good week :) 

Eu amo vocês, boa semana e bom casamento/festa.

Com Amor, Élder Udy

I'm learning to be more patient and Christlike

May 5, 2014

Hi, so this week was pretty difficult here.. lots of work.. this area is different than my old area... the chapel is outside our ward boundaries so it’s harder to bring people to church because for some people it’s pretty far away.. but it’ll all work out. My new companion is Elder Dorneles. I live with him and 2 other missionaries who are the zone leaders, Elder Guimarães and Elder Savaryn. Elder Savaryn is from Argentina so I’m going to try to learn a little bit more Spanish in this area :)

I’m learning a lot about how to be more patient and Christlike. I´m learning that the best way to be a leader is to serve. I was reading in Jacob 1 and Mosiah 2 and it talks about how everyone loved both Nephi and Mosiah because they loved their people and they did everything they could to serve their people. Last transfer here, Elder Dorneles and his companion couldn’t get anyone to come to church so we’re pretty much starting from scratch now... but I really hope that by the end of this transfer (which is only 5 weeks) we will be seeing investigators in church and baptisms in our ward... our ward is pretty small.. this week only had 74 people in sacrament meeting.. but I guess there were a couple of families on vacation that are usually here. People go on a lot of vacation here haha. 

Sounds like things are getting pretty crazy for the wedding. I’ll have someone take a picture of me in my suit... I’ve really learned to hate wearing my suit though cuz it’s so hot here haha. However, everyone says Cuiabá is hotter than it is here... because here there is almost always wind... so it’s not that bad... except when you’re inside and there’s no fan.. then it’s like death. 

So I’m glad people still remember who I am. Those were the good old days when I drove to the state track meet haha... every possible thing that could have gone wrong went wrong on that trip.. haha I still can’t believe my phone died and I locked my keys in the car all in a matter of 5 minutes. Ryan emailed me about the Steeplechase. You guys both explained it to me like I don’t already know what it is haha. Just cuz I’m in another country doesn’t mean I forgot everything about track. 

So this Sunday at 5 o´clock my time I am going to be in the church to Google Hangout with you guys. In this chapel we have the option to Skype/Google Hangout on Sunday because we don’t have to pay. So 5 o’clock my time works best for me and I think it works for you guys too. I might be able to change it, but we have lots of missionaries that are going to use the computers in the church, so I chose 5 o’clock because it’s latter. Let me know if that will work.  And we only have 40 minutes I found out, haha, so it won’t be such a long call this time (but maybe our new mission president will let us talk longer for Christmas). 

Anyways I’ll tell you guys more about my life on Sunday :) send me an email confirming the hour. Good luck with the wedding preparations :)

Eu amo vocês, Elder Udy