Now I have a guitar!

August 25, 2014

The missionaries can go to amusement parks now?!?! and baseball games?!?! haha that's wild... so I’ll be getting a new companion Élder Imperador... and the other companionship in our house will change as well. We're going to get one Brazilian and one American... so President Bonini changed the way transfers happen. Now we receive the news about the transfer in the email on Monday morning and we leave Tuesday morning for our new area.  So Élder Castanho is going to go to Canindé... which is another city.. here its called interior... which is any city that’s not next to the capital (Fortaleza)... where sometimes they don’t have water in the house for like 3 months haha and the church just opened up there about 5 months ago. So that’s the news about transfers.

The garden is looking good this year, I remember when the missionaries killed a groundhog in that garden with a 2 x 4. I think Jackson was there. Hopefully that booth the missionaries put up will go well. It's always good to try different things to get different/better results. 

So this week was pretty good. The other day when we went to lunch, the family started telling us about how there are these strange things happening in their house. For example, they said one time when they walked in the house they saw a figure leave through the back door and when they sleep they here sounds in the other room but theres nothing there... so they asked if we could dedicate their home for them, and they asked me to do it. So I had never dedicated a house before... but all went well.

So I’ll send some pictures I took this week. We baptized a lady named Vera. Almost all of her family are members of the church, so there were a lot of people that came to watch. I’ll send a picture of it and some others as well. I hope all is well at home. Yesterday Elder Lima (my first companion) called me to say goodbye because he finished his mission today. Its pretty crazy how fast the time passes. It seems like just the other day I was his companion and I was learning everything new about the mission. Also, he gave me his guitar.. so now I have a guitar!  I can’t remember if I told you guys that or not.. but anyways I gotta go. Have a good week! :) 

Élder Udy

We saw one of these giant spiders

August 18, 2014

Picture of the area

Tudo bem? I can’t believe school’s starting already... I don’t know if just one year of SAT prep will be enough for Cole... some people need a little bit of extra help.. but we´ll see what "The Driver" can manage to get on the ACT. So sounds like Cole is stepping his way up in the world... I had a dream the other night I was playing basketball again... here you can’t really play basketball like you can there... especially because missionaries are only allowed to play with other missionaries and with no more than 4 in total.. and you can’t keep score... so I guess the mission isn’t really meant for playing basketball haha... but hopefully Cole enjoys his high school sports days shooting at least under 50 ;) Ive been wearing the MIT shirt all week when I go to sleep actually haha.. This week I went on splits with one of our zone leaders who went to Harvard for a year before the mission, and he was telling me about the campus at MIT.  

Dad told me about his wedding he performed haha. There was a wedding here in our chapel this week.. or some kind of ceremony or something I’m not really sure cuz it was the other ward and we didn’t pass by. That’s pretty crazy that Shane’s ward only had 6 people haha. It must be a lot harder for the people in France to accept the Gospel. Here it seems like everyone I talk to has already met with the missionaries haha literally everyone. But we found one lady a week or two ago that had the missionaries teach her a lot already but they gave up because she never wanted to get baptized.. but when we found her and taught her the first time, she accepted baptism and went to church that same week.. and she’s getting baptized next week by her son that’s a counselor in another stakes presidency. It really is God that prepares the people to accept us.. we just have to find the people that he has prepared... with lots of prayers and fasting. 

So the other day when we were with one of the guys from our ward in front of someone’s house we saw one of these giant spiders they have here in Fortaleza. Its like a tarantula but a little skinnier with less hair and bigger teeth. So naturally this guy we were with decided he wanted to pick it up in his hand... he started telling us about how he just has to pet it behind the head so it feels comfortable and then it’ll walk onto his hand when he offers... So when he went to pet the spider, it didn’t like it too much and first tried to bite him, then tried to run away. But this guy ran over to where it was running and flipped it back with his hands. Then he grabbed a stick and pinned its legs down and started petting it and finally it calmed down, and he picked it up and put it on his hand and it just sat there haha. So he passed it over to me, and I held it in my hand and took a picture that I’ll send to you guys haha. It was pretty wild. It reminded me of the time Brother Millward killed a rattle snake at our scout camp and we ate it.

Giant Spider!

Anyways. Hope you guys have a good week. Things are great here. Next Monday is transfers, so we will see if I get a new companion or not. Tenha uma boa semana! Tchau!

Amo Vocês, Élder Udy

I got the package!

August 11, 2014

Hi, So Élder Castanho didn’t end up getting his wisdom teeth out. Seems like the dentist just wanted to take his money haha. Our mission president’s wife told him that he should just.... well I didn’t really understand because she used some technical dentist terms that I’m not really sure about, but I think he’s gonna get a crown... anyways we’re going to go back in a few days, but it’s not too severe. Sounds like you’ve been busy feeding the children... I know all about the trailer parks.. You’d be surprised how much money the people in the trailer parks spend on pizza! Over half our orders it seemed like went to the Brady Hills trailer park, haha. 

So this week I got the package! I was pretty hyped. We all opened it together and couldn’t believe all the things that were inside. Élder Barton (American that I live with) likes to play with the hackey sack, and Élder Galvão likes to read the Spanish Book of Mormon.. and Elder Castanho has already wore his new tie 2 times in 5 days haha. And of course everyone likes the peanut butter. And I’m reading that book from Henry B Eyring about Drawing Closer to God. I’ve started to keep a notebook next to my bed, and always after I get done praying and asking for guidance for certain things... I wait and listen and I write down what the Spirit tells me in that notebook... and you’d be surprised all the specifics God reveals to you if you give more importance to what the Spirit whispers. Sounds like Cole is really stepping up his game. Better wake up a little earlier to get some more practice in because with scores like his idk if he’ll make the 
cut ;) 

That’s about all I got this week. I don’t have much time because I have to fill out a questionaire for the mission, but I’ll try to send pictures if there’s time. Love you guys. 

-Élder Udy

One of the families I taught in Montese came to surprise me

August 4, 2014

Oii! So sounds like you guys never stop having fun. One week its vacation... and the next week its more vacation... and then when you finally get home... other people decide to go on vacation to our house haha. sounds like fun.  So my birthday package still hasn’t come yet... I get really excited every Wednesday thinking I might get it... but it never comes.. yours or grandpas. and this week we have a mission conference so I won’t get it until, at the earliest... next Wednesday haha. 

Gotta feed those missionaries... so here in Brazil.. I think you already know... the members feed us lunch every day except p-day... so this week our lunch appointments fell through I think 4 times... so every time it fell through we would talk to our bishop and he would buy lunch for us :)  .... imagine how it would be for you guys if you were to buy dinner for the missionaries every night they didn’t have dinner haha. 

So these days Elder Castanho has been going to the dentist alot because his teeth have been hurting.. so he took an xray and turns out he has to get his wisdom teeth out! So we went to the bank this morning in downtown Caucaia for him to withdraw some money from his card. We decided to go earlier because the lines are ridiculous in the afternoon during this time of the month because everyone receives money at the beginning of the month. So we got there at 7 only to find out that the part of the bank that we needed to use didn’t open until 10... so we waited there in line for 3 hours... and I always thought it was a burden to wait in line for 1 hour at Disneyland or Cedar Point. So we have to go back downtown for him to take another xray and then he’ll get the teeth pulled. He’s taken 3 packages worth of pills in the last week because it hurts so bad.. but then somedays he says it doesn’t hurt. It reminds me of the time Jackson said he went to the dentist in Brazil and they messed up, and his face got huge and swollen on the one side haha. 

So this week at church one of the families that I taught in Montese showed up by surprise at our ward here to surprise visit me. G the dad, his son (12 years old) and his daughter (5 years old). I didn’t believe it when I saw them haha. They said they’re going to be baptized next week. Seeing families like them get baptized makes everything worth it... so in the ward here they had a "ward mission plan" but it didn't have any form of follow up so no one was doing anything... so we’ve been thinking of activities and ways for the ward to follow up with the members with their "missionary responsibilities" to make the plan effective and we’re going to have a fireside with the stake president and present it to the ward :) o and this week as well, while we were planning, the day before our zone meeting, our zone leaders called me and asked me to teach the zone the next day. It reminded me of how Brother T always asked people to give talks last minute haha but it was even worse because I didn’t even have 24 hours notice... however it turned our really good and everyone liked it.

Well that’s about all I got for now. Hope you guys have a good week :) 

Tchau! -Élder Udy