If you feed them, they will come

Dec 29, 2014

Eating at McDonalds!

Oi... sounds like you guys are enjoying the holidays... Have you been to a basketball game yet??? When I looked at the picture of Dan’s groomsmen, I couldn’t tell who the one was with long hair.... and then I realized it was Braden! His hair is so long now! It’s been a while since I’ve seen everyone, haha. It was cool to see a picture of all of them, and I was glad to hear they remembered me at the wedding, haha. 

So hopefully you guys have fun skiing... and hopefully Cole can manage on the rails. I’ll have to ask Santa for some Crest white strips when I get home too :) So this ward I’m in now is extremely good. We had a ward council this week, and it was the most organized and productive ward council I’ve ever seen. Every organization was told to prepare plans of how they would spiritually nurture, retain, and baptize inside of their organization. And as well to set baptismal goals for every organization. So all the organizations arrived on Sunday and had done everything that the bishop asked, and they all presented what they would do and what their goals were for the year, and the whole time the bishopric was helping them perfect their plans of action to be even more effective. It was quite the sight to see. 

So last P-day we managed to fix the sink. Grandpa sent me an email saying just unscrew the pipe and take out the stuff thats clogging the drain, which is exactly what we did. When we unscrewed the pipe it looked like someone left milk mixed with eggs and cheese in the road for a year and stuffed it all in our sink pipe. Needless to say, now the water drains perfectly down our sink and we can wash dishes again and our sink is "bem limpinha". 

So this week our ward had a lunch after church in remembrance of the New Year. There were a bunch of members in our ward that were on vacation because of the holidays, however, there were more people in church than usual, and the usual people weren’t even there! Seems like the same principles are true here in Brazil as they are in the states. When you feed the people, they will come. There were like 15 investigators in church with like 20 less actives haha. It reminds me of the young mens activities we had that always had to have food. So even though the lunch was a lot of work for the ward, it turned out to be a big success, and they decided to do it 4 times a year. 

Well, thats about all I got for this week. I hope you guys have a good week. Skiing should be fun, go to Seven Springs, it’s better there.... it might be a little more expensive but just use some of the money your earning from the Google and GoPro stocks ;) Have a good week. Love you guys. Thanks for all the prayers and letters. 

-Elder Udy

Baptism of the Bishop's sister

Church building in Fortaleza

This week Elder Lima came back to visit

Dec 22, 2014

Hey... So I tried sending you and Jackson messages on Facebook from the members here to confirm when I could Skype, but it appears no one got the messages, so I’ll be able to Skype 1 pm on Christmas day... Fortaleza time. I think PA is 2 hours behind, but it’d be a good idea to make sure. So I don’t know how long lunch will take on Christmas... maybe it’ll take a little longer and I’ll end up Skyping like 1:30... but anyways around that time be ready because I’ll call :) And we only have 40 minutes.. but in like 10 months I’ll be home so.. vai dar certo. 

So the new area is pretty different. I live in a 2 man apartment with my companion Elder Daniel. And we are in the same ward as the APs. They live in the apartment next to us. I found out they both play basketball so we might play today if we have time. So everything’s pretty good here in this house... the only difficulty is that when water enters the sink... it doesn’t drain out... well maybe it does, but it takes about a half hour for 1 litter of water to drain down the sink because something inside is clogged. Soooo I’m gonna either learn to be a plumber or we will call a Brazilian plumber to help us out. I’m not really sure how long that sink has been that way, but it’s pretty rough living without a kitchen sink haha. 

So I can’t believe Cole got his license... I was kinda hoping he wouldn’t pass just to be able to remind him forever about his failure... but I’m sure he’s happy that he passed. He must like driving. Does he still call himself the “driving king”?? Sounds like May got a pretty decent job. 

So this week Elder Lima came back to visit. 

Elder Udy, Daniel, and Lima

He taught with us all day one day and bought us pizza and dinner. It was pretty weird to see him again 4 months after he finished his mission... and in normal people clothes. But he was extremely excited to be here. A lot of the time we, as missionaries, don’t understand how great the mission is until its over. But anyways, we’ll be able to talk more on Christmas. 1 pm my time. Have a good week. Happy Anniversary and Merry Christmas! Love you guys. 

-Elder Udy

We ran out of water in the apartment for 2 days!

Dec 15, 2014

Oiiii.. so we had arranged to talk to our families on the 25th this week, but I’m going to be transferred sooooo... I pretty much have no idea how it will be until I get in the new area and discover how they are planning to call their families. So for now I pretty much have no idea but I’ll let you know next week! haha

I liked the pictures. Sounds like you guys are enjoying Christmas. Here in Brazil it’s different because it’s not cold.. however we still put up tons of lights in our house and a tree and everything... but people here don’t usually put up lights. and the trees are always small cuz no one has real pine trees here haha. but the other day I saw a little mango tree (christmas tree). Here the ward is going to have a sweet party on this farm thing on the water and we were going to present the ward mission plan with a theme of Christmas. But, I was transferred haha já era. 

So my new area is Alváro Adolfo.. I think I’m going to live with the Assistants, and I heard that my new companion is great. So hopefully it’ll be good. However... the time is kinda inconvenient with Skype, and the plans in the ward, but it’ll all work out. 

So in my new district there are 4 sisters, the assistants and my companionship... And I know pretty much everyone already so it’ll go well. So this week was the bishop’s sister’s baptism. She had been having a lot of difficulties with coffee, so we told her how important it was for her to read the Book of Mormon. She agreed and read some chapters that we marked for her. In her reading she said she read some verses that we hadn’t marked that seemed to be talking straight to her. Alma 30:41-42. www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/30.41?lang=eng Through these scriptures she gained the strength to stop drinking coffee. It’ll be sad to leave the area here, but wherever I go, I’m sure the people will be great as well. 

So this week another interesting thing that happened is our apartment ran out of water... so we went 2 days without water... and I think the water delivery boy went on strike or something because we kept trying to call for the 20 liter jug of water to drink but they couldn’t bring it. So I don’t know if you’ve ever lived anywhere that is 90 degrees all the time and doesn’t have water... its complicated. When you want to wash dishes you can’t because there’s no water... and when you get home after sweating all day and want to take a shower... there’s no water to take the shower haha. Good thing it was only 2 days. There are some missionaries that live like 3 hours from Fortaleza that pass like 2 months without water haha. So anyways I’m running out of time, but hope you guys are doing good. Hope Cole passes his driver’s test... because if he doesn’t he’ll be hearing about how the "Driving King" couldn’t manage to pass the drivers test for the next 50 years ;) haha hope you guys have a good week, and enjoy the holidays. Go to one of the basketball games to let me know how they are this year. Have a good week. Love you guys! 

-Elder Udy

Everyone likes to sit in front of their houses at night

Dec. 8, 2014

It’s getting close to Christmas!!  Everyone here is handing out those cards "He is the Gift" as well. However, I think there’s a lot more emphasis on the campaign in the United States because none of our leaders said anything about it... they just gave us a stack of cards and told us to hand them out to people when we contact haha.. but we’ve been handing out a lot to the members to give to their friends. (Learn more about "He is the Gift" by going to http://www.mormon.org/christmas or watching the video below...)

So I’ll be able to talk to you guys on the 22nd. Let’s use google hangout because Jackson won’t be home yet... I think you’ll be able to see when I log into my google account and will be able to call. Let me know if this works for you guys.

Sounds like you’re enjoying indexing.. I remember when I was an official "indexer" haha I didn’t even know that calling existed... some things only happen at BYU. Sounds like you’re helping Cole do something useful with his life with indexing haha. The other day one of the recent converts in my area was playing Minecraft on his cell phone, and I thought about Cole haha. 

So this week was pretty eventful. This morning a guy that lives in the apartment next to us fell and couldn’t move so they called the ambulance and we put him on a stretcher and carried him down to the ambulance because we live in a building, so we had to carry him down the stairs. It was pretty wild. 

Sounds like the missionaries there are trying new things. We’ll have to try going to a retirement home sometime. Here we usually just walk in the street and talk to people because everyone likes to just sit in front of their houses at night, so it’s pretty much perfect haha. I hope you’re buying pizza for the missionaries ;) its been a while since the members bought a pizza for me... so I figure it’s probably been a while since you guys have bought pizza for the missionaries there as well, haha. 

I don’t have much time today, but don’t worry we´ll be able to talk in 2 weeks! It’s been pretty complicated to work out a time to call but in 11 months I won’t have to worry about organizing google hangouts anymore, haha. Talk to you guys soon! Have a good week. I’ll try to write more next week and send pictures. Have a good week! Love you guys.

-Elder Udy

Everyone here went Black Friday shopping

December 1, 2014

    Sounds like you guys are getting excited in the holiday season. So before I forget, some of the missionaries I live with can’t Skype on the 22nd so we are going to talk with President Bonini to see if we can do it on the 24th instead. So if its on the 24th... which I’ll know next week... then I’m not sure yet what time of the day it’ll be, but I’ll let you know in the next week after we talk with our president. O and I don’t remember my user name or password for Skype or Google Hangout, so if you could send those to me that would be nice :)

    So it’s entering into the rainy season here. However, after it rains it gets hotter than normal outside, haha. I haven’t felt cold for a long time... aside from the cold water showers we have here haha, but it sounds exciting to be entering into the holidays. Here we are going to have a Christmas conference in a few weeks. I missed the Christmas conference last year by I think 4 days because I was in the MTC, but everyone said it was amazing so hopefully this year will be too, and I’ll be able to send pictures or something. 

    So hopefully Dad can manage to get those speakers put up before Christmas. Those cords where the speakers are supposed to go have been hanging down from the ceiling for like 4 years haha. Everyone here went Black Friday shopping too... apparently it exists in Brazil... but seeing as they don’t have Thanksgiving, its not exactly the same thing. They have 3 days of "Black Friday" which lasts all weekend but everyone in our area was saying that nothing is actually cheaper... the store clerks just say everything is cheaper and put up sale signs, but leave the same price as it always was haha. 

   So this week was pretty good. One day when we were in the road looking for some people to teach we decided to go to this house that was a reference from some guy we contacted in the road one day. So when we got there, they opened the door and there was this big room with like 20 chairs set up in a circle. So we started to talk to the guy that opened the door and we asked if we could enter and he let us in. He started telling us about how they were going to have a "Cell" which is basically like family night with about 4 or 5 families but they don’t have song, music, or snack. I don’t know how the little kids manage. But anyways, as we entered, we started talking to everyone as more and more members of their congregation entered. Elder Imperador really wanted to teach everyone haha, but they wanted to wait for everyone to get there and it was already 9 o’clock so we had to go home and it didn’t work out. But we almost taught a congregation of another church haha. However, we went back to teach just the family that actually lives in that house, and the man that lives there loved everything we were saying. While we were talking about the Book of Mormon and its importance in finding out if what we say is true, he asked us how much he had to pay to have a copy of the book haha. (Books of Mormon are free)

     The bishop’s sister wasn’t baptized this week, however, we’re going to visit her today and now we’re helping her to be baptized on the weekend after this week. 

   So that’s about all for this week. Sounds like everything’s good back home. In 3 weeks we´ll be able to Skype! #tranqueza Hope you guys have a good week. Love you guys.

-Elder Udy