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

Lots of pictures!

July 28, 2014

One of the families I was teaching in Montese, and our stake president

Oi... Looks like vacation was fun.. We don’t really get vacation here.. but it’s ok, one day I’ll get to go on vacation again, haha.  I also thought it was funny that May couldn't golf since no one uses left handed clubs...except her and Dan Jeon.  Cole is lookin’ pretty tall these days, but I never trust the photos because he always tries to do something to make himself look taller when someone’s taking a picture. 

I cleaned the bathroom like.. really clean today... and I was thinking about all the times you cleaned the house over the years to keep it so clean.. I don’t know why you never asked Cole to get on his knees and scrub the toilet.. but I guess there’s still some time for him to learn. 

I always get excited Wednesday morning to see if my packages have arrived yet or not, because Wednesday morning we meet with our zone and the zone leaders bring all the packages for our zone that arrived in the mission home that week. Hopefully this is the week :) however, usually the only thing we receive is Books of Mormon and missionary pamphlets haha. So my new apartment is super nice.. it's really clean and everything’s new.. The only problem is that my fan doesn’t work... but you can't ask for too much right?

We set our fans on our suitcases because the bases of the fans are broken

O and this week we got a new Ward Mission leader.. like yesterday.. and he’s already fixing things up. He talked with the ward missionaries and we’re going to meet with them on Sunday to "train" them. And every Sunday now we’re going to have a missionary moment in the sacrament meeting where someone will have given a Book of Mormon to someone that week, and they will bear their testimony about how it was and invite someone else to hand out a Book of Mormon the next week... and it will be like that every week. We were starting to do this in my other ward in Montese, but I got transferred so hopefully it goes well here. 

We met an investigator this week as well that said he already knows the church is true, he has been going to church in the other ward for 2 weeks in my first area’s ward... but he’s going to start going to our ward here.. and he’s going to get married in August.. and he’s going to start feeding us 4 missionaries lunch haha. I’ve never seen an investigator "tão eleito" in my life haha. So on Sundays we have like 120 I think at church... it’s pretty good here...

Church building in Montese

Church building in Montese

Things are going good. I’ll send you pictures since I wasn’t able to last week. Hope you guys get home all right.  Have a good week. Love you guys.

-Élder Udy

Decorated street during the World Cup...I have to hide my camera behind my companion when I take the picture or I'll get robbed.

Street decoration during the World Cup

Birthday cake we bought for Elder G's birthday that was in the same week as mine

Baptism last Saturday

2 of the missionaries I'm living with

Festiva Julina activity

Festiva Julina activity

They brought out a huge cake...

July 21, 2014

          

           Hey family, sounds like the vacation's been fun so far. I thought it was funny how dad got another ticket.. he's always been good at that. I thought it was funny too that they ended up in Akron when you fell asleep haha. By the pictures it looks like Cole's taller than Jackson now. And it looks like it was pretty hot there. I know how you feel, haha. My fans kinda broken so it only spins like half speed... and I always point it towards me when I go to sleep, but it spins away from me after like 5 minutes. These fans are really annoying, haha. There's always something wrong with them.

          So I'm liking the new area... I'm not sure how it always happens that my ward never has a ward mission leader haha, but we talked with our stake president and he said they'll get us a ward mission leader. He said that the Bishops had a fireside with Elder Neil L Anderson and he told them that the Ward Mission Leader should be the best Man that the ward has, so we're excited to see what happens. 

          So this week on my birthday one of the families made a surprise cake for me. We were walking down the road on my birthday and we ran into one of the members here that told us that his sister wanted to talk to us. A little confused we decided to go to their house to see what it was. As we got closer we ran into another member of the family that told us the same thing... that his sister wanted to talk to us. So when we got to their house they invited us in and told us to sit down. So we sat there waiting for their sister to appear that everyone had been saying wanted to talk to us. So we waited a few minutes and all of a sudden they brought out this huge cake and like 10 people singing happy birthday haha. So it was pretty nice to feel so loved in a new area. 

         O and thanks for the information on BYU :) and to answer your questions we have district meeting on Wednesday, but in our mission we always meet with our whole zone. Which is good because our district only has 4. So my companion Elder Castanho left for the mission the same day as Shane.. He has one week more than me on the mision. He's from São Paulo. We´ll end up finishing the mission on the same day. But anyways thats about all I got.. I'll send some pictures this week... I wanted to last week but the computer I was using had windows 98 I think and wasn't recognizing my flash drive, haha. But I think this week it'll work out. Have a good week and Vacation. Até Mais!

Élder Udy

Transferred...to Caucaia

            Oiii... So turns out that no one was transferred in our house.. except for me. So now I’m in the other city Caucaia that is to the side of Fortaleza.. Its pretty much the same city haha. So I was transferred here to be District Leader... And now my companion is Elder Castanho, another Brazilian from São Paulo. When I found out I was gonna leave Montese, I was sad because there was this this guy and his son we were teaching for like 10 weeks that is gonna be baptized next week and finally when he was getting excited to get baptized.. I got transferred, but that’s how it goes I guess. I took a picture with them I’ll send it after. 

So its about time that the World Cup ended. It’s pretty hard to have lots of success when you have to stay inside so much during the week. But now that its over and I’m in a new area things are looking up. Sounds like Cole is finally learning to appreciate the finer things in life haha, but I can’t believe he got sunburned again. I don’t no why he never uses sun screen.... If he goes to a place like Fortaleza on his mission he´ll end up going home with skin cancer haha. 

           So remember how I told you that we finally got a Ward mission leader in my other ward (Park of the Nations) Parque das Nações... well I was talking with Elder Ricks whose place I’m filling here... and he said their Ward Mission Leader went inactive a few weeks ago..haha every ward I go to doesn’t have a Ward Mission Leader.

Sounds like the vacation will be fun. Nothing like some time with Wade to make you laugh haha. And Cole won’t even have anyone to fight with in the car or pick movies for him to watch. Hopefully dad won't even have to yell at him haha. Sounds like you guys will have fun. 

Sounds like Girls camp was fun. I miss listening to President Carter speak. I think he´ll be an apostle one day haha.. So I don’t really know anyone here, so doesn’t really make for too big of a birthday celebration, but I’m sure the missionaries I live with will do some celebrating with me haha. I feel like an old man now.. 20 is old. I can’t believe I’ve already been here for 8 months. So I’ll look for something to buy maybe... but seeing as I just left the area that has things to buy for an area with dirt roads idk how much shopping I’ll be doing haha... maybe I’ll just use it to buy more food :) ... o could u tell me how much money is on my debit card? O and did u find out the requirements for a brazilian to go to BYU?

So this is about all I got for this week. Sounds like everything’s going good there. Hope you guys have a good vacation. I'll send you some pictures. Tenha uma boa semana! Amo vocês!

-Élder Udy