Hot and Humid!

It's been bloody hot here. And very humid as well. In the 100's every day. This week was alright. Really hard and I missed lots of people. But we did get to have a ward party on Saturday so that was nice as well as two baptisms on Sunday! Kaliani and Julia! I also did both of the confirmations in Portuguese! Scariest moment of my life! Sorry there isn't much that happened this week. Just lots of rain and lots of finding people. Tell everyone we are not supposed to send mail to the mission address anymore but straight to my house. The address is 1200 SW 12th Terrace, Boca Raton, FL 33486. Anyways, love you all! Thanks for the support! Make sure everyone knows that I'm sending love there way :)

New Mailing Instructions!

Mail procedures are changing effective immediately. Letters and packages should NO LONGER be sent to the Mission Office. Please send your letters and packages directly to Elder Thorderson’s  local apartment or house. The local mailing address will be updated as needed in the side panel of this blog.

When sending packages, please be aware there is always the risk of a package being stolen if it is left at an apartment or house door. If you are sending something valuable you can still send it to the office and it will be given to the Zone or District Leader who comes into the office for meetings, training, to pick up supplies, etc., but it may be a few weeks before your package gets to Elder Thorderson.

It is extremely important, however, that you are aware of the Transfer Schedule which occurs every six weeks. Since we will not know if Elder Thorderson is being transferred, it is important, (to insure delivery,) that you do not send any mail or packages to him 10-12 days prior to each transfer.

Below is a list of Transfer Dates through the end of the year:

July 22, 2015

September 2, 2015

October 14, 2015

November 25, 2015

** An exception to this new mail procedure is Christmas presents. Please send all Christmas Presents to the Mission Office and they will be handed out at our December Mission Conference which will be held December 23, 2015.

Happiness!

Alright folks, here's the update! Finally got my haircut last week. It’s so nice to not look like a mop. That same P-day we got to teach a new-investigator that Elder Naressi and my district leader found on splits. We do something that we call Seabra's finding, where we set up a table and offer free English classes. This not only invites people to come to the church but helps us find the Brazilians. So while they were doing this Caliani (not sure how to spell it) comes up to them begging for us to teach her! She went to church for 4 weeks in Brazil and then moved to Florida and lost contact with the missionaries for almost a year. Until she ran into Elder Naressi! The whole time the missionaries lost contact with her she was still reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible! She's so elect and such a miracle for us to find. Her baptism is going to be June 28th! Woop woop. Miracles are real, people! I have the amazing opportunity to see them every day. Our other investigator with a baptism date is Julia! She's been waiting to be baptized for 4 years! Her boyfriend/fiancé who she's been living with has been going through a divorce for the past 4 years. It's been taking a long time because of the papers being sent back and forth to Brazil. But she's finally decided to move out of her boyfriend/ fiancé’s house and be baptized! They do have a son together, so it was a huge step of faith. So we are so excited to be able to help her make this awesome covenant that is baptism! The language. I have no idea what's going on. It's a daily thing really. Some days it's there, some day's it's not. I don't understand. But, what I do understand is Brazilian food. I'm so in love. It's just so simple but so.....me. Meat, bread, and rice and beans? Yeah, it's me. The other thing is that I have no idea how time works. Days are long but weeks are short. Weeks are long but months are short. Months are long but transfers are short. It makes no sense, which is a blessing and a curse. But hey, I'm excited to get to the point where I don't realize how fast time is actually going. I'd like to invite everyone to go read 2 Nephi 31-33. These chapters are so simple and so profound. I just love reading them. Never in my life have I truly been able to say I'm happy. But people, I am truly happy. I'm happy doing service. I'm happy because the people I serve are happy. I'm happy cause Heavenly Father is happy. I'm happy cause Mom, Dad, Chelsy, everyone is happy! I miss Chelsy, I miss Mom, I miss Dad, I miss Britta, I miss Anika, I really do. And I love them all so much. But I am not sad. I know, I absolutely know, that everyone single one of them, including my Heavenly Father, would rather me be here than with them right now. I get to have eternity with them, so what's two years. Those people I just listed are the most Christ-like people I know, giving up their desires to be with me, giving up their wants and needs for people who they don't even know, these people here in south Florida. How amazing is that love. How amazing is this gospel and the people that serve in it. I love you all. And thank you for your support.

Arrived in the Mission Field!

Alright so I'll give you an update first. So here I am. In Boca Raton, Florida. In the only Portuguese branch in the mission. So awesome. I explained a little bit about the first few days in my letter I sent y’all, but I'll say it again. First off, just so mom can jump for joy, I ate salad. Yes I ate salad. Don't freak out though, it won't become a habit. My companion is Elder Naressi. From Washington but raised in Brazil. So it's nice having a native speaker as my first companion. It's hard at times when I'm at home studying or getting ready for bed to not think about Aspen and the lake and Family and Chelsy, but I know it's a blessing that while I'm working and talking with investigators that I don't ever think about home. Next. Let's talk about Brazilian food. WHAT?! If you could describe me with food, it's Brazilian food. Meat and bread and rice and beans. Perfect. They eat rice and beans like Americans eat mashed potatoes, they go with everything. I love it here though, yeah it's hot, but it's as hot as it was in California. Plus people give us water all the time. The language is coming. I have an easier time talking with people just normal conversations than teaching. I'm trying hard though. Our area is huge. Like, massive. So we have a car which is nice in this heat. Also, I hope y'all still will love me when I'm fat, cause we eat free McDonalds in Palm Beach. Yeah that's right. Free MacDre's. Also, there's an endless supply of guarana. So that's what's up. The rumor is if you drink 9 cans a day you'll learn Portuguese faster. I'd say it's worth a shot. So guess what?! We had two baptisms this week! And you'll never guess who did the confirming? Not me. Elder Soares of the Seventy! He came and spoke in our branch on Sunday. So cool. So the man is Andrew. Super elect and has a girlfriend who got baptized a couple years ago. And the other is Patricia! A friend of Andrew and Andrew's girlfriend Ingrid! What a great way to start a mission! With a taste of success! I also figured out it's hard to focus when you're tired. Your mind wanders a bit more. It'll definitely take me a little while to be more focused when I'm tired. But that's it for the week! P-days are most often Mondays with the occasional Tuesday because of holidays. If you want to send packages, send by USPS Priority Mail because it's easier to forward the package and it'll make sure the package actually gets to me :) I love you all and thank you for the Support! I'll talk to you next week!