Piano?? Who me?

As we talked on Sunday I don't have much to report. And as usual I'm terrible at taking pictures on a regular basis. I'll be sure to send home the piano piece we did though. The first part I'm the top hands and the second part I'm the bottom hands. Yesterday was pretty fun though. We spent a good 8 hours moving someone from house to house. It was Kevin's cousin actually. It was a ton of fun passing the day with Brazilians. Helps a ton to learn. Sorry I don't have much to say! Love you so much! Thanks for everything

Note from Mom: Sorry I don't know how to add an MP3 file to Blogger.

So excited!

I'm SO excited to be back in the branch! I love these people so much! Sadly Caliane is moving back to brazil in January :( but that's ok, cause we're gonna take a trip to Brasil in May for her sealing :) haha And then we'll go again for Andrew and Ingrid's sealing in September. My new companion is from Mesa, Arizona and he is of Mexican descent. So, right now it's a lot of spanish and portuguese being mixed. But he's trying super hard. And I'm praying for help cause I am STRESSED. My portuguese is coming back yeah. Conversation and joking around I'm pretty good at. Teaching though? Yikes, it's been a while. It'll take some time. Sounds like your week was as crazy as mine though. We were running around because of Christmas parties and sealings and trying to get to know some of the investigators and junk. So it's been nuts. AS of right now though we don't have any super solid investigators we are working, but we saw some prayers answered yesterday and we have a bunch of cool people to try this week. I'm pleading with the Lord to help us out. It's gonna be an interesting two transfers here. I'm excited to finish strong though. I love you tons! I'll send some great pictures from the temple! 

The Last Transfer!

I am so sorry that I have NO time today. I made a good recording for you and I'll send out some pictures. The good news is that I'M GOING HOME TO BOCA RIO EAST!!!!! I'll be spending the last two transfers of my mission in Boca Rio and training a new missionary. Aboslutely nuts. I'm glad that everything so far has turned out the way it has! I will be talking with Jamie Gange our investigator and giving her your info so we can spend a day up here with them when you come to pick me up. She will be getting baptized soon so of course I'm sad to leave before her baptism. But I'll give her your phone number and email. Also, what's the schedule looking like for when you pick me up? I'd like to start making other plans for that. I really want to go find Elder Travis Alexis and have you guys meet him because he's the greatest! I love that family a ton. Anyways, I love you all so much! Have a good week!

Sketchy?

The Christmas devotional was fantastic. We got to watch it at a members home this year and it was so great to have a big ward family there and the spirit was super strong too. I loved it. We have a Christmas party this week, but I'm going to the temple with Andrew, Ingrid, and Caliane that day instead. So I'm a little bummed, but it's worth it. This week for us was weird though. I feel truly humbled by this area I'm in. I love the members and the work we've done. But we are struggling to even find people who will let us pray with them at their front doors. I think this is exactly what I need. We did have a good week though. Sadly no one came to church, but we had some good trainings from the assistants and are preparing an awesome training for our zone tomorrow. I'm sorry I don't have much to say today, we don't have many people we are working with that make it exciting. This week I went out to this super sketchy place though. You should google it. It's called Belle Glade. And it's neighbor city is South Bay. Pretty much this is the hood of hoods in the middle of nowhere. The missionaries have to be home an hour early because if they're out too late they get shot at. It's nuts. At the beginning of the week we were knocking a ton of doors. So we knocked this one guys door and he said "come in". Naturally your instincts make you walk right into his home. So I did. I have never gotten such a weird look from somebody. I asked if he was talking to me and of course he said no as his wife walked in the back door. So I just said "I'm just gonna leave" and he said "yeah that'd be for the best." Talk about awkward! Next story! So twice this week we came home and our garage door was open, which is sketch cause we always shut it. So naturally we walked in there with a machete I have hidden in the garage and just went from room to room swinging a machete around hoping no one is there trying to kill us. Let me tell ya. Florida is a sketchy place. That's all I got from this week. Love you all and thank you for everything! Oh, I was thinking for Christmas, we always love gift cards. Super simple. To places like Walmart or costco or simple places. And Sister Seipert told me how awesome you are (which of course I already knew). Love you tons! I hope your week is good! 

Christmas All Wrapped Up!

Each gift had reference to the Savior

Thanksgiving and the Temple!

Our Thanksgiving was awesome here. We had 3 different dinners hahaha And all back to back. I gained 7 lbs. that day. Lots of fun. President Richardson said no Turkey Bowl for us because it's a contact sport. We were a little bummed, but it's ok, we still had a fun day. This week was rough for our mission. We know it was a holiday, but we saw a significant drop off in most of our key indicators. I feel really good though with the way everybody has been working. We've just seen a better spirit about the mission. I had a few days this week where I was bit frustrated with myself, but got over it pretty quickly. I don't want to say it's nice to have bad days, but they sure do help us recognize the good days. I did get some good pictures this last week though. So I'll send those home. Love you all and thanks for the help! Happy Holidays! 

Fort Lauderdale temple with Elder Souza and Karla

Awesome Week!

We have absolutely no one in our teaching pool besides the Gange family right now, but they've been out of town for a while. So we're basically starting from ground zero. Which I feel like I've had to do most of my mission. But I'm ok with it. It's super fun to see relationships flourish and wards grow around the missionaries and the work. This week was awesome for us too! Karla went through the temple! She surprised us on P-day and said she was getting her endowments tomorrow! So Elder Salgado and I (another Brazilian) went down for the session. It was so great to see her there. I cannot explain to you the happiness I felt, and even more, the happiness you could see on her husbands face. It was absolutely worth all of the hard work. I have one picture that isn't super good, but Elder Souza is supposed to send me the rest of them. So you might get them next week. Truthfully the temple is the end goal. It's what makes all the other things we do as missionaries worth it. Thank you all for everything! Especially the prayers and the love!

Thankful all year long!

Primary Program Week!

Hey! We had our Primary Program this week! It's always my favorite Sunday. Investigators always feel so great when they come. The new zone is different. It's a very different type of work up here and I'm still trying to figure it out. Everyone else up here is doing great though. They all want to find and baptize really badly! They did get his eagle project completed and it looked great! They're still doing great as a family. Very slowly progressing because they're so busy all the time. But that was a blessing. 

I'm officially accepted to Weber! Nice. You'll have to let me know how all the little details go. I don't really have a preference on which classes to take. I just to progress as quick and well as possible. I was also wondering if they had an volleyball classes I could take on the side as a fun class. Gotta love volleyball. Also, are there Portuguese classes up there? Again I don't want to be super distracted from what I really need to be studying, but I'd love to see what they have up there. 

This week was just another continuation of last week. More meetings. President has just changed his interview and meeting schedules, so we'll be meeting with President a whole lot more often. We spent a lot of the week trying to contact Part-member families and just trying to find new people to teach. It's been quite difficult adjusting to the time change and the location change! It's like I'm not even in Florida anymore. At least the Florida I'm used to. 

We did have a great lesson with the Gange family and the Bishop this week though. The Spirit was very strong and burning. I really hope they recognized it and understand why we come to teach them. It's such a blessing have people to teach who are willing to listen and act. We had a great day yesterday too! We didn't do this in Miami, but here the Zone Leaders meet with President Richardson and the Stake President and discuss the needs of the missionaries and the stake. It's quite cool to see such spiritually powerful men in action. Then we finished off yesterday visiting one member, which turned out to be the whole ward at his house for a party. It was a great eye opener/idea to send recent-converts and investigators there to be fellowshipped. Oh, and this guy lives on Jupiter Island and has a private beach and lives in the COOLEST BEACH HOUSE EVER. 

Anyways. It's been a long couple of weeks but I feel like this week will be a great one! Love you all and thank you for everything!

Transfer Week!

Transfer week is always nuts as a zone leader. You have so many little things to do and what not. We didn't get to work at all because of it. Super annoying. Elder Christensen is super fun! We're having a blast together! Thanks for everything! Love you tons!

These pictures are from an eagle project we did for one of our investigators and his family. Super fun!

And this is me and Elder Christensen with our Zone "Fro Factor" Idea. It's all about helping investigators progress to baptism. 

Getting Transfered!

I don't have much time this week. But we had a MIRACLE! Glenn fell out of the sky! He was baptized on Sunday after being found on Thursday. He was being taught by missionaries in Granada but he moved and didn't get baptized there. So we got to do it here! We were so excited! The mission didn't hit our goal, but we still had a blast! We had a ton of fun with it being Halloween too. The big news is that I'm getting transferred! To Jupiter ward in the Stuart zone. I'll still be a Zone leader up there. My new companion is Elder Christensen. He went to Davis High School, so I'm sure that we'll know some of the same people. I love you and thank you!

Great Week in Paradise?

This week was so great! Started off with a fun day of basketball and volleyball and soccer for P-day last week. Tons of fun! Most of Tuesday we spent locked up in "Paradise." That's what we named our car. Haha we were stuck all day in the car because of interviews with the mission president for other missionaries (which we have to attend) as well as baptismal interviews for investigators. Wednesday was awesome! Maria passed her baptismal interview and then we got to go to Bishop Stringham's home for an amazing lesson on Temples with him and his wife. It's so much fun watching Maria hear about restored truth because she can't hide the joy! She usually says "oh!" and covers her mouth. It's too great. Elder Bedke and I have made it a resolve as well to wake up at 6am instead of 6:30am so we can work out/study for longer in the mornings. The thing was that we were failing epicly at such a feat. So of course we created a game out of it. We set up an alarm clock outside of our room in the living room and as soon as it goes off in the morning we race to the alarm clock....no rules. The loser gets 5 karate chops to the stomach. It works. We are up SO quick every morning. Adrenaline spike and all. Met some crazy people this week too! Some of those were on exchanges with Elder Vancott, one of the APs. His parents were actually Brinton's mission presidents. We got free Chick-fil-a from some random lady while we were together too. Crazy right? The best part of the week was for sure Maria's baptism! The whole ward was there right after church and it was a great experience! I even got to wear an outdated baptismal onesie. She's the greatest. I'm super excited to watch her keep growing and learning.

Mummy Love!

Much Needed!

We had Zone training this week which was fire! Lots of fun. We got to teach Maria a lot this week too. She's so awesome! Her baptismal date is for the 30th, but it'll most likely be moved to this weekend. We also had interviews with President! Which was much needed. I love sitting down with President and just doing a quick reality check. And then we spent ALL DAY sitting in the car in traffic. It was the worst. Definitely got some good studying of the scriptures in this week too. Much much needed. I loved reading my patriarchal blessing too.! I'm just really glad I'm in Florida! The end is way too near! I hate it! Anyways, I love you and thanks for everything! I wish there was more I could do for y'all! Have a good week!

Zone Conference! We went with a cardigan theme.

Zone Inspiration

Haircuts

Extent of Hurricane Matthew Damage in Miami

Hurricane!

This week was a party! Haha I know that sounds crazy but we had a blast! Of course the hurricane came and I'm sure all the parents were freaking out a little bit, but I just was so excited and had no worries! Anyways, they evacuated us out Wednesday morning to a house of missionaries in Hialeah and we stayed there until Friday morning! The most we got was a little rain and some wind. As Elder Alexis said to me in his email, I've biked through rain storms worse than what we got hit with. But I know that further up in Florida they got hit pretty hard. At least not in our mission though. So we're back to work and working hard! We're seeing tons of miracles though! The zone was still able to have a baptism this week even with everything crazy going on! We also found this lady on Saturday and she came right to church and is already super excited for her baptism! It's going so well! The weather here now is PERFECT. This is why people live in Florida. It's just so pleasant and bearable. We love it as missionaries. Thank you and love you! 

These were the living/fun conditions we were living under in the "Doral House."

Conference!

Conference was so great! I loved especially Elder Rasband's talk. But I also loved the talks calling us to repentance. Cause boy do we need it. And of course you have to love the call to do better missionary work as members too. We're excited to see the fruits that come from members being more involved. As for how the work went this week it was great! We have some great people we have found to teach and are continuing to teach! We got some great members to come out teaching with us and we even have people coming to church! It may not seem like we're having success because we haven't baptized in a while, but I know we're doing all we can. And I'm excited for that. I was thinking about how a big fruit I saw with Jensen and Alexis was just an overall happiness come into my life. Now, I still have that. But there's more! I have a legit desire to learn new things! Gospel related and not. I actually want to learn because I want to learn new things! Not take classes just to pass or fail, but to come out having the best knowledge possible on that subject. Too cool. Anyways, we have a good week ahead of us and a fun BBQ activity planned for the zone today. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures! Love you and thank you! 

Transfers!

First off, we don't have much to report from this week. We had some great lessons with Natascia who is slowly progressing towards baptism, but she has A LOT of hurdles to get over. The great thing is we can already see the difference in her countenance as we teach her! It's all because of her desire too. It's so amazing to see what people will do once they believe that they need to be baptized into Christ's true church! So great! The other great thing from this week was transfers! I got paired up in Miami Beach English (same area) with Elder Bedke from Bakersfield, CA. It was sad to see Elder Alexis go, but I'm having a blast and already learning lots too. Can't ask for much more. As for conference this weekend, I'm so excited! We have such a great opportunity to learn and feel the Spirit and I love it on the mission. It's weird listening to conference with "mission ears." But it's uplifting and edifying for all us of. My next temple trip will be October 28th with Caliane, Andrew and Andrew's wife Ingrid! I'm super grateful for them! And then I'll go with Karla and her family 3 weeks after that. 

Staying Put!

I too am sad to report that this week little to nothing happened. 3 out of the 4 missionaries in our house were sick. But we are improving. We feel much much better after 3 days at home sleeping. A sister in our ward named Sister Finlinson (different from the one in the mission office) dropped off some homemade chicken noodle soup and THE MOST AMAZING SALAD I HAVE EVER EATEN! Yep. I just said that. I told her that never have I had a meal remind me so much of home. It was that good. I have some good pictures though from last P-Day and the last few days of the week. We had a great week then when we did get out to work, tons and tons of miracles to be seen and there's tons of energy! We also got transfer calls last night. Elder Alexis is leaving me! I'll be staying in Miami Beach for yet another transfer. My new companion is Elder Bedke. I've heard lots about him and talked to him once or twice, but I have no idea anything about him. But I'm super excited to be here for October! It's gonna be wild! We're gonna finally hit our mission goal of baptisms too! Anyways, I love you tons! Thank you for everything!

We made another trip to Wynwood because the Sister's wanted to go and needed protection.

We had a night where we had the whole zone sleep in Proselyting attire so that we could get used to be uncomfortable and going above and beyond the call of duty. 

And then I fell asleep in the shower and Elder Alexis came in to check on me and feed me.

Same old, same old!

It's been the same old same old here. We did see a ton of faith and miracles this week from the zone though. That was a blessing. But we seem to be teaching a lot, having people understand what we say, and then still choose to not act or be committed. It's super sad. Oh well. I have a ton of pictures for you! And a recording we made this morning. I love you so much! Thank you for everything!

This was after an activity we did for our Zone Training. All about setting goals. Of course it was a blast just to see everyone get really messy. 

Me and Elder Walker caught cats and put them in some other missionaries bathroom. 

We invented our own version of Wackbat from "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and played it last P-day. It was HUGE. Everyone really loved it. We had tons of fun. We posed as the scenes from the movie during the Wackbat Match. Too much fun.

The Best and Worst of TImes!

THE TEMPLE WAS AMAZING. I never wanted to leave that place and never wanted to leave the Boca Rio branch. It was very amazing being able to see what a sealing was like. And it was in Portuguese! And I understood everything which was cool. MLC was fire. So cool. Literally walked out of President's house and was just so ready to go so hard. It's been really frustrating lately though cause we've been going so hard and trying to get the zone to go hard too. But we can't control people (which sucks sometimes) but we're definitely getting there! I have a voice recording about that dad. It's sad. I have tons of pictures too! Sorry there's not much to write about this week, but I have some good recordings that sum up the week. In a nutshell though. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. BUT I STILL LOVE IT ALL! And I love you all too. Have a good week!

What it felt like outside in the rain during the hurricane!

Elder Alexis and Elder Thorderson

Caliane and Ingrid outside Olive Garden

Karla and family outside Olive Garden

Julia and Lehi Santos and family after temple sealing. Such a great day!