06/24/09 Email

Hey don't have much time today. Long story I will tell you later.
But things are good here. We had our baptism and I was the one that did it. I didn't mess up so that was good. But you wouldn't guess what happened. We returned to his house yesterday and he moved with out telling anyone Pretty messed up but its alright.
Everything else is good. I have been studying a lot and we have taught a lot more this week than usual. It's getting a little hard because my companion is ready to go home but I'm trying to keep my head up and to keep doing the right things. We have our Zone conference tomorrow and so that should be good. I got to go on a division this past week and we didn't teach anyone but we did contacts. It was nice to see another area.
We continued teaching Salete and I think it went well. But we are here now and her kids are acting a fool. Bad news. But its all good. I will try to get on later and talk to you more.
Love you.
Elder Mitchell

And More Photos

Some photos

06/17/09 Email

Ai muito bem. Obrigado pelo artigos de anîmo!

Hey very good, thanks for the articles of encouragement. Things here are good. They are better. We only had 67 in our ward these past 2 weeks so thats a little hard. When my companion first got here, they had 90-100 every week. And before that, this guy told me they had 120. We have 60 families in our ward with only about 25 active or so. We've got some work to do here.

This week has been pretty much the same as the others. We had our last lessons with Douglas. I hope he doesn't fall away after because he is the only 18 yr old in our ward. We need to find some more but they are in their own little world, you probably know what I mean. His Baptism is this Saturday and the bishop's daughter's Baptism is this Friday. So it's a good week for us. Our bishop is getting more involved with us and is going to go on splits with us every Thursday afternoon. This should be a great help to go and talk to the inactives. Our bishop is young and he´s funny. But he has been super busy with work and family but now he cleared some time for us. Should be good.

We have Zone Conference next Thursday. My companion has leadership meeting this Friday so I will have splits probably with Elder Arroyo. But I will see him Thursday and I will ask him if his mom said anything about it. That's way cool though. (I 'met' Elder Arroyo's mom online through a message board for Missionary Moms and he was Justin's companion in the CTM - rm) I found out from him in the CTM that I emailed him and he didn't email me back before the ctm. We had to fight it out :) lol

Elder Rodrigues and I had talks last week and can you guess what we talked about? Missionary work but I threw in the perspective of being prepared lol. Thanks mom for the great info. And he talked about obedience. It was good because a member from our stake membership was there to back us up. People complimented me on my talk so I guess my Portuguese is getting better.

Sometimes I just start day dreaming in English and then I forget I'm in Brasil until someone starts talking to me in Portuguese lol. And then it takes me a little bit to answer because my mind's thinking totally in another language lol. Its funny.

As for the box. Hmm. Yeah can you send a sweater and sweat pants. ITS FREEZING!!! Here when you are in the sun you burn and then you get in the shade and you freeze. Its so two faced here lol. Umm IDK what else really. I already have to much other stuff that I don't really use. But people were saying like Ritz(cheese) :) My fav. Ask Jeannette. LOL. When I was in SD I would eat one box a day lol. crazy biz. Um. Smileys from Wal Mart. Crystal Light packet things (Thanks Derek) umm. more pictures :) And that's all she wrote I believe for now. I will write down a list for Christmas so I can be sure of what I really miss :) When you send it, just say its books and put a picture of Jesus on there. People are loco.

But anyway. So we received a whole bunch of stuff in the CTM the day that we left and I finally had time to look at it and what not. There was a poem in there that Coach Farley had us read before every game. And how good is it now. But its called ¨The Man in the Glass¨

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say

For it isn´t your father, your mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass;
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may think you a straight-shootin´chum
And think you´re a wonderful guy;
But the man in the glass says your only a bum
If you can´t look him straight in the eye.

He´s the fellow to please, nevermind all the rest;
For he´s with you clear to the end.
And you´ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass;
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you´ve cheated the man in the glass.
-Dale Wimbrow

How true is this in our lives? I guess take some time to think about it and I will comment next week. All the things that you send back I receive. So you can just reply and comment and I will be sure to get back to you if I have your address or write a little something in these for you. Well thanks for everything.
Have a wonderful week.

Elder Mitchell

06/10/09 Email

The week has been good besides the rain and cloudy skies. Oh Tacoma, thats cool. (One of the young men in the ward got his mission call to Tacoma, WA) I don't know what it would be like to have a mission in the states. Derek (his friend on a mission in Spain) and I were talking about it when we put our paperwork in and was like it would be funny if you got in the states and stuff. But idk maybe the same just don't have to learn another language? And no you didn't tell me about Elders now, is the other ward the Sisters? Or none at all?

That's awesome you got to talk to Jordan (his older brother in Japan) on aim. How's he doing? He still has about 5 months or so?

Thanks for the recipe. I don't think we can get manwich here. I asked my companion and he didn't know what it was or a sloppy joe was. LOL so I'll do some digging. What is manwich like I guess scientific name lol, tomato sauce or something?

Well this week has been slow but good. We got to go to the Temple today. So that was a great experience we needed to lift up our spirits. Our whole district hasn't been doing so good with numbers. So we just gotta keep planting seeds and seeing what grows. I have been working a lot on my attitude. I find myself getting a little upset with people sometimes. SO I've got some work to do. There are a lot of good articles in Liahona and Ensign. I don't know why I didn't read them before. If you can you should definitely get them for yourself. They just talk about ways to improve your life and be a better person. Also we started teaching Enilde this week and she even came to church on Sunday, but she left without saying anything in the middle. So we don't know how it went yet :( And Monday I had another division in Uberaba. Went well. Only taught 1 lesson and didn't go so hot, but it was another day of growing.

Check this out. I remember this talk from conference.



Well I finally received the letters and the package thanks! Have a great week and take care.
Elder Mitchell

06/03/09 Email

This week has been good. It definitely has been cold. The state below us got snow. And I have been freezing my butt off here lol. I sleep with gloves, sweater, and a beanie. NO JOKE! And we only have one heater. So can you guess where we put it mostly? In the bathroom lol. Its so nice in there. I want to stay in there all day. But... I cant. As for the food here. Its mostly just black beans and rice and meat everyday. LOL just a different type of meat. And sometimes brown beans. YUM! But yeah not much of a selection for food lol its good though. Well some of it, but I eat everything by just smashing it all together. Its all going to the same place anyway right?
As for the packages and letters I have not received them yet because my ZL hasn't checked the mail to give to us and he's not going to until Friday so I wont be able to get them til next week which is dumb. It's been like a month now lol. So I think I might have a lot of writing to do when I finally receive all of my letters.
Thanks for the story, that was really good. I am going to try to translate it so I can use it for a talk or for something during lunch. Will be good. And also thanks for the scripture. Was really good I like it a lot.
The members here are great, they are friendly and nice but its just hard sometimes to get them to give us referrals which I'm sure is hard everywhere but that's what I've been working on this week is a way that we can help them do this.
My companion again is Elder Rodriguez and he knows his scriptures. It's great to learn from him. He is almost done, he only has one transfer after this one. So he will probably get transferred and I will be in the Guabi for another 11 weeks or so. He is from Pernambuco, this is north east of Brazil. He was in a band before he left for his mission so maybe I will learn a little bit of guitar on Pdays??
We only have a couple of investigators right now. John Lennon is one that is really interested but works a lot and then we have Douglass which I think I have told you about. And he is so close to baptism(may 15), we are just praying for him to receive his answer. And then we have Selete and João(john) that are really close as well. We set a goal for 3 wks. Miguel´s wife is a member but he hasn't found the right time to get baptized yet. People here aren't as open to our church, similar to US, but we are still trying to find ways to help them out.
Sunday is like ours back at home 9-12 but sacrament is 11-12 and we only have about 78 in our ward and our goal is 90. So we are working with less actives as well. Mostly everyone just works. They used to play soccer and tennis but I guess its too cold or everyone is getting to busy to go play. But its okay everyone is still awesome.

O yeah we had a division this past week and it was fun. We taught this Muslim guy and a set of brothers. It was good. We had to run, like actually run, from place to place because we were in the city and we had our appointments in 2 totally different places. Kind of sad, but it was a nice little work out. I went with Elder Pulsipher. He is the Zone Leader of my zone. But when we got home, it was already late. It was freezing and Elder Pulsipher's companion only had one blanket and I was so cold. I woke up in the middle of the night like 3 times. And finally I found their heater and plugged it in and put it full blast on me. lol. So I didn't get much sleep that night, but I didn't get sick so that a blessing. There was a car accident in my area and I was about to start directing traffic because I guess the cops are really slow here and there were buses that needed to get places and what not but my companion was like no lol so we didn't. Next time we will be their heroes though. LOL. Welp Tchao.

Thanks everyone for the letters! Take care and I will talk to you next week!
Elder Mitchell