PICS

so as you can see my missionart tan is coming along nicely.

I gave in and bought a soccer jersey

I don´t remember if I told you that we found a police cap in the street, but we did and it´s stylish

I was able to snap some pics of the countryside from the bus on the way to my new area

 

 

Happy Independence Day to My Americans!!! (received July 4th)

I completely forgot that it was the 4th when I woke up this morning. Well we have kids who shoot off firecrackers in the street everyday here, so I don´t think I´ll be missing much in that regard.
This last week we had an awesome zone conference thingy with Elder Araújo of the Seventy. He talked a lot about our finding efforts, and how we can improve. One of my favorite things that he said was ´´You aren´t going have an angel appear in the middle of the street with a trumpet, proclaiming ´right here, one of the elect lives right here´. Sometimes the spirit will tell you if someone is one of the elect, but other times you have to ask ´excuse me. Are you one of the elect?´.´´
So since Thursday we´ve been trying to put what he said into practice, and we´ve been seeing some mini miracles from it.
We´ve been trying to do a lot finding this week and to contact some people, no one seems to be home. This week was the Festa Junina in Itumbiara. Every night this week that had a concert, downtown, that lasted till three in the morning. We would wake up in the middle of the night to Samba, Sertanejo, and Pagode music.
Our house is the nicest house I´ve lived in thus far on my mission. I think it´s because we have couches that I like it so much.
So we only have a branch in Itumbiara, the goal right now is to bring attendence up to 80 people in sacrament. Once we have 80 we can turn in the paperwwork to have a Chapel built. Right now we only have about 55 people in our sacrament meetings, so we have some work ahead of us.
Thinking in English is making my head hurt.
Fire off a firework in my memory.
Love,
Elder David Short

Well that was unexpected (received 6/29/2011)

So I have news this week. First of all, Elder Hales from my MTC district got called to be a traveling assistant in the mission. That´s so weird!!! He´s been in Brazil the exact amount of time as me and now he´s an assistant.

Other news, our two baptisms that we had planned for Saturday fell through, because both decided to be out of town. I don´t think we emphasized the importance of the baptismal date enough. We are teaching a lot of great people though, so this next month Tibery should have at least 6 baptisms, But I sadly I won´t be there to see it happen.

Last night we got our transfer calls. I was expecting Elder Sousa Silva to get transferred to another area and train, and that I would stay and become senior in the area with a Brazilian, but the Lord and my mission president had other plans.

I got transferred to Itumbiara in Goias. I´m starting my third transfer and my third area in Brazil. Maybe I´ll be one of those missionaries that never stays in one place too long. My new companion is Elder Brelaz. Here in the city of Itumbiara we have a district of four missionaries. I´m in the same zone as I was in Tibery, but now I´m a two hour bus ride away.

Last night when I got the call I had about an hour to pack everything, so that we could catch our bus to get to another Elder´s house, because his companion was finishing his mission. Luckily I was able to repack when I got to the other elder´s house.

Shock of my life. It was cold today! It wasn´t USA cold, but if I tried really hard I could see my breath. The trip this time was better than last time, because I arrived with enough time to do stuff like unpack, write this email, do some laundry.

We share a house with the other companionship in Itumbiara. It´s weird because we do have separate defined areas, we just have one giant area (that is the city) that we share.

I feel that I´m going to like it here. My companion is Brazilian, so I´m hoping my Portuguese will continue to progress.

I´m drawing a blank...........................................................

la la la la la la la la la la la

hmmmmm...............

yep

aside from all that, I don´t know what to write about.

So I think I´ll write next week and hope that my writing doesn´t run dry as quickly.

Love,

Elder David Short

Almost another transfer already (received 6/20/2011)

Time is picking up again. My three weeks with Elder Huntsman in Lovell seemed like two days, and now that I feel like I´m getting a grasp on things time is slipping away again.

We had a miracle fake out this week, sort of. An investigator that´s been taught forever told us Wednesday that they were getting married, because they wanted to get baptized, which meant we would´ve been able to baptize them this Saturday, but it wasn´t meant to be. We found out at church yesterday that they´re getting a civil union and not getting married until september, so my hopes and dreams for them were set aside until September. It´s very likely that I´ll stay here until September, so maybe I will get to see them baptized and received into the fold of Good Shepard.

We found some potential housing this week and today we´re going to make some calls to follow up. Probably in the next two weeks we´ll be moving, but probably not Elder Sousa Silva.

We got a call from President Prieto this last week. He asked how I was doing with the language and with teaching, and afterwards he told Elder Sousa Silva that has to get me ready, because he´s going to have great need of us both. We´re thinking that because we´ll have 12 new missionaries this transfer that Elder Sousa Silva is going to train and that I´m going to take over the area as senior. I don´t know how to feel about that, but nothing is set in stone, so I shouldn´t worry. Also transfers might start a week early, which means right about now.

This area should finally have some baptisms this week and a lot more in the coming month. We´re teaching some awesome  families, and Elder Sousa Silva chastised the ward in his talk on Sunday, so hopefully we´ll be getting more support.

A lot of people don´t realize is our job in it´s perfect form is only to teach. Finding, baptizing, confirming and integrating is all about the ward.

But all is well.

Write me a letter......or two.

Love,

Elder David Short

New People (received 6/13/11)

Well this week has had it's excitement and a couple let downs. We starting teaching a couple more families this week, and sorted through our other investigators that weren't really progressing. I love teaching families. It's funny while we're teaching we'll ask a question like "will you come to church with us this Sunday?" and the kids will be the first ones to say "well of course!". I'm really excited to get them to church. The only real bummer about this week was that the dad of one of our investigators has declared that we're not allowed to teach in house anymore, but that's just because Satan is trying to mess with us, but we won't let him. At church this Sunday we had a little miracle. None of our investigators that we had invited showed up at church, but then we saw an investigator in the hallway to whom we had only taught the first lesson, and didn't really expect at church, BUT HE CAME! I'm really excited to continue to teach him. During our first lesson when we asked him if he'd pray about the Book of Mormon he asked "Should we pray right now?" our answer "Of course you can."

We're really working to have two baptisms this week and I'm praying that we'll make it. We still have a couple lessons to teach before they'll be ready, and with the Lord's help we'll make it.

I'm going to sound so ridiculous when I call for Christmas. The only complete sentences I'll able to make in English are song lyrics, so maybe I'll have to figure out how to communicate through song for when I call.

Today we'll be looking for a new place to live, because our rent is about to expire and our mission president doesn't like our house, and doesn't want to renew our contract. So we'll be searching in the vincinity of the church and hopefully we'll find something close.

Anyone who writes me a letter, and sends it, would have my eternal love and gratitude.

Love,

Elder David Short

 

p.s. that picture I sent is my version of what I like to call Captain Moronica or Captain Ameroni I haven´t decided