Primeiros Batismos No Brasil!

This week past week was pretty exciting. We had four baptisms, which was all pretty stressful and complicated up till the last moment. We had the baptisms of Paulo Vitor, Fernanda, Penelope, and Cinthya. It was pretty awesome and spiritual. The best part for me was that I got to baptize Fernanda and Paulo Vitor. It felt a little rushed for me, because Paulo Vitor had to be at work at 430 and the baptism didn´t get started until 435. Penelope forgot when the baptism was so we ended up having two baptisms, one at 435 and one at 800. We were also in charge of a ward activity, which took place in between baptisms. Our activity was we had everyone in a room together to start, and we gave a brief summary of the Plan of Salvation and then explained to everyone that they were currently in the pre-mortal life. Their task was that they had to go to earth and participate in a variety of games to earn 15 points so that they could go to the Celestial Kingdom and eat food. Some of the games we had were the egg and spoon race, bowling, scoring goals in soccer, and I was in charge of the three legged race. Once people got to about 10-14 points we´d kill them and they´d have to wait in the spirit world for the final judgement. Once everyone died we had the final judgement and one by one Elder Wride would ask someone if they wanted to go to the Celestial Kingdom so that they could go eat. They would have to turn in their scorecards and Elder Chandler would have to do a pushup for every point they needed to get to 15. Towards the end Elder Chandler had done well over a hundred pushups and people didn´t want him to have to do anymore pushups for them, but the lesson was that we need the atonement if we want to make it to the Celestial Kingdom, and that the Savior sacrificed for us even if we don´t accept it. A good number of people were crying toward the end, it was awesome.

This week we found a couple new people to teach, but it´s too soon to tell how dedicated they´ll be. Next week we´ll be having the baptism of Tallytah, the sister of Fernanda. I´m running out of time, so continue to know that I love you all and write me a letter if you can.

Love,

Elder David Short

 

in the pics:

the big group pic

Paulo Vitor, Cinthya, Fernanda

other group pic

Penelope

 

A little bit about Brasil

Oi Minha Familha

Well the past week has been pretty crazy with getting accustomed to everything here. I´m still incapable of teaching a full lesson in Portuguese, but I feel lucky to have two American companions to help me out.

On the plane ride it was forever long, but I got to sit next to Elder Grandy, so we spent a lot of time catching up. We were joking about how excited we were going to be in two years on the plane ride home and how great it will be to understand what they´re saying over the intercom.

My mission president, President Prieto, is like Santa Clause without the beard. I´m sure that´s he´s really funny, but I don´t really know what he´s saying yet.

To elaborate a little on Brasil. Everything thing is GREEN! except for the houses. The grass couldn´t die here even if it wanted to. It´s annoying be able to understand  what people are saying up until they talk to me. Then I panic a little and have no idea what they´re saying, but it´s all good. I´m getting there with the language so I´m not worried.

Our city  of Anápolis is in the Guinness book of world records for having the most churches per square mile than  anywhere else. It was really funny, we were tracting a little bit the other day when a older lady and her grandson let us in. We were sharing about how Christ established his church on the earth and we got to the part about Joesph Smith, and everything was fine, but then we pulled out a Livro de Mórmon and the grandma´s eyes got all big and she whispered in a shocked tone ´´Mormons...´´ She wasn´t really interested after that, but I thought it was a funny experience. We were going to have a baptism on Saturday but it fell through, so it will be this week along with four others.

My companions like to have fun with me especially Elder Wride. We were at lunch with a member, and Elder Wride told me that it is polite to tell the sister who made lunch that it was exquisite ´´esquisito´´  I told the sister ´´ que a comida foi equisita´´ and she gave me a strange look and asked why. I said ´´because it´s really good´´ she was confused, so I looked up the word in the dictionary and esquisito means Weird. I proceeded to sock Elder Wride in the leg.

My mission address is:

Elder David Short

Rua 18 No. 110 Sala 1105 a 91107

Ed. Business Center Setor Oeste

Goiânia - GO 74120-080

All mail gets sent to the mission office and then the zone leaders pick it up once a month, so it takes mail about two weeks to get here, but I only get mail once a month, so that it will take awhile to receive and respond.

Love you all.

Love,

Elder David Short

Estou No Brasil!

Desculpe por causa de nao escrever. foi muito dificil para me escrever enquanto estava voando ao Brasil.  (you may need to use google translater) Eu gosto de estar aqui. Aqui o povo sao muito amistoso. È muito difirente trabalhando aqui. Vamos ter alguns baptismos nas semanas proximas e nos estamos ensinando muitas novas pessoas. Eu nao tenho permissão para falar em ingles, depois uma semana minha portuguese é melhor. It´s really weird for me to speak english and on the rare occassion that I have spoken english I can feel a actual physical change in minha mente. I´m beginning to understand what people are saying and I´m also beginning to know how to respond. It was true what they told me about rice, beans, and noodles. I now know why missionaries here don´t go home for dinner, it´s because the members here stuff them to the brim so much that they can´t eat until ten at night. I´ve been told that we´re going to have gator and snake this week and I´m very excited. I remember being told about how you clap the gate of the houses here, but what I didn´t know was that all the houses here have a twelve foot wall. Fruit juice is so much better here! I´m a little overloaded with stuff to write about. Oh I know. I´m in a trio right with the zone leaders, Elders Chandler and Wride. Got to go now, but I´ll write more later.

Love,

Elder David Short

Times are a Changin'

How goes it friends and family? On Wednesday I finally got Elder Huntsman as my companion. He's really nice. He's from Austin Texas, and a lot of people say that he doesn't have an accent, but I notice it. The last week was a little hard with not being in my area for the first two days, but we were still able to get a lot done. We started teaching a new investigator on Saturday. Apparently her cousin from Utah referred her, because she's been going through a rough patch in life and is looking to be more happy, so we have some ideas to help with that. We talked a lot about how the gospel blesses us and how she will be happier through becoming closer to her Heavenly Father. She seemed to take it in pretty well, and we set up a return appointment. We got called on Sunday to see if we could do some service by keeping score of the USA wrestling match. We spent all Saturday morning at the school gym and watched kids twelve and under grapple with each other. The funniest to watch was the kids six and under. They would flop around while their coaches would be yelling at them. I didn't expect to see so much crying at a wrestling meet, but it was there in its bounty. We did a lot of walking this week. Friday night we had three less actives that said that they'd call us when they got home, and with no one else to visit at eight at night we walked in circles hoping to catch one of them. Sunday was the seminary program. It was a lot like the primary program, but not as cute, and it didn't have nearly as large of a topic range. We've been trying to work with our wards more, and to coordinate better, but it is really hard with four wards. The work continues to move forward. No more word on the visa, but I'm not worried about it.
Love,
Elder David Short

A New Transfer

From: David Short
Subject: A New Transfer

Well we got our transfer calls on Friday. I get to stay in the lovely town of Lovell, and Elder Hancock was sent up to billings. It was sad to see Elder Hancock go, but at the same time it is exciting to get moving on new things (like getting a visa). My new companion will be  Elder Huntsman, but he won't be here till Wednesday, so I'm in Powell right now till he gets here. I'm so glad that I didn't get transferred, because I have all this extra stuff for being in the US like my English preach my gospel, and a bunch of warm clothes that I won't need in Brazil.
Elder Hamblin, who has been waiting for his visa a month longer than we, is getting his visa within the next couple weeks, so hopefully mine will be right after that.
The last two p-days have been pretty awesome. Last week we went to the devil's canyon lookout and took a bunch of pictures; we also saw a bunch of bighorn sheep. This week we went hiking in the Shoshone national forest. We climbed up the mountain till we couldn't go any further, took a bunch of awesome pictures, and then slid down to the bottom.
The weather has seemed to stabilize, at least it isn't snowing anymore. All the snow is finally gone and the temperature has been climbing into the fifties. Today was the first day that I didn't need to wear my jacket.
Things have continued to go well in Lovell. A lot of the last couple days was spent letting Elder Hancock say goodbye to a bunch of investigators and some families. I wonder what I'll feel like when I have to leave.
The keyboard on this computer is really frustrating, so I'm getting tired of writing.
Tuesday I was on team ups in Powell with Elder Trujillo. Other than that I'm hard pressed to think of anything noteworthy.
Love,
Elder David Short

The Transfer is Drawing to a Close

I don't know what much else to say than that this week was pretty fun. Monday we went down to Powell to hang out with the elders there. I played my first game of racquetball ever, and I was pretty awesome (I was really only ok). After our racquetball game of awesomeness we went to Cody to spend P-day with the rest of the zone. We had such amazing fun that included, but wasn't limited to, dodgeball, kickball, and some other stuff that includes "ball" in it. We spent the night in Powell and had an investigator go on a random yelling rampage. I didn't really understand what she was talking about; it was really weird. We had our district meeting there in Powell the next day. Elder Hancock and I went back with the zone leaders for teamups. The first item on the schedule for teamups was helping a family move a piano into their house. While we were helping move the piano I couldn't help but think of that talk by Elder Uchtdorf. Moving the piano was a long complicated process, and with six missionaries there (we also had the other Cody elders with us) we were getting in eachothers way. Once everything was set in it's proper place I teamed up with Elder Child. It was so warm in Cody (about 40 degrees) that I felt like I was going to fall asleep the entire time, and almost did in the middle of a lesson. After dinner we switched and I teamed up with Elder Matthews. My zone leaders are pretty awesome.

Wednesday was pretty crazy, because we hadn't been teaching in our area for the past two day, so the week was spent trying to catch up. The work seems to flucuate a lot here. This week a lot of people who haven't been progressing are now progressing, and some people who were progressing aren't anymore, but things are getting better faster than they are getting getting worse with our investigators. One investigator in particular is having a hard time grasping our concept of priesthood authority.

There should be at least two people getting baptized this month if they decide on a date.

It was a pretty exciting week in Lovell. The highschool girls basketball team took state and the boys took third at state.

The weather is still playing games with us. It got up to almost 40 degrees on Friday and then it snowed again on Saturday and Sunday, so we never know whether, or not, to wear our trench coats.

Transfer calls are this Friday. I'm hoping that I'm staying here in Lovell (or getting my visa). I really don't want to be transferred to a new area, get my visa, and have to leave that area in less than a month. So many awesome people in Lovell that we are teaching; that I'd rather just stay here till I get my visa.

I think it's going to be a little weird going to Brazil and not having meat and potatoes every other day.

Love,

Elder David Short

A leopard gecko named rico