April 30, 2011

Dad, Haha wow i dont even know what you were trying to say with that portuguese sentance. Maybe you meant to say como foi sua semana filho? Or maybe a simple tudo bem? hahah just keep practicing. But hey! Im doing good down here, just another crazy week in brazil. Nick is finally engaged, thats sweet! I knew it would happen this week. Thats cool that your upping your resume. That thing is lookin good! ahha. Did jazz even make the playoffs? But yeah, this week was good. I did my first babtism in portuguese! We had two baptisms actually, it was great. I also gave my first blessing in portuguese. Tough! Haha man seriously speaking another language is tough, but i learn more every day, and everyone tells me i am speaking way good. Its really tough though. Im so used to saying whatever i want to say, and teaching how i want, but i have to adjust my teaching and speaking to what i know how to say haha. Páscoa (easter) was really good. We went to a members house and had a chorrosco (brazilian bbq) and it was so good! The members house is right next to this mini rainforest thing and we walked through it and it was way cool. It had vines you can swing on and paths, it was awesome. We also took a toar of where he works, which is at a dog trainer place with over 400 dogs. Ha my companion and i put on one of those dog biting sleeves and he sicked a german shepherd on us. It was so intense seeing a german sheperd running as fast as it can to you growling and barking, then latching onto your arm yanking you around. It was fun! hahaha. I took a video of it it was funny. So yeah, i hope you have mothers day off cuz i get to skype! woo! I will get to see you guys! So yeah, i passed my six month mark! woo! 1\4 done already! We bought a pizza and celebrated. Brazilain pizza is the best. So about transfers. My american companion got transfered and i now have a brazilian! He speaks no english, so its a challenge haha but my portuguese is gunna get so good i think. His name is Elder dos santos and hes from Natal, brazil, which is northern brazil. But yeah, things are going good here, and were teaching a lot! I gotta run now but i love ya!

Love, Matt

April 20, 2011

Tudo bem pai! I see you´ve been studying up on your portuguese. Keep it up haha. When you use those automatic translaters it doesnt work out so well, cuz thats not the way they would say those things you said haha.  Thats crazy about the floods in west weber! Good thing we dont live by the weber river!  This week has been good, we are finding and teaching a lot of people, along with several baptisimal dates. It really is crazy how much we have done in just two weeks after opening up an area. Tonight we have a baptism, and he picked me to baptise him! We also have 3 other people this sunday that will be baptised, its gunna be sweet. The language is getting better, but its still really hard. The people speak so fast, and use slang. It will just take time and work, and ill have it down. Everyone i talk to says im really good and have a good accent, and that im progressing really well. Its just hard! haha. So about the baptism tonight, his name is wellington and he is 9 years old. His brother is a member, but no one else in the family is. He is awesome, and so fun to work with. The other baptisms this sunday will be clair, leonardo, and joão. Clair and her husband live right in front of us, and her husband is a none active member. He is excited to get back to church when his wife is baptised, and to eventually go to the temple. They have a kid together, but they just got married last week, just in time to be baptism worthy. She knows everything is true, and we are super stoked to have her baptised. Leonardo and João are brothers and their parents are members, but less active. They were offended by someone so they dont go anymore, but elder evans and i worked with them and now they are ready to come back to church! Its awesome building eternal families. So this week i got to go to center city curitiba twice. Once, for getting a brazilian identification, and the other for a training for new missionaries. The training was good, but it was funny cuz they just told us what our purpose was as missionaries, and they talked as if i was just fresh out of the mtc. Its funny when they call me a greenie, when ive already had a lot of experience in philly with missionary work. In center city, people like to do entertainment for money in front of the cars at stoplights. These kids were standing on eachother juggling for the cars waiting for a green light, wanting money. They were actually really good!  This sunday in sacrament meeting i gave a talk in front of everyone! It went good, even though i was nervous hah. Im speaking a lot better than when i got here! Im still loving the food, and loving the fact that we have meal appointments every day with the members. It gives us the chance to have legit home made brazilian food. Rice and beans every day mmmmm! Ha im lucky, cuz i love the rice and beans, but a lot of missionaries dont like it but they have to eat it every day! The dessert here is super good. If you guys come get me in brazil you~re in for a good treat food wise! Its the best! The hot dogs and pizza here are so much better than in america. You~d think that american would have better pizza, but nope, here its amazing! The weather has been so hot! Man, im getting cooked haha. The humidity makes it so much worse! The humidity sealed all my envelopes haha, so i gotta pry em open before i can put letters in them haha it sucks! But yeah, Everything is going good, and im learning a lot! Pray for me to get the language down quick! Mission pres said that i have to learn super quick , because hes gunna be using me soon leadership wise. This next transfer were getting 17 missionaries. wow! Thats a lot. Maybe ill even train ha that would be crazy! Well, all is well, i love you and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Harper

April 13, 2011

Tudo bom para meu pai!
Man, this has been the most different week of my life haha. Its crazy living in another country, but its cool and a great experience! Florida sounds like its been way fun, and the airboat rides sounded like a blast! Universal studios sounds pretty fun right about now haha. Thats cool that you got to see the church ranch and hang out with the justesons. Sounds like fun! Well, things here are going good, and Im loving the food. Today we ate something called tapioca, which is these pancake like things that you put hot chocolate fudge in and we also put linguisa in also (sausage) it was good! I love the guarana, and also they have tons of way good fruit drinks like mango and pinapple thats so good! We get fed lunch by the members every day except pday, and its awesome cuz we get the best homemade brazilian food ever! There is always a big thing of rice and beans, which is amazing, but thats just the side dish. They have sausages, chicken, pasta, and salads. Its all so good! Not to mention the dessert, which is amazing as well. I had this way good bannana pudding stuff with caramel the other day, it was way good. But anyways, thats just the food haha. Its funny how brazilians do stuff out here, like cutting grass. They usually dont use lawn mowers, but they get a team of guys armed with weed whackers, and just go to town on big fields and yards, then they scoop the grass up in tarps and move it. Kids and teens here like to show off their cell phones here by playing music while they walk, and a lot of people sell things out of their cars by driving by with big speakers on their car yelling what they are selling kind of like an icecream man. There are wild dogs everywhere out here. Hundreds of them! They just go around looking for food to eat, and they dont bother us. Some are actually pretty nice and want to be petted. So ive been having my first brazilian tracting experiences, which consist of standing outside the peoples gates, which everyone has, and clapping at their house. They always have their doors and/or windows open, so they can hear us. To get around, my companiona and i walk everywhere, but to go far away we ride the bus. The bus system here in Parana (the name of the state im in) is some of the best in the world, especially in curitiba, so we take the bus quite a bit, about three times a week for pday, district meeting, and training for my comp cuz hes district leader. Curitiba itself is a really nice, clean city full of flowers and gardens. The plants and trees out here are beautiful! There are a lot of lime trees in my area and other fruit trees as well. The language is really hard, but ive already learned so much and im developing an ear for how fast people speak and also picking up a lot of common frases. Each day i speak better, and im starting to teach now and the people understand me and say i speak good! Its so hard, but im learning quick. As far as the work goes, in one week we have found several investigators and have 6 baptisimal dates! Man, the people out here are so much more receptive than philly. Its so nice to have a lot of investigators again, and teaching people that are willing to get baptised. We have one this sunday, and im excited! His name is wellington and hes nine years old. The work is going good. There are a lot of snakes out here (girls) that yell at us sometimes like this week when they called us delicious as we walked by haha. I guess they really love americans, and elder evans and i are pretty handsome young americans haha but dont worry we just laugh and keep walking. We get a lot of looks haha. As for laundry, we have a small electric washer thing, so we wash our clothes in that and dry them on clothes hangers in our house. The weather here has been near perfect, but in the mornings and late at night it gets pretty cold. This past week, we had a crazy storm that dropped marble sized hail and it was coming down so hard! I guess its really rare for out here, and the kids loved playing in the hail piles after it was done. It was a cool sight to see. The members of the church out here are awesome, and they love the missionaries. I~ve seen a ton of spiders out here that are huge! Like triantulas! Ive also seen some cool looking birds and such. The bugs out here are crazy haha. Well that was my crazy week, and it was fun. All is well and im enjoying the work! I hope all is well over there! Until next week, i love you!
Love, matt

April 6, 2011

TUDO BOM!

Man, i am finally here and its crazy! So the flight to sao paulo was super long, but i finally got there then i was off to curitiba! The flight from sao paulo to curitiba had the best airline food ever! they had caramel with passionfruit, guarana, and this way good sandwich thing with melted cheese and meat inside. Wow this keyboard sucks the keys arent all placed the same as in america! But anyways, when we landed in curitiba the president with his wife and the ap~s were ready to pick us up and go to the mission home. There, we had interviews and had a legit brazilian meal made by a brazilian member and it was sooooo good! I could deff get used to this. I love the food here so far, its so good. We had rice and beans and this stroganoff stuff that is sooo good@! For dessert we had this frozen passionfruit moose that was amazing! After that, we went to the church and had an orientation where i met my companion elder evans. He is from oregon and he~s really cool. He~s been out on the mission for a lil over 7 months, and he~s already fluent. We then got our suitcases and went off to our area which is bordo do campo, which we~re opéning again after it was closed due to the shortage of missionaries. \we rode busses late at night with all of our stuff to it and we didnt even know where we were going. We were on like 9 different busses for over 2 hours, then we got off and went to our shack haha. It is third world almost haha it makes my last appartment i had in the usa like a penthouse hahaha. It will be fun tho and im excited. Today is pday so we took a bus to one of the elders house and the whole zone came for a bbq. we had this really good brazilian sausage with bread and it was so good with all the guarana you can drink! wow it was good. I love brazilian food! After, we went to the church and played soccor with brazilians are amazing at, and a little bit of basketball. After we finished, i was soaked by the humidity and am still a little wet haha. I~m gunna get super tan here, or perhaps just super burnt. i need to buy some sunscrean. But yeah, my first thought on brazil. So there is a lot of funny things that i~ve seen already that is different. So first off, when the cars are waiting at a red stoplight, the kids will go around and place candy on their mirrors, and if the person wants to buy the candy, they grab it and then the kid gets his money. Also, the motorcyclists here are crazy and they weave through traffic and go over medians and such. Kids and bums have these carts that they wheel around and that they dig through the trash so they can get cardboard and recycle it for money. Another thing is the wild street dogs. There are these wild dogs everywhere that just run around and cause mischief. I guess all the missionaries get chased by them and get bitten haha this should be fun, it keeps you on edge. Another coo,l thing is the markets here that sell fruit and produce, its crazy cool. Wow, i~m just in culture shock! I dont know what the missionary work is like here yet, but i guess i~ll find out soon when we go prosyliting tonight! The weather here today is perfect, it feels about 70 degrees and it feels great. Not to hot, not to cold, just the way i like it. Last night however, i was super hot and couldnt sleep for a while. It was like sleeping in a sauna haha. My zone has a bunch of brazilian natives, and they~re really fun. they say i speak good portuguese, but its so hard! The people here speak fast and slurr their words, and also have slang, so its really hard. I~m learning fast tho, and i know that in no time i will be able to talk with the people no problem, i just have to stay determined and listen carefully. Man, there are so many things different here than the usa. Its such a huge change, but i like it and the people are really nice! All is well here and i gotta run soon, so just know that im happy, safe, and sound and working hard! I love you, have a good week! Até logo,

 Amor, Matt

March 28, 2011

VISA! Wow its about time! haha its crazy to think that five months have came and went on my mission, and it's all been state-side! It makes me think how precious time is out here, so i have to take advantage of every second! So i guess i'll be off to Brazil soon. I'm curious to know when i actually leave so i can get my stuff ready and get mentally prepared. Maybe they're gunna let a bunch of missionaries in now, because mom said a bunch have been moving. That would be great, because i'm sure they are in dire need of more missionaries. Congrats on finishing up your lecture, it sounds like you've been putting a lot of time in and you're working hard. I bet it will be great. I am also very excited for spring as well. It has been a really harsh winter, in fact the coldest of my life! The humidity just kills! Ha the funny thing is that Winter in curitiba is just about to start. A whole year full of winter, yay! hah. I'm so excited to go down there!@ I've been stressing and wondering if i was ever gunna go down there. My long waited prayers have been answered! But yeah, now on to my week. So this last week we had ZOne Conference and it went good. I learned a lot. Its fun getting to know all the missionaries in the new zone. A couple greenies were there and you could just tell they were new. I remember when i was just fresh out of the MTC looking like a deer in the headlights! This week we also went on 2 day exchanges, where I stayed in pottsville and elder hunt went to a city near by. The district leader came to Pottsville with me and it was up to me to take over the area. I also drove, which i havent done since before the mission haha but i did good, and i knew my way aroud the area good! I was nervous to take over the area, cuz it was the first time i had to do it, but i did good and we had a great exchange. Another thing that happend this week is that i found out that someone in my last area that was in the singles ward murdered someone from my last ward. I talked to some people and i found out that it was a kid that i knew! I dont think i told you this story, but in my last area at church one day, this kid in his mid 20's pulled me and my companions off to the side and said he wanted to talk to us, so he brought us to this empty classroom and closed the door. He got on his knees and started confessing to us about how he had temptations on how he wanted to be a polygamist after watching the HBO show "big love" and he confessed some other problems and we just told him to talk to the bishop and that he shouldn't confess to missionaries. It was a really weird/awkward situation and you could tell he had some problems. Well, come to find out that he is the kid who murdered a guy from the philly first ward. I was in the midst of a murderer! Man, its nuts. It was all over the news in philly. I dont know who the guy he killed tho, it was a name i had never heard of and apparently he was a less active. Crazy! On the brighter side, he confessed and now he's in prison. Yup... Crazy. So elder hunt and I are still working hard on the area and its still struggling. It is a really tough area and the people here are mostly strict catholics who are set on their religion. They're usually nice, just not interested. We're trying to rebuile the area after lazy missionaries in the past. We're working hard. THis sunday a guy came to church who claimed he was jesus santiago rodriguez. He was homeless and totally white, and i knew he was lying. I asked if he knew spanish, and he said yes. So i started speaking spanish to him and owned him! Ha proved him wrong! It was funny. Well not much else going on here. I have no idea when i'll be shipped out, but i'm so excited! I hope you have a great time in FLorida! I love you and i hope to talk to you soon on the phone from  the airport!

Love,

Matt

March 21, 2011

 Tudo bem!
  Things here are going pretty good, just working hard! The weather was looking
pretty nice this week, and it even got up to 82! Its cold again today, so it sucks
haha! It seems like with the weather getting nicer, the people are
getting nicer when we tract haha. Spring is a good thing! We've been
getting Rita's water ice, which is huge on the East Coast! Its so good!
They have flavors like sweedish fish that is so good! We're starting to
jog in the mornings now, which is good. Every night almost, we still
go upstairs to the ashbee's apartment and enjoy company with them.
THey feed us every sunday and are the nicest people ever! We're lucky
to have them so close by. Something funny that happend this week is that
elder hunt and i were tracting and we realized that elder hunt was
wearing blue suit pants with a green suit jacket. It was funny ha he was
pretty embarrased. No wonder people didnt want to let us in! ha.
Something neat about pottsville is that it has america's oldest brewery
here. Its huge with the coal business here too. We shoveled coal  for
service for a member the other day and it was great fun haha. We've
been doing tons of service here lately as the weather has been getting
better. I actually enjoy service now and it makes me feel great! You
can't love god if you don't serve his people, and we've deffinatly
been doing some great service! The work here is still going slow, but
we're working really hard and finding investigators here and there. A
lot of the time, we find someone to teach, but the appointments
always seem to fall through, and it sucks! People here dont take us
serious i guess when we tell them we're coming over to teach them! We
get stood up a lot. But yeah, i'm still praying hard for my visa, and i
hope you are too! Some elders a month ahead of me that were in the
mtc finally got their visas about a week ago, so i hope in about a
month or so i'll get mine too! SO how are you doing? How's work? Did
you get rid of your kidney stone? THat had to have sucked! haha. So
when are you going to florida? Speaking of florida i hope byu beats em!
Well, not much more to say, i cant reply to your questions or comments
with no email! slacker! Ha jk i forgive you. Keep working hard and know
that i love and miss you!
  Love, Matt
Hey dad, It must have just taken a while for your email to come! Lucky I got it while i'm still online! Man, thats crazy to hear about the flooding in the curitiba area. I would love rendering service to them and do all i can to help them out! Maybe its good that i was here safe and sound. Maybe the Jazz should just suck it up on purpose so they can get a good pick in the lottery and pick up Jimmer! That would  be was sweet. I'm not suprised that Bulls have been doing good, but #1 is suprising! They have a great team now with korver and booz with rose at the point. Maybe MJ will come out of retirement and help em out too haha. I'm glad you had the opportunity to get your kidney stone saved in a handy little jar! Maybe you should put in on a keychain or ring and wear it with pride! just an idea... haha. So when are you going to florida? That should be super fun fishing and stuff. I miss going to florida? So colton is going with you guys again? Thats sweet, should be super fun! So is my tv being used at all in my room? just wondering. Are you gunna pick up RB3?

Hey mom, thanks for all the info! So when are you going to florida? Also, thank you for the packages you sent! I look forward to picking them up in due time! I hear byu is doing great, and jimmer is the man! I get updates from the members around here haha. I just got a couple emails from the missionaries that were a month ahead of me in the mtc and they've been in brazil for a week or two now! Maybe in a month or so i'll have mine!!!! Man, im excited. 
Love, Matt

March 14, 2011

Bom dia para meu pai!

 Man, it sounds like you've had another eventfull week full of fun and pain! haha thats too bad to hear about your kidney stone. I remember when we were about to go on a cruise and that one hit you! You're lucky it didnt hit you in hawaii, then that would have ruined all the fun! I'm glad you got my letter safely and you had a good birthday. I was thinking of you a lot on the 10th. Good choice on texas roadhouse. I could deffinatly pound some of that right about now haha! I'm super happy to be back to eating normal food again. Darby threw me in a loop with that nasty african food! I've gained about 3 pounds since darby, so its good. Thats crazy about the earthquake and tsunami! Man, its crazy how much out of the loop i am on news and stuff. I found out like 2 days after it had happend by some old guy we were teaching. I'm just so focused on the work here i dont know whats going on in the world haha, but its good. Its still cold here, but there are some days where it gets warm and it gives me hope! THat's too bad about grandpa, i pray for him all the time. I hope he hold on for a while longer, but i dont want him to suffer. All will be well. Thats way cool about hayden getting his mission call! Do you go home teaching with his brother? Well this week has been pretty good in Pottsville. My spanish is going up, and i'm understanding it good when i hear it. Every night when i call in to the district leader, we speak all in spanish because he is a spanish elder, and he says how amazed he is on how much i know and how i can understand him. I get tons of compliments on my accent, so i guess all of this practice is paying off! haha. So hawaii was good huh? THats awesome. When are you going to florida? Is this your last trip there? Transfers are today, but i'm gunna be staying here in Pottsville with Elder Hunt. We get along fine, so its good. I'm not worried about the area anymore cuz we just work hard and do our best, and thats all we are expected to do! Something unique about out here is how huge of a holiday st.patricks day is. Every night there are people dressed in green going from bar to bar and getting slammed haha. There are pubs and bars everywhere here, and they just drink drink drink. If they're already celebrating st.pattys day drinking, i can only imagine how big its gunna be on st. patricks day. All the building are decorated with green leprechaun hats and stuff, i never imagined it being that big of a holiday. I remember when mom would just tip over the furniture and color the milk green, but out here people just drink all day and get hammered. I imagine we'll go in early that night for our safety haha. WE'll see. My portuguese is still improving and i'm opening my vocabulary. I'll be ready for Brazil i hope. I've been told by several people that i have the gift of tounges, and that i'm way farther ahead on the language than the other people that have been out as long as me. Speaking of being out as long, can you believe i'm coming up on my 5 month mark? Crazy! Well, thats all i gotta say this week, i'm just enjoying every second of the mission and i've learned a lot through this area. It's elder hunt's bday today so we're going out to eat! Keep up the good work and push out that kidney stone! Haha i love ya!

 Love, Matt