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

March 7. 2011

Man that sounds amazing! I would love to be in hawaii right now but nothing can keep me from doing this great work! I love it here and the other night truely realized how much i love this work. It brings a lot of joy and is making me a better person. Things are looking up here and i'm going a lot better. I'm used to the area and through our hard work we've picked up some investigators! We're doing a lot more than the elders before were doing. Man, from what i hear and see they were lazy and rude! The members love us. With prayer, i've been progressing with the language again. I can read it easily now and am getting a lot of grammer rules down. Only if i could practice it with someone here! haha. We've been tracting a lot and i dont mind it that much anymore. Maybe its cuz of the weather getting warm! I'm so ready for spring! This winter was so brutal! East coast cold is so much worse than utah hahaha. It rained for like 36 hours yesterday and the day before, so i hope things get green. I woke up this morning and looked outside and there was snow! man it sucked! THe curitiba winter is starting, so if i get my visa soon i'll be there just in time to endure yet another winter in a row! haha that would suck, but i'd do anything to get my dang visa! I got an email from an elder thats a month ahead of me on the mission, and he's still waiting for his visa. He entered in like early september. I hope brazil just lets loose all the visas for us. In the mean time, there is plenty of work to be done here in Pottsville, penn. and i love it! I was tracting this past week and i ran into this latino lady and you could tell she didnt wanna be bothered with missionaries, so she looked at me and said she doesnt know english, and started speaking spanish to me. Little does she know, that i can understand spanish good and speak some as well! I responded in spanish and introduced ourselves and she had the look on her face like, "crap, now what" hahahah. She accepted a book of mormon card. I owned her! Something about this area is that the branch is realiable on the missionaries for a lot of the duties, like piano, blessing the sac, passing the sac, teaching sunday school, and we also teach a scripture study class on thursday nights. Its pretty cool. Something also about pottsville is that the women have mustaches and beards and its so gross! haha. People absolutly dont take care of themselves and about 95% of the people here smoke and own about 20 cats haha. I've found that its rare to see people with many teeth and those that do have teeth are all decayed and nasty. Obesity is huge here too. Man, health is just overrated these days I guess. When we tract, its so hard to get our message accrossed when there are stubborn catholics and baptists who dont wanna listen, or they just wanna bible bash with us. Tracting is interesting, because you get to see all kinds of people and it gets you over the fear of talking to everyone fast. I'm not afraid of that anymore and i actually enjoy it. I'm bold with the message and it seems to work. I'm getting good at contancting! Things are good here and i'm happy to be here. I dont think about my visa too much. I know its all in the Lords time. Well, not much else to say, keep up soaking up the sun and fly home safe! I love you!

Matt

February 28, 2011

Oi Pai! Tudo bem? Thanks for the encouragement and fast. It really helps. This area is going really slow with the work. It's like we're starting from scratch. We have no progressing investigators, and the couple of investigators we do have aren't progressing, so we're gunna have to drop them because in the past missionaries would just go hang out at their house and get nothing done. Elder Hunt and I have been trying to do a lot of finding with every possible means. We tract, contact, try to seek refferals, offer service, and work through the ward, but nothing is coming out of it. We work so hard, but we can't find anyone! Everytime we tract people slam their doors in our faces because they're catholic and the dont want anything to do with us or our church. There are so many catholics here its nuts! Every one is catholic! It probably comes from their irish backround, which gives them a funny americanized irish accent. But to try to get investigators we started a program called "set a date". We go to members houses and we teach them about missionary work and have them set a date in the near future when they will invite a friend/aquantance/person to their house to be taught by the missionaries. We hope that this will help us find, teach, and baptise. We just need something to get going here in pottsville. We have to regain the trust of the members because I guess missionaries in the past were lazy and rude, so the members didn't like them. Me and Elder Hunt are new, so they like us and see that we work hard. We're just scrambling to get things going around here. We need people to teach. It's hard to stay positive when we tract all day with no success at all. Its not productive here at all, no one wants to listen. The only way i see successfull missionary work here is through the members. That's why we're so stoked on the "set a date". Because its through the members and that makes it a lot more successful when it comes to missionary work. I've been praying so hard for my visa. I understand that its all in heavenly fathers hands, i just can't help but get anxious to get down there. I've hit a wall with the language and i want to progress. Please pray for me. There are senior missionaries that live right above us and I love them! They feed us and are super nice. Every night me and Elder Hunt go up there to their cozy apartment, which has the feel of grandmas house, and we talk with them and visit. Its really comforting. In other news, I'm starting to dream in portuguese, and understand it haha. I also can understand spanish good, and its awesome. I remember when spanish was just blahblahblah on the radio or tv, but now i can understand whats being said and its cool. I can only imagine what i can understand in portuguese, but no one speaks it here haha. There is a branch here of about 30-40 people but its cool and i'm excited to help it grow, i just gotta stay motivated and positive! So you guys are leaving tomorrow for Hawaii you lucky! Have fun and soak up that sun which i've been begging for. Its so cold here when we tract! I have spring fever for sure! Pennsylvania cold is sooooo much worse than Utah. That humidity just kills! I'm so glad gary is doing better, i was worried about that kid! Knowing him though he'll be hurt again soon. Who's gunna watch him? And wow, i dont even know what to say about deron williams. Man, he is my favorite!! That sucks so bad that he's gone! The jazz have just completely fell apart since i've left. Is raja and jefferson still doing good? Devin Harris is good and so will that other guy but DWILL is the BEST pg in the league. Dang.... Oh well. I'm still a jazz fan. Well, not much else to say. Please keep praying for my visa and that we can find investigators here. I'll press on with the work and stay positive and motivated. Missionary work truely is work. Hard work. But I love it and i'm happy to be on a mission! Woo! haha. Well, dont have too much fun in hawaii, and take a bunch of pictures for me! I love you! Eu amo voce muitio! Embracas!

 Love, Matt