February 14, 2011

Tudo bem?! It was another good in the hood week and a lot of work has been getting done. I'm not scared of the ghetto, but i'm sure mom would be panicking if she saw where i walk at night. You're probably right in the idea of me leaving when it starts to get warm here, and me going straight to a curitiba winter. Oh well. No news on the VISA. Elder Hartley and Buerkle sent in their online apps this week. We're all still here though but we'll see. Keep praying for it. Man, that is so crazy about Jerry Sloan! What the heck!? He just gets up and goes?? I thought he would be more professional about things. I bet Dwill just wants out now and when he leaves the team will be nothing! That suprised me big time. So Hawaii huh? so what islands are you guys going to? Is it a cruise or are you flying? with who?? But yeah.... Things are going good here. I went on exchanges in South Philly this week and we had a dinner appointment. I was talking with them and I found out they are originally from ogden, and they both graduated from fremont!!! It was crazy. The ladies mom lives in West Weber and goes to the 3rd ward or something! Super small ward. I forgot their last names though haha. This week was also Zone Conference and it was really good. It lasted all day and I learned a lot. So yesterday was the baptisms!! My first baptisms! Our investigators were baptised by their uncle and I got to baptise the sister's investigator! It was such a neat experience getting into the water and baptising. Hopefully there will be many to come. I'll try to send pics. Man, I tell you what, if you wanna see entertaining things, you go trackting in the ghetto! We get laughing so hard. Ghetto's are deffinatly an interesting place. Its still so fun working with the africans. I truely love the african people. %90 of them are Liberian and I just love the way they are! THey are so nice to us and always offer us food. They treat us so good. When we wash our hands at their sink they want to wash them for us, and just treat us so well. I just have developed a deep love for them, and it will be sad to leave them. They're so humble. I dont love the food though haha! This week I hate an african pepper and I just about died! Man that thing was so hot! Something cool that happend is that the other day we went to Rosettas house and showed her the joseph smith restoration movie, and she felt the spirit so strong! After she told us that she knows that it is true, and we are super excited for her baptism with her daughter. They are so sweet. I'm glad for the time i've spent here in the Philadelphia Mission. I've grown and learned so much in the time i've been here. It's so cool experiencing the east coast and preaching in English! Well, thats all thats going on here. I love you and thanks for raising me up in the gospel. Keep working hard and put nick to work!

 

Love, Matt

February 7, 2011

Tudo Bem!!

How's life?? It seems like all is well, so that's good. To answer your question about the cold front that came through, I did indeed freeze my butt off!!!! But, its super NICE today, and it feels like spring! Still no word on my VISA. I'm begginning to think i might spend 1/4 of my mission here!!! Oh well, wherever I am is wherever i'm supposed to be... Jazz I hear are sucking it up, but as long as the get to the playoffs that's all that counts. Well, it has been a pretty normal weeks as in teaching a bunch and seeing crazy things. Something i've noticed is that there are cockroaches all over the place!!! I'll be teaching a lesson and i'll have roaches crawling on me and up my pant leg. Man I hate those things!!! There are also tons of mice that run on the ground as we walk into houses, and actually HUGE RATS that live at this one members home. I'm pretty sure he's ammune to rat poison and it actually makes it bigger. But yeah, time is actually going by fast. The weeks are coming and going, and its cool. This week we had a special fast so that this investigator family could get baptised. They are really prepared and wanting to get baptised, but the thing that was holding them back is that the mom had her boyfriend living with her at the house. We fasted so that there could be a living situation worked out, so that he could move out and all could be baptised. We went over to there house after we fasted, and he had a total change of heart. He said he would move out right away! They are all now ready to be baptised this sunday! We have 6 investigtors being baptised this sunday! Finally! I'm ready for my first mission baptisms. There is an investigator right now named Rossetta. I contacted her on the street my 2nd week in philly, and she said she wanted us to come over. We kind of procrastinated on getting over there, because there are just so many people we're working with. I kept telling my companions that we needed to see rossetta!!! Well, the past week we've been finally  working hard with her, and she is  now super excited to get BAPTISED!!! It's awesome. Her daughter will be baptised with her. Yesterday at church I went to the YSA ward on splits, and there were 2 Brazilians!!! I talked with them and they said I spoke really good and I had an awesome accent that doesnt sound american at all! I give thanks to trent and JG for that. They were super impressed. I've been finding time to study portuguese early morning, on car rides, and right before bed. I wanna do everything i can to be ready for Brazil. Whenever that time comes, I hope i'll be ready. Well, not much else going on here, just working hard and having fun! I love you and hope you have an awesome week!

 Love, Matt

January 31, 20100

Tudo bem!? It sounds like things are pretty action packed at home, but its okay cuz its super action packed out here. I hope they get the VISA deal worked out soon, cuz i wanna get down there so bad and start improving my portuguese!! I dont get language study that often here, so I try to squeeze it in before bed and early mornings. Dang, Gary is sick again!!! What the heck, that dog is always sick... What's he sick with? So you're liking jesus the christ eh?? Maybe when i get to brazil i'll buy one in portuguese and read it. I hear its got some super deep doctrine in it, and when he was writing it he had a special room in the temple to write it in. So yeah, this week was pretty action packed. I went on exchanges to south philly, and boy is it GHETTO!!!! We were trackting and i knocked on the door and the woman threatend to get her shotgun out. She was nice. But yeah, i figured out i hate trackting so bad! I'd rather just teach lessons, but i guess you have to find people before you teach em. We're really lucky in this area where we dont tract at all. We just find all investigators through the family members. Africans have tons of family members here, and we find new people at their houses every day. Somthing cool that happend is that I set up a return appointment in spanish! I knew barely enough to be able to set one up. The portuguese sentance structure helps. Really similar. This week I gave my first blessing in the mission field too. It was sweet. We went on more exchanges this week to West Chester, and it was a Blizzard! Man, it was snowing soooo hard and we got like 2 feet of snow! The best thing is, that we were tracting the WHOLE TIME! We had like 3 pounds of snow on our clothes. Fun fun! This week was a bad week of african food. Man, I dont even know what the stuff i'm eating even is!! Mystery meat is all i can say... with rice and lots and lots of peppers. I just have to choke it down while i gag, while saying "mmmm this is.... goooood..." to please the africans. They get so happy when we eat their food. I'm so sick of fish gravy, kasava leaf, and pumpkin paste!! We did though, eat some wayyy good doughnuts from the africans. They taught us how to make them last night! This week we were teaching a family about loving one another, because they are ALWAYS fighting. During the lesson, the mom got mad at her son and threw her shoe at him. I'm glad they were applying the things we were teaching them. Jeez.... Man, if child services saw these houses we go to, the kids would be out of there in a heartbeat. The houses are really dirty and not sanitary at all. The other day, we saw some babies drinking out of the toilett and eating spaghetti out of the garbage. Its super sad. It doesnt mean anything to the African culture though. When the kids are bad they put hot peppers in their mouth. So transfers were today and i'm staying in Darby, so i'm glad. Also, I talked to the missionary who is serving in the area where i taught the Brazilians, and I found out they have a baptisimal date!!! Its crazy how I was put there at that moment to teach them the gospel in portuguese, and it took them to the path of baptism. Big blessing. Well, not much else to say. No word on my visa, still waiting. Have an awesome week! I love you!!!

 Matt

January 24, 2011

Well I'm glad someone is enjoying nice weather, because over here its a freezer!! It is so cold here it's rediculous. Humid cold too. Right when you step outside it immediatly sucks out all heat from your body. It sucks! But anyways... This week was another week of african food pounding. Even though you had to eat indian food for ashlee's bday, just be greatful that you don't have to pound some African food. You don't know what fish heads and goat meat can do to your systems! I think my guts are turned to stone now, because i'm starting to not get sick after. If the food they give us stains a metal spoon, and the bowl, then i can only imagine what it does to my stomache! This week i looked into the pot of food from which my bowl was made out of, and i saw a goat jaw bone. Mmmmm. But on the bright side, I actually found some good African food! They make these homemade deepfried doughnut things that are actually super good! Good african food.... who would've known?? Haha. Transfers are next monday, that will be interesting! I think they'll keep me here in Darby. I think my visa should come within a month so we'll see. Something crazy that happend this week is that i was walking outside to an appointment with Elder Lake, because we went on exchanges and Elder Kay had the car, and we see this big white dog with dreadlocks running around across the street. We were laughing cuz it was funny seeing a dog with dreadlocks, because you just dont see it every day. As soon as we made the comment "its gunna eat us" it seemed as though the dog heard us, and started running and barking at us! It was scary!!! haha that thing was gunna totally kill us! I ran behind a bunch of wood pallets, and Elder Lake ran the other way. Luckily, he chased Elder Lake and not me, so Elder Lake jumped on top of this random car and the dog was barking and growling at him. It was scary but i was laughing at the same time. The dog looked away for a second and me and Elder Lake just took off! We got away, so its all good haha. So we had 2 Baptisms scheduled yesterday, but they both got scared and backed out saturday night. It was super frustrating, but i want them to be ready for this when they feel ready, so i was okay. We have a ton of investigators with a baptisimal date, so next transfer we should be busy with baptisms. Something really neat happend this week. I think I found out the reason why i'm supposed to be in Philadelphia right now. So I went on exchanges to a place called Norristown this week, and me and a missionary named Elder North working together. I asked him if there were any people that spoke portuguese in the area, and he said there was an old investigator that they havent heard from in a while that was from Brazil. So later that night we went to their house, and Elder North knocked on the door and a man answered. Elder North asked if we could share a message with him, but the guy said "not tonight, maybe next friday". But then, i went up to the guy and started speaking Portuguese with him and i asked him if we could come in and share a message with him. He let us right in!! It was so cool. I was speaking portuguese with him and his girlfriend the whole time! I taught them about the restoration and the book of mormon all in Portuguese. The guy hardly knew english, and his girlfriend didnt know any at all, so i was just speaking Portuguese the whole time! They said i spoke really good for only knowing it for a couple of months. They loved it! We had an amazing lesson and I was so happy to get the opportunity to share the gospel in different tounges. If i didn't know portuguese, then they wouldn't have been comfortable to let us in the door in the first place, so i believe I was placed there for a reason. Hopefully they progress well and will embrace the gospel. They liked the lesson and the scripture i shared with them (moroni 10: 3-5). Amazing week with amazing people. I love the people out here! It will be sad to leave them. But... yeah. Florida huh?? That should be fun! Geez you have Florida and hawaii coming up. Lucky! You gotta save for Brazil man!! Well, keep working hard and have a great week. Love you!!!

Matt

January 18, 2011

Hey! Another great week has passed, and it's a crazy life I tell you! I see different stuff every day that makes me mad/sad/laugh/confused! Missions really are a great adventure, especially in a crazy ghetto place like Darby, but I love it! It's crazy to hear about the mudslides. Hopefully you're right about maybe it will get the visa's through. I was so excited to get my online app this week. The next step is getting the visa! Hopefully it will be within a month or so. So are you guys really going to Hawaii!!!? The jazz are still doing pretty solid huh? That's good. When i was eating out the restaurant was playing a chicago bulls game and I saw Korver nail a three. Made me miss basketball. It was also funny seeing Boozer in a bull uniform. So this week was good. I went on exchanges to a place called West Chester. It's about an hour away but its like a whole new world there. It is farm land with big houses, and i loved it! From all the time i've spent in ghetto darby, it was so nice getting away to the farmland which i've grown to miss! The good news is that we're going there again this week. Woo! Something that happend this week is that I ate this stuff called Pepper soup. It is sometihng the africans make and love. It is sooo spicy and it has fish heads, Goat meat and liver, turkey neck, and a bunch of mystery meat that i dont know where it came from! The broth was like pure oil that stuck to your mouth for hours. Man that stuff was soooo gross! It destroys the bowl system!! I also ate some kasava leaf which looks like horse crap. It was gross! Something cool that happend this last week is that we were going to teach these people the restoration, and elder lake and elder kay told me before hand that they weren't going to say anything and they would let me teach the whole thing. I was pretty nervous to take over, but as soon as i started, my words were carried out of my mouth by the spirit, and the lesson went so good! I commited 2 people to baptism!!! It was such a neat experience! Something fun that happend yesterday is that we went to center city Philadelphia! We rode the Subway into center city and went to see the liberty bell. It was awesome. Also, we saw the building in which the declaration of independance was written. I took some sweet pictures. We also went to the Comcast skyscraper, which is huge! Inside of it is the Largest Tv in the world! It was way cool. I took a video of it so you can look forward to seeing it when i send it off. I'm learning more and more every day. A mission is deffinatly not easy though! I've been working my butt off! It's paying off though, we are getting a ton of baptismal dates. Well, keep up the good work, and thank you for all the hard work you do to provide for the fam! I love you!!

January 10, 2011

Hey Dad! Sounds like things are going great as always, and you're still workin like a champ! I'll have you know that the Cheesesteaks here are sooo good and you should come get one! haha. It sounds like the Jazz are doing good! #5?!?! dang! And it really suprised me to see that New Orleans are #4. How the heck are they up there! all they have is CP3! Thats good that you got into the habbit of working out again. We run at 6:30 every morning in 20 degree weather and humidity plus wind. Its sooo cold but its good cuz we run a good distance and we're getting in shape. This week was good! We are so blessed to have lots of progressing investigators and new investigators. The lord truely puts preparred people in our way so they can recieve the gospel. We were walking out of a members house when we see this 22 year old girl walking on the sidewalk and she happend to be in front of us at the right place and the right time. We talked with her and she wanted to hear our message, so we scheduled an appointment and taught her the 1st lesson. We committed her to baptism and she said yes! She is super solid and her friend is going to get baptised with her! Darby is just full of promising people that are ready for the gospel. We have a few other baptisms set also from this week. I went on exchanges this week, it was cool. I stayed in Darby but another missionary came and we did work! Man this place is super Ghetto though. There are some really shady areas. Everyone likes us though so its all good. Sometimes we go on splits with members and i walk outside at night with elder Lake or elder Kay. We walk in some super shady areas but its all good, we're safe. I see dimebags for drugs everywhere! Its nuts! So we went to a members house and they were all freaking out so we talked to them and i guess someone broke into there house and they were all scared and panicking, but we said a prayer with them and we all just felt peace and everyone calmed down. We felt the spirit come and it really streangthened my testimony on prayer. This week we also had zone conference that lasted all day pretty much. We just had a whole bunch of training from the AP's and Mission Pres. The bright side is that we had cheesestakes for lunch! Everything is going great here, and we have high expectatiosn for this week. Hopefully things will work out and we'll accomplish our goals. I;'m going on exchanges this week again and i[ll be sleeping over in another area with 2 other elders. Should be fun! How is the weather at home? How is gary? And teaching school? tell me how everything is going and jsut know that everything is going great here! keep up the good work dad I love you!!

Love, Matt

January 3, 2011 - First email from Philly

Hey!

Sounds like your living the good life in good ol west weber. So this week has been crazy! I spent the first night in the mission home which is super nice, then in the morning we met our companions and then we were off! My area is called Darby, and its super Ghetto! I love it though, everyone is humble and its fun hearing gun shots at night when i'm prosyliting. Haha its all good, it was scary the first night but i just accept the fact that i'm in the ghetto and everything will be alright. The people here are nice to us. Darby is full of row homes that are super shady. There are no houses like the ones at home out here. The work here is going really well. We teach tons of lessons every day, so we are super busy. The area here, is just all african refugees from Liberia and they are nice. Their culture is funny, they have this funny handshake where you snap your fingers with theirs. I have it down good. When you go to their house they offer you food a lot and you have to eat it cuz its rude if you dont. Its like the only thing they have to offer us. It is gross!!! Oh man, they are all native african dishes. I've had something called Kasava leaf, which is this nasty leave paste that is super super spicy, and its over meat. It was gross! I've also had Ground up fish heads in pumpkin paste over rice that was also spicy. They have the most spiciest foods i've ever had. Sometimes we just get done with dinner and so we're full, then we go teach them and they offer us food, so we just have to pound it down so we're not rude. Man i've almost thrown up so many times. They speak a language called Kron. Its crazy! Some of them speak only cron, so its hard to teach. Their english is okay sometimes, it just depends who. They have tons of babies and kids running around, and they love us. The ward has a whole bunch of humble, nice, africans and they are so sweet! They are really receptive to the gospel. We have 7 up for baptism a week from next sunday. There is a really cool Haitian family that we ate at the other night. She made this squash soup that was so good! It was like a Haitian dish that they have a lot down there. My companions names are Elder Lake and Elder Kay. We are a trio companionships and they are ZL's, so i get to go with them to do fun exchanges and stuff. Something unique about our companionshiops is that Elder Kay speaks english, Elder Lake speaks spanish, and I speak portuguese. We all have different nametags ha its great. Something funny that happend this week is that on the first day in the field we donated blood at a hospital because we were supposed to give this person a blessing but they said to wait like and hour so we had nothing to do and we were just sitting at the hospital so we decided to give blood. It was funny. The weather here is pretty nice. Hopefully it stays like this. From what i hear it can get soooo cold. Every morning we go running and its pretty chilly, but we warm up quick. Scranton is an area in this mission which is sweet cuz thats where The Office is located and filmed. Good stuff... I'll have to check out the Liberty bell while i'm here too. The Philly Cheesestakes here are amazing! Beats the ones back home for sure. I can eat em all day. But yeah, the day and the life of a missionary is pretty crazy. Ghetto but awesome. I love the people here, and i'll be sad when i have to leave for brazil i'm sure. It sounds like things are going great at home, and how dare you turn my room into a man cave!! Jk, it sounds pretty legit... well take care and i'll hear from you next monday! I love you and keep up the good hard work! 

 

Love, Matt