hey mom and dad
this weekend was really good but really busy for me. i had to transmit the conference with elder christofferson to the other missionaries in the different states in the mission. it was a little frustrating at times cuz i know absolutely nothing about computers but it was a good learning experience haha. but the actual conference was way good! i will have to print you out a copy of it when we get it all typed up. elder christofferson speaks Portuguese too, did you know that? so he did half of his talk in Portuguese and half in english. most of his talk was him opening up for questions from us. it was way cool. he was talking about the apostle's relationship with Christ and how they know for a fact that he lives and that he is our savior and how they have a very special relationship with Him. then someone asked the question how can we gain this special testimony of Christ and the reality him and his atonement. it was amazing what he said. he said that we have a special opportunity that is sitting in front of all our faces or on our book shelves at home. he started talking about, if he was in a trail and was being judged to see if he was lying about knowing that Christ lives, he would do one thing. then he picked up his book of mormon and said "i would lay this book in front of the judge and say this is the evidence that he lives, and you have the opportunity to know our savior Jesus Christ with the same surety as the apostles. its not about hearing his voice or seeing our savior but feeling the cleansing power of his eternal atonement. the way you get that absolute sure feeling to be able to stand in front of thousands of people and bearing a special testimony that Christ lives is by studying the book of mormon." we use the last three paragraphs of the introduction of the book of mormon a lot, but he had all of us open our scriptures and read the last paragraph where it says that we can receive a divine testimony from the holy ghost that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world. we were all blown away by how he emphasized it. so needless to say about a hundred and twenty missionaries, somewhere in the amazon jungle, have been studying the book of mormon everyday instead of the the other books in the missionary library. i had to put away jesus the christ in my studies so i can have that time to study the book of mormon better and understand better and really get to know my savior Jesus Christ. i loved the conference i didn't want to get out of that meeting cuz i felt relaxed and had a time to learn not having to worry about all the stuff in staff. so yes, the conference was very good! it sounds like easter was good there. it was good here too i went over to a really cool family's house in our ward and they gave me a giant chocolate egg haha. they love the missionaries!!!!! so tanner was feeling a little left out there huh? haha he is sixteen now right just have taylor take him on a date with one of those cute little lincoln county girls haha. that's funny though, I'm excited to see that kid when i get back he is gonna be so different. so we actually got a p day today!!!! we just got back from go carting haha. it was so fun! i lapped everyone haha. it is nice to relax a little bit. this week has been way stressful! my companion isn't doing so great, and we have had a few problems. but they are getting resolved friday when he has an interview with president. i think i might just sleep the rest of the day cuz i have been up at four thirty the past two mornings. yesterday we had to go get two families from a little city getting here by boat. they had been on that boat for three days getting here. so we got them back, let them get all showered up, and took them to buy some new church clothes, them put them on a plane at four in the after noon headed to são paulo to the temple. then today we had a zone activity at this indoor soccer field, way early, on the other side of the zone. so we went to that. but i think now I'm gonna go sleep. o, i talked to the missionary that sets up the flight and he will pass me the email and number of the lady in salt lake for you guys to set up the plane ride home from são paulo to the states for when you guys want it. and i will be able to call on mother's day whatever time. just let me know what would be a good time and i will call you then. its nice to have my own office where i make my schedule haha. love you guys. talk to you next week

hey mom and dad
so here i am without another p day haha. its good for me though, at least that's what i know you would tell me mom. so sounds like you guys have been pretty busy there. Dad you sound like you are getting some good work in haha. just imagine that for 8 stakes and four branches and thats a little of what i get to do haha. i have to go buy boat tickets to a little place called Tefé for the people that are going to the temple. they are gonna be all shocked. they have never been out of their city of Tefé on the amazon river. i like working with the branches from the little cities here in amazonas though. i get to be like their chaufer when they come to manaus. so guess what i forgot to tell you? Elder Christofferson is coming this weekend and we get to have a meeting with him!!!! its gonna be awesome i will get to shake another apostles hand. things have been crazy around here though. the chapel and the mission office were reformed this week, so it will all be like new for the apostle. so i have been trying to get all the stuff done, getting all the stake presidents and branch presidents here working, while people are moving all my cabinets around painting and cleaning haha. it has been way crazy, but it made the week go by so quick! i swear it was yesterday that i emailed you guys! the transfer is almost over too, only one more week and i will start into my third transfer here in staff. can you believe i only have like five transfers left? my mission president goes home in two transfers then we get to help the new one get used to the manaus heat haha. our new mission president is Brazilian. he sounds like a really good guy, but then again you pretty much have to be when you are a mission president haha. it will be a little different when he comes, but it will be good. i just hope he doesnt leave me in staff till the end of my mission! i want to go to one of the little cities here in amazonas. we are getting nineteen missionaries this transfer, so we are gonna get to open up a lot of areas. we are gonna open one across the river, too, so maybe i can talk president into sending me there when i am done here in the office. the office is cool and all but i want to get out in the field again. so you guys got some stuff to send to my brazilian family? they do have a cd and dvd player so you are good to go. i went and ate pizza hut with them the other night. it's way funny, pizza hut is like a really nice resturaunt here. we ate all you can eat pizza and did some work!!! we ate so much haha. my companion almost got sick from how much he ate. remember my companion elder lopes? he finishes his mission in two weeks so we are gonna all go over to that families house next wednesday and have a little going away party. but other than that things are good here. i am teaching one of my good friend's, from the ward, family. he served a mission, and the only one from his family that is a member is his brother. so we are teaching his mom and brothers and sisters. they all went to church this week, so we are gonna try to make their baptism date this week. so keep your fingers crossed. but i got to run i'm gonna go eat some lunch. i love you guys. i got a package together for you, just am getting ready to send it. but i don't know if i should wait till that guy from my ward goes to vegas and just bring it to you. maybe i will just send the cd with all my pictures from my first memory card on it so it gets to you guys way fast. talk to you next week

hey mom and dad.
you guys are getting old, haha, and so am i. i got a p day today!!!! i haven't been in the office at all today! we went and played soccer this morning then went to the zoo. now im just waiting for seven a clock and i am going to play soccer with all the members. haha. i felt like a caged animal freed, so what did i do, went to see other caged animals haha. it was a lot of fun and did me a lot of good! it felt to get out in the sun and run around. it took a lot of stress off of me. then my package got here today so that made it even better. thanks for all of the stuff! i'm tryin not to eat all my jerkey today haha. all the little salt water taffies turned into soup though. all the things were stuck together in there haha. but they didn't get to my new white shirt or the magazines, so that is good. it's a good thing you guys sent me that shirt. i caught one of mine on a fence last week and ripped a hole in my sleeve. i think this one will fit a lot better too. so things sound like they are going good there. is emmy still a fat little dog? she is starting to get old too now. that's way crazy about those turkeys! i bet all those guys were real confused for a little bit haha. is there still snow up in the mountains? it is just raining a lot here! it is amost over though and ready to start into summer. then i will be feeling it haha. things are going good here though. i am still working like crazy working things out, but its starting to slow down now. we hardly didn't get to leave the office last week, but the lord was seeing that we were way busy and sent us some golden investgators right to our front door! this couple shows up here and asks for someone that can show them around the church. so we are like, well you found the right people. we took them through a tour of the church and they were amazed how organized it is and how beautiful it is. then we are up stairs and they start looking at the painting of jesus getting baptized by john the baptist and were like, you know i have everything i need in my life but i have never been baptized and thats something that i feel i am missing. (as me and my companions jaws drop to the floor) we are going there tomorrow and marking their baptismal date for the first week of May. i am way excited for them. o and all of the people we baptized the other week are doing good now. they were all at church sunday and claudo got a present from one of the members, a white shirt and tie. he was way excited to get it so he could look like all the other members haha. it was like seeing the kids get their first varsity jersey in football. i saw his eyes light up that same way. so this week was a lot better than last week. but i better run mom and dad i love you guys! Happy birthday on saturday mom!!!!!!

hey mom and dad
so, yes i got your whole email last week. i was just a little frustrated and stressed, haha, but that never happens to me right? ;) but the mission rule on going home is that i can go to bele horizonte. what it is, is that the mission usually buys the tickets to São Paulo then the church will buy my ticket to the US. so, what will happen is, we will talk to são paulo to buy the ticket for the end of the week or whenever you guys are wanting to come back. then the mission will buy my ticket to bele horizonte, then we will have to buy a ticket from there to são paulo to catch my flight back to the US. we just did that for a missionary that is going home two transfers before me. it will be nice cuz i'm in here, so i will be the one setting it all up and buying the plane tickets so it doesnt just get lost somewhere between the lines. i think we buy my tickets in july. i'm excited to see st Claire. i will get to speak portuguese with him, weird! if you want any other information just ask me. but anyways, i loved general conference. my favorite talk was either Elder Richard G. Scott about eternal families, Elder Oaks about desire or Elder Christofferson about correction in our lives. his parable of that little tree that was cut down so that it could grow and produce fruit, i really liked that one! did you hear the prophet talking about manaus? everyone went crazy here haha. he is gonna be here in january for the temple dedication, i think. i'm sad i'm gonna miss that! i really enjoyed general conference. it gave me a time where i didn't have to worry about finances and just sit and learn and feel the spirit. its really amazing what the words of our modern day prophets can do to us. i really like a scripture about what can happen if we let it in, Mosiah 5:1-2, really almost all of chapter five. i never realized before the mission how important a living prophet really is to us and what we can accomplish listening to their words and applying them to our lives. i liked the end talk of conference. elder holland gave us a good wake up call of how important these talks we hear really are and how we better be listening cuz the lord will make his voice heard. so conference was way good, but then comes monday and the rush starts all over again haha. i have not stopped since monday! i didnt get a p day today (for the third week in a row) and i have been working from morning till late at night trying to get everything done. It is just great how people wait till the last sec to need something paid, right mom, haha. i get this call from one of the little cities here in amazonas and they say, "well you guys are paying for our trip to the temple (what president Monson was talking about) and it has to be payed by ten a-clock thursday morning." but then they through the loop in it, "it is six thousand Reais!!!!" me "well, i only get a five thousand reai allotment per week, president Jayme. how am i gonna do this?" President Jayme "well that's why you are the financial secretary. figure it out." haha, o man am i learning on the mission!!!! i think i got it now though. president jayme is a college professor for sure, cuz he knows how to make you learn. he knows all of this. he is great with "buisness running" (i forgot the word for that), but he lets us figure it out on our own to teach us. it's his famous phrase here in the office "well what are you gonna do about that?" haha. maybe this is the Lord's way of whipping me into shape with my personal finances haha. i have literally been up to my eyes in work this week though. this is the first break from it i have got for the last three days. but then i will get it done and it will be slow again. haha. i'm sure you have no clue what that's like do you mom ;) o, i got a new companion too. six americans got here last night from the states, so there was a transfer in the middle of the transfer. i am now with Elder Garcia. he is cool. my other companion was so mad he was leaving the area, haha, and it wasn't just left to the area next to this but moved to a different state in the mission, haha. right about now he is probably roasting as he is standing right on the equator, haha, while i still have my air conditioning. but things are going good, just really tired!!!! we are allowed to stay up and finish our work, so i get to use my days, when its allowed, for us to catch up on our sleep the next few days to recuperate. i love you guys! o and my package hasn't got here yet.

hey hermits hahaha
so sounds like things are going good there, just livin the good life, eat, work, workout, eat again then relax haha. sometimes i wish i had a day like that haha. today is supposed to be p day, but not. just like last wednsday, americans are getting their visas and they are flying in tuesday nights. so that means working for us on wednsdays. i am waiting to train the new guy that got here last night right now. i have to teach them all about their cards and how not to get robbed here, haha, its great. next week we get five more americans on tuesday night too, so that will be the third p day that i dont have haha. but its alright we are needing missionaries bad!!! we are down to about 120 in our mission, and our mission is four states big. so it will be good to start getting americans again to reopen some of the areas, like the little cities here close to manaus. these weeks here in staff have been pretty crazy! lots and lots or work. i have been running non stop for the last two weeks. its almost the start of the month again, so i have been running all over the city trying to get all the new contracts of the houses signed and all the missionaries that are moving moved. just imagine 75 house owners calling you everyday wanting to raise prices, or telling you the missionaries have to leave the house before the eleventh, or that the houses need to be reformed cuz they are destroyed haha. it is all kinds of fun. i am learning a lot though!!!!! i have been way busy though. then we are working in the feild too. we are having good sucsess here, we have three dates for baptism marked of men. we are way excited about them. our baptism from two weeks ago, claudo, is struggling right now. it is so hard to see a person that you have worked with so much just be attacked by temptation. you go visit them four times in the week to try to give them strength, but then you have to see them fall. last night we went and visited him and he was just broken down. he had been doing the wrong things again and he just asked me why? why does it have to be so hard? he just gave me a hug and begged for my help. he just wants to be back where he was when he was baptized and feel that same way. it is really hard to watch! its like getting a little glimpse of what the savior feels when we do things wrong. but you really get a testimony of the saviors atonement. it's like god is letting you feel tiny, tiny bit of the pain, compared to the savior, for when you see the people you love do something wrong and fall. it really does hurt right down to your heart. but there is a saying about how you learn on the mission, that you learn from love or from pain. but it really is hard! sometimes it gets you down and you don't want to work but then you remember those times you learned from love and it motivates you. i'm excited for general conference this week! i wish i had this work sheet thing in english, that i have to help understand general conference better, so i could send you guys. it is way cool. it will be my first time using it. it tells you how to prepare for general conference, somethings to look for during it, and what to do after. then it has places how to take notes so you aren't just writing your arm off and missing half of the talk. it is way cool! one of the other missionaries and i are doing something cool too, we are gonna write down ten questions that we have, that are gospel related, and look for them in the talks and see how many get answered. but i better go, i think we are gonna try to get out for lunch today. i think we are going to a members house that is having an activity with the other missionaries. i love you guys talk to you next week