hey mom and dad
wow! i cant believe it has been another week already. by next week i will be training a new financial secretary. it has been crazy. i don't feel like i even had time to breath haha. i am running around like crazy. the audit went pretty good, just gave me a bunch of work! but at least i didn't mess anything up too bad haha. wow, i dont even know where to start this week. we had a baptism of Paula on saturday. it was really good. she was way excited and is really liking going to church. she is a pretty tough little girl. she is 15 years old and her parents don't want anything to do with the church. she lives very far from the church, but she is there every sunday. she watches over her little sister, that is special, and works in her family's little grocery store, and is in high school right now. she is a little warrior. we are working a lot in this little area called santa cruz. it is just a little humble part of the city, and the people there are amazing! it is were we got the alligator, so everyone knows us haha. the last three baptisms are all from there. we found a golden family there yesterday. a member introduced us to this family after we ate lunch at his house. they are very special people! the member brought us there because the husband has brain cancer, and has had a surgery already, but has to have another, and is fighting the cancer. he has four kids and his wife, and they are a family that is very close. we went there and sat down with them and really connected with them. we got to know them and presented the plan of salvation to them. they had so many questions for us and were so interested in what we are saying. it really comforted them when we taught about eternal families. while we were talking with them about it they stopped us and said, "wait we don't have to be separated after death? there is a way that we can be together forever?" it was an amazing feeling to get to tell them about God's plan for them. at the end of our visit the husband told us of his life he had led. he had a very tough life. he said, "i was addicted to drugs in my youth, drank, smoked, went to jail for drugs, saw friends being killed, and have tried to get myself straight with God for the last 18 years of my life. i have got established my family, let go of all my addictions, provided a good life for my family, and now God is showing me the part that is missing with you two being here." it is these times on the mission when you really feel like an angel sent by our Heavenly Father to His children. it is an experience that is like no other. it is crazy how you can talk to a family for the first time in your life and feel a love for them so great. it is something amazing that i will never forget. i better run mom and dad. i have been on the move ever since seven this morning haha. a missionary got here early from one of the little cities here and we had to go get him haha. i just threw a shirt on and went. and we are working like crazy here, and i have to run to the north side of the city to do a bunch of stuff for missionaries, and send stuff to São Paulo haha. o i cant wait for a regular p day again haha. i love you guys. i will send another email tonight when it has calmed down here cuz i need to ask you to bring some stuff.

hey mom and dad
wow that is a big deer! i bet he tastes a lot better than that good ole tag haha. you guys will have to let me know how much he scores when they score him. how is colton doing on finding his deer? tell him to kill one even if its small so i can have some jerky when i get back, but that wouldn't be anything different, him killin little deer ;) haha well things here are pretty good. the yearly audit is today and has been going on for the last eight hours, so you know how much fun that brings for the financial secretary. and it doesn't help that last night around three in the morning we had a crazy rain storm and the power was out until 9 this morning. i was soaked by six thirty haha. it was great. the rain was nice though. it has been about a month and a half since it rained here in the city last, so it gave us a break from the heat. saturday when we were going to lunch we went by a thermometer and it was 105. it has been way hot! guess what only two weeks and i get to pass my job to someone else here on the mission. i am pretty excited, I'm not gonna lie. i am ready to be done with the craziness of the office. i was talking to president the other day and he was asking me where i wanted to go for my last transfer, i mentioned going back to one of the areas that i have already served in, ya he shut that down haha. but he was talking about maybe sending my to one of the little cities here close to manaus so i can get to know something different. but we will see what happens. i will be fine with whatever place he puts me. i am still liking this area. we have a baptism this week and that will be really good, but i feel like i know everyone haha. i almost feel like i turned a normal member of the ward here. but for sure I'm gonna miss it when i have to leave. there are a bunch of people here that I'm gonna bring you guys to meet. one of the members said he is doing a brazilian barbecue for you guys when you get here. it is good too, trust me. i just about made my self sick on it last week cuz i ate so much haha. i think i am gonna talk to this member and see if he can take me to pick you guys up then we will just go straight to his house for lunch. but we will figure that all out here in a little bit when it is getting closer. i talked to my brasilian mom this week and she is still way excited. she was talking in english with me and everything haha. you guys better start practicing your Portuguese. you guys should send me your guyses flight plans too. are we still needing tickets to Belo Horizonte? we have members here that could help find a cheap flight if you want. just let me know. o my package got here. it was just in time cuz my shoe has a nice hole in it and was just about wearing holes in my socks. I'm not saying the new shoes are the best looking things in the world, but they are comfortable and dont have holes in them haha. but i got to run. i love you guys and will talk to you next week.

hey mom and dad
sounds like things are going good there with the hunting and everything. man i sure do miss this season there. but i will only miss this time haha. you guys will have to bring some jerky here if any one kills anything, or a piece of the tag from what it is sounding like haha. i am excited to go to brianna's wedding. it will be good to see new york again. i can't believe how fast time is going by these days. i swear i wrote you guy yesterday haha. here before i know it you two will be here picking me up. and i cant wait till you see the river mom and all the things here, you will be amazed! you won't believe how much water there is. i'm glad kc liked those pictures. he would really like it here too. he doesn't know it but i really miss him. it doesn't help that i dont show it by writing a letter to him or even an email haha. but i really do miss him. i know we fought like cats and dog at home but i learned a lot of stuff with him, and he really gave me a good example in lots of stuff i needed to get better at. that's one of the things i have realized here on the mission. i feel like i should have been different towards him at some part in life and not have always been fighting with him. he has always meant a lot to me but i have realized that he really does mean a lot more to me than i show and i have taken that for granted. but we'll see if i can't repent and be closer to him when i get back haha. be closer to my sisters too haha. things here are good. stressful a lot of times, with the finances, but if it was easy i wouldn't be learning haha. we are going through some changes with the houses and material in the houses, so i really don't stop any more. it is getting close to transfers again so President has be asking me to indicate some missionaries to replace me. it was funny what he said to me today. he said. " we have to find some one like you, very calm at points and very angry at other points". hahaha i think he has seen the price temper come out a few times. but i am excited to get to train and put this burden on someone elses back for a while haha. he mentioned something about sending us to all the little branches here in the amazon for a few weeks as we train but we will see how that goes. it would be nice to get some 24 hour boat rides into the amazon jungle or little jumper plane rides haha. i hear the people in these little cities are amazing and treat you like a king there. i hope it works out for us to do that but we will see. i was talking to my brazilian mom the other day and she is getting all trained up on her english before you guys get here haha. she is getting really excited too. but i better run mom and dad my food just got here haha, i love you guys and will talk to you next week.

happy birthday dad and kc
wow i cant believe that its dad's and kc's birthday already, july flew by! one of my friends here had his birthday today too. we went and had a little activity and i got toasted haha. its funny, we put regular clothes on to play soccer and what not and we all have these gnarly tan lines of a collared shirt. it looks pretty funny and is even funnier the next day when everyone has the top button unbuttoned on their white shirt cuz they got burn on their neck haha. but we had a lot of fun, so don't worry dad, we celebrated your birthday and had a lot of fun. but i am toasted. I'm glad you guys liked the picture of the alligator. did you like my sweet heart shirt? that's what you get when your house burns and you get all the missionaries clothes that they left behind of girlfriends that sent them dear john letters hahahaha. the worst thing is i knew this missionary really well and remember that he wore that shirt all the time and said he was gonna marry his girlfriend waiting on him at home. and i remember when he put that shirt in the "i don't want this anymore" box haha. but we are famous in that little area now with all those guys with tattoos and they like us. they always see us and say lets go get another alligator mormons hahaha. its good to have these guys as friends now, its a lot safer walking through that area. we are still working like crazy! i am convinced that this pace is gonna stay like this until i leave the office, if i leave, that is haha. but we are still managing to find new people and teach them. we are teaching Junior and he is really cool! he has been living a pretty wild life and we knew him before and taught him but he didn't want to give up the wild life. then one sunday he showed up at church and we talked with him and are getting him involved in the ward soccer and now he has a baptism date marked for the twentieth of this month. we are way excited for him and he is excited too. we just have to help him with a few things before that day, but he is gonna make it and it will be a huge step up in his life and he knows it. but i need to go mom and dad i have to go buy tickets to one of the little cities here in the amazon so two missionaries can go there and baptize a bunch of people that the branch has prepared there. i love you guy happy birthday dad and send a happy birthday to kc too.

hey mom and dad
wow another week gone by! it has been pretty crazy here but i think this week things will calm down a little bit. i had a training about finances this week with a guy from são paulo. it was really good but gave me so much more work! so now i am running like crazy trying to get things all worked out. but today we had something to relax. the second counsolor of the bishopric called us and told us to come running to his house. remember the place i sent you pictures of us fishing. well they got the alligator right in that little stream haha. it was so cool! we got tons of pictures with the alligator, and i got to eat alligator. it is really good! i will send pictures but i dont think you should put them up on the blog haha. it was a lot of fun! those guys there are so crazy! when they were getting him there was a bunch of guys in the water gettin him with the net, and he swam away and dissapeared under the water and came up right between this one guys legs haha. he jumped and got the alligator with his machete hahaha. and no mom, you dont have to worry, i was no where near the water haha. it was crazy though. after that the whole neiborhood was down there grilling him up to eat him. it was a lot of fun and nice to get our minds off of office work. then on our way back we even saw monkeys crossing the road. my companion looked at me and said, "yup, now my mission is complete, alligators and monkeys all in the same day." it was a lot of fun! now we are gonna go help some elders move into a new house then do some work in the office. maybe one of these days it will slow down around here but for right now its still pretty crazy! the time goes by so fast though when its busy its hard to believe that a week has already gone by. and it in August! sounds like you guys had a good time in vegas. sorry i didn't get it all set up with my friend. i wasn't able to talk with him before he headed out. that's sad to hear about enid. the Lord must know how strong of person she is to give her all these trails, but she is passing them for a reason and for sure the Lord has a special plan for her. just let her know i love her and am praying for her. well i better run, mom and dad, i have to go help these guys move. i love you guys!

hey mom and dad
wow another week gone by! it has been way crazy around here with transfers and areas opening we have been running around like crazy!!!! it all just seems like one big day. but transfers are done Wednesday so after that it will calm back down. i will be staying here this transfer and not training yet so i will have the one after this to train the get back in the field for another transfer. it will be good though i will be able to get everything planned and set up for when you guys get here. i got to meet elder wardles family today they came to pick him up too. they really like it here. you guys will like it a lot too but we still got a little while before you guys come haha. that's cool that all those guys are headed out on their missions. it makes me feel old haha. i cant believe chauncey and trent are about ready to come home too! so it sounds like pioneer day was fun. you think its hot there mom just wait till you come to manaus haha. it has been getting really hot the last few days here. we are lucky cuz the new house we live in has airconditioning in the bed room. its funny you do all you have to do at night then go take a shower and try to get in to the bedroom as quick as you can so you don't get soaked with sweat haha. things in the ward here are going really good. we just traded bishops. the new bishop is the man who took us out to buy something to wear after the fire haha we told him you see the blessings when you help the elders haha. but things are going good. the man we baptized last month Erivelton is doing really well! he just got his first calling in the ward and is preparing for the Melchizedek priesthood. he was way excited about his calling and this sunday was going around getting every ones names and addresses . i don't know how you call his calling in english haha i think it is the sunday schools first counselor. he is way excited though and that is always good to see. we are trying to get out in the streets more to find more people but between my stuff and elder damascenos stuff it gets really hard sometimes. but we get out still and it is really good. it takes a lot of stress off of us. we are trying to get tooned in with president but it is hard cuz he is still pretty lost but we are working with him and helping him. he is changing lots of stuff but i think it will be good for the mission. but i better run we have to take all the guys going home to the airport and they are still at presidents house haha. tonight is gonna be a long one. flights every two hours until six in the morning haha i love you guys and will talk to you next week.

hey mom and dad.
holy cow another week gone by! it has been going by so fast latley! i think it is because we are always running here. i got my flight plans. i was really excited to see them. it will be so good to get to see st claire too! thats cool you guy are gonna go visit him before too. they will be able to help you get on the right plane coming to here. the gonzaga family is getting excited to see you guys too! still a little over four months left but they are getting anxious haha. but anyways things are going good here. it is getting really hot!!!! today it was 104 degrees! i was melting. we had an emergency transfer this week cuz an american missionary got his visa and came early, so president moved tons of stuff! my companion went to a little city with the new missionary and i'm with elder damacseno. he is the executive secretary. he got here the same time i did in the office. we are still in my old area though. he is ending his mission this transfer, in September, or in october cuz president gave him the choice of staying another transfer cuz he needs him to train a new secretary. it has been comfirmed, i will be in here for another two transfers. so, i'm gonna break a record in the manaus mission for the longest time in the office haha. i will get out for my last transfer, hopefully, and go to a new area. i am gonna ask president if i can finish my mission in gloria cuz i won't have enough time to really get to know the ward and lots of people. so it would be cool to go back there cuz i really liked it there, and i already know the area. but we will see what happens here in three months, haha. if i get sent somewhere esle it will be fine too. transfers are next week. i'm not real excited about that haha. that just means more work for me. we will see how this fist transfer goes with president too. he is starting to get the hang of things, just needs more time. i think we are running him to death haha. he hasn't stopped since he got here. but things will calm down here in a little bit. i am just struggling with getting all the houses in the little cities reformed so the elders have a place to live next week when the areas get opened. it is tough reforming a house in a different city when you don't know any one that lives there haha. i sent a member from here there yesterday to reform three houses by next week haha. his name is Delson, he is really cool. he was in my first area too. he is the one that took us to hunt allegators haha. he helps me out a lot here. you guys will have the chance to meet him and his family when you guys get here. they are really special people. but i better run mom and dad i still have to go pick up a fridge for some elders. i love you guys talk to you next week