Hello!

Hey Kids! 

So there are a couple of changes in the email rules, my email time has been changed from 1 hour to 40 mins and I can now email anyone, family, friends, acquaintances so if anyone wants to talk to me you can give them my email now! Pretty cool huh? This last week was a good one, we got some good work done and had some fun too!

We bought a pizza for Elder Helenos bday on Monday  it was 50 cm across! It was really good too. We went to two weddings, one was of Natanael, who we baptized last month and the other was of Rodrigo and Isabel a very special family who were baptized this week! We helped the couple missionaries teach them a little so we went to the wedding too. They had like a whole cake left over so every time we go over there we get some cake which is delicious!

Something very cool happened this week! There is a woman here whose sister and brother are members, we started teaching her at the beginning of February and we were super excited because she was the perfect candidate for baptism. But she was traveling for the last month and a half and we kinda forgot about her and figured that when she got back she wouldn't be as excited. Turns out to be the exact opposite! She called on Friday and told us that she wanted us to visit and she had already made plans to go to church with a friend of hers! When we taught on Friday she accepted baptism and said that she really wanted it! Its super awesome and exciting, if all goes according to plan she will be baptized on the 30th, the weekend before Elder Heleno goes home. It is an awesome blessing from the Lord!

Other cool things that happened this week:

I answered 2 telephone calls this week and did it in Portuguese and I didn't just answer them, I talked the whole time! It was pretty awesome, one of them was like 3 and a half minutes! Hahah!

Congrats to Ashli for running and not dying, I think that it's safe to suppose that I didn't get an email from you because you still can't feel your legs!

Congrats to Kayc, the big 2 2 this week, very exciting! I will bring home a cool present for you!

Good luck at region Mason! I expect a quadruple double! points, steals, assists, and blocks!

And I guess that its kind of cool that John is graduating. And Preston. (at least I think that Preston is, but I'm not sure).

Also it is starting to cool down! It gets nice and fresco here at night and in the morning, and I am not in a constant sweat anymore! Haha, things are much more enjoyable like this! Its hard to write about an entire week because there is a lot that goes on here, but I try and give you the highlights at least! I love you guys a lot, sorry that I didn't write more! Love you!

Love, 

Elder Stringer

Phil...Phil Conners!!??

Hello!

So we had a zone conference yesterday and I didn't find out about it until half way through last week, so P day is today! So something funny happened last week! I received a bunch of letters that were mailed to the Mission Home so unfortunately I was once again reminded of all of the fun things that you all did without me! It was weird reading all of the letters that you sent back in January and I also got some Christmas letters too. Things are rolling here! I don't know what to say, honestly this week went by pretty dern quickly. I will explain the branches here in São Gabriel:

Ramo São Gabriel is our branch and the people are all really awesome! Our average attendance is 70-90. Here in Brasil there are a lot of baptisms, but frequently the people don't stay strong in the church, I think that the membership here is around 200 or so. So if all of our plans fall through we can always pull out our list of members and try to teach an inactive member. It is really sad that this happens and I am not exactly sure why it happens so frequently here, but we focus a lot on retention and how we can keep converts in the church. The members here are awesome! They are one of the best branches in the mission from what everyone says and I believe it, we have a lot of lessons with members because they are all willing to come with us! 

Ramo Bom Fim is a little different because their area is very far from the church, they have a bus come around every Sunday to pick people up. I think that the attendance is 60-70. But still great things are happening there!

Right now we have 3 couples that we are trying to get married before baptism. Nobody here is married! Literally its crazy, I think that no one wants to pay the money. 

Its crazy that Kayc already has her dress! Its really coming up fast! I am bummed that I wont be there, but i'm glad that I am here.

The weather here is starting to improve! Its getting much cooler and if I use my fan at night I sometimes need my blanket! I think that I will make french toast today! 

I attached a photo of me and Vitoria. We were having family night and it was real fun! The Portuguese is coming, I can understand a majority of what people say and at times I can converse with others! Haha!

I love you guys a lot and hope and pray that all is well over there!!

Lots of love,

Elder Stringer

They're always putting too much water in these things...

Hey!!!

I am slowly forgetting all of the movie quotes that I spent 19 years gathering in my mind! Things are going very well here! I can't believe that it is almost Kayci's birthday! It was Elder Heleno's birthday yesterday and one of the families here held a party for him, it was sweet! We had a lot of cake and cookies! He has less than a month left and it is starting to take a toll on him. Haha. We had a pretty funny lesson the other day! 

This guy was absolutely crazy, he let us in and we asked him how he was and he told us that he used to be really good at french. And then he explained to us that when Brasil was discovered, there were indians here and after that he explained how he is not white, the wall is white, he has color. We started the lesson and every question that we asked, he would reply with something about how he used to be good at french or indians or how he has color. It was super weird. Weird stuff happens very frequently but not like this, he only talked about these 3 things! It was really hard not to just start laughing, because Elder Heleno was trying so hard to get a real answer out of him, but he couldn't!

We are also currently teaching a gypsy too! He's an interesting fellow as well. I can't hardly understand a word he says, but he's a nice guy. One of the counselors in the mission presidency was at church yesterday and he told the branch president that we must be pretty powerful missionaries if we can get a gypsy to church! Haha! I thought that was pretty funny.

I'm doing well here, my feet have toughened up now and the walking has gotten easier and the weather is better too. I eat a lot of rice and beans, actually that's just about all that I eat! I really like it though, honestly I think that it is very good. I got to watch a part of the Best Two Years yesterday, it was weird watching it cuz I can relate to Elder Calhoun and what not. Its pretty funny how old all of the actors are in that movie though. 

I am hesitant to ask this, but when does march madness start? You all should send me a bracket so that I can win the family bet again! I think that probably the second hardest part of the mission is the lifestyle change, not being able to watch march madness and the superbowl and stuff. That's what kills you. Anyway... if I don't get an email from Ash next week I think that it is fair to suppose that she is regretting the decision to run when it was unnecessary and will probably take her a good month or so to recuperate to the point that she can send me an email!

I love you guys a lot and good things are happening here! I hope that things are well on the homefront!

Love, 

Elder Stringer

Hey there...fella

How's things there? 

Today is the first day of my second transfer!

Things are going very well here! Both of our baptisms happened on Saturday, it was pretty neat. Elder Heleno baptized Natanael, he had already been coming to church when we got here. His girlfriend is a member, he hadn't been baptized earlier because he was a baptist and had a lot of doubts particularly with the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. I baptized Mariane, she was a contact in the street about two weeks ago, we are currently preparing the rest of her family for baptism too. 

Its great to hear that the 7th ward bball legacy is continuing! Mason was killing out there I am sure! I'm happy to hear that our buddy DDL is having some success too! Its about time! HAAHA!

I'm really sorry, I was going to get you our address here, but I forgot again. I promise that I will next time, I already wrote it in my planner!

It is going to get cold here in a couple of months, but its good we already have blankets and stuff so no worries. I am doing more than fine with my money here, we are switching debit cards here and I had to take all of my money from my account, I didn't know how much I had and when I got there I had like 304 reais in my account! Haha, so I will be eating good this week! I don't have any problems saving money though and definitely receive enough to survive!

58 new missions! That's crazy! Very exciting! Everything is going well here, I will be ripped when I get home you guys will hardly recognize me!

Can you believe that we are coming up on 3 months already!! Its crazy! The next 3 will be even faster too! There is a movie rental place here that we pass by frequently and its weird to see posters of movies that I have no idea what they are! Or I like seeing posters in Portuguese too! The newest was: Batman, O Cavalheiro das Trevas Ressurge. Haha, pretty cool!

Nothing very different has happened, I think that I will be sending some more baptism pictures within the next month though! We have some investigators who are real close! But we just keep on working! 

The Portuguese is coming along very nicely, better than expected even! I found that I can start conversing with people now! If we are giving a lesson and talking about the gospel, I can understand pretty much everything! Normal conversation is more difficult, but still, its coming! I have no doubts that the gift of tongues is real!

Anyway, so I hope and pray that you guys are well! I love you all so much! 

Elder Stringer

You ever heard of the term "nam"?

Now listen hear Jack!

Haha! I wrote down lots of stuff to tell you all this week! I will start with the good stuff:

We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday! I think that they will both happen, I can't see any problems arising, that being said you never know. But hopefully I will be sending some good pics next week!

Everyone here is very accepting of us and many people agree to hear our message. Its great, everyone here is very religious and love to hear about Jesus! That being said, we teach so many lessons that go kind of like this, 

After explaining that Christ was baptized in many waters, by someone who had authority and when he was 30 years old. We say 

"Do think that it is important to follow the example of Christ, being baptized as He was?"

"Of course."

"Awesome, we are preparing people to be baptized in the same manner as Jesus Christ was, will you accept to this preparation?"

"Oh I was already baptized."

"That's great, were you baptized as Christ was? Many waters? Age? Authority?"

"No. I'm Catholic, I was baptized when I was a baby."

"What is the purpose of baptism?"

"To take away our sins."

"Do you think that a baby has sins?"

"Of course not!"

"Then is it necessary for a baby to be baptized?"

"No."

"Then will you accept our help, and prepare to be baptized as Christ was?"

"No, I was already baptized..."

(repeat, with authority and immersion)

Haha, and so on. It happens all the time. It's a little ridiculous, but good. Everyone here is really nice.

It is amazing how much sense the gospel makes, every time that we are teaching it is another testimony to me that these things are true. The Church today is just as it was when Christ organized it.

I have had the awesome opportunities of giving the oil anointing blessing a couple of times now! It is very cool, except that when I ask someone for their full name it's usually something like this: Jose Riberto Ricardo Veras Menenizes Frances de Silva. Haha, its always an adventure!

One of the member families here are great! They have two kids, ages 3 and 6, Vitoria and Homero. They love me! haha it's great! Yesterday in sacrament meeting they sat next to me and were making so much noise, I was trying to calm them down and I think that all the other members where not very happy with me! It was fun though, whenever we go to their house I play with them! Vitoria always comes up to me and grabs my hand and loves to show me all of her stuff. Its great! 

I'm sure that you heard that the pope is retiring. This makes for good conversation here. When people say that they have been Catholic their whole life, we'll joke that if the pope can change they can too! This doesn't always go over well, but it's pretty funny.

I'm pretty sure that I would be fat if I didn't walk and sweat so much! I eat a lot, mostly cause they always tell me to eat more and also because I can't say much so I eat. Its good though! I love rice and beans!

The other day we found a very large spider in the baptismal font!! Haha, it crawled down the drain. I would love to baptize someone but this really scares me!

We've been holding a lot of family nights. We make cookies and play games and stuff and it always goes really well! This is a great way to find more people to teach! We do it in a members house and have them invite friends. Its awesome! At the last family night we had, the friend that the member brought was George Clooney's Brazilian brother! I did a double take when we first got there, he looked so similar!

I have made some errors with the language, but usually it's not a big deal.  I had a pretty good one though the other day when I asked someone if they had a religious child. Criança-child Creença- belief. Elder Heleno seemed to think that it was pretty funny.

I'm having a good time here! The Lord has blessed us so much, I get to see and hear some pretty rough things here. A lot of people have gone through very hard trials, but I know that through the Atonement all that seems unfair in life will be made right! I love you all tons! I miss you too!

Love,

Elder Stringer

p.s. 

I kinda feel like Doc Cassidy when I write to yàll, You should read this letter again in your best B.R.C. voice and play some sappy country music in the background!

Love YOU!!!!!!!!!

 p.p.s

I think that for Masons stu co campaign he should dress up as Si from duck dynasty all week and act like him! That would be classic! Love you guys!!!!

Opa!!

Opa Família!

How are things in Utah!? Or the fabrica (factory) as the people call it down here! I hope that things are going well! Let's see, yesterday we marked a baptismal date for Feb. 23 with one of our investigators who has been very difficult! He is very firmly set on the Bible and would always try and find something to prove us wrong.

Other than that, life is normal here! My feet are wrecked, haha you should see them! They are all sorts of different colors with dead skin and mosquito bites all over! Ha! It's good though, I'm having a good time! I don't know if mom remembers but the umbrella that I brought is tiny! It hardly covers me! When I use it I feel like how I imagine John felt with his pillow in the airport! Luckily its only sprinkled here! I think that a real storm would destroy it. I'll probably buy another one some time. Also its still super hot here! Ha, I can wring the sweat out of my shirts at the end of the night! You get used to it eventually. 

We've been working really hard. Teaching lots of lessons and stuff! Three times this week we've had to run home at 9:25 trying to make it back on time! Its terrible, I hate it, I haven't run that much since 8th grade in Mr. Boban's class! Hopefully I will come home in one piece  Has Topshot started again, if so, what's going on? Or Psych? I think that starts next week. Hows BYU? Are they going to make the tourney? Have they played Zaga or St. Mary yet? The Jazz? Churchball? What happened there? And I was wondering if you could send me the recipe for breakfast cake and a simple choc chip cookie one too? Hehe. I'm trying to think of what else that I could write for you, but I don't know. The days here just kind of blur together and I can't remember much. Oh, Carnaval is going on right now! It all happens at night so nothing is different for us! The youth of the church all go to a youth conference type thing during Carnaval so they've been gone for the past couple days. We've got a couple of pretty serious investigators that we are trying to get baptized, I will let you know what happens with that though! I had a dream the other night and the only part that I remember was that Billy Ray Cyrus was in it!! I don't know what this means, but it has to be significant right? 

My personal goal as of late has been to lose myself in the work. I am very frequently thinking of home and this must stop! I have already given the Lord my might and my strength, but I need to give him my mind and my heart now. I think that this will help a lot and if I do this He will turn me into what He wants me to be! It's really hard though when I have been blessed with so many great memories and know that I will have many more, but that is what I must do. I am here to serve and I gotta give it my all! You are all excellent examples of this to me! I love you guys ton and I will try to remember stuff this week that I can write so that I will write more!! Love you lots.

Love 

Elder Stringer

Hello!

Howdy Partners!

How's it going? I hope that your Superbowl Sunday was as fun as mine! 

So the cards that go to the mission home don't get forwarded here, I will receive them at zone and mission conferences and the next one is in 6 weeks.

Anyway, where to start? We had a couple days here that were around 45 degrees C. Which is over 100 F I think. I was sweating nonstop like a waterfall down my face! It's really gross. I'm tired all the time, I don't know how I'm going to make it two years, but I guess I just gotta trust in the Lord, He'll help me, He already has. We do lots of walking and stuff, both Elder Heleno and I are new in the area so we are just trying to find people to teach, we teach about 7 lessons a day though.

I like it down here though, I feel like I'm in a Brazilian John Wayne movie about missionary work. People ride horses through the streets and stuff. The sunsets are the most beautiful things! It's amazing the sky is so huge and it is a majestic site! I always look forward to it. The gauchos here are pretty cool too. I will now answer some of your questions.

São Gabriel has about 50000 residents. There are two branches here. I was sent out a week early because I was supposed to enter a week early, and the transfers lined up like that. They gave me a debit card and I get like 120 Reals per 15 days or something, which I think is plenty so I should be good. If not I will use my card. I am sort of eating 3 square meals a day. I've already adopted the small Brazilian breakfast way of life. I usually have some bread, yogurt, and cookies. Lunch is always with members and we eat a lot. It's always rice, beans, and noodles with the occasional chicken. Dinner is just whatever. We get back at 9 or 930 and have to plan so I will eat some cookies and bread and something healthy if I can find it. Haha.. More about Elder Heleno, he is from Curitiba his mom joined the church when he was 4, he is going home in April I will be his last comp, he's super excited and walks really fast. Which is a problem for me because it is physically impossible for me to walk fast, but I try to keep up. 

Now that a couple of weeks have passed I think it is alright that I tell you that I think that it is a little funny that mom deleted my voice mail. I'm sure that it was terrible as well, but a little funny, right? Haha! And Happy Birthday Mason!! I forgot to tell you on Monday but on Sunday I told everyone that it was your b day! Haha the big 1 7 wow, you are very old! It's weird I think. I am jealous of the snow and cross country skiing, I miss that. Haha, I miss the time when i wasn't responsible for hardly anything! Oh well, i~ll put in my two years of responsibility and then i~m done. I love you guys so much! I am excited for when we can party again, but until then I will keep going! I hope things are going well, it sounds like they are. Hopefully time starts passing a little quicker. I think it will as I start understanding the language and what not. But even if it doesn't I will keep going. I will continue waking up at 630 and everyday I will continue talking to as many people as I can. I love you tons, you are a major reason for why I wake up every morning. Honestly, I want you guys to be proud of me. I think that things will be okay here. I love you more and more everyday!

Lots of love,

Elder Braden Stringer