Bon Bon

June 15, 2015

Dad,
 I am sorry to hear about Bon Bon. Though I knew the chances of seeing her again were small, I had hope here towards the end of my mission. I as well was expecting to receive an email saying she was feeling better. Though I knew this email was always a possibility. I will miss her as I have missed her on my mission. Though I worry about you now knowing the bond that you had with her. If a 20 year old son could give advice to a father it would be to remember that you will see her again in the life to come. But she will look different as her body will not have the effects of old age on it. She will look very different to me as I never knew her under the age of 79. Which is incredible for me to think of. Remember the wonderful times that you had with her. I will always remember the wonderful times I had with her going out to eat and spending those years in Tucson. It is sad that all the good times pass away. And we have to keep creating new ones. One day my kids will have the memory of all the good times they had going out to eat with you and Mom. And then when they are on their missions they will wish that they were there again having dinner. I am glad that everyone was able to get together and celebrate her life. I wish I could have been there. 

Remember to move forward and press on. Though the good times always will pass by, so will the bad times. 

This week had been difficult for me as I have switched companions. With change and me comes anxiety so I continue to battle and hope for the best. I know with time things will settle down. 

My new favorite soccer team is Barcelona.

I love you. I love Mom as well. Kate and Anne too. Remember that. Though I have a hard time saying how I feel I have made it a goal to be better with this when I come back. It will help me in life. Listen to this talk, it always makes me feel better. 

Your son,
William

To be baptized, you have to get married first if you are living together.

These pigs are my favorite animal to see around town.

Just a bit more....

Tell Anne to get off her phone for me. I am sure that Anne is happy to be out of school. I am sorry to miss Bon Bon's Birthday party. Hopefully I will be there for 100! I do not really miss being home during the school year but I am sorry I will miss this summer. I have lots of guys I know at Roosevelt who will have grad parties that I will miss. But that is part of life. 

Yes the Bishop's son plays the piano and does a very nice job. He went on a mission to Sao Paulo. Yes we have young men to do the sacrament. The wedding and the baptism went great. Friday we got a ride with Bishop to the wedding place which saved us lots of time. But unfortunately it took an hour and a half to get back due to a strike that the bus drivers were doing. I am glad things like this do not happen in the United States very often. Transfers are next Tuesday. My companion does not go home until October.... We have not had a Stake conference since I was in the Bom Jardim stake. I am saving all my purchases until the last 2 weeks. I have enough stuff to carry around with me if I am transferred again. Yes I will buy plenty of fake soccer Jerseys. I am sure that Anne is excited to be done with here braces. It has been a long time since she put them on. 

Other than that the week was very normal. We did not have anybody at church this week for the first time in a long time which was a bummer. Actually this half drunk guy we invited showed up but he left after the first meeting which was good because he kept clapping and smelled like alcohol. But lots of people showed up for the baptism which was great. Hopefully we will have some more soon.

I am emailing late today because for some reason email did not work this morning. Have a great week. 

Love,

Will

June!

Yes there are tons of missionares from Utah. But not many in this mission. I think the spread out the callings for Brazil because they do not want to overload one of the embassies in the United States that does visas. Sorry you have not been feeling well. Wish I could help you with mowing the yard. I am sure it will start to get hot soon in Iowa. I will welcome the Winter when I return. 

This week really was not that great but at least we accomplished everything with the baptism. We only had one new good investigator this week who told us he was going to go to church on Sunday but then Sunday morning he fell through saying he went to visit his Mom. It was a bummer but I have a lot of hope for him. He is 17. 

If we have people to baptize I would like to stay here but if not I would not mind leaving and finishing my last transfer in a different area. But we will just have to see what happens. We sleep great as our apartment does not have any mosquitoes. I would say most of the apartments here have a problem with this.

 

 Give Finley a haircut for me. There are lots of things that I will miss and not miss but remember that I still have 3 more months here which still is a long time. But you are right I will not miss riding the bus. I will send pictures of the wedding and baptism to Mom. They got married on Friday and Baptized Saturday along with their oldest daughter. The bishop baptized them and they were confirmed on Sunday. It all went very well without any problems. It was great to see. I am running out of time so I will finish the email quick.

Let me know what happened with the Fifa scandel as some people have talked about it and I just wanted to know the facts. Go Cavs but I will be happy with either team winning to be honest. I saw an iphone 6 for the first time here. They are 3000 reals here. I also saw a ps4 which is also 3000 reals. 3000 reals being 1000 dollars. I sent Bon Bon an email last week so ask her if she got it. 

Love,

 

W

End of May

Do you know if that is all my credits for BYU? I think it is but I am not sure. You will have to ask your students if they like the new baseball coach.

 I sent Dad an email about the missionary work that we are doing and what is up with me here. The family will get married Friday and the baptism is Saturday

Yeah Kate is a different breed of mormon, a little different from the normal. But that is not a bad thing. But she needs to marry a member of the church. If she marries someone who is not a member it makes like that much more difficult. If anyone knows that it is you. I cannot tell you how many times you hear about strong members of the church who marry non-members and eventually leave the church. There is a women in our ward who has a son on a mission and she is a very strong member of the church. She has been married 26 years and her husband still will not get baptized because he likes to play soccer on Sundays and drink a little. But she has lots of hope but her life has definately been harder because of it. You and Dad are the exception to the rule. You got lucky. So in the end, Kate will get married, but she has to marry a Latter Day Saint. Preferably someone who went on a mission. 

I have not seen Robinson recently but I am sure he will get his travel plans in 2 weeks when the next transfer starts. I hope to see him before he leaves but it depends on where he gets transferred. I saw the photots in Dropbox thanks so much. Thanks for cutting the dog's hair. Send me a photo when you finish. 

Lots of Love,

W

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, have fun at the ward picnic. Ward activities in the States are much better than they are here but that is just due to the lack of money and resources that people have here. I know what you mean when you say socializing gets tiring. I get tired of it very quickly.

As far as missionary work goes this week was not so great. We went and signed for the wedding which will be held Friday for the family that we will baptize Saturday. The Bishop said he will be there which would be great because we could get a ride with him instead of taking the bus. But we will see if he pulls through. Other than that all the other people we are teaching are not very interested. So this week we will do lots of finding new people. There are lots of Catholics but many evangelicals as well here in Brazil. And most people are surprised to hear that our church is not Catholic or Evangelical. Not many people have large families due to the cost of having kids. Family structure here is about as stable as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Men are not very responsible for the children that they make.

Bummer I will not be able to watch the NBA Finals. I wish I could watch a nice sci-fi movie today as well. That would be awesome. I think sci-fi movies are my favorite kind of movies to watch. I have started exercising more in the mornings. I got a set of weights from the zone leaders to use which makes it easier. 

When I write these emails there are times I want to use Portuguese words to explain things because there words that you use in Portuguese to describe things that the English language does not have. Haha

Hope you have a great week. 

Love,

Will

To Dad

I would take either the Cavs or the Warriors to win it all. That would be a great finals, Cavs and Warriors. Go Cubs. 

Yeah I looked at the weather channel like one time here and I remember it saying that it was going to rain everyday during the week. But I do not think it rained very much at all. I do not think the weather is very accurate here; if it rains it only rains in the morning or during the day but not for very long. It has not rained for some time now. I think it has stopped for the year. The name of the hot mission and city is the Brazil Teresina Mission. It has got to be one of the hottest missions in the world but lots of people say Manaus is really hot as well. 

Well at least Anne completed Seminary. Seminary here in Fortaleza is 7;30 to 8;30 pm. Quite different than the states. 

The week was a little difficult as we worked a lot but we only had one guy come to church other than our family we will baptize. But there was some other kid who was 17 and tall as I am who showed up who lives in our area so we will start teaching him starting tomorrow. 

I do not have much other than that to say this week. Hope you are enjoying your new job. I am sure it is refreshing to do something new after having the same job for all those years. Sometimes I wish I could take a week long vacation and visit the beaches here or maybe the jungle in Manaus. I will have to return to Brazil one day and see all the tourist stuff but I think I will wait until I am much older. My companion thought it was funny that you guys are afraid I will come home and marry right away. Have a good week. 

W

May 18, 2015

No, I do not think I look very good with short hair so I won't keep it this short when I return. It is just way easier to maintain and is cooler. Well you should have fun in Park City. It is a very nice city if I remember correctly. Very expensive to live. Either way I am sure you are glad to do something different and you get to go to Utah. Will you have the opportunity to visit your family when you are there?

 Let me know where you put the graduation photos of Kate's. I can not find them. I always have liked to follow in my head everything that goes on at home. Like the dates when Baseball starts, (May 1st) and the things that I did during these times of the year when I was at home. I will try to be better with pictures.

 I wish I had more to say. I will send an email to Dad more about my week. We are off to sign for the marriage and do many things downtown tomorrow morning. I will take a picture of where we eat. We had a great place that we ate one time and really like near the mission office that was cheap. But the next time we went to eat there it had closed.... Bummer. 

Skype was great, everyone looks the same except Anne who looks much older. Tell her to stay off her phone. Enjoy our house and where we live. You cannot buy some time that is quiet here. Be thankful for noise laws. You do not realize how important they are until they do not exist. Like many other things. 

Will