---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: suzy summers <suzysumm@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Subject: Fwd: Letter from Elder Thatcher
To: crazygr8@msn.com
From: suzy summers <suzysumm@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Subject: Fwd: Letter from Elder Thatcher
To: crazygr8@msn.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jacob Thatcher <elderjthatcher@myldsmail.net>
Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 9:19 AM
Subject: Letter from Elder Thatcher
To: suzysumm@gmail.com, kni07006@byui.edu, wes07006@byui.edu, suzy@ida.net, runmts@ida.net, dmhansen@ida.net, runmts@gmail.com, cliffhucker@gmail.com, gordon@beardstclair.com
Hello Family,
It's the week of November 4, about 2 1/2 months out on the mission. Everything is starting to fall together. I feel like i was thrown into a dirty, muddy pond and im FINALLY starting to drag myself out. im not cleaned up, still have mud, and every other imaginable thing on me, but I am at least out of the water. and guess what! i didnt drown! Hopefully the next 2 years i will be able to get to the shower and get cleaned up just in time to catch the plane home. :) Some of the mud, or frustration is my lack of sense of direction. It drives me nuts! i can tell you what direction we are going, easy, and sometimes retrace our steps, but everything looks the same, every house, street, e tc. and the street names never help. they're all screwed up, and the names--i can even say, let alone spell.
The language is coming better, slowly but surly. i am basically a baby. right now im 1 year old. taking in everything i possiblly can, not able to participate much, just kind of follow my companion around, laugh when he laughs and shake me fingure when he does (thats what people do to show the disapprove down here, shake their index fingure) and do my best to learn.
Our apartment is cleaned up pretty good. i spent the last 3 hours scrubbing the bathroom. its pretty nice, now...i'm sending a video of our apartment. i forgot to take a picture of the shower head. but it' s really is a sight to behold... next week.
Mistakes, mistakes. they say that in order to learn a language you have to make 500,000 mistakes. im getting close to that number. Last wednesday we ate at the 2nd counclers house, i had the message afterward. i can't remember what scripture i read, but it was about how we must have faith like nephi and lehi had to reach the promised land, and how the children of israel just had to look and live at the staff that moses was holding. Well, of course this was in portuguese. So, i explained, then at then end, i bore my testimony the best i could how we simply have to have enough faith to look and live. well, for every 1 word we have portugues as about 3 others. i used the wrong word for look. i used the verb to look like. which, unbeknownst to me is similar to die!!! of course, everyone, trying to look past my terriable accent thought i said Die. so we must have faith in order to DIE and live. Brother...
Another interesting thing that happened this week was my first divisions and zone conference. Wednesday my dearly beloved companion elder abdo left me until Friday, and i was stuck here in Torres with the zone leader. how am i supposed to navigate eand teach people in a city when i dont even know either! Luckily he (elder do nacimento) was nice and helpful and together we figured out what to do. Zone conference was interesting.
Friday morning, after 2 days flying solo (Just about) elder Do Nacimento and I got up at 5:00 to travel 4 hours to Porto Alegre. the ticket cost 40 reals, which pretty much broke me (i get reimbursed) Of course, I slept the entire way. i still dont know what the outskirts of my town look like :) Conference was good, everyone was nice, i saw elder davidson and cummock, from my old district in the CTM there, we compared our last week. For lunch, after the conference we all went to a place like chuck arama. i rammed the food down. as fast as it would go. then had interviews with the president. to make it short and sweet, he basically said, torres was on the verge of getting shut down (how can you blame him when 4 people show up for church) this gave us incentive to try to get the church stronger here. its just elder abdo and I, and elder and sister baird. so we have a lot of work to do. I feel like Lot, when the lord said if you can only find 5 people in the whole city of sodam i will not destroy it. The search is on!!!
After the interview we promptly jumped on the bus for 4 hours more of ridding on the roughest roads (even beats rexburgs) and 4 more hours of sleeping. Sleepiness, heat, rough roads and a full stomach are not a good combination. luckily i made it off the bus and into the apartment. but the next day and a half i wanted to throw up SO BAD. Some of you have expressed your complaints about the rain in rexburg. DONT EVEN START!! i've never seen it rain like it has here. once a week it will rain. and it doesnt stop for 7 days. :) lots and lots of rain.
The beach is way pretty here. the best i've ever seen. today, if i ever finish writting we will go explore a little bit. Ok, i have a testimony of the gospel. the work is hard. our mission only baptizes 60% as much as the rest of Brasil, be assured we are working our butts off. Most of the people are content with their evangelical or the catholic church, and are just hard, down to earth people. we've been praying, keeping the rules better, planning and working harder each day, and the lord is starting to bless us with succsess. friday a guy stopped us in the road and actually made an appointment with us! yesturday we taught him and his wife. she took notes the whole time, spirit was felt, etc; etc.
Read Luke 22:39-44. Christ is suffuring in the Garden of Gethsemane. we always need to remember this sacfrice for us. Why should it be easy for us now, in life, in missionary work, in anything IF IT WAS NEVER EASY FOR HIM. when the times get tough just think of the savior carrying the cross, or sweating blood. and think, wow, how luck am I! I am suffuring a portion that the greatest one of all suffured, I must be doing something right. Notice though that God sent Christ an Angel. we can all have the comfort of angels, all we have to do is ask, and they will come, either in the form of friends, and physical people, or help sent from above! Love you all, At proxima somana!
Elder Jacob Thatcher
From: Jacob Thatcher <elderjthatcher@myldsmail.net>
Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 9:19 AM
Subject: Letter from Elder Thatcher
To: suzysumm@gmail.com, kni07006@byui.edu, wes07006@byui.edu, suzy@ida.net, runmts@ida.net, dmhansen@ida.net, runmts@gmail.com, cliffhucker@gmail.com, gordon@beardstclair.com
Hello Family,
It's the week of November 4, about 2 1/2 months out on the mission. Everything is starting to fall together. I feel like i was thrown into a dirty, muddy pond and im FINALLY starting to drag myself out. im not cleaned up, still have mud, and every other imaginable thing on me, but I am at least out of the water. and guess what! i didnt drown! Hopefully the next 2 years i will be able to get to the shower and get cleaned up just in time to catch the plane home. :) Some of the mud, or frustration is my lack of sense of direction. It drives me nuts! i can tell you what direction we are going, easy, and sometimes retrace our steps, but everything looks the same, every house, street, e tc. and the street names never help. they're all screwed up, and the names--i can even say, let alone spell.
The language is coming better, slowly but surly. i am basically a baby. right now im 1 year old. taking in everything i possiblly can, not able to participate much, just kind of follow my companion around, laugh when he laughs and shake me fingure when he does (thats what people do to show the disapprove down here, shake their index fingure) and do my best to learn.
Our apartment is cleaned up pretty good. i spent the last 3 hours scrubbing the bathroom. its pretty nice, now...i'm sending a video of our apartment. i forgot to take a picture of the shower head. but it' s really is a sight to behold... next week.
Mistakes, mistakes. they say that in order to learn a language you have to make 500,000 mistakes. im getting close to that number. Last wednesday we ate at the 2nd counclers house, i had the message afterward. i can't remember what scripture i read, but it was about how we must have faith like nephi and lehi had to reach the promised land, and how the children of israel just had to look and live at the staff that moses was holding. Well, of course this was in portuguese. So, i explained, then at then end, i bore my testimony the best i could how we simply have to have enough faith to look and live. well, for every 1 word we have portugues as about 3 others. i used the wrong word for look. i used the verb to look like. which, unbeknownst to me is similar to die!!! of course, everyone, trying to look past my terriable accent thought i said Die. so we must have faith in order to DIE and live. Brother...
Another interesting thing that happened this week was my first divisions and zone conference. Wednesday my dearly beloved companion elder abdo left me until Friday, and i was stuck here in Torres with the zone leader. how am i supposed to navigate eand teach people in a city when i dont even know either! Luckily he (elder do nacimento) was nice and helpful and together we figured out what to do. Zone conference was interesting.
Friday morning, after 2 days flying solo (Just about) elder Do Nacimento and I got up at 5:00 to travel 4 hours to Porto Alegre. the ticket cost 40 reals, which pretty much broke me (i get reimbursed) Of course, I slept the entire way. i still dont know what the outskirts of my town look like :) Conference was good, everyone was nice, i saw elder davidson and cummock, from my old district in the CTM there, we compared our last week. For lunch, after the conference we all went to a place like chuck arama. i rammed the food down. as fast as it would go. then had interviews with the president. to make it short and sweet, he basically said, torres was on the verge of getting shut down (how can you blame him when 4 people show up for church) this gave us incentive to try to get the church stronger here. its just elder abdo and I, and elder and sister baird. so we have a lot of work to do. I feel like Lot, when the lord said if you can only find 5 people in the whole city of sodam i will not destroy it. The search is on!!!
After the interview we promptly jumped on the bus for 4 hours more of ridding on the roughest roads (even beats rexburgs) and 4 more hours of sleeping. Sleepiness, heat, rough roads and a full stomach are not a good combination. luckily i made it off the bus and into the apartment. but the next day and a half i wanted to throw up SO BAD. Some of you have expressed your complaints about the rain in rexburg. DONT EVEN START!! i've never seen it rain like it has here. once a week it will rain. and it doesnt stop for 7 days. :) lots and lots of rain.
The beach is way pretty here. the best i've ever seen. today, if i ever finish writting we will go explore a little bit. Ok, i have a testimony of the gospel. the work is hard. our mission only baptizes 60% as much as the rest of Brasil, be assured we are working our butts off. Most of the people are content with their evangelical or the catholic church, and are just hard, down to earth people. we've been praying, keeping the rules better, planning and working harder each day, and the lord is starting to bless us with succsess. friday a guy stopped us in the road and actually made an appointment with us! yesturday we taught him and his wife. she took notes the whole time, spirit was felt, etc; etc.
Read Luke 22:39-44. Christ is suffuring in the Garden of Gethsemane. we always need to remember this sacfrice for us. Why should it be easy for us now, in life, in missionary work, in anything IF IT WAS NEVER EASY FOR HIM. when the times get tough just think of the savior carrying the cross, or sweating blood. and think, wow, how luck am I! I am suffuring a portion that the greatest one of all suffured, I must be doing something right. Notice though that God sent Christ an Angel. we can all have the comfort of angels, all we have to do is ask, and they will come, either in the form of friends, and physical people, or help sent from above! Love you all, At proxima somana!
Elder Jacob Thatcher
