Elder Jacob T.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

"aussisitaro" NOT resusitaro' "Before olive oil is pressed it is red and bitter. It is only during the refining process...it turns pure, clear,sweet"

Dear Family and Friends,

I had one funny experience this week, we were walking down the street, my comp and I, making street contacts. There was a VERY attractive woman, in her early 20´s. I’m gun-shy (as you all know) and being overly cautious, chose not to approach her. My companion on the other hand did, and was successful in getting her address (to teach of course) Well, as we were walking away, I felt I needed to explain why I did not approach her. Let me pause here to give all of you a little side note about the difficulties of speaking a foreign language (at least at first) you first think of what to want to say in English, then translate it in the Portuguese. This requires about twice the brain work of just saying it. So anyway I did this, translating what I wanted to say into Portuguese to explain to Elder Abdo. What I wanted to say was… I did not talk to here because she was pretty and I was scared. Só I commenced translating. Eu não falei com Ela porque, Ela e bonita, e eu estava ____ ...

I got this far in the translating. And didn’t know how to say scared. Finally I thought I remembered and said resusitaro which means SEXUALLY EXCITED. I meant to say aussisitaro, or scared. So I ended up saying I didn’t speak with her because she was pretty and I was sexually excited. Anyway, that’s my blunder for the week.
Saturday we went on an hour bus ride along the coast to a small village named Rio do Sul to eat lunch with a member, it was the bumpiest ride I ever had in my life. We were going down dirt roads a million miles an hour in theis Mercedes bus, bouncing all over the place. People sure don’t treat there cars and equipment good here.

Another thing, to those of you who gave me…crap about drinking Mate. I want to say a big HAH! Down here everyone has it. At night you can walk down the street, and ¾ of the people will be on their porch with a big thermos of water and their Mate gourd. I would like to correct a few people. Believe it or not, the actual drink is not called Mate that is just the dry, green stuff. Once you add water it is Chimarrõa. So anyway, so, that is one tender mercy of the Lord I have found down here. I can drink all the chimarrõa I want. Believe it or not, no tea is against the word of wisdom down here except for black tea. Pretty cool eh? Another drink I love is their runny yogurt. They have 1 liter bottles for 1,42. Or about $.80. In the U.S they have a similar thing, you can buy in health food stores, we used to buy it Kiechy???

Well, time to go play on the beach… don’t worry, not in the water. Love you all. Ill gives some personal experiences next week!

An interesting fact: As was my last spiritual thought about Christ, so will this one be also. I have been studying about this. Porque? Isn’t this the center of the gospel? So this is an extension of the last letter. The Garden of Gethsemane was known for a place of pressing olives. Christ himself was pressed here both physically and spiritually. He sweated blood from every pore and voluntarily paid the price for each of our sins.
Before olive oil is pressed it is red and bitter. It is only during the refining process of pressing the olives, being refined, that the olive oil turns pure, clear and sweet. So it is with us, so it was with god. Jesus took upon himself all the bitter sins of the world. The dirty, gruesome things, and through his agony he turned them into a sweet, beautiful thing called the atonement.
We are teaching a lot, the work is hard; we walk probably about 8 hours a day. But I have lots of time to think and study words. I want to express my feelings to these people SO much. I’m like a boiling pot of water. And the lid is the language barrier. Sometimes, I feel like the spirit lifts the lid a little bit for me, and relieves a little bit of the steam. But I think he likes me to stew, and try to lift the lid myself. One day I will be able to.

As for the success of the Spirit; there is a strong spirit here in Torres. The words I hear the most frequent among the Investigators are Tranquil and Calma. The hearts of the people are opening. I just hope my mouth can open as their hearts do.

I finally had a little bit of a courage breakthrough yesterday. Finally I said to myself, I am not going to care about everyone snickering when I talk, I’m preaching the true word of God! So I started talking a lot more. In doing so, I think I raised my hand to the spirit, saying, I need help! I feel like I am receiving more help now.

Until next week! Elder Thatcher

11/11/08 Letter to Matthew (Happy Bday), Micah (sprinkler syst/4 wheel), Mom (got jerky), Joshy (miss cookies), Hannah (Parkinson's field??)

Dear Matthew, All is going good. No, I haven’t played at the beach yet. They have a rule in the mission field where you can’t get in water past your ankles, so it’s kind of a bummer. But today, after I finish writing we are going to go to a really cool spot that overlooks the ocean and the city. I’m excited, but I really want to go swimming. Ya, I remember that time in Martha’s Vineyard, and Mexico. Remember the boogie boards we bought in Mexico? They have humongous waves here; I wish I could go bogie boarding! A couple days ago we were walking next to where a big river drains into the ocean. There were kite boarders (I think that’s what there called) they were on a surfboard and held onto a kite. They would catch the wind and ride into the river! It was way sweet. One day I want to do it.
So I guess it’s your birthday tomorrow! That’s sweet; sounds like you’ve already pretty much celebrated it. I wish I could have been there. I sent you my present last Thursday, so you should get it a week from this Thursday. Love you lots buddy!

Micah, sounds like all is going good. You’re getting in some action, maybe a couple shots, and some running (or are you) did you just go for the part that was work? Dragging them out? If so, sorry, I know how it is, you have to work your way up. 
I have heard the story about Bill, that’s pretty funny. He sure is a cool guy.
Way to go with the sprinkler system and the four-wheeler. Sounds like you’re on top of things. I don’t have to worry. Everyone says that you’ve taken my place. That makes me happy and sad  don’t get to comfortable! I’m doing good and learning a little bit each day. But I still have to use all my brain power just to formulate one little sentence. Maybe one day.

Mom, I received my packages! Thank you that are a ton of jerky! How did you persuade Rhett to give away that much! I just finished the two packages you sent me. What a treat. If I ration right I should have enough for the rest of my mission. All was in good shape except for two things. I did not receive Bishop DIcksons legand and all those little Halloween candies and somehow gotten wet and melted all over everything. But everything was in overall good shape considering coming 7000 miles. Who knows what kind of places that package has been! Yes I do know Dr Redd. He is a cool guy, one of my favorite doctors I mett up at the hospital. I could always remember his name easy because he has a very red face  I did not know he lived north of the cemetery. Nice house? Elder Forsyth, the financial secretary is probably wishing he had such a loving family, he keeps receiving package after package. Just yesterday he called and said another package (Christmas) arrived is this true? You can send all letters to the address I enclosed to Caxias do Sul 8989, Praia Da Cal, Torres Rs, 95560-000. This way I will receive them fast, whereas when you send them to the mission office I won’t receive them until the next zone conference which is just before Christmas.
Yes I got to vote Marilyn Rasmussen helped me. Thanks. Congratulations obama is our new president. I think it will be good. The majority of the people like him down here. Of course Sam can borrow my book. I don’t know which book it is, but I assume it probabablly is the guide to backcountry in the Teton (or something like that) it is in the closet in the movie room where all the books go. (About eye level) My wart is all but better. A little tender, but in 2 weeks you won’t even be able to see any remnants of it. I am a 7. The language is driving me nuts! I want SO bad to speak my feelings. I will explain more in the large letter.
The breaker probably got flipped somehow, you probably already checked it but it’s by the front door of the shop right when you walk it, check to see if it’s tripped. If it isn’t good luck. You’ll need grandpa’s help. Love you a bunch! Jacob

Dear Joshy,
I always like to read your letters. They are always so funny and you leave me in suspense. I think I can guess what happened to Jett. So did he beller and cry and splash? Is he afraid of the water now? Of you? How did you end up in football? That’s funny about your arm, at least you caught it, I prob couldn’t have! Gearing up for winter? Has it snowed yet? How is school going? Sounds like your doing awesome and training hard? Love you bud, I miss your cookies, cakes etc!

Hannah! That’s sweet you were chosen athlete of the week. Way to go. I like the way you answered the interview questions, your plans and your likes. Sounds like your liking the hospital. Have you gotten a raise yet? It seems like years ago that I worked there, but it was actually only 3 months ago! Whats changed? Thanks for the letter dated oct 9th! You meat head! Was that parkinsons field? He´s a grouchy old guy. Hows it going with Sam? Keep me updated, I like to hear how my sisters life is going. By the way, you have about 20 brazillians down here that want to be my brother in law and 12 americans. Choose ye this day!

TORRES ("Towers") from the four great rock buttresses...

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

2ND LETTER FROM TORRES: "Our mission only baptizes 60% as much as the rest of Brazil, be assured we are working our butts off " :)

---------- 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

---------- 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