Dear Family,
Ok so this is going to be short cuz we are in the Murfreesboro public library and they have the crappiest system on earth and so I only have 34 minutes a la the MTC. So this week was another week to learn humility and patience. Mine and Elder Smith's new companion is from Tremonton, Utah and is named Elder Barnes (yes, like barnes and noble book store) I won't go into full detail describing him to y'allsies cuz I know this ends up on a public blog, however it sufficeth me to say I think I have met Grayson Brogdon 2.0... He even went to Snow College. So yeah. Grayson's my boiee. Is he back from New York yet? Also I have over 130 bug bites on my body. I think I have 90 on my arms, and about 28 or so on my left leg, and I just itch all the time! WOOF
Turds, in the MTC I knew I'd only have 30 minutes so I would plan ahead so I would have something to write about, but now I'm scrambling. I heard Alta lost to Cottonwood in a close game decided by fluke plays. That's rough. It's ok Nick, you'll destroy Bingham next week so then you'll be back on track. It kinda helps when the opposing coach has all your inside information, but whatever. So I don't have any cool stories about teaching kids the Grease song in english, or sharting my pants or anything. Heck I don't have any cool stories about anything! We did go over to this guy's house in the neighboring area last week for lunch. It was THE stinkiest house I've ever been in in my entire life! Seriously there is no other house in my memory that smells nearly as bad as that one. When I asked my comp why it stunk to high heaven he simply said, "He has 12 cats." So this inspired me with some more life wisdom. When I grow up (and am living in the promised land of Provo) I am going to have a 2 pet rule. If I have any pets, there will be no more than 2 of them.
So yeah out of the 9 new people we found to teach last week, only 3 of them want to talk to us anymore. So it's kinda rough. And 1 is hindu, which is great, but I have no clue how to teach him that there is 1 God, sabe? We probably had our best lesson with him and his family though, and he keeps the Book of Mormon we gave him in the family shrine where all the other holy books and things are... So yeah. Best 2 years.
Last night we stopped by a member's house just before we had to go home, and she gets the family email of some California missionary, and she read lasts week entry to us..MAN! I felt bad cuz he has these super spiritual experiences to share, and all I can do is ramble on about how I wish things weren't so durn hard, sabe? So I apologize for being a whiner, and for not having anything truly worthwhile to relate to you guys, but I am trying hard. Maybe I deserve this lack of success that I've had thus far, and maybe I shouldn't focus so much on wanting to get to Brasil, cuz the work is going to be just as hard there. I dunno, you live and you learn right?
Alison- omg I got your extra care package and it is the best! Thank you so much!!!
Jor- Para estuda de lingua, eu escrevei uma carta para voce^
Nat- How's the pregnancy?
Nick- Have Candace read Alma 60:6 to you
Anywho I love you all! Keep praying for me and such.
tchau tchau- Elder Matt Gagon
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Michael: August 25th 2010
Oi familia. I'll be right quick cause I've used up a lot of time reading two weeks of emails and companions dont like when you take forever. But the work is good. Big news, new transfer, I have a new companion, but I stayed in my same area. His name is Elder Coimbra, a brazilian. So hear goes the portuguese adventure. I think Pai Celestial blessed me by breaking me in little by little. But it will be interesting being the one who is more familiar with the area, members e tudo... Sucks though cause it is HARD to find your way around here and Elder Brown lost our map! Oh well, just do what you can.
An ice cream store had a TV with simpsons playing, and it was SO weird with the portuguese voices, and I realized thats how like all movies are for them... I saw some kids playing the sport Cricket in the street which about made my day, that people know how to play that I thought it was awesome. Everybody calls out to us 创oi allemao, fala ingles创 , hey german speak english. Which doesnt make sense, and I dont know what the big deal is with germany, everyone thinks we are german or italian, and their third guess is american. But the kids ask us to speak english all the time, and I wont lie I havent done this yet but I will, When they ask me to Speak English, I'll talk the lyrics to the final song in grease, we go together, right before the instrumental... 创baby it might be wah ah uh wah ah uuah, rama rama rama ga dinga da dingadong, shoo bop shooa dowop a hippity boom de boom, CHANG CHANG, changity chang chibop, dip de dip de dip shoo bop a dooby doo, boogy boogy boogy boogy shooba do wop do wop, clama rama rama, ga dinga da dinga a dong a womp baba doo bop A WOMP BAM BOO!!!! (saxophone) Remember that part? As of right now I just call them to repentance in english..
But good news, we had a baptism Sunday! a fifteen year old boy, he is good. Neither of us baptised him, a member did but it was good. Douglas. We marked a heap of people for dates but then only two came to church so this Sunday we are shooting for 3! Another mission experience made me think of the question, Where is the line between Sharting and pooping your pants? YA.... Only 6 weeks in the field and it happened. Shart.. Luckily we were on our way home, and luckily I held my diarrea until we got there. But hey Im well, Love the work. Love the gospel! I love you guys. and miss you all.
Elder Michael
An ice cream store had a TV with simpsons playing, and it was SO weird with the portuguese voices, and I realized thats how like all movies are for them... I saw some kids playing the sport Cricket in the street which about made my day, that people know how to play that I thought it was awesome. Everybody calls out to us 创oi allemao, fala ingles创 , hey german speak english. Which doesnt make sense, and I dont know what the big deal is with germany, everyone thinks we are german or italian, and their third guess is american. But the kids ask us to speak english all the time, and I wont lie I havent done this yet but I will, When they ask me to Speak English, I'll talk the lyrics to the final song in grease, we go together, right before the instrumental... 创baby it might be wah ah uh wah ah uuah, rama rama rama ga dinga da dingadong, shoo bop shooa dowop a hippity boom de boom, CHANG CHANG, changity chang chibop, dip de dip de dip shoo bop a dooby doo, boogy boogy boogy boogy shooba do wop do wop, clama rama rama, ga dinga da dinga a dong a womp baba doo bop A WOMP BAM BOO!!!! (saxophone) Remember that part? As of right now I just call them to repentance in english..
But good news, we had a baptism Sunday! a fifteen year old boy, he is good. Neither of us baptised him, a member did but it was good. Douglas. We marked a heap of people for dates but then only two came to church so this Sunday we are shooting for 3! Another mission experience made me think of the question, Where is the line between Sharting and pooping your pants? YA.... Only 6 weeks in the field and it happened. Shart.. Luckily we were on our way home, and luckily I held my diarrea until we got there. But hey Im well, Love the work. Love the gospel! I love you guys. and miss you all.
Elder Michael
Monday, August 23, 2010
Matt: August 23rd 2010
Dearest Family,
This week was much better, ha ha I guess the dawn is coming. So in some sad news my companion Elder Adams is being transfered and Elder Smith and I will be training somebody who is currently in the mtc. So that'll be fun to be a greeny and a trainer at the same time. I'll be sad to see Elder Adams go. He's the one from Gilbert, but surprisingly doesn't know any of the McRaes/Keippels/Millers so whatever. He will be missed though.
I've been here for a month! Isn't that wild? And I thought time in the mtc went slow. This week my comps went on exchanges, and in the meantime we found like 9 new investigators! WA WA WEE WOW so yeah one night when one of the zone leaders, Elder Adams, and I were here we went tracting in the rain for like 3 hours and it was the best! We found all these new investigators that will surely be baptized someday. One of them even came to church and stayed all 3 hours. It was funny cuz he kinda has a bit of a swearing issue, and he was actively participating in sunday school and dropped the 'S' bomb and the reaction was kinda funny to see. Anywho this week has been good. That ladies prophecy didn't come true though. I'm still here and no word of the visa :( oh well. So yeah not a ton of news other than that... There is however this giant high school of a church out here called "World Outreach" it's a non-denominational christian church where tons of people in this area go. Anyway this week we found out that Charlie Daniels (I think that's his name) the fiddler who wrote/performed the song "Devil went down to Georgia" and is also in that Geico commercial where they're at the fancy restaurant and he's fiddling like crazy and stomping his boot and then hands the violin back to the tuxedo clad worker and says "That's how it's done son".. THAT GUY lives here in Murfreesboro and goes to World Outreach! Isn't that crazy?!?
So yeah other than that not a ton of news. I handed out a Libro de Mormón (<--woof! it's Livro de Mormon) but even with my fading portuguese and limited spanish we couldn't really teach a lesson or converse much. It was still sweet though... I'm flooding the earth; Ezra Taft Benson style.
I'm learning a ton out here. If nothing else I'm learning how to have a good marriage, and also the value and importance of home teaching and visiting teaching. There are so many people who come to church and are active and faithful so you don't pay too much attention to them, but really they have problems too and just talking to somebody about them is a huge relief. So I implore all of you to go home teaching and visiting teaching!!! Especially if you home teach/visit teach a widow or a divorcee, or a woman living alone, holy moley do they need you to go over there every month. This church is based so much on service and building each other up, so it really has just hit home with me a ton how important it is to get our home teaching done.
Candace, I got your letter and am loving it. Also when I flew out I had to pay for my luggage using my credit card, if you could pay that (a month ago) I would truly, madly, deeply appreciate that. If you have any problems just text me.
Nick- dude football has got to be in full swing. Surely you have something to write me about! (there's nothing to write about, and quit calling me Shirley)
Mom&Dad- How's our food storage? We ought to work on that.
Jor- Sounds like you're having a rockin summer! I skied in the tetons and it was great. No earthquakes though, just some shredded up slopes.
Muito obrigado pelas oracoa~s. Me sinto todos, e agora eu pec,o de voces orar para meu visto :)
Com muito amor-
Elder Matt Gagon
This week was much better, ha ha I guess the dawn is coming. So in some sad news my companion Elder Adams is being transfered and Elder Smith and I will be training somebody who is currently in the mtc. So that'll be fun to be a greeny and a trainer at the same time. I'll be sad to see Elder Adams go. He's the one from Gilbert, but surprisingly doesn't know any of the McRaes/Keippels/Millers so whatever. He will be missed though.
I've been here for a month! Isn't that wild? And I thought time in the mtc went slow. This week my comps went on exchanges, and in the meantime we found like 9 new investigators! WA WA WEE WOW so yeah one night when one of the zone leaders, Elder Adams, and I were here we went tracting in the rain for like 3 hours and it was the best! We found all these new investigators that will surely be baptized someday. One of them even came to church and stayed all 3 hours. It was funny cuz he kinda has a bit of a swearing issue, and he was actively participating in sunday school and dropped the 'S' bomb and the reaction was kinda funny to see. Anywho this week has been good. That ladies prophecy didn't come true though. I'm still here and no word of the visa :( oh well. So yeah not a ton of news other than that... There is however this giant high school of a church out here called "World Outreach" it's a non-denominational christian church where tons of people in this area go. Anyway this week we found out that Charlie Daniels (I think that's his name) the fiddler who wrote/performed the song "Devil went down to Georgia" and is also in that Geico commercial where they're at the fancy restaurant and he's fiddling like crazy and stomping his boot and then hands the violin back to the tuxedo clad worker and says "That's how it's done son".. THAT GUY lives here in Murfreesboro and goes to World Outreach! Isn't that crazy?!?
So yeah other than that not a ton of news. I handed out a Libro de Mormón (<--woof! it's Livro de Mormon) but even with my fading portuguese and limited spanish we couldn't really teach a lesson or converse much. It was still sweet though... I'm flooding the earth; Ezra Taft Benson style.
I'm learning a ton out here. If nothing else I'm learning how to have a good marriage, and also the value and importance of home teaching and visiting teaching. There are so many people who come to church and are active and faithful so you don't pay too much attention to them, but really they have problems too and just talking to somebody about them is a huge relief. So I implore all of you to go home teaching and visiting teaching!!! Especially if you home teach/visit teach a widow or a divorcee, or a woman living alone, holy moley do they need you to go over there every month. This church is based so much on service and building each other up, so it really has just hit home with me a ton how important it is to get our home teaching done.
Candace, I got your letter and am loving it. Also when I flew out I had to pay for my luggage using my credit card, if you could pay that (a month ago) I would truly, madly, deeply appreciate that. If you have any problems just text me.
Nick- dude football has got to be in full swing. Surely you have something to write me about! (there's nothing to write about, and quit calling me Shirley)
Mom&Dad- How's our food storage? We ought to work on that.
Jor- Sounds like you're having a rockin summer! I skied in the tetons and it was great. No earthquakes though, just some shredded up slopes.
Muito obrigado pelas oracoa~s. Me sinto todos, e agora eu pec,o de voces orar para meu visto :)
Com muito amor-
Elder Matt Gagon
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Michael: August 18, 2010
Oi familia! Its my last week of my first transfer, thats the latest milestone. I was flying high this morning, pumped on Liahonas and letters. Just to confirm, Nate J and Jordan I got your letters/ package. THANK YOU! They were both great. Then I had all these problems with my email again, the secretary of our mission has been on the phone with Engineers in Salt Lake ha nobody can figure out why my email doesnt work.. So Im writing from Elder Browns email, hopefully I get it worked out here soon though.
First thing! There is a girl in our ward that is going to BYU Idaho, she is flying to Salt Lake today so will land tomorrow, and I gave her a letter for Mom Dad Nick and Nena, cause I didnt know what kind of stuff she was willing to bring for me, so I didnt buy any treats, but I offered her money so she could get somethin for you guys, but she didnt take my money and said she would bring you treats... SO I gave her some Phone numbers, so everybody be attentive tomorrow, and willing to meet her at the freeway or something. I dont know when she will call, or what she is going to bring, but I do know that a brasilera from my ward will be there and try to bring you something.
So not tons of new stuff, we are looking to have 2 baptisms this sunday, a young man, 15 and a young mother, 26 or so. Those should happen, and should be good. Its tough my favorite person, this lady Eliane we might have to stop teaching her cause she is lazy with her commitments, but its so hard cause I know she is so close to making the best decision of her life, but just has doubts, and maybe now is just a time for me to learn that some will come so close and not accept it, and you gotta move on. That was kinda a tough day yesterday, (I wonder if you guys really understand this story but I am trying to give details) we visited her in her salon, shes a hair dresser, and 2 other ladies were there. Not really a spiritual setting, and my companion did all the talking, basically said we did our part and we did our part, now its on you to pray about it. But I feel like another time, without her friends there we can help talk about her doubts. And I was trying not to cry, thinking that we are leaving things like that. I hope you get where Im coming from ha and not just saying cool story hansel right now. Cause this lady is soo nice and soo good and I hate to see this happen.
We had a crazy spiritual lesson with Helena, the lady we are going to baptise this week. We brought a member with us, Euseli, who has been a member for only 2 months. and Helena started talking about how different she felt with us the first time we taught her, and how much better she has felt the past week, and how much she liked church. To hear someone, who has only learned about the church for a week, testify of the difference it has made, and then to hear a member of only 2 months testifying to an investigator of the difference was beautiful. She is so new to the church and is already helping others come unto Christ.. She hates skirts, but started wearing them to church a couple weeks ago. And then when we asked her to come teach with us, she went into her room and changed into a skirt, without us asking her to. It was kinda funny but it was awesome to see how this church changes people for the better and blesses us. I hope you understand that story too.
Some other things, I found out my companion from the CTM went home, so that was sad. My companion loves Justin Beiber, he can hear him a mile away, its kinda amazing, one time after sacrament meeting he asked if I heard that car drive by playing Baby. My favorite thing here Ive decided are the paderias, the bakerys. Theyve got all kinds of sweet rolls and cheese breads and chicken filled hot pockets basically, and plus just amazing fresh rolls.
Natalie I have a name for you if its a girl, Elizangela! Im kinda drawing blanks on anything else to write.I attached some pictures, one of some clown singing on the side of the street, I dunno what he is trying to advertise, but there is an even funnier guy I dont have a picture of yet, that has a suit and plays a little ukelele looking guitar, and hes so old its awesome. Number 2, the party bus, Ive only seen this train one other time at night, and it lights up soo cool and blasts kid music, and I guess péople just go for a ride on the party train. Then just me walking up a hill in my area, another landscape of my area, a blurry night land scape, and lastly, a new car that can finally seat our whole fam!!!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Matt: August 16th, 2010
Dearest Family,
Greetings from the dead center of Tennessee. So I really don't have much to say about this week. The work is going a bit roughly, but we're working with what we've got and trying to get more to work with. Did you get my letter I sent last tuesday? If you want to respond to that, I would love it. Fetcharooski I honestly have no cool or interesting stories to share! ha ha except the one investigator we are working with is dating a member and she more or less prophecied that I would get my visa this Thursday, so hopefully that happens. E' a coisa so' que eu quero mais do que todo mundo, e tenho fe' que o vai acontacer. Tambem eu creo que falando em portugues, o vai ajudar alguma maneira (?).
Mom- did you get an email from a sister Kathy Martin? We went and did service at her house on tuesday and it was awesome! Seriously I just cut down trees for like 2 hours and it was the best. Anywho she took a picture of me and said she was going to email it to you. Hopefully you got that.
Can- good to hear from you ha ha. That's great that Derek and Kristin tied the knot.
Nat- Thanks for the letter and pictures and candy! omg that was great.
Michael- Os Strokes! O batedor(?significa drummer) deles e' Brasileiro. O nome dele e' Fabrizio Moretti, e quando eu estive no MTC, quando foi um pesquisador meu nome sempre foi 'Fabrizio' porque dele. Ele e' o cara! ha ha ha eu ensino meus companheiros algumas palavras em portugues, como: legal, brincadeira, serio, e estou serio.
Nick- Football has got to be starting soon right? Send me some updates about that and your life in general. I saw your horse mane in the pics Natalie sent me. WOOF!
Well that's pretty much all I've got. ha ha I told you it'd be short. However I'll leave you with my latest missionary mental musing. You know on the movie Dark Knight where they say "the night is always darkest just before the dawn"? That's kinda how I feel in Murfreesboro right now ha ha ha. I dunno. I also heard a similar quote that goes "the night is always darkest just before it goes pitch black" so hopefully Murfreesboro takes a turn towards the former and not the latter.
OH here's an interesting story: On Sam's club saturday (we go there for the hot dog lunch deal on sabado) we were walking through the parking lot and this car came down the aisle and as it got closer I looked at it and saw there was this guy (shirtless of course) sitting in shotgun, and NOBODY in the driver seat! Ha ha ha it was wild...Anywho that is all. Now I get to go play basketball which is like manna from heaven, but for my soul.
tchau tchau y'allsies
-Elder Matt Gagon
Greetings from the dead center of Tennessee. So I really don't have much to say about this week. The work is going a bit roughly, but we're working with what we've got and trying to get more to work with. Did you get my letter I sent last tuesday? If you want to respond to that, I would love it. Fetcharooski I honestly have no cool or interesting stories to share! ha ha except the one investigator we are working with is dating a member and she more or less prophecied that I would get my visa this Thursday, so hopefully that happens. E' a coisa so' que eu quero mais do que todo mundo, e tenho fe' que o vai acontacer. Tambem eu creo que falando em portugues, o vai ajudar alguma maneira (?).
Mom- did you get an email from a sister Kathy Martin? We went and did service at her house on tuesday and it was awesome! Seriously I just cut down trees for like 2 hours and it was the best. Anywho she took a picture of me and said she was going to email it to you. Hopefully you got that.
Can- good to hear from you ha ha. That's great that Derek and Kristin tied the knot.
Nat- Thanks for the letter and pictures and candy! omg that was great.
Michael- Os Strokes! O batedor(?significa drummer) deles e' Brasileiro. O nome dele e' Fabrizio Moretti, e quando eu estive no MTC, quando foi um pesquisador meu nome sempre foi 'Fabrizio' porque dele. Ele e' o cara! ha ha ha eu ensino meus companheiros algumas palavras em portugues, como: legal, brincadeira, serio, e estou serio.
Nick- Football has got to be starting soon right? Send me some updates about that and your life in general. I saw your horse mane in the pics Natalie sent me. WOOF!
Well that's pretty much all I've got. ha ha I told you it'd be short. However I'll leave you with my latest missionary mental musing. You know on the movie Dark Knight where they say "the night is always darkest just before the dawn"? That's kinda how I feel in Murfreesboro right now ha ha ha. I dunno. I also heard a similar quote that goes "the night is always darkest just before it goes pitch black" so hopefully Murfreesboro takes a turn towards the former and not the latter.
OH here's an interesting story: On Sam's club saturday (we go there for the hot dog lunch deal on sabado) we were walking through the parking lot and this car came down the aisle and as it got closer I looked at it and saw there was this guy (shirtless of course) sitting in shotgun, and NOBODY in the driver seat! Ha ha ha it was wild...Anywho that is all. Now I get to go play basketball which is like manna from heaven, but for my soul.
tchau tchau y'allsies
-Elder Matt Gagon
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Michael: August 11th, 2010
Hey family!
I'm more or less 1/8 complete with my mission which really is crazy, not much but at the same time a good chunk. So this will be quick. I had lunch at Irma Abigail's house, and she has a journal of all these missionaries that have served in the ward I am in, and I saw a picture of the Elder in our stake that raved about iogurte and whipped his fingers just thinking about it. We got in our first really contentious bible bashes last night, we didnt exchange scriptures but it was the first time someone looked angry and talked about the bible, but we bore testimony and explained that he really didnt know anything about our church and it went well, but I dont know if that family will get baptised anymore, they committed to a date but then their brother came along and said all the bad things he has heard about the church. Also I met my first jehovas witnesses, really nice lady! So who knows, here aqui pouco I could be going toes again cause she wanted to talk about the bible. And I heard that they believe if you lose a bible bash you have to join that church haha. So they are all way good at it.
One lady in our ward is going to marry an american that lives in Yuma arizona, Do you know the place devin? I talked to him on the phone when we had lunch and I told him meu conhado serviu la. Well we talked in english actually. And devin I had a great idea for you, if its possible, put a yogurt machine on the corner of a street like a snow shack, and just sell one dollar ice cream cones, they do that here and people line up for em. Interesting fact, phone numbers here are all 8 numbers, not 7 like in the states.
Somebody told me I look like Messi, an argentine soccer player, so you could google image him and tell me if thats a good thing or not. I went a whole day without my name badge, I forgot it and it just wasnt worth going back for it.. And its interesting here that people get confirmed a week after their baptisms. Which results in a lot of people baptised and never confirmed....
Well everything is great here. I went to Zone leaders conference yesterday and it was great. I love the gospel, I encourage you all to study it, especially conference talks in the ensign, cause You cant get it all the first time when you watch it, I was reading one today and they are the best, seriously amazing. But I appreciate all the emails, letters (rhett I got yours yesterday!) And prayers. I love you all, think about you all the time, miss you. Love hearing from you. XOXOXO Elder Michael
I'm more or less 1/8 complete with my mission which really is crazy, not much but at the same time a good chunk. So this will be quick. I had lunch at Irma Abigail's house, and she has a journal of all these missionaries that have served in the ward I am in, and I saw a picture of the Elder in our stake that raved about iogurte and whipped his fingers just thinking about it. We got in our first really contentious bible bashes last night, we didnt exchange scriptures but it was the first time someone looked angry and talked about the bible, but we bore testimony and explained that he really didnt know anything about our church and it went well, but I dont know if that family will get baptised anymore, they committed to a date but then their brother came along and said all the bad things he has heard about the church. Also I met my first jehovas witnesses, really nice lady! So who knows, here aqui pouco I could be going toes again cause she wanted to talk about the bible. And I heard that they believe if you lose a bible bash you have to join that church haha. So they are all way good at it.
One lady in our ward is going to marry an american that lives in Yuma arizona, Do you know the place devin? I talked to him on the phone when we had lunch and I told him meu conhado serviu la. Well we talked in english actually. And devin I had a great idea for you, if its possible, put a yogurt machine on the corner of a street like a snow shack, and just sell one dollar ice cream cones, they do that here and people line up for em. Interesting fact, phone numbers here are all 8 numbers, not 7 like in the states.
Somebody told me I look like Messi, an argentine soccer player, so you could google image him and tell me if thats a good thing or not. I went a whole day without my name badge, I forgot it and it just wasnt worth going back for it.. And its interesting here that people get confirmed a week after their baptisms. Which results in a lot of people baptised and never confirmed....
Well everything is great here. I went to Zone leaders conference yesterday and it was great. I love the gospel, I encourage you all to study it, especially conference talks in the ensign, cause You cant get it all the first time when you watch it, I was reading one today and they are the best, seriously amazing. But I appreciate all the emails, letters (rhett I got yours yesterday!) And prayers. I love you all, think about you all the time, miss you. Love hearing from you. XOXOXO Elder Michael
Monday, August 9, 2010
Matt: Aug. 9th 2010 10-S-E
Querido Familha,
How's it going fam? PTL y'all. PTL! Ha ha that is southern internet/facebook talk for "Praise The Lord" People are different here.
Gosh I wish I had a cool story to tell, but this past week has been the week where I learn just how hard missionary work is. We did a lot of tracting which brought little to no success. I guess I've just been learning how people use their agency, ya know? Like in an ideal world people would: meet the missionaries, hear the lessons about the gospel, read and pray about the Book of Mormon, receive their answer that it is truly the word of God written by his true prophet, and then get baptized and be faithful members, and the biggest problem in missionary work would be pneumonia from never being dry... However that is not how it goes. Half the people here have already been saved, and the other half just don't want to hear about no Joe Smith and his gold bible. It's so weird that we all worship the same God, but we can't seem to agree on who does it the right way. Which brings up my least favorite half of christians- Non-denominational..WOOF!
Anywho I won't bore you with all that junk. I just wish I had a success story or two like Michael to share, but I don't... We also had zone conference this week and it was great. The power went out due to some giant storm, but it came on like an hour later. We also went to a wednesday night bible study/dinner at the Baptist church this week. We tracted into one of their preachers and after giving us the old "I respect what you do, but you're wrong" shpeal that I'm almost sick of hearing, he invited us to that and it was nice. They had fried chicken (from wal mart..woof) and mac&cheese, which is huge here in the south. I swear I've never had so much non-box mac&cheese in my life. And then just regular salads and stuff. But yeah it was crazy. At first I was super apprehensive, cuz it was like 3 foxes going into a chicken coop just to hang out. So everybody was just staring daggers at us at first wondering why we were there, but then as the night went on we just started talking to people and it was actually really cool. They turned out to be really really nice and would all make really good members someday ha ha. But no, after dinner we went into the bible study sesh- the first half was spent talking about all the problems everybody has. So for example it went a little something like: Sonny Crocket fell off a ladder yesterday and broke his hips, so pray for him. Also Ole Granny Dixon hasn't been saved yet, so pray for her as well. And not to mention Bubba Jameson is still recovering from being hit by the car when he went pickin up possum off the interstate for supper, so pray for him... And they just added names to this already giant list of names of people and all their problems. I'll try to send you that list cuz I kept it.. But yeah so after that we studied Revelations 13:1-12 and this preacher just gave his point of view, which had to include Obama, and it was just like "wednesday night deep doctrine class" Muito estranha. But yeah it was a good experience though. Until we found one of our "inactives" there.oh my heck.
So yeah that's kind of how this week has gone.
Mom- that's awesome you got to visit Al. Buffalo rocks. Go do the church sites while you are there!
Dad------ I forgot
Al- As far as a package goes, those nuts are always good. As far as sweets go I like anything chewy/gummy and fruity in flavor
Rhett- How's PG? Are you in the Ruf's house, or a place all your own? I got your letter about Duke's morning mess and it was funny. I'll write you back for sure though
Jor- Eu estou tendo uma vez muito dificil para guardar meu portugues.. Tal vez voce pode escrever-me em portugues so?
Nat- How's being pregnant? Nate I got your letter and it also rocked. Desk sounds sweet. Will write back more paper style.
Can- I have a scripture for you, Alma 60:6.. It says "We desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect, yea we desire to know the cause of this thoughtless state"
Michael- Mish sounds good
Nick- Write me back foo!
Jason- Yeah Michael's comp is the Downtown Tay Brown
Com muito amor-
Elder Gagon
How's it going fam? PTL y'all. PTL! Ha ha that is southern internet/facebook talk for "Praise The Lord" People are different here.
Gosh I wish I had a cool story to tell, but this past week has been the week where I learn just how hard missionary work is. We did a lot of tracting which brought little to no success. I guess I've just been learning how people use their agency, ya know? Like in an ideal world people would: meet the missionaries, hear the lessons about the gospel, read and pray about the Book of Mormon, receive their answer that it is truly the word of God written by his true prophet, and then get baptized and be faithful members, and the biggest problem in missionary work would be pneumonia from never being dry... However that is not how it goes. Half the people here have already been saved, and the other half just don't want to hear about no Joe Smith and his gold bible. It's so weird that we all worship the same God, but we can't seem to agree on who does it the right way. Which brings up my least favorite half of christians- Non-denominational..WOOF!
Anywho I won't bore you with all that junk. I just wish I had a success story or two like Michael to share, but I don't... We also had zone conference this week and it was great. The power went out due to some giant storm, but it came on like an hour later. We also went to a wednesday night bible study/dinner at the Baptist church this week. We tracted into one of their preachers and after giving us the old "I respect what you do, but you're wrong" shpeal that I'm almost sick of hearing, he invited us to that and it was nice. They had fried chicken (from wal mart..woof) and mac&cheese, which is huge here in the south. I swear I've never had so much non-box mac&cheese in my life. And then just regular salads and stuff. But yeah it was crazy. At first I was super apprehensive, cuz it was like 3 foxes going into a chicken coop just to hang out. So everybody was just staring daggers at us at first wondering why we were there, but then as the night went on we just started talking to people and it was actually really cool. They turned out to be really really nice and would all make really good members someday ha ha. But no, after dinner we went into the bible study sesh- the first half was spent talking about all the problems everybody has. So for example it went a little something like: Sonny Crocket fell off a ladder yesterday and broke his hips, so pray for him. Also Ole Granny Dixon hasn't been saved yet, so pray for her as well. And not to mention Bubba Jameson is still recovering from being hit by the car when he went pickin up possum off the interstate for supper, so pray for him... And they just added names to this already giant list of names of people and all their problems. I'll try to send you that list cuz I kept it.. But yeah so after that we studied Revelations 13:1-12 and this preacher just gave his point of view, which had to include Obama, and it was just like "wednesday night deep doctrine class" Muito estranha. But yeah it was a good experience though. Until we found one of our "inactives" there.oh my heck.
So yeah that's kind of how this week has gone.
Mom- that's awesome you got to visit Al. Buffalo rocks. Go do the church sites while you are there!
Dad------ I forgot
Al- As far as a package goes, those nuts are always good. As far as sweets go I like anything chewy/gummy and fruity in flavor
Rhett- How's PG? Are you in the Ruf's house, or a place all your own? I got your letter about Duke's morning mess and it was funny. I'll write you back for sure though
Jor- Eu estou tendo uma vez muito dificil para guardar meu portugues.. Tal vez voce pode escrever-me em portugues so?
Nat- How's being pregnant? Nate I got your letter and it also rocked. Desk sounds sweet. Will write back more paper style.
Can- I have a scripture for you, Alma 60:6.. It says "We desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect, yea we desire to know the cause of this thoughtless state"
Michael- Mish sounds good
Nick- Write me back foo!
Jason- Yeah Michael's comp is the Downtown Tay Brown
Com muito amor-
Elder Gagon
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Michael August 4th, 2010
Hey Family!
Ok here is my news, I got my first baptism! Yaaa, So last week I talked about the 2 women that we had been skeptical about, well that same night, wednesday we went to teach them and they told us that they wanted Elder Brown to baptize them both, and so in my head I said fine I dont like you guys either, and was a little down, but then we went to our other appointment, and Surprise, these 2 other girls committed to be baptised the same day! and Elder Brown, instead of saying who do you want, said ´can elder gagon baptise you guys?´ and one said yes and the other said No, so that sunday I baptised 1 girl and Elder Brown 3! which was just great! I got my experience. Thais Aparecida Santanha Cunha is her name, ten years old.
So ya I am grateful but we need to get some good families, and some men into the church. Not just baptise 9 and 10 year old girls... The first older two ladies are great, but like I said we need families and future priesthood holders. President interviewed them and my first Sunday with baptisms came in a 4 pack! Which is a lot, I guess Elder Brown has only baptized 3 people on one day one time in his year on the mish. SO we are just truckin along here still.
I had my first Zone conference, which I get the idea that these days are like Holidays on the mission. It was good... tons of missionaries, my friends (brasilians) from the CTM, and the american sister who didnt really wanna talk to me, the other 2 americans from the CTM werent there. Turns out zone conference is a conference of multiple zones, not just yours. Our mission president I feel takes the approach of a football coach, more than a loving father. He is intimidating! But zone conference was good cause he was joking a lot which made me less scared. One interesting thing I learned there was our Pres said Polygamy was never part of the church it was plural marriage, (not sure what the difference is), and was practiced by less than 2% of the church.
I just remembered in our presidents home he had the statue of the mom praying that use to be on the coffee table in the family room on Oak leaf way. Remember that one we had? I heard another awesome thing, secondhand, from my comp. Our pres told him about when he met with Russel M Nelson I believe, and Pres Parrella asked what did you do to become an apostle? (something to that effect) and Elder Nelson said ´I act like an Apostle´ oooh! another cool thing... The 2nd stake President in brasil there ever was, is still alive!!! That is how new the church is and how fast the church grows. It's amazing.
Also, the Horse and buggy definitely hasn't died either, or the hand cart! maybe in most parts of the world but there are still a handful of people here that do. We had a dog run into the church, I saw a big bat flying around- a wingspan of 2 feet! One family we had lunch with put some bananas on the fence and said monkeys would come but they never did, close though...I tried coconut water, not so good....needs lime or somethin, cause I tried sugar cane juice again and it wasn't as good without the lime... I bought 2 maps, big poster size, kinda have buyers remorse but whatever, in 2 years Ill be able to point on a paper where all these things took place. I talked him down to half price at least.
So tons of people drive motorcycles here, and everyone is really good at wearing a helmet I havent seen anyone without a full face helmet, but I saw one fat guy whose face filled the helmet, smoking while he drove the motorcycle, and it looked hilarious with the cigarette sticking out of the helmet.. Oh gosh, cool story I know but it looked funny. Everybody here writes in cursive. I have learned what dead animals smell like. I had pero! or a drink like it, SO good. I translated Taylor Swift's song Love Story into portuguese if you would like a copy I'll send one.
When we turn on the shower all the lights in the house go dim. I dont think really anybody has shower curtains in brazil, including us, so after you shower everything is just soaked, gotta make sure you hide the TP. My comp got a package with peanut butter and honey mixed! Have you seen that in the stores? which I thought was genius, shouldve thought of that before trying to mix pb and J.
We had family night and played big budda in Portuguese, but Pedro Tiago and Joao, Peter, James and John are the top 3 spots. They play where if someone gets out that number just doesnt exist in the game. So you dont change numbers, and if you call a number of someone who is out, you are out. ´´seis seis chama treis, treis treis chama dois!´´.
Down town they have intersections with two roads you can turn left on, so crossing those streets are fun, you dont know where they are turning. I was surprised to learn how so many churches have multiple meetings during the week, and meeting at night. People are surprised that we only have church sundays.. Our pianist came to church for the first time, the past 2 weeks we had been singing acapella in sacrament. OH and last of all, we were talking about Grease (back in the CTM) and an Elder pointed out to me how the moral of that show is to give into peer pressure, lower your standards to fit in....etc. How awful is that haha I laughed, still best show in the world. Anyway, Gotta go. Love you all!! Elder Michael
Ok here is my news, I got my first baptism! Yaaa, So last week I talked about the 2 women that we had been skeptical about, well that same night, wednesday we went to teach them and they told us that they wanted Elder Brown to baptize them both, and so in my head I said fine I dont like you guys either, and was a little down, but then we went to our other appointment, and Surprise, these 2 other girls committed to be baptised the same day! and Elder Brown, instead of saying who do you want, said ´can elder gagon baptise you guys?´ and one said yes and the other said No, so that sunday I baptised 1 girl and Elder Brown 3! which was just great! I got my experience. Thais Aparecida Santanha Cunha is her name, ten years old.
So ya I am grateful but we need to get some good families, and some men into the church. Not just baptise 9 and 10 year old girls... The first older two ladies are great, but like I said we need families and future priesthood holders. President interviewed them and my first Sunday with baptisms came in a 4 pack! Which is a lot, I guess Elder Brown has only baptized 3 people on one day one time in his year on the mish. SO we are just truckin along here still.
I had my first Zone conference, which I get the idea that these days are like Holidays on the mission. It was good... tons of missionaries, my friends (brasilians) from the CTM, and the american sister who didnt really wanna talk to me, the other 2 americans from the CTM werent there. Turns out zone conference is a conference of multiple zones, not just yours. Our mission president I feel takes the approach of a football coach, more than a loving father. He is intimidating! But zone conference was good cause he was joking a lot which made me less scared. One interesting thing I learned there was our Pres said Polygamy was never part of the church it was plural marriage, (not sure what the difference is), and was practiced by less than 2% of the church.
I just remembered in our presidents home he had the statue of the mom praying that use to be on the coffee table in the family room on Oak leaf way. Remember that one we had? I heard another awesome thing, secondhand, from my comp. Our pres told him about when he met with Russel M Nelson I believe, and Pres Parrella asked what did you do to become an apostle? (something to that effect) and Elder Nelson said ´I act like an Apostle´ oooh! another cool thing... The 2nd stake President in brasil there ever was, is still alive!!! That is how new the church is and how fast the church grows. It's amazing.
Also, the Horse and buggy definitely hasn't died either, or the hand cart! maybe in most parts of the world but there are still a handful of people here that do. We had a dog run into the church, I saw a big bat flying around- a wingspan of 2 feet! One family we had lunch with put some bananas on the fence and said monkeys would come but they never did, close though...I tried coconut water, not so good....needs lime or somethin, cause I tried sugar cane juice again and it wasn't as good without the lime... I bought 2 maps, big poster size, kinda have buyers remorse but whatever, in 2 years Ill be able to point on a paper where all these things took place. I talked him down to half price at least.
So tons of people drive motorcycles here, and everyone is really good at wearing a helmet I havent seen anyone without a full face helmet, but I saw one fat guy whose face filled the helmet, smoking while he drove the motorcycle, and it looked hilarious with the cigarette sticking out of the helmet.. Oh gosh, cool story I know but it looked funny. Everybody here writes in cursive. I have learned what dead animals smell like. I had pero! or a drink like it, SO good. I translated Taylor Swift's song Love Story into portuguese if you would like a copy I'll send one.
When we turn on the shower all the lights in the house go dim. I dont think really anybody has shower curtains in brazil, including us, so after you shower everything is just soaked, gotta make sure you hide the TP. My comp got a package with peanut butter and honey mixed! Have you seen that in the stores? which I thought was genius, shouldve thought of that before trying to mix pb and J.
We had family night and played big budda in Portuguese, but Pedro Tiago and Joao, Peter, James and John are the top 3 spots. They play where if someone gets out that number just doesnt exist in the game. So you dont change numbers, and if you call a number of someone who is out, you are out. ´´seis seis chama treis, treis treis chama dois!´´.
Down town they have intersections with two roads you can turn left on, so crossing those streets are fun, you dont know where they are turning. I was surprised to learn how so many churches have multiple meetings during the week, and meeting at night. People are surprised that we only have church sundays.. Our pianist came to church for the first time, the past 2 weeks we had been singing acapella in sacrament. OH and last of all, we were talking about Grease (back in the CTM) and an Elder pointed out to me how the moral of that show is to give into peer pressure, lower your standards to fit in....etc. How awful is that haha I laughed, still best show in the world. Anyway, Gotta go. Love you all!! Elder Michael
Monday, August 2, 2010
Matt: Aug. 2nd 2010
Dear Family,
Greetings from Tennessee! Holy cow this is the realness. No more mtc, just actual people that really already have a religion ha ha. No things are good here. Everybody already is Christian so that is nice. But man oh man is missionary work different in the field than it is in the mtc! First things first though
Natalie & Nate- As I was packing to leave the mtc last saturday I found the letters that you put in the suitcase that you brought like a month ago ha ha so if you've been wondering why I haven't written you back, that's why.
Ok so I'll kinda give you a breakdown of my first week here. I flew in by myself last monday and as soon as I got out of the airport it was like walking into a bathroom where somebody has been taking a hot hot shower for like 20 minutes...HUMIDITY!!! Woof! So basically I just about croaked walking from the terminal to the car. Then we went to the mission office, where you address the letters to (hint hint) in Brentwood which is 1 of the 5 richest cities in America. Then I went out to my area in Murfreesboro and met my companions Elder Smith of Centerville and Elder Adams of Mesa. They are awesome. I'm glad I am with them. Anywho because the elders before them got in some fender bender we didn't have a car, and we had 2 bikes but 3 people so we walked all week in sed heat and humidity. It was rough. I had sweat from my neck to my belt by the end of the day. It wasn't all bad though, as we were walking down this street we passed this house with a gravel driveway and Elder Smith was like, "Alright we're doing it." and so we walk up and knock and this pretty cute lady answers the door and Elder Smith says "How you doing ma'am? We were just walking by and your driveway reminded me of my favorite ice cream- Rocky Road." and then Elder Adams starts laughing (a little too hard) and then we went into our whole missionary shpeal. As it turns out her and her husband are inbetween churches and looking for a good one and we set a return appointment for the next day. It was so crazy!!!! I was like "Oh my gosh, so this is what missionary work is like in the South." Anyway our return appointment went well, he seems pretty accepting. He brought up how we could become Gods and his concern with that, but we handled it pretty well and are going back to teach him again next week.
So then the next day we go to district conference and we get a ride from the bishop's wife and she was like "Gagon... I went to high school with a Rhett Gagon." anywho turns out the bishop's wife is Aubrey Kimball my piano teacher of old! So yeah we reminisced about Sandy, Utah and stuff. Then we went to lunch with the Bishop and he was like "Now wasn't your brother in some plays with MIchelle? Like some play where they're all hillbillys or somethin?" ha ha ha so that was funny to me how he remembered Lil Abner. But yeah they have a way awesome family and the members out here just rock.
Another missionary deed we did just last night was we went to this less active guy's home and made his very obese 16 year old sister in law throw away her ouija board. Isn't that crazy?!!?!? Man alive, the things they don't teach you in the mtc ha ha.
Well other than that things are pretty smooth. We got the car back Saturday so now we aren't killing ourselves in the heat/humidity. And believe me we were close to death cuz it gets so g durn hot here.
Dad- The food is great here. We've had a few meals with members with some good southern cookin' like: Costco lasagna, Papa Murphy's pizza, Spaghetti with Ragu, and then at a member's Nationalization party (he just became a U.S. citizen) we had some Phillipino food, and some regular American food. The Phillipino food was pretty much like what we know as chinese food, but it was colder because we were like an hour late.
So yeah that's how things are going. I'd love to hear from you...any of you.....PLEASE SOMEBODY WRITE ME! ha ha Well I think that's all for today. The work is good here in Tennessee, but hopefully I can get to Brazil before I forget all my portuguese.
tchau y'all
love, Matt
Greetings from Tennessee! Holy cow this is the realness. No more mtc, just actual people that really already have a religion ha ha. No things are good here. Everybody already is Christian so that is nice. But man oh man is missionary work different in the field than it is in the mtc! First things first though
Natalie & Nate- As I was packing to leave the mtc last saturday I found the letters that you put in the suitcase that you brought like a month ago ha ha so if you've been wondering why I haven't written you back, that's why.
Ok so I'll kinda give you a breakdown of my first week here. I flew in by myself last monday and as soon as I got out of the airport it was like walking into a bathroom where somebody has been taking a hot hot shower for like 20 minutes...HUMIDITY!!! Woof! So basically I just about croaked walking from the terminal to the car. Then we went to the mission office, where you address the letters to (hint hint) in Brentwood which is 1 of the 5 richest cities in America. Then I went out to my area in Murfreesboro and met my companions Elder Smith of Centerville and Elder Adams of Mesa. They are awesome. I'm glad I am with them. Anywho because the elders before them got in some fender bender we didn't have a car, and we had 2 bikes but 3 people so we walked all week in sed heat and humidity. It was rough. I had sweat from my neck to my belt by the end of the day. It wasn't all bad though, as we were walking down this street we passed this house with a gravel driveway and Elder Smith was like, "Alright we're doing it." and so we walk up and knock and this pretty cute lady answers the door and Elder Smith says "How you doing ma'am? We were just walking by and your driveway reminded me of my favorite ice cream- Rocky Road." and then Elder Adams starts laughing (a little too hard) and then we went into our whole missionary shpeal. As it turns out her and her husband are inbetween churches and looking for a good one and we set a return appointment for the next day. It was so crazy!!!! I was like "Oh my gosh, so this is what missionary work is like in the South." Anyway our return appointment went well, he seems pretty accepting. He brought up how we could become Gods and his concern with that, but we handled it pretty well and are going back to teach him again next week.
So then the next day we go to district conference and we get a ride from the bishop's wife and she was like "Gagon... I went to high school with a Rhett Gagon." anywho turns out the bishop's wife is Aubrey Kimball my piano teacher of old! So yeah we reminisced about Sandy, Utah and stuff. Then we went to lunch with the Bishop and he was like "Now wasn't your brother in some plays with MIchelle? Like some play where they're all hillbillys or somethin?" ha ha ha so that was funny to me how he remembered Lil Abner. But yeah they have a way awesome family and the members out here just rock.
Another missionary deed we did just last night was we went to this less active guy's home and made his very obese 16 year old sister in law throw away her ouija board. Isn't that crazy?!!?!? Man alive, the things they don't teach you in the mtc ha ha.
Well other than that things are pretty smooth. We got the car back Saturday so now we aren't killing ourselves in the heat/humidity. And believe me we were close to death cuz it gets so g durn hot here.
Dad- The food is great here. We've had a few meals with members with some good southern cookin' like: Costco lasagna, Papa Murphy's pizza, Spaghetti with Ragu, and then at a member's Nationalization party (he just became a U.S. citizen) we had some Phillipino food, and some regular American food. The Phillipino food was pretty much like what we know as chinese food, but it was colder because we were like an hour late.
So yeah that's how things are going. I'd love to hear from you...any of you.....PLEASE SOMEBODY WRITE ME! ha ha Well I think that's all for today. The work is good here in Tennessee, but hopefully I can get to Brazil before I forget all my portuguese.
tchau y'all
love, Matt
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