Elder Vaughn Catch Up--November 7 thru December 12

I wish that I could say that my week this week was better than last week! But alas it was not! =( We got water back on Saturday, (two days ago) but this morning we did not have water.  We got the pump fixed and what not but for some reason there is not water! We think that our well is dried up! We turn the pump on for a while and we have water but after a little while the pump makes a really weird sound and does not suck water! It’s very frustrating!!!!

The only good thing about this week is that we have found a couple of good families to teach! They are really cool and excited to learn about the gospel!! I am very excited to teach them and to help them with the things that they need! We also have an inactive family that we are teaching please pray for them to come to church this week! The mom and dad are not members but all the kids are!!!

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Thank you for the words of comfort this week has been better! We had Zone Conference and we had to go to Rio Branco for it! We took a bus!! And it was a long bus ride!! But it was a nice bus and we all slept! We left Porto Velho Thursday night at about 11 and got to Rio Branco at about 9 in the morning on Friday! Then we had Zone Conference with President all day!! It was really good! We left Rio Branco at about 8 Friday Night and got back home about 5 in the morning! The journey back was a lot shorter because we did not have to wait as long for the ferry to take us across a river! The way there we waited for two hours and the way back we only had to wait for like 5 min!

I am still struggling with my companion but I don’t think that we will be comps next transfer! I have tried to be more patient but it just does not work because he does not want to fix anything, he just wants to be mad I guess!! It’s very frustrating!!  Any advice for me? Thank you for your words and prayers I know that they have helped me and I know that God is watching out for me and has me in his hand!!

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I can hang in for one more week!  We found this really great family!! They are amazing!! I am very sure that they will get baptized here in the next month or so!! YAY THEM!!! We also got a reference from a less active member and he is GOLDEN he has already prayed about the Book of Mormon and knows that it is true!!! He is one of the best people to teach!!! And, when he gets baptized on Saturday. we think that his less active friend will become active again!! Yay!!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!!  Sorry this is so short but don’t have anything else to say until next week!

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You’re right I did not have a Thanksgiving here. But it was not sad at all! I had a great day! The news about the transfers is that my companion is getting transferred to Manaus! I am very relieved about this! I know that God loves me and has answered my prayers!!! I will pray for his new companion.

The baptism was really great!! He asked his less active friend to baptize him but the Bishop would not clear him because he has been inactive for a long time so then he asked me to baptize him. And it was really cool!! I like him a lot and he gave us two of his friends to teach that I am sure will get baptized here in a little bit! He is going to be a great leader in the church one day! And he has reactivated his friend!!! It was amazing!!!

So this morning we went to play soccer at the church.  On the way there, my companion kicks the soccer ball onto someone’s roof type thing!  It gets stuck in this box type thing! We knocked and tried to get someone’s attention but it looked like no one was home! So we asked their neighbor for a ladder so that we could get the ball! My comp tells me to go up and get it. Whatever, so I went up to get it but when I stepped on the roof it broke!! Roofs are not the same as in the States. They are made of thin plates of ceramic. But, I thought it was cement and that it would hold my weight! You would think that my companion who knows about these things would have warned me.  But, he didn’t. So I went and it broke.... I did not fall but I did cut my leg!  The owner of the house came out and asked us why we broke her roof!  She sent us to the store to buy the things and my companion did not pay for any of it! He told me that I was the one that went up and I was the one that broke it so I should have to pay! I was really mad at him about this because he should at least pay for some of it because he is the one that kicked the ball up there in the first place!  But, no! I had to pay the 20 reais to fix it!!  I will let you know about my new companion next week!

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This week has been good! I have been getting to know my new companion and that has been a lot of fun! His name is Elder Delgado and he is from Minas Gerais. It’s a state in Brazil! He is trying really hard to learn English; so, has asked me to help him with learning! He does not speak well at all, but he is very dedicated and I think he will learn really fast! He is also very helpful with my Portuguese.  I think that he likes to correct my Portuguese! Because he corrects me all the time! He really wants to help me to speak fluently! He says to me all the time that I need to work on my accent!

We have been teaching three friends.  I am so very excited for them they are all really great and have great testimonies! I really like this area and am very happy at the moment! Things have gotten a lot better! Thanks for your support and love and prayers!! ………………………………………………………………………………………….......................

I am also very excited about Christmas!!! It does not feel like Christmas here because there is no snow and it is very hot! And people here don’t really celebrate Christmas like we do in the States. It is very different! But I am excited we are going to spend Christmas with some members! It should be a lot of fun! They are going to make a lot of food! It will be a fun new experience for me!

I am also very excited to make one year on the mission!!!! This will happen this week by the way!!! I am very happy about that! Our lunch that day is with some members in the ward that I really like and they are going to make me something special!! I will also burn one of my shirts to celebrate!

I love ya all! Have a great week!!

Elder Vaughn

Ryan's Mission Call / Ben Update

Ryan received his Mission Call!  He is going to the Australia, Melbourne Mission.  He will enter the Provo MTC on February 29, 2012.  We are currently working on his passport and visa.

October 31, 2011

Mommy,
I am sorry to say that I have not done any talking or thinking about the Christmas call but for good reason this week has been crazy!! I got to the house and then everything started breaking or falling apart!! We have been out of water for 3 days!! We don’t have water supplied by the city, we have a well and our pump is broken and we have not been able to get hold of the lady that owns the house!! So we have been showering at a neighbor’s down the street!! Also our Iron broke so I used my credit card to buy a new one because no one has money!! Our fridge is also broken and we are trying to figure out how we can get a new one! One of the Elders is going to Manaus tomorrow and he will talk to President about it! I hope that we can get the water fixed at least; we can’t wash clothes or dishes or ourselves!! It is really a pain to have to go to our neighbor’s house to take a shower!!
About my shoes I am sorry that I have not been keeping up to tabs on my SHOES!! It never crossed my mind to keep you up to date on that! I have gone threw one pair! I am on my last pair and I don’t think they will last as long as the ones in Manaus because of the streets here! I also don’t know what I am going to do for Christmas presents for you guys! I don’t think that I will get you anything. I love you all but on a missionary salary its way to expensive to buy a present and then pay 65 reais to sent a box to you! And since I am not in ca-hoots with the drug lords I have no money. :( I think that I will send something small though for everyone! at least some pictures and a letter or something....
One great thing about this area is that there are a lot of mango trees, (mangueiras) so almost every day we walk down the street and see mangos in the trees and throw stones or something at them to eat them! They are way good!!! One funny thing about it though is that the word for hose in Portuguese is mangueiras, the same word for mango tree!! I was very confused at first too!! hahahahaahah Imagine this sentence in Portuguese: I will use the hose to water the mango tree!! (Vou usar a mangueira de água da mangueira) Funny right??
I love you and yes I will ALWAYS be your boy! Remember that book about the mom and the boy? if you don’t it’s on my bookshelf go and read it!! I am sure that you will cry! But it’s true! The calling of a Mother is never over and I will get to a point when I don’t need you as much, but I will always need a mother and my children will need a grandmother! So you are not done yet!!
Eu te amo!!!!
Elder Vaughn

October 24, 2011

Mommy,
My birthday was very different than any other one I have had in my life. It was actually a normal day for me. We got up studied and than went and did missionary work. A lot of strangers sang happy birthday to me. I think that I would have had cake but the members did not know because I just got here but it was fine! I don’t feel any different at all! But it is really weird to think that I have been alive for 20 years!!
So Porto Velho, I am actually in a different state in Brazil, Rôndonia. Porto Velho is a lot smaller than Manaus! A lot smaller!!! And most of the roads are dirt roads! In fact some of the roads are actually lakes because of the rain! There is also a lot of mud!! A new word that I learned in Portuguese really fast!! hahahaha But I really like it here! The people here seem to be a lot more humble than in Manaus!! The house that I live in is huge!! 10 times bigger than the house in Tapajòs! It is also ten times dirtier! :(  I live with another companionship Elder Snyder and Elder Chaveiro! Elder Chaveiro is brand new on the mission and Elder Snyder was my district leader when I was in Tancredo Neves!! I like Snyder a lot and Chaveiro is cool because he helped me wash the GIANT pile of dirty dishes in the sink! It seems that every time I start a new area I have to start with washing dishes!! Hahahahaha!  Elder Melendez got transferred back to Manaus so I was really bummed when I found out about that! But I did get to see him and talk to him for a while.
I love ya and hope you all have a great week!!!
Elder Vaughn

October 17, 2011

Mommy,
YAY FOR RYAN”S CALL!!!!!! I am way excited for him he will have a great time! He will be a great missionary!!! I am so happy that he is finally going to go!!! With all that waiting I am very happy!!!
This week was good!! We have had some talks with Vivian’s parents who are not members and they are looking like they are interested!!! Yay for good examples!!! I love them and their family!! I will be sad to leave them!!! Because we found out about transfers and I am going to Porto Velho, which is in another state of Brazil! So I will be on a plane tomorrow to my new area!! I am very excited about going but it will be a little hard.  Another bad thing is that I have a limited amount of baggage and will have to leave my hammock.  I said goodbye to Elder Taylor, Soleburg, and Johnson, who all will be going home on Tuesday! I am going to miss them; but, it will be fine because I am sure that we will be friends for life and even after that! Another great thing about the transfer is that Elder Melendez is there so I will get to see him! I have not seen him since he left 12 weeks ago now. SO I will be very happy to see him!!
I love you all and will tell you all about Porto Velho next week!
Thanks for the package and the birthday wishes!!!
Elder Vaughn

Anxious for Ryan's Call!

Mommy,
I also enjoyed conference a lot! We had six American missionaries in one tiny little room around a TV watching conference!! It was so good! I loved all the talks about missionary work!  Jeffery R Holland’s talk in priesthood session was WAY GOOD!!! He burned the young men and priesthood holders! It was way good; sorry you missed it!! I also really enjoyed Sister Daltons talk about fathers and how important they are!! One of the seventies also talked about missionary work and it was one of my favorites!!! It was such a good experience and now I feel recharged!!
One thing that has been weird about conference is that this makes six months in Brazil now!! Because I got here right after conference in April!! It is so weird to think that I have already been here for 6 months! I need to step it up because before I know it I will be going home! And I am sorry to admit it but I am not ready to come home!! I still have a lot to learn and many people to help!!!
The Portuguese in my email made me smile!! I am impressed with your Google Translate skills did Emily help you? She put some in her email to me last time!! hahahahah!
This week we have another baptism of a girl named Vivian!! It should be really good she is 16 and she is dating a member of our ward! So every time we teach her he is there and helps us a lot! Members are so very important in missionary work! I am very glad that our house is a house that the missionaries can come and eat! That is very important! Please keep doing that for them! We have a house like that but we don’t go a lot because they don’t have that much money! But they always say to us you need to come over more! I love them so much and am very grateful for them and what they do for us and for the people that we are teaching!!
Today for P-day we are going to go and play some games with some members. Vivian’s boyfriend and his family! It should be a lot of fun! I think that Elder Taylor is going to make a visit here because he will be going home on the 18 of this month!
The transfer has not ended yet! Today starts week 5 so we still have another week to go! Yes I am still in the city of Manaus.  I am in the center of the city!
I am getting really anxious for Ryan’s call.  I think that for sure it will come this week! I hope it does! I thought about it a lot yesterday during conference! I am so excited and proud that he will go!
Eu te amo! Lembre-se as pessoas que eu estou ensinando em sua orações.

Espero que você tenha uma ótima semana!
Elder Vaughn

Tradução do inglês para português

English vs Portuguese

September 26, 2011
Mommy,
It is me! I am happy and I am healthy!!!
I am also very excited for General Conference!!! I can’t wait!! Yes they do have the translator’s voice playing, but they also have it playing in another room in English for the American missionaries. So I will get to watch it in English and hear their voices!!! I thought that when I got here that I would have to watch it in Portuguese but the mission president actually wants us to watch it in English so we can have a better more spiritual experience.  I am really excited for conference!!!
I’m a little bummed about Ryan’s call!!! I am also very, very excited about that and finding out where he will be going!!!
We have been teaching this man that showed up at church one Sunday and wanted to be taught! He is really awesome and we hope that he will get baptized in mid October. It is a lot of fun to teach him because he has a very strong faith in Jesus Christ and God and already knows about the church and what we believe and does not have any problems so the lessons with him are always really good.
The most amazing thing happened this week!! We had a lesson with this 16 year old girl that we are teaching.  She is dating a young man in our ward. We have been teaching her since the beginning of this transfer so about three weeks. So we asked her to be baptized. She said she would and then she burst into tears.  The spirit that was there was the strongest I have ever felt it in my whole life!!! It was amazing!!! She is a great person and wants to make sure that this is what she wants to do.  She wants to have a testimony and not just get baptized because her boyfriend wants her too.  She is amazing!

The power of conversion is the coolest thing to watch!!! I wish that you could see what I am seeing in the people’s lives! I really wish that you could meet these people!!!! They are all AMAZING!!! I love them with all my heart!!! They are so humble and so happy and so ready to listen to the lessons that we have to teach them!!! We just have to have faith and find the people the Heavenly Father has prepared for us!!
Thank you for sending me a Birthday package!! I am very grateful and blessed to have family that supports me in my mission and everything! I could not ask for a better family! I love you all so much and would not want to be in any other family!!!
I love ya and hope you all have a great week!
Eu te amo!!! Eu nunca vou esquecer o que você tem feito por mim.

Elder Vaughn

Update

Ok, so here is the deal about this whole blog thing---It's harder than I thought it would be.   You probably don't know this about me, but, .......I am a little bit weepy,  I am not great at self-starting, and sometimes I avoid things that make me uncomfortable or weepy.  I know, that's a huge revelation, huh.  So, ANYWAY, if you didn't read through those lines, sometimes it's difficult for my to keep this updated.

And, Good News and Bad News:  Ben FINALLY sent his camera's memory card and some pictures!  That's the good news.  We got the pictures on the computer and looked at them (weepy) and printed a few.  Then sent the card back to him.  But, when I tried to put pics on here, I couldn't find them.  Apparently, we didn't SAVE them to the computer.  That's the bad news.  So, I will attempt to scan the pics we printed and import them.  Wish me luck........

Haha!  I did it!  So, now for news about Ben.  In the past, I have editted my emails, Linda's emails, Robert's emails, and maybe Emily and Ryan's together to fill you in on the news.  I am toooo lazy to do that for two months!  Sorry.  Ben is doing great!  He loves the people and the work.  He is feeling much more comfortable with the language, and he is still serving in Tapajós and currently has a Brazilian companion so that will help him even more.  He is eating fish!  and not hating it!

Here is his last email:

Monday, September 19, 2011

Mommy,
I was also really excited about having 5 people at church! Yesterday we had 4! So I am still very happy about that! It is so cool when people keep and do things that we invite them to do! I love to have them at church to feel the love that God and Jesus Christ have for them and for all the people in the world!!! It’s so cool! THIS CHUCH IS SO TRUE!!!!! I spent a lot of time thinking about you and what you and dad have taught me. I have been reading in Alma with the 2000 young warriors! and the scriptures that talk about their mothers teaching them!

I am so happy to hear about Anthony! My oldest nephew will soon be a deacon!!! GOOD DEAL!!! That makes me really happy! By the way do they have my email? I would love to get an email from Randy and Emily and the boys! I got an Email from Tristy today.  I didn’t read it yet because my mission president says that moms should be first!!! But I love getting emails and letters!!!!
My Portuguese vocab is growing rapidly every day with a Brazalian comp! It’s amazing how much you can learn when you speak Portuguese all day long about everything!  So I am very excited about that!!!!  
I love ya and hope ya have a great week!!!
Elder Vaughn
Eu te amo!!!

August....

August 8. 2011

Mommy,
This week has been good! The baptism was really good! The members here are really great with baptisms and they are always really excited about somebody getting baptized! One of the sisters in our ward made a huge cake and the bishop and his wife brought stuff for hotdogs. The hotdogs are a little different here. They cut the hotdogs into little pieces and make a thick soup and put the soup on the bread. It is actually really good! Somebody else also brought a lot of soda and stuff so it was like a mini party! The baptism was really good. He asked one of the members to do it so we were really happy about that! I think I told you but Marco has been going to church for about a year and a half now so all the members already love him and were super excited for him!
Roman is still going to get baptized this week! We are super excited for it! Maybe his brother will get to baptize him because he has been a member for a while. It is fun teaching him because he is learning Portuguese just like me. He is learning a lot faster than me because of his Spanish! So sometimes he says a lot of Spanish words mixed in with Portuguese! It’s really funny! I was thinking about it and realized that you all should have been Spanish speakers so that I could learn Portuguese faster! Why did you not all speak Spanish... hahahahah
I learned something really cool in church yesterday. The teacher was talking about the spirit and that we need to be ready to feel the influence of the spirit. He compared us to a pan of water and that the spirit was the fire underneath and if we are ready (luke warm water) we will feel the influence of the spirit a lot faster. But if we are not ready (cold water) it will take a long time for the spirit to talk to us! It was so cool! I love to learn things like that because I have never thought about it like that! Have you?
We had a division last week on Tuesday because we found out that all district leaders and trainers needed to go to this meeting. And since Elder Taylor is our district leader and we had to teach Roman that we would do a division. So he went with Elder Soleburg and I went with Elder Laws. Elder Soleburg is training Elder Laws. So I have more time In Brazil then he has on his mission. I was really scared because I was the one in the companionship that could speak more Portuguese. I had to do most of the talking! I was so scared! But it went fine we taught him and he understood the lesson that we taught him about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. I felt really good about it and know that God helped me with that one!
 Love Ya!
Elder Vaughn

August 1, 2011

Mommy,
I do remember when I started my paper work. It’s the first step of signing your life away to Heavenly Father!  So it’s kind of a big deal.  Be patient with Ryan, I know that he will serve a mission.

That sucks that he has to get his wisdom teeth taken out soon! I feel bad for him because he actually has more than one. Is it two or three that he has? He should have been more "wise" like me and only had one! hahahahahahaha
This week has been good! We marked two dates! One of the guys is 26 and his name is Marco. He has been going to church on and off for like a year and a half! We started teaching him three weeks ago. One day he told us that he did not really believe in God. Then a couple of days latter the Bishop calls us and tells us that Marco said to him that he wants to get baptized! We were like ok whatever Bishop, but we marked an appointment with him and we talked to him about Baptism and then we asked him if he had any questions at the end. His question was "when can I get baptized?" I could not believe what I was hearing!! So we have been seeing him almost every day since then getting him ready for Baptism! We have to make sure that he is keeping the commandments and so forth... but the best part of his whole story is that after the lesson on baptism his prayers changed! He actually prayed about something one day and now he knows that it is all true! Hearing his changed prayer was so cool!!! I have said it before but to see the gospel change people’s lives is amazing! He is going to get baptized on Saturday!
The other date we have is for a boy named Roman, he and his family are from Peru. So he speaks Spanish! He also speaks Portuguese very well but every once in a while he throws in a lot of Spanish words and what not. So it is very difficult for me to understand what he is saying! My comp had no problem... but it was hard for me. Roman’s family are all members and we are going to baptize him on the 13th!
Well everything in Brazil is very good and I am very happy and healthy! I love you all and thank you for your prayers!
Love ya!!
Elder Vaughn

July.......

Monday, July 25, 2010

I love my hammock! It’s awesome! I don’t sleep in it because we don’t have hooks in our room for it. It has loops at both ends and they hook to a hook. I will bring it home with me! I do remember the hammock that I used to read in; but (no offense) it sucks compared to the one I have now! I read my Book of Mormon in Portuguese and Our Search for Happiness in it.

I am glad that you are not wishing time away! Because I love every minute here! I am growing so much and I am learning so much about myself and my relationship with the Savior! I am so happy to be here. Please don’t miss me too much! Please enjoy the time that I am on my mission! Please, please don’t live phone call to phone call! I don’t want you to think of my mission that way! This is the best thing that has every happened to me in my whole life! I am so grateful that you raised me and taught me that I needed to live the commandments to have a happy and successful life! I want you to know that! I also want you to know that I am safe and that I am very happy! I will be happy when the time comes for me to come home. But I know that I will also not want to leave! I know that to think about me not wanting to leave makes you a little sad! But please understand the love that I have for Brazil and for the people here. My life has changed because of what I have seen and the people that I have met here! I will always love the people and the country!
This week we had one of our investigators tell us that he does not believe in God. Then the next day the bishop called and told us that he wants to get baptized. So I don’t know what is going on with that. He was at church yesterday but we did not get a chance to talk to him for long. We have an appointment with him sometime this week. So we will see what happens with that. We have another person that I think will get baptized before the end of the transfer so that is good!
We found out about transfers.... We will both stay here for one more transfer at least... Elder Taylor only has two more transfers so I will probably kill him in this area in October.  I was hoping to get another Brazilian as a comp. so that I could speak Portuguese all day. But I will be fine with Elder Taylor! He will help me learn a lot!
Elder Johnson, the one from Green River, will get transferred to another state in Brazil so I won’t see him again. Sad. He will go home at the same time as Elder Taylor so I probably won’t see him on the mission again. I am going to miss him. But that is what happens on the mission, missionaries get transferred! Elder Calaza is going home tomorrow! I talked to him on the phone yesterday and it was good I like him a lot and will miss him as well!
Thank you so much for your prayers! I know that the Lord is blessing me and that He is blessing you at home as well!  I love you guys and hope you all have a great week!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Today has been a long day! We started this morning playing football.... and if you have ever seen me play football you understand... I fell in the sand and cut my elbow and knee pretty bad... It looks a lot better now but before if looked really bad.  I am pretty sure it will heal up well in the next week or maybe two... After that we went to a theatre for a tour.  Then we walked around the center.  Elder Taylor, Elder Soleburg, Elder Laws, and I all bought a hammock! We also bought one for Elder Dillman because he wanted us to get one for him. I am very excited about my hammock! It’s blue and awesome!
We are to the end of the transfer and we will find out on Saturday if someone is getting transferred... We are pretty sure that Elder Taylor will leave. He is really close to a missionary who is one of the assistants and he said that president had decided to make him a zone leader in one of two areas so we are like 90% sure that he is leaving.  
Things here have been good. I really like my area. I don’t know that many members and we hardly have anyone to teach but I like it and am glad to be serving. We did a service project the other day for some members, the family is awesome. It’s a couple and the man served in Japan and he speaks really good English. We spoke Portuguese because his wife does not speak English; but if I did not understand something he would explain in English. It was like having English subtitles it was awesome!
I finished Jesus the Christ the other day. I was going to start reading through it again but I told my mission president that I would only read in Portuguese so the day has come that I will only study in Portuguese. I think it will be good for me and maybe I will end up getting more out of my study, who knows...
That’s all for this week. I hope that you all have a great week.

Monday, July 11, 2010

I like that Mother Teresa line. I will remember that when I do everything that I can and the people still decide to use their agency to not accept the message of the gospel. I am also really excited about the language study and I have been reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese. I hope to be done with 2nd Nephi by the end of the transfer. It will be a push but I think that I can do it! I have also made a goal to finish reading Jesus the Christ by the end of the transfer. That one will be easy because I am almost done. But I have had that goal for a long time. But I am still really happy about it!
I can't believe that Adam and all of them are coming home! That was crazy fast! I bet their families are very happy and ready for them to be home! Two years is a long time!
This week I had something really hard happen to me.... We were teaching this family and Elder Taylor asked these two women to read.  They could not read very well at all. It was really sad.  When an American that is learning Portuguese can read Portuguese better than two native speakers.....very sad.  I was really sad about the lack of education they have! After the appointment I sat on the curb and cried for about four or five minutes.... I know I am a cry-baby... But it was really sad. They are from the Interior, which means: a  small city away from the major city.  But Elder Taylor says that the education is always really bad in the Interiors. I knew that I would meet and find some people that were uneducated but to know it and then to actually see it is two DIFFERENT things. There is a quote that I like a lot from the book Bridge to Terrabitha that says "I don't know everything about God but I do know that he is not going to send that little girl to Hell" And though nobody is going to hell because of a lack of education I can apply the same thinking to this situation: I don't know everything but I do know that God has a plan for EVERYONE! Even the people that are uneducated. That is the great thing about this gospel!  God DOES have a plan for everything and EVERYTHING is going to work out! I don't know how it will work out but I do know that it will work out.

I think that is everything that I have for ya this week! I love ya and hope you all have a great week!

Wednesday, July 6, 2010

I am a little discouraged about the work in Tapajos.  We do everything that we can and people still don’t want to continue to learn more. This is my first experience with so much disappointment. When we go and knock doors we rarely get to teach anyone from it and the people we do teach we rarely teach more than once. I would tell you about our investigators but the people we are teaching will probably disappear. We taught this one family twice and they were really nice and we went there and they turned the lights on and I guess saw that it was us and then they turned the lights off and did not answer the door. We also taught another Catholic family and they were super nice. But they told us that they were really active in their church and were not interested in learning about our church, but they were super nice about it and told us to come by any time and we could leave them with a simple message. I think that we will continue to visit them like every other week or something like that.

My companion is great for my language study.  We started (and by we I mean me) reading preach my gospel in the morning out loud and after I read it I translate in to English. He also wants me to pick out the tenses and tell him what tense it is. So every time I see a verb he wants me to tell him if it is in the present, imperfect, preterit, two word future, future, past subjunctive, future subjunctive, present subjunctive. It’s really hard. And yes there is that many forms of each verb! I know you can feel bad for me.... LOL! but it should be good I think that I will learn a lot and my pronunciation will get a lot better.
I got some great news from Elder Calaza yesterday. Remember Tiago, Eudes’ little brother, he is going to get baptized on the 16^th! I think that me and my companion are going to go to it and see his family!
We were going to play basketball this morning but when we woke up it was pouring rain! So instead we went to the LAN house, where I email, and after we are going to meet some other missionaries to play soccer in an indoor court. I don’t really like soccer and am not very good and the place for me to learn how to play is not Brazil because all the people are from Brazil and are amazing at soccer! So I look even worse at soccer! But I love the missionaries that are going so it should be fun.

I am really excited about our new President! We had a conference with him on Monday and it was really awesome! He seems really cool and I am so excited to actually have a President that is from Brazil! I think it will be good for me! I still have not found out if I can write him in English but I decided the other day that I don’t care and that I will just write him in Portuguese. The letter to him might be really short and not very detailed the first couple weeks but I know that he will understand and will like that I am making an effort to write in Portuguese. Sister Klien is really cool too she talked to us for about 30 min and told us all about their family and how they meet and got married it was really cool. I think I told you that they brought two of their kids with them. A 17 year old girl and a 6 year old boy. The 6 year old is awesome, he gave me a high five!

I have some exciting news.... ................................................. Drum roll please........................................ (Did you do the drum roll?) Hahahahah
P-day has been changed to Monday!!! so from now on I will email you on Monday!!!! That is really cool because we get to have our P-day on this coming Monday!!! So I will email you again on Monday and I better have a response to this email because I have been a good boy and written a lot!
I think that is all I have to say...... You should be proud of this long letter....
I love you and hope you guys have a great four days until Monday!

Wednesday, June 29, 2010

I am glad to hear that everything went well with the camp. I think it is weird to think of you all at a camp and not be there. But such is life.....
Things here are pretty much the same we try and find new people to teach the gospel. On Saturday we went around doing door contacts and did not get any lessons out of it. We did that for about 3 hours and then got discouraged and went to teach a family in our ward. We watched Finding Faith in Christ. It was good and we felt better after. then we went home.
I don’t know if i told you but we have an American in our ward. He is leaving today but he lived here for about 2 months. He served his mission in Mexico and was here to study jungle diseases for medical school. He is starting Medical School in Arizona when he gets home. He told me a lot of helpful things for applying for Medical School.  I am really excited about meeting him and being able to contact him after our missions. He is really awesome!
President Jayme leaves today sometime this afternoon... and President Klein will come. President Klein is a Brazilian from Sao Paulo. He has two younger kids that will be coming to live with him. I am excited for a new President but don’t really know how it will work with talking with him. I don’t know if he speaks English or not. And I don’t think that I will be able to write him my weekly letter in Portuguese. We will see how it goes...
I had a dream last night that Ryan got his mission call to Reciffe, which is a mission in Brazil. So when you start guessing where he is going that is my guess. I think it would be really cool if he went there because then I would have someone to talk to in Portuguese when I get home.
I love ya guys and hope you are all doing well!

Sorry I've slacked--Catch Up!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 

I like my new area a lot! We don’t know where the members live because we don’t eat lunch with them every day. Sometimes we have lunch with them but most of the time we don’t.  A member owns a restaurant and we eat there. When the members forget that they were supposed to feed us they just tell us to go to the restaurant. So I don’t know hardly any of the members. =(
My companion is amazing! He is so funny and we talk all the time! He is from Houston. I like him a lot! He will be going home in October and he is really excited to go home! He still wants to work but he is ready to go home. The only bad thing is that we speak a lot of English because we are both native English speakers. I have learned some Portuguese with him because he understands what it is like to have to learn Portuguese and he can explain it to me very well. So I am really excited and think that I will learn a lot from him.

 Another good thing is that I am now close to Elder Melendez. He is not in the same zone as me but he is close. We played football, I know shocker right I actually played, and he was there. So I talked to him for a while and caught up on a lot of things that have happened. He is really happy in Brazil right now.

The house that I live in is really small and I just live with Elder Taylor. But it is a lot nicer than my last house and it is much cleaner! The best part..... Drum roll please........... I have an AC in the bedroom!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s so nice! I was even a little cold because I do not have a blanket anymore.  I sleep really good and it’s nice!
Elder Dillman is in my district again so I see him every week. He is struggling a lot with Portuguese. I hope that he learns quickly because he is having a really hard time with it.
Today should be fun we are going to walk around the center of the city for a while with two other missionaries: Elder Laws, and Elder Soleburg.

Thanks for your prayers. I love you guys and hope you have a great camp trip! 

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I got transferred! I am now in a different zone. Before I was in East Zone and now I am in central zone. My new companion is an American and his name is Elder Taylor. He is from Texas. I like him a lot he is really funny and talks a lot. My new house is very clean and there is not dishes piled in the sink all the time! I am very excited! I am in the center of the city now so there a lot more people! There are a lot of people walking in the streets shopping and doing other things. Elder Taylor says that we can’t do street contacts; because, most of the people don’t live here. They are just here to buy things and be in the city to hang out!
Saying goodbye to the members and Elder Leao and Elder Calaza was a little hard but I am fine now and am very happy to be here in my new area!
Junior’s baptism was amazing! His dad baptized him and when he walked in the door Junior walked up to him and handed him a set of white clothes and then the dad just stared at him for a while and then they hugged and cried for like five minutes. It was so cool! I wanted to take pictures like I have with all the others but he did not want to take pictures with his teary face. So, I did not get pictures but the hug will be in my memory for ever!
 I love you and hope all is well! 

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 

Transfers are on Tuesday and we find out if we get transferred on Saturday.  We are pretty sure that Elder Calaza or I will get transferred.  I don’t think that I will be the one to kill Elder Calaza, that means that I am his companion when he goes home. He only has one transfer left. But, whatever happens, happens.

This week has been good we have a baptism on Friday. The kids name is Junior and his dad is a member and will baptize him. But the cool thing is that he does not know yet. Junior wants it to be a surprise for his father.  We are going to have the young men’s president say that they will have a presidency meeting on Friday (he is the second counselor). Then when he gets to the church Junior will be in baptism clothes and will say “Will you baptize me right now?” I am really excited for this! Junior came up with this plan all by himself!  It should be really cool.

Everything is great here! I am glad to hear all is well at home. I love ya and hope you all have a great week!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

This week has been good. I spent my second day at home because I was sick. =( I ate something that my body did not agree with and I was really sick. I threw up twice. =( Tuesday morning I felt much better!

Some days I get back to the house and all I want to do is sleep because I am so tired! I like what you said about the Lord always having your back! That is very true!  The great thing about it is God has big enough hands to have everyone’s back at the same time. He has your back in SLC and He has my back here in Brazil. I feel so much comfort by that simple little truth because I know that I am not alone in this work. I know that on the days that I feel so tired that the Lord will carry me so that this work can get done. I have felt it and know that it is true!

I love the fact that I have a Heavenly Father that loves me and loves the people that I am teaching! It’s so simple but its amazing!

I love you and hope all is well with you.

The weather here is HOT!

Dear Family,

Lucas did get baptized it was really cool there where a lot of people there. But Eudes did not baptize him. Lucas wanted Elder Calaza to baptize him so that is what we did. We also had a baptism of a girl named Beatriz the same day. That was also really cool because we were not sure that she was ready but it all came through and it was awesome!

I am doing awesome! Portuguese is coming a lot better this past week. I am really happy that I am understanding more of what people are saying to me! It’s amazing that such a little thing can make me so happy. It’s not like I understand everything but just more than I have been. People are also telling me that I actually speak really well. So things with learning Portuguese are coming! I am so happy about that! I thank Heavenly Father every day for what I am able to understand and what I can say. Because if I don’t I think that he might take what he has given me away. I also have to watch out for the pride cycle that happens in the Book of Mormon and make sure that it does not happen to me.

We are teaching a man and his wife named Elton. I don’t remember his wife’s name, its a hard one (his name is Elton John, it made me laugh out loud the first time he told me). He struggles with the word of wisdom. He is really an awesome guy and is wife is also really awesome. They both know that the church is true and have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. They just struggle with the word of wisdom. I know that he knows that this church is true and he still falls into temptation of drinking and smoking. This is the first time that I wanted to cry because of an investigator.  But I pray for him every day, sometimes twice a day.

The weather here is HOT! I am getting used to being hot all the time! I don’t think that you can ever get used to the heat here but I think you get used to being hot all the time! We have still not gotten the money for our fans. So Elder Calaza and I still only have one fan for both of us. We called staff and asked them about it. They said that Pres. Jayme was out of the city for a zone conference and he has to approve it.  So he put it in yesterday and we should have it tomorrow or on Friday. I hope so because the fan we have right now is on the fritz.  Sometimes it stops working randomly.  It’s really weird.

We just had our zone conference yesterday and it was really awesome! It was the first and last time I will have a zone conference with President Jayme.  He will go home in June and we only have a zone conference every other transfer. Transfers are coming up in a couple of weeks and my companion thinks that he will get transferred but who knows.

Of course, I am keeping a Journal. I have already filled one. I have two more. I write a lot about what is happening. I am sorry that details get fuzzy for you guys. I guess you will have to wait until I get home to get all the complete details.  All of them are in my Journal.  I don’t dare NOT write in my Journal every day, because so much happens and I don’t want to forget anything.  It’s strange what you can forget. I was reading through my Journal the other day and was amazed about what I had forgotten about the MTC. So I write every day so that I can remember. 

It is really weird that I will not be there for Ryan’s graduation but this is where I need to be.  Ryan will gain a testimony of Jesus Christ. I pray that he will go on a mission so that he can learn and grow as much as I have. I want him to have this experience! It would be really cool if he went somewhere Portuguese speaking because then we could speak Portuguese together.

I love you guys and hope you have a good crazy week.

Love,

Elder Vaughn

Still Learning!

Dear Family,

Things here are good! Me and my companion have been sharing a fan that we use at night because it is so HOT but it is about to be summer here so it will be a lot HOTTER so we are going to buy another fan. The good thing is that the mission will pay for it so we just need to find one that will work for us and then tell the mission office how much it is and they will give us the money to buy it! I found out that fans here are really expensive! It will cost us $R 130 that is in Reais not dollars that is what the 'R' means in case you did not understand what that meant. I don’t know the exact exchange rate but I think that it would be about 70 or 75 dollars. And this is a small fan! I can’t believe what is expensive here and what is cheap! For example it is really cheap here to take a cab where in the US it is pretty expensive. I don’t understand.

Speaking of expensive my contact solution is about half gone so I decided that I should look around and find out where I could buy some. I found some at a drug store and one bottle will cost me $R 45! So I don’t know what I am going to do about that! Will you please look into sending me some because someone here told me that you could not send anything liquid through the mail. I don’t know if that is true but will you look into it and we can talk more about it on Mothers Day when I call.

My companion is a nice guy and I like him a lot but he is not as helpful as I thought he was. He is starting to get impatient with me and not speaking Portuguese. But I can’t help it! He has been speaking Portuguese for his whole life and I have been speaking Portuguese for only a couple of weeks! I am doing the best I can! I know that the Lord will bless me and that I will learn this language I also know that I can’t do it by myself. I need the Lord to help me and whether I like it or not I need my companion to help me. I will try hard to not get frustrated with it but it is a little hard sometimes!

On a good note I think that I am learning a lot about myself and about other people! I know that my testimony has grown so much since I have been in Brazil because I have had to lean on the Lord so much to be able to speak Portuguese and to adapt to a new environment and a new culture! When you have to put all your trust in the Savior you learn about your relationship with him and I am so grateful for the relationship that I have with God and my Savior! I want you to know that I love our Savior very much and that I KNOW that the Savior is helping me help the people that he loves in Brazil! I have personally seen the change this gospel can make in peoples lives and it is AMAZING! I am so happy to be a representative of Jesus Christ!

I am very happy to be here and glad that I have a chance to bless the lives of others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Spreading the word that there is a living Christ brings me so much joy! I know that I am not really doing anything and that God is doing great things through me! I am so grateful for this chance that I have!

I love you and can’t wait to call you on Sunday!

Love ya,

Elder Vaughn

I am very happy here!

I hurt my finger on the fan because one of the metal spokes that are on the outside was broken, so it was shaking in the wind. So I was trying to tuck it back into another one and my finger slipped and went into the fan. It is fine now. But I thought that I would get an infection in it and that would be really bad! I kept it really clean and it looks really good now! I am very happy that it is healing well.

The past couple of days have been really bad for me I woke up Saturday with a massive headache! It hurt so bad that I could not focus on anything all day Saturday. The pain was in the back of my head behind my right ear. It was really weird to have pain there but it was awful! I thought that it would go away so I just let it be. I took some medicine but it did not help at all. So then I thought that I needed to drink some water so I spent the rest of the day drinking water and that did not help at all. So then I figured that it would just go away in the night. So I went to bed and woke up Sunday morning and it was worse! But we had stuff planned so I had to just suck it up and be a missionary. I know that the Lord helped me through that day because I actually taught members a message after lunch. But my headache was much worse than it was on Saturday! Monday morning it was still hurting really bad so I called the mission presidents wife, who is in charge of anything that has to do with our health, and she was in a meeting in Sao Paulo so she could not talk to me so she was going to have Elder Call give me a call.  So I spent all of Monday in bed sleeping waiting for this Elder Call person to call me. He called and told me that he was a doctor and wanted to hear about my headache. I explained to him what and where my pain was and he told me that I had tense muscles in my neck and they were pinching some nerves in the back of my head. I have no idea how he knows by me explaining it over the phone. He told me that I should keep my chin up during the day and put some ice on it every night for the next couple of days and prop my head up at night right before I go to sleep. He told me also to get a muscle relaxer and take one every night. The amazing thing is I did that for the rest of the day on Monday and iced it at night and woke up on Tuesday and felt a littler better. But on Tuesday I did it all day and did everything that he told me and my headache is gone! I am going to keep doing it for a couple more days just to make sure. But I am so happy now that my headache is gone! Because it was really awful and when you are sick as a missionary you feel really bad because you can’t go and help your investigators and your companion has to just sit around while you sleep! I felt really bad but I could not do anything! I am so grateful for the doctor here! And that he knew what was wrong over the phone!

Other then the headache my week has been good! Easter was really weird for me not only because I was in so much pain but because I did not even know that it was Easter until someone told me Saturday night! And here they do something really weird they make a dummy of Judas, the apostle that betrayed Jesus, and they beat him up! It’s like a party to them to beat this dummy of Judas.

I love Stephen B. Allen he is awesome! He came and talked to us while I was at the MTC twice! He is an awesome speaker, I hope you enjoyed his talk!

I am using the bug spray but I don’t think that you will need to send me more because here they have this coil stuff that I don’t remember the name of. But it’s a coil and you burn it and it kills all the bugs and I do not get bitten in the night. For which I am very grateful!

I love the food a lot! It is so good I wish that you and Ryan could have some it’s awesome! I do miss eating American candy though. They don’t have any here. They have some American stuff but it is really expensive and I don’t buy it.

I am very happy here! Thank you for praying for me to understand the language! I know that your prayers are with me and that every prayer you say on my behalf will bless me and Heavenly Father will watch out for me.  I feel your love for me though my Heavenly Father! I know what you mean when you say you feel rejuvenated by the scriptures. I feel the same way every day when I have to walk all day and teach people the Gospel every day! I know that I would not be able to do that without the help from my Savior and Father in Heaven. I know that I am not doing any good here but Heavenly Father is doing good things through me! I realized that I do not convert anybody the Spirit does and that was an important lesson for me to learn as a missionary!

Love ya,

Elder Vaughn

Everyone speaks Portuegese!

Things here are calming down. I am getting used to being in a foreign country. I am not shocked anymore when everyone speaks to me in Portuguese and expects me to understand what they are saying. Because guess what? EVERYONE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE! LOL! For a while I was shocked about it. I don’t know why because I am in Brazil.

Nothing interesting has happened this week. When I say interesting I mean that I did not find bugs in my bed or I did not find bugs crawling on my food. I did cut my finger really bad yesterday morning on our fan. Please don´t worry about it I cleaned it really good and am taking care of it. It did hurt really bad for a while but I am fine now!

I had to go to the federal police building to sign something for my visa. They fingerprinted me and had me sign the paper three times. I had to sign without touching the edge of the box. It was kinda hard, but I managed!

I was so excited about the Baptismo on Saturday! It was so cool and I am going to try and attach photos to this email. It will be hard because the computer is in Portuguese so I will have someone help me!

During our lessons it is really hard for me to stay focused because I don’t understand what they are saying so I zone out. It is really hard! I try and force myself to listen and I do a lot of the time but sometimes I just can´t and I zone out! People try and help me with the language which is not really that helpful because they don’t know what the words mean in English which is what I really need right now. It is helpful when I conjugate wrong and they correct me. That is helpful.

I don’t really understand the money here it will take some time to get used to it. And my companion says that people selling stuff will see us and say that we are missionaries so they will charge us more because we have money! It’s so dumb! But that is my fate I guess.

You talk about the weather so I will tell you about the weather here. It rains and it’s hot. It rains some more and then it pours! And then it is really HOT! And it is really humid. It is so humid that the envelopes that I have sealed. So, I have to be careful and open it so that I can put letters in it. It’s crazy! But I love the rain here. It really cools down when it rains!

I have also attached some photos of the Manaus Temple and a cockroach that we found in our toilet. I hope you enjoy them! Hahaha

I love ya and hope you are doing well! Please do not worry about me I am fine!

Brazil!

Things here in Brazil are CRAZY! it is so different then what i am used to in the united states. So much has happened to me since I got here!

Before I tell you all about my week, yes, I had two packages waiting for me and everyone was jealous because it was full of American food and that stuff I can’t buy here so everyone wanted to buy if from me. I am safe. I am serving in the city of Manaus. In an area they call Tancredo Neves. Its a little bit outside of the city of Manaus, like West Valley is to Salt Lake. It is a busy city there are a LOT of people. But not to busy. The language is really hard! I can’t understand anything people say to me. Everyone says that it is normal to not understand anything. So I am not worried. My companion, Elder Calaza is from southern Brazil and he does not speak as good English as I thought. I live with two other Brazilians, Elder Leao and Elder Dias. (Yes his name means days in Portuguese, I thought it was really funny at first) Elder Dias does not speak English at all and Elder Leao speaks really good English because he lived in Utah with his sister for 6 months a couple of years ago.

My week has been really good a lot has happened and I have learned a lot about Brazil. I don’t know where to start.... On Sunday we were going around and I was meeting the members after stake conference (which I did not understand by the way). So we went to a family and they gave us food, The food is really good! I LOVE IT! and then we left and went to another family and they also gave us food. my companion tried to tell them that we had just eaten at another families house but they would not take no for an answer. So I had two BIG meals that day! I was so full but so grateful for the sacrifice the members make to feed us. They pull out all the stops for missionaries. They serve rice and beans at every meal! Fine with me because i love it!

The other day in the middle of the night my finger started to hurt really bad and I found out in the morning that I had gotten bitten, or so I thought, by some bug. It hurt really bad! In the morning I noticed that there was something in my pillow case so I opened it up and found that there was a huge catepillar on my pillow! and it was pokey and when you touched it, it hurt and left what looked like a bug bite. It was crazy! We also found a cockroach in our toilet and it was really big too! All the bugs here are big and they are everywhere! I had to put the food you sent me in our fridge because there were ants crawling all over the stuff!

The rain here is crazy! It starts to pour without warning and I was soaking wet within about 3 seconds! There is so much water that comes down! But it is awesome and I love the rain!

I was really surprised at how dirty the streets are! There is garbage all over the streets! It makes me a little sad to see all the garbage lying around. There are also dogs roaming the streets that don’t have homes to live in. They look really sad and lonely.

I was also shocked to find out that the people are not as poor as you would think they would be. They have really crappy houses. But they have cars and cable tv and internet. I love the people here they are all so nice! Everyone tries to help me with learning Portuguese. They understand that I am learning and they try to help me. It’s awesome!

I love it here and would not want to be anywhere else in the whole world! This place has its ups and downs but they are now my ups and downs and I love it here!

I love you guys and hope that all is well with you and that you are loving life as much as i am!

Ready for Brazil!

This week has been really good and I love it here. I am getting to the point where I want to get to Brazil. I would not say that I think about it a lot but I do pray about my visa almost every day. I want to go to Brazil really bad. I want to go to Brazil and start to teach people in Portuguese, because I miss teaching people in Portuguese.  But at the same time I am so happy to be here and to be teaching people.

Sorry this is so short, but I have a lot too do today.

Love ya

Elder Vaughn

Perdido, Florida

Dear Family:

Everything here is fine. I love it here and teaching the gospel is amazing I can't explain to you how happy I am being with the people here in Perdido. I love all of them so much and am so happy to share the gospel with them.  I have built relationships with my investigators. They are all awesome and are willing to let me teach them and keep their commitments. I love it when they say they are going to read the Book of Mormon and then they actually do. I asked one investigator to read 3 Nephi 11, when Christ comes to the people. He read all of 3 Nephi! It’s amazing to see him progress. But at the same time he won’t come to church because he is a Baptist and goes to his own church every Sunday. I will have to figure out a way to help him get to church.

The members here practically fight over having us over for dinner. I think that since I have been here we have not had dinner at the same members’ house twice. So I have plenty to eat.  I do not spend a lot of time tracting….. In this area it is a waste of time because the members give us so many names each week. I have only been tracting a couple of times. I don’t like it so i am ok with the fact that we don't do it that much.

I am still getting along with the elders and my companion.  They are awesome and i could not have had a better trainer!

The rule in the Ensign about only sending one letter a week to missionaries is just a general rule. The mission president gets to decide on things like that. My mission president has said that we could email as much as we want. Some missionaries spend their whole p day emailing. I will NOT do that so you don’t have to worry. I will only spend a little time emailing because honestly I have a lot to do on p day. Thank you for sending letters I will write back. I just have less time to write letters then I did at the MTC so it is hard for me to do that. I am always grateful to get mail, it makes me happy and does not make me homesick at all. In fact in makes me realize that you all support me and it makes me want to work even harder, because I know that you have my back.

I am excited that you are getting the garden ready and have good plans for what you want to do. the asparagus sound really good! The other night for dinner one of the members fed us fried asparagus and it was really good! I am excited for spring for you guys because then it will start to warm up for you. Its nice and warm here. I know that you said that I should not tell you the temp. But, I will anyway. It has been really nice! I love the weather! The humidity is kinda a killer because when it is 70 it feels a lot hotter. But I still love it and am soaking up the son!

I love you and miss you and thank you for all you do for me while i am here.

Love,

Elder Vaughn

Temporary Re-Assigned to Florida-Tallahassee Mission

Dear Family,

My P-day is Monday now. Thats no good that everyone has the flu. No flu here haha. I love it here I am in an area called Perdido and me and three other Elders share an apartment. Its not as bad as it sounds the apartment is actually really nice and there are two bathrooms so I share a bathroom with my companion Elder Johnson and the other companionship shares the other bathroom. The other Elders are Elder West and Elder Dame. They are all awesome! My companion is a really tall skinny guy like me and he is from North Salt Lake. I love all the Elders i live with. i have been so lucky in my companions its amazing!

Being here is a lot different the being at the MTC. I feel like i have a lot more freedom here because i dont have to go to class all the time and i dont have to stay in my class room all day. I get to study on the couch and dont have to wear my suit at all. which is awesome! It gets kinda chilly at night though but other than that i love it here and would not want to be anywhere else, except for Brazil!

I hope that all is well at home that that everyone feels better soon I love you and miss you a lot.

Elder Vaughn

New Address:

Elder Benjamin Vaughn

1535 Killearn Ctr Blvd  Ste C-3

Tallahassee Florida 32309

I love Fridays!

Dear Family

Thats so funny about the mailman and how he honks! I like fridays as well but its because i get to feel like a normal person. I get to wear jeans and a T-shirt and I dont have to go to class all day and I get to write home. I love fridays because I also get to go to the temple. We go to the temple every P-day because it is right across the street! It’s awesome! Today me and Elder Melendez did sealings! I love going to the temple with him and i love to study with him because he has such a strong spirit and a strong testimony of this gospel and our Savior.

We teach really well together we have two "progressive investigators" one is our teacher and the other is a volunteer at the TRC. they are both members of the church but they pretend and act like someone they know that is not a member and it is really cool because we actually get to know what it is like to love them as people and not just as people that could become members. I love them both. Their names are Vincente and Murlhio. We teach the whole lesson in Portuguese and we cant say anything to them in english or they say "Como?" or "O Que?" it is really hard to not be able to ask them to give us a word. especially Bro. Morey, AKA Vincente, because he is our teacher and we are used to asking him stuff like that.

I am also glad that the Portuguese is coming to me too. I am getting really nervous about having to teach people in Portuguese i dont think i know it enough to do very well. But i know that Heavenly Father will not let me screw it up so that is a relief!

Thats crazy about the fire alarms and funny that they have a sticker that said 2002 LOL i am glad that you changed them so that you can all be safe and be able to get out if there is a fire. Sorry to hear that snickers bit you, but why where you trying to get her out if there was no fire?

I have seen Travis! I actually saw him a lot because his classroom was in the same building as mine. I dont know if he left yet i think he said he was leaving sometime this week but i dont remember.

I should get my reassignment on Tuesday or Wednesday and i dont know if i will be able to call you or not maybe i will. i do know that i will be able to call you from the airport for when i leave. We are all really excited to get our reassignments we did the whole guessing where everyone is going on their mission game and the winning vote for me is NYC so i guess we will see where i get sent. I am really excited to be able to serve "two" missions i think it will be awesome to be able to love two different types of people if you know what i mean.

I love you guys and hope that you dont have another fire incident at the house.

Love, Elder Vaughn