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!!!