And this is what google translator says his email says... please enjoy!

good afternoon. Many discussions by the packages. I love the things you send. I think I will win the pounds that I lost. We start another transfer. I am still with elder Spencer. He is very nice. We are good friends. The mission going quickly. But I like that. It would be more difficult, if slowly. We already did in bake cookies. They were very nice. Brigade revenues. And one of the other fighting for me. We dyed a room for a few recent converts. It was well diverged. Paint it yellow. Then I lost ten pounds but I'm fat. We play basketball. But we run pretty fast. We run there. But that is part of the mission. I will make my muscles again after the mission. I hope my Spedo will not be of much more. But if he is you can buy one for me. Now this is not much hurry. I love you and I miss you too. But do not worry, it is not so difficult, it is normal. I can wait the rest of my mission. How things are with everyone there. The Larson's will change, and my grandparents, what they will do. Living in the cabin. But p-day is over. Bye Y'all

April 14, 2009

Here is Andrew's email to Mom and Dad:

"boa tarde. Muito brigado pelos pacotes. eu gosto muito das coisas que vocês mandarem. eu acho que eu vou ganhar os quilos que eu já perdi. Nós começamos mais uma transferência. Ainda eu estou com Élder Spencer. Ele é muito legal. A gente é bom amigos. A missão esta indo rapidamente. Mas eu gosto isso. Seria mais difícil, se fosse devagar. A gente já fez no bake cookies. Eles foram muito gostoso. Brigado pelas receitas. E da um brigado pra os outros de mim. A gente tintou uma sala por alguns conversos recentes. Foi bem divergido. Tintamos ela amarelo. Então eu perdi dez quilos mas ainda eu estou gordo. Nós jogamos basquete. Mas a gente descansou bem rápido. Nós corremos lá. Mas isso faz parte da missão. Eu vou ganhar meus músculos de novo depois da missão. Espero que meu spedo não vai ser grande de mais. Mas se ele é vocês podem comprar mais um pra mim. Agora isso não tem muito pressa. Eu amo vocês e tenho saudades de vocês também. Mas não se preocupe, não é tão difícil, é normal. Eu posso esperar o resto de minha missão. Como coisas estão com todo mundo lá. Os Larson's vão mudar, e meus avos, o que eles vão fazer. Morar na cabin. Mas p-day já acabou. Tchau y'all"

*****Anyone want to translate this for us?!?!??!********


This is Andrew's email to Jessica: (Who do you think he loves more? haha jk!)

"congratilations on the new car. i hope you like it. you should send me a picture. is it a 2003 or 2005. you and the fam told different stories.
i just finished one more transfer. yes! i am still in campo comprido and i still have the same companion. my companion and i have had the luck of meeting people who are very ignorant and unbashful. we have bible bashed a little. i don't really call it bible bashing. it is answering questions/ stupid and unitelligent comments with scriptures and terstimony. this lady prayed for us on the street and she said and i quote "...abri o intendimento destes demonios do inferno..." end quote. if you didn't understand thats ok. basically she said. "..open the understanding of these demons from hell..." and then this pastor said that we have demons and that every house he has been to to cast out evil spirits had the book of mormon and they had burned it.(he started making up a lot of stuff, and he didn't really read the bible he likes books on exorcisms and stuff. he was really wierd.) we showed no mercy. because he didn't repent. or change at all. but that is why we are here. to give people the opportunity to accept our message and to testify and stand as a witnesses against them. and there is this lady who is reading a book written by some guy who was a witch a vampire and all this other stuff, as well as mormon. it had a lot of really wierd and false stuff. i don't know why people don't just come up with their own questions. it would make the work a lot easier.
but President Aráujo gave us a talk by Elder Holland that he gave to the missionaries in the mtc in provo in 2000 i think that is really good.
The Atonement and the Missionary
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I testify that the living God is our Eternal Father and that Jesus Christ is His living and Only Begotten Son in the flesh. I testify that this Jesus, who was slain and hanged on a tree, 17 was the chief Apostle then and is the chief Apostle now, the Great High Priest, the chief cornerstone of His Church in this last and greatest of all dispensations. I testify that He lives, that the whole triumph of the gospel is that He lives, and because He does, so will we.
On that first Resurrection Sunday, Mary Magdalene first thought she saw a gardener. Well, she did—the Gardener who cultivated Eden and who endured Gethsemane. The Gardener who gave us the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the cedars of Lebanon, the tree of life.
I declare Him to be the Savior of the world, the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls, the Bright and Morning Star. I know that our garments can be washed white only in the blood of that Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. I know that we are lifted up unto life because He was lifted up unto death, that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and with His stripes we are healed. I bear witness that He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief because upon Him were laid the transgressions of us all.
I bear witness that He came from God as a God to bind up the brokenhearted, to dry the tears from every eye, to proclaim liberty to the captive and open the prison doors to them that are bound. I promise that because of your faithful response to the call to spread the gospel, He will bind up your broken hearts, dry your tears, and set you and your families free. That is my missionary promise to you and your missionary message to the world.
yeah Elder Holland is really good. i love all of his talks. there is more to it if you would like to look it up.
but i have had a lot of good experiences as well. the mission there is more to the mission than bible bashing. i will tell more positive stories in the next one.
but have a good time at work and in your new car."

April 8, 2009

"yes we got to watch all of the conferences. it was really good. the priesthood session didn't start until nine o clock. so we stayed up a little later that night. but of course had to get up at the same time. but i really enjoyed it. it was eight american missionaries and then some brazilians who speak english. i can't wait for the ensign.

i am doing pretty good here. the other day we had lunch at one of the members houses, and she just wipped out a bottle of hidden vally ranch dressing. i only wanted to eat the salad that meal.(but i didn't, i thought that might be rude) i really enjoyed it.

we saw some kids playing basketball the other day and we went and marced to play with them today. it should be fun. i am very excited. it should also be a very good proselyting activity. i hope all goes well. i am guessing that we will win(almost positive). but who knows. maybe we will throw it just to make sure they come back. or maybe we will make it close.

Get better soon Pai. have a happy easter"

4/1/2009

"well it wasn't very hard to find out which one was the lie. i know you guys to well and have had a lot of experience with them. just something i thought of the other day. did you guys go back to petersons to see if that tie that you put back and then someone stole was there.

this week we had a baptism. the lady we baptized is really special. we also had her daughter marced to be baptized as well, but ten minutes before sacrament meeting was over, she ran away and said she would not be getting baptized. it was really sad. we worked a lot with her and she was the one who brought up baptism, but she chickened out. she has some really wierd philosophies as well. but its all good.

not much has changed here, we are just waiting on winter to arrive, but unfortunately it is stalling. it has been really hot here. but i am surviving, for the time being... conference should be really good. i have the feeling that something crazy will go down. but we will see.

how are things in the united states. i hear gas is 95 cents a gallon or something like that. the uniteds states "crisis" is a popular topic here although i don't really listen because i don't think they are extremely accurate.

but have a good week. love and miss ya'll"

10/15/2008

well thank you. i received that letter two weeks ago i think. but you can send me some cd's. classical and church. i would ask for pirates of the carribean and the princess bride sound tracks. but it doesn't really matter that much. did micah move back home yet. i haven't heard anything from him yet and i don't have his adress in arizona. we went proselyting friday. it was a lot of fun. it is the most fun to contact jewish people. suprisingly we have only had one turn us down out of like five. i met some people at the temple today from some danish speaking country i don't remember. and i asked them about the game grandma dahle would do with us and they knew what i was talking about and they talked to me for a while. but back to proselyting, we went by a subway sation, but it is illegal to proselyte in them. i wanted to go down in it but we ran out of time. and my instuctor would have had to go woth us. but by the subway station the had a piano sitting out and we had this elder play (he is really really good) and a huge crowd came to listen and we just started passing out the cards to them. i tried to give a card to a nun, but she was walking to fast and i couldn't catch up to her. i tried though. we also talked to some cops. they were kind of intimidating. they are all dressed up like gi joes. but they were really nice and took the cards. we had someone ask us if we were gay and we told them no we are missionaries. it was some old lady. this time we had a lot of people avoid us. i was going to contact a different midget, and to avoid us he ran into the street. that is very dangerous in brasil. traffic is crazy. pedestrians never have the right of way. i feel like frogger when i cross the strret. but things are going very well. i told jessica she needs to face book my instucrtor. he is a really cool guy. you need to remind her. i wish we could get snow her. it was cold during the nights when we got here and sometimes chilly during the day. but now, its hot. i woke up drenched in sweat this morning. and it is only going to get hotter. but thats ok. i am cant wait till i am in the feild. only three more weeks.
well i have to go, but tell morgan hi and i will send her a letter next week. and tell miles and the harveys and just everybody you know that i know hello. and that they should obey the council from conference and send missionaries letters. ok i am just joking i dont really care. i am having the time of my life. take care and i will talk to you more next week. i forgot some of the stories i was going to tell you, so its good i wrote it down in my journal. well have fun tchau.

Blogging for Andrew!

So, we've been bugging mom to start a blog for Andrew's mission... we knew she wouldn't do it on her own, so we did it for her! You are welcome, mom! :)