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."