what is happening in brazil 4-28-14

well this letter is gonna be pretty annoying because i dont have a whole lot of exciting things to write about! haha 

Well just when i thought that things couldnt get any worse.. they got worse! haha this week started out really slow! the other missionaries that we live with made things really difficult! one of them started watching movies and playing video games all day and the other one was just sleeping, this wasnt a problem for me and wasnt causing problems with our work until the second day of this. Elder Arreas is only two weeks from finishing his mission. one of the elders, out district leader, was his companion earlier on, and he started talking about how Arraes was leaving and that it didnt matter anymore, that this area is hopeless and it is better to end the mission happy and watching tv and playing video games than it was to end stressed out! then the problems began! the other 3 in the house stayed up until 3 like every night this week watching movies, and the next day complaining about how they were too tired to work, how the area doesnt have baptisms and that it is better to just wait out until the next transfer to see if the difficulties pass by! this like destroyed everything! haha my companion was pretty unexcited and i was stressed out like never before! im surprised that my hair didnt turn gray or fall out! haha but we were lucky to leave the house to work at like 4 in the afternoon this week, and when we were out, Elder Arraes wasnt exactly to thrilled to walk any where!.. we got in a little bit of a fight on saturday morning because i had just had enough of his giving up at the end of his mission! i kind of let him have it! he wasnt too happy after that, and for the rest of the morning things were really tense! but i thinked it helped him out a bit, because we worked all saturday and sunday and he got excited again and things are good now! the excitement has been contagious, our district leader is back on track for the most part, the next step is trying to get his companion excited too! its crazy how unexcitement can be so contagious, like it spread like a wild fire in our house! but excitement is also pretty contagious, and its starting to spread these last two days! 

on the bright side of this week! i got an opportunity to call more of the shots this week which was good i got to lead all the lessons that we did teach and i was basically senior this week! also had a inactive person start going to church this week! that was great, we have been working with him for the last couple of weeks, so it was great to see him in church this week! also finished the book of mormon in portugues this week! that was great! its hard to imagine that i ever read it in english now! haha but the high light of this week was that i survived the most stressful week of my mission thus far! i have never had such a hard time! but i made it through and learned a lot of things about my self and about working, even when things arent going the way you hoped!

loved all the emails that were sent this week, especially the emails from Mom and Dad, those helped out a ton! thanks so much! 

Well things are looking up in Viçosa, hoping that we can finish these last 2 weeks of the transfer strong and regardless of the outcomes of our work! 

Elder Ryan

English Classes 

only one more week until 6 months...4-21-14

well like the subject of this message says.. only seven more days and i will have 6 months in the mission field! so freaking wierd to think about! feels like yesterday that i was leaving home for the MTC.. so wierd to think that already one fourth of my mission is over! not really sure how to feel about it! hahah

Well News about easter.. nothing! holidays dont exist for missionaries! everyday we work! haha

well this week was an up and down one! this week we had a hard time finding new people to teach because during the week of easter.. everyone has work off... the whole week! so not a lot of people were really interested in hearing what we had to say! haha but we were out working none the less! it was also another week of having our appointments fall through!

we had interviews with President Gonzaga (or Elder Gonzaga... seeing as he was called to be a seventy this last general confernece!) so i have officially been interviewed by a seventy! haha. but it was a good interview! its so weird to think that he will be leaving in June. the change of presidentes will for sure make things interesting! but basically Pres Gonzaga told me while i was hear in Viçosa (without really saying it) hahaha but we talked about how lots of the other missionaries are baptizing more than i am here in viçosa, but that maybe the purpose for me being here is to learn´patience and how to be persistant! it was a really good interview! i have been having some difficulties because i have been talking with some of the people that arrived here in the mission with me, and they have all been baptizing way more than me! its been hard for me because i feel like i have been working so hard and feels like im not seeing any sucess yet.. but i just need to keep chugging on. Carry on!! (thanks Joelle!)

we did have a baptism this week! which was really awesome! we´baptized Manoel this week! we planned the baptism for 3:30 in the afternoon on saturday..... we waited.. and waited.. and waited, tried calling him... nothing! we decided to walk to his house around 6. he lives about 40 minutes away from the church. at this point was pretty stressed and sad! haha.. but we walked to his house.. he wasnt home, on the way back we we saw him on his motor cycle! he stopped and told us about how he went to their farm to take care of the cows there, and his motor died! he was stuck on the farm without cell hone reception! and that he had just got the motor fixed and was driving back! we talked a bit and then all 3 of us headed back to the church to baptize him.. remember when i said that he lives 40 minutes from the church?? we sped walked to the church in 16 minutes... it was crazy how fast we got there! haha but we baptized him and it was super awesome! but the sad News is that he wasnt at church on sunday to get confirmed so im hoping that nothing bad happened and that he will be confirmed next sunday! i feel like nothing normal in Viçosa can happen easy!! haha there Always has to be a complication! hahaha

on sunday morning we had to get on a bus to go to the stake conference in Maceió. the confernece was good, then we missed the bus that goes back to viçosa.... so we ended up having to stay in the house of other missionaries, they live way close to the beach, so i saw the beach for the first time on the mission... to bad it is against the rules to walk on the beach! haaha, but it was fun staying in Maceió except taht i had to sleep on the ground because they didnt have any extra matresses! but that was sunday, and that finishes up the week!

Elder Arraes only has three weeks more on the mission, that is pretry wild. but he is getting pretty ready to go home! trying to keep him excited to work is sometimes a challange, but hoping that we can finish Strong together!

well Viçosa is full of challanging things! but it is teaching me tons! thanks for all the letters and hope that everyone is doing well!

Love Elder Ryan

the weekly update/news/email/happenings of my life 4-14-14

well today marks the end of this transfer... passed by unbelievably fast! feels like yesterday that me and elder Arraes got here! one of the elders who lives in our house got transfered. me and elder Arraes stayed together, and i will be his last companion. he will leave on the 13 of may, so he is basically finished! but he is still working really hard and hopefully we will be able to get at least one baptism before he leaves!

this week was a pretty difficult one. i feel like all our work that we are doing isnt amounting to anything! like everyone new that we teach doesnt want anything from us after the first lesson! it gets frustrating sometimes! but just trying to focus on the good things that are happening and hope that eventually all the work that we are doing will pay off! 

on the bright side, im becoming a professional cook here in Viçosa. we rarely have lunch appointments.. because there are only like 4 active member families.. so that means we do a lot of our own cooking! i have become pretty pro at making rice and pasta!.. and that is about it! haha and that is what we eat just about every day.. which gets kinda old, but it is better than being hungry!

we had branch council, that the branch pres. asked us to participate in.. and lets just say that it was more like branch confusion! hahha everyone was all over the place and no one could focus on the same topic and acheive anything! it was kind of hilarious! 

but we have a few people who we are trying to get married so that we can baptize them, but the tricky part is that they only have civil marriages once every month, so that slows things down, and has lead to a little difficulty in keeping them interested and excited to be married! but hoping that everything will work out! 

well that about sums up this week. hoping that things will start looking up this next week and that we can start having a little more success! thanks everyone for your prays and emails! they really mean a ton! hope that everyone is well, and missing my fantastic ability to quote youtube! ;) hhaha

love you all!

Elder Ryan

the weeks news!! 4-7-14

well this week was good.. i feel like i start every email with that phrase.. but só vai! 

we played basketball today. my first time playing basketball in like 4 months and it was great.. but im soo out of shape!! haha but it was a good time! miss playing ball every week! 

had another zone meeting this week, and it was really good! it was about staying excited and not losing hope! talked about how when we think about our achievements sometimes we feel like we have done enough, and that we need to only look ahead, to see what we can accomplish if we press on! it was really great! got us really pumped! talked about finishing the transfer (which will end this next sunday) strong and instead of thinking of it as a end to rest, but to think of it as a 100 meter dash, and just push it till the end! to was really good time. really enjoyed the meeting. realized how important attitude is! it really is everything! if you want something, go get it! hoping to finish this transfer strong! 

it looks like we will be baptizing this saturday! which i am super excited for! one of our investigators who we dropped, Manoel, we decided to give him one last shot, jsut to make sure! and what do you know!! he told us about how for the first time in 6 months of meeting with the missionaries, he had a desire to know if he should be baptized. and for the first time in his life he got a comfirmation that this was the path for him! it was way cool! and that is how it works! if you really want to know, if you show desire to know, then God will show it to us! was a great experience with lots of learning! sometimes we need to be persistant to help the people realize that really this gospel has so many good things to offer and enrich our lives and unite us! was a awesome! he watched G Con with us on saturday and he seems really excited! 

I realized that like no one here knows really how to read! and i realized just how important education is! knowledge is like so important, adn it helped me realize just how blessed i am to have been educated and have had so many opportunities to learn! one thing i think the mission has really helped me realize is just how good my life is! i really have had such a good life! Thanks Ma e Pa! you 2 are pretty great! thanks for every thing you have done for our family! 

well conference was real good! ( you could say that it was... CREAMY) hahah but i was phased for like the first couple minutes because it was in portuguesse.. which i wasnt used to when seeing the prophets face! haha but it was really good! feel like it was one of the frist conferences where i actually payed attention and learned soo much.. interesting how that works! who would of thought that attention would have led to more understanding?? not me!! hahah 

well that about sums things up on this end! hope that all of you are doing super good! miss all of you! especially the marti gra fam dinner! it is always the best one! especially because of the powdered sugar mess! haha 

espero que todos de vocês têm um semana muito bom! que vocês vão mandar muitos caixas pra mim!!! da missão é um experiencia muito boa com muito aprendendo! até próximo semana!! 

Elder Ryan

PS mom i got the package of valentines cards! it was awesome! thank you every one who wrote in it!!