last week in Viçosa 5-12-14

so last night we had the phone call that lets us know if we have been transfered, and the 4 of us that were here are leaving! i dont know where i'll be heading until tomorrow so i will let you know next week where i am! 

it was great to talk to the fam this last week! super wierd speaking english! haha did i have an accent?? talk weird?? my companion got a pretty good laugh at me struggling to speak english! haha but it was really good to see you all! missed hearing your voices! 

Well the news of what happened this last week! we spent P-day in Maceio this last week because the zone had a barbaque! that was fun but im not such a fan of riding on the bus for 6 hours! haha 

NEW EMAIL:  oops didn't mean to send that one--


so continuing what i was saying!

work wise this week it was a little tricky getting elder Arraes excited to work, we had pretty horrible numbers this week, but i was just happy if we got out and he would just walk with me to some ones house! most of the time he was talking about how the mission has taken it out of him! hahah he was so ready to go home! he left on sunday night! i had a good time being his companion, it was a little tough as it got closer to the time to him going home, but he was good to work with and i learned lots from him! 

thursday we has a zone meeting and it was really good, talked about adapting to your area and how to work better with the members in our areas, got me really excited and was hoping to put some of the things i learned into action here in Viçosa.. but i was transfered! haha

saturday, we had 2 baptisms!!! Leo and Edson Jr. the kids of Edson, a inactive that we reactivated! it was great! but it is too bad that i am leaving now! i feel like the fruits of all of our work that we did here are finally coming forth, and now im leaving! haha 

sunday there was a huge change in the Branch here. a new family moved in which will be great for the branch here. also they changed the branch president here! the new pres. is really excited to work and as lots of really good ideas that wil really help the branch grow, too bad i wont have a chance to work with him, but im realy happy for the branch, things are finally looking up here! 

well that is about all the news i have for this week! im a little nervous about the transfer, it is weird how fast i got used to being here, i feel a little bit like its home! but also im excited for the new challenge of a new area and companion! 

that about sums things up! hope that everyone is well! love you all! 

Elder Ryan

the weekly news 5/5/14.

well this week was soo much better than the last one! 

we have been working with this one less active member for the last couple weks and this week we started teaching all of his family, no of them are members! it has been great! this saturday we will be baptizing one of his sons, and his brother in law! interesting how things work, just when you think that there is nothing left that you can do, if you just push yourself a little more, to the point where you think that there is literally nothing more that you could do, that is when the success comes! it has been great!

this has also really helped elder Arreas get excited to work this last week! things have gotten a little better, but its about the same situation as last week, lots of distractions and unexcitement! but things have definitely improved over the last week! hoping that we can build on the progress that we had this last week! 

Did a division with my District leader this week. it was good, he is really smart and when he works, he works really well, i learned lots from him. but it drives me crazy because he isnt exactly the most obedient missionary, but has way more success than me! it is kind of annoying sometimes! but just tryin to remember that i will recieve my reward later, that doing what is right doesnt always win the glory of men! but that is ok! doing what is right, even when its hard, is always better! 

The Sunday was amazing! haha like the best sunday of my mission! we had 4 less actives come to church again, we had 3 investigators, i taught the young mens class, and i had the opportunity to confirm manoel, out bnaptism from 2 weeks ago! it was great! its great to start seeing the fruits of all the work that i have done! 

there is only one week more in the transfer, hoping that i can finish it strong! thanks for your letters and emails, they help more than you know! love you all and hope you are all doing great! 

Elder Ryan

MOM: about skype, i will skype you at 8 in the morning here, which i think is about 11 or twelve in the afternoon! i will skype to cats account? or a different one? let me know soon! cant wait to see you all! 

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 News of the Mission! 2-24-14

so this week was sooo crazy!

started out normal and it seemed like we could finish this transfer (which endsnext tuesday) strong with about 3 more baptisms! so we were pretty psyched for that! 

on wednesday we were cleaning out the font for Taísa's baptism, we had to empty it with buckets because the drain was broken!  so that was exciting! so we cleaned ou all the worms and nasty things like that, then when we were filling it up, we realized that the font had a leak so we spent like the next 2 hour trying to figure out where it was and then when we found it, how to clog the hole.. we used gum! haha!

but on thursday we had to get up at 4 in the morning to go to maceio for zone conference! and that was realy good! got to see a couple of people that i gt hre with and see our progress with language! also i had to play the piano and that was nerve wracking! but over all it was good and i learned lots! we had to leave early because of taísa's baptism... and on the bus ride home we got a phone call from the secretery infrorming me that i had been emergency transferred! so we baptized taísa on my last day in the area! went out with a bang! hahaha but the next was spent packing bags and visiting a few people there in the ward, nd leaving for maceio again! i was really sad to leave! i really like arapiraca and me and soares were really starting to hit our stride together! 

Met my new companion, his name is Elder Arreas, he is a brazilian who only has 3 monts left in the mission. he is a little bit of a goof but its all good. out new area is called Viçosa. it is a tiny city in the mountains on the edge of alagoas, the closest city to Recife! but it is a cool place, has tons of hills cows and it reminds me of a brazil version of truckie in california! haha but it should be fun here, i live with all brazilians so bye bye to english! haha but the branch here is really small, like 25 people but the members here are way cool and they help out the missionaries aton! 

well tht is about it for the week! right now im sunburned like crazy! things are kind of hard, but good! hope that all is well there for you all. love and miss you all! 

elder Ryan

PS mom my shoe size is 10 and a half.. that is all i know size wise. but eccos are the best type of shoe, ill let you know about the shirts next week! thanks tons!!