hey everybody

I am so sorry, I have no time to write today, I have to register for classes at byu.  This week was really slow, but in the end we had 9 investigators come to church, and we are starting to get organized...our escalador of investigators is getting full....don't get an elevator, by the time it hits the top (batismo) theres few people, and you have to descend and get new people at the end....escaladors are full and whensomebody gets off, there are others already progressing....we have baptisms already marked every week for the next 5 weeks....Im excited.

mom, you asked what major I chose....now that I'm no longer an engineer.....bumbumbumbum........ molecular biology. I'm super pumped.

anyways, thanks for everything.

Serino, know that I still don't know you, but I pray for your sake that the U.S. doesn't blow russia to smithereens here in a little bit. That would be unfortunate seeing as how you somehow got a visa to serve there for now. hehehehe,.

love you all.

Elder Eliason

well...! Guess who's Back!!! I'm back!, I'll give a hint, my name is not Slim Shady....

I'm back in Porto Alegre!!!!!!!

I've been transfered to Alvorada.

My new companion is Elder Holmes

He has 6 weeks here in Brazil
He is from Bel Air, MD

His first name is not Carlton, but he is the Fresh Prince.

XD

okay, back to reality, op´there goes gravity....

etc...

I am no longer a ZL, but Im atleast the District leader....funny enough, everybody in my district were at one point zone leaders.  (except for the greenies.....) but all of the sr. companions are ex-super-stars...so district meetings are AWESOME. 
I didn't get to send my letter yesterday because today is my p-day....because I'm going to the temple here in a couple of hours, and the temple is closed on Monday.  WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO I Havent gone to the temple since January of 2013....I'm excited :D

so.. the work.  It's really hard getting oriented because my companion is almost as lost as I am.....he's been here for 6 weeks and is still learning Portuguese....So it's pretty chaotic.  To give an example.... Wednesday, we had a service project... and afterwards... the member dropped us off close to lunch and left.  Well, my companion just said, come, follow me. I know the way. Well, after an hour of walking down a dirt road into the middle of the forest....the lunch called asking us where we were.  Well, we were about 2.5 miles in the wrong direction, so we had to walk back. Turns out that the member let us out of the car in front of the house of lunch XD  it's been a fun week hahahahaaha
anyways, so Tuesday we got a call from an Elder in our district that stayed, he called and passed us a reference...a family whose grandparents he had baptized 2 weeks beforehand, and the family had gone to watch the confirmation.  We finally found the house Thursday, taught them and invited them to be baptized.  EVERYBODY accepted, the question was when/???? We asked the parents if they were married, and unfortunately they are not, so we have to have a wedding for them, but the kids wanted to be baptized anyways, so we taught them the gosple of Jesus Christ, and about the Restauration and the 10 commandments, and Sunday, Francielly and Vitoria were baptized!!!! :D Yeah! They had their entire family there.....all 8 of them.  Funny...the mom is 28 and the dad is 22....and they have 5 kids. Francielly is 11, and Vitoria is 9.  Don't try and think about that. Brazil is so funny.

Anyways, the Brazilian Consistution states that if the persons who want to marry do not have the financial means, the state has the responsability to pay for it, all you have to do is create a declaration of poverty.  Woohooo!!!! I know how to do that and make it legalized, so we'll marry them for free :D

Anyways, those were the highlights of the week, I love my new companion, he's awesome.

Te amo, e a Igreja é verdadeira

Elder Eliason

Semana 12 in Passo fundo

Well...this week was nuts.  on MANY LEVELS

1- We had 2 baptisms this week, 2 investigators that we have been working with over the last 6 months..... actually, the other elders before us cut them, and we found them in the Area Book...  They are the kids of an inactive Return-missionary-sister.  Well, with love and patience, we have reactivated the family, and the 2 kids were baptized yesterday.  Amanda and Guilherme.  Amanda is 13, and Guilherme is 10.  They were going to be baptized 2 weeks ago, last week, and like, every week beforehand, but "Something" ALWAYS happened.....until we discovered that they don't make friendships very easily, and they feel uncomfortable at church.... so what did we do? I made a phone-call. EVERYTHING can be resolved with a phone-call.  Who did I call???  The craziest, loudest, most doida beehive in the ward.  What did we do? We met at the entrance of the investigators house with another beehive, and we played Uno for 3 hours.  (yes, this may appear fubeccagen ...aka being a slacker....but I don't care).  it was AWESOME and PERFECT.  They became fast friends, and now they hang out every day, go to seminary together, our investigator got the nutty beehive, Carol, into dance-class with here at the local university....etc. It's awesome. :D #gointegration

2- We had the Leadership conference in Porto Alegre, so again, we took the 4 1/2 bus ride to Porto Alegre. Stayed there the night, and then returned Wednesday, so we lost 2 days of proscelyting time.  

3- *PLEASE CENSOR FOR UN-LEARNED EARS*  Prostitution has become a legalized tax-paying profession here in Brazil this week, so this week we have been harassed several times by "less-than-beachwear-clad women/men/she-man-he-women."  It's becoming obnoxious.

4- Preston and Brandon jr. ----in memory of you guys and your famous pi-day, I bought a pack of key lime pie cookies on 3/14

5- Fall registration for Sophomores at BYU begins this week, so I got permission from President to register.

6- I went on splits with the Elderes from Carazinho Friday.  That was cool.

7- I've been transferred. I find out tomorrow morning where I'll be going.

that's all.

love you all

Elder Eliason

Well, this week was nuts

Woohooo!!!!!! Well, as the title of the e-mail stated, this week was nuts.  We taught LOTS of people, tons of new investigators, tons of new people to work with.  

1- We are coordinating a wedding of a less-active and her husband (yeah, we're doing it tonight XD )  His cousin actually was an investigator that Elder DeYoung found on a division, so  SWEET we're going to baptize his cousin  next weekend XD and here in a month when the wedding papers actually go throuh, we'll baptize him.  

2- Supprise Sleep-over of the Assistents....oh, the joys of being a LZ.... We get a call at 8:45 one night, from them (not abnormal) asking what was the number of our appartment (abnormal question). They were in front. 30 minutes later when we arrived, they were waiting 13 blocks away. (fun stuff....) Well..... suprise Zone conference the next day.  yay.  President  Wright arrived and brought the AP's (Elder Anastácio e Elder Nelson) (the two are from my group in the MTC) crazy nah?!?  Well, our cubicle of an apartament was packed with 4 Elderes...Elder Anastácio had to sleep in the kitchen, which is about the size of our computer desk at home....XD Oh well, all's well there.

3- We had a baptism of Rainesca (pronounced hi-neh-skah).  Awesome- she was a reference of a member recently baptized.... we were walking down the street and the member called to us, and said, hey! this is my friend! She's not baptized, can you teach her?  hahahahahahahaha sometimes it feels too easy! We work and fight and bite and claw to work with people all day, and at the end of the day, nothing goes right, but then the next day, the blessing comes and it falls in you lap.  WOOOHOOO so, after 2 weeks of teaching, our new Cearense friend was baptized yesterday.  Seriously, the best integrated and most functional baptisms are friends of members who are "afastado da verdade porque não sabem onde encontrar-la"  I really don't know the translation, away from the truth because they don't know where to find it?  Go D&C.

Anyways, For the first time in this transfer, I feel organized, and prepared, we have 4 solid baptisms planned for the next 4 weeks, *(1-per week, so we can meet all requirements for the baptisms...., funny how it worked out like that, but I'm feeling very prepared)  I'm excited.

We are really blessed here and to be working in this time....When I arrived, an Elder that was leaving told us that this is the South, where it is really hard to work, and If we were lucky, we would baptise 24 people (1 per month).  Bahahahahahahahahaha.  Well, we just work. Work work and work. Slackers baptize 24 people nowdays.  The challenge is different here than in the other places.  We baptize.  Baptize is easy, you just have to be a good salesman, use all the techniques in Preach My Gospel, and help the investigator feel the Spirit.  The hard part is the integration, making friends, and adapting to the LDS culture whiech is very different than typical Brazilian... it involves commitments XD but it's true (our ward has over 1,000 members) but a frequency of 175 last Sunday (which is actually better than most wards here...most wards have frequencies of more or less 100 people) I am excited and I love working here in Passo Fundo (translation?:  Back Step, or Deep Step) When I arrived, everybody was sluggish and vey unmotivated...but as of lately, the ward is starting to work and we are seeing LOTS of results.  I really hope that I am not transfered next week....XD oh well. I love Brazil.

amo vocês,

Elder Eliason

P.S. Quote of the Stake conference w/ Elder Grande (70)

"The difference between the Terestrial Kindom and Celestial, is not that of obedience. Those who obeyed and did everything that was asked will go to the Terestrial kingdom.  The difference is that those who obeyed and did everything that was asked of them, and became that thing, will go to the Celestial Kingdom.  We must BECOME and LOVE what has been asked of us. That is the difference."

EE 

Baptism of Rainesca

we bought pastels the size of a large plate....full of white chocolate and strawberries----SO GOOD!!!!! (about 1 kg the weight)

Semana de alegria e tristezas...

to my friends, family, and kinsfolk,

So..... this week was awesome.  We had 7 people who were excited to be baptized with dates marked for this weekend, everybody was happy, yeah!!!! wooohooooo!!!!!! 7.  We are marrying some of our inactives so the husband can be baptized, we are working with their cousins who want to be baptized, etc... We were smoking it.   Then came Saturday. ****BUM BUM BUM**** Friday actually, Friday night.  What happend Friday?   CARNIVAL began.   Welcome to "inferno" for missionary work.  Everybody takes off work, everybody takes off clothes, everybody takes off responsability.....etc.  It's awful.  Even though we were working so hard, all of the baptisms fell through, we ended the week teaching 3 lessons on the weekend (in comparison to the 16 last weekend...)  we were very dishevelled. 

In order to recover our animation with the rest of the zone (this happened to the greater majority of them too) we played soccer this morning with the young men from our ward and the other 3 wards here in the city, out in our stake-center.  Of course, all of the Elders were invited too.  After 3 hours of "make fun of the Americans by dribbling the ball through their legs and making rainbows over their heads"  we split a Coke and are now here in the lan house writing emails.  

I finally bought new boots this week. Yay. My feet have about 1/2 in. of calus on every part, but those last boots almost took all of it off (I was walking partly barefoot on the ball of both feet).

It cooled off this afternoon, it's raining again ;)  yay for p-day.

anyways, I hope you all have an awesome week, I'm kind of tired, I think I'll take a nap or something....  I think that the sisters wanted to make tacos, but it's kind of late for that.... maybe nextweek.  

anyways, PARABÉNS TANNER ELIASON FOR GETTING INTO BYU!!!!!!!! Isso aí cara!!!!!!!! (portuguese for: way to go dude!)

you're the man!

I'm soaked and in need of a hot chimarrão, so I'll send this off now.

amo todos vocês! 

Elder Tyler Eliason