12/23/12

Opa! Família!

This week was super fast, it was almost like we had 2 p days. we had p day last Monday  then last Thursday we had a Christmas conference with 2 other zones and President and Sister Hall. It was super good, we learned about the gathering of Israel and how it is happening right now, and with the change in missionary age it is becoming more and more important to prepare the way for the second coming, we know it is getting closer by the change in the age. Crazy huh? I got a package from you last Thursday mom! it was great! I forgot how much i loved peanut butter snickers and pop tarts haha. Thank you so much mom! It was just what i needed. I also got a package from the Graffs, it had some treats and 4 cds of Christmas music and 3 cds of talks from general authorities  It still outdoes feel a lot like Christmas here because it is super hot. super super hot, but at least we have a breeze! 

Wanna hear something crazy? Last week we met a guy on Thursday and he invited us to teach him in his house, and so when we went there Saturday to teach no one answered, and a man in a car drove by and told us he died.. We back to check again this week just to make sure it wasn't a lie, and a neighbor told us the same thing. She said his lungs stopped working and he died, but two days earlier he was perfectly fine. Crazy stuff. Also i think one of our new investigators is a drug dealer, no biggie  He always has shirts like Cameron's drug dealer shirt, but his are a little more legit, they have a shine to them, and are kinda fancy haha, also he always has a big wad of money in his pocket, like a big wad. And he looks sketchy but i'm not supposed to judge haha. We met him, because he stopped and asked us if we believed the world was going to end on December 21st, we said no and then he told us it was supposed to end at 10 o'clock that night. Sadly nothing happened. Also, have you ever had to take a shower out of a bucket of water, with a cup to pour the water on you? We have to do this at least once a week because our house runs out of water. That and i haven't had a warm shower in the morning in months, always cold showers haha. 

Congrats to Cam on winning again, how much does that little fart weigh? There is no way he is 182. And good job Kelley too and scoring 17 points! Its pretty crazy that everyone is getting married. I'm not gonna have any friends left when i get back from the mish ha. I'm super excited to call home tomorrow and noon your time is perfect! Skype should work! But if you want you can pick up a calling card. i have faith we wont need it though. Also some cool news we got a church yesterday is that an apostle is coming to the stake where i'm at in January, that should be super cool. I love you all, and Merry Christmas Eve? Or Feliz Natal! 

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson!

12/17/1I

Hey Family!

I'm glad to hear that you are all going great! It sounds like everyone is killing it at sports! I wish I was playing sports still, it so hard to not play them, or have any time to work out too. I have like no muscle now. Sad huh? but this week we will get to play volleyball and maybe football! Not a lot happened this week, no cool stories really, we just walked our butts off all week trying to find people to teach. We talked to so many people this week. I guess the craziest thing is that now I'm the only American in my house. Its pretty cool! Sometimes its hard though because I don't speak fluent Portuguese yet. I think the hardest part of the week was just trying to find people to talk to, it was sooo hot here and nobody wanted to hear what we had to say, but it seemed like as soon as we wanted to give up, I would always say a prayer and the next person we talked to would be interested. Lots of times people lie about where they lived though too and that is hard. One cool thing that happened though was that at church yesterday it was the primary sacrament thingy and I understood what all the kids said because we speak the same Portuguese  it was really funny and cool to hear the primary songs in Portuguese  It was all accapela to because no one knows how to play the piano and the piano here is awful. It so weird that I don't know how to play it too. I took some pictures this week so I'll send those to you too. I don't think i can use google plus, only skype. and whatever time is best for y'all is good for me. If I call you at four o'clock here it will be noon there yeah? Is that good for you guys? or earlier if you want. Thank you so much for the cookie recipe, hopefully I'll be able to find everything here to make them. I love you guys!

Com amor, 

Eld3er Brady Simpson

The three is silent, I didn't feel like backspacing a bunch to fix it

There is a picture of me in paradise, one of a sketchy street we  walk down and one of a type of snack here I learned to make call coxinhas they are super good. And if I look fat, its because my shirt is like a tent, a homeless person could live in. 

12/12/12

Ola Família! 

Well I'm still alive! We didn't have P day on Monday because we had transfers this week. every six weeks p day is on Wednesday  So this week was super long because we didn't have p day. we have P day again this coming Monday the 17th.  This week was ruff for us number wise, we didn't find hardly anyone new to teach, and no one was at church with us. Lets see, we had a great lesson with Jacletson last week, and yesterday we watched a movie about Joseph Smith with him. I felt the spirit super strong and I hope he did too because I know it was there, he hasn't been baptized yet because he doesn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith yet. We think he will be baptized soon though. I got a haircut this week too and that was pretty crazy. I asked the guy for a 2 on the sides like normal, and scissors on the top, and everything was normal until he started to use the scissors haha they were just a normal pair of scissors and he just started cutting chunks of hair off. in the end though it turned out good and looks normal, was kinda crazy during it though. I also gave my first blessing in Portuguese  all of the sudden my comp asked me for a blessing one day. That was super cool, I had no idea what I was going to say and thoughts in Portuguese just came into my head, I don't remember what I said now, but it was super cool. Crazy that Christmas is in two weeks ne? I hope the package you sent will get here before Christmas  we have a big conference thing for Christmas next week and we will get packages and letters there, or if it doesn't come we have a zone conference the first Wednesday of January and I'get it there I hope. We are allowed to skype and I'm only 4 hours ahead of you and one ahead of Jessi, because my mission doesn't have daylight savings time like the rest of Brazil  Me and my companion get along great, which is good, because we will be together for another transfer. The only change in our house is that the other American is leaving and we will have a new Brazilian. I'll be the only american. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the language, the only things i don't understand is slang and sometimes jokes haha. Another cool thing that happened this week is that we learned how to make coxinhas they are a type of snack thingy here and they are delicious. Congrats to everyone with sports and stuff, it sounds like everyone is doing great. I miss sports so much, I wanna work out and play sports so bad. I've gotten so weak here haha. Oh and good luck with finals mom! Love you all and hope you all have an amazing week! Mom could you pretty please email me so pictures from my life before the mish, and a family picture, I can print them out here. Everyone wants to see picture of me before the mish, and picture of my family! Thank you so much, love you! 

Com amor,

Elder Brady Simpson

So ive got a story for you and the boys, but I  don't know if its something to tell to mom haha. On Sunday after our lunch appointment we were doing street contacts before church and a man on a bike stopped us. He then proceeded to ask us what we were doing there and if we knew who he was. We told him we are missionaries and that we didn,t know him. He then said he was the most dangerous gangster in the world and then told us to give him two reais, which is the same as one dollar. The whole time he was talking to my companion and avoiding me haha if he talked to me he called me german, he told us we have to have money becuase we are dressed nice and have all our teeth, well he actually told me I only have almost all my teeth, I'm not which one I'm missing but apparently I only have almost all my teeth haha. So we wouldn't give him money, then he told my comp to give him his tie and that if he didn't they were gonna have to fight. My comp didn't and told him he wouldn't fight becuase they have nothing against each other. Then we said we had to go to church and he asked us if we would help him rob a cellphone from a guy sitting close by. We said no, and the guy told us if he had a gun with him he would rob a guy in a car. The guy was honestly like a third my size too. So a guy tried to rob us without a knife or a gun or anything, and he didnt get anything from us. Hope yall enjoy this story, and I love ya! if you think mom won't freak out you can share it with her too. Oh and how is wrestling going for cam? mom says a little but not much

Love,

Elder Brady Simpson

12/3/12

Ola Familia! 

Como vocês estão? 

Esta semana foi bom, mas foi muito difícil. Nos falamos com muitas pessoas mas quase nunca encontrar eles em casa. Temos um pesquisador que está progredindo! O nome dele é Jacletson. Ele tem 18 anos e ele é muito legal, ele já visitou igreja duas vezes!

    Este email eu recebe de você me fez muito feliz e triste. Muito bom Cameron! Eu tenho saudade por wrestling, mas hoje nos jogamos futebol! Foi muito legal!

This week went by so fast! i cant believe its already December  I miss wrestling so much, I cant believe its already been 2 years since I haven't done it. Congrats to Cameron  he´s finally a champion like me haha.. but i won twice... I'm so grateful for the gospel and the blessings and knowledge it brings to our lives! I was super sad to hear about sister Gubler! I haven't been able to watch the Christmas devotional but maybe i will be able to. hmm what did i learn this week... so much i cant remember anything specific. This week was busy and hard.

We had a meeting with president Hall this week as a Zone, it was about how we are doing in the mish and what we need to improve on. We also practiced telling an investigator that we cant teach them anymore because they are not improving. Its sad when you have to do that. 

My companion and I are having a hard time meeting the goals for the mish in our area, we are in a pretty hard area, and my companion told me it looks like its starting to get a little better. We don't know what we need to do better or differently though. We walk soooooo much and we should be teaching, not walking the whole day. We did teach Jacletson the plan of salvation this week and he seemed to like it, and he was at church again. I think he is supposed to get baptized this week! He's really accepting of the gospel! One thing I think is super funny is that lots of people ask us if im american and when i say i am they want to talk to us, but if i say im brazilian they dont want to talk to me haha. Saturday was a pretty relaxed day, we had lunch at the bispos house and on the way back to our house my comp almost fell like three times so we ended up staying in the house for a while till he felt better. Then that night a member of the other elders ward made us Chinese food, and for desert was a fried banana in a skillet, covered with cheese condensed milk and cinnamon and guess what I ate it and like it haha. Also we had fruit salad after that with condensed mil,. and it was good too. I will send some pictures as soon as I take some, I haven't really taken any. Also can you look through my facebook and send me some fotos, because everyone asks to see fotos of my family and life before the mish and i don't have any. Thanks so much mom! Love you all and Hope y'all have a good week!

Elder Brady Simpson

PS. Mom could you also email me some easy recipes and the recipe for cookies? i want to make cookies so bad, and eat them too hahahaha love you!

11/26/12

Ola Familia 

This week went by so fast! Its crazy that Tyler has been out for almost a year now! Sometimes it feels like I'll never make it to the year mark, but sometimes it goes by so fast. All the older elders say that the first transfer is the worst of them all. and it goes by super slow.  Cameron finally cut his mullet? Dang that's super sad! Did y'all at least take a picture? Thanksgiving and black Friday were pretty relaxed here we worked, i had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, it was super good bytheway, because usually i just make roman noodles. Black Friday was just like any other normal day, because its not a feriado here.(holiday) So about my week. We gave three blessings this week. i always do the anointing. its super weird to do it in Portuguese  My comp usually has to help me with it haha. Yesterday we had two new investigators at church and church was reverent for the first time since I've been here. Pai Celestial for sure answers prayers, because i had been praying for that all week. The two guys said they liked it after church. they weren't used to how calm and quiet it was though because usually the churches here have someone yelling and they all say hallelujah and stuff like that. It was good to finally have investigators again. i did use the moleskin for my blister for a while, but now its pretty much fine. our apartment here is pretty sketchy haha but its fine. we live with 2 other elders, one that's american he is from Hermiston Oregon and a Brasilian. The showers are just like Brett said, with the toilet right there. My companion is great. It was a super good week.

i hope you guys have a good week this week i love yall

Elder Brady Simpson