Feb 22

Ok well for the last few days Elder Hanna has been adopting a couple of new phrases like "lets make like a baby and get out!" or "Lets make like a tree and leaf!" We have loved our stay in this MTC and we really love our District although they left a week early. So now Elder Hanna and I are in a new district for our last week. Now, American Porto Alegre missionaries are the Majority! HAZZA!!!! NOTE. We do not leave on the 25th. We leave on Tuesday the 28th early in the morning. I am so excited! Most of our old district is here now and we'll all be reunited going to Porto Alegre.

 

This week we baptize Marcella. Except we dont get to the actual baptismal service because she didnt want to and also because she is no longer our teacher because we are in a new district. They are so unmotivated to do anything. But Elder Hanna and I always try to be reading or doing something. But they are nice kids and some can teach well.

 

OH! EXCITING STORY!!!!

 

Ok so elder hanna and I were doing our laundry yesterday. They let us do laundry before Pday because there's only four machines per floor. So if everyone rushed to do it on PDAY! Well that would be a mess, esspecially because the Lord confounded the language of the Tower of Babel and there would probably be a lot of miscomunication. Well, there was a lot of miscomunication this last day anyway.

 

So Elder Hanna and I come back to check on our laundry. And some nice person has dried all our stuff!!!! YAY! But then we found out that the same person took all of the important clothes. I.E. All my church pants, gym shorts (Hard to find in Brazil), Gym jeresys and all manner of precious clothes neccessary for the harvest of the field. (haha) And anyway, Elder Hanna and I were then full of righteous anger, even unto the desire of conquering their foes. And we came unto the room of one of the Elders, and Elder Hanna saw his pants sitting on the Elder's bed. And behold, Elder Hanna became full of Anger and said "These are my pants. I am now going to take them because they are mine. You also have many of my clothes and my companion's please give them back before we tell the president" (Not kidding it was that polite, yet he told me he almost punched him.) Well the Elder denied it. So we went and told president. President had us come to his room because he was almost in bed, and appraise our items. Then they put our floors on lock down until they could find our clothes. We stayed in the president's room and appraised all our items and talked to Sister Degne who was wroth with anger. Then we had to stay in our rooms until a leader came to get us. And they found our clothes sitting on the dryer. Suddenly wet. It seems as if the culprit got wind of the game afoot and put our clothes back in the washer to make it look like we just forgot them. But they checked the cameras and found out that was not so. We have no idea what happened to that Elder, because none of the leaders will talk about it. They just say its super sad.

 

 

Well I have nine seconds left. But I plan to write more and Mr. Cheneys. Love you all. Hope the days are going well. You're in my prayers please keep me in yours.

 

BTW, I ACTIVATED MY CARD. BUT IT STILL DOESNT WORK. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE DEAL IS. COULD YOU SEND ME A LETTER VIA CHENEY'S TO LET ME KNOW? I LOVE YOU ALL.

 

Btw, Ben Nelson wrote me an email. I guess its not hard to figure out my mission email. I am not allowed to email friends at the MTC. But I'll yeild to what you say I can do in the field and what my mission president says. Sorry ben, love you all.

Feb 15

Ha ha ha these letters some times make me laugh you all put so much personality behind what you say its so amazing.

Dear Family,

Yes my investigator accepted baptism! We just finished some last fine tuning on the Word of wisdom and law of chastity. We were very sure she had problems with both, because people in our district told us she had, and we pushed and pried and made sure she was completely worthy because everyone else[s companionship had problems with here and the law of chastity. But nope, for us, Marcella was clean. AWESOME! So she is getting baptized three days before I go to the feild. February 25. I actually used to not really like the teacher that acted as Marcella. She is very serious and I try to joke with her along with Elder Hanna to make her laugh. I think we finally made her day by just saying stupid things and Elder Hanna wrote her the dumbest poem in portuguese about how much we will miss her.

Also on the investigator front, we had an awesome meeting with a new investigator. He[d been taught by a bunch of other missionaries and we were following up from a transfering group of missionaries. He was getting prepared for baptism but had unfortunately broken the law of chastity and it was a week be3fore his baptism so we had to see if he had to talk to the mission president. We told him he probably did but that we would follow up with him next week. We also gave him a blessing and we had him pray for strength. His prayer made me cry. He was acting but gosh, it was so sad to think of how someone would feel if they were so close and had to possibly reschedule their baptism. We wont teach him again, it was a one time scenario, but it was a good one.

We had another investigator who wanted to know if he could pay more than just the one tenth of the tithing. They wanted to give one half!!! We kind of sat there for a minute and just were like... why...? We could explain that the lord didnt need the money, he could obtain it himself if he wanted to. But we wanted them to know scripturally why they shouldnt. Anyway, so I opened to this scripture about the widows mite. I told them, look, we love you want to pay more. but really, the lord doesnt want you to pay more than is necessary. All he really wants is your heart, thats the only thing he needs from you. That widow couldnt give much, but she was willing to give her entire heart and thats all that mattered. And that solved it! It was awesome! They comitted to the law of tithing and to pay one tenth. We told them they could donate fast offerings and money to other funds if they wanted.

I am for sure glad to here you were able to see family this week. Dad, you mentioned that they tried to be gracious and considerate? How well did they succeed?

Oh my goodness! Paul is a mission president in Argentina???? How cool! THAT REMINDS ME! DAD! Did you get my letter last week about how my Mission President, President Degne served in the MTC with an Elder Lovell. Did any of your brothers go to Brazil? That would be so cool! If not thats cool too.

Ryan I am sorry I said nothing about your birthday! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! EU DEJAJO ESTAVA BEM!

Speaking of portuguese. All these south american and european languages, such as spanish, protuguese, italian. ALL make more sense than english. They conjugate their verbs until their exausted so that you can be very specific in one word, not two. I.E. "voce vai ganhar?" A. "Vou" In english. "Will you win?" A. "Yes, I will." Look at how much time that saves! Its beautiful.

Ok I have five minutes. So mom and dad, I activated my card. Thank you for the cinamon rolls and the stamps you are saints. I was wondering if you wanted to try something I thought you would like. On Facebook there is this group you can join called missionary moms. You can go to my specific mission, Porto Alegre Sul, in Brazil, I think, and you can find all the moms of that mission. I personally think it would be cool because the coolest missionaries are going to that mission.

Also, Kameron Campbell sent me a letter! It made my week. I sent one back to him via cheney[s and I also sent one to Erik, and I sent a letter to Dallin last week. I hope everyone in the family got the letters from the plane. Rachel and Ryan, I have one for you as well and Im starting on Jeremy[s today. James I have not forgotten you, I hope you had a great birthday and I am so waiting to here more updates on your job. You are all wonderful and I have felt your prayers.

There was something I else I desperately wanted to tell, but I cant remember!

Well, tchau ama voces

Feb 8

Oh my goodness. It makes a missionary's pday to have as many letters as I did waiting for me in my inbox. Today is an awesome Pday. I love going to the temple in the morning and I love when we get to go out and talk to people and walk the streets of sao paulo. Plus today, this elder who has only four months on his entire mission, came up and just gave me a hug and started talking to me in portuguese. Made my day. He was american, from georgia. I could not tell at all. We were all just staring open mouthed. Como um jefe.

 

In other news. We arent allowed to take pictures of our e-mail anymore. But I read your e-mails and will try to respond as much as I can through mr. Cheney;s cookies.

 

What should I do about the debit card by the way. and also btw, those pictures I sent you in email should be coming through mail soon with descriptions on the back.

 

Wow. Ok I have ten minutes. Whew! Ok investigators. Not so great meeting with one of them. A new one "luam" but we learned a lot from him after the fact and plus that teacher is no longer our teacher any more so we dont have to worry about that one anymore. We taught the plan of salvation to another investigator who was one of my good brazilian friends here. He left yesterday, he'll be an awesome missionary. We had a lot of success with him as an investigator. He wanted to speak english way too much though. Thats not cool sometimes. I want to speak portuguese. But I did teach him a lot of english which helped me learn the language as well. Marcella is still progressing. However, we think she might be having some problems with the law of chastity, and... her parents dont want her to be baptized again because she was already baptized in the catholic church. She can join our religion, but she cant be baptized. Well Elder Hanna and I have our counter attack for that, for whatever direction we have to take tonight. If we need to adress the situation with her parents, we're ready, if her parents arent there, we'll go full throttle on the law of chastity and word of wisdom!

 

Lets see what else. Oh yeah, we had a great devotional yesterday! Elder Hanna, Elder Driggs, and I sang at that too. Its been extremely fun. The bass part was a moving 8th note line! What a treat! And Presidente Degne's message was so good! OH MY GOSH! I have never wanted to read the white handbook so much since that talk. I read it through every week, but I really think I'll have more purpose this week! He gave us 7 blessings from reading it that was so great! I might just forward my notes to you all! If I dont, Elizabeth has the seven blessings and so does mom because I sent them through mom.

 

By the way, can I get everyone's email and birthday? That'd be great! Boy oh boy, do I have a great spiritual experience for you that happened two weeks ago! I love this. Im going to have to send it through mr. Cheney's cookies cause I have 10 seconds.

 

ok. I love you all! Do what is right! Keep being happy! See yourselves through Christ's eyes, not your own, and be super happy! And write me letters!

 

Ama vocês, tchau.

 

Elder William Lovell

 

Enos 1:5

Feb 1

Sorry about not answering any emails last week. I saw all your questions about my card and about some other things. I figured out a way I can reply to all of your e-mails.

 

About my card, I still havent had a chance to try it out. Uhm but last time I checked, it did not work it America. uhm, and I dont have any idea what you´re talking about as far as a number on the back of the card or how to activate it. Elder Hanna says he thinks he knows what I have to do. But I plan to go to the bank today and get it done. Yes I have a camera, no I do not spend all my time at Mr. Cheney´s cookies. Thats impossible and it wouldnt be the most fun place to hang around, its pretty cramped. But the cookies and stuff you can get there are amazing so definitely thank you for the gift card. OH MY GOODNESS and than you for sending that letter this week. You sent one on january 25 and I got it this last week. Made my DAY! WOO! I am also excited about Mr. Cheney´s cookies because I can now read all your emails on my camera, and then send some replies via Mr. Cheney´s cookies.

 

Ok, so singing for the ApostleS (notice the ´s´) was absolutely awesome. We didnt only have the honor of having Elder Anderson come to the Brasil CTM, but Elder Ballard as well. I had the opportunity to shake their hands! It was cool, I still havent washed them to this day. Oh and by the way, I have a new CTM president, did I tell you that already? Presidente Dagne (SP?) He says he served with an Elder Lovell. Dad did you serve with him? maybe your brothers? That´d be pretty amazing.

 

Ok so this week was pretty awesome. My third companion from provo arrived this week, along with Elder Froerer from our old district, they are now companions in a newly formed district, with Elder Froerer as new district leader. He´s pretty scared. But its great to have them here.

 

This week has just been good! Oh my goodness. Marcella committed to baptism as long as she really feels prepared, she came to church with us on sunday, and she is going to look as the pages we assigned her in the Book of Mormon and come up with questions for next week. She isnt super excited but she says she feels really good about it. I wonder if the lack of enthusiasm is just because the actual actor, our teacher, is always so tired by the end of the day she is falling asleep. It gets annoying some times but its all good. Then on our next first contact lesson, it was SO GREAT! WOW! Elder Hanna and I just somehow knew exactly what we both would say without even planning it, we both were on the same page and we both spoke the same amount. During the lesson, Elder Hanna was like ´uh... what did you just say?´ and I just told him, ´oh I told her this and this and this´ it was really really cool! Too bad we never get to teach her again.

 

Ok, I dont know if any of you recieved my letters but, that story about the woman I talked to on the plane was awesome. A sister from my district in Provo is trying to get permission to communicate with her via E-mail, and Im super excited about that because she suddenly shot up in her portuguese! Its so good to hear.

Jan 25

Ok, so I seriously planned what I needed to write and forgot it back at the room, so I´ll try and remember as much as possible right off the bat.

So, to start off, an annoucement about how this email will have to work. I have to take pictures now and respond to your questions within the next week or through letters. Its just too crazy in here, elders being dishonest on how long they´ve been on the computers and theres just not enough time to respond with that going on. If everybody dislikes that idea, I can really try to read the letter within the time frame of writting. and I´ll try to save some time at the end to answer questions.

Ok so, Elder Hanna and I made GREAT goals this week, and we started being a little more open in companionship inventory and not so worried about offending each other. We also talked to our district leader about how we as a companionship can really help our district to be a little more reverent when we are in class and in the hallways and what our companionship can do to be better in general. He really appreciated that. And our district is doing a lot better.

As far as teaching goes, one of the things I mentioned to Elder Hanna in comp inventory is that I really think he kind of takes too much time talking because he knows portuguese so well, as he studied like LATIN and SPANISH in college for two years. So, I just told him kindly, and he kind of suspected, that he didnt really let me get a lot out in lessons. So I told him just to let me struggle with saying something. And actually I came to find that when he did that, I could say almost as much as he could. Just not as fast. In fact I taught the whole first lesson in portuguese this last time and we switched off very nicely between him asking questions and testifying and me telling the facts and testifying. In fact our teacher said we did very well. We´re going to challenge that investigator to baptism next week. Speaking of which, ELIZABETH, those little tiny notebooks you gave me are THE BEST! I use them for everything, I have two, plus my white hand book and verb card jammed in my white shirt pocket right now. I use one for just writting down all the words I learn in a day, another for keeping adresses and e-mails, one for my excersise notes, and one for profiling investigators. They are life savers.

As for our other investigator, Vanessa, we challenged her to be baptized in Februrary but she didnt seem to excited and said it was too soon and we told her that we would, with the Lord´s help, help her to be ready for that baptism date. But she didnt seem too excited, although she is praying and she does have a book of mormon. She´s just not excited to commit. She seems bored in lessons so I kind of have to be like `Marcella? you there?´. But you know, whatever, we try making it fun and maybe she just isnt ready to hear the gospel yet. But she hasnt denied to get baptized yet so we´re keeping her.

I love this program called TRC, I dont know if you all know about it, but its basically an opportunity to teach a one time investigator and get filmed while you do it. Its really really fun. It helps Elder Hanna and me a lot! I am very greatful for it. I am going to ask if I can send one of the films to you. Its crazy to watch and be like ^Wow we look like missionaries!´.

Anyway, So... Elder hanna had to see the doctor this week, his stomach is killing him and when he did, I talked to the doctor too, Which it turned out that he´s in my branch president. And anyway, the doctor above him asked me about some of the digestive problems I have beeen having and told me to talk about how far back I could remember having them. And I told them back in August just after the camping trip. Anyway, he said that with the three times I vommited before the mission and with the chronic diareah, he says I could have a bit of Genardia or something. Anyway he~s not for certain but before I left he gave me some pills for it and put me on a diet. It seems to have helped (probably just the diet) but just so ya´ll know.

Oh yeah! one funny story, ok so when we taught the first lesson to that investigator, just after, the teacher resumed her natural self and stopped acting like an investigator and told us that she needed us to hide and sing and pretend like we were a distracting radio for the next group of missionaries coming in and so we sang a micheal buble song until they told her to turn of the music. It was pretty funny.

Ok, again, its crunch time but one last thing: We´re singing for Neil A. Anderson today! its going to be very exciting!

Ok

Jan 18

Well, that was cool. my timer wasnt working on my e-mail, so I got to read mom and dad;s email but then an officiator saw it, and now Im on the clock. dumb.

 

Ok, so first off, thanks mom and dad for the awesome emails! Please remind everyone else that their e-mails are welcome. I am definitely glad you recieved the email from the branch president. I love that picture. This MTC is super luxurious! Its kinda gross how luxurious it is. Everything in the residence is like polished oak. The only gross stuff is the bed sheets... and pillows... yeah the most important part of the room but yeah whatever, gotta get that imune system boosting. You should also have recieved a letter from me while I was in the Georgian airport. Then you should be recieving one from a place called missionary ties, which is like a DearElder for Brazil. Then I have about 5 more letters to send home.

 

Ok, so here´s the scoop on my life here. People aren´t motivated here at all. they just sit in garments all day, and would rather just go to bed. Freaked us out on our first two days. But when they realized Elder Hanna and I weren´nt like that because the Provoian ranks just dont do that, they started being better too. Yes, the tone of that sounds very full of myself, but everyone knows Im kidding. I need to shun pride. But yeah this place is pretty much like this - if you dont want to learn portuguese, you can go to the field learning nothing. But if you want to learn, you have the study time alotted to you. Its basically more like the mission feild. Plus you have the use of actual brasilian missionaries that you can talk to and learn portuguese all day. Elder Hanna and I have really taken advantage of that and made a goal to sit with brasilians every lunch hour every day. His portuguese shot off. Mine did too but just, Im not fluent yet. But I can understand pretty much what most people say.

 

Yes Elder Hanna and I are still a companionship. Elder Welch just arrived the day after us too. We can pretty much see him whenever we want. Its so cool. Our previous third companion just left and he´ll either get here tommorrow or tonight. Oh and we just barely changed MTC presidents. I got to know the old one really well because he spent a lot of time talking to the new missionaries, but the new one I dont really know much about. I bet he´s pretty sweet. He gave a talk yesterday... but I was so exhausted I fell asleep. That was the first time I fell asleep here. However, Elder hanna is just dying in the humidity plus the heat. Its pretty entertaining.

 

We now have three investigators to teach, and so far I think we have all of them praying at night and with us. Which is good. Elder hanna and I are starting to understand how to teach as a companionship. Its reallly cool. However, the last time, the teacher was so fake at being an investigator... we almost laughed during her prayer... that would have been so bad! Our teachers our awesome! My favorite is Irma pocetthe! She is very kind. She´s getting married in a few weeks.

 

By the way, Im singing for prelude next week in the devotional next week. And guess what!!! ELDER ANDERSON is speaking for that devotional! its going to be pretty sweet! Uhm... what else. OH my debit card isnt working in Brazil. You may need to tell the bank to activate it for brasil, or... actually I dont think I´ve tried it here, but I did try it in the airport.... uhm... I guess I should do that. I;ll let you know next week.

 

Ok, so Elder Hanna and Elder Dewey are breaking the flipping rules and they are typing in journal entries and not using up their time aloted to them. Thats dumb. They~re dumb. haha, just kiddin I love them all and they are geniouses. I dont think I spelled that right. But I promise I wont ever do what they~re doing. Uhm. ok. So.... OH! YEah!