Faith and Hope

December 18th

Another week over! The big thing this week was the Christmas conference with the whole mission. It's the first time that I was able to see everyone in the Fortaleza mission all together. Not that it made too much of a difference, I still don't know that many people here, but it was still cool to see everyone. We had the wonderful opportunity to wake up at 4 in order to make it to the conference in time, but luckily the bus we use to go there is nice and has AC and comfortable seats so we all just slept for the 2 1/2 hour drive. The conference itself consisted of some short messages, singing, good food, and games. It was great. One thing that was funny was the reaction of the new Americans when they found out I was training. They probably thought I am a great missionary who can do everything perfectly, little do they know that I still feel like I have no idea what is going on at times.

I've got to admit the mission is pretty difficult right now. We are seriously struggling to find investigators. Our days have been consisting of going from one contact that isn't home to the next that isn't home. I don't know why people say we can teach them at specific times, and then not be available at that time. It's very frustrating, and walking around after a commitment falls through with no purpose is lame.

I don't feel like I've had too much progress with the language this week. I've just got to keep working at it. It really is difficult for me. I'm pretty jealous of the missionaries who just pick up the language easily. I'm writing down new words when I don't know them and studying when I can but I feel like nothing has really helped too much. Right now i'm just trying to find out what I can do more, and praying that God will help me through this. One thing that i've been trying to work on more is faith. More specifically, hope. I've found myself doubting my abilities numerous times recently, but I've got to stop being so selfish as to think that this mission is about my abilities at all. I know that this is just a trial that I'm being put through in order to grow and become better. But that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.

Even though the mission is tough right now, and I sure am complaining a lot, I still have no desire to go home. I'm so grateful for this time that I have to come closer to Christ and understand more completely his gospel. And for the opportunity I have to serve others every day. I know that looking back on these challenges, I'll be grateful for each one. But being grateful for challenges while enduring those challeges is probably one of the hardest things to do in this life. I'm really learning a lot about trails here on the mish. One thing that I've finally come to understand is that you will always have trials. So many times we just want them to end, but it's more important to focus on the reason of each trial. I remember a few years ago wishing that I could just leave on my mission because then I wouldn't have to worry about school anymore. Now i'm feeling like school is nothing, but i'm sure I'll be wishing I was back in Brazil when I have to stay up all night doing homework in 2 years. Luckily God can and will help us through each affliction, and never will give us an affliction that we can't overcome.

I'm super excited to talk to you guys next week! I'm going to call at 1:30. I think that's 9:30 in Utah but i'm not sure. We can talk for 1 hour.

Pres and Sis Chamberlain brought the AC this week also. I'm pretty pumped, but we can only use it during the night to sleep so it's not super great. Still better than no AC though so i'm not complaining.

The water is just off and on. Some days we have it, others we don't. Right now we've got water.

But that's it for me. Talk to you guys (literally talk!) next week!

I'm Still Enjoying It

December 11th

This week has been interesting. My new companion is Elder Prates. He is pretty awesome and we have gotten along great so far. No complaints in the companion category, so that's a big relief. There are a lot of things that are different here in Caninde. Caninde is a city that is outside of Fortaleza, so it's a bit far from the mission office. The city itself is actually really cool. It is much nicer than Jatoba and has some cool places, such as a place to buy shakes or a place that sells a bunch of food made from coconuts. The city is pretty dang big too. Because of this, it is divided in half, and we live with another dupla. I love being with 3 other missionaries. Luckily they are all cool and I don't have any problems with them. Being with 3 other missionaries brings a new atmosphere to the house, and I enjoy it. Speaking of the house, it's good but it's also bad where it counts. The house itself looks and is nicer than my old house, but it has a real annoying problem with water. We had water for about 2 days and then it decided that it didn't want to show up anymore. That means that we got the  wonderful opportunity of sleeping without showering. And you already know how much we sweat during the day... yeah, not the best. We had to shower at the casa-pela (what they call the church here, house-chapel) in the morning cause we need to at least shower in the morning. Luckily the water is back now, but i'm sure the problem will return.

The reason the people call the church here a casa-pela is because it's just a house. There aren't enough members in the area yet to build a church. There also aren't enough members to have lunch with the members every day so lots of the time we have to make our own lunch. Having to go to the church in the morning to shower and also having to make our own lunch means that we didn't leave the house until around 4. Even during the days that we have water we don't leave until about 2 because of the lunch situation.

This area is also real tough when it comes to our purpose here. Elder Prates was here last transfer too and he only got one baptism. The people in this city are very, VERY catholic. There are big catholic churches everywhere and every house and business has catholic things in them. And just because the church is smaller here doesn't mean that the people haven't heard of it before. The church has been here for about 5 years and has around 50 active members. It's going to be a real challenge to baptize here I think. This week has been really bad in terms of lessons. Yesterday, every single lesson that we had planned fell through due to people not being home. We went to the homes of 7 of our investigators and not a single one was there. Because the area is huge and we have a limited number of investigators we have to walk all over the place to get to everyone. So when we walk for 30 mins to get to an investigators house and they aren't home, and you also don't have enough investigators to plan alternatives in that area, it's real annoying. We've been contacting like crazy trying to find new people to teach but it hasn't brought anything yet. So i'm feeling a bit stuck right now.

The language is also a struggle, still. I'm fine during lessons but I need to expand my vocabulary because It becomes diffcult when people start talking about other subjects. I don't know why I still can't pick up the language. I've got enough stuff to worry about already, so having the language to worry about doesn't help at all.

But even though the mission is hard right now, and i'm struggling, i'm still enjoying it. The last week passed by very quickly, and it has been a lot of fun to get to know the missionaries here. And I really don't know why I continue to get scared by animals, but a few days ago, a cat decided to jump out of a trashcan right as I was walking by and I almost crapped my pants. My comp thought it was pretty hilarious but i'm just wondering which animal will be the death of me here.

Time to answer questions...

I'm going to try to continue eating good stuff. I don't know if i'll continue to make cookies and brownies and stuff cause i'm already fat enough but we'll see.

Yes, the food is the same. The members continue to feed us chicken, rice, and beans (when we have lunch with them at least).

Like I said, this city is nicer. So there are a fair amount of buildings with AC. The churches usually have AC also, but both areas i've been in haven't had normal churches. Pres. and Sis. Chamberlain will also bring AC to our house this week I think. So we can use it during the night. Benefits of being way out of the city!

It wasn't hard at the time, but now I miss the old ward members. I think I was more worried about the fact that I'm going to be training so I wasn't paying attention to them as much. But the members in Jatobá are amazing. I hope the members here are just as good. There were a few members that we were really close to, so it's sad to not be able to see them anymore. I'll send a pic of what one of the members gave to Elder Alcantara and I before I left.

We use the cheapest cell phone you can buy. It's pretty sweet.

Package... more water flavor! Not sure if I already asked for that. Can't think of anything else at the moment... Oh, and ties that aren't cotten. It's too hot and they get all messed up and start curling and get all dirty. 

No news on the Chirstmas package.

We don't have to walk far enough to make use of public transit. But this new area doesn't have local transit. Only buses to go to Fortaleza and such.

I'm pretty sure we can choose our time for Skype. Chirstmas is on Pday (lame!) but i'll find out more this week.

Also, the AlphaSmart is smart again. Yay! Hope it continues like this. I also forgot to tell you guys that ever since I arrived in Fortaleza, the steamer hasn't worked. It starts steaming then stops. Then starts again and stops again. Not sure what's up.

That's it for me today. Talk to you next week!

He will make me ready...

December 3rd

The alphaSmart is not very smart and thinks that the computer isn't working. I tried it on 2 computers and so it's not the computer's fault. Gotta type it manually again. Lame.

2nd transfer down. And that means that I have officially completed my training! And i've also been on the mission for 4 months! But while I have completed my training, I get to start training another missionary now. That's right- i'm training next transfer. I still can't speak portugese well and I feel totally unprepared but i'm training. Elder Alcantara is staying in Jatobá and he'll continue to train a new missionary. I'm going to be completing the training of another missionary in an area called Canindé B which I guess is way outside the city- further than Jatobá. I'm going to be relying heavily on god to prepare me for this task.

Anyways, this last week has been pretty relaxed. Because it was the last week of the transfer, we focused a lot more on the investigators that we already have rather than trying to find new ones. While we didn't quite reach our goal of 8 people baptized, we got close enough with 3 more baptisms on Saturday adding up to 6 this transfer. The baptisms this week were Jenifer, Douglas, and Darlan. They're all siblings and they're pretty awesome. Darlan is just a ball of energy and is always all over the place. He is 8 years old and his brother, whose 9, looks like his twin. Jenifer is the one that came to sacrament by herself 2 weeks ago and she was pretty much the perfect investigator. Reading all the pamphlets, answering the questions at the end, doing all the commitments... she had a testimony that the church was true after the first lesson. I'm pretty happy with our work here. Especially cause everyone is slacking  on the mission right now. Pres. Chamberlain took away the mission goal of 6  baptisms per transfer because most missionaries weren't reaching that number. It's 3 per transfer now. I love pres. Chamberlain, but he's super relaxed and not very strict so I think that's why people are slacking. Apparently the old mission president was the opposite.

In terms of language, my worst enemy (besides Satan), I still feel like I haven't progressed that much. I mean I guess I have cause apparently i'm ready to train, but I still am not at the level I thought I would be at after 3 months in the field. But when it comes down to it, when heavenly father considers me ready, I'll be ready. Because he will make me ready- it's not about my ability. So it's really all about faith- something that I need more of! For now, i'll just keep reading 1 Nephi 3:7 and Ether 12:27.

(Below this is from my letter - answering some of my questions)

And about the questions you have mother... I should have been more clear about Jari. It's a place that's a good ways away from everything else here. And it's only there that there are the people that have problems understanding. Even then, it was mainly just the family that we were teaching at the time. They can still understand well enough to be baptized, they just required a more simpler way of teaching. We are teaching pretty much an entire street there, and they can understand fine. It's actually great teaching some of them because they ask intelligent questions which are fun to answer. So the people here are definitely smart enough to understand everything- it's just a select number of people there in Jari that have trouble. The people go to school and work normal jobs also.

The ward is different from Utah wards just because it's Brazil- the culture is a bit different (lots of noise during the meetings, many more recent converts, etc) and it's a smaller number of people that are members. This means that every member knows each other. It's like a big family here and it's awesome. The lessons are the same though. The people who have been members long enough to have callings and teach understand the doctrine, including more profound doctrine, very well.

There are many more Brazilians here than Americans. The Brazilians are awesome though and love everyone, including the Americans. There are definitely differences that Americans and Brazilians have, such as Americans being considered more selfish (what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours kind of thing) but that's just a normal thing that comes with different cultures.

The hardest part of the day is, physically, walking everywhere in the sun, and mentally, Just the language. Both are exhausting!

My schedule usually consists of: studying in the morning, contacting from ~10:00 until lunch. After lunch, we do more studying at the house (language and 12 weeks) until about 3-4:00, and after just teach people until 9.

And Light the World is something that I try to do. As a missionary, I can't do a lot of the suggestions, but i'm going to try to do as much as I can. I'd like to do one of the challenges this week by honoring my mother and father (Matthew 15:4) by letting you guys know how much you mean to me. Once you leave on the mission, you start to realize what you really care about. And these things are what you miss the most. So i'd like to say congratulations to you mom and dad. You made it on the list of things that I really care about.Thank you for the perfect childhood. I can say that I wouldn't want to change anything about it. And I know many people can't say the same (unless they are my siblings). I've had amazing friends, amazing opportunities, an amazing ward, but most off all: amazing parents. Parents who supported me in every [worthy] thing I've wanted to do, parents who are always a great example to me, and put up with all my crap. You guys are the type of parents that all the friends talk about as the "cool" parents. I can proudly say that it wouldn't stress me out to have any future girls meet you guys. I think it would only make her want to join the family more to be perfectly honest. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I know that I have the greatest parents in the world. During the millennium, when all things are revealed, everyone else will know that you guys are truly the best parents. Love you mom and dad.

Wow, lots of typing. But that's all for me folks. Talk to you next week. It's going to be a crazy week for me.

tough week means a good week

November 25th

Forgot to use the ol alphasmart again this week. It's work all day so when we get home, I crash. 1 1/2 hours is not enough free time each day. Especially cause I like to excercise at night cause I'm too tired during the morning.

Anyways, this week has been some tough work. But that means it was a good week. Since it's the end of the transfer in one week, we need to really work our butts off so that all the pesquisadores can be baptized in time. Speaking of baptisms, we managed to baptize 2 more on Saturday! Edson and Natalia. They were a bit tricky because they don't really understand much. But we just taught them like we teach the little kids and it worked out. I'm pretty happy with our work this transfer. Although the beginning was all work and nothing to show for it, we finally saw the fruits of our labors in the form of 9 pesquisadores at church on Sunday. Our goal is 8 baptisms this transfer because we'd like to get 6 per transfer and only had 4 last transfer. So 12 in 2 transfers would be awesome. That means we need at least 5 of those 8 to be baptized. It's a lot to want but we'll work our hardest to make it happen.

During one bomb lesson we were giving about the BoM, this drunk guy came up to us and started going off about something. Obviously I couldn't understand what he was saying as his speach was slurred and I already have problems understanding sober people. One girl we were teaching said something to him that really ticked him off cause he started yelling at her and trying to get in her face. Elder A and I had to box the guy out and I was real close to giving him a nice elbow to the face. So annoying. This is why we need to follow the word of wisdom, kiddos.

Today we're going to have a Pday with the entire zone and pres and sis chamberlain. Last zone conference, Pres. Chamberlain authorized playing soccer as long as he's there to watch, so everyone is pretty excited. I don't really care too much because i'm not a huge soccer guy but it'll be fun to talk to everyone.

That's my update this week, Até mais

Elder Odom

In response to your emails mother and father:

But I can tell you that Cali is not that hot also. In comparison to the weather i'm in every day, nothing seems hot there. And about the phones and iPads... It's definitely crazy how different the missions are. But I realized through watching the district videos that you can't even compare them. Literally every aspect of a stateside mission is different. They only send the best of missionaries to Brazil. Here we don't need cars or bikes or nice weather or iPads or smartphones or apartments that are nice... We survivor off of the spirit only. (I'm kidding, every mission has different difficulties) But i'm glad to be here, even if it is hard. And i'm praying for ben. Hope he's alright.

work and more food issues

November 20th


hello family and Friends!

First off, Nicks home! I obviously wasn't there but I can imagine how exciting that was. Tell nick "sup" for me. With a head nod.  You don't have to worry about me being skinnier, I'll be fatter for sure (already am). 

It's already been another week! Crazy. This week has been a lot of work. We've been really trying to find new people to teach so its been just contacting for hours every day. In this sun, it sucks! We've been working in Jari a lot still, and I'm really starting to question whether the people there actually need to be baptized... they are almost like children. I've been thinking a lot about how different my mission is than missions in the US. PMG has a lot of stuff about finding out the religous views of the people before you teach (do you beleive in god and things like that) but we already know the beliefs of every single person here. It isn't about IF they believe in god, it's about what church they belong to. The main struggles we have are trying to make the people understand that they need to be baptized with correct authority, and that they need to stop drinking coffee. Man, everyone drinks coffee. This week has also been tough because our investigators are just not progressing. Like I said, we've mainly been trying to find new investigators, and  our 20 or more contacts per day has finally paid off. For the first time ever, one of our contacts came to church. Usually, you invite the person to church and they say they'll go and don't. But this time a girl we talked to actually came to church! She's 13 and came all on her own too! E. Alcantara and I were so suprised when she came. Her mom said that she had a devil in her and that she needed to go to church so I guess that was her motivation. I hope we can baptize her!

One thing that I seriously need to work on is my eating habits. I wish that I was more like I was back home, not eating that much. But here, I can pack down the food. So I've started limiting my eating for the first time in my life cause I think i'm getting fat. You'd think with all the walking I do i'd at least stay the same, but guess not. Any healthy recipes would be much appreciated.  I sure could use a worm right now (like Parker). I'm ALWAYS hungry. It's very strange and unnatural for me. But that's how the mission is I suppose. Pretty much everything is strange.

Not much other than a lot of work has happened this week, so I don't have any crazy stories. Well I guess one night I had to fall asleep to the sound of a cat giving birth. That was lame. But that's about it for me. Talk to you guys next week.

Elder Odom