Super Excited and Pink Eye

March 12th

 This week has been pretty great! Not because we had a lot of success or anything. Just cause we have been working really hard, and making progress! It really is amazing how hard work can make everything better. I feel like I am exhausted every day due to us trying to use every hour we can to leave and work, and even after all of our work no one went to church that said they would, but I am happy! And excited to keep working! I've got to admit, though i'm the trainer, and I am teaching him a lot of things, I feel like Elder Silva is teaching me just as much. He is just super excited, and he's real smart too. I thought that I would be doing everything for the first few weeks, but he is a fast learner and has been helping out a lot. Because of his excitement, I've realized that I have become just as excited. It's really great. I also feel like the lord is happier with the extra work that we've put in. Even if we still don't baptize anyone this transfer, i'll still be happy knowing that I have done my part. These 2 years really are going to be some of the greatest years of my life. I'm so grateful to serve.

 So now i've had a little bit more time to get to know Elder Silva. He is 19 (his birthday was on the 1st) and he's a happy guy. He was a programmer before the mission ( I don't know how I keep getting paired up with programmers, there are very few here in Brazil). We've gotten along great so far, and I don't have any complaints. I sure have been blessed with my companions so far! The main thing that has happened this week has been pink eye. I managed to pick it up on Tuesday and have been stuck with it until now. My eyes are almost normal now, so I think they'll be completely back to normal in one or two days. I was also throwing up last week, so it seems like my body isn't very happy with me. Not sure what I did to make it angry. I managed to pass the pink eye to Elder Silva, and it has been even worse for him. His eyes are a dark red/ yellow right now. But they are getting better. They don't hurt like they did in the beginning. He also had a fever one day. Even though he wanted to leave and work still, Sister Chamberlain said he had to stay home. I spent the time cleaning the house cause I think it'll help us not keep getting sick. We've just gotta be careful at the zone conference tomorrow... pink eye is contagious. Pretty sure the people here think that Elder Silva is posessed or something with some of the looks that he gets on the street. It's pretty funny. At least none of our investigators have rejected us due to the pink eye.

 I think that's about it for this week. Looking forward to this next week! And I hope we can find some good investigators!
 Love you guys!

 A little of the back and forth emails:
 me:Did the other guys in your apartment get sick too?
Ty:passed it to elder medina too, but elder williams managed to survive.

 me:Do you have drops there or just let it run its course? I’m guessing the health care isn’t that great Ty:we went to the insta care and got some eye drops. At first i was sharing them with elder silva but sis. chamberlain said we shouldn't. Elder Silva has just let it run it's course.

 Me:That’s good you get to go to zone conference tomorrow. Where do you travel to?
Ty:the main chapel in foraleza. But we are going to leave today at about 6 to stay with the zone leaders, then go to the chapel with them tomorrow morning. We usually just leave here at 4 in the morning and go directly to the conference but they like to complicate things.

 Me:you sound much happier
 TY:Hard work helps! It's not that I wasn't happy before, I'm just more excited now. I'd even be willing to stay here in Canindé for another transfer.

Excited and Nervous...What's new!

February 26th Update on the transfer: I'm staying here in Canindé, but this time i'm going to be working in Canindé A. Pretty much all of our investigators are in Canindé B, so i'm pretty much starting from scratch. Lame. I'm also going to be the District Leader here, and i'll pick up my new companion on Wednesday to train him. This time i'm training a missionary straight from the CTM, so it'll be a bit tougher. They know nothing in the beginning. The great news is that 2 more missionaries are coming to Canindé, so we don't have to cover the entire city any more. And one of the new missionaries is Elder Williams!! He was my comp in the CTM, so i'm pumped to be able to live in the same house as him. He's going to pick up a newbie missionary also with me on Wednesday. District Canindé is just us, so at least it'll be a bit of an easier transition being a district leader! Excited and nervous! What's new?

Secret to Happiness

February 19th

 These weeks are going by insanely fast now! But now we are on the last week of the transfer, and it's very likely that things are going to be changed for the next one. Change usually slows down time a bit while you get used to the new companion, area, etc. I didn't get to email last week due to the Carnival. Here in Canindé, Carnival is just an excuse for everyone, including evey LAN House, to not work from friday-tuesday. And everyone just sits around and listens to the same selection of songs on repeat. Not sure how the songs are chosen, but everyone listens to the same 10 songs over and over. I know you guys know how much I love it when people overplay music. Not sure if i've talked about the music in Fortaleza, but it is seriously awful. I don't really know how to describe it but I think i'll be brain-dead after 2 years of this stuff. At about 7ish, the people here start to play those 10 songs using a MASSIVE speaker. The speaker is a collection of smaller speakers put together, and it's about as tall as a building. Once they start using that speaker, you can here the music no matter where we are. They play the music until about 2 in the morning, so sleep is difficult. Carnival definitely isn't as great as it looks in the movie Rio.

 Also, I forgot to record my voice this week, whoops. At least I recorded last week! This week has been pretty good though. I'm really grateful for all this time I have to study. I am learning a lot every week. But while the studying is going smoothly, the teaching is rough. We are trying to find new people every day, and we are succeeding, but none of the people here are interested. People just really really love São Francisco and being Catholic here. Many refuse to even pray about which church is true. They don't have any desire to know the truth, because they think they have found it. Or at least don't care enough to change anything. Those who do pray receive answers. They believe that what we have said is true, but they still don't want to change their religion. Doesn't make sense to me, but I've learned that logic doesn't work too well here. I know there are people here who are waiting for our message, who will accept our invitation to be baptized, but we just can't seem to find them. We are praying to be guided by the spirit, but there still hasn't been much success. I guess the real challenge of the mission is learning how to listen to the spirit. Seems to be the real challenge of life when it comes down to it. But it seems like baptising someone will be a miracle at this point. Doesn't mean we won't give it our best effort though.

 Speaking of my studying, I have come to really love 4 Nephi 1. I never really read 4 Nephi with real intent before, so I never learned anything from it. But through my recent studies, I've come to realize that 4 Nephi 1 pretty much has steps to obtain happiness. As it says in verse 16, "...and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God". I'm going to invite you guys to read this chapter yourselves to find out what made these people so happy. It was a pretty fun experience for me. I will tell you one thing, though. The chapter never states that that happiness was a result of lots of stuff (big house, money, etc.). I have found myself asking the same question that you asked mom. The people here have so so little. Even my companions have very little in comparison to what the average American has. Yet that doesn't mean that they aren't just as happy as we are. Just like you, mom, I've wondered what I ever did to deserve to have so many blessings in my life- it sure doesn't seem fair. But Heavenly Father tailored each of our lives in a way that will allow us to more effectively reach our potential. We may not understand it now, but when we look back on our earthly life when we have finished it, i'm sure we'll all see the reasons behind our situations. But we do know one thing: because we are blessed, there's no doubt that more will be expected of us.

 As for the language, I think it's improving still. There are some days that i'll feel pretty good, and there are others that I won't be feeling so great. Maybe i'm just too hard on myself I don't know. My comp and I are getting along well as always. It's always fun to share stories with each other. Even though our cultures are very different, there are some things that are the same no matter where you go. Love you all.