4-11-2016

Yeah so I got the package just fine. Thanks so much for the candy and letters! We´ve already eaten one of the bags of 3 musketeers. 

As for the glasses I never bought any. I have the prescription and stuff but haven´t taken the time to stop by a glasses store. There are a few here in the city and I think I will shop around next p-day. 

As for the area I am getting to know it a lot better as the days go on. There are some really cool members in the branch. I think it will get better though as time goes on. 

This week was pretty normal we did have interviews with the Mission President which was cool. He did tell me my actual completion date which is the 15th of November. He decided to make a new exit group on this day instead of on the 18th of October. So sorry I thought I would be coming home earlier. But at least I´ll be home for thanksgiving! 

I´ve got to go love you, have a good one!

-Derek

4-4-2016

I am in a town called "Estrela" (Star in English) which is pretty far from Porto Alegre. My new companion is Élder Sacramento. Yes, like the sacrament. He is really great! He´s funny, gets my jokes, and works a lot. He actually visited the US a few times. He stayed there for 2 months on a school tour. He speaks English really well. He visited Utah and stuff. He also gets some of my English quotes and stuff. 

Here in Estrela the church is just a Branch, not a ward yet. I´ve never served in a Branch before and so far it is pretty interesting. The Branch doesn’t have a ton of members but it´s still a good area to work. The city is mostly German. So for the first time I actually fit in here! People don´t give me the weird look they used to when I walk by. Now they just think that I am German. Which I don´t know if that´s better because of the whole Nazi thing but so far so good. People still are surprised to find out that I am actually from the US. 

This week was pretty crazy because of the transfer. Now when we are transferred we travel alone sometimes to our new areas. This time I traveled alone, they put me on a bus and sent me off! I had never traveled to this part of the mission before. So I was pretty lost. My Bus ticket said I was supposed to stay on the bus until a city called Lajeado but before we arrived in Lajeado the bus passed through Estrela! So I didn´t know if I should get off or keep going. I felt like I had to stay on the bus so I did. When we arrived in Lajeado I got off took my silver brick luggage and started to look for the missionaries who were to greet me on my glorious arrival. Only that there was no one there! I started walking around the bus station to see if there was anyone with a white shirt and tie. My roller luggage had turned into regular luggage last transfer as the little black wheel couldn´t hold on any longer. Everyone was looking at me wander around. It was getting dark and I thought I was going to get robbed again. But I managed to use an old broke Brazilian payphone. Luckily it was still working and called the Mission secretaries to send someone to pick me up. Thankfully I was where I was supposed to be. The other elders thought I was going to arrive later than I did. But it all worked out in the end. 

General Conference was great! I received a lot of answers to my prayers. I suggest watching those if you guys haven´t yet. 

Love you,have a good week! 

-Élder Stevens

3-28-2016

So Easter was pretty normal we didn´t really do anything special. A lot of the members brought chocolate to church for their lessons so we got to sneak a few while they weren´t looking. 

Today are transfers and my companion and I were transferred from our area. They decided to close our area but they are going to send two more missionaries. I am a bit sad that I have to leave this area. I liked it a lot and wanted to stay longer. I also wanted to try and have a bit more success here but that´s just how the mission is. 

So I will be heading to the city of "Estrela"! Which means "star" in English. My bus leaves at 4:00 from Porto Alegre. So it´s another adventure! With another new companion!

As for the washer machine it hasn´t arrived yet so...good luck new missionaries! I hope you can have a good time washing your clothes in a bucket! 

Sorry I don´t have a lot of time. I have less time to write today because of the transfer. But I love you and hope you guys are doing good. Have a good week. 

Love you,

-Elder Stevens

3-21-2016

So things are going good. My new companion and I are getting along well. Tomorrow we are going to the Federal Police station to renew my Visa. We´ll see what happens the next transfer is on the 28th of March. 

So our investigators are doing pretty well. This Sunday was pretty crazy. On Saturday we visited all of our investigators who were going to go to church on Sunday. Sadly out of the 13 only 1 came. But I´ll take it! He is really liking the lessons and liked the meeting on Sunday.

As for my lovely language skill I am talking a lot better than when I arrived that´s for sure. Most people understand what I am saying. There are a few words that I miss here and there but it´s going pretty well. I need to practice writing a bit more. 

And holidays. Well this is the week of Easter so some people are traveling and some shops are closed. I love this time of year because here they celebrate Easter with a lot of chocolate. Sometimes members give us these giant chocolate eggs! They are soooooo good. That´s because there is German culture here and Germans make great chocolate. 

Love you, have a good week!

-Elder Stevens

3-14-2016

It is going good. The eye test went well. My companion decided to go in with me. The doctor is from the same country as my companion. So they started speaking Spanish in the appointment and I had a hard time understanding what they were saying but it all worked out in the end. So the doctor says that I should use the minimum degree of glasses to help see things in conferences, at night, and when it´s raining. He also told me that I have an eye allergy and gave me a prescription for a drop. Then he told me that I have some sort of mark on my optical nerve in one eye that means that I might develop glaucoma when I am older. Then he took my eye pressure and said that it was normal. So there you go other than that it´s all good. 

Well we still haven´t gotten a new machine. I am going to call my old companion and see what´s going on. So we´ll see what happens. 

Anyway gotta go, I love you!

-Elder Stevens

3-7-2016

Yeah so my companion leaves on the 15th of March. This is his last week here. A few interesting things have happened today. So there was an emergency transfer in our district and we are now in a trio with another elder. For this week we will be in a trio then when my companion leaves the other elder will stay with me for two more weeks until the new transfer on 26th of March.

Talking about doctors today I will be heading to the old "ophthalmologist"! Yes, that´s right the eye doctor. We´ll see if I really need glasses or not. I am a bit nervous because first of all I´ve never done an eye exam but mostly second of all I have never done an eye exam in Portuguese. It´s most likely that I won´t be able to understand a few things because my vocabulary is strictly refined to talking about food and missionary lessons. I´ll be sure to let you know how it all went. 

But happily it is cooling down a bit. The beginning of this last week was pretty cool. Today is also a lot better than it has been. It makes it a lot easier to walk around and work. Sadly our new washing machine has yet to arrive. It´s been a few weeks now and they still haven´t sent a new one. I am thinking about calling the secretary again. He used to be companion so maybe I can work something out. But in the meantime we are washing our clothes at a member’s house, everything but our garments. Those we wash by hand. 

As for the ward everything is about the same.

I love you, have a good week!

-Élder Stevens

2-29-2016(2)

My health is doing good. Again it is just the old glasses thing that I need to get figured out. I´ve talked with my companion and we decided that when we go to the temple in a couple weeks we will go to the doctor as well. So in a couple weeks I will be getting some glasses. But until then I will be doing my best to squint and stare at signs to try and read them. If I can´t read stuff I just ask my companion what street signs say. I even gave my companion a new nickname "glasses". So now when I can´t read stuff I just yell "glasses!" my companion already responds reading signs for me. 

That´s great that the weather is getting better there. I do miss playing tennis with you guys. Here tennis is a really rich sport. So no one plays tennis. The weather here is also the same scorching sun and 90 degree weather. 

I got all of the Pet pics! They were pretty great. Every time I see a cat I think of kitty. 

As for experiences, this week we had a zone meeting with the president in Porto Alegre. It was great! The mission president talked a lot about being and doing as Christ did. At the end he showed us a talk by Elder Holland. This talk was great and talked about loving the savior. By the end I felt the spirit really strong. Three of our investigators also came to church this last Sunday. That was great to see them there talking with the members and having a great time. In the end, it was a great Sunday. 

Oh also we had a music devotional in our stake and the missionaries from the zone sang. At the end our mission president gave a talk. 

Love you!

-Elder Stevens

2-29-2016

So yeah I do have a lot of fun great Brazilian stories to share with you guys. I will also try and share some more of those stories with you guys.

I do miss you guys a lot and can´t wait to see you guys again in May. I guess the countdown is down to 8 months. I have really been feeling the time fly. I am kind of feeling a little bit like I still have so many things that I want to do and be as a missionary but the time is just passing by so fast. So I am happy that I will be seeing you guys again and joining you on the brown couch. But I also feel like I don´t have time to reach goals I made with the language and stuff like that. I guess that really isn´t that important. I guess I just want to feel like I did my best here on the mission with the time that I had. I don´t know how to explain it, it´s a weird feeling. 

Anyway we had a great zone meeting with the president this week. We also had a Music devotional in our stake also with the mission president. And the star act of the devotional was the missionaries of the stake!

Well got to go have a great lovely week! 

-Elder Stevens

2-22-2016

My new companion is Élder Ramirez. He is my 11th companion so far on the mission. 12th if you count the MTC. I already had the opportunity to get to know him. He used to be my ZL in Esteio. He is a really cool guy. He asked the president to stay longer past his date. So the President let him stay 4 more weeks, which means he will be going home before the end of the transfer. This also means I will be getting another companion! WWWHWHHooo! I also might stay with a short-term missionary from the stake or in a trio with other missionaries. Either way it will be an interesting end of the transfer. My new companion did pass in the area next to my area. So he already knows the city and a few of the members. 

As for the old glasses project I haven´t been able to set an appointment with the glasses...guy. Tomorrow we have a zone meeting in Porto Alegre and thought about trying to go in tomorrow but I don´t know if it´ll work out.

The week was pretty interesting. We received some referrals from the other ward and they are great! I think they will really progress and be baptized which would be such a great thing. This ward hasn´t had a baptism since the beginning of the year.

Another interesting thing that happened this week or well today is that our washing machine was stolen. I don´t know how but someone stole our washing machine last night. So we live in like a condominium of 4 houses. We live in one of the upper homes. On the front porch we have a spot for our washing machine to go. There is like a wall with a gate at the bottom of our stairs that lead to our porch. I don´t know how but someone hopped the gate and took our washing machine taking it down the stairs and over the gate. They also stole our neighbor´s machines as well. Last night I woke up only two times. Once to go to the bathroom and the other I woke up to water running. I thought it was just raining and went back to sleep. Well it turns out that the rain I was hearing was water from the pipe that leads to the washing machine. The robbers left it turned on all night! It reminded me of the Home Alone robbers leaving the water running in every house they stole from. Anyway we called the President and the secretaries and they are going to send a new washing machine to us. Also the house is all barred up so they couldn´t get in. It´s just the front porch that doesn’t have anything to protect it. 

Gotta go, I love you

-Derek

2-15-2016

Yeah so my camera is all good and I still have it. I just haven´t sent any pictures in awhile, sorry about that. I will get some ready to send next week to you guys. I am also working on some letters to send to you guys. So transfers are today! The way that we do transfers now is different. We now get a phone call on Sunday night and they tell us where we are going and who will be our next companion. Then on P-day we are transferred. So yesterday we got the call and my companion was transferred and I stayed. I already know who my new companion is Elder Ramirez. He will be ending his mission with me. I think it will be a good transfer. My apartment is pretty good. Not as fancy as my last apartment in Farroupilha. I will take some pictures for you guys. 

I am also surviving the sun. I have also worked out a special process of putting on sun block and Aloe Vera. 

This week was pretty hard. Our baptism fell through this week. My companion was sick as well but by the end of the week he got better. So as the missionaries we are doing what we can to help everything move along. But in all it is going good here. We met a really cool family.  So we are going to work with them a lot this week. 

I love you, have a great week!

-Derek

2-8-2016

Things are going good. Today I will give it a shot and try sewing on my buttons. So we´ll see how that goes.

So transfers are going to be on P-days now and not on Tuesday. The next transfer is on Monday the 15th. Well pretty much next week. So will wait to see what happens. I will probably stay in the area; my companion has a lot of time here and will probably be transferred. 

We are getting ready for Carnaval which means just a lot of crazy parties and stuff. 

Love you!

-Derek

2-1-2016

I got the email. I will be sure to give those sewing instructions a shot! My buttons are popping off like crazy! I don´t know if I am getting fat or if it´s normal wear and tear. 

As for now the weather is still pretty hot. Fall comes the same month spring does there. 

Well this week I have been learning a lot about patience, being myself, and trusting in the spirit. I also learned that the sun still burns skin even though it is overcast

Any way things are going good

I love you and hope you guys have a good week!

-Derek

1-25-2016

Sorry I wasn´t able to send anything last week. We went to the temple and didn´t have time to enter our email. I was pretty sad I couldn´t talk with you guys but today we were able to make it on. 

This week we had interviews with the Mission President which went well. He bought us all ice cream, which was awesome. We also watched a world missionary broadcast on Wednesday. Which was also really great, I learned a lot about teaching by the spirit. Anyway those were the big events of the week.

The new area is really great! There are a lot of people to teach. This week we are going to try and reactivate some members. The church here is HUGE. It is 3 stories tall. It has a big lawn and parking lot. I think it is one of the biggest churches I have ever seen here. Everyone in the area knows where it is. My new companion is Elder Góes he is from Salvador, Bahia. He teaches very well. 

The weather is really really hot! Today will reach 100 degrees. The sun here is really strong. I am not sure why but it is super hot. I am using a lot of Sun block to try and not completely burn. We have a strategy of weaving in and out of shadows to stay out of the sun. 

Anyway things are going good. I love you. Can´t wait to see you guys again! Have a great week!

-Derek

1-11-2016

So this week was pretty good. I was transferred to a new area called Vista Alegre which is a neighborhood in a city called Cachoeirinha. The members here are really great and the area is really cool as well. This area is closer to Porto Alegre so I will be able to do an eye exam and maybe get glasses.

My New companion is Elder Góes. He teaches really well!

I love you guys and hope everything is going well! 

-Derek

1-4-2016

Luckily enough I will be in Porto Alegre tomorrow because well I was transferred! I will be leaving Farroupilha. I am a bit sad about the transfer; I am really going to miss this area. The ward, the people, the bishop, and my companion. But you know that´s just part of the mission. Once you get too comfortable in one area you have to make some sort of change to keep growing. It’s kind of hard because I have had a new companion almost every transfer now. But anyway I am sure it will all work out in the end. 

Have a good week, 

-Derek