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