November 18, 2009

Hey everybody! Another week has gone by quickly. I am doing good here. We are teaching, teaching, and teaching. We walk alot though. So we had Zone Conference last Thursday and tomorrow is interviews (with President Cooley). Last Thursday I got 6 letters and I hope that I get some tomorrow, but if not, it's okay because the emailing once a week is good. Thanks for all of the emails. I am still doing good and it is very hot here, really hot because here in Brazil it is a very rare thing to encounter an air conditioner, so I live in heat 24/7, but its fine, I am getting used to it and I am getting used to being red also.(I do use sunscreen) I will try to email some pictures next week. Depends on which internet place is open and if I can use my camera to send them or not.
Well, this week we committed another person to baptism, an 18 year old girl named Rafaela. She is investigating with her 30 year old sister who is married with kids. Also I bought some ingredients and made some pizza this week at the house of some of our investigators Sida and Patricia. It went really well and the pizza was great too. I really impressed myself. It was Callabrese (not sure how to spell, but here I jsut spell like things are pronounced). My Portuguese is improving. During Zone Conference all the new missionaries bore there testimonies and all the missionaries that are going home. I was complimented on my Portuguese several times. I still have an American accent when I speak, but I can understand most of what people say to me and can answer back. It's a really good feeling because that first day in the airport, ha, I had no idea what Portuguese was.....and now I speak it every day and don't speak English because I have no body to speak it with.
Today for p-day we went to Wal-Mart (I used the photo center to print a few photos for me) and afterwards we went to the chapel in Novo Osasco with our District which includes me and Elder Dornelles, and two sets of sister missionaries. They cooked lunch and made some really good lime cheese cake. It was great. We played Uno, talked, and everyone showed each other their photos. I had lots of fun. Tonight we are going out to eat with Mara one of our investigators and Sister Christiani. Going to a pizza buffet, suppose to be really good. Mara has come to church a few times and we taught her some lessons with Sister Christiani. They are about the same age, 20-30 area and yeah, pizza should be great. I am pretty excited about it. I went on a division this week. I went to a different area and spent the day and night working in the area of another missionary with another missionary. It went great there. We marked some baptism dates and taught a bunch of people. Sleeping there was horrible. There was a dog that barked right outside the window all night long. It would stop long enough for me to fall asleep, then start again and wake me up. Then last night we stayed at the house of the Zone Leaders, so I didn't sleep too good last night either. We played Uno, but tonight will be great, my own bed ha. Well I love you guys. I am doing great here. I pray for you all and hope that everything is going well. I hope you all have a great week, until next week.....
Love, Elder Chase Caldwell

November 11, 2009- Brazil Blackout!

Hey everybody. This week has been pretty good. We do the usual, walk a lot and teach a lot. Last night we had a Family Home Evening night in the house of one of the members. It is a single mom with a son and a daughter, but they had 4 or 5 friends each over. The lesson went great! The mom is a convert and I am not sure about the children. The son doesn't come to church because he lives with the dad in another city. So we played some games and taught a lesson, had some snacks, it was good. After that we took a bus to the center of Osasco to stay in the house of the Zone Leaders (today we the whole zone, met at the stake center and played soccer and ate pizza). We get there about 10:20 or so and about 10:30 the power goes out, that was pretty crazy, not that its a big deal here, we turned on flashlights and it was time for bed anyways, but we sat outside talking for a while and then went to bed, the blackout was all over about 4:30 this morning the power comes back and there was a portable fan by my feet and it was on, so I got very cold very quickly and woke up, moved the fan and went back to sleep for two hours. Soccer today went great, I really enjoyed playing and I played pretty well with and against the Brazilians. I scored a lot of goals. I didn't think I would get to send email because of the blackout, because some areas do not have internet access, but we found a internet shop that has internet. We have some good investigators that we are gong to visit tonight. I think that it will go pretty good. Also, we set a baptism date for Mara, one of our investigators. Its great to see how happy the gospel can make people and how happy all the recent converts are that live here. Its good to get the emails from all of you guys, thanks for all the love and support. Tomorrow is Zone conference, so I can recieve letters tomorrow if I have any waiting at the mission home. Also, next Thursday I can get letters too because it is our interviews with the Mission President that we have every transfer. The next transfer date is December 2nd, I am hoping that my companion and I both stay here in JD Velasco. We work well together and I really like it here. Oh, and I know that they say about Mexico don't drink the water, well here they said in the CTM don't drink the water or eat from street vendors. Well, I drank the water and ate from street venders and well, nothing happened, except that it was some of the best food I have ever had, ha. I drink mostly filtered water. We have 20 gallon jugs of water in our house for drinking. But some of the members don't have filtered water, and I drink it when we are there and I don't really taste a difference. I haven't gotten sick or felt sick or anything and many others drink the water, too, so I don't think its that big of a deal, yet I still bring my water bottle with me when I go places or stop by the church to get a drink, the water there is filtered. Well, my time is up for the week guys, I love you all very much! I hope and pray that all is well for you all and things continue to go great1
Love, Elder Chase Caldwell

November 4, 2009 - 2nd email from Osasco

Hey everybody! This week has been pretty good. Very, very hot week though. Sun all day every day with no clouds in the sky. Today we went to the Pico de Jaragua. It is a state park here, you guys should check it out online. It was pretty sweet. I will be sending pictures whenever I can get them developed. We taught a lot of lessons this week, it was pretty good. We do walk everywhere, except when we go to Sao Paulo for meetings or things like that then we take the crowded hot buses. We have lunch appointments everday here except for p-days because lunch is a huge meal here and dinner is really small. We spent the night at our Zone Leaders house last night because
they went with us to Jaragua today and we stayed up playing UNO for a while, ha, it was fun. Elder Brooksby got transferred, and Emily Hummel said that Elder Ellertson just got transferred out of her ward, but that Elder Bessler is there now. Things are going great here. I am no longer white in the face or arms, I am an interesting shade of red (yes I use sunscreen). Except for underneath where my watch is, my arm is very white right there. Next p-day I think I am going to get to play soccer (first time in Brazil) so I hope that goes pretty well. At our district meeting on Monday I saw one of my teachers from the CTM Irmao Rocha, he was excited to see me and invited my copanion and I, along with Elder Oldroyd and his companion to come eat breakfast with him on a p-day. He lives in Osasco very close to where I live actually, but he is in a different ward. The stake center is huge, it puts ours to shame. The stake center here is big like a school would be, with 2 floors, parking garage, elevators, etc....its pretty nice. It has a soccer area and basketball area too. This internet place is pretty nice. They have American music playing, so I can hear good songs that I like. I got some letters yesterday because the ZL had a meeting with the President and they went to the mission home and checked for mail, so I will send out replies to those whenever I get a chance. My personal scripture study, I finished Alma and Helaman, and am enjoying 3rd Nephi. Chapter 11 is a great chapter.
Well, I do not have very much email time this week. We got back later than expected from Jaragua and we have to get to work soon. I love you all, sorry if I didn't get an email sent to you this week, I love you though! Well, everyone, take care, have a great week, I love you all and will talk to you next week!
Love, Elder Caldwell