August 19th One Year Today....

We miss you, Chase!!
Keep shining in Brazil!!
We love you!!
You are doing a great work!

AUGUST 2010 ONE YEAR!

CHASE IS DOING A MARVELOUS WORK!! HE IS LOVING HIS MISSION AND IS DOING VERY WELL WITH EVERYTHING HE DOES! HE LOVES THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE AND LOVES THE LANGUAGE! HE IS FULL OF ENERGY AND LOVES TEACHING ENGLISH AND SHARING THE WORD OF GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HE HAS BEEN GONE FOR A YEAR ALREADY! ENJOY THE PICTURES AND THANKS FOR FOLLOWING HIM ON HIS JOURNEY!

Feb. 17, 2010

Well, this week went by very quickly. It also included one of the worst days for missionaries (Valentine's Day) lol, but it also was good seeing that we marked 3 more baptism dates with investigators, so we are having alot of success here in the area. The dates are all marked for next weekend and beyond, which is after the transfers, so I may be transferred before I can see some of our investigators baptized, since transfers are the 24th. Snow, that sounds like fun. Here we just have gotten a lot of heat and some awesome sunburns! I would love some snow so my face wouldn't burn. But anyways, I love studying the scriptures. I am still reading in the Old Testament. Sometimes it is difficult and other times it is very interesting. I read some of it, then go to the Book of Mormon and read out of it because you can really get a lot of nice personal inspiration by by studying and praying and things are a whole lot easier to understand. Let's see, today we cleaned house and that was good to get done, again. Today we were suppose to go hang out at a members house and play games and help them put together their pool table, but one of them was sick and had to go to the doctor, which here takes forever, so we didn't get to go. This week we taught a whole lot of lessons which felt great to do. We have so many great investigators here in this area. The church should grow a lot here.
Also, next week email will be when you find out if I was transferred or not because we find out next Monday, so next Wednesday, email will let you know how things are going and where I am at. Always remember to read and study the scriptures, and be worthy to have the spirit with you to lead and guide you. It is a very great help here in all our lives, the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we all just obey even the promptings that seem pointless, we will get blessed and something good will happen. Well, that is really all I can think of for this week. We might have some baptisms this weekend, if not, then for sure the next. Have an awesome week!
Elder Emory Chase Caldwell

Two letters combined....I'm playing catch up!

DECEMBER 9, 2009-
Well, December and it's hot, how strange? Actually, just to update you guys, it has rained for 18 of the last 20 days. Including 10 days in a row during this stretch and it is about to rain again today to go 19/21. Ha! Well, I taught some really good and really long lessons this week in Portuguese. I stated teaching and just kept going and the best part was that the people understand me. It is amazing to think that only a little over 3 months ago, I couldn't say a word in Portuguese and now I can say just about anything. I hope all is well with everyone of you there, I love you all and I am sorry if I have not replied to all of your e-mails, but know that I am thinking of you all and love you all a lot. Today, we went to the center of Osasco and played soccer, ping pong, and some basketball. The Brazialians were surprised to see an American play soccer. Tomorrow morning, my companion is training as a new district leader, so if I have any mail, I can get it then. I got a stack of mail from Gigi, Evan, Nana, Shelly Bivens, Emily H. and mom. Great letters, thanks a bunch! I am in the process of responding, only problem is that it's a hour walk to the post office. Well, things are really good here. I really like my area. I love you guys.

December 16, 2009
Christmas is very close guys. I am excited and people here are too. It's weird because it's smoking hot here, yet Christmas time. So, this week was good, we have taught lots of lessons, reactivated some less active families and also have found alot of really good people that are interested in the church. I taught another lesson in family home evening in the house of Irma Elaine. It was good. I taught about Jesus Christ and His life and the things HE did for us here.
In the house of the memeber that we have family home evening every Tuesday, I was talking to her last week about her son, Dennis who is 19-21 and in the Army. She really wants him to serve a mission. I told her to pray for him and that I would pray for him also, that he can have the desire again to serve a mission. Well, last night at family home evening, I was teaching the lesson and he showed up at her house. He sat in on my lesson and then my companion asked him to share his testimony and he did. He said that he was haning out with some friends a couple of streets over and was headed to his grandma's when he remembered that his mom had invited him over, so he felt like he should come. He did and he also felt in his heart that he wanted to share his testimony and he said that he knows that he should serve a mission for the Lord and that's what he is going to do. He says he has lots of blessings, a good job, but that it won't mean anything to him because a part of his life is missing.....he said he knows it won't be filled until he serves a mission, that he knows there are families out there that need him, just like there are families here that need me. It was very spiritual and a great night. Irma Elaine was very happy and crying alot. I talked with him afterwards about missions and sports and lots of other things. It was good to get to talk with him. He is a great guy and will make a great missionary. So thats the week. We had a Christmas party at church on Saturday.
I love you all and am very thankful for the e-mails, letters, and support. Have a great week!
Love, Elder Caldwell

I am so sorry for not updating Chase's blog. For some reason, the blog won't let me copy and paste the email. It cuts off words, so each week I have to type his email in. Well, I don't have a printer, so my mom usually prints them off for me at school and gives them to me. This has not happened because there was a fire at the middle school in the room that houses the internet server and phones for the whole district so, they are without phones and computers. I will continue to keep you updated until the problem is resolved. Thank you for continuing to check on Chase!
Chase is doing WONDERFUL!! He is loving the area of Osasco! He is using the language beautifully and is getting excited to be able to talk to us on the phone so he can speak English for a change! He is teaching a lot of people and has brought a lot of inactive people back to church! He also gets to play soccer on his day off! He is happy and growing spiritually!
Thank you for checking in on him! I will update with a real email as soon as I can!!
Jeanna

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