Lemon Hay? (Lemon Grass?) Healthy drink

Jordan says this is a really good healthy drink and said it was lemon hay.

Recent Letters Sept 26 and Oct 3

So transfers are today, and I am still here with the same comp and the same area. but its no big deal, because we have some great thoughts for this transfer and are going to put them into place and get results and help the ward to grow even more. it is so wonderful to read everything about what all is going on up there in the great white north! Thanksgiving is coming up and the next Holiday is my birthday and I will be 20. that is so weird to say, when I look back on my life I could never imagine saying im 20, because that would mean that I am an adult and have to make my own decisions. but I guess I have been doing that for quite some time now. things here are good. our zone pretty much stayed the same, besides 1 zone leader went to the ofice for his last transfer and one missionary got brought down to a junior and his comp left to go be senior in a different area.
Missionary work should be good this transfer. we have 2 brothers we will baptize this week or next, then we want to baptize her mom after. We found a full family as well with a mom dad and 7 year old son. they seem to just be really warm and friendly people and love the missionary's and we taught them Saturday for the first time, this family also has lots of family who live close by. and this could be a wonderful opportunity of bringing people to the gospel! General Conference is coming up as well and I am soo excited for it. because here as a missionary I have many opportunities to use the things the prophet is saying and apply that to everybody.
All together that is what is going on, and I hope this transfer goes as planned. I will keep all of you in my prayers, continue to tell me how things are going and I'll do what I can here in Brazil.



This week was cool. the first part of the week we decided we didn't have enough people to teach so we went looking. I like to get references, and my comp likes contacts. I decided to let him do contacts-as usual we got about nothing, which made me even more unimpressed with contacts then usual, but it makes my comp feel good being on his feet and waking all day so you can say that was cool if you like getting no where. Its not that I am mad or complaining... I just think its funny. and that is how we spent the first part of our week. the second part of the week was way cool. we did lots of stuff dealing with preparing for General Conference and that was soo amazing. I was enlightened by the talks and am very greatful for the experience I had. We were also able to have 6 investigators watching conference so that was good. I'll show you a picture of how the Americans ended up watching the whole conference in English, it is funny, but very nice at the same time because the room had AC and that was the first time in a long long time I had used AC. Also I met up with my old baptisms in Irajá it was way cool, they both have callings and one is getting married in January or February and I hope I can go to the wedding!

This week in my studies I studied the importance of priority's in life; this study brought me into deep reflection and I was able to prioritize my life... or at least for the moment. and I put all those priority's into goals. and then at General Conference, one of the 70 (speakers) talked about priority's as well and he talked about everything that I had just done but I took it a couple steps further with the goal making and all of that so that was very cool. That is how my week was and next week we should get a baptism so that should be good. My comp and I work good together because we are 2 very different people so we end up covering everything and things work out very smoothly because of our balance. I hope all is well up in the great white north!

Letters in August-Encantado

I am going to compile the news from Jordans last letters, they are all shorter and not too news worthy-but he did sent some new photos...

Hey this week we had transfers and things were crazy. We now have six elders living in our apartment and it is crowded. For example we have suitcases on floor because there is no room anywhere else. Our zone is really cool because we have 9 Americans and 1 Brazilian and that never happens-the Americans are the minority missionaries. We are all loving it though. In our apartment I am the only "regular" missonary. We have 2 zone leaders and a trainer and new missonary/trainee and 1 district leader-(my comp)and me. There isn't a whole lot to write about at the moment so I will send picutures.

Today is another crazy day-I have computer time and then we are going to make American Hamburgers and french fries and onion rings and then we are going to play soccer and order a 70 cm pizza and then go back to our area and have a family night. It will be fun. This was a good week after much work we got to see some fruits of our labor-we are supposed to have a baptism this week. We also had a great talk with a Baptism preacher who was way nice. He had some questions for us and we got to teach him some and I got to learn more about how their church works and some differences in doctrine. It was way cool and they have a great church.

Remember I love hearing from you all!!

7-25-11 letter Encantando 4

This week was quite the cool week, we almost had a baptism and she should be baptized this week, we are doing all we can, working, working, and I have decided that a South American mission is completely different from one in the United States. We got to watch a show called "The District" a couple weeks ago and if we were doing here, what the missionaries were doing there, it would be really weird. The way we talk to people here is different, I don't know how to explain it but Brazil is a different beast, and a really happy, upbeat culture.

We had a crazy, cool, cultural thing at "Festa Junina". It is a big party where everybody celebrates the North and brings out their inner hick. It would be like if we in Washington had a day to celebrate the deep South, and wore overalls, and straw hats and blacked out a couple teeth, and cooked some alligator on the BBQ. Just imagine the life of "Waterboy" and make a huge festival out of it! That is what we did on Saturday and it was really fun. Yesterday we went to a huge MG (Mormon gathering), it reminded me of my old MG's at my house. There was about 40 people in a little house and we ate food and had a great time and then we found out that the reason for the party was this guy wanted to propose to his girlfriend so that was way cool. It was the first time I had every seen anything like that so it was a blast.

I am thinking about buying a harmonica and learning to play it. I would like to play music and I can't really take a piano around with me-so I am going to try this and see how it goes. Well, those were the highlights of my week, and I am just living my life and geting better. I am finally finding out what goals would be good for me, because I have been thinking about them a lot and know what I want to get out of this mission. We will see how that goes for me, I am excited to continue learning and growing out here in Brazil.

Letter July 18-encantado 3

This week has been kind of a short week for missionary work, we had interviews and district meetings and things like that, but work has been going well and this week we are going to throw a twist of sacrifice on the work, and fast a couple days and pray harder and find some service to do. We are already doing everything else we can.
This week we have a little Festa Junina, that is when people in Rio have a day when they celebrante the people in the North and wear strange clothes and make crazy food and things like that. We are having one this Saturday at church and I am way stoked because we will get to meet a lot of new people and have a party. We are currently teaching some very quality people. Quality means that people are actually interested and want to know for themselves and are willing to study and pray. All the people we have are good in this sort of way.

This P-day I invited our district missionaries to have a fun day. This is because some people just sleep on P-day and that is BORING. I invited them to come over and we will have a rummy party (the card game) and also a potluck. We are making cake and others are bringing stuff as well so it should be a blast. Last P day we had rummy night with just the people in our apartment and I dominated everybody!!!

This area is wonderful, it is small, so we get less blisters on our feet. The people are nice, and the members enjoy us, so all together we are having a good time here. As for me, I can understand pretty much everything in Portuguese, and for the most part my talking is pretty good, it is just hard to conjugate the two types of past tense, but I am learning and getting a little better each day.

I also got some sort of sickness this week, it started with a headache and moved to body pain and I got dizzy and could feel a pulse in my head and have a little fever. The next day my body hurt but not as bad, and it just kept getting better, now I am almost better. Hope all is well, keep me posted.

Encantando-July 11, 2011

I hope all is well at Dworshak! It was wet and cold this week, I bought a coat because it was too cold, who would have ever thought I would need a coat in RIO? This has been a great week. We brought 4 people to church; someones friend, a mom and daughter, and another person. I am so excited for this week because I have lots of teaching and talking Portuguese. The mom and daughter are way cool and when we go there they always make us good food. They have prayed about the church and are very receptive to everything. We are having family night with them tonight and that should be wonderful too. The ward I am in is great. There are 5 ward missionaries and 3 of them really help us out, we are looking for more people to teach and that will be good.

Our apartment is wonderful, we make breakfast every day, we make pancakes, french toast, eggs maloco (my invention), and avacado-it is way different then the ones back home, you eat it sweet and it is the size of about 3 avacados. We cook a lot in our place. We have 3 Americans and 1 Brazilian living here and it is usually the other way around. Today is P-day and we are going to play some cards, it is crazy fun. We taught the Brazilian to say the cards names in English so we can all play in either language. My comp and I are doing good together. I am good with people and being organized and in some ways creative, and he is good at everything else. We get along well and usually end up talking about history and stuff like that. It is amazing how many facts I know, I don't remember how I learned most of them, but it is good. My old comp is still living in this place too and we are like twins; we always think the same things and say the same lines, it is soooo weird! His great grandpa made all the Browning guns, so we have decided that if we have time in the future we would go and re-make the good old Browning lever action shotgun! YES that would be a fun gun. I will send some pictures soon of me and my area and I am expecting pictures from Dworshak!

Jordans letter 7/4/2011-Encantando

Hey surprise, I got transfers again and a new companion again!! We are living in the same building still but have different companions and different areas. My new comp is named Elder Clegg and he is from PG Utah and he is a little trecky/dungeons and dragonish, I am having to learn how to have a conversation with him but all is well. We should do well and we get along well. My last area Iraja was shut down again. I have no idea why but it must have been shut for a reason so who knows....

We had something crazy happen the other day-we were out teaching in what we thought was a calm favella when all of a sudden EVERYBODY starts shooting around us at the police. We were pretty much at the top of the hill and everyone below us had a gun and was shooting. The mom of the family told us to come in and we got to teach about 3 families so that was great. So many good things and we were safe, but we will be careful next time when we walk up a hill!

We are about ready to start our area over again-it is a good area and we need to find out what we need to do here to help out. We have some ideas so we will see how they work out. So, I have had 3 transfers, 3 areas, and 3 American companions (in 3 months?). That is very rare for a missionary around here but I am fine and I am going to experience all of Rio! Today it is raining and the 4th of July. The 3 Americans in our apartment sang the national anthem and did the pledge of allegiance while the 1 Brazilian got to watch!! Ha ha. He will learn!

So I am wondering which places in Rio did Uncle Marcus serve?