Sept. 23, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,
How was the week this week? I hope that everything is going good. Things here are going pretty good. Atleast i dont have to much to complain about. The weather is still HOT HOT AND HOT. But winter(rainy season) is coming up pretty soon, which will be a blessing. But i will have to think a little bit about the things that have happened this week.....Well we did have a pretty good week. We ran into a couple of problems because we have an Elder that lives in our house that is dying(going home in two weeks). He is dead......the only thing that he wants to do is stay at home. So we go on splits a lot with Elder Mills so that his area doesnt go way down. He is already struggling enough because his companion doesnt want to work. So i figured that my companion and i could help them out a little bit. They are going to have a baptism on Saturday and we are looking at baptizing a 17 year old girl on the 3rd. But we did have a couple of cool and funny experiences this week.The first stroy will be the funny one.......so the we were teaching the girl that we is preparing to get baptized, Liza, the third lesson which is about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel....Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Spirit, and Endure to the End. And the lesson was going really well and at the end of the lesson i felt like i needed to invite her to be baptized, so i did. She accepted but she said she has a few doubts . but after accepting the funny thing that happened was she said that she entered into the church because of my companion. She said that she wants to date him.......so i asked her if she thought these things were true and she said that she really thinks that what we are teaching is true but she got interested in the church because of hime. She says, ´Ele é LINDO´. Which means that he is really good looking. And it is funny because he got really embarrassed and had no idea what to say. I started laughing a little bit. because she really wants to date him but we had to explain to her that he cant because he is a missionary and that he cannot date until after the mission. So she decided to say that she is going to wait for him and the entire time my companion was all red and didnt say a single word. I had to do all the talking, because he is a little bit of a shy guy or as some people say he is a nerd. But he is way cool. I like him a lot, he is a great mission. Elder Mills and i always joke around with him because he knows a ton of stuff that doesnt have any value. But he is cool.The other story is a little bit spiritual. It was an awesome experience. On Saturday we were walking to an appointment and we passed a guy that was sitting a lone with his baby son. And i felt like i should talk to him, so i did. We went and explained about the family and he really enjoyed the conversation so we gave him a pamphlet that talks about the families and the first lesson for him to read and we marked a day to go to his house(the next day). So on Sunday after church we went his house and we taught the first lesson to him, Cristiano, and his wife, Patrícia, and we to find out he read the entire pamphlet and really loved it. We taught him and during the lesson he stopped us and asked if he could say something, and we said yes and let him talk really fast. And i thought that he was going to say something about the church and how is was wrong or something. But to my surprise he said these words, ´Vocês trazem a bênção.` You bring the blessing.....or what it really means is that we brought a different feeling in the house. He said that he felt peace and joy and really enjoyed our presence in the house. And i really thought that was cool, because no one had ever said that on the mission. It was the first time that i had heard that and it was awesome. To know that we really do carry the Spirit with us everywhere that we go. But they turned out to be an awesome family and we are going to go back there pretty soon. He said that he really enjoyed the Joseph Smith story. We will just have to see if we really did find an elect family or not. But i really enjoyed the experience in there house. But things have been going really well and we are having some success lately. Atleast it seems like it. We dont have anyone to baptize, but we have a couple of people that are really progressing and if they go to general conference i know that they are going to get baptized. So we are trying to take a TON of people to conference because it is the most spiritual event that they have in the church. Just about every single person that we took to last General Conference got baptized because of it. So i am getting really excited for that. But yeah....I hope that everything is going really good with everyone. I sure do love you all and i miss you guys sooooooooo much. And Yes Mom i am WAAAAAAAYYYYYYY TTTTRRRRUUUUNNNKKKYYYYY!!!!!!!!! I cannot lie. I love the work with all my heart. I love the joy that the gospel brings to the people. I have had the opportunity to help a ton of people and i am so thankful for the time that i had here. But i am just about ready to go home. Because i miss you guys so much. But i am still working hard and i wont stop working. Because a missionary cannot do his OWN will but always has to do the LORDS will. And beause i promised the Lord that i would give him Two Years, not a year and a half. So dont worry about me mom. Yes i miss home a TON and i cant wait to get home. But i am going to continue to work until the end. Not for me, but for the people, and for the Lord.But i got a few letters from Sherra today and that made me WAY trunky. Because she sent a ton of pictures. Of Alexis Melbergs wedding and Elliot Tuttle got married too. And it brought back a ton of old memories and i couldnt stop thinking about home and how much i miss everything. But i love you tons and i hope that everything is going good for you guys. It makes me sad knowing that my father doesnt help me on my mission, but i love Robin and Juleah tons because they have helped me out so much. And i know that someday i will be able to thank them and i will. It just sucks that Mike has decided not to serve a mission. But in a few years he will regret it, because we will see the consequences. Because the mission is incredible. You CANNOT replace it with anything else. You learn soooo much. But yeah.....i love you all and i miss you all as well. I hope that eveything is going good. And dont forget about the college stuff, i really need to start doing that. I love and i miss you tell Kaya that i love her and that i miss her and tell Juston the same thing the next time that you see him.
Elder Spotts

Sept. 16, 2009

Good Morning! I hope that you are all doing great. To anyone that is reading this. The time here sure does seem to fly by when you are working. It doesn´t even seem like a wek has passed by since the last time that i wrote to you guys. But things have been going pretty good. The weather has cooled down a little bit so i havent been dying anymore and i am no longer feeling sick. I am getting over two weeks of pooping water. I thing that i got some type of bacteria in my body or something. But that problems is being resolved and i am now pooping solids. I thought that everyone might like to know that . But things have been going pretty good. We had ourselves a pretty good week.We worked pretty hard this week but i was slowed down a couple of days because of the sickness. On Wednesday and Thursday i was throwing up and pooping a ton. But i called the presidents wife and then the Area Doctor called me and we told me to take this one medicine and i also got a blessing from my companion and i am now feeling a lot better. But this week was a good one. We set a few goals with some of our investigators to help them get to church and we were able to reach quite few of these goals . 9 investigators went to church and they are progressing really well. One investigator really enjoyed the church but she doesnt even live in the city. But she decided to come to the city every weekend just to be able to go to church. But yeah....my companion and i were feeling really good when we saw all these people at church. And we felt een better when they all said that they loved it. We also had zone conference yesterday and that went really well. I really felt the spirit and learned a lot of things that i can do to help my investigator feel the spirit i feel the desire to follow God. And i felt the Spirit and learned a ton. And i am now feeling a little less trunky and a lot more excited. I think that it was the sickness that was killing me. I was always feeling tired because i wasnt able to eat and i wasnt gettin the nutrition that i needed. But i am feeling a lot more excited and i am going to work my butt off again until the end of the mission. This past week i also found out that a sister from one of my old areas is moving to my area. So i went to her house and helped here prepare her house a little bit because she will be moving in prety soon. I am really excited for that. Irmã Antônia is her name and she is one of my favorite sisters. She loves me and i love her family so much. I am probably going to go to here house almost everyday just to say hi and to eat because she always gives us food and she cooks good too.We have also havent had running water in our house for the longest time. I had to take a shower at the church and we have to get water at the church to be able to wash our clothes and our house. The owner of the house had just forgotten to pay the water bill for about seven months. The last time he payed the bill was in Feb. So the water companion cut our water line. So i am now not only suffering a little more but i am learning what it was like to be a pioneer. We dont have water.......but yeah. What happens, Happens. Enjoy it right? So i am enjoying not having water. I have also managed to lose 20 pounds in the last two months. So i am pretty skinny. But yeah......I am pretty excited to hear that BYU is winning. That is awesome, lets just hope that it doesnt turn out to be like last year. Starting out good and then sucking it up. And i am sorry to hear that Kaya broke up with her boyfriend, but i also think that it is for the best. But how is school going for her? Work? Friends? And things like that. How has everyone been? I sure wish that i could be there to be able to see the leaves change, because they dont change here. Everything is the same all year around.....Green. Keep me up to date on the games and BYU. Who are they going to play this week? You got to let me know how there schedule is and things like that. How they will play each week and all that jazz. I was talking with one elder, Elder Hopkins from Provo. And he was telling me that they are going to play against Tennesse too. Which is another really good team. But if they start doing really good it might make them decide to change the BCS into a playoff. Because he was telling me that the Mountain West is looking pretty strong this year. But yeah......Let me know how everything is going. I sure do miss you guys and i love you tons. I Hope that you all have a great week. And give kaya a hug for me and tell her to keep her head up, because it could be worse. Love you guys.
With Love,Elder Jory B. Spotts

Sept. 9,2009

Well one more week has passed by and it sure does seem like things have been going really good for you guys and that you guys have been having a ton of fun. Which is good, i hope that things can continue to go good for you guys. I sure do miss home and now that it is getting closer and closer i am starting to get trunkier and trunkier. But my companion and i are trying to stay pretty busy and it has been working. We have been working our butts off. But we just arent having any good results. We pass the entire day working hard in the hottest month of the year here and we dont have any investigator progressing very well. So we are just going to continue to do our part and hope that some time in the future we will be blessed with some elects. But we have been having some experiences that have been a little bit different. We have been really struggling with Carla and Marcio lately. The couple that was suppossed to get married this month. They have been fighting a ton and have been having a lot of difficulties. And we really have no idea what to do. We might have to stop visiting them, but i hope not. A couple of days ago we had a really weird experience at their house. We went there and we starting talking about the impostance of the family and how they can have a better family. We took with us a little booklet that the church made that helps with that and we decided to read a little bit of it with them. So we did.......but something weird happened. During the lesson Carla started acting really weird. She started looking at us really weird like she had never seen us before and she was breathing weird and looking at everything in the house really weird. But we kept teaching and didnt really think anything of it. But she kept doing the same thing and she was grabbing her head like she had a headache and she was crying so Marcio put something on her forehead to help her out. But at the end of the lesson we decided to just say a prayer. And after the prayer she like woke up and started asking us if we were going to give a lesson and a bunch of questions. So we had to explain to her that we already gave the lesson and that we had finished and that she was acting weird and she said that she didnt remember anything. And the other thing is that we felt a terrible feeling while she was acting weird. Like satan was in the room trying to get in the way of this family. Like he doesnt want us to help them. But it was a horrible feeling. I have already felt it a couple od times in my life and i would have to say that it is the worst feeling. After we left my companion said that he felt the samething and that he didnt like it. It was really weird so we left out telephone number with them just in case anything happened. But yeah.......the mission is full of weird experiences.I also went on splits yesterday with my district leader and that was pretty cool. I worked in his area that doesnt have any hills so i was able to rest a little bit from my area. Because my area is full of hills and i hate it. I have never felt so tired in all the time that i have passed here. It sucks! But we are really working hard and just have some struggles. We arent teaching Josemar any more. Because we cant find him at home. But hopefully some other elders will be able to run into him and help him out.But yeah i think that i am going to cut this letter a little short because i really dont have anything else to say. Because nothing has really been going on, just that we are trying to fix the relationship that the missionaries do not have with the members here and you know how important it is that the missionaries have a great relationship witht the members. So we are trying to find out where all the members live to be able to visit them and start a relationship in this area. But i am definetly jealous to hear that you went to the temple and Costa Vida. I miss those two places soooo much. And it has been the longest time since i talked with Jen and i cannot believe that she is married. How weird is that? The next time you go there you will have to tell her to write me and let me know how she is doing. Because i wrote her twice and she never wrote me back the little butt. And i was way excited to hear that BYU won. That is awesome, but i just hope that this year doesnt turn out like last year, thy started out the season really good and then they started to slip. And ended up not having such a good year. But i just thought that i would let everyone know that i am starting to get really trunky and it is making the mission really difficult. Because the time is starting to pass really slow and i want to know what the cure is for trunkiness. Because it is going to end up killing me. But yeah i love you all and i miss you all as well. I hope that all is well and if you can, try and write me a little bit more. I am starting to feel like i am not that very important to you guys anymore. But i love you all and i hope that you all have a great week. You will have to tell my how dallas is doing too. I love you and her name will stay a secret. I dont even know how you guys found out that i am writing her. But yeah.....they are just letters. Its not like i am planning on marrying her or anything but when those plans are made i will let you know who she is.
With Love,Elder Spotts

Sept. 2,2009

Well.....Good morning everyone! I hope that everyone is doing good. Thongs here are going pretty good. I woke up to some letters this morning and it was a good feeling to be able to hear from some people. I got kaya´s letter and i also received a letter from Brandon Goggia and some special girl......:) Brandon seems to be doing really good and has some high hopes. He talks so positive, i wish that i could be a little bit more like him. And it seems that kaya is doing good as well and the special one too. It is always good to hear from her.;) but i dont think that i am going to let anyone on the secret yet. She is just a friend that writes me and gives me support on my mission and helps me stay strong. Maybe something will happen between us when i get home or maybe not. For now i am trying to stay focused on the work of the Lord. Because that i is my calling so yeah in the future we can take about that.This week was a pretty good week, my companion and i have been working a ton. We are trying to baptize eight people this month. That is our goal this week, but we arent sure if you are going to be able to reach it. But we are going to do our best to do so. The house is a lot cleaner and no i wasnt able to take anypictures of my scrubbing the floor....sorry but i didnt even think about that at the time. I was to discussed by the house. But the house is a lot cleaner now. We cleaned it again a little bit last night before bedtime and we are going to clean the bathroom when we get home. My companion and i also had a pretty good lunch yesterday.........Pancakes with syrup and Macaroni and Cheese. Yeah it doesnt exactly sound very good, but when you dont have any money and nothing else to eat......you gotta do what you gotta do. But it turned out to be good enough.We had a funny little experience the other day as well. I had forgotten how Manaus is a little bit because my last area is a lot different. So we were walking in the street and this girl was looking at my companion like she had met him so i figured that she was a member. Being new to the area i dont know who everyone is. We passed her and she hissed at us like they say.....she called us by making the psss sound with her month so i turned around to talk to her. And she got all nervous she was with her friend and turned to her friend to say “i didnt think that they would come back” and her friend said “ Well of course they would....they arent def”. Because she just thought that we were good looking and i forgot that is wha the girls do here, so we got her name and she wants us to pass by her house so we will. But i thought that it was funny because she called us but had no idea what to do if we turned around and she got nervous and scared. My companion thought that it was hilarious. But that is what the “snakes” do here....they like the missionaries.We have also been having a little bit of trouble with a family that we are teaching, Marcio and Carla. They are supposed to get married and baptized on the 26th but they started fighting and they arent sure if they want to get married anymore which also means that they cant get baptized. But i know that satan is entering into their lives to try and stop the good from entering. So we are working with them and are trying to help them out a little. But it is a little difficult to fix marriage problems when you have never had any marriage problems. I have no idea what it is like to be married. But the more i see these fights the less i want to get married. I think that i am going to have to date a girl for atleast five year like Brandon to try and get to know her first. Because i dont wanna get married for time and all eternity to a witch. I wanna be happy for the rest of my life. But yeah we ran into a little bit of a difficulty there. But with patience, prayer, and fasting we will work this all out. They are an awesome family. We also found a guy called Josemar that is pretty cool as well. He was sitting in the street and i felt like i should talk to him so i did and we had a great spiritual lesson with him, we are going to go back to his house on Friday so hopefully something good comes out of it. But things have been going good, we have marked a few baptismal dates and have found some pretty cool people. So i am pretty excited about this area. But my old companion Elder Milkanin was training and he called me the other day to tell me that his son.....his companion decided to go home. He said that he doesnt like it here and wants to go home so he did. Milkanin was a little bummed because he did everything that he could to help him but his son was already set on going home. He didnt even want to give it a chance. Which is sad because he is really going to regret it. The mission is hard but you CANNOT replace it for anything. It is best thing that eny 19 year old young man can do with his time and it is a great investment to be able to have a better future. There is also a family here that reminds me of our family, because they have the rebelious child that wants to do everything his way.....Juston. and they are really strugglinh with that. He wants to move to São Paulo so they are going to let them do so. They are going to make him live on his own more than a thousand miles away. Praying that he will grow up. But things are going good. Time is flying by fast and we are working our butts of here. I use the butt word too mom. But that is about aour week. I dont really know what else to say. But it seems like everything is going good for you guys. You are all in my prayers and i hope that everything can go good for you guys.Mom, i wanted to thank you for everything that you do. I love you a ton and i miss you, i think that i have learned to appreciate you more being thousands of miles away than i did when you always by my side. I love you tons. I got a letter from Jadie Kendrick as well and i wanted to thank her for sending the pictures and the letter. Sorry i cant write her back but you know how the rules are. But i wanted to thank her and tell her hi for me and that it was nice to hear from her. It sounds like you guys had a blast fishing. I sure do miss fishing a lot as well, we will have to go when i get home. But i love you all and i hope that you all have a great week and that you all Go with God as the brazilians say, which means let Him always have a place in your lives. It is awazing the difference that He makes in our lives. I love the mission and i love you all as well. But i think that i will have to say good bye until next week. Everyone hang in there and remember that in life we cannot do want we want to do, but we do what we have to do. The gospel is true and i konw that God has a great love for you all, always do His will and not yours. Until next week......LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! With all the love in the World,
ELDER JORY BRENT SPOTTS