extension

Hey everyone, I am thinking about staying one more month, but I need your permission. Do you think I should stay?

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Brazil

Querida famíli,

 

This week was wierd becaus it was great and crappy at the same time. First I will tell you why it was kind of crappy, all of the baptisms in our zone fell through except for one and this was after two weeks without a baptism. Our zone and the branches have been kind of depressed, but things are getting better now. I became a little crazy when I came here becuase I am forcing myself to always be overly excited and happy. One time I even stood up on a chair during lunch and sang "Scattering Sunshine" becuase everyone was sad.

 

Now the good news. We brought two new families to church on Sunday and the attendance in sacrament meeting was 89. We have been bringing families to church every week, and the members love it. Everyone is getting more excited and we are even getting some referrals. We are teaching three families that are really special and will be leaders in the church if/when they are baptized. We also brought a lady to church that has a radio talk station and found out that she is famous here in Sousa. I don't know if I told you, but we taught the mayor's dad and we also met his secertary in the street, we are going to visit both of them again. I think we need to baptize the mayor.

 

Also this week we had interviews with President Hall and my companion and I did exchanges with the assistents to the president. One of the assistents was my companion in the MTC and we worked together. It was the first time we taught together since the practices in the MTC, and it was awesome. We can actually speak portuguese now. In my interview with President Hall he told me that he doesn't pray for me very much. It was funny because he said it was the best compliment he could give me. He said he doesn´t worry about me so he doesn't feel the need to pray for me.

 

This week we did a famliy home evening in a members house and called all of the inactives to come. It was a pretty good turnout and it was really fun. We played a game kind of like Hot-potato, but we were using a cup of water that we passed around in a circle while one guy sang "Agua mineral". When he stopped singing the person with the cup had to drink the water. Some people got pretty wet in the mayhem. Happily, I didn't have to drink any water, I didn't want to use that cup after so many people had drunken from it.

 

Gotta go,

Elder Jay (not the kitten killer)

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Querida família,

 

My new companion is Elder Rolim, he is from Curitiba and he is awesome. It has been a long time since I baptized and I have saudades, but we have some really good people that will be baptized soon. Edjailton (who is currently an investigator, but will be a stake president) is progressing very well. His wife and son went to João Pessoa this week and he came to church all by himself. On Friday night we went to his house and he told us about some dreams he had a few years ago. He had told me about the dreams before and I had studied a little to be able to interpret them, so I pulled a little "Joseph in Egypt" and interpreted his dreams using the scriptures to show him that he needed to be baptized, recieve the priesthood and not give in to the problems that would come after. It was really cool, scriptures came to my mind that I could use to interpret the different things in his dreams, and I know that it was God guiding me.

 

I have a new nickname here in Sousa. Do you guys know who Bam-bam is in the Flintstones? There is a recent-convert here who gave me a doll of Bam-bam and then when she was bearining her testimony on fast Sunday she talked about the missionaries. She called Elder Walton and Elder David angels and then said that I am her Bam-bam. Don't worry, she isn't a snake. She is married and has kids our age, but she considers the missionaries her children as well.

 

Well, gotta go

 

Elder Jay

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Brazil

Querida familia

Hey everybody! Today we had transfers. I stayed here in Sousa, but Elder Walton was transfered to Mamanguape. My new companion will be Elder Rolim. He'll be the first brazilian companion I have had in a long time.

Today the Petries are my companions because there aren't any other missionaries in Sousa. I get to pass the day in their air-conditioned apartment and right now I am using their laptop to send this email. It`s great being in the same area with a couple missionary.

On Sunday we had an attendance of 60 or 70. I taught about our Heavenly Family in Gospel Principles and I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. Edjailton e Karol came to church again. Seriously, they are one of the best families that I have met on my mission, I could see Edjailton being a stake president some day. The girl that we were going to baptize next Sunday came to church, but then went to a party and got wasted. Now she said that she is going to Maranhao, a state in northern Brazil. I don't like teaching young women here. It has been really difficult to baptize lately, everything keeps falling through, but I have faith that we will still find someone who will be baptized this month.

Gotta go,

Elder Jay

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Re: Brazil

Tom,

If you haven't put on any weight, why did you rip your pants?  It sounds like the pants are the only ripped thing about you :)

Colin

On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 7:56 AM, Thomas Jay <thomas.jay@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Querida Família,

 

Happy birthday a couple of days ago Mom and Ariel! These past few weeks I have gone to quiet a few birthday parties. The 31st of Dezember was the birthday of a member so we went and had dinner and ate cake, the 1st of January was Sister Petries birthday so ate cake in their apartment, the 5th was Elder Petries birthday so we ate brownies and ice-cream with them and yesterday was the birthday of the mom of the first member so we went there and ate more cake. No, I am not getting fat, I'm still ripped.

 

On Tuesday Elder Walton and I traveled to João Pessoa for a meeting. We left Monday at 11:40 pm and got there just in time for the meeting Tuesday morning. We ate lunch with President Hall and then had to come back, but we had to bring a bunch of Christmas packages, pamphlets, and copies of The Book of Mormon with us. I was carrying two boxes, each one with 40 copies of the Book of Mormon, and I bent over to put them down in the bus station in João Pessoa. When I bent over I heard something rip. To make a long story short, I had to travel from João Pessoa to Sousa with a giant rip in the back of my pants. It was pretty embarassing  so I made Elder Walton walk close behind the whole time so  no one would see.

 

This week we had a member with us everyday while we worked. We visited a bunch of inactives and got the members to work a little as well and yesterday  86 people went to sacrament meeting. The last three weeks the attendance was: 37, 38, 38, so this week was a lot better.

 

We also brought two investigator families to church. They are really good families that would be able to strengthen the church a lot. Their names are Derval e Ledjia, e Edjailton e Karol. These people need to be baptized. The Church desperately needs leaders here. Pray that they will recieve testimonies and be baptized.

 

Gotta go,

Elder  Jay

 

 

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Brazil

Querida Família,

 

Happy birthday a couple of days ago Mom and Ariel! These past few weeks I have gone to quiet a few birthday parties. The 31st of Dezember was the birthday of a member so we went and had dinner and ate cake, the 1st of January was Sister Petries birthday so ate cake in their apartment, the 5th was Elder Petries birthday so we ate brownies and ice-cream with them and yesterday was the birthday of the mom of the first member so we went there and ate more cake. No, I am not getting fat, I'm still ripped.

 

On Tuesday Elder Walton and I traveled to João Pessoa for a meeting. We left Monday at 11:40 pm and got there just in time for the meeting Tuesday morning. We ate lunch with President Hall and then had to come back, but we had to bring a bunch of Christmas packages, pamphlets, and copies of The Book of Mormon with us. I was carrying two boxes, each one with 40 copies of the Book of Mormon, and I bent over to put them down in the bus station in João Pessoa. When I bent over I heard something rip. To make a long story short, I had to travel from João Pessoa to Sousa with a giant rip in the back of my pants. It was pretty embarassing  so I made Elder Walton walk close behind the whole time so  no one would see.

 

This week we had a member with us everyday while we worked. We visited a bunch of inactives and got the members to work a little as well and yesterday  86 people went to sacrament meeting. The last three weeks the attendance was: 37, 38, 38, so this week was a lot better.

 

We also brought two investigator families to church. They are really good families that would be able to strengthen the church a lot. Their names are Derval e Ledjia, e Edjailton e Karol. These people need to be baptized. The Church desperately needs leaders here. Pray that they will recieve testimonies and be baptized.

 

Gotta go,

Elder  Jay

 

 

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Compliment of the Season

Complement of the day,

It is with excitement and hope that we can both work together that I write you this mail today. I am staff of an International Bank here in the South Africa attached in Private Banking services; I am contacting you in reference to an investment opportunity which I believe would be of significant reward to the parties involved. It concerns a customer that came to our bank to engage in Private Banking services, the customer had a financial portfolio of USD12,000,000.00 and he desired to have us turn over on his behalf in the purchase of securities in the capital markets. I was assigned as Bank adviser to assist him in the management of these funds. Been my duty to offer strategic advisory services to the customer, I made him consider the various investment opportunity available at the Bank at that time.
Having given heed to my advice, I had the funds dispersed over the available investment opportunities and we made attractive margins. The margins made were not however the full potential of the funds, but the customer desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments. I was also given instruction to liquidate the funds after 4 years for some Investment requiring cash payments. Following that order, the portfolio liquidate and the total investment stand at USD12,995,720.00, this amount had remain dormant for more than five years so the bank launch an investigation to contact the customer for some final instructions but could not reach him anymore and later found out that he died in a Saudi Arabia hospital.
What I wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I want you to understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world who finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose. There USD12,995,720.00 deposited, I alone have the deposit details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct them to do so. This bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track this man's family; they have investigated for months and have found no family, the investigation has come to an end and Since the original owner listed no next of kin in his bio-data form, my proposition is this; I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct my Bank to release the deposit to you as the closest beneficiary.
I am prepared to place you in a position of the beneficiary and release the deposit to you as the closest surviving partner. Upon receipt of the deposit, I will share the money with you in half, this means I will simply nominate you as the beneficiary and have then release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50. I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit. But you as a foreigner and also with all the necessary legal and official documentations from me and also with the authority vested upon me by the original depositor, you would easily pass as the beneficiary with the rights to claim. I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you in a few days. Please do not ruin this chance for me if you do not approve of the transaction. If you do not give this transaction a positive approval, kindly delete this email and let me move on with my life.
If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards conclusion.

My email contact is stevenkone@aim.com

Regards,
Steve Kone

Hello

Querida família,

 

It was great to talk with you guy on Christmas. It has been a long time since I talked with Ed and Ariel. When I first heard Ed talking I was trying to figure out who it was because I could here a voice, but couldn't see anyone talking on the webcam.

 

We passed a good part of Christmas day with the Petries, a senior couple here. They are the only senior couple in this mission and we have the luck to be in the same city with them. Sister Petrie made roast beef and potatoes and gravy and other good american things to eat. They also let us use their computer to skype with you.

 

These past couple weeks the missionary work has been pretty slow. Everyone has been traveling, drinking and going to parties until 6 in the morning, but now things are going to get better. We only had one investigator in church on Sunday. She is a dentist from São Paulo, but she is working here in Sousa. She went to church with us, but she disliked the Relief Society so much that she almost cried and went home early. This branch has problems, but it will get better.

 

New Year's Eve we went to a member's house where they were also celebrating the birhtday of Patrícia, a member girl. We did a secret-santa thing and I got cologne and Elder Walton got Cologne (missionaries stink). I had to give a present to a the husband of a recent-convert. He isn't baptized and has never gone to church. I gave him a stocking with a watch, a soccer shirt (everyone here cheers for Flamenco), and a Book of Mormon with a little note that I wrote. We also ate a lot.

 

Yesterday was Sister Petrie's birthday and I helped make a cake for her. It turned out pretty good.

 

See ya in 4 and-a-half months!

 

Elder Jay

 

 

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