July 29

So as far as how much stuff has happened since my fist day here, things have slowed down. I'm really getting used to the area. I do miss seeing hills and mountains, out here everything's flat aside from the trees and housing. It's cooled off so much compared to when I fist got here, there's a lot of overcast now, and it rains occasionally. It's awesome.

We've got one person who's committed to come to church, and a couple others we have high hopes for.

I can't think of much else that's happened. Elder Buckley, and I have been emailing each other, he's enjoying his mission it sounds like. [note: this is probably why this email is so short]

I'll try to come up with more stuff to email this next week.

 

K, talk to you next Monday.

Love,
Elder Candland

July 22

Alright, so there's a lot to write so I'm going to use my journal. Get ready.

So at the MTC we listened to some return missionaries who were pretty great & funny. One of them was from France, so he joked a lot about it. We play Volley ball as a district every time we have gym, & it's always a good time, & we usually get a good laugh.

Thanks for the cupcakes again, those were great.

Last day at the MTC we woke up really early, got on a bus to the airport. The airport wasn't super big but it was still pretty nice. The airport in Detroit was the one I said was giant, it had train going through it. The AC on the second plane wasn't working, so my face was dripping before I got into Lansing. The airport was pretty small.

We met the Mission President and his assistant missionaries, they were all really nice. Later that day we went to a college campus and shared a message with people walking around. I tried to say something and have input, but for the most part I was watching the Senior missionary's example, which was great.

 

Lansing, in mid summer, is very hot & humid, I'm not trying to complain, but just to give you an idea, I think the only time I wasn't completely sweaty was when I was inside a building with AC.

I'm Serving In Alma & Ithaca. It's a pretty poor place, compared to what I'm used to. The economy isn't doing so well, I don't see a lot of great places to work, I have yet to see an office building. Most of the houses I see look like they're 40-60 years old, although I have seen some nice places to live. There's a Wal-Mart near our place, and a few good restaurants.

 

I have a Senior companion, and another companion who's waiting for his visa so he can go to Brazil. The Senior companion, Elder Oler, has had a year of experience, his prayers are funny. he say's things like, "That lesson was awesome, that family is awesome. I'm sure they got a lot out of it." There was one time he said "Were grateful for the dinner we ate, it was delicious, please bless that it will nourish our bodies & will not get fat from it, so we can look good."

 

The other companion, Elder Luts, seems like he's shy but he likes to talk. Him & Elder Older love to talk about football & basketball, and their favorite rappers/ rap songs.

 

We have a house we're staying in. At first I felt disappointed in it, because it was old, but now I'm grateful to have it. There's plenty of room, and we have all the necessities, except for a dish washer. The moment you walk into the kitchen you smell macaroni noodles, except they're old and gross, Adam & Lars know what I'm talking about. Oh, and the weird thing is there's an upstairs, but you need to walk outside to get to it, so pretty much we never use it.

Our study desk looks like a place for the mafia to hang out, or a place to solve a mystery case on a typewriter & hearing private-eye style monologue.

We finally installed the AC unit in our room, it's so nice. We can finally sleep without sweating it out over our sheets at night.

Side note, there's Fireflies here. I haven't ever seen them in person so that's cool. I swat one in our room and got green glow in the dark stuff on my shoe.

One more thing I'll mention, the water is slightly rusty, so we bought a water purifying pitcher. I've got pictures of that.

K, the last thing I'll talk about it the people I've met. Darnel is this convert who's this big black guy with dreadlocks. At first he intimidated me, but I realize now he's a nice guy with a big laugh. He's so cool.

Then there's this couple who just got married, the Bojanen's, who are in there late 50's. They just bought a place to live, which used to be a catholic church, so it's pretty big and pretty old fashioned and awesome. Sister Bojanen was a children's psychologist, so she's had some sad/great stories. Dean is a Geophysicist, his job is to find places underground where his company can collect oil, he's shown us maps & stuff, it's pretty neat. Those two make a great couple, and they're both pretty humble.

There's this guy named Joe we met. He honestly the kindest man I've met in the area, He's a great guy. Which is too bad because he's an inactive member. He looks Arab, although he says he's Italian.

Alright last one; I forget the name of the family, but the parents, and their 2 daughters when geo-cashing with us & Darnel. That was fun, not much more to say about that.

Alright, I think I got through all the good stuff. K, I'll be back with more next week.

 

Love,

Elder Candland

July 15

I'm doing laundry right now, so I have just enough time to send a quick message.

I've been learning a lot about becoming a missionary, there's a lot I didn't consider when I teach Investigators/less-active members.

We've had a lot of good speakers. Some were really funny, other's had great stories, & we had one talk given by a member of the 70, I could tell the talk was given by revelation, it taught me how I should be saying my prayers & listening to the spirit.

The Elders in my district are pretty funny.
Elder Raun is the giant in our group, he's very calm & mellow, but often he'll say something that makes our district laugh. His companion, Elder Wheelright, is mellow too, I think he has a minor disability based on the way he talks, but he can say some things that make us realize he's pretty smart.

Elder Olderoid is the shortest of our group, when he wants to be he can be a spaz, he can get us laughing by some of his comments & just some of the noises he makes & things he'll do. His companion, Elder Rhodes, people say they look very similar, like they could be cousins. He's a pretty nice guy, and he knows how to communicate well even though I don't hear him a whole lot. From the stories he's told us though, he's gotten himself in trouble.

Alright I'll get back to you in a sec, I'm pretty sure my laundry's done drying

K, I'm back. So I told you about everyone in our room. We're all in the same district, there is 6 of us including me and my companion. He's Elder Taylor, He's a very talkative guy, he thought it was funny when he welcomed new missionaries, cuz he would raise his hands and yell "Welcome To The MTC!" He's also pretty athletic, he's done a lot of sports. He's also kinda odd. He's raised on a farm, I think, because he raised horses & so he knows a lot about them. He also had a mullet before he became a missionary. And he does one of the best Gollum impersonations I've ever heard.

So that's who my friends are in the MTC. We'll be leaving the MTC 3:30 AM Wed morning, and we'll be on the plane by 7:30 AM

I'll talk to you then.

Love,

Elder [Dallin] Candland

The picture is my district in the MTC. The Elder sticking his tongue out is my old companion.  Elder Raun (dark blue PJ's) brought those PJ's, we call them flying squirrel suits, and our district thought they were awesome. So his mom was really nice and asked Elder Raun for measurements from everyone in that picture. And then less than a week later we all got squirrel suits!

Adam Candland: May 20: Last entry from Brasil.

[Note: Adam returns home at 10:30 on Thursday]

I´m pretty dang anxious to just get this over with. I´m excited and sad, and would love it if today were already Thursday because I don´t look forward to trying to sleep these next few nights, trying to do something all day as a missionary at home where I can´t do anything fun with my siblings, then stay awake long enough to be released. I´m stressed about college, about finding a job, about getting my baggage all taken care of, and a ton of other stuff I´ll have to worry about.

Anyway, this last week we´ve been working hard. We didn´t manage to baptize anyone this transfer, which is a huge bummer. Our entire zone of 7 areas baptized 1 person this transfer. That is absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, out of our zone, we have about 8 baptismal dates marked only too. 3 of those my companion and I marked.

I don´t really know what I want to eat. I´ll be starving around lunch time. If you guys want, I´d be glad to cook something my first day back. I don´t have any meals in mind that are SO good that I have to eat it that day. But some day I want some mexican food, and also some teriyaki.

I took a few more pictures to show. I´ll send those home now.Here in São Paulo, sometimes you´re looking for a house number, but you can´t find it. Sometimes you´re looking for a house, and where it should be, it isn´t.

Okay... this is pretty messed up. I almost feel like I did that day I got my dear john. Just a little calmer and not nauseous. Alright. Until Thursday. I´ll talk to you then.

--
-Elder Candland 

May 13

Alright, we´re short on time today. I´ll try and get those pictures sent to you guys.

For my guitar... I don´t know what to do. I don´t have a hard case. I scored a cheap cover for free and stuck with it. It may depend on how I can fit everything in my suitcases too. I´m looking good so far, but there is still that last bag in the mission office full of stuff that I can´t even remember. It´s all going to be decided on may 22nd.

Here´s my dictionary.

Here´s the tarantula from Sunday night.

Here´s a dog that followed us into our house and decided that my backpack was a bed.

10 days...

-Elder Candland 

May 6

Well let me get the complaints out of the way. I´m pretty disappointed with this area. We´re working hard, yet we can´t find anyone who is interested in hearing about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I´m at the pique of my mission, using all of my experience, and I´m having the most difficult time I have ever had with finding people to listen to us. Saturdays are particularly frustrating. This last Saturday we had a ton of appointments marked with several people, and every - single - one fell through. It wasn´t even 4 o´clock and I already felt like throwing my name tag on the ground and start yelling in English. No one here understands commitment. They say that we can pass by at a specific hour of the day, and then when we show up, they´re not even home. I just don´t get it. We tell them that God has called a prophet, just as he always has done, and that we have proof that he was called of God, and we promise that they can have a happier family and that they can receive a witness from God himself that this is true. And they treat it as nothing.

Okay, I think I´m fine now. Anyway, as for Eastern: I don´t have a clue. I´m not really receiving much revelation on such topics at this moment. I just fasted that things will be prepared so that I can jump back into my life without many problems. That´s the best I have for now. I can try praying about Eastern this week.

I got my last package. We made the brownies today, but they were still cooling off when we left. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading letters from the rest of the kids. I don´t ever hear from them, an it was kind of a reminder that they´re still real people. To be honest, Kortney sounds like quite a handful these days from the way she wrote in her letter. Good luck with that one when she hits 16.

Anyway, it´s all good for Mother´s Day. Speaking of which, I was asked to give a talk on. 

Oh, and could you take a look at baggage stuff for me. I need to remember the maximum weight, and I need to know if a guitar constitutes a carry-on item. If not, I´m not sure how that´s getting home.

Alright, talk to you guys on Sunday.

--
-Elder Candland 

April 29

Well, things have improved. As for that brother who was upset about us messing up the lunch schedule (and even though it was just one more ridiculous excuse to not keep the covenants he´d made with the Lord), we wrote a letter apologizing for the problems we caused. Anyway, we ate lunch with him on Saturday and it was fine, though he told us that we didn´t need to leave a message because he already knew all of the messages as if there was a list of messages for the missionaries to memorize. We´re clean of that problem now. He can´t say that because of the missionaries he doesn´t attend church, though only health problems are an actual excuse to not go to church.

Aside from him, we´re just doing our best to treat the members as best as we can, calling every day beforehand to confirm our lunch appointments, accommodating their schedules, etc. The ward is treating us better, but I still don´t really like the ward. It´s really ``dry´´ you might say. It lacks some strong/normal members to carry it. I´m hoping to baptize some good converts to help this ward out.

To answer mom´s question from last week, I was using the exercise bar quite a bit, but these last few weeks I´ve kind of stopped. I need to go these last 3 weeks nonstop. I´ve kind of lost hope in coming home as skinny as I left, but it´s pretty tough. We walk for hours in the Brazilian heat, and I still put on weight. 

Well, until now, the work here is going a little too slow for me. I´m really trying to pick it up, but we´re having a hard time finding people who are looking for the truth and are willing to do what it takes to follow it. We´ve taught a lot of first lessons this week, but few people really wanted to hear more at another time. We just need to throw in our nets and pull in as many people as we can find until one or two prepared people show up.

I like the goal for the kids. It´s something Dallin will use on his mission. Keeping the house clean really helps keep God´s presence  , which helps to plan, receive inspiration, etc.

Anyway, that´s it for this week.

-Elder Candland