Foi Uma Semana Interessante (IT was an interesting week)

September 29, 2014

This week in Maracanau! 
So this week started off pretty well. It is crazy how different things are here. All the work and how many new investigators you can find just in one day. Well anyways we found quite a bit on tuesday ( Tercafeira ) IT was pretty cool. There are so many fruits here so many that we dont have in the US at all. I had one called a Guaba. IT didnt like me... 

ANyways that night I was feeling pretty sick. Well the next day I was feeling even worse and I could barely sleep. TUrns out I needed to go to the hospital. So thats what we did the next day. We took like a 2 hour bus ride to Fortaleza to go to the hospital. My stomach has never heart so bad in my life haha. It literally felt like my stomach was eating my intestines or somethng like that. IT was not fun haha. SO for those few days that I was sick I basically fasted. I could literally tell you how many meals I had this week with one hand. Turns out I had an intestinal infection. SO i got on antibiotics, but the next day was not any better. I ate nothing, slept(tried) and layed down in bed. I felt like such a waste of a missionary. Dont worry I am all ok now and finally after like 5 days of basically nothing I am eating normal again. WOOOHOOO. you have no idea how happy i am about that. haha

The next day after I stayed in all day I decided it was a good idea to go out and do normal things again. SO my companion is a district leader so he has to do all the baptismal interviews. ITs not like it is in The US here. WE had to walk to each of their houses to do those. While I had not eaten or drank anything that day. I was walking myself dry haha. So when you make those jokes about not eating food and think of the starving children in africa. Well now you can make it much more personal. Think of a starving elder Hamrick. It was all good though (At least in theory) because we had a baptism that night! Well the punk never showed up! he was supposed to get baptized last week. Oh well as my companion says Isso Aconteceu (this happens)

SO I had a really bad morning on sunday. all I could think about was going back to washington and finishing my two years there. I thought it would be better use of my healt a nd a better use of my time. But then I realized its not MY health or MY time, but the Lords. Yes I am not as comfortable or used to the culture here, but that doesnt mean that I need to be somewhere where I am perfectly comfortable. I changed my outlook completely. 

I think that portuguese is starting to come along a lot better... maybe haha. I was basically talking to no one all week, but I am starting to think a lot more in portuguese.

So I will go into a couple weird but kind of cool cultural things here.
-for time they have military time... But dont use it. all the clocks and everything say like 18:20 but everyone calls it 6:20.
-BRazilian english is pretty awesome. THey dontreally know how to say much.
-MY companion always says this in english ´´WHy is this so hard... BEacause salvation was never cheap, salvation is never easy´´ IT is so funny
-THey always have juice here. 
-BEANS AND RICE FOR DAYS.

IF any of you have any questions about what it is like here just ask me. 

I am starting to love it here already. I am sorry about last week and how frustrated I was. I always seem to forget the lesson I learned that an attitude really makes all the difference. I know that we have a good Brother to lean on. Jesus Christ Suffered through everything we did or will suffer through. IT doenst matter if we have trials that are large or small, hard or easy, AS long as we learn the lesson we need to learn. 

EU sei que isso e da evangelho de jesus cristo porque Eu sei que todas as qoizas que foi pregava na biblia e livro de mormon aconteceu hoje. JEsus Cristo E nosso Salvador. Se nos temos Fe nos podemos fazer todas as qoizes monstra para nos.

LOVE 

ELDER HAMRICK

My View 

Lovely hospital Pic! I DIDNT FEEL GOOD,  OKAY? 

Me and my comp!! 
 

Well I am in Fortaleza

The view from my window now

September 22, 2014

So I don`t really know where to start. I got to fortaleza on tuesday around noon. I love President Fusco, he is a great man and I am going to enjoy being with him for the next year and a half. So I got here and we had a 3 day training from the AP's and stayed in a little hotel every night. EVERYTHING is so different here. THe work is like multiplied by 10. It is like that much faster. Anyways the CTM was awesome, but it was my time to leave haha. Everyone at the mtc kept on checking on us and telling us how to plan and stuff. It was funny and really annoying at the same time haha. MY district there was super awesome so I was pretty sad about that actually.

So to be honest I am kind of in culture shock. I cant stop thinking about it. There is literally nothing that is the same here. Actually the only thing that is the same is that God loves the people here. I dont know what to do with myself. We live a completely different lifestyle here in Brazil. IT was like a big slap to the face from reality. I am probably going to sound like a baby in this email, but it is how I am feeling so here it goes.

We live in a house with two other missionaries. The place is just gross. Dirty and not really anything we can do about it. But I am starting to get used to it because every house that we go into looks the same. We go in and its basically just a ceramic floor walls and a sink at times. THey have tables and chairs and stuff too, but its just completely different. I need to get used to it fast haha. WE also dont have warm water at all, and cant drink the water. YOu wouldnt want to drink the water even if we could haha. The streets all smell like crap haha and have water running through them. IT is a WHOLE DIFFERENT WORLD. I guess just writing this will help get things off my mind maybe.. hopefully. 

My companion is awesome. Elder Guimaraes. Basically just say Gimme rice. He is so different from all the other companions I have had though. Like I said earlier the work is completely different here. I just dont feel the conversions in the baptisms, but what do I know... pretty much nothing. THe standard of excellence here for baptisms is like 5 a week.... HOLY COW. We were supposed to have one this week but something got a little complicated.

I feel like when I got here my portuguese was pretty good. People were even telling me that my portuguese was better than the last elder who was there for 5 months. Well now I can honestly say that I think it is getting worse and worse every day. I just sit there and dont understand a thing they are saying. AT first I could almost understand it all.. .now its basically nothing, so it makes me feel even more lost.

SOmething else thats different is that we have lunch with members here.... Thats about all I eat all day too... haha no breakfast or dinner usually. Also my pedometer has almost doubled since the last time I checked which was the day Before I got here. NOw it is up to more than 60 miles haha... we walk a lot and I think we have a pretty big area.

I wont ever have a guitar here. Maybe thats also something that is eating me up on the inside. It was killing me to go 6 weeks without it... Now I have to go a year and 4 months without it.... holy cowww haha. 

Basically I need your guys prayers. I honestly at times wish I could be back in Washington loving the work again, but I know that I am supposed to be here and will learn to love it here as well. I love you, and miss you a lot especially right now, but I know that I will be ok. I am trying to work my hardest to really just lose myself in the work, Life is going to go on, but I need to be more patient and humble. 

I love you,

Elder Hamrick

My view from the window at the CTM in São Paulo 

almost all our district in the CTM at the SAo paulo temple

So I am in Brazil

September 10, 2014

So I really dont have much time at all. I love it here in the MTC I love the people, I love the food, I love everything. I dont feel like I am in a different country but I do know I am in one. Life is about to get crazy up in here. We have meat for like every meal. Ok not like every meal. EVERY MEAL. They gave us hot dogs for breakfast. And rice and beans.  Portuguese is going really dang well too. So much is happening I can basically understand it and talk back to them quite a bit in portuguese. I love being able to speak a different language. I honestly dont know what to say. 

 We had the opportunity to hand out 22 Book of Mormons in 45 minutes on the streets of Sao Paulo. Holy cow. The scripture the field is white already to harvest really applies here. Except the field is a little more white in Brazil. I love it here to be honest and I cant wait to get out into the real field in Brazil. I am sorry this is so short but I really dont know what to write about. 

I love my district here. I know a lot of them from the Provo MTC. IT is super awesome that I have the chance to see them again and spend time with them. We are just all loving and are way more experienced with this work and loving people. AND WE ARE LOVING PEOPLE. 

We got to go to the temple today it was super legit. I loved it. The temples are beautiful no matter where you are at. 

Love you all.

IM IN BRAZIL!!

September 3, 2014

Holy cow after a REALLLY long flight I made it to Brazil! I have probably gotten about 6 hours of sleep in the past two days. Im running on low haha. It is beautiful here in the MTC and in Sao Paulo. I am definitely not in Washington anymore. It is crazy to even think about. I am companions with Elder Yarrington who was in the MTC with me while I was in Provo. I didnt know him at all but now I am going to get to know him haha. I just saw Sister Horn and I have been talking with Elder Hofstetter as well. I am doing well. I love you all. I will be interested to see what happens here. People arent speaking english here! I love you.

Elder Hamrick

 

TCHAU

Last week in the U.S. For a time

September 1, 2014

Holy cow it is crazy to think that I will not be in the United States I n about 2 days. I honestly don't know what to think haha. I'm nervous, but also extremely excited! It's a huge mix of emotions... This week was a great week to end on. I am happy with what I have done here and hopefully I made a difference, because it has made a difference in me.

I've been trying to play as much guitar as I can before I leave... I won't be bringing it to Brazil, and I'm hopeful that I will be able to get on when I am in Brazil. I could barely last 6 weeks when I was originally without a guitar. So it will be interesting to see haha. I'm going to miss being able to just post a video of me singing on
Facebook when I can. So you won't be able to see those anymore.

I think I was missing my missionary fire/drive for a bit. Well I picked a good day to get it back! Tuesday was a great day for me. We were just talking to everyone we could. We had the spirit with us with every person we talked to, and it was just a great feeling. We have
recently been told to focus on less active members of the church to get them to come back and enjoy the blessings it brigs them. It's hard for me to know how to go at it. They are all different and a lot don't want to come back. But I know it's important and the work we have done
has been great.

We did some service this week. We moved this lady and unloaded everything from her truck. We got it done within an hour which was perfect for our schedule.

I feel like everything good happened and is going to start going crazy well... Right when I'm leaving! What is this? Haha I'm just kidding, but I'm also serious in some ways. I'm excited for the things that are
going to happen in this area.

I think it's great when people don't like us. We are so scary looking. They literally avoid us and basically run. It just kind of makes my day better. I know a lot of missionaries have a hard tome with that. I
just kind of embrace it. This week a guy told us that he loves what we do, but we are wolves like it talks about in the bible. And he said I really want to say something. But I don't want to scare you. We told him to just say it. Well he called us a cult... Haha he like backed up
when he said it. I don't think people understand what a cult does... Oh well we tried to be nice with him. You never know what's going to happen out on the streets of Vancouver.

I got to go to the Portland Temple this week finally! I feel so blessed that we have the Temples in our lives. They bring so much peace! I loved it. Not to mention it is a beautiful building to look
at as well for people who aren't members of the church. It was kind of weird being there with all the departing missionaries... I felt like I was going home with them too... Nope I'm just going to Brazil haha.

I really don't have much to write this week. I am going to be missing a lot of things... Lots of people... I'm just so thankful that I had the opportunity to even come here. And meet these people and have an impact left on me. I will miss elder Brase for sure. Luckily we just
happen to live in the same state. So I will see him again I know it. But it's weird saying goodbye to everyone. Doesn't feel real. It will feel real when I get off that ten hour flight and I'm in a totally different country haha.

I will just end with my testimony. I know this work that I am doing is so important. And I have come to learn that it is impossible for us to do it by ourselves. We need the help of the members. Without them we have no connections and no true way of finding the truly elect. I am so grateful for all that our Savior did for us. We have him to rely on in any minute and every minute. The pain, suffering and sorrow he went through us is completely unexplainable and we will probably never understand how extensive that is in this life. All we need to know is that he did that for us. So we could change. Change who we are, how we act, and what we do. This life is such a blessing and I am ready to live it. To most full potential I can. I love this work.

I love you all,

Elder Hamrick

The view in Portland! 

Elder Brase and I with the Bishop's family. They are awesome. 

One of the people we met says I look like him when he was in the marines. I don't see it, but what do you think??

It's always a party with the Hardys. Here's his family and us. Oaklee
is holding my tie. Ainzlee is the blonde one, and Rae is the one in BYU Idaho stuff.  We were missing one. Bailee was asleep. Love this family. I'm going to miss them a lot. :'(

I'm such a model. Hahahahaha, just kidding.