December 12, 2011 - So Close

Well, things are good in Franca. We have a few people who are preparing for baptism but they have difficult challenges to overcome. So we have been working overtime to help them do the things that will help them overcome their problems and get prepared for baptism. The weather has been overcast but it didnt rain much this last week so that was nice because it kept the temperatures down. We had stake conference yesterday. That was really nice and had some really good talks. One lady gave an awesome talk on the importance of marriage and the family. I had some stories to tell this week but I cannot remember any of them. So this will be a short but sweet email. Things are going well and we had a really good week. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

November 7 - December 5

Dec 5 – Corinthians

Another crazy week in Brazil. I received some Root Beer extract recently in a package, so we made Root Beer. We stopped by our house to grab the Root Beer and headed off to the house of someone we are teaching to have Root Beer floats. I accidently left my umbrella in our house and while we were teaching it started POURING. The man grabbed a plastic bag and made a make shift poncho for me. We had one more appointment that night so we headed off into the rain. The gutters were like rivers. We had to forge some of these rivers and some of them were over ankle deep. The streets were just full of water. It was crazy. It was a lot of fun though. We got home thoroughly soaked.

The Corinthians played last night for the Brazil championship. When they won it was insanity in the streets. People were dancing, singing, lighting off fireworks. Cars and motorcycles were driving up and down the streets honking their horns. You would have thought that a 20 year war had just ended. This made it a little difficult to find people to teach, but it was definitely fun to watch.

Things are good. A little hot, but things are good. We have quite a few people to teach, so we arent just walking around the streets all day. Its good to stay busy and productive. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next week.

Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Nov 28 – Staying in Franca

Last week for pday our zone got together for a barbeque and some soccer. I dont think I have played soccer for 10 years, but I decided to give it a shot. And to my surprise I held my own against the Brazilians, so Im pretty happy about that.

This past week was the last week of transfers and word came in that I will be staying in my area with my companion. I pulled out my new planner and realized that this transfer will take us into 2012. Crazy. 2011 passed by very quickly.

Its hot here so it does not feel like November. I didnt remember until the afternoon on Thursday about Thanksgiving because its summer here. I hope everyone had a good Turkey day. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, but everyone knows what it is. Brazilians seem to have a bunch of holidays, but not too many people actually celebrate. Today is a holiday. I think its the birthday of the city I'm in, but I am not exactly sure.

Last night the Corinthians, a Brazilian soccer team, won the game they played. I think they took first place overall. It sounded like a warzone in the neighborhood I was in. People were lighting off fireworks everywhere. Everyone was yelling and celebrating. Soccer is definitely a big deal here.

Well, I hope everyone is well. Today will be a relaxing pday for me and my companion, which is always a good thing. There is always something going on during pday so I feel like we hardly ever rest. Tchau! Até mais!

Elder Siemers

Nov 21 – LOTS of walking

Oh man. I have never walked so much in my life. This was a really busy week and we were all over the place. Lots of our investigators are having lots of problems so we are working overtime to help some of them. We are finding lots of good people to teach though, so thats a huge plus. Sorry this email is short again, but I am sending pictures to the mission office for the Christmas slideshow. I hope everyone is well.

Elder Siemers

Nov 14 - Rain & Açai

Not much to report this week. We had a huge rainstorm Sunday morning so hardly anyone was at church. We have a new Ward Mission Leader so we will be able to start working with him to work more with the members. Im excited about that. We only have so many credits on our cell phone, and generally they run out after 2 weeks and we have to wait for 2 more weeks to recieve more. A ward mission leader should help us plan more in advance and coordinate with the members a little better. They are building a new Açai restaurant here in our area and I am really excited about that. Our district leader told me about another place that you can get a lot of açai for 5 reais. Açai is an amazing fruit that I love. I will definitely miss it when I head back to the states. Well, thats pretty much it. I hope everyone is doing well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Nov 7 - Out of Time

Sorry everyone, but I literally have 2 minutes to write this email. It was a good week. We walked a lot but our teaching is really improving. We have a few people who want to be baptized and we are helping them be prepared, so we should have a few baptisms this month. Other than that not tons is going on. Until next week.

Elder Siemers

Franca week 2

Good week. I feel like we were teaching a lot better and that the people we are teaching are progressing. We went to a really pretty waterfall last pday with our zone. That was a lot of fun and really pretty. My companion and I have really different views on missionary work and how to teach, but we are getting along really well. We passed a family that was loading up a moving truck the other day and we stopped to help them. It felt so good to serve with my hands. This was my first service project in 6 months. Generally people dont let us serve them because our clothes are nice or they dont want to bother us. Im used to cutting firewood for the widows in my home ward, so its been weird not serving others with my hands. Sorry this is short, but so is my time, and I honestly am drawing a blank of what to write. Hope everyone is doing well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Franca!

This was an interesting week. The first time in a new area, so It was weird being dependent on my companion because I didnt know the area or the people her. We found a few really good people last week, so I have high hopes for this transfer.

I stepped into Wal - Mart the other day. That was weird. Never thought I would do that in Brazil. It was pretty much the same. I dont think I will bring myself to eat at McDonalds though. Maybe one time to see if it tastes the same, but I really dont have much of a desire to go there.

When I arrived here, I seperated my white shirts, to make sure I use the same ones, so I can use them up and keep some others nice to use later. This way I always have nice white shirts, and free up a little space in my suitcase instead of having lots of creme colored shirts and no space in my suitcase. I was washing my frequently used shirts so I used a shirt that I have not used very much. I walked past a tree that had a nail sticking out of it that I didnt see and snagged my shirt. Riiiiiiipp! So much for keeping some shirts nicer than others. At least I have a little more room in my suitcase now.

Yesterday it was raining. I left my umbrella outside of the church because I didnt put it with all the other umbrellas, just in case there was a mix up. I didnt want somebody to walk off with it on accident. My companion told me not to keep my umbrella outside so I grabbed it and put it inside with the others. At the end of church I found it. Then I went to grab some thing and two minutes later somebody had grabbed it by accident! Luckily it did not rain much yesterday.

Well, that was pretty much my week. I am excited for this area. I think it will be a really good city to work in.

Elder Siemers

September 23 - October 17

October 17: Lots of changes

It was a pretty good week. Thursday night we received a phone call that I would be transferred this next transfer, so we worked extra hard at getting everything ready for Elder Sousa and his new companion.

Saturday night was the time change for us so I am now another hour or two ahead of home.

Sunday we passed by a few people's houses to bring them to church with us. They said we could pass by but I think they were still sleeping because of the time change. But when we got to church we had 2 investigators there, and a third showed up during the 2nd class. It was awesome. I think Elder S will be able to help quite a few people this next transfer. After church all the members came up to me and wished me luck, along with one of our investigators. It was very touching and I might have shed a few tears when L said goodbye to me. He bought me a Book of Mormon in Spanish and told me I have to learn Spanish next. I will miss everyone in Poços de Caldas. We even have a lot of friends in lots of the stores. The bakery, the paperstore, I took pictures with a lot of people.

Yesterday I took a bus to Ribeirão Preto and stayed the night in the Office Staff's home. Today I took a bus to Pinhares, Franca area, my new area! Im excited. Everyone says its a really good area and the members help out a lot. My new companion is Elder Vitor, another missionary from my group in the MTC. My house is twice the size of my last house, and so is my table I use to study. This will be a good area. It will be cool to experience a new city.

The weather is definitely gettting warmer. And its been raining so its been humid also. I washed almost all my clothes before the transfer but hardly any of them dried in the 2 or 3 days on the line, so I had to pack them all up while they were still wet. I will rewash everything today.

I'm excited for my new area, not so excited about the heat, but things are going well. Até mais.

Elder Siemers

October 10: Not too much this week

Pretty uneventful week. It was Elder S's birthday so we went up to the Christ statue to celebrate. And because we had reached all our goals the previous month, President let us watch Disney films this month. So after going up to the Christ we got to watch a Disney movie. It was the first movie I have seen that wasnt a church film in 6 months. We watched it with other missionaries and one of them hadnt seen a movie in over a year.

This week is the end of the transfer so we are running to get as much done as possible. We have interviews with President this weekend so that should be good. I wont find out until Saturday if I am staying or going to another city. So who knows, maybe my next email will be from another area.

Fique firme!

Elder Siemers

October 3: Lots of Walking

This week was super busy. We wanted to invite everyone to watch General Conference, so that what we did. I have never walked so much in my entire life. This was also a week of firsts for me. We swung by a man's house this week to invite him to conference. We have taught him many times and he is always super friendly. As I was inviting him to conference, he cut me off then said we are part of a cult. That was a surprise. We also taught another lesson this week with a young woman and her brother. She didnt like they manner I was teaching so she was not receptive after that and doesnt want anything to do with us now. I felt horrible. I didnt like the fact of my mistakes interfering with another person's learning.

But life is good. Conference was awesome and very uplifting. I learned a lot and I want to print out a few talks for our investigators. It's Elder S's birthday today so we are heading to downtown to buy him a tie and celebrate. A lot of bad things happened this last week, but I don't feel discouraged. In fact just the opposite. I feel like working harder. The mission is crazy, but really amazing.

Elder Siemers

September 26: Ups and downs

This week was crazy, with lots of ups and downs. It was hard finding people home to teach them, but when we did we had really good lessons. We had a mission conference, which takes away a day of work, but was really good. We watched an amazing video that had Elder Holland speaking with scenes of the Savior's sacrifice playing. He was talking about how hard missionary work is. But he said that one far greater than us, and a long time before us, wanted an easier way, but there wasnt one. Salvation never came cheaply. Our salvation was paid for at an extremely high price. It was one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen. Every time things get tough I will remember that video and the words of Elder Holland.

We baptized G last night! It was awesome. He has come so far and overcome a lot to be where he is at. Since General Conference is next week we confirmed him last night so he didnt have to wait 2 weeks for his confirmation and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He picked me to confirm him. It was my first confirmation, in English or Portguese. I was super nervous, but I was so grateful for the opportunity. It was awesome and I definitely had help from the spirit.

This week was a little tough at times but I learned a lot. I will work harder this week and get more accomplished.

Elder Siemers

The Last Month

*****Just a disclaimer: I'm working on screening Matt's emails. From now on I'm only going to use first initials for names of companions and investigators to protect them.

Stake Conference

This week was really good and we taught a whole bunch. Our numbers were a little low in certain areas, but I didnt mind this week because we have been accomplishing a lot. We had stake conference in São João da Boa Vista yesterday. I sat next to L. My first baptism in the mission field. Elder S. was sitting with G, who will be baptized next week. Accross the aisle from my was a family we have been working with. The only male in the family recieved the Priesthood yesterday. As I was sitting there in conference I saw all these people and things that we have been doing, that you really cant attach a number to. It was a cool moment and one I was really grateful for. We have been working really hard lately and I really dont want to waste any time on the mission. Two years goes really fast. Well, I am out of time but I love you all. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

September 12: Good week and miracles

This last week was pretty good. We didnt teach quite as much as we wanted to but we accomplished a lot. We were finally able to find this lady we havent seen in over a month. She wants to be baptized, but we literally passed by her house every time we are in her neighborhood and she was never home. We can actually start helping her.

We had a couple more run ins with the local intoxicated people this week. One asked me if I am American and I said yes. He then gave me one of the longest hugs of my life. He was pretty excited to meet an American. We found our friend who threw up at church while we were picking up people to go to church yesterday. He came with us and poor Elder S. had to share his umbrella while we walked in the rain. He stopped to talk to everyone we passed. At one point we were walking up a hill and he was having trouble keeping up, so Elder S. grabbed his hand. He then said something about Elder S.'s girlfriend would be jealous if she found out. Oh the mission. You do and see things that you never thought would happen. I love it. We also saw somebody scarf down a banana with the peel still on.

We have started teaching a young man again this last week. We taught him for a while and he didnt even believe God exists. Then everyone got super busy and we didnt see him for about a month. One of his friends told us that his room caught on fire this last week. We then saw him in the street the other day and we talked to him about it. He wanted a new Book of Mormon so we swung by his house after lunch. He then told us an amazing story about how he had a really bad day, then decided to pray to God. He then had an amazing experience. The next day his room caught on fire and all his stuff burnt up. Everything was completely destroyed. Everything but the 2 Bibles and the Book of Mormon he had. The Book of Mormon's cover was damaged and the edges of the pages were singed, so he wanted a new one. He is super excited to learn more and draw closer to God. Because of the experience, not because of the fire. It was awesome to hear his story and see his excitement for the Gospel. We are going to help repaint part of his house today.

Other than that, the week was pretty uneventful. We have a lot of good people to teach and the work is moving forward. Have a great week.

Elder Siemers

September 5: 6 months!

Another really dificult week, but we survived and it ended with a baptism, which is always awesome. We have been working with a family where some are members of the church and some arent. We had a really nice baptism last night for B. and L. Their brother in law and uncle respectively, did the baptizing. It was a really special day for the family. I have grown to really love them these past couple weeks.

I am going to stay in Poços this transfer with Elder S. This is good. Its what we both wanted. We are both learning tons and are working with some really good people right now.

This week I will have 6 months on the mission. Crazy. Time is going fast. The language is coming along really really fast now. Having a Brazilian companion helps a lot. Even though is is from the North where they dont really pronounce their Rs. I am picking up his accent and he is picking my horrible American accent. By the end of our time together we will be speaking a completely new dialect and no one will be able to understand either of us. =)

I hope everybody is enjoying pear picking and BYU football. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

August 29: Tough Week

This week was a lot of walking and not a lot of teaching. All but one of our appointments fell through.

I got sick again this last week. It was a really weird cold. I was stuffy, but not too stuffy, lost my voice, but didnt have a sore throat. It was the most interesting illness I have ever had. During the week my accent got a lot better over just a couple days. I was really excited that all my work was paying off until I realized that my cold was forcing me to talk through my nose a little more. Portuguese is really nasally, so this helped a lot. I am now working very hard at talking through my nose and improving my accent now that I am feeling better.

Before church yesterday, we passed by all our investigators' houses to see if they wanted to come to church with us. We looked for people for an hour and a half, but nobody came to church. That was a little hard. But, we did get a new couch, which is a little soft, so it all balances out. One of our investigators didnt want it anymore, so she gave it to us. We carried it accross two neighborhoods. Something I never thought I would be doing on the mission.

Life is good though. This is the last week of the transfer, so I dont know where I will be next week. Maybe I will still be here, or maybe another city. Only a week will tell. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Good Week

Life is still good in the field. The church moved to another building that is a lot nicer and yesterday was our first meetings there. Our friend that vomited on my shoes last week wasnt home when we swung by to pick him up for church and a boy told us that he left for the bar. He then took us past a couple bars and we looked for him but couldnt find him. Life as a missionary is interesting.

We taught a whole bunch this last week. I am really glad about that because I felt like we werent teaching enough. We have a lot of appointments fall through and some days we just walk from appointment to appointment and hardly teach because of dropped appointments. Im glad when we teach a lot because I feel like we are not wasting time.

We were really low on teaching with members this last week though. We like to bring a member so people can feel more comfortable and maybe gain a friend in the church. Everybody was busy, and on days we had somebody with us, our appointments fell. So yesterday I asked Leonardo to come out with us during the afternoon and Carol and Yasmin in the evening. Leo ended up sticking with all during the evening also and Suelen came also so we had a small army of youth with us last night. The members here are awesome and help us out a lot.

Other than that, nothing too eventful happened this last week. No vomit. Thats always good.

Elder Siemers

Crazy Week

Life was crazy but good this last week. We walked a whole bunch. There is a neighborhood that we hardly ever go to because its so far away, but we went there almost everyday this last week. We made a contact with a young couple who live there so we went there on tuesday. They couldnt meet with us until saturday, but we made another contact while we were there. We came back the next day and got another contact. Same thing happened all week.

We have been trying to teach this man who drinks everyday. Its hard to meet with him because he starts drinking early in the day. Yesterday on the way to church, he was sitting on the curb a block away from the church. We said hi and he asked if he could come with us. He was hung over from the night before and still a little drunk. During the second hour, right before sunday school started, we were sitting in the classroom and he said something. I didnt hear what he said so I turned to him. He didnt look very good and didnt reply when I asked him if he felt alright. He started looking like he was going to throw up so I said 'vem pra ca!" (come this way!) I ran into the hallway. The bathroom was being used so I ran through the kitchen(we meet in a house) and outside. I grabbed a bucket and ran back towards the door. I got there the same time he did... He threw up as soon as me made it to the door. It splattered all over the ground and all over my shoes and the bottom edge of my pants. He then continued to throw up a little over the balcony in the backyard as I cleaned it up. After it was all cleaned up I asked if he was feeling better. He was, so I said 'vamos voltar"(lets return) There was no way I was going to let him miss Sunday School. The lesson was on the Word of Wisdom. Something he definitely needs to hear. So we went back(I kept the bucket with me just in case) and finished out sunday school. He even stuck around for Sacrament meeting. He wants us to swing by today or tomorrow. He told us he wants to start helping us out. I hope we can help him. Cross your fingers.

Other than that the week was pretty uneventful. My new companion is a tiny bit timid so I need to take the lead in lessons, so I have taught a whole lot more this last week than ever before. My language skills are definitely improving. Well, I am out of time, but I will write again next week.

Elder Siemers

New Companion Again

Elder Sprada was having problems breathing in Pocos de Caldas so he was transferred today. We got up at four (after going to bed at midnight waiting to find out what was going to happen today) and got the 645 bus to Ribeirao Preto. My new companion is Elder Sousa. We were also in the CTM together. Im going to be Senior companion this transfer, so I guess we´ll figure it out together. =) President Prieto interviewed me for a little bit and I understood everything he said! Things are good, except I still dont have a new planner. I have been using my old one for the last 2 weeks. I dont have a single page left that doesnt have something written down. I dont have much time to email today because we have to catch a bus back to Pocos in a little bit.

We went to the baptism of Marco this last saturday. He is the man who was smoking four packs a day about a month ago. He made us lunch last week on pday and it was super good. It was an american meal. He is really awesome. He appreciates everything that has happened the last few weeks and loves the missionaries. There isnt a single person here that doesnt think that Elder Anderson was sent here to find him. The baptism was really really special and there was the best, sweetest feeling there the entire time. Elder Anderson barely got through the baptism prayer because he was on the verge of crying. After Marco came out of the water he gave Elder Anderson a huge long hug. It was definitely one of the highlights of my mission so far. I only know Marco through the other missionaries, but I am really glad I got to see this and to know him.

Im almost out of time, but I hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you later.

Elder Siemers

New Companion

Well, Elder Sprada(not Estrada) arrived last Monday. He is from
Curitiba. We got to the bus station to pick him up and when I saw him
I recognized him. I dont know too many Elders and I havent met too
many out in the field. I knew him from the CTM in São Paulo! We were
there at the same time in different districts. So, I have longer time
on the mission as him because I was in the MTC before him, but he came
to the mission field a week before I did. Crazy. We basically have the
same time on the mission. I wonder if we are the newest companionship
on the mission. My language abilities are already improving so much
because I am forced to speak portuguese all the time. We did a lot of
walking this last week because NOBODY was in their homes. We would go
to a house, knock, get no answer, then go visit another person, and do
it all over again. I was so tired. It was a good week. I had a lot of
good personal study time and learned a lot. Well, my keyboard really
really stinks, so it takes too long to type anything. I hope everyone
is doing well. Até mais.

New Transfer

Well, my second transfer in the field is over. Apparently July went somewhere while I wasnt looking. Elder Davis left yesterday and my new companion, Elder Estrada(I think thats his name), will be here about 6 oclock.

This last week was pretty good. We had a small meeting with the Mission President. He came here to interview everyone, and he had a few words to say to everyone before the interviews. He just emphasized working hard and being responsible. We have a new standard(or pattern), to work with and it gives us more freedom, but more responsibility also. He just wants to make sure we are doing what we should be doing so we can get the most out of our time.

My interview went fine. It was the first time I had ever sat down and talked with him, so it was a tiny bit awkward. He asked about how I am doing and how is family. Those type of questions. It was good though.

Ive been working pretty hard at studying the language this last month or so, and I am really starting to understand how the language works and is structured. I think after this next transfer I will be speaking really well. Having a Brazilian companion will help a whole bunch.

Life is good and things are going well. We made some really good contacts this last week so hopefully we will have some new people to teach this week. There's another companionship in the Center who have been working with a man. He went from smoking 4 packs a day to only smoking one or two cigarettes per day in just a week and a half. That was a week ago, so I have no idea where he is at now, but I imagine that he has stopped completely. Ive met him a couple times and he is really awesome.

I hope everyone is doing well. Have a good week!

Elder Siemers

4 Months!

I've already been out 4 months. Crazy. My second transfer in the field is almost over. Pattern is gone. I can actually have a conversation with some people. Life is good.

Not a whole lot happened this last week. We had a crazy party at the church to celebrate something. I wasn't quite sure what, but it was fun! Festa de Junina. There was lots of good food and there was lots of people there. The bolo(cake) was especially good. The Young Women of the church think I am obsessed with cake for some reason. I might have just mentioned that its important for their salvation to make cake for the missionaries or something like that. I might have also let one of them take pictures off my camera of her birthday party with the price of one cake for each photo. She still hasnt made any yet... The other day we were teaching a lesson with Yasmin. She took us to a friend's house. At the end of the lesson Elder Davis asked, 'do you have any questions? Any doubts? Complaints?' I chimed in with, 'bolo?' Yasmin hit me on the leg, and the girls mom said she would make us cake next time. It was hilarious. I just said that I was joking and that they didnt need to make us cake. But, ya. I have no idea why the young women think I am obsessed with cake.

We are getting together with our District to head up to the Christ statue this afternoon. Transfers are next week, and we have a few missionaries who have been here for a while, so it will probably be a farewell party.

I hope everyone is doing well. Até mais. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Long Week

Oh man. We walked a whole bunch this last week. We were getting a lot of pressure in our Zone to make 'pattern'. We are supposed to contact 160 people every week. This is really hard to do and still actually teach people. So, we walked around, knocked on doors, and got pattern. It wasnt the funnest of weeks, but we definitely worked hard. I got sick this last week also. Elder Davis has been sick for about 2 weeks and I finally caught it. But I am on the downhill of it now and should be back to new in a couple days.

Couple funny things happened this week though. One day we were walking behind a group of young teenage girls. There was probably 15 of them. As we passed them, Elder Davis asked 'bom?'(short for everything good?) The entire group responded at the same time. 'Booom'. It was hilarious. I couldn't resist myself, so I then said, 'tudo bem?' (all well?) and of course they all responded at the same time. 'Tuuudo'. We were dying of laughter for the next couple blocks. Last night I started talking to a guy who was more drunk than I thought he was. He wanted me to open the Book of Mormon to a random page and read a verse. One that touched my heart. I opened it, but he started talking more so I didnt get to read anything. He then grabbed my shoulder and started crying. I could hear him praying for help. After the tears cleared up I turned to Alma 7 and read him a couple verses. He then took the book from me, prayed, opened the book, then picked a random verse. He was really looking for inspiration. He picked some verse that just says some thing like 'and these things all happened in the forty-six year of the reign of judges' or something like that. Not helpful to him at all. Eventually a friend of his walked by and we asked her to walk him home. He left with her, but not before giving me um abraço em Jesus(a hug in Jesus).

Other than that, the week was pretty much uneventful. We had a few really good lessons. Hopefully they are interested and we can continue teaching them. We are a little low on investigators right now.

I hope everyone is having a fun 4th of July. It's a little weird not having any fireworks or a potluck, but things are good. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Quick One

So, I dont have much time, but this last week was good. It started off slow, but picked up quite a bit at the end. We had another baptism. Bruno. He is 13 and really awesome. His family came to the baptism last night, which was good because there were church leadership meetings so there were only 3 members there. We need two witnesses for baptisms and I was the only one there to witness at first. It was a really nice baptism. Very personal. Elder Davis and I ended up singing a hymn. There wasnt a program planned because of all the missing members and Bruno is not familiar enough with the hymns, so he said to not have any songs. But, I wanted him to have a special baptism, so we sang Nearer My God to Thee in portuguese. The whole baptism was really nice. His mom was crying when she left after the baptism. The people here are so awesome.

We didn't quite have our required number of contacts for the week, but we made a lot yesterday after the baptism so we were close. We have been discussing and debating numbers and missionary work for the past couple weeks. We are trying to find a balance of getting our numbers, and focusing on the people and their needs. Life is good though. Things will only get better and they are already good.

Sorry this email is so short, but I am out of time. Love you all. I will talk to you later.

Elder Siemers

Going Up to Christ

Last pday we were invited to a birthday party. We went up to the Christ statue on the mountain overlooking Poços de Caldas. It was a lot of fun. We met the birthday party on the start of the trail, but we got there before them, so we had some time to waste. We were hanging out in a gift shop when the herd of monkeys showed up. So, of course we bought some bananas to feed to the monkeys. I was taking pictures for Elder Davis and Elder Anderson while they fed the monkeys. Elder Anderson was with us for the day while he waited for his new companion. The man at the gift shop had trained one of the monkeys to sit on your shoulder and eat. All the other monkeys wont touch you unless they are snatching something out of your hand. Before the other Elders were done, all of a sudden a monkey jumped onto my leg. He then started crawling all over me trying to get to the banana in my hand. I quickly handed over my camera to Elder Anderson, but he couldnt switch it to video fast enough. Anyway, this monkey finally got to my hand and latched onto the banana. No matter what I did I could not get this monkey to let go. I eventually started swinging it around through the air and trying to pry it off with my other hand. He eventually grabbed the banana on each end and bit into it right in the middle, through the peel. It was hilarious. After a long struggle and losing half of the banana, I finally got him off. The man who works there said he has never seen that happen. He has worked there for 35 years. We then proceeded to head up the hill. After a quick stop at a shady statue we moved on and up the hill. The statue is really big and really cool. We had the birthday party on the back side of the hill with an awesome view of the country. The cake was super good.

We confirmed our two baptisms yesterday in church. Maria de Lourges and Antonio. We also went to another barbeque after church. We have been teaching an inactive man, who wants to come back to church. He also wants us to meet and start teaching his girlfriend, so he came up with the idea to have FHE tonight. Oh, and it's also going to be a barbeque. Life is really tough here in Brazil. =)

We have a lot of really cool investigators right now. It's crazy how some people are just ready to hear the gospel. We had a lady come up to us on the street and ask us if we could start teaching her. She is already ready for baptism, but we had to ask for special permission for her to be baptised. We havent seen her since we found out but she is going to be really excited when we tell her the good news.

We have not had a relaxing pday since ive been in the field, so today we just took it easy. I did some laundry, wrote some letters, and that was pretty much it. The only problem is that Antonio, wants us to come over today, so we will head out of the house early. Oh well. Anything for a new member.

Life is good, and the food is even better. I will talk to you all later. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Baptisms, Barbeques, and Contacts

This week has been crazy. We had some interesting discussions about numbers on the mission and felt a lot of pressure to get our required numbers. It has been a little frustrating, but the week has been good. We had two baptisms yesterday. Leonardo´s mother, and Antonio. It was super awesome to be at the church yesterday. Seeing Antonio in his white jumpsuit was really special. We have been working with him for a while and it was awesome seeing him take this huge step in his life. He talked about serving a mission all morning.

Afterwards, we had lunch at a member family´s home and I experienced my first churrasco. Brazilian barbeque. Beef, pork, chicken, sausage. It was all there, and so was I. The perfect combination. It was really good. I wanted to eat all day.

We went to an inactive member´s house this week. All the houses in brazil are walled off at the street with a door or a gate. The family has an intercom on the street and they can unlock the door from inside their house. We buzzed them on the intercom and a man answered. We told him we were the Elders and he went and got his son. We then told his son that we were Elders and he immediately told us to come in. We were just turning toward the door when he says 'oh, and Elder. Be careful of the dogs...' Bzzzt. click. The door unlocked as we pondered what that statement really meant. Elder Davis opened the door and three dogs come pouring out barking their heads off. One of them, the smallest, goes straight for me and jumps onto my leg and bites me on the thigh! I was not happy. I managed restrain myself and did not to kick the dog accross the street. We then went in and talked to Hebert. He's been inactive for a few years and he wants to relearn everthing and come back to church. Maybe even serve a mission. He is really awesome.

My companion traded backpacks with of our zone leaders who is going home. They made the swap during our meeting last week with our zone. We got home and finished out our day. On the way home we realized that our house keys were still in his old backpack. Ugh... There was no way to get the keys that night so we climbed over our gate and under the barbed wire above it to get to our apartment. I then went to the window and started shimmying the shutters. I knew the shutters dont have a very good latch. After a few minutes I was almost ready to give up. Then divine intervention occured and the shutters popped open. I then boosted Elder Davis up so he could reach through a small hole in our window and unlock the window. We had to climb through the window for the next two days until we got our keys back. I felt like we were robbing the place everytime I climbed through.

We have been having some problems with our toilet. It was filling up with water and it took a couple flushes to get everything down. Toilet paper would just float around on the top of the water and not go down. We were worried that there was a clog somewhere. We made a homemade plunger and tried to free things up. Nothing worked. We finally figured out what the problem was. We had bought one of those clean your toilet with every flush type things and it was making the water really bubbly. The water was turning into bubbles, that why is was going so high, then it was too light to push anything down. It was pretty funny when we figured it out. So much for trying to have a clean toilet right?

We contacted a lady last night who was pushing a stroller up a hill. I offered to push for her and we talked to her until we got to the top of the street and the hill. We then parted ways. There was a group of men standing in front of a nearby store and we could tell they were talking about us. This happens fairly often, because two americans together in Brazil is kind of an unusual occurance. We walked passed them and as we did they asked, 'who are you?' They had been so impressed with us helping that lady. They asked us all kinds of questions and we talked with them for a while. We gave out a Book of Mormon and had a wonderful talk with them. They are from another church that is really big in Brazil, and usually their members kind of ignore us. They brought out two hamburgers and some juice out of the store and gave them to us. It was such and awesome, respect building conversation. We are definitely going back there to say hi. Maybe even do some grocery shopping. The people here are amazing.

Yesterday was when we had the baptisms, the barbeque, and the super contact with 6 or 7 people. So, yesterday was pretty much the best day ever. Portuguese is coming together more and more every day and I am understanding people a lot better so I am getting more and more excited about the work. Life is good. I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Até mais!

Elder Siemers

Brazil is good.

Things are going well in Brazil. We had a mission tour this last week. Elder Godoy of the 70 gave us some training. He talked about traps missonaries fall into with teaching. It was good. We had to go into Ribeirao Preto, so we took the 4 hour bus ride the night before and stayed with the office Elders. The next day the bus home wasnt until 630 so we got home really late. We have a few more people interested in baptism. Leonardo´s mom is really interested. She loves the change that has happened to him over the last few weeks. She was at family home evening the other day and came to church yesterday. We have another investigator named Gustavo. We teach him quite a bit and this last time his uncle came in while we were teaching the plan of salvation. His grandma comes and goes during our lessons and she was there also. His uncle asked how he could get to the celestial kingdom so Elder Davis told him we could tell him 5 things that will get him there and asked if we could come back and teach him the 5 things. (Faith, repentence, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) So we came back and set a baptism date. The grandma might be interested also. At the end of the lesson we they fed us dessert and while we were eating a teenager walks in with a Book of Mormon in his hand! It was crazy. Elder Davis and his previous companion had given it to him a long time ago and havent seen him since. He is Gustavo´s cousin. So we started talking to him and invited him to church. He was there yesterday and really liked it. We bought matching ties last p-day and snuck one into Leonardo´s backpack during family home evening. We wrote our names on it and the date of his baptism. We didnt tell him we had some also, so we all showed up to church yesterday with matching ties. It was fun. He also passed the sacrament for the first time and bore his testimony. He is super awesome and plans on converting his entire family. He is also counting down until he can serve a mission. 3 years and 9 months. We have another investigator who wants to be baptized and he has been working towards it. He is really close and we just need to finish a few things and get him to have some time off from work. Soccer is huge here and I havent picked a team yet. Everyone always asks which team you like. I promised this young man that if he gets baptized soon, I will pick the Corintians, his favorite team. We have started an English class and meet once a week. Thats is a lot of fun. I learn more portuguese as I try to teach Brazilians English. Its really cool. Well, things are busy. We hope to have some baptisms in the near future and hope to keep finding more people to teach. I will talk to you all later. Tchau!

Waterfalls and Walking

This last week was a little long but there were some definate good moments. We had two days where all of our appointments fell through and we ended up walking all over the place. We taught a few really good lessons though. We had training with our mission presidents and the asssistants one day. We found out about it just a couple days before hand and didnt find out until the day before that we were leaving that day to spend the night with our zone leaders. So everyone had to cancel teaching appointments and take the bus. Our zone leaders´ apartment had their power cut so when we got there we didnt have any electricity. We spent the the night on mattresses on the floor with no blankets and hardly got any sleep. It was just cold enough so you couldnlt fall asleep for very long, but not cold enough that we were freezing. I was awake from 3 oclock on. We had a meeting with our zone leaders then we had our training that lasted all day with the assistants to the president. I could follow most of it, but I got a little bored. My companion really like it, but I felt like I was in the MTC again, which i was really ready to leave when I came to the mission field. We went and visited a really pretty waterfall nearby with some other elders in our district. All of us took so many pictures. I think I doubled the amount of pictures on my camera. We confirmed Leonardo in church yesterday. He is super awesome and is already counting down the days until he can serve a mission. 3 years and 9 months. We fasted for another investigator this last week and a few days ago he told us he wants to be baptized. We were super excited. Another one of our investigators that is having a hard time coming to church almost came yesterday. We had a good lesson with him the other day and his friends kept showing up, so we started teaching them too. By the end he was inviting everyone to church and he was disappointed when nobody showed up yesterday morning. He really wants to go to church but he doesnt want to go without a friend so he stayed home. Next week we will bring him to church though. I mentioned to my companion the other day that I really want to baptize somebody who is drunk when we first meet them. On the way home we had two drunk men come up to us and start talking to us. We will do some follow ups the next couple days. =) I managed only to put on about 5 pounds throughout my MTC experience. I was excited to lose some weight by walking up and down the hillly streets of Conjunto Habitacional, but the members stuff us full of food every lunch. Its super good food also, so it´s really hard to say no. So I don´t know how fast the pounds are going to fly off. The language was coming easier this week. I could actually see progress everyday. I can´t wait until I can talk to and understand everyone. As of right now I can follow and understand most conversations, but I can miss a detail here or there. Sometimes that changes the meaning of the conversation completely so I can get lost. Every day is better though. Well, life is pretty good. It would be better with more letters though ;). Talk you all later.

Elder Siemers

Mission Field Week 2

This week was a little frustrating with trying to speak portuguese but it ended on a high point. I got to baptize Leonardo. He is 14 and super awesome. He is going to be a missionary someday. It was a really awesome experience.

Brazil is really interesting. The food is super good. Rice and beans everyday for lunch, with some kind of meat, usually chicken. There is always fresh fruit. Lots of fruit we dont have in the United States.

We~ve had lots of potential investigators this last week, so this coming week we will visit with lots of people. Hopefully we can get some more investigators. I had to speak yesterday in church. It was really rough. My portuguese isnt the greatest and I was super nervous which makes my portuguese worse.

We walk a lot. We only take the bus to lunch appointments and to district meetings. My feet are usually really tired by the time we get home.

We are actually in a cold part of the mission. We have actually used our jackets in the evening and it gets cold at night. The rest of the mission isnt really like this, so it will be different when I get transferred. I~ll probably be here for the coldest part of the year and get transferred to the hottest part of the mission during the hottest part of the years. =)

Well, all is going well in Brazil. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Mission Field Week 1

Brazil is really awesome. The members here are fantastic and very supportive. We received a bunch of referals just this week. They also come with us for teaching appointments. Every lunch is in a members home and they stuff us full of food every time. We have a lot of investigators right now, so that has been really nice. I dont understand anything sometimes, so the language can be frustrating, but my companion, Elder Davis takes good care of me. Some Brazilians speak sooooooo fast and there is no chance of understanding them even if I know the words they are saying. Other times, I understand about 90% of conversations. My speaking abilities are still lacking quite a bit. All the members keep telling me to speak more, but I´m such a quiet person I don´t have anything to talk about sometimes. I give the spiritual message at members homes every time since Elder Davis teaches all our lessons. I usually share a scripture I read in the morning during personal study. We have been challenged by the mission president to read the book of mormon this transfer. I came into the field a week into the transfer so I have to hussle to get it done. I think I have to read 7 chapters a day to do it. He promissed us that we will be closer to the savior than ever before if we do this.

I am so glad to be out of the MTC. I was going crazy there. In the CTM especially, since we didnt learn a whole lot. The teachers didnt have much of a curriculum for us , so we covered a lot of the same stuff. I think our district fell through the cracks also because we never knew what was going on. We missed one or two important meetings that we had no idea about until afterwards when people asked us where we were. It seemed pretty unorganized for being a missionary training center. I am glad I experienced it though. We definitely gained a love for the brazilian people by being there. We also cam e up with all kinds of ways to entertain ourselves. All the lights were on motion sensors, so if it had been a while since someone had passed by the lights would be dark. After Gym, our favorite part of the day was trying to sneak pass the light in the stairwell without them turning on again. We never mastered passing the light on the top floor. We lived on the 7th floor, 108 stairs up. Those things were killer, hiking them every day. One of our brazilian roommates worked in a hospital before the mission so he started talking with elder Welburn because he was studying to be a nurse. He asked if he had ever assissted in a cessarian( dont know how to spell that) before and he said no. So, Elder Chaucoski started gesturing onto his own stomach on where to make the cuts and such. So, to be helpful, I stuffed a pillow up my shirt and pretended to be pregnant. So we ended up acting out the entire operation and I gave birth to a water bottle. We named him Elder. The first baby born in the CTM. It was hilarious.

The food is delicious in Brazil. lots of rice and beans and fruit. We get a lot of ´juice´ also, but its pretty much just kool aid type stuff. The fruit smoothie type things are soooooooo good. The members also feed us some type of meat for lunch with our rice and beans. Usually chicken, but we get beef also. Once I figure out some recipes i will send some home.

We had a baptismal interview yesterday, but the young man~s parents dont want him to be baptized so that was a little heartbreaking. We are are hoping to have some baptisms over the next few weeks. Elder Davis usually teachers most of the lessons, but I usually add my testimony or share a scripture, so I get to be a little involved. Pocos De Caldas is a beautiful area. It has a lot of hills, so my legs are definitely getting in shape, and it is really green. It is one of the coldest parts in the mission, so It is actually nice during the day, and get s a little cold at night. I cant imagine how hot its going to get. Its pretty warm and we are going into winter right now. Generally the East part of the mission is cooler than the West. Ribeirao Preto is kind of the dividing line, even though it is not in the center of the mission.

Brazil is really awesome. I am going to experience a lot here. I cant wait to understand the language so I am not limited in anyway to work and enjoy it here.

Elder Siemers

CTM Week 8

Wow, I only have one week left in the MTC. Crazy. We went proselyting last friday. It was a crazy experience. It is so weird not being able to understand someone else. We pretty much figured out the general idea of what people were saying so we were able to muscle our way through our conversations. We were able to give out our 4 copies of the Book of Mormon in the hour we had in Sao Paulo. Things are really laid back here at the CTM, but it is also kind of hectic. Nobody every knows what is going on, so we kind of wait until somebody says ´vamos´. We are going outside of the CTM again today for pday. I am going to pick up my scripture covers today. I am excited. I am leaving on tuesday for the mission field. That is going to be crazy. It is going to be so different. I realized when I flew to Sao Paulo, I hadnt talked to anybody who wasnt a missionary or a teacher in a really long time. In a lot of ways, the MTC helps you prepare for the field, but in other ways, you are completely unprepared. Brazil is really cool though. We went to the temple today. Im not sure if I´m going to go again during my mission or not. So i tried to take my time and enjoy myself while I was inside. Well, I cant really think of anything else to say. Tchau. Elder Siemers.

CTM Weeks 6 & 7

Sao Paulo! Brazil is really cool. Sao Paulo is huge. The city just keeps stretching off into the distance in every direction. I have been companions with Elders Francis and Welburn for the last week. They were my roommates in Provo who left a week before I did. Elder Toala just showed up today and we are companions again. On the trip over, we couldn´t land in Dallas Fort Worth because of a thunderstorm. We had to land at a maintanance hanger nearby and wait in line to be refueled. After 2.5 or 3 hours we finally were able to take off again. We took off, made a big u turn and landed 10 minutes later. We were so low that I could read the signs on the front of stores. It was so weird because we were so close to the main airport, but we weren´t near the storm. It must have been directly over Dallas Fort Worth. Anyway, all the flights were delayed, even our flight to Sao Paulo. But, we took so long refueling that we missed our flight by about 10 minutes. The church put us up in the local LaQuinta Inn. It was weird sleeping in a real bed. A soft one. My roommate was Elder Reeves. His girlfriend and Carolyn just met online the week before so we had a lot to talk about. In the morning we went down to the continental breakfast and enjoyed some pancakes shaped like Texas. I couldn´t believe it. Only in Texas... We then had the opportunity to spend from noon to 7:10 in the airport. It was a little boring. After a while I was feeling pretty unproductive, tired, and lazy and felt like I needed to do something. We had each recieved 2 pass a long cards with our travel documents from the church. So, I said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that I would like to give both of my cards away and asked for help with talking to strangers in an airport. I got up and asked if anyone wanted to join me and Elder Meredith said he would. We went to the map of the floor and looked at it. I asked Elder Meredith where he wanted to go and he said he wanted to head toward this weird musical walls thing over in the corner of the airport. I looked at the map and the gates that were nearby. D16, D17, D18. After looking at it for a few more seconds I said lets go. So we started walking. In front of the board that says the status of all the flights I noticed that someone had dropped a boarding pass. We picked it up. It was for a flight out of D18. We went to D18 and stood in line to turn it in. While we were standing there we saw a family walk over and sit down. the daughter started checking her pockets. Then her parents. We walked over and asked if they had lost their boarding pass. They said yes. We gave it to them and they were really grateful. We started talking and at the end of the conversation I gave them a pass a long card. Crazy. I was expecting to do more work than that, but sometimes are prayers are answered quickly. I was able to give my other pass a long card out later also. After that it was a reallly good day. We had an overnight flight to Brazil and the next morning I was in Sao Paulo. I sat directly in the middle of the plane so I couldnt see anything. The only windows I could barely had the wings blocking the view. So i didnt see brazil until we landed. The CTM is pretty neat. The Brazilians are super friendly. We get to go outside and buy the things we need in the nearby streets on p-day. So its been pretty fun here.

MTC 5/Brazil

I got my visa yesterday! I'm pretty stoked. I am leaving on Tuesday. I'm flying to Dallas at 2:30 and flying out at 7 something. Then overnight to Brazil. Sister Kersh, a sister an my district also received her visa at the same time. Another Elder from our newest district just got his visa today. So that district will be down to one elder and our zone will be down to 9 missionaries on tueday. Unless we get more visas on monday then it could be even smaller. When the intercom beeped, the voice asked "is Elder.................................. is in the room?" The intercom cracked so nobody heard what the name was. He repeated it, so I went down to the travel office. When we got there he asked us if Sister Kersh was coming too. Apparently he had said her name during the long pause of intercom static. So we came back to the room and said there was another visa. This one, for one of our two sisters. One of the sisters(the one who didn't get her visa) started freaking out. We might have taken a long time getting to the point of who it actually was. But you need to do something after you get your visa. Everyone always hides their visa and makes up some lie about how the consulate messed up their paperwork so they had to reapply. We went with a different approach.

So having my visa probably means I will have to talk on Sunday, along with Sister Kersh. My zone leader status won't grant me immunity anymore. Leadership positions normally don't speak in church, but we are all so small, everyone has to play a part. I was also asked to teach on Sunday in our combined district meeting, and give a short lesson about district goals on monday.

The BYU Mens Choir came to the MTC on Sunday night for our fireside. It was awesome. They sang all kinds of songs. Everyone's favorite was a Maori song from New Zealand. It was awesome and the harmony was crazy cool. They also sang a really cool Hungarian song. Everyone loved it. The fireside was a nice break from our daily routine.

We taught for completely in Portuguese for the first time yesterday. We made it through and I thought it went rather well. I guess that's what a week of prayers will do. =) Elder Toala is convinced I can speak Portuguese fluently, but he must not have been in the same room as me. I was very happy how it turned out though. Well, my next email will be coming from the MTC in Sao Paulo. I'll will be there for about three weeks, so when everyone has the desire to write me everyday, go ahead and send me a Dear Elder. I don't know if snail mail will get there on time. Well, probably for a week or so, but not after that. The mail takes 2 or 3 weeks from what I hear. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

1 Month!

Elder Siemers hit the ONE month mark today!

- but who's counting? ;)

As of last Saturday, when Carolyn (Matt's mom) checked on his visa it had gone through. We're hoping any day now he will find out that he is on his way to Brazil.

MTC Week 5

Visas have been flying in. We got three visas for our district this week and a few more from our zone. Our zone is going to be tiny next week after everyone leaves. I'm quite sure about my visa at this point.

Elder Toala is now the other Zone Leader with me. Elder Farley is now our District Leader. He has been a really good leader. This week has been really good for our district. We had two meetings that were really nice and brought us closer together. One was a lesson on virtue and we spent a whole hour discussing it. It was awesome.

Elder Toala focused on improving our teaching this week. I think we made huge improvements. We came up with analogies and questions to teach the lesson instead of having us just talk. This also made us more excited to teach because our lessons were more fun to talk about. So we improved in quite a few ways. Next week we have to teach our first lesson completely in portugues. That should be interesting.

General Conference was really nice. It was very encouraging and uplifting. There were a lot of talks on service and loving one another.

Busy week, but I don't really know what to write about. I've got two more letters to write so I'm gonna go do that.

Elder Siemers

MTC Week 4

Not much to report this week. I wrote quite a few letters today so, I don't want to repeat myself too much with this email.

Guess what? I'm a Zone Leader. Last weekend our current Zone Leaders were released and our current district leader, Elder Lott, and his companion, Elder Serafin, were moved into the positions. My companion, Elder Toala was made District Leader, and one of our sisters, Sister Wells, was made coordinating Sister. Our other two sisters, Sister Kersh and Sister Percival were made music coordinators. That's a bunch of leadership for our Zone/Branch coming out of our District. A lot of the older districts left this last week, so we are now one of the older ones even though we have only been here 3 weeks. Anyway, Elder Serafin received his visa the next day so he was a Zone Leader for less than 24 hours. I was picked to replace him. It's been pretty cool. We welcomed a new district into our zone this week. One of the new missionaries is the twin brother to Elder Larsen in our district. I felt prompted a few times by the spirit to teach the new district a couple things, so that was really neat. It built my respect and my testimony for leadership positions. They are really important, no matter who is in them. Elder Lott, the other Zone Leader, got his visa today. He leaves on Tuesday, so I don't know who is going to replace him. Who knows, at this rate I might get my visa too. President Aidukites will be really sick of appointing new Zone Leaders. When I get my visa I will get to call home the night I get my visa, and when I am at the airport. Both phone calls will be really short, like 4 minutes, but they should be fun. But, it all depends on when I actually get my visa. There is no ryme or reason to when or who they come to.

We got a new teacher today. Irmao Allred left us for a better paying job in Salt Lake. He was replaced by Irma Dickson. She is awesome. She went to Ribeirao Preto also. I'm the only missionary that I know of who is going there. Hardly anybody has even heard of it. No one knows where I am from, and no one knows where I am going. I'll have to get Irma Dickson to talk about Ribeirao Preto for a whole class period.

I think, as Zone Leaders, we get to pick the two people to say prayers at the devotional on Tuesday. That will be kinda crazy. Whoever we end up picking will be praying in front of 2000 + missionaries. It was either pick, or President Aidukites said we are doing it. =) I think he said the first thing though.

That's pretty much it for the week. It was really good. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

MTC Week 3

So it seems Elder Siemers' e-mail got cut off for some unknown reason this week. So don't be surprised when it comes to an abrupt end.



Life is good here at the MTC. I have somehow managed not to gain any weight. We finally found a scale and weighed ourselves the other day.

Earlier in the week we were informed that we would be filmed as part of a documentary that will be played between the Sunday sessions of General Conference. We were all nervous, and a little excited. They were going to film one class from each language and they picked us for Portuguese. We cleaned our classroom the night before. I even brought our Brazilian Flag back to our residence hall and ironed it. I told my roommates in the morning that I was going to be called into the travel office over the loudspeaker during the filming. It would be the perfect touch for their documentary. Our room is pretty crowded so I knew the camera was going to have to be in the hall. I sit directly opposite the door so I knew I was going to get some screen time. Our teacher, Irmao Allred was so nervous that wrote out our complete lesson on the whiteboard. It took him about 20 minutes to do this because he was trying to make it as nice as possible. He even drew some pictures which he has never done before. 12:15(filming time) rolled around and a lady stuck her head in and told us we were not going to be filmed. We were all so bummed out. I was looking forward to having everyone see me on conference sunday but not anymore. To make matters worse, the day after I got a letter from dad telling me he had just been filmed and interviewed. Salt in an open wound.

Portuguese is coming along slowly. I haven't taken a language class in years so it's been hard trying to remember language learning techniques. Portuguese is really weird because words are so similar to English or Spanish words. It's like they decided to spell everything completely different, but then developed a way to pronounce letters so that the words sound almost exactly like an English word, or a Spanish one.

Elder Toala and I decided to sing in the Choir this week. We sang "Be Still, My Soul". It's one of my favorites, so it was really nice being in the choir. I don't think Elder Toala wants to go again so that will probably be the last time we sing in choir. Unless I work out splitting with other missionaries in the district.

It was snowing today while we walked to the Temple. It was extremely beautiful. By the time we came out everything was covered in snow. My whole district are a bunch of wimps. Myself and like one other Elder actually enjoyed ourselves. Everyone else was just complaining about being cold and wet. I thought it might be a good test of my waterproof shoes so I walked through as many puddles and as much slush as I could on the way back from the Temple. The shoes work great. My feet were not wet at all when we got back.

The devotionals and firesides have been really nice. Elder Toala and I watched Legacy last Sunday. We have an option to watch one of 4 or 5 movies. He had never seen it so we checked it out.

Two Elders from our district got their visas earlier this week. They were called into the travel office and 14 hours later they were on a plane to Brazil. One of them was Elder Tyler, one of my roommates. He is a really neat guy. We mourned him for 3 days, but we moved in another member of our district into our room today.

MTC Week 2

This week has gone by so much faster than last week. The first week, we were on a weird schedule and had to go to all these meetings to introduce us to misssionary work. This week we got on the schedule that we will be on the remainder of our MTC stay. The first 4 days in the MTC feel like and eternity. Even though I have only been here for 9 days or so, it feels like 2 months already. The first week was so slow, but now the days are flying past.

We got to go to the Provo Temple today. It was really nice. I enjoyed going there because it was my favorite when I was a kid. It is so much bigger than the Medford Temple, and compared to other temples it really isn't that big.

Elder Toala (Meu companheiro) and I have been getting the most mail in our whole district. Just the two of us have got more mail than the rest of our district combined. He is pulling ahead of me though, because he now has received two packages and I have only received one. He also has one or two letters more than me. So, everyone, let's see if we can beat Elder Toala for the most letters!

Our lessons have been really nice. We have been focusing on getting to know our investigators and teaching lessons through the spirit so we can direct the lessons to their needs. It's so awesome. This feels so good. It feels so much like the feelings I had during my farewell talk. Just loving people for who they are. The other day we did a role play and Elder Toala and I tossed out almost the whole lesson once we started teaching. It was awesome. We ended up just talking about Jesus Christ, His Atonement, and repentance.

Portugues is coming slowly, but it is coming. I realize that I will not be able to learn the language before I leave the MTC. I do not have the ability to do so. I have been praying to Heavenly Father to bless me with the Gift of Tongues. I can learn the language with His help. I know He will make my weakness with the language a strength as it says in Ether 12:12 I think.

There was an awesome devotional by Elder Holland you need to check out. He gave it at the MTC sometime in 2009 and it is awesome! I don't remember what it is called but see if you can find it. It is so awesome. You can't take notes fast enough when you listen to it.

Elder Toala says oi.

Tchao!

Elder Siemers

First Email

I've now been the MTC for 3 days. The schedule our first week is really weird, but next week will be our regular permanent schedule. P-days will be on fridays. 252 missionaries reported the day I reported. My companion's name is Elder Toala. He wasn't there on the first day, so I was going around with a few other elders from my district. I lost them at dinner, and instead of trying to look for them, I decided to just sit down. I walked over to 3 elders and introduced myself. One of them pulled out his information packet and my name was listed as his companion. We found each other when we weren't even looking. Elder Toala is from Seattle, Washington. He's a tall, skinny Samoan. We are getting along really well.

Most of the missionaries going to Brazil are from Washington, California, or Oregon. Visas going through other places just aren't getting through. People are started to get their visas quicker and a lot of missionaries are going to Brazil next week. They had been reasigned to other missions, but their visas just showed up so they get to go straight to Sao Paulo. I think I might be able to go to Sao Paulo because most of the visas come through after about 4 or 5 weeks after they are submitted electronically. I sent mine in 3.5 weeks ago, so I might get mine. Most of the missionaries here didn't submit their visas until after they arrived at the MTC.

Portuguese classes are pretty intense. Irmao (brother) Kunzler and Irmao Allred are our instructors. They speak only portuguese while teaching portuguese. They only speak English when we are discussing other aspects of missionary work. How to get to know investigators and such. After the second day, all our prayers in class have had to be in Portuguese. We are trying to learn very fast. Portuguese is actually a fairly easy language to learn. I think I will survive.

We have 14 people in our district. 3 of them are sisters. Elder Lott was called to be our first district leader and after a very careful process of picking the people on the left side of the page, I was selected as Senior companion. We all get to take turns being senior companion, so it is not a very big deal. Our district gets a long really well.

The food is good, and yes Ty, the tiolet seats are very comfortable. I've stayed away from all the dessert and soda, because we sit all day. It is very easy to gain weight here at the MTC.

That's pretty much it for now. We only get 30 minutes for email in the MTC. We are very very busy all day. One of the Elders in our district has renamed hours to eternities. I've been doing pretty well with being productive with my time. You get so much thrown at you the first few days, it's hard to keep track of everything. I guess I'll talk to everyone later.

Elder Siemers

Day 1

Elder Matthew Roger Siemers received his mission call on October 30, 2010 to serve in the Ribeirao Preto, Brazil Mission beginning March 9, 2011 for a period of 24 months.

By the morning of March 8, 2011 Matt had finished packing, shaved off his sideburns, and was ready to go. That night at 8:30 p.m., he was set apart by President Morris of the Medford, Oregon Stake as the newest missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The above photo was taken minutes after he was set apart. On March 9, 2011 at 6:10 a.m., Elder Siemers departed the Medford Airport for the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center (MTC).

While in the MTC Elder Siemers can be reached at the following address.

Elder Matthew Roger Siemers
MTC Mailbox # 214
BRA-RIB 0510
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Before Matt left he set up this blog. It will be updated regularly with his latest emails and letters from the MTC and Brazil. If you would like, you can use this blog or Matt's Facebook to leave him words of encouragement and support. I'll make sure he receives all of those via email.

Check back regularly for updates. Even though Matt won't be able to "script, direct, record, or edit" this adventure, he will undoubtedly still find a way, through his letters, to entertain, surprise, and inspire us all as only Matthew Siemers can.

Good luck, Missionary Matt! We're rootin' for ya! :)