Letter #19

1/23/12

Dear Family,
Ya missionary wark is warki but you can´t help but be happy and have a good time , that is if you are actually trying to work. Elder Muniz only has two weeks left, so in two weeks I will have a new companion. I was sick ( and maybe still am) for the last 3 days. Had a fever of 102 but I am doing better.  We meet some new people, a few are friends with people in the ward, and may have a date with the coming week. Understanding gets better everyday, not so much as the talking but I understand a lot more especially slang. It is kinda weird, if you speak formal Portuguese they don´t always understand you, but if you speak slang they think you speak perfect. So ya it is hard to learn a language only to have to relearn it. But is is all good.  Hope Spencer passes too. and that is an awesome story about Treyson. I really can´t believe he said that. So today Elder Muniz wanted to make pipas (kites) and so we are going to make like 6 for an investigator, he is like 8. But I feel like Elder Muniz will keep 1... or 2... or even 3 for himself until he leaves. O ya Saturday was fun. I got to go on a 4 hour bus ride to another city because we have two missionaries that our in our district living there. And it was pretty awesome except I was super sick and wasn´t total there but there was a baptism and then we didn´t get to leave for home until 12 45 at night. so yay by the time we got home it was 6 in the morning and so I basically got no sleep for Sunday morning, but it was still fun. The two attachments are about my hair cut.
Love you all and hope everything is super.
Love-
Elder Searle

Letter #18

1/16/12

Dear Family,
I am already done with 4 months and have survived 2 months in Brazil. YAY! I am starting to make connections with the language and it is starting to make sense, a little bit. Sometimes it feels like English when I talk with Elder Muniz. So ya I tried to download all the pics but it takes for ever so iy may take a couple of weeks to get them all downloaded. Oh and I can´t be logined in on my email account and yours at the same time, it is some security thing with the computer.  I will try to send my tie sometime today and I don´t know when it will get there.  I should be fine with money. I wrote Tony a letter and I don´t know if it helped, never heard from him.  Glad to see Dad finally got a teaching opportunity and he is having fun with his phone.  I have recovered from volleyball and I took great care of myself because I didn´t even peel, that much lol. And I am definitely dark now.  That's cool Chris, Zach, and Spencer are attending temple prep.  I would ask them to actually stop and ponder about the temple and what it mans to them. There is no right or wrong answer but the temple for me is very special because of what it reminds me. Like why I am here and what I have already done. Especially now that I can´t go for two years. Hope Sister Lewis will get better and that is pretty cool to hear about the only baptismal font.  We had another baptism. Kess Jones lol, he was baptized Sunday and he is 17 almost 18. He wants me to baptize his sister. Hopefully We will have another one next week, so thank you for your guy prays. Yup so nothing really else new here, I teach, contact, teach, wait, teach, contact, sleep and then basically do it all over again but it is a lot of fun to see people grow and understand. You definitely can see the spirit at work in some people´s lives and it is amazing.
Love you all
Elder Searle

Letter #17

1/17/12

Hey Family,

You guys are awesome. I got your package and letters. Thank you very much. I have been missing skittles and starburts for a while ( hadn´t had them for about 2 months lol). Anyways I got the letters from sister Axeman and Durbin and thank them a ton. I played volleyball today and now I am super red. I also able to log in on the account for the pictures. So hopefully I will upload them today. Lets see, We have one person on date for baptism and he asked me to baptise him. His name is Kess Jones. His kinds of strange but he likes to talk to me even though I don´t understand anything he says half of the time. He speaks a lot of slang. We had a ton of investigators this Sunday. Thank you for the prays and please keep praying for them. Arleide e Assil are still struggling but the progress is slow and may take another week or two to help them stay solid. I am learning you can´t push people or expect them to change. They have to want to change and that desire is hard to keep firm in others hearts especially when you don´t quite understand everything.  Entao eu estou bom. Elder Farely, outro americano é chato as vezes por que ele sempre falia isso, voce precisa falar Portugues mais. Entao eu sei mas todo mundo falaram isso e eu nao goste.  Eu quero falar mas dificil falar com outros quando eu nao entenda. So that part was to help dad with Portugues but yay. Learning another language can be annoying when everyone tells you, you do´t talk enough. I explain, in portugues why and then they kinda are shocked because I spoke a lot of portugues to them and then they realize oh maybe I should try to ask quetion about him inorder to either help or understand him better. Mas pode ser. (whatever) I will learn very soon and I am more confident reading, and taking the lead during lessons. So I will be ready when elder Muniz leaves. Yay so thank you Hannah for the pics and letter. I greatly enjoyed it. Thank you trey too. Hope volleyball gets better. Hope Spencer is working hard ;). Love you mom and glad you are doing well. Hope Dad is doing amazing as well. Pray for all of you and love you all. (oh by the way I didn´t have a pic of the family until I got the package and it is probably the best part of it. Thank you very very much)

Elder Richard Scott Searle

Letter #16

1/2/12

Hi mom,

I am doing ok. Couple of days ago kinda started to hit a wall.  Like it is one thing not being able to speak well and understand and another to be told you don´t speak correctly and not enough.  So ya... I did a lot of praying and a lot of thinking. Elder Muniz said I was being triste but I had a lot on my mind and couldn´t answer him why at the time.  I just want to be at a level that I just haven´t reached yet and the hard part is the more I progress the higher I raise the bar on myself. The funny part too is Enlgish is starting to be harder to speak. So hopefully you guys can understand this email.  Well I am sure things are being busy their and you probably have a lot going on so don´t worry about the letters too much. I am I do want them but you don´t have to force yourselves to make time just for me. Ya I wished I could see my grandmas and grampas one more time too. I miss the family but I am starting to settle here. That is a funny story about the sister missionaries. 3 days ago we were going to teach Arleide not to seperate from her husband and explain that it is a sin and life would be haarder to raise two kids without him. She actually prayed about it and recieved an answer to marry him. He has actually agreed. Before he wasn´t really wanting to do it and we are also helping them, a lot.  So now all we have to do is try to have arleide come to church with her family, as well as her husband and get her husband on board to be baptized. Problem is he doesn´t want to give up his achool. but it was cool Arleide recieved the same answer as us.  Sometimes that mountain feels like a path like three days ago, it is steady and strait and other like rock climbing a giant cliff and you don´t know when you will get over it.  Thank you Dad for the infomation about the pics and hopefully I will have time to upload them. Hope all is well and you had a great new year and always keep looking foward, you don´t want to be turn to a pilar of salt. (if you didn´t get that refrence I would go to the bible Book of Genesis chapters 11-14 and 19

Love from you son and brother,

Elder Searle

Letter #15

Hey family :D,

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.  So I already talked to you guys yesterday but today is p-day so I get to e-mail. Anyways today was my 1st transfer so I have survived 6 weeks here in Brasil. YAY! Now I just have to try and actually understand what people are saying. But with the Lord´s help I will be fine.  It was awesome being able to talk to you guys on skype and I can´t wait until the next time.  Well it sounds like things are moving there, slowly but surely. Basically the same here.  I am progressing slowly but surely. I told you guys I had 2 baptism yesterday and wore bishops tie. So I don´t know when I will be sending that but hopefully soon. I am just starting to get comfortable here.  But is has been a wild 6 weeks. Not knowing where you are, not knowing where you are going, and not knowing what people are talking about. Ya pretty exciting lol. Anyways Elder britto got transferred to the mission office. Elder Farley is going to be a dad(trainer). I am still with Elder Muniz. Elder Anderson my 1st companion in the mtc got transfered, his companion is going to be a zone leader.  And ya so not too much is new. right now we are in a threesome with elder farely until tomorrow or wed.

Love you all, hope for the best. And I am always praying for you guys.

Elder Searle

Letter #14

12/19/12

Dear Family,

 

Thank you so much for your prays and we finally have a date that is basically set in stone for Eduardo e Lena. Both will be married on the 23rd, then baptized on the 24 then confirmed 25. So my Christmas will be eventful.  Entao we will do a skype call on Christmas ( it will be 6 o clock here and 3 o clock where you guys are). Anyways we will probably do a test call some time this week to make sure everything works but make sure everyone is available around that time :). Thank you for the support dad and the info about basketball, I have been dying to know.  That will be cool to watch Blake and Griffin.  Too bad the suns are being the suns.  Anyways missionary work is definitely work.  We have been struggling with a few of our investigators and had to drop a few, which I don´t like but we may have two baptism this week, keep on praying.  I am understanding more everyday and even talking more, its hard trying to talk to people when you don´t know a lot. The president is having me learn 15 words a day, trying to do that as well as understand the grammar. It is basically old broken English, really old English. But the spirit has helped alot and I believe because the spirit I am able to understand more.  Well I have survived 5 weeks so far in the field. Who would have thought one person not understand a single word can survive.  Well still waiting on that account where I can send you guys pic (DAD) lol. I have a lot of pics for you guys. Couple of days ago it poured hard, real hard, the streets were flooded, I guess that is not normal in my area.  We also got to do a tour of the chapel in English. It was to help a Brasilian learn English.  Lets see... I played volleyball today, it was a lot of fun, had mission conference and it was basically a party because of natal. I don´t have a whole lot to write about this week, maybe Brasil is starting to feel normal idk. Well Still trying to work hard this week will be Crazy because I guess there will be a lot of splits and interviews for baptisms which will be good. Everyone in my group has a vista and we are basically in the same area just different zones.  My area is varzea grande, cristo rei. basically a river separates cuiaba and my city. it is kinda hard to describe exactly my area, I just know I am there lol. Well I am doing well, feel stronger, and Idk I just feel a lot happier this week maybe cause natal, baptism, or cause I will get to talk to you guys this coming week. Keep loving life, se amo.

Elder Richard Scott Searle

Letter #13

12/12/11

Dear Family,

Got your blue letter with snowmen on it. Thank you for the scriptures dad. The bat was alive and they put it on a tree outside our house. It was pretty small. I took pics of it. We might do skype for the phone call on Christmas ( very most likely). I had to wash my clothes by hand for 3 weeks and all the clothes are dried by hanging them up.  I only get a headache when I talk and listen in Portuguese and by the end of the day my brain feels like jello. I am learning about 15 new words each day. I don´t always remember them the next day but some words are starting to click and make sense. For example ficar has like 4 different meanings and almost always can be used in a sentence. Elder Muniz and I are getting along and he makes the mission a lot of fun and we work a lot too.  He has made teach a few message on my own during family night with members and Eduardo´s family. So I am slowly getting the language down. We had another missionary in my group get his vista and he is in my district. Technically anyone can email me I can only email family/extended family back.  So I don´t know what team I should be on here in Brasil. I am more leaning toward the Corthians but I want to know what team is dads. Well we should have 2 baptisms this week so please pray for them. We need all the help we can get. A lot of our investigators are bailing out on us.

Love you all

Elder Searle

Letter #12

12/5/12

I can´t think of nothing that I need or want at the moment because I am still a little overwhelmed here, but it is getting better and I don´t feel as home sick I as did before.  I also got your guys letter couple days ago from nov 17 and they really lifted me up so thank you. This week was better we almost taught 20 lessons, which was our goal, we were one short.  We have about 6 people "preparing" for baptism. They are having some issues either reading, attending  church, or praying.  I am starting to say things correctly and almost able to answer bigger questions lol. Elder Muniz has to remind members I only know simple Portuguese and don´t understand most of the words they are saying.  Present tense is almost normal, just have to learn the over  or 7 tenses. It also doens´t help that I am in the redneck area of Brasil and no one here speaks correctly, but I am trying my best to understand as much as I can. I want to write two stories Elder Bednar told when he was here. The 1st is about a tradition in the church. It is a game called guess what is in my head. The teacher asks question that he has an answer to already. He told us that this tradition is silly and only teaching acquires, there is no learning. For example he called on one missionary to stand, the missionary one was surprised and two became very nervous thinking at he would have to answer a question. Elder Bednar explained the missionary when called on has forgotten everything being taught as the fact that an apostle of the lord had called on him he even probably forgot his name and where he was.  We should not do this to our investigators. our answers do not matter, theirs do.

The other story is when he was in Germany. His 1st area was basically called Zion because they had a car, peanut butter (it was free), and the area was beautiful. then he got transferred to an area with no car, rained a lot, no peanut butter.  all he could do was think about the things he missed but that nigh prayed to heavenly father to help him remember the basics of being a missionary. He didn´t need to learn new things, just the simple basics. he then stated that the area flourished, he forgot the peanut butter, the car, the warm beautiful in his last area.  And he was happy. I am trying to do the same and so far I am happy, tired but happy. I have experienced horizontal rain, hot rather, investigators that stop investigating and the biggest headache in the world but some how I am happy.

Here are some 1st here

• I had something that was like coffee but wasn´t
• No washing machine for 3 weeks
• invited someone to prepare to be baptized after church
• Saw the entire congregation bear their testimony ( basically all of them)
• found a bat
• Got lost

The got lost part wasn´t that big of a deal he just didn´t know when to get off the bus.

Yes we walk everywhere expect district meeting. we ride in a cramped bus with a crazy driver.( Brazilians are crazy when it comes to driving). The phone call home, OK this is how it will work. I will call you guys from a members house on the p-day before Christmas and tell you guys to call this number at a certain time on Christmas. We even can do a test call that day to make sure it will work.

Well I love you all and wish the best for all. You guys are always in my prayers.

Ficam firme!

se-amo

Elder Searle

Letter #11

Sorry I have not kept up with the posting but I will make it a resolution this year.  So let's catch up.  I will post them in order dates will be on top.

11/28/11

Dear family,
Sorry not telling where I was serving. I am serving in Vandeza Grande, I believe. It is a city near Cuiaba. It is basically a swamp/bog and there is trash everywhere lol. It is basically the redneck area of Brasil and everyone here technically doesn´t speak correctly, thus why I have been confused sometimes when they speak.  P days are on Mondays and I am required to write to my family everyday, so I will be able to send letters once a week. I don´t know how they do the phone call thing and I will be sure to ask.  This week was pretty tough. A lot of our new investigators are not progressing and Eduardo and Leanne are not keeping all their commitments. They are planed to be married and baptized in 3 weeks, so we are hoping they will try a little harder and hopefully come to church the next couple of weeks.  We had two investigators actually come to church. They said they liked it and it was good. they also said they would read and pray. So hopefully we may have some progress there.  My head hurts everyday but sometime it feels like I am understanding more every day. I have a goal to learn 15 new words everyday and then read the LDM as well as practice speaking and understanding the lessons. Some days I feel really nervous but as soon as I start working I am just fine. God blesses me everyday and I try my best to speak and help the people. I not going to lie I miss home a lot but when I working I able to forget myself and just let the Holy Ghost do its job. Today I think I am giving a lesson in the Gospel Principles book. It is for family night for Eduardo´s family. So I going to be praying a lot today like everyday.  I have learned that the Book of Mormon is priceless to me and I love reading the scriptures, which I always have but I have gained a greater understanding of their power in my life. I have also come to understand that I need pray as well as I want to pray every moment I can. Its like wanting water everyday cause its so hot. Speaking of hot, I guess it gets pretty hot in dec to march/April so I guess this is nothing but its not too bad so far, it more like it sucks to be sticky and you feel like you are slowly baking, unlike AZ where you are roasting away. Well I love you all and pray that all you guys are being blessed and having a great time.
Elder Richard Scott Searle