Jan.19, 2015

The 100th Week...

Yep. I´m starting my 100th week as a missionary. Wow... i´ve come quite a long way.... I tell you what its a strange feeling writing this email. i´m thinking its going to be my last one to you guys. I´m not sure if i´ll get a chance next week becuase we have a bunch of stuff next P-day about this weird Life training thing that we will be doing. So If i dont get a chance next week Just wait 48 more hours and i´ll be sure to give all you guys a hug.

Also i´ve just come to find out that Conner Harris will be coming home the exact same day as me on the exact same plane. so you may just see the Tall Harris boy comming off the the plane with me. =) Carson has also said that he may just be lurking in the background somewhere when i get home if we both are coming home at the same time. he wont interfeir with the family moment of when i get home but he may just be filming or something the moment that we both get back on the airplane from some secret area. haha! 

Well i tell you what. i´m pretty anxious about coming home. i´m way excited to see you all. I´ve dreamed many times being on the plane (once even a boat.) of coming to see you guys. the nerves are killing me but there is a little part of me that wants to stay here in brasil. i´m definetly going to miss this place just a little bit. but now its my time to come home. 

this week that has just past, i´ve been reflecting alot on all that has been changing. if i were to say that there was anything that i truly learned on the mission it is the inevitable fact of change. I´ve heard of many changes that happen at home and many changes that happened to me here on the mission. I´ve seen freak changes in weather and unbelievable changes in people. i´ve really gained a testimony of what the prophet Alma refers to as the Mighty change of heart. God, if permitted and desired by the individual, can change someone permenantly. He has a power to free people of all of lifes vices, chains, weights to a life of true freedom. I´ve noticed many changes in my self and in others and i dont believe that god has stopped in his pursuit to bring pass the eternal change that he has promised all those who follow his son. That is what the enableing power of the atonement means. it means we must be prepared to change. 

I´ve loved my mission. I know this is this most cliche thing to say but its also very true. its been the best two years of my life. its sad to see it come to an end but I have my mission of raising a family in front of me now. I love you all so much. I´ll see you next week! =) Till then!

Elder Alexander

P.S. Kyle and Kevin, I hope you both know that your going down in Halo when i get back. =)

Jan. 5, 2015

How many minutes does it take to make a cup of noodles...?

cause thats how many weeks i have left too. =) haha!

So this week was pretty much nuts... we had a super dramatic thing happen in the mission. sadly this week we had a missionary go home from his mission early. which left his companion without a companion. so the Companionless, Elder De oliveira has to come stay at our house and now the other companionship in our house is now a trio. well we also had an emergency transfer all of the sudden and one of the elders in the was taken to Sergipe. and we got a new guy. so our house has dramatically changed and is really weird. We now have a companionless missionary that just stays at our house and goes to his area when the member from his area comes to get him. we have two brand new DL´s who´ve never been any type of leadership position on there missions before so they are both being baptized by fire in this experience. A trainee that will have his training finished by the "new DL" and then me.... the dying missionary... haha! so all in all we have 5 people in our house. all of which are in really unique positions. haha! 

Well carson and all you guys have made it super clear to the fact that utah is now cold.... it hurt my soul a little bit looking at the snow and the blizzard video that carson sent me... yep i´m going to be wrapped up in about 5 blankets sitting over the vent when i get home for about 5 ours a day. dont forget a coat for me. haha!

also this week in realation to the work we were able to find a rapaz that has already gone to the church a ton but he just needed to resolve a couple things before his baptism. we were able to talk to him this week and he agreed to be baptized this saturday. this was definatly a tender mercy present from god. =) we are super excited for him and will be trying to get the ward involved with his baptism. 

well on this thursday i believe you can start counting down on all your fingers and toes how many days i have left before i´ll be hugging you guys. dont get to trunky on me family. =) haha! talk to you next week! love you all! 

Elder Alexander

Dec. 29, 2014

Hey There Bishopric!!!!

So my daddy-O is Going to be part of the bishopbric now huh? well thats pretty stinking awesome! I would ask how you feel about it  but it seems like you´ve already responded by commenting on how your resisting the urge to vomit or sob. haha! but i Personnally have complete confidence that it is going to be a great new expeirence for my papa! Good luck on the new calling. Does that mean you can issue temple Recommends from home to me now? haha!

anyway! It was awesome to talk to you guys on thursday! I was thrilled to see that everyone is well! i hope that the christmas was magical! 

So this week let me tell ya was pretty rushed. Most of our time I feel like we were sitting and waiting. on wednesday we had to go on a division with a couple elders who live in a place called Viscosa. Viscosa is about 3 hours on a bus to get there.... so what ends up happening is on tuesday actually we had a Zone meeting which took our morning till lunch. we lunched then we headed to the bus stop so me and the Viscosa elder could head out there. we didnt get there till about 6 at night. we were able drop my stuff of at there house then we got to work for just a little bit. then wednesday comes along and my companion has to come get me after lunch. we worked for a little in viscosa and then i have once again another 3 hour trip back to our area. just kinda silly THEN!!! on friday we had to make a mini skit for the christmas party and we were told that the party would start about 2:00. well a few people showed up but sadly there was a last minute change that wasnt communcated to about half the ward that the party wouldnt start till about 6. well we were talking with every one that was there till when we finally figured out what the problem was about 5... kinda upsetting... but oh well... just a lot of waiting around... but that alright! 

But the Christmas party was really cool actually. one of the other wards that meet in our same building recently baptized a professional chef. He volunteered to make a giant feast for everyone that night. let me tell you that food was amazing!!! also we were able to have a couple of our investigaters there too. seemed like the really enjoyed themselves. 

But this week also we had a super cool experience. we were searching for a reference and we get to the area that we are supposed to be and start looking for a street called Gira Sol. well turns out there are 3. well we start going up and down these streets looking for the right house. (numbers on the houses her have absolutly no order. you could find 15 on one 167 on the other and then 8A on the next...) well we go up and down these streets for about and hour failing to find the house. we were really ready to just give up. but then Elder Emms notices and looks down a dark allyway. he says nothing and just starts walking down. Jokingly I tell him that were going to die for sure now... haha! we get out on the other side and turns out that there was a 4th Gira sol. so we start talking with people on this street and quickly find our reference. turns out he´s the brother of one of the missionaries we have out in this ward. he was super reciptive and says he is seriously considering Baptism. it was quite and find. If your listening
God will lead you to the elect for sure. 

Anyway! i´ll talk to you guys next week! thanks for everything once again that you do for me! I should have a chance this week to go talk to president about the letter from dad. dont worry i havent forgot! i´ll see you later! 

Elder Alexander

Dec. 22, 2014

The Final Area...

Well i´ve officially made it to my last area on the mission. i´m still pretty close to president and the office which makes it really easy to get materials. My companions name is Elder Emms. His from Arkansas. He´s pretty funny too! i Really like the guy! I´m in a Ward Called Bariloche. I live with one of the elders that i already got to know earlier in the mission. I lived with him when i was in Siqueira Campos. His name is Elder Archiza. I´m not sure if i ever mentioned him. I´m living with just a bunch of americans once again. Me Elder Emms and Elder Trout, are all americans. I think its pretty funny how except for the begginning part of my mission in brazil I have always lived with 3 americans and one other. So sadly i´m not so sure that i´m going to have such a problem speaking english when i get home. it will be pretty normal.

i´ll be opening up my christmas presents on christmas day. =) i´ve already eaten everything that was unwrapped but i´m waiting to open all the wrapped stuff on christmas. =) i´m excited to see what i get! me with all the other elders have been feeling them and trying all sorts of silly techniques to try and figure whats in side the colorful wrapping paper. We´ve all been pretty childish about the whole thing. haha! but the mystery will be solved on thursday. 

speaking of thursday Yea it should be fine to talk with you guys at 11:00 your time 3;00 my time. i´m hopping that its not going to interfere with anything like work or family get togethers. I think i´m pretty safe on the fact that its chrismas. Just keep me updated if theres any changes and i´ll let you know if anything happens on my end. =) 

So just a quick end note this week I was able to get to know the ward really well already. sadly we werent able to talk with too many investigarters but in one week i´ve basically gotten to know the entire ward. it well make help alot in making some type of difference in this ward. 6 weeks is not much but i´m determined to make somthing happen here. i´m not giving up till i´m on the plane. =) woop woop! we´ve been haveing some really awesome lessons though! even though we starting this area from scratch we´re still able to find some really good people to talk to. 

anyway! i´ll talk to you guys on thursday! write down the questions you have for me! I want some awesome conversation topics for my last skype call with you guys. Get the camera ready too! hee hee! Have a merry Christmas Family! Be sure to leave the Cookies out for Santa! i´m sure he´s coming! =) see you soon! 

Elder Alexander

Dec. 15, 2014

Transfers Again.....

So this week was my last transfer week. i´m officially going into my last transfer. sadly President has decided that I need to end my mission in a ward that I know literally no one because he has decided to transfer me to a new area. I would have loved to have just ended my mission here but apearently there is something else i need to do in a different area. So i´ll be Emailing you guys next week to tell you what the details are. Where i am, whos my Companion Etc.

Well this week we had a little bit of a miracle happen. A miracle that Truly changed the life of a family. I´m not sure how much of mentioned them but we´ve been teaching a family of 4, Alberto (dad) Andrea (mom) Kaylanne (8 year old Daughter) and Junior (5 year old Son.) they have been absolutly incredible to teach. they´ve been super responsive to everything we teach. So after a while of teaching them we were able to get the bishop in on one of our lessons. It turned out to be a great lesson and everyone left smiling. After the lesson we went to go eat lunch and about half way through the meal I recieve a call from Alberto. He told me that a Decision has been made about the church. 

That night we were able to go back and visit him and the family. We started talking with him and he ended up telling us what the decision was. He Asked us, "Have you as missionaries ever had to give up on someone becuase they never recieved an answer to their prayers" we didnt really know how to respond. The moment we tried to explain anything he stopped us by asking another question, "Well then i´m curious. When can i be baptised." 

That completly took us off guard. We really had nothing to say and about the only thing that came out was a loud "Woo hoo!!!" We were incredibly happy to hear about how he decided to be baptised. Sadly his Wife and kids were not so ready to follow and werent baptized this week. The Baptismal service was the best i´d ever seen on the mission. we had about 4 cakes, soda, all types of weird brazillian salty snacks. The talks were great! the baptism was only done once! it was just a great experience for everyone. Everyone went home feeling the spirit. 

We also had a different Girl be batized too!. Her name was alicya. She was living with a less active member of the church, but she finally moved out and was able to be baptized this week. She seemed really happy about. 

One of the worst things of a missionary is you rarely get to see your recent converts become truly converted to the gospel. you always leave when you really want to stay and help them become part of the church. but its a sad reality. I´m still grateful for the chance that I got to know the people of Boa Vista. 

Well i´ll talk to you guys next week. i´m pretty sure i´ll be trying to get my time in on christmas day, about 3 in the afternoon. (11 AM your time I think) let me know if there are any problems. president will be sending the times we can talk next week. i´ll finalize it all next week with you guys! oh! and hey I got my Christmas box!. I loved the snow man card! Thank you Family!!! Till next week!

Elder Cornwall

Dec. 8, 2014

Almost...

Hey there everybody! Once again one more week as passed by! and this week was actually really awesome!

Let me tell you a little be about it. we had a training in Farol. The lidership of the entire mission had a meeting where president talked with all of us about how we can do a little bit better. it was actually really inspiring. he told us alot about how revelation is very much connected with how much we are willing to THINK! He gave incredible examples and i was very inspired. I wish i could have recieved a treining like that in the begining of my time as a lider in the mission. but I will do what i can with the information for what time i have left

Also we almost had a baptism this week. her name is Alissia. she´s been wanting to be baptized for quite some time now. she just needed to separate or or get married after a very long process of trying to get them married they had a huge fight where in the end they ended up separating. well with the news of the separation we talked a little bit about getting her baptized. but sadly she had a tumor show up (not canserous) where she had to go to the hospital unexpectadly and have a surgury done. she was not super excited about that so now we will have to talk to her about getting baptized this week. 

we have one more family that we are working with too. Andrea and Alberto. they are super cool. If he ends up getting baptized he will be one of the most influential people in the ward. He´s a full time fire fighter and a part time buisness owner. he´s and incredible smart guy and knows a little bit about everything. and the best thing about it is that hes humble. he doesnt go around flaunting his knowledge about how awesome he´s made his own life. he really is one of the nicest guys i´ve ever met. he´s been having a little bit of trouble coming to church but they are external reasons. he always seems to have somthing going on. we definetly will not give up on him nor his family. 

Well sadly thats all i got for this week. not very much personal stuff but just know that i´m well and that i still think about you guys every day. I´ll see you in two weeks! buh bye now!

Dec. 1, 2014

I'm Jealous...

Yep. You guys have no idea how much i would love to be going to Hawaii with you guys but You´ll just have to take me out to all the places you went while i was gone when I get home. =)

hey I just heard some cool news. Laurie will be coming home tomorrow or wednesday. be sure to say hi to her for me when she gets there and also carson gets hom two weeks from now. make him write me even after he gets back. ;)

So this week was a little slow. Not a ton of newsy news. I´m not going to lie i´m getting a little trunky. Espesial being next to a guy all day that is going home in 15 days. But I promise i´m going to finish my mission strong. I have no intentions of giving up in the last transfer. 

As for news this week. we had some goodness happen. we found a crazy girl while talking with a member. we invited her to church and she immediatly responded. "yea i´ll go!" we were definetly taken by suprise. so we talk with her and found a day that we could visit her. she had a friend in the church so we brought him with us. when we got there an old man came to the door. we told him that we were there to talk with Josiane and if she was home. He said he had just gotten home from work and didnt know. we told him to ask someone if she was there. Then he got REALLY angry. "I TOLD YOU STREET RATS (molekies)  THAT I JUST GOT HOME AND I DONT KNOW!!!" He angrily slamed the door and went into his house. 

Although we were not completely taken back by the response. The young man we had brought with us was completly shocked. he told us that he couldnt believe that someone would treat an elder the way that man did. He started asking us if this was normal as a missionary. We told him that it doesnt happen so often this dramatically but its not unheard of. Because of this he said, "I´m Definetly serving a mission now." hahaha!!!

Well I think thats about what i got for this week. i´ll talk to you guys next week! see you! (in three and a half weeks) =)

Elder Cornwall