Hi family!

well i am going to get right down to the cheesey, i thought going into the holidays that i would feel very homesick, and its true that i did! but little did i think about how the most homesick i would be would be valentines day :(. but, i guess life goes on, technically.... haha

ok!

First of all mom! thats great to hear that you are watching psych, i love that show. are they releasing new seasons? i dont think i need anything as of right now, i will think about it and let you know next week, but i am ok! that stinks to hear about the package that diane sent. just some facts are that they x ray your packages, so if they see anything that you havent hidden, and they want it, they will take it. also, anything over 50 dollars on the claim on the package will be held at the post office until you pay whatever tax they decide, and its always higher than 50 dollars. lastly, if you put pictures or stickers of mary, jesus, things like that, they dont open the packages just out of their free will. but its true! i feel very blessed to not have had this happened to me. the package that you sent with the pants was opened, but they didnt take anything. i think they opened it, saw conference talks and old pants, and thought what the heck? haha but you said you sent a small package a while back, i dont think i ever got it, what wasin it? im excited for you guys to go to idaho! i wish i was there, but only one more year after this year... im sorry to hear that jenny is sick as well. being sick just makes life miserable!

dad, first of all im sorry to hear about all the traveling you will be doing. it just seems like the final push before you dont have to travel very much anymore, so stick to it! and bring skype along with you haha. your idaho schedeul sounds like its going to be a blast, im jealous that you will be around rexburg alot and i wont be at school, but it sounds like its going to be alot of fun, especially seing michelle! about your car, im sorry someone did that to you, did they rob anything? i agree with momwhen she said that maybe its a good time to pray about moving to a different house haha, but the kids in our neighborhood just conitnue to get more and more like idiots, what can we do? about transfers, this transfer is one week shorter than all the others! im not sure why, but once a year, this transfer,it just works out that its only five weeks. so i have 3 more weeks. i am sure that me, or elder borges will leave, because no one stays together 3 transfers in our mission, unless you train someone for 2, sometimes ir works out that you stay for 3. so one of us will go, but who knows? we will have to see.

now for everything else.

well this week has been a week of alot of different things happening. usually i like to have the same routine, it just makes things go faster, but i guess thats just life.

so thursday was the hottest day of my life. i am not exxagerating (how do you spell that?). it was ridiculously hot, and just sun, and eight hours of walking just made it the hottest ever.

me and my companion this transfer have been just carrying our book of mormons and planners with us when we work. its really the only things we use, and it just makes it alot better to not have a backpack or anything. it also feels a good sort of differentthat just the scripturesand my testimony slash faith is all we need to help people!

so thursday was the hottest day, and me as well as im sure everyone in marilia was praying for rain. well the next day it rained more than it ever has here in brazil, just the complete opposite of the day before. i was completely soaked the entire day, and after i accepted it it was actually really refreshing! anyways enough about weather.

well our investigator nirce has a baptismal date marked! in 2 saturdays. she is really great, and we continue to teach her everything we can, first out of preach my gospel, to help her learn more. she has been catholic for 30 years, so things like the trinity take time to explain, and to figure out for her. but all is well

we had something really great happen in our ward at church yesterday. a man showed up to church, and not recognizing him i sat with him through all the meetings and such, and turns out he is an investigator who has never talked with missionaries, and for the past 3 weeks (including stake conference) he has been traveling here to marilia to go to our church. he lives in a small city 30 minutes out of marilia, and he just showed up on his own free will. so we got to teach him what we could after church, gave him a book of mormon, and he´ll come back next week.it was great to see how the lord preparespeople, regardless of ward boundaries, or missionaries, or anything

this week my testimony has grown more than it has in the past 4 months combined, and it grew a ton the past 4 months! it started out with reading patriarchal blessings again, and then after which i studied the atonement and priesthood in the talks dad gaveme, the scriptures, and in other talks that my companion had. i studied it all for a week straight, just those 2 topics. and i learned so much! i learned alot of what people call ´deep doctrine´ but honestly it just makes it all make more sense. my testimony has really grown this past week, and i can truly feel the difference all the time. its really been a great experience

so other than these things this week was basically normal. oh! well because this transfer is only 5 weeks, and we usually recieve money every 2 weeks, we will all recieve the same amount of money for the last 3 weeks, not just too. so i have about 28 dollars (i figured it out with my companion ahah) for each week for the next 3 weeks. i am going to be even more careful with the money, but i would be lying if i didnt say that i will probably use some of the emergency money. but we will see!

were already almost at 7 months, it feels like yesterday that i passed half a year. i know that you are all my family, and i know that me and michelle already know were going to be a family forever as well :) but regardless of this i want to thank you for sticking with me after these 7 months. i have the best family i could have, the best future wife ever possible!! and i am just so glad that we all have eachother. you guys are a wonderful support, and i just want to tell you ugys that i love you, and that i am thankful for you. im learning never to take you guys or anything about us, or other things for granted. i just want to tell you how thankful i am. idont care if i sound needy, or weak, or what, but michelle, family, i literally couldnt do this without you. and i am grateful for you guys. just think about my mission as you guys helping the lords work, because every wonderful letter or email or video i recieve is just you guys behind me, helping me put my shoulder to the wheel. these are and will be the most difficult 2 years of my life in alot of ways. in almost all ways im pretty sure. but all that i am right now is a proof that missionaries need their families to do this work, and i have been blessed with a wonderful family, and even more special here on the mission already knowing and falling in love with whom i know i will spend eternity with. i love you all so much!

i have to go now, please take all my words as literally and genuinely as possible, because i am pleading through this computer as im talking to you, but its hard to show with just words. i love you guys! and until next week, bye! have a great week, and a great valentines day michelle, i absolutely love you! byee!!