Elder Ryan James Grant

January 2010 - January 2012

Brazil Belo Horizonte Mission

Baptism in Florenca

Baptism in Florenca

Thursday, July 29, 2010

July 14

Well hello!
I saw the pics of the babe. Ha already looking pretty good and hes like a week old! That's crazy that Nate and Aaron are gone. I remember hearing about their calls. So long ago. but so short. ha Aaron is in Brazil snap! That's funny you went as us to the open house. ha oh moms and pops. I hit 6 months yesterday. Seems like forever but seems like so soon. It's weird how time works here. I got transferred to my new area here in the center. called Santa Luzia. Its a really nice area. Like rich... BMWs and all. It feels like I'm just in Phoenix with all the sky scrapers around me. except for one dirt poor area that is just a ginormous hill of poor houses.
I was kinda sad to leave me last area. We had some sweet people ready to baptize this Sunday. And i didn't wanna leave the comfort of getting used to the place. Two boys who had 20 and 22 years were so awesome. A few nights before we met them we were making contacts on a road. I felt impressed by the Holy Ghost to talk to this one man. He didn't really wanna stop and talk and kinda kept walking slowly away. Then as all Brazilians do, end up just having their own conversation out of nowhere. Then he proceeded to continue walking and I said "Hey, Where do you live" out of nowhere. And yes he told me where he lived and everything. The next day we went there and he wasn't home. But we found Leonardo 20, and Junior, 22, who were firm in their churches. But they understood everything we taught and now this Sunday they're getting baptized. Oh man they were just like members, Leonardo was asking when I become an Elder, can i be Elder Leonardo? ha of course we said yes. Ah man Then last night our last family that we were helping get married and baptized we talked with. They have 2 boys 6 and 10. The oldest, Anderson, was supposed to be baptized last Sunday but that's another story. so hes getting baptized this Sunday, but i wont be here. I thought he was gonna choose me to do it, but I had to leave. So as i was leaving he just ran up and gave me a hug. It was so tough. You guys have no idea. I didn't wanna go! ha but i know that its because I'm supposed to be here.
Well,,, I hope everyone's doing absolutely fantastic back home. I miss everyone.
Love ya,
-Elder Grant

July 7

Ha finally he came! That's good Shars doing better. Tell Shar Heather and G-ma i said happy Birthday and especially a happy BIRTHday for Shar. This week was good, i got to go to a Zone leader conference yesterday again so that was good. transfers are already next week. Its crazy soon. I don't think either of us here will be moved though. But who knows? This place has been good But I wanna do more here. The language is getting alot better. Its getting easier to talk to people normally instead of having a mess in my head. But i dunno, ha its always been hard for me to start talking to people, but when i start its hard to stop me. I think I fit right in with the Brazilians in the hard to stop part. But I don't think I'll have that problem with talking to people with Portugese here So that's one less thing to worry about.
Next week will be 6 months! How crazy is that. It's hard to think about all that has happened in the past few months ha already a fourth done with my mish. yikes. Whats weirder is that its getting a little bit faster each week.

well here are some pics. baptism and... soccer field. ohhh how i wish i could play.
Love ya hope everyone's doing well with everything and shar and tanner are excited to have a kid! ha!
-Elder Grant

June 30th

Oh Mom...
This week was pretty good! Here are some pictures of the baptism we had. We finally got the mom to come back to church and hopefully we're gonna be able to baptize another one of her kids and a friend of theirs wants to also. This week we have 3 planned but only 1 or 2 are 100% One is a girl whose 19. Shes pretty much a member already before we met were. Living all the commandments and everything. Just pretty much popped up out of nowhere. Got a letter from Cedar today. He tells me he's a senior already and he's freaking out. I'm so glad im still a junior and learning all the ropes still instead of grabbing in the dark. Here in Florença is a nice place to do the work. Lots of people are being prepared. We´re changing up how we do things here and are just working on looking at one day at a time. So far it's been doing pretty well for us.
We were able to teach 2 lessons during the game this week. One was to a boy whose 19. He literally has nothing. His house is smaller then my room at home and his bed is the ground and that's about it. No door and lives right next to a brook so its freezing at night. He's got so many problems but were trying to help out of the ditch he's in. You can see the doubt and troubles and how much he lacks in hope just in his eyes. But he's got a smile that could make anyone appreciate what they have. Just lights up the day. Ha its hard Not to smile after you see it. Oh boy its good to be to here in Brazil.
Were being blessed so much even through our difficulties. My difficulties are becoming less and less as I'm becoming more accustamed with the language and teaching and everything. The Lord really is preparing the way even when you can't see.
I hope you all are being blessed abundantly back home. The whole fam! Mom I hope your doing awesome and great having the summer off and having another grandkid on the way! ahhh yeeeaahhh! I hope dad stays bishop til i get back. And thats interesting. B Bluth ward clerk ha nice...
Well I'm doing good!
Love ya Mom hope everyones doing good back home!
-Elder Grant

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Hyello peoples!
This week went by pretty quick. Lots of good stuff happened. Besides our broken toilet and us being sick from it!
On Sunday we sent a member to go get a family we are helping reactivate and baptize one of the kids. Ends up the bus that we take never showed up. And so we were late for church because it had to come back and get us, then the investigators already went back home. So we put our stuff in the church. Turned around and walked an hour or so back to our area using the highway. Ha at our church its backwards. We have Sacrament Meeting last. Which is sooo awesome. So we finally got to her house and she was way surprised that we walked all the way back to come get her and her family. But as the situation was, she sent her daughter, who is going to be baptized this week, to go get food. And so she couldn't leave. So she said wait here and if se returns we'll go. 20 min later we decided to leave because her daughter wasn't showing up. We started walking down back to church and 5 seconds after we left the house, we ran into her daughter! oh yeh. so we hurried up, found the bus stop and payed for the family. We arrived right after the opening prayer and announcements took forever so they got to come to sacrament meeting. What timing! Ends up as the story goes, she was baptized 2-3 years ago, by 2 Elders from Arizona. Weird I know. Coincidence? I think not. But hasn't gone to church since 3 months after her baptism. So 2 ish years of inactivity and yeh. She said we were the first elders to get her to come back to church after years of teaching her family. oh yeh. it was awesome. You could see it in her eyes the changes that were happening in her family as we kept stopping by to help and finally got them to church. Awesome.This week is her daughters baptism and its gonna be sweet!
Also we had zone conference yesterday. Its always good. After every one we all just wanna go get to work. But once we get on the bus were just like dead. Ha its pretty annoying cause it happens every time. The 1º part was on the Atonement. It was way good. I was able to understand a little more about the role of the Savior and the need of His Perfect Atonement, and what the Atonement means for all of us. Was way sweet.
Well I hope everyone's doing good back home! I'm doing pretty good here!
Could you send me some stuff to makes s'mores Mom? The past few weeks I've been really craving some.
I hope everyone's doing good back home and you're all being blessed!
Your son who IS serving in Brazil,
-Elder Grant



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Sunday, June 13, 2010

June 9
It's Freeeeezing! at times... it gets pretty cold here in my new area. A lot more then my old one. The first few days were terrible. I'm not gonna lie. I was freaking out. You know how all Arizonans get when they don't have the usual sun during the day. I was getting way depressed and sad. I was praying for sun. I won't lie. And it finally came to my luck? If that's how you say it. But it's good. Love the sun during the day. Shivering under the blankets at night.
We're having a good time here. It's really nice being a Junior to an LZ. I do pretty much.....nothing. No I can't sit in on the interviews but we travel about a half hour to the next bairro. I pretty much know how they run though. It´s not to hard to imagine. This area is really different from my last. 2nd areas are always tough i hear. But it's good. The bishop is literally crazy. He´s got one of those looks that stares ya deep to the soul. But he eats and breathes missionary work. So that's good. The members are bomb diggety too. Referencias like crazy. My last areas we got like 2. This we already will have like 10 in one week. Talk about jackpot!
Yesterday as Conselho(council of zone leaders) de LZ´s. I get to go to every one because i´m always with an LZ. Yesterday´s was a really good training. I liked it a lot. Lots of good things are going to be happening here in MG. Especially with me. I'm learning so much from my comp. I have to speak the language 24/7 which yes is extremely annoying but the last week i improved i could tell. My English is getting rougher to speak. tougher too. My comp can speak phrases. But i think he knows more. Because he's reading this email right now!
My area is dirt poor. Both my feet were just dirt. Socks filled everything. Just blessings here pretty much. Trials like crazy but só bêncãos sabe?
por favor me mandar uma toothbrush!
Well i hope everyone's doing great. Blessings are flowing in. Until next week!
Love ya moms and pops,
-Elder Grant
June 2
Yikes. this week was transfers. I got put in a new area called Florença. de Zona Pampulha. It's nothing compared to my previous area. It's dirt poor ha. All dirt roads, our house is well... we can sleep eat and study lets just say that. All we need right? There's lot of cheap stuff here though. So hopefully that will out weigh some things. My new comp is Elder Conceição. 1º Brazilian companion. He can speak a few words in English like High School Musical and Rain drops keep falling on my head. Only simple phrases. oh boy. This transfer is going to go by really really..... slow. Ha well see. He's an ZL so it's my 3º transfer with an ZL. Pres. Parella talked with him and set our goal for baptisms. Our zone is the top baptizing zone and our area is well... yes. So this transfer we have a huge goal. I'm excited. It's going to be way tough. ha but you'll be getting a lot of pictures soon. It's so weird. I'm in a new place with a new comp. I have that gut feeling but I'm way excited. Oh my.
World cup is coming up! I can't wait. We can't watch it but it's gonna be way cool. The people here go nuts. Everywhere has Brazil shirts and flags e coisas assim. nossa.
Love ya mamãe! sinto saudade!
-Elder Grant

Saturday, June 12, 2010

May 26
Well hello from below the equator! So, no matter how hard you try, the water still goes the other way. Trust me. Some days are cold here. But not enough to wear a sweater or anything of that sort. But my shower doesn't have hot water anymore. Just cold. It's tough at nights. Oh boy. The SUNS baby! oh how I miss watching them. Oh my gosh i wish I could be watching the playoffs! I hope they win. If they win you guys have to buy me a shirt or something. It will be terrible if they win while im gone. Iyiyiyi!
This week was interesting. People just pop up out of nowhere. For real. We marked 2 dates for Sunday. Both of them are really old. 60 ish and 80. The 80 year old is a woman named Maria. She has 2 jobs. And only drinks water. Nothing else. Shes a trooper. We're teaching a lot better. The Lord is truly blessing us. People just appear and it seems like they are just like Joseph Smith. Been to many churches. and are confused. Most have been baptized or married in other churches. Its nuts. This week we talked to a man who is the head of all the churches of a certain religion in Itaúna. The gospel really is perfect. The guy oh my gosh. He knew it too. But he kept trying to tell us were wrong. But then we had every answer and yeh it was just interesting. For real.

well this week has been good. Next week is transfers. I dont find out til Monday what's going to happen. The language is getting alot better. Teaching is fun now. And these people keep getting more interesing each day. Boy do they love to talk.
Oh btw, i got bit by this bug yesterday. My hand looks like one of those latex gloves with water in it. Word on the street too is my city is one of the few cities with "Dengue" in it. Some disease that bugs carry around... or something like that. maybe I should do something about it?
Love ya Miss ya Mom

-Elder Grant

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