February 20, 2012

I only have 30 minutes to be on my email…Our schedule changes every day, but a typical day is getting up and getting ready for the day and then we eat breakfast. After that we go to our classroom and have Classroom time which consists of a Portuguese Lesson companionship study and other kinds of lessons, that is normally three hours long, we then have personal study. After that we have lunch and then language study.  And then we will probably have personal study time then dinner . Then we normally teach our investigator after that, which is pretty intense but ill tell you about that later.  Then we plan for the next day and go back to our rooms and get ready for bed.  My companion is really cool he is on scholarship to Cedar City University.  He is probably 6`3  or 6’4  and he is half white half black and he is pretty cool. We actually get along pretty well. His name is Elder Fitzgerald. We also have two other elders in our district and we are pretty much a four some. Elder Prenevoue ( prenevo) is from Conneticut and he is pretty cool, we quote a lot of movies together and it is a lot of fun! Elder Awbrey is a little bit different you could sayJ He was in band all of his life and to top it off he let his sister paint his toe nails before he left on his mission. Definitely a humble guy to let his sister do that to himJ Our district was butting heads for a little bit and last night we had a legit companionship inventory with our district and it was really good and after we were all best friends. Our teacher Irmao (brother) Maxwell is pretty cool he is from Buckeye Arizona, but he has been in buckeye the past couple of days so we have been having substitutes.  So with our investigator his name is “Jody” we started teaching him on Friday, but it is really crazy because we have to do our lessons in Portuguese! It is so hard because when I talk it is more like Sportuguese (mix of Spanish and Portuguese) J and my companion does not know a lot so he reads a couple of things and that is it. So it has been really hard on me because I have to do most of the work. He is not a real investigator, and we found out the other day that he is actually our other teacher, but he acts like a real investigator and asks questions that I would not even know how  to respond to in English let alone Portuguese. Also it is really hard to understand him because I don’t really know Portuguese but we still have to resolve his concerns he has and help him understand. Also a lot of the times he pretends to fall asleep during our lessons and that makes me so mad! But I guess it is real mission prep!  I had a cool experience the first day here when we  (about 40) new missionaries taught three different “investigators” they were acting but I think the stories they had and how they acted was their stories and how they acted before they were baptized. So the 3^rd investigator was asking about his son and wife because his wife died and his son died when he was three days old and was not baptized so we taught him that we can live with our families again and that his son was not doomed to destruction. He said he felt really good, but how did he know that when he woke up in the morning that he would not feel good and everything would be back to normal. I had a big smile on my face because he was feeling the spirit so he asked me this directly and I bore my testimony about prayer and he asked if I could show him how to pray so I went up and prayed and I felt real love for this man and I prayed with all of my heart that he would know that he could be with his family forever. I closed and I felt the spirit so strongly it was really cool.

I definitely have been struggling though we have had a lot of devotionals about how to be the best missionary and one of those things is obedience, and I am trying to be as obedient as I can, but it is really hard when my companion and the others in my district do not want to be 100% obedient. It is very difficult and I feel bad every time I am not 100% obedient, but I do not want to cause contention between my companion and I or between the district, but I am trying my best and trying to figure out how to do this and I just do not know how.

Preston! Holy cow that is so crazy! I love you so much! You have no idea! Way to be a man! I heard that when you woke up you asked if you could go back into the game! That helped me to be happier when I heard what happened. Way to be so tough! I love you so much man!! I love you!!

Rebecca-Hey so I was thinking about some new “power moves” if you know what I mean. How about Sparkle Bun Power!!? Does that work or do we need to think of something better? J Love you BEC! Remember next season starts today!

Braden-Thanks for writing me bro! I have been having a hard time! My companion and I are able to talk with each other pretty openly and that is way good! He is actually a convert for about 5 years now, but he just got reactivated probably a year or so ago. He wants to be obedient and he really does try hard to be obedient, but he told me that he can not keep up with the “hard work “ that I am doing. And honestly my hard work is just trying to follow the schedule. He said that he is lazy and that he cant really go as hard as I can. So I am trying to be obedient as much as I can, but I feel like I cant really be fully obedient because he has to take a lot of breaks and goof around a lot. We are definitely doing better and we are both trying really hard! But it is just so hard. We have actually have had 3 companionship inventories already! Pretty crazy! One was just because we had to and the others were real one.

Jeff and Laurel Tilley Family

Thanks so much for the letters! I felt like the guy on the Best two years because the whole zone was there to get the mail and my name was called like 6 times and it was sweet thanks so much Love all you guys!

So is Preston alright!!!??? I love that kid!

Sorry I forgot to tell you about the package. If you could send me my consecrated oil that is on my car keys that would be great…some Pens would be nice as well. Then do not have to be nice just like the Moxie pens or some like it would be great Thanks So Much I Love You guys. Maybe send me a Dear Elder to let me know how Preston is doing because I can get those every day, but only emails on Mondays! Love you!! Elder Tilley