Week 20 (1/18/16)

Apple Pie and Twister with Elder Miranda at Sister Lucila Gualberto's house. 

Mom you are my favorite person in the world!!!

Hahah ah man, the first thing I opened when I looked at my email was that meme about the packers fans and that immediately made me soooo happy hahaha. Mom, lets get down to business..

SO GOOD NEWS my package arrived! Ihaven't  gotten the chance top open it yet becuase its with another elder in my district but he's bringing it to our district meeting tomorrow so I can enjoy and celebrate christmas/Birthday in full tomorrow :D hahaha Im so excited, I want to see whats in it so bad. And Lets see.... Ah crap I forgot to tell you about my comp... His name is Elder Miranda, he's from Paraguay and he's super timid. Also on top of this I forgot to mention, ya boi is the senior companion in this one ;) hahaha Ugh but man he's very quiet its hard sometimes but we are working out all our little kinks together :) I figure... My companion is probably gonna have the same attitude as my wife so i gotta find a way to work things out haha, and the other thing is you cant divorce your companion. Life needs to be more like the mission.

Also, my comp like i said is from Paraguay and brazilians have a joke with people from paraguay that everything from there is super cheap and crappy and so my comp is always really salty haha he's gonna start saying he's from US :P And my investigators are good we have been having problems with bringing people to church but I prayed and fasted about what to do and we are gonna baptize soon. With me seriously, If I can get them in the church just one time I can baptize them. Not bragging but man I just need to bring them, to the church ahha. The names of our investigators are Gostavo, Claverson, Wallace, Miguel, and Jonas. All like men of the age of 25. I tend to teach them and young men/women best :)

 Mom I miss our long talks but man this will have to settle for just a little over 18 1/2 more months :) hahaha I love you, keep the great emails coming they are very much appreciated.

Your son, Elder Worthen

Daddio,

This letter found me doing incredibly well dad hahahah Oh my heavens my hands were sweating as I was reading this play of the cardinals and WHATTT the panthers only lost one game? what is this? Opposites day? Hahah It'll be a good game for sure, but the cardinals are gonna win the super bowl this year I can feel it in my bosom... i have a burning there.... hhahaha :P man it'll be the cardinals versus the patriots. My two favorite teams. Ah man, you guys gotta get on riley about this chloe girl I wanna see a picture of her... im starting to have suspicions that perhaps chlose doesn't exist... HAHAHA Just kidding :P

Love you dad, Elder Worthen

Week 16 (12/24/15) Feliz Natal! Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!‏ Brazil Rio de Janeiro Mission

Amada Família

Que o amor e o Espírito Santo possam estar sempre presentes no seus lares,

E que o amor de Deus possa estar sempre vocês. Somos muito gratos pelas suas

Constantes orações pela missão, e por nós.

Oramos também para que o Senhor nosso Onipotente Deus os continue abençoando e

Guiando suas vidas e o rumo da sua família.

Amamos vocês, feliz natal e um feliz ano novo!

Com amor,

Missão Brasil Rio de Janeiro

          “A Maravilhosa”

Amada Familia

Que el amor e el Espiritu Santo puedan estar siempre em sus hogares,

Y que el amor de Dios pueda estar siempre com ustedes. Estamos muy agradecidos

Por sus constantes oraciones por la mision y por nosotros.

También oramos para que el Señor nuestro Dios Onnipotente les continue bendiciendo y

Guiando sus vidas el rumbo de su família.

Los amamos, feliz navidad y um feliz año nuevo!

Com amor,

Misión Brasil Rio de Janeiro

        “La Maravillosa”

Beloved Family

That love and the Holy Spirit will always be present in their homes,

And that love of God may always be you. We are very grateful for their

Continued prayers for the mission, and for us.

We also pray that the Lord our Almighty God continue to bless and

Guiding their lives and the direction of his family.

We love you, merry Christmas and a happy new year!

With love,

Brazil Rio de Janeiro Mission

           “The Wonderful”

Elder G. Morales

Secretário Executivo

Missão Br Rio de Janeiro

Week 6 (10/12/15)

This week Alek leaves the CTM in Sao Paulo Brazil for his mission in Rio de Janeiro. We did not recieve a letter from him on this Pday.

Week 19 (1/11/16)

Alek's new comp Elder Miranda 

Future missionary!!

Mommio doeee!!!!!

hahaha mommio I love you so much and the updates that you give me on the family. So me and my companion started an area of concentration in the little community and we are really pulling out results, we have a couple of dates marked for baptism on the 23rd of the this months and sadly no... i havent received my package yet but the lady that works in the office said that shewill  send me a call as soon as it arrives so i just wait anxioiusly for this freakinb phone call hahaha. Mom, guess what, Allie isall good  again! :) haha she is just having different feeling sometimes and it can be really confusing but its ok, its not distracting me. Im super focused and just want to baptize. Gosh heres the thing though lately i dont know why but I just dont have patience for literALLY ANYTHING HAHAH.... cAN YOU KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS THAT I CAN BE MORE CHRISTLIKE AND THAT THESE BAPTISMS CAN PULL THROUGH oops caps... But man I love you and the family so much, I got some straight fire pictures of the white dog that dadio sent me.. And man thats a shame you xouldnt go through with wade... Freaking cops... if you were in Brazil nothing would've happened, the cops here do nothing hahah. But thats so sweet, Im so happy and proud of wade did you guys talk after? How was it? You have a job yet?

I love you so much and Im working my buns off so hard here I'll send you some more photos this week :) 

Love, Elder Worthen

Week 18 (1/4/16)

hahahahhha Hey mom just kidding I know you are always incredibly busy with work and remodeling the house and such so you gotta do that.

But hey! We just started another new transfer, already working on my 4th with ANOTHER new companion in the same area! hahah Im gonna stay here forever! My missiob will be this ward. Goodness but its ok I love working here even thought this area is known mission wide to be the worst house for the missionaries in all the mission! HAHA Its ok though, honestly Im not here to stay in the house 24/7 and relax, Im here to knock doors, work with member, talk with people in the street and baptize!

This week was a little hard for me just because of the season ya know, its stinks when you in your house sleeping during the new years and you remember what it was like the years prior haha. But same time, we got invitied to have dinner with members so all is well, all is well. Mom, tell me about your life, always send pictures, I hear Briggs is getting pretty serious with this girl Jezerea, have you met her yet? also Hows the family, have you finally met Chloe? Is Sadie healthy and sleeping inside still? She needs to, she cant handle the outside, theres bugs out there.

hahah Momma i love you and hope you have an amazing week and always feel good :)

Your Missionary, Elder Worthen

Week 17 (12/28/15)

HaHAHA hey mommio Im doing super good too, I wish we could've had more time to talk too cause I have soooooo much to say :P It was so good to see ally'all  there, except allie, I got some news from saying that Im making things hard for her I guess which is kind of gay but I mean.... What can I do about it :/ But hey the exact same thing happened to me too!! Hahaha I ate sooooooo much food on christmas eve then I spent like all of Christmas just sitting on the toilet it was pretty rough :P

Life here is good, I have high hopes that we finna baptize again this week the names of my prospects are marcelo and mayra, keep them in your prayers that everything will be just golden with them and we can bring them in the gospel :)

 hahahah Isabel is so funny, I bet this girlfriend of rileys is imaginary... :P But I hear you have been getting sick a lot lately what this?:? get better! I love you and the family soooo much I want to skype more hahaha but oh well :P

With Love,

Elder Worthen

Week 16 (12/21/15)

We were able to Skype Alek this week so he didn't write a letter. Merry Christmas to us!!!

Week 15 (December 14, 2015)

How are you? I hope you are doing swell, I Heard that you sent me a box already!! AHHHHH Hhaha im so excted I really hope it makes it here, I finna be devastated if it doesnt...

But Look here momma, good news is coming your way... This week we had another baptism and oh man it was good, the name of her was Marcela... I forgot last like 5 names to her but so good, we are really accelerated the work here and doing just great. (I can see that his English is getting mixed up as he is starting to think in Portuguese)

So Listen, Im the choir right? And everytime they close a firseide with a prayer from someone in the audience.. Just random.. So this guy was chosen to pray and this was the best prayer I have ever heard in my life haha... During the prayer he referenced AND QUOTED the scriptures John 3:16 and Jeremiah 1:7 and instead of saying in the name of Jesus Christ amen, he just jumped right to it and shouts AMEN!!! hahaha I was dying.. But he had like one of those backrounds of the churches that yell when they teach so this was normal for him.

Momma life is so great, Im so excited to see my momma on Christmas, and hey if its ok with you I would like Briggs and Allie and Wade there too also. That would be soooo legit :)) If not ok... But thats it!

Also, Brazilians are really bad singers holy cow just thought I'd throw that out there haha, also, todat my companion and I super duty cleaned our house it was amazing it took so long, that house hadn't been cleaned in centuries. We grinch bagged everything, thats what I learned how to do from Dad haha. 

I love you and the family sooo much, I hope everything is just phenomenal there.

Love your son, Elder Worthen

Week 14 (December 7, 2015)

MOMMIO!!!!!

hahah Yay you wrote me this week! :) I cannot get enough pictures or stuff to read from you I love getting updated on all thats going on back in the beautiful country of America. Man so nice.. Hahaha Momma listen up yes i can see Christ the Redeemer statue but its not very clear im a couple miles away but on the very last day of my mission I get to go to the very top and visit it! :D

Ok, quick story... I feel like my calling here is to help all the youth come into the church and be baptized, maybe or maybe not but I continually find myself meeting and teaching youth. I hope so because then i will catch them, at an age where they can still serve a mission and my prosperity of my mission will be GRANDNORMOUS! Haha But the name of the young man I baptized was Juan Pablo Carvalho Gomez Da Silva.... Quite long eh? haha But super cool kid, I think that working with him we will baptize a lot of the kids in his community, because everyone there looks up to him!

Ah man Mom you made me litereally LOL when you just said finna, i still use that you already know! haha and yah I was a little saddened when I heard that the Kelloggs are already moving but its ok, after the mission Briggs finna move in with me I dont know where but we are probably gonna live together haha :P Im happy to hear things with Riley are good, I love him :P I wanna see a picture of this Chloe girl! Whats up with that??

 Ah man stinks... I thought for sure Melody would've won that crap.The Judges were probaly payed... Anywho.. Momma my companion and I are putting in mad work here, I love him he's so cool. We just eat a ton of food, and proselyte, and baptize without end... its all I know. Baptism. I hope for more baptisms soon, we have a goal as a zone for 24 baptisms and I need to carry my part of  the load, also, if we reach that goal, we get to eat Brazilian BBQ!! Oohh man Im excited for that, here BBQ is called Churrasco, but the rr makes a h sound.

Momma I love you and Im super excited to skype you on christmas, also, Im in the mission choir so I get to travel to lots of areas singing christmas songs so thats super great, I love christmas and hope that I can receive that package before Natal. But anywho, all is well with me, love you and the family more than you know and tchau tchau! :)

-Elder Worthen

Week 13 (November 30, 2015)

Laercio's baptism

My new comp, Elder DaMaia

(I was sick this week so I had Dave write lol, thankfully he "forgave" me without guilt)

This one goes out to the one I love, 

Hey mommio haha, I almost forgot to write you this week because when I opened my inbox I didnt have a letter from you :P Well, i forgive you.. I mean Im only doing the most important work in the world out here in the world and you forgot to write me... Its totally cool though i can undersatand! :) haha Imjust  playing with you. But man I am so jealous of you guys haha that cruise looked so refreshing, I would love cruise right about now. I would actually love a lot of things right about now... Like a warm shower oh my goodness that would be nice.. Also ranch dressing haha they only use vinegar and salt here for the vegetable like what is this?! I need some hidden valley!!

Speaking of things I need mom, I have been traveling a lot lately because I am in the choir for our mission, its super fun but traveling isnt free and I like food... SO could you put some money on my debit card, I would very much appreciate it and the dollar goes a long way here. SO if you just put like 50 bucks on it for this month I would gladly accept :)

Also, hows my package coming along? Did you already send it? If not you should real  quick cause that thing finna take a good amount of time to get here.. Also, have you received any more letters from me lately? I hope so this freaking mail here is so slow haha!

Momma, my new comp is so legit, Ill send you some pictures soon of me and him we have good times together :) I gotta go, love you to the moon and back

-Elder Worthen

Daddio, 

Oh man Ok lets get started... Things that I miss from the USA.... First of, Taco Bell, holy cow, and Mountain Dew.... Oh my goodness have mercy, the things I would do for a Mountain dew... Also, Hot N Spicy McChickens from McDonalds.. That would be phenomenal right now haha. The main type of food we get fed here is rice, beans, and some sort of meat, usually steak. And then there is always a dessert of some sort. Holy cow daddio, I love hearing about the Cardinals and everything. Especially the cardinals... hahaha and its different here yo, their lunches are like our dinners. So we have lunch appointments not dinners. Dinners here for me are usually like sweet bread or cookies haha :P Something easy. Life is going so good for me though, I love you and hope to hear from you next week too :)

-Love, Elder Worthen

Week 12 (November 23, 2015)

Fabiano's baptism

Ahhhh hahaha you have got to be kidding me right now hahaha. That sounds sooooo refreshing. I wake up everday at 630 and work my buns off until 930 than I have 1 hour to get ready for bed and sleep and repeat hahaha. Well not completely true, I have P Days which are 8 hours but mommio listen up I had my first baptism this week!!!! I will send  you pictures later his name is Fabiano and he is soooo cool, I'm so happy I have this opportunity to serve here, I hope to baptize more REAL SOON.

Ah Gosh.. To come back to a cruise would be heaven :) Hahaha and guess what, I get to skype you in like 5 weeks so that pretty cool too :)

That's so good that you guys got to celebrate your 25 years of marriage like that too, good thing you didnt have service ;) Haha you don't need a cell phone to have fun, look at me! I only have scriptures :P

And ahh Ok, Wade told me you were holding them haha :P But ok I guess the mail is just incredibly slow haha! Momma I love you and also, this was a transfer week and I got a new companion, he is a Brazilian, his name is Elder DaMaia.. Haha kinda funny because my other comps name was elder Maia.

Have an awesome week I love you send me pictures :))

-Love Your Boy, Elder Worthen

Week 11 (November 16, 2015)

Okay sorry I wiull be more specific in my emails I guess. SO this week was really really really good. Hahah holy cow the weeks are flying, Its already P day and Im already wrtiting you again this is justso  weird. But mom listen up this is the scoop on my life in Brazil... We have some really awesome investigators. Right now we have Laercio and Fabiano.... IM GOING TO BAPTIZE THEM THIS SATURDAY!!!! My first baptism holy cow Im so ecited! Elder Maia and I worked with them and they have super solid   testimonies so sinceriously pray for them that the enemy won't pull them away from this path and that they can follow the example of our Savior and be baptize and receive the Holy Ghost. I am so excited for them and they are so excited too. Also, we are teaching another family of Damnian and Nina... They are scheduled to be baptized on the 28th and Im pretty sure about that one. Not 100 percent but I really hope its follows through. Nina has a bit of a smoking problem but besides that they are good, they love the church and when we visit, so pray that they can stay strong and quit smoking :)

 Other than that we dont have a ton of investigators, we have been being blessed with lots of people to receive though! The only thing is I need to not be afraid to open my mouth with anyone. I hate passing people on the road without talking to them haha I feel so bad because everyone devserves a chance to hear about this awesome gospel.

YO I gave a talk this sunday about theSabbath day and missionary work and it was straight fire. I was preaching that gospel for like a solid 20 minutes up there without difficulty, thanks to that gift of tongues :) Hahaha

Mommio update on me... I currently weigh 175 pounds when I left I was160 haha, its because the people refuse to let me leave the table without eating like 3 full plates of meat, rice and beans and then i always a dessert! Hahah Im doing just fine with that. Also funny story, my compaion was reading in Romans the other day... You need to look up this scripture you will die laughing because you  know how I have really ugly feet and compass toes? This scriptures talk about it a little bit. My comp read romans 10:15 and said this scripture is a lie for me. GO READ IT!!! hahaha

Well this week was good, I try to improve more and more every week, I love you soo much and the family. I hope you get better... AND ENJOY YOUR CRUISE

-Love , Elder Worthen

Week 10 (11/9/15) IIha do Governador, Brazil

Elder Worthen and Elder Maja in Ilha do Governador, Brazil

Oi Familia!

Heyoo, how is everything gong in the wonderful state of AZ? How are my cardinals doing?? Just kidding I already know, I have a member in the ward fill me in. There are few people here that like American Football so I use them as much as I can to hear about the latest plays and stats n such haha :P You guys will probably need to spell chek literally everything I send. Im forgetting how to spell because I read in Portuguese and it is SOOOOOO different. The pronunciations and everything haha. Man Im not gonna lie, Portuguese is not easy. Im having troubles lately because i really want to express my feeling the best way I can and help people but sometimes it is just to profound for my vocabulary. Sometimes I wish I was serving a mission english speaking but other times Im super happy about it because I know this is where I am supposed to be and that I will improve and that I'm improving more and more everyday:)

So we have been blessed immensely lately, we have had the opportunity to teach lots of families and been receving tons of help from the ward. It's fantastic what a ward can do to help missionaries. My dream is to have all the members come to me an ask "How can I help?" Oh I would have so many things for them to do haha. This week I am giving a talk on missionary work and keeping the sabbath day holy in our ward. I'm pumped because I know this will excite our ward more about the work.

SO We have a couple baptisms marked pretty soon for the 21 I really hope they dont fall through because I've learned to love my investigators sooooo much and I know this will bless their lives so much so I pray every day  A TONNN for them. Hopefully I will have my first baptism real soon here :)) I will definitely send pictures of that :D

Lets see... Anything crazy happen this week.... Well I found a store inside of a favela that just so happened to sell mountain dew, that was pretty sweet haha, it wasnt the same flavor but it was still really good!!

I love you family, I love being a missionary.  The days fly by and the weeks too, Im going to be writing you another letter in what feels like a day but is actually a week haha. I cant even remember what day it is most of the time, they just blend except for when its Sunday. Anywho, tchau tchau for now, I love you! hahaha jk :P

-Love, Elder Worthen

Week 9 (11/02/15)

Illha do Governador, Brazil (Governors Island) 

Oh noooo.... Mom Im guilty... I waited till last minute to write this to you.. Im so sorry! 

Ah thats so cool, you guys sooo deserve that cruise. That sounds like so much fun I cant even imgagine haha. Mom im ma be straight with you...These past weeks were really hard with the language and our members and investigators and everything. Its fun but really hard. This week things are finally turning around. Ahh its so great, I got to meet a lot of new investigators, we have alot more help from the ward, the bishop is helping us too, things are really turning up here!! And my language is turning out amazing too!!! Hahaha Its amazing how great the gift of tongues is. Imunderstanding  soooo much more now, I love it and I know its because of the help from our Heavenly Father. I have fasted and prayed a lot for this help. I still need help Im not fluent but it is definitely improving :) 

I love getting the chance to bear my testimony all the time I feel the spirit every time I do it. GUESS WHAT?@! I'm giving a talk this next next Sunday in our ward already haha crazy stuff! 

Ahhhh I wish i had more time. I think thats cooking show is so dope with Melody and the fam, they sound like they are doing so good especially  Wade:)

Love you gotta go

-Elder Worthen