Tan's Letter

hey there my wonderful mother how are you doin these days? i hope all is well out there in cali....so headed up to brigham this week huh? oh tell grandma i said happy birthday please =) thanks...so for you questions....
*ANY NEWS FROM YOUR END YET?

Glad to hear that you sat down and talked to you companion,

i just said that i thought he didnt like me and if i was doin something wrong to tell me and he was like no things are good no worries a=nd well after that things were a lot better hahah

HAVE YOU HAD A BETTER WEEK THIS WEEK TOO?

yeah this week was really good too thanks....well reallly really good no but it was still good. we are working hard and tryin to do our best thats for sure.

HOW WERE YOUR ADVENTURES LAST WEEK AT THE PARK? PICTURES?

the adventure was great i feed a monkey hahah it was pretty cool. he took the food right out of my hand lol...i told you in the family letter about it.

*WHAT DID THE MISSION PRESIDENT SAY TO YOU IN YOUR LAST INTERVIEW...

well he said that i was going to get transfered...he said he hasnt forgotten about me out here and said to keep wprkin hard lol....he thought i only had 5 months out here and he thought i was still comps with elder firmino (my last comp) hahah hasnt forgottenhuh??? hahah jk jk

*DID THE FAMILY YOU WERE EXCITED ABOUT COME TO CHURCH THIS WEEK? (the one where the dad was a member but inactive?)

no they had to take care of her step-dad who well cant do anything by himself...so it was had for them to go.

And how exciting that Carla was baptized and confirmed...that is awesome...what a blessing, DID SHE COME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY?

she was there she went early as well =) which is good bishop said he was going to talk to her about blessing her baby to the ward. so we shall see.

Dallin sounds like he is doing great..I THINK he is in Alfenas---know where that is at?

i have no idea where thats at sorry...but letter from dallin well if they sound cool head them my way....what has he been sayin?

so other than that mom things are going great here with me i love the mission more than ever and i sure do not want it to end...ugh...i love this place and time is flying this is unfair! hahah well mom i love you and miss you tons have a great a week.

love elder hemphill

p.s. pictures are of me and my comp....me and elder stoll and elder bennion and well of me hahah elder bennion i in the red shirt elder stoll is the other one. and well you have already seen my comp right?

Picture of Tan ....

Monday's Letter! YAY!!!

hello there my wonderful family how are we all doing this week? i hope all we well for you on the wonderful easter day. sounds like this ast week was one of tons of laughters for you a and well to be honest here we had one LONG day of laughters well laughing at me to be honest hahah. so on a wonderful saturday morning one elder hemphill wakes u with the most pain i have ever felt before in the neck and shoulder (yeah mom remember that one time i couldnt move my neck one side o the other? thats whatis was like again). so that just started the day...walking down th street hearing ``oh elder`` and turning my WHOLE body to say hey. oh tons of laughs huh? haha... to metion at our lunch apopointment it was just calling my name so i had to turn my whoe body to talk to the person...they had more laughs at that. hahah yeah hae to admit it was pretty funny actually. a little while leter e head over to go teach some people....and to get to these houses we have to walk on a dirt road. and sense it hasnt rained here in about 2 weeks they have water tractors utting water down so there is less dustlying everywhere. yeah so it happens that we are on this road when right when they put the water down and they left a couple of puddles of water....yeah you can see where im going with this huh?...so there was a car coming and he wasnt coming slow thatsfor sure....yupp and well as we walked he hit the puddle of water (full of mud) and i got to take a shower of mud hahah funny huh? i sent a picture of it maybe it might be a hard to see the spots butit waw really bad. so i look over to my comp and his shirt is as white as snow and he is dying lauhing at me hahah...so when the car came he jumped behind me so i just got dirty hahah...oh what a day right? well it doesnt end. we walk to our house to change clothes and yupp ther was a drunk guy in our way called us over to talk to us and he starts saying this``you know we are all trees! we are mountains we are birds and we are flowers!`` okay alitte wierd right and then he goes on ``you know what every school needs here. do you?`` he continues ``every school needs a garden of flowers...yes a garden of flowers``oh we had a good time laughingat this one. and well that was about it until 8:30 at night oh no! so we go over to an investigators house and he wasnt there but we see on of his friends next to his house and she comes to say hi to us. so i shake her hand and he mom (who is drunk) is sitting there stands up and yells ``do not hold my daughters hand.....i dont want to hear it..because i said dontold her hand...just dont``...i havent even said anything neither has my companin...everyon else that was around was like elder no worries she is drunk....so we just nicely say bye good night and we left. oh what a day huh? that was our saturday night it was fullof adventures huh. to be honest that was the most exciting thing that haened this week cause this week as another one of those weeks were things are going to good for us aha. a lotof our invetigators are going beind us and well thats how things are forus. im just hopin it was because of the holidays this week. here in brasil thursday-sunday were holidays thursday as ``take out teeth day`` what a holiday huh they named it that cause there was a huge politic guy who was a dentist as well and then we had semana santa as well. so everyone as traveling and not wanting to talk to us. but these last cople of days im really loving the saying ``when you have a bad week that next one will a lot better`` so we are praying for a lot better of a week. As for things with my companion he i doing so much better started to talk alot more this week. he said he is a really shy guy bu when he gets to know people he starts talking a lot more oh thats good. ad his trunkynessis fading away which is even better. so things are looking better and better. hnow hopefuly we can jst get some people to come t church with us. =) we re working hard and we shall see what this weeks brings. i love you all and miss you tons, happy easter yesterday. te amo.

love elder hemphill

p.s. ictures are of our district its me, elder frietas (next to me) elder firmino(other one siting down) and my comp elder gonçalves (standing up).....another one is my accident with the mud bath. and the last one is a wonderful sunset in our area.

Monday's Letter!!!

well hello there my amazing family how are we all doing this week? so things here are going good and things well are going along also hahah. so with transfers well i think it will be fun to play a game you guys guess where im at and next week ill tell you hahaha jk jk jk but that answer is........thats right i stayed one more transfer in my area. and im tranining one more time!!! yay!!!!! thats riught i have another kid. His name is elder gonçalves he is from forteleza as well as my last kid which is wierd huh. he comes well we can say his family has a lot of money. everyone in his family are members even his fiancée thats right he is already engaged and i dont think that did any good for the kid =/. to be completly honest he really looks like he wants to go home already actually he doesnt look like he has already said he misses hom everyday of his mission which makes me a little nervous for the kid. i really hope he doesnt want to go. i really like him though he is workin hard, however it is a little challange cause he doesnt like to talk to people, and he doesnt know much of the lessons so that means im teaching 90% of the lessons. hahah which is fine i just love the help. so things here are going good i have decided that my ward either hates my guts or loves me to pieces on tusday i got 5 calls from 5 diffrent people asking if i got transfered or no hahah so i sure hope they like me and not wanting me to leave haha. So this week was pretty good though a little diffrent because we only had half the week to work, we got back to our area on wednesday which made it another challang to get thiungs going up again, however things turned out okay at the end. the investigators well honestly w started over this week cause nobody was making much progress and we ended up finding a couple of good people. this week will be a little bit of the same thing untill we had]ve a pretty solid teaching group. sohopefully things work out. i have come to a conclution that if our members in the world work as much as the jehovahs witnesses we would baptize so much more i mean. im not jokig imn my area evreyday they are working on the streets but every saturday and sunday is worse all the members go out knock doors to teach people oh how that jkills us here. seriously though only if our members would do that as well it would help us out a ton. Today was pretty cool well kinda yesterday me and 2 other americans went to the mission office cause today we went to the police station to renew our visas, and that was sure a ton of fun. haha we got backj right now thats why we have to late letter. anyways it was kinda funny cause there was another 2 missionaries that went with us and one was trtaining so he went with his son (companion). how and what a sad day his tranier was playing jokes on the kid all day. (the police station here is at the airport) and when a plane was taken off and he looked at his comp and he said ``you think that plane is far away?`` his comp said no i dont think so. when he replied ``well for you it is another 2 years`` oh poor kid. when we were leaving he said get a good look at this place son cause its the last time you´ll see itfor 2 years. oh man how that probably hurt th kid haha. anyways my wonderful familçy i better get going i sure do loveyou guys and miss you tons. have a great week and know i love you. oh i sentsome pictures one is with my new companion and the other ones are from last weeks zone activity. with my new pkg of course as well =) ............love elder hemphill

Monday, April 4, 2011

Have fun with the spelling :)

well hello there my wonderful family how are you guys doing on this monday? well things here are going well lets just say wasnt the best week for us nor our zone. We startd out the week very well teaching and what not, and then what do you know the end wasnt the bet however, things for this week are already looking good, already got a phonecall this morning with a referance for us =). and like as everyone says when we have a bad week its cause heavnly father is preparing for a very good week...so who knows right.

So, it just so happens that our investegators just want to play games and not want to do anything with the gospel. =/ which blows this week will be the start over week again unfortunatly and it is the last week of transfers, thats right next tuesday is transfers, so if i stay or go who knows. we shall wait and see next week on the e-mail of elder hemphill hahah...(sorry when is i started that sentance i thought of those tv reality shows so i had to finish the sentance like that haha) anyways it was one of those weeks where you have tons of apointments and then when you get there they are inside but turn of the tv week. you know like we really saw the work of satan this week that is for sure. oh not to mention wherever we were the jehovahs witness was right behind us haha, really thought not lying. if one church knows how to do missionary work besides ours its them. everyday they are outside knockin doors and what not its horrable. lol.

Well things with the comp are going great, we get along so well and work way good together i think these last 2 transfers i´ve taught better than ever, he really is a good guy and forsure will be a great leder on the mission one day. as for confrence it was anpther great one it seems to get better and better every 6 months. it kinda sucked because this time i had to watch it in portuguese which wasnt to fun howver it was still way good. i mean yes i understood it of course it is just so diffrent i mean it just isnt the same, seeing elder holland talk haha. its wierd not to hear the vocies of the prophets its other people. however elder scott speaks potuguese and he translated his talk befor hand so that was pretty cool. we were lucky and we had confrence at our church here so we didnt have to travel to far. haha. well i better get going i attached some pics i hope you guys like them, me and my comp, one me and my jersys that i have and us ata members house waiting for lunch =)

i love you all and miss ou tons,

love elder hemphill

LETTER TO MOM:

hey mom how you doin today? so i sent 2 more pics, one of me and my comp and the other is of a street in our area just to show you guys a little what houses are made of here. so these week well honestly was a little rough however, it happens on the mission right? we arent to sad because we know this week will be a better week =) and well to be honest you just cant get sad about this cause that is only what the enemy wants huh? so we are still happy and forsure will have a great week ahead of us. maybe thats why people dont want to talk to us i forgot to brsh my teeth this week and shower the water is cold so its been 2 weeks sens i´ve takin a shower its not to bad though its cold so i dont stink hahh jk jk jk om ont worry im brushng and showing. lol

*HOW DID YOU GET TO WATCH CONFERENCE? WHERE DID YOU GO? DID YOU GET TO SEE ALL OF IT? WHAT TIME DID YOU SEE IT AT?

wewatched confrence at the church i had to watch it in portugues why? cause one they didnt put it in englich and 2 im the only american and i had to stay with my comp=/. the sessions start at 1-3 and 5-7 here and i only missed the preisthood session =/ the best one huh.

*WHAT WAS YOUR ZONE ACTIVITY LAST WEEK?

we headed ovr to the stake center and played soccer a lot and after words we cooked some spegetti really fast. it was a lot of fun actually. we stayed the night over there cause we had district meeting in the morning so it would have been pointless to come home and go back the enst day. so we had a family night with members there which was really good.

*Ummmm DID YOU GET A PICTURE WITH PEDRO?

yes i did i sent that one as well cause i know you would ask for it hahah so there it is me pedro paulo which is the black one, renato and my comp. renato was also baptized that day he was a refrerance from a member who is way cool, had a lot of difficulties in his life, but thank goodness things are going great with him. he came yesterday to confrence which was way good.

*SO HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE DIDN'T LIKE YOUR TALK LAST WEEK?

i dont know if they did or not, i know some liked it but for sure i know some didnt i think it was just more of the guilty thing but oh well, it needed to be said.

*DO YOU EVER JUST FOCUS ON WORKING WITH THE INACTIVES AND GETTING THEM BACK INTO ACTIVITY?

yes and know i mean we try to. normally what we do is when we find inactive families we send the ward missionaries over there and we still visit them about once a week.

ANY PACKAGE NEWS YET?

no however we get mail this week so we will see

WHEN ARE TRANSFERS AGAIN?

transfers are next tuesday

*SO ELDER CHRISTOPHERSON IS COMING TO YOUR MISSION? THAT IS COOL....WHEN?

well i dont know if he will talk to the missionaries or what but he is doing a family night with members in a stake here. so im hoping he will have a day with us for a confrence. he will be here the day after easter i think.

well the mission is awesome i love everymin of it, it really is hard to tell you what i have learned the most on the mission beacause i have leared so much until now and will continue to learn. everyone tells me that i have tons of patience so idk if i havd that before or not hahah, and well idk its hard to tell there is so many stuff, im just so grateful for the mission and everything i have learned everyday i thank heavenly fther for the gospel in my life because this is the only happeniss that we have and of course families.

i love you mom and miss you tons have a great week.

love elder hemphill

when sam comes home give him a great big hug for me k!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Yes I'm a LITTLE late in posting his letter from last Monday, but its a good one :)

well hello there family how are we ll doing this day? well today will probably be a litle short cause we are in a bit of a rush, we headed out to the zone leaders area to have an activity and me and my comp got here a little late so sorry about that haha. anyways, things this week well were good untill the last 2 days then it didnt go so good hahah. we have been teaching a ton and getting a good amount of investigators however saturday they decided not to be home and thats not a good day to decided not to be home haha. so this week we have been rushin around trying to teach as much as we can to get a good amount of people at church. we had a couple of interesting experinces this week actually it was interesting however not the best hahah. so we have been teaching this girl who was way interested in the church however she didnt belive much in god or jesus christ so we started way simple and taught her, she actually went to church a couple weeks ago. anyways this week we went ove to teach her and we saw her in the street, she said that she wante us to pass by her house more to teach her more, so we marked to go there the next day again, and well idk what happened between that day and the nex cause when we got there she didnt like it haha. when the door opens we hear her uncle yell `just tell them you dont want anymore geez`` oh no!! lol so we get in and talk to her still and it jst got worse she just got way hard to teach she said that she is who she is and she isnt going top change that she awnted to to continue to drink and go to gang parties still, and she said she wouldnt believe in god until he appeared to her and say ``im god`` oh no! so that just startd the week off haha, but after that things go a little better to be honest it just sucked cause she was actually progressing and than all the sudden out of no where no i hate you guys you know ughh haha.

other than that we have been working hard, we have found a couple of families that we will pass by this week, so hopefully that turns out well. and hopefully it doesnt urn out like our saturday haha. so saturday we had an appointment before lunch (which is always good) start out the day good right? wrong! haha we get there and he already left, oh thats okay there is someone close that we can visit, oh wait not there either, oh thats okay one more before luch, wait they were working on the house couldnt talk to us. so after lunch full of appointments from 1 to 9 and every single one of them fell!!!! how annoying huh haha, nobody was home they all had left that day to go do somethin who knows what, which isn good cause saturday is te day where we remind everyone about church, and if we dont remind them sunday for church wont be the best day and thats what happened. sunday morning nobody was home and the ones that were planned on somethin else. ugh de novo haha. i just like to think that these last 2 days where big tests for us and god is testing our faith, well i sure hope thats all hah. anyways me and my comp have decided to forget about it and work more this week to have some good results on saturday and sunday for confrence. =)oh im so excited for confrence =). well family i have to run i love you guys a tone and miss you more than ever.

abraço

love elder hemphill

Letter To My Mom ......

QUESTIONS:

What is happening with Pedro Paulo?

well pedro paulo ended up getting baptized and is very happy he mad some big changes in his life, and is actually workin now, which is good and bad haha cause he worked yesterday and couldnt go to church, but he is way happy and now we are teaching some other in his family. he was so excited to get baptized. we go by there a lot to tery to teach him about the preisthood so he can get it here soon. =)

You keep saying you live in the mountains, but I thought you CAME from the mountains?

no i have been in the mountains the last 6 months well kinda like im in the mountains and not in the mountains, well lets put it this way, here from rio is the mountains but there is another mountain range in the mountains where we are at, if that makes in sence to you haha.

What was the mission study that the president had you guys do last week?

it was on repentece and the atonement. i loved it it was so good it explained it so well, the stps of repentance and we ahd to read the confrence talk that presidnet monson gave last confrence about the 3 r´s of choices. man i learn a ton when residnet gives us these things. well first off i would send picures ut where im at you cat the computer doesnt have a little plug sorry =/ next week ill send double k. =)

so my sunday was pretty good at church, i ended up giving a talk in sacrament and i decided to give it on members beng missionaries it was only abouit 7 min, but one thing that i have noticed here in my ward is not to many people do visting teaching or home teaching and that is so important not only for the family but the ward and the missioaries, this last week me and my comp counted how many members we have in our ward and there are about 300 families in our ward but only 41 familes are active. =/ there are so many thigns to do but 2 people cant do it alone. and so i talked a little about that and there were some people that liked my talked but for sure i know that a lot didnt but oh well. hahah. well mom i love you tons and miss you too, have a great wek and prepare for confrence it will be a good one, who knows maybe a temple in rio huh =) hah i love you

love elder hemphill

Monday the 21st ......

well hello there my wonderful familyhow are we all doing this week? well first off i want to say congrats to the big guy daddyio i knew somethin likethat was going to happen. iwas talking to my comp this week and he was like dude your dad is going to be bishop watch. well he sure was close huh. but dad to be honest im really happy for you big guy, thats what im talkin about. ...anyways so things here keep on moving along pretty good. this week wasnt the best week but was still a good one. =). It is actually pretty interesting staying an a area for 6 months cause to be honest i have worked in just about every area in my area and it is all about asking for help rom heavenly father agora. And to be honest it is working a lot, we have seen a ton of help and have found people to teach in areas that i have worked the most but have never seen these people before i think it is very interesting. And my testimony grows every day because of it.

One thing that we still have problems with is bringging people to church man, i swear people are either way lazy or thing that they will be saved cause they let us into there house, its so annoying hahaha. Good thing this ward helps out a little and brings at least a friend or two every week to church as well. Man , so we have been teaching this lady named Marlisa and she has been going to church for the longest time now. She went to church for the first time 3 or 4 years ago and stopped for a while when i got here she was coming every sunday and she still shows up, she just doeant want to get baptized...she has been going to the baptist church for 47 years, she said that she cant just leave those years behind her cause her dad was the pastor. oh what more can we do? so frustrating. she shared her testimony with us as well and she knows its the true church just doesnt want to through on the white clothes yet i guess =/.

Anyways, things here keep getting better and better pretty close to getting a temple here i think, well at least thats all we here about from the missionries and members haha so who knows wht will happen =). Things with the comp are going great i love this kid i, he works so hard and im sure grateful for that whn you have 2 kids workin hard at this work you have a lot of luck haha!!!! Its so crazy to see things and people change i mean this mission is the best thing i´ve ever done in life and i would not change a thing. I will for sure keep working hard and hopefully we will see moe blessings coming our way this week. we are sure excited for confrence as well should be a good one. =) well my wonderful family i have to go i love you tons and miss you as wel have a great week.

love elder hemphill

p.s. i sent some photos i hope you got them one of them i am in a trash bag cause i was aining a lot one day and i didnt have an umbrella so i through one one of these to go to the bus stop haha the others are at a members house they have a pariot haha

Monday, March 14, 2011

***Good Luck with his spelling, I'm hoping it's because he has learned a different language!***

hello there my wonderful family how are things going there. well i know just about every week you guys get mad about me not sending pictures so i think i have to right to get mad at you guys as well hahah jk jk but seriously what great news i have another niece however NO PICTURE!!!! there is a problem here hahah jk jk. but reallly ill be looking forward to next monday to see a great picture of my new niece.
Anyways things here are going great! another great week for us here in the mountains, things are well going and well how can i put this i just hope things arent slowin down again lol but i dont think so we are still workin hard and having tons of fun with the work as well. =) this week actually wasnt too bad with the end of carnival we actually stepped up our game the last couple of days and got to teach a lot more people so that is the good news =). My companion is well great he loves to work and we push each other along the way. he is all about work so that helps a ton as well. However one thing that i will not miss is sundays. sundays are the worst day i´ve decided, one there are so many people home but they dont want to talk 1. either they are drunk or 2. well you know the carls jr. commercial where they say ``burger fries and a drink dont bother me im eating`` yeah well here its more like ``sunday, television, and soccer, dont bother me im watching soccer``. yupp especially this time of the year all the teams in rio are playing to see who is atually the best team here. so every sunday there is at least 2 games, que chato! and of course i will not miss going to pick peoiple up from church i mean every day of the week for sure im going im way excited lets go to church and then sunday comes.....nothing.....nothing....and more nothing. i think its funny cause yesterday we went to go pick up a family and knocked on the door a couple times and what happens the youngest kid comes out who is like 3 yrrs old and says my mom left. oh yeah kid who are you here with then...my mom already left hahah is your brother here no....oh so you´re hrere a lone ....ummm yeah hahah oh what lies haha. for sure one thing i will not miss.
So this area is still great i love this place, this week has gotten pretty cold though its been raining a lot as well, just about fall and winter time here in brasil though. about 3 more weeks and it will be getting cold here in the mountains. The people here are way awesome so nice and everyone talks to us as well, unless they are from the church ``assembalia de deus``...then they call us false prophets and sing please god burn them hahah....yupp thats right we had that happen to us we walked out of a house and went one direction this guy starts yelling false prophets and yells please god burn them hahah and than starts singing some other stuff....hahah oh what you see in brasil...no but really that is the only bad thing that hapened everyone is really friendly. as for the investigators welll we had a pretty good turn out at chruch a little lolo...but we have gootten some pretty good investigators to work with. We are teaching some incomplete families, so thats who we really are teaching some of the members are giving us some family to teach and they are bringing others to church so who knows what will happen these next couple of weeks in the transfer shoulld be good. well i better get running i love you guys and miss you também. =)
com grande amor
love
elder hemphill
p.s. dont forget pictures.

FINALLY Up and Running .....

Yes, it has ONLY taken us 1.5 years to get Tanner's blog up and running, but hey, better late than never right?! Feel free to explore Elder Hemphill's blog to catch up on the past year of his life!