Our First Christmas Phone Call

We sat around Dad's cell phone and called Jimmy. We all got a turn to talk to him and ask questions.

Did you get transferred?
-Yes, My new companion and I are opening a new area. This is the second area that I am opening. I have to carry all my stuff since I don't have wheels on my duffle bag. I have the big duffle bag, my garment bag, backpack and guitar.

Where are you?
-I am in the same stake but a different area.


What are your living conditions?
-Way sweet! We are in a condo that the couples moved out from. There are two couches, two tables, two king size beds. We had to move one bed in the other room so we are together. And we have a washing machine that works! The one in the old house took four days to wash our clothes.


How are your clothes doing?
-I have traded a lot of my clothes. My pants are too big and are turning red from the sun.  My last companion gave me his shirts and his suitcase with wheels but they broke off the first time out.


What do you need?
-I need socks! I want a new camara that takes better pics and video with sound.


He got his birthday package and Christmas package at the same time since they held everything to make sure everyone got a package for Christmas. We heard several words in portugese and he said that he ahs to translate into english in his head when he talks to us.
He sounds great and I am so proud of the choices he has made in his life to serve the Lord.

Feliz Natal!

YO YO! MY NAME IS ELDER!

ya so he went home. i~ll start off with.. this week i learned how to have a lot of patience! but im working on love and charity. its hard to love a person thats annoying. but well see what happens this week. so im in 3 now right. with 2 other elders and recently they have been fighting! but one elder doesnt wanna work now and the other just says he wants to work but does nothing. so that leaves me there to cover. but yesterday we taught 10 lessons! the most i have taught in 1 day. but we did splits yesterday and one of our zoneleaders was with us so it helped. but it looks like theres one dude in my area thats ganna get baptised just that he cant make it to church sundays cuz he works. but were working with him cuz he wants to go to church and he will talk to his boss this week! but im just afraid that ill get transferred and not get to baptise him. i think this area will close again! not many missionaries are entering brasil right so we are losing missionaries! we will see on the 21st!. but ya this week was pretty much this. and no i didnt get the package but its here. theyre saving all the packages until christmas. president is crazy. oh and i got that package from sister carr. and the STARBURST AND SKITTLES were amazing!. my favorites! THANKS SISTER CARR!. thats my shout out!. but hows home mom. hows christmas ganna be there? and im so ready to call too!. i will talk more about calling next p-day!. but i have nothing else to talk about. just working hard and getting tanner lol. but have a great week! Tchau tchau, não excece de mim! Eu Te Amo!
Elder Arroyo

changed the word problem to opportunity

Hey mom! so ya generally missionaries call on christmas but i will get to call you to confirm when i will talk but it will be like christmas eve when i confirm. and just send the package. i can deal with moving things here! it was great to hear the birthday shouts from facebook. but my birthday wasnt that great here. this past week was the worst week ever. so to start off. my companion wants to go home so hes with the assistants. hes been there for like 5 days now. so ive been with the other elders in the house. the ones that are pigs and really annoying. and were a missionary pair in 3. it stinks. the assistants said that i cant tell the members in my ward here and not even the bishop. but that i needed to go to church sunday to be with my investigators. so i went on splits sunday and everyones like wheres your comp and im was just like. oh im on splits today! and ya sunday was my birthday. so i went to lunch and had an amazing lasagna and a great dessert. then i left with my ward missionary leader whos amazing and we went and knocked doors. then he was like oh we got to return to the house you had lunch in i forgot something. and got there and there was a suprise party for me lol. the family of sister christina and another family. they made me my favorite brasillian food (coxina!) and she made a cake that was good. but like without my companion it stunk and they just talked amongst themselves. its stinks without a companion you feel so alone. especially when u get home and the other elders are in their room and your in your room alone. but not exacly alone cuz our house is full of fleas! tonz of stupid fleas. and we have termites too!. so when you get home you got like larva in your bed. ya life is amazing now. it stinks too cuz i have had a good first comp then the next 2 were horible and then elder coelho who was the best comp that i have had. and now im with those other too pigs. but i will make the best out of everything and just work hard. working hard and studying a lot you lose yourself and dont think about the hard stuff. but i was thinking that this was like a huge problem ya know. but was thinking one day and changed the word problem to opportunity. and really this is a huge oportunity that i have to learn and to show who i am as a missionary. but things will get better. lets hope that the next letter will be a better one and that my comp will return. hes still with the assistants. but its already time to go. were going to the old folks house to sing christmas carols! it will be fun. but yall have a great week! DONT LET THE MAN GET YA DOWN!
love Elder Arroyo

Hey! its my birthday next sunday!

Hey! its my birthday next sunday!. oh its on a sunday?! oh ya its fast sunday too! but it will still be a good birthday! the people i have lunch with know and said they will make a cake. but mom pls dont waste space sending me ingredients to make a cake. im good with just buying the mix here and dumping like 2 eggs and a cup of water and done! but ya me and my comp made pancakes the other day and we made rice crispy treats too! kathie sent me some marshmellows. and ya i got the box and the package. but im way confused for some reason??!! like she sent me cinnimon sugar mixed?? and mom you sent me some too but like?? why cinnimon sugar. i open the packages and im like. what is this. so if anyone wants to know they have cinnimon and sugar here in brazil too lol. but thanks i am actually using it on sandwhiches and stuff. but from now on i wont know when i get packages. they are holding all of them until christmas! they want everyone to have a package christmas. but we will have conference the 18th and get packages then. but that would suck if i got transfereed on the 23rd and have to carry everything with packages too!. but santa will help me right?! so ya this week was really slow. me and my comp tried to accompany our investigators that we taught the week before but ya were not finding a lot of "elects". we need to stop sweet talking our way into houses. but were ganna do better this week!. next p-day my zone is doing a service project singing in a nursing home. christmas hymns!(in portuguese because mom thinks we sing in english? lol) but it will be a blast. i~ll record it with my camera!. i am sending you a cd too just wait.! your cd has all of my photos that i have taken on the mission until yesterday!. but it will come just wait!. but that was this week! oh and sweet pics of chris. he has lost some weight!. tight. maybe he can skate with me! i need a skate buddy!. he just needs to start working out. you guys should see my body! im just muscle lol. just wait 1 year and 2 months! but have a great week. your brother or son or friend.. :)
Elder Arroyo

não pensa... só me manda muítos pacote! lol

tu queres fala portuguese? lol How are ya Family and all those who read my amazing emails! i hope all is well! so lets see how i~m ganna start this shin-dig! oh ya wow destinee is growing up. thanks for the pics mom! so ya i sent a cd to kristen in the mail right and the dude at the mail place is like "whoa man u got an object in this envelope".and i was like "ya dude i know i put it in there!" but he said i had to make it a package and all this dumb stuff and it ended up being 30 Reias! thats like 20 bucks almost! to send a stupid CD! so i havent sent yours yet but i will it will be there soon! so my address is what i send to you guys when i send letters lol. but im getting letters and packages still so i think the one you have works. So am i feeling home here you asked? Mom this is Brasil lol i will never feel like home. i~m in a tropical place where i eat rice and beans everyday. but naw i~m feeling kinda at home ya know but i would love to go home and like sleep in til 12 o´clock! my dream. and ya the words are just flowing. this language is a peice of cake now! i think its easier to speak in portuguese than english. but i have learned way to much slang. i go to the ghetto and just speak like a thug. heres some slang. i dont even know how to spell this stuff. like this is how yall would pronounce it right. Yayhee Moneeey Tudo Suça aiye!? and the kids are like who is this white dude speaking like a thug. but its tight they just laugh lol. so why am i losing weight?! well first its hotter than haities here! like im talking you just fry in the sun. and yes im using sunscreen. but hot hot hot. i~m talking you dont even wanna stand in the sun. when we go to look at our planners we look for the nearest tree. and ive been doing some trades with my comp cuz he got fatter. he he lol. so we trade clothes so my clothes fit now. right now i have 78 kilos! so ya i have gotten close to some families. theres one family in my ward now that they moved here like 6 months ago. and first let me tell ya that my ward sucks. just a bunch of rich people that talk talk talk but do nothing! i have gotten 0 references in this ward. but this family moved from like the country and theyre way cool. their names are sister christina and brother danial theyre like 28 years old i dont know their last name and they have 2 kids. gabrial thats 7 years old and rafiel with 3 years old i think. i love playing with them. sister christina is always like dang it elder arroyo you made my kids all wild again. but i will take some pictures to show you guys! when our lunch falls we always go to her house and eat. but in this ward only this family. oh ya 2 sundays ago i gave my first talk on the mission i gave it about the book of mormon. i burnt the ward. i was like if you have a testimony share it! what is the coolest thing that i have seen since i have been here. i dunno i think like that there is a bakery on every corner and the food is cheap and i just eat and eat bread. i love fresh bread! so there are a lot of missionaries waiting huh? crazy i havent heard anything about it. the next transfer is on the 23rd of december so well see. id extend my missoin if i had to. its not that bad. so ya me and my comp changed yesterday. we burnt everything that we had that we were slacking with. like not obeying the rules. from now on its 100% obediance. were ganna baptise here. we have 5 people that have potencial! and now when i do my contacts on the street its not. oh hey were missionaries and have a message about christ can we come over and share it another day? No! i have changed cuz so many people we teach dont want to follow. ya they will hear everything you have to say but when you say ya will ya go to church.. whoa whoa no no i cant. but now my contact is. hey im elder arroyo whats your name? oh "Herbie" do you belive in christ? (everyone says "yes!") and then im like "were you baptised like he was?"and i hold a picture of john the baptist baptising christ. and there like "no?!?!?!" and im like when you know what im talking about is true will you be baptised? and the people that yes i write down their address and the others i just give a pass along card and say when your ready call this number! but it works really well cuz now our investigators are the ones that are really interested! but ya i have rambled enough! so ya i will let you guys go and have a great week! oh ya and congrats mom for your calling. try to get as many dinners for the missionaries! and the sister in my other ward that had this calling every 1st sunday of the month she got together some goodies for the missionaries. like got the other sisters in the ward to just buy little snacks and put it all to gether in a bag and give it to the missionaries. it was wonderful. arg i hate this language! Obrigado por tudo mãe! Eu Te amo. Até proxíma semana e fala "Oi" Para todo mundo! Tchau Tchau
Elder Arroyo

9 Months!!

Its been 9 months! its crazy how time flies by so fast! so ya i have 0 time this week. but this week was good. we taught a good bit and got a lot of stuff done. look on the site me and my comp made it up on the "highscore list" again. were working. were gonna baptize 5 this month its our goal and nothing will stop us! this area has been without baptisms for long enough. but its just everyone here doesnt want to change anything. its dumb but ya. i got mrs kathie's package and she sent a photo of you guys but it wasnt in there. it was empty the photo thing. oh and dont worry about thanksgiving. i~m not even thinking about it. but christmas and my birhtday yes i~m waiting. im gonna eat a cake for my birthay and thats pretty much it. and christmas who knows what. the next transfer falls on the 23th of decemeber so i could get transfered. lets hope not. i dont wanna get transferred 2 days before CHRISTMAS! but thanks for the email this week i will make a longer one next week!
Bye
Elder Arroyo

11/11

Hey mom!. ok so every week i am waiting for the package from mrs kathie but it never comes. did she send it? i hope it didnt get like stolen in the mail. and yes i got the holloween package. and i got the mp3 player! thanks. so wow destinee broke her foot. that sucks. i remember when i broke my ankle i think i was her age. So lol justin got his razor sharp pizza cutters in. or his front teeth. thats cool. me and my comp had pizza 1 day last week. we had to treat ourselves. last week was the worst week on my mission. i had a stomach ache tuesday and we taught 0 lessons and then saturday and sunday we taught 0 lessons. we did horrible last week. but we got the transfers call monday and me and my companion are staying here but he got called district leader! all my comps have been district leaders but its good cuz i~m prepared now. but one of the other elders got moved out of our house but a new one is in and hes more excited and has more humility. So ya me and my comp cleaned the house and it is beautiful now. we moved our beds and stuff. everything is rearranged and were ready to baptize this month! our investigators that were firm got cut. they stopped progressing. but we have found good ones now and were working hard! This area is a test of faith for real. so ya me and my comp will stay here until the next transfer which falls on 23th of december ya..... 2 days before christmas. but my birthday is comming up! and i already baught my new camera. i talked to dad about this. i bought it from a member and it takes videos with sound and has all the same features that my old camera had. ya had... i traded my old camera for a new suit lol. i traded my comp. so now i have a camera thats better and a suit that fits! cuz i am a lot thinner and the other suit is huge!. but ya my new camera was only 125 reais. so its was good. its a samsung. ok so what else happened this week that i can tell you... nothing really lol. oh this week me and my comp have already taught 10 lessons and done more contacts then we have too! Since he is district leader we made a pack to always have numbers high! higher then the secretarios and the assistants who are still in our district!. well see how that goes!. oh so chris wants to shave his head lol. crazy! he needs to grow the frow lol. its tight. but oh so your gonna send me another box! sweet and mom can you put some guitar picks in the box please cuz i went to buy some here and its 3 reais for 1 pick! thats like 1 dollar for a pick! so i would love some picks please. and i am looking for those things that you want mom. like the cookie cutter and the doll. im trying! and i know you want pictures! i have a big envelope that i~m sending you that has tonz of letters to people and has a DVD of all the pictures that i have taken on the mission its like 800 pictures! yes your welcome! i will send it saturday cuz i~m out of money :) lol but dont forget me you guys have a great week!
Elder Arroyo

Thanks!

what a loving mom who writes her son every week!. wow justin and destinee are growing up man. i think i lost another 10 pounds today. today was the Olympics! lol. i played in the basketball part and we got crushed. cuz there was one zone that was just full of tall people and my zone was just not too tall lol. and people dont know how to play zones lol. so this week me and my comp taught a bunch. but me and my comp didnt knock a lot of doors we just improved how we represent our message. im just like.. hey im elder arroyo and man how hot is it out here? and people are like ya its blazing. and were like ya we share a message about christ can i... is the gate unlocked cuz its really hot out here. and there like ya come on in and we just teach. but this past week me and my comp we found 33 new investigators and it was the most in the mission this past week. its on the mission site! my name for the first time! lol. http://missaobrasilcuritiba.blogspot.com
its on the right side of the site!. but yesterday me and my comp had stomach aches. we stayed in the house until like 7:00 and tried to teach and found no one. but today will be different! oh ya so this ward hasnt baptized anyway in 10 months! its a lot of time for an area here in curitiba but me and my comp are gonna break it! we have a person almost ready for baptism just water! shes like 50 years old! what else happened this week oh i got the package! thanks mom! i love candy so so much. oh ya and holloween was a bummer we did nothing just worked as usually :( i hope christmas isnt the same! well i dont think anything really exciting happened this week. oh i dont know if it is safe to fast in this heat. its crazy hot here. and i~m tan way tan lol. almost way tan. well see in a while lol. but thanks for everything! love ya
bye!
Elder Arroyo

oh ya mom in my next package if you could send me like 4 pairs of socks lol and i would love those flinstone vitamins ya know that you gave to justin! that would be great lol. but not alot of candy in the packages just like a big bag of skittles and starburst lol and laughy taffys lol. thanks mom.

In reply to Dad's email

Dude thats way tight man. 1st counsler! an opourtunity to learn a lot more about the gospel too!. but thats tight you and david grover dean nickens. its a good bishopric. praying is crazy. the things you can learn and know from it. pray played a big role for me this week. this week i have changed a lot. ok in my ward here we have a missionary that has been home for about 9 months now but he was assistant to the pres when he served in são paulo and he is amazing he teaches us stuff and techniques that others in our mission dont know! its way good. but on top of that 2 weeks ago another assistant from the same mission returned to our ward and he just got called our ward mission leader. they gave us a bunch of stuff to read and learn man its amazing! they are missionaries excellent! way way way good . so i~m learning so so much. i read a book this week called.. i forgot its like. the conversion to the book of mormon. it was written by a dude that was mission president 3 times. but its a book way way good. you need to read it!. but ok this week was the worst week ever. everyone rejected us. i mean everyone! until sunday we went on splits with the 2 x-assistants and they just blew our minds. but they are just teaching us and were just doing as they say. but they told us to go into the ghetto cuz its the best place to teach. so we went yesterday and we taught 5 lessons in 2 hours. we learned how to teach the restoration in 15 mins like in the house and out in 15 min but so effectivly. this week is going good but last week was the worst week ever. my comp wanted to go home. he has already called pres 2 times to go home and then pres put him with me cuz he said that i was a really excited missionary lol. i think im just always happy joking around but doing the right things at the same time lol. but this week will be great. me and my comp are gonna try to break the records for most lessons in 1 week. cuz here its like 50 at the max, but what the x-assistants taught us you can teach almost 100 in a week and you find the people ready! just wait. but sweet about the calling. i love studying right now. oh ya and i bought an acoustic guitar lol. 25 bucks! it was cheap so i did it but i~m learning how to read music out of the hymn book. but ya mom didnt write me so this is my email for the week lol. thanks for everything. oh ya and today my zone is practicing for the olympics lol. we have olympics on the mission. i dont think i will participate in the soccer part but basketball i~m all in lol. read your rulebook this week lol. its important to follow the rules, you receive guidance and counsel! but thanks for everything. its great here even though way hard! love ya
Elder Arroyo

Fall and Spring

ok i have 0 time today cuz i am making a dvd of all my pictures and videos lol. so just wait mom! lol and i will look for some postcards lol some people are looking for elect people to teach and not postcards lol. jk but ya you will get tonz of pictures soon. i think i have 900! lol. but just wait. so ya i got the box from grandmama! lol it was amazing! so this week was good but so many people rejected us so its getting hard. oh ya i bought another jump drive! lol from paraguay! let me tell ya the stuff there is cheap. an investigator bought it and i bought it from him lol. 4 gigs. 8 bucks lol. i want to buy a new camera cuz mine makes videos but without sound. i need sounds. so ya sorry i have no time this week. but i will get you tonz of postcards. and can you send me american money. like 10, 1 dollar bills. its cool to trade here! thanks have a great week. and cool chris is refing ! love ya guys! Bye
Elder Arroyo

Good Afternoon!

OK to start off... Happy Birthday!! the big old 47! lol jk (I have to add that I am NOT going to be 47!) oh so I got sunburnt today! :( i havent been using sunscreen! but starting today i will use!. so lets see.. thanks for the box mom! i´ll be expecting it in a week and a half!. so for holloween no one celebrates i belive they dont do that here. some neighborhoods do but not everyone so like no one does it lol. if ya understand. so i cant wait for the holloween goodies!. we will definitly have a party and pizza lol. wow brice is getting married? to who let me know!. tell him to write me lol. ok so the lan house is closing in 10 min so i will write fast. cool matt got his call. what language will he speak. oh and tell chris to work hard with his calling make the quorum happy lol. so this week me and my comp worked hard and our numbers were pretty high! we have 17 dates for baptism marked for our investigators and the mission president said that like ever 10 dates is one baptism so were ready for this. in this area no one has baptized in 9 months so were ganna change that! but this week was really good. i like my comp he follows the rules but is really chill too!. its good. we played soccer and basketball today thats why i~m so sunburnt but from now on its sunscreen lol. well write me next week lol. i~m here to read it. have a great week. love your son
Elder ARROYO

its primoveiro (10/07)

Hey Mom!so so ya its primoveiro lol i dont remember if its spring or fall. lol. but its getting hotter but then again it rains and its freezing lol. its crazy here. so sweet that oak grove won the swimming! so i bet chris just skipped school lol he can be exempt i know that kid lol. so ya i loved conference i watched it in english with some other american elders. but we were like fighting to stay awake during some parts lol. the preisthood session for us starts at 9:00 my time. really late. but ya i loved Elder Hollands talk about the book of mormon it was way good. anyone that doesnt have a testimony about the book of mormon definitly got moved!. so ya we get the church magizines the Liahona and the friend or (O Amigo!) lol. so the new area is great the members are way stoked that they have missionaries and we have already found a bunch of new people and me and my comp are teaching tonz. and marking tonz of baptisms too. but this area ther are a lot of people that just dont want anything in there lives. its horrible. but the contacts are good a lot of people said it would be hard to do contacts here but me and my comp just talk with everyone we see and it works out good. we get so many addresses here too talking to people. on the mission site we have records for who gets like the most addresses this week or teaches the most lessons etc. and i think this week me and my comp will be on the top for addresses taken and for first lessons taught! well have to see next week. we are working our butts off here. but i love it here. oh and i am learning how to play soccer. like way good tricks and stuff lol. the brasillians in the house are teaching me. i love that game. so ya its time for me to go but the work is coming great and i love it. thanks for everyting. oh and have you sent my package yet :) lol Love ya guys
Elder Arroyo

Got Transfered! (9/30)

Yes! So its my first transfer on the mission. i moved from "Jardim Italia" to "Campo Bel". there not that far apart. but whats way cool is that me and my new comp "Elder Coelho" (a brasillian) were opening this area!. cuz it got closed a while back. everyone says its way hard to open an area but this was like my dream lol. like 2 or 3 months ago i had an interview with the mission pres and he was like do you have any questions and i was like. how can i be a missionary that could open an area and he was like do you have faith and i was like ya! so he gave it to me. So here i live with 4 elders again! its way tight though. and there is some cheap food here! good for the money right? but its sucks to leave my other area, prepared some investigators and there almost ready to get baptized! but i know that me and my comp here will work hard. but we have 0 references, we know 0 members, we dont know the area, nothing! but i~m way excited. just knock a lot of doors lol and contact a lot of people. so lets see what happened with past week. well elder santos finished his mission he lived with me in my last house. and i said all my goodbyes to the members and other people. it was good. so i~m on my 3rd brasillian companion but this one looks tight. and hes way chill so we will get along. but he is excited to work too. already getting things ready and stuff. but if you havent sent my package yet remember i need socks and the mp3 player you dont have to put music on it i can do that here. and skittles, and reeces peanutbutter cups! and if you can send me ear muffs that would be great. just really cheap ones not expensive. as cheap as you can buy!! not joking lol. but i cant think of anything else and oh i got your letters they were great. i will write everyone back that sent some. and wow your friend is ganna send me another package! Amazing i~m so excited!. it was full of stuff and boosted my work! lol. tell her thank you, thank you, thank you! so how are you guys at home. is it getting cold yet? its cold today but then like another day its way hot! its crazy and it will just randomly rain! you cant tell what the weather will do!. but i think this is all that i have to write. have a good week and then tell me all about it. love ya guys, stay strong,
Elder Arroyo

re:Transfers? (9/23)

transfers are next wednesday and i will get transfered i think. 6th months here. so i have no time i wont write much. we had a zone activity today we played paintball and of course i dominated lol!. theres a flag in the middle and i ran there grabbed it and ran to the other teams wall and won too! i~m so amazing lol. they call me without fear! sem vergonhá! lol. but umm rechargable batteries would be good with a recharger. but i would like socks too. but like sports socks that are long! that are thick cuz padding is wonderfull. well i got to go take a quick shower and get out on the streets. but my portuguese is good. i can speak easy and i think i~m ganna be senor next transfer! lets pray. i~m so ready! well i love you guys! bye

nope! (9/16)

ok so thats tight that destinee got 2nd she must be a fish! hahahah i bet chris is laughin his head off lol. so there is a brasillian in front oif me and i~m like the 7 person from the back i was walking on the edge the right side. try and find me lol. and we had jerseys on that said mormon helping hands but in portuguese. so yes i would love an mp3 player and i can put music on it out here. but like efy music or like the best 2 years or home teachers or singles ward that stuff is good lol. and ya i got the packages. new shoes are freaken amazing lol and the backpack is better too lol. i~m just waiting to get jumped cuz someone wants it lol. i was dissapointed cuz i had 0 candy! but all is well lol. yall can repent! lol. jk so what happened this week. so last pday when we started to work in my area there was no power! so like on the main street theres only emergancy power. so i had to do my contacts in the dark and people think i~m ganna mug them and stuff. it sucked. but ok me and my comp were walking this back street and it was pitch black lol. i couldnt see nothing. so were walking and i see this figure really black. and i thought it was a chicken cuz theres like chickens just walking around sometimes. so i~m walking closer and then when its like 1 foot away i relize its a dog! lol. so i like freak out. i dunno why but i did. so alot of fear leaves my body and i guess like the dog got excited so when i passed him he lunges out and bites me! lol i yelled really loud lol. i yelled "Rapaz!"lol it means like a boy with the age of like 12 to 20 lol. but its also like dude! lol. but luckly he bit my pants and i just felt his teeth like press against my leg. but it was freaky lol. i jump up and ran like 10 feet lol. i hate dogs!. but last week was good lol. well not really it rained and me and my comp only taught 14 lessons all week. but this week will be better. so you guys are good back in the states huh. i hope so. oh mom i want recipes of "cheesy chicken!" and "chicken sphaghetti". oh and the recipes that you sent me i dunno if i can use them. ok here we dont have shortinging lol. and canned food is hard to find too lol. but i will try some out lol. so i want to send you guys a package. like really small lol. but i might this week it just depends. oh mom you need to make some brasillian food for the house one day. look up coxinha and make it its amazing!. but other than this i dont remember what happened this week lol. just alot of rain and work and sun and food and stuff lol. but i hope you guys have a great week. lol dont forget to go to church! dont forget me too
Elder Arroyo

i~m wet :( (9/9)

ok so right now i~m way wet! i hate the water. so let me tell you about this week. we worked lol. and ya there was a holiday it was monday and all the missionarys who are serving in the city of curitiba we got to march the street with the mormon helping hand jerseys! i think we were on tv. there were other orginazations marching too. but it was so tight we were walking and then we started singing called to serve lol. in portuguese of course. it was tight. cuz like in portuguese its talking about how were always ready and stuff. ya someone took a picture of me and 2 other elders and asked if he could put it on the "sud" site so i~m on the sud site. i think its a church site. but it was way cool. ok so today we had so much fun i laughed more than i ever have on the mission today. me and my comp and the other 2 elders in our house and our zone leaders went out to eat mexican today. it was amazing.. a buffet and they just keep bringing the food out and you just make burritos lol. but we just kept joking about things that happened on the mission and like mexican jokes and stuff lol. and then after we walked to jardim botônico (botonical garden) it was way cool. but it was raining so so so so hard. but we took pictures there and stuff. you should look it up on the internet. but wow i~m so wet. it was cool. so thats tight that the church started some sports and that justin plays soccor. i~m learning out here lol. brazillians are way good. and sweet that destinee swims. she just needs to practice!. so chris is too cool to do stuff huh lol. he will miss water stuff once he gets on the mish. i hated water but i would love to swim now lol. so why is there a fast of technology. its a need not a want!. and good that the kids are getting good grades. besides chris lol . so no i havent gotten my packages yet. but i~m pretty sure there here just the zone leaders havent gone to get our stuf yet. i want my stuff!. but all is good here just a lot of rain. so how are you guys. doing good. i almost have 7 months on the mission. almost!. well until next week. love you.. your son

Elder Arroyo (or elder arroz lol. it means rice. kids call me elder rice lol)

(9/2)

am i feeling at home lol. no cuz when i was at home i just chilled lol. when i get home here i got to plan for the next day then eat somthing fast lol and then sleep. i have time for nothing. i cant wait to talk at christmas too it will be tight. so no i didnt take pictures at the baptism cuz it was last minute and i didnt have my camera but members took pictures and will pass them to me no worries. ya the conference that you saw was the whole mission it has never happened before it was cool. so mom of course i am a good example lol. i am always laughing and in a good mood. it good that i make people laugh too it keeps people happy. and i will take pictures with the families here. so ya lol sometimes on the street when there is a members skating i will skate too. but these shoes are already torn up on the inside. but my skate shoes are thrashed lol. they already had holes when i got on the mission. but i sewed them up lol. but when i skate the parts i sewed break again lol. my everyday pants are good just a little baggy lol. but its all good. i weigh like 170 still i think. and i~m still working out. and im getting tanner lol. its so hot here now. i dont like the heat alot. so i have been drinking the tap water here more lol. like at the house of a random person were like hey can we have water and there like sure. but sometimes the same night i feel horrible lol. but only for like 30 min. you gotta do what ya gotta do lol. so ya we eat with members every single day here except p-day. but we always eat rice and beans and genereally some kind of meat. and juice. but pure juice almost . they make it with the fruit lol. so i eat alot of oranges and bananas not too many apples but there are tons here. umm papaya or in ingles its mamao lol. umm i think just this but theres tons of different types of oranges and stuff. oh and passion fruit too its good. so thanks for sending out the letters and ya my scrap book will be cool to see later. so grammama sent me a package sweet! letter here thanks!. it will be a good surprise. so this week we worked hard again. and were almost ready to baptize some. its ganna be good!. but i love you guys. stay strong. i will try to send some pictures!
elder Arroyo

Hello from Brasil! (8/26)

so this week i have worked my butt off lol. my companion was new here and i dont want to slack off at all, so i planned like a maniac. this week we are doing good. we taught 8 lessons since monday. and i talk so much more to our investigators. and like when i knock doors or clap doors i talk to the people and try to get in lol. its tight.. so i can really tell that my Portuguese has improved. like in my mind i know when i mess up and sometimes i just feel it flow and i dont have to worry lol. but we have new investigators and they are keeping commitments and stuff. OH! i baptized for my first time. it was the kid of a member but still it was in Portuguese lol. it was funny when i tried to explain to him to grab my arm plug your nose and bend your knees lol. but it all went smooth. his name was/is Carlos Enrique Periera lol. its not cool to try to remember these names lol. but it was great. so right now we have an investigator named Icaro. he is a skater and i will skate with him today at the church. hes tight. he has a lot of member friends. i really think he is ganna get baptized. cuz like i can relate to him so he understands a lot. like i told him that were here on the earth to have fun, skate and stuff, but there is also certain things we have to do here too while having fun lol. but you can still be cool lol. im an example for ya lol. its sweet here. so its getting hotter here. and my suit is so big lol. i might get it tailored. we have members that are good at that stuff. but just the pants not the jacket!. oh and also an elder left a suit jacket in the house that fits me good i think i will just buy some pants and use that suit. so ok you want to know what i need for a package! first thanks for the 2 that are on the way! i~m excited. and second ok i need nothing at the moment. but things that they dont have here is deodorant (its different here). they have toothpaste so i~m good with that. but like i dont know. i forgot the things we have in the USA. i always want pictures lol. umm oh mechanical pencils. there really expensive here and there not good. oh mom i~m getting alot of recipes for ya. i gave your email to a member in the ward i think yall would get along. her name is claudinea texeira. she said that she will send your recipes and stuff. she likes to make a different desert for me every time we eat at here house lol.. so tell Rachael that i said hi too lol. and if she wants she can email me that would be tight. lol. and Vance lol. that kid is cool. i can still remember him saying "Shut Up! "lol. ok but to fill packages or stuff that i like is l...... Star Burst, jolly ranchers (good to suck on , on the street lol) snickers, SKITTLES!!!, maple extract, PEANUT BUTTER!!!. and just random foods lol. just surprise me!. like granola bars and stuff lol. anything is good in a package and letters from people too!. i love letters lol. ok so i will look behind my passport for some thing important lol. oh and mom i want a recipe to bisquites and gravy! lol i want to eat good for breakfast. but i think this is just it for today lol. dont worry i~m out here working hard. i will be senor companion before you guys know it!. today i am going to skate at the church and play some piano!. but thanks for all the love. remember go to church! lol Love Ya
Elder Arroyo

YAH! (8/19)

Yay! you do love me lol!
How have you guys been? sounds good. so i type the same way that i talk huh. tight. except one thing... I SPEAK PORTUGUESE! lol. so maybe you are wondering why i am so happy! Huh? because today was transfers! and guess what i didnt get transfered but my comp did. it was strange cuz he only was here 1 transfer but i got a new comp and his name is elder Cortez. another brasillian but the funny thing is i was with him in the ctm in são Paulo! me and him are way excited to work hard and i know we will baptize alot of lost sheep!. its going to be great. so thanks for remembering everything that i asked for lol. i do ask for alot of stuff. so i will recive a package in about 2 weeks! i~m stoked. so i am starting to forget slang in english and am starting to speak differnt in english i dont like it. but the portuguese is flowing well. so school has started. and how is everyone in school. so sweet justin is playing soccer. i am learning soccer here. brasillians are way good but i will get good too lol. and destinee is swimming huh wow tight she will lose weight. swimming is a good sport to stay in shape. so shoes ya those i cant wait for those. the shoes i have now are tearing apart cuz they are too big but they are working for now. just send the stuff when you have the money. i mean i miss you guys but i know that for 2 years that this isnt my time lol its the lords time. and i will see you guys in 18 months. it will pass by so fast. so mom guess what i made for lunch today! coxinha! i love them. look it up on the internet. there amazing. and you can make them in the u.s. too i think. i know how to make bread in the oven everything lol. the stuff you learn here is crazy. so i~m still trying to learn to read music fast. when i have the chance i play piano. i learned the first part of "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds. i like piano alot. i might buy a guitar from my zone leader. for 25 bucks! its not too shabby too! oh so grammies friend lives where in são paulo. i was in casa verde. but i have a friend serving in são paulo west. well its almost time to go but dont worry this week i will work hard very hard. hope you guys have a great week too. i love ya guys! your son/brother Elder Arroyo

HI! (8/12)

Hey mom,
So today i have time to write lol. yesterday was my 6 months on the misson. its gone by so so fast. and its all come to me that i am a missionary and that i~m in brazil and that i~m speaking portuguese. and i can tell that i am speaking alot better now because people understand me and i just feel it flow now without thinking. its amazing. the mission is great now. and its getting greater because we have transfers next week. and i hope i get away from my temporary spouse! lol. people always said oh your companion will prepare you to deal with your spouse but with marriage you have a compation for the person lol. with your comp sometimes you get this dude that eats your food and doesnt clean after himself! but its all good. just 1 more week! lol if i stay with him. it will suck for another month and a half lol. but i will still work hard no worries.
i want to send a small package home with some goodies from here. that would be tight.
oh and i was reading the book of mormon this week and i came upon a scripture and started laughing lol. its in 3rd nephi 14:9-12 lol. read this scripture first....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9 Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
12 Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, ado ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ok after i read this i thought of dad in the car when we would drive to grampas. were in the back. "Dad we're thirsty!!" and he would say "you guys can suck on a rock. i will pull over if you want one!" lol i started laughing when i thought of this lol. wheres the love lol. but we survived so its all good lol.
so a thing that happened a while ago that i dont know if i told you guys. but i was on a division with a brasillian and we were walking on a kinda dark street and i needed to do alot of contacts that day. and we saw like 3 or 4 dudes more like thugs so i was like ok i will just give them pass along cards and get out of there lol. so as were getting close 2 police cars come racing in and slide it towards us... RRRRHHHHRHRHHH lol. and i~m like aww crap! cuz i got my hand reaching in my jacket for some cards lol. its like i~m pulling out a gun lol. and the police come out all pointing there guns towards us and there like hands on your head. i~m like crap! so me and mycomp put our hands on our heads and then the police say to me and my comp. NO not you guys lol.it was hilarious but kinda scary. so we run off. it was cool though but i didnt get the contacts! fail!.lol. oh last week me and my comp were fighting on the road cuz he lies about contacts and so we came apon some peple across the road and he was like are you ganna do it and i was like no. you go ahead so all mad we walk over there and he does the contact. it was at this bus stop there was 3 men 2 of them were like 60 years old lol and the other was like 34. when my comp asked if we could leave them the message the old men were all snappy and said no no. so were like why? and hes like i live far away lol and i replied really snappy and excited oh ya i live far away too i live in the united states lol. and the 34 yeard old started to laugh lol. and he gave us his address lol. it was funny though. but this is the life of a missionary food, gospel, fighting with comp and police! its way good here lol. but this week was good we found alot of new good people and are excited to work with them this week. how have you guys been. has school started yet? hope yall have a good week love ya and stay strong,
Your son,
Elder Arroyo

in the afternoon here lol 7/29

Hey mom.
This week has been ok except the fact that it rained all week. i hate the rain. hate it hate it hate it!!. but its good lol. makes the fruit better lol. ok so i wont send my memory card with pictures i dont think. i think i will just burn them all to a dvd and send the dvd. i thnk it will work better. oh and mom i would love a recipe for bisquits i know its easy cuz i made them in school for like a cooking class or something lol. . oh and i would like my patriartical blessing too lol if you guys could send that too me. so how have you guys been. thats tight that cloe wants to serve a mish. its hard sometimes but is way worth it. me and my comp are better together now cuz i have so much PATIENCE lol. i just let him always be right lol. its going good. we are teaching and commiting. so wow i know why i was sent here there are so many people that skate. and with just the knowledge i know about skating there like totally respect me lol. cuz its all american skating with american brands and stuff lol and i know all the names of the tricks. its tight. we are ganna baptise a kid that skates. and its cook cuz i think he trusts us more cuz he knows like that i skated before the mish and that were like normal people. i showed him pictures lol. its tight. but this week has been good. it was funny i did a contact this week and it was hilarious. me and my comp stopped a guy and his wife and he was a father for the catholic church and he was like saying all this crap. so i was like. hey dont yall belive in baptising children and he was like yep. and i was like but they dont have sins right cuz they dont know right from wrong and he was like. NO cuz there parents have sins so they are born with sins. i was like how?.. so if my dad killed somone i have sins for this and he was like yep. i was like what?? ya he was like ok if your dad is poor and he has you then you are poor when you are born lol same if your rich. then we was like who do you look more like your mom or you dad? and i was like...... my grandma lol just too throw him off lol. and then i was like. ok mary gave birth to jesus right? hes like ya. then i was like. but mary and joseph didnt..... so.. jesus has a sin... lol and he was like NO! lol i had him lol. i love those contacts. so you got your car fixed thats good. well you guys keep going to church lol it will do the body good. have you sent my package yet? lol.
love ya guys.
Elder Arroyo

pioneer week! 7/22

we dont have pioneer week. but my week has kinda sucked. me and my comp dont get along very well. he is kinda lazy and i like to walk fast so we dont waste time. his ideas are totally different then mine and he is always right lol. you know those people. he says you have 5 months on the mission you dont know a thing. lol. but i~m good. i try not to fall in his hole. i follow the rules even if he doesnt. its good i try to do better when he doesnt lol. i want to be a good enough missionary to open an area here in brazil that no missionaries have been in. its happens. i just have to work hard and show pres!. so this week hmm what else happened. we marked more baptisimal dates. oh i got 2 recipe books for ya! a member gave them to me. cuz i ask everyone for recipes and stuff. but i will still ask for more lol. hmm what else. i heard harry potter wasnt all that good and transformers 2 as well. oh can i get my backpack and have you guys sent my package? stuff i wanna know. oh and i really would like a new pair of shoes. i will take a picture of my shoes for proof lol. not much else happened this week just work work work. so no i dont think we have pioneer day lol. so i dont think chris deserves to drive another car he will just keep crashing, and the reason he crashed your car is cuz hes not playing need for speed or driver! lol video games improve your thinking fast skills!. so dang justin is tall huh? sweet. how are you guys how is the ward how is everything. well i have nothing much else to say lol. work hard trust in the lord, he will do his part if you do yours! love ya guys, stay strong, Elder Arroyo

Hey Mommy! 7/15

SO you car will get fixed thats great! so jenno had her baby thats tight. , ella is a tight name too. so the work here has been going well we baptized last tuesday and confirmed this sunday and jose is a firm member. he took us to central today and i baught a really nice jacket for 45 bucks. it will last me my whole mission. so ya i will trade my skate shirts for brazillian ones and i am about to trade my hoodie for a brazillian skate brand hoody its tight. so have you sent my box yet? lol. i still have some food. but more would be great. if you havent sent my box i would love dr scholls lol. there are like magic!. and some new shoes!. that fit and dont give blisters. but only when you guys can buy em. so about my health i am way healthy i think lol. i can walk without a problom and my new comp walks slow which is annoying. but its all good. hes not my favorite but im greatfull for what i got. so ya my health is good i work out in the mornings i weigh 80 kilos however much that is lol. convert it for me please. im pretty sure its good and i~m alot stronger than before. nope no worms i think i~m to strong for that junk lol. jk curitiba is like an american city, its pretty clean. and i always drink mineral water so its all good. and when we dont have water i will always boil i dont take risks lol. my teeth are doing good they dont hurt anymore. right now everything is good. with all brasilians in the house its kinda lonely lol. but we listen to american music and elder santos who will leave in 2 months to go home has been trying hard to learn english so i talk slow in english to him and teach him alot. i like it lol. so how are you guys. hows the house and stuff. lol. here is good and i will make it better lol. well love ya guys. live life up!. your son, brother, Elder Arroyo

Transfers!! 7/7

OK so today Elder huber my old comp got transfered! and my new comp is Elder Parente and yes! he is a brasillian and the other american that was in my house got transfered and replaced with a brasillian! so its only portuguese from here now! crazy but its not to hard to speak i can get around lol. oh so this week we found out we have a mouse in our house. we named him francisco lol and i feed him but i am going to kill him dont worry lol. so yesterday we had a Baptism!! we baptized "Senor José"! it was an epic event in my life lol and my comp baptized him cuz he was the first encountered him and it was his last day here. it was tight. hmm so what else happened this week. we have some good investigators that we are teaching . oh paintball last week was way fun. i will send pictures next week i forgot my camera. but i wasted some of the other elders lol. i played very well i thought. we played 4 games but everyone only had 100 paintballs. it was wack but way fun. this week was good. that sucks that your duck died lol. you will have to kill that dog! jk lol so 4th of july sounds like it was fun for you guys. we didnt do anything. well we ate pizza and just worked lol. so about the mission changes ya the outer parts of our mission got put in the londrina mission. i dont remember why but they did. but naw im still in curitiba. and mom my address is,... i have no idea. my street is off of manual ribas close to the pizzaria "da costa" and supermarcado "condor" lol so you can try to find my street. house number 200 and its like a set of apartments lol. well i got to hit the streets and buy some food. love ya
Elder Arroyo

Oi Tudo Bem Mãe 7/1 (Oi All Well Mother)

Ya destinee told me that yall went to the temple how was it. sweet i would imagine lol maybe oneday you will experiance temples in brazil! loll. they are way amazing. so ya i heard the BIG michael the king of pop died lol. we had an investigator and the whole world tell us lol. but we were teaching our investigator the plan of salvation and she was like what kingdom will michael jackson go to lol. were like uhh were not the judge of that loll. it was funny. so wow that one elder gave up sweets crazy. i eat as much sweets as i can. i need that sugar high to keep me walking. so what do i NEED. well i need deodorant cuz theres here does suck and some toothpaste cuz that sucks here as well lol. i would like recipes lol on paper oh i would love dryer sheets lol cuz we have a washing machine here but we dry our close on the line and they dont smell that good so dryer sheets to rub on my clothes lol. i would like to know how to make donuts from scratch and my cake that i love that you make for my birthday. oh and either you or dad asked me if i would like for you guys to come and pick me up from brazil after my mission. and i think no. i wanna have a big party in the airport lol. but then like 2 or 3 months after i wwould wanna visit brazil with you guys that would be tight. what do you think. oh so mom i want you to know that out here when were walking on the streets if i have to pee and were in the middle of nowhere i just pee on the side of the road lol learned this as a kid! lol oh but back to my package ya just sweets to fill it and get as many people to write me as possible lol. or draw a picture. oh and i would love tons of pictures from home remembe.r like of the house what mississippi looks like the family friends. KRISTEN! everything would be tight. but ya. so about this week. we walked alot i can never remember the things i wanna tell you guys lol. hmm well we have some really good investigators right now and i think that we can meet our goal of 5 baptisms this month. but my comp is ganna get transtered next week. WE GOT TRANSFERS. hes been in this area for 6 months. so hes gone. maybe i~ll get a brazillian! they say you get like 2 brasillian comps. OH we had a zone goal for each companionship to get 10 references from investigators for families to teach and if everyone got it then we would play paintball! and we all got it! so we are going today at 2:00 i will take pictures! its ganna be sweet. but hmm what else happened oh US played Brazil in Futbol (Soccer) and lost but i could care less lol. but this week has been good. oh i dont know if i told you guys but last week i learned japenese we have a japenese investigator that speaks portuguese!, but its rained a good bit lol. so how is home? how is summer? how is chris lol bored out his mind!. well tell everyone hello. i love you guys. dont forget! Read the Scriptures!, Go To Church!, and Pray! lol
Your Son,
Elder Arroyo

You better not stop!! 6/24

yes i got my package and it was not opened and dang you already have another box that is way sweet! i~m eating the stuff slowly lol very slowly. and ya i found my jump drive and my memory card lol. you guys are good hiders lol. oh and thanks for you conversion story. i~m gonna start askin peeps those 5 questions lol. cuz people have no clue. ya that sucks that you guys only have 1 car and i bet the engine blew on my car cuz chris didnt put oil in it. i always put the oil in. but all is well lol. you guys can walk around like i do lol. sweet i would love to get senior pics of chris. i would love to get tonz of pics. just send me millions lol. there amazing out here. tell him he needs to work hard i actually regret not working hard. dang destinee must be growing up. to the temple for her first time thats sweet. i dont know if i approve of the knee converses but hey its her thing whatev lol. man i got that drawing from justin and he wrote lol. it was so funny lol. i miss that kid. tell uncle randy and becky hi next family night. awww sweet jake got married thats tight. i cant wait to get that announcement. i sent you guys an envelope but i didnt have time to write you guys lol. there is like 3 letters in there for yall to send out plz lol. and i drew a picture for the family. hmm what happened this week that i can tell you. well we went to pizza hut for lunch today and it was amzing. then when we went to catch the bus back we had to run cuz the bus passed us cuz you got to catch it at the bus tube. so we run and get there and my comp gives the guy a 10 and 40 centavos cuz it costs 4.40 for 2 people and then the guy is taking long for the change and then we hear pourtas fechando! lol which means doors closing so i jump like 3 feet into the bus and my comp jumps and gets like smashed in the door then gets in lol. it was hilarious everyone is looking at us lol 2 americans and i~m just busting up cuz i made it lol. but ya thats my story for this week. oh we got a tight investigator he is like almost afraid of god lol. were like are you ganna go to church with us sunday and hes like if its what god wants then i~ll go lol. hes great though. well i love ya guys. stay strong go to church read the scripts lol. pray. do it all. your son, Elder Arroyo

Quick note from Jimmy 6/24

ya i got the package! thanks. it wasnt opened either. and thanks for the jumpdrive. well me and my comp came to copy pictures to our jumpdrives then go print some out. were are ganna go to pizza hut in central.. its american and a buffet and only 15 heias! so like 7.50! talk to ya later. we are ganna get back on at like 12 your time i think. tchau tchau, até 2 horas aqui, e meio dia para você!

New Pictures

the slide show at the bottom has been updated :o)

6/17 email to mom

i guess i will just try and tell you about my last 2 weeks. well me and my companion have been teaching some good people we have marked some good people for baptism and are working on them. we have this one chick who lived in the states for 5 years and she speaks english so i get to speak in english to her somtimes when i cant explain stuf in portuguese. its tight. umm i got to be the senior companion for a day! way tight. i stayed in my area and a missionary who just intered the feild came and was my companion. i knew him from the mtc. we just went and knocked doors we had addresses for and tried to get a first lesson or mark another date. it was a good experience for me cuz i had to do alot of the talking lol. people always making excuses. but i marked some dates. we didnt get to teach any lessons though :( but you better belive i tried!. so hmm what else happened. i cant remember much everything is all a blur. oh i am ganna need some new shoes soon these ones are crapping out cuz they were a size to big and my feet slide around. and if i ever get an email back lol i would love that recipe to the cake i like mom lol. and to some easy cookies. oh and mom if you could tell me your conversion story that would be great cuz people are always like oh well you have always gone to your church you dont know anything. and im always like well my mom was catholic and now shes mormon. and people ask how did she change. so please send me that. oh and whats up with jake did he get married now. whats been up give me an update and have you seen greg yet? just tell me everything well i dont have much more to say this time. love ya guys.
Elder arroyo

Hi Mom!

man thats crazy that everyone is getting ready to leave for there missions. we have so many out now of our ward.. sweet justin and swimming lol. lol vance learned popcorn popping whata nut lol. i love little kids. its hard not to like play around with them in the houses. i have a problem with that. right before the lesson i play and then there like crazy the rest of the time lol. and yes i konw that i have made a wonderfull decision to come here lol. i will always make good decisions lol. so hmm this week well i went to the temple today. add the Curitiba Temple to my list of temples i have been too!. it was marivilhosa!. we have a baptism this week and we didnt baptise last week are investigater has fear. family pushing in one direction and the gospel the other. but she will make the right decision. oh this week it has been freezing! i love it. but houses here have no insolation and we just fixed our little ghetto heater we have. it plugs in the wall lol. i sleep with my long johns and then sweats and then a hoodie and my beanie and my hood on lol with 2 pairs of sox. then i have 2 sheets and 2 blankets! talk about warm but myface will still be cold. but all is well lol. i love it. but showers in the morning whoa! the water is hot but the air around is cold! hmm what else this week. i walked alot we taught lol. oh i made tortillias from scratch! ya you better believe it. elder bailey gave me a recipe book with easy recipes!. its tight. food is so easy to make lol. oh mom i want to know how to make good cake. like american cake ya know the cake i like. its like really moist with strawberries and whipped cream!. i need it! and danish pancakes too please. thanks. so mom just keep reminding people to write me even chris what a rat!. oh and send me a bunch of pictures mom like in a big envelope. i want pictures bad. like take one of the house and the family and i want pictures from my past and of me and kristen. pictures are good to show investigators to show them that your not a gospel zombie and show them what you left behind. well i still love ya guys even though i havent gotten my package! lol. jk. oh and can i buy myself a pizza everytime i get a baptizm? it would be 10 haies or 5 dollars. cool or no. anyway love ya keep the family running.
your son the amazing elder arroyo!
P.S. sweet blog.

Please enjoy the slide show

I have a slide show at the bottom of the posts. I will add pictures as Jimmy sends them.

1st week of the new transfer!

sweet vacation already. so dang destinee at girls camp way cool. and mom workin hard lol. i miss watching movies lol or just chillen. and bbq sounds good lol. the meal that you guys made reminds me of food here. lol cuz we never made food on the grill at home lol. so mom go see terminator lol its a good one i would imagine. and wow movies have gone up that sucks. how is the economy now:? lol ducks i remember our old ducks. and good call getting the other kids to feed em lol.
ya so my right back tooth hurts sometimes when i eat sweet things or cold things. and i am brushing my teeth a good bit too. i dunno. but its only sometimes. and no im not sick anymore. i just had a little cold cuz it was getting chilly and we ran to an appointment. but i~m good now. ya i like wearing this sweater. i will take some good pictures this week and send them to you guys. wheres my package mom! i miss american junkfood so bad. .
ok so my past week hmm. well i was sleeping one night last week and then all of a sudden my bed broke in the middle of the night. i fell to the ground lol. but i just moved my mattress to the floor until the next day lol. i tied a lashing to fix my bed and now its good to go. and ya you heard me right i tied a knot i learned in scouts and no i~m not an eagle lol. tell that to elder randy. but hmm we have a baptism this saterday. its a girl named lilian she is 17 and we are trying to get her parents baptized to they just started listening to the lessons.
oh so we had transfers today. we found out monday it was a big deal lol everyone on a conference call. but i found out me and my comp are staying in the area good thing cuz we have alot of things going on lol. but one of the other elders in our house left. elder bailey and we get a new elder in the house i dont know his name i just barely met him but he is a brazilian. sweet. but other than this the week has been normal. just working working working loll. well i love you guys and keep up all the work and feed the missionaries. trust me they love it and let them eat up. cuz we dont have money to eat that good lol. oh and members here every second sunday of the month will give us stuff.l like 2 loafs of homemade bread some chocolate milk, packs of cookies sweet stuff. and its way amazing. try to set somthing up like that in our ward. well i love ya guys elder arroyo

ducks! 5/20 email to mom

aww you guys got ducks we havent done that in forever! no fair. so let me tell you about my week first it was not good lol. we didnt teach very much nobody wanted to hear our message but all is well. this week its been getting better. we had zone conference yesterday it killed me lol. too much concentrating on portuguese lol. but it was good stuff. the work is going good. i~m working on this idea of mine lol that will make planning super fast! i will be famous !. so justin is a little me lol sweet. oh mom i would love if you send me like a ton of pictures like actually pictures in the mail. you can send them in an envelope. its good to show investigators pictures from home so they relize that your not like a zombie that just teaches the gospel. they see the other side you left. oh and yes the more packages the better and no i never got kristens and she never got it back. horrible! so did i sound different on the phone or the same. the same i would imagine. and i forgot to ask prez about photobucket! i had the interview today with him. i will ask him next wednesday. we have transfers. new missionaries and i might have a new comp. oh so the past week i have been making shakes/smoothies lol. with real fruit. they are amazing!. mom you got to send my package out i need more candy lol. oh just dont do anything else on my facebook lol. and i participated on the blessing with the broken ankle kid. ok i go my haircut at a place in my area and it was 7 heias or 3 and a half american dollars. i look good. and we have measuring cups here lol. they do cook mom lol. and i dont need a oven converter lol. you throw a match in the oven and poof fire!. easy. you just turn up the gas lol for more heat!. well my week has been great. love ya mom and tell chris wheres my email! rat
elder arroyo

Hey Guess What 5/6

today for lunch we ate at a buffet. you go in get a plate and get in line for a custom made pasta. you tell em what u want in it then they put the stuff in a little bowl. then you get what kind of noodles you want then they ask you what sauce you want then they make it right there really fast. then you sit down and people walk buy with all kinds of meet and ask you if you want some. you never have to get up. you eat as much meat as you want. differnt kinds too. and in american dollars the buffet would be like 4:50 crazy huh. and we had juice. fresh lemonade! that was the highlight of my day. so the language is ok. i can kinda understand what people say it just depends on how hard i listen and how well they talk and there accent. and ya man i got the jack bower skills. dude everyday i play frogger with real cars lol. we cross the street tons and people dont stop for you. keep on that rosetta till its done. we can talk portuguese lol. souds like the encampment was fun. i miss those things now. make sure mom puts good stuff in my package lol. DONT FORGET MY JUMPDRIVE!. 4GB MIN POR FAVOR! lol. thanks. well were headin back to the house now. i sent mom an email. love ya.

Hi Mom 5/6

geez mom ask a million questions.ok to start. a typical day for me is wake up at 6;30 and workout. sometimes i dont. then either me or my comp shower and yes he is american remember i said he is from utah.then at 7 all the missionaries pray for there investigators. then the other person that didnt take a shower showers. if we eat breakfast we eat something while the other is showering usually. then we get ready for the day until 8 then its personal study till 9 then we have comp study. then till 9:30 i have language study. then we head out. now i live 5 min out of my area so from like 10:30 till 9:30 we proscelite. president asks us to do 15 contacts a day from peeps on the street and try to get addresses. so with me and my comp its 30 contacts. we go to the houses that we have addresses for and try to teach them. at noon we eat lunch. we eat at members houses. thats my day. at night we eat dinner sometimes. and we plan for the next day when we get home. and its bedtime at 10:30. the other missoinaries in our house are american also.one was in the mtc with me. yes i am in a ward. i am in jardim atalia. its big i guess. about the size of our ward i think. i gave my testimony last week lol and introduces myself. i dont know if we have programs lol but if we do i will try to snag one. i sing in portuguese . are you kidding why the heck would i sing in english when everyone is singing in portuguese lol. crazy mom. yes i recognize the hyms. but the lyrics are different. i can kinda tranzlate some when i sing. ok so from the box from home. more starburst and skittles lol and i want you to print recipes for me and put them in there. some basic stuff but easy and fast to make. brazilian or american. i want the seasoning tony´s ya know. umm make sure dad buys me a jumpdrive and puts it in there. and thats all i can think of for now. oh throw a jar of peanut butter in there plz lol. i need it. and just candy and good junk food lol.thanks mom. this week has been pretty much the same. just teaching and preachin. oh i get to call sunday! it will be sweet. i think i get to call you on sunday to tell you when i will call you. but if not it will be around noon. my comp said we will call saterday to confirm. well be ready lol. i love ya guys. elder arroyo

Macaco means monkey! 4/29

Mom the swine flu seems pretty intense dont get it! so sweet so your friend is ganna give me a package and so are you and soon kristen wil too. i~m getting spoiled lol. i like it though keep em comming. so ya like peoples gates you stand outside of them then you clap then they come out and talk to you and tell you if you can enter or not lol. you dont just walk in. you will die if you do lol. jk . plus all of the gates have dogs inside lol. ya we have a freezer. mom put all the letters you have from anyabody in that box lol. and rememaber send everything to the mission home. destinee is moving up thats way crazy. chris needs to make some more friends lol. aww i miss shrimp so much mom. i wish i could have been at the shrimp/crawfish boil. you dont even know thats cool justin got to report. oh mom i always have a smile dont worry. thats how i get addresses from people when we do contacts i have a smile on lol. they cant say no. that and i have a jesus christ picture in my hand lol. ya cant say no´to jesus. so i have this contact that works almost every time. its. hi were missionaires from the church of jesus christ....... and we have a message about jesus christ, do you believe in jesus? they always say yes lol. then i say well after christ got called a prophet and this prophet restored the church of jesus christ. can we pass by your house another day and leave this message with you? that contact is money. and its in portuguese of course lol. but last saterday we did 76 contacts. cuz were supposed to have 105 a week and we slacked during the week. acrazy. so let me tell you about my week. there was a soccer game on sunday and it was 2 rival teams and on our way back home at night we saw on a bus like 15 kids fighting. and cops like beating them off athe bus it was way sweet. but scary for the other people on the bus. ok let me tell you about this one lady. so we go to this house and we clap and this lady comes out with like this blank face and my comp knew her cuz he had taught her the first lesson before i came in the area. so hes like how have you been and she is silent with a blank face. then were like all silent for like 20 sec. then hes like whats wrong? and she like shrugs her shoulders. and somethings like just not right. then hes like is there something wrong and she like barely nods her head so i~m thinking like crap shes being held hostage and shes trying to tell us. so like adreniline is pumping through my body. then my comps like can we help you or anything. and so she starts talking. and the stuff she was saying i could barely understand but from what i heard this is what i got out of it. shes talking then i hear death and she has this guilty face on and shes talking about her husband and i~m like holy crap. i~m thinking she killed her husband. and i~m like freaking out. but my comp explained that her husband killed himself. it was so sad. so we went in and tried to comfort her teaching her parts of the plan of salvation but it was so so sad. way crazy. but to get out of this sad stuff. me and my comp have more new investigators and there sweet. oh i got to skate this week .at the church there were some youth skating and i jumped on and tried some stuff. i scruffed up my shoe so no more skating lol. we got to watch stake conference. it was hard to understand cuz they translated it lol. but we had 2 investigating families come to church it was ausome.. oh that pizza you gave me me and my comp made it and super improved itl. we made it brazilian. i will send you pictures. oh guess what i might to do today!! we might go into the jungle with a member and feed monkeys!! like my comp said if you are still with a banana in you hand that the monkey will run and grab it out of your hand. i will take pictures and videos dont worry lol. but how cool is that huh way cool or what. . oh tell chris to email me i got to talk to the kid. nothing else really happened this week. today we made sweet sandwhiches subway style lol. we cleaned the house today. well keep the family running lol. love ya guys. elder arroyo

Good Tuesday Morning! 4/22 (mom's email)

Ya i got the package and it was amazing! just what i needed. up in the next package i could use more coolaid lol. but thats pretty much it. oh and candy of course always candy. oh and send a bunch of recipes. i~m doing my best to get your recipes from here. we eat at a members house everyday exept pday here. and we eat lunch cuz thats the biggest meal for brazilians. me and my comp hardly eat breakfast and dinner. but i can live without. we walk so much a day like we basically walk all day unless we get in a house to teach. i do 15 contacts a day more or less and get about 3-6 addresses. my portuguese is comming along well. i teach half of the lesson and my comp teaches the other half. so my first night when we went to teach this family i almost got attacked by a dog crazy. but i am used to dogs now but still hate them. there so annoying. they bark while we clap at the gate and then the person cant hear what were saying cuz the dumb dog. but we teach lesson 1 ´pretty much every day to one of the addresses we got contacted. we get tonz of addresses and we just knock those doors. there is a family we started teaching when i got here and we have taught them the restoration and half of the plan of salvation. this is a good family and i think they will be baptised. we already commited them and they accepted. we have committed like8 peeps to baptizm. crazy!. i love it out here. it was hard at first but now that i~m in the groove of things its sweet. me and my comp get along very well. he plays drums its cool. he is a very good trainer. he teaches me alot. but every thing out here is good. its crazy its been 2 and a half months. way crazy. well i love you guys oh and mom post the mission home address as the address for me to get mail. just send everything there. i dont wanna risk moving areas and not getting mail lol. love ya

New Pictures (scroll down) and a note 4/15

Queridos Missionários,

Novamente, sejam bem-vindos a Missão Curitiba, uma missão de batismos, trabalho duro, obediência e fogo nos ossos!
Estamos felizes com a sua chegada e oramos pelo seu sucesso aqui no campo missionário.

Segue em anexo algumas fotos de sua chegada.

Lembrem-se de escrever ao presidente todas as semanas.

Um abraço com fogo nos ossos!

Translation:
Wanted Missionaries, Again, they are welcome the Mission Curitiba, a mission of baptisms, hard work, obedience and fire in the bones! We are happy with its arrival and pray for its success here in the field missionary. It follows in annex some photos of its arrival. They remember to write the president every week. One I hug with fire in the bones!

My Address

Elder Arroyo
Praço Joseph Smith,
15 Portão
80610-210
Curitiba-PR

1st Week In The Field

Hey mom hows it holding.~i~m in my first area now and it is called ~jardin italia~ it is pretty sweet. my new companion is Elder huber! he is way cool and a very good trainer. i got him yesterday at like 3 0 clock we ended up getting to our house at like 7 we have a house wih 2 other elders. one i knew from the mtc. our house is pretty big. its sweet. so last night when we got to the house we left right after cuz we had 2 appointments. he had neve met the people so we were ganna go get to know them and maybe teach the first lesson. but we walked there it took like 20-30 min to walk and none of the appointments fell through.. but its cool. we did contacts to people on the way and i got 1 address from somone!.. we went to the church and i met some of the youth. they were skating and wanted me to skate. but i dont wanna get hurt. so what missionary knew me from provo? i need names. thats cool about chris. does he go out with the missionaries alot. tell him to start learning the lessons. it will make a big differenece. i~m ganna be teachig the restourating to a real investgator tonight ! crazy. i weigh like 177lbs. well mom i got to hit the road. i love ya. dont forget me!
elder arroyo

your welcome. ya i just figure if i do my best then i will be ok. oh ya i forgot to tell ya. there are dogs everywhere lol. in like everygate. i thought i was ganna get bit last night! crazy. i hate dogs

Dad's email from Jimmy 4/8

i only have a few min. minha profesora é comprendo nos sucós! lol my teacher is buying us juice for our last pday here. there juice down the street is so good. i cant wait to leave this place though lol. but ya conference was amzing i took so many notes. i liked the talks mainly about future stuff that i am going to need lol. family stuff marriage you know lol. my next steps in life. ya elder hollands talk was good too. i am so tired. i just played basketball for an hour. oh i can dunk a volleyball againl. im down to 180lbs and my pants / suit are to big. well i need to hit the juice place. see ya. love ya lots. tell chris to emial me. ! bye

2 Emails from 4/1

ya mom the food aint bad. im just getting used to it. i found out at lunch you can go up to the lady and be like. i want an omlette lol. there way good. but i just eat rolls and butter. or ill put the meat in the roll and sandwich it up lol. i cant wait to get those pictrues of justins baptism lol. way sweet. oh and problom. i accidently threw away my 1gb memory card. it was my extra one. i still have the 2gb with all my photos. sorry i got clusmy. cuz it was in an envelope and i was cleaning. sorry. well this week was good. i~m speaking portuguese better. love ya mom i will send pictures some time later

ya we go to the temple every pday. and ya the one in the picture is the sao paulo temple which is the closest one. its way beautiful on the inside. tonz of stained glass. sweet i cant wait to get that package it will be way cool. just put some random stuff in there too it will be funny. lollove ya.... elder arroyo

bad story (email for 3/24)

MOM yes send me a package! send it to the mission home. i will get it when i get out in the feild which is in 20 days! so sooon. i need to learn more portuguese! but ya i would love starburst and laffy taffys and carmeled chocolate eggs. and starburst!! ok so this is my lil story that kills me. i got back to the mtc from proscelyting and the mail man was there so we go inside and there are 4 packages! i was like freak ya. i ran over there and look and saw my package from kristen. but that day was the pday for sister christopherson the mail lady so i was like hey can i take my package and they said no u will have to get it from her tomorrow. so i was like ok whatever. so that night i saw her and was like hey can i get my package? and shes like ya lets go to the mail room. so we go down there and my package isnt there??? i~m like what the? then se tells me that that packege was going back to the united states. i was like what?? she had it for like 3 days and in the database it says i hadnt left on my mission cuz of visa stuff. so when i saw my package it was being sent back to the USA! how dumb huh? so can u like somehow give kristen some money to send it again? or even better just get the package from her and put the stuff in a box and u send your package with hers. just in one box. that would be wonderfull. and just send it too the mission home. so ya thats crazy that marcus is having a baby. i just heard it from nathan. he said hes ganna be an uncle like me lol. aww so i hope that racheal can get back to church and nick can relize what hes mission out on. just teach em the plan of salvation. ETERNAL FAMILIES!. thats cool that kristen came to the house. i miss her tons and wish i had her package. i sent a letter home with 2 pictures and 2 letters. i would appretiate it if you sent my letters i put them in envelopes and stamped em and addressed em. can you put a return address on them lol. thanks.
well i love ya mom. hope everything is going well.
your son
elder arroyo

Pictures Received on 3/19/09

Please scroll down to the bottom to see new pictures of Jimmy at the Sao Paulo Temple!!

Email from Jimmy March 18

sweet spring break! tell chris to email me. so here we have just been learning and studying and learning. i can teach the first lesson in portuguese for about 15 min and i can testify and pray and we always sing hinos or hmns in portuguese its basically just reading lol. for breakfast its usually like bread meat and cheese lol. oh and always fruit. lunch and dinner its rice and beans and some kind of meat with a roll usually i eat like some rice and put the meat in the roll as a sandwhich. thats a sweet calling. i bet you will be good with it. my calling is to serve the lord by bringing souls unto him top that! jk lol. so today we got to go to the sao paulo temple it was so amazing. i love seeing each celestial room in the temples. and all temples are so different on the inside!!. our branch president took a picture of our distact in front of the temple and he is ganna send it to dads email. so there is one on the way. i~m ganna send my memory card home soon cuz i have a ton of pics. i will prolly before i leave the mtc. well i hope you guys are doing well i need to go. love ya mom.

First email to dad from Sao Paulo CTM

Wednesday March 11:
Thanks for the info dad. so here in sao paulo, brazil the weather is about the same as back home. brazil is so different that what i was thinking. so how is back home? how is work how is everything. the mtc here or they call it the ctm is cool. so on friday 2 days after we arrived we got to go proscelyting it was way crazy. i couldnt even speak portuguese very well. i kept freezing up and stuff lol. they speak so so fast. we ended up giving out 0 books of mormon and 3 pass along cards. i have a new comp his name is elder mitchell. hes from texas. he is kinda hard to get along with but he is cool and is very smart. so you should use www.missionties.com and send me lettters tell peeps at church too. and tell kristen. oh today we went to the temple in campina it was so beautiful. its like an hour from here. in 2 weeks we get to go to the temple here in soa paulo!. i couldnt take pics though cuz were not supposed to bring our camers out of the mtc cuz they say we will get robbed lol. the mtc has like way high security i~m talking camers at ever corner outside and gates and security gaurds outside its way hardcore. to get out onto the street at the mtc they open one gate then you walk in then you close that gate. then they open the next gate and let you out lol. crazy crazy. well keep buying me cookies from cheyneys. i need to write nate then go play some piano!! its the best way to calm myself. oh in my room we have 2 brazillian roomates. 3 bunkbeds one for me and my comp then the 2 brazillians and 2 other americans. ( my old comp and a really cool guy) his name is elder laBaron. oh they took our money when we got here and put it in a safe along with calling cards and debit cards. they gave us 60 hais or whatever. which is like 30 bucks its enough. there are little vendors out here selling ties for 3 bucks!! nice ones and we just shirts for 3 bucks too its so crazy. i ate a big burger down the street with a sweet shake for 3 bucks too lol. its sweet. well alright love ya dad and mom

First email from Jimmy to mom from Sao Paulo CTM

Wednesday March 11th:
i speak english more than portuguese but i speak portuguese as much as i can. i´m supposed to have a short lesson 1 in portuguese so its comming along and i´m learning lesson 2 now in english the food is all rice and beans and some kind of meet. it is good though. cool that chris is going out with the missoinaries. tell him to study preach my gospel too it will prepare him more. well i have 0 time now i love ya mom.

first email we received on Feb 27, 2009

oi, como via (how are you). so i got my visa yesterday!! I'm flying out to brazil Tuesday. they said i can call home today and tell you guys but my email account just got set up so I thought I should use it anyway. i hate being away from computers its so hard to not try and find loop holes when i use the computers here too lol. like everything is locked down... no hot keys no right click no nothing. so I cant make batch files and stuff. so here at the mtc its way fun way fun. I learn alot. i have written alot of cool stuff to remember. i can teach the first lesson. we do a lot of teaching here. me and my companion teach the first lesson to people who volunteer here in the MTC. so the food is great they feed us well. tell mom that its cold here but not cold enough for me to wear sweaters or gloves. basketball here is what i look forward to everyday. it's so intense. oh we got to go to the temple today in Provo. it is an awesome temple. we did endowments. I sent home my endowment stuff. were not supposed to have it if we leave the country. missionaries get free rentals. well i need to go do laundry. I can call you guys when I get to Atlanta too in the airport. i have like 2 hours of wait time. i love ya dad. keep the business running.

Bumps and Miracles on the way to the MTC

Elder Arroyo left from Jackson to Atlanta at 6:40 am on Wednesday. We waited for his plane to leave but eventually left him to sit on his plane for what we later found out to be his first adventure on his mission. The flight didn't make it to Atlanta on time and he missed his connecting flight to Salt Lake. While there he met 4 missionaries returning home and they invited him to have lunch with them. Hours late, he finally arrived in Salt Lake and couldn't find his luggage and missed his express shuttle to the MTC. Standing alone amongst returning missionaries and not sure what to do Elder Arroyo is befriended by a stranger in the airport that asks where he is returning from. Elder Arroyo tells him that he is reporting for his first day and the stranger asks if he has called his parents to let them know that he has finally made it to his destination. Elder Arroyo responds that he thinks that is agianst the rules to call home. The stranger lets Elder Arroyo know that his ox is in the myer and that it is ok to call home. He lends him his cell phone and helps him to find his luggage being held behind the Delta counter.



The man that helped Elder Arroyo turned out to be Bro. Moore, a former member of his stake presidency, returning home from a business trip with his wife. He also served a mission in Brazil and gave Elder Arroyo some good council on his future mission there.



The man behind the counter helping Elder Arroyo find his luggage turned out to be from the Hattiesburg area and they talked about familiar places and the schools they attended.



I do believe that Heavenly father watches over our missionaries and keeps them safe.

Packed and ready to go

Elder Arroyo will report to the Provo MTC until his visa comes in then he will be off to Brazil.