Hey, take it eaaaasy....

So a miracle happened this week, I was cured! I still feel low on energy, but it felt just like how you were describing it. My eyes hurt to look around, there was a lot of pain in my joints, and my skin was really sensitive. It was the worst, then all of the sudden during the week, I went back to normal. Everyone was surprised, saying that it should have taken a lot longer to get better, but I know that it was because of all your prayers. Thank you soooo much!

Congratulations Coley! I'm glad to hear that there is a new member to the family. Just a little sad that I won’t be able to see her for a few months. 

So this week I wasn't transferred, but my companion was, and I am actually kind of glad. It just felt like it was time to move on. My new companion is awesome and hilarious. He's an American from Spokane, Washington. I knew I would like him when I heard him say to me one day, "hey, take it eassy," like Nacho. And then I liked him even more when I heard him singing, "I'm proud to be an American!" I would like to spend more time with him, but this is his last transfer on the mission. We are actually very alike in a lot of things. We already planned on maybe hanging out after the mission to go to Golden Coral, mmmmm, buffet. He likes to do triathlons and wants to do an Iron Man too. I told him how sad I was to get rid of my bike before the mission, but how my dad is super cool and is making a bike for me. He got all jealous. Even though he is into triathlons, he’s not one of those gay guys that likes to run around all day in little tight shorts. He does a LOT of camping and hunting, and always talks about guns. He got me re-excited about camping again, and got me thinking again about forestry, I’ve been really thinking about it. Strange Ranger.

Congratulations to Bradley, my best wishes go out to him!

I'm going to have to try hard that this transfer doesn’t make me trunky because my companion is an American and he’s talking about going home to the “Holy” Land again, and it makes me want to kiss that promised land sooo bad. I want American food sooooo bad, you can’t even imagine. Tomorrow we are going to BH to have another Zone Leaders council, and afterwards I'm buying McDonald's.

I love and miss you all! There is a chance that I could be switching missions to one of the new ones. I'll know in a few weeks. I can’t wait to hear from you guys again.

The Gospel is true!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

Dengue...

I dont have much to write because I was sick on the bed all this week with Dengue and a fever that stayed hovering around 102 degrees. Yesterday I went to the hospital and they injected medicine in me and I’m feeling a little better. Next week I’ll write more.

love you

Elder Smidt X

From Mom:

I just wanted to send you all a little update that I got from the mission president’s wife today about Jesse. Keep in mind that she speaks Portuguese and this is her best attempt at English. I love itJ

Dear Michelle

Elder Smidt has Dengue really. This year 21 missionaries got fever Dengue and he needs take tylenol and a lot of water and take a rest.

Don't exist a medicine to cure this fever, just some medicines to help him not to climb fever or feel pain.

I am talking to him every day, and tomorrow I will send you a email to you for share what he is feeling.

If be necessary, he will go to a doctor again.

All missionaries need to use a repellent with DEET every day, but I think that he forgot to use some days.

In this state, has a much cases of Dengue, and this is the best way to prevent.

He has a good companion who had Dengue to. He is helping him a lot.

Don't worry, I will send you an email tomorrow, telling you how is he , and I will tell you every day until he will be fine. 

With love

Sister Fortunato

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Also,  when I got Jesse’s email today telling me that he had Dengue, I sent out a group email to my missionary moms support group to inquire if any of them have had any experience with this. One of the moms in the email group asked a sister missionary who just got back from her mission in Brazil about Dengue. This is what she wrote back to her. I just thought this would be interesting to you to know what Jess is going through. Here is what she wrote:

“My companion had Dengue, it is flu-like symptoms. The carrier is a mosquito, so he got it from a bite. It is a virus, so there is no drug or anything to take with it, just pain killers. Basically the hardest part about having dengue as a missionary is that it takes about a month for your muscles to stop aching. (You know that achy feeling with the flu?) So its more like the recovery will just take a while, and that's really hard like mentally and spiritually, to not have your full physical strength while trying to serve. He will be fine, with my mission president, he let missionaries with dengue come stay at his house for a few days to recuperate, but he has a huge huge heart, and not all presidents will do that. It is not life-threatening, you're just super miserable. He should get through it fine, but to be honest it may take an entire transfer for him to be able to get back to working at 100%.”

I would really appreciate all of your prayers in Jesse’s behalf. I wish so much that I could be there to take care of him, but I am glad to know that he is being watched over. I know he is.

I love you all!

Almost Arrested...

First of all, 

Thank you Brittany for all of your packages. I don't know if you have sent a box, if so I have not gotten it. Most of the packages I get are pictures of Lucy and Piper, but I am so very grateful for those, I LOVE to see them! Sorry for not mentioning those more in my other emails, but I hope that you know that I do love them and I love you too, and you too Shawn. Thanks for the letters!

I was soo happy to hear about Brianna’s mission call. I am so happy to know that I will have a cousin that speaks Portuguese. I was scared I would lose it because I wouldn't have anyone to speak it with. It’s the coolest news I've gotten. My companion said that it is hot there, and humid, but it is very beautiful. But tell her to bring a lot of sunscreen. And tell her that there is a lot of witch-craft. I thought there was a lot here, but my companion said that there is more where she will be going.

So today I wasted my whole P-Day going to the Police station in Belo Horizonte, to renew my "something" that had to do with my "being able to live in Brazil" thing. But then they started getting all mad at me and telling me I was in the area illegally and it turned into a big ol' mess. Apparently when my group of 12 Americans arrived here in Belo Horizonte, they forgot to have each and every one of us sign something, saying that we were changing living locations from São Paulo to where I'm at now. So all of us Americans were held there for a good time, wondering if we would be going home or not. So then I just lifted my hand to the square and commanded the whole building to crumble, and then me with all my American buddies walked out of there scotch free. Just kidding, they actually finally let us go with each one of us getting two tickets that went on each and every one of our permanent records. I have big ol' ugly stamps now in my passport, and I probably won’t be able to come back to Brazil. This happened to all of the Americans in my group today. Oh well, the good thing was that I got to see all my good old friends from the MTC, that was really cool!

So I think that I will probably be transferred at the end of this month. I feel like my time is coming to an end. And usually when I get a hunch about transfers it almost always happens, must be revelation. I think I might be a prophet, but whateves. I will actually be kind of glad to leave here. Last Sunday I think we had twenty people in our ward. Its been tough here. But I'm working hard.

Well, I love and miss you all! Sorry I don’t have time to write more.

Can’t wait until Mother’s day!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

You want my wallet?

Family,

Well first of all, thank you Bryan for the letter. Its always awesome to get a letter from my personal trainer. I studied that letter day and night, and it stays under my pillow. Looks like we are off to Chile then!

Thank you so much for the letter Piper. I’m glad that when good things happen to your mommy, it makes you happy:) Mom and Dad, I always love your letters. Thank you nana and pops Smidt for the Easter Card. I love hearing what is going on in the Smidt Clan. And Tiff, thank you so much for the package. I loved those Swedish fish beans, they were sooo good!!! And I play with the nerf ball every day, it’s the only toy I have:)

Mom, here are some boy ideas for when Jayden and Spencer come: Movie theater, pizza night (everybody makes their own little personalized pizza, its fun), make flubber like we used to do at Nana Smidt's house, go to Fast Lanes, find some kind of Groupon or something. That would be something to remember. Let them make a fort like we also used to do at Nana Smidt's house everytime we slept over there.

So this week I was robbed for the first time by some little punk. Actually I wasn’t robbed, but my companion was robbed. The guy stopped us in a little dark road, it was late at night. He had something in his waist line under his shirt. I didn’t know if it was a gun or a gimmick, but just because of that doubt in my mind, I didn’t do a lot to stop him. He started searching my companion’s back-pack first in a violent manner, and my companion just sat there saying, "No! No!" like a little girl. I just sat there all dumbfounded thinking maybe it was a joke, still trying to register what was going on. And then he turned to me to search my pockets, but when he reached his arms towards me I just yelled,"No!" in a deep voice, and hit his arms away from me.  I think he might have gotten scared a little bit, because he didn’t persist at all with me. Then he went back to my companion and started searching for more things, and then left in a hurry! I was kinda angry. I wanted revenge. I look up to Elder VanWagenen, and I wish I could have had his same attitude when he thought that his thief was in more need of the things that were robbed than he was. But instead, my thoughts were those of Batman…I kept thinking in a deep course voice, "I want Justice".  And then I imagined myself punching him in the face with a sweet batman suit.

I liked General Conference a lot; so much of it was focused on missionary work and how the members are missionaries. I tell you what, we live for references from the members, and we love even more when the members want to teach with us, or when they do a family night and invite their non-member friends over to participate. We go over there, sing a hymn, say a prayer, share a little inspirational fun lesson, eat some kind of appetizer, and then ask if we can pass by another time to share a more in-depth message. I challenge you guys to do this one thing before I get homel; have a family night, plan with the missionaries a night to have them over, and invite a neighbor over to participate. It is the best thing! I get frustrated when members don’t help out the missionaries. Please do this, I definitely will be doing this when I get home!

Did anyone else notice that in the Sunday session a woman gave the opening prayer? I thought that was very interesting, I’ve never seen that before. I liked Elder Holland's talk the best in the second session Sunday. I usually always like his talks the best. He is such a good speaker!

Mom, yes there is contact solution here, but if you don’t want to send it, its fine, don’t worry about it. But I do want that Axe hair stuff since you’re asking. I hope all goes well for John in his first week at BYU-I.  

          

Love you and miss you all! Keep sending me pictures in the emails, I love them!

Elder Smidt X

Miracles...

Family,

This week has been excellent. I really tried to continue doing EVERYTHING right, and I saw results. This Friday I went on splits with a greeny to try to help him adapt to the mission and get a hold on things. I also decided that we would try to search for everybody from the Area Book (a book that has all of the records of people that were taught in the past) that went to church and were learning from the missionaries and were progressing towards a baptismal date, but then stopped for some reason. We also searched for less active members to see if we could reactivate some people and hopefully baptize some of the members in the family that weren’t baptized. But I focused all of the records and people in the part furthest away from the church, about an hour and a half walk to get there, on a hot day. We got there and no luck, no luck, no luck. Nobody wanted anything to do with us anymore. Then it started raining. I felt bad, I felt like this new missionary was probably looking forward to this division with the hope to learn something amazing or have something really good happen. Near the end of the day I was ready to give up, but we still had three names on our list of people to visit. We only had time for one more visit, and I knew that the next day I probably wouldn’t be returning there, so I chose a random name from the remaining three names to go see. We went there and my prayers were answered. He accepted our message, and accepted to be baptized in the next two days, Easter Sunday. He wasn’t able to be baptized previously because he had an addiction problem, but then about a year ago he went to a clinic and got himself fixed up and stopped completely. With all of the other commandments he was ok. His name is Carlos, and I hope that you guys can pray for him so that he will stay firm, get confirmed this next Sunday, and really get a strong testimony.

We also had a contact that we had made, show up to the church. He wants to be baptized and he liked the church a lot, but he drinks a little bit and his family seems a little against the church. He turned 18, so now we will see what happens. If you would be willing, it would help him to have your prayers as well. He is a good kid that wants to change. 

We saw a lot of miracles happen in our zone this week, and there are sure to be more. 

As for that picture I sent of my apartment last week-- when I took that picture I was in the house only a couple days, and as Zone Leader I don’t have time to organize. It was easy as junior companion, but now that I am zone leader, I wake up, eat fast, take a shower fast, iron my shirt fast, then I have to study until 10 am and then I’m out the door until 9:30 at night. I get home, plan for the next day fast, call the other missionaries to see how they are doing fast, then I take a quick shower, then its 10:30, lights out. Every day my life is a race that never ends!

I thought of a couple more birthday ideas if possible. I would like to have my contact lenses because I am starting to use my glasses, but my head gets so sweaty it’s kind of a pain and the lenses are getting pretty scratched up from carrying them around so much. And maybe some Crest white stripes so that I don’t come home with Brazilian teeth.

I love you and miss you all!

PS Today is April 1^st- Your lucky that I’m not there to pull something on you guys, but next year I will!

Elder Smidt X