An Empty Bag Is A Good Day

Helloooooo

My week organized itself into a few themes.

1. The attributes we act to require are found following the powerful principles of God's gospel. 

In God's "GPS gospel," he gives us the coordinates, and we have to follow them to find the geocache, which is replete with attributes we all desire to acquire. I really miss geocaching, by the way--what a fantastic way to spend one's time. 

My brothers will appreciate the references to a few "good ole days" memories to try to explain what I've learned about this topic.

In Tony Hawk Pro Skater, as you progress through the game, you learn tricks, tips, moves and principles. One of your objectives is to find "hidden skate tapes." These tapes are usually hidden in hard to reach places and almost always require the use of some cool maneuver. If you use the tricks, tips, and principles that you have learned, your intuition will guide you to those tapes. 

In Midnight Club, a street racing game for PS2, you are assigned certain races depending on your distance in the game's story. Many of these races are optional, but there are always races you must race to progress, and those are normally the hardest ones. As you do the assigned races, using tips you have learned, you gain credit to tune your car's attributes. 

Tapes, car tuning, and geocaches. These three memories and this week's events somehow helped me understand the way in which God leads us to develop Christ like attributes. If we simply follow the guidelines given, which are the principles of the gospel, we will eventually, no matter how far off we were at the beginning, find ourselves in the service of others, doing what Christ did and would do. 

One more direct example is can be drawn from Family History Work. We are counseled to search out our family's history and go to the temple to perform ordinances and covenants for those who have passed away. Sometimes I have wondered why, if during the millennium things will be so much more efficient and error-free, so much emphasis is put on family history. Just as daily scripture reading and daily prayers lead us to develop Christ like attributes, so does researching our family history and going to the temple. In the same way that duties at home are divided between family members to help them learn, God's work (which he could very well do himself in an instant) is administrated among us, so that we can learn and acquire attributes that He has. 

2. Going back to what we know

Music is a language, so during our language study time, I've been teaching Elder Santos, my companion, to play piano. It's been great to learn how to teach better and to observe how people approach the piano. It's been so long since I was introduced to the piano, that I had forgotten some basic things and how to teach them. (one of them is how to teach fingering and build hand strength). I also observed many beginners want to learn fast, and want to practice fast, and want to play an entire song fast. After learning the first line of a certain song, E. Santos started with the second line, but every time that he made a little mistake, he started at the beginning again to be able to hear what he already learned linked with what he was trying to learn next. Instead of starting on the second line and going straight to the problem, he started at the beginning every time. He was very anxious, as all beginners are in any learning effort, to go back to what he knew. 

I learned that there are, in my mind, different kinds of "Going back to what we know." There's a good side and a bad side. Elder Holland talked about the good side in his talk entitled "Lord, I Believe" (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng)

He said "In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know."

During the times of trouble, when we feel like we are lost or confused, it is comforting and appropriate to go back to what we know. Many times we need reassurance to be able to continue on. Neal A Maxwell explained that we should take advantage of these secure moments in which we on flat ground that we know well.

"The flat periods of life give us a chance to reflect on what is past and to be readied for stirring climbs ahead. Instead of grumbling and murmuring we should be consolidating and reflecting."

We cannot always live on the confusing side of things. If we do, we run the risk of being led into broad roads (1 Nephi 12:17).

On the other hand, some unknown roads can be healthy for our progress, if we endure them well. The Savior took an unknown road as he took all of our sins upon himself as part of his infinite atonement. His perseverance made our eternal progress possible. Lehi and his family took an unknown road as they traveled in the wilderness being led to a land they did not know. The were led to the promised land The Jaredites took an unknown path, putting their barges in the water, trusting they would be led to safety, and were. Every day we take unknown roads as we leaps in faith, acting in Christ like conduct in the risk of derision. Our trials are traveled on unknown roads that have no shortcuts. If we don't take those roads, we can't progress.

3. Memories, like talents, are to be shared

I have tried to apply the parables of the talents to memories, and it's been helpful on many occasions. The parable teaches us to invest in our talents and to use them. If we invest our memories in the lives of others by sharing them, memories can be multiplied as well. 

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matt. 6:21)

In my mind, I have switched two words to give this verse another meaning.

For where your heart is, there will your memories be also.

If we put our heart in something, we will reap memories. 

It's a little bit jumbly to try to talk about how the people we visited this week taught me these lessons, but an overview of what's going on is here:

Luziene got married at her church, but not legally, so we have to wait for her to get married or separated. Her husband doesn't want to get married. She is going to church every Sunday though. We still haven't gotten in contact with Romilda, but one of our investigators, Vanessa, is progressing a lot and will probably get baptized soon. Her teacher at school gives her are hard time about receiving the missionary lessons and going to church, but it doesn't bother her much. We had a cool experience finding new people to teach. We were looking for an old investigator named Lucicleide. A super rare name. We started asked around for her. Someone told us that she new a Lacicleide that moved her a little while ago. We found her house and it turns out that it's not the person we were looking for, but she has basically the same name. She had never talked to missionaries before. It was crazy. She enjoyed the 1st lesson. 

Love,

Elder Young

In Palmas for a zone conference

I'm sorry to say that today I won't have much time again. We're in Palmas for another zone meeting and we are all using the same lan house, so we have to be quick. 

To answer a few of mom's Q's:

This week went well. Luziene (Loo-zee-ay-nee) has a goal set to get baptized this Sunday. Yesterday in church we asked her when we could teach her again this week. She said "I want to be prepared. 5:30 everyday until Sunday." She is very determined. We're excited to have a firm appointment set every day and to see her progress. We haven't gotten to talk to Romilda again. She hasn't answered her phone. We passed by her house and happened to see her relatives there. They said she's having a hard time but would benefit from a visit. We are going back this week. Hopefully we find her at home. Antonio has been reading but he doesn't want to commit to anything. He said some day he'll visit the church. Yes, I got the ping pong game. I don't really have time to use it though. People enjoy playing it at zone activities. Yes, I got the pants. Can you send me some new shirts from mission mall?

It's so great to hear from Brandyn. I didn't even need to see the email address to know who it was from. No one uses exclamation points as frequently as Brandyn. Thanks for your shared excitement! Haha.

I apoligize for my brevity! Next week I'll include more.

Love,

Elder Young

Bryce serving in Brazil

Looks like a fun service project!!

Staying in Porto Nacional!

Hey family,

I'm staying in Porto Nacional! My exclamation is positive, because I want to stay here. Elder Santos is my new companion. And no, he hasn't already been my companion. And yes, it's just us here. Many people have this last name in Brazil. He's excellent. He's always in a good mood and we get a long very well. This week was very successful. We found a ton of new people to teach. We don't have control over whether they will progress or not, but at least we're finding people that are curious enough to hear the message of the Restoration. 

Our priority right now is Luziene, a member's friend, who is loving the Book of Mormon and has gone to church 2 times. She participates in the classes at church and has already gone to a family night in the ward. We will hopefully teach her the restoration tomorrow. 

Romilda is traveling this week so we haven't been able to teach her again.

This week we had many days in which we didn't know where we were going but found many great people. I have gained a much better sense over the last few months of how to know what to do when you don't know what to do. Following this new understanding of inspired thoughts, we found a man, Antonio. We taught him the restoration and he agreed to be baptized this month when he receives an answer that the church is true. We went back yesterday to see how the reading of the Book of Mormon went/was going. He told us that he wants some time to read it. We explained again the importance of pondering and praying about what he reads. He didn't seem as excited as he was the first time, but at least we have invited him and explained what he needs to do to get an answer. I remembered just now that he mentioned to us that he had a dream the night before we came of some discussion about religion on his front porch. He said he knew it would happen but didn't know it would be us. Pretty cool.

As we have found success in finding many people, I have become almost too conscious of how often we are going to find people who don't want to go after our invite to learn more. Logically, it makes sense that as we find more people, we're going to run into this sort of thing more often. But also, it means that are chances of finding more gems (which are people prepared to hear us) increases. It's a nice little gospel math lesson. When more is given, more is required. When more opportunity for teaching is given, more effort and sacrifice is required. There is no easy way out. I'm grateful for having learned this lesson.

I'm glad my companion is funny. His first day here, we found a garage remote control on the ground in front of a house. No one was home so we determined to come back another day. As we walk around the city, he clicks the little remote control to see if it will open any of the garage doors around us. We joke that whatever door opens is clearly a door that we should enter.

Yesterday I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. My subject was huge--Jesus Christ. In part of my talk I talked about attributes of Christ that we can all acquire by observing examples of people around us. The Light of Christ shows us all what is good and what is bad. It is this influence that teaches us through our experiences. As I studied to prepare the talk, I thought about my brothers and parents and how each of them emanate an attribute of Christ. It enjoyed being able to use examples from my family to describe the attributes of Christ, such as humility, knowledge, diligence, charity and love. I'm glad that you have all shared parts of your lives with me so that I could share parts of your lives with others to teach about Jesus Christ.

I'm looking forward to hearing from Brandyn soon! 

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Young

Elder E. Santos is Elder Young's new companion

So I'm in Aureny right now, close to Palmas. I'm stayed here last night and I will stay here until tomorrow. I found out this morning that my new companion will be Elder E. Santos. I'll meet him tomorrow and then go back to Porto Nacional.

We haven't been able to visit Romilda again. We're going to visit her the first chance we get this week. Her niece, who lives in Palmas told me that the last time she talked to her (Romilda) she seemed a lot better than she was the week before. 

I'm super excited for Brandyn. He's lucky that his last meal will be In and Out. 

I've gotta go,

Love,

Elder Young

Elder Nascimento's penultimate week serving with Elder Young

This was probably Elder Nascimento's penultimate week here, and we spent it as such. We increased our focus on encouraging the members to bring friends to church and activities. As what seems like a result of this effort, two members brought their friends to church, and two follow-up visits were marked yesterday. I hope that member missionary work can continue to gain momentum in the next few weeks.

This timely spark of member missionary work will contribute to the progress of a new person, Romilda, who we met this week. Romilda is a referral of a teenage member, Beatriz, in Palmas, the stake's center. We were in Palmas for an interview and she excitedly greeted us, telling us that her aunt, Romilda, lives in Porto Nacional and that she would like us to visit her. She told us that Romilda's husband (a less-active member of the church) passed away recently and that Romilda had dreams of him telling her to go to church. She is prayerfully hoping that her aunt will accept the invitation to go to church and learn about the plan of salvation. Yesterday we found Romilda at home and got to know her. We ended up teaching her the plan of salvation. Her questions led us to teach the whole plan. She thanked us for the visit and we planned to visit her again on Thursday. I hope that she considers the eternal significance of her choices in this life as we teach her the principles of faith, repentance, and baptism. I am eager to involve the members in the lessons with Romilda to strengthen their comprehension of the plan of salvation as well as their commitment to share their testimonies.

Have a great week!

- Elder Young

Elder Young's District

Lehi's Dream in Vanessa's back yard

Greetings,

Sorry I forgot to send my last email. At least this week you get two. I wish I could have been there to hear you all sing/to sing with you. I'm sure it was great. I hope everyone had a good day back at school, even though you probably didn't sleep very much. We've all secretly wanted to go back to school before after a few weeks of summer. 

Last week I wanted to have time to talk about a lesson we had with an investigator named Vanessa. We've been teaching her for quite some time. She's 18 and has had the lessons taught to her by many different missionaries. She has prayed about the Book of Mormon and has told us that she knows it is true. She continues to go to church but still has something holding her back from becoming a member. She says she doesn't know why but feels like something is holding her back. Last week we had a great lesson with her about the plan of salvation. We were reading Lehi's dream in 1st Nephi. She asked about the significance of all the elements in his dream, like the iron rod and the building on the side. We read Nephi's interpretation and took advantage of her backyard to illustrate the principles of the dream and to ^cliken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our ^dprofit and learning. (1 Nephi 19:23)

She had a few trees in her backyard and a plastic hose just chillin on the ground. We presented the tree as the tree of life and the hose as the iron rod. It was a bit silly, but she really got thinking as we used this example. It was thrilling as she asked questions, just like Nephi does in chapter 11, that lead in perfectly to the next explanation given. She asked about the people that ate the fruit and then fell away because they were ashamed. We likened her house to the big and spacious building, with material treasures and things of the world. She understood the analogy well. We asked, after explaining everything, where she would be in this analogy. She replied that she feels like she's on the edge, looking toward the building that represents the world. It seemed like she answered her own questions while thinking about this analogy. It was a pivotal lesson, and it has made her think more and more about what decision she wants to make with the knowledge she now has at hand. She went to church again this Sunday and liked it. The hard part is getting her "fellow shipped" with the members.

This experience made me think a lot about how Jesus taught. The book Jesus the Christ taught me that in more than one occasion, He used his immediate physical surroundings as the theme our background for his parables. In the parable of the sower, the path and field that He mentions could be found behind where He was teaching. The subject of His parables almost always pertained to the work His listeners found themselves in each day. When you teach in this form, the student cannot help but reflect on what you teach as they go about their day, because the setting for your teachings is where they live! Now I know that every time Vanessa looks at her backyard, or at that tree, she will remember 1 Nephi 8, and she will remember what she learned when we talked about that tree. 

I don't know if she'll decide to get baptized soon or not, but I'm glad to be a part of her learning process. She has already used phrases such as "When I get baptized" or, "After I get baptized." I hope it's soon!

This week we found a bunch of new people, but very few of them are progressing. The members are starting to give a few more references than normal, so I hope we can do divisions with them and get them more involved in the work. It's crucial that they are involved and that they invite instead of us. Adriana, Akira, and Fabricio are hard to contact because someone in their family died. We can't visit them for awhile because where they live is very dangerous. 

Sorry for the recent lack of pictures. It's just that not a lot is new. Tell me what you want pictures of.

Have a singular week,

Love,

Elder Young

Quick letter from last week -

Today I have to be really quick; sorry I can't respond to all your emails. We had a zone activity today and have very little time to send emails. This week went very well. We found a lot of new people to teach. It's refreshing to change our routine a little bit. We're staying in Palmas for the night and we get to do divisions with Elder Stacey and Elder Silvera.

I love you all!

 - Elder Young

(I wrote this all last week and I had to leave quickly, so I forgot to send the email) 

Witnessing the Lords Work

Lately I have been describing my weeks to myself in terms of general experiences that have the length of a week. This helps me to remember what happened during the week and also what would be of most avail to those who read my newsletter.  People like stories, and nothing will replace the human desire to hear things in the form of stories, which is a hard fact to take in because I've never been too great at story telling. Thankfully, the events of this week seemed to knit themselves together into a story.

Our daily efforts this week were focused on finding less active members and finding new people to teach. We have a really old list of members. We consider the people on the list that we haven't met yet as less active, inactive, or relocated. So we began searching for the addresses we had close to our house. A great majority of the people on the list had already moved. As we were searching for Paulo, we passed a group of 4 people relaxing and soaking in the shade, a common Tocantins occurrence. We couldn't find his address so we made our way back. I didn't want to go down the road and back for no reason, and felt like we should ask those people if they knew Paulo. We introduced ourselves and got into good conversation without even asking about Paulo. They didn't know him, but we talked and planned to come back the next day. We came back and it turns out that none of them actually lived in that house, so we thought nothing of it and went to the next thing. One day we ate lunch with Maria Joana, a member that has been here for quite some time. Lunch went by quickly, so we determined to stay a little longer to get to know her and ask questions about the area and old members. We got talking and asked if she knew anyone we could visit. She mentioned many people, including her daughter, who hadn't gone to church in some time. She explained to us where she lived but it was very confusing. Elder Nascimento wrote down her name and directions as best as we could. After lunch we passed the house we previously passed looking for Paulo. We decided to stop again to see if one of them was there. A less active member, Cleane, answered the door (gate). She said that she didn't know the people we were looking for. She told us her name and Elder Nascimento looked at his planner, looked up to her, and then to me, then back at his planner, then back to her, asking her for her name. She said she was Maria Joana's daughter. We were really surprised that she lived there--we never expected to find her house. She invited us in. We got to know her and talked to her about a lot of things. She said that she has felt empty since she stopped going to church. She told us how she met the missionaries and about becoming a member. We read the scriptures with her and shared our testimonies with her. I talked about how the gospel has blessed my family and how it is crucial in the lives of her children. She thanked us for the visit and said she would go to church on Sunday.

Yesterday she came to church. When she sat down, I told Elder Nascimento that she came and pointed to her. We gave each other hidden high fives (it was much like Shawn and Gus when they get excited about something). She gave her testimony in testimony meeting and expressed how happy she was. Her daughter came along with her. Looking at them sitting together made me so happy. The testimony meeting was fantastic. After she gave her testimony she sat down with a smile on for the rest of the meeting.

I wish I could express how I felt seeing the week's events culminate into yesterday, many of which were extremely coincidental (we weren't even supposed to each lunch at Maria Joana's house that day. There was a mix-up in the lunch calendar) Yesterday's happenings made all the sun, long walks, vain visits, and challenges of this week worth it. 

Ether 12:6

6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that ^afaith is things which are^bhoped for and ^cnot seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no ^dwitness until after the ^etrial of your faith.

The witness came duly after the trial of our faith. Not faith just in our own efforts, but faith in the guidance of the spirit, which led us, on two specific occasions to be able to help Cleane in some small way. I remember often the words of David A. Bednar in a MTC address. When asked how to recognize the spirit.

"Quit stewing about it. 

Quit Fussing. 

Quit worrying. 

Just be good boys and girls. 

Just be worthy. 

Sometime you will look back and see that you were in the right place at the right time. And you will recognize that you were prompted and directed."

As we do what we know we should do, as we are in the right place at the right time, our steps will be guided. 

Moroni 7:16

 16 For behold, the ^aSpirit of Christ is given to every ^bman, that he may ^cknow good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

Every thing which inviteth to do good is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ. I've learned that I don't need to double think thoughts that invite me to do good. We don't need to be over preoccupied with whether or not what we're thinking is the influence of the spirit or not, just "be a good boy" and guidance will come.

Before I forget. Another less active came back to church yesterday because a friend of a friend shared something about the church on facebook. Continue to 

stand as^cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death (Mosiah 18)

AND

and be ready always to give ^ban answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the^chope that is in you with ^dmeekness and ^efear (1 Peter 3)

I've learned to:

Never think that your efforts are in vain, no matter how small they may be. And be ready to share what you believe and why you believe it.

Have a wonderful remainder of summer before the humdrum season of school.

Love,

Elder Young

(I've noted that the sun here is good for only 2 things so far: 1. Drying clothes quickly, 2. Drying bananas for a nice treat)

Pictures!

Elder Young husking corn

A worm in the corn!!!

Wow! Look at that Iguana!

A ward party in Brazil

This week we walked and walked and walked !

I hope you all had/are having(?) a good family reunion.

This week we walked and walked and walked. Fabrício lives pretty far away so when we visit him it takes a good chunk of time out of the day, but it's worth it. I don't know where the time went. Normally I have more stuff written down to pass on to you, but I have nothing. We continue visiting our progressing investigators, but none of them went to church yesterday. There were just a few people at church because many people are traveling. 

This week we're going to make our focus on finding new people, because many of out investigators aren't progressing. Akira and Adriana went on vacation. And we found out that Adriana's husband isn't too fond of the church, and he isn't home very often. He said that Akira can get baptized but we want the whole family to be able to be members, and to make sure her family is as dedicated as she is first. René, the member that has helped us so much with them, went on vacation too. I'm grateful for knowing that our work isn't in vain. To know that later on, people will probably have a second or third contact with the church, is a constant comfort.

I continue to be amazed at how fast my clothes dry, and the best heat is yet to come.

Next week I'll have more news! 

Elder Young

Elder Young teaching in Brazil

Akira(little girl), Gabriel(boy), Adriana(Akira's mom), Fransisco(caretaker of Fabricio)

Fabricio

Summer In Brazil

Dear family,

I'm glad you liked the pictures and I am happy with myself for remembering to take more this week. I KNEW you would all do a drum roll at the table at the part in my letter about the double decker bus, haha. That made me laugh.

The biggest difficulty I feel about working here is making sure the visitors at church have a pleasant first impression and a friend to help them along in the meetings. We can do our best in presenting gospel information in our weekly visits to them, but on Sunday we have to put our faith in the classes they will attend and in the talks they will hear.

Church yesterday went well.

Fabríco and Livia were confirmed. One of our investigators, Vanessa, loved watching them being confirmed and couldn't explain the strong feeling she had in that occasion. Her experience afforded us the moment to reflect on the influence of the Holy Ghost in conversion with her. She is being rewarded for her continual reading of the Book of Mormon and for her diligence in coming to church. 

Fabrício lives close to another family who comes to church when they have the means to. Adriana, Akira's mom, (see picture) is reading the Book of Mormon and watching the videos of the restoration with her daughter. She comes to church when her "husband" (people call their boyfriends and girlfriends spouses here sometimes) is able to take them . They live very far away and can't get to church without a car. I enjoy being with them and teaching them. The environment is always very healthy for a real learning process to occur. Akira always has super good questions, too. 

Thanks for your prayers, considerations, news, and comments. They are all greatly appreciated. 

Love,

Elder Young

The trip to Brasilia

Elder Young and Elder Reese on a bus ride to Brasilia 

Bryce in the center of Brasilia

Bryce in Brasilia

Elder Stacey, Elder Reese, Elder de Jesus, Elder D. Call, and Elder Young

Picture of zone in Palmas, Tocantins. Reuniao da zona

Trip to Brasilia to renew visas!

Enjoyed the trip to Brasilia

Welcome to my letter,

Tuesday night I rode on a bus to Brasilia. Elder Reese and a few other missionaries from my MTC group came along too. We renewed our visas in the Brasilia airport. I got to meet "THE WHITE DRAGON". What a privilege. The white dragon is one of the people who works at the visa place. She never smiles and only says things once. She's really white and appears so fed up with things to the point that she will probably set you on fire if she breathes close to you. The mission secretaries named her the white dragon. I smiled so wide when she called my name and took my fingerprints, but her mouth didn't arrange a smile. Anyway, I enjoyed the time (5 HOURS) we waited in the airport because I got to talk with other missionaries (which you don't actually have a lot of time to do on the mission) and talk to people from my MTC group. We stayed the night in Cruzeiro, where Elder D. Call is working (he's from ARKANSAS!). Elder Reese and I had some time to go on splits and work in his area a little bit. We knocked on doors and did contacts. It was funny because the rich people there act like they're not home or give really funny excuses. Sometimes they even combine all their possible excuses to not answer the door into one sentence. One lady didn't want to come to the gate. We asked for a cup of water and she came out. As we talked to her a little bit, she put her arms out to her side, blocking her kids from coming closer to the gate, as if we were angry barking dogs on the other side. I don't know what it is, but people were scared of us there. We finally found someone who came to the door to talk to us and we ended up talking to him for some good time. He explained his beliefs and told us why he doesn't agree with our doctrines. I was glad I was with Elder Reese because we have the same way of talking and teaching people. We got to be really good friends with him, laughing and discussing religion. After hearing that Nephi built a boat, he said "this book (the book of Mormon) should be made into a movie!" I said "I know it should! Will you help us make it?!" He was commenting from the side of "wow, this book is ridiculous, how could anyone believe in it?" but it didn't really bother me. We made a good conversation out of it and became good friends. You have to learn how to laugh with people and to not take things so serious all the time like some people do. It was interesting to watch our conversation with him unfold. I could pinpoint pivotal moments in the conversation--moments in which we could either take offense and argue, or we could smile and explain our point of view in a light invitational way. I was happy that we had a chance to bare our testimony of the Book of Mormon. Even though he disagreed on many points, the conversation we had was enlightening and positive for both of us. I'm glad that we had time to work in Cruzeiro before going to bed and I'm glad that we made use of that time and found an excellent person.

We took a double-decker bus on the way home. You guys are probably wondering whether I sat on the top or not. Drum roll please....I did. Oh it was cool. I wish I would have taken a picture because I know you guys probably think it's super cool that I rode a double-decker bus, but I forgot to take a picture. Maybe I'll ride another one in the future. 

I lost my planner in which I wrote a few things to tell you all, sorry about that. This week was great, though. Fabrício got baptized by his great uncle. We're starting to teach his family now, which is exciting. 

Thanks for the pictures Brooks and Braxton! And thanks for scanning them in, Dad. 

Enjoy the little things:

Here, the penny doesn't exist. There is no such thing as a coin that represents one cent. The smallest amount represented by a coin here in Brazil is 5 cents. So when the cashier owes you in between 1 and 5 cents in change, he gives you a little piece of candy. I enjoyed this little fact last week as I received a piece of candy in exchange for 3 cents. I decided that the next time I want to buy something and don't have enough money, I'm going to give the cashier a few pieces of candy and walk out the exit.

Love,

Elder Young