São Borja

OH Hey,


I really do not have much time to talk today. I had lot to do and very little time to do it, I just have a couple of minutes to talk you all.

I am doing much better than I was. I just had been spoiled to for the last couple of months being with very experinced missionaries, but I am over it and we are doing just fine here in São Borja.

São Borja is a city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. São Borja is the oldest municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and was founded in 1682 by the Jesuits as the first of the Seven Points of the Missions. It is situated on the Western Frontier of Rio Grande do Sul on the border with Argentina which is defined by the Uruguai river.



São Borja is known as the Land of the Presidents as it is the birthplace of two Brazilian Presidents: Getúlio Vargas (1883–1954) and João Goulart (1918–1976).
 

 

 

 
My companion and I saw the river today, and we thought to ourselves, wow, this girl wants to get baptized in that filth. It is not the cleanest place on earth. It is darker than the Wabash to give you an idea. But she insisits that the river is the only way.

I am doing fine here. We are teaching alot, and we are trying to get the members involved in the work. They are helping out alot. I discoverd that also that they is nothing open at lunch time here in our neck of the city. We will have to go to eat in the center of the city when we want to eat from now on.


I love you all, and hope you all are doing well.


Love,



Elder Caleb S. Carriere

River Uruguai

Hey,

I really do not have much time to talk to you guys, but I am doing well. I am doing alright with my new companion. I am not much of a fan of training. I am so used to having a companion who is just as capable as I am in teaching as I am that I have been kind of spoiled. 

I do like my new area however, and we´ve marked a baptism in the River Uruguai. I am very excited for that, although we cannot baptize her, because missionaries cannot go into the water.  It will cool however.  I will enjoy it.

My new companion is from São Paulo, and his name is Elder F. Santos.

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 34°12′S 58°18′W

Uruguay River
Río Uruguay, Rio Uruguai
Sunset in the Uruguay River, from Misiones, Argentina
Countries	Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay
Source
- elevation	1,800 m (5,906 ft)
Mouth	Río de la Plata
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)
- coordinates	34°12′S 58°18′W [1]
Length	1,600 km (990 mi) [2]
Basin	365,000 km² (140,000 sq mi) [3]
Discharge
- average	5,500 m3/s (194,000 cu ft/s) [3]
Map of Uruguay River's basin

The Moconá Falls, where the river passes between Argentina and Brazil, are up to 3 km wide

Map of the La Plata Basin, showing the Uruguay River joining the Paraná near Buenos Aires.

The Uruguay River (Spanish: Río Uruguay, Spanish pronunciation: [uɾuˈɣwai]; Portuguese: Rio Uruguai, Portuguese pronunciation: [uɾuˈɡwaj]) is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries. It passes between the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil; forms the eastern border of the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre Ríos in Argentina; and makes up the western borders of the departments of Artigas, Salto, Paysandú, Río Negro,Soriano, and Colonia in Uruguay.

The river measures about 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) in length and starts in the Serra do Mar in Brazil,^[2] where the Canoas River and the Pelotas River are joined, at about 200 m above mean sea level. In this stage the river goes through uneven, broken terrain, forming rapids and falls. Its course through Rio Grande do Sul is not navigable.

Together with the Paraná River, the Uruguay forms the Río de la Plata estuary. It is navigable from around Salto Chico. Its main tributary is the Río Negro, which is born in the south of Brazil and goes through Uruguay 500 km until its confluence with the Uruguay river, which is located 100 km north from the Uruguay's confluence with the Río de la Plata, in Punta Gorda (Colonia Department, Uruguay).

The river is crossed by four international bridges (from north to south): Paso de los Libres-Uruguaiana International Bridge, between Argentina and Brazil; and the Salto Grande Bridge, General Artigas Bridgeand Libertador General San Martín Bridge between Argentina and Uruguay.

The drainage basin of the Uruguay River has an area of 365,000 square kilometres (141,000 sq mi).^[3] Its main economic use is the generation of hydroelectricity and it is dammed in its lower portion by theSalto Grande Dam and by the Itá Dam upstream in Brazil.

Cock a Doodle Doo

Hello family,

 

I am doing fine.  It has been a week since I last wrote you guys.  How fast time flys right? Well good news...  You all get to talk to me on Mother´s day.  I am excited for that one, but it is only going to be for a half hour this time around, but we have another time to talk to you all on father's day. I have not the slightest idea what day is fathers day, but I hope it is before august.  

I hope you all are doing great. I am just fine. I really have nothing much to say. I am just doing well, and I not sick, but always tired because of the roosters that live behind our house. It is crazy. I did a division the other week, and I slept in another house, and my body is so accostomed to it that I woke up, and I heard nothing just the sound of  the other missionary breathing. I was stunned by it. I really do not know what to do about it, but I am sure once I leave here that I will become accustomed to it again.

I have nothing new to tell everything is going along just right and I am getting ready to be transfered. I hope that I stay, but I am sure that I am going to go. I am at the limit of my time here. I think that I will be reasigned as trainer. I really do want to, but I do what I am told.  

I love you all and hope that you all are good.

Love

Elder Carriere

"Mom, don't drink it, you will die"

Hey Family,

How are all you doing?  I am doing fine, and I am in high spirits although a little tired. We have a tradition now where we play basket ball on preparation day at the butt crack of dawn, and so I am tired, and would like to go to take a little nap. All and all however, I am doing quite well, and I am looking forward to what life has in store for me.  

 I am busy at work.  We have been trying to improve our manner of teaching as well, as finding people to teach. I think it will have a good effect on the ward.  I hope that people see our efforts and want to provide there talents in Lords work.  

That family of seven is still going on strong. They have agreed to stop smoking, and they have a little reservations about coffee drinking, but their children are helping them. Their youngest daughter saw her mother drink a cup of coffee, and said "Mom, don't drink it, you will die."  I got a laugh out of that one, but it is very true. She is a very smart little girl of three years of age.  I really love that family, but it is a shame that I will not be able to see them get baptized.  It is very likely that here in two weeks that I will leave the area and more than likely leave the city.  I really do not know what will happen, but I hope that I can still have the opportunity to see them get baptized, or at least when I come back here see them get sealed in the temple.  That is why I would like that you guys talk to Brother Dixon, and see about that study abroad.  

I love you all, and hope you are doing well.

Love, 

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

"After time she gets old, and you do too, but she is still your woman"

Hey everyone,

I am going really well, and my life is really good. I cannot complain.  I am in good health, and we are still building up our teaching group. We are, however, teaching a wonderful family, which is like ours.  They are seven in total: mother, father, and five children, three girls and two boys.  I really like this family.  They are going really well and the father went to church this Sunday, and the mother stayed home because they had visitor come unexpectedly.  The mother did pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true, and she did get an answer that it was indeed the word of God.   I am very excited about the progress of this family.

We got a new kid in our house.  So there was a Brazilian in our house but because of some family problems he had to go home for a time, and so when he left there was also arriving two new from the States, Americans, and my companion and I were his companion for a day.  It was different training a new guy for a day. He was very excited and the only problem was that he could not speak the language. It is interesting how people treat the new guys.  It is interesting that a year and seven months ago I was that guy, and just as completely lost, tired feet and brain, and with a bad case of Montezuma's revenge.  Oh, I am glad those days are over, but I do miss the newness of it all.  It is something that gave me a reality check. 

I had an interesting conversation with a drunken man last night.  He told us his life story, then he started to break down and cry, and he started talking about how his father was a member of the church in another city, and how he wanted to be like his father.  His dad died as a family man, and that was the greatest regret of this man. He was married and had three children with his wife, but then separated from her, and he now regrets not having his family with him, like his father.  He said something that touched me, that I perhaps will never forget.  He said, "You meet a girl in your youth, and she is your young woman (wife).  After time she gets old, and you do too, but she is still your woman."  It is simple, but it is true.  Oh if he knew or actually took to heart what his father knew to be true.  We will teach him tonight, and I hope that he will be willing to hear and put into action the things which we will teach.

I love you all, and I hope that you are all doing well, and I will talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

The Eye of Faith

Hey Family,


I am doing really well. I am happy and in high spirits. We had a really good week, and it was due in part of conference, and also because we had two baptisms this weekend.

First I would like to say that conference was really motivating, although by the end I was really quite tired, not because of being bored or anything of the sort, but rather tired because so much knowledge was to be had, and my poor opinon mind simply could not take a more information. All of us who were watching it, by the fifth session were having a hard time keeping our minds balanced. It is a strange feeling having the Holy Ghost tell you so many things, and being compelled to act rather than to sit idly by as the world asks upon you. That was one of the overwhelming messages that the conference told me. Also that I must get married sooner than later and also that once married I have to be a good husband, and not simply act like one. I still have sometime to learn how to do that, but I already have some ideas, thanks Richard G Scott and President Monson, and Presidente Ribeiro for giving me some incites about such things.

We had some interesting talks these days the guys in my house and I; we have been talking about the meaning of the "The Eyes of Faith," and how we can better apply those eyes in our lives. It is a simply perplexing topic, you can dig deeper and deeper, and the doctrine does not change, but the way that it is implemented changes, and also the results for the understanding of it. We talked that there needs to be faith, hope, and the eyes of faith. They all serve different functions for the same outcome, and lack one they all do not serve for anything. The first is faith, or in other words a goal or something which we want to achieve. The second is hope, our the confidence that we can achieve said goal, and the driving force behind our desire to achieve. The "eye of faith" being the plan which is made to achieve and strengthen both faith and hope. We learn in Moses 3:5 how God used it in the creation. It states that God created everything spiritually first before he created everything according to physical matter. God made a plan, and then made that plan happen. The spiritual Creation was the blue print for everything else, because His true goal is to have us become as Himself, which is possible through the eyes of faith, and seeing ourselves as he is, eternal and resurrected. On a more scaled down version of this we can apply this in our lives by making a goal, and then seeing that goal materialize in our minds, and then make that goal happen. It is something that we have been learning, and it is something that I need to study more about to become more like my Father in heaven.

We had two baptisms because of what we envisioned using our eyes of faith. Their names are Lourdes and Thaliany. They are a grandmother and granddaughter. It is a sad story that they have. Lourdes is a widow of a couple of years now, and also Thaliany is parent less, because when she was younger her father killed her mother, and has not been hear or seen from again. I do not know whether he was caught by the police or something else, I did not feel the need to ask, nor the gumption to ask. However their take to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ was a rather quick one, and once more proves that those who read the Book of Mormon will gain a testimony of it. There is really just no way of denying its truthfulness. They both read it daily and they are very happy to have found the church, because of it. I am glad that I was an instrument, or a "tool" in the hands of the Lord. I was the one who made the contact with Lourdes weeks ago, and said, "Hey, We are Representatives of Jesus Christ. Can we say prayer and bless your home?" I am beginning to understand how Ammon and the other sons of Mosiah felt as they talked about their success in Alma 27.

I am studying about the word Penitent. It appears just 7 times in the Book of Mormon, and six of these times it is stated in the book of Alma and 5 of those six times in Alma it is about Ammon. I will get to the bottom of what it means. I already have an idea about it. Thanks Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.



Love



Elder Caleb S. Carriere

One Last Climb

Dear Family,


How are you all doing? I am doing just fine. I climbed up the mountain one last time. I liked it. It was a lot of fun. I am, however, very tired, and I would like to take some time off of everything. Unfortunately that just does not happen as a missionary. I am doing good beyond that.

This week my companion, and I have been working harder than every before. We are trying to build up our teaching group, because it is a little small and many people are being cut, because they are not progressing the way we would like them to progress. It is a sad thing, but it is a necessary thing every now and again. It is like cutting down a forest, and planting a new one, it takes time, but in the end it is worth the effort that was put in.

Our mission to get the member to get to working is still going strong we had a new ward mission leader called in our area. I am really excited to work with him now, and he is doing a good job up until now. He is a good friend of mine, actually. His name is Antão. He was baptized about two and a half years ago, and he is a strong member of the Church. He was serving as the ward's young men president, until he was called this week. He is a hard working man. He will do just good and fine on his new calling.

As for me, I am fine. Cannot complain too much. Life has been good to me thus far and I am just loving it here. I got Alyson's gift this today. I am looking froward to make the brownies. That is something that does not exist here. It is good to have a little slice of home. The closest thing that they have here is translated to ( and remember they are not racist here) "crazy negro cake". Which is good, but it is not as good as brownies which does not sound so racist.


I am doing well, and I hope you all are too, and remember always look on the bright side of life.


Love,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere