June 24, 2013

So looks like I've just got a little bit of time to drop you guys a quick message, because things have been nuts with the transfer, especially since today was one of Brazil's biggest holidays...and ALL the cyber cafes were shut down for the day. Next week I'll be able to send you some good photos. ANNNNNND the transfer...looks like I'll be getting transferred to Maceió, so tonight at 2:00AM I'll be grabbing a taxi to grab the transfer bus there. I'm excited because it's my first transfer outside of this state Sergipe, and now I'm gonna be in Alagoas. 

That's all I've really got time for, so just know I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Love,

Elder Daniel Reneer

June 17, 2013

This week has been an AWESOME one! And it's already passed and brought the beginning of the last week of the transfer!

And dude...DUDE. We had another BAPTSIM this week!  Her name is Laiane and we met her 2 and 1/2 weeks ago, and she's a super-good girl! It was really cool to teach her because she had a lot of direct, educated questions, sincere doubts and a lot of personal desire to know the truth of our message. We had to bend over backwards to get the baptism to happen, but she was excited and anxious when the hour of the baptism arrived. She wasn't actually totally sure about the baptism until the DAY of the baptism... when she told me about a really incredible and personal confirmation she had received about it. Really, truly amazing miracles are happening with these people preparing for baptism, things that really never happened to me before the mission. 

Well, in somewhat sadder news, it looks like my long-lived stay here in Soledade is coming to a close. It's already been 5 months that I'm here in the area/ward, and I'm 95% sure I'm getting transferred this coming week. It's been way cool, because I've gotten to know everyone in the ward really well and seen progress in the growth of the ward. Today one of the sisters in the ward made a "farewell banquet" for us, so that means...that means we didn't have to cook on our day off! YEAHHHH! :)

I'm super excited to hear that things are going well out there, you guys just gotta keep doing what you're doing! Just keep being so exquisitely delightful, okay?

I LOVE YOU.

-Elder Reneer

June 10, 2013

DUDE this week has been intense, just a LOT of work, but fortunately, it's the kind of wok I like doing. We just spent the last 7 days in search of new investigators, spent every day just talking to people on the street, knocking doors, and the like. It's been SUPER good, because now we've got a solid teaching pool, and a bunch of people marked for baptism. Now, the only thing I'm kinda down about is that I'm not gonna be in this area to see these people baptized...the TRANSFER is coming! 2 weeks! And I'm most likely going to see maybe only 2 or 3 of these people baptized that we found...and I'll be shipped off to another area.

 

Well, besides that, things are going really well here. I'm healthy, and I'm happy. And I only get trunky when I dream about home. I think one of my trunkiest dreams was last night... another one of those dreams where l'm back home. And sometimes I feel like maybe my dreams could be like, warnings. For example, last night I dreamed that I came back home, and I was way excited to have a throw-down with Sasha. But when I found her, she had been bleached white, because mom had accidentally put bleach in her bath, and so she was all ugly and weird-looking. I was TICKED. Dude, I woke up and I was still ticked. So yeah, Mom. Don't do that. Don't get on my bad side and dye my dog before I get home. This stuff happens, so you really gotta pay attention to avoid it. ;)

ALSO I'm SUPER excited to get my package! Hope it gets here soon... I think I'm starting to move to the missionary-desperate-for-mail-from-home phase of the mission, so yeah... chaces I'll start crying now if I don't get mail at the mission conferences and mettings, and everyone else has some. But you know, I'll be okay, getting no mail builds character, toughens a person up.

 

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH.

At LEAST as much as Darth Vader loves his Storm Troopers;)

 

BYE!

Elder Daniel Reneer

June 3, 2013

So...my weekly opportunity to communicate in English is here...ahhhh, what a relief:) Even better that it also happens to be me weekly opportunity to communicate with my family, yes? Dude, two awesome things landing on the same day of the week, at the same time...that almost never happens. I'm pretty sure the only other thing that comes close is when you meet a pretty girl AND she likes you (technically that is a bad thing if you're on the mission...). But, seeing as that pretty girls generally never like me, I'm just gonna stick with talking to my family. You guys are the only pretty people that ever liked me :(

So this last week we didn't have a baptism, but we've got an investigator that could be baptized this Saturday, so we're gonna get after her this week!

The work is going super-well, we worked this whole last week to find new people to teach, and ended up marking 6 baptisms (that doesn't mean the baptisms are actually gonna HAPPEN, but it means they're willing to try!), even though I've been having a bit of trouble getting around with my foot this week. I got a dag'gum blister that's been killing me, and it's a little nasty, but it's getting better. I'll send you a picture sometime ;)

So I finally lived a dream I've had for a long time, or at least since I got my call to serve in Brazil. I've had the urge for a long time to take a jog through the Brazilian jungle, so Elder Roper and I went hiking/jogging up a foothill covered in brush. You know, it wasn't exaclty...not precisely... living my dream, because it wasn't exactly a jungle. In fact, it was really just a hill covered in gigantic weeds with a tree here and there, but honestly I'll settle for a little less. If you kinda just use your imagination a little bit, it's kinda a rainforest. It didn't have parrots or gorillas or panthers or any of that jazz, but there were defintiely some massive rats, lots of bugs, and I think I even saw a vulture at one point.

It's not exaaaactly checking one off the bucket list, but I can deal with it.

I love you guys!! And actually, I love you a lot more than zits love faces. They may be really close, but we're way tighter than that. You big 'ole bunch of whities are my tightest buds...you guys are definitely my tighty whities;)

BYE!

-Elder Daniel Reneer

May 28, 2013

So, if brief news (time is short today), our district boundaries got changed! No more Sisters:(...I was actually kinda getting to the point where I didn't wee myself every time I had to speak in front of them during out district meetings!

Now it's just four of us...Me, Elder Roper, Elder Numbers (born in Bountiful, Utah), and Elder Canuto (from Manaus, in the middle of the Amazons).

This last week was AWESOME! We've been helping a less-active family get involved in the Church again, and we got to see their daughter baptized this last week (by her uncle in the picture), and now we just need to get the Priesthood for Elison, her dad, and callings in the church. They're an awesome family! 

This week the time's a little short...but just remember, this email's size is inversely proportional to the size of my love for all of you. I love you all at LEAST as much as Hitler loved his Nazis. At the VERY least. But personally, I think our relationship's a little better than that, because I still haven't made you sing songs about me, or made you persecute anyone, or made you respect my delightfully well-trimmed moustache.

Yet.:)

I LOVE YOU.

BYE!

Elder Daniel Reneer

May 20, 2013

Honestly, these days I have moments every now and then where my brain kind of...tweaks out, and I think..."What in the blue blazes, I'm in a dag' gum different country, speaking some sort of blinkin' gibberish language, working in church clothes 'til I'm a scummy little sweat puddle every day." Dude, honestly, I don't know what happened. Either I'm crazy, or...or I'm going crazy. But you know, it's a good kind of crazy, because even though I'm living in an alternate reality that messes with my head, I'm very happy about it. I tend to imagine I have a lot in common with Tarzan in that way. Turns out that we both came from other worlds and were thrown into the rainforest, and had to learn a language that uses a lot more body language, grunting and chest beating, and on the rare occasion that we meet someone that speaks english, we have a series of panic attacks, flashbacks, and get seriously obsessed with beating on everyone until we find the next boat back home.

But I'm just kidding, I'm not trunky. I haven't even thought about finding a boat to go back home. But that's because flights are way faster, cheaper and more comfortable. But seriously, I'm not trunky. I haven't even thought about going home today like, more than twice. I haven't even cried yet. Today.

Just kidding again:)

Things are going well, I'm super happy with how things are going here, and nothing much has happened this last week to report. I'll have some spectacular story next week to relate, don't worry.

I LOVE YOU!

SO MUCH!

SO MUCH!

Love, 

Elder Daniel Reneer

May 13, 2013

Well, unfortunately it's not gonna work out real well to send a nice-sized email to you today, but I'm throwing in some photos, one of our baptism,Nazareno, and one of our mornings of baptismal font filling.

It was AWESOME to talk to you on Saturday! You guys are my favorite bunch of tighty whities;)

I LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH!

Like a leech loves soft epidermis:)

Elder Reneer:)