Elder Tyler Lunt's Mission Site
Tyler, the Ward Pianist
Date: September 01, 2008Area: Ananindeua
Companion: Elder Merrill, Sandy UT
Hi Mommy! Hey Dad! Hey David! Boa Tarde Leah!
WOW! Another week already?! Ah, without fail, every time I sit down to write, I have no idea where to begin!! First of all, yes I got your missionties letter! Mom, it was SO good. I love your letters so much, thank you so much. If I ever feel like I need a little extra spirit, or a good boost before we go out, do you know what I do? I read parts of your letters! Parts with the things you are learning from the Book of Mormon, you know, but mostly, just the mom stuff! There is just such a strong spirit in your letters, mom. THANK YOU!
But anyway, it sounds like you are all doing fine, and I am so happy! Oh, and THANK YOU!!! I got the package!! The box one!!! Oh my gosh, holy cow, I never knew so much goodness could fit in a box. WINGERS SAUCE! Haha! Weīve already used it a lot, Elder Merrill and I make chicken nuggets every single night, and on special occasion nights- which are random- we have Wingerīs night! Ah... our apartment smells like heaven after.:) And the ipod was perfect too! Thank you so much!
Guess what?? We can listen to anything Josh Groban! At the office, they have i tunes with a ton of Josh Groban stuff, but the only thing they donīt have is Awake album, and the Christmas album! So it was perfect! And Elder Merrill loves mine and Leahīs song, haha! Leah, when you started singing he was like, OK. Miss Angel voice. This is like... Angels coming out of her mouth right now. Haha, he is so dang funny, we laugh so much every single day. He reminds me of Joel kind of! Heīs just hilarious! On his ipod he has this guy named Aaron Edson- He is this Mormon... Justin Timberlake kind of, and it is hilarious! His brother put it on there I guess, and so one night, we made a music video on my camera!! I CANīT WAIT for you to see it! Leah, youīre gonna die laughing. I do every time. Oh man.
But let me tell you a little about Elder Merrill! He is from Sandy, he has been out eleven months almost, he is just barely taller than I am, heīs awesome, hilarious, awesome at Portuguese, he was All American for LaCross at Alta high, he graduated in ī06, and... Heīs my companion! We are way good friends already! Mom, today I gave him our number to give to his mom, and I think sheīs going to call you! That will be so fun!
But ok, NOW about my week! Wow, this week was AWESOME! We are finally settled down in our new apartment in Cidade Nova! Itīs in the City of Annanindeua, in case Cidade Nova isnīt on the map. The same city as Wat! Anyway, at the beggining of the week, we had zone conference with two other zones in the mission, and Pres. Hoggan too! It is SO cool, elder Merrill told me before that conferences like these are kind of like general conference, in the way that they always speak to something you need in your life, and you can pray that the things the speakers speak on will help you. It was so good. The assistants gave the trainings, and one spoke on the Atonement, and the other spoke on Our Purpose as missionaries. I got to eat lunch sitting next to President right after too! The whole thing was so cool and so much fun! The next day, our zone got to have interviews with the President! Two days in a row of getting to hang out with President Hoggan! Haha! Gosh, I wish I could capture his personality, spirit, and just his essence and put it in this email. He is always happy, always smiling, and just talking to him makes you feel so peaceful and happy! I was one of the last ones to be interviewed, and when I went in he gave me a hug, and when I sat down he just started chuckling and smiling as he asked me how I was doing, because my first two weeks had been so crazy! Well that made me just start laughing, and so for the first bit of our meeting we just smiled and laughed! It was SO good, I just wish I could talk to him every day! Needless to say, it was a great start to the week, and being more settled in, and getting to know the area and the people a little better was great.
Let me just really quick tell you what my days are like! So we wake up, excercise, which is HARD for me in the mornings! Haha! Eat breakfast, get ready, study, and we leave at 11:00. If we have lessons or appointments planned with anyone, we go do that, and at 12:00, we have lunch with a member! Itīs always so fun, they love the missionaries so much! After lunch, we share a message with the family! We usually just have the family choose who they want to share with them, and since Iīm new, theyīre always nice enough to always... choose me! Haha! But I love it! My favorite one this week was with this cute little family. They have 2 kids, and one of them is an 8 year old boy, and he is getting baptized next Saturday! So they chose me, and I said, Awesome! Today I want to talk about one of my favorite things, I want to talk about... Baptism! He smiled SO big and just lit up, and he read the scriptures perfectly, and knew exactly what he was doing! It was so cute, and he was so happy and excited to get baptized! It is just so cool to see the gospel- whatever part it may be- lighten up someoneīs day, everyday. Especially mine! Sometimes I feel like itīs just ME thatīs getting spiritually blessed by this work! Haha!
Anyway, after lunch, we go to all of our teaching appointments! We usually have enough to fill up our time until dinner, and if we donīt, we just talk to people, and visit the less active members! Then we get really hungry, and get food, and then we teach, and find people, and then at 9:00 we go home, plan the next day, set goals, and then we make more food, and then we party and call Wat, and do push ups, and go to bed and talk until we fall asleep! IT IS SO MUCH FUN!! Isnīt that just the best day ever?? It is tough though! There are different challenges every day. BUT, for every challenge, you can find the reward, and the rewards are always better if you can overcome your challenges! And at the end, you are a better person.
I wish I could share every experience Iīve had this week with teaching, and finding people, but Iīm running out of time! Today has been crazy!! We still have a lot to do today! So Iīll tell you about Sundays! Sorry, this letter is super jumbled, and random and not spiritual, there is just SO much I always want to say, and I have to choose what it is that Iīm going to say! Haha!
Ok, so, Sundays are the BEST! Like I said, we cover two wards, so they are always really busy, and always twice as good as the missionaries here who only get to cover one ward! Our first ward is at 8:30 in the morning. Our church is SO cool!! Itīs 2 stories high, and itīs a stake center! Itīs kind of old but itīs so pretty and really really nice looking! Iīll have to take some pictures! It still doesnīt have any air conditioning, but there are tons of fans! So we go there, greet our investigators, talk to the people, go to our classes, and the last segment is sacrament. After our first block, we have lunch with a member, share a message, and if we have any appointments we go teach, or go to church meetings or something. Our second ward is at 3:30, and we usually canīt stay the whole time because we have to be back at 6:00 on Sundays to study, and make phone calls to the district and to the zone leaders. It is such an amazing and good relaxing day always!
Hahaha, I want to tell you about our Sunday yesterday though! Just a few things! It was the most random, awesome, funny day ever! Ok, so let me just tell you that I am now the pianist for two Brazilian wards now! Haha! Isnīt that awesome! It is so much fun! That was just as of yesterday, so that was a big new thing! Anyway, in the second ward, I was playing. Here in the wards they sing 4 hymns, and I had played the first two, but Elder Merrill signaled to me from the audience that we had to go. Right after he did this, the Bishop got up to announce the rest of the meeting, and I told one of the counselors up there that we had to go. Right after I did THAT, the bishop said to everyone, Now I want all of you to move next to someone who has a hymn book if you donīt have one, and I want you all to sing, because we are so blessed, we have a piano player! And he turned around and thanked me! So his counselor that I told went and whispered in his ear that I had to go, and he went back and said, Nevermind. He has to go. And everyone just died laughing, ah it was so funny!! I felt WAY bad though! But we had to get back!! Haha, ah we all laughed so hard!
Anyway, on our way home, it started POURING rain. Oh man, I have never seen rain like I have here! It really does rain every day too, it is SO cool! But we went under this little overhang thing over the sidewalk, and a drunk man came and accompanied us! He talked forever about how much he loved us, and called Elder Merrill the N word, and then we tried to schedule an appointment with him to visit him, but he would only schedule an appointment to play soccer with him, so we did that! Haha.
After that, a man stopped us on the way home, and told us that he wants to go to church, and that he wants us to come teach him and his family tonight!! Haha! Isnīt that awesome?! Another thing- later that night I heard this REALLY loud, weird high pitched noise out in our apartment building hallway, so I opened the door, and there I saw a tiny little kitten meowing in front of our door! It looked so pathetic and so sad! I didnīt know what to do, and it started like crawling into our house! So it came in, and kind of just curled up on our floor! I ran and got some milk in a little dish, and had to wake it up- almost revive it and put it in itīs face to get him to drink it! It was SO sad! So he drank, and we took some pictures and videos, and to make a long story short, I had to scoop it up in a pizza hut box and put him outside with the milk and whish him good luck. Bah, it was hard, he was so cute! But anyway, that was my Sunday! It was great!
Every day brings something new for every category! I am loving it here. I wish I could fully express the joy and love for someone that comes to you as you teach the gospel and see their lives begin to change, and see that happiness start to affect their lives for the better. It is absolutely incredible. Ah. I hope you know how much I love you with every piece of myself!!! I hope you are doing well, and I think about you all and pray for you all SO SO much! I love you!!! I have to go, I hope this email was ok! Haha! Until next week!! BYE!!!!! LOVE YOU!!
Love, Elder Lunt
WOW! Another week already?! Ah, without fail, every time I sit down to write, I have no idea where to begin!! First of all, yes I got your missionties letter! Mom, it was SO good. I love your letters so much, thank you so much. If I ever feel like I need a little extra spirit, or a good boost before we go out, do you know what I do? I read parts of your letters! Parts with the things you are learning from the Book of Mormon, you know, but mostly, just the mom stuff! There is just such a strong spirit in your letters, mom. THANK YOU!
But anyway, it sounds like you are all doing fine, and I am so happy! Oh, and THANK YOU!!! I got the package!! The box one!!! Oh my gosh, holy cow, I never knew so much goodness could fit in a box. WINGERS SAUCE! Haha! Weīve already used it a lot, Elder Merrill and I make chicken nuggets every single night, and on special occasion nights- which are random- we have Wingerīs night! Ah... our apartment smells like heaven after.:) And the ipod was perfect too! Thank you so much!
Guess what?? We can listen to anything Josh Groban! At the office, they have i tunes with a ton of Josh Groban stuff, but the only thing they donīt have is Awake album, and the Christmas album! So it was perfect! And Elder Merrill loves mine and Leahīs song, haha! Leah, when you started singing he was like, OK. Miss Angel voice. This is like... Angels coming out of her mouth right now. Haha, he is so dang funny, we laugh so much every single day. He reminds me of Joel kind of! Heīs just hilarious! On his ipod he has this guy named Aaron Edson- He is this Mormon... Justin Timberlake kind of, and it is hilarious! His brother put it on there I guess, and so one night, we made a music video on my camera!! I CANīT WAIT for you to see it! Leah, youīre gonna die laughing. I do every time. Oh man.
But let me tell you a little about Elder Merrill! He is from Sandy, he has been out eleven months almost, he is just barely taller than I am, heīs awesome, hilarious, awesome at Portuguese, he was All American for LaCross at Alta high, he graduated in ī06, and... Heīs my companion! We are way good friends already! Mom, today I gave him our number to give to his mom, and I think sheīs going to call you! That will be so fun!
But ok, NOW about my week! Wow, this week was AWESOME! We are finally settled down in our new apartment in Cidade Nova! Itīs in the City of Annanindeua, in case Cidade Nova isnīt on the map. The same city as Wat! Anyway, at the beggining of the week, we had zone conference with two other zones in the mission, and Pres. Hoggan too! It is SO cool, elder Merrill told me before that conferences like these are kind of like general conference, in the way that they always speak to something you need in your life, and you can pray that the things the speakers speak on will help you. It was so good. The assistants gave the trainings, and one spoke on the Atonement, and the other spoke on Our Purpose as missionaries. I got to eat lunch sitting next to President right after too! The whole thing was so cool and so much fun! The next day, our zone got to have interviews with the President! Two days in a row of getting to hang out with President Hoggan! Haha! Gosh, I wish I could capture his personality, spirit, and just his essence and put it in this email. He is always happy, always smiling, and just talking to him makes you feel so peaceful and happy! I was one of the last ones to be interviewed, and when I went in he gave me a hug, and when I sat down he just started chuckling and smiling as he asked me how I was doing, because my first two weeks had been so crazy! Well that made me just start laughing, and so for the first bit of our meeting we just smiled and laughed! It was SO good, I just wish I could talk to him every day! Needless to say, it was a great start to the week, and being more settled in, and getting to know the area and the people a little better was great.
Let me just really quick tell you what my days are like! So we wake up, excercise, which is HARD for me in the mornings! Haha! Eat breakfast, get ready, study, and we leave at 11:00. If we have lessons or appointments planned with anyone, we go do that, and at 12:00, we have lunch with a member! Itīs always so fun, they love the missionaries so much! After lunch, we share a message with the family! We usually just have the family choose who they want to share with them, and since Iīm new, theyīre always nice enough to always... choose me! Haha! But I love it! My favorite one this week was with this cute little family. They have 2 kids, and one of them is an 8 year old boy, and he is getting baptized next Saturday! So they chose me, and I said, Awesome! Today I want to talk about one of my favorite things, I want to talk about... Baptism! He smiled SO big and just lit up, and he read the scriptures perfectly, and knew exactly what he was doing! It was so cute, and he was so happy and excited to get baptized! It is just so cool to see the gospel- whatever part it may be- lighten up someoneīs day, everyday. Especially mine! Sometimes I feel like itīs just ME thatīs getting spiritually blessed by this work! Haha!
Anyway, after lunch, we go to all of our teaching appointments! We usually have enough to fill up our time until dinner, and if we donīt, we just talk to people, and visit the less active members! Then we get really hungry, and get food, and then we teach, and find people, and then at 9:00 we go home, plan the next day, set goals, and then we make more food, and then we party and call Wat, and do push ups, and go to bed and talk until we fall asleep! IT IS SO MUCH FUN!! Isnīt that just the best day ever?? It is tough though! There are different challenges every day. BUT, for every challenge, you can find the reward, and the rewards are always better if you can overcome your challenges! And at the end, you are a better person.
I wish I could share every experience Iīve had this week with teaching, and finding people, but Iīm running out of time! Today has been crazy!! We still have a lot to do today! So Iīll tell you about Sundays! Sorry, this letter is super jumbled, and random and not spiritual, there is just SO much I always want to say, and I have to choose what it is that Iīm going to say! Haha!
Ok, so, Sundays are the BEST! Like I said, we cover two wards, so they are always really busy, and always twice as good as the missionaries here who only get to cover one ward! Our first ward is at 8:30 in the morning. Our church is SO cool!! Itīs 2 stories high, and itīs a stake center! Itīs kind of old but itīs so pretty and really really nice looking! Iīll have to take some pictures! It still doesnīt have any air conditioning, but there are tons of fans! So we go there, greet our investigators, talk to the people, go to our classes, and the last segment is sacrament. After our first block, we have lunch with a member, share a message, and if we have any appointments we go teach, or go to church meetings or something. Our second ward is at 3:30, and we usually canīt stay the whole time because we have to be back at 6:00 on Sundays to study, and make phone calls to the district and to the zone leaders. It is such an amazing and good relaxing day always!
Hahaha, I want to tell you about our Sunday yesterday though! Just a few things! It was the most random, awesome, funny day ever! Ok, so let me just tell you that I am now the pianist for two Brazilian wards now! Haha! Isnīt that awesome! It is so much fun! That was just as of yesterday, so that was a big new thing! Anyway, in the second ward, I was playing. Here in the wards they sing 4 hymns, and I had played the first two, but Elder Merrill signaled to me from the audience that we had to go. Right after he did this, the Bishop got up to announce the rest of the meeting, and I told one of the counselors up there that we had to go. Right after I did THAT, the bishop said to everyone, Now I want all of you to move next to someone who has a hymn book if you donīt have one, and I want you all to sing, because we are so blessed, we have a piano player! And he turned around and thanked me! So his counselor that I told went and whispered in his ear that I had to go, and he went back and said, Nevermind. He has to go. And everyone just died laughing, ah it was so funny!! I felt WAY bad though! But we had to get back!! Haha, ah we all laughed so hard!
Anyway, on our way home, it started POURING rain. Oh man, I have never seen rain like I have here! It really does rain every day too, it is SO cool! But we went under this little overhang thing over the sidewalk, and a drunk man came and accompanied us! He talked forever about how much he loved us, and called Elder Merrill the N word, and then we tried to schedule an appointment with him to visit him, but he would only schedule an appointment to play soccer with him, so we did that! Haha.
After that, a man stopped us on the way home, and told us that he wants to go to church, and that he wants us to come teach him and his family tonight!! Haha! Isnīt that awesome?! Another thing- later that night I heard this REALLY loud, weird high pitched noise out in our apartment building hallway, so I opened the door, and there I saw a tiny little kitten meowing in front of our door! It looked so pathetic and so sad! I didnīt know what to do, and it started like crawling into our house! So it came in, and kind of just curled up on our floor! I ran and got some milk in a little dish, and had to wake it up- almost revive it and put it in itīs face to get him to drink it! It was SO sad! So he drank, and we took some pictures and videos, and to make a long story short, I had to scoop it up in a pizza hut box and put him outside with the milk and whish him good luck. Bah, it was hard, he was so cute! But anyway, that was my Sunday! It was great!
Every day brings something new for every category! I am loving it here. I wish I could fully express the joy and love for someone that comes to you as you teach the gospel and see their lives begin to change, and see that happiness start to affect their lives for the better. It is absolutely incredible. Ah. I hope you know how much I love you with every piece of myself!!! I hope you are doing well, and I think about you all and pray for you all SO SO much! I love you!!! I have to go, I hope this email was ok! Haha! Until next week!! BYE!!!!! LOVE YOU!!
Love, Elder Lunt
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