Hey,
How's the family doing up there in G town? Well, it sounds like everyone is doing well. Dad is having fun mountain biking in Moab. I wish I could go again. I remember how hard it was but it was so fun. Don't worry dad, everyone is gonna love it but they are going to have to learn how to push through those hills hahahha-boa sorte!!!! (good luck)

"When This Happy Time Flies!"

Everything here is going great. Weeks are flying by and I'm learning more and more every week. I'm still trying to finish the BoM but I'm almost done. Out of all the things that I do one of the things that sticks out to me is when I read the BoM. I can really feel the spirit telling me its true. I wish I would have read the Bible and BoM more before I came out here and wasn't such a lazy kid hahah, because they both have such good stuff.  And now I really don't get that much time to study the BoM because I really need to focus on Preach my Gospel and Portuguese in the mornings. I have 30 min to exercise, 30 min for personal study, 1 hour for comp study, 1 hour for training and 1 hour for language study and then lunch. So in this time i never get to exercise, I have just faced the fact that I'll look like Gavin after my mission! Then I usually read the BoM and then for training I usually practice the lessons with my comp. But now I teach with elder moffat in practice lessons so its almost the real deal and I'm getting pretty good. I only have a few things I need to work on to make it perfect. Then I need to start to study the other two lessons too, and I usually never get time to study the language because we always leave or we go over time. Like the other day they wanted us to teach all the lessons haha. Its annoying but I can really tell a difference when I'm actually teaching.

This week I was able to share a personal experience with an investigator of elder dos santos and moffat cause I was with them cause my comp was in a different area for the day. They were telling me that it was so good and I really don't remember what I said but I'm realizing that when you teach from the heart its so much easier and better.

Last week we had a mission conference and it was so cool cause I got to see sister hernadez and elder bean. I talked alot with them and it was so fun too, because we could actually talk in Portuguese together unlike when we were in the ctm. We wouldn't even try hahaha. But they're doing good. elder bean has lost so much weight its so funny I'll send you a picture of him. You will laugh like I did when I saw him. I finally got to meet all the other people in the mission that everyone talks about.  So now I can actually know who my comp is talking about. But in the conference president gave a training and really only talked about rules like he always does and that the mission numbers need to be better. I was so pooped after that because that morning we had to wake up at 2am to take a bus for 4 hours to another city and we ended up not even sleeping.  Then after the meeting we had to go right back on the bus for 4 hours and I had to go to the bathroom so bad on the way back so it was such a terrible ride hahaha.

Last week the kid named Bruno put pictures of me and my comp on his Bday cake and then when he cut the first piece he made a toast to me for being his friend and example. It was weird but cool at the same time.  

Me and dos santos got to go on divisions like 2 times this week and I like going on splits with him so much cause I swear each time I learn so much and its so much easier with him cause we joke around too.  One thing I've learned is that I'm a funny kid and I like to joke around but when it actually comes time to do the lords work I'm serious because its a serious matter.  But we always make the best out of it. I have also seen how satan really does work because we have like 3 people that were suppose to be baptised and they were all sick. Then when we were teaching this one kid about the restoration his drunk dad came in and started making a bunch of noise and asking so many questions and trying to stop the lesson.

But I got to have a good talk with dos santos this week about everything and he told me that we will all be tested on our mission at one point where you will suffer a lot.  Almost until breaking and going home because the lord prepares you, your areas, your comps and your investigators that you'll meet. For the good and the bad that will help and make you grow. Those trials will help you grow a real testimony of things. I know I don't have a huge testimony yet but I know its growing and that was one of the reasons I came out here, to find my testimony and to learn and grow.  Every night I pray for more experiences and opportunities to grow.

I love you guys. I'm really grateful for this opportunity here and I hope your all happy too at home.
obrigado por todo eu amo vocês. eu estou realmente grato por este oportunidade aqui . e eu espero que vocês estão feliz tamben a lar.
Elder Mauter

OIII minha louca familia haha (Hi my crazy family)

This week was good. The weeks are passing by so fast here, so sometimes I have to think of what I did last week because I don’t even remember sometimes! Sounds like everyone is having fun at home! I've read all the letters I got and how is Robbi doing!!? Her ski accident sounds super bad ive been praying for her this week!  She is probably going to have a gnarly scar on her chin!!

Mom I also got a letter from Caroline this week, the girl in my primary class and she makes me laugh so hard still!! She pointed out in her letter that I still haven’t made her a cake like I promised to make her a long time ago so can you please make her a cake and bring it to her class on Sunday and tell her it's from her favorite primary teacher!!!!

I can hear again!!! I can defiantly hear your prayers even for all the little things.  The Lord really does work small miracles- haha because I didn’t do anything to my ear and it was so plugged up and just one day it cleared out.  So that's a blessing I received this week.  Another I received this week was when me and my comp were in the Favelas at night time talking to an inactive members family and the lights went out and we couldn’t see a thing and it got a lil sketchy but I didn’t die! haha even though I don’t think I would because everyone there loves me and my comp. But its crazy sometimes there because I see all the drug deals. They use the little kids to do all the dirty work . So I hope we can teach the kids to want a better life than drugs. 

This week in the Favelas, we were talking to another inactive member family about the life of a missionary and like 12 people were there to listen.  It was crazy, they were all freaking out about all the rules we had, and all the stuff we do and don’t do.  Everyone here thinks that we have girlfriends.  We were like- No we cant have girlfriends and we cant talk to our families.  Only through email once a week and one of the ladies there almost started crying because she felt so bad for us and our families. But it was cool they all had so many questions for us.

Our two baptisms fell through this week. Michele the 16 year old girl, had to work. And then Marcos didn’t get baptized either.  It’s had with Marco’s because he doesn’t go to our ward.  He goes to a different ward like 5 miles away with his girlfriend.  But Yesterday we went to his house and we told him that there were baptisms at 5 o’clock and asked him if he would go and he said he would. We told him we would walk all the way there and wait for him and so we walked there and about half way it started raining so hard.  I don’t know if that rain was from God or Satan, but that really tested me yesterday.  Because Marcos ended up not coming because of the rain, and me and my comp got lost on the way because we have only been there once and we were drenched.  But it all turned out well because the other missionaries in that area had dinner set up with a member and we went and ate cake, sandwiches, juice and hot chocolate and watched Ice Age in Portuguese.  So that was another blessing to a long day.  

I had to use my card today mom. I didn’t have money the whole week. I tried to stick it out but I needed money to use the internet and I bought some food.  They didn’t give us any money last week and we had to pay for our house.  I have to pay 76 reals, and I only get 120 reals and we don’t get reimbursed until we bring our receipts to Natal which is like never for us.  

Ya, I think I understand how you feel now dad with us kids. Because this week I had to deal with one of the kids we baptized in church all day.  He was annoying this older kid, then he wouldn't go to class. Then he wouldn't stop talking in sacrament meeting and then he started hugging this one girl in my ward that's my age and telling her that she's hot and stuff.  He wouldn't let go so I had to carry him out all the way to the bus. Me and my comp’s patience were tried yesterday for sure.  We both were so tired after church. But we had a huge meal and I ate so much haha!!  Everyone else barely eats and I just down the food!! Like if it is there im going to eat it all!! That's another reason everyone loves me, cause I eat everything and I ain't picky haha!! That's something new about me(;

I like the music on my ipod now, it puts me and my comp to sleep at night(; This week was my comps bday so me and Dos Santos threw him a surprise bday party with a cake.  That's another reason I'm broke. But it was really cool because he was telling me his last birthday was terrible and this one was so much better. But this week I went on splits with Dos Santos and helped him teach and I had one of my best lessons.  It was one that I teach every week but this one was different cause I felt the spirit so strong.  And I was able to say what i wanted to say.

Tell Jaycie I'm sorry I didn't see her email because it was marked already read and I just skip over those. But if you are thinking of sending me another package I guess ill tell you what i want haha! A Book of Mormon with D&C and a hymn book all in Portuguese.  I need flip flops, not gay ones.  I like Josh's Reef ones-not slides like i have, mine are falling apart. A Portuguese study book like the one they get in Provo. Its purple and is called The Portuguese verb and Essential grammar book.  

com amor (with love)
Elder Mauter

Eiiii,

I got my packages last week!! I got yours mom and the Wolff's, but i didn't get Kim's.  I'm sure ill get it next transfer. I also received all my letters haha!! I got so much, everyone was like- That's how much i received in a year!!  Some letters were from all the way back to christmas that I got just now!! Everything you guys sent me was awesome!!!  The candy went down so fast!!  We also gave a bunch of candy out in church to all the kids. They were so pumped haha and they were all wanting me to bring them more the next day.  So every time they see me they think i have candy on me at all times kkkk.  I've kept all the good stuff for me and my comp though.  Like all the stuff the Wolff's sent.  And the peanut butter!!!  I forgot how good it was. I handed out some of the beef jerky to some of the members yesterday and none of them liked it haha Brazilians are weird.  So me and the other American pounded it and my comp, he likes it to.  Please tell the Wolff's -THANK YOU!!!! Getting their package literally meant so much to me, for them to send me all that stuff-they are Awesome!!!  I'll try to send them a letter through mission ties next week.

Mom, why did you only put sad music on my ipod haha! Don't you know i already have a sad life! This mission wont change me enough to like music like Beethoven and classical musical  stuff hahah!! No, but its funny because i always play that music really loud on my speakers and me and my comp always say 'only crunch music in this house' which is like someone who obeys all the rules! Mom, that language book is perfect its portugal Portuguese.  My comp said i can use it and it actually helps so much- i wish i had it earlier.

Ya, this week wasn't too hot for my Portuguese.  Maybe because i cant hear out of my ear. But I guess thats how the language goes. Thats what the president said -your going to have really good weeks then bad weeks with it. I just have a hard time with my accent because i have a deep voice, so im working on that right now with how to roll my tongue.  It's so hard but i can only roll it with certain words. I've been helping my comp study english this week haha he doesnt know any - but its fun.

This week nothing really happened-we did have a baptism with victorio who is 11 and it turned out well.  We can't get marcos to be baptized so thats really been draging on us this week. But we'll  have another baptism next week with this girl Michele, shes 17 and pretty cool. We found her through some of the girls in our ward and its been pretty easy to teach her because all of her friends that are members, so i hope that goes through.

It's pretty cool to have more time in the mission because I have more responsibility. Like last week i went on splits with a member for the day and then with the new American missionary another day. It was funny because he was freaking out. He's like -dude i don't know how to teach!  I'm glad i really don't get nervous with things like that because its easy for me to talk to people.  I can have normal conversations with the people and talk about normal things and get them to trust me. So then I can teach them what I feel about the gospel. The only hard part right now is the language barrier, but everyone tells me i speak a lot already.

We also had a meeting with the bishop about not being able to have baptisms on sunday and he was like, who ever told you that? So it turned out his counselor lied to us and said the bishop said no haha idk why but its whatever. The bishop told us we can have a baptism any day we wanted as long as it turned out special for the person getting baptized, and thats all i think that matters.

I'm sorry to hear that you were sick all last week mom. I hope you feel better now ill pray for you. But it sounds like you all had fun in McCall with snowboarding, skiing and bike riding-hahah so completely different here.  Just blazing heat!!  My senior pictures turned out good, dang im gato. Mom, can you mail me those and some more recent pics of our family. I like those better to show to the people- like the ones of us shooting guns, mountain biking and of our city please.  Like an overview pic of our city, people like to see that. Well i have to go
Tchau
Elder Mauter

heyyy fammilia! 

So this week was crazy because of transfers and me and my comp stayed together which Im happy about because we have been working with alot of people and we have goals to baptize alot of people. Dos Santos the other kid in my house that i like stayed but his comp left and he got a new American comp. It was his first week here so it was funny translating for him and making him say things in Portuguese that he has no clue what it means hahah. Like the other day at a members house we told him to say eu estou gravido (telling him it meant "Im full") to him after we got done eating and he said it and the member just looked at him so weird and we all started laughing cause it really means 'I am pregnant' haha! Its so fun when you know the language. No but I've been helping him alot with translating and things that dont make sense when you translate them in english so he has it way easyyyyy i had to figure all this stuff out by myselft last transfer. He's pretty cool, hes from chicago but he's one of those artsy musical kids. He has a better accent than me which makes me mad because i have a low voice but im trying. 

This week was weird, i swear i just woke up and started speaking Portuguese and undertanding so much maybe because its because of this new missionary that doesnt know much and i just got a huge confidence boost or something like that. The gift of tongues!! But the last two days i havent been able to hear out of my ear so when he asks me to translate im like dude i cant even hear what they are saying hahah (thanks dad for my terrible waxy ears. They said i cant put water in it because of the humidity here ill get and infection or something. But that's what i did in the ctm with that lil sqeeze thing and it worked like a gem. Later tonight ill probably try that fire candle thing but i dont have anyone to cut the burnt part off and plus i dont trust anyone because i dont want another scare on my arm like last time with you mom ahahhaha. so ill try that. 

Dad we have an interview every 2 transfers with the president and we dont go to Natal he comes to our area and gives us a message about obedience and then an interview. So this transfer we dont have one. But ya from here on out the interviews will be in Portuguese he said only the first one will be in English haha so boa sorte para mim no ill be fine. 

This week i straight up pulled a josh hahah we were walking to the market to buy lunch because our lunch fell through that day but we normally have lunch with members.  On the way we ran into two kids that were baptized by the other two missionaries in our house and they were on bikes and we talked to them. I don't even remember but they wanted me and elder vieira to ride their bikes and show them some tricks.  I wasn't thinking and i did a 180 on the kids bike and bent the kids back wheel literally in half hahah i felt so bad! But i was able to fix it for only 10 reals which is nothing but it pwas worth it for the story!  We didnt baptize marcos last tuesday we wanted to wait until sunday because it would be better.  Plus we can baptize him with another investigator who is 11 years old and hes a super smart kid. We met him by teaching his dad, his dad is a member but in active. So we've been trying to reactivate him but its hard because he's never at his house.  But last week he was there everyday when we were teaching victorio and this kid remembers everything we tell him and its funny cause when we were teaching him about the word of wisdom his grandma who also lives with him and is an inactive member. Well he was going in on her about smoking and drinking coffee, It was so funny he was like veiu avô você não pode beber e fumar -me and my comp were dying and she was like i know im going to stop. But also when we were teaching him his dad would always pull up a chair and listen so i hope this will get him to come back to the church. So this sunday we thought we were suppose to have some baptisms but the second counselor doesn't like us for some reason - I guess because we haven't baptized an older person in a while so he didn't let us baptize them. We were all so mad the rest of the day. Goalado!!!!!!!

I havent got my package yet but i think i will Wednesday.  I hope so because i need that language book. I've been looking at the stuff they give the missionaries in the provo ctm and its so much better than what they gave us. They got a lot more books for the language and more updated books than ours. Also, Portuguese leather scriptures..... Not fair. But i think i will buy some nice Portuguese ones here from a member. 

Nothing else to really say but its really raining hard right now. I swear it only rains on Pday so we can never do anything like play basketball which sucks. I have a new nickname here with the missionaries and the  members haha-Grandon i dont know how to spell it but they call me it because im huge, they say haha! Oh and another weird story, the other day we were at a members house waiting for an investigator to come to teach them but she ended up not coming because she had to go to work with her mom so we ended up just talking about different things which was cool cause i could actually understand and talk alot this week. But we talked about the U.S. and how in Brazil they learn about hitler and about the Boston tea party in their schools like us and we talked about different states.  Also his motorcycle and i always have to watch myslef cause ill talk about motorcyles with people and they ask me how many i have at home and i cant say 'oh i have 6 motorcycles and 5 cars' so i always just say we have 1 car and 2 motorcyles and they still always freak out. But to the funny part haha when we were leaving this lady came up to us and talked to me and my comp and was like im hungry and as missionaries you cant give people money but then she started pointing at one of the dogs on the ground and asked us is she could take it haha so idk what she did with it but it was so weird haha me and my comp were like you can take the dog if you want hahah. There are so many dogs, cats, turkeys, chickens, horses and donkeys just in the street its so weird and i swear all of them are pregnant. i see now why we nudder and spade our pets. Im gonna go -i think we are going to play dance dance as a zone later today. I'm on splits with two other members right now. Im using their computer while my comp is with Dos santos cause he doesn't want to be alone with the new american and there were only 3 computers there haha.

tchau 

Elder Mauter

A Vida Loca  

Opa!!

Hahah, ya mom the guy that cuts my hair is a member and he's really cool. He's that crazy guy i talk about.  I still dont know his name because its so weird so it doesn't stick with me. And ya i make sure he cuts it right hahah you know me Ma!  But i dont yell at him like i did to you(;  This week nothing really went on it was kinda a relaxed week because of transfers tomorrow. I still dont know if ill get a new comp or not but i think I'll find out later today idk.  I like my comp but whoever the Lord puts me with ill be good with.  I hope he isn't a weirdo though. I like this one Brazilian in my house, hes a big kid from Recife hes a funny kid so it'll suck to see him go.. his comp will probably stay. His comp is cool sometimes....but other times i just want to deck him because he thinks he has so much more authority than me when he's this lil short kid but i always keep my cool even though the Mauter blood wants to take over.

This week we didnt have a baptism because our investigater was sick.  So me and my comp are going to try to baptize him tomorrow and vistit him today cause we dont want to give him to different missionaries when we worked so hard and he is such a cool kid. He's been iffy and nervous about being baptized ever since one of the elders was a goalado (we call people that if they block baptisms ask Tanner haha. So I ask that you all pray for him because cara e bom bom - the kid is legit.

In my studies i have been really trying to think of an example to use in lessons because its always better for people to understand and i use that book you gave me mom and it helps so thank you. and also i learn alot from different missionaries, its cool. But we went on splits this week with the assistant to the president and i really just watched his example. Because he goes home this week but when he was with us that week he wasn't just coasting to the finish line he was talking to everyone that he saw and i could tell he had a real desire to help the people here. And one lesson especially it was weird, he was talking to Marcus about no one is going to be prepared for their obstacles,  just like when we were babies we had to crawl before we ran. When we learn to walk we fall and we get back up - but eventually we learn and know what to do and it really ties into the gospel because as we start to live it we may not see the blessing until later. We end up learning and understanding why these things are put in place. I felt the spirtit strong in that lesson and it was weird because i could understand everything that he was talking about. So that was my only cool moment this week.

I'm starting to talk and understand more.  Like last week me and my comp stopped and watched this soccer game and these lil kids were talking about me and i knew everything that they were saying and they were debating on talking to me and one said he wont understand and it was funny cause i started talking to him in Portuguese and his mind was blown haha!!  Me and my comp were laughing about that the rest of the day. Ya, i have started to dream in Portuguese,  I remember the first time it was so weird because mom was yelling at me in Portuguese and when i woke up my head hurt cause it was so weird and I was probably thinking so hard to dream that haha!! But I dont always dream in Portuguese its kinda on and off. hahah my boy Gav has a girlfriend what a stud i wanna see a picture!!!! 

I have definitely been hearing your prayers when the days get tuff here. I think im going to get my package next week im not sure though. Did it say it arrived in Brazil yet? Because if it isnt here by next week ill have to wait a whole other transfer to get it, which will suck.
eu amo vocês. eu espero que vocês estão feliz ate mais.
Elder Mauter
vida louca