11/26/12 We just have to apply mosiah 3:19 in our lives and we'll be able to live with Him again.

Hey dad youre making me sooo trunky! haha jk... but sounds like thanksgiving was good. i want some of those gingerbread cookies!! haha but im glad i missed bringing the boxes down from the attic and taking them back up. haha i dont know if mom said anything about it. but the creche festival could give a ton of referrals for the missionaries. just put a notebook out with a few of the pass along materials and let people put down their name and address and phone number with what material (dvd, bom, etc.) they want delivered to their house. Just tell them we dont have enough in stock and theyll have to deliver it afterward... 

the christmas program. que benção!! im kinda sad that ill be missing the mission conference for Natal (Christmas). but ill be at home to have real christmas so its all good haha. did they tell you what day im coming home. moms kinda bugging me about it and i was thinking about joking with her but i think shed get really mad. but i was thinking about telling her that ill only get home on christmas eve. hahah its up to you...but if they didnt tell you, i'll be getting home on the 18th. at like 11am. but thats the first and last i'll talk about that haha. please and thank you.

good to hear that the cougars got into some bowl game. but theyll probably lose haha. and that the lakers got a new coach and kobe sill tearing it up even as an old man. anyway, love ya dad. until next week!

Elder Dallin Bergquist

hey mommy.

well first off. i think you already know that its better to ask questions because if not i write almost nothing haha. so you can keep asking and ill try to write more. theres refreshments at the creche festival?? and greeters? i dont remember that haha. weston liked the tigers and gorillas. i never like the gorillas, they always just sit there on their big buts haha and do nothing...was it the san diego zoo?

How was this past week? really good. we didnt work a ton because we had to travel quite a bit, but it was good

How is your abscess? Is it all healed?  (the sore in the gum line) yeah. its as good as new. 

So, were transfers this week? no...well kinda. two missionaries in our zone got moved this week. but transfers are supposed to be this week right now...we'll see if anything else changes...

Did you get moved? nope! i dont think president would do that with me haha i hope not.

New companion? nope. também eu acho que não com pres. fortunato. haha

Did you get everyone contacted from the open house? not everyone, but just about everyone.

Why is that taking so long? because there were like 100 people we had to contact. and some are on one end of town and others on the other end...some dont ever answer the phone or arent at home when we mark appointments, so its hard, but were finishing up this week.

How many lessons did you teach this past week? just 21....we had two days when we didnt teach any in our area because of travelling...

Tell us about the people you are teaching... well were teaching a lady called conceição, she went to church this week. shes a members grandma and friends of a couple other members. she went to the funeral that we had during the week of the open house and we talked to her there. and were teaching some others too, but its always changing so i dont know what else to tell you. shes the one thats going strong. were teaching another girl, isabella, that went to church yesterday. it was funny because all the guys came up to greet her after sacrament meeting. they thought she was cute hahah. shes an english teacher her mom paints super good. i asked her for a painting, but i dont think she liked that... and she said she doesnt like to sell them she does it just to pass the time...ill see if i can take some pics there for you. their house looks like an art museum 

Did you have any baptisms? this past week no :/ but we have conceição for sure this week and a few other people were working with.

Any set for the future? haha just told ya that. im a step ahead of you! 

You live on the 3rd story?  Is it an apartment complex that you live in? yeah. but its a really small one theres only 6 apartments.

How often do you meet with the MP? whenever he tell us to haha but normally its like once a month or a little less...

How often do you meet with your zone/district? zone, whenever we meet with president we mark a meeting with the zone the next day to teach them what we learned. we have to split our zone in two halfs because some of the areas are like 8 hours away by bus so we split it.... and distrist meeting we have every tuesday and we switch off going in each one...theres 3 districts here in our zone....

Do you teach your zone? yup. one step ahead again hahaha. and we call them almost every night to help them out with their difficulties and problems and see how their day was....

Anything fun or funny happen this week? that i remember no.... just the normal little stuff everyday... my comp is pretty laid back and we joke a lot...but i only remember a story that elder aley told us about how he got sick when he slept at our house two weeks ago and ate jabuticaba. well it was bad and he ate a lot. afterward he took milk of magnesia and it didnt work so he took another thing and it didnt work so he doubled the dose and it still didnt work. he went to the doctor and took an xray of his abdomen and the doctor told him that he was full of crap.......hahahaa...anyway in the end he had like 6 different medications in his system and he just about exploded.that was a pretty funny story. especially considering its the second time that happened to him on the mission haha. i dont know if you'll think thats real funny but the way he told us it was really funny haha.

When did you feel the Spirit the strongest this week?  (I love that you are feeling it so much, don't get too used/immune to it ;)) i wont get immune dont worry haha. but probably in sacrament meeting. it was the primary presentation and afterward douglas spoke a bit and the spirit was really strong isabella looked at me after the meeting and goes, wow, you feel such a nice peace here in this church. i liked it a lot. Its really cool how simplicity brings out the spirit in everything. the kids are so simple that everyone understands and is uplifted together. the kingdom of God really is made up of the children and those that are like them. We just have to apply mosiah 3:19 in our lives and we'll be able to live with Him again. love you!

Elder Dallin Bergquist

this was our experience when they cut our energy because the secretaries didnt pay the bill. sorry i didnt take any pics this week. but ill take some of our christmas decorations and some pic on the street for you next week!! :) ha

(He sent a weird pitch dark picture of some candles.... the nut!)

11/19/12 i wish i had realized how much you can learn during the sacrament when i was younger.

hey pops. sounds like half the world is going on a mission, but thats good, because from the family and from the ward there have been few out lately. good to hear. what TWO girls are going to italy? (obviously he had not read my email yet) i only know of one...? how sad brennen couldnt even make it to church. (he was sick) ha... everyone was there and who ended up speaking then? yeah i know im out of luck at byu with all the girls going on missions....you dont have to rub it in...i may as well just stay on the mission for another year and a half for them to all get home haha. but i dont think thats possible with the problems my visa already is having haha. lucky i got it renewed. president said he was worried i'd never make it home...haaha i dont get the byu coach... but whatever, we'll see if he wants to wake up when i get there and try out haha. good to hear that a few from the family are gonna get out on the mish. kinda crazy they all seemed so young when i left and theyre all leaving. que bençao!! devin is in the young mens presidencey? legal...anyway, love ya pops. keeps on serving with joy! i sure am here! haha

Elder Bergquist

mom. you must have forgotten the deal. i said i wouldnt send you pics unless i got some from you...you're lucky this week, but that rule still serves...you'll be out of luck next week. haha. but im serious ha.

How's our missionary??!!! just as great as ever! ha

Seriously, how is your tooth/abscess?  its just fine. got it all taken care of today...im good :) dont worry your pretty little head.

Did you get it taken care of? yeah ha

Are you on antibiotics? no. im done i just took one round that first time...

how much did your root canal cost? did you have enough $?? it was R$ 250. and i think i had enough because when i went to pay with the card it was approved....

what all did he do? he opened it a bit last week and put some medication, then this week opened it more and put in more medication. he said it was perfect and then he wanted dad to see how perfect it was so he gave me the two xrays; before and after and his card for dad to be able to talk to him later haha. he was super proud of his work. 

do you need more $? and more money i dont think will be necessary. im doing just fine here. thanks!

So, you finally get to play a little soccer on Pday?  nice. yeah. it was good. i didnt completely lose it, but my legs were dead the next day...walking just isnt the same as running and kicking haha

How is the work coming along? its going well. the ward is super excited with us. the rs president stopped us in her car the other day when we were on the street and said "elders, im worried there wont be enough jumpsuits for your baptisms sunday because we have 4 at home that i have to wash and bring back but i wont be there on sunday, if you need them you can pass by my house and get them. or ill run them to the church during the week, but with all the baptisms you guys are having i dont know how it will work out" hahah the ward is excited, not just with us, but theres been some changes. the elders quorum president changed, the bishopric, the stake presidency. and the ym will change soon too. the president is moving to get married in the beginning of dec.

Any baptisms this weekend? no. infelizmente. (unfortunately)

Any planned for next weekend? weve got a few people were working with, but nobody thats super sure about it yet...

Who are you teaching? a ton of people. we still havent contacted everyone from the open house we had. its been great.

Anything fun or funny this week? i showed you the pics of our new "puppy" haha hes cute, but super annoying at night because his owner leaves him alone outside all day and all night so he just cries all the time because he has no friends ha. thats why we went to play with him a bit. and we did a contact with a guy on a horse the other day. hahaha it was funny. he was drinking and riding but he stopped to talk to us because we waved him down hahah. then he got on the horse and peed on the wall haha things you only see in Minas Gerais, or in texas ;) hahaha. (brad, the boys are ALWAYS teasing me about SOMETHING!)

When did you feel the Spirit the strongest? honestly, i feel the spirit so much that it has almost become a normal thing...theres times when i look around in sacrament meeting or in other meetings and everyone is crying and im there with my weekly planner writing stuff down.

but, i think this week was during the sacrament. it really is a super special moment, sometimes i wish theyd pass it a little slower... i wish i had realized how much you can learn during the sacrament when i was younger.  its a great moment to reflect and contemplate the future as elder bednar said in that talk learning by faith that i told you to read a few months ago...anyway. i love you mom. sorry i didnt send a happy birthday last week, i only realized it was your birthday when i opened up my planner on the day of and saw Nov 14. i was like crap, i forgot to tel mom happy birthday. so even though its late. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

parabéns pra você,

nessa data querida,

muitas felicidades,

muitos anos de vida.

parabéns pra você,

nessa data querida,

muitas felicidades,

muitos anos de vida!!!

Elder Bergquist

i didnt take many pics this week...sorry. but this is our neighbors dog. we live on the 3rd story of an apartment and the "balcony" is just separated by a little gate, hes a little puppy so he come on our side when we went out there, he always wants to play hahah.

11/12/12 All present wept and rejoiced.

hey pops. thanks for everything… all the encouragement and the money to take care of my teeth. who are the yw and ym presidents that spoke at stake conf? thats crazy that that happened with president kerr… live sessions! i still want to go to the salt lake temple to see how that is. im super excited to go to the temple, its one of the first things i want to do when i get home! sounds like the sports world is looking up too. good to hear. but i heard the politics side isnt looking too good..... kinda sad...but its gotta get much worse before the second coming....well good to hear that the lakers woke up. and that byu might have a chance of getting into a bowl game....? whos in the top five in college football? i always love to hear about your bishoping too. sounds super busy, but it sounds like the ward is having growth.... how is it there? is there more people with current recommends now? keep serving with joy! haha love you dad.
Elder Bergquist

Hey mom.

Tell Layton i said hi too. but i cant send email to him. but ill see if i can get a letter out to him before i get home haha. and tell aimee sorry i wasnt real surprised. when i heard that announcement i already thought of all of them and thought they would go, theyre all  so strong in the gospel!

So, how was your week? WONDERFUL

Did you have any baptisms?  (the pics from the open house looked awesome, there were buses of people!!) yeah. see pics and story. (good luck translating! haha)

How about Washingtons mom? and her sister in law? theyre kinda tough...haha but theyll be baptised

How many people are looking good for baptism?  (you said about 40 GROUPS of people accepted baptism, explain... !!!) theres a few. not a ton. but a few....well when they did the tour and wrote down their names it was only one person per group/family that wrote down their name....so there was 40 groups....some of only one person but some of like 5 or 6, but there was no way to count how many "people" accepted, just groups.

How many lessons did you teach this week? i think it was like 30-35

How is your abscess? Does it still hurt? no not really

Did you make an apt to get it taken care of? yeah

When is your appointment? today. 1:30. im in BH. i renewed my visa (it was expired since april and i was worried i wouldnt be able to come home...all the other missionaries renewed a while back, but they couldnt mark mine for a while, president got worried and he went down there himself and worked it out for me. im legal again!

Where do you email from? ln a house...wherever were at. theres one close to our house that we normally go to but we went to one in the center of the city last week because we played some soccer! hahaa

 Are you sending pictures this week?  (I want pics of YOU!  Sister F. posted pics of the meeting and the buses outside and the room where you guys had stuff set up, it was great!!!) you'll see...haha

Did you do anything funny this week? just played soccer...and we ate some fermented jabuticaba! hahaha it was super funny. rosana and eloisa gave us some jabuticabas on tuesday and when the assistants came to do a division with us on wednesday night we ate them. (they had sat the whole two days in water and when you ate them it kinda stung your tongue....the next day elder Aley got sick (he had eaten the most) and when we talked to resana and eloisa they told us that they ferment really fast and you have to eat them on the same day. hahahah elder aley got a little drunk...hahaha jk...kinda...

(I googled "jabuticabas" and they are Brazilian Grapes that grow on a tree.  Here is a picture of what they look like.)

When did you feel the Spirit the strongest? in the story i sent to you with the pics! i know the book of mormon is true and has great power as Joseph Smith said it get us closer to God than any other book! love you mom!

Elder Bergquist

os batismo dessa semana! aqui o email que mandei para o presidente para vocês ler e traduzir! haha

Bom dia Presidente Fortunato!

Foi uma ótima semana para a ALA Queluz. As bênçãos prometidas do Elder Mazzagardi estão vindo! Tivemos um grande milagre com a família de um membro. Ele é membro da igreja há mais ou menos 15 anos e desde que ele entrou na igreja está incentivando a mãe e irmã a ouvir os missionários e ir na igreja. Uns meses atrás fizemos uma noite familiar onde fizemos uma "barra de ferro" e levava as pessoas pela "vida mortal" no quintal dele e a mãe dele estava lá. No final pedimos o endereço dela, mas ela falou agora não, pega o endereço com Beto (o filho) depois. Só que ela proibia ele de dar o endereço então ela nunca aceitou os missionários na casa dela. Até um dia de manhã nos sentimos que precisávamos falar com Beto e pedir o endereço da mãe. O senhor preparou o caminho e quando chegamos ela estava na casa dele. Ensinamos e Eloisa (a mãe) e ela aceitou ler o Livro de Mórmon. Oramos com ela e ela soube que é verdade, mas não queria agir. Umas semanas depois fomos na casa da Rosana (irmã do Beto) e ela começou a se preparar pelo batismo. Ensinamos a maioria das lições com a mãe presente e convidava ela frequentemente a ler e perguntar a Deus sobre o Livro de Mórmon e seguir essa resposta que teve sendo batizado. Ela sempre recusou até o dia da entrevista da Rosana quando ela levou ela de carro até a capela. Quando elas entraram eu cumprimentei elas e falei "bom dia irmã" para s Eloisa e ela respondeu "agora eu posso te chamar de irmão, eu vou ser batizada também. Não agora, mas eu vou, um dia no futuro." Ela tinha lido na noite anterior sobre o sonho de Leí e decidiu que não queria ser como Lamã e Lemuel e queria apegar-se a barra de ferro como tinha aprendido meses antes na noite familiar. Durante a entrevista da Rosana conversamos com ela e ela decidiu que ela podia ser entrevistada também daí veria quando seria batizada. Foi um ótimo batismo das duas no Sábado a noite onde Beto realizou o batismo e todos presentes choraram e regozijaram. Eu sei que O Livro De Mórmon Muda vidas e muda corações! Muito obrigado por nos ajudar a ver a importância dele em nosso trabalho!

Elder Bergquist

(Translation of the above - it is a copy of the letter Dallin sent to his mission president, they write their president each week.)

the baptism this week! here the email I sent to the president for you to read and translate! haha

Good morning Chairman Fortunato!

It was a great weekend for ALA Queluz. The promised blessings of Elder Mazzagardi are coming! We had a great miracle with a family member. He is a member of the church for about 15 years and since he entered the church is encouraging mother and sister to go and listen to the missionaries in the church. A few months ago we had a family night where we did a "rod of iron" and led people through "mortal life" in his backyard and his mother was there. In the end we asked her address, but she said not now, gets the address with Beto (the son) later. But she forbade him to give the address so she never accepted the missionaries in her home. Until one morning we felt we needed to talk to Bob and ask for the address of the mother. You paved the way and when we arrived she was at his house. We teach and Eloisa (the mother) and she agreed to read the Book of Mormon. We prayed with her and she knew that's true, but did not want to act. A few weeks later we were in the house of Rosana (Bob's sister) and she began to prepare for baptism. We teach most lessons with his mother this and she often invited to read and ask God about the Book of Mormon and following that response had been baptized. She always refused until the day of the interview Rosana when she took her car to the chapel. Whenthey came I greeted them and said "Good morning sister" s to Eloisa and she replied "I can now call you brother, I'm going to be baptized too. Not now, but I will one day in the future." She had read the night before about Lehi's dream and decided he did not want to be like Laman and Lemuel and wanted to cling to the iron bar as he had learned months earlier in family home evening. During the interview Rosana talked to her and she decided that she could also be interviewed when there would be baptized. It was a great baptism of the two on Saturday night where Bob performed the baptism and all present wept and rejoiced. I know that the Book of Mormon changes lives and changes hearts! Thank you for helping us see the importance of it in our work!

Elder Bergquist

This is not the best picture, it is blurry, but I LOVE Dallin's big smile! 

And, this is my favorite!!!

11/5/12 we talked about eternal families

sounds like a pretty busy week there in mo val. we had stake conference this week too!!! STAKE conference! haha que bencao...  I miss the temple. do a session for me! haha   whats this new deal with the dinner on saturday?? have they always had that? i dont remember that...haha elections are tuesday?! nossa, lets hope it works out alright...go mitt! haha i cant believe steve nash already got hurt.....nossa mae!! its only 2 weeks?? and i still dont get how theyre losing...is superman playing?? sounds like kobe is still playing all alone....? well...i love ya pops! and ill call and mark an appointment with the dentist  next week...just confirm that ill have the money to pay and that i need to do it now...thanks for everything dad! tchau!

Elder Bergquist

hey mom.

how are you? absolutely wonderful

Are you still in pain from the abscess?  no....not really....once in  a while it bothers me...but its not like a huge pain just a little discomfort...its not bad at all

Can you get antibiotics over the counter there like you can in Mexico? um....i dunnoo...i took the prescription with me, but i know some places and some medications that youre supposed to have a prescription they give it to you without, but i dont know about antibiotics...why?? ha (I am just wondering coz of his infection in his tooth)

So, were there as many in church as you had hoped? there were about 25...but some of them we didnt even get to talk to before they got out..theres like 6 exits and we couldnt cover them all...:/

How did the open house go? really good. there were about 300 that visited in the 3 days...(thursday was cancelled for a funeral and we kinda fought with the leaders that they couldnt do that, president came down and everything but they already had the body there and a bunch of the family, so they just did it and we talked to the non members about the plan of salvation and the family.... and we hadnt planned to, but the spirit was so strong as we talked to the people about our beliefs and we started inviting some to be baptized....like 40 groups of people accepted baptism! its was really cool

How was it set up? What did you guys do? ill send some pics, but they had each organization set up their classroom and do a 1-3 minute presentation about the organization and then we took them in the cultural hall where we had a bunch of banners set up with our beliefs (basically the 1st lesson in Preach My Gospel) and we taught them and then when they left we had a table set up with the materials from the pass along cards and let them choose which one they wanted and put down their address and phone number for us to take it to them afterward. it was really cool. we´ll have to set on up in our chapel. you could even do it with the nativity thing...just put a table with a notebook and the joy to the world dvd and let the people put down their info for the missionaries to take them a free dvd afterward...

Did you get to teach a lot? yeah a ton...we taught like 30 good lessons a day

Did you get a lot of referrals? i dont know if youd call them referrals but we have a ton of people to visit.

Did you get to meet Elder Mazzagardi? i shook his hand a few times...but i didnt really get to converse with him...

Did he do any training?  If so, what did you learn? with the missionaries no. just with the members...but he talked a ton about the family and how we need to MULTIPLY and replenish the earth not just have two kids and call it good, because thats not "multiplying" haha he was pretty funny

Did you have the 4 baptisms?  ( Marli and Gabriel and tais and tainã) Gabriel Tais and Tainá  were baptised, but Marli is still having trouble with her cigarettes... but shell be baptized this week. pray for her.

Who are you guys teaching now? we have a ton from the open house and washingtons mom went to church were gonna see if we can help her, she lost her mom son and brother all in the last 2 years and we talked about eternal families yesterday, it was really good, she started crying in the lesson, she'll be baptised we just gotta help her take the step , shes kinda prideful in that she doesnt like to do what other people want her to, she wants to do it because she decided to...and her brother's (that died) wife went with her too...were working with her...and a few other people too

When did you feel the Spirit the strongest this week? in the conference the spirit was really strong at various points. the choir was really good, when they sang oh how lovely was the morning and when we sustained the new stake presidency and the first presidency it was really strong. and when Elder Mazzagardi and President Fortunato  talked to us  it was really good. they are really spiritual.  they both talked about the family and establishing zion by establishing it first in our own home. 

tell aimee parabens for the mission call. and that i wrote her a letter like 3 months ago, but then i realized last week that i never sent it...so shell just have to wait now hahaha. And que bencao that  weston said my name.  hes already realizing who his best uncle is! haha love ya mom. sorry that i cant send pics today. were in a different house and they dont let you upload pics here, but next week ill send a ton! love ya!

Elder BerGQuist!