Still in Gloria!!!!!

Well, Mom.   I'm so happy to hear you guys are doing great.  We are doing just great here in this area.  We are loving life. I'm glad to hear the family still knows who I am and they're thinking about me.  That's good. But I don't have very much time to think about you guys.   Sorry, ha, but we are having a great time here in Gloria ward I'm loving it.

We are going to have a baptism this next Saturday of a young woman.  Her name is Thayna.  She is way awesome.  She went to church for the first time last week and then yesterday she went to church again.  It's so awesome to see the change in people.  We visited her for the first time not this last Saturday, but the Saturday before.  But we invited her to church and she went but then she told us she doesn't like to wear dresses.  So we were like that's totally fine, its just important you go to church.  So she went then we visited her this week she said that she had bought a dress and that she knew that the Book of Mormon is true and she wanted to be baptized!!!!!  Well,  we marked a date for this Saturday. I say that this work that I'm doing is hard, but it's so worth it.  Because I know that God loves each and everyone of his children.  I know Christ lives and this church is true!

We are working hard here it is ridiculously hot here in Vila Velha this time of year. We are going to know about transfers this next week.  It should be good.  Me and Elder Tavares are working really hard. I'm excited for Christmas to see you guys I love you guys so much. I'm excited to see Brevin,  Lecia and  L.E. Hey ask everyone to prepare questions for me. But I'm doing great here.   Love you guys!

Elder Pellegrini

Conference Weekend

Dear Family,

How are you doing?

Well Mom, this week was good.  We are having a great time here in Gloria.  Conference was great! There are a lot of young women here who are really excited about the age change to the missionary thing. We were really uplifted by conference this weekend.  I loved it. I was thinking a lot about how we always used to watch it.

We are not having very much success here in the area right now.  But we are trying our hardest. The members love us. We are so lucky.  We have a member in the ward that every time she sees us she says "I will cry when you guys leave".  So this week after lunch one day I cleaned all the dishes I told her not to tell my Mom because my Mom will ask why I never cleaned them at home!  \

We are working hard. We are fasting and praying really hard for the work to go forth here in the ward that we are in. This week we had a division with the zone leaders. They are Elder Pombeiro and Elder Litchfeild.  Me and Elder Litchfeild are from the same group so that was cool.

It has been getting really hot here in the day.  I was really blessed last year because I was in Guarapari during the winter and Guarapari is like right next to the ocean. But now I'm not and there isn't an ocean breeze here. But mom the member that loves me and says she will cry when I leave says you need to learn Portuguese at least a little so you can speak with her when you get here and I will teach her English a little bit.

But this is about everything this week  I  love you guys  Keep on the hard work at home!

Elder Pellegrini

In the beginning.....and now!

For those of you who are wondering about the weight loss rumors and Elder Pellegrini, I think pictures speak louder than words.  Here's a photo taken the night before Matt left (July 18, 2011) and one taken last week.  I think he's been working hard! What do you think?

Bishop North, Matt and Curtis

Elder Pellegrini and Elder Tavares

August 27, 2012

Hello family,

I’m very sorry that my emails have sucked these past few weeks, but I have been running like a mad man trying to get everything done. People say that missionaries have 1 hour to email their family. It’s a lie!  Missionaries have one hour to email their family, their mission president, the secretaries, and everyone else in the mission and it just runs out so fast this is the fastest hour that I have during the week, is the 1 hour to send email.

Well this week was good.  We had ALOT of rain and that kind of sucked but it’s alright.  It rained so much on Sunday that we didn’t have anyone come to church-- investigator wise at least. But I love this area.  It is so good.  The lunch that people give us here is amazing. Yesterday we ate prime rib, it was so good! I remembered the last dinner I had before I came on the mission.

We taught a lot of people this week. It was way cool.  We found some new people and all that. We went to a huge Catholic church last P day. It was awesome.  It’s called Convento da Penha. It’s on a huge mountain in Vila Velha. It’s way cool up there.  I fed monkeys on the top of it and it has a lot of like churchy things.  So I’m pretty positive Dad will like it because he liked all that stuff in Italy haha.

Well this week I’ve learned that it is a lot easier to have a comp who knows how to do everything. But it is cool to teach your comp how to do things too. I’m really enjoying this area. It’s really good.  The members are awesome and all that stuff.  It’s just hard to memorize the streets because it’s a huge city.  But that’s about it. I love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Pellegrini 

Trying to repent!

Not Matt, me (his Mom).  I am repenting from not posting letters.  So here is his last week's letter:

Dear Family,

Well I'm doing good here in Brazil.  It is very cold,  Not during the day, but during the night it gets kind of cold. We are doing great in Linhares. We baptized this week and it was awesome. They were elects. They got married and baptized on the same day and we had a cake for them and everything, it was awesome! They loved it. She cried.  Her name is Miriam and his is Arqulino.  He is 23 years old and she is 54. So just a little bit of age difference right? But that's alright. 

 

We walked alot this week.  Talked with alot of people.  We did a contact with a person from the church called, "God is love".  It's very different.  They always yell, "o amen jesus yes yes".  It was quite funny. And we taught a lady who doesn't have faith. She just believes in the bible and told us that we need to rethink our church because she knows our church is false. I'm losing alot of weight and it rained here so much this week it was ridiculous.  I never thought it would stop, but it did. 

 

 

This picture I attached is me practicing for life mom. But I have to go I don't have much time. I love you guys.  I will send a bigger email next week sorry and love you guys. Bye!

 

Elder Pellegrini

Mar 19, 2012

Dear Mom,

It has been a tough week. But don't worry i know you know that missionaries have rough times. I read a talk this week from the last mission president here in the Brasil Vitoria mission. He said that he prayed everyday for the missionaries to have difficult days weeks and transfers because when you have rough times you learn the most. I can truly say that this is true. I've had a rough 2 weeks or so and let me tell you when it is rough on the mission it is rough! It's hard to get out of bed at 6:30, I was going to bed at 9:45 every night because i was so tired. But every time you have a hard time God wants you to learn something. I don't really know what he wants me to learn yet but I am praying to find out. Maybe it is that he always has a plan for you.

This week was really special I will admit. It started out iffy. We had a zone conference Wednesday where President wanted to interview me because he thought I was depressed. But I told him I wasn't, because I'm not. I just am having a rough time with the Area. But then I think on Thursday or Friday we were walking down the street to work with the members not active list and I said to Elder Santana that we had already visited this house and the person moved away. He kept walking and we walked to the front of the house and he said you're right, this is the house where the person moved away. But when we turned around to walk back down the street, there was a lady walking towards us. She said, "you guys are the Mormons right?". And we just kind of looked at each other and she said, "Sorry, sorry. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". Then me and my companion were really confused and we said ya and she said, "Hey! My Mom wants to talk to you!" and we just thought in our head o great another person who just wants to talk about how our church is wrong and their church is right.

But we walked over to her house and she let us in and we sat down and she started to tell us a story about how she had watched the movie "The Other Side of Heaven" today and then after the movie she went to take a nap and we had walked down the street and her daughter yelled "Mom, Mom! The Mormons are walking down the street right now!" And she told her daughter to go call us over here. But she told us her story. She was baptized in our church 5 years ago and the Sunday she had to be confirmed she had a relative who was really sick in the hospital and so she couldn't go to church. When she went back the next Sunday the group that was there had closed. Groups here in Brasil close really easily. But anyways we started to teach them and they are just the best people ever! So happy about that! So we are teaching a family is what im saying. And we have another person who we're teaching who is a reference from a member and she is way good too and we got another reference yesterday of a member who's niece wants to be baptized. But ya other than that I'm doing good.

Yes Elder McBarron got transferred and Elder Kopetski is training again so that is good. The new missionary's name is Elder Christensen from Idaho he is cool. Yes I went to a chocolate factory. It was way cool. I ate 35 pieces. It was good but I felt sick after. It was pretty cool to see the chocolate factory. It's name is the Garoto. It's the only one in the world so that's pretty cool.

The mission president is good. Yes it is a lot better now that i can communicate with him and talk with him one on one without Elder Hansen. He is pretty cool. I always finish my letters to him with a President I love ya and a hug. We have had a good week we have a good week planned out for this week now and everything is going good. I will send you that other stuff in an other email I love you guys.

Elder Pellegrini

March 12, 2012

Dear Family,
Well I’m just tired. That is how I will start my email. This week has been good. My 3rd transfer in Guarapari. It is pretty good here, but just a little bit hard. It’s like at Christmas time when you get all pumped up because you have been asking your parents for this present all year long and you think for sure you’re going to get it. And there is a box under the tree that is the same shape as the thing you want, but then on Christmas morning you open it up and it’s not the present at all, its actually pants. That’s how transfers are when you have been in a place for 2 transfers and you think for sure you will be transferred and you get the call that you’re staying in your area for another transfer. That’s what it is like haha.

Well this week was a little rough we didn’t teach as much as we wish we could have, but that’s alright. We will start it up again this week. We have not worked with our baptism. She lives in the other duplas (companionship) area now. But she missed church yesterday. She called and said she was going to Vitoria for something like medical work. I don’t know how to say it in English.

Well I’m glad that life is going good for you guys in Cedar. Tell Jeff (Middleton) to be careful and to heal up. How did it happen? (He’s referring to Jeff Middleton’s arm accident). Well what are you guys doing for spring break anything fun? Yes he had a district leader meeting so i worked with 2 other people this week; Elder Morgan and some Brazilian elder. (I asked him if he has had a chance to work with anyone but Elder Santana, his companion). I don’t know his name. But i love you guys have a great week and be safe.

Love you,
Elder Pellegrini