Walking Mosquito Bite

well i would just like to start of my week of fun by saying holy freak i love my family. seriously i would absolutely LOVE to know what i did to deserve the family i have in the pre mortal life. because that is beyond mystery to me! seriously though. every member of my family is perfect. just flat out perfect! seriously! oh i am just so lucky! so stinkin lucky. first things first.... i am quite prejudice about who my brothers marry. so before you ask whoever you are going to ask... pass it by me okay. and spencer as well. i have yet to meet a girl that is worthy of spencer... hahahahah except for one... sister byrne. pursue spence. when you get home... pursue. but if not her then you as well will have to pass the lucky girl by me. ill be the judge. and my test is very hard to pass. just saying. hahhaah with love.

well my week sure was something. ive been feeling reeeeally crappy these last 2 or 3 days and i have about a gazillion mosquito bites on my legs. man they are just ruthless to me. its like im a big target board. its not fair. clayton for your sake my friend i hope you do not get called to brazil bec you would be a walking mosquito bite. they like white people. no offense. 

so i itch them until they bleed and then i keep itching... so i have like scars on my legs from the dang things. hmmmm oh the sisters had a baptism on sat and i baptized the old lady. OH MY HECK SHE WAS SO FREAKING CUTE!!! seriously she was darling! and.... she hugged me. i didnt hug back... well i guess i kinda did but she was old and crying and she was so sweet and she just threw her arms around me and i just wanted to take this old lady home! i dont know what it is with me and old people  (ladies especially) but man they are just so awesome!! like i siad abbs... old folks home every sat when i get home!

hmmm what else what else.... well we are moving houses. our house is too crowded and frankly it is crappy to try and wash clothes with 9 other missionaries, so elder chase and i are moving on wednesday to the ponta da pria house. that is the house i started in a few months ago. i have mixed feelings about it but im excited. plus our house in INFESTED WITH ANTS. like beyond your comprehension. oh man...if you guys only knew. so we are moving on weds and yeah... we only have 3 more weeks in the transfer so im a little confused but whatevs. that is just part of the mission, constantly moving!

so i had a difficult week guys... this is just hard and sometimes it is very discouraging. we had a baptsim set up for this sat but he didnt come to church. he is a 40 year old surfer who looks like the rich mean guy off of oceans 11 but he is awesome. his name is fabio and he was super pumped but something happened and he didnt go to church. he was doing so good but then satan got to him. its just so discouraging when you try EVERYTHING in  you power to work hard and yet we still dont have investigators at church. its just so freakin hard! anyways i am soo excited for conf this weekend. i love you all and i hope you all had a wonderful week, it sure sounds like you did.

Brig thinks this is Mr Fredrickson from the movie UP!  

Lloyd Christmas Strikes Again

Weeeellllll alrighty. its about that time! so this week... hahah oh man. highs and lows, ill tell ya! first of all.. i am DEAD tired right now. elder maughan and i (yup mom its just like max and jake.. i had a huge crush on them and now they are my best friends) woke up at 5 freakin 30 and ran up a mountain to watch the sunrise. so im just flat out exhausted! it was SOOO worth it though! my heck this place is the most beautiful place on earth... from far away hahah. so we ran like 50 minutes to the mountain and then ran the stairs from hell to the top of the mountain (like at least 500 stairs) and yeah. then we sat there and talked and stuff. it was wonderful. but while i was up there looking over everything and the ocean and ohhh man! so great. i just thought wow... wow.. this is it. i am here. these are the memories. and i thought of how incredibly blessed we are to have a beautiful earth given by our loving heavenly father FOR US!!! then we ran home.

 

... Just a side note.. for those of you who are curious, i looked behind me for a sec and this guy is literally looking at straight up porn. i turned right around and almost busted out laughing. im trying ot think of a clever way to leave the law of chastity pamphelet on his desk without him seeing. teehee what a joke.

 

so anyway something kinda cool that i found out this week, so every painting of the twelve apostles with christ... they all have a beard. every painting. and the bible videos too. except for one person. now the one person is john the beloved. two reasons. one he was the youngest, we know that (freakin boss). and two... in that time period, jews identified themselves being married by having a beard, right? (thank you fiddler on the roof). so he was the only one who wasnt married... but that is also proof that christ was married. now that is obviously not doctrine but i think its quite ironic.

CLAYTON FREAKIN MATTHEW!!!!!!! WILLY WONKA NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD!!!! my heck you little freaking boss you! are you serious?? what the crap??? i about peed when i read that last week!!!! that is so FREAKING sweet!! clayton you are such a stud my man! such a stud! herriman high better look out! clayton sharp is on his way! sophomore oreintation!?? what are you doing?? you are not that old yet pal! ohhh my gosh. clay key to highschool.. love seminary and do choir. literally that is the best advice i can give. but you dont need it... youre clayton sharp. you got this in the bag my friend. just be you clayton. be outgoing and be you. and follow your heart... its never let me astray. maybe you can use my heart for a little while... just ask abby for it.  hahahaha just kidding.... okay that was super lame im sorry.

 

ATTENTION: i have officially made a list of qualities and things that my wife WILL have. and i will continue to add to it for the next 20 months. but the most important one... just be like my mother hahaha. just have her teach you everything and youll be good to go! love ya mom. love ya lots.

 

yeah so i sang in church yesterday... it went. haha no it was good i just cant tell you how much i hate singing in portuguese. 

 

so there is this kid named venisius. HE IS MY FREAKING HERO!!!!  he is probably around 9 or 10. he reminds me of quincey soooo much and i just stare at him all sacrament and cry a little bit as i think of my champ of a brother quincey. this kid has a light about him that i have never ever seen. only quincey has it too. its like you can literally see the christlike love and christ through them. oh quince.. i miss you pal. and he has a killer smile too! just like you.

 

hahaha okay so i will send you like three pictures... but one of them cracks me up.

 

LINCOLNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAY MY BUDDY!!!!!! are you seriously 9 years old on sunday?!?!? how on earth is that possible??? oh man you are something else kid! i love you to the moon and back! and you best be ready for all the adventures we will go on when i get home!!! mark my words! so happy birthday buddy... i love you.

 

annnnnd now it is inapropriate time. yes i apologize for my spelling. and for this message but... its just me. and yes it is bathroom experience again too. so we ate lunch at that ladies house who fed me the moldy food that one time right mom. the food was GREAT this time and i loved it... but it went straight through me. i literally didnt leave there house before i was dropping it off. i went upstairs and... used the bathroom. but i was making some noises that i didnt know was humanly possible and i was terrified that they could hear them downstairs. the sisters kept calling me and i just couldnt stop. hey elder sharp you done? (obviously not ya moron! is what i wanted to say) but yes it was very humiliating. Lloyd Christmas strikes again.

 

now about the missionary work.. it was a great week. me and elder chase had two blow up days. it was soooo hard. but then we had a heart to heart that night and it has been great ever since. i know he is going through a tough time right now and i need to be more compassionate and humble. and i have learned that you HAVE to talk about your problems. a relationship will never work unless you talk about your problems. it is key. christlike, calmly, collectively, cool, and like elder clark. i am learning so much here. things about life and maturing more than i would like to. but this is how it is supposed to be. without difficulty and without challenges life would be easy. we are here to grow and progress and the only way to do that is to learn how to make the best of everything you have. i know i am supposed to learn a lot from elder chase and i am trying to. what a privilege to learn how to be more like christ.

 

the work is good. i think we will have 4 baptisms it all goes well for the 21st! which is a miracle!! we had an amazing lesson last night and with a member... how it all played out was absolutely send from god. the timing of the events last night could not have been more perfect. but yeah. we taught this lady named carol with this old lady member who ive never met. she was hysterical. member crack me up. she tossed in the book of mormon, tithing, sacrament, all of it on the first lesson. and man.... somehow it worked out perfectly!!! so miracles happen people!! i love His work.

 

anyway that is all i have time for. i love you all so incredibly much! be safe. preston... hey... finish strong my friend. fight the last 4 weeks like you have never fought before. you are the best missionary ive ever met.. tied with spence. spence... just keep it up my friend.

 

i lied one more thing. for those of you who didnt believe i could get more massive (dont worry i was with ya) it happened. these workouts are making me huge. my pectorals are like watermelon and it freaks me out. id tell you all about em but this email doesnt have enough ROOM!! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  im done now. sorry mom.

 

all my love,

 

Elder Sharp

What Fire?!?

well i have about no time due to the fire that happened... so i apologize!!! i do!

the mission conference was truly incredible this week! and guess what?? we watched meet the mormons!!! because its COMING TO BRASIL!!!!! KAFKLAJSDFKH!!! freaking yeah!!! that will be such a huge tool! such an amazing missionary tool!! oh i am so pumped!!

we had mission choir today. it is so intense and our music if FREAKING hard!!! hahah sis cabral literally has try outs. oh how i love sister and pres cabral! 

the work has been abnormally slow this week because we have been so busy with other stuff and have had barely any time to work in our area! but i have had to lead out sooooo much! so much! i think ill be training next transfer bec of it. i think ill train a brazilian so he can help me with my port but yeah. my port is doing so well. i can understand and talk back just fine. but yeah...it has been a very stressful week. anyways thank you for all the love and prayers! i love you all! have a wonderful week!

Elder sharp

Elder Shawn Spencer

Welllllllll transfers were last night. good old transfers! i am staying here in embare but stokes left to go be a zl. so my new comp is elder chase. i havent met him yet... im still with stokes until like 2 today. but yeah. i have mixed feelings about it... im excited to stay here in embare. kinda. idk.. i just feel dull about all of it. i didnt know what i wanted to happen but i wanted to stay with stokes. we had a lot of fun together. i dont really know anything about chase either. so we will see how it goes. we are going to be living wtih 9 people in this freaking house. so kill me. that is so awful! so many people. but ill stay with maughan and the two new assistants to the president which is awesome. its a blessing to be able to watch and learn from the leaders of the mission! so i am excited about that. and i didnt have to pack up all my stuff. i think i will probably stay one more transfer here too. i think this is the area where i will learn portuguese. something crazy is elder roy johnson my mtc comp is with elder lindsy. that blew my mind. first of all lindsy has one transfer on us here in brazil ( he served one transfer in the states). but he and johny were BEST friends back home. like it would be like me and pat or al being comps... so i thought that was very bold. we are in the same district though so itll be cool to see him a lot.

 

ummm my week was good! it was just a normal week in the mish i guess. we walked a lot. then we walked some more. i had a VERY hard time with one of the sisters this week. but i have repented and humbled myself dont worry.  everything she did bothered the heck out of me and the things she would say, her voice (really high), and how she tells everybody what to do and it infuriates me! then one day we were all going to lunch and we stopped at an pesquisadors house and i saw her and her comp from cape verde teach a lesson. that is when i completely changed my opinion. i dont really have a problem with her anymore. and i knew i needed to change. she brought the spirit so strongly and it really hit me. sisters are good. sisters are good. so that was a humbling and good experience that happened. 

 

another day it POURED rain again and today i will send pictures :) so woo woo (thanks for the hint erin). and another amazing experience was our district meeting this last week. we went to the zoo and and found a quiet place and had 45 minutes to study the first vision and have a personal experience with it. so we did and then met back up and all bore our testimonies about joseph smith and the first vision. it was SO powerful. i felt the spirit soooooo strongly. just pondering that experience that joseph had. he saw... he literally saw our father and our savior face to face. he was told to restore the gospel and all the responsibility would be his. and he did it. despite everything that happened to him. and then in the final moments of his life spent with 3 other men who truly knew with all their hearts that he was a prophet of god and that he restored His truth to the earth again, and together they died. and i can only imagine the smile on christs face when joseph returned to him. i imagine it something of the atonement of the savior when christ returned to heavenly father and said well done my son. well done. i think that is what happened to joseph. well done joseph... well done. it has so much power.. the first vision. i know... i truly know with all my heart that joseph was a prophet of god. he truly saw god the father and his beloved son. he truly restored the gospel of jesus christ to the earth in its fullness. i know its true. and because of the one man we have the church and gospel being spread to all the world. and satan has lost. we are the dispensation that will succeed.

 

not much else happened this week that i can think of. stokes and i were pretty good friends- and i made this idea up. im hesitant to do it because idk if it is... yeah. well this is my idea. sometimes doing contacts is anything but fun. so like shawn spencer i want to introduce my companion like this! oi tudo bem? meu nome e  elder sharp e isso e meu compeheiro elder 123clap your hands and then just keep rolling with it! and think of all the good ones that shawn did from psych! i think it would be sooooo funny! and so fun! so well see if im brave enough to do it.

 

mom you will be happy to know that my bathroom time is a joke here as well. this week sister emacura said elder sharp you live in the bathroom! and at first i was slightly embarassed... then i just accepted it and said sister... i have three homes okay- the utah home, here, and the bathroom. im sorry but that is just the way it is. i am officially too comfortable with the sisters.

 

last night was sister cabrals bday and so our zone went over to their house. i LOVE pres and sister cabral sooooooooo much! oh my gosh! so much!

 

one more thing i learned this week is that we will be held accountable at the last day for people who dont accept the gospel. we, as missionaries, stepped into something very serious. we are the ones to give them the option of accepting the gospel. we have to do everything in our power to get them to accept it and have a testimony of it. if we do not do everything we can... than we will be held accountable. so that is why we work our hearts out here. that is why we give 100 percent every single day and are 100 percent obedient. the only way to have the spirit is to be pure. and we are purified through repentace and obedience. 

 

the mission is hard, there is no doubt about that. but i love the lord. i love the people here and the opportunity and priviledge to represent the savior jesus christ and do his work. the work will never slow down. so here is to another week of the mission. 

i love you all

 

 

All my love,

Elder Sharp

Brazilian Rain

After a down pour one afternoon. Soaking head to toe. Good times!

Big League Boys

Well dearest family from heaven- i love your freaking guts. 

 

Officially going on week 12. yup the big league boys. i miss all the wonderful fun phrases i once said and that i no longer can because they dont translate... however good news ladies and gents: eu faço que o quero! ooooh yes, yes. that would be the phrase "i do what i want" in portuguese. youre welcome. 

 

so anyways i guess ill tell you about my week. well it was good. transfers are this next week!  so im nervous.. but i want to stay here in embare. i love this ward! they are so awesome. so i think i have a spider bite on my leg... its massive and red and doesnt feel like a normal mosquito bite.. idk. ummm we walked a lot this week but that is NOT new news. ive had a lot of stomach pains... so i started taking those pills again. but ive felt better now. one day i literally have never in my life been so close to crapping my pants. you think this is a joke but it is not. i almost threw up it hurt so bad. stokes was laughing and i started crying. it hurt soooooooo badly. it was starting to prarie dog ( just think about it and youll understand what that means) but i couldnt do anythng cuz we were in the middle of the road. we hauled to the office and i almost didnt make it. that was the first and only time i havent put toilet paper down first. i barely got my pants down when the movie dumb and dumber came to life to me. i now know exactly how he felt and it is not something to laugh about. i would put that up with child birth. yeah... so i started taking those pills agian. and i apologize everyone for the details and vulgar words but yeah.

 

mom i want to know how to use the oils... please tell me how. like a description of the ones i have. 

 

so my talk went pretty good. it was like a solid 4.5 minutes. but hey... i was proud of myself. it was terrifying. my studies were freaking awesome this week! oh soooo good! sooooooo so so good. also, this week i was reading the liahona in english during aula de ingles (english class) and it was INCREDIBLE!!! I started crying! oh so good. i am sending clay a talk from it. dont worry its short. but this other talk just hit me like a brick wall of spiritualness! it was by elder holland and he said ´´ the eyes of god and all the holy prophets are watching us. this is the great dispensation that has been spoken of ever since the world began.´´ the talk was just amazing. the prophets of old are watching our every move and they kept going for us. they new that there would be one dispensation that would live to spread the word of god to all the world.. one that would not fail. that is us. FREAKING YEAH!!!  oh it's so stinking sweet! then i read this talk by sister cabral- that woman is one of the greatest most intelligent and spiritual people i have ever met in my life. the talk was INCREDIBLE and burned so bad. she just calls you out man! talking about our temple covenants and missionary work and breaks down the ten commandments and explains how we are breaking each one of them and the reason for the sacrament and ohhhhhhh my heck! so good!

 

hmmmm elder stokes is doing well! his birthday was yesterday so elder thurgood, maughan and i made him breakfast and it was a really good day. we have stuck with darcio. gosh i love that man! i want him to stop smoking! so freaking badly! then he can be baptized! that is all he needs!! my gosh! and he is filthy rich. oh man. darcio is a good guy. our lessons with him are soooo powerful. so powerful. he just needs to have faith in himself. he should be dead right now. this is his last chance at salvation and if he doesnt take it he will suffer and regret that decision for eternity... it just kills me. we dont really have any other pesquisadors.. we do but ehh... yeah idk. so the work continues. i am soooo excited for tomorrow and this lesson with this guy! i  think he will get baptized! i hope so badly! 

 

mom i am a okay. doing my thing here in santos. living life and taking it day by day trying my hardest to not be trunky. that is a very difficult thing. but i am safe and doing well. i am really really tan- the tannest ive been in my life. its hotter than freak still but hey thats brazil. im worried about my shoes.. we walk sooo much. and other than that my stuff is doing fine. i love love love all the pictures i have. i write im my journal every single night. every night. so feel free to be impressed mother! and to answer your question yes, i think you and dad prepared us as best we could for this. but there isnt anything that can truly prepare you for this life style. nothing. so keep up the good work. make clay just go walk for two hours and that will help him. and make him cry a lot... and go ahead and yell and scream at him in a made up language... throw stuff at him... just some things he will get used to before he comes out here hahaha. no but just keep up the amazing work mom.

 

clay- hahahahaha that comment was hysterical... that was clever mom. its no secret that you wrote that. thats what makes it so funny. classy. 4.0000000000 THAT IS WHAT IM FREAKING TALKIN GABOUT CLAY!!! HECK YEAH MAN!!!  heck freakin yeah!!! that is soooo awesome!!! i miss singing with you! i sang again in church yesterday. i miss you pal. keep with the play stuff! we will do one again when i get home.

 

quince- hey pal! that party sounds AWESOME!!!! why didnt i get invited?? seriously though bud! that is sooo awesome! what a man for doing all those things! the weather here is hotter than the sun itslef. so be grateful. love ya pal.

 

linc- hey big guy!!! hows my man?? herriman won huh??? hahaha yeahhhhh! that is awesome buddy! i love the johnsons so much!!! does cart play for herriman? have a good week pal and BE SAFE!!! I LOVE YOU!!

 

until later today... all my love and prayers! i miss you all and pray for you all! god speed.

 

Elder Sharp