Current Mission Address

Elder Dane Edward Eskildsen
Brazil Santa Maria Mission
Caixa Postal 0339

Centro Quarai-RS 97560-000
Brasil

(updated 1/13)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Transferred to Santa Maria

                                       Dane and Elder Glazier,   looking sad to being transferred
  July 30 2012  Did aunt marci say I have a lisp? haha The lisp is more of a Portugaul thing, I just dont enunciate very well. I didnt think I would miss t he olimpics too much while on the mission, but I miss it haha. and yea I took flight lessons at bergstroms. And I know what you mean about the heat in those airplanes. Its not too hot if you go up to 6000 feet or so, but staying close to the ground makes the cockpit really hot. Not to mention the hot air above the black pavement of the runway makes  the air very thin and harder to land on/in. The heat in the airplanes kind of reminds me of the houses here during the summer but cooler haha. We saw some guy flying really low over the city this last week in a Cessna 172  for a few hours and it really made me miss flying. Especially just hearing the sounds of an airplane takes me back to those days at the Pasco airport. Wow everyone is getting married... but that is really bound to happen.           We were broke last week because we all had to use all of the money in our mission accounts in order to pay for Elder X’S medical exams (which showed that there was nothing wrong with him). He claimed foot problems, but the expensive and excessive MRI called his bluff. He has been causing a lot more work for President than he needs, and as a result he was emergency transferred to Santa Maria and we received another new elder from that same group. His name is Elder Saunders. He is a farm boy from eastern Oregon. A little city called Vale. Ive never heard of it, but it is smaller than Connell.

        And no I did not say that I was 145 I said that I was 175 when I started and now I am 185. You think I was THAT skinny when I left for the mission? Is my accent that hard to understand on the voice recording? haha. I have another voice recording and if  you have any questions just ask, becasue sometimes I talk about stuff without elaborating,and I can imagine it might be hard to follow without being properly informed about certain things. I also am not very good about remembering things in the week without being questioned, or having my memory jogged. You will probably hear about many parts of the mission after I get back because I am so bad at remembering details during email time. But any way , Iove you and hope  your week has been awesome.

Dad,---That sounds like it was a  good 5th sunday lesson. And yes I am familiar with the karate kid, notwithstanding my lack of age and wisdom. It is very true that we must be obedient as a result for our love and gratitude towards God, instead of following a commandment because of the temporal blessing or consequence. For example, most people will not follow the Word of Wisdom just because you tell them that it is a commandment of God. What people want and expect is some sort of temporal incentive. The fact is, it doesnt matter whether studies show that a cup of coffee a day is good for your health, or that a cup of wine per day betters heart health. What matters is that our abstaining from those substances is something that God requires of us. Sometimes we must do things that we dont understand fully because they are commandments of the Lord. Nothing (from God) that is required of us will not lead to our well being. It is easy to rationalize our deviance from a commandment because our lack of understanding of it, but I know that if we follow the orders of the Lord we will be blessed. This last week we found out that we are no longer allowed to have MP3 devices, Ipods Etc. As devastating that is to me, I know that I must comply, so I had to say goodbye to my Ipod until August of next year.



AUG 5, 2012 Well to answer your last question first the next transfer date is today, and well, I was transferred to Santa Maria to be in the Santa Marta zone. Im a bit excited but I really wanted to stay here in IjuĂ­ to help all of the awesome people we have met get baptized. But I know that Elder Glazier will do well here without me. That little trip to the lake house sounded like a lot of fun, but thats too bad that you left your books and stuff. Just study as best you can the material really gets easier the more you go. Theres also one more thing I would like in that package if it is not too much. It is a book by Truman G. Madsen Called ´´Joseph Smith the Prophet´´. I would like to have that if it is at all possible. They have it in paperback. Dont get it confused with ´´The life and teachings of Joseph Smith´´, by the same author. Your talk looks pretty good as well, I wish I could have been there to hear it. But I sent most of the stuff about the week in an email to Rachel, so you can read that one, sorry! Im kind of pressed for time. But oh, I am so happy for Brant! He is going to LOVE serving in the states. It may not seem as exotic or as cool serving in the US but there are many many elders who would like to have the nice and cushy life in a stateside mission haha. But I can deal without AC for the next little bit. But also he is going to love being a missionary and everything. Also I want his adress ASAP
  Aug 13, 2012  Dear Dad,----Thats good to get a new family in the ward, to help strengthen things up and get some new candidates for the church callings. That investigator sounds like she is pretty golden, which means that she is the kind of investigator that every missionary wants to have. I have met a few investigators like that. She seems to really have a broken heart and a contrite spirit and has real intent as it says in Moroni 10:4. Im sure the Elders are super Excited with that family. Hows the rest of the ward doing? My new ward in the mission is one of the best in the mission! there are about 150 active members that comprehend clearly the gospel and all of its principles and how the church is supposed to work. The bishop here is really awesome as well and the ward members and ward mision leader have already helped us a ton. Im really excited to be here in the  Santa Marta ward and hope that I will be here for much much more time. Thats very probable. We are also working with a part member/less active family at the moment.  It has been many many years since the mom was baptised. She came to church yesterday and really liked it, so did her son. She is almost like a nonmember because she doesnt remember anything about the church so we have to teach her everything all over again. This gospel is truly marvelous. It was no joke when Joseph Smith was told that a marvelous work and a wonder was about to come forth. I love being here serving the lord, although it is a bit difficult.
      Dear Mom,I know how you feel, my week was also quite rushed and difficult. Right when I got into Santa Maria we had to head out to teach lessons, etc. My companion is a fairly newbie american and so he didnt really know what was going on or much about the ward, investigators, etc, but we found our way around pretty well. Because my companion is not familiar with the availability of the inveswtgators/ members and such we were running around the area quite a bit, but we ended up being able to get a lot of lessons in. To add to that I have to worry about the rest of my district and how they are doing etc, so I had to call and advise them every once in a while to make sure that they are doing well. I went to bed everynight thinking about how I can help my district and our investigators etc and woke up thinking about the same thing. Lots to think about here on the mission , but it isnt too bad. Im really excited to be able to fly the Cherokee. And does this mean that I will be able to take the Citabria up to BYU with me after I get current on my liscence? Im sure you will do fine on your test, but make sure you study and fly a ton, because if not it gets really annoying trying to get the liscence with a due date.  like I had to do before the mission.   Do you think that Kortney is going to end up getting married to that guy? Tell her to wait until at least august 13 of next year to get married.   I might actually wear Red skinny jeans. Well burgundy probably, I think red is a little too conspicuous. And I wouldnt fit into skinny jeans so it would have to be regular looking jeans for a normal person that would fit me like skinny jeans.    Santa Maria is awesome and I am really liking it a ton. It is the biggest city on our mission with 300,000 people or so. The ward, like I said is really awesome here and this is always an area that the Elders want to pass through. There wernt a ton of investigators when I got here and we lost a few more because we challenged them to baptism and they refused, and of course, when that happens he have to stop visiting them, at least for the moment. We do have some pretty good people that we are working with though. My companion is Elder Jensen, he is from California and has like 3 months on the mission. He has a bit of trouble with the language, but he is learning very quickly. Well I hope that you are all well and I love you! -Elder Eskildsen     p.s. I am opening a P.O. box for my district here in a few days, so if you want to send me anything wait until next monday and I will tell the new adress. Thanks
                                                           Santa Maria as seen from my area
                                                    New companion Elder Jensen from CA