Pictures from Justinopolis and Ponte Nova

sweet hat! cassi needs to make these

yes, lunch after church is on the very peak of this hill

cute kid of an investigator... reminds me of the picture of me in the suit when i was little

my little justinopolis friends

Ademir... the member from Justinopolis who helped us everyday

Wellington... awesome kid!!

Sheila, age 30 and Emily, age 8 (mentioned in previous email)

Brazil really looks like this...

Ponte Nova - Week 1

well, first off! sorry about last week! after our bus ride to the new area we had only about 3 hours but it was a holiday here and so everything was shut down. it was actually tira dente day. which literally means tooth pulling day! hahaha. anyway, so i am sorry that i didn't get a lot of time to write so sorry about that.

and before i get any further, mom - happy birthday!!! my birthday present to you will be in the mail by tomorrow. don't worry it was free! you'll love it! and the other part of this is everyone who reads this, call my mom and wish her happy birthday on april 30th. her phone number is 208 757 0735. =) happy birthday mom! (NOTE from Mom: definitely should have edited out this part!)

well it was definitely hard to leave justinopolis this last week. i left 8 baptisms behind and a wedding we were prepping for last thursday. so that was really sad and i had a lot of very strong connections with people so it was tough. i miss the area already. but the bonus was that i got to get letters!!!!! so, mom, thank you for everything you sent and everyone else who wrote, thank you so so much! it was such a surprise to get so many letters! everyone in the office was pretty jealous of how many i had so thank you, thank you! i wrote back to most of you who wrote me so be looking for something in the email! and mom i will be looking for the package and hopefully it gets here before zone conference and i can get it then! fingers crossed.

so, the new area is awesome! i don't know for sure what you can see from google earth but it is extremely, extremely hilly! we live in the valley, pretty much, pretty close to the center of town but we walk all over these mountains. i don't know why i was ever so happy to go on hikes as a scout now, but they definitely did prepare me for the mountain climbing we do! they also have a different wildlife here. namely capivaras which i will try to describe but you should just get a picture. it would be easier. they are giant rat/pig/beavers. that's the best i can do. we see them quite a bit. i will try to get a good picture of one to show. they also have rats here. and when i say rats i mean RATS! a rat in the states would be a mouse here. they are gigantic and apparently i haven't seen anything yet!?

elder clites and i are doing very well together. we both have said we hope we get to stay together more than 1 transfer so i guess that's a good sign, eh? we teach 40 lessons a week just to investigators plus have fhe 3 times a week and teach about 10 recent converts a week as well. talk about busy busy busy!

the language is coming. i am getting a lot more fluid but there is definitely still a little language barrier for sure! which is frustrating but i've been told that i will make 50,000 mistakes before i am fluent so i might as well make them now instead of later! we also sing to start every lesson. elder clites willingly tells all our investigators to listen to me cause i can sing good. so i guess that's a gift. it is nice to be able to sing tho. it is such a great way to bring the spirit in every meeting!

so, this week some funny stuff happened! hahaha! so, we were teaching a lesson to an older, super catholic, couple and we just get through teaching about the holy ghost and how to feel it and crashing through the door comes this giant dog and just heads straight for elder clites! hahah the look on his face mixed with the old couples reaction and me laughing my head off was amazing! definitely a high point of the mission! i laughed so hard!

also, one day we taught this guy outside a house that apparently isn't his, but anyway, so we taught him and he accepted a date so we went back to teach him again and when we went back we ended up teaching about 10 people. we committed 10 people to live the word of wisdom and they hadn't even heard about the church yet! that was pretty good!

i have also decided that microsoft really needs to pay me for all i do for them down here. i get told probably 5 times a day that my name is a computer program and my brothers name should be word! and my sisters name should be powerpoint! and dad, good news, your new name is bill gates apparently! hahha!

so this area is really good sometimes, but other times, i have seen sodom and gommorah here. i have already watched 4 people clearly and definitely break the law of chastity to put it nicely. but it taught me a very very clear lesson! one i have already heard and loved listening to but it meant so much more seeing it first hand! "if you don't want whippy cake then don't go to the whippy cake table!" now for those of you that are lost... i will explain! when you walk into sam's club on free sample day, you are going into heaven right. costco is better but that's besides the point. now, say these "venders" have a product not desirable. what do you do? you steer clear because you know the whippy cake lady will get you if you even get close to the whippy cake! so the lesson... if you don't want the undesirable sins in your life then don't go to the places breeding them! satan works very hard with the strong people of the world. he already had the weak people in his power so be cautious. he will gently wrap you with a flaxen cord... or a nice soft piece of rope, and then he turns them into chains!! we watched a movie at fhe this week after thinking about this and it was about spiritual crocodiles. if you are a gazelle you don't drink the water when the crocodile is waiting for you! now take it from me... i played with fire often and learned very many hard lessons from getting in trouble with this. my word of advice to everyone who is going to read this: if you don't want the free sample that tastes like dog food then don't go to the lady giving out dog food samples! i don't know if that made any sense but hopefully someone got something from that!

missionary life is awesome! any of you preparing, including and especially you ty... you have such an amazing opportunity in front of you. please go in more prepared than me. i wish i would have been a bible scholar sometimes but you still can be! so please prepare! this is the real world! missionary life is awesome! i seriously would not trade it for anything!

my quote for everyone this week that i made. "the alarm clock is simply the sound of chances knocking on your door!" i love you all so very very very much! if all i got from this was a love for my eternal family then i would be so so blessed and owe heavenly father so much, but, i am getting in blessing debt much more than that! i owe him so much for the blessings i receive! i love you all! have a great week this week! i love you!

sincerely,
ELDER excell

Q&A - April 28, 2010

1. As you probably guessed we would, we put your address into Google Maps as soon as we got your email and your address popped right up. Since Google Maps is able to find it, is the mailman? Could we send letters directly to your apartment there?? Or, is it still best to mail them to the mission office?
i would still send them to the office because it takes a while to get them here anyway and i am able to get mail about 2 times a transfer anyway so i would just keep them there. that way if i get transferred i don't miss some too!

2. Do you listen to the mission music you took with you very often?
i do but president just revised the rules on what music is appropriate and i need to kind of edit my playlist to only instrumental stuff or motab. we can't even have efy stuff. but i will follow the rules!

3. How is your new apartment? A step up or step down from Justinopolis?
definitely a step up. way bigger and if we clean it good it could be very very nice!

4. Was is hard to leave Justinopolis? Do you feel like you had any unfinished business there? Any investigators that were close to baptism that you had to hand over to someone else?
we had another 8 baptisms scheduled to happen after i left this last sunday that passed so it was definitely hard to leave. i actually made some people cry and felt bad but the lord needs me here now. it was very hard tho. i miss it already!

5. Did Elder Palmer stay in Justinopolis? he is still there

6. Are you getting along well with Elder Clites? Tell us something really cool about him.
elder clites and i get along very well. he went to harvard before the mish and he is the first missionary in his family. he had to go to the emergency room on the mission tho cause he pulled a dad and put his hand through a glass door!

7. What is the best thing about Ponte Nova?
the members! the members are awesome here. and the chapel is pretty much across the street instead of 40 minutes away! much much better!

8. Do you know anything yet about the phone call on Mother's Day? How long will you have? Will it be best for us to get a number from you and call you or better for us to give you the calling card number (I'll be putting some more money on my onesuite.com card that I used with Weston) and have you call us? There is currently a three hour time difference so we'll need to find a time that works best. I'm very much looking forward to hearing your voice!!
it will be mothers day and as of now we are not quite sure how it will work. we call you from the chapel and then you call that number back. it will probably be about 3 or 4 your time on that sunday. but i will for sure let you know when i know! i am so excited too!

9. Do you have any questions for us?
1 alright, so elder palmer and i have a challenge going on and we are writing celebrities letters and trying to get as many responses as possible so i need some fan club addresses for the following people... taylor swift, miley cyrus, anne hathaway, and idina menzel. if you could get those then that would be awesome! the winner gets tucanos when we get back!
2 limpys email?
3 whitney talbots email?
4 what day does brady leave?
5 has there been any sweet sequels to movies announced or any really good movies worth mentioning?
6 when does oliver end?
7 whats going on in the chamber theater as of right now?
8 can you maybe get jon armstrongs email. he was a magician in the chamber now in boise?
9 is lisa directing the show and how is it? tell her that i love her and thank you for the good talks we had!

A Late (but very welcome) Email! - Ponte Nova, Brazil

We received a very short email and reply to our Q&A a little late due to the transfer and also due to the fact that it was sent to my work email address and I was out of the office for a few days. It was a nice surprise this morning because we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we just would not hear from him this week. So, although very brief, (he and his companion were given special permission by the president for 30 minutes to divide between them since it was not pday but to let their families know they were safe) here is our email as well as the answers to our questions of the week:

hey mom - i have like 5 minutes left to write so i am so so so sorry about not getting to write you this week and i even had alot of good stuff to write too. but i will just write you a giant email next week! promise!

i am in a new area...ponte nova and my companion is from boston and his name is elder clites. it will be a really good transfer.

i hope all is well at home. i am printing your letters out to read them later so i don't waste time with that. i am doing awesome and the work just continues to go and go and go, you know!

anyway, i will leave you all with one quick thought... don't bunt, aim out of the ballpark! just remember today is the last april 22, 2010 you will ever live so make it count for someone. there are so many things around us all to be thankful for. and on top of all of that, joy scatters a thousand griefs.

i love you all so much and i can't wait to write next week! i love you all so much! have a great week!

Q&A - April 21, 2010

1. We think that Dad was able to locate your apartment on Google Earth - Do the apartments have blue/grey roofs?
yes those were them but now i am in ponte nova. rua abrantes fortuna 43 is the address there.

2. Are you still in Justinopolis or were you transferred to a new area?
answered above

3. Is Elder Palmer still your companion? Still getting along?
i now have elder clites as a comp and it will be a good transfer

4. How are your new Brazilian shoes holding up?
they are doing awesome

5. How many times have you been able to get your mail since arriving in Justinopolis?
i was able to get it twice and i got a lot. i will write that in my fam email

6. How often do you have any form of contact with President Parrella?
3 times a transfer. interview, zone conference, and transfers.

7. Any questions for us this week?
not too much time to ask. mom i am online cause we didn't get time yesterday but i have to be fast since it is not pday. president authorized us to be on for 30 minutes combined

Must Be a Transfer Week???

No word from Elder Excell today. :(

Week....? - Justinopolis, Brazil - April 14, 2010

what an awesome week! i guess it is always an awesome week as a missionary but what an amazing week! once again though it just flew by and once again it's p day already and i can't believe it! it's so crazy the way the time flies here. transfers will be next week since this transfer is a 5 week transfer so i am already almost through my first transfer of 15 in the field! crazy! but no matter how fast the weeks go the work of the lord just continues to roll on and on...

so, this week i once again ate some more weird stuff. not that weird i guess but maybe that's just because i am getting used to it. on about every corner they have someone cooking some sketchy roadside meat, and i figured if i am really supposed to blend into the culture then i had better try some of it. so me and elder palmer got stuff. when the lady asked what i wanted, it was an easy choice. i saw something with bacon wrapped around it and my heart was won! well little did i know until after i ate it, that yes... i ate some legit brazilian snake! yummy! this time it actually was good though. next time you're at walmart you should hit up the snake aisle. good stuff.

i also have been drinking this stuff lately that i am kinda getting hooked to... since in brazil the word of wisdom prohibits only black tea many people drink matte tea. anyway it's really not bad. i just hope it's not against the word of wisdom in the states... anyway, want to find out for me? thanks!

one of our mission rules from president parrella is no cola or really no caffeine. so, on sunday, one of our members just happened to have cola to drink and after we told her "we could not partake" she gave us some juice from the fridge. well, i'm guessing the juice was in the fridge for a while cause not only did we get some yummy peach juice but we got our daily serving of ants! yummmy!!!

so, that brings me into the next point on the outline... my bowels. now, i know you have all been wondering whether you have voiced the wonder or not so i will fill you in. i have been very blessed lately with my bowel movements. i adjusted to the food very easily. until monday anyway... i don't know if it was the ants or the grease from the chicken or what but i could not keep my bowels in check. every house we visited i had to use the facilities. not very enjoyable but luckily, i have not suffered the fate of most missionaries and soiled my undies...yet! (mom, edit this how you may) - (NOTE from "Mom": ok, maybe I should have edited this out but ultimately, we decided that this is an unfortunate part of adjusting to a new culture so have left it mostly in tact. My apologies if it is offensive to the reader.)

anyway, enough of that. this week the weather has been awesome!!! for americans that is. we love it. it's about 60 degrees with a slight breeze. it's awesome. brazilians on the other hand are wearing sweaters under turtle necks under coats. i guess it's pretty cold here for them?!

this week we accomplished some hot kitchen action! we made no bake cookies 4 times and some flaky biscuits a couple times. both recipes are perfected! =) it's always nice to come home from a rough day in the office and take a seat on our patio furniture (the only furniture we own) and kick off the shoes and drink some guarana and eat a no bake! so thank you mom for that recipe!

anyway, now to the missionary part! all i can say is miracles happen! we had 2 more baptisms on sunday of part of a family and the rest will be baptized this sunday! so happy for them! i baptized a boy named william souza moura - a lot easier than most brazilian names! it's always nice to see the reward for the work!

saturday we had so so so much to do so we did some divisions with two members. at first i was terrified!! i've been in the country 4 weeks and they want me to be out there alone? scary! but i did it, and well, it was awesome! we had a good day and then the night was amazing. we taught a woman named sheila and her 8 yr old daughter emilly. amazing part now. we ran into her after zone conference a couple weeks back and it was right when we got off the metro and we took her info and felt good about visiting her so we did. we get there and she tells us of how three days before she ran into us she had been praying to find the truth. something for her and her daughter to hold onto! well she found it. she loved the first lesson. by the end of it, she had me in my seat with my pen and paper out taking notes on what she was teaching me about joseph smith. she was so prepared. she accepted the baptism date of the 18th and then after we closed the lesson, we talked about a woman recently baptized in our ward who has nothing. her boyfriend left her and 5 kids in a small small favela house with a new baby and nothing. she has no job because of the baby and therefore very very very little to live off of. we talked about how the gospel is so helpful and puts a smile on her face. and all we were trying to convey is how the gospel helps. well before we could finish the story, sheila handed us about 50 dollars worth of food to take to this family. she said it just felt right to do. she is so amazing!

another sweet story. sunday, one of our members had a friend in church with him. he's about 25, so we got his info to teach him because he loved church! loved it!! so we go there and we see porno mags everywhere. beer everywhere. cigarettes everywhere. so we teach the first lesson to him and three of his roommates. they all accepted baptism dates and we were shocked. so we went back last night and we have to teach word of wisdom and law of chastity to these guys. talk about intimidating. but we went in just saying alright, we are gonna do this! so we taught them. it was such a strong lesson but still it was up to them what to do! by the time we left their house we had in our possession 4 porn magazines, 2 bags of coffee, a pack of cigarettes, and a bag of marijuana. we had a fire outside their apartment celebrating the change that they knew they had to make! i don't know if it was such a good idea to burn the marijuana but we didn't really think about that until after! hahahah! anyway these guys are all amazing! we love them so much! they are willing to change their life for this gospel!

i just have gained such a strong testimony of this gospel! i know that it has the power to change lives! i know that it does without a doubt. i learned a very valuable lesson this week...i find myself now, while i am here, becoming the person i wanted to be my whole life. i knew who i wanted to be. i also had the gospel in my life but sometimes wasn't willing to follow it. it just sometimes never seemed important. but i always wanted to be that person no matter if i had the gospel or not. i bear my testimony that through this gospel every single dot in our life can connect! every single admirable trait we aspire to can be gained through this gospel! i always had the resources to be this person. every person in the world can be who they want to be through this gospel! my biggest regret is not connecting those dots sooner! i love this gospel! i testify that i have seen miracles, watching peoples lives change 180 degrees through the gospel of jesus christ! through the church of jesus christ of latter day saints! i know this church is true! i know jesus christ knows us personally! i know joseph smith was called of god to restore the gospel that our savior and redeemer had on the earth! i know that through the power of god the book of mormon was unearthed, translated, and today is changing lives! i know this church is the church of christ! the same church he established then is on the earth now! i know this with my whole heart and i do not doubt anything! through our faith all things are possible!

wow - sorry. that turned into a rant. anyway...that's about all for the week! mom and dad and cassi and ty - i love you all so so so much! eternity is going to be the greatest reward when i can spend it with you! i love you all so much! "there is only one person in the world that can make you happy...that person is you!" i love you all so much! have a great week!

Q&A - April 14, 2010

Our questions for the week:

1. What is a typical P-Day like for you? Do you get time to explore or do any sightseeing?
we usually get to have enough time to email and groceries and by then we have about 4hours left so we either bake or clean and write real letters

2. How is your Portuguese coming? Do you feel completely lost most of the time or just some of the time or do you feel pretty comfortable with both speaking and hearing?
i feel about the same with both hearing and speaking. pretty well. nowhere near fluent yet but it's coming fast. the language is a little different in minas gerais then the rest of brazil so it's all kinda new

3. Are you still in your original apartment? If so, what made your landlord change his mind and let you stay?
well, as of right now, we are still in the same apartment and we will be for a little longer. we are not really in control of it at this point though. the financial secretary is heading that up.

4. I noticed in the picture of your kitchen that you have a little stove and sink but I did not see a fridge. Do you have one? What is the little white appliance next to the stove? Do you feel like it's hard to keep your kitchen and dishes clean and sanitary with so little space?
we just wash everything when we are done with it and before we use it again. so it gets washed twice. the white thing is actually another broken stove.

5. Is your tap water safe to drink or do you have to drink bottled water?
well technically we are supposed to drink the water from our filtered water bottles that were given to us but every house we go to offers us water and it's just tap water so we drink it and so far, so good!

6. What is the coolest bird or animal you've seen since you've been in Brazil?
well, we see cockroaches about daily in our apartment, but so far the coolest thing i've seen was a flock of toucans. about 5 or 6 of them. i was too slow to get a picture though.

7. Any thoughts on whether or not you think you'll be getting a transfer in a couple weeks or do you think that you and Elder Palmer will stay together in Justinopolis for another round?
well this transfer is a 5 week transfer which happens every so often to make the dates work out for departing your mission. normally they are six weeks. i think we will stay but we will find out because transfers are next p day.

8. Are you and Elder Palmer the only missionaries in Justinopolis? Where are the next closest missionaries and how often do you see them?
we see our district of 6 missionaries (including us) weekly for district meeting. we are all about 30 minutes from each other.

9. Do you have any questions for us?
is it really still snowing there?
what kind of ducati did danny have?
can you substitute brown sugar for white?

His Week in Pictures...

"Thamara...baptized last night! =) am i getting tan?"

"amazing sunset...best yet"

"translates into...jesus's little bar...hahahaah"

"Easter feast....scones and jello"

"Easter eggs 2010. hahahaha-good old american sharpies"

"elder palmer in the raw sewage that runs about 120 different places here"

Another Week Doing that Missionary Thang‏ - Justinopolis, Brazil

wow! another crazy week! i don't know if there will ever be a week where i will not be able to say that! and they keep just getting faster and faster!

so this week a few crazy stories:

the most disgusting thing i ate this week was sardine pasta! yummy! =( but luckily they added some anchovies just to make it that much better! =(

i got to put my hair clippers to someone elses head besides my own! elder palmer and i are now twins. someday i'll get a picture with him so you can see!

we made some sweet sweet easter eggs! i have a picture of those to send and hopefully i'll get time to do that! i have quite a few to send on the way to you!

oh and to top the justinopolis weird things off - i saw a dead person this week! yes, she was really dead. luckily we saw her dead and not dying but it was still creepy! i guess in brazil things are a little different with funerals! when someone dies they take the body to the house and leave them there for about 3 days and have a viewing all three days and they have pastors come and yell chants at the body then they sing songs. well, little did we know that we were going to visit one of our recent converts and her daughter died the day before and well ya... there was a dead body in the house just chillin. but it was so so so nice to know the plan of salvation is real and that we don't have to scream and sing at our dead bodies so they can be saved. so that about wraps up the news of the weird here this week. now onto the missionary part! =)

so conference.....conference was well...interesting and frustrating. the saturday morning, or 1 o clock here, session was cool for the 30 minutes i got to see. we had about 5 investigators that went with us and the cool part was they wanted to walk there. not only is their house 45 minutes up a mountain from ours but the church is another 45 minutes away in logoa (on rua mexico dad if you would like to google that) ...anyway so we walked with them. it was awesome! they were making a sacrifice and we knew they would hear a real living prophet and receive so many blessings for their efforts. sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. anyway, so we get there and we were right on time. we sit down and hear glorious american hymns being sung and life was awesome. oh, and by the way, we had to watch in portuguese because the mission president didn't want anyone leaving their investigators alone to watch in portuguese. so we are sitting and about 20 minutes into conference the wifi on the laptop, which is balanced on the podium so the microphone can pick up the speakers, just quits! just dies! the wifi was out and that was the end of our session. so we walked back to the house on the mountain and felt so incredibly dumb that conference was so short but they still enjoyed it and are still going to be baptized! they are an awesome family. so sunday, we are told to go to another chapel with an actual satellite to watch. so we sacrifice the first session, which apparently had an awesome talk from elder holland! can't wait for the ensign! anyway, so we sacrifice our first session to go run around to every single investigator and recent converts house and personally invite them again and confirm they are going to conference with us. this is the equivalent of about 20 miles of walking in the mountains. sometimes running. now, for it to get tough... about 12 o clock... 5 hours til conference, it just starts pouring rain!!! so out of the 40 or so people we had lined up to go, we had about 12. no one wanted to leave because it was raining. i couldn't help but think that the last days would be similar. we would have christ on the earth and people would say "but its raining...maybe next time." one lady told us when we asked her if moses was speaking would she go listen, she said that only if he came to her would she listen! how dumb! anyway, now to make this story happy story cause it was. i listened to a prophet of god speak to the world! read that last sentence slow and think about it. we listened to a prophet of god, the closest person to heaven on this earth, tell us what god wants us to hear!!! i know without a single doubt in my heart those men and women who spoke to us were inspired of god! when listening to them, the spirit can talk to us with even more strength! i couldn't understand half of the stuff being said because of the language, but i know that thomas s monson is a prophet of god! he is the mouthpiece of god on this earth! i love conference! i will never sleep through another session again nor will i ever miss one! that should be a moment every 6 months we absolutely cherish! i can't wait to read the current words of god in the next ensign!

anyway, dad, i need to say thank you for sending me the jesus the christ/articles of faith book! i love it! i read a part every day! so far just the a of f part but i love it! thank you for sending it with me!

anyway, my time is short and i have some sweet pictures to send! so i will wrap up! i hope you know that i love you all so very much! this gospel is real and rolling along to every kindred tongue and people! i made another quote for you all this week. especially you cass....i hope you like these! this weeks quote....always do what you are afraid to do!.....we have to in order to reach our potential! we have to stretch! i love you all! good luck in all you are doing! you're amazing all of you! this week my mission will be 1/8 over! wow!!!! love you all! stay strong!

p.s. this is a ghetto keyboard so sorry for the more errors than normal! love you!!

Q&A - April 7, 2010

I've decided to try something new. Each week in our emails we ask questions that sometimes get answered and sometimes not. So, I'm going to start sending him a short list of questions separate from my email each week that he can just quickly go through and answer. Here were the questions and his answers for this week:

1. Can you describe a little bit about doing your laundry by hand? Do you have an iron? How long does it take you?
laundry is about a 3 day process. we have a little spinner with water and soap to wash, if you can call it that, but then it's all hand work, scrubbing and all. you do the whites one day and the darks the next. you usually have to split the whites in two cause it's a big load as a missionary. then when you switch loads you put the other load on the line to dry and yes we have an iron and it's the best time of the day to iron clothes. so relaxin!!

2. You spoke of eating lunch with members. Do you cook for yourselves for breakfast or dinner? Do you buy many groceries?
we usually eat breakfast and then snack at about 9:30 which we buy ourselves with our 100 reals of money.

3. Are you receiving your money from the mission office and does it cover your needs? How much do you receive and how much do you spend on a typical day?
we get 100 reals every 15 days and we spend it on food and bus passes. on a typical day we spend about 5 reals. and p day like 20 reals.

4. What in the world is there to eat of a chicken's foot?!?
you just go for it and try to think it's real yummy even tho you know it's not. you pretty much eat the skin. yum! =(

5. What is the name of the member who goes out with you each day and helps you so much? Please tell him "Thank You!" from Elder Excell's mom!
ademir...i will tell him

6. What is the temperature and the weather like in Justinopolis right now?
about 80 degrees farenheit and lately a lot of rain but that season is about over.

7. What months of the year do the kids in Brazil go to school?
they go the same seasons as us which is really different times of the year. they start in march and go til december

8. Where did you go to watch conference? If you don't talk about it in your family email, which was your favorite talk? Did you see Dad and Ty during the Priesthood session?
we watched in a chapel but i will explain more in the family email

9. Do you know when you will have Zone Conference?
we already had it and it was last tuesday. it was awesome! we even got to ride the train there! =)