Elder Jacob Rapp

Sorry

2009-06-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

Looks like I have been slacking on the Elder Rapp website. I have been crazy busy with two design teams. Please forgive me. I will try to add a letter here and there. I don't have time to put them all up at once. I have deadlines from now til the end of July. The reason I am here is to let you all know that Elder Rapp is coming home soon!!! This Mom is so excited to see her missionary and be his shadow for a while. :) We received word last night that he will return on July 24th (we already knew the date, shhhhhhh....), at 5:34 pm. We are so excited to have him home and be able to spend some time with him again. Have a great day!!! I will return in a couple days to add a letter.

2009-03-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

Hello family"!!!!! Hows things going? I'm doing good here. My week went well. Not a whole lot of new things but I'll tell you how my life is going. So our baptism from last week received the priesthood yesterday. That is always a great thing. His brother Vicente will be baptized Friday or Saturday. There is a wedding at the church Saturday so I think he will be baptized Friday. So we are teaching lots of great people but lots don´t go to church. that makes life stressful. We are doing our part but they have to do theirs. Well church was good...great yesterday. Pres Johnson attended our sacrament meeting. He and Sister Johnson both spoke. Poor sister has been here almost 3 years and still has lots of trouble speaking. They both talked specifically to the investigators. There were 8 investigators at church yesterday so that was great. One of the lady's we are teaching received an answer to her prayers... hahaha ... this one is good. She was having a bad day nothing was going right, her husband got home from work and tried to calm her down and make her feel better but it didn´t work. The cat as well tried to make her feel better by rubbing up against her leg but didn´t work. Later on in the evening the cat got up on the back of the toilet and peed in the toilet like a human being......ya she said that she laughed really hard and it made her feel better and that it was a message from God. I don´t think I will ever know haw to even connect that experience with an answer to my prayers but hey she felt like it was. Talking in animals my nightmares of dogs are back. Wednesday we knocked on a door and there was a dog out front. So I like doggies and pet him .... he ripped my hand off... Just kidding but he attacked me like a rabid squirrel in the middle of nut season. Luckily he never got a good bite on my leg but is was quite a wrestle to get him off me. I even punched him in the head and gave him a good kick. Well lets talk about shoes. I bought the mission shoes but they ripped my feet apart as well so I sent them back. I am looking for a good pair to last me but haven´t had lick nor time to find any. Not to mention the price of shoes here. I'm poor. (missionary) It would be something like 50 us dollars for a good pair of shoes here. It is easier for you to put money in my account than to send shoes. And who knows if the shoes you would send would work for me. My feet have become ridiculous here. They don´t accept just any shoe. Cobble stone streets and walking a ton kills my feet. So I have to have good supporting shoes. The Adidas was a joke... we have to use black shoes so I thought about spray painting my wonderful Adidas black. Tennis shoes in the mission field that's my dream that won´t happen. So if you could just throw some money in the bank and I will look for some shoes that are durable and that I can handle the walking. The package you are sending, did you send ties? And the hot wheels nascar car my comp is like you and stamps with his hot wheels so wanted to give him a cool one. Maybe in our old toys under the house there is a nascar one. I don´t remember. Well I am out of things to tell you all but most important I LOVE YOU!!!! Have a great week tell everyone hi for me and give everyone a great big hug. Tell my cute lil niece and nephew that they need to color some pics for me. Muah love you all talk to ya next week!!!ELDER RAPP

2009-03-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Mon 3/02/09

2009-03-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well one more great week down!!! We baptised a great guy on Saturday. He has a sister that is a member and she told us to go and teach him. He felt the spirit quickly and within 2 weeks was in the water. That is what like to see. This area rocks. Now know why everyone says it's the area that baptizes the most. The baptisms run to you. But hey you can´t relax. I have learned that already! So this week went well. Today we got a phone call to go resolve girlish problems of a companionship in our zone. These 2 are fighting for the dumbest reasons. Jr comp doesn´t want to follow sr comp. So we left our house this morning in a wicked rain storm. My only pair of shoes are full of water and I am wet up to my knees. Tomorrow we are going to go on a division with the assistants I'm going to Porto Alegre and Zanella will stay here. So this week we had alot of miracles happen. 12 people at church that are baptisms most likely. I love the food here there never is bad stuff to eat. I think I might get some weight on here. Hope not but it looks like I might. So did I tell y'all I adopted a cat? Everyday he comes to our bedroom window meaaaaw meaaaaw wanting food. So me being the nice guy that I am give him some bread or something. He is pretty cool. Sometimes he comes in the window while its open looking for us. He is pretty punk like he has bitten me a few times when a pet him. I think all cats do that. So I am out of stuff for today. There isn´t any thing else I can think of that happened this week. Oh it's raining cats and dogs out side and is going to rain hard like this for 3 days. Looks like the amazons the roads turn into rivers blah. 1 pair of shoes just doesn´t do it. But I cant find comfortable shoes. I tried the mission shoes they rip my feet to shreds like always. I need some adidas completely black. ahhh what a comforting though just basketball shoes here in a while. Well I will let you go. I love you all and am so very grateful for your love and support. Your prayers are truly felt. Give everyone a great big hug!!! MUAH have a great week. ELDER RAPP Congrats on you stamping abilities that is cool!!!!Daddy get better soon!!!

2/23/09

2009-03-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

So you all know ... I hate typing it takes me 10 hours just to type three lines but i´ll try. Things are going great. We baptized on Wednesday. She called at 8:30 am while we were studying and said she wanted to be baptized before noon. So the Lord knew what was going on and made sure all went well. Filled the font, called the members and had her in and out of the water by 11:00. That's always good news. Life as zl is good but very tiring. More things to do on top of normal proselyting. We are in charge a a zone full of branches and difficulties. The majority of the area give us lots of excuses why things are not working out. Sunday nights we go to bed really early...in the morning. Everyone passes results to us on Sunday. Thursdays and Fridays are late nights as well because we have to do follow ups with the dl´s. This last week was my first zone conf as zone leader so that was some what stressful we had to give 6 trainings in the same day. Lunch was some habibs pizza like things from the Iraq Iran Muslim side of culture. They were good but have a strange zing to them. Yesterday I did a cool surgery on my hand. I had never had a wart in my life until I came down here. Some one told me to just dig it out. hahah just dig it out. Ive tried 3 times and it's never worked. Lets see if this time it worked out. So if you haven´t sent that package yet throw some duct tape in there for me eh. I had something else I was thinking about this week but dunno what it was. Post cards of cool things in Idaho would be cool potatoes, mountains, animals, you know the cool stuff. So we have a sweet baptism this Saturday. This guy reminds me of Jamaican people. He talks really slow and is always chillin and having a good life. But he accepts everything. Doesn´t have problems with anything. I don´t know who will baptize him yet but I'll send some pics next week. This week we have leadership meeting and a division to do. I'm wasting so much money on travel. Good thing all this money comes back to me or I would be toast. What else... my comp rocks we have a good time making fun of stupid people in English. Yesterday we ran in to a old man CRAZY that spoke 5 languages ...well said a few syllables in each language. ´hey you what you fink Obama` ya this guy was crazy. I just kept walking while he talked his languages that weren´t languages. That's life here. I burned a member yesterday because she expects the church to replace her roof while she doesn´t go to church and doesn´t keep the commandments.. she doesn´t like me now that I revealed the truth to her. Well I'm out of goods for today enjoy your stories MUAH!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!ELDER RAPP When am I speaking in church there? I have a few x-comps and x-misssionaries wanting to know. I LOVE YOU THE MOST!!!!!

Tue 2/17/09

2009-03-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, I´m exhausted this week. Lots of work 'lil sleep. I'm ready to take a nap and I've only been up for 4 hours or so. Well we travel alot as zl´s. It's fun but wastes all my money. Don´t have money for nothing. But I'll live. In one week I spent 60 or so bones on travel. Well zone conf was yesterday as you all know I didn´t write. Today is p-day! FINALLY!!! So I had a sister in the ward email you yesterday. I don´t know if she did it or not. But it was to tell you that p-day is today. So I'm loving life as a zl. My comp rocks and my zone is going to give me quite alot of chores. It's a zone full of branches so the missionaries are having lots of difficulties. We are great in this area. Baptisms in the next weeks. If all goes well this week we will throw 1 in the water and then the 28th there will be another and various baptisms in March. Blah march is already here. Time is flying by too fast. So not much else going on other than that. I'm hoping to go to the temple now that I'm back up here but we´ll see how things go. Well have a great week!!! Hey send me a hotwheels car of nascar if you can find one. PPLEASe. And more sunflower seeds because they don´t last very long. I needed some other stuff but don´t remember exactly what it was. I LOVE YOU ALL!!! MUAH!!ELDER RAPP

Mon 2/09/09

2009-03-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

So another week down and even more work ahead of me. This week ... well today was transfers and I was transferred... that's not all. Pres Johnson called me last night while I was packing my bags and called me to be a zone leader. Blew me off for a second but I'm excited to still be a leader. Just now I have more work and less time. Lots more traveling now. I'm back up´in the Porto Alegre neighborhood. My area is Guaiba Jardim. Guaiba is a little town just out of Porto Alegre. The smallest area I have seen in my life. I've only been here for 2 hours or so but looking at the map it's small. So in my zone is one of the elders I trained e. Bradley and another elder that worked with me in my 3rd area e. Madeiro. I'm excited to see whet will happen. Not too excited to continue on giving trainings but I'll live. So my new comp is great up till this point. E. Zanella and he is from Santa Catarina. The state that is right above this one. Everyone tells me he isn´t very cool but I'll have to see. I think we´ll get along just fine. I think everyone else is just trying to put ideas in my head. I am back as like junior comp. I'm senior but as zone leader he is the senior. So I shoudn´t have quite as much stress. Lets see how things go. For today I only have this info. I'm sad I had to leave that area but I left it better than when I found it. And they will baptize 4 in the next 3 weeks so I'm happy. Well I'm out of stuff for today. Next week I'll send some pics. I am in a rush today to unpack and get things a rollin here. I love you all have a great week XOXOXO MUAH!!!ELDER RAPP

Mon 2/02/09

2009-03-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, This week was the best week in my whole mission. The baptism I waited and prayed for happened. Pablo was baptized after investigating the church for nine months. He is an amazing young man and I have seen a 360 in his life. He is a totally different person. Miracles do happen!!! And this week was one of the worst as well. It rained for like 4 days straight. Flooding in near by cities lots of missionaries in area totally under water. Travel stopped because of collapsed bridges. Rio Grande got hit pretty hard but the flooding here was in the center of the city. My area had tons of water but nothing serious happened. Sounds like the signs of the second coming are making themselves well known to the world. Well, just strengthens our testimonies of the only true church. So how"s things going there for you all? Hows work hows the family get togethers? Things that better continue when I get back! Well I don´t have a whole lot to tell you guys today just the good news I already told ya. Tuesday the 10th is transfers once again. I'll let ya know how it goes. Love you guys have a great week!!! MUAH XOXOX!!!!ELDER RAPP

Mon 1/26/09

2009-03-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well I hate to travel but I'm in on a trip back there with y'all. count me in aight!! So this week miracles are happening again. Pablo is a young man that I've been teaching since got here (4months ago) but missionaries since June of last year. Obeying everything but word of wisdom he smokes. He smoked is the great news. He will be baptized on Saturday. Pray that he doesn´t grab the cigs again. He is an amazing young man. So I have been in hell here. I use sunscreen but I still get burned on the nose. The sun is a lot stronger than last year. So about my comp. I'm training a Brazilian from the capital of Brazil Brasilia., E. Douglas. He is great, we are getting along great and working hard to baptize. But I'm tired of stress in this ward. If it wasn´t for him I would have died by now. Blah its difficult but I'm learning tons. So I'm am really out of time because I had to go to the center and send that package. Sorry but at the same time it out of love and is for you so I'm sure you'll understand. Muah!!! LOVE YOU TONZ!!!ELDER RAPP

Mon 1/19/09

2009-03-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, Life is still chugging along! I can´t believe that January is almost over. I am working my butt off but Heavenly Father is tryng to teach me some stuff. Our baptism once again fell through. For reasons that are not serious so that is good. So I been walking on the down side lately looking up to the better side. Learning tons throughout my difficulties. The hardest times had to come in the best area right? hahah I will rock em though. So It's flippin hot and now yesterday and today are all rainy and humid and muggy. Blah I prefer sun I think. We are working right now with alot of people that need to marry before getting baptized. So baptisms here in the near future will be miracles of people we are finding now. Nothing better than serving a mission. Well don´t have any good stories today sorry. Next week 'll have some. I love you all so very much MUAH!!! have a great week!ELDER RAPP

2009-01-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

Wow what a stressful week... Ill leave the details out but I'm ready for a transfer out of here. I am working my butt off and the ward just doesn´t seem to care. President Johnson burned them and said if they keep it up they will end up with a ward without missionaries. Stress, but I'm grateful for the things I am learning. So this week I just keep finding more and more drive to work harder, other than the difficulties. It just makes me want to prove them even more that this area is a gold mine. We had a double sided week. 4 of our firm baptisms fell through because of serious problems but with enough patience(which I don´t have) and prayers God gave us a miracle. We are going to baptise a young lady that we have been teaching for quite some time. She declines our baptismal dates and had a lot of doubts but 1 member family has been taking her in and helping her out. She came up to us after church and said "Elders what do you think about having my baptism this week..." Ba threw me off, I didn´t understand what she said. We went to Bishop and he declined it, so I left not even talking to him and went to the ward mission leader. We went back and burned him that there is no NO activity more important than a baptism and finally he let us go. I am ready to leave here. This ward doesn´t want to baptise I've decided. We are doing our part but they aren´t doing theirs. We both spoke in church yesterday and burned them because of the lack of help the lack of drive and told them what Pres. Johnson said. So I loved my package. Your the best family in the world. Um I will need another box of those strips ppplease. They are not crap and fragile like the top brand. They are lots nicer to use and don't run around in your mouth. I haven´t had time to take pics of your nativities yet sorry! My ctr ring didn´t fit on the finger I wanted it to. It only fits my lil finger. I'll hold on to it though. Well I'm gunny be needing lots more stress relieving sunflower seeds. I always knew they had a good purpose. Well I hope you all have a great week!!! Give everyone great big hugs and kisses!!! MUAH XOXOX!!! ELDER RAPP

2009-01-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hey guys Hows things going in Idaho? We are doing great here. Like told you, I'm training again. Elder Douglas from Brasilia. He is awesome. We had a baptism on Saturday. Things are great. The heat is killing me but that's life. So we are finding tons of new great people. They told me that this area was a hard area that doesn´t baptize but I am finding that is quite easy and it actually baptizes. The ward did a little better on Saturday at the baptism. There was a good amount of people there. So things are good here. The work is good and I am enjoying my time. Time is flying though. I find the harder work the better things get and the faster time flies. Do you think there could be a few more hours in a day though? I don´t have time to do everything I would like to do. I am looking back on the time that has past and how much have accomplished and how much am accomplishing, and am seeing the need for more goals higher and better to force myself more. I need to write in my journal more and need to take my little moments and enjoy them. Lots of times think we let the important things go by. Like Pres Monson talked about ...we shouldn't take the little moments or the big ones for granted. Some one told me the other day something that opened my eyes literally. Elder Rapp, observe every little detail and you will see the little things, you will see the difference and know how to control things. I have been trying to do that this last week. Seems to put a whole new meaning on things lots of times. Well I am running out of time but just wanted you all to know I love you and I am doing wonderful. Muah XOXOXO ELDER RAPP Enjoy the pics. Hey I got my package, muah thanks so much!!! I'll find out how much it will cost to send the nativity scenes and I'll let you know asap.

2008-12-29T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all, I don´t have much time today because Elder Bradley was transferred. I have to go to Porto Alegre to get my new comp which means I am most likely training again. So Life is a rush today. Sorry I won´t write too much, but hey I talked to y'all last week. So I'll be traveling alot in the next day. Blah that's always a bummer. So I bought Andreas nativity today and a back pack as well. Send me some info on how much I have in my account before I try sending the box k. Well I love you all so very much you are always in my prayers. Keep hunting hard and sending pics. Muah happy new year. We have a baptism this week as well. whoohoo.ELDER RAPP

2008-12-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well not much to tell y'all today as I will talk to you guys on Thursday. But it was one of my hardest weeks as a missionary as no one from the ward showed up to a baptism... the tears in her eyes, I will never forget. The sadness I felt to see a daughter of God not enter the baptismal font and make sacred covenants hurt. I'm doing better now but I lost all will to work. After the ward leaders went over and said sorry, I felt alot better but it still hurt more than anything I've ever felt. We are back up and working hard though. The Lord gives me strength every day and I am so grateful For him and his Love. So not this week but the next we should have a baptism of another young man. Working our butts off in this heat. Yesterday was unbearable and today the air is sooo humid, I wanna die. I thought missionaries couldn't swim, well just walking, I feel the water so I'm pretty much swimming. hahaha Man I make myself laugh. So I think that my son will be transferred on the 30th. Taking my boy away from me so that he can speak more Portuguese. So not much other than that. Wait !!! I bought 2 nativity scenes today that will make you melt. . Well we are going to call on the 24th again to give you times and such and numbers to call. So until then love you and sleep well. If you can even sleep. I'm excited to talk to you all. Tell Prudents to tell Zach that his best redneck buddy love him misses him and tells him to work his butt off!!! Exactly like that too! Love you all so very much!!! MUAH XOXOX!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-12-28T12:16:00.001-08:00

Dear Family, I am writing to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I love this time of year as we reflect on the birth and life of our Savior Jesus Christ. We can each as members of the church show an example to the world of the importance of this special time of year. As a missionary last Christmas and in this Christmas season, I have been blessed to share the gospel with those who don´t know the importance of Jesus Christ. I would like to challenge each one of us to spread this wonderful Christmas spirit to all those that we come in contact with each day. Have a Wonderful Christmas and a Great holiday season. Be safe and be sure to spread the gospel message to all. I know that Jesus Christ blessed us with this wonderful gospel and that he Lived, died, and Lives and loves each one of us. ELDER RAPP

2008-12-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! How's life on the cold side of the world? Its sure hot here. So our baptism fell through because her mom went into surgery. But good news is she'll be baptised this week. Well sounds like things are good at home. I'm getting excited to talk to you all next week. I will find out more about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is our Christmas conference in Pelotas. We will talk about the phone call next week in our emails. The 24th will call and confirm everything. Well don´t really have much to say this week. Nothing great happened. Just a normal week of working hard. Today we were in the center of the city and this lady came up ...all right guys where are you from? I didn´t understand her at first cause she spoke such good English. She is from California and she is here with a bunch of people touring Brazil think. So that is all that is going on here. Um I am going to send and email or two with pics and an email for the ward and for the family. Its lots faster for you to print them off and send them to a few people for Christmas. Will you please do that for me.Love you all !!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-12-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all!! Hows everyone doing? I'm doing great, our three baptisms went through wonderfully. Always stressful but they went well. This Saturday we are going to baptise another young lady. The work is great but its flipping HOT!! It's that time of year again. Man I prefer the cold any day. So all is well here, we are finding tons of great people. We are having an easier time cause its Christmas time. This time of year people are a lot more open to hear us for some reason. Don´t know why but its great for us. We are looking at a sweet Christmas day though. Some of the rich folk invited us over to their house for Christmas. They are gonna kill a cow and roast it up the old fashioned way, I think. It will be fun and not to mention I'm gonna talk with you guys!! Only the best thing in the world né? Well hows the party at home? Everyone always there eating diner without me? This better stay a tradition when I get back or y'all are in trouble. This week we have a zone meeting and next week we have Zone conference in Pelotas. It will be sweet. We are probably gonna watch a movie like last year. That's all the good stuff going on here. We are doing great at working hard. Loving life and staying close to the Lord. I hope you all have an excellent week. Muah!!! Love you all!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-12-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hello y'all! All is well on this side of the world and you guys, hows things going? We are going to baptise 3 this Saturday!!!!! Never worked sooo hard in my life. So all is going well. We are having quite the temps here as well. So no real interesting stories this week. We had a leadership meeting in Pelotas that helped me out alot in my callings. I am doing great though, nothing is too difficult, just at times stressful. You wanna hear something funny? I didn´t even know that last week was Thanks giving. I'm completely out of the world, don´t remember anything and don´t know English very well. Things are looking great for next year. Won´t know a lick of English just Portuguese. Maybe you should start learning so that we can talk. Well I don´t have a whole lot of time or things to say just that I love you guys and am always thinking about you all and praying you. Muah!!! Have a great week. ELDER RAPP

2008-12-28T11:49:00.000-08:00

Can I just tell you guys that all the family pics made me trunky... Don´t worry we are working our butts off. Elder Bradley, my son that I´m training, poor guy is so tired cause we work so much. He goes to bed early and falls asleep every now and again in a lesson. Well a miracle happened this week. Karol a young lady we have been teaching that had some doubt about the law of chastity came up to me yesterday and asked me when the next Baptism would be so she could be baptised. We are looking at 4 baptisms on the 6th of December. Help Elder Bradley get some baptisms under his belt. He pretty much rocks. He speaks alot better Portuguese than I did when I was trained. He is a redneck from southern Utah that works on a pig farm so we get along just great. Its good to hear a good ol' redneck accent. Well all is going great. I'm looking forward to our Christmas zone conference. And after that a phone call from home. Start making plans to have everyone there. So it sounds like you all had a great week playing without me. All the pics made me happy. There was little green spots on all of them though, I don´t know why. So I have been thinking alot lately why the Lord would call me of all people as district leader and trainer... I always think of ether 12;27 and realized that that is what I needed to help me better myself to be a better missionary and to do everything expected of me. I find it interesting looking back on these last few months and seeing how much more progress I have made. It makes me feel good that this progress I´m making will help elder Bradley as well, grow fast in the language and in his ability to be an amazing missionary. My English sucks, my comp asks questions and I can´t respond . Lets just say Mykl speaks better that me. So this last week I bought some peanut butter off an Elder and a whole big package of oreos. HEAVEN!!!Well have a great week!! I love you all so very much!!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-12-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

So things are crazy today. Transfers are tomorrow and Elder Fernandes is going away. I have to travel with him to Porto Alegre to get my new comp, which is most likely that I am training. The zone leaders said I am so that will be fun. If he is American, hopefully he speaks some Portuguese. When I got in the field, I didn´t speak a lick. So today is run run run and I don´t have time for anything. We have to travel and hour to the center of the city to stay the night so that tomorrow at 5 am we can catch the bus to poa. So things are good. We had another baptism on Saturday, and a record number week. Man we are kicking it good. 11 investigators in church with 6 looking really close to baptism. I'm in heaven loving my work and working my butt off. Have a great week . Enjoy your vacation. Have some fun in the snow for me and I expect some rockin family pics. Muah !!! Love you all so very much!!! Tell all of the Walsh's that I love them and miss them, but next year I'll be there.ELDER RAPPXOXOXOXOX!!!!!!!

2008-11-11T00:07:00.000-08:00

2008-11-11T00:04:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, sorry that my email was so small last week. Stupid technology of today. So things are going well. We are working our butts off. and its flippin hot. I have the farmers tans again. Dying to get a good tan while you guys enjoy the snow for me. We had a baptism 2 weeks ago don´t know if I told you or not, and then these next three weeks we are looking to baptise every week. Are you guys all stoked for the condo? my last year I won´t get to go. Next year I'm gonna have a blast. So the zone conference we had went well. I love meetings because we learn so much. It always gives me a new look on things. Everyone outside of our areas has a better look on our work. So I totally got burned at conf. I need to be writing more in my journal the cool experiences I have. Its' hard because I've never had the habit of writing everyday. So I'm doing better on that side of things now. Hopefully I can get in the habit now. Today we are going to the beach again but this time we are going with some of the other elders and sisters to play a little soccer in the sand. It really hot so I don´t know if that will last very long. Well I'm running out of stuff to tell you guys. This week went very well our numbers went through the roof not having to stay at home with illness. We are kicking butt and we are gonna baptise, that's the good part. Well have a great week and I will talk to you all next week. Muah love you all so very much!!! oh I haven´t looked for nativities yet so don´t worry yet. But I'll let ya know when I go looking. ELDER RAPP

2008-11-11T00:01:00.001-08:00

I just sent you the longest email ever and the stupid computer didn´t send it and I lost everything!!! I am out of time and in a hurry to get to an appointment. I 'm sorry it didn´t go thru. So I congratulated my dad and brother on their success. Told you all that my week was very stressful as I have 1 companionship struggling tons and I stayed at home 4 days studying and cleaning because my comp caught a wicked nasty virus. We finally got out of the house Saturday and yesterday as well. We had a baptism yesterday of Rosangela, she is a really cool lady. She has an amazing testimony of the gospel. one of the strongest I;ve baptised until now. I love you all so very much and will never use this computer again to have this happen again. Have a great week and I will write you all a great big letter next week. Thanks for everything you all mean the world to me. Muah love you favorite missionaryXOXOXELDER RAPP

2008-11-10T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hey guys hows the worlds best family doing this week? Sounds like hunting isn´t going so well. Y'all need a great white hunter to put em down. There is a secret. U must b vewy vewy quiet. n den BOOM put r 2 da ground. I'm sending y'all some pics of a real hunter. A dove that I killed with a sling shot I made. I'm amazing. So this week was a great week. Tons of work. Things are improving. My baptism that was supposed to happen fell through because of girl problems, that time of the month. This is the 1st time that has happened in my mission but the 3rd or 4th in the last month in my zone. But no worries she will be baptised on Saturday. Hey guess what, good news I got a package this week from dear elder with peanut butter and oreos and tons of other great things. So I like the idea of just throwing money in the account for Christmas. It will be more effective and cheaper for all of us. So I found a nativity today but it's really ugly so didn´t buy it. I'll keep looking and let you know if I find one worth your $$$$ . Next week I will be going to Pelotas maybe I'll be able to make a stop and find a good one. So I am doing good. Lots of stress with the calling but it's normal. Just problems with helping out elders to be better elders and work harder. I'm doing a division with them tomorrow to see what the deal is and if it is in my reach to help them both out. Well I'm running out of time but just want to let you all know that I love you guys and am always thinking bout ya and praying for ya. Have a great week. Good luck in the hunting department I'm praying for ya to fill the tags. MUAH!!! XOXOXOXOXO love y'all!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-11-10T23:52:00.000-08:00

2008-10-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

2008-10-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, Its always great to get a letter from everyone at once. Sorry I don´t have time to write everyone of you all the time. The time just passes by too fast and I type slow anyways. I hope you all understand. I love you all and am always thinking about you and praying for you. So we had a baptism Saturday. Everything went well. And this week we have another one. Starting out the transfer well. My district is has baptised 7 in 2 weeks. We have another 4 this week as a district. Wednesday we have interviews with Pres. Johnson. That is always a good thing. He always knows the answers to all of my questions. He is a very very smart man. Well all is going well here. Normal stress of life as a missionary. As a dl it is even worse. I tried calling some of my Elders last night to see how the week went for them and I ended up getting ahold of the slackers after 2 hours. They got home way after curfew and I had to show a little hard love. Stress. Don´t know why I was called to be D L but hey I'm learning a ton. So we wasted our whole day today trying to find some museums in town and they ended up being closed. grrrr we also tried to go to the ort once more, people can´t go in without working there. So internet is my only highlight of today. So I'm anxious to see some pics of a few 30 pointers hanging in the garage next week. Pass that on to my daddy and Bro. So its not as hot here on the bottom of the world. Bagé was wicked hot but here always has a breeze from the ocean. It's great. I don´t know how the summer will be however. So we turned the clock forward an Saturday what is the time difference now? So I am thinking that I'll only see my package here in the first week of November at zone conference. But I had something I wanted you guys to send me. ... don´t remember ... still nothing. One of those cheep o body armour from Walmart, remember the one I always was using. I think I still have that one if you all could take a look in my drawers or in a clothes box. Speaking of my stuff, is my room still how I left it or did you guys pack it all up and put it in a corner? Well my time is running down so I will rapp it up. hahaha rapp get it. I love you all so very much and can´t wait for all of my letters next week. MUAH!!!! Have an amazing week. ELDER RAPP

2008-10-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, Hows the worlds best family doing this week? Well life is full of nothing but great news... ready... ready... alright I´ll just tell ya. I was sent from Bagé to Pelotas Monday night from Pelotas to POA Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon another six hours back down to Rio Grande. My area sits on the beach. Ya baby, thats the life. I was Called to be district leader here. I have tons of responsibility now and less time to work. I threw down 4 baptismal interviews last Friday having never done one in my life. It went well. We are looking at 5 baptisms here soon. Hopefully we work out a few problems with an investigator and throw her in the water this week. The 25th we are looking at 4 more. The ward here is tons stronger than the last one. My first day here lunch was interesting. We got there a bit late and the guy is very retarded and didn´t give us lunch. But the spirit touched one of the Sisters in the ward and she had already prepared lunch. Heavenly father knows everything that will happen and watched out for 2 Elders that were hungry. Tomorrow I have to give my first district meeting training. OOOO don´t know how that one will go. No really it will go very well, I'm not worried at all. My companion from the ctm is a zone leader here . ELDER ZUNDEL will give me a hand if I need it. SO life is going great my new comp rocks. He has 6 months or so out and is a hard worker. We are doing well . A few very strange complications with some investigators but all will turn out well. So I loved the pics. I miss my family tons every time that I look at pics from home. Tell dad that when he puts the 30 pointer to the ground I would love to see some pics. . So hows my fam. Anything new and exciting. This will be the last year you all will go to the condo without me. Just don´t go cancel everything and never go any more. If all the kids have to chip in, we will so that we can always have our family trip. So the weather is alot colder down here. It gets chilly at night sometimes. I'm trying to send you all some pics from the beach but it's going way slow. I will send more next week at another internet place. Here is wicked slow and I'm not liking it. Hows Jordan doing tell him to write me. Tell everyone hello for me. Have a great week, know that everyone of you are in my thoughts and prayers. I'm going to start looking for nativity scenes soon so I will be needing the green stuff for that. I had to use money last week to travel because I had nothing but that money was reimbursable and I will get most of it back. Thanks for everything you all doing for me. Until next week MUAH!!!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!! XOXOXOXELDER RAPP

2008-10-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all!! I'm running like crazy today to get everything done. Transfers are tomorrow and I got the boot. I'm going to Pelotas at 5pm 2 your time, then from there I'll leave at 6 or so tomorrow morning and go back up to Porto Alegre. Sweet, I'll be able to go back to the temple. So that pic in the cardboard box, I actually slept in that box that night. I think I'll stay at that house again tonight so I'll pull it out again and sleep in it. Hey sweet story... I killed a dove this last week and just happened to have churrasco for lunch with some members... Thinking what I was thinking. Ya baby, I cooked him up and ate me a dove. O churrasco meat we use alot of ribs and normal cuts off the cows and pork and chicken. The drumsticks are wicked sweet. So conference was so great. I only saw Sundays sessions. But they were good ones. The apostles really were throwing down the hard core burns on people. They told it how it was for sure. I just laughed. I watched it in English, it's alot better that way anyways. The translators don´t usually get the funnies in there very well. We had 6 investigators there. Man I've never been so happy in my life. But now that we are going to baptize, they are kicking my butt out of Bage and sending me back to POA. Well I love you all and am so grateful for the sacrifices you have made for me so that I can be here. Muah xoxox It means the world to me. Well have a great week and next week I´ll let you all know where I'm at and who my new comp is. Love you all !!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-09-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

Oi y'all,Hows my favorite fam doing this week? I'm doing great!!! This week was one of my best in this area. I didn´t baptize but it was still one of the best working weeks here. We have been teaching Cinara for something like 5 months. Wanting her to separate from her bf or get married. She ended up getting separated and we thought we were gonna baptize but we went back to do the baptismal interview no one could find her. Well with enough faith anything is possible. We went into a members home knelt down in prayer and asked for her to show up and give a good reason to be baptised or not as she likes drama. Well she showed up. Prayers are heard and answered I can testify to that. She told us she cant live alone without `making cookies`as Andrea would say. OOOOOO So that baptism will have to wait a little longer to gain a testimony on the law of chastity. Bummer I know but I know she´ll get her head on straight. Well it has been hotter than CRAP this week!! throwing down 90´s and the humidity. Its only spring so why the heck is this going on? Life is like this though. Summer is getting closer now. I'm so excited for General conference. It is the best tool I have as a missionary. The best opportunity for investigators to feel the spirit and gain a testimony of a living prophet. O it will be so great. Its my 3rd conf and I only have 1 more then I have to go home. Scary. This week I've been out 14 months that's 1 year in the field. Wow that's really crazy to see how much I've grown and how much I've accomplished. I wish every young man would take this opportunity and fly. It is so rewarding and has taught me and still teaches me so much. We threw down another churrasco today. I have been name the gaucho here, man I cook a mean churrasco. Well have to make one the first week when I get home. Is meat as expensive there as it is here? Man we use a ton of money in one day of partying as a district. Today was 10 a person so it was 80 bucks or so. So I did something Saturday that has been about a year and a half since I,ve done it. Guess guess... ... ... I Welded. Never though I would go to Brasil on my mission for 1 and 2 I would end up welding.; Bam, I'm good. The Bishop liked my work. But something horrible happened. He didn´t have a welding hood for me to use so I burnt the crap out of my eyes. To put the story straight, I didn´t sleep that night because my eyes hurt so bad. But I gained 1 more testimony of the priesthood. 4:30 in the morning, I woke my comp up to give me a blessing. Slept like a baby after that. I was dumb in the first place to not use any protection. We did The helping hands project that the church is known for world wide. I painted walls, welded and ate a bunch of food. So, that was my good week. I hope you enjoy your longer email this week. It wasn´t boring and it was full of stories. I love you all so very much!!! Keep being great. Be missionaries always. Muah Love you all!!!ELDER RAPP Enjoy conference!! Take notes. Go into it with ?´s in mind. They will be answered I promise. Invite some nonmembers over to watch a session or two or even all four!!!

2008-09-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

2008-09-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

I just sent you the longest letter and it didn´t send for who knows why!!! I am angered much!!! Sorry I wont have time to send a long one now. I'm gonna send you some pics to make up for the lost letter that is who knows where. I love you all so very much. This week went well. I went Tuesday to Pelotas to renew my visa. That was great. Good to see all my buds from the ctm. Saturday was gaucho day. There was a parade of over 8000 horses. Ya horses and gauchos it was awesome. We took the chance to give out pass along cards. Hope some one calls. No baptisms yet . 11th of October but transfers are the 6th. Don´t think I'll be here for that one. Well I'm running out of time so I gots to go. I love you !!! MUAHH!! Forgive me for the dumb puter.ELDER RAPP

2008-09-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!! Its great to hear that all is well up there. All is great here. A bit slow on the baptism side of things but other than that we are working hard to have some soon. The one that is closest seems to be running away and given us quite a run for our money. We'll keep trying to get in touch with her and pray hard that it turns out right. We had zone conf this last Wednesday, man it was great. It always makes me want to work harder and do all I can to be better. It's difficult at times but the Lord knows what he is doing and how to mold us for the better. It always makes me think of Ether 12-27 and our weaknesses which I think I have more than any one else. The Bolivia thing is pretty complicated. Brasil and them are having some problems so they are fighting over there. That would be the reason that they have taken out the missionaries. But I don´t think it'll move over to this side of the line. This week has been rather stressful for me. With conference we lost a day of work which in the end effects our numbers and then the leaders get on my back to get our numbers up. Then the Bishops son almost got himself killed when he shot me in the head with the fire extinguisher at the church yesterday. That stuff flipping burns!!! I had to have some serious control to not beat him to the ground. I'm learning tons though. Patience seems to be the thing I am mostly learning. Well I took out a bit of money today cause I have to travel to Pelotas tomorrow to renew my visa. What a head ache that will be. Just means I'm getting old. I'm not wanting to get old cause I'm content where I'm at. This work is alot more worth it than anything else. Saturday is gaucho day a holiday here. They are going to have churrascos, rodeos, a horse run up the main street in town. This is my kind of holiday baby. Nothing but red-necks. Well I'm running out of stuff to tell y'all this next week will hopefully be full of good news and great stories. I love you all and pray for each and everyone of you everyday!!! MUAHH !!! Have a great week.ELDER RAPP

Woo hoo pics!

2008-09-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

2008-09-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wow what a week! This week has been a rush. We had stake conference so it was run run run and invite everyone to church. My baptism that was set for Saturday fell through because she didn´t go to church. Grrr life is full of ups and downs. Seems like more downs and tons of work. This week the weather was miserable. Like 30 degrees with wind, rain and tons of broken umbrellas. # umbrellas that broke of mine were 3 and that is what is breaking me. I can´t afford to buy any more so it's just suffer. So today we all threw together some money and bought some meat and threw down a wicked churrasco. I sent you some pics on my other email cause this one doesn´t send them very fast. I hope you like them. Tell Jordan that you have them. He's been wanting some pics of his Bro. This week we are going 4 hours to Pelotas for zone conf. Wednesday is when we´ll be there. Well thats all I have. Lots of info but a small email still, sorry but its difficult to send ya the same stuff every week when times are tough. Hey that fat elder with chimarrão is my comp. He rocks! He is exactly like me. Well I love you all so very much and can´t wait to hear from y'all next week. Muahh xoxoxo!!! ELDER RAPP

2008-09-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all there in Idaho!!!!Today is 13 month gone and only 9 and a bit in the front. Sorry about the short letter last week. It was run run run getting my comp off to the bus station. It was good to work with Elder Sousa but I'm glad I have a new companion. My patience I think was on the last string. My new comp is E. Martins from Piauí. A greeny with 3 months out. He actually is exactly like me. Likes to joke and have a good time and work hard. He makes me a lil trunky when he reads his letters from his girly friend and looks at pics. Definitely greeny and he still has alot of faith that she´ll be there in 2 years. Well lets see right. So all is well. Looking forward to some baptisms. It been a months or so of just trying to find and teach. Life as a missionary isn´t the easiest thing but definitely worth it. We are hoping for a baptism in the next couple of weeks. We are helping a lady stop smoking and get married. That always seems to be the set back. Law of chastity and word of wisdom. So I'm so excited for my best redneck buddy going on a mission. But I'm not gonna see the kid for a long time. When you guys get his mission addy please send it to me. I gots to write him. This week is going to be stake conference in Bagé. Have to work extra hard to get investigators there. That's seems to be the difficulty here in this area. Everyone live a thousand miles out of town and don´t have money to get to church. This week has been ridiculously hot and muggy 100% humidity is back and this month starts spring and then the last summer in Brasil. ooopah what am I gonna do ? My time is going by way to fast and i still have to do soooo much. I'm working hard though and that's what is making the time fly by so fast. The difficulties come and go. And with every new transfer and new companion it gives a new drive to work harder. How's my family doing up there. Getting ready for a new winter hunting season that's a thing I miss Hanging out in the hills with my family. Well Today was alot longer i hope you enjoy it. Its hard to write tonz cause there isn´t much going on its just work work work all day long and the normal troubles of finding people that are ready to accept the gospel. Well I love you all and love you so very much!! MUAH!! ELDER RAPP O I haven´t bought a suit. I think I'll just be skinny with a huge suit for the next year so I don´t have to pack it around with me.

Two letters

2008-08-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!! Sorry I don´t have much time today. This week is transfers and my comp has alot to do to get ready to leave. I'm staying, whoohoo. I don´t know who my new comp is but I'll keep y'all in on the news when he gets here. Its been quite a day today. Just run run run. And clean the apartment as well. This week went very well I'm happy to say. no problems or stress. It rained pretty good through out the week. My stupid umbrella broke again that's #3 in 1 year. It's life though right. Its supposed to be wicked hot tomorrow. 30 degrees C don´t remember the stuff anymore in American degrees. Well I'm doing great now. Ready for a little change. See if my new comp will be great. It is really good to have problems to be honest. I learn a ton everyday. Although very difficult. So hows life in Idaho this week? I'm gonna go to all the new temples that I've never been to when I get home. OOO I had churrasco yesterday. Man I out eat everyone in the world when it comes to meat. My comp didn´t eat it unless it was dry. Blahh you chew it for 5 hours but when its nice and juicy you rock it. Jordan bought a car with tranny problems? I'm gonna kick his butt. He doesn´t know how much money trannys cost, and then labor on top of that. Better pray the school will put it in for him. Hey we all learn by our mistakes ne. And my redneck bro Zach is getting out there next week. Man I'm so excited for him. He is gonna love it. It's tough ya but the best work I've ever done. Well I was thinking this week if I asked y'all for new rechargeable batteries that I've been needing for a while now. I'd buy em but they are like 30 bones for 4 of them here. I'm not a rich guy. Well I'm getting low on time so I'll call it an email even though it was a small one. Sorry again for the short time frame today I'll be better next week. And hey I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! have a great week.ELDER RAPP

Hey Guys and Girls haha Hows life up there in Idaho? Life down here is getting me pretty good this week. After a long week of silence I have been waiting for a good pday. Elder hasn´t talked this week. He just ignores me. Saddnessssss!!! So I'm pretty much on the down side this week. Pray that things get better ne. Only one more week and we´ll go our separate ways. He is a great guy and awesome missionary but has his sides that defiantly are strange. So this week has been cold and wet. lota rain and wind and freezing cold. But hey I'm doing great. I'm happy and just making the best of it. For sure I'm learning alot. I was reading D and C the other day and came across the part I needed most. Section 121 where Joseph is in jail and praying for help. This week has been like that. In jail, cold, full of frustration but Heavenly Father gave me plenty of opportunities to feel his love just like the Profet Joseph Smith. He works miracles in my life. I was called to be here and was prepared to have experiences like these ones. Well hows my fam. doing this week? BBQ again? Hey this better still be a tradition when I get home. Andrea Told me she took a mango to have my spirit there. Hey, fruit is where I'm at baby. And BBQ as well. Hopefully we´ll have churrasco on Sunday. I'm hoping because its been 4 months since I've eaten a good chunk of Churrasco. Well I love you all and pray for each one of you always. MUAHH!!!! ELDER RAPP

2008-08-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Hello my loving family,Life is going good here. I will try to make this longer today ok. It has been a rough week for me. I was really sick with the flu and without energy to do anything. Good thing Heavenly Father gave me strength to work. It was a rough three days of pain. But I'm all better now. My companion is officially driving me crazy! He is seriously in touch with his feminine side. He asks every girl in the world what kind of hair products and skin products he should use. Dude you have got to be kidding me, I don´t even use sunscreen and he uses all this crud. The flu luckily left me but now he has it and does nothing but sleep. REALLY hard to work when he doesn´t want to. PATIENCE is a virtue that I don´t have. Well the work is improving slowly. We are being pounded with stupid questions from leaders about our numbers. Being a leader is not something I am going to be. eee it would be nice but all they think about is ###numbers###, not souls, not people. A bit frustrating at times. Well I'm feeling a lot of heat this past week it's ridiculous. Where is a good winter when I want it. It is supposed to start raining tomorrow and get cold again though. I'm ready for the cold!! Mommy can you send sacred grove pictures to me? Please send them in an email and I'll get em off and print em. So whats the news in Idaho, anything cool and new? I haven´t much to say here still. It would help if it wasn´t the same stuff and difficulties week after week. Well I Love you all and hope you have a great week!!! Muahh!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-08-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all!!! Thanks so much for all of the letters. I'm glad I have a great family like you guys. Some elders don´t even get letters from anyone so I'm truly blessed. Well we are doing good this week. Things are a little tough. My comps dad is going in for surgery Thursday and he's known about it for a while, so its driving him crazy. Its affecting our work but our leaders don´t seem to be understanding about it. They just ask me stupid questions like I don´t know how to work. Man it gets me a little down. They don´t help me out they just make me bummed and wanting to to another area. Patience is a virtue that I think I have and then the Lord shows me I don´t. We'll keep working on it though. It's tough but nothing that gets thrown at me will be out of my abilities to handle. I really don´t want to be a leader in the mish because of stuff like this it´s frustrating. Well I loved all of your letters!!! Sorry I never have time to write everyone every week. If I could I for sure would. I love hearing all the cool family stories. The spirit really touched me this week with the special occasions and testimonies of you all. I know that this is where I need to be. I hope everyone knows that I love them and that is the reason I am sacrificing a slight time in my life for my Savior. There really is no other place I´d rather be. Sure it isn´t always easy but it in the tough times that I learn the most. The Lord works in our lives everyday to teach us how to be more like him. He has set a great example for me. I hope I can be a little bit of an example for the people here in my areas. Thanks for the love and support. And btw that shirt burned like no other, man it was good to play with fire. Muah!!! Love you all so very much!!!ELDER RAPP

Woo hoo!

2008-08-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

We made it to the year mark! I can't believe he has been gone one year already. In some ways it was fast, but in others it was like forever. On the days that I am thinking about him and missing him it drags. I love you Elder Rapp! Work hard and enjoy your last year!

Funny Humpday Animations provided by MySpaceAnimations.com

Oops forgot to post his letter

2008-08-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all. Hows my fam doing this week? I'm doing great. this week was a good week for sure but with some stories for sure. Well good news, we baptised the twins finally! So 2 more baptisms, that's the life. It took a while, I learned a ton. Man that was 2 of the hardest baptisms in the world. After the baptism the fun part of the story comes in. Elder Sousa blew up and told me I am not qualified to be senior comp and that he should be cause he is 25 and has 6 months on the mish. hahaha Oh my head was really hurting Sat. night after talking with district leaders and zone leaders to get the feelings all out and solve the problem. Blah that was the biggest fight in the history of my mission. Oh by the way I'm getting old. One year down and so much yet to do. I don´t even want to think about going home yet. Life here is tough but it is great. I have to work and go to school when I'm at home. Maybe I'll just have to hang out with the fam for a couple of weeks before starting anything serious. Well its flippin cold and rainy and miserable, but hey it,s life. Wed. we have zone conf. we have to go to Pelotas. 3 hours in a van full of missionaries. I imagine that it can get interesting. I had something to have you send me but I forgot now. Sorry next week maybe I'll remember. I'm really out of things or cool stories to tell sorry I'll try to make next week longer k. muah love ya. Hey whats my website eh I forgot? I love you all so very much!!!ELDER RAPP

2008-07-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

2008-07-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all!!! All is going great. It cold rainy and windy but we are hanging in there. There is an Elder from Rexburg that is 3 months old that just got to my district. He isn´t an Idaho redneck like I thought. He likes the stuff Jordan does, snowboarding and skateboarding. Man I miss that Idaho accent. He talks really funny and to think I have that. Only on a worser degree, the redneck side of things. Man are we gonna keep up these family get togethers when I get home? I choose churrasco for my first dinner Brasilian style aight. Sounds great to me, and some good old deer, elk and fish. Man I miss those great foods, but rice and beans will always be a fav. now. Horrible news... my 2 baptisms fell through again. I'm sad. 2 young men 10 years old with problems related with pornography. Man I'm gonna punch Satan in the noggin when I get a chance. He is fighting against my hard work. Its teaching me alot though. I'm so very grateful for the opportunity I have to spend these two years serving my Savior. He said it wouldn´t be easy but said it would be worth it, and I have a firm testimony about that now. Me and my comp are doing better now. We threw it down Thursday and got rid of all the little things so that we can work together and have the spirit again. It worked out great and all is well now. We have a flipping infestation of fleas in our appartment grrrrr. I hate them lil buggers, I'm gonna burn the house down. They bite and then it itches and is miserable. I have to teach the young men because we don´t have a teacher for them. Sunday was about missions and mission prep. Man it rocked. I made them name tags and did some alternations on a mission call in Portuguese and called them to different places around the world. It was a success for sure, they all liked it. Well I'm gonna try to do all I can to baptise these young men soon. I'm not sure when it will be but I'm praying for a baptism soon. Well I love you all so very much and am so very grateful for my amazing family!!! ELDER RAPP

2008-07-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all!!! We had a baptisms yeah!! Supposed to have been 3, but two fell through at the last minute but we will throw them in the water this week or next week. No worries, this is the Lords work. It all works out in his time. It's flippin HOT, 80´s 90´s with 100% humidity BLAH!! Where is my cold winters when I need them? I don´t really have any cool stories for you all this week. We had a great week now that we baptized, there is nothing better than that. We are working hard and doing our best to keep things rolling here. My comp and I had a good week with out any disagreements. Transfers are tomorrow and we are staying together, but we are gonna rock the baptisms this transfer. We both have little red itchy bumps all over our bodies. I finally called sis Johnson and asked her for help cause I'm not so smart one and everything I try doesn´t work out. I'm stubborn but I asked for help now. Has that Zach kid sent in his papers yet? I'm totally waiting to know about his progress and his call but he doesn´t email me back now. punk! I'm gonna kick his butt. My district all got together today and I made pizza from scratch and we ate it and played uno. Great p-day for sure. Thanks for always teaching me how to cook mom, it really comes in handy in the mission field. Hey Ive almost hit a year I'm gonna burn a shirt whooohooo. I love fire . Well life is going good. I love you all and am so very grateful for your prayers in my behalf. ELDER RAPP When you send a package can you send some rings an 8 and a 9 pppplease. muah love you!!!

2008-07-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, It was a little different not being with you all for Mom's bday and for the fourth. I didn´t even think about the fourth until that night and I thought man they are at the fireworks by now. So was with y'all. This week we went back up to the summer weather for three days. I busted out the short sleeves and sunscreen again. Man it was hot. I think that winter gave it a rest for a while. Today the rain started again. BLAH!!! On Mom's bday I was in a meeting all day. I got to see my trainer for the first time in 8 months. He is going back home next week. Scared out of his mind. Don´t make fun of me when I get home and am scared out of my mind. It will be for sure a totally different world. Well my comp I decided doesn´t like the way I do things. He's been quiet for the last few days. I try to talk to him but he doesn´t answer me. I think it is because he is older and wants to be Senior. ooo I love my life, it can be difficult at times. But hey I made it through the last comp this way and I learned a ton. Ill keep trying to just make him feel good and not do what I think is better. The good thing is that we are gonna baptize 3 Saturday. Finally this area is progressing. The bishopric traded last week so let's see if we can get this ward on fire. But hey, I'm happy with the progress so far. The three baptisms will help out the young men's program. One is 16 the other 2 are 10, so hey let's keep em a going. Next week there will be another too! Yeah and transfers are next week as well. Man time flies when your having fun. Well life is surely passing me by quick. That year mark is so close that I don´t want it to be. I have so much more to do and so much more to learn. But I am surely grateful for what I have accomplished and what I have learned. Man I have grown so much. O Mom, the suit, I haven´t even been looking for one. Um Iam sending a check home with e. Rasmussen, he will mail it to you when he gets home. Please just cash it and throw it in my account. Did you ever get the letter from e. Ferracini? I never did hear if you did or not. Well I'm running out of things to tell ya. No good stories this week sorry. I love you all so very much. MUAAAH!!! have an excellent week.ELDER RAPP

Mais uma Semana passou!!!

2008-06-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! How is my wonderful family today? Thanks for all the wonderful emails and pics of my lil nephew or however you spell it. Portuguese is much easier. Well we are rocking it down here on the bottom of the world. We should have 8 baptisms in the next month or so. Workin our lil butts off that is for darn sure. It keeps raining like crazy which sucks because shoes and clothes don´t dry at all. Humidity. Funny story, e. Gubler sent me some peeps, yeah reminded me of my dad. But they won't harden because it's so humid. Shucks né. All is well here. Me and my comp are getting along great and workin hard. Ya´ll want stories eh, I've got a good one for ya. My Birthday went great, but when we were coming home a man aproached us in a dark street and asked how to get to the bus station. My comp watched closely from the other side of the street as I gave him directions. He didn´t want directions he wanted to assault us and take our money and stuff. I thank my comp because he didn´t give him the opportunity to assault us both. He went away with out taking anything but kept following us and watching us closely. WE were protected and nothing bad happened. That was the highlight of my week this week. I really don´t know an elder in my mission that hasn´t been assaulted yet. I think I'm the only one. But hey, I pray it doesn't happen to me cause that wouldn´t be fun. Congrats on the new member of our family!! He is a cutie for sure. Tell Justin and Kayla congrats for me. I'll be seeing him before we know it. Well I'm out of info for today so have a great week. I love you all!!!MUAH!! ELDER RAPP

Elder Rapp is a new Uncle!

2008-06-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Elder Rapp got a new nephew yesterday! Baby Eastton Seth was born at 5:07 pm. He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and measured 21 1/4" long. He has lots of hair and looks both like his Mom and his Dad. He had some breathing issues at first, but they put him on oxygen and he is doing fine. He is very loved! Everyone is loving on him and spoiling him already! This makes the second time that Elder Rapp is an Uncle. Now he has a niece and a nephew! Congratulations Uncle Jacob!

2008-06-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

Life is going great here. Man its cold though. This is my first cold birthday. Haha I am lucky to have it land on p-day. We are going bowling this afternoon. Pres Johnson called me last night and said that he was gonna do interviews in our appt. Weird, I have never had Pres. in my appt. Good thing I'm a clean freak and the appt was already clean. He brought me a package and a letter from the ward yeah. Packages are always good. Man this last week was full of fun and exciting things, rain, wind, rivers in the road. Blah it was a miserable day and Thursday, it rained like I have never seen in my life. The streets were rivers and the side walks as well. Hey how do you stay dry in weather like that.. hahah, ya don´t and I only have one pair of shoes that don´t hurt my feet. Now they are wet. It's life though. This week we worked a ton with less active members and man was it successful. I've always thought that working with them would help out the ward and help us find new people to teach. It's a fact the best ways to work are with the members. Thanks for all of your emails today. The best birthday ever is today. All of your love means the most to me, and I liked the ice cream idea Dad I'll do it for sure. (Even though its freezing cold out side.) Thanks for all the pics too. Man my family is growing and changing ssoooo much. Um can you explain how to send pics in emails? I don't know how but want to send some eh. I love you all and am so very grateful for all you do for me. It means the world to me. Have a great week. Muah!!! ELDER RAPP

2008-06-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Funny story, I told Jessica about the dog and told a little bit more than the truth and she told me she hopes all goes well with the surgery. HAHAHa I make myself laugh. Blonds think everything is the truth!!! I'm doing great here. Man the weather is cold. Yesterday was the coldest day of work yet, 4 degrees Celsius not sure the exchange rate. Windy and flippin cold. Guess what? I'm senior now. Pres called me the day of transfers, Elder Rapp are you ready for this... I sure hope I am Pres. I couldn't´t have asked for a better comp to help me out, he rocks. E Sousa. He's from Sao Paulo. He is great. A little bit slow getting stuff done but does a great job. He's an old man 25 almost 26, and I haven´t even gotten to 20 yet. One week yea, and it lands on p-day. We are having churrasco with the Bishop and going bowling with the zone leaders. Hope all turns out well. Don´t worry about not having the package out yet. I understand 100 percent. Hey my fingers are shrinking with the weight loss and cold. Can ya send me some more ctr rings 8 and 9 to see if they'll work. Can´t say no cause it for my b-day. So hows things going for you all? Life is warming up there ne? Hey, I'm gonna keep looking for a suit. Ill try and get a cheap one. We'll see how things look . I'll let ya know. Dude, we had a pizza party Monday night cause all of our comps hadn´t arrived yet. They got here Tuesday but ya. 5 pizzas 6 elders and 4 liters of pop. Barbaridade it was good. Homemade pizza is always better than the pizzas from the pizza place. Well have a great week. I love you all and am always praying for ya!!! ELDER RAPP

2008-06-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

For your information, I put up 3 letters for Jacob today. The first is a letter he wrote to the Youth in our ward. He wrote separate small letters for his Dad and I, so I put them both on. Enjoy!

2008-06-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

If it makes you feel any better my connection just fell and I lost my letter too. It was really really funny too, stupid computers. Anyways this week went well. My comp is kinda really really trunky and it was a little hard to work. That and he got sick and had to stay in bed Saturday. But hey, it's life. So I'm finally a missionary!!! I got attacked by a dog. I was walking down the road yesterday after lunch going to pick up a family for church and this stupid dog came out of no where and attacked me. Well you all know me, well I wasn´t gonna let him get away with attacking me. So I wanted to kill the lil bugger. All in all the lucky punk ran faster than I did before I could kill it. With my steel toe boots, he's lucky he got away. But don´t worry he didn´t even leave a mark on me. I just took out my insurance for dog attacks from my Father in Heaven and he came through and protected me. I have a great testimony of the power of garments. I never really thought about the blessing they promise you, but they are real. I can tell you that. The dog only ripped my pants, which Iwill now hang on my wall when I get home. Along with my deer heads, hahaha. So transfers are tomorrow and my comp is going away but I'm staying. YES, I don´t have to pack my bags. Oh and his dad didn´t send him money for a new suit so he isn´t selling it, but I'm looking for another one in the same price range. Well all is good here. Nice and cold and rainy blah, that puts a damper on things. I love you all and pray for you always. Keep up the good work. Muah xoxo!! ELDER RAPP

2008-06-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad!! I'm glad that all went well in your Bishops youth discussion. I hope it made even a little impact on their lives and attitudes towards a mission. Sounds like the tooth problem in NYC turned out to have an implant done huh? Yikes, I don´t like tooth pain or any pain for that reason. Transfers are tomorrow. Man time is flying by too fast. I feel like I just got here in my area and my comp is already leaving. It seemes to me like there isn´t enough time in one day to do all that I need to do. So many people to help that I love so very much and want them to feel what I feel but the sun just doesn´t stay up long enough. I' m sure you felt that way on your mission too. But hey, just putting forth all I can to help these wonderfull people. Thanks for all you do for me Dad. All your prayers and love you send, and especially you testimony that strengthens me always. I love you!!! ELDER RAPP

2008-06-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Coltman Third Ward Youth, I would like to take the opportunity to write you all and express my love for each one of you. Also I would like to talk to you a little bit about the work Iam doing here in Brasil. The mission field is a marvelous blessing to me to my family and to many many others. I can truly say that this is the Lords work. If it weren´t for him we wouldn´t have the blessings that we do on the earth today. I am writing to maybe help you all answer a few question that our lives bring up. What will actually happen when I grow up? Well you all are growing up faster than you think. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in a Bishops youth discussion learning as you are today. But now It's been close to a year that I´ve been out of the United States. Our time is short and we must make the best of it. Learn all that you can from your church leaders, school teachers and especially your families. As a missionary our purpose is to 'Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.' With trainings from my leaders from general authorities the main purpose of missionary work is to Baptize and Retain the new members. Yes this is not always easy. The First Presidency wrote in Preach My Gospel Page V. 'We compliment you on the great opportunity you have to be a missionary. There is no more compelling work than this, nor which brings greater satisfaction. Preach My Gospel is intended to help you be a better-prepared, more spiritually mature missionaryand a more persuasive teacher. We challenge you to rise to a new sense of commitment to assist our Father in Heaven in his glorious work. Every missionary has an important role in helping 'to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man'Moses 1:39. The Lord will reward and richly bless you as you humbly and prayerfully serve him. More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among his children' This is true. The blessing of a full time mission are not a temporary thing but will last for eternity. I would invite all of you to read and pray about THE POWER AND AUTHORITY OF YOUR CALLING Page 4 Preach My Gospel. It contains the fullness of our joy as missionaries. From President Gordon B. Hinckley ' Go forward. Do your work. It´s so very,very important. You have on your narrow shoulders the responsability of teaching the Gospel to a world that doesn´t want it.' So true but it starts as youth. You walk the halls of schools, lots of you have jobs. What great opportunities to be missionaries. It can be a smile, a Hello, A helping hand, and most important your example. I t reminds me of a scripture I read recently but in portuguese Matt.5:16 Let your light so shine befor men,that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven. Scripture mastery I think. How great our example is. Our Attitudes show alot of who we are. We we raised in the Church this gives us a head start. We know the doctrine principles and we study them in Seminary. But the thing that is most important is that decision to serve a full time mission. There are many other fun and exciting opportunities out there that bring joy, a few good times maybe, glory to play Football for BYU but nothing will bring as much joy as a mission. I'm am truly Grateful for my leaders my friends and my family who always put in my mind and heart that a mission was important. If it wasn´t for my decision to serve, I wouldn´t have learned as much as I have in this short time and wouldn´t have the opportunity to serve for another year and a month or so. This work is growing, not only here in Brasil, but over the face of all the earth. The mission has taught and continues to teach me something new everyday. Ya, its tough but its worth the walking, the studying and all the fasting and prayer to see at least One Person enter the waters of Basptism. I am a Testimony of that. I have seen Miracles in my life and in the lives of others. If you don´t have a Preach My Gospel, get one and read it study the lessons the scriptures and I promise as a representative of my savior Jesus Christ, that Your life will Change and Change for the better, as it has mine. Once in the Mission field we must learn to love First our Savior and this marvelous work, second our companios (which trust me is not always easy). Look for miracles and really expect them because they are real. Work smart and Hard, and Not let rejection get us down. I have been rejected for some of the most outrageous reasons but always tried to hold my head high. Do all you can now to prepare for a mission. Whether a young man or a young woman. You don´t know if your mission will be to preach or raise a family girls. Sister missionaries have a power that we as Elders don´t have. Study just as hard as the boys do, so that you can serve where the lord wants you to. I remeber President Hinckley always telling us to get as much education as possible. I'm seeing now where education has helped me and others. Study hard even if it is the most difficult course or the hardest teacher. But really pay attention to the spiritual side of studies. Read and pray about the scriptures and the message that they have. I had a pretty silly thing that I did with one of my friends almost everynight, she would ask me to read her a scripture and apply it to the life of a missionary or to explain the message and then bear my testimony about it. Not everynight she wanted to hear a scripture but even when she was mad at me, I read a scripture to her. Wow, what a testimony I gained. When I left she told me that the scripture we read almost daily together helped both of us grow. I can say the same I saw the difference it made in my life and the changes I had to make to live worthily to serve a mission. This Gospel has a power to change lives. Always remember that. Pray for missionay opportunties and always live worthy to enter the temple. Those of you who just graduated congratulations but now your life begins, set an example for others. Those of you who are close to going on a mission (Heath and Trevor) Really Study hard Preach my Gospel and the Scripture. Pres. Batt challenged me to get up early and study with my Dad. Wow, what a difference that made. Ya I was tired and ya we didn´t study everyday, but I came to know my Dad better and he really taught me alot about missionary work. Not to mention got me in the habit of getting up early and studying which is a daily thing now. I thank him for that. I thank My dad for helping me get to where I am today. I Love him for that. I challenge each and everyone of you today to go home after church open Matt. 5:16 read it and pray to have a better clarity and decision to serve a full time mission. I love you all and am always praying for your success. Keep Working hard and know that your Heavenly Father is counting on you. And hey, feel free to write any time and ask questions or tell me how things are going. Thanks for all you do as youth for the Church. You truly have set a great example for me. Love, ELDER RAPP

2008-06-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Family!! Hows everything going this week. Life is going good here. Man the temps are surely dropping though. I'm having to use a scarf now how lame is that. 3 shirts 3pants ya definitely cold. But hey never been better. We are really poor right now well I am because I am paying all the bills that my comp won´t pay. But hey I love him any ways. Difficult to pay for everything but I know how to stretch a penny or in this case a centavo. My Mommy and Daddy teached me gooder.Thanks by the way sister Johnson send a hug for teaching me how to use money. Well transfers are coming up next week. I don´t have any idea what will happen. Which isn´t fun. Hopefully I don't get transferred again. Its all in the lords hands now. No baptisms for now. We have one on the 21 of June for sure but so far that's it. Working our butts off to find new people to baptise. This week went well. We had the Dedication of the Curitiba temple on Sunday. That rocked. The profet is so funny. It was cool to hear it in English and Portuguese both. Alot funnier in English as you can imagine. The Profet was cracking jokes like crazy. It was him and Elder Nelson here doing the dedication. Hey I got to talk to him in real life. Things went well and the temple is beautiful. I would like to visit it someday. Do a temple tour here in Brasil. Lets wait for Manaus to finish and then come. Well My comp has been acting funny for a while and I asked him about it. He doesn´t want to be here. He wants to go home so we are having to talk alot and help him keep the drive to stay for one more transfer. Came as a shock to me too. It is really difficult. But we are making the best of it and I'm trying to take over the best I can and help him out. But hey we are going along a little better this week we worked better and tried to do all we could. Its tuff but I'm learning alot.Can't have good times if you don´t have the rough times. Well I'm running out of time. Just know that I love you all and am praying for you always. I will write to those of you that wrote me next week. Had a letter to write to the Coltman 3rd ward youth that went a little longer than i thought. Sorry . Love you all. ELDER RAPP

2008-05-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

Good thing I used the internet late today huh!!Hey, Sounds like a house full of fun. But what are you gonna do when the fox comes around to get them chickens? Better learn how to shoot my guns eh. I love it. So what did you guys plant and how much did you plant? I miss planting the garden and being with the whole family out there picking everything. Well that is when I was actually home and not working. How has your week been going other than run, run, run? Did you guys bbq this week or is that just once a month??? Are we gonna continue that when I get home? I hope so. Cool story for ya'll. This last week went so slow. One of the slowest for sure. But hey, one of the best weeks in the mission. The Lord sure does show us our weaknesses. He makes sure we know that he is in control. Day after day of not much teaching Just members homes trying to get referrals. Friday we went to a less active families home. They let us in and we started to talk to everyone. I started playing with the kids while Elder was talking and then he started asking the ages of everyone. The one little boy was 9 and had been bugging his parents to let him be baptised. All in all, we end up baptising on Saturday. The blessings whoo hooo. So I was supposed to talk in church yesterday but Bishop already marked too many people to speak so he said just be ready for any Sunday and he'll call me up. His family is so cool they call us their children. Hey tell that little brother of mine I'm waiting for an email that he promised me. I know he is busy, but if he gets bored tell him to drop me a line. Not much going on here. I ran out of money from the last time we received it because I had to pay the light bill they left for me. It always works out that way pay the bills pay the bills and some more bills. But hey, I can make the penny stretch. That's what my parents taught me by telling me if I wanted something, I had to work for it and buy it myself. Thanks I love ya tonz!!! Sister Johnson said to give you guys a BIG hug for teaching me that. She makes me laugh. We are in a heat wave right now too, its like 70s when I thought it was gonna be cold. Short Sleeve shirts again. Well, I'm just rambling. I don´t have any more stories that I can think of for right now. Have an amazing week. I love you all so very much. Thanks for all you do for me. Your always in my prayers. Muah hugs and kisses for all. ELDER RAPP

2008-05-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Good morning y'all, Hows my wonderful family doing? It was great to talk to all of you. It worked out better this time than it did the last time. I actually had time to talk to each one of you. It made my next 7 months. Now I have to wait for Christmas, bummer. But it was good. Monday we had zone conference which killed another day just traveling. But is always good to hear from our leaders and president and his wife. Yesterday went very slow. I needed a pday soon so that I could get some rest. That will be my highlight today. I wont clean, I wont play, I'm gonna sleep for the first time in my mission. I hope it works out but most likely won't. Things are going good here. We are trying to find some people to baptize here soon. Not having much luck but I was studying pmg the other day and ran across Pray with faith in chapter 9. Wow I learned alot. I also found a quote from Pres. Johnson that said we need to expect miracles in our misson. He is a powerful man. His talks, even his interviews, always help us look at the other side of things. Well I'm out of stuff to write because I told you all that's going on on Sunday. So, I love you guys and hope you all have a great week. Love y'all the very very most!!!!!! Muah ELDER RAPP

MUAHHHH!!!!!‏

2008-05-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys, How is the worlds best family doing this week? I'm doing great! I changed areas again, blah I hate traveling so much. I'm in a little redneck town called Bage in an area called Tiaraju. Loving it too!! I'm at home again in my little town way of life. Work here is a ton easier than in the big city. My new comp rocks Elder Ferracini. He goes home in a couple months. I'm still junior but that's all great I have an amazing comp. There is not very many people in the ward. But the ones that are here are great I never taught as many lessons in all of my mission with members than right now. My bishop is just as redneck as me. We both walk around with toothpicks in our mouths. Everyone here is great, I was very well received. There is a handicap man that is the doorman. I sat by him and sang with him yesterday. He is so cool he gives tons of hugs, I love it. I'm gonna take a picture with him next Sunday and send it to you. This town doesn´t have very many teeth as you can imagine. I love it. Oh something my sis would love, there is a pig almost the size of a horse I swear. Man he's huge. I'll send some pics of him too. We are doing great. I don't know how to call you guys yet. We have a meeting with President on Wednesday, so I think he will tell us. I can receive a call from you guys in nyc and from everyone else at home. Make sure they are all there, I want to talk to them all. I got here Tuesday night in my area. Wow I haven´t felt cold in a long time, but man it is cold here. 20s with humidity is cold. I'm really close to the Uruguay border down on the very bottom of Brazil. The wind and storms blow in from Uruguay and it is like Antarctica. Two pairs of long garments long sleeve shirt and a heavy sweater and you are good. That and everyone offers you chimarrao. Keeps you warm for a bit. My area is flat so hopefully I can get my knee better here so I can hit the hills again someday. But hey, my last area was great despite the difficulty climbing hills daily. I didn´t want to leave my last area. I left and on Thursday they had 6 baptisms and then this week they have 5 more and next week another two. Bummer but that's how the mission goes. I cleaned my appt today, it was a mess when I got here and I have turned into a clean freak. Have to have the spirit in the house so has to be clean. I made a goal to read the New Testament this transfer. It's going pretty good. In a week I have read all of Mathew and well into Mark. Learning alot of course, but it has a lot of funny stuff in it. Jesus burns alot of people with his teachings. Well I'm looking forward to talking to you guys here in a few days. Make sure you got phone cards. Love you all tons. Remember who you are and that your always in my prayers. MUAH!!! ELDER RAPP

2008-04-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, I have absolutely no time to write because I'm being transferred. Things are going good minus all the baptisms that I will miss here in Nonoai. It's all good. I have to pack still. I would like to visit a few families and today has been run run run. Please forgive me. I will write an amazing letter next week for sure. I don't know for sure what will happen, if I will be senior or stay junior, not sure yet but I'm a little anxious to find out. Love you all and pray for each one of you. Muah!!! ELDER RAPP

Ai dos computadores ne!!!‏

2008-04-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hello all,how's my wonderful family doing this week? I just got done with a baptism. It went well. I just hope I stay here to see the rest of the family baptised. A family of like 30 people. Ya, an amazing family. I love it. Well today is a holiday here so I thought the internet wasn´t going to be open, so I'm glad that it ended up being open. Transfers are coming up in a week or so. I don´t want to leave this area now that we are doing well. The companionship is better but well go our ways this transfer. We had an argument today because he unplugs the fridge every night. How does the food stay good when it's warm. I dunno but it is all good now. I took his bed apart today because he likes to sleep on the floor. He's never had a bed so why not continue that way. Things are great, I'm feeling good with another young man in the church now. We have been having some struggles with the ward they don't do much to help. We had a service project on Friday and the only people there were 4 missionaries and one guy from the ward. Ya, we worked all day 10-930 putting a roof on a house. It went well. We went back today and finished the roof over the bathroom. Some of my recent converts are struggling alot. They are single moms with little ones and no one wants to help them. gggrrrr. Here come the elders to lift them up again. At times it can be frustrating, this here work, but in the end well worth it. I am doing great though. I never told you all because you worry, but i hurt my knee a good time ago and my area is full of hills. I have been using a brace for a few weeks to see if it gets better soon. Sis Johnson just recommends tylenol and coke. Blah what kind of meds are those? I don´t drink coke. Well don't worry, I'm pushing along and making my knee work itself back to health. The times are short, you just can´t stop working. Lets get some more families in the church. Well I'm running out of time, so I'm going keep it like it is. I love you all and am praying for each one of you. Thanks so much for all you do for me. MUAH!!! ELDER RAPP

mais um‏
Hey, I never told y'all about the temple. It went well, as usual. It took up our whole p-day and didn´t give us time to work. Bummer but it was great. I wish I could go more often. I really took for granted the opportunity I had to go before I left. But hey there is always room to improve. The hat and gloves, I haven´t found yet, but don´t worry it's not cold yet. Well for me it not so I'll get em soon. Love you, xoxo. Tell my cute little niece she needs to send uncle Jakey some picture that she likes to draw. It's been a while since she sent one. Pics of the fam would be great as well as the album is a bit empty. Love you, ELDER RAPP

Absolutely stunning, breathtaking

2008-04-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

If you want to spend a few minutes in awe click on this website. Wow!
Reflections of Christ

PACIENCIA‏

2008-04-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, Hows my family doing this week? Things are going good here. Its finally cold yeah!!! My comp is freezing his butt off hahaha, but it's only 45 to 50 degrees. Oh I love it. Well I'm sick, that's no fun, but still doesn´t keep me from working. It's all in the head and throat blah but I'm great. If the Brasilians didn´t think I talked funny before, for sure I do now. So ya, things are good. Um SORRY I didn´t email Monday. Pday switched to today because we are going to the temple this afternoon. It's been a while since we had the opportunity so I'm excited. Maybe I'll have a package in the office too! Espero que sim!!! We have a baptism finally, Iuri will be baptized on Monday. Great pday ne? Work is finally picking up. We are having alot of success finding families to teach. That is where I find the most joy. Seeing families joined together in the gospel, it comes with a great power. Life is good and I'm learning so much. My comp and I will probably go our separate ways here in a couple of weeks, now that we are getting along better. Why is it that it works out that way? You fight, fight, fight until things are good and then you get a new one. Then you have to start from the beginning. It amazes me just how much you learn in the short time together. You should have seen the rain on Sunday, Wow. I had to work in it all day and it was the hardest rain I've ever seen. I still miss my snow so I hope y'all enjoyed it for me. I never heard anything about snowboarding did the world stop when I left? The one with the car goes off to the other side of the world and none of the traditions continue. Wait a little over a year and we'll kick it back into the mountains. Get the trailer all fixed up and spend a few days or weeks as a family enjoying the good ol beauties of Idaho!!! Hey and there better be rice and beans at my homecoming or I'll cry. You better do some research on the beans or else I'll have to make them for everyone. I know it sounds yucky rice and beans everyday but I love it so we better give it a try. Well I'm running out of time for today. We have to go to the office to catch the bus to the temple. MUAH XOXO Love you all!!!ELDER RAPP

Oi Minha Familia‏

2008-04-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, Hows everything going for y'all? Things are good here and hot still. I just want some cold for a change. The work is still going with difficulties and all. I'm doing great though. To start after an amazing conference, one thing stuck out to me more than anything that everyone was saying. Tell your family often that you love them. This was something I always made sure I did. So I LOVE YOU GUYS Muah. Anyways how was conference for you all? I missed the Saturday sessions, so missed the solemn assembly. Awww bummer, but hey I'll try to get it on the net and watch it. Sunday afternoon came with a bang, what a powerful session and better yet had investigators there. God had answers to alot of doubts. The Lords work is perfect and never falters. I loved it. What were your thoughts on it all? Did it come with as much power for you guys? I love pres. Bednars talk sun. afternoon. Members should help the missionaries!!! With a room full of missionaries you should have heard the hollers of agreement. We can't bring forth the Kingdom of God alone. We kick it everyday trying to do the will of the Lord, but no matter what we do, we need help. So for those of you that are helping from the bottom of a missionaries hearts, THANKS!!! Well we are looking at a baptism here in a couple of weeks if all goes well. A young man named Iuri that stopped us in the street and said elders I want to be baptised. We are now teaching him and his family and he is close to being baptised. We have also been lead to another amazing family that has potential. After weeks of faith and prayers, to find an amazing family. We were lead to a family of about 15 members. During the lesson I heard a voice as clear as day `Elder this is the family you are looking for!!! Talk about power of the spirit. It only strengthens my testimony that much more of the truthfulness of this work. It is only through the Lord that these things happen. When we strive to do what is right and pray sincerely, the Lord pours out his blessings upon his children. I am so grateful for this work. For the opportunity I have to be a missionary and give 2 years of my life to help the people of Brasil. They are a marvelous people and have taught me so much over the course of 8 months. I know this church is true. I know Thomas S. Monson is a profet of God. If any ANY of you have any doubts about any gospel principle, PLEASE kneel down and ask your father in heaven. He answers prayers and wants the best for his children here on earth. Ether 12:27 tells us of our strengths that start as troubles. I challenge each one of you to kneel down tonight and thank your Father in Heaven for the many blessings he has given you. If you need help DON`T be afraid to ask. I love each and every one of you and pray for you. ELDER RAPP

Minha Familia‏

2008-03-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hello from BRAZIL!!!How are you all doing? Things sound like they are still going good. I'm not having much success this week. The work is still tuff with no beef yet. I think we will baptize this young man named Iuri soon but other than that no one is progressing. I am teaching English classes to try and get new people but none so far. Last class we had there were 12 people and only one or two were investigators. But hey I'm teaching English. Wow that's cool, I'm a red neck that teaches English. DON'T LET THAT GET AROUND!!! Tell Zach that he will be teaching people English when he gets in the field. Well About the ant... fire ants you shouldn´t eat! He was on my fork so I decided it would be fun to eat him. No not fun, he burned my upper and lower lip. But hey I earned something from it. Even the appearance of evil is evil. It may look innocent but really it aint. Well no cool stories today, this week was a slow one. But there is always room for improvement. So how are you guys doing there in Idaho? Is my cute little niece still growing like a weed? And my parents how are they doing still working like crazy and and sleeping real well. I am so grateful for all you keep up the good work and remember you all are ALWAYS in my prayers. Love you tonz!!! ELDER RAPP Ps I would like some crest whitestrips if possible so I can have a brilliant smile!!! How do I spell that word?

Oi Meu Familia!!! ‏ 3/24/08

2008-03-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hello all, How is my favorite family? Things are going good here. We are trying to get the work going again. This last week was a slow one. No one at home because of the holidays. Brazil and holidays, its crazy. So I'm going to have to receive 2 calls on Mothers day I'm assuming. Mom and dad will be in NYC and the rest of you at home. So I think that is how it will have to be. You better buy phone cards for two places then huh!! Things are still HOT here, I'm going on like 11 months of heat and loving it. But when the cold gets here I think I'm going to die. A year of heat and then freezing cold temps arrive. Will be fun. But hey I'm prepared for some cold temps. I miss the cold to be honest. So I'm still with an anti American comp, It's hard to hear someone talk so bad about my home but I'm learning to block that out. Then all is good. Sing in my head or do something to not pay attention. Did I mention I'm a clean freak I'm always cleaning after him. From never cleaning my room to a shining house you all should be proud of me. Well not much cool news this week. It was kind of a drag but went fast if that makes any sense. I caught a tarantula the other day that was soo cool. He was BIG I know I'm crazy you don't have to tell me. And spent 12 hours Saturday rebuilding a house so a member can live in there. It is my last 3 converts house 3 women that know nothing about a house, it was interesting. I had fun though. I have no idea how they were living there before. O something cool, I ate an ant the other day and it turned out to be a fire ant.... Ya not smart he burned the crap out of me and my mouth. Well that it for fun nothing else. I hope you all have an amazing week and I will be waiting for lots of emails k? Muah love you guys!!! ELDER RAPP

K, here's the details...

2008-03-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

So last week he did send me a letter, but alas I never received it. I got two this week cause he resent last weeks. Enjoy!

Lasts weeks letter that I really did send!!!

Well My loving family, How are all of you doing? I'm not as sick anymore and the companionship is a little better. This last week I pretty much killed myself working. I've never had a week like this until now. Could be for a few reasons but I'm not sure which. I am doing good though. The heat here this last week has dang near killed me. I have just spent three and a half hours in a freaking doctors office waiting for my comp to get an eye exam. Ya, they are slow here. This last week was tough. I spent two days with district leaders, zone leader, you name it trying to fix problems with my comp. He really thinks I suck. But hey he's only the first to say that so I can't suck that bad. I've done everything to serve him to follow what he says and still things are rough. He is very anti-American. Everything is better in Brazil, hahah I love it. Man I'm learning alot though. So how are all of you guys doing there? From those snow pictures think y'all are in heaven! I'm in the heat, in pants and a tie walking amidst rejection. Ba, truly I think I'm in heaven sorry. Amidst my struggles I'm having to learn a ton and having been thinking de mais this last couple of weeks. I know who and how I want to be on the mission. I worked my butt of this last week arriving in the house dead everyday. Something sparked my attention and I can't figure out how not to come home each day tired and ready to sleep to wake up the next day and kick butt again. So you all don´t have to worry about me not working or feeling down on myself for any reason. I can truly say I am stronger now than I have been for the past seven months. I pray daily for the strength and guidance to find the people I am suppose to. Amidst our struggles, we find faith, we find our true selves. Thank you all for you love and prayers for me. I have never felt so strong as I do now in my whole life. I have truly learned the power of the Atonement and how my Savior has suffered so I can have joy. The power of prayer is real. In any moment of struggle all we have to do is fall to our knees and thank our Father in Heaven for our Blessing. I like to look at the Profet Joseph Smith when he was in prison and prayed. The Lord spoke to him and said be strong this will be but a small moment. Learn from our mistakes learn from our struggles and take our day to day lives and improve. I'm having troubles finding my word in English but when we look at our knowledge we need to look at how we can use our knowledge to improve. If that makes sense, it does in Port. but I'm not sure in English, sorry. All in all what we should do is look at our blessings and run with them, use our gifts to help others. If we find time in our busy lives to serve others we will be better off in the end. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to give a fraction of my time to serve my Savior. The light I see in people and the changes I see them make because they have a true testimony of this great gospel, Has strengthened me. I bear my testimony to you all that this work is the most important work on the face of this earth. How great we have it to be members of the only true church, The church of our Savior Jesus Christ. Look at what we have and count our blessings. Look forward at what we can do to bring the happiness to so many others. I pray for each one of you daily. I feel the blessings you all are receiving. Thank you for you wonderful love and support for me. Really every prayer said in my behalf is felt. I am growing so much and know that it is the power of prayer. So I would just like to tell each of you thanks!!! Tell Mogie Ellen i Igot the package and loved it. Muahhh I love you all and look forward to your letters next week. ELDER RAPP

This weeks letter that better go through!!!

Hello all, Hows everyone doing this week? Time is flying by so fast. This last transfer, amidst my struggles, has flown. And our numbers have skyrocketed! week #1 30, week #2 38, week #3 27, week #4 57, week #5 64, week #6 74. Ya, we are tired and sleeping well. Working our butts off. Transfers are tomorrow and I am staying here in Nonoai with Elder Alves. Lets' make the most of it. It's really difficult when he doesn´t like me but I'm putting up with it and doing my best to make things work. When I talked to President Johnson he smiled and told me that our troubles become our strengths. It's through our difficulties that we find where we want to be in the future and who we want to be. So what I have decided to do is work, work, work as the numbers are showing and just do my best to be the best missionary I can be. It's difficult at times, but hey we have to make the best of our time. I was called to Brazil to help the people come unto Christ. What I am seeing is that they are benefiting no matter what I do. I seem to be growing more than they are. PMG says that we need to be obedient to all the rules of the mission. Sometimes that is my hardest struggle but I see the fruits when I am obedient. When I was in Canguçu, it was difficult because my comp wouldn´t work. I learned that it is by my obedience and my faith that we can have success. Sadly slackers baptize but we have to be diligent. Well I'm doing great and am working hard. Thank you all for all you do for me. I'm truly feeling your prayers and am always praying for each one of you. Keep working hard and being happy. Love y'all tonz!!! Elder RAPP

Sigh....

2008-03-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well another Monday came and went with no word. I am a little sad today. No worries. I do know he is alive and kicking. I hope he has a safe and successful week.

3/3/08

2008-03-03T12:32:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all, How are all of you this week? I'm still having a hard time and the work and comp are trying my patience. I'm relying on my father in heaven though. Well other than that I'm OK I guess. We watched the incredibles, cars, and ratatouille today. That was fun. p-days are boring here. My comp just likes to sleep and I don't like to stay in the house. When I do I end up cleaning everything and anything I can. I'm a clean freak it's horrible. He's a mess and it drives me up the wall. Well what can you do? Today is the HOTTEST DAY I´VE EVER FELT in the history of my life. I don't even know what the temp is but I'm dying. I'm sitting here at the computer sweating and dying and sweating some more. This last week out of my seven days I only worked five. I'm still sick I think I have a friend in my stomach that doesn´t like me or agree with anything I eat. I was so sick I had to just stay in bed. I was weak and didn´t feel the urge to do anything or even eat. Blaaaah I hope I don´t have to do that again. It's not fun. I'm getting better though I can actually work. Nothing that I eat sits well yet, so we´ll see. Sounds like everything is good at home and is warming up finally. Can y'all send me a black beanie and some gloves before you can´t find em in the stores anymore. I am hearing from everyone that every winter here with humidity is FREEZING so I better have some gloves and a hat. Well I am praying for all of you always and am working my hardest amidst the struggles and sickness. I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you next week. LOVE ELDER RAPP

OI FAMILIA ‏ 2/25/08

2008-02-25T16:00:00.001-08:00

Hey ya'all, How's the worlds best family doing this week? Besides enjoying the freezing cold for me. Don´t worry I got sunburned for you all today. We played soccer with the young men in the ward. I'm not so good at soccer like I was when I was little. That and Brasil lives for soccer but that doesn´t matter neh. Well things improved this week. I am still having troubles with the comp but thats life. I have interviews with Pres. next week so maybe he can help. I made pancakes today for the 4 of us. I miss maple, please send some, it's just not the same without it. We put fresh guava on it so it was still good. I like to pick fruit off the trees when i I'm walking down the street. It's heaven for a fruit lover. But hey what can ya do? The mangos are the size of your head. The grapes are to die for. Ya it is great. We had 2 baptisms Saturday. Whooohooo that makes my second family. They are great they, like to make me food. But I just can´t seem to put on weight so say good bye to those stinkin fat pants. I think I'm in a size 30 now, no really I dont know but it is about that. Five holes in the belt and when I left I wasn´t using the last hole yet so its gone. Sorry. Dont blame me, it wasn´t me its the good food. Well you want stories huh. Hmmm I dunno what stories to tell. Yesterday we tried to teach a drunk guy. That was interesting. He had been drinking since 8 that morning and we taught at 6 so do the math. I told him that he wasn´t gunna remember anything the next morning so just shut up and listen and read the pamphlet tomorrow. It was hillarious. He kept calling my comp German and Russian. And since he's read the bible so many times he knows all about the plan of salvation. Ya, it was sweet. He said he was 1500 years old too um ya, let me tell ya what 1500 yrs sure whatever. So hows life going? Still busy as ever? I keep telling the Sisters in the ward how much I miss spending time with you all. All of those bonding moments and memories that I have keep me working hard. All the things you all taught me, My experiences that I can share with people here. Tell that little brother of mine to write me an email I need to share something special with him!!! Well I'm runnin out of stuff to say. I'll think of some more ok, for next week k. I love you all and am so grateful for your love support and prayers for me. Fyi I ate liver the other day too! Anyways I love you guys!!!! ELDER RAPP

Pics again!

2008-02-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

I think this is one of the maybe zone conferences or something. Don't they look sharp?

This is a pic with Elder Rapp and his companion. The two in white are the ones getting baptized. I think this was his first or maybe second baptism that he participated in.

querida Familia ‏ 2/18/08

2008-02-18T07:01:00.000-08:00

Elder Rapp this last week has had a rough week, but is alive an kickin. Wheew I really thought I had patience, but nope ja era. I'm in Porto Alegre still same but with a new comp, Elder Alves. What a trial. I'm junior still but he is not doing much, so I'm having to take the lead and be senior. It's tough. I've never prayed and read my scriptures so much in my entire life. A normal missionary prays 100 times a day anyway but I'm having to pray 100000000. Life is good though. Still losing weight. Nothing fits anymore, had to sell pants and buy more. So ya the belt has 6 new holes. But I have never eaten so much in my life. The time just changed here we are 4 hours different now. It's still hot as inferno ya know. The heat could kill ya, but enjoy the cold for me . We had a baptism Saturday and have two more this week. We are pushing the work along as best as we can. I've eaten cow tongue and liver. Whooo thats some good eaten there. I tell ya what yalls gots ta try dat. Here soon one of the sisters in going to make me some stomach and intestine whohooo! I always loved the chicken heart, it's some good eating. Well life is struggling along. How are things going for you all? You guys wanted a testimony so here ya go. Eu gostaria Prestar meu testumunho para vocês com amor. Que Esta obra do Senhor e a obra maravilhosa. Que realmente Esta Igreja A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias e a Igreja restaurado aqui na terra. Por meio do um rapaz de 14 anos a Igreja foi Restaurado novamante. Eu sei com todo meu coraçâo que as bençâos que nos podemos receber e atraves nosso obediencia ao mandamentosdo Pai Celestial. Eu amo asse Trabalho. Eu nunca pensei realmente a luz que eu posso trazer por tantas pessoas. Que realmente eu posso ajudar alguem a ter Fe em Nosso Salvador Jesus Cristo. Eu seui que ele vive que ele nos amo. So presisamo buscar ele em Oraçao e ele vai no ajudar. Eu amo cada um de vocês. Você sempre esta em meus oraçoes. Obrigado por todo que vocês fazem para mim. Te Amo!!! E eu digo estas coisa em nome do Meu Salvador e Redentor Jesus Cristo Amèn. You all have an excellent week and work hard. Love you all, and I'll talk to you next week. ELDER RAPP

Woo hoo! Happy day!

2008-02-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

Elder Rapp has officially been on his mission for 200 days today! It seems like yesterday we were loading him on a plane. Since counting each day was a little hard especially in the beginning, I have been counting down the Sunday's and tomorrow he will have 75 more Sunday's till we see him again. Hal says I am a crazy woman. I my missionary!

Querido Familia 2/11/08

2008-02-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Hows my fam in the snow? It's freakin hot here. Things are kickin my butt right now. These last 2 week have definatly been a struggle. I'm having to rely on the Lord a ton. I just got a new companion and whew PATIENCE. He is a worry freak and is always worrying. I am having to teach him the area and help him calm down always. He got really mad at me this morning Cause I'm not doing all I can to teach him the area and the poeple of the ward in our area. Stress, it's a killer. I need a dew por favor for my birthday. We sat down and worked things out so all is well now. On a better side, we have a baptism this Sat and 4 next Sat, so things are improving. I got to watch the funeral of Pres. Hinckley and then we had a training via satelite with Pres Monson, tal vez dad went to that meeting to. They focused on the family and how we are leaders of the church and missionaries need to focus on the family. Things are tough right now but all is going for the better. Sorry about last week, everything was closed for the dumbest holiday in the history of mankind. Naked people in the middle of the road drunk and using drugs it was interesting. Everything is open today. So ya. Sorry this email is short. I'm having troubles with the computer and am needing to go to lunch with some investigators. Thanks for everything. I love you all and pray for all of you always. ELDER RAPP Next week will be better I promise!!

Hmmmmmmm.....maybe busy?

2008-02-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

It seems that Elder Rapp had something going on yesterday as I never received a letter. They may have changed his p-day and never let us know. Sometimes they change the p-day to a different day so they can attend the temple. I am sure we will hear from him soon.

Still waiting...

2008-02-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

I am still waiting for a letter from Elder Rapp. Patience is a virtue and I am slowly learning it. Hopefully soon I will have a new letter to share.

Querido Familia!‏ 1/28/08

2008-01-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

UM what a shock in the life of a missionary!!! I was with one of his apostles Saturday and then I get this news. Sad but at the same time powerful. None of us knew this so huh, Sad. Well all is going well for us here in the HEAT. We´ll have 2 baptisms on the 10th and one more on the 17th the work is improving. The area has been rough this transfer but is turning out well with diligence. It's amazing how the Lord works. Sounds like y'all are enjoying some cold for me neh. Fun I'm jealous. Ba I can´t spell. I'm an idiot in English, sorry be patient with me. Conference with Elder Nelson was amazing a small chapel of 100 missionaries and an apostle. Imagine the power. We all got to meet him and ask questions. It was really sweeet. I taped it but the tape turned out funny. Do you think that someone can turn up the volume and take out the static? If not, o well I took notes I guess. Well I have a few more items that I would like. Those tie things from Farells to hold your ties down a wad of those, The card game uno to play on pday, Maple extract to make maple syrup for pancakes. Wait!!! DUCT TAPE!! The most amazing thing in the redneck world, candy and as usual sunflower seeds. For now thats it I think. With the music dont send it in the normal package, they screen the package for the security bars of electronics and make you pay up the wad to recieve the package. E. Stanger paid equivalent to 200 dollars u.s. for his christmas package. Remember fotos of Christ. Pictures of home family o All that you have of the sacred grove thats a powerful teaching tool. Letters you know the rounds. I have recieved Andrea's package, SWEET snow and all it rocked. Thank you all. I have to think of what I want to say for my Testimony so I dont have it done yet, sorry. Life of a missionary is run, run, run, it's tough to keep up at times. I wonder if Elder Richard Hinckley will still come next month hmmm nao sei. Probably a little later in the month. My time is up gots to go, sorry. I love you all. Muah!!! In my prayers always!!!ELDER RAPP

Pictures

2008-01-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

Another pic with Elder Pires on p-day. Jacob said this boy only weighs like 90 pounds. He is a native Brazilian.

Another p-day shot. Elder Rapp caught a lizard. His name is Elder! This boy is so funny.

Pictures - Time for more pics

2008-01-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

Hmmmmmm.... I think he is taunting the poor cow!

This pic is of Elder Rapp and his companion Elder Pires. They are enjoying beautiful Brazil on p-day. Jacob mentioned this drink to me on Christmas. He said that it is an herbal thing he didn't enjoy when he first tried it. He says now it has grown on him and he loves it. I can't remember the name. The straw is made of metal and has a filter in it to keep the herbs from coming up through the straw.

Querido Familia ‏ 1/21/08

2008-01-21T07:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone! Another week down. Things went really well this week. The teaching shot through the roof, And 2 Baptisms yesterday. From opening an area to baptising, things have improved. Of course we have weeks that are tuff. But they strengthen us neh. Sounds like all is well In Idaho. A bit chilly but what do you expect for Idaho neh. I'm Roasten for you all k? We really had an amazing week, after enough fasting and Praying for things to become better it happened. We doubled our last week. And we found lots of new people that are amazing. I had one lesson that left everyone, starting with me enveloped in the spirit and crying. It's amazing to me how the Lord works. He always has something special in mind for us. It may not always be in our time but it is what we need. This last week was great, the week before strengthened my testimony of the power of prayer. Many of times I found myself kneeling asking for help and Blessings truly came. I am grateful for the power of prayer. It is a blessing in my life. My comp blew up on me on Saturday, it was tough for me. I walked out of the room to Pray. I walked back into that room afterwards and appologized for everything I did wrong and asked for forgiveness. I then told him that it is impossible fo us to work without the spirit and we needed to fix things. Well things turned out good in the end and the day turned out great. It is through our struggles that we grow stonger. I Look at the things I have learned through the eyes of others. What can I learn from them? I then apply those things into my life. These things are for our good. Thanks for all you all do for me it is truly felt. Mommy I want skittles, music, p-nut m&ms, little candies to give to little kids, ctr rings for little kids, starbursts hard candies and Mountain Dew. I know you can get it to me some how. And I don't know what else so ya, and im still confused about the book of mormons in Port. so please explain. Love you all. Thanks for everything you are all always in my prayers. Love, ELDER RAPP

Calma Tchê‏

2008-01-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

Mothers anyway huh! J/k., to be honest with you this last week was a disaster. From our numbers rising to a sudden drop. Blah its tuff. Really testing my patience. Monday through Wednesday 0 lessons 0 new investigators, 1000 street contacts and only 2 addresses. Oooohhhh i was sooo stressed. I'm really learning the power of prayer. I just pray and pray and pray. I don´t know what else to do. My comp and I had a really good talk about the mission this last week. It really opened my horizons. Remember the trek that Joseph Smith took all of those people on? Ya, well there was lots of complaining and oh this sucks you know. Well in the end the future leaders of the church were picked. The 12 apostles were picked. I got to thinking about that. All the trials they had, people sick, people dying. It was a trial of their faith. Now I add it to my life now, the experiences I am having. If I do my best here and shape my life how I want it to be, I know that this will effect the rest of my life. My trials now are strengthening me more than ever. You know I never really looked forward when I was home. I kinda just lived for the moment. There are lots of things I wish I could change. I know I wasn´t doing the bad things and making stupid choices, but I could have done better. I am Living my life now so that I can provide for my family and do my best in life after the mission. It's tuff ya, but it's worth it. These struggles are how the Lord told Joseph in the jail. Your trial will be but a small moment. What we take out of our trials is what will stay with us for the rest of our lives. This is what we need to learn. If ever we are having troubles, just kneel in prayer. We were at an old investigators house last night and she was having some troubles. She said that God did not want to hear her prayers any more. Her faith has gone away. From the moment we left our Father in Heaven, he said Remember who you are. Wow what a strong love he truly has for us. He doesn´t want to see us cry. He doesn´t want to see us hurt but he is carrying us in these moments. It is through our faith, our humility, to ask for help. We have a baptism on Sunday this week. Whoohoo the work and struggles pay off. Oh and Russell M Nelson will be here for a meeting for the missionaries in a few zones, including mine. That has got us pretty excited. I'm really looking forward to it. Well I'll get my testimony ready for you for next week. I would like to organize my thoughts a little better k? I have a question, what do you mean by Portuguese book of mormons. I'm lost in that whole thought. And send me some more sunflower seed bbq por favor. Thanks your the best, and send it in a box. I think you'll be able to send a can of dew that way. At least give it a try for your favorite missionary. PPPLLLEASAsee!!! Any ways life is rough but we are doing our best. Thanks for all you do for me on the other side of the world. Muah! Love you all so very much!!! Atê Proximo Semana Tchao Te ama Love your missionary. ELDER RAPP

Ok I am finally caught up, I think.

2008-01-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

This next letter is the letter he sent this morning. I was in tears as I read this one. He is amazing. I love how much he is growing and learning. His testimony strengthens mine every time I hear it. What a great young man. I look up to him in so many ways. What a great sacrifice to give up two years of your life and go out to a country where they don't speak your language and give of yourself. I am grateful that he is finally getting the Portuguese and understanding more about what is being said to him. They say the first 6 months you spend learning the ropes. He will still learn throughout I am sure, but he is almost there. This last letter to him, I asked for a little more meat so to speak. He came through with flying colors. Enjoy!

Hey 1/7/08 This is Andrea's letter from Elder Rapp

2008-01-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks So much for the experiences. I need to write you all more about my cool experiences. You just can't help but feel the spirit and grow from their experiences. It's great to hear all of you are doing well. My how time is flying. I'm getting ready to burn a tie for six months in the mission here in a few weeks. It doesn't seem like that long, but it really is flying. I have had a ton of rough times with the language, with the people, with my companions, but I grow so much each time I struggle. It amazes me how much the Lord teaches us through our trials. I have seen things here, people totally change through one decision to return to the righteous path. I know that this work is true. This is a marvelous way that we have to gain experience. I love you all and pray for you always!!! Love, Elder Rapp

1/7/08

2008-01-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

Hello all, Things are going great. Sorry your computer sucks. My comp is great. The new area sucked at the beginning because the last two comps he had wouldn't work, so we had to pretty much open the area. Elder Madeiro is great. We are working hard and keep improving every week. The area is good now. We have a Family baptism Jan 19th, it will be great. I'm really seeing how Satan is working our investigators right now. They are prepared to be baptised and he makes them fall again. But they get right back up because they truly want it. Things are improving quickly. I'm growing like crazy. We did service the other day, blah i have blisters like crazy. See what you get for kindness. I Love it though. Thanks for all you guys do for me. I love you all and pray for you always. Keep up the good work. Elder RAPP

12/20/07

2008-01-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

OI Meu Querido Familia, Things are great here in the amazing , hot interesting country of Brasil. Im being transferred again grrr just when i know my area. I'm headed back to POA in the morning. Traveling is not very fun with all my stuff. My bags weigh a million pounds and I swear I don't need it all. They lie when they tell you what to bring. O well Ill pack it all around for a little while I guess. Only a few more months i guess. Almost to the 5 month mark. Time truly is flying. All of your love truly is felt, thanks so much for all you do. I have really drawn closer to you all by being here. I have been truly blessed at home and in the mission field. My Portuguese is improving tremendously now. The Lord truly blesses his missionaries. That power is real I've seen and experienced it. I have seen some amazing things happen here in just my short time. I have a very strong testimony of the church now. I thought I had one before but realize now how much I've grown in the gospel. Miracles actually happen in our lives. I love you all and am so grateful for all of you. Love ELDER RAPP

oi 12/10/07

2008-01-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

Hello family... hows my great family doing this week? I think my mother reads minds... I've been looking for a nativity scene for quite some time now mother. Crazy minds think alike neh. oooo this week was slow for me. We worked our butts off but didn´t get much in return. We had alot of new investigators but other than that we had troubles finding people at home to teach. We had like 18 new investigators I think. Oh I spoke in church yesterday, as usual but the branch Pres. hasn´t figured out that I don´t speak very well in Portuguese. He thinks I can take up a 20 minute block of time... hahaha. Man let me tell you what that's tough in Portuguese. That's tough in English for me. Blah it was interesting. We went on a division with our zone leaders Tuesday an Wednesday so I was in Pelotas for the night. It was good. Their area is completely flat, mine is nothing but uphill everywhere. Oh lunch there was amazing. I don´t know what it was but it was good. No not anything interesting, just amazing and not beans and rice. I never thought I'd say this but I actually like beans and rice. Maybe not for every meal, everyday but its good stuff. I had something I needed to ask you guys to send me but I don´t remember so maybe later. A can of mountain dew would be good. Hint hint next package pppplease since you love me so much. We had churrasco the other day ba! que bomb. It was amazing! Nothing like some good ol bbq every now and then. They don´t know how to cook fish down here, they throw it in some grease for like an hour until its black. Ya not so much liking the fish. I miss the good ol salmon and trout from home. Man reading through this email, it's probably the most random thing ever. I sent you guys something the other day. Let me know when it gets there hopefully not too late. It was 65 reis to send it the faster way so I decided not to send it that way. I´m a missionary, I´m poor. We have zone conference on Thursday. Sweet, maybe I´ll get some mail or packages. Who knows, oh and the conference Ensign. I´ve been waiting for that for a while now, who knows we´ll see. Hopefully we´ll have something interesting to write next week. Speaking of interesting, did I tell you guys about the drunk man? We were walking down the road and there was a man sitting on the side of the road crying. We asked him if he needed help and he just cried. We helped him up and walked him home. Man he was toasted. He couldn't´t even walk. Pretty much had to carry him home. He kept saying amen amen amen to everything we said. It was very interesting. Well I´m going to go for now. Have a wonderful week everyone. I love you all. Thanks so much for all you do for me and all the missionaries out there. You all are always in my prayers. love, ELDER RAPP

4 MONTHS !!! Yeah!!! 12/3/07

2008-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Time flies when your having fun. It has been a great week here in CanguÇu. Working to the best of my ability and kicking butt. Huge week for me, we had like 20 new investigators. Church on Sunday was majority of investigators, few members. Working hard to build the kingdom here. President Johnson last week in Zone meeting said our zone is truly rocking it. We are doing well. Last transfer, this zone had the most baptisms so we´ll see. This transfer is looking even better. And me and my comp baptised. It's been a while since Canguçu had a baptism. We are hopefully gunna have some more really soon, and with all of our new investigators we should have even more. Just working hard and praying for more. No crazy stories this week. I broke our water spout yesterday and water was going everywhere. Had to turn the water off to keep from flooding, that's kinda cool i guess. Oh I was at a members house yesterday and saw snow on the news in the states. Don´t worry I ´m enjoying my tan and my 1000 degree weather thanks. Whoo ya, the humidity really does get ya, just a little bit. I have to drink a ton of water to stay alive and kicking eh. The water here from the tap is disgusting. It's brown half the time so we buy water. Things just aren´t quite as civilized but it truly is an amazing country. You can see a family that lives in a tiny one room shack that is about to fall down but they have a tv. Everyone has a tv not very often do they not. They live for tv down here, which is weird the only thing on is soap operas and news boooorrrring. But i like to watch the Disney movies in Portuguese very cool. They talk normal so I can understand most of it. People on the other hand speak a million miles an hour. Well time is running out. Things are better and I´m not sick anymore so life is good. I love you all and pray for you always. ELDER RAPP

Hello 11/26/07

2008-01-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

Well I´ll give you the good news first. We had a baptism on Sat. It was supposed to be on Friday but she didn´t show up. So it ended up being on Sat. It was way cool. I baptised her. The water temp was good enough to go ice fishing in I´m sure. Things went great. She came to church yesterday and was confirmed. Ok now the bad news... you ready... you ready now... ok already calm down... relax i´m working on it... ok here it goes, This week has been really slow on work as I can´t handle much. I felt pain in my eyes and behind my eyes staring on Monday. It then moved into my head and my whole body. ZERO ENERGY ya, it pretty much sucks. This occurred for 6 days until I finally decided what I was taking to fix the problem wasn´t working. So yesterday I called President and Sister Johnson and said what is going on, and how can I fix it. They gave me permission to get the real drugs that totally make you feel good. We can´t buy medicine without their permission by the way, so I took it yesterday and tried to sleep my pain away. Yep it worked. I didn´t have to speak in church because of it, that was nice. Today only my eyes hurt. It's like someone punched you in the eye really hard, that type of feeling Ya so this week has been pretty rough for me other than the baptism. I found myself checking the snow report for Big Sky to see how things were for you guys. Did anyone do any skiing, boarding, sledding, snow angels, any of my favorites? We are going to go on another hike today with some of the kids in town. This area rocks. It's not boring. It has tons to do on p-day. Is hunting season over yet? Daddy needs an elk. That's alright, get him out duck hunting. I think he´ll like it. I love it, so it can´t be to bad eh! Jordan will know where to go. Maybe call Zach, he´ll help ya. Well times are good here. I´m healthy for the most part now. I will keep working my best. I´m loving the work. The language can at times kill me, but it's coming along faster. Oh, one more thing, I caught a lizard the other day. It was sweet, named him Elder. hahaha I´m an idiot, I know. Well I love you all and hope you have a great week. Muah! Loves from literally the bottom of the world. Love, ELDER RAPP

Hello ‏ 11/19/07

2008-01-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Things are going great I´m a bit jealous you all get to go play in the snow without me. It's stinking hot here no chance of snow. EVER! I´m in Conguçu now, with a Brasilian comp. I´m excited to be here. We have a baptism on Sat. I have a ton of work in store for me here. E. Pires finishes his mission in 4 weeks, so I will take over the area. Show my new comp the routes. We have a lot of investigators with baptismal dates so we´ll work hard. The area is huge and nothing but hills. I don´t think I told you but I punched a new hole in the belt. All your bets for being fatter when I come home are gonna lose. hahah I win. When you send a package I need my camera cord that I didn´t bring. My last comp had the same camera so he had the cord but I need one now, and tape pics of Jesus on the packages. It makes the Brasilians feel bad when they are tempted to steal it. hhahahaha got ya good punks. That's my candy! Scratch the gummy candy, it will melt and be gooo when it gets here. I´m going on a hike today, hopefully if it doesn´t rain. I have tons of pics to send but no way to send them so as soon as that cord gets here i´ll send them. I hope you guys have a blast at the condo do some playing for me too. Tell John and Ronda and the kids hi for me. Muah love you all. Things here are great I´ve never work this hard but love it. Its a bit more rewarding than normal work. Oh and by the way I can´t speak English, it sucks. I´m in between languages right now. Starting to get Port, but forget English, its sweet. I prayed in English the other day and it was horrible. Like a child seriously. Not even kidding ya. Oh there is a red neck here in Conguçu. I fed the cows and chopped wood last week, it was great. I felt at home. Except the snow of course. What is the snow report anyway? You should send me a snow ball, that would be sweet. I'm a dork I know. Pics of all the crazies there, laying in the snow, you know the good ol times, and pics of everyone. I love you all. Have a great week. Have a blast. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. I´ll enjoy my beans and rice since Brasil doesn´t have Thanksgiving. Muah! love y'all, Elder Rapp

11/12/07

2008-01-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

This is the only one i got besides the one from daddy. Things are going better this week the past couple have been tons of work with little to show. We have lots of new investigators and some made huge progress by going to church like they've been promising since I got here. I had a very interesting Sunday yesterday. I woke up and was like I´m speaking today Elder. Ya it sucked. Just when you think you can speak alright you have to speak in church. I didn´t have a topic so I threw some thoughts together about Prophets and Joseph Smith. It seemed to go all right except I´m not sure exactly if I tied it all together very well. It is still hard for me to think in Portuguese. I´m getting there though. I will find out today if I´m staying in Nilo wulff or not. Transfers were supposed to be Wednesday but now they're tomorrow. fun huh... not I might have to pack everything and catch a bus. I don´t know if I mentioned it but I hate the bus. There is always too many people on it. I went on a division to another area about 45 min from here the other day. Ya it was with a Brasilian comp. It was rough, he made me teach a ton. I didn't know where to start but he said it was good so ya. oo I had something other than beans and rice yesterday. Wow, lasagna or however you spell it, it was amazing. Well all is well here. Wait did I tell you we are teaching deaf people? Way cool, yesterday they prayed in sign language. That was way awesome. I hope I stay here. There are tons of people I want to see baptized, but it's all in the Lords hands so I´ll go anywhere. I love you all! Have an amazing week and I will talk to you next week. ELDER RAPP

Hello from Brasil ‏ 11/5/07

2008-01-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Hows things in Idaho? I bet it isn´t as hot as Brasil. It is now summer I believe with 100% humidity, its quite fun. I love my cold showers now that's for sure. There's nothing like coming home after a long days work and taking a cold shower. But apparently I don´t know heat yet. It must still be cold here or something. Everyone wears pants and long shirts still. On really hot days no one wears clothes. It seems the clothes just don´t exist, blah, no good. Today has been kinda just a relaxing day we have no money so we went to a members house and watched a movie and ate the worst beans and rice I've had yet. Very very salty today. Things are going great still. Well people aren´t wanting our message and people aren´t investigating but other than that things are great. We had a black guy the other day say he didn't want our message because we are white that was cool. In his words `what color is God huh? Do you really know what color he is? That was interesting. We had some churrasco the other day. It was amazing. I could eat just that everyday, but I will live with beans and rice. Whats the word on the condo it seems to be coming up really fast. I think that I´m missing the snow huh? No fair do you think you could send me some? Just a little bit though. Al right just pictures of other all will be great lots of them please. Even if you have to print them the cheap way that will work for me. This first transfer is almost through whoo time has really flown by. I feel like I just got to Porto Alegre but it has been a whole month already. I believe by the end of next week I will know if I´m staying here in Nilo Wulff or not. I really would like to stay now that I actually know where I´m at and have some friends. A few people speak a little English so that helps. The Portuguese is still rough, but I´m learning alot more here than in Sao Paulo. That was an Americanized English speaking place. Ya, but it was a great learning experience. I miss it, but wouldn´t want to go back, confusing I know but its true. I never told you all but I participated in a few Portuguese blessings last week. It was was sweet. I anointed and my comp blessed. It was very powerful. I understand most words but am having trouble putting sentences together to figure out what they are saying. I think I speak better than I understand at this point. I´ll keep chuggin along and working my but off. Ya the weight has dropped tremendously. I´m gonna come home hopefully skinny. If i keep going at this rate I will for sure. Something about walking a 100 miles a day will do that to you. Well I love you all and you are all in my prayers. I want Andrea's email address so I can write my fav sis. k . thanks a million love you guys. until next week have a great week. muah! ELDER RAPP

Hello ‏ 10/31/07

2008-01-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Another week down and almost done with first transfer. Whoohoo! I know I know you want stories. I haven´had much to tell you story wise so I will tell you about my life. It starts out at 7 am, wake up, and work out, eat, shower you know. Then we study till about 11 30 and go to our lunch appt. AND EAT A TON of food mostly beans and rice. We then go back to the house and study some more. 3 or so we go to work visiting people and teaching till 9 or so. Then its back home for planning time and get ready for bed. I´m in bed by 11. most nights... Day after day that is what i do. I played futebol with the neighborhood kids on my first p-day here in Restinga. The culture here is great I love it. They don´t knock on doors here they clap doors. Interesting huh. so i can say as a fact that Ive never had a door slammed in my face here. huhuhu I´m sure some would like to say that in other missions in the world. Lets just say my mission IS THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD!!! We had a lady answer her door and say we could come in so she went in to get the keys to her gate ,everything is gated fyi, so we thought she went to get them... nope she left us out there. We waited for like ten minutes and then left. We have had alot of success getting new investigators but they all move away before their baptismal date. We had one scheduled for the 27th of Oct. and she moved the 26th. Difficult people huh? One of the parts of our area is very ghetto, I´m talking people living in one room shacks made of thin boards. We hear a lot of guns going off in that area. No worries we are very safe. I promise, breath. One of the kids in my district in the ctm, I was talking to him in the mission home last week and he was on a split with some elders in another area. They were walking down the street and saw a guy walk up to another and shoot him in the back of the head. Crazy!!! That area is now closed. His first split on the mish and he sees that yikes. I´m sorry, I shouldn't´t tell you stories like that. I´m in a safe area and I live in a safe neighborhood so all is well. My house is sufficient for 2 people. It is made of 1 layer of brick. Ya interesting. All the houses are that way besides the shacks. My washing machine, hhahaha get this.. its like a barrel with a hose going into it and a small thing on the inside that swirls the water a bit. Cool huh? You can pass that on to the elders in the states. Nope we don´t have dryers, they don´t exist. We have a clothes line. Don´t ask me how my clothes will dry in the winter when it rains for weeks at a time. We will have to cross that bridge when it comes huh? Well my time is short so I love you all and am praying for each of you. Oh before I go I have a wish list for goodies hint hint. They have 11dollar flat rate envelopes you can cram full. Sunflower seeds (spits smoked bbq), tropical skittles, beef jerky, gummy any thing but more specifically gummy frogs. Ask Jordan he will know, mt dew if you can get a can or 2 in a package, and honey roasted peanuts. That will do for now. Happy Halloween too. I love you all. Until next Monday, tchao Love, ELDER RAPP

Ok mother breath for me 10/22/07

2008-01-09T13:54:00.001-08:00

Hey y'all, Everything is great in Brasil. Kind of had a rough week but I´ll get to the food subject first. Oh Mother I love you. You make me laugh. You don´t need to worry at all. I´m eating plenty. We study all morning and go to lunch at a members house, eat a HUGE lunch and go back to work. K, then we get home and have our daily planning session and go to bed. See it's not like we´re starving. We eat tons, no need to call Pres. or anything k. Love ya! So its good to hear hunting season is going well. I´m proud of you daddy. Don´t let anyone make fun of how small she is just remember your son shoots tiny ones every year eh. You can´t be too picky when it comes to hunting not all the time are you going to find what ya want. They all taste good to me. Elk season is really where its at anyway. Oh everyone makes fun of me cause I´m a redneck. Apparently I have a thicker redneck accent than I thought eh? They like all of my hunting and fishing stories though. Well hows things going this week? Getting excited for the condo yet? SOOOOOOO JEALOUS, snow would be heaven right now. It is getting really HOT now we had the 100´s for quite some time now and humidity on top of that with huge mosquito's huh. Sounds like heaven to me. Blah it has been a bit warm. By the end of the day I´m tired and hot and ready to sleep. It´s hard work that is for sure. Last week was rough, alot of rejection. We did our best but didn´t get a whole lot of feedback from the people here. Oh by the way my area is Restinga Nova Nilo Wulff. I told you wrong. So ya, things are going well other than people aren´t wanting to hear our message. We only had 1 investigator at church on Sunday that was a bummer. We had a baptism scheduled for the 27th but she fell through for that day. She was supposed to be at church in order to get baptised on the 27th but we´ll push it back a week or so. Things are great I will have to figure out how to get some pictures on here for you. I have some wild ones that will give you the willies. Spiders the size of my head you know. Oh you should see my washing machine its tight. Well I´m out of time for now. I love you all so very much and pray for you always. keep up the good work. Jordan buddy send me a email this week. Bud i want to hear how things are going. It doesn´t have to be long, but send me something k? Love ya. ELDER RAPP WHO IS EATING TONZ!!!!

Hello from the bottom of the world ‏ 10/15/07

2008-01-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

Another week has come and gone. Life in the field is great. We had a baptism on Friday. Whoo hooo that boosted my spirits and made me want to work harder. We have 9 others marked for the next month or so. Things are going well. I still can't speak or understand much but it is coming slowly. I just have to be patient. They are getting rid of the pouch system, so no more sending things through that. My address is ELDER RAPP - missao Brasil Porto Alegre Sul - AV. Princessa Isabella 342-B - Santana - Porto Alegre/RS 90620-970 - Brasil Pass it on please. So it's sounding like things are going well. Minus the luck with those deer. I miss that part of Idaho. Hunting season, the mountains, the cold mountain air. Here its flat. Brasil's idea of mountains are hills. Ya fun huh. Send an Idaho redneck to a place that is flat. But things are going well. I still don´t eat a whole lot. Don´t worry Mom, I´m not starving. I just eat once a day and fast for 24hours. I´m still alive and kicking. Food here is beans and rice mostly. They have what is called churrasco which is the best bbq in the world. I love it. Big huge chunks of meat over a pit of coals. AMAZING that's the only way to describe it. I had pizza last week that was kind of gross. It didn´t agree with any of us the next day. A little boy threw up while we were eating there. That should have been the first sign huh. We´re all healthy now. My comp has the flu and has for the last week, so we´re trying do get rid of that. Oh i caught a lizard in our house the other day but he escaped his cage man. Everything is great here. I love you all and pray for each of you constantly. Know that I love you and am with you always. Ate Logo ELDER RAPP By the way Rapp is a very popular name here they all like my name.

Haven´t been able to talk in a while huh ‏ 10/8/07

2008-01-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody!!! How's things in the great state of Idaho? Sounds like things are going great, hunting season in full swing and snow on the ground. 2 years and i´ll be back in the woods. I´m missing my mountains. I´m in the southern part of Porto Alegre called Nilo Wulff. It's completely flat. Cobble stone roads, dirt roads. you know. We do have hot water every now and again. I have had 3 meals since I got here on Thursday. I´m doing great. I do have some advice for you, Feed the missionaries. hahaha I thought that would make you laugh. But really we don´t eat a whole lot. I´m grateful to be here though. My new companion is E. Rasmussen. He is from Utah, imagine that everyone is from Utah. Things are going great. I love the area, the people, my companion. We have 10-12 baptisms scheduled right now so we´ll see how those turn out. A 14 year old young lady named Brenda is supposed to be baptised on Saturday. I´ll let you know how that goes next week. We contacted a lady named Cristiani last week and have taught her twice now. She agreed to be baptised on the third of next month and seems to be doing well. We continue to pray for new investigators because we aren´t finding a whole lot right now but we have been blessed with lots of references and other contacts. We ´ll continue to work hard and let the spirit work in their hearts. Conference was great. I missed Saturday night and the priesthood session but the rest of it was great. I saw the trees changing colors on temple square. I miss that but oo i´ll be alright. I need some more pics of home. Anything would be great so send them in the mail if you would. I need some hunting pics of me and everyone too. How is hunting season going by the way? Is anyone even going now that i´m gone. The mission field is great i can understand a word or two here and there but that's about it. It takes alot of patience most of the time and can be at times really frustrating. I´m learning faster here than i was in the ctm. I have my patriarchal blessing and Meghans ady so i think we're good there. I believe it is right so i will send her letter there this week. Last weeks was sent to the house. So ya, how long is it taking to get there? I have limited time this week so I love you all and pray for each of you personally. I know that this gospel is true and the blessing are without number. I know that this is where I am to be right now and things will be great. We will learn from our trials and grow so much. Pray always and know that your Father in Heaven loves you. I love you all. Thanks for all the prayers and letters. Keep sending them, it is good to here from ya´ll. Love, ELDER RAPP

We received this handwritten letter after he arrived in Porto Alegre 10/2/07

2008-01-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

Dear family,
We have passed another milestone. Today is October 2, 2007. I arrived in Porto Alegre this morning at about 10:00 so 7:00 there. We were up about the time Jordan went to bed. 3:00 came very very early this morning. The flight went well. I'm really tired after all that waking up early and traveling stuff. We had lunch with President Johnson and his wife today. Dominoes pizza baby! It was good to have something other than beans and rice for a change. Although the CTM was very American in all of the food and living. Well everything is going great. I'm healthy. I'm happy. All is well. I love you all. Thanks for the package and all the American candy.
Love you all,
Elder Rapp

Handwritten letter when he arrived at the MTC 8/1/07

2008-01-08T17:46:00.000-08:00

Well it's here. I'm in the CTM. The work begins. I am so excited. My time here is going to be amazing. I Love it already. It is so great. The trip here went great, flights were all fine, a little cramped but I'll live. My companion is Elder Zundel from Ogden, Utah. He is a great kid. We will get along great. I'm so excited to be here. The town of Sao Paulo is very dumpy but the church is still true. Weather is great. Everything is fine. My first meal was beans and rice. I get to drink guarana everyday now. It's good stuff. Pass along to Justin that I love him and Savannah as well. Classes start tomorrow bright and early. I'm pumped, never have been nervous yet. Thanks for the letter Mom. I love you guys. This will be so awesome. The blessings you will receive will be tremendous. We get more Elder's tomorrow, native Brazilians. What great people they are. You walk down the street and get smiles and opas. They are just amazing people. Prep-day will be Tuesdays or Wednesdays. I'm pretty sure letters only take 7 days or so to get there so you will get this soon. (we didn't get it for like 3 weeks!) Read the back of this carefully so that you don't make a mistake and I have to pay taxes on stuff. Well I'm going to get back to work. I love you all. You're in my prayers. I bear you my testimony that the church is true and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. I testify that I've been called to serve in Brazil from a true and living prophet through the inspiration of God. Jordan hang in there bud. You're an amazing kid. There is no doubt in my mind that your true potential is so great. I love you Bro. and am praying for you. I challenge you to start reading the Book of Mormon again. It will help you I promise. Tell Meghan I love her and she is in my prayers. I love you guys. The church is true.
Love,
Elder Rapp

Good Morning ‏ 9/26/07

2008-01-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!!! I´m in my last week. Today is my last p-day in the ctm. Time has flown. I´m really excited to get into the field and work hard. The CTM has taught me me so much. My testimony of the gospel grows so much on a daily basis. Not to mention my pant size. J/K i do eat 3 meals a day but i haven´t grown much. Its more a healthy well balanced diet. Nottin like mommas cookin do. I miss American food believe it or not. While we were proselyting last Friday a couple of the Elders got McDonald's and said it was amazing so maybe i´ll get some in the airport on my way out of São Paulo. I´m excited to get into a little more open area but i´ll probably be in the heart of Porto Alegre now that i want some space. I´ll live i guess. How's hunting season going for Archery Justin maybe if i ask you specifics you'll write me and tell me. How ya are buddy. I miss ya man. Job changes and everything your probably doing alot of work right now but i´m still waiting to here from ya bud. Jordan's turn... How's the Junior way of life now. It was a big jump for me. I really had to step it up in my work. Sophomore year was kinda layed back not much work so i struggled at first. Hang in there and work hard but stay focused on your school work it is important. Looking back I wish I would have done a better job in school. I know you get caught up in the moment and caught up with friends but there is time for school, so work hard. Tell Ed hi for me and Ms Jansma as well. Get me their real email addresses and give them mine so I can talk to them. Por favor. I love you bud I pray for you every night and know that you are doing well. Keep up the good work. Well this last week has been pretty slow, alot of review in my Portuguese learning. I´m still struggling more than the others in my district but am going to step up my confidence in myself and do the best i can. We had alot of really good spiritual experiences through out our district while proselyting last Friday. Alot of us talked to some very interesting and interested people. We went to a place with alot of homeless people. I t is known for the yellow fountain there. I´m sure you can guess why!!! Ya the place reeked of urine. I saw some homeless people fighting, that was pretty funny. A couple of drunk old men trying to beat each other up. I laughed a little bit. A couple of the missionaries met a homeless guy that was a member many years ago and had no money so he left the church, and is now living on the street. He had a strong desire to get back into the church but didn´t know how. These elders helped him read some of the Book of Mormon and some of the great promises in there. He really wanted to pray so they prayed with him.
They said that he just sobbed after words. What a great experience they had and I´m sure the spirit was so strong at that moment. It amazes me how much the spirit teaches me. I love having those constant feelings of warmth and comfort from him. My companion and I talked to a young man who has studied alot about our church and believes it but struggles with the fact of modern day Prophets. He said that he would keep studying and try to find out more about us so we can only pray for him. I was with Irmão Bonetti later when we were almost ready to leave and we went and talked to a guy on the steps of this huge theater in the city. As I fumbled through my Portuguese he began to light up. I felt like he would read The Book of Mormon I gave him. I bore my testimony of its truthfulness and I believe that he will be blessed by reading it. I know he will read it. All these make my testimony grow so much. I love this gospel and this great work. Sometimes it is frustrating but that is part of the WORK part of things. I have enjoyed my time at the ctm but am anxious to get to the field. I know this Church is true and am so very grateful to serve here in Brasil. I know that Gordon B. Hinckley is a prophet of God and he receives modern day revelation for us. We are blessed to live in these days. The sins of the world are great right now but that can only make us stronger. I love you all and thank you for all your prayers in my behalf. I pray for each one of you and know that you are being blessed. Love You All, ELDER RAPP

Temple pics and Elder Rapp's favorite Barbecue

2008-01-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

This one is the Campinas temple. I think Elder Rapp said this one is about an hour from the MTC.
This one is the Sao Paulo Temple. The Missionary Training Center or MTC (Elder Rapp refers to it as CTM in his letters) is in Sao Paulo.

This is Elder Rapp in front of the Porto Alegre Temple. On their preparation days while in the MTC, they were able to go to the temple a few times. They attended the Sao Paulo Temple and also the Campinas temple while there. This temple is in his mission area and when he is serving close to Porto Alegre, he has the opportunity to attend this temple.

This is Elder Rapp's favorite barbecue. Being a hunter, he loves his meat. Hee hee he rants and raves over this stuff. It is called churrasco. He says it is the best barbecue in the world and described it as "AMAZING".

almost finished ‏ 9/19/07

2008-01-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

Wow what a week. This week has been in some ways the hardest. Everyone is ready to get out of the ctm and into the real world. We have had a lot of contention in the district, but we all talked last night and cleared things up. E. Darlington exploded, it was quite interesting, but things are good now that our feelings are out there. Just got back from the São Paulo temple. It is a very beautiful temple. The inside is so beautiful I don´t think i could describe it and have it be close enough to its beauty. P-days go for Americans Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then Brasilians on Thursday. There are only 3 places w/ computers so our time is really limited. We can´t use the ones at the ctm for anything other than the TALL program to learn Portuguese. We can only mail letters outside of the ctm. We only have 2 weeks left as of yesterday. whoo hoo! I´m excited to get to Porto Alegre and find out that I've been learning something they call Portuguese, but really isn´t how people speak. There are 21 or us flying out to Porto Alegre on September 2, 12 americans and the rest Brasilians. The brasilian missionaries are so funny. They think i´m crazy because of my A D D which by the ways is coming out real nice now that I know everyone. I´m still mellow compared to alot of people. The food is all staring to taste the same. My appetite is shrinking, so no worries about me needing to buy a new bunch of pants. I had a pen explode on my shirt pocket last week. Sweet huh? Ruined my shirt and my garments. fun fun fun. Sister Cardon has been working on them for a few days trying to get it out, but we´ll see how it turns out. I took pics, so as soon as I get in the field, I´ll send you all pics of Brasil, my ctm comp, my new comp, the whole nine yards. Can I tell you how bad I hate typing. I wish i would have worked a little harder in computer classes. This takes me forever. You´d think by 19 a brother would be able to use a computer effectively. Not much new in the ctm. We go proselyting on Friday again this time to a place with a fountain all the homeless people use as their bathroom. Yummy i´m excited. Brasil is not quite like the us eh!!! A bit different but not quite third world country. We´ll say second world. Ok ready for the highlight of my week. Tuesday night devotional last night was amazing. Normally we have like Stake Presidents and area authorities come speak, which are good still, but a little more special would be nice. You know Provo gets like General authorities all the time. Where's the love for Brasil? We are important too and the church is still true down here. Ok enough blabbing, I´ll get to the point. President Didier, president of the 1st quorum of the seventy came. He is over all of the missionary work in Brasil. What a great meeting. I hope that we get more meetings like that before i leave. He spoke on commitment more or less. Not looking at how we are now, but looking at how great we will become in the future. What a great talk. He told us that learning a language was easy. Ya easy for him who knows 6 languages fluently. I´ll get there with time, I just have to be patient. My growth already amazes me. I didn´t realize how much I actually knew before I came, and now to see my growth, makes me want to keep studying and working hard so that i can grow even more. Sometimes it seems like 12 hours of study in a day isn´t enough I want more. There are more things I want to do in a day than my time allows. Well time is short, so I´ll wrap it up. I know that this gospel is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He lives and loves me. I have taken upon me his name as a representative of him. How truly blessed I am to have the opportunity to serve in Brasil. I love the people and pray for them to feel the spirit through me. I love this gospel and I love this Work. The church is true. We have a living prophet upon the face of the earth today. He speaks to our Father in Heaven and receives inspiration for us. I love this work and bear you my testimony of its importance in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Love you all, ELDER RAPP Thank you all so much for the prayers in my behalf.

another week gone ‏ 9/12/07

2008-01-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Everything is going great. I´m finally starting to pick up on Portuguese. Our Brasilian roommates left yesterday. It was sad. I already wrote you all an email but the computers crashed so I'm back trying it again. Good thing cause now i can tell you what candy i NEED, ya need. I'd kill for some candy right now. Um lets see, skittles, tropical ones. Por favor. Watermelon sourpatch, Jordan will know which ones. Lots of jolley ranchers, some twizzlers any flavor but black, jolley rancher again. Chocolate will probably melt so none there, and chocolate down here is amazing for that matter. Anything you can stuff in there, letters you know. Its all good. Pics of everyone. Well i´ll do my best with the little time i have now. Stupid computers. Last week went very well. I went proselyting again, this time in a park instead of a busy street like times square. It was great. I learned that I must always have a prayer in my heart and did much much better than before. The spirit was really working hard through me and my comp. It is really amazing to see peoples faces light up and fill with happiness and peace. My testimony has grown so much every day that I´m here. I spend all my time studying and its paying off. My Portuguese will come with time, it still has its frustrating moments. We got a new elder in our district that was supposed to fly with us from SLC on to Brasil. He broke his leg like the week before so he has been in Provo for 5 weeks. Elder Cavacante and I have been helping each other with our languages, but now he left me. I was just up in my room a little while ago and they set some new places for roommates, so hopefully we´ll get some more Brasilians. Its starting to get really hot. I´m dying in this 1000 degree tiny 4x4 shop typing in the sun. j/k It isn´t quite that hot, maybe 80 -85, somewhere in there with some humidity. Way to kill my shirts with sweat stains. Thanks alot sun. I need you to send me like a bank report so I can see what the card is charging like. I´m going to have to take out 80 reis next week so it will be about 40 bucks us dollars. I ordered some stuff for my scriptures, and of course some snacks for my last couple of weeks. So if you would send me a bank statement that would be wonderful. I need to know if debit is cheaper. I think it is but am not 4 sho. I used it like twice already for internet usage. Tell my brothers i love them and keep working on Jordan to write me. I appreciated what I got from him, it made my day. If you guys like dear elder better, that comes for me on Thursdays, so that would be fine. Emails are great, whatever works out best for you all at the time. If you haven´t already sent me that blank card for Meghan, you can send it with the book. Um just to be safe send the package to Porto Alegre because packages seem to be taking a while to get here from the states. Sister Smith can only send so much from the ctm to the mission home, so just go ahead and send it straight to my mission. Por favor obrigade boa tarde. Well time is running low so i must be going. Thanks for everything. I love you all. Tell everyone hello and I love them. Thanks for all the prayers. Give Meghan a great big hug for me and tell her thanks for the package. I know that this church is true and that the work I´m doing is called of God. The blessings are all receiving now and in the future are without number. I love this gospel and I love the spirit being a missionary brings me. I get to be engulfed in it every second of my day. That alone is priceless. I love you all. Be safe. You're all in my prayers everyday, which by the way is about 500 times a day that we missionaries pray. Love you all, ELDER RAPP

HELLO EVERYONE ‏ 9/5/07

2008-01-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

Wow, time is flying by down here. It must be something in the guarana. jk things are going great. I had an awesome week last week. We taught member families from São Paulo. It was kind of scary at first but i warmed up. No worries anymore my shyness is pretty much gone. Remember all the times you all said my a d d would drive everyone crazy, well i´m mellow compared to the most of them. Haha I win love you. We lost a member of our district last week. Elder Holt has been sick since he got here so they sent him home on medical leave. It pretty much sucked. We were all sad and many prayers went out in his behalf that he would get it figured out and get back out in the field. You are all probably just barely getting up. Sometimes i wish i could sleep in a little bit. 12 hours of studying in a stinking chair in a tiny classroom with 12, well 11 other people, whew it gets tiring. I went to the dentist yesterday because I lost that filling again someone needs to go figure out why they aren`t staying in my mouth. Anyways it is a little weird having someone speaking a million miles an hour in a language that sounded to me nothing like Portuguese. That will make you go crazy. I watched the whole thing on a tv screen via the camera in my mouth. That was cool i thought. So beans and rice everyday for every meal are getting a little old. I`d kill for a junior bacon cheese burger right now. No temple today the Sâo Paulo one is closed for cleaning this week. My computer is being dumb. This will take all day. I can`t put in any punctuation. I am going proselyting on Friday this week. It will be great. I'm not scared to approach people anymore. President Cardon ctm pres said something cool. "YOUR NEVER JUST BUYING BANANAS." So we need to talk to everyone around us, strike up conversations. Well its harder since i don't speak Portuguese very well, but i will get it. Speaking of fruit, did i tell you i have fresh fruit in front of my face always? I`ve eaten watermelon everyday no joke since i got here. Fresh pineapple, guava, grapes, bananas, hmmm what else ? Papaya, its kind of flavorless. All the guarana i can drink, whooo its good. They have a drink called bliss. It's like gogurt only a little thinner so i drink yogurt every meal. Meat is another big thing here in Brasil. There will always be come kind of meat for breakfast. They eat bread and cereal. what else, hmmm I dunno. Do you have any questions I might could answer? I`ll tell you about the city a little bit. Picture the skyline of N.Y.C. , huge buildings everywhere. Multiply that by one hundred as far as the eye can see, nothing but huge buildings. The roads here are like small one lane, except the freeways are like twelve. Motorcycles everywhere weaving in and out of traffic. I know one is going to get hit while i`m here. The roads are like a plate of spaghetti. Good luck finding your way around. The temp is probably 75- 80 degrees on a warm day and 50 to 60 on a cold day, so ya not too bad. Porto Alegre is known for their cold times. They say that those people who live in Alaska get cold! It rains alot and the wind pierces to the bone. Whoo Idaho aint gunna affect me no more. Did you like that English? Haha i´m still waiting to hear from my cute little brother. Come on man, I miss you! I want to hear how life's going. I´m in my 6th week now and haven´t talked to you. Love ya bud, your the man. Keep your spirits high and shoot for the stars. Anything is possible. I know how much potential you have and i know that you can do great things. I should have brought my study journal with me. I found a great scripture for you. Oh well, I will get it for you later. So hows Justin doing? I haven´t heard much about him for a while, and Andrea, Justin and Mykl? I've received some letters from them. Mykl drew me a picture. It made me smile! I could get pictures from her everyday and love it. Shes growing up too fast. Well my time is up so i better wrap it up. I love you all so much and appreciate your prayers. They are truly felt. The lord will bless us all. Keep the faith! Mom and Dad, I love you so much. Thank you for everything. It truly means alot to me to be brought up in the gospel. I never really knew how blessed I really am until I got down here. Most of the Brasilians here in the ctm are the only members in their families, and are new to the gospel. What a testimony builder to me! They come here with a small suitcase holding everything they own and I came here with two and another bag. I know that these people are children of God, that he blesses their lives by bringing them the missionaries. The people here are ready for the light of the gospel. They dream about it day and night. They pray and pray for us, their angels to appear to them, and bring them the true gospel. I love this work with all my heart, and pray that I may affect even just one life here. I pray for the spirit to guide me to the people God has prepared. I know this church is true! Em nome de Jesus Cristo Amèm Mom will you do me a favor and send me a birthday card for Meghan. Her birthday is November ninth. I want to send her a pretty one from you and then send it back to you to send it with a dozen roses for her. Do you think you could do that for me just a pretty card with no writing in it yet. Thanks a million. Love you all, TCHAU ELDER RAPP