Christmas packages, happiness and mustaches

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  The highlight of our day was to get to talk and see Elder Darke!  He is doing very well and claims not to be homesick yet.  He loved the packages and letter/emails that he's received.  He seems to be trying to comfort us from thousands of miles away - just like his usual self!
From Elder Darke:

This week was super fun!

    So as I hope you all know it was Christmas!  They do celebrate Christmas here in brazil and it is very simmilar to Christmas in the states (as far as I could tell :D).  All the stores had Christmas specials and Christmas trees!  I saw Santa Clause and there were red decorations everywhere.  But these are just the physical signs of christmas, it goes much deeper.

    The spirit of Christmas was here as well.  It penetrated into every heart and it was very noticable.  Everyone seemed happier, it was easier to talk to people and give out pamphlets and books of mormon.  As my companion and I were working I just kept thinking how we are representivites of Jesus Christ and how Christmas was the day of his birth.  So Christ was definatly in this Christmas.

    This week I also received some packages and letters!  It made me so happy to have them!  Thank you for sending them!  I have so much candy now that I am sure that I will be fat if I keep eating it though :D.

    So I have taught more then usuall this week!  Not becuase we have more lessons or anything, but becuse my companion trusts me a little bit more so he is giving me more oportunities to teach.  The thing about teaching is, I cant really understand what they are saying, so I am still heavily dependant upon my companion to help me.  But I am glad I am having a greater chance to help people learn about the gospel (even if at times they dont understand me).

    Something that made me really happy though is that in the news I have received I have heard stores where many of you are trying extra hard to teach the people around you about the gospel.  Thank you so much!  I know the thought of teaching is daunting, and at times scary.  But just think about what you are doing when you reach out and try to help someone learn.  You are helping them learn things that bring peace, comfort, and assurances that they will see their families again.  Even if they dont join the church.  Even if they dont except your message.  Just trying, just reaching out and trying to help people be happy is worth it.  

    I know I am not there, In fact I am quite far away.  But thank you for thinking of the happiness of others, and trying to help them be happy forever.  It really means a lot to me :D.

    The last thing I can say is probably to just be happy.  Life is a storm at times.  When everything seems to be beating agains you, and you think you are about to drown in all of the noise, stress, and distractions the worlds has.  Just think to yourself, Jesus Christ knows excatally what you are feeling.  Not only that he willing to help you any way he can. He can help you feel peace and comfort.  We just need to turn to him.  Turn to him and then be happy.  And times you wont want to, and happiness seems like a lost dream.  Fight for it, try your hardest to be happy every moment of every day.  Not only will it come, but your will help others be happy to.

:D

-Elder Darke

:D

P.s. If you want to help someone learn about the gospel, but you dont know where to start.  Then kneel down and pray for it.  Heavenly father will provide oportunities for you.  He will help you, but first, you need to ask him for help.  As you do this, he will give you all the help you need. I know this is true, for I have felt his love, and his help personally.

We will be sending Elder Darke a small package for Valentines if anyone wants to add to it, he needed a couple of things.  Our deadline will probably be Jan 15th.  Send me a message if you need to.  Thank You for all of your support for our amazing missionary!
Melanie (Mom)

Practice that piano, devotionals and Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Here's a brief note or two from our missionary to brighten your day!  Enjoy the Holidays!

   Hi!

    Sorry I didnt email yesterday, My P-day for this week is today, so ya :D.  Today was a blast.  We had a zone activity so at the church we had like 30 missionaries there and we did have a great time.  We watched a movie, played volleyball, ate meat, drank soda, threw water balloons :D We just had a fun time :D

    My zone leader is getting transfered tommorow and it is really sad because he is my friend.  However he is awesome and I am sure that he will be a great blessing to the area and the people that he is going to next :D.  We got one of those bottles with the corks in them to celebrate his freindshipness and That was loud! I didnt expect it to do that, but it like shot out of that bottle like it was trying to break through the wall :P.  The soda tasted like apple juice to me, and it was really good :D.

    We watched a christmas devotional the other day, but i didnt understand it becuase of portugese.  Through all of these I really have come to understand the value of good music.  Becuase i have not been able to understand the words people speak for some time, but the music, and the spirit of good music is easy to feel.  I have come to understand just how much i took for granted the blessing of music that i have.  It took me not being able to understand anything to be able to appreciate the thing that i have always had :D.  Becuase of this i want to be able to play music to, so one day i might be able to help some other soul who might not understand what is going on appreciate the soft spirit of good music :D.

    So Christmas is comming up and I was able to finish Jesus the Christ.  What a great thing to be reading as we come to the season of Christmas.  Jesus the Christ talks about everything that our lord did while he was alive.  How he lived for us, and then died for us.  and it even talks about Christmas, the day that our savior and reedemer came to the earth.  I guess this is also something that I have taken for granted, but I am trying to fully appreciate the blessing, and the true meaning, of Christmas.  It isnt about the Christmas Gifts we receive.  It is about the birth of our lord, and the gift that he gave to us later in his life.  It is appreciation for the wonderful mercy he gives to us.  It is celebrating that our savior came to the world.  What more important day could there be? (retorical question, for there are many important days).  However for me,  this day (Christmas)  Is the day that i hold most precious to me.

  In harmony with the day that is comming, I encourage you to give greater attention to Jesus Christ this Christmas.  Talk about it in family home evening, let your family help fill your Joy over this day to overflowing.  Study the Scriptures about Christ.  But most of all, Make sure to focus on Christ, this Christmas, in any way that you decide is best.

:D

-Elder Darke

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas is near and the spirit of the season is really helpful for missionary work.  The ward that I am serving in right now has sung christmas Charols at the mall and we were able to give out so many pamphlets and books of mormon that, at the moment, we are almost out of them :D.  That is a good thing though becuase that means more and more people are receiving our message that we have!  Now if they decide to act upon our message is up to them, but I really hope they do :D.

  Sunday the stake president and the missionaries (my companion, me, and the zone leaders) sang a bunch of christmas songs in connection with our stake presidents talk.  It was really amazing, the spirit was really strong, and even though we are not as good as the mormon tabernacle choir, I thought that it went well :D.

  My portugese is making headway, I can talk to people about simple concepts!  That is a huge development and it makes me really happy :D.  I still cant understand them very well becuse everyone uses weird words.  However I will figure it out soon :D.

  So the other day i was thinking, and I realized that I have been on my mission for about 6 Months.  WOW!  Where did the time go?  I feel like I just barley left.  I am excited for the next 3/4s of my mission becuase I get to be an even better missionionary.  To teach people, become a better person, and to learn about the gospel and the church.  I realized that there are things that I need to work on, BUT everything that up to this point I though I had some things that I didnt need to improve on!  Was I wrong!  I need to get better at everything!  Because I am not perfect at anything! :D.  I know that as i do this I will be able to grow into the missionary that I want to be.

  So while I have been here I have been cooking a lot more then I ever had before.  So If you have a favorite recepie, or a food that you really like, shoot me an email about how to make it!  So that was i can make fun foods :D.

  I have received letters from many of you!  Thank you so much.  Each letter I have received seems to be right what I need at that time.  Missions are awesome, but there are times when a helping hand is needed.  Thank you so much for your support and love!  I am not sure where I would be without all of you!

  I miss you all but I am having so much fun on my mission!  I am really not that homesick becuse i feel like I was just there :D.  So Yep :D.  But I miss you all, and I love you all :D.

:D

-Elder Darke

P.s.  If nothing else, just be happy this Christmas.  Becuase you being happy makes me happy.  Even if you dont tell me your happy, Me just knowing that you are makes me so happy :D.

Remember that you could be the answer to the prayers that other missionary families are giving!  Invite, Invite, invite.  Help your local missionaries be successful also!
Love, Melanie (Mom)

New Picture, Chess and God's power

Here's the update for this week!  I like that he'll send a couple of pictures.  That way I can do a visual inspection like I'm sure all mother's do!  You know, is he eating? did he iron his shirt? is he happy? are his teeth falling out? Proof of the gifts/letter we've sent on good faith that they'd reach him!

From Elder Darke:  

So this last week was really interesting.

  My zone is trying to learn the brazilian national anthem, and it is totally different then the american nation anthem.  However it is fun :D.

  My zone leaders are brazillian and they are super cool.  Here is a picture of them, my companion, and me :D.

  So they are super awesome!  (and we are in our church building.  All the floors are tile here :D.)  

  So my portugese is progressing super slowly, however I know that the lord will help me and strengthen me in areas that i of myself am weak :D.  (like learning languages).  

  I am having a great time here though :D.  For P-Day I made a chess board :D.  (its actually just a peice of paper with a grid on it, however it is a chess board :D).  We dont have any chess peices so we just use coin money that we have left over :D.  It is super fun :D.

  Something that i should tell you though is what happened the other day.  So we had to give someone a blessing.  (i didnt do it).  However my companion told me before that i was probably going to.  So as i thought about it, i was actually less nervous then the times i did it in english.  Simply for the reason that I knew that heavenly father would help me as much as i needed.  So i wasnt worried.  I didnt end up giving the blessing, but the peace and comfort that i felt as it approached is just more proof to me of the overwelming love and power of god :D.

  So the last thing today is the simple act of trusting in our lord.  Learning portugese has been interesting becuse it was different then i thought it would be.  but that is were trusting in our lord come in.  Becuase he knows exactally what he is doing.  He has a plan that can help us better then we could think possible.  This plan is usually different from what we think is going to happen.  As we put our trust in the lord, both in that his power can do anything, and in his timing is ultimatly perfect we will be able to have patience to wait out the storms of life, while looking for the rainbows in the clouds.  Life wont be easy, it never was ment to be.  However there can be joy found, and miracles seen as we trust in our Savior, Lord, and God.

:D

-Elder Darke

P.s. Missions are so amazing!

P.s.s. Thank you for all the letters that i received!  I loved them all :D.

P.s.s.s. and (i dont know if you can see this well, but i really like this)

Thanks to all!

Love, 

Melanie (Mom)

Ancestors, surnames and packages

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Here's an update from Elder Galen Darke.

Hello!

  So this week has been amazing!  It is the start of a new transfer so it has been different then normal but still amazing!

  My area got new zone leaders, and all the companionships got changed.  So it is cool to see the new people!  Becuse of the new zone leaders, they are in our area so we have been helping them out a little this past week and it is cool, but is also changing our normal scedual. :D.  it is worth it though.

  We had a babtism this week (investagator of our last zone leaders), and she never came.  So that was really saddening however there was cake there so we made ourselves feel better with cake :D.  it totally worked.

  My portugese still isnt good however i can pick out words and somtimes sort of understand what is going on.  Most of the time i still dont understand what is going  on :D  However as i think about it i realize just how much my heavenly father is helping me.  He is helping me learn portugese.  and it is not going as fast as i want it to, so he is helping me be patient through the holy ghost.  There are days when everything around me seems to be insane and running into the ground and i feel peaceful inside.  Calm, and confident that everything will turn out fine.  It is just all the more proof to me that heavenly father knows us personally and what we need.

  My thoughts have been drifting to my anscestors latley.  When I have free time, (as i try to fall asleep) my thoughts are often wondering about my anscestors.  Who where they, were did they live, and where did my name come from.  Where did it originate.  It is so interesting!  So much curiosity.  However then i remember that right now i have a resposibility to watch after the living, and after my time for that is over, i can once again turn my thoughts to the dead.  Those of you not on missions i have a simple questions for you.  How did your last names come to be?  You may know it started in europe, but how?  Was it a reward for heroic deeds, does it have special meanings?  I challenge you to find out, and if you arnt excatally sure, then the challenge goes to you to.  Make sure.  Find out for certain, and for yourself.

  The people here are so amazing.  So freindly and kind.  I love them all!

FYI letters are taking about 1 1/2 weeks to get to Elder Darke.  They say that packages take up to 3 weeks.  We sent our Christmas package out today.  Thanks to everyone that participated.  I'm sure that Elder Darke will love it! Sending love in a box isn't that easy to do, but I think we managed pretty good.
Love,
Melanie (Mom)

Spiders, keystones and gratitude for Elder Darke

)

Apparently, I've been a slacker and didn't post Elder Darke's previous email!  AAgghh!  Sorry.  Of course I guess I can blame it on a hundred things, or I can just add it here first.  Hope that y'all enjoy it.
Elder Darke:

I am finally understanding some people!  YES!  Ok so realistically i still have no idea what they are saying, like ,99 Percent of the time.  However that 1 percent that i can now understand is a whole percent that i couldnt before! :D.  I can usually understand what we are talking about when we talk about the gospel or indrocshions :D  I am really happy though becuse even though i am improving maddeningly slowly I am still improving! :D.  Soon I will be able to understand everything people say!  I am so excited!  It is cool to look at just how much the Lord has been helping me.  I knew he would and now I have the proof that he has.  So the ammount of portugese I now know, that i have basically learned in 3 months or so.  (MTC, and brazil).  I took chinese class at school for three years, and I know more portugese then I ever know chinese :D.  To me, that is a miracle.

    So Missionary work here is amazing!  Let me tell you just a little bit about it :D.  We have some amazing people that we are teaching, and we find more all the time!  One family that we found very recently is amazing.  So there are like 5 people that we teach in this family.  There are 2 old men, they are 95 and 83.  They are so awesome!  They are old but i can feel just how much heavenly father loves them!  Then there are 3 other people in the family.  So we sat down with them and taught them the restoration (Heavenly father, is our loving father.  the gospel blesses families.  Prophets in every dispensation.  Jesus christ extablished his church.  Great appostasy.  Joseph smith. The book of mormon).  At the end we gave them 2 books of mormon to read.  As my companion taught about the truth, and i tried to help were i could (mostly just tried to understand what was happening).  I could feel the spirit.  This family had a desire to know of the truth.  That was confirmed when we went back a few days earlier.  Only the old men were home, however they told us that the family was reading the book of mormon.  

    That makes me so happy.  To some it may just seem like a book.  But it is soo much more.  The book of mormon is the keystone to our religion.  If we are talking about a painting, it is as important as the paint itself is.  As people read the book of mormon, they are reading a testiment of jesus christ.  One witness can be disputed.  However two witnesses cannot be denied.  This book (along with the bible) is proof that Jesus christ is the son of god.  That he lived a perfect life, and he died for us.  When people read the book of mormon, and they pray that it is true.  The holy spirit can help them understand that it is true.  and if the book of mormon is true, Then it was translated by a true prophet.  For a false prophet could not bring forth a true book.  If joseph smith is a true prophet, then the church he established is Jesus christ´s church on the earth again today, and modern revelation, preestood athority, and everything else that is taught by the church is true.  That is why it is not just a book, but is literally the keystone of our religion.

    I am really happy right now :D.  Becuse Heavenly father is constantly heping me, our investagators are doing well, and it is raining!  It rains here a lot.  However it doesnt snow unless you are in the souther part of the country.  A cool thing about the rain is the clouds!  They are so fluffy and frendly looking!  and a cool thing about that clouds is that they make really cool lightning!  It is kind of weird though becuse my companion has taken some pictures of lightning in different areas of the mission and they are different colors.  He has yellow lighting, but the lighting here is 

blue.  strange...  OH and he also has a picture of this spider that he saw.  It is huge!  Like scary huge!  Like it is a tranchula that is the size of a dinner plate!.  it is bigger then my hand!  so to kill it, they threw bricks at it :D.  poor spider.

    There are so many differnet kinds of fruit here :D.  Most of them are completly different from the ones in the states!  I still havnt had them all :D.  However i am working on it :D.

    The bus rides here are crazy.  So there is a bus and everyone it sitting down in the chairs.  In the walkway that has room for about 2 people from one side to the other right?  well not to brazilians.  I was on a bus the other day where there was 4 people in the hallway.  I wasnt sure how they could breathe it was so crouded :D.  But even so, i kindof like the bus :D.

:D

-Elder Darke

P.s. Meu portugese nao bom, mais eu posso entengie perguntas sobre meu familia :D

P.s.s. meu companeto engengie portugese muito bom.

P.s.s.s. Eu gosto Açai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wooo!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the latest and greatest from Elder Darke!  We are so grateful for his service to our Heavenly Father!  Elder Darke continues to succeed and influence others for good in Brazil and across our great country.  Even though Brazil doesn't celebrate our tradition of Thanksgiving, I know that Elder Darke's thoughts are of gratitude and thanksgiving this time of the year.  If anyone reading this could drop a simple letter in the mail for Elder Darke, imagine the feelings of love he will have in time for Christmas!

Thanks to everyone's support and love.  We are truly blessed!
Love to all!
Melanie (Mom)

from Elder Darke:

 This week has been fun!  So I have been really bad this week, and we only got to study two days for the whole week.  We were doing really important stuff, however we need to keep studying.  So that is a goal of mine for this week, to have more studies!  So other then that a few amazing things hapened

-We found a new investagator, and the cool thing is that the zone leaders in my area found her weeks ago and taught her a little, but they got the wrong address, so she was lost for a little while.  However then me and my companion found her!  She actually came up to us and it was awesome!

-Transfers was also this week, and me and my companion didnt change, however we are like the only ones in my district.  Both of our zone leaders changed and, the rest of the companion ships got split up and we have new people now :D.

-This week has been full of trainings and awesomeness.  We had normal district training twice this week, then the mission presidnet came to our stake conference and he also talked to the missionaries and the members.  While he was taking I was writing down my thoughts, (and i couldnt really understand him) and he asked the missionaries to stand up and say the missionary purpose.  (this was just the youth, so not too many people were there).  The other missionaries stood up, and I didnt notice, so he said my name twice before I realized what was going on.  (Woops).  :D.  Well at least I know what not to do now :D.  The trainings where on member missionaries and it was cool :D.

-I can finally understand what is going on mostly!  I still get lost a lot, and There is still a bunch of stuff i dont know.  However when we are teaching lessons, or talking about the gospel i can usually understand the general idea of what is going on if they arnt talking super fast :D!

-So I have been reading it for the past little while, but I just want to tell you, the book ´´Jesus the Christ´´ is amazing.  Every question i had, every assumption, and misunderstanding about the new testiment is being resolved.  Now i didnt have many deep questions, about the new testiment, but the small things that just made me stop and think ´´hmm, that is interesting, i wonder why...´´ are all being resolved.  It is an amazing book.  If you want to read the new testiment, or just better understanding about christ and his earthly ministry then i would seriously recomment ´´Jesus the Christ´´.

-The book of mormon is amazing as well!  I didnt realize just how much i enjoyed reading it, untill i couldnt read it anymore.  I am trying to read it in portugese, so having my favorite book in front of me, and not understanding what it is saying has really helped me understand just how amazing the book of mormon really is.

-and finnaly i wish to tell you the importance of rightous judgement!  We are always told that we need to judge rightously.  But what does that mean?  As i have been considering these things recently i have decided on one key factor that can help us.  We need to remember that We dont understand excatally what is going on!  We dont know what people are feeling, what is going on in peoples lives, what they are thinking, or what happened to them.     All these things effect a persons actions.  I encourage you to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.  Am i seeing the entire puzzle here? or am i just looking at one small peice and trying to guess what the entire picture shows?  Even then some peaces of the puzzle, we wont ever be able to see, so we need to do everything we can, then we need to be as merciful as we can be.  That way, we may not feel like we are getting justice all of the time.  However when we look at our lives and realize just how much we are dependent on Christ´s mercy to save us, then showing mercy to someone else gets easier.  

-I really like Brazil, It is amazing!

:D

-Elder Darke

Blessings, police, missions and "You Move"

Things seem to be getting a little better and a little smoother for Elder Darke.  He seems uplifted and a little more upbeat this week.  We also received a couple of new pictures of him.  Yeah! He's looking good.  Also, I figured out that his companion's name is Elder Tippetts from Idaho. Yep a couple of skinny white boys!
From Elder Darke:

This place is so amazing!

    A few quick things that have happened over the past week that were super amazing.

1.  My zone leaders had a babtism, and he got confirmed yesterday, so that was super awesome so see someone get babtised

2.  A member in my district left to go on a mission the other day.  He is super amazing.  I didnt get to talk to him much, however the little bit that i did leaves me confident that he will be fine when he leaves.

3.  One of my investagators is a police officer in the city.  He is awesome!  Usually when we talk to him we talk to him in this mini police station that they have in the area.  So we went inside a police station and talked to him.  It was super cool!  He is also super awesome.  So we are teaching him periodically.

4.  A super cool thing here is the past week there have been clouds in the sky every day.  And every day without fail, it rains.  How much, and for how long is varied but!  it is super cool!  On wednesday it rained so hard that there was so much water in the street that it was starting to come up onto the sidewalk!  I wanted to make little paper boats and make them float down the street/river.  The clouds are super cool here.  They are always puffy and friendly looking and it so so awesome.  In fact it is raining right now :D.

5.    There are a lot of different fruits here.  Yesterday I ate a fruit and I was informed that if i ate it wrong i would need to go to the hospital.  It was like a fuit with a seed inside.  Inside of the seed there was these spikes/thorns/evilness.  If I bit into the seed then the thorns would go into my tounge and i would have to go to the hospital.  So that was fun :D.

6.  i also learned today about unrightous judging.  I have been reading Jesus the Christ along with the book of mormon and preach my gospel.  it is amazing.  If you want to learn about the Life of jesus christ. i would recommend this book along with the new testiment.  It is really amazing to read.  In this book the cheif jews are constantly unrightously judging people.  This leads to extreme trouble for numerous amounts of people.  I also realized that in certain situations i have judged things unrightously.  So i must be better at this particular area of my life.  That way i will be able to follow the commandments of the lord when he tell us to judge rightously :D.      it is really amazing here and my portugese is still slowly improving.  I am so greatful for my heavenly fathers help with this.  I know he is helping me and there is no possible way i could be where i am right now without his help.  He is just poring out blessings apon us.  His missionaries.  Almost all of the blessings go  unoticed, but the ones i do notice are so innumerable that i cannot count them.  He is litterally poaring out blessings from an extra size bucket of blessings.  it is really amazing actually.

:D

-Elder Darke

Apparently this picture is Elder Darke enacting the comedy sketch "You Move" from Julian Smith's online videos.  The kids think he is hilarious on You tube.  I guess Elder Darke found a place in Brasilia that is called "You Move".  Yep, Elder Darke's humor is fully intact!
 We Love you Galen!
Love,
Melanie (mom)

Banana Bread Metric recipe?

It's time for an update from Elder Darke!  If anyone has any wonderful recipes in METRIC, he would love to try them out!  We're trying to convert some of our family recipes and Elder Darke has been experimenting with them.  Hopefully he'll figure it out soon.  I guess you just have to get the ingredients balanced just right.
Here's from Elder Darke:

This place is awesome!

    So quick update on what is going on.

1.  I still have no idea what people are saying

2.  I tried making the bananna bread and i have failed twice.  Lets see if this new recepie helps me not fail :D.

3.  The ward is super cool and friendly, even though i dont what they are saying i can feel their spirit and they are all trying to help me learn as fast as possible.

4.  We have some awesome investagators.  We were talking to one the other day and we showed her a book of mormon.  and asked her to pray to see if it was true.  Her response was different then we expected. she said ´`oh i already know it is true.  I had a dream about it last night.``.  I was like `hey companion, what did she say?``  It was super cool when he told me though :D

5.  I am learning so much here.  One of the major things that i am learning is the value of trusting in the lord.  He has said that he will help me learn portugese, through the scriptures, and through my leaders he has promised me.  However he has also said that i must be patient.  I am not sure how many times in life where i have gotten this frustrated.  However, as with any trial as we endure well and we are able to have faith he pours out blessings apon us.  So now all i can say is that I trust in him.  I know he will (and is) helping me learn portugese.  He has promised me he would, and he is a god of truth, so he cannot lie.

    So This is officially the best mission ever!  

I think that we as a family are going to try and add something to our emails in Portuguese using Google translate.  Hopefully his curiosity will help him learn the language, along with help from our Heavenly Father.

Thanks to all!
Melanie (Mom)