Well this week was interesting,Tuesday we went to lunch that was at the top of what I think had to be the biggest hill on the Island, if not the greater south American Contintent. In Brasil the poor people generally live on the hills. They have what are called favelas here and that means just houses on top of houses on top of houses on the hill. We were walking up this hill (not a favela we really don~t go into those areas) and a motor cycle came screaming up the hill behind us. Because we were in 4 half of us went to one side of the street and half of us to the other side. The crazy brazilian on the motorcycle basically hit my companion (who was on the other side of the street) and then told him that because he moved out of the way he didn~t have any faith. (funny how logic and faith seem to have an inability co-exist)He then screamed up the hill. As we were climbing and thinking about this we arrived at his driveway where he was waiting for us.... He pointed a finger at my companion and started lecturing him about how he was weak and how he could smell the fear in him. He then grabbed his hand, put his pointer finger in wrist of my companion (because he was a mason or so he said and wanted to show this symbol) and went chest to chest with him. My companion backed up and said nothing and this guy just went on a on and on. Finally he kissed my companion on the cheek and said Judas did that remember? and left. At this point we were all a little rattled and we continued walked (this hill was huge) (so was the guy by the way forgot to mention that part very tall and athletically built) and we heard the motor cycle again.... he came flying up the hill and he stopped said some gibberish and pulled out a beer. Popped the top and drank it while saying, cool and refreshing. If any of you have seen Bishop Gordon´s (sunny delight cool and refreshing video it was basically that) (ask Hamilton he Remembers).As we arrived at the house I asked my companion to bear his testimony to me to try and firm him up a little. He seemed strong but he left the table twice durring lunch to pray in the bathroom. He was pretty shaken up. It was a very interesting day. Later we talked a lot about it and he is better now but he was pretty bad. It was interesting that he was with me and Elder Robinson. Both of us played contact sports and are a little hot headed but neither of us went after this guy when he was persecuting our friend. I was thinking about that a lot and I think that it was probably better. We were in a dangerous area with a drunk crazy guy in highly recognizable outfits. Probably a good thing we just kind of suffered, by we I mean my companion. But I still felt a little weak by the whole thing because we didn~t do anything. But its ok I think we acted the right way. Who knows haha. It is time for me to leave Florianópolis! I will complete the second part of the two part training for new misionaries in São Fransisco do Sul (Joinville). My new companion is called Elder Grondel. He is the ex boyfriend of Chloe Snethen. Crazy how life works out huh? He is a wrestler (greco and free style state champ and 2a 3rd placer.) I am really excited. We should be able to drill or something. Or atleast work out in the morning. It should be fun. The scary part is that he only has 6 weeks here so he doesn~t speak really well.... haha So I will be doing a lot of talking. It will be really good for me to learn and just kind of be on my own. Should be fun! Pray for me:)So the girls want somethings about Brasil.....Lets see. (Pare) means stop in portuguese. It is also the word on the stop signs.When you read this word in a book or in on a piece of paper it means stop. But if you put this word on a big red sign it means slow down if you want or not if you don~t want to. Be careful crossing the street. Milk here comes in boxes that don~t have to be refrigerated. Until after you open them and then it is only good for 2 days. Learned that this week.... sad after 6 months here someone tells you that about the milk...You can find passion fruit growing on trees and the juice is super good when your companion makes it. It hit 95 degrees this week with about 60-70 percent humidity. I think I ruined a shirt because my sunscreen dripped on my colar and now its just yellow and done for. Not happy about that.....(oh and my new area is hotter....)I saw a bee like thing the size of my thumb and a little fatter.... kind of freaked me out a little.I think that is about it. Absolutely love it here. Super hot and hard to work but always great. Love you all hope all is well,Wright

Well not my favorite week on the mission..... that is too say it was a rough week.

I am not working with the assistant again but rather working with the junior companion in my new area. We got moved out of the rich beach area to just the normal beach area and we are getting to know the area and we are working with that companionship. The senior companion there is my trainer, he is a Zone Leader in my zone so its good to see him and talk to him so more.

But his junior companion is not someone who really works.... so this week has been really really frustrating for me to stay positive. Especially because there was some problems with some missionaries. So the zone leader has been working with the assistant to resolve that and I got stuck a lot with this Elder. He just doesn~t have a vision for the mission so he is just kind of coasting and it drives me nuts I start stressing out. And since it is not my area I don~t know anything and I don~t really have spiritual experiences with investigators because I don~t have any. But the lord really does help he does give a few great lessons here and there to help out my attitude and some good words from my companion. So things are good.


Brazil is basically one big party from Christmas to Febuary (when carnival ends) so this normal beach area had a ton of just naked people. Which is kind of stressing because I feel very uncomfortable, partly because we stand out a ton and partly because it is just a constant headache of where to look and where not to. So this week was tiring.

Anyways that was my week. haha

So....

Glad to hear that everyone is going well back in Issaquah. Hey at our conference we watched the new Church film called 17 miracles don~t know if you guys have seen it but it is amazing ( maybe I already told you that I am tired and confused haha)

Lets see what I can write about. Oh this week I have developed a plan for this year. I usally make goals but this year is a little different because I don~t have any quantative metas that I can make so I am making a plan to change myself this year. The way I see it this is the only year that I have to be dedicated to the Lord. It probably will be the only year January to January that I have to give to him so I am using it. Every month I will work on an attribute of Christ found in Preach My Gosple and study it and memorize a scirpture on it.

This month is Faith in Christ. It is interesting that this is an attribute of Christ. I have thought a lot about the faith that He had to have. Imagine how hard it would be to say I am the Son of God. Imagine the faith that would take. To die believing that if you died that you could live again and that through you everyone else could live again too. It really is an amazing concept to think about the faith that he had.

I have also been thinking a lot about the purpose of the scriptures and how I should use them. I am going to change the way I read them. With more of a focus to understand God and less of a focus to understand the scriptures.

I love you guys so much.

Miss all of you!!!

So..... Happy New Year!!

Hope all is going well at home.
New Year in Brazil is pretty crazy haha. I wouldn~t really know because we were inside from 6pm to whenever we went to sleep. But from the fireworks (if that is what you want to call them) it sounded pretty crazy.

Highlights from this week.

1) Paula Fernandes - We were sitting on the bus on the waterfront when a helicopter landed. Guess who got out? Paula Fernandes (she is a singer super famous here kind of like the brazilian Taylor Swift) so we took a picture from the bus (descritely as not to ruin our image as ministers of Jesus Christ) she played on the beach on new years (we were not there don~t worry)

2) Weigh in - Good news I got my six pack back. In this house we have a pull up bar and some free weights so I have been working out everymorning (before it was just push ups and sit ups but now I can do more, I have been doing 120 push ups and sit ups everymorning since July so don~t worry I haven~t lost anything) Bad news Weighed in this week... wantt o guess how much I weighed 83 kilos or 180 pounds. haha crazy huh?! Looks like Romney better watch out when I get back. haha

3) My Companion - love him. He is great. He is not a frantic worker. Which I needed an example of someone who works but not frantickly (sp) because I was killing myself. I am learning how to work hard but not run faster than I am able. He teaches well, different than I would but really well, and now I am humble enough to learn from him rather than trying to show him how good of a missionary I am like I did with my trainer. We are moving areas because there are not enough people for two companionships so we are working in another area the area of my trainer who is now a zone leader. I am getting to see the leadership side of the mission which is good and bad.

It is really nice to talk to and make friends with the good missionaries here in the mission. My companions have all been good and have been leaders of this mission so I am getting good examples.

It is bad becasue I see more of the mission now. I thought the mission was this celestial place where everyone was 100 invested in the work but its not. There are people here that hold the office and hold the power but don~t do what it takes to use it in a worthy powerful manner. It is frustrating but mostly sad.

For example, I can~t believe that missionaries talk about the physical look of the sisters. There is one sister here who everyone talks about how ugly she is. I hate it. When the Assistant and the Zone Leader are talking to eachother about this and laughing I get so sad. That poor girl will suffere for the rest of her life because of this and we are making her suffering worse. And what is worse is that Christ suffered for her sins so as we make her suffereing worse we make His worse as well. That was really hard this week. But I saw some progress in myself because I didn~t get mad. Just sad.

Sorry wrestling was rough this week. Sounds like a rough weekend. But I am learning here what I learned in wrestling and am understanding something that I learned in the MTC that we learn more when we lose.

Elder Holland Said that he was thinking about why missions have to be so hard and his conclusion was that `the road to salvation always goes through Gethsemene and it was never easy for Christ so if you want to walk the same path he did it will never be easy for you.

I understood this week that that means losing. Becasue we have more opportunities to learn when we lose. And loosing early makes it easier to win later.

I have been studying Jacop as well. I love his writing. I was reading in Jacob 1 and 2 about the personable responsibility that he took upon himself to teach the people and to be held accountable for their sins if he didn~t teach them well enough. It is something I want in my mission.


Love you all,

Hope your new year was amazing!!!

Elder Noel

i have had several people ask for Wright address lately so I thought I would repost it. Thanks for loving, supporting and praying for our missionary. We loved skyping with him on Christmas, he's doing well!

Elder Wright Noel
Brazil Florianopolis Mission
R. Feliciano Nunes Pires, 42 Centro
88015-220 Florianop[olis-SC Brazil

Wow.....

What an experience to talk to all of you. That was really really good. I found myselft sick when the time was getting closer because I didn~t know what to say. And in all honesty if 5 minutes before you had asked me if I wanted to talk I probably would have said no just becuase it was so mind blowing I guess not really sure.

But anyways it was wonderful. I miss you guys. I am growing a lot. Learning a lot and serving a lot.


This weekend was rough because I didn~t feel like a missionary. I was watching movies on sunday (which I never did before) and spending time with members. It was and is hard for me to feel good about that. And to get back into that desire to work. But I will put my head down and go to work.

Love you guys so much,