June 9 World Cup Fever Begins!

Dear Friends and Family, 

Man it's hot today. And they had said that winter had started here in Brasil. Caramba!  Sounds like everyone is doing pretty well there in the states, or Canada, wherever you happen to be. I had a good, and stressful week this week as a missionary here in Rio. As I mentioned last week, I got called to be a trainer, and on Tuesday I picked up my new companion, my son, and took him home to Belford Roxo. I felt a little bad for him at first because this is a rough area to have your first look at Rio. He was having a little hard of a time adjusting to everything at once, like all missionaries, but he is starting to feel better, and he is a pro missionary already. My son's name is Elder Montoya, the first thing I thought of was the Princess Bride quote "My name is Elder Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die" haha. He is from the great South American country of Colombia. He is fresh out of whatever the equivalent of high school is there, with 18 years of life, and practically is training me how to be a missionary. We are becoming good friends and are having success already together. I can't wait to see all the things that he will do on his mission.

As in specific stories, we had stake conference this week and it was legit! We all got to go to Salt Lake for the conference to hear M. Russel Ballard, Richard G. Scott, Carole M Stephens, and the Area Presidency of Brasil speak to us. Well, we didn't literally go to Salt Lake, it was a broadcast transmission to the Brasilian states of Rio, São Paulo, and Espírito Santo. It was cool to get to hear the apostles speak to us again. Richard G Scott gave his talk in Portuguese too! the others had to have translators. What was also funny was that Richard G. Scott gave a talk to us while I was in the MTC almost a year ago. And yesterday he gave the exact same talk that he gave to the missionaries in the MTC, just in Portuguese this time. It was about prayer, it was really good.

Many have asked how the world cup will work with us serving in Rio. On the 12th, the day it starts, we were told that we will be at home all day. We will leave for lunch like normal, but we need to be back at our houses by2 PM and we will stay home the rest of the day. But after that we just have to be careful. We are not allowed to even talk about the cup with anyone. It'll be hard. And I hope that everything will be safe for us serving. But that's it. I am looking forward to having a good week and an exciting time in the missão maravilhosa.

Love y'all, enjoy the cup for me, I'll take pictures of what I can. What a time to remember, huh?

Elder Evans

 Me in front of the maracanã! Where the championship games will be held!

 Me and my Brelder, Brelder Braun. We are both training right now. 

 Elder Siebers, Me, Elder Kunzler (my missionary brother), and Elder Heidenreich. Some of my American buds, all training.

Me and my son Elder Montoya. I feel like I look so different now than before the mission.