Mission Work Continues: Sept. 24th 2008

im so glad that viss finally got his call! its cool that all of us friends will all be out in the field here pretty soon. when does he actually enter the mtc?
so you're getting the signs of fall now.... its always nice when it cools off a little but it also means that winter is around the corner!
things here are going great! we had two batísmos this week. we were actually supposed to have three but the third one was a little girl that thought she was nine. no one in her family knew how old she was! her mom is a member so thats how we came in contact with her but, come to find out she is only 7. so she will have to wait a little while. a lot of people dont know how old they are here.
I just finished one transfer this week! ive got a few months under my belt now out here in the field. time has seemed to go pretty fast. me and my comp., Elder Barrus, are staying together here for another month and a half. i was glad when we found out that we were both staying. we have made some good goals for this transfer and were gonna work hard to get er done!
the people in the ward got all sad when they found out that we might leave but they are happy now to know that we will be here for a little while longer. some families here and especially the kids just live for the missionaries. they love it so much when we visit. its really cool.
its a good thing that ty's shoulder is healing up good so he can go to the dance. perfect timing! he will have a good time. you made it through another case lot sale this year... thats a lot of cases during that time. how's your leg?
are kris and the kids still liking the new house? Robby will have it full of little creatures before to long if Kameryn keeps buying him snakes. sounds like Loyal is doing good with the new hearing aids. he wont have to blast the volume any more. that will be really good for grandma to go out walking every night. man i love ol gram! i miss talkin to her about any thing and everything.
so there is another guy in the ward thats collects coins. he has all the state coins except wyoming utah oklahoma new mexico and arizona so if any of those are out and if you can send them in the package that would be good. also, sorry to ask for these things, but i need some rechargable batteries. i cant find any and my camera eats normal batteries really fast.
every thing is still moving right along out here in brazil. im really enjoying it. i love u guys. have a good week.
Elder COATS

Boa esperiencia: Sept.17th

We have gone through almost every season each day this week. its cold in the morning then its gets really hot about one then it rains and then about the time we head back to the house you can see your breath. all we need now is snow and we will get all seasons! its gonna be weird going into winter months and having it be hot. so arien is an official teacher now. i think getting thrown up on is definately the official initiation. thats pretty funny. i cant believe that jud got to meet mike metzger! that is his hero! and he even talked to him and eveything! i bet that made him all excited to try to pull off another backflip on his motorcycle. i know that his job stinks but tell him to keep working hard and it will pay off in the end.his truck should turn out pretty cool if him and justin get workin on it. when u send some more pictures make sure to get some of the truck to. and also im good on the seeds. no one else knows how to eat them so im still stocked up on the seeds. if you can send like maple syrup that is what i need. they have no syrup here. i think that ty should be able to work through his hurt collar bone. he is pretty tough. he will like that new job im sure. is dad still doing the good ol septic tank pumpin with the cowboy cori? so me and my companion had a really good experience this week. we were heading home and we were in the area of a new member lady, Juci Mara. we decided to stop by her house and visit. she was so glad that we did cause her son was really sick and needed a blessing. we gave him one then decided that he needed to go to the hospital cause he was shaking really bad and said that he was freezing and his stomach was killing him. we ran to another members house and got him to drive them to the hospital. it turned out that he needed to get his appendix removed. while they were doing the surgery his appendix burst and later they said that if he would have waited any longer he could have died. its crazy how the spirit works through people! i was so glad that we could help out. the language is still slowly but surely coming along. i hope that by the time i call in a few months i will be pretty comfortable with it. i love u guys. keep working hard and having faith in all things!
Elder Coats

September 10th, 2008

hey i got the package with all the new pictures in it! we had zone conference this week and i was way excited when i saw that i had an envelope full of pictures and all the letters. tell everyone that i said thanks for the letters. its always fun to get letters. those pictures were great too of the good ol famous preston parade. what was that crazy picture of arien in the cow girl giddy up about? wow cierra talbot looked really pretty on that float also. i wish i could say the same about the one of arien but.......jk. every thing is going good here. we had a really motivating conference that made me want to go out and work even harder. my knee is still doing good and working like it should. i wear a band around it every day that i think seems to help hold it in place. we are eating really good. we eat lunch with members everyday and we also cook alot on our own in our own place. no need to worry about that. my shoes are still holding up good. i think we got a good brand. my comp. has a few pairs that are really thrashed. i bet mine will be the same way before too long.there is no need for the bug spray and the sun screen lately. it has rained quite a bit and has been cloudy. the language is slowly but surely coming along. i still havent been able to go to the temple yet here but i think that we will go soon. the temple is a great place to go to get away from everything for a while. also to learn new things. i love u all and im thankful for all the support. im workin hard and enjoying my mission. have a good week!
Elder Coats

A Letter From the Mission President:Aug 17th, 2008

To the Family of Elder Coats:

We are pleased to welcome Elder Coats to the Brazil Curitiba Mission. We are enclosing a photograph of him with us at the mission home when he arrived in Curitiba. We already love him.
The day of your son's arrival, he attended several training sessions. We are impressed with the potential for fine service that he brings to the mission field. Elder Coats has been assigned to serve in the area of Jardim do Sol with Elder Barrus as his trainer.
We advise you to send mail directly to the mission office address. Mail usually arrives from the United States in about ten days. We encourage you to write weekly letters or e-mails which are cheerful and supportive. The first three months is a time of cultural and language adjustments and your letters and remembrances will be very important in this transition stage. Please continue this habit of writing throughout your son's mission.
We have made the health and well-being of our missionaries a priority; please know that we will do everything we can to prevent illness or injury. On your part, you can encourage your son to eat well-balanced meals and to drink the bottled mineral water(reimbursed by the mission).
We know that the mission experience is an ennobling one and that your son will grow through serving the Lord and the people of Brazil. We are pleased with the missinary spirit, and the growth we see in the missionaries in this mission.
Please know how much we value having Elder Coats in our mission family. We thank you for entrusting such a fine young man to our care. Please feel free to contact us about any concerns you might have.

Warmest Regards,

President Paulo Messias de Araujo
Sister Renata Araujo

Letter 9-03-08: Another P-day come and gone

From: ncoats@myldsmail.netTo: kcoats5150@aol.comSent: 9/3/2008 2:26:28 P.M.
Subj: another p day come an gone

i love reading about all that is going on everyweek back home. im glad that everyone is doing good and enjoying the summer time.
im glad ty is liking the new school. i figured that he would. i bet he already has a dozen friends over there.
im glad that arien is liking her classes and her new students. its awesome that she is a teacher now.
i bet jud and ty and justin had fun with all those racoons! thats crazy that there were that many in the yard at once. tell ty to call trent and ask if he wants any of the carcases.
i got a letter from trent today and a few of the parade pictures that u sent. they were some really good pictures. every one in my zone really liked that picture of brooke on her horse. she looked really pretty, and they were all asking me how old she was cause a few of them are going home soon.
work during labor day is a busy week at stokes.it probably made the time go by really fast though.
well im pretty sure that the winter months are over here cause it is really heating up! im getting a little more darker every day. my comp is a pale white color so he gets fried every day.
the work is going pretty good some days. it seemed like we got shut down quite a bit this week. people werent home for our appointments and stuff like that. i guess i just got to get used to that. i know its going to happen alot.
today for our pday our zone pitched in and rented a bus to visit all the parks in this area. it was pretty cool and i got a lot of good pictures that ill send home when i can get them developed.
Another p-day has come and gone. its always the fastest day of the week! i love u guys! have a good week!
Elder Coats

Jardim do Sol: August 28th ,2008

everything is still going really good. i am learning so much being exposed to the actual mission work and being surrounded by these Brazilians everyday! the language is becoming more and more familiar each day and i do my best to really try to pay attention to everything going on so i can pick up on everything. so i had the opportunity to baptize a 14 year old girl this last week! it was an awesome experience, especially being so early in my mission. a was happy when she decided that she wanted me to do it for her. i really love my area here. i think i lucked out being able to be here for my first area. the kids in the ward are awesome. the familys are really good to us also. we had conference also this past sunday. from what i could tell.... it was a good one. president Arroujo and his wife spoke and also a member of the seventy came and spoke. i was surprised from what i understood. mostly just words here and there but i could tell what was going on. i was so surprised when u said that president smart talked about me in his talk..wow. ive noticed that i think to much in english... portuguese is not structured the same so i really dont make sense to these people. its all good though. im continuing to have funny experiences out here because of the lack of me not knowing this crazy language. last week i attempted to make a street contact and i asked the couple `voces morreu juntos`? which means ´do you two die together`? i meant to say morem juntos... ha ha very close but no cigar... i ve just decided to make the best of these days that i dont know the lingue. were working with a few investigators that seem really interested and they like the book of mormon and they want to come to church. its nice having a big beautiful church house that every one sees and thinks that it is nice. there are so many apostate little church houses on every street corner! a lot of times that we walk by them at night they will be having a service and its just a lot of screaming and weird stuff like that. i dont know how people could think that that kinda stuff is the truth... we witnessed a big gang fit at the bus station the other day that was pretty intense! the cops came and broke it up with there billy clubs. we saw it as we were driving by but the bus driver just stopped the bus cause he wanted to watch, so we all got to witness the show. crazy. ty is liking the new school so far, im really glad that he is. its awesome that jud is doing so good and is almost a year already. keep it up man, and you will be much happier. arien is finally able to start what she has been working so hard to do. have fun and enjoy. im proud of ya. dad i cant believe that we actually had a watermelon this year thats awesome. mom how is the ice in the freezer? no, your probably on to the raw potato stage now that it is summer. just kidding. ill tell you what though, you would love our freezer in our apartment... there is a crack in the fridge so air gets in and creates a lot of frost. im enjoying all of the experiences that i am having so far on the mish. i see now why so many return elders talk about there missions so much. i love u guys! keep workin hard! Tcheu,
Elder COATS

I'm In the Field 8-20-08

so my first week was a good and frustrating one. i love it cause im actually out doing the missionary work but it is frustrating that i cant speak very well. im learning to have patience. patience is going to be key for me these first few months. my companion is working really well with me. he is from california to answer our question. a crazy funny story that happened this week was when we went to an investigators house that my companion had said was wanting baptism but he had to work some things out first. he also told me that he was a little femmy. so we went to his house and right from the get go i knew that he was as gay as they come. he asked me where i was from and then said all u americans are so beautifull... he told us he had some questions about his reading in the BofM so we read with him. he sat right inbetween me and my comp. on this tiny couch and asked me to read. as i was reading he was rubbing my back and my side and my thigh! i couldnt believeit! so we answered his questions then he told us that he wanted baptism but he had to dump his man first. he said he would do it. the whole time i kept looking at my comp. signaling that we needed to leave but he just kept shaking his head. our investigator said that we needed to celebrate because he was going to break up with his boyfreind and brought out some wine! poured us a glass and told us to drink. i tried to explain that we dont drink alcohol. my companion said that he didnt want to affend him so he started sipping of this wine. i was freakin out. i didnt drink any and so paulo our investigator ask one more thing of us before we left..... if we would sing his favorite hymn, sisters in zion! at this point i was going to kill my companion and punch this investigator. i was not going to sing that hymn. finally they both busted out laughing and fell on the floor!!! it was my freakin Bishop!!!! they planned the whole thing and i had no idea. we laughed about it. my bishop is awesome. church went really good also. the members are awesome.a few more things that hapened this week... i got made fun of by a blind women because i couldnt read very well, ya thats right a blind women. i also asked another lady to read after she clearly explained that she couldnt read. good times on the mission i guess... so everthing is starting out well. im glad that everyone is well back home. if u can i would like to see a picture of that car. we get an alawance twice a month that is enough for me to do what i need so i will only use my card if i have to.so dont expect to much being takin out. we have lots of people that we are teaching right now and were staying realy busy. i have a baptism marked for this saturday. my supplys are still good and if i need anything i can usually just by it here. i love u all so much and i miss u but im am enjoying my mission so far. have a good week. Love Elder Coats