10-25-2010 Letter Home

"Waterfall at 35 Celcius"

 Now you understand the title of my weekly e-mail...
It's a cool waterfall that is in front of the local shopping mall that was close to the Institute Building.

 Misty and refreshing!!!

 Hello everybody!

This transfer is winding down and we've already got hit by end-of-transfer slowdown. Not that we are sleeping in or something, but Elder Da Hora and I can both feel that we are dragging a bit. The week was so hot! We got up to get haircuts one morning at 7:30 and after walking for just twenty minutes we were both sweating like crazy - the Sun is just insane here. The haircut was pretty bad by the way, left a lot in the front. 

It was a good week in the end... we did a lot of visiting investigators and visiting recent converts... we have so many people that need our attention it is getting difficult to meet and teach new people! But we've been very blessed with all the people we've met, all of our friendships, and it seems like we are doing the right thing by focusing on our teaching pool right now instead of expanding it.

Ride the Frog

Silly Statues

Ai, we had three awesome baptisms this week.

Melissa is 14 years old and I first met her with Elder Lopes, our Zone Leader. She went to church the first Sunday she could, prayed about the Church and the Book of Mormon, received a response from God, and then decided to get baptized. It doesn't get any easier than that! Wow, a really great young woman, she was already living all of the commandments and just needed to know the right place to worship God. 

 She has a ton of friends too, which we are going to teach this next week. She brought four of them to her baptismal service and they all thought it was bacana (awesome). Her Dad is Catholic, her Mom is Baptist, and they both went to the service as well, and liked it. We are going to work more with them this week as well. They support their daughter with her decision and think its great she finally found a church she liked, but I think they are still of the opinion that "Whatever church will do." We need to show them that the LDS Church is in fact the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ and the only way to receive all the blessings of His Gospel. All in good time. Great people.

Rayla and Walison are sister and brother, we've been teaching them for a lot longer, since the third week of the last transfer. We thought their family would never get to church after we taught them everything we could, and we kind of stopping passing by, but one night, the two of them just showed up at Seminary. Our awesome ward youth showed them that they are the best group of kids on the planet and they just kept on going to Seminary, every night, even though they have to walk more than twenty minutes to the chapel. Then they started going to Church every Sunday, largely without our assistance. The members kinda jumped at us to baptize them as soon as we could, but we waited to see if this would influence their parents. So we taught their family again and hoped the parents would go to church but unfortunately it looks like its not their time yet. So, we planned a baptismal service and bam, now they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! 

It was pretty funny, when it came time for the picture I was standing by Rayla and she gave me a huge hug (not-allowed) in front of all the members and I turned bright red as I had to explain that she can't hug missionaries. The members laughed their heads off. Always funny to see an American get embarassed, haha.

It looks like Heverton is dating a returned missionaria (sister) in our ward already, haha! No, I don't know if they are, but they were holding hands and so now everyone is talking about it. He's been going to a lot of Young Single Adult activities in the center of Fortaleza and loving it. I'm loving it to, because he is feeling totally appreciated and accepted in the ward! Go members of Ceara! they are the best!

Today we had our Zone P-Day. We went to a big Institute Building of the Church that has a swimming pool and a soccer quad and an inside area, kitchen, fusball tables, billiards. We did not go swimming, hah, not even if I wanted to break the rules - it was way dirty. It was very fun. We played frisbee football, pool, watched a movie, went out to eat, drank a bunch of Coca-Cola. It was a good P-Day I liked hanging out there. Got some funny pictures from our experience there for you guys.

Pictures of the Institute Building, playing fusball and also FRISBEE!!!

On a more grimmer note, this last Sunday as we were walking home from the baptismal service we heard a loud noise and turned around see a man on a motorcycle hit into the side of a passing car and then bounce off onto the sidewalk and the man was thrown to the ground. Looks like he had been drinking unfortunately. We rushed to the scene and found him face down on the ground. At first I thought he hadn't been thrown very hard and had just been knocked out, he was breathing at that time. Then the blood started pooling around his head and I realized it was pretty serious. We didn't mess with the body so I don't exactly know what happened, we just got someone to call Emergency Services, and then as the other people arrived and we didn't want to be spectators so we just left. We had a dinner appointment at a nearby member's house. I felt bad... there was nothing I could really do, ya know. When we came back after forty-five minutes, the police had cordoned off the area and there was a big crowd of people around the crash site. We saw the man, he had been covered up, left in the same spot we found him and it was pretty apparent that he had died. Hmm.
Unsettling experience in all, not that I knew the guy but... who knows, the other people there said he lived a few blocks away, maybe we had passed him or seen him during our time here, shared glances. Sad sad sad.
Bad note to end the letter on.

I love you all! Thanks for everything that you guys do! For your prayers and comments and love!
Have a great week!
- Elder Brendon

Description of photos:

Also pics of us eating at a cool little restaurant the whole Zone together.

Me sitting with Elder Da Hora waiting for dinner at Lurdinha's house. We go there every Sunday night to have an end-of-the-week dinner. She's awesome and cooks awesome too! 

Usually we don't have much time though because the Zone Leaders want the District numbers at 9:00 so I usually make calls to everyone in the district while waiting for the food to get ready and Elder Da Hora converses with Lurdinha or the other members that often go to her house for food as well, such as Tiago who is in the hammock in this picture. He speaks English and I want him to call you guys some night so wait for that, it will be a surprise! Though you might not understand everything he says his accent is still kinda strong.

I heard something!  It's a T-Rex!

No wait... its a sentient cloud of smoke?

Quick, act like a mushroom!

 
Drinking Coca-Cola like the Nephites did! 

Later on, the Nephites gave up drinking Coke like this, and because of this, they fell into iniquity and their civilization was destroyed. 
Hahaha.

10-18-2010 Letter Home

 Hey Family, 

Weird that summer passed by back home without a bit of a fluctation in the weather here. In Ceara its still really really hot and dry! (with modest comforting winds, at least). 
I need to write longer letters, huh? That is very true! But I have to say, I was writing the highlights of the week, there hasn't been anything too interesting happening besides what I already wrote.

This week started out with a great division in Pindoretama (you can Google Map that), a little town close to Fortaleza that has a chapel and a single companionship of Elders: Elder K. Olsen and Elder Batista. They live out here an hour away from Fortaleza just the two of them! Their house is pretty cool, very close to the chapel, they have a big yard (quintal) out back that has chickens and huge mango trees that is shared by all the neighbors. 

 The pictures of the road are of Pindoretama outside of the missionary house.

We took the bus there on P-Day morning (air-conditioned, very nice, most of the buses here don't have air-conditioning), spent the day with them watching movies at the church, it was nice chilling out eating ham-sandwiches and drinking freezy Coca-Cola with friends. Then we worked P-Day night, went to District Meeting Tuesday morning all four of us, then Elder K. Olsen and I went back to Pindoretama to work and Elder Da Hora and Elder Batista went back to our area.


At night we got home and I pulled my District Leader "card" and said that we would have a challenge to see who could teach the most people and make the most contacts in two hours: Elder Batista and I, or Elder K. Olsen and Elder Da Hora. We talked with everyone we could and in the end we taught 10 new investigators and set up 9 baptismal dates and had a few contacts as well. The other companionship got 4 new investigators and a handful of contacts. So we won! Yay! That was a fun night. From the call I got last night from Pindoretama it looks like some of the people we taught that night turned out to be very promising, looks like they are progressing.

We got to sleep late because we talked up a storm, and we woke up early because the house there is right by the main road in Pindoretama so we get going when the traffic gets going. The other Elders had to rush off to a quick appointment at 7:30, leaving Elder Da Hora and I to get ready for the District Meeting in the house. An old Brazilian lady knocked on our door a little while later and we treated ourselves to a hot Cearense breakfast that apparently she brings every morning to the missionaries there (she's a member). Lucky dogs!

Spent the day with Elder K. Olsen. Turned out he had a lot to get off his chest, having some companionship problems nothing too big. We had a pretty easy day and he treated me to pizza at one of the most expensive pizzarias in the city. It was great! Fun to speak English for a whole day. A great friend. We returned the next day to Fortaleza and as soon as we swapped comps we had another division with the Zone Leaders so one more day without Elder Da Hora :( . But it was awesome, I liked Elder Lopes, one of my LZs, a lot we taught some good lessons.

After that, the week kinda slowed down. Elder Da Hora and I got back together and we were kinda exhausted after three action-packed days of work. I took a nap after lunch and we slept in until 4:00 by accident, nossa! Gotta.. keep... working... ah, its really tough sometimes. We were working all week with Heverton! Had a film night and watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration". He was baptized on Saturday night and on Sunday was confirmed. I finally baptized someone with a car! Hehe, what an awesome guy, I'm going to remember this weekend forever. It was a very special service and we are proud as heck to see Heverton becoming just one more awesome member of the Lord's Church. He even came into church with Sunday clothes!! For his first Sunday as a member! Wow! That night we celebrated, went out to eat Pizza with Heverton, his Mom (who went to Church for the first time this Sunday) and some member friends.

The one with Heverton looking cross-eyed is a joke, haha, but he did pull a good funny face.

We left the drain shut and had to open it after the baptism. I wanted to get back into my wet clothes and go in after it, but Elder Da Hora had less patience than I and got totally soaked in his hair-brained idea of going in with his pants-legs pulled up! haha!

pictures of our baptismal pizza party!! Yeah

This transfer is wrapping up, and who knows, come the 1st of November I may be in a new area with a new companion. We have already seen so many miracles in this area, found and taught and baptized some really memorable awesome people. I am very pleased with how things went down here and just getting ready to see what's gonna happen next. Just feeling great, though (and hungry right now, I still haven't eaten today and it's mid-day!)

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! I'm glad that it was unique this time around, hah. I can't wait to get to know San Francisco better! So cool. Christmas is going to be here before we know it and we'll talk up a storm! I thought it'd never arrive.

I love you all, and I hope things are doing great. Thanks again for your prayers, and you have mine as well.
Love love love!
Brendon

EU ESCOLHO FELICIDADE TAMBEM!!!!!!


 So the photos:  I included a picture of my naked chest because I have a weird tropical rash going on (but, I have applied a soothing creme that should kill the bacteria in a week). Just to scare Mom a bit (haha). It doesn't hurt, just kinda irritating.




I'm making tropical fruit smoothies almost every day, freak they've got some awesome fruit here. I am already planning to fill my suitcase with frozen fruit pulp which should be allowed into the States you guys gotta get a taste of this stuff!

Much love from the Nordeste!  

10-11-2010 Letter Home

"Gettin Wet"
I am currently in a little interior town called Pindoretama about an hour from Fortaleza. It is a cool tranquil place. We're spending our P-Day here with the Elders and afterward we are going to do a division and spend the day with eachother's companions. Elder K. Olsen has been my good friend since Ala Veneza, we have a lot of the same interests, so it's gonna be a fun division.

Great, all of my attachments are failing, as we speak, to stick to this e-mail. So maybe you won't get to see who we baptized this week! Argh!

Diego and Humberto were invited to Seminary by the ward youth (who seem to be more effective missionaries than we are, they talk about the Church to all of their friends!) and they liked it a lot, as well as the soccer games they always have afterward here. Diego is the oldest of six other little kids, but he lives mainly with his grandparents, who are loud and proud Evangelicals, who live close to the chapel. We talked with his family and they explained that Diego never showed real interest in religion until he started going to Seminary, and they are really excited that he will join any church. They said that they want to encourage Diego to be a missionary like us.  They'll be receiving missionaries a lot more frequently now that Diego is a member! Who knows, maybe a little bit later down the road they will be baptized as well.

Humberto has kinda the same story, only his family is really devoted Catholics. He has a couple of cousins going to Seminary as well, we will be working with them as well soon.

Well, I hope everything is going well back at home, and with Connor as well. Hey bro, I love you man, that's a cool armadillo you found! Send me one? Haha.

Love love love!!
- Elder Brendon Carpenter 

10-04-2010 Letter Home

"Spiritual cellphone"

Hey family! Conference was soooooooo awesome. I loved the talks, I think it's the best one I've seen on the mission.

After the end of the sessions on Saturday we got back to our house at 7:30 and for some reason I kept on thinking of one of our investigators, Heverton, a 22-year old Portuguese teacher we've been teaching for weeks. I just had this feeling of worry about him for some reason hit me and so, thinking, "Who knows, it might be the Spirit telling me something..." We went to the public telephone and called him up. There was the sound of music and lots of voices. Heverton was super surprised to hear my voice and the first words he uttered were "I can't believe you called me. Elder Carpenter, I did some really bad things tonight. I've been drinking. I'm at a bar with friends, far from home." My credits on my phone card were dropping with every word so I was very firm and direct, "Heverton, leave right now. This isn't a coincidence, this is a message from the Lord through me . Get out of the bar right now, go home, we'll pass by there tomorrow morning." The phone beeps three times, telling me my credits were out. Shoot. I hope that was enough, I thought. 
So we went home, ate, showered, Heverton was still on my mind. I was in bed, under blankets trying to go to sleep thinking about Heverton, hoping he would follow my directions . Then this thought came to me, I can't really remember right now exactly how it was, it was just like, "You should go call Heverton right now." I looked at the clock, 9:45. Really late, after hours. I kind of ignored the prompting for a little bit but then it came again... so I got up, went to my companion, "Hey, you're going to hate me, but... we've gotta go call Heverton again." We got our clothes on.

We left the house, I didn't have any more credits so we walked all the way to the Bishop's house and luckily his wife was awake and she passed us her cellphone to make the phone call. Heverton was in tears, "Elder Carpenter, I need to speak with you right now. Please. I've got to talk with you guys." I told him we would wait at our house. So we returned home and waited for him. I prayed a bit asking for direction, and I was looking in the scriptures. Waited, waited. We zonked out on the floor of our house just waiting for him, the other Elders were already asleep. Finally, we hear someone bang on the door and we wake up and go to the door. It's Heverton with his car. He starts laughing a little bit awkwardly but then he starts breaking down, crying. Said that his old friends passed by his house and said a bunch of stuff against the Church and how Heverton wasn't going to parties any more with them and he broke down and went with them to a party at a bar far away. He was totally drunk, had a can in his hand. We gave him some comforting words and I threw the beer away and we walked him to his house a couple blocks away, I didn't want him to drive any more, he had a minor car accident two weeks ago already. He cried and rambled on the whole way there and could hardly walk, I didn't trade too many words with him because I knew he probably wouldn't remember much. He told us that as soon as he got into the car with his friends he started feeling really guilty and he was thinking about us the whole time. He tried drinking just soda at the party but he broke down after a while and starting drinking alcohol. When he got drunk he started feeling really guilty and sad and he told us that there, in the midst of the party, he said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to save him from what he'd done. Two minutes after he said this prayer, he got my call from his cellphone. Already drunk, in the midst of loud music and goading friends, he said a prayer and received an answer. He had been fasting and praying these last few days for a "stronger answer" than he already had received about the Church and the Book of Mormon, even though he knew he had already received a strong answer the last time he prayed about it all and that God had given him what was necessary. He said that when I called him at that time he knew the Heavenly Father was giving him the stronger answer he had been asking for.

It was tough. We had to explain to his parents at his house why he was drunk and that the car was okay and at our place. The next day he had red eyes and was feeling woozy but he went to the last two sessions of the Conference and felt the Spirit really strongly and wants to be baptized. The words of Elder Ballard about addictions really hit him hard. He told us as we were parting ways last night that he was immensely grateful for us helping him and that he wants to change, that we can't give up on him because he really wants to have the same happiness and peace that he sees in us. Really powerful experience this week.

I love all of you guys I hope everything is going well!!!
A good week to you all,
Love,
Elder Brendon