Grumble Cakes!
This week was great. We're working in some little tiny towns in the middle of nowhere... I saw some giant snails in a creek I passed by one day. Seriously, they were the size of softballs they were the biggest snails I've ever seen in my life and apparently you can eat them. When I joked that I wanted to fry them up the member I was with honestly asked me if I wanted to bring some with me back home and explained how to fry them...
We got stuck in the rain one day after the member we were with sprained her ankle and so it took until 11 at night to get her home and walk back. Didn't have an umbrella so we got soaked. We wanted to carry her home but she refused cuz we're Elders, it was frustrating because we got that much wetter helping her hobble home by herself. Yeah, touching girls is against the rules but there are such things as emergencies and, wait a minute, I think getting back home at 11 is ALSO breaking the rules.
Ahhh fetch I'm not in the mood to write a letter I'm just as stressed as I am depressed, I have to get out of here soon to get on a little crowded bus that is going to take me way out to the middle of the wilderness over poorly-maintained roads (note: very bumpy) so we can teach this family that DIDN'T come to church, I hope they will soon, they are missing out.
Oh, and there are two members that need to go with us there and I can't reach them from the payphone... and I've got to get ready for a ward council thing tonight. *grumble grumble*
And we planned on eating pizza today for one more lunch we have to pay for and the pizzaria was closed at lunch time... what is up with all the food places here closing for lunch? THEY are supposed to be the ones MAKING and SERVING lunch... but nooooo, this is Ceara so the workers go home and eat rice/beans/noodles/chicken with their families without fail every single day at 12:00 or else the companies they work for are sued.
No one wants to make money here. And I want to play these CDs you guys sent me but apparently there is only one place in Fortaleza that sells CD players and it's impossible to find! Why? Because everyone just downloads free pirated music on the internet here straight to their bootleg mp3 players and there is no market for CD players!!!
Sorry that I am sounding negative. :(
B
4-18-2011 Letter Home
Just a short letter this week
Hey family and friends!!
It has continued raining a lot this week. The rain season should have ended already but it continues on, everyone is commenting about it here. No one ever gets tired of talking about the weather, right?
Elder Clay and I are doing great. Wow, it is really awesome to get back with my companion from the CTM and see how different we can be together. I remember butting heads with him a few times in Sao Paulo, about small things, but now we're best friends, we are working completely insync, we've got the same kind of ideas about missionary work, we're not pushy or judgemental with eachother like we were a little before. Elder Clay and I have already talked about this, we think we have changed a lot since 2009. After so many trials and challenges in these last 20 months, it just seems downright silly to fight or get irritated over little things any more, I don't even remember what got under my skin during our first time together. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to a great next three months with Elder Clay, two transfers free of any drama or misunderstanding or differences of opinion, sweet!
We had various adventures this week, like we always do, but I guess the best story is about Bonifacio, our investigator who went to Church for the first time this Sunday. Last week we were looking for an address, asking around a public square, and I decided to use the public telephone to call someone to receive more information (trying to contact references like always...) Someone was talking already at the phone and so we sat on the bench nearby, Elder Andrade and I, waiting for our turn.
I saw this guy with awesome dreadlocks sitting at the other bench and I felt like I should talk to him, I ignored the prompting, then I felt it again, and so I decided to talk to him a bit. It turned out he is from Guinea-Bissau in Africa and he had come to Ceara as an international student of sociology and we quickly found a good topic of conversation, you know, talking about Ceara and its unique customs, talking about language accents and how people treat outsiders. It was hard at first to understand Bonifacio, his accent is completely different from any other I have heard, like a mix between Portugal Portuguese and Pernambucu Portuguese, his "s" sounds always turn into "sh" sounds and he doesn't pronounce "t" sounds like the traditional Brazilian "tch" sound...
We got his address, marked an appointment for that Saturday morning.
When Saturday morning rolled around, it was raining really hard. I had to get completely dressed and open up the front door before Elder Andrade really believed that I wanted to leave the house during the hard rain. Like President Batt said once: "The best investigators are those you find during the most uncomfortable hours of the day", and that became the truth when we finally located Bonifacio's house and taught him and three of his other African friends the first lesson. They had never heard of the LDS Church or missionaries or the Book of Mormon, it was all completely brand new to them and they were very respectful, and very honored that we were there. Sometimes they spoke in their native Kriol (Portuguese-Creole) language to each other... always makes you wonder if they are talking about you.
Anyway, they could not go to Church last Sunday because they had an appointment already, and we didn't teach them during the week because it was finals week at their university. However, just by chance, we saw Bonifacio multiple times during the week out and about on the street and we kept reminding him to pray and everything... when Saturday rolled around again we taught another lesson focusing on the Book of Mormon. And then Sunday arrived and Bonifacio went to church! He's the most interested of the rest, he told us he is a fervent believer in Jesus Christ, but has never felt drawn to a specific church. During the whole three hours he payed closed attention and made a lot of comments during Elder's Quorum and in the Gospel Principles class. The guy is awesome! Our greatest success of the week... we'll see how he progresses from here on out. :)
Man, I love you guys a bunch! This week for some reason all the members cancelled our lunches so we'll be eating a lot of pastries at the nearby supermarket!
Still don't have a way to send new photos - not that I took many this week, I'll have to buy an adaptor somewhere but I have so little dinheiro, err!!
Other than that, I'm doing fantastic!
Happy Easter!
Love love love,
Brendon
Hey family and friends!!
It has continued raining a lot this week. The rain season should have ended already but it continues on, everyone is commenting about it here. No one ever gets tired of talking about the weather, right?
Elder Clay and I are doing great. Wow, it is really awesome to get back with my companion from the CTM and see how different we can be together. I remember butting heads with him a few times in Sao Paulo, about small things, but now we're best friends, we are working completely insync, we've got the same kind of ideas about missionary work, we're not pushy or judgemental with eachother like we were a little before. Elder Clay and I have already talked about this, we think we have changed a lot since 2009. After so many trials and challenges in these last 20 months, it just seems downright silly to fight or get irritated over little things any more, I don't even remember what got under my skin during our first time together. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to a great next three months with Elder Clay, two transfers free of any drama or misunderstanding or differences of opinion, sweet!
We had various adventures this week, like we always do, but I guess the best story is about Bonifacio, our investigator who went to Church for the first time this Sunday. Last week we were looking for an address, asking around a public square, and I decided to use the public telephone to call someone to receive more information (trying to contact references like always...) Someone was talking already at the phone and so we sat on the bench nearby, Elder Andrade and I, waiting for our turn.
I saw this guy with awesome dreadlocks sitting at the other bench and I felt like I should talk to him, I ignored the prompting, then I felt it again, and so I decided to talk to him a bit. It turned out he is from Guinea-Bissau in Africa and he had come to Ceara as an international student of sociology and we quickly found a good topic of conversation, you know, talking about Ceara and its unique customs, talking about language accents and how people treat outsiders. It was hard at first to understand Bonifacio, his accent is completely different from any other I have heard, like a mix between Portugal Portuguese and Pernambucu Portuguese, his "s" sounds always turn into "sh" sounds and he doesn't pronounce "t" sounds like the traditional Brazilian "tch" sound...
We got his address, marked an appointment for that Saturday morning.
When Saturday morning rolled around, it was raining really hard. I had to get completely dressed and open up the front door before Elder Andrade really believed that I wanted to leave the house during the hard rain. Like President Batt said once: "The best investigators are those you find during the most uncomfortable hours of the day", and that became the truth when we finally located Bonifacio's house and taught him and three of his other African friends the first lesson. They had never heard of the LDS Church or missionaries or the Book of Mormon, it was all completely brand new to them and they were very respectful, and very honored that we were there. Sometimes they spoke in their native Kriol (Portuguese-Creole) language to each other... always makes you wonder if they are talking about you.
Anyway, they could not go to Church last Sunday because they had an appointment already, and we didn't teach them during the week because it was finals week at their university. However, just by chance, we saw Bonifacio multiple times during the week out and about on the street and we kept reminding him to pray and everything... when Saturday rolled around again we taught another lesson focusing on the Book of Mormon. And then Sunday arrived and Bonifacio went to church! He's the most interested of the rest, he told us he is a fervent believer in Jesus Christ, but has never felt drawn to a specific church. During the whole three hours he payed closed attention and made a lot of comments during Elder's Quorum and in the Gospel Principles class. The guy is awesome! Our greatest success of the week... we'll see how he progresses from here on out. :)
Man, I love you guys a bunch! This week for some reason all the members cancelled our lunches so we'll be eating a lot of pastries at the nearby supermarket!
Still don't have a way to send new photos - not that I took many this week, I'll have to buy an adaptor somewhere but I have so little dinheiro, err!!
Other than that, I'm doing fantastic!
Happy Easter!
Love love love,
Brendon
4-11-2011 Letter Home
Candle and a Passion Fruit
Hey guys!
So, I'm still in Ala Caucaia (knew it), after this last transfer.
Funny: President called me up this last Wednesday to talk about some little details and we ended up just chatting for almost thirty minutes, it's something that doesn't often happen, and it made me feel great that President Batt wanted to just talk about a lot of day-to-day normal stuff with me. Not that we're superbuddies, he did talk to me as he should, with authority, but, looking back, it's cool that I've gotten to this point with my Mission President. He's the man!
My group is now the oldest group of Americans in the entire mission! We went to Burger King today after transfers, almost everyone on the mission was there, and everyone is newer than me! A bunch of new americans arrived after a LONG delay, we haven't seen new American missionaries for maybe eight months. So weird to talk to guys who could barely speak the basics in Portuguese (no offense guys, I was the same when I got here too).
But, yeah, in this talk with President Batt, he basically told me how the rest of my mission will be. He told me that I'd (most probably) stay in this area until the end and that I'd have two transfers with someone in my group and another transfer with one of my best friends on the mission, Elder K. Olsen from Salt Lake City (I asked him if that was okay and he said most probably the Lord will let it slide!)
So I was all curious who would be my comp and it turns out... it's Elder Clay! My old companion from the CTM! He's going to be my companion for the next two transfers! How weird is that? I am back with Elder Clay - it's like a dream I had in the first month of my mission. We're both at the top of our game, a little trunky, I will admit, and I am looking forward to an awesome three months! We've both changed a lot, I feel, after being with him for only a day. I'm a completely different person than I was in the CTM, and he is too. Better versions of ourselves? I hope so, I expect so! Let's see what these new transfers hold for us!
I haven't talked about our week at all! I will just share two little events. We baptized Allison and his grandmother Rita (the same that we gave a blessing to, who was almost completely blind). Such a happy little family. Allison's Mom, who lives with them, is working to be baptized as well - she is super excited as well. They are seeing a lot of blessings recently. It still astounds me that Rita is doing so well health-wise. It's not as if her eyes have been restored to perfection, but according to her she is seeing things better and better and uses her sunglasses much less, she seems completely different from the frail, somewhat disabled senhora we met that first night. Alison is "awesome-sauce", he is talks a lot about serving a mission and we've reminded him twice that he has to be 19 to leave on a mission, hah!
After our lessons a lot of times he shows us his electronic music and I try to learn some break dance moves, we always leave their little house laughing our heads off (usually everyone laughing at me, actually!!! grrr... I'll show them I can dance... some day!!)
Elder Andrade left. What a good guy! I had an awesome transfer with him. My last Brazilian companion! Only Americans here on out!
We got to a member's house a little late last night (9:00-ish) to quickly snap a photo and for Elder Andrade to say goodbye. As we were leaving, we started walking towards the darkly-lit train tracks to get back to our apartment and we see a guy walking towards us in a red shirt and shorts. I thought it was kind of suspicious he was out alone so late but I looked away at something else and all of the sudden Elder Andrade and another member we were with turned and darted backwards and I followed them, not knowing what was going on. "What's up, why are we going back?"
" Cara, he has a gun." They whispered tersely.
I looked back and oh-my-freaking-gosh he was holding something underneath his shirt and was walking quickly towards us, looking straight at me.
We were super lucky that this member family had the door open and waiting, we entered in super quickly and the brother there slammed the big sheetmetal door behind us as soon as we said there was a guy with a gun coming towards us. We all were waiting there behind the sheetmetal door holding our breaths, not saying anything, super scared (the daughter started flipping out though, had a hard time staying quiet, started doing one of those quiet squeal/screams). Finally after a good long wait we opened the door and the guy was nowhere to be seen. The family offered to let us stay there for the night but we were only a block away from our apartment, so we just decided to walk as quickly as we could back home. Scariest moment on the mission, walking back home in the dark silence, that image of the guy with a gun fresh in our minds... Freak, it was pretty tense. If Elder Andrade hadn't seen the gun and if we hadn't reversed our direction so fast, he would of mugged us, he was so close... he needed only a couple more seconds. Whew.
And now I am here with Elder Clay and we're both clueless gringos... great!
Hehehehe. . .
Great week!!
No pics because I had been using Elder Andrade's cable and now I've got to buy my own. But don't worry I think next week I'll be pumping out photos again :).
Love you all so much!
Love love love,
Elder Brendon
Hey guys!
So, I'm still in Ala Caucaia (knew it), after this last transfer.
Funny: President called me up this last Wednesday to talk about some little details and we ended up just chatting for almost thirty minutes, it's something that doesn't often happen, and it made me feel great that President Batt wanted to just talk about a lot of day-to-day normal stuff with me. Not that we're superbuddies, he did talk to me as he should, with authority, but, looking back, it's cool that I've gotten to this point with my Mission President. He's the man!
My group is now the oldest group of Americans in the entire mission! We went to Burger King today after transfers, almost everyone on the mission was there, and everyone is newer than me! A bunch of new americans arrived after a LONG delay, we haven't seen new American missionaries for maybe eight months. So weird to talk to guys who could barely speak the basics in Portuguese (no offense guys, I was the same when I got here too).
But, yeah, in this talk with President Batt, he basically told me how the rest of my mission will be. He told me that I'd (most probably) stay in this area until the end and that I'd have two transfers with someone in my group and another transfer with one of my best friends on the mission, Elder K. Olsen from Salt Lake City (I asked him if that was okay and he said most probably the Lord will let it slide!)
So I was all curious who would be my comp and it turns out... it's Elder Clay! My old companion from the CTM! He's going to be my companion for the next two transfers! How weird is that? I am back with Elder Clay - it's like a dream I had in the first month of my mission. We're both at the top of our game, a little trunky, I will admit, and I am looking forward to an awesome three months! We've both changed a lot, I feel, after being with him for only a day. I'm a completely different person than I was in the CTM, and he is too. Better versions of ourselves? I hope so, I expect so! Let's see what these new transfers hold for us!
I haven't talked about our week at all! I will just share two little events. We baptized Allison and his grandmother Rita (the same that we gave a blessing to, who was almost completely blind). Such a happy little family. Allison's Mom, who lives with them, is working to be baptized as well - she is super excited as well. They are seeing a lot of blessings recently. It still astounds me that Rita is doing so well health-wise. It's not as if her eyes have been restored to perfection, but according to her she is seeing things better and better and uses her sunglasses much less, she seems completely different from the frail, somewhat disabled senhora we met that first night. Alison is "awesome-sauce", he is talks a lot about serving a mission and we've reminded him twice that he has to be 19 to leave on a mission, hah!
After our lessons a lot of times he shows us his electronic music and I try to learn some break dance moves, we always leave their little house laughing our heads off (usually everyone laughing at me, actually!!! grrr... I'll show them I can dance... some day!!)
Elder Andrade left. What a good guy! I had an awesome transfer with him. My last Brazilian companion! Only Americans here on out!
We got to a member's house a little late last night (9:00-ish) to quickly snap a photo and for Elder Andrade to say goodbye. As we were leaving, we started walking towards the darkly-lit train tracks to get back to our apartment and we see a guy walking towards us in a red shirt and shorts. I thought it was kind of suspicious he was out alone so late but I looked away at something else and all of the sudden Elder Andrade and another member we were with turned and darted backwards and I followed them, not knowing what was going on. "What's up, why are we going back?"
" Cara, he has a gun." They whispered tersely.
I looked back and oh-my-freaking-gosh he was holding something underneath his shirt and was walking quickly towards us, looking straight at me.
We were super lucky that this member family had the door open and waiting, we entered in super quickly and the brother there slammed the big sheetmetal door behind us as soon as we said there was a guy with a gun coming towards us. We all were waiting there behind the sheetmetal door holding our breaths, not saying anything, super scared (the daughter started flipping out though, had a hard time staying quiet, started doing one of those quiet squeal/screams). Finally after a good long wait we opened the door and the guy was nowhere to be seen. The family offered to let us stay there for the night but we were only a block away from our apartment, so we just decided to walk as quickly as we could back home. Scariest moment on the mission, walking back home in the dark silence, that image of the guy with a gun fresh in our minds... Freak, it was pretty tense. If Elder Andrade hadn't seen the gun and if we hadn't reversed our direction so fast, he would of mugged us, he was so close... he needed only a couple more seconds. Whew.
And now I am here with Elder Clay and we're both clueless gringos... great!
Hehehehe. . .
Great week!!
No pics because I had been using Elder Andrade's cable and now I've got to buy my own. But don't worry I think next week I'll be pumping out photos again :).
Love you all so much!
Love love love,
Elder Brendon
4-4-2011 Letter Home
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| Got a picture of knocking a door thanks to a member that was with us, Thanks David!! |
Hey everybody!
This week went by really fast and wasn't filled with too many exciting events other than, of course, the Missionary Superbowl: General Conference!
We watched all four sessions, Elder Andrade and I and once again it was the best Conference I've ever watched (every one is better than the last!) The talks by Elder Ballard, Elder Scott, Elder Oaks, Elder Uchtdorf were the best.
Why do I like the talks by the apostles the best? I guess it's a psychological thing, I always get more hyped up and pay more attention when the apostles are speaking, let alone the Prophet. The best moments for me were when Elder Oaks was talking about DESIRE, I felt the Spirit very strong during that part of his talk.
It's weird, I remember that on the first part of my mission I thought of the Spirit as more of a confirming feeling of truth. That when I heard something or read that if something held spiritual information, the Spirit would be present to confirm the truth of it. In the second part of my mission, and now more than ever, I realized that the Spirit has more power than confirmation alone, that if you really pay attention to the Spirit you can hear and feel things completely different from what is being studied or heard that contains spiritual information. The Spirit at times allows one to "click a hyperlink" on a word or phrase that is heard or read and receive even more information that I think anyone without the Spirit would be unable to hear or feel. Sometimes I've lost track of the talks as they were being said because I began receiving such information and as such it was impossible to keep along with the rest of the audience as I went on my own little journey with the Spirit.
Some people would say that this is crazy, that it's all in my head, that I am just making stuff up, but anyone who has the capability to feel the Spirit will know that I'm not.
Look where we ate lunch yesterday! Such a beautiful beach condominium! Right by the dunes too! We saw a dunebuggy and I instantly was brought back to all of our awesome duning memories!
The rest of the week was, wow, the week goes by real fast... it was great. We had some good Family Home Evenings with some of our investigators. Terezinha and Family are doing GREAT! It turns out her daughter Tereza had a huge spiritual transformation apparently last Sunday, that she finally felt that it was right to come back to church after years and years of inactivity. What more, Tereza's husband Andre and Jessica are stoked about being baptized. Terezinha even said that her husband Jose wants to be baptized! It's just fantastic with this family, they keep on surprising me. Of course, I wish that they would have surprised me by going to General Conference this week. I wanted so bad for them to see the Prophet and Apostles, but the differing hours were impossible for them, they had to settle some government thing because Terezinha is going to move in a couple of weeks. I didn't understand too well what the problem was. Some people will say that without fruits there is no faith (which is... technically true, I mean the Lord said the same...) but I still have a lot of hopes for them and still feel blessed by the miracles that they've reported to us.
I really didn't expect Adriana and Allison to show up at church for General Conference but they DID. Allison is a fetchin' STUD he's going to go on a mission in five years just you wait! Adriana was SUPER touched by the talks by Elder Scott and others and had a glow in her eyes when she asked us when we would pass by their house this week.
Who are these elect people?
When did this become a normal part of my life, seeing elect people beg me for more of the Good News?
Sometimes my mission is a piece of cake (sorry to all you missionaries in Europe, haha!)
We. Were walking. To a baptismal interview for Rita and Allison with the LD and his comp. On the busiest road of Caucaia. Full of people at 3:30 in the afternoon. Full. Of. People.
When I passed a motorcycle casually. And a small hole in the side of my pants came into contact with the steering handles of said motorcycle. AND IT RIPPED MY PANTSLEEVE CLEAR DOWN TO MY SHOES!!
These things only happen on the Mission, folks. Heavenly Father certainly has a sense of humor, of that I have a firm testimony now. There I was, standing in a full crowd of people, a tall, white American missionary, already completely out of place, trying to act as I always do in said crowds, with an air of elegance and nobility, and yet I was refused such an aura because my naked super-white right leg was exposed to everyone who wanted to see. I can only laugh very painedly in remembering this, it really was a terrible accident. I quickly did a division with the LD's comp (though, let it be known, Elder Andrade made me stay still for him to take a picture as he laughed uncontrollably) and ran home to switch pants.
 |
| There's the photo of "The Moment" but I didn't really want to show off my leg so its kind of hard to see, hahaha. |
Great, now I only have one pair of pants on the mission, fantastic.
In hindsight it was actually a blessing because I got to go back to the chapel to watch the interlude between sessions, part of that Messiah movie which was really awesome, while waiting for the other Elders to return.
Freak man, I can't believe these kind of things happen to me, I'm not normally clumsy and yet...
By the way, I only saw a few Brazilians laughing at me or looking strangely at me, because during the majority of my run home I couldn't bring myself to look above the ground.
Let's see, I guess that's enough fun for an e-mail, don't you think?
I love you guys bunches!!!
- Brendon
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