Familiar Faces
Hey everybody! Man, I can't believe that I'm only going to send two more e-mails! I've got to make these count!
My camera, unfortunately, is still in the hands of a member friend who borrowed it to take pictures of a huge international anime conference that was hosted in Brazil. Apparently he was trying to put the pictures and video of the event on a computer and the camera got a virus and now he is trying to get it fixed... he promised he'd get it to me by tomorrow. He's usually pretty responsible so I trust him about it. These next three weeks I want to take a crazy amount of pictures and video too to bring back with me.
This week was great! We are continuing to progress with Analina who seemed ready to get baptized this week but in the end we decided to wait a while. She is really liking the Book of Mormon and feeling more and more confident that the Church is true, but she always has a question here or there that we have to unravel. She is great, I'm so glad that we found her and that the lessons are going so well.
There is also another girl, Mirla, that we found in Paracuru LAST week when we passed by to see how our family there is doing. Mirla is 20-something, works in a law office, really busy with work but she was intrigued by the LDS Church when Clarisse told her she was baptized and she came over to their house when we were there to hear more and it just clicked with her. She told us that the Restoration makes more sense than she has ever heard before in another church and when we told her that we need to follow a living prophet she agreed that she needed to find the true prophet of God in order to follow him. Really just super elect, responded to all of our questions perfectly. This week we met with her again in Paracuru and taught her all of the commandments, and she told us she would follow every single one, she would stop drinking coffee and start paying tithing. Man, working in the frontier is awesome the elect people just come to you! She wants to be baptized next week.
Clarisse and Laryssa are doing great, the whole family is though they aren't able to go to Sunday every week. Every Saturday we take the long busride to their house (it's nice, it has air-conditioning! such a rarity here...), eat lunch there (which is always great) and then we leave a message and go work around their neighborhood, returning to their home two or three times to drink water or tell them about the newest investigator that we taught that has potential. We found various new people in Paracuru, none of them have heard of the Church of Jesus Christ before let alone the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith, everything is brand new to these guys and they seem way more receptive than the people in Caucaia. I have a feeling that the wide majority of them I won't see baptized (let's be realistic, I've only got three more weeks here) but I feel privileged that I am leaving a good foundation for the next missionaries to begin a great work here. Who knows if when I come back to Ceara I'll find a little growing branch way out here in Paracuru, with the Bentes Family as some of it's strongest leaders? I think it's awesome that after two years dreaming of preaching in a virgin field, among people far away from the center of the Church in Fortaleza, finally in these last few weeks I've been able to get a taste of what it's like. That's a huge blessing.
What more to say about our week? Oh... I went back to Maracanau to visit everybody yesterday! I surprised them, they thought I would be passing through today, but no, we woke up early and we were able to get there for the last hour of their meetings. I was able to see a lot of old friends, Lucilene "Tia", Milena, Derick, Larissa, Bishop Santos and a lot of familiar faces. I could remember so few names, but everywhere I looked were familiar faces, members that we'd gotten to know, that had prepared lunch for us long ago. Everyone remembered me! Brazilian friendliness is awesome there were so many hugs from all directions. I was so busy hugging and catching up that I took relatively few pictures but with the bestest of my friends I was able to get both pictures and e-mail addresses, contact information. It was great to see everybody... so little changes really. A lot of the youth had grown older, taller and bigger, a couple of the young single adults have gotten married to each other, it was great. Unfortunately, the only person I baptized there, Marcilo, didn't show up that Sunday! Shoot! I really wanted to see him. But, alas, I was told that he would meet me at the airport, so I hope to see him there.
Next week I am going to head off to Jangurussu! As great as Maracanau and Caucaia have been, Jangurussu is my home in Fortaleza, my most memorable area. I'm so excited to see everybody!
I love all you guys, family and friends! You guys have no idea how much I miss you and how excited I am to come home. I can honestly testify that our Heavenly Father loves us and that our lives are wonderful journeys that allow us to more perfectly understand Him and return to His presence. I know this Church is the Church that Our Savior Jesus Christ established himself and the same blessings and experiences that we read of in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon which seem so ancient and distant can be had today through our faith in this Restored Gospel. I know our families can live together forever through this wonderful and perfect Gospel which Jesus Christ himself has taught through prophets both ancient and modern. This is His glorious work.
Love love love!
- Elder Brendon
7-18-2011 Letter Home
O missionário épico está em fogo!
Heavenly Father is blessing us a lot here. Remember that girl Analina? It looks like she'll be baptized next week! We've got some more possibilities as well. I'm not feeling up to writing a letter today. And a member took my camera to an activity on Sunday and decided to sleep over at a friends house so I was unable to get my camera today to send pictures =/
I believe in the things you've said. So many miracles... the mission is truly miraculous. I'm trying really hard to keep up the momentum and keep excited and animated but man it's really tough. Heavenly Father is asking me to give 100% of what I got... I'm going to get back home pretty exhausted, hehe, but full of hope and ready for the future. I've gotta put on a smile and have a good attitude.
I did get a blessing from President Souza, he's an awesome leader, I think it's only that blessing that's keeping me going forward, haha.
I love you guys like crazy, I'm super excited to get back home, I am counting down as well, hehe. Give me some suggestions of pictures you want to see please! I only have a few more e-mails left to send them! You guys sound awesome. Please keep up the prayers, just keep up the awesome energy and excitement that is going on right now! I am going to need that energy a lot in four weeks.
- Your Brendon Son!
7-11-2011 Letter Home
This week was fantastic! What a miraculous end to our overall difficult transfer! Very eventful.
We received a reference in the beginning of the week straight from our new mission President - President Souza. He told us,
We received a reference in the beginning of the week straight from our new mission President - President Souza. He told us,
"Elders, there is an elect family that lives in Paracuru that have found the church on the internet and they want missionaries in their home as soon as possible. Do everything you can to go see them this week!"
So we put everything aside, called them up, marked an appointment for Saturday. Then we asked them how to get to Paracuru. We soon discovered that we would have to take a two-hour busride to get there. Paracuru is another city outside of Caucaia, way far away, officially it's not even within our area borders, it might even be considered outside of Mission Brazil Fortaleza! A small little pleasant beach-town isolated by forested wilderness, connected to civilization by only a one-lane road. Fun!
After a long two-hour busride through the rain, we arrived in Paracuru and soon met a tall young clean-cut Brazilian lad named Andrio who was totally soaked despite the fact that he was carrying two umbrellas. The two umbrellas were for us! He refused to use one. He guided us to a modest two-story home a short walk away amd we entered in to see SIX more bright, smiling faces! Antonio and Mara, the parents of Andrio, Laryssa, Andrio's wife who lives with them and Clarice, the girlfriend of Andrio's older brother, Fabio, who left for Mission Brazil Sao Paulo Interlagos only a couple of weeks ago. There was also Melisa, the younger sister of Andrio who was hilarious, a cute little developmentally-impaired woman who kept on laughing for no reason at all and came to hug me. It turns out that Antonio, Mara, Fabio and Andrio had been baptized in Santarem, Para, and had gone to a ward there for many years, but they moved out to Paracuru for work (Antonio is a truck-driver) and could never localize the nearest ward. They kept their testimonies strong far away from the support system of an LDS ward, dressing in church clothes every Sunday to sing hymns, teach eachother a lesson, watch church movies and read the scriptures. They kept their tithing and fast offerings in a jar to bring to Santarem every time they visited, once every couple months. That's how their church involvement has been for the last four years. Fabio decided that it was really important that he serve a mission, so he moved back to Santarem, found a ward to attend, became active again over the space of four months, sent his papers in and left for Sao Paulo as soon as he was called. He told his girlfriend, Clarice, that he wanted her to be a member of the church before he got back, ready to be married in the temple. Clarice took the initiative, went on the internet and called the mission president to send missionaries so that she could be baptized.
And that's where we came in!
Oh man, they were so happy to see us. They just all stood around to watch us eat a huge authentic Paraense lunch they had prepared (the beef they made was sooo good, reminded me of Mongolian Beef, very delicious) for the first hour, and as we were making conversation and eating, Mara, the mother and Laryssa just burst out crying all of the sudden. They told us they never thought they'd see elders in their house and that Heavenly Father had worked a miracle in their lives. Mara even called her sister on her phone and asked us to talk to her, and her sister broke out in tears as well on the phone line. It was very emotional and spiritual. Then we sat down to teach a lesson, and Antonio tells us, "Teach these two (Laryssa and Clarice) what they need to do to be baptized. That's what you are here for."
So... we taught about the Restoration, about baptism, about the commandments and we told them that they could be baptized the next day if they went to church. We called President Souza for special authorization to baptize and confirm them on their first visit to church, seeing that it would be difficult for them to come two Sundays in a row with the distance they would have to travel.
We taught them everything and they both came to tears at the point when we asked them if they were willing to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ and become members of His Church. The Spirit was super strong!
Afterwards we ate a Paraense frozen pudding that was delicious and watched the movie “Charly”, I don't know if you've heard of it. Elder Pereira had never seen it and almost cried at the end, Melissa bawled at the end of it, even though she can't read and the movie was in English with Portuguese subtitles, hehehe. We had a good gospel discussion afterwards and talked about how maybe, if we could work more in the areas of Paracaru, Pecem, Sao Goncalves and other nearby little cities, we could create a branch there and then hold sacrament meeting in their house! It was a lively, spiritual discussion and we ended taking a lot of pictures (on E. Pereira's cam, :( I forgot to bring mine) ...
After a long two-hour busride through the rain, we arrived in Paracuru and soon met a tall young clean-cut Brazilian lad named Andrio who was totally soaked despite the fact that he was carrying two umbrellas. The two umbrellas were for us! He refused to use one. He guided us to a modest two-story home a short walk away amd we entered in to see SIX more bright, smiling faces! Antonio and Mara, the parents of Andrio, Laryssa, Andrio's wife who lives with them and Clarice, the girlfriend of Andrio's older brother, Fabio, who left for Mission Brazil Sao Paulo Interlagos only a couple of weeks ago. There was also Melisa, the younger sister of Andrio who was hilarious, a cute little developmentally-impaired woman who kept on laughing for no reason at all and came to hug me. It turns out that Antonio, Mara, Fabio and Andrio had been baptized in Santarem, Para, and had gone to a ward there for many years, but they moved out to Paracuru for work (Antonio is a truck-driver) and could never localize the nearest ward. They kept their testimonies strong far away from the support system of an LDS ward, dressing in church clothes every Sunday to sing hymns, teach eachother a lesson, watch church movies and read the scriptures. They kept their tithing and fast offerings in a jar to bring to Santarem every time they visited, once every couple months. That's how their church involvement has been for the last four years. Fabio decided that it was really important that he serve a mission, so he moved back to Santarem, found a ward to attend, became active again over the space of four months, sent his papers in and left for Sao Paulo as soon as he was called. He told his girlfriend, Clarice, that he wanted her to be a member of the church before he got back, ready to be married in the temple. Clarice took the initiative, went on the internet and called the mission president to send missionaries so that she could be baptized.
And that's where we came in!
Oh man, they were so happy to see us. They just all stood around to watch us eat a huge authentic Paraense lunch they had prepared (the beef they made was sooo good, reminded me of Mongolian Beef, very delicious) for the first hour, and as we were making conversation and eating, Mara, the mother and Laryssa just burst out crying all of the sudden. They told us they never thought they'd see elders in their house and that Heavenly Father had worked a miracle in their lives. Mara even called her sister on her phone and asked us to talk to her, and her sister broke out in tears as well on the phone line. It was very emotional and spiritual. Then we sat down to teach a lesson, and Antonio tells us, "Teach these two (Laryssa and Clarice) what they need to do to be baptized. That's what you are here for."
So... we taught about the Restoration, about baptism, about the commandments and we told them that they could be baptized the next day if they went to church. We called President Souza for special authorization to baptize and confirm them on their first visit to church, seeing that it would be difficult for them to come two Sundays in a row with the distance they would have to travel.
We taught them everything and they both came to tears at the point when we asked them if they were willing to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ and become members of His Church. The Spirit was super strong!
Afterwards we ate a Paraense frozen pudding that was delicious and watched the movie “Charly”, I don't know if you've heard of it. Elder Pereira had never seen it and almost cried at the end, Melissa bawled at the end of it, even though she can't read and the movie was in English with Portuguese subtitles, hehehe. We had a good gospel discussion afterwards and talked about how maybe, if we could work more in the areas of Paracaru, Pecem, Sao Goncalves and other nearby little cities, we could create a branch there and then hold sacrament meeting in their house! It was a lively, spiritual discussion and we ended taking a lot of pictures (on E. Pereira's cam, :( I forgot to bring mine) ...
...and we left with lots of smiles.
Yesterday, as church began we were super-happy to find that indeed the Paracuru family was there waiting for us at the church. They arrived early in a small rental car, having driven for almost two hours to get to the church. The Zone Leaders were waiting to interview them for their baptism.
We also found that two other investigators, Francieudes "Ed" (22) and Paulo-Henrique (11) successfully made it to church and were worthy and prepared to be baptized after sacrament meeting! Both have had some pre-baptismal preparation struggles, Francieude because it's difficult for him to schedule with us during the week because he works so much, and Paulo-Henrique because he loves coffee and when we first taught him he was drinking more than two liters a day! But, they had made the necessary sacrifices and were ready for baptism.
Yesterday, as church began we were super-happy to find that indeed the Paracuru family was there waiting for us at the church. They arrived early in a small rental car, having driven for almost two hours to get to the church. The Zone Leaders were waiting to interview them for their baptism.
We also found that two other investigators, Francieudes "Ed" (22) and Paulo-Henrique (11) successfully made it to church and were worthy and prepared to be baptized after sacrament meeting! Both have had some pre-baptismal preparation struggles, Francieude because it's difficult for him to schedule with us during the week because he works so much, and Paulo-Henrique because he loves coffee and when we first taught him he was drinking more than two liters a day! But, they had made the necessary sacrifices and were ready for baptism.
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| Antonio and Mara, the parents their son, Andrio who met us with the umbrellas Laryssa, Andrio's wife and Clarice (girlfriend to their other son, Fabio, who is on a mission) |
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| Laryssa and Clarice |
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| Francieudes "Ed" |
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| Paulo-Henrique |
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| I love these guys! |
I was very privileged with the opportunity to baptize both Francieudes, Paulo-Henrique along with Clarice, while Laryssa chose Elder Pereira! It was a lively baptismal meeting, the members prepared a special hymn for the recent-converts and there was an excellent spiritual message as well. Everyone left with smiles on their faces.
Wow! Am I blessed or what?!
After struggling this whole transfer with almost no luck, on our last week everything worked out, miracles happened and we were able to baptize four of Heavenly Father's elect children.
I love these people! I love this wonderful Gospel. It really works. If we work hard, follow the commandments, I know our Heavenly Father will bless us in the end, despite the trials we need to pass through to get there.
Oh, by the way, I got my last transfer call! Elder Pereira and I will stay here in Ala Caucaia to "mission kill" each other (since we both go home at the end of this transfer).
Wow! Am I blessed or what?!
After struggling this whole transfer with almost no luck, on our last week everything worked out, miracles happened and we were able to baptize four of Heavenly Father's elect children.
I love these people! I love this wonderful Gospel. It really works. If we work hard, follow the commandments, I know our Heavenly Father will bless us in the end, despite the trials we need to pass through to get there.
Oh, by the way, I got my last transfer call! Elder Pereira and I will stay here in Ala Caucaia to "mission kill" each other (since we both go home at the end of this transfer).
Also, we were blessed with the arrival of two new Elders, Elder Parkes and Elder Ortiz (Elder Ortiz knows Connor, he's from Passo Fundo). They'll be living and working with us in Caucaia this transfer. Elder Parkes is awesome, he's from the El Dorado Stake in El Dorado Hills! He took his endowments at the Sacramento Temple, we know a lot of the same places and like a lot of the same things. He's the first libertarian I've found on the mission like me! Whadya know!? Elder Ortiz is supercool too, a nice humble guy who loves video games (everyone is our house is a video game fanatic now! what wonderful conversations we will have, hahaha!)
One problem: no beds or desks or fans in our house for the new elders!!! What will happen tonight?!?!
We better figure something for these poor guys!
Hey, I love you guys, thank you so much for the e-mails, letters, and prayers. Five more weeks! I'm struggling to end my mission being focused and working hard and I am bound and determined to do it. Please pray for me!!! The hardest part of the race is the sprint at the end!
I love you guys!
Have a great week!!!
- Brendon
Hey Mom,
We've seen a few of the Guinea-Bisseau people over the weeks, but they are just so busy with school that it's hard to get them to commit to things. They like the church, they love us, but we just can't get them to go every Sunday to the services :/ Who knows if we'll have more success with them this week. But they are still our great friends, we always stop to chat when we pass them on the streets. Who knows if we were meant just to plant some seeds... :)
Keep praying for them.
Yes, I received your latest package! Thanks for the candy, deoderant and everything, it's exactly what I needed! You guys are so awesome! Love it!
Hey, I love you guys, thank you so much for the e-mails, letters, and prayers. Five more weeks! I'm struggling to end my mission being focused and working hard and I am bound and determined to do it. Please pray for me!!! The hardest part of the race is the sprint at the end!
I love you guys!
Have a great week!!!
- Brendon
Hey Mom,
We've seen a few of the Guinea-Bisseau people over the weeks, but they are just so busy with school that it's hard to get them to commit to things. They like the church, they love us, but we just can't get them to go every Sunday to the services :/ Who knows if we'll have more success with them this week. But they are still our great friends, we always stop to chat when we pass them on the streets. Who knows if we were meant just to plant some seeds... :)
Keep praying for them.
Yes, I received your latest package! Thanks for the candy, deoderant and everything, it's exactly what I needed! You guys are so awesome! Love it!
7-04-2011 Letter Home
I want to live in Cumbuco!
In other news we had a ward lunch activity on Saturday, then everyone started their fast together, which was pretty fun. We got some inactive members to go (free food) and they ended up going to church on Sunday as well. Good, inspired activity.
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| We had a ward lunch this week and I took some sneaky pictures of the bunch |
We were leaving the church last P-Day after watching a couple movies and we saw this teenager yell at us from far-away
Well, yeah, only six more weeks left. The new President, President Souza got here last Tuesday and we are all holding our breath, wondering if he'll make any big changes (no more G movies on P-Day???) Ah well, I'm leaving soon, all these worries and mission-newsbits and gossip is all seeming much less important to me lately.
Have a great week! I love you guys!
- Brendon
How to explain this new hodgepodge of pics???
Hope ya like. :D
"Elders!! Wait over here!!"
He ran away out of view and we walked over to where he was and waited for him to come back, and when he finally did he had a friend with him.
"Elders! This is Analina she wants to hear about the church!"
Turns out that he was a returned missionary from another neighboring ward that had been doing a course nearby. We asked where Analina lived and she told us she lived in Cumbuco. Vixe Maria! An hour away by bus... alright, alright, I guess we could go to your house.
So on Saturday at the agreed hour we took a bus to Cumbuco to teach her. Cumbuco is famous nationally and internationally, in Europe I guess, as one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil. I haven't seen too many beaches here, but I believe they might just be telling the truth. Cumbuco was gorgeous. What was even better is that the streets were clean, lawns were well-watered, and there were thousands of huge beautiful beach apartments and mansions to gawk at.
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| A supernice apartment complex |
Cumbuco is a beautiful place. It was sunny but windy and the sky was perfectly blue. Cumbuco is famous for kitesurfing, and we were able to snap a couple of photos of kitesurfers in the distance.
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| Cumbuco Beach -- Kitesurfing in the background! |
We got to Analina's house purely guided by the Spirit, we had no idea where she lived but we kept on asking people and we eventually found someone who knew where she lived. Her house turned out to be as beautiful as the city, and when we commented on it, she told us that Lar Doce Lar made it. Lar Doce Lar? Home Sweet Home? What is that you ask? It's Brazil's version of Let's Build You A Home, you know, that show where they build awesome houses for regular people.
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| Taking a picture with Analina's family and their awesome flat |
It turns out Analina is kind of a celebrity because of this, she was on TV and everything and almost all of the members recognized her when she walked into the church on Sunday. She loved the church services and marked with us for another day. She's super intelligent, she's been Catholic, Evangelical, she's studied with Jehovah's Witness and gone to the Universal Church, she's a female Joseph Smith as far as someone who keeps seeking for the truth and she loved the first message, told us that she's never heard things explained so simply as she did with our message. We hope Analina is going to be baptized too, just you guys wait!
We also ended up contacting a reference we had named , Alexsandra in Cumbuco, as well. We found the address and it... turned out to be... a giant luxury beach hotel. I was so "gosh-wowed" I didn't even remember to take pictures. We asked for Alexsandra at the front desk and it turned out that Alexsandra was the owner of the hotel. We were so nervous waiting for her to come out of her office to talk with us. She finally did and we sat at a table in the lobby and began to talk. Oh man, she was so eloquent, like the classic supersuccessful self-made Brazilian woman, she made conversation so easily you know and sometimes we felt like idiots, she had been trained to speak with the owners of huge businesses and international travelers, while we'd been trained to speak with people on the street and in the favellas. But, she was super cool. She told us that she had gone to church in the Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre (yes, I did mention my brother was serving there and she got super excited about that, asking about chimarrao and everything and if he was liking the city) and that she loved the LDS Church and wanted to go again. We gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and invited her to church and she told us she definitely would go. It turns out that the next day she called us up and told her that she had forgotten about another appointment, but that she would go to our services at the next opportunity. Really cool lesson.
We also ended up contacting a reference we had named , Alexsandra in Cumbuco, as well. We found the address and it... turned out to be... a giant luxury beach hotel. I was so "gosh-wowed" I didn't even remember to take pictures. We asked for Alexsandra at the front desk and it turned out that Alexsandra was the owner of the hotel. We were so nervous waiting for her to come out of her office to talk with us. She finally did and we sat at a table in the lobby and began to talk. Oh man, she was so eloquent, like the classic supersuccessful self-made Brazilian woman, she made conversation so easily you know and sometimes we felt like idiots, she had been trained to speak with the owners of huge businesses and international travelers, while we'd been trained to speak with people on the street and in the favellas. But, she was super cool. She told us that she had gone to church in the Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre (yes, I did mention my brother was serving there and she got super excited about that, asking about chimarrao and everything and if he was liking the city) and that she loved the LDS Church and wanted to go again. We gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and invited her to church and she told us she definitely would go. It turns out that the next day she called us up and told her that she had forgotten about another appointment, but that she would go to our services at the next opportunity. Really cool lesson.
Well, yeah, only six more weeks left. The new President, President Souza got here last Tuesday and we are all holding our breath, wondering if he'll make any big changes (no more G movies on P-Day???) Ah well, I'm leaving soon, all these worries and mission-newsbits and gossip is all seeming much less important to me lately.
Have a great week! I love you guys!
- Brendon
Um monte de fotos
How to explain this new hodgepodge of pics???
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| I took a quick picture of me at the bank which is always super crowded at the end of the month |
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| Wild hair in the wind and a robot |
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| Just me being adorable! |
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| My sister is famous!! |
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