Ensaio

OK, so this week was the mission tour with the General Authority for our mission, Elder Koch (hope I spelled that right). We had a striking 9 lessons the first two days, including one ending in a baptismal date with Rosy. I made the comment to Elder Targino that this was going to be a great week... then literally 100% of our lessons fell through the rest of the week, ha-ha. But still a great one! 

Jiselia sent this conversation between her and Sister Koch to my mom

Ok, so, first off, the ensaio. Last zone conference a bunch of elders got together and were playing the piano and singing some songs. As a joke, I came in with Elder Targino's recorder playing really badly to mess them up. It got a lot of laughs but one thing led to another, and now we are performing a musical number for Elder Koh. We have a 170,000 dollar piano, a 1000 dollar violin, and the creme de la coop, a 6 dollar recorder played by Elder Targino. Then a bunch of elders singing. Elder Targino has been practicing at least an hour a day every day for the last 3 weeks on the recorder. Today was the big show. The microphone at the pulpit was strategically turned off, you know, to let the other instruments take the forefront. But Elder Targino, this madman, notices and mid note stops playing, calmly walks over to the controls and not only turns on the microphone but turns the volume up all the way. When he walks over and starts playing again, I'm trying to keep a straight face while singing, because the sound of the recorder echoes through the church halls. At the end, Elder Koch went up and thanked everyone, "Especially the elder playing the recorder, or the 'sweet flute' as it’s called in Portuguese." That was ta highlight for me, but there were still plenty of good moments throughout the conference. It was all about following the Spirit and focusing on helping the people we teach find happiness. Plus, because it was at our chapel, we got to eat lunch with the other zone as well, which means twice the ribs. 

And other than that, it was a straightforward week. We found out why Milton hasn't been responding. He went into a smoking and alcohol recovery program. That makes me so happy, especially because it means that when he gets out, he has a real shot of changing his life if the other elders can give him the right support. We also met with Milla at the chapel on Sunday. I gave a talk about the importance of bearing testimony and afterwards responded to all her questions about what music, movies, and video games are allowed. It was pretty weird, but it's cool to see that she's really considering becoming part of the church, and we haven't even invited her. She's really concerned about what's gonna distance her from the Spirit and how she can have God in her life. It's awesome!

Other great news, Noemi is getting baptized!

Up and Down

Up and Down

So, as you can guess this has been a really up and down week ha-ha. But luckily for me it ended on the up, so I’m in a good mood writing this email. This week we went to Barão Geraldo to resolve some stuff. We received a reference with a number that didn't work, so we went to her house so get the new one; then Milton stopped responding, so we wanted to see what’s up; and Nadir has been having problems with someone talking bad about the church, so we marked an in person lesson. We got dropped off by our Uber at Milton’s, but no one was home, so we walked to the Reference's house. It wasn't hers, but it was her cousin’s. That’s where we met Mila and her Mom in my first ever knocked door. We talked to them for about 20 minutes and ended up getting their phone number. We haven't talked to the mom yet, but we taught Mila the restoration, and she loved it! She even went to church on her own! At church someone gave a talk about the blessings of missionary service, and she asked if she could be a missionary, too. (She's 18.) 

The craziest part: the thing that kicked off the conversation was they asked where I was from, and when I said California, they told me about her brother-in-law that lives in Folsom!!! What are the odds of that?! I can realistically bet that they are the only people in all of Campinas who have even heard of Folsom, California. After the lesson she went to her grandpa’s and talked about the lesson. Her grandpa pulled out a Book of Mormon and gave one to her that was given to him by missionaries a long time ago. What a cool story. While we were walking away, I asked Elder Targino how he felt, and he said, “Like a real missionary.” 

After that we went to Nadir's, and that's a sadder story. Someone talked a lot of bad about the church including but not limited to, "It’s a church only for rich people; they are evil; they sacrifice children in the temple; and more..." Sister Eliziane her friend tried to talk sense into her, but she refused to hear any more of the lessons which is ridiculous but, I can’t control the agency of others. We took off her baptism date and stopped teaching her. We can hope and pray that she will have a change of heart. 

The next day was Elder Targino's birthday. The day earlier I went to the store and bought him a ton of candy and a cuscuzeira which is a type of steamer made to cook food from his region of Brazil. Then when he came out of the room in the morning, we surprised him. He was really excited. Later in the day I bought lunch for him at a GREAT restaurant called Big Jacks, and he spent the rest of the day calling his family ha-ha. At least 4 or 5 hours. But we decided not to press him. Pick your battles! Then we played hide and seek in the dark at the church which was a TON of fun. As I'm sure you all know, I am the hide and seek expert. 

That reminds me of a funny Elder Targino moment. Elder Targino was on the computers with headphones and Elder Mons asked if he wanted to play hide and seek for his birthday. He took off his headphones, looked at Elder Mons and said in English, "Test". (He doesn't speak English) Then he put his headphones back on and went back to the computer. Elder Mons looked at me and said, “Was that a yes or a no?” And then asked again. Elder Targino blew out his nose and turned around and yelled it louder. So Elder Mons yelled back, “What does that mean.?” And Elder Targino yelled, “Test,” again. Elder Mons asked if he meant to say triste (sad), and he said no I meant test. Elder Mons said that doesn't make sense, and Elder Targino just said, “I said test, you asked me if I said triste, so I was clarifying that I said test." Keep in mind that Elder Targino is furious that no one knows what he’s trying to say. Elder Mons said, “I just want to know if you want to play hide and seek. What do you mean test?” And Elder Targino takes off his headphones looks up to the heavens and gives the loudest sigh you've ever heard and says, "Test! Exam! Proof! Quiz!" To this day we still don’t know what he was trying to say. Stuff like that happens every day on the regular that was just an example. It’s interesting. Then we realized, HE's Dwight from the office! He also doesn't let anyone stand behind him because attacks come from behind. 

At the end of the day, I asked him what he thought of his Birthday, and he shrugged and said "eh" ha-ha. I said "Really, nothing good happened today." And he said, “No, nothing.” The other elders were pretty peeved, but it’s whatever. Apparently back home he celebrates his birthday for a full 2 weeks, so I can see how this is a downgrade. 

There was another sad story with a member this week. Someone sent us a message because she was going to come bring us lunch. And she sent us an audio message saying "It’s my day to give you the Lunch. I’m going over and you're going to be waiting at the Gate. At the Gate. The GAAAAATE. Not the door the Gate. I get there give you the food and Goodbye" We have no idea why she doesn’t like us; we have no idea who she was. We then sent her a message asking what time she would be there. And she ignored us and told us to wait outside. We couldn’t wait all day, so we went in to do a lesson. An hour and 40 minutes later she came by while we were in our lesson and when we weren't there, she threw the food over the fence and called us 6 times. We kept on telling her we were in a lesson, and she kept calling again to complain about how we weren't there and tell us she threw it on the ground. I still have no idea what caused all of this or who she is. 

OK back to a funny/sad story. Elder Targino and I were studying Edapp, and there’s a question that says, "This quote from President Monson says that you are a special spirit of God who was reserved especially for these days. You've probably heard it before, but do you believe it?" Elder Targino read that out loud and then without skipping a beat said no in a really absolute obvious way. And I don't know, it was funny/sad. 

We found 6 people today, but other than Mila I only want to comment on 2 others. Rodrigo is a really cool guy that we met online that is super elect. We taught him about the restoration, and I was saying "Joseph Smith wasn't called to create a new church, but to..." and he said the next word for me "Restore Christ’s church." I thought that was really cool. 

The other person is Rosy. I sent her a friend request, and she sent me a message saying she was so glad I sent her a request. She said she's looking for a church that can give her direction in life! I got to know her on the phone, and apparently, she met missionaries 4 months ago in Barão Geraldo and told them she was looking for a church and direction; they took her number but never called. I talked to Elder Mons, and he said he had never been to Barão Geraldo when he took care of the area. So, what we think happened is a couple of missionaries were sneaking off and ran into her. But didn’t want to call her because they would have to explain to Elder Mons and Elder Pompeu why they left their zone. I hope that’s not it, but it makes the most sense. I’m trying not to be annoyed and hoping there’s a better explanation. But the exciting thing is, that we found her again. 

And that’s the week. There’s some other little stuff but this has been long enough as it is. 

Tchau gente!

1st Full Week in Brazil

Tuesday: 

One of those days where every single one of our lessons fell through, but still a great day nonetheless. It left us with some time to go on a walk, and I was excited to get to know the city a bit better. Plus, I'm teaching Elder Silva English, so when we had nothing left to do we would just read from the Book of Mormon out loud. After the day was over, Elder Silva taught me how to play a Brazilian card game called Pif Paf, and I went to go write in my journal. When I wrote the date, I realized something kinda funny; I've been writing 2020 for the past month and a half instead of 2021 haha. Acontece

Wednesday:

Big News! I finished reading my Portuguese grammar book cover to cover! Now all I have to do it learn it! Our first lesson of the day was with a guy named Gustavo. When we were talking to him, he told me all about the Book of Mormon and how great it is; he really loves Nephi. Elder Silva asked if he had prayed about being baptized, and Gustavo said he'd like to get to know the church better, but he wanted to one day. After the lesson, I said, "Wow, he's elect." Elder Silva turned to me and said, "How is he elect! He said he wouldn't get baptized!" and I just told him he should try a mission in the USA. After that, we met with Luis Henrique, another cool guy. I love getting to know this area, because it has so many great people. At one point, Henrique asked me when and how I realized this church was true. I told him it happened when I was about 17, and it was, because I made the decision to start reading the Book of Mormon and asking questions about it. When I finished, Elder Silva said, "But what he really means to say is the Priesthood; it's the priesthood that makes the difference." I was entertained and not annoyed don't worry, just a funny moment. It's definitely an interesting dynamic. I have a lot to work on with my Portuguese and need to practice my accent, but at the same time I want to help Elder Silva with English. So we don't know if we should be trying to speak in Portugues or English; we'll figure it out though. After our lessons, we went to go find a recent convert whose number we didn't have, but when we got there, we weren't sure whose house it was. Wo we called the president of the congregation. We then got the sad news he had passed away shortly after from addiction problems. The only reason I bring it up is because after his baptism, he lost contact with the church. As he lived alone, he fell back into the same habits. It goes to stress the responsibility of the congregation to fellowship new members, and the responsibility of the missionaries to invite members into lessons. A harsh reminder though. When we got home, I went about making a google sheet where I could put all the information for the people we are teaching. On our way home, I asked Elder Silva how street contacting worked. He just said, "Like this," and walked up to a lady and started talking to her and invited her to church, haha. So that's how my first street contact went. 

Thursday:

We only had one lesson to prepare for today with a really cool guy named Pedro (I know so many Pedros). We spent our entire companion study planning for the lesson. Then at the very end, we realized he was in the other elders' area not ours, haha. So we gave them his contact info and our lesson plan, haha. After that, we went about contacting all our referrals. For the second time, I accidentally called the sisters in São Paulo who sent the referrals over instead of the actual person, which they thought was funny. Then 5 minutes later, I did it a 3rd time! We all had a big laugh. It's funny, because each time they let us talk for a minute or two before letting us know. After that fiasco, I needed a break from calling. So I worked on getting together a mission wide training on how to use the area book app. President asked me to prepare it on Monday in our interviews. We finished the day calling referrals, and I have an interesting note. In my entire previous experience with Brazilians, I have never met a single one without WhatsApp. But almost every single person we tried calling did not have one; it was sooooo weird.  

Friday:

OK. Almost done. Then I have an email to read. Today, we had the longest weekly planning session of my life. Mostly because they don't really weekly plan in this mission, so there wasn't much info to go off of. We opened it around noon, but then had a lesson. After an hour and a half, we continued on, had another lesson, then another, then finally had our last hour in peace. It's hard because in my google spreadsheet, I want to put what they've been taught already, but the other elders don't write anything down, so we have to call Elder Lima constantly to check. "What have they been taught?" "Put the plan of salvation. No wait, never-mind. Oh ya we did. Let me call Lima." We finally closed weekly planning with a prayer at 7:00, 6 hours later. After that, we had a lesson with a new person named Ana Claudia, and we actually asked if she'd like to be baptized when she received an answer to her prayers. She was more than excited, and said she would be baptized today. We told her we had plenty to teach her, and that we were excited to help her and her family make changes. Then we had a lesson at the chapel with Luis-Henrique. Only the second new friend I've ever had a lesson with in person, and my 1st in Brazil. I loved it. He's super smart and loves philosophy. The only problem is that I don't know how to talk about philosophy in Portuguese. At one point, Elder Silva just said, "Dude, he has no idea what you're saying." hahahaha. Then we has a lesson with André, a friend with a date for baptism. It went super well and we taught the Law of Chastity to which he was very open. Then, the saddest thing to happen on my mission. We found a baby chick at the front door of the chapel. We brought it over to the tree we think it fell out of but had no clue what to do. We went inside to ask the other elders. We joked about taking it to the apartment and making it a pet, then Elder Silva said, "It stopped chirping." When we went back, we saw that a hawk or some other bird had gotten it and was eating it on a tree branch. Circle of life, but I'm traumatized.

Saturday: 

My first time ever eating with a member! It was awesome: beans, chicken, and rice with coke and grape juice. I loooooove Brazilian homes, haha. We had to rush back to the chapel to call a member for a lesson. When we called, her grandson was playing minecraft in her tablet and wouldn't give the phone to her so the lesson fell through, haha. I love listening to kids talk in Portuguese; it's so cute. At the end of the day, some members came to clean the chapel. We decided to help them sweep and mop. They bought some coke and pastéis, and we sat and talked for about an hour or so. They immigrated here from Venezuela. The daughter is putting in her mission papers in two weeks. I can't explain why, but it's one of the fondest memories on my mission. Just sitting and chatting with a really sweet family. We talked about English and Portuguese. They complimented my Portuguese a ton, and said that it was really hard for them. I was really sad when we had to leave, but it was getting late.

Sunday: 

Today we got a ride to go to church in Itajubá, just over an hour away. The drive up was beautiful. It made me realize how badly I want to visit Brazil after my mission. Church itself wasn't great. The fans were super loud and the microphone didn't work, so no one heard a thing. But I loved meeting the people, and Ana-Claudia. The ward is made up of mostly women and children, which definitely also makes for a fun time, haha. When we got back, we had lunch with the President of the Pouso Alegre branch (congregation). He showed us how to make sushi and we talked/argued about languages the entire time, haha. I really like him; we see eye to eye on a lot. He talked to me about what kind of American music I liked and talked about a bunch of songs. (All of which are on my playlist back home hah.) His kid was super cute. I showed him magic tricks and a hand slapping game, but it's weird playing with kids on the mission for sure. On the drive back up, he told us how the church's clerk was saying we shouldn't be allowed in the church outside of Sunday, because the clerk's cousin had a stake president who went into his office and saw a missionary chilling with his feet on the desk. President fought for us and only told us to let us know. It's a funny interaction, but also goes to show the importance of being on your best behavior. The poor decision of one elder was effecting a ward miles and miles away.