December 27, 2010
There's always this kind of awkward space at the end of the year where it's too late to wish people a Merry Christmas, but too early to wish them a Happy New Year. I guess that's why Mom and Dad got married during this bizarro, meta-holiday week, exactly one thousand years ago. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!
Guys, it was so nice to talk to you on Christmas. I know we get to communicate each week through emails, but there's something special about hearing everyone's voices. Speaking of which, Mom mentioned that my voice sounded deeper -- is that true? I just read an email from Brady saying that you guys apparently had the bass turned up really loud on the laptop speakers or something, so maybe my deep voice was just a technical problem, and not a sign of manliness at all. Anyway, I loved talking to you all. I just wish we could have had more time para conversar because that hour went by waaaaay too fast. I guess that's what happens when you have such an insanely big family. It was a fun time to hear how (and what) everyone is doing, to listen to your funny mouse stories, and to hear the little nieces and nephews talk or make noises. Honestly, that was probably the weirdest thing about the phone call home: stuff is changing, and time is passing. I still can't believe how much Katelyn sounds like a real person instead of a little toddler-zinha or how Collin can already talk. Shoot, Sam even has an extra deep voice now. Everyone's growing up!
Christmas Day was only unique because it was so underwhelming and ordinary. We ate an early lunch with a nice family who has no Christmas traditions, looked for an open LAN house for awhile and never found one, made the phone call home, and then ate dinner with the LZs at a member family's house from their ward. It was a nice day, but it wasn't especially memorable. I did have a satisfying buildup to Christmas, though. Starting with the rebroadcast of the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional, the few weeks leading up to Christmas had their share of holiday cheer.
This week, we had a mission Christmas conference in Ribeirão Preto. For the first (and probably the last) time in my whole mission, all the missionaries had a conference in the same chapel. We had a special Christmas program that was actually really good, President spoke to us, and we got to watch the Grinch (the Jim Carrey one)! It would have been better if we got to watch it in English (dubbed movies are the worst thing in the world), and if it wasn't a pretty crappy movie in the first place. I couldn't believe how obnoxious it was.
For the last three weeks our mission has been engaged in a competition between the zones. Each zone can get points based on the cleanliness of the missionaries' houses (we have been sending weekly photos of the houses to the office), whether or not we achieve the standard of excellence each week (5 people at church, 160 contacts, etc.), and if we baptize. Each dupla that gets two baptisms for the month, which is the mission goal, gets a ton of points for their zone. Anyway, my comp and I baptized two this month, as have most of the other duplas in our zone, so we won! I found out this morning. That means that tonight we are going to have a pizza party and watch flippin' Toy Story 3!! And there's no way I'm going to watch that movie in Portuguese. I'm so dang excited.
Of course, I'll only get to watch the movie if I survive the rest of the day. In just over two hours, I'm going to go to a little health clinic, and someone is going to cut, rip out, or maybe even burn my ingrown toenail out / off. I don't really know how it's going to work, but I guess they just cut a vertical line down the nail and take out the part that's growing under the carne. I don't know if I'll be allowed to walk this week, or when I'll be able to use shoes again, or even if it's going to hurt. I just hope they use anesthesia.
Anyway, é isso aí. I want to personally wish you guys a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Maybe we'll get to see each other during the holiday season next year. Happy thousandth Anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love all of you so much, and I hope you're having fun with everyone back at the house together!
luv
booooga
ps I'm attaching some photos. The first is my list of the things to talk about on the phone call, the second is my companion and me wishing you a Very-Berry-Merry Christmas, and the third is me on Christmas Eve. [Editor's note: Sorry! Photos won't copy]
Monday, December 27, 2010
'Cause I'm not sure if I live here anymore
December 20, 2010
Merry Christmas, everyone!
This week was nuts for two reasons: my companion and I barely worked at all, and we baptized. What?!
Yeah. We didn't really work this week. But it's for a good reason! I went to the doctor last Tuesday because of a pesky ingrown toenail that I have been dealing with for a good couple weeks now, and she said that I needed to take the week off. She gave me a signed note and everything -- if I were an employed man in this city, I would be legally obligated to get work off for seven days. Crazy, huh? She also gave me a prescription and forbade me from wearing a closed shoe on my right foot for three months! So for the last few days, I have been walking very little, although I have been working more than the doctor said I should. We have still been visiting our best investigators (luckily, they live really close), and I have done some walking in order to go on divisions with other elders, but that's pretty much it. Elder Harris and I have been staying in the house on the doctor's orders, studying a lot, talking, and singing hymns. We're both going a little crazy.
And somehow, even with us being imprisioned for the week, we managed to baptize! There's an eight-year-old kid named Lucas who has been going to church now for easily six or seven consecutive weeks, and we baptized him yesterday. I usually try to avoid working with kids because they pretty much always believe you, and they have little chance to stay firm in the Church without their parents. But Lucas has been going faithfully for awhile now, and I think his grandparents will support him. t's not really up to me to deny him from being baptized, anyway.
I have kind of discovered over the course of the last few weeks that the area that I'm in has something of a reputation for being difficult. My LZ told me this morning that it's pretty much the hardest area in the mission as far as ward members helping out is concerned, but I don't really believe that. Anyway, it's cool to see the Lord blessing us, because we haven't done anything other than work hard and be obedient, and we have had some real, tangible success here.
So, I am very excited to talk to you guys this Saturday. Christmas doesn't really feel the same on the mission (no holiday does), but it's looking like we'll still manage to have a special Christmas this year. We're having a special Christmas conference tomorrow in Ribeirão Preto, and the entire mission is going to be there. It's going to be nuts, and I'm stoked! And then we'll have the Christmas call on Saturday, and things are going to be aaaallll right. I just found out last night that we are allowed to do Skype video calls for the phone call home, but I don't know if that will be a possibility. It will be hard, if not impossible, to find a LAN house that'll be open on Christmas, and I don't know of any members in our ward that have a webcam, or even a good computer for that matter. Most likely, we'll have to do a normal phone call, but I'll do what I can to try to set up a video call. I'll call some time on Christmas Eve, probably in the late morning or early afternoon for you guys, to set everything up. Dad suggested that we do the call around 4 PM my time (10 AM in California), which works for me. Is that good for everyone?
My mission president hasn't said yet how long the phone call can last, but I'm guessing it will be for an hour. Maybe he'll be generous and let us talk as much as we want, but I doubt it. We'll figure out all the details on Christmas Eve.
Eu amo vocês so flippin' much! Até o sábado! Feliz natal!
abraço
elder wiggins 4 (or 5)
Merry Christmas, everyone!
This week was nuts for two reasons: my companion and I barely worked at all, and we baptized. What?!
Yeah. We didn't really work this week. But it's for a good reason! I went to the doctor last Tuesday because of a pesky ingrown toenail that I have been dealing with for a good couple weeks now, and she said that I needed to take the week off. She gave me a signed note and everything -- if I were an employed man in this city, I would be legally obligated to get work off for seven days. Crazy, huh? She also gave me a prescription and forbade me from wearing a closed shoe on my right foot for three months! So for the last few days, I have been walking very little, although I have been working more than the doctor said I should. We have still been visiting our best investigators (luckily, they live really close), and I have done some walking in order to go on divisions with other elders, but that's pretty much it. Elder Harris and I have been staying in the house on the doctor's orders, studying a lot, talking, and singing hymns. We're both going a little crazy.
And somehow, even with us being imprisioned for the week, we managed to baptize! There's an eight-year-old kid named Lucas who has been going to church now for easily six or seven consecutive weeks, and we baptized him yesterday. I usually try to avoid working with kids because they pretty much always believe you, and they have little chance to stay firm in the Church without their parents. But Lucas has been going faithfully for awhile now, and I think his grandparents will support him. t's not really up to me to deny him from being baptized, anyway.
I have kind of discovered over the course of the last few weeks that the area that I'm in has something of a reputation for being difficult. My LZ told me this morning that it's pretty much the hardest area in the mission as far as ward members helping out is concerned, but I don't really believe that. Anyway, it's cool to see the Lord blessing us, because we haven't done anything other than work hard and be obedient, and we have had some real, tangible success here.
So, I am very excited to talk to you guys this Saturday. Christmas doesn't really feel the same on the mission (no holiday does), but it's looking like we'll still manage to have a special Christmas this year. We're having a special Christmas conference tomorrow in Ribeirão Preto, and the entire mission is going to be there. It's going to be nuts, and I'm stoked! And then we'll have the Christmas call on Saturday, and things are going to be aaaallll right. I just found out last night that we are allowed to do Skype video calls for the phone call home, but I don't know if that will be a possibility. It will be hard, if not impossible, to find a LAN house that'll be open on Christmas, and I don't know of any members in our ward that have a webcam, or even a good computer for that matter. Most likely, we'll have to do a normal phone call, but I'll do what I can to try to set up a video call. I'll call some time on Christmas Eve, probably in the late morning or early afternoon for you guys, to set everything up. Dad suggested that we do the call around 4 PM my time (10 AM in California), which works for me. Is that good for everyone?
My mission president hasn't said yet how long the phone call can last, but I'm guessing it will be for an hour. Maybe he'll be generous and let us talk as much as we want, but I doubt it. We'll figure out all the details on Christmas Eve.
Eu amo vocês so flippin' much! Até o sábado! Feliz natal!
abraço
elder wiggins 4 (or 5)
Sunday, December 19, 2010
And if the snow buries my neighborhood
December 13, 2010
Bom dia, everyone!
This week went by really fast for me. My birthday went very well, and was much more memorable than my first birthday in the mission field. Some of the other elders in my zone and I went to a really good restaurant downtown that I hadn't ever heard of before. There are a lot of restaurants out here that serve rice, beans, meat, and vegetables, where you just serve yourself and they charge you for a plate of food. This restaurant was the same, except that they had a churrascaria (it's basically a big brick barbecue furnace thing) in the corner. So we got to take a bunch of suuuuuper delicious, freshly cooked cuts of beef and pork with our food. I ate chicken heart for the first time, and you won't believe it, but it's actually really good. At lunch, the other elders gave me a present: a cheap Barbie towel they had bought down the street. After eating, we went to the chapel and watched The Other Side of Heaven, which I really enjoyed, even though that's not really what my mission has been like at all. We ate cake and chatted for a while, and then we went back to work!
We confirmed Bruno, the rapaz that we baptized last week, in our ward yesterday. It was a bit of a fiasco because I talked to the bishop before sacrament meeting about how it was going to go down, and he suggested that an irmão who knew Bruno do the confirmation. I don't think that irmão had ever confirmed anyone before, so he kind of struggled with it. I ended up whispering in his ear exactly what to say as we were standing up in front of the congregation with our hands on poor Bruno's head. It all worked out in the end, but I hope Bruno didn't get too freaked out.
I met a lady from England yesterday! It was the weirdest thing ever: Elder Harris and I were making a bunch of contacts to try to reach our weekly goal, so we started talking to a middle-aged couple in the park. After going through the spiel, the guy mentioned that the lady was from a Inglaterra and she started speaking English with us! It was really weird. We didn't stick around for very long because we were interrupting a tender moment, but it was pretty cool. I made a contact in English, and it was very strange. And they kind of rejected us.
I can't believe that its the Christmas season. We got to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional yesterday (I loved it!), and it was really the first time that I thought of Christmas. I mean, Christmas Christmas. It's hard to be distracted by thoughts of snow, stockings, candy canes, Christmas movies, or hot chocolate when you're almost literally melting in the street every day in the middle of nowhere. Do you guys realize that I get to talk to you next flippin' week?! I think my companion and I are going to call from the luxurious, air conditioned comfort of the bishop's office, so we'll be able to be nice and cozy (I don't know if I'll be allowed to make a Skype video call home). Since everyone's going to be home for Christmas this year (right?), hopefully it will be a little easier to plan around everyone's schedules. I don't know exactly how it will all work out, but I'll call on Christmas Eve for just a minute to get everything all set up. It would help me a lot if someone (Dad?) let me know what time would be best for you guys to make the call. Keep in mind that I'm six hours ahead of you.
I hope all of you are doing well and staying out of this hot hot Christmas heat. Start making up your lists of questions and things to talk about on Christmas so there's no awkward silence! I love all of you so much. So much.
um abraço
elder wiggins
Bom dia, everyone!
This week went by really fast for me. My birthday went very well, and was much more memorable than my first birthday in the mission field. Some of the other elders in my zone and I went to a really good restaurant downtown that I hadn't ever heard of before. There are a lot of restaurants out here that serve rice, beans, meat, and vegetables, where you just serve yourself and they charge you for a plate of food. This restaurant was the same, except that they had a churrascaria (it's basically a big brick barbecue furnace thing) in the corner. So we got to take a bunch of suuuuuper delicious, freshly cooked cuts of beef and pork with our food. I ate chicken heart for the first time, and you won't believe it, but it's actually really good. At lunch, the other elders gave me a present: a cheap Barbie towel they had bought down the street. After eating, we went to the chapel and watched The Other Side of Heaven, which I really enjoyed, even though that's not really what my mission has been like at all. We ate cake and chatted for a while, and then we went back to work!
We confirmed Bruno, the rapaz that we baptized last week, in our ward yesterday. It was a bit of a fiasco because I talked to the bishop before sacrament meeting about how it was going to go down, and he suggested that an irmão who knew Bruno do the confirmation. I don't think that irmão had ever confirmed anyone before, so he kind of struggled with it. I ended up whispering in his ear exactly what to say as we were standing up in front of the congregation with our hands on poor Bruno's head. It all worked out in the end, but I hope Bruno didn't get too freaked out.
I met a lady from England yesterday! It was the weirdest thing ever: Elder Harris and I were making a bunch of contacts to try to reach our weekly goal, so we started talking to a middle-aged couple in the park. After going through the spiel, the guy mentioned that the lady was from a Inglaterra and she started speaking English with us! It was really weird. We didn't stick around for very long because we were interrupting a tender moment, but it was pretty cool. I made a contact in English, and it was very strange. And they kind of rejected us.
I can't believe that its the Christmas season. We got to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional yesterday (I loved it!), and it was really the first time that I thought of Christmas. I mean, Christmas Christmas. It's hard to be distracted by thoughts of snow, stockings, candy canes, Christmas movies, or hot chocolate when you're almost literally melting in the street every day in the middle of nowhere. Do you guys realize that I get to talk to you next flippin' week?! I think my companion and I are going to call from the luxurious, air conditioned comfort of the bishop's office, so we'll be able to be nice and cozy (I don't know if I'll be allowed to make a Skype video call home). Since everyone's going to be home for Christmas this year (right?), hopefully it will be a little easier to plan around everyone's schedules. I don't know exactly how it will all work out, but I'll call on Christmas Eve for just a minute to get everything all set up. It would help me a lot if someone (Dad?) let me know what time would be best for you guys to make the call. Keep in mind that I'm six hours ahead of you.
I hope all of you are doing well and staying out of this hot hot Christmas heat. Start making up your lists of questions and things to talk about on Christmas so there's no awkward silence! I love all of you so much. So much.
um abraço
elder wiggins
Monday, December 6, 2010
And we don't care about the young folks
Dec. 6, 2010
Dear fambuhlee,
Well hello! So, it's my birthday today. I haven't really done anything special yet, but after my companion and I finish our emails, we're going to meet up some other elders from our zone, eat lunch, and watch The Other Side of Heaven at the church. It will probably make me really trunky but that's okay. The birthday only comes once a year, right?
Honestly, I just about started bawling when I saw that everyone in the family wrote me special birthday messages and then read them. I kind of thought that everyone would have forgotten about my birthday, or at least that you would have forgotten to write. The mission is the hardest thing in the world, always, and a lot of times it just takes a reminder that someone, somewhere, cares about you to make things better. Thank you so much for remembering me and helping me feel loved. It makes such a big difference.
I actually received a very special, slightly early birthday present: we baptized yesterday! Hooray! There's a twenty-year-old rapaz (how do I say that in English? young man? dude? guy?) named Bruno that we have been teaching for a good little while now. He has been going to church for over a month because he's going out with a girl from one of the other wards in the stake here. He was interviewed on Friday night and baptized yesterday after church! It was actually pretty crazy; his interview, I mean. One of the assistants was spending the week in my city here because there were some emergency transfers and stuff, so he was the one who conducted the interview. He and Bruno came back into the living room where Elder Harris and I were waiting, and the assistant said that Bruno was absolutely ready to be baptized on Sunday. So, of course, my comp and I start freaking out and congratulating him. As we did so, his (suuuuuuuper Catholic) mom came storming down the hall saying, "You're going to get baptized, Bruno?!" She went on to talk about how we're from a cult and how Bruno was already baptized in the Catholic Church and blah blah blah. I got a little worried, but the assistant handled it like a pro, and everything settled down, and Bruno was baptized! Hooray! Que milagre!
There is another girl named Franciele who we've been teaching for awhile that was also interviewed on Friday night. She passed with flying colors, but she thinks that she's still missing something. She thinks she's not quite ready to be baptized. That same elder who interviewed Bruno set a goal with this girl so that she could be baptized on Sunday (yesterday) as well, so we went back to her house on Saturday night and talked to her. She talked about how she didn't feel like she was ready and everything. Elder Harris and I were fasting, and we were having a pretty rough day anyway, so we just bore our testimonies from the depths of our souls and talked to her about baptism, but she still didn't quite accept. I've seen a lot of people reject the gospel or fall when they were progressing. I don't know exactly why, but this time it really hurt. All hope isn't lost, but Elder Harris and I both walked away from Franciele's house crying our eyes out.
She went to church yesterday, and we're going to do what we can to get her ready for baptism soon, so it'll all work out. That was a rough night, though.
So, funny story: I have a birthday cake at my house. The ward mission leader from my zone leaders' area has a lot of money and a tendency to buy things for missionaries that he likes, and this week he was kind of rude to me on the phone when he was trying to pass a reference to me. Keep in mind that I don't really even know this guy. Anyway, there was a little bit of drama and it seemed like he hated me, but then the other night he showed up in a taxi at our house with tons of food, asking for forgiveness. He bought a R$50 chocolate cake that is now going to be my birthday cake. I'll probably eat so much that I get sick, but that's okay.
I need to let you guys know how jealous I am that everyone seems to be getting snow back home. I don't know who decided to switch things around down here, but I guess that "winter" in Brasil actually means "hellish, scorching summer"! Who knew! It's so hot out here, gente.
Anyway, my time's up. Thank you SO MUCH for the kind birthday wishes. I can hardly express to you how much that helped me this morning. Thank you thank you thank you!
I love all of you with all of my heart. Please forgive me for not having time to respond to each of your emails individually. I know it's not that much fun to write someone who doesn't write back, but I already have to sign off and go celebrate my b-day!
luv
elder wiggins the fourth (or fifth, if dad counts. or, like, billionth, if all the elder wigginses count)
ps I'm sending a couple photos your way. Enjoy!
[Photos not in a format that can be uploaded here . . . Sorry! Send me an email at wigginsbrad@yahoo.com if you want me to email the photos to you.]
Dear fambuhlee,
Well hello! So, it's my birthday today. I haven't really done anything special yet, but after my companion and I finish our emails, we're going to meet up some other elders from our zone, eat lunch, and watch The Other Side of Heaven at the church. It will probably make me really trunky but that's okay. The birthday only comes once a year, right?
Honestly, I just about started bawling when I saw that everyone in the family wrote me special birthday messages and then read them. I kind of thought that everyone would have forgotten about my birthday, or at least that you would have forgotten to write. The mission is the hardest thing in the world, always, and a lot of times it just takes a reminder that someone, somewhere, cares about you to make things better. Thank you so much for remembering me and helping me feel loved. It makes such a big difference.
I actually received a very special, slightly early birthday present: we baptized yesterday! Hooray! There's a twenty-year-old rapaz (how do I say that in English? young man? dude? guy?) named Bruno that we have been teaching for a good little while now. He has been going to church for over a month because he's going out with a girl from one of the other wards in the stake here. He was interviewed on Friday night and baptized yesterday after church! It was actually pretty crazy; his interview, I mean. One of the assistants was spending the week in my city here because there were some emergency transfers and stuff, so he was the one who conducted the interview. He and Bruno came back into the living room where Elder Harris and I were waiting, and the assistant said that Bruno was absolutely ready to be baptized on Sunday. So, of course, my comp and I start freaking out and congratulating him. As we did so, his (suuuuuuuper Catholic) mom came storming down the hall saying, "You're going to get baptized, Bruno?!" She went on to talk about how we're from a cult and how Bruno was already baptized in the Catholic Church and blah blah blah. I got a little worried, but the assistant handled it like a pro, and everything settled down, and Bruno was baptized! Hooray! Que milagre!
There is another girl named Franciele who we've been teaching for awhile that was also interviewed on Friday night. She passed with flying colors, but she thinks that she's still missing something. She thinks she's not quite ready to be baptized. That same elder who interviewed Bruno set a goal with this girl so that she could be baptized on Sunday (yesterday) as well, so we went back to her house on Saturday night and talked to her. She talked about how she didn't feel like she was ready and everything. Elder Harris and I were fasting, and we were having a pretty rough day anyway, so we just bore our testimonies from the depths of our souls and talked to her about baptism, but she still didn't quite accept. I've seen a lot of people reject the gospel or fall when they were progressing. I don't know exactly why, but this time it really hurt. All hope isn't lost, but Elder Harris and I both walked away from Franciele's house crying our eyes out.
She went to church yesterday, and we're going to do what we can to get her ready for baptism soon, so it'll all work out. That was a rough night, though.
So, funny story: I have a birthday cake at my house. The ward mission leader from my zone leaders' area has a lot of money and a tendency to buy things for missionaries that he likes, and this week he was kind of rude to me on the phone when he was trying to pass a reference to me. Keep in mind that I don't really even know this guy. Anyway, there was a little bit of drama and it seemed like he hated me, but then the other night he showed up in a taxi at our house with tons of food, asking for forgiveness. He bought a R$50 chocolate cake that is now going to be my birthday cake. I'll probably eat so much that I get sick, but that's okay.
I need to let you guys know how jealous I am that everyone seems to be getting snow back home. I don't know who decided to switch things around down here, but I guess that "winter" in Brasil actually means "hellish, scorching summer"! Who knew! It's so hot out here, gente.
Anyway, my time's up. Thank you SO MUCH for the kind birthday wishes. I can hardly express to you how much that helped me this morning. Thank you thank you thank you!
I love all of you with all of my heart. Please forgive me for not having time to respond to each of your emails individually. I know it's not that much fun to write someone who doesn't write back, but I already have to sign off and go celebrate my b-day!
luv
elder wiggins the fourth (or fifth, if dad counts. or, like, billionth, if all the elder wigginses count)
ps I'm sending a couple photos your way. Enjoy!
[Photos not in a format that can be uploaded here . . . Sorry! Send me an email at wigginsbrad@yahoo.com if you want me to email the photos to you.]
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
I look tough enough, but if you hold me up to the light you can see my broken heart
Nov. 22, 2010
I'm thankful for turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, Mom's homemade rolls, yams, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie, and I'm thankful that someday I will be able to eat (as opposed to dream about) all those things again on Thanksgiving.
My mission president recently said that on p-days we can wear regular clothes all day, so I feel really weird right now. I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and it's raining outside. Where am I?
We worked really hard to prepare this girl, Daniela, for baptism. She was that girl that I mentioned last week that we have been teaching at the Relief Society president's house. She was interviewed for baptism this week and my zone leader said she's not quite ready. We are going to reteach some stuff and emphasize certain principles (namely, faith and repentance), and everything will work out in the end. I'm actually hoping that we can baptize Daniela and her sister on the same day. Oh, that would be so sweet. They both went to church yesterday, and things are going well so far.
Besides them and the Bruno (the Bruno) that I mentioned last week, we don't have too many promising investigators. We focused so much on Daniela this week that the rest of our work kind of suffered. It has been really difficult to find new investigators, mostly because Birigui (my city) is a city of commerce; actually, I believe it is the greatest producer of footwear in all of Latin America, so that's pretty cool. Anyway, everyone here always works all the time, so we can never find people at home.
We're actually having transfers today, but my companion and I are both staying; in fact, almost all the missionaries in the whole city stayed this transfer. I'm all right with that; I have a good companion, and I like my area. The city that I'm in has a pretty bad reputation in the mission, but I don't see what is so bad about it. I might be dying because of the mold that's eating away the wall next to my desk at the house, but that's just a minor setback.
Oh, I found out this morning that I'm being made a district leader this transfer. So that's something.
I was kissed on the chest by a crazy dude who wanted to donate plastic cups to the church. And honestly, it didn't even seem that weird when it happened. My life has turned into something of a circus, and I don't even notice anymore.
Anyway, things are going well out here. My companion and I are working hard, and I'm trying to work harder. It has become pretty easy for me to be obedient out here (it isn't even that hard to get up at 6:30 anymore), but I'm trying harder to be obedient with exactness. I'm doing my best, gente, I promise. And the Lord is blessing my companion and I a lot! The Church is true! I love all of you!
tchau
booga
ps Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm thankful for turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, Mom's homemade rolls, yams, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie, and I'm thankful that someday I will be able to eat (as opposed to dream about) all those things again on Thanksgiving.
My mission president recently said that on p-days we can wear regular clothes all day, so I feel really weird right now. I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and it's raining outside. Where am I?
We worked really hard to prepare this girl, Daniela, for baptism. She was that girl that I mentioned last week that we have been teaching at the Relief Society president's house. She was interviewed for baptism this week and my zone leader said she's not quite ready. We are going to reteach some stuff and emphasize certain principles (namely, faith and repentance), and everything will work out in the end. I'm actually hoping that we can baptize Daniela and her sister on the same day. Oh, that would be so sweet. They both went to church yesterday, and things are going well so far.
Besides them and the Bruno (the Bruno) that I mentioned last week, we don't have too many promising investigators. We focused so much on Daniela this week that the rest of our work kind of suffered. It has been really difficult to find new investigators, mostly because Birigui (my city) is a city of commerce; actually, I believe it is the greatest producer of footwear in all of Latin America, so that's pretty cool. Anyway, everyone here always works all the time, so we can never find people at home.
We're actually having transfers today, but my companion and I are both staying; in fact, almost all the missionaries in the whole city stayed this transfer. I'm all right with that; I have a good companion, and I like my area. The city that I'm in has a pretty bad reputation in the mission, but I don't see what is so bad about it. I might be dying because of the mold that's eating away the wall next to my desk at the house, but that's just a minor setback.
Oh, I found out this morning that I'm being made a district leader this transfer. So that's something.
I was kissed on the chest by a crazy dude who wanted to donate plastic cups to the church. And honestly, it didn't even seem that weird when it happened. My life has turned into something of a circus, and I don't even notice anymore.
Anyway, things are going well out here. My companion and I are working hard, and I'm trying to work harder. It has become pretty easy for me to be obedient out here (it isn't even that hard to get up at 6:30 anymore), but I'm trying harder to be obedient with exactness. I'm doing my best, gente, I promise. And the Lord is blessing my companion and I a lot! The Church is true! I love all of you!
tchau
booga
ps Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 15, 2010
What a life I lead in the summer, what a life I lead in the spring!
November 15, 2010
Family! I received a package from Mom this week! Hooray! She sent me candy and shoes and colored pencils and a bag and now I can be a good missionary because I know that someone loves me! Thanks Mom!
There were also some photos in the package of all of you guys. I seriously cannot believe how different everyone looks. Things really are changing back home, huh? When I left, Collin was just a little (big) baby, and now he already looks like a little (big) boy. And since then all of the other nieces and nephews have been born and grown up without me! I was shocked to see how big Katelyn, Ellie, Jay, and Phoebe already are. I hope they don't get scared of me when I see them for the first time in a thousand years.
Anyway, I'm sitting here in a little LAN house in some city that no one has heard of in Brasil and sipping on some guaraná. Guys, life is good. This mission thing is so flippin' hard, but this last week was good. My companion and I are in a stage where we're just doing a lot of old fashioned, mule stress, nose to the grind stone (is that right?) hard work. We spend pretty much every afternoon just trying to find someone at their house, and ... the search continues. We've been making lots of contacts and meeting some good people, but things are going kind of slow.
We did start teaching that girl that went to church last Sunday. It has been going well because we've been teaching her at the Relief Society president's house with a strong member family. The girl has been progressing nicely, and we marked a date for her baptism for this Saturday (things move fast down here in América Do Sul, gente!). Her sister also went to church with her yesterday, so we're going to start teaching the two of them together.
The situation is a little complicated though, because this girl is pretty darn flirtatious, especially with my companion. She thinks it's very cool that we're from the States, and she thinks it's cute that my companion doesn't talk that much. Yikes! The thing is, she started showing interest in the Church and even went to her first sacrament meeting before she even knew that we existed, so I think she is going to church for the right reasons. We're being careful, though, so don't worry.
We have also been teaching this guy named Bruno who is going out with a girl in a different ward in the city. He's a cool guy, but he's pretty shy, and it's easy for the conversation to get awkward when we teach him. He's been going to church with his girlfriend for a few weeks now, and we marked a baptismal date with him for three weeks from now.
So anyway, things are moving out here, but not too quickly. We're just working hard and trying to find people. I'm still playing piano in sacrament meeting and getting really nervous about it. I think it's helping me, though. I'm really excited about having a piano back home to play for hours and hours after the mission. Speaking of which, I make a year and two months tomorrow. Not that I'm counting. Also, I have grown to love playing the piano out here, and I wish I had more time to play it.
Also, I am rambling.
I love you all so much! Today's a holiday out here. I just asked a Sister sitting next to me, and she said it's the Proclamação da República. Who knows what that means! Maybe you guys can read about it on Wikipedia and tell me about it or something. Anyway, happy Proclamação da República!
luv
elder wings
Family! I received a package from Mom this week! Hooray! She sent me candy and shoes and colored pencils and a bag and now I can be a good missionary because I know that someone loves me! Thanks Mom!
There were also some photos in the package of all of you guys. I seriously cannot believe how different everyone looks. Things really are changing back home, huh? When I left, Collin was just a little (big) baby, and now he already looks like a little (big) boy. And since then all of the other nieces and nephews have been born and grown up without me! I was shocked to see how big Katelyn, Ellie, Jay, and Phoebe already are. I hope they don't get scared of me when I see them for the first time in a thousand years.
Anyway, I'm sitting here in a little LAN house in some city that no one has heard of in Brasil and sipping on some guaraná. Guys, life is good. This mission thing is so flippin' hard, but this last week was good. My companion and I are in a stage where we're just doing a lot of old fashioned, mule stress, nose to the grind stone (is that right?) hard work. We spend pretty much every afternoon just trying to find someone at their house, and ... the search continues. We've been making lots of contacts and meeting some good people, but things are going kind of slow.
We did start teaching that girl that went to church last Sunday. It has been going well because we've been teaching her at the Relief Society president's house with a strong member family. The girl has been progressing nicely, and we marked a date for her baptism for this Saturday (things move fast down here in América Do Sul, gente!). Her sister also went to church with her yesterday, so we're going to start teaching the two of them together.
The situation is a little complicated though, because this girl is pretty darn flirtatious, especially with my companion. She thinks it's very cool that we're from the States, and she thinks it's cute that my companion doesn't talk that much. Yikes! The thing is, she started showing interest in the Church and even went to her first sacrament meeting before she even knew that we existed, so I think she is going to church for the right reasons. We're being careful, though, so don't worry.
We have also been teaching this guy named Bruno who is going out with a girl in a different ward in the city. He's a cool guy, but he's pretty shy, and it's easy for the conversation to get awkward when we teach him. He's been going to church with his girlfriend for a few weeks now, and we marked a baptismal date with him for three weeks from now.
So anyway, things are moving out here, but not too quickly. We're just working hard and trying to find people. I'm still playing piano in sacrament meeting and getting really nervous about it. I think it's helping me, though. I'm really excited about having a piano back home to play for hours and hours after the mission. Speaking of which, I make a year and two months tomorrow. Not that I'm counting. Also, I have grown to love playing the piano out here, and I wish I had more time to play it.
Also, I am rambling.
I love you all so much! Today's a holiday out here. I just asked a Sister sitting next to me, and she said it's the Proclamação da República. Who knows what that means! Maybe you guys can read about it on Wikipedia and tell me about it or something. Anyway, happy Proclamação da República!
luv
elder wings
We own the sky
November 8, 2010
Oi everyone, tudo bem!
Things are getting kind of frustrating out here. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I have grown pretty tired of hearing people's excuses about why they don't want to hear what we have to say. We make contacts with people all the time who say they already have their religion, they already know everything we have to teach them, or they never stay at their houses. I guess I've been struggling with patience lately. It seems like, especially earlier this week, I just wanted people to stop talking about the "palavra" (that's what everyone calls the Bible because it's "the word of God") so that I can teach them the Restoration and get out of there. I don't know, I guess I just feel like I'm doing my best, but it's not good enough. Like, I try and try and try to get people to get it, you know? But, they just don't. People don't seem to understand what we mean when we talk about the Church of Jesus Christ, whether it be the primitive or the restored Church, or about divine authority or the Book of Mormon or any of that jazz.
I am trying not to complain, though. Something I'm going to focus on this week is having charity and love for people. Christ said that people will know us as His disciples as we love others as He loves them, so maybe that's what is lacking here. True Christlike love is a noble goal, but it's not one that is easily attained. I'm working on seeing other people as the Lord sees them, whether or not they accept us into their houses.
Most of our numbers were zeros this week. My mission leaders want us to go mark baptismal dates with people in the streets so that we meet the mission's standard of excellence, so they get mad when I have zero investigators with dates marked. Maybe if I marked five baptismal dates with some punk kids in the street, the Lord would see my desire and then I'd baptize people. Oh well.
We did have an investigator at church yesterday, which was pretty wonderful. The Relief Society president in my ward here brought a young women who lives across the street from her to church. It was great! Because a member brought her, she and her family were introducing this girl to other members and making her feel welcome there; it works so much better when someone besides us does it. We're going to start teaching her at the Relief Society president's house tomorrow, and it is going to be perfect! My zone leaders want me to mark a baptism interview with her already!
Anyway, things are going well. I played piano in sacrament meeting again yesterday. I was super nervous, but all the hymns sounded just fine. Even though it's such a simple thing to accompany the congregation like that, I really feel like it's helping me grow a lot and allow myself to accept my imperfections while doing something that I love. I'm actually going to the chapel after this to practice next week's hymns. Fun!
Sorry for writing boring emails lately! I'll contact more drunks and voodoo ladies this week to try to get some interesting stories!
(sorry for not having time to write back to you guys individually. thanks so much for the emails.)
luv
booooooga
Oi everyone, tudo bem!
Things are getting kind of frustrating out here. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I have grown pretty tired of hearing people's excuses about why they don't want to hear what we have to say. We make contacts with people all the time who say they already have their religion, they already know everything we have to teach them, or they never stay at their houses. I guess I've been struggling with patience lately. It seems like, especially earlier this week, I just wanted people to stop talking about the "palavra" (that's what everyone calls the Bible because it's "the word of God") so that I can teach them the Restoration and get out of there. I don't know, I guess I just feel like I'm doing my best, but it's not good enough. Like, I try and try and try to get people to get it, you know? But, they just don't. People don't seem to understand what we mean when we talk about the Church of Jesus Christ, whether it be the primitive or the restored Church, or about divine authority or the Book of Mormon or any of that jazz.
I am trying not to complain, though. Something I'm going to focus on this week is having charity and love for people. Christ said that people will know us as His disciples as we love others as He loves them, so maybe that's what is lacking here. True Christlike love is a noble goal, but it's not one that is easily attained. I'm working on seeing other people as the Lord sees them, whether or not they accept us into their houses.
Most of our numbers were zeros this week. My mission leaders want us to go mark baptismal dates with people in the streets so that we meet the mission's standard of excellence, so they get mad when I have zero investigators with dates marked. Maybe if I marked five baptismal dates with some punk kids in the street, the Lord would see my desire and then I'd baptize people. Oh well.
We did have an investigator at church yesterday, which was pretty wonderful. The Relief Society president in my ward here brought a young women who lives across the street from her to church. It was great! Because a member brought her, she and her family were introducing this girl to other members and making her feel welcome there; it works so much better when someone besides us does it. We're going to start teaching her at the Relief Society president's house tomorrow, and it is going to be perfect! My zone leaders want me to mark a baptism interview with her already!
Anyway, things are going well. I played piano in sacrament meeting again yesterday. I was super nervous, but all the hymns sounded just fine. Even though it's such a simple thing to accompany the congregation like that, I really feel like it's helping me grow a lot and allow myself to accept my imperfections while doing something that I love. I'm actually going to the chapel after this to practice next week's hymns. Fun!
Sorry for writing boring emails lately! I'll contact more drunks and voodoo ladies this week to try to get some interesting stories!
(sorry for not having time to write back to you guys individually. thanks so much for the emails.)
luv
booooooga
Oceans never listened to us anyway
November 1, 2010
Oi everyone, tudo bem?
This week started out really strong and kind of fizzled out toward the end.
On Monday we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with a middle-aged couple and tried to teach them from it. It's so hard to help people get it, though. Like, they just don't get it. They were nice people, but they talked about the Book of Mormon as if we were trying to replace their Bible or something. I did my best to explain things tudo certinho, but to no avail. And then as we were about to leave, they started talking about this class they're taking about strengthening your marriage. It's called "Casados para Sempre" ("Married Forever"). In spite of myself, I took the bait and talked a little about eternal marriage and how it is possible for a family to literally be together forever. And guys, they just don't get it.
I don't mean to pick on that couple specifically; very few people really do get it.
This week we taught a nice family a little bit. A teenaged girl ordered Finding Faith in Christ (a DVD) a little while ago, and we delivered it last week. We taught her and her grandpa at the time. We visited them again this week, and the girl's grandma was there (I don't know what the deal is with her parents, but I know that they don't live there). We ran through the first lesson again and read 3 Nephi 11 with them. And I invited them to be baptized. They didn't exactly accept yet, but hopefully they'll start thinking about it now.
There was a presidential election yesterday (Dilma won, which means Brasil will now have a woman president for the first time ever), so no one agreed to go to church, including some of the members.
My Halloween was actually pretty underwhelming. I went to church, ate lunch with a nice couple, played their piano a little bit (they have a piano! in their house!), worked, visited a nice little Japanese lady and her daughter and played with their giant pit bull named "Killer," and had a p-day sleepover with some other missionários. I wish I could have eaten some chili and watched some scary-but-not-too-scary movies.
Sorry if this email is boring. What do you guys want to hear about?
My area is cool, but a lot of the members are discouraged about missionary work. My companion is a really nice guy, and we're getting along well. I love studying the scriptures every day and learning about the important things in life.
I love all of you! I hope you're doing well! The Book of Mormon is true!
luv
booga
Oi everyone, tudo bem?
This week started out really strong and kind of fizzled out toward the end.
On Monday we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with a middle-aged couple and tried to teach them from it. It's so hard to help people get it, though. Like, they just don't get it. They were nice people, but they talked about the Book of Mormon as if we were trying to replace their Bible or something. I did my best to explain things tudo certinho, but to no avail. And then as we were about to leave, they started talking about this class they're taking about strengthening your marriage. It's called "Casados para Sempre" ("Married Forever"). In spite of myself, I took the bait and talked a little about eternal marriage and how it is possible for a family to literally be together forever. And guys, they just don't get it.
I don't mean to pick on that couple specifically; very few people really do get it.
This week we taught a nice family a little bit. A teenaged girl ordered Finding Faith in Christ (a DVD) a little while ago, and we delivered it last week. We taught her and her grandpa at the time. We visited them again this week, and the girl's grandma was there (I don't know what the deal is with her parents, but I know that they don't live there). We ran through the first lesson again and read 3 Nephi 11 with them. And I invited them to be baptized. They didn't exactly accept yet, but hopefully they'll start thinking about it now.
There was a presidential election yesterday (Dilma won, which means Brasil will now have a woman president for the first time ever), so no one agreed to go to church, including some of the members.
My Halloween was actually pretty underwhelming. I went to church, ate lunch with a nice couple, played their piano a little bit (they have a piano! in their house!), worked, visited a nice little Japanese lady and her daughter and played with their giant pit bull named "Killer," and had a p-day sleepover with some other missionários. I wish I could have eaten some chili and watched some scary-but-not-too-scary movies.
Sorry if this email is boring. What do you guys want to hear about?
My area is cool, but a lot of the members are discouraged about missionary work. My companion is a really nice guy, and we're getting along well. I love studying the scriptures every day and learning about the important things in life.
I love all of you! I hope you're doing well! The Book of Mormon is true!
luv
booga
Monday, October 25, 2010
We used to dream! Now we worry about dying
Então, gente. How are you all doing?
I guess I should let you guys know that I find it difficult to think of things to say each week. Maybe I should just send you guys my key indicators and we'll call it a day.
This week was pretty good, I guess. We have been teaching the message of the Restoration to a lot of good, new people, but it seems like no one really wants to progress. Many of the people we taught were more curious about the Church than interested in joining it. A lot of them agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, but as soon as we brought up making a visit to the Church, they all started giving excuses about why they couldn't or wouldn't go. I don't think I'll ever understand why it is so unbelievably difficult to get people to go to church.
In the end, it all worked out, though. I suppose this was a seed-planting week, because we have taught quite a few people who we're definitely not going to teach anymore because they aren't progressing. Although it's always hard to stop visiting people, it's necessary sometimes. Hopefully they will all have another chance to accept the Gospel in the future.
For the second time on my mission, my retainer broke. Can I maybe have a new one, Mom and Dad?
I think I mentioned it last week, but I'm the ward pianist again. I haven't done this since my first area, but it's been good for me to see how much I've changed since then. I remember freaking out about accompanying the congregation in Mococa, but now it isn't as big a deal. I still get a little nervous before we sing, but I'm putting myself out there and trying to get over my crippling stage fright or whatever it is. Lack of confidence, I guess.
I can hardly think of anything to tell you guys. We are working a lot and teaching people. I do my best to teach by the Spirit, which is very real. I love studying the scriptures every day, especially now that I have a nice new quad. I don't know if we'll baptize anyone soon, but I'll try my best. My companion is a really nice, upbeat person, and he's fun to be around. I talk a lot more because he's still in the early stages of his mission, but that's all right. I'm all just like tanta faz about it, sabe? Então tá bom.
Eu amo vocês com todo o meu coração! Tenho muitas saudades de vocês, mas não estou deixando-as me atrapalhar, viu! Eu nem acredito que já faz mas que um ano que estou aqui, gente. Só quer dizer que daqui um pouco a gente vai se ver novamente! A gente vai conversar logo (Natal está chegando)! Amo vocês! A Igreja é verdadeira! O Livro de Mórmon é a palavra de Deus! Estou feliz, então não fiquem preocupados comigo, tá?
Abraço,
Elder Wings
ps seriously what am i going to do about my retainer
I guess I should let you guys know that I find it difficult to think of things to say each week. Maybe I should just send you guys my key indicators and we'll call it a day.
This week was pretty good, I guess. We have been teaching the message of the Restoration to a lot of good, new people, but it seems like no one really wants to progress. Many of the people we taught were more curious about the Church than interested in joining it. A lot of them agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, but as soon as we brought up making a visit to the Church, they all started giving excuses about why they couldn't or wouldn't go. I don't think I'll ever understand why it is so unbelievably difficult to get people to go to church.
In the end, it all worked out, though. I suppose this was a seed-planting week, because we have taught quite a few people who we're definitely not going to teach anymore because they aren't progressing. Although it's always hard to stop visiting people, it's necessary sometimes. Hopefully they will all have another chance to accept the Gospel in the future.
For the second time on my mission, my retainer broke. Can I maybe have a new one, Mom and Dad?
I think I mentioned it last week, but I'm the ward pianist again. I haven't done this since my first area, but it's been good for me to see how much I've changed since then. I remember freaking out about accompanying the congregation in Mococa, but now it isn't as big a deal. I still get a little nervous before we sing, but I'm putting myself out there and trying to get over my crippling stage fright or whatever it is. Lack of confidence, I guess.
I can hardly think of anything to tell you guys. We are working a lot and teaching people. I do my best to teach by the Spirit, which is very real. I love studying the scriptures every day, especially now that I have a nice new quad. I don't know if we'll baptize anyone soon, but I'll try my best. My companion is a really nice, upbeat person, and he's fun to be around. I talk a lot more because he's still in the early stages of his mission, but that's all right. I'm all just like tanta faz about it, sabe? Então tá bom.
Eu amo vocês com todo o meu coração! Tenho muitas saudades de vocês, mas não estou deixando-as me atrapalhar, viu! Eu nem acredito que já faz mas que um ano que estou aqui, gente. Só quer dizer que daqui um pouco a gente vai se ver novamente! A gente vai conversar logo (Natal está chegando)! Amo vocês! A Igreja é verdadeira! O Livro de Mórmon é a palavra de Deus! Estou feliz, então não fiquem preocupados comigo, tá?
Abraço,
Elder Wings
ps seriously what am i going to do about my retainer
I've got nothing to worry about, so I worry about nothing
Hey guys!
So, I'm here in a new LAN house in a new area in a new city with a new companion and all is well. My first week here in Birigui was a very tiring one, but I survived!
I talked about my new companion last week, but I hadn't met him yet. His name is Elder Harris, and he's awesome! He's from North Ogden, Utah, and he has three months on the mission. His trainer was a Brazilian who doesn't speak English, so I'm kind of acting as his trainer 1.1 this transfer. Since he can easily communicate with me and ask questions about the language and everything, I should be able to help him out a lot. I hope.
It has actually been pretty crazy to have a companion who's so new on the mission. After being with my last companion for more than four months, who spoke Portuguese really well and is a very good teacher, I still haven't totally gotten used to being with a newbie. It's weird having to be the guy who leads in planning and contacts and lessons and everything, but it has been good for me to take charge of something. We still have a long way to go, but I like getting to show him new things and teach him new words and all that fun stuff.
Being with a n00basaurus rex has helped me to see how much I've grown on my mission. It's weird, because everything has been reminding me about my first area on the mission. The houses look like those from my first area. It's starting to really heat up again, just like when I was in Mococa. The ward is small. The house is gross. I'm the ward pianist again. And I feel like Elder Harris is me from the beginning of my mission and I am my trainer now, because he's excited to be on his mission and work hard, but he struggles (like we all do) with the language and with teaching, and I can actually talk to people and save him when people start speaking quickly in street contacts and stuff. I've been getting some serious deja vu.
I honestly don't have much else to say. We have some investigators that we've been teaching, but none who are really really progressing. At least, not yet! A lot of the members here are pretty discouraged about the ward and inactivity and stuff, but we're going to baptize the entire universe for the remission of sins anyway. Or something.
We're working hard, and I'm doing all right. I feel like becoming senior companion is turning me into a man. I don't know if it's because of that or all of the hormone-injected chicken that I eat, but something is putting hair on my chest!
That was kind of a lame joke.
I love you guys with all my heart, might, mind, and strength! A Igreja é verdadeira! Amo vocês até o pó, viu?!
Tchau!
So, I'm here in a new LAN house in a new area in a new city with a new companion and all is well. My first week here in Birigui was a very tiring one, but I survived!
I talked about my new companion last week, but I hadn't met him yet. His name is Elder Harris, and he's awesome! He's from North Ogden, Utah, and he has three months on the mission. His trainer was a Brazilian who doesn't speak English, so I'm kind of acting as his trainer 1.1 this transfer. Since he can easily communicate with me and ask questions about the language and everything, I should be able to help him out a lot. I hope.
It has actually been pretty crazy to have a companion who's so new on the mission. After being with my last companion for more than four months, who spoke Portuguese really well and is a very good teacher, I still haven't totally gotten used to being with a newbie. It's weird having to be the guy who leads in planning and contacts and lessons and everything, but it has been good for me to take charge of something. We still have a long way to go, but I like getting to show him new things and teach him new words and all that fun stuff.
Being with a n00basaurus rex has helped me to see how much I've grown on my mission. It's weird, because everything has been reminding me about my first area on the mission. The houses look like those from my first area. It's starting to really heat up again, just like when I was in Mococa. The ward is small. The house is gross. I'm the ward pianist again. And I feel like Elder Harris is me from the beginning of my mission and I am my trainer now, because he's excited to be on his mission and work hard, but he struggles (like we all do) with the language and with teaching, and I can actually talk to people and save him when people start speaking quickly in street contacts and stuff. I've been getting some serious deja vu.
I honestly don't have much else to say. We have some investigators that we've been teaching, but none who are really really progressing. At least, not yet! A lot of the members here are pretty discouraged about the ward and inactivity and stuff, but we're going to baptize the entire universe for the remission of sins anyway. Or something.
We're working hard, and I'm doing all right. I feel like becoming senior companion is turning me into a man. I don't know if it's because of that or all of the hormone-injected chicken that I eat, but something is putting hair on my chest!
That was kind of a lame joke.
I love you guys with all my heart, might, mind, and strength! A Igreja é verdadeira! Amo vocês até o pó, viu?!
Tchau!
Monday, October 11, 2010
I went out into the light, I went out to pick a fight with anyone
So after being in the same area with the same companion for four months, one of us is leaving. And surprisingly, it's me! I'm being transferred right now. I mean, like, right now. I'm actually writing this from a little LAN house in the Ribeirão Preto bus station. My bus leaves from here in a little over an hour, and I should get to my new area about six hours later. My companion is staying in our area (for his fourth transfer), and he'll be training a new missionary.
The other big news is that I'm becoming senior companion this transfer. I'm actually going to be my new companion's step dad, meaning I'll be his second companion (his first one, his trainer, is his "dad"). He's American, and this is his second transfer, so I'm a little nervous. I mean, I'm sure we'll have a blast and learn a lot and I'll grow up a lot and all that important stuff will happen, but I was already nervous about becoming senior, and I'll be with someone who is pretty fresh on the mission. And I'll be in a brand new area. The responsibility being tossed onto my shoulders is a little heavier than I was expecting, but that's all right. That's how we get stronger, right?
I'm just going to keep my head up and put my nose to the grindstone and walk it off and straighten up and fly right and just baptize the whole flippin' universe. I'll let you know how things go next week, if I'm still alive.
This past week wasn't too exciting; we tried and tried and tried to find people to teach, but it was really hard. I swear, no one was ever home in our area from one to five o'clock. We did find a nice young couple and taught them the message of the Restoration. The husband wasn't especially interested, but the wife was wonderful. As I was quoting Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision, she very clearly felt the influence of the Spirit; I felt it, too. Tears fell down her face, and she told us after we talked about the Book of Mormon that she believed that what we were teaching was true. We bore our testimonies and they committed to read and pray. Too bad I'll never see either of them again!
I'm doing all right out here. I was a little disappointed and definitely surprised that I was getting transferred, but I guess it was time for me to go. I really came to love the members of that ward, and it's probably the only area that I've passed through that I would consider going back to visit at the end of my mission. I'm sure I'll be able to say the same about my new area in a few weeks, right? Everything will be all right.
I love all of you so much! I'm proud to be a Wiggins! The Church is true!
Elder Sniggiw
The other big news is that I'm becoming senior companion this transfer. I'm actually going to be my new companion's step dad, meaning I'll be his second companion (his first one, his trainer, is his "dad"). He's American, and this is his second transfer, so I'm a little nervous. I mean, I'm sure we'll have a blast and learn a lot and I'll grow up a lot and all that important stuff will happen, but I was already nervous about becoming senior, and I'll be with someone who is pretty fresh on the mission. And I'll be in a brand new area. The responsibility being tossed onto my shoulders is a little heavier than I was expecting, but that's all right. That's how we get stronger, right?
I'm just going to keep my head up and put my nose to the grindstone and walk it off and straighten up and fly right and just baptize the whole flippin' universe. I'll let you know how things go next week, if I'm still alive.
This past week wasn't too exciting; we tried and tried and tried to find people to teach, but it was really hard. I swear, no one was ever home in our area from one to five o'clock. We did find a nice young couple and taught them the message of the Restoration. The husband wasn't especially interested, but the wife was wonderful. As I was quoting Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision, she very clearly felt the influence of the Spirit; I felt it, too. Tears fell down her face, and she told us after we talked about the Book of Mormon that she believed that what we were teaching was true. We bore our testimonies and they committed to read and pray. Too bad I'll never see either of them again!
I'm doing all right out here. I was a little disappointed and definitely surprised that I was getting transferred, but I guess it was time for me to go. I really came to love the members of that ward, and it's probably the only area that I've passed through that I would consider going back to visit at the end of my mission. I'm sure I'll be able to say the same about my new area in a few weeks, right? Everything will be all right.
I love all of you so much! I'm proud to be a Wiggins! The Church is true!
Elder Sniggiw
Monday, October 4, 2010
Turquoise Hexagon Sun
October 4, 2010
I really don't have much to report on this week besides General Conference, which was amazing. My mission president allowed and encouraged us to watch all of the sessions, so we did. In English! It was so good, gente. My companion and I basically got to take the weekend off because of conference, and it was such a spiritually nourishing experience. I was impressed by how many of the speakers talked about agency and how it relates to obedience and acquiring the Spirit and eternal families and everything. It seems like just about everyone connected agency to something. I enjoyed Elder Nelson's talk about missionary work, and Elder Kearon's about wearing flip flops and getting stung by a scorpion. It can be easy to be a little lazy or rebellious out here with mission rules if you're not careful, and then you get stung.
I took a lot of notes throughout the conference, and I'm going to study them over the next few days, assess how I need to make changes in my life/work (since they're the same thing right now), and then make them. Something that I definitely need to improve is the level of gratitude that I have for God and for others. President Monson's talk was really beautiful, and I like the idea of taking an inventory of everything the Lord has blessed you with. Elder Holland's talk was also pretty similar in that he emphasized the importance of being grateful for the sacrifices that others make for you.
I know it's inadequate to do so here, but I just want to thank all of you for your love, support, and prayers. I love all of you with all of my heart.
Other than conference, things were pretty uninteresting this week. None of our investigators went to conference, and those girls who we promised to buy truffles from were slackers, too (that is a mess of a sentence). Things are going slowly, but they're going well.
The gospel is true. I love you so much.
elder wiggins the fourth
I really don't have much to report on this week besides General Conference, which was amazing. My mission president allowed and encouraged us to watch all of the sessions, so we did. In English! It was so good, gente. My companion and I basically got to take the weekend off because of conference, and it was such a spiritually nourishing experience. I was impressed by how many of the speakers talked about agency and how it relates to obedience and acquiring the Spirit and eternal families and everything. It seems like just about everyone connected agency to something. I enjoyed Elder Nelson's talk about missionary work, and Elder Kearon's about wearing flip flops and getting stung by a scorpion. It can be easy to be a little lazy or rebellious out here with mission rules if you're not careful, and then you get stung.
I took a lot of notes throughout the conference, and I'm going to study them over the next few days, assess how I need to make changes in my life/work (since they're the same thing right now), and then make them. Something that I definitely need to improve is the level of gratitude that I have for God and for others. President Monson's talk was really beautiful, and I like the idea of taking an inventory of everything the Lord has blessed you with. Elder Holland's talk was also pretty similar in that he emphasized the importance of being grateful for the sacrifices that others make for you.
I know it's inadequate to do so here, but I just want to thank all of you for your love, support, and prayers. I love all of you with all of my heart.
Other than conference, things were pretty uninteresting this week. None of our investigators went to conference, and those girls who we promised to buy truffles from were slackers, too (that is a mess of a sentence). Things are going slowly, but they're going well.
The gospel is true. I love you so much.
elder wiggins the fourth
Sunday, October 3, 2010
If I could do it again, I'd make more mistakes
September 27, 2010
Hey family.
This week was pretty amazing for us. We had another baptism! Hurrah! We baptized a girl named Larissa on Saturday night. We have been teaching her for a while, and she has progressed very well. She's actually a friend of the first girl we baptized here, so the two of them are both very excited to participate in the Church together. Our ward's Young Women's organization is actually pretty strong, so the two of them are already getting well-integrated into the ward. We actually went to their apartment yesterday (the two of them live in separate apartments, but they're both right next to a member family's apartment) and talked to them about General Conference and the importance of following the prophet. The young women in our ward are currently selling (enormous) truffles to make money for their camping trip / youth conference thing in February. My companion and I promised to buy five truffles from each of the two girls we baptized and their friend who was already a member if they go to all four sessions of Conference and take notes. We'll see if they follow through with that.
Speaking of which, I am going nuts in anticipation for General Conference. Word is that there will be an English room at the stake center here, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll get to watch all five sessions. I am so excited it's stupid.
Anyway, at that same visit, Aline, the first girl we baptized, asked me if members of the Church are allowed to marry nonmembers. That led to a good discussion about the temple and eternal marriage. We ended up teaching about baptisms for the dead and committed both of the girls we baptized to prepare themselves to go to the temple next month. I really can't believe that that is even a possibility for them now.
Aside from Larissa's baptism and confirmation, there weren't two many noteworthy occurrences this week. The rainy season is getting here, which I love in spite of it screwing up everything we do.
Oh, there was something big that happened: for the first time so far in my whole mission, my companion and I were forcefully asked to leave someone's house on Saturday. Right before lunch, we went to the house of a guy that I had contacted a few weeks ago. He and his wife were both at home, but he was the only one who was happy to see us. We went in and made some small talk. The guy's wife didn't want to hear a message from us because she was making lunch (and, we found out, she was suuuuuper Catholic). So we started teaching the Restoration to the guy. The lesson was going fine, even though he wasn't paying too much attention. We made it to the point in the lesson where we talk about Joseph Smith, and my companion read James 1:5. He asked the dude who we should go to when we have doubts about religion, and the dude said God.
And then everything went nuts.
The guy's wife stormed into the room and started yelling at us. She said that she had been listening from the kitchen the whole time, and that she wanted us to leave. We agreed to, and started packing up our things. As we did so, she kept shouting at us. Apparently she thought that we read James 1:5 to speak out against the Catholic practice of praying to idols or statues. She thought we had gone into her house to tell them about how wrong Catholicism is and that Catholics don't believe in God or Jesus Christ or whatever else. We assured her that we didn't want to offend her, and that that wasn't even what we had been talking about. And she said that she was offended all the same, and that we should leave. So we did!
It was nuts.
Anyway, that was this week. I am seriously so dang stoked about General Conference. I hope you are, too! I love all of you with all my heart, even though you guys don't really seem real to me anymore (a year is a long time)!
luv
elder booga
This week was pretty amazing for us. We had another baptism! Hurrah! We baptized a girl named Larissa on Saturday night. We have been teaching her for a while, and she has progressed very well. She's actually a friend of the first girl we baptized here, so the two of them are both very excited to participate in the Church together. Our ward's Young Women's organization is actually pretty strong, so the two of them are already getting well-integrated into the ward. We actually went to their apartment yesterday (the two of them live in separate apartments, but they're both right next to a member family's apartment) and talked to them about General Conference and the importance of following the prophet. The young women in our ward are currently selling (enormous) truffles to make money for their camping trip / youth conference thing in February. My companion and I promised to buy five truffles from each of the two girls we baptized and their friend who was already a member if they go to all four sessions of Conference and take notes. We'll see if they follow through with that.
Speaking of which, I am going nuts in anticipation for General Conference. Word is that there will be an English room at the stake center here, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll get to watch all five sessions. I am so excited it's stupid.
Anyway, at that same visit, Aline, the first girl we baptized, asked me if members of the Church are allowed to marry nonmembers. That led to a good discussion about the temple and eternal marriage. We ended up teaching about baptisms for the dead and committed both of the girls we baptized to prepare themselves to go to the temple next month. I really can't believe that that is even a possibility for them now.
Aside from Larissa's baptism and confirmation, there weren't two many noteworthy occurrences this week. The rainy season is getting here, which I love in spite of it screwing up everything we do.
Oh, there was something big that happened: for the first time so far in my whole mission, my companion and I were forcefully asked to leave someone's house on Saturday. Right before lunch, we went to the house of a guy that I had contacted a few weeks ago. He and his wife were both at home, but he was the only one who was happy to see us. We went in and made some small talk. The guy's wife didn't want to hear a message from us because she was making lunch (and, we found out, she was suuuuuper Catholic). So we started teaching the Restoration to the guy. The lesson was going fine, even though he wasn't paying too much attention. We made it to the point in the lesson where we talk about Joseph Smith, and my companion read James 1:5. He asked the dude who we should go to when we have doubts about religion, and the dude said God.
And then everything went nuts.
The guy's wife stormed into the room and started yelling at us. She said that she had been listening from the kitchen the whole time, and that she wanted us to leave. We agreed to, and started packing up our things. As we did so, she kept shouting at us. Apparently she thought that we read James 1:5 to speak out against the Catholic practice of praying to idols or statues. She thought we had gone into her house to tell them about how wrong Catholicism is and that Catholics don't believe in God or Jesus Christ or whatever else. We assured her that we didn't want to offend her, and that that wasn't even what we had been talking about. And she said that she was offended all the same, and that we should leave. So we did!
It was nuts.
Anyway, that was this week. I am seriously so dang stoked about General Conference. I hope you are, too! I love all of you with all my heart, even though you guys don't really seem real to me anymore (a year is a long time)!
luv
elder booga
Are you with me? Are you with me?
September 20, 2010
Greetings from the other side of the mission hill! I now have one year and four days on my mission, but it only feels like ten times that long. What did you guys do to celebrate Hump Day? Because I just worked.
We had zone conference this week. It was our first one with my new mission president because we had a general authority speak last transfer. Conference was awesome. My new president has such a strong conviction of the gospel, and he talked a lot about how he wants us to forget about the past and devote the rest of our missions, however much time that may be, to the Lord. President said he wants us to be 100% missionaries. He hit the pulpit a lot and gave such a powerful pep talk that I just wanted to go out and proclaim the gospel to every living creature in the whole wide world. Or play some football. I don't know.
He instated a new mission-wide rule, too: every missionary now has to have a copy of the Book of Mormon in his or her hand at all times. I have mine right next to the computer monitor right now. I haven't noticed much of a difference yet with this change, though I do feel like I have greater authority when I make contacts with people. I guess the idea is to use the Book of Mormon more frequently and sooner in our teaching, or it's just to get people to ask us what book is we're always carrying around. I don't know.
This week was pretty nuts for my companion and I. Zone conference gave us a renewed motivation to do our best, so that's what we did. We taught a ton of lessons and worked continuously with the investigators we already have. After a visit where Manoel spoke to us nonstop for two and a half hours, he informed us that he will be traveling to Curitiba and probably won't be coming back until next year. So...that one kind of fell apart. There's this other senhor who we've been teaching who said he'll be moving to another part of the city that is outside of our area, so that one kind of fell apart. We have some investigators who are really progressing, though. We're trying to teach a friend of the girl we baptized, but we haven't managed to talk to her mom yet. We're going there tonight, so we'll see if anything happens.
I've been studying about what my mission president calls "the formula of success," which is obedience, diligence, and humility. I'd recommend reading about each of those attributes in Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel and then studying the scripture references that are listed for each one. I'm trying to apply what I learned from my studies during my daily work, and so far it's working pretty well. I don't think the formula of success applies only to missionaries, so maybe you guys would like to study it a little, too. Sei lá.
Anyway, not too much going on over here. I guess after a year of doing the same thing over and over and over again, the things that were once new and exciting just turn into the routine. We're working a lot and helping people learn about the gospel. I'm trying to focus on thinking positively about myself and others because negative self-talk is something that I struggle with. And I don't know why I'm telling you guys this. That was stupid.
I love you! The Church is true!
luv
elder bwoogins
Greetings from the other side of the mission hill! I now have one year and four days on my mission, but it only feels like ten times that long. What did you guys do to celebrate Hump Day? Because I just worked.
We had zone conference this week. It was our first one with my new mission president because we had a general authority speak last transfer. Conference was awesome. My new president has such a strong conviction of the gospel, and he talked a lot about how he wants us to forget about the past and devote the rest of our missions, however much time that may be, to the Lord. President said he wants us to be 100% missionaries. He hit the pulpit a lot and gave such a powerful pep talk that I just wanted to go out and proclaim the gospel to every living creature in the whole wide world. Or play some football. I don't know.
He instated a new mission-wide rule, too: every missionary now has to have a copy of the Book of Mormon in his or her hand at all times. I have mine right next to the computer monitor right now. I haven't noticed much of a difference yet with this change, though I do feel like I have greater authority when I make contacts with people. I guess the idea is to use the Book of Mormon more frequently and sooner in our teaching, or it's just to get people to ask us what book is we're always carrying around. I don't know.
This week was pretty nuts for my companion and I. Zone conference gave us a renewed motivation to do our best, so that's what we did. We taught a ton of lessons and worked continuously with the investigators we already have. After a visit where Manoel spoke to us nonstop for two and a half hours, he informed us that he will be traveling to Curitiba and probably won't be coming back until next year. So...that one kind of fell apart. There's this other senhor who we've been teaching who said he'll be moving to another part of the city that is outside of our area, so that one kind of fell apart. We have some investigators who are really progressing, though. We're trying to teach a friend of the girl we baptized, but we haven't managed to talk to her mom yet. We're going there tonight, so we'll see if anything happens.
I've been studying about what my mission president calls "the formula of success," which is obedience, diligence, and humility. I'd recommend reading about each of those attributes in Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel and then studying the scripture references that are listed for each one. I'm trying to apply what I learned from my studies during my daily work, and so far it's working pretty well. I don't think the formula of success applies only to missionaries, so maybe you guys would like to study it a little, too. Sei lá.
Anyway, not too much going on over here. I guess after a year of doing the same thing over and over and over again, the things that were once new and exciting just turn into the routine. We're working a lot and helping people learn about the gospel. I'm trying to focus on thinking positively about myself and others because negative self-talk is something that I struggle with. And I don't know why I'm telling you guys this. That was stupid.
I love you! The Church is true!
luv
elder bwoogins
I could have been a famous singer if I had someone else's voice
September 13, 2010
So usually my companion and I send our emails from this one LAN house (they're all over Brasil) near our house. Last week we were near the chapel trying to find somewhere to eat because our lunch appointment fell through, and we found a little place that sells salgados and stuff. The dude who runs it is from Bahia, and he loves rock 'n roll. He has a bunch of CDs and pictures of famous rock stars that he clearly printed out himself glued to the wall. And he has two laptops that he said were really expensive, so we're sending our emails from here today. And the dude is blasting a Linkin Park DVD on his TV. I feel like I'm in Babylon.
Aaaaaaand I just heard the f word for the first time in a year. I just want some peace and quiet! It really is hard for me to concentrate right now, so sorry if I sound weird or I write choppy sentences or something.
Speaking of which, I kind of make a year this week. On Thursday, it will have been ONE YEAR since I reported to the MTC in São Paulo. One year! I seriously have no idea where all that time went. A year ago today I reported to the high council, gave my farewell-but-don't-call-it-a-farewell talk, and had my open-house-but-don't-call-it-an-open-house. A year ago. I'm sure this week will be full of reminiscing and self reflection and stuff. I know I've changed and grown a lot over the past year, but it can be kind of hard to tell how. I guess the biggest changes have been with my testimony. I knew that the Church was true when I got here, but now I know that it is, you know?
This week went by pretty slowly, but that's all right. We're doing what we can to work more with the members, and it's kind of a slow process. An idea that we had was to give each member family a Book of Mormon at our lunch appointments so that they could pray to know who they could give it to, give it to that person, and get back to us about how it went. We haven't seen any immediate results from it yet, but every family has someone in mind, and I'm pretty sure that something will come of it. Because we've been focusing so much on working with members, my comp and I kind of lost steam in making contacts this week. Teaching members' friends is so much more productive than trying to convince strangers to let you into their houses. So help the missionaries in your ward out! Invite one of your friends to church or something! And if you can think of a more effective way for us to work with members, tell me!
We did have three people at church yesterday, which was great. My companion and I did a little division with the bishop and another irmão because they both have cars, and we went to pick up some investigators and take them to church. One of them was Manoel, who we have been teaching for a while now. He's progressing nicely (it's been almost three months since he did anything contrary to the Word of Wisdom!), but we need to work hard to get him some friends in the ward. The other is a twentysomething named Jorge. We found him when he and his wife were moving into their new house. We offered to help them move their stuff in, and they accepted (no one ever accepts our help)! We taught him the first lesson, and two weeks later, he went to church! It was actually pretty cool: he stayed for all three hours, and apparently he told Elder Gillespie as he was leaving that he wanted to talk to us this week about baptism. So that's cool. We'll see what happens!
The third person we had at church was a young woman. Her name is Larissa, and she's a friend of the girl we baptized. We kind of told a member family that they should take her to church, and then we kind of told her that she was going to church with that family, and she went! We're going to teach her this week, and then we'll just throw her in that darn water!
Everything's going well out here. We are really having to be creative with our work and think of new ways to find people because we've already tried all the old ways. I want to talk more, but my time's up! I love all of you so dang much! The Church is true!
luv
Aaaaaaand I just heard the f word for the first time in a year. I just want some peace and quiet! It really is hard for me to concentrate right now, so sorry if I sound weird or I write choppy sentences or something.
Speaking of which, I kind of make a year this week. On Thursday, it will have been ONE YEAR since I reported to the MTC in São Paulo. One year! I seriously have no idea where all that time went. A year ago today I reported to the high council, gave my farewell-but-don't-call-it-a-farewell talk, and had my open-house-but-don't-call-it-an-open-house. A year ago. I'm sure this week will be full of reminiscing and self reflection and stuff. I know I've changed and grown a lot over the past year, but it can be kind of hard to tell how. I guess the biggest changes have been with my testimony. I knew that the Church was true when I got here, but now I know that it is, you know?
This week went by pretty slowly, but that's all right. We're doing what we can to work more with the members, and it's kind of a slow process. An idea that we had was to give each member family a Book of Mormon at our lunch appointments so that they could pray to know who they could give it to, give it to that person, and get back to us about how it went. We haven't seen any immediate results from it yet, but every family has someone in mind, and I'm pretty sure that something will come of it. Because we've been focusing so much on working with members, my comp and I kind of lost steam in making contacts this week. Teaching members' friends is so much more productive than trying to convince strangers to let you into their houses. So help the missionaries in your ward out! Invite one of your friends to church or something! And if you can think of a more effective way for us to work with members, tell me!
We did have three people at church yesterday, which was great. My companion and I did a little division with the bishop and another irmão because they both have cars, and we went to pick up some investigators and take them to church. One of them was Manoel, who we have been teaching for a while now. He's progressing nicely (it's been almost three months since he did anything contrary to the Word of Wisdom!), but we need to work hard to get him some friends in the ward. The other is a twentysomething named Jorge. We found him when he and his wife were moving into their new house. We offered to help them move their stuff in, and they accepted (no one ever accepts our help)! We taught him the first lesson, and two weeks later, he went to church! It was actually pretty cool: he stayed for all three hours, and apparently he told Elder Gillespie as he was leaving that he wanted to talk to us this week about baptism. So that's cool. We'll see what happens!
The third person we had at church was a young woman. Her name is Larissa, and she's a friend of the girl we baptized. We kind of told a member family that they should take her to church, and then we kind of told her that she was going to church with that family, and she went! We're going to teach her this week, and then we'll just throw her in that darn water!
Everything's going well out here. We are really having to be creative with our work and think of new ways to find people because we've already tried all the old ways. I want to talk more, but my time's up! I love all of you so dang much! The Church is true!
luv
booga
Monday, September 6, 2010
And since then I've been so good at vanishing
September 6, 2010
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey family! How are you guys on this beautiful Labor Day morning? Dad told me a second ago that it was Labor Day. It seems like there's some obscure holiday every week here in Brazil, but apparently Labor Day isn't today in this half of the globe. I think it has to do with moon cycles.
Anyway.
My companion and I baptized someone on Friday!! Yay!! And she was confirmed yesterday!! Yay!!
We baptized that girl, Aline. I know I've mentioned her a couple times in past emails -- she's a young woman who we have been working with for the past few weeks. We had taught her everything, and she was a great investigator. She lives in an apartment that is about eight feet from an active member family's apartment. She has friends in the church. She understood what we taught her and kept the commitments we extended to her. She read, pondered, prayed, and received an answer about the Book of Mormon.
Her parents didn't want her to be baptized yet, even though she passed her baptismal interview with flying colors. But then Elder Gillespie and I (I feel like I can just say his name like that and you'll know who he is since he's been my companion for the last three months) went back to Aline's apartment last Monday. Our only intention was to see what her parents had decided concerning her getting baptized -- we were just going to see how their family conversation went. Well, they never had a family conversation like that. We went there and asked her mom what their decision was about baptism, and we just talked a little about it and ended up marking a date for last Friday so she could be confirmed on Sunday and the mom signed the baptismal form and we were set!
She was baptized on Friday night, and everything was pretty much perfect. There were a lot of members there to participate in the baptismal meeting and to show their support for her. Aline's nonmember parents were there. Manoel, perhaps our best investigator at the moment, was there. Everything was great! And then she was confirmed yesterday in sacrament meeting, and everything was great! I almost can't believe how little opposition we experienced with the whole thing. It all went so well.
I know that success as a missionary isn't just based on baptisms or things of that nature, but man, it feels good to see something through to the end for once. We finally reaped some fruit from all of our efforts here. We're going to spend the next while doing everything we can to work with the members better, so hopefully we can get some more good investigators that way.
My time is just about up already, so I guess that will have to do for this week. I love all of you guys so much it's stupid! The Church is true! I mean, really, it is.
luv
elder wiggins
ps happy late birthday shawn
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey family! How are you guys on this beautiful Labor Day morning? Dad told me a second ago that it was Labor Day. It seems like there's some obscure holiday every week here in Brazil, but apparently Labor Day isn't today in this half of the globe. I think it has to do with moon cycles.
Anyway.
My companion and I baptized someone on Friday!! Yay!! And she was confirmed yesterday!! Yay!!
We baptized that girl, Aline. I know I've mentioned her a couple times in past emails -- she's a young woman who we have been working with for the past few weeks. We had taught her everything, and she was a great investigator. She lives in an apartment that is about eight feet from an active member family's apartment. She has friends in the church. She understood what we taught her and kept the commitments we extended to her. She read, pondered, prayed, and received an answer about the Book of Mormon.
Her parents didn't want her to be baptized yet, even though she passed her baptismal interview with flying colors. But then Elder Gillespie and I (I feel like I can just say his name like that and you'll know who he is since he's been my companion for the last three months) went back to Aline's apartment last Monday. Our only intention was to see what her parents had decided concerning her getting baptized -- we were just going to see how their family conversation went. Well, they never had a family conversation like that. We went there and asked her mom what their decision was about baptism, and we just talked a little about it and ended up marking a date for last Friday so she could be confirmed on Sunday and the mom signed the baptismal form and we were set!
She was baptized on Friday night, and everything was pretty much perfect. There were a lot of members there to participate in the baptismal meeting and to show their support for her. Aline's nonmember parents were there. Manoel, perhaps our best investigator at the moment, was there. Everything was great! And then she was confirmed yesterday in sacrament meeting, and everything was great! I almost can't believe how little opposition we experienced with the whole thing. It all went so well.
I know that success as a missionary isn't just based on baptisms or things of that nature, but man, it feels good to see something through to the end for once. We finally reaped some fruit from all of our efforts here. We're going to spend the next while doing everything we can to work with the members better, so hopefully we can get some more good investigators that way.
My time is just about up already, so I guess that will have to do for this week. I love all of you guys so much it's stupid! The Church is true! I mean, really, it is.
luv
elder wiggins
ps happy late birthday shawn
Sunday, September 5, 2010
God takes care of the little things
August 30, 2010
Oi gente! Tudo bom!
Oi gente! Tudo bom!
So, the mission is having transfers today. And the big news is that I'm STAYING in my area! The other big news is that my companion ... is also STAYING here! Yup, we're starting our third transfer together here. That means that by the end of this transfer right now, we will have been together for four and a half months. I really lucked out, though; I don't want to kill him or anything. We actually get along really well. It's still weird that we'll be together for so long -- I've never seen two missionaries serve as companions in the same area for three consecutive transfers like this. I guess it's just one of those things where the new mission president does things differently than the old one (this was his first time doing transfers). Just something to get used to, I guess.
I was actually pretty relieved when I found out that both of us would be staying here. At this point I've almost forgotten what it was like to serve in other areas with other companions.
We had a mini conference this week in Ribeirão Preto. An Area Seventy named Elder Araújo came and spoke, and he had a lot of great counsel that Elder Gillespie and I are trying to put into practice with our work. One of my favorite parts of his training was when he referenced the question and response found in 3 Nephi 27:27, which is when the Savior says, "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." We then went on a scripture chase through the Bible and found a bunch of situations where Christ Himself described what manner of man he is: the bread of life, living water, the way, the truth, and the life, etc. Elder Araújo asked us if people see those qualities in us. As authorized representatives of the Savior, others should easily be able to notice those kinds of qualities in us as missionaries. It's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, and I'm trying to develop my Christlike attributes more because of that training.
On Friday, our best investigator was interviewed for baptism. Her name is Aline, and she's fifteen or sixteen years old. She is a good friend of a member girl, and she has shown great progress as we have taught her: she reads, she prays, she goes to church, tudo. And she passed the interview with flying colors! But neither of her parents think that she's ready to be baptized yet. We're going to keep working with her and her parents to try to help them see that baptism would be something great for Aline. I think it will be good that my companion and I will be here for the next six weeks because they won't have to deal with new missionaries or anything (yet). I don't know. I just really hope things work out. I'm sure they will.
Manoel, that guy who I talked about last week, is progressing nicely, but he's complicated. He has a lot of questions and doubts about the Church, and he said that he thought the members were arrogant or something. I wish he would have gone to church yesterday.
We're trying to work better with the members so that they can get more involved in the work. Any ideas?
I love all of you so much!
wif luv
boooooga
oh, BIG P.S. THE MISSION ADDRESS IS CHANGING!!
The mission office just moved to a new building. Anything that anyone sends to me from now on should be sent to the following address:
Elder Jefferson Wiggins
Missão Brasil Ribeirão Preto
Rua São Sebastião 1003
Centro - Ribeirão Preto - SP
14015-140
*I guess the mission office is in the same building as the Church Institute office or something, so make sure you write "Missão Brasil Ribeirão Preto" on any mail that you send to me.
**Dad, I'd be much obliged if you changed my mission address on Facebook, too; that is, assuming that anyone ever looks at that anymore. Thanks!
I was actually pretty relieved when I found out that both of us would be staying here. At this point I've almost forgotten what it was like to serve in other areas with other companions.
We had a mini conference this week in Ribeirão Preto. An Area Seventy named Elder Araújo came and spoke, and he had a lot of great counsel that Elder Gillespie and I are trying to put into practice with our work. One of my favorite parts of his training was when he referenced the question and response found in 3 Nephi 27:27, which is when the Savior says, "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." We then went on a scripture chase through the Bible and found a bunch of situations where Christ Himself described what manner of man he is: the bread of life, living water, the way, the truth, and the life, etc. Elder Araújo asked us if people see those qualities in us. As authorized representatives of the Savior, others should easily be able to notice those kinds of qualities in us as missionaries. It's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, and I'm trying to develop my Christlike attributes more because of that training.
On Friday, our best investigator was interviewed for baptism. Her name is Aline, and she's fifteen or sixteen years old. She is a good friend of a member girl, and she has shown great progress as we have taught her: she reads, she prays, she goes to church, tudo. And she passed the interview with flying colors! But neither of her parents think that she's ready to be baptized yet. We're going to keep working with her and her parents to try to help them see that baptism would be something great for Aline. I think it will be good that my companion and I will be here for the next six weeks because they won't have to deal with new missionaries or anything (yet). I don't know. I just really hope things work out. I'm sure they will.
Manoel, that guy who I talked about last week, is progressing nicely, but he's complicated. He has a lot of questions and doubts about the Church, and he said that he thought the members were arrogant or something. I wish he would have gone to church yesterday.
We're trying to work better with the members so that they can get more involved in the work. Any ideas?
I love all of you so much!
wif luv
boooooga
oh, BIG P.S. THE MISSION ADDRESS IS CHANGING!!
The mission office just moved to a new building. Anything that anyone sends to me from now on should be sent to the following address:
Elder Jefferson Wiggins
Missão Brasil Ribeirão Preto
Rua São Sebastião 1003
Centro - Ribeirão Preto - SP
14015-140
*I guess the mission office is in the same building as the Church Institute office or something, so make sure you write "Missão Brasil Ribeirão Preto" on any mail that you send to me.
**Dad, I'd be much obliged if you changed my mission address on Facebook, too; that is, assuming that anyone ever looks at that anymore. Thanks!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Between the click of the light and the start of the dream
August 23, 2010
Dear everyone,
I'm so sorry to hear about Lucy. My mind hasn't really processed the fact that she died yet; being away from home for so long kind of makes stuff like this seem even more surreal. It sounds like the nucleus folks back home (especially Sam) have really been mourning
her loss. My heart goes out to you guys. I wish there was something I could do to comfort you, but I only know how to think in terms of gospel doctrine now, and I don't know if the Plan of Salvation applies to animals. Too soon?
This week was pretty nuts, kind of. That guy who went to church last week, Manoel, was really the entire focus of our work for this week. It turns out that he's kind of a genius; that is, he knows a ton about the Bible and has seriously investigated five or six other churches before. He is also working on his doctorate degree in human genetics or something equally insane. Anyway, we have been teaching him every day since we met him, and things are going pretty well. He read all of 1 Nephi in one day, and then reread it the next day. And in spite of his biblical knowledge, he is really open to everything we're teaching him.
Our biggest challenge has been to help him start investigating the Church instead of just studying it. He seems really afraid to keep commitments and live the commandments and all that. Oh, and my companion invited him to allow us to prepare him to be baptized, and he sort of freaked out. He used to go to a church and then fell away because people were discriminative against him (he's black) and treated him poorly. And he says that he doesn't want to join another church only to fall away again, even if for other reasons.
He has a lot of baggage like that, you know? But he's easily one of the smartest people I have taught on my whole mission.
We didn't have much else going on this week because my companion got sick for a day and a half. We figured out that in 36 hours, his face was in his pillow for 24. He slept like a rock through Thursday, so we didn't get much else done. We're also having some minor problems with discouragement and low morale. Last night we had a sleepover with the other Americans in our zone, and we're having a barbecue today with everyone. I think stuff like this has been good for both of us. It really helps to get out of your area every once and a while and talk to new people, even if you get along well with your companion.
And my comp is having some complicated girl problems that would take too long to explain here. They aren't helping with the discouragement, though.
Anyway, concerning the work: I'm just trying to learn what the Lord wants me to learn from all this. This area has been so hard; we have worked like crazy and exhausted every idea we can think of to find new people who are ready to accept the gospel, and nothing has worked (yet). I'm not giving up or anything, but it would be nice to figure out what I'm supposed to figure out from what has (and hasn't) happened here in the last eleven weeks. I dunno.
Transfers are coming up next Monday, so who knows where the heck I'll be when I write you guys next week!
I hope you guys don't think I'm depressed or anything. I went through a reeeeeeeeeeally diffcult couple of weeks here, but I'm doing fine now. I'm happy. I'm learning the importance of applying gospel principles into what we do and who we are instead of just memorizing what they are.
Anyway. I was going to close this email with a powerful scripture, but I couldn't think of one that would be just right. Just remember that we become disciples of Christ when we love others (John 13:34-35, I think); in fact, we are supposed to love them as we love ourselves (John...15? I think?). That means we have to love ourselves before we love others! So do everything you can to do both!
I love all of you so much.
luv
booga
Dear everyone,
I'm so sorry to hear about Lucy. My mind hasn't really processed the fact that she died yet; being away from home for so long kind of makes stuff like this seem even more surreal. It sounds like the nucleus folks back home (especially Sam) have really been mourning
her loss. My heart goes out to you guys. I wish there was something I could do to comfort you, but I only know how to think in terms of gospel doctrine now, and I don't know if the Plan of Salvation applies to animals. Too soon?
This week was pretty nuts, kind of. That guy who went to church last week, Manoel, was really the entire focus of our work for this week. It turns out that he's kind of a genius; that is, he knows a ton about the Bible and has seriously investigated five or six other churches before. He is also working on his doctorate degree in human genetics or something equally insane. Anyway, we have been teaching him every day since we met him, and things are going pretty well. He read all of 1 Nephi in one day, and then reread it the next day. And in spite of his biblical knowledge, he is really open to everything we're teaching him.
Our biggest challenge has been to help him start investigating the Church instead of just studying it. He seems really afraid to keep commitments and live the commandments and all that. Oh, and my companion invited him to allow us to prepare him to be baptized, and he sort of freaked out. He used to go to a church and then fell away because people were discriminative against him (he's black) and treated him poorly. And he says that he doesn't want to join another church only to fall away again, even if for other reasons.
He has a lot of baggage like that, you know? But he's easily one of the smartest people I have taught on my whole mission.
We didn't have much else going on this week because my companion got sick for a day and a half. We figured out that in 36 hours, his face was in his pillow for 24. He slept like a rock through Thursday, so we didn't get much else done. We're also having some minor problems with discouragement and low morale. Last night we had a sleepover with the other Americans in our zone, and we're having a barbecue today with everyone. I think stuff like this has been good for both of us. It really helps to get out of your area every once and a while and talk to new people, even if you get along well with your companion.
And my comp is having some complicated girl problems that would take too long to explain here. They aren't helping with the discouragement, though.
Anyway, concerning the work: I'm just trying to learn what the Lord wants me to learn from all this. This area has been so hard; we have worked like crazy and exhausted every idea we can think of to find new people who are ready to accept the gospel, and nothing has worked (yet). I'm not giving up or anything, but it would be nice to figure out what I'm supposed to figure out from what has (and hasn't) happened here in the last eleven weeks. I dunno.
Transfers are coming up next Monday, so who knows where the heck I'll be when I write you guys next week!
I hope you guys don't think I'm depressed or anything. I went through a reeeeeeeeeeally diffcult couple of weeks here, but I'm doing fine now. I'm happy. I'm learning the importance of applying gospel principles into what we do and who we are instead of just memorizing what they are.
Anyway. I was going to close this email with a powerful scripture, but I couldn't think of one that would be just right. Just remember that we become disciples of Christ when we love others (John 13:34-35, I think); in fact, we are supposed to love them as we love ourselves (John...15? I think?). That means we have to love ourselves before we love others! So do everything you can to do both!
I love all of you so much.
luv
booga
I'm not a boy, I'm a big fat balloon
August 16, 2010
So, I turn eleven months old on the mission today. Does that blow your mind or what? I can hardly even remember what America is like.
This week was something of an endurance test. We had zone conference on Saturday, so my companion and I spent this entire week just trying to survive until then. Most of our time was spent trying to teach people who don't really care about what we have to offer, but we did make some progress with that girl who I mentioned last week. We taught her the third lesson, and everything is going well with her. I mean, she reads the Book of Mormon and has a testimony of it, and she understands what we teach her, and she has friends in the Church, and she really gets it, you know? Anyway, we still need to get her to go to church every Sunday and we need to convince her mom to let her be baptized. Mas faz parte, né?
Zone conference was pretty good. It was actually a special conference called Mission Tour, which is when a general authority comes to speak. This time it was Elder Tobias, a Brazilian Seventy who I had never heard of. I barely got any sleep the night before because my zone had to catch a bus to Ribeirão Preto at 3:30 AM, so I was pretty zombified throughout the whole thing. And conference lasted f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Other than that, it was great. Elder Tobias talked a lot about practical teaching techniques like making eye contact and showing interest in what people have to say and stuff like that. He had a lot of helpful counsel that I'm going to start applying to how I teach.
I got a letter from Ximmer at the end of conference. So he's really going on that mission, huh? I can't believe it. Speaking of which, has Adam Sayer gotten back yet? Anyone else leave or come back from their missions or get married or anything?
We had a pretty cool experience yesterday. My companion and I slept in a little bit (I'm so sorry it was because I had hardly slept at all in almost two days and I was so tired I'm so sorry), so we didn't have any time to go pick up any of the investigators that we don't have. As we started walking to church, we passed a guy on the street. We said good morning to him and kept going on our way. My companion hesitated for a moment, turned around, and invited the guy to church. He introduced us to him and asked if he'd like to make a visit to the church with us right now. And he said he would! And he did! He only stayed for sacrament meeting, but he actually was pretty good (meaning he isn't completely poisoned by all the apostate churches out here). We're going to go teach him tomorrow. It was crazy, though, because we talk to hundreds of people every week and teach them and invite them to church and bear our testimonies and EVERYTHING and people always just shrug everything off. But a simple invitation to go to church to this guy worked. I swear, I will never understand missionary work.
I'm going through a crazy time in my mission where the high ups and suuuuuuuuper low downs are coming at a daily pace. I'm trying to find a good emotional stability in here somewhere. Things are weird. I always feel better when I study the scriptures, pray, and teach, and I love hearing from you guys. I love all of you! The Church is true! Have a great week
luv
booga
So, I turn eleven months old on the mission today. Does that blow your mind or what? I can hardly even remember what America is like.
This week was something of an endurance test. We had zone conference on Saturday, so my companion and I spent this entire week just trying to survive until then. Most of our time was spent trying to teach people who don't really care about what we have to offer, but we did make some progress with that girl who I mentioned last week. We taught her the third lesson, and everything is going well with her. I mean, she reads the Book of Mormon and has a testimony of it, and she understands what we teach her, and she has friends in the Church, and she really gets it, you know? Anyway, we still need to get her to go to church every Sunday and we need to convince her mom to let her be baptized. Mas faz parte, né?
Zone conference was pretty good. It was actually a special conference called Mission Tour, which is when a general authority comes to speak. This time it was Elder Tobias, a Brazilian Seventy who I had never heard of. I barely got any sleep the night before because my zone had to catch a bus to Ribeirão Preto at 3:30 AM, so I was pretty zombified throughout the whole thing. And conference lasted f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Other than that, it was great. Elder Tobias talked a lot about practical teaching techniques like making eye contact and showing interest in what people have to say and stuff like that. He had a lot of helpful counsel that I'm going to start applying to how I teach.
I got a letter from Ximmer at the end of conference. So he's really going on that mission, huh? I can't believe it. Speaking of which, has Adam Sayer gotten back yet? Anyone else leave or come back from their missions or get married or anything?
We had a pretty cool experience yesterday. My companion and I slept in a little bit (I'm so sorry it was because I had hardly slept at all in almost two days and I was so tired I'm so sorry), so we didn't have any time to go pick up any of the investigators that we don't have. As we started walking to church, we passed a guy on the street. We said good morning to him and kept going on our way. My companion hesitated for a moment, turned around, and invited the guy to church. He introduced us to him and asked if he'd like to make a visit to the church with us right now. And he said he would! And he did! He only stayed for sacrament meeting, but he actually was pretty good (meaning he isn't completely poisoned by all the apostate churches out here). We're going to go teach him tomorrow. It was crazy, though, because we talk to hundreds of people every week and teach them and invite them to church and bear our testimonies and EVERYTHING and people always just shrug everything off. But a simple invitation to go to church to this guy worked. I swear, I will never understand missionary work.
I'm going through a crazy time in my mission where the high ups and suuuuuuuuper low downs are coming at a daily pace. I'm trying to find a good emotional stability in here somewhere. Things are weird. I always feel better when I study the scriptures, pray, and teach, and I love hearing from you guys. I love all of you! The Church is true! Have a great week
luv
booga
Friday, August 13, 2010
You may say I'm a dreamer
August 9, 2010
My dearest family,
E aí! Como vai, gente, beleza!
This week went pretty well. From Wednesday to Sunday, my companion and I had our district leader working with us. He hasn't had a companion for about a week and a half or something, so he has been hopping around from ward to ward so he has someone to work with. It was actually a pretty good experience to have him here with us. Something that I learned in the MTC is that missionary work and trios don't really mix with each other, but we managed just fine.
We had a couple people drop us this week. That's always a bummer, but I've kind of gotten used to it. One of our best investigators is living with our ward mission leader's daughter, who is an inactive member. He really took to heart our challenge to read: he read all the chapters we marked for him in the Book of Mormon, and then he started from the beginning and made it to 1 Nephi 11! We were all pretty blown away by that. Anyway, he told us the other day that he still hasn't felt anything while reading or praying. And he hasn't gone to church yet. And he told us that he's pretty uninterested now. So...
We taught another twentysomething dude last week who was really good. We read in the Book of Mormon with him and he said right there that he felt the influence of the Spirit as we read. And then he said that he wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon before even making a visit to the church (which I think is a little preposterous, but wutevs). That would be fine, but we passed by his house the other night and he still hasn't read a single verse yet. And he told us that he's kind of uninterested right now, too. So...
BUT,
We taught a super elect girl this week. A young woman who is a friend and neighbor of a great member family went to church last week. She also went to a fireside, ward activity, and children's choir event thing. Apparently she has really been liking the Church a lot. We taught her for the first time this week in that member family's apartment. WOW, guys. It was so great. We taught the message of the Restoration up until Joseph Smith, and then we watched The Restoration (the film) and taught about the Book of Mormon. And, like, she got it. No one ever gets it, guys. But she did! And she's excited about everything and she has a lot of friends in the church and her mom has already given permission for her to be baptized which means that they have talked about baptism and man I'm excited! She didn't go to church yesterday because she was staying at her aunt's house, but we're going to have a family home evening there tonight and teach her the GOSPEL and she's going to LOVE IT and it's going to be wonderful.
Other than that, our week was pretty normal. I'm getting a little tired of talking to people who don't care about what we have to offer them, and I'm reeeeeeally tired of hearing people's excuses. I'm also pretty tired of all the apostate churches down here, but fazer o que, né? Então. Anyway, things are going well. My companion and I get along and we've become good friends. We work hard and obey the mission rules. I'm still doing my best.
I love you guys. For real. Good luck with all the traveling and moving and all that.
Let me know how you're doing!
luv
elder wiggins
E aí! Como vai, gente, beleza!
This week went pretty well. From Wednesday to Sunday, my companion and I had our district leader working with us. He hasn't had a companion for about a week and a half or something, so he has been hopping around from ward to ward so he has someone to work with. It was actually a pretty good experience to have him here with us. Something that I learned in the MTC is that missionary work and trios don't really mix with each other, but we managed just fine.
We had a couple people drop us this week. That's always a bummer, but I've kind of gotten used to it. One of our best investigators is living with our ward mission leader's daughter, who is an inactive member. He really took to heart our challenge to read: he read all the chapters we marked for him in the Book of Mormon, and then he started from the beginning and made it to 1 Nephi 11! We were all pretty blown away by that. Anyway, he told us the other day that he still hasn't felt anything while reading or praying. And he hasn't gone to church yet. And he told us that he's pretty uninterested now. So...
We taught another twentysomething dude last week who was really good. We read in the Book of Mormon with him and he said right there that he felt the influence of the Spirit as we read. And then he said that he wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon before even making a visit to the church (which I think is a little preposterous, but wutevs). That would be fine, but we passed by his house the other night and he still hasn't read a single verse yet. And he told us that he's kind of uninterested right now, too. So...
BUT,
We taught a super elect girl this week. A young woman who is a friend and neighbor of a great member family went to church last week. She also went to a fireside, ward activity, and children's choir event thing. Apparently she has really been liking the Church a lot. We taught her for the first time this week in that member family's apartment. WOW, guys. It was so great. We taught the message of the Restoration up until Joseph Smith, and then we watched The Restoration (the film) and taught about the Book of Mormon. And, like, she got it. No one ever gets it, guys. But she did! And she's excited about everything and she has a lot of friends in the church and her mom has already given permission for her to be baptized which means that they have talked about baptism and man I'm excited! She didn't go to church yesterday because she was staying at her aunt's house, but we're going to have a family home evening there tonight and teach her the GOSPEL and she's going to LOVE IT and it's going to be wonderful.
Other than that, our week was pretty normal. I'm getting a little tired of talking to people who don't care about what we have to offer them, and I'm reeeeeeally tired of hearing people's excuses. I'm also pretty tired of all the apostate churches down here, but fazer o que, né? Então. Anyway, things are going well. My companion and I get along and we've become good friends. We work hard and obey the mission rules. I'm still doing my best.
I love you guys. For real. Good luck with all the traveling and moving and all that.
Let me know how you're doing!
luv
elder wiggins
August of next year, before the leaves disappear
August 2, 2010
I can't believe it's August already.
So I'm in a LAN house at a giant bus station in scenic São Carlos, Brasil (with an "s") with a bunch of other missionaries. One of our chapels is close by, so we all came down to play soccer together. Big surprise: I still suck at soccer. It was fun, though.
This week went pretty well. My companion and I are still working our butts off. We're still teaching the first lesson to a TON of people, almost all of them being married couples or at least adults, in their houses, sometimes with members. We still haven't found any investigators who really want to progress. But wotevah.
Actually, we had a pretty strange experience this week. We came into contact with a family who lives in some government-funded apartments a few weeks ago. We had been looking for a less active member when we were led to this apartment. We met a woman named (take a guess) Maria, we went into her house and said a prayer, and we marked a follow-up appointment where we could teach everyone. We went back a while later and taught the first lesson. Maria's husband, Natalino, was a bit of a character. He'd talk really loud and interrupt us at times and just had an aggressive air about him. We challenged them to read and pray.
The next time we went there, we showed up a little late, so we didn't have time to teach them. But they said they had read and prayed and everything.
So we go back this week. We asked Natalino how the reading went. And he kind of exploded. He freaked out because the Book of Mormon doesn't say anything about the god of riches and wealth. He said he has searched in multiple churches to try to find out how he can get rich, and he still hasn't had any luck. I thought he was joking, so I didn't really respond seriously to his questions. But we started teaching the Plan of Salvation, and it became clear that he was being serious. We couldn't even make it past our life on earth before he insisted again about the god of riches. And he brought up Nossa Senhora Aparecida (Catholicism, Mary statues, all of that) when we were talking about Adam and Eve. We were kind of at a loss for words.
My companion just decided to have each of us kneel right there and pray, asking if the Book of Mormon is true. My comp prayed. And then I did. And then Natalino asked God for riches and wealth, which is what he truly desires. Dude's nuts, guys.
So that story took way too long to tell. I guess it's just because I don't have much else to say this week.
Actually, I thought I received a package this week because the mission secretary called and said that the postal service had taken another one of my packages, and that I'd have to pay to get it out. So I went through all the hassles of taking money out of the bank and giving it to someone who was going to Ribeirão Preto, only to find out in the end that the package was actually addressed to a different elder. I guess my name popped into the secretary's head when he found out about the package, so he thought it was for me. Buuuuuut it wasn't. Oh well.
This email has turned out really underwhelming for all of us, so I'll end it with a little treat. Everyone who reads this should go on Youtube right now and look up some Brazilian music. Restart (you say it kind of like "Heh-starch") is all the rage these days with the scenesters. They have a song called "Recomeçar," which, oddly enough, means "restart" in Portuguese, that you guys need to hear. And there's another super-scenester band called Cine that has a song called "Garota Radical" ("Radical Girl") that you also have to check out. Emo pop + auto-tune! Give me a break, gente!
Anyway, I'm doing great. I love all of you and hope you're doing well. The Church is true!
booga
I can't believe it's August already.
So I'm in a LAN house at a giant bus station in scenic São Carlos, Brasil (with an "s") with a bunch of other missionaries. One of our chapels is close by, so we all came down to play soccer together. Big surprise: I still suck at soccer. It was fun, though.
This week went pretty well. My companion and I are still working our butts off. We're still teaching the first lesson to a TON of people, almost all of them being married couples or at least adults, in their houses, sometimes with members. We still haven't found any investigators who really want to progress. But wotevah.
Actually, we had a pretty strange experience this week. We came into contact with a family who lives in some government-funded apartments a few weeks ago. We had been looking for a less active member when we were led to this apartment. We met a woman named (take a guess) Maria, we went into her house and said a prayer, and we marked a follow-up appointment where we could teach everyone. We went back a while later and taught the first lesson. Maria's husband, Natalino, was a bit of a character. He'd talk really loud and interrupt us at times and just had an aggressive air about him. We challenged them to read and pray.
The next time we went there, we showed up a little late, so we didn't have time to teach them. But they said they had read and prayed and everything.
So we go back this week. We asked Natalino how the reading went. And he kind of exploded. He freaked out because the Book of Mormon doesn't say anything about the god of riches and wealth. He said he has searched in multiple churches to try to find out how he can get rich, and he still hasn't had any luck. I thought he was joking, so I didn't really respond seriously to his questions. But we started teaching the Plan of Salvation, and it became clear that he was being serious. We couldn't even make it past our life on earth before he insisted again about the god of riches. And he brought up Nossa Senhora Aparecida (Catholicism, Mary statues, all of that) when we were talking about Adam and Eve. We were kind of at a loss for words.
My companion just decided to have each of us kneel right there and pray, asking if the Book of Mormon is true. My comp prayed. And then I did. And then Natalino asked God for riches and wealth, which is what he truly desires. Dude's nuts, guys.
So that story took way too long to tell. I guess it's just because I don't have much else to say this week.
Actually, I thought I received a package this week because the mission secretary called and said that the postal service had taken another one of my packages, and that I'd have to pay to get it out. So I went through all the hassles of taking money out of the bank and giving it to someone who was going to Ribeirão Preto, only to find out in the end that the package was actually addressed to a different elder. I guess my name popped into the secretary's head when he found out about the package, so he thought it was for me. Buuuuuut it wasn't. Oh well.
This email has turned out really underwhelming for all of us, so I'll end it with a little treat. Everyone who reads this should go on Youtube right now and look up some Brazilian music. Restart (you say it kind of like "Heh-starch") is all the rage these days with the scenesters. They have a song called "Recomeçar," which, oddly enough, means "restart" in Portuguese, that you guys need to hear. And there's another super-scenester band called Cine that has a song called "Garota Radical" ("Radical Girl") that you also have to check out. Emo pop + auto-tune! Give me a break, gente!
Anyway, I'm doing great. I love all of you and hope you're doing well. The Church is true!
booga
I never thought I would come of age, let alone on the moldy page
July 26, 2010
E aí, família! Como vai?
Hey guys. I'm writing you after one more week in beautiful São Carlos! That's in Brazil, which is also where I happen to be! Who knew that some city in Brazil that no one's ever heard of and I would be in the same place at the same time, huh? Que coincidência!
Anyway, this week went really well, but it also kind of sucked a little bit. My comp and I are both pretty much dead now because of all the walking and teaching we've been doing. Unlike the first few weeks that I spent in this area, we have been teaching like crazy. I don't even know how many times we taught the first lesson this week, but I do know that I feel completely drained mentally and physically. It was really great that we were able to mark so many appointments and get into so many people's houses to teach them, especially considering the lack of success that we had been experiencing in the past.
But then nobody went to church, even though we went to their houses before the meetings started. In all my ten months (!) in the Holy Land, I have never been able to get very many people to church. For some reason people just don't want to get up in time for a nine o'clock sacrament meeting on Sunday mornings. And yet all the crazy garage churches that just have "pastors" yelling into microphones with bad PA systems are always full to bursting. I guess people just like taking the easier path.
It was probably just as well that they didn't go yesterday because there was a ton of noise going on outside the chapel during the first forty minutes or so of church. I still don't know exactly why, but it sounded like every single car that drove by the church was blasting its horn nonstop. It was impossible to maintain any kind of reverence during the meeting. Coincidentally, I gave a talk yesterday about patience. It turned out to be an appropriate topic. I just sort of blabbered on until I was told to stop and the noise was really distracting, so who knows if anyone actually took anything from what I said. I'm all like wotevah about it, though.
I'm starting the Book of Mormon over again this week and I'm going to read it before this transfer is over in five weeks. I'm reading it in English this time because I want to fly through it, but I'll probably do a speed reading thing like this in Portuguese at some point in my mission. I've only read the first twenty-ish pages so far, but I've already learned some new things and felt my testimony grow!
Mas pois é, gente.
I'm doing well and I love my companion and I love the people and I'm doing my best to be obedient. We're still not BAPTIZING THE WORLD like our leaders want us to (that's not to say that I don't want to, though), but I'm learning every day and having important experiences, I think. I'm learning about compromise and patience and things of that nature. Still working on trying not to be shy or too self-critical.
Anyway. I love you guys! The Church is true! Sorry I can't write back to all of your individual emails every week! I hope we can still be friends, guys!
luv
booooooga
Hey guys. I'm writing you after one more week in beautiful São Carlos! That's in Brazil, which is also where I happen to be! Who knew that some city in Brazil that no one's ever heard of and I would be in the same place at the same time, huh? Que coincidência!
Anyway, this week went really well, but it also kind of sucked a little bit. My comp and I are both pretty much dead now because of all the walking and teaching we've been doing. Unlike the first few weeks that I spent in this area, we have been teaching like crazy. I don't even know how many times we taught the first lesson this week, but I do know that I feel completely drained mentally and physically. It was really great that we were able to mark so many appointments and get into so many people's houses to teach them, especially considering the lack of success that we had been experiencing in the past.
But then nobody went to church, even though we went to their houses before the meetings started. In all my ten months (!) in the Holy Land, I have never been able to get very many people to church. For some reason people just don't want to get up in time for a nine o'clock sacrament meeting on Sunday mornings. And yet all the crazy garage churches that just have "pastors" yelling into microphones with bad PA systems are always full to bursting. I guess people just like taking the easier path.
It was probably just as well that they didn't go yesterday because there was a ton of noise going on outside the chapel during the first forty minutes or so of church. I still don't know exactly why, but it sounded like every single car that drove by the church was blasting its horn nonstop. It was impossible to maintain any kind of reverence during the meeting. Coincidentally, I gave a talk yesterday about patience. It turned out to be an appropriate topic. I just sort of blabbered on until I was told to stop and the noise was really distracting, so who knows if anyone actually took anything from what I said. I'm all like wotevah about it, though.
I'm starting the Book of Mormon over again this week and I'm going to read it before this transfer is over in five weeks. I'm reading it in English this time because I want to fly through it, but I'll probably do a speed reading thing like this in Portuguese at some point in my mission. I've only read the first twenty-ish pages so far, but I've already learned some new things and felt my testimony grow!
Mas pois é, gente.
I'm doing well and I love my companion and I love the people and I'm doing my best to be obedient. We're still not BAPTIZING THE WORLD like our leaders want us to (that's not to say that I don't want to, though), but I'm learning every day and having important experiences, I think. I'm learning about compromise and patience and things of that nature. Still working on trying not to be shy or too self-critical.
Anyway. I love you guys! The Church is true! Sorry I can't write back to all of your individual emails every week! I hope we can still be friends, guys!
luv
booooooga
Because if you throw a light on something magical, it disappears
July 19, 2010
Transfers, transfers, transfers! New mission president! Everything is changing!
Actually, my companion and I are both staying here for this transfer. In fact, we're the only missionaries in the entire city right now. Everyone in our zone, including our zone leaders, was transferred except for a sister and one other elder. We're going to meet all the new folks at the bus station this afternoon. I hope I get some mail!
I'm excited about this transfer. I am blessed (I really mean that) to have an obedient, hardworking companion, and even though we have had plenty of difficulties in this area, we're in a good place. We know the area now, which helps. And all the basics are taken care of here: we have a good house, the members are very nice, the ward leadership is the strongest I've seen on my whole mission, the chapel is nice, and we don't have to spend a lot of money on buses or anything.
We still don't have much of a teaching pool, though. Our best investigator, Fernanda, is perdida (lost) now. We went to visit her and she told us that she wanted to stop "studying" with us for now. People just don't get it. Anyway, my tender little heart was broken again. Hopefully one day she comes around someday.
Since we lost all of our progressing investigators (although they were more like "progressing" investigators), my companion and I pretty much started over this week. We're launching a concentrated attack on the less active members of the ward, of which there are A LOT. We got a list from the bishop of all the members of the ward, with the active members highlighted. We created a little numbering system for all the people we planned on visiting and located them on the big city map that is hung up on our wall. We stuck little pins into the map to plan our visits. We turned our study room into WAR ROOM! We have been going to all the people's houses, with mixed results. Most people have moved or weren't at home, a lot of them were too ashamed to come talk to us, and some of them were genuinely cool people who just stopped going to church for one reason or another. Now we're going to try to reactivate them and teach their nonmember siblings and relatives and neighbors and the whole world!!
That's pretty much all that's going on. I'm going a little bit crazy because of our lack of success and all that, but I'm all like wutevs about it. We're working hard and I'm learning a lot and growing up and being an adult and speaking Portuguese! I love you guys! The Church is true!
Abraço,
Elder Bwoggins
P.S. Have there been any marriages or deaths or births or crazy happenings back home? Or abroad, I guess? Just curious.
Actually, my companion and I are both staying here for this transfer. In fact, we're the only missionaries in the entire city right now. Everyone in our zone, including our zone leaders, was transferred except for a sister and one other elder. We're going to meet all the new folks at the bus station this afternoon. I hope I get some mail!
I'm excited about this transfer. I am blessed (I really mean that) to have an obedient, hardworking companion, and even though we have had plenty of difficulties in this area, we're in a good place. We know the area now, which helps. And all the basics are taken care of here: we have a good house, the members are very nice, the ward leadership is the strongest I've seen on my whole mission, the chapel is nice, and we don't have to spend a lot of money on buses or anything.
We still don't have much of a teaching pool, though. Our best investigator, Fernanda, is perdida (lost) now. We went to visit her and she told us that she wanted to stop "studying" with us for now. People just don't get it. Anyway, my tender little heart was broken again. Hopefully one day she comes around someday.
Since we lost all of our progressing investigators (although they were more like "progressing" investigators), my companion and I pretty much started over this week. We're launching a concentrated attack on the less active members of the ward, of which there are A LOT. We got a list from the bishop of all the members of the ward, with the active members highlighted. We created a little numbering system for all the people we planned on visiting and located them on the big city map that is hung up on our wall. We stuck little pins into the map to plan our visits. We turned our study room into WAR ROOM! We have been going to all the people's houses, with mixed results. Most people have moved or weren't at home, a lot of them were too ashamed to come talk to us, and some of them were genuinely cool people who just stopped going to church for one reason or another. Now we're going to try to reactivate them and teach their nonmember siblings and relatives and neighbors and the whole world!!
That's pretty much all that's going on. I'm going a little bit crazy because of our lack of success and all that, but I'm all like wutevs about it. We're working hard and I'm learning a lot and growing up and being an adult and speaking Portuguese! I love you guys! The Church is true!
Abraço,
Elder Bwoggins
P.S. Have there been any marriages or deaths or births or crazy happenings back home? Or abroad, I guess? Just curious.
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up
July 12, 2010
I'm actually not discouraged, though, even if it might sound like I am. I know that everything will happen in due time, and that it isn't for us to decide when people will be ready to accept the gospel and that no work is wasted and all that. It's just hard. It's like, I just want to find the people who already are ready, and then teach them and baptize them. I'm tired of hearing people's excuses of why we can't teach them.
I really am doing fine, though. This is the last week of the transfer, and my guess is that my comp and I will both stay here for at least one more. I've been really fortunate there, actually -- Elder Gillespie has been a great example for me, and he's a hard worker. And the members here are great; the ward leadership is the best that I've seen on my whole mission, and the people here really do have testimonies of the gospel. It has just been tough getting their friends to church.
Anyway, that's pretty much it. I discovered the other day that I had eaten liver on my mission without realizing it. It was pretty nasty.
All is well out here. I love you guys! The Church is true!
-- Elder Bworggins
Oi, family! How are you guys doing?
This week was pretty insane -- not because it was really eventful or anything, but because my companion and I are working like crazy and not seeing any results from our efforts. For five weeks we have been talking to as many people as possible and trying to be smart and effective in our planning. But nothing is happening! I guess this transfer is supposed to be the one where I learn patience, because I'm definitely not learning how to bring people to church or baptize them.
On Saturday my companion and I went to somewhere between 16 and 20 houses to try to teach people. We didn't get into a single one. Either no one is home or they're too busy to let us in. This week we made 180 contacts and only got 35 addresses (the mission standard is 160 contacts with 40 addresses per week). People just don't want to talk to us! And they don't want to go to church, either. We've been fasting and praying and studying and being obedient and working and working and working, and nothing's happening. This week was pretty rough.
I'm actually not discouraged, though, even if it might sound like I am. I know that everything will happen in due time, and that it isn't for us to decide when people will be ready to accept the gospel and that no work is wasted and all that. It's just hard. It's like, I just want to find the people who already are ready, and then teach them and baptize them. I'm tired of hearing people's excuses of why we can't teach them.
I really am doing fine, though. This is the last week of the transfer, and my guess is that my comp and I will both stay here for at least one more. I've been really fortunate there, actually -- Elder Gillespie has been a great example for me, and he's a hard worker. And the members here are great; the ward leadership is the best that I've seen on my whole mission, and the people here really do have testimonies of the gospel. It has just been tough getting their friends to church.
Anyway, that's pretty much it. I discovered the other day that I had eaten liver on my mission without realizing it. It was pretty nasty.
All is well out here. I love you guys! The Church is true!
-- Elder Bworggins
I heard a voice calling from down inside the well
July 5, 2010
My companion contacted a super elect lady named Fernanda last week, and we started teaching her on Tuesday. The first lesson was so great! Sometimes you can really tell for real (really) when an investigator understands what you're teaching. I mean, sometimes they get it, and you know that they have felt the Spirit testify to them of the truthfulness of what you're saying. That's how it was with Fernanda. We taught her, her two daughters and her son-in-law, and it was like a nice little family home evening. When we suggested that we say a prayer after the lesson, Fernanda herself offered to pray. It was nuts, guys. She thanked the Lord for sending us to her house to bring a renewed hope into her life that had previously been lost. We marked a chapter for her to read, which she did. We took her to the other ward's baptism the next day, and she loved it. She became pretty emotional, and obviously was getting an answer to her prayers. And since then she has been acting really weird and trying to avoid us and stuff. She didn't go to church yesterday. It seems like someone said something bad about the Church to her or something. We're going to send the Sisters over there tonight to try to rescue her. I hope she comes around because she has been easily our best investigator so far.
Cleber is a thirty-something year old guy who was really receptive to the lesson until we invited him to read the Book of Mormon. It wasn't until then that he told us that he goes to another church and just wants to read the Bible and blah blah blah. People just don't get it, I guess. If I had a flux capacitor, maybe I would go back in time and teach him differently. Or I'd go back in time to when I could eat at In-N-Out whenever I wanted.
Great Scott!
Anyway, we taught a middle-aged couple named Silvana and Luiz, as well as their son Ivan. The parents hardly even paid attention to the lesson, and Ivan was recently baptized in one of the many apostate churches down here, and he's pretty dang firm there. But we found out that he read in the Book of Mormon, so maybe he'll come around. I'm kind of scared to go back there, though, because Ivan looks like a big German dude who wants to beat me up and we told him indirectly that his church is false. Hey-o!
Madalena is a really sweet old-ish lady who I contacted last week. We found out that she had been an active member of the Church for three years before she fell away for I-can't-remember-how-long. It sounds like she still doesn't really know why she fell away in the first place. Anyway, we went over there last week and taught her the first lesson, which went really well. She didn't go to church last week or answer the door at all when we passed by during the week, so we thought she had given up on us. As it turns out, she had just been away from home since last Saturday. We spoke to her yesterday morning, and she went to church yesterday! She only stayed for sacrament meeting because she had to go to a funeral or something, but at least she went to something! That's a little bit of progress, right?
So, we've been finding people to teach. Right now we're trying to find the people who will progress and be baptized and everything. My companion and I are still working our hardest and not getting discouraged (kind of) and everything. The work has been going slow, but it's going. I'm slowly going insane, and the mission has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but I am doing well. I am happy. The Church is true!
Hey everyone!
So, Brazil was eliminated from the Cup by the stupid Netherlands this week. It was fun while it lasted.
We started seeing some results this week from all the work that my companion and I have been doing since we got here. We managed to get into some people's houses to teach them and invite them to read, pray and go to church. Unfortunately, even after you teach someone the message of the Restoration, they still get kind of wishy-washy and try to wriggle out of any commitment.
My companion contacted a super elect lady named Fernanda last week, and we started teaching her on Tuesday. The first lesson was so great! Sometimes you can really tell for real (really) when an investigator understands what you're teaching. I mean, sometimes they get it, and you know that they have felt the Spirit testify to them of the truthfulness of what you're saying. That's how it was with Fernanda. We taught her, her two daughters and her son-in-law, and it was like a nice little family home evening. When we suggested that we say a prayer after the lesson, Fernanda herself offered to pray. It was nuts, guys. She thanked the Lord for sending us to her house to bring a renewed hope into her life that had previously been lost. We marked a chapter for her to read, which she did. We took her to the other ward's baptism the next day, and she loved it. She became pretty emotional, and obviously was getting an answer to her prayers. And since then she has been acting really weird and trying to avoid us and stuff. She didn't go to church yesterday. It seems like someone said something bad about the Church to her or something. We're going to send the Sisters over there tonight to try to rescue her. I hope she comes around because she has been easily our best investigator so far.
Cleber is a thirty-something year old guy who was really receptive to the lesson until we invited him to read the Book of Mormon. It wasn't until then that he told us that he goes to another church and just wants to read the Bible and blah blah blah. People just don't get it, I guess. If I had a flux capacitor, maybe I would go back in time and teach him differently. Or I'd go back in time to when I could eat at In-N-Out whenever I wanted.
Great Scott!
Anyway, we taught a middle-aged couple named Silvana and Luiz, as well as their son Ivan. The parents hardly even paid attention to the lesson, and Ivan was recently baptized in one of the many apostate churches down here, and he's pretty dang firm there. But we found out that he read in the Book of Mormon, so maybe he'll come around. I'm kind of scared to go back there, though, because Ivan looks like a big German dude who wants to beat me up and we told him indirectly that his church is false. Hey-o!
Madalena is a really sweet old-ish lady who I contacted last week. We found out that she had been an active member of the Church for three years before she fell away for I-can't-remember-how-long. It sounds like she still doesn't really know why she fell away in the first place. Anyway, we went over there last week and taught her the first lesson, which went really well. She didn't go to church last week or answer the door at all when we passed by during the week, so we thought she had given up on us. As it turns out, she had just been away from home since last Saturday. We spoke to her yesterday morning, and she went to church yesterday! She only stayed for sacrament meeting because she had to go to a funeral or something, but at least she went to something! That's a little bit of progress, right?
So, we've been finding people to teach. Right now we're trying to find the people who will progress and be baptized and everything. My companion and I are still working our hardest and not getting discouraged (kind of) and everything. The work has been going slow, but it's going. I'm slowly going insane, and the mission has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but I am doing well. I am happy. The Church is true!
I love all of you very much.
luv
booga
luv
booga
That's more than a dress; it's a Grace Kelly movie
June 28, 2010
Sorry that I'm getting to my email so late. I'm doing a division with one of my zone leaders, and we just finished watching Brazil play in the Cup. They beat Chile 3-0!! Everyone's going crazy! Vamos lá Brasil!!
Sorry that I'm getting to my email so late. I'm doing a division with one of my zone leaders, and we just finished watching Brazil play in the Cup. They beat Chile 3-0!! Everyone's going crazy! Vamos lá Brasil!!
This week was a little crazy. With zone conference on Wednesday, the Brazil-Portugal game on Friday, and this division going from last night to today, we didn't have tons of time to work. And before you think I'm a slacker for not working during the Brazil World Cup games, you have to understand what it's like down here. I guess the closest thing to it back home is when you're in a college town on the day of a big football game. Except it's crazier down here. And it's like that across the country. Everyone watches every Brazil game, and no one is in the streets. Plus, we're allowed to watch the games.
Anyway.
Zone conference was pretty crazy this week because it was my mission president's last one. I'm pretty sure the new president is getting here on Wednesday. Everyone, including yours truly, cried like a baby when it was time to say goodbye to President Vieira. I'm sure the new president will be great, but it's going to be weird having to adjust to how things change. I'll let you know how that goes.
Oh, so I guess my package got here. My companion went with the other zone leader to Ribeirão Preto because my LZ had to go to the doctor. While they were there, they got my package from the post office because, once again, the Brazilian government robbed me. This time I got to pay R$175 (about 85 dollars) to get my package out of their claws. We're going to meet up with my comp again soon, and I'm stoked to see what you guys sent me!
Our work in this area is moving reeeeeeeeeeally slow, but it's moving. We're doing our best to find good people, but so far we haven't seen any results. I mean, we don't have any progressing investigators at the moment. It has been pretty hard not to get discouraged. But whatever, we're working diligently and being obedient and all that. I know that the results will come, even if I'm not here to see them.
I'm going to have to end this. Sorry for making it so short this week. I love you guys! The Church is true!
luv
booga
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