When life gives me lemons I make lemonade - 4/19/10

So I'm back on my feet and feeling good! My illness-zinho passed after only one day, and I'm feeling a thousand times better now. It was probably just food poisoning or something.

We had zone conference again this week, as well as a division. It was helpful for me to have a slightly unusual week.

Zone conference was great, in that it was spiritually renewing and served as a good reminder for why I'm here. The assistants gave a training about the Atonement and how to correctly teach and recite the First Vision. It seems like each Sunday I get burnt out from walking and trying to get into people's houses and being rejected and all that that I lose sight of what my companion and I are really doing. It's always nice to have experiences like I did at conference where I can take myself out of the daily grind of missionary work and realize what I'm doing. I'm hoping that that resolve will carry me through the

week, because I know I'll need it.

This transfer is a short one, so we're entering the last week right now. I will most likely be sending you next week's email from a new LAN house in a new city, sitting next to a new companion. It is possible, but highly unlikely, that I will stay in Leme for another transfer. As much as I like this city and many of the members here, I think I'm ready to leave. It has been really difficult for me this transfer to motivate myself to really give my best. I've made myself a promise at the beginning of each week this week will be better than the last one, but I haven't been completely true to that. I've been discouraged a lot. We don't have any progressing investigators right now, and it's hard for me to remain optimistic about the future.

HOWEVER, I am so grateful to be able to turn to my Heavenly Father in prayer and ask for divine assistance. I am deeply grateful for the scriptures, and for the time I have each day to study them. This is the Lord's work, and it's a pleasure to be one of His authorized servants.

Anyway, this week will be better. I'm not going to let myself slack on making contacts or let my companion drag me around. Regardless of whether or not I leave this city next week, I'm going to make sure that I give it my all.

I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense; I was able to speak English for the first time since the beginning of the month at zone conference, and it was there that I realized that I am inarguably going insane. I'll probably just make animal sounds during my Mother's Day phone call (in three weeks!!!!!!!!!).

We taught the first lesson to a teenager named Ivan. I think he was just being polite when he said we could come in, but we taught him anyway. Although he didn't pay really close attention, he said he would read the Book of Mormon, pray, and go to church with us. Well, he hasn't done any of that. We stopped by his house yesterday before church and his dad or grandpa told us between chuckles that Ivan had gotten home at six in the morning from a bar.

We then went to a member's friend's house to invite him to church. The member who sent us there said that his friend was waiting for us. Well, he wasn't. He was sleeping. His mom shouted at us from the house, "Ele não vai, viu?" ("He's not going to go, all right?" or something like that). So, bummer.

We then went to Lenira's house, that old lady who we've been teaching forever. She said she was "desanimado" (discouraged, or literally, unexcited) about church, and that she didn't want to go that day. She lives practically next door to the church, so it should have been easy to convince her to go. Well, it wasn't. She decided she'd rather stay in her broken home than go to church. So, bummer.

I'm so tired of lazy people. Of course, I can't complain because I'm not much better.

Anyway, I'm doing all right. My companion and I are getting along better now, I think. I'm trying so hard to be patient when he refuses to accept my apologies and when he treats me like a dog and throws my photo album on the floor and blarghblarghblargharahrblahr. But he's all right, I'm still alive, I shouldn't complain, and the Church is true.

I love all of you so much. I just read the Wiggins Family Newsletter and pretty much wanted to jump off a building when I read about all the fun stuff you guys did in Utah. Thank goodness the Bombay House and J Dawgs will still be there after my mission. And it sounds like everyone might be back in Provo when I return to the motherland, so we can just relive the whole experience that you guys had, kay?

Sorry this email sounds negative. I refuse to be pessimistic! I'm so grateful and happy to be here! I love you! This is the Lord's work! The Church is true!

luv

booga

I walked down to the ocean after waking from a nightmare - 4/12/10 [part 2]

Oops. I forgot to attach the photos. [EDITOR'S NOTE: The photos Jeff sent with this email were in a format that I couldn't upload to Blogger. Still working on that!]

The first one is of my last companion and me near the city cemetery. Brazil is unbelievably beautiful when it isn't scarred by all the ugly cities. Anyway. The open green land around the cities here is gorgeous.

The second one is me with my ballin' planner from last transfer. For those of you losers out there who don't know Pokémon well, that's a Psyduck and a Drowzee. I drew a Blastoise and Charizard on my planner for this transfer. Sorry I couldn't figure out how to rotate this one.

Our zone had super p-day this week, which was super lame. Just kidding; I just wanted to say that. It was all right. We played soccer and I showed off my goalie skillz and all the Brazilians practically poo'd themselves when they saw how good I was.

The last one is from an activity we had two weeks ago. We had two chairs on either side of the chapel with a Book of Mormon on each one. My companion read the key words to a scripture mastery scripture, and the two opponents had to find the correct scripture, read the whole thing out loud, and then use these huge squeegees (huh?) to drag a cloth to the other side of the room and score a goal. It was actually a lot of fun.

Sorry the pictures are all huge. Like I said, hopefully this kind of makes up for my boring email this week.

I love you!

Kay bye.

No moon, no pale reflection - 4/12/10

I think this is going to be a short email, and I don't know how many personal emails I'll be able to send, if any.

I got a little sick on Friday. Shortly after I woke up, I felt minor stomach pains and I had Montezuma's revenge. We called the mission president's wife, who told us what medicine to buy, and I just tried to sleep it off that day.

Well, it looks like I didn't get rid of whatever it was completely, because I was woken up early this morning by horribly uncomfortable stomach pains, and the Montezuma's revenge was much worse. I took some of the medicine I had bought on Friday. I spent a good hour or so in the bathroom. We called the mission president's wife again and she said she'd talk to the doctor, who would then get in touch with us. Still haven't heard from him. I asked my companion for a priesthood blessing. During and after the blessing, I bawled my eyes out because I just wanted my mommy and daddy to take care of me. Unfortunately, they're in a different hemisphere. I later went into the bathroom and my body tried to vomit, but nothing came out. I dry heaved about twelve times and felt like I was going to pass out and cried some more like a little baby.

I spent most of today trying to sleep it off, and I feel better now. I don't feel normal yet, but I haven't felt like I needed to throw up or anything. I just have a little headache and my stomach still feels a little whack. I just feel weak and dehydrated, so I don't really feel like writing too much right now.

Luckily, there isn't much to say about this week. I am getting along better with my companion now. We still aren't the best of friends, but I will always be grateful that he was able to use his priesthood and help me out. I think I complain too much. We're still trying to find new people to teach, so there isn't much to talk about with our investigators. We have a few who aren't really progressing anymore, so we need to get moving and find new ones. Hopefully I won't be sick tomorrow.

If I send a few photos to you guys, will that make up for the boring email? I think that's what I'll do.

I want all of you to know how much I love you: thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much. I'm sorry if I don't get responses back to your personal emails; I love hearing from you guys, and I always wish I could just stay in here all day sending emails to you.

Anyway. I love you.

--Elder Booga

Tuff Ghost - 4/5/10

...And my life is getting harder.

I believe Andrew told me last week that getting along with companions who aren't American can be really difficult. I am finding that to be true. My companion now isn't a slacker or anything, but it is so hard for me to control my temper and work well with him. He does little things like bump into my arm while I'm writing in my journal because he thinks it's funny, and then he calls my chato (annoying, or no fun, or something) when I ask him to stop. And then I tell him that he's the one being chato and then I want to murder everyone and I feel angry and sad. It's really chato, guys.

This week was all right. There were probably an equal number of high and low points, so everything kind of balanced out. We're in the stage where we're trying to find new people to teach, so there isn't a whole lot to report on our investigators. We taught the first lesson to a girl named Deborah late last week and she's already asked us not to come back anymore, so that was pretty rough. At least she didn't wait forever to break my heart like our previous investigators.

I'm getting better at Portuguese because I don't have the luxury of speaking English anymore. Although I still don't speak perfectly, I have definitely improved a lot. I can understand just about everything that people say now, and I can usually find some way to express what I want to say, even if it isn't as easy or as concise as it would be in English.

Speaking of which, I think I'm getting worse at English. Does any of this even make sense to you guys?

I was really surprised to see my package from Mom and Dad waiting for me at district meeting on Wednesday. It got here in twelve days! I think it's because of the perfect Virgin Mary and Last Supper pictures that were on the box. I've been munching on all the amazing, incredible, plentiful (thank you!), DELICIOUS American candy and Girl Scout cookies all week, and I'm already ten or twelve pages into my new journal. Oh, and I have been wearing the new ties a lot, too. THANK YOU, Mom and Dad!

I was pretty bummed that I didn't get to watch Conference on Saturday. In order for most people here to watch Conference, they have to take a bus to a nearby city to watch it in the stake center (or district center, I guess). The mission rule is that we can only go on Saturday if we have an investigator there. We had invited a lot of people to go with us, but it didn't work out; no one wanted to go. So we spent all of Saturday walking in the rain and trying to find someone to talk to, but the city was dead because it was Easter weekend. When our zone leaders called us on Saturday night we found out that members from our city brought between four and seven investigators to Conference that day, so we easily could have gone. Oh well.

I won't complain, though, because we got to watch the Sunday morning session. And, better yet, I got to watch it in English! We had a little room set up for the other American elder in our zone, the two sisters, and a couple Brazilians who speak English. It was so good, guys. I never thought I'd enjoy General Conference as much as I did. It was such a positivie, uplifting experience, and I felt spiritually renewed once it ended.

So that was my week.

I love you guys! The Church is true.

--Elder Wings

I get carried away on the back of a natural disaster - 3/29/10

Dearest family,

I am almost definitely the only American in this city, and out of the five people sitting in this LAN house, I know with certainty that I am the only native English speaker.

My new companion's name is Elder Pantoja. He looks Japanese, but he isn't. He's from some city that neither you nor I has ever heard of in northern Brazil. We have only been companions for a week, but things have already changed a lot. He works a lot differently than my last companion did. I'm still adjusting to his new way of teaching (he talks a lot, I talk a little, and this kid named Marco who always helps us doesn't talk at all) and making contacts. This situation has already presented some challenges. Brazilians from the north and northeastern regions of Brazil have a distinctive accent: their R's sound more like H's and their S's sound like Sh's. Although I can get by just fine with the language now, it can be pretty difficult to understand Elder Pantoja. I do my best to pick up on what he says and respond to him. It is really hard to just have a regular conversation, though. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; at least, it's easier for me to stay focused on the work now. But it's a lot less fun.

Everything seems quite a bit more challenging now because I really do feel alone. The only thing that I really have to cling to is my testimony, which happens to be growing a lot every day.

Elder Pantoja loves Josh Groban. He has a little MP3 player with a built-in speaker that he uses to play music in the mornings and at night. Not coincidentally, I have recently discovered that I hate Josh Groban. Ahem.

Like I said, Elder Pantoja works a little differently than my last companion. It seems like that could work out for the better, though, because we're already finding some good new people to teach. We taught the Restoration to a young couple on Saturday night, and I really think they could be baptized. They're smart enough to get it, I think. Unfortunately, they weren't able to go to church yesterday, but they said they could probably go to Conference next week.

Speaking of which, I don't think I've ever been so excited for Conference before. I'm probably only going to be able to watch one session (and in Portuguese, no less), but I don't care. I feel like I need that spiritual boost that comes from hearing the words of the prophet and apostles. If nothing else, I should be able to get a copy of the Liahona with all the conference talks in it. I seriously can't wait.

The Church is true, everyone. I mean, it really is.

I love all of you.

Tchau!

Elder Wings

So perfect, so bitter, we laugh and we choke - 3/22/10

Transfers are happening today. I'm going to be staying in Leme, but my companion left yesterday for his new area. I'm actually not even in Leme right now; I'm with the two other elders (Brazilians) who will be staying in our zone this transfer, which will last for five weeks. Our new companions should get here sometime this afternoon. I found out last night that I will be have my very first Brazilian companion this transfer. I'm looking forward to having nothing to say to him and no way to say it even if I wanted to. I'm still going to work my hardest and try to make this work, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about this transfer. Being able to speak English is such a blessing.

This is only the second time I have really had to deal with transfers, but I think I've already decided that I don't like them. I slept on the floor in a new house last night with two guys who don't speak English. I felt again how it was my first night in the mission field: alone, scared, and incredibly far from home.

But I'm still alive, so that's something, right?

I was trying to think about what happened this week when I remembered that I gave a talk in church on Sunday. You know, like it was no big deal. I may have already told you guys, but the branch in Leme has a special sacrament meeting on every third Sunday of the month where the talks are about missionary work (read: every third Sunday the elders have to speak). It was my second talk in Portuguese, and I think it went pretty well. I just told people to start going to the activities and talking to our investigators, which seems simple enough to me. I honestly don't know what else I could have told them to get involved in missionary work. Even though I have been here for six months, I still don't really feel like I know how to be a good teacher or powerful speaker or anything like that. I guess that's why I'll be here for another year and a half.

Oh, but Lenira went to Church by herself! Hooray! I still don't know why she doesn't want to be baptized, but we'll keep passing by her house and helping her. I'm hoping to find some good new people to teach this transfer. Hopefully having a Brazilian companion will make it a little easier to make connections with people and help them feel more comfortable around us. Who knows.

Just to let you know, I do realize that my English is gradually getting worse every day. I'd like to say it's because I am so good at speaking Portuguese now, but it probably isn't that. I think I'm just getting dumber.

Transfers always bring about boring emails. I'm sorry. I'm sure I'll have a ton of stuff to talk about next week.

Au amo vocês!

Elder Wings

Mixed up signals (moving out) - 3/15/10

Bom dia, everyone!

The branch had a talent show this last Friday. It was probably the best activity the church has had since I got here. There was a good turnout and one of the counselors in the bishopric brought hot dogs for everyone. There isn't an activities committee here in Leme -- I guess they don't really even exist in Brazil -- so it's up to the ward mission leader and the elders to come up with an activity each week. Because there isn't anyone called to organize and take responsibility for the activities, they're usually pretty bad. But the talent show went pretty well. My companion and I played three songs together because only a few other people had prepared any talents to present. I sang really high during one song, and people laughed. I was all just like wutevs about it though. The show started an hour late and was cobbled together at the last minute, but at least the members went this time. I never realized before the mission how important it is for members of a ward or branch to become friends with each other.

You know the old lady, Lenira, I have mentioned in my emails for the last few weeks? We found out from her daughter-in-law on Saturday that she didn't want anything more from us for a while. But we went back on Sunday anyway to invite her to church. That family has so many problems. I guess the senhora's son hit her grandson, who then hit the other guy back. One of the children who lives in that house has Autism. The daughter-in-law smokes. Her "husband" refuses to marry her but will still make her cook for him and take care of the kids. They have a bunch of animals that always try to eat each other. Lenira told us Sunday morning that she wants to take her grandson and move to another house to leave everyone to their own problems. We told her that this wouldn't help and all that. We talked to her about how we're here to help her, and how a primary purpose of the Church is to lessen these kinds of problems. She agreed to come to church with us, where a member of the district presidency gave a talk about strengthening families. I think she liked it.

I opened a window in our house one morning this week right after I woke up and it hit my in the eye. I had a nice shiner for a few hours. I was going to tell everyone that I got in a fight with a drunk guy, but you couldn't even tell that I hit myself after a short time.

We're trying to find good new people to teach, but it's so hard. Like, it's pretty easy for me to make contacts and all that, but there are so many people who don't care at all about the gospel. You tell them that you have a message about how God has called a living prophet to guide us in the same way that he did during the time of the Bible, and it's like they don't even hear you. People see how full the Catholic church is at every meeting and probably wonder why they would travel to the other side of the city to go to a smaller church where the kids scream all the time and the members don't talk to newcomers. Why don't people care about any of this?

I finally, after three months of waiting, received my Christmas package. Yay! THANK YOU, family!! It was raining really hard this morning so I wore my sweatpants and was all like "wut?" It was so cool. I have already eaten most of the candy because American candy is deeeeeelicious.

I love you all very much. I hope you're all doing well! I turn six months old tomorrow! Happy almost St. Patrick's Day! Tchau!

Elder Veengies

Give me your eyes, I need sunshine - 3/8/10

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jeff's dad apologizes for not posting Jeff's emails for many weeks. (How did that happen??) Enjoy reading, and Jeff would love to hear from you!
____________

I have very little to say about this week. We're at a point now where we're just trying to find good new people to teach. Almost all of the investigators we have had here have stopped progressing at some point.

Good news, though: that old lady (how do you say "senhora" in English and make it still sound respectful?) I talked about last week went to church again yesterday. Her daughter-in-law, Cristiane, brought her two kids and all of them went together without any pushing or prodding from us. It's a really good sign when investigators go to church out of their own free will, so things are definitely looking up. We have spent so much time with that family that it would be heartbreaking to see them give up. They live really close to the church and the senhora is already friends with some of the women in the church, so she would probably stay firm if she were baptized. We're hoping to baptize her this week so that her grandson could follow her example and join the Church a little later. I hope and pray that it all works out because if anyone needs the gospel in their lives, it's that family. They're good people who kind of have a broken family life; Cristiane's "husband" leaves sometimes without telling her where he's going, leaving her to care for their six-year-old autistic son and four-year-old daughter. Oh, and he doesn't want to marry her. No idea why not. Anyway, they could benefit so much from applying the teachings of the gospel in their lives.

I had my first Bible bash this week. I guess I shouldn't call it "my" Bible bash because I kept my mouth shut the whole time. We made a contact with a Jehovah's Witness woman at her house, and the conversation led to the question of who Jehovah is. Then it led to prophets. And why JW's don't believe in tithing or fasting. And why there are so many verses taken out of their Bible (although I found out that they legally can't call it the Bible because of how many verses were changed or removed entirely). My companion was very respectful to her in expressing our beliefs, but it was rough. She didn't answer a single question that he presented to her. Although the conversation never turned into an argument, we both felt incredibly frustrated after we left. Who knows how that lady felt.

The point is, Bible bashes don't accomplish anything. And most Jehovah's Witnesses are probably good people, but they're really annoying when you're a full-time missionary.

I love the members here, but it's so frustrating when they don't fulfill their basic responsibilities as members of the Church. For example, an irmão planned an activity on Friday. He set everything up beforehand and had everything planned out, which never happens. It's just too bad that no one showed up. Oh, and the branch president hasn't been to Church for a month. Ahem.

This is the fifth week of the transfer, so I'm hoping we will start to see the fruits of our labors soon. I'm fairly certain I'll stay here for another transfer, so hopefully we'll be able to find some good new investigators, too.

So, yeah. Not a very eventful week. I'm doing just fine and learning a ton every day. The Church is true! I love all of you!

Tchau,

booger