Sunday, April 25, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
4-19-2010 Letter Home
Hey everybody! Man, my mission has taken one heck of a turn guys!
So Saturday night we are all getting new assignments and it comes to my turn and the District Leader says: "Elder Carpenter, you'll be going to Florestao with Elder Macaco. He's only been here one transfer and he's already Senior Companion. President really really likes him." Okay, interesting. Florestao? I was like, that's way in the interior! Way farther than Juazeiro do Norte. No one knew really anything about Elder Macaco or the area so I was just ready for a surprise the next morning and a surprise it was. I got to the city center where all us missionaries trade companions and everything and I'm talking with my group and my friends and Elder Boyd says, "Oh, Elder Macaco? He's awesome, dude! You've got a great companion." "Really?" I say, "You know if he's here yet?" He laughs and points upward towards this tree above me. Elder Macaco was climbing the tree above me! He totally surprised me and jumped down and man, he is an ugly really short little guy. He has an accent I completely do not understand and get this... he's entirely covered with hair. His whole body! He's got this dark brown hair over his entire face! It was kind of strange but, you know, I've gotten used to it. I cannot understand a WORD he says, he speaks in this loud, whooping accent. I have almost eight months on the mission but, Elder Macaco makes me feel like I've been here one day. He loves bananas, something he and I enjoy a lot. He needs like a banana every hour and if he doesn't get one, he dances around and beats his chest. "Dude, dude, calm down there's a fruit vendor right over there." I've had to get him to relax a lot, he's really energetic. We got on the bus that night, I got some rest, and the next day we got to our new area. Florestao. Mom, Dad, its exactly like how you picture the Amazon. Dirt roads, huge trees everywhere, and the crazy thing is, we LIVE in a tree. I'm not kidding, I sleep in a hammock up in a big tree and all of my things are still hanging by a rope right above me. Elder Macaco loves it, he's already spent a transfer here and knows everyone here. I think he might even be FROM Florestao, because the people here all look like him and have the same accent. He teaches all the lessons and I just smile and give the investigators bananas. Whatever, I'll get the language some day. The bugs are horrible here but, luckily, I don't know, Elder Macaco is pretty strange, he likes to pick the bugs out of my hair and eat them. Don't look at me I didn't encourage this behavior, and the first time I did it I totally got mad at him but I'm getting used to it. Yeah, so, just another week in Brazil, getting really strange but I'm kind of used to strange by now, ya know? It's going to be a wild transfer, that's for sure. What in the... sorry, Mom, Dad, Elder Macaco just pitched his computer monitor out the window, it looks like his video isn't sending after all this time. I've gotta go. That guy is crazy!!
I love you guys, have a great week!
Elder Carpenter
---
I love you guys, have a great week!
Elder Carpenter
---
So I thought I'd start you off with my late April Fools message...
Hehe, yeah, hope you thought it was funny.
This week was pretty good, working still as much as we can in Maracanau. We did some service this last Tuesday, helped a brother in the ward cut down some big banana trees in his backyard which was pretty cool. He hogged the machete, we just hauled the debris to the street. We then helped him pave a part of his backyard with some cement he had bought... just crushed some bricks, laid a layer of that down on the dirt, then poured the cement and flattened it with our feet. Way easier and more simple than how its done in the states, isn't it? I've finished my journal! August 25 to April 11, you all ready to be read every Family Home Evening for an hour. I want to pack a few more souvenir kinda stuff in the box, though, so it might take a bit. I made the brownies, finally, after a month practically! They were great, very awesome.
"Making Brownies"
Connor, glad you got a new companion, good luck to you, sir.
Connor, glad you got a new companion, good luck to you, sir.
I think we both will leave the mission extremely, extremely patient. Dealing with companions is like, the eternal struggle here on the mission, yo. Hope it turns out a great transfer though!
Grandma, thanks for the e-mail. Easter Pageant was great, huh? I always loved going to those with the family, very fun. The vitamins are still holding out, thanks so much, they are keeping me healthy. Thank you so much for your prayers, you are very special to me and I am very grateful for everything you do for me Grams. I love you Grandma, have a great week!
Thank you Aunt Karen for the talk you sent, I haven't read it yet but I will later, I'm sure its great. I love you so much, thanks for the news as well. Man, family just keeps on growing and growing...
Mom, Dad, Lynsey, Kaitlin, relatives and friends, I love you guys a lot, have a great week, I'm always thinking about ya.
Love love love!
- Elder Carpenter
Grandma, thanks for the e-mail. Easter Pageant was great, huh? I always loved going to those with the family, very fun. The vitamins are still holding out, thanks so much, they are keeping me healthy. Thank you so much for your prayers, you are very special to me and I am very grateful for everything you do for me Grams. I love you Grandma, have a great week!
Thank you Aunt Karen for the talk you sent, I haven't read it yet but I will later, I'm sure its great. I love you so much, thanks for the news as well. Man, family just keeps on growing and growing...
Mom, Dad, Lynsey, Kaitlin, relatives and friends, I love you guys a lot, have a great week, I'm always thinking about ya.
Love love love!
- Elder Carpenter
Monday, April 12, 2010
4-12-2010 Letter Home
To the Dark Side of the Moon and Back Again...
Hey everybody!!!
Finally an actual message from me, eh? I'm sorry about last week, there were things that were taking up my time and this time I'll explain it all.
So here's what happened. We had already received news about the next transfer on Saturday night. I would go to another area as a Senior Companion (!!!) and Elder Peres would be going to the interior in undoubtly the smallest, hottest little area in the mission. I was super excited, Elder Peres super sad, and then the other Elders told us that they were pranking us!! Haha, it was hilarious, I just needed to share that little joke, they didn't pull the reveal for a long time and when they did we were so surprised and everyone was laughing their heads off. What really was happening is I would stay here in Maracanau with Elder Peres one more transfer as Junior Companion! Yay!
Then Sunday arrives and we get to the chapel early to watch General Conference. My companion went to the chapel to watch Conference on the big screen with the other Brazilians, and I was left behind in the Bishop's Office to watch it in English (lucky me!). I am sitting there during Elder Uchtdorf's talk, the first one, when two Brazilian elders come in, from a neighboring area that doesn't have a satellite, Pacatuba. They were talking about the upcoming transfers and who would be where and the new companionships that would be created.
After the first session of Conference Elder Peres and I head out to some of our investigators that didn't come, to encourage them to go to the second session. We end up waiting outside for some teenage girls to get dressed to go with their family, and my companion and I are just sitting outside alone, each kind of in his own thoughts, and we begin talking again about upcoming transfers. Elder Peres seems pretty indifferent about it. He kind of just zones out, then our investigators come out and we march on back to the chapel.
Second session of conference passes. Elder Peres and I are out in the hall when everyone's leaving the building and I'm smiling and saying "Tchau" to everybody and suddenly I can tell Elder Peres seems upset, but then our investigators are there and we get to talking again.
Remember, its Easter, so we end up going to an after-conference Easter Party, a Chocolate Exchange, actually. Everyone bought a package of chocolate, and we picked names out of a box and traded it all. It was fun! Almost all the Elders were there and the house was full of members. Some of the elders start talking about transfers again and Elder Bernal, our District Leader, comes up to me and says that the President is thinking about trading me around, yada yada.
Elder Peres and I are walking back home and then I can tell he is really mad, my friend, my best companion so far, thought that I had been talking with the other Elders and conspiring with them to trade companions... he had it in his mind that I didn't like him and it got worse from there. He was upset. I am fresh from Conference, super spiritual, so I just talk calmly to him the whole time. "Elder Peres, just settle down. Let's say a prayer and let's talk about this. What did we learn about Brother Ryder that left the church because his name was spelled wrong? Dude, the Adversary is trying to split us a part. I didn't betray you, let's just talk this out." Oh man, it was terrible.
The first night I had the Spirit, I was certain that I hadn't done anything wrong. I was proud of my transfer, I had grown a lot! I was following the rules better than ever before, working every moment, feeling more spiritual. I felt the Lord was pleased with me. That was the first night. When I woke up on P-Day, I had lost it. I was depressed, really really depressed. I wasn't talking to my companion and he wasn't talking to me. I felt bad about myself, didn't know what to do... just really in a pit, as they say here. At e-mail time I just wrote to President to explain the situation.
I was laying on my bed after I used the e-mail, I had been praying a lot, and I decided, you know what, this is not who you are. You are better than this. You didn't do anything wrong. What can you do? I was hungry, and I realized... wait a minute, I could fast for the rest of the day. So I started a fast and it was hard. When we started working that night at 6:00, I was tired and hungry, and the tension was still there. It was not good, with little comments that wormed away in my head. Nossa. It was terrible. On our way home, we argued. I was mad. He was mad. We ended the night angry at each other once again.
Next morning, I decide not to talk to Elder Peres at all. I am determined to show him I am a good missionary. So everywhere we went, I spoke first to people. I left the message without consulting him, I prayed without letting anyone choosing, I walked ahead of him. I was just pumped to prove him wrong, doing everything as best and as obedient as possible. And then we sat down to plan the rest of the day... and the fast that I had gone through worked. We both agreed that we had acted wrongly, we had a responsibility to love each other and to work hard this transfer and that Satan was trying to break us apart. We had a short spiritual talk and then... it ended. Wow. It was awesome. We started working and by the end of the day we were joking around again. I've learned a lot from this experience. I feel much more confident about myself, much more confident in the Lord. I know He is watching out for me.
Shoot, that story took up all my writing time. I love you guys!
Hey, Connor, guess who's Senior this transfer? Elder Slagle, Elder Duvall, Elder McDonald, Elder
Foust, and Elder Ingersoll. Crazy man. Elder Foust and Elder Ingersoll are training again.
I have an awesome district. I love you man, hope this next transfer is better than the last.
I love you all! Thanks for all your letters and have a great week! More next time!
- Elder Carpenter
Hey everybody!!!
Finally an actual message from me, eh? I'm sorry about last week, there were things that were taking up my time and this time I'll explain it all.
So here's what happened. We had already received news about the next transfer on Saturday night. I would go to another area as a Senior Companion (!!!) and Elder Peres would be going to the interior in undoubtly the smallest, hottest little area in the mission. I was super excited, Elder Peres super sad, and then the other Elders told us that they were pranking us!! Haha, it was hilarious, I just needed to share that little joke, they didn't pull the reveal for a long time and when they did we were so surprised and everyone was laughing their heads off. What really was happening is I would stay here in Maracanau with Elder Peres one more transfer as Junior Companion! Yay!
Then Sunday arrives and we get to the chapel early to watch General Conference. My companion went to the chapel to watch Conference on the big screen with the other Brazilians, and I was left behind in the Bishop's Office to watch it in English (lucky me!). I am sitting there during Elder Uchtdorf's talk, the first one, when two Brazilian elders come in, from a neighboring area that doesn't have a satellite, Pacatuba. They were talking about the upcoming transfers and who would be where and the new companionships that would be created.
After the first session of Conference Elder Peres and I head out to some of our investigators that didn't come, to encourage them to go to the second session. We end up waiting outside for some teenage girls to get dressed to go with their family, and my companion and I are just sitting outside alone, each kind of in his own thoughts, and we begin talking again about upcoming transfers. Elder Peres seems pretty indifferent about it. He kind of just zones out, then our investigators come out and we march on back to the chapel.
Second session of conference passes. Elder Peres and I are out in the hall when everyone's leaving the building and I'm smiling and saying "Tchau" to everybody and suddenly I can tell Elder Peres seems upset, but then our investigators are there and we get to talking again.
Remember, its Easter, so we end up going to an after-conference Easter Party, a Chocolate Exchange, actually. Everyone bought a package of chocolate, and we picked names out of a box and traded it all. It was fun! Almost all the Elders were there and the house was full of members. Some of the elders start talking about transfers again and Elder Bernal, our District Leader, comes up to me and says that the President is thinking about trading me around, yada yada.
Elder Peres and I are walking back home and then I can tell he is really mad, my friend, my best companion so far, thought that I had been talking with the other Elders and conspiring with them to trade companions... he had it in his mind that I didn't like him and it got worse from there. He was upset. I am fresh from Conference, super spiritual, so I just talk calmly to him the whole time. "Elder Peres, just settle down. Let's say a prayer and let's talk about this. What did we learn about Brother Ryder that left the church because his name was spelled wrong? Dude, the Adversary is trying to split us a part. I didn't betray you, let's just talk this out." Oh man, it was terrible.
The first night I had the Spirit, I was certain that I hadn't done anything wrong. I was proud of my transfer, I had grown a lot! I was following the rules better than ever before, working every moment, feeling more spiritual. I felt the Lord was pleased with me. That was the first night. When I woke up on P-Day, I had lost it. I was depressed, really really depressed. I wasn't talking to my companion and he wasn't talking to me. I felt bad about myself, didn't know what to do... just really in a pit, as they say here. At e-mail time I just wrote to President to explain the situation.
I was laying on my bed after I used the e-mail, I had been praying a lot, and I decided, you know what, this is not who you are. You are better than this. You didn't do anything wrong. What can you do? I was hungry, and I realized... wait a minute, I could fast for the rest of the day. So I started a fast and it was hard. When we started working that night at 6:00, I was tired and hungry, and the tension was still there. It was not good, with little comments that wormed away in my head. Nossa. It was terrible. On our way home, we argued. I was mad. He was mad. We ended the night angry at each other once again.
Next morning, I decide not to talk to Elder Peres at all. I am determined to show him I am a good missionary. So everywhere we went, I spoke first to people. I left the message without consulting him, I prayed without letting anyone choosing, I walked ahead of him. I was just pumped to prove him wrong, doing everything as best and as obedient as possible. And then we sat down to plan the rest of the day... and the fast that I had gone through worked. We both agreed that we had acted wrongly, we had a responsibility to love each other and to work hard this transfer and that Satan was trying to break us apart. We had a short spiritual talk and then... it ended. Wow. It was awesome. We started working and by the end of the day we were joking around again. I've learned a lot from this experience. I feel much more confident about myself, much more confident in the Lord. I know He is watching out for me.
Shoot, that story took up all my writing time. I love you guys!
Hey, Connor, guess who's Senior this transfer? Elder Slagle, Elder Duvall, Elder McDonald, Elder
Foust, and Elder Ingersoll. Crazy man. Elder Foust and Elder Ingersoll are training again.
I have an awesome district. I love you man, hope this next transfer is better than the last.
I love you all! Thanks for all your letters and have a great week! More next time!
- Elder Carpenter
Monday, April 5, 2010
4-05-2010 Letter Home
Happy Easter!
I love you guys. I spent my time today reading your letters and I love you all, but please keep me in your prayers. I have a great April Fool's Joke too that I wanted to write but I didn't have enough time. I'll write it up next P-Day and you'll have to insert it where this e-mail would be. I was very thankful for all the awesome news and videos I got today.
The camera is fine now, and plus I put all my photos on a CD so I will send that to you guys with my journal in a couple weeks!! Unfortunately I didn't bring it with me this time so there's going to be another lack of media. Yeah, we emptied the font completely, cleaned it and then filled it up again. The water during the day is always lukewarm so it wasn't bad. About the shower water heaters on the mission, yeah, there is only one house somewhere in the mission that is rumored to have a hot water heater... looking forward to finding where it is and going to take a hot shower there, hah.
Woah, a new little cousin! That's awesome! Maybe you guys are there in Arizona right now!
Thank you so much for that awesome scripture and the kind, warm, wonderfully motherly comments. I needed those a lot and I love you so much, Mom. You make me feel like the person I need to be already and I am very grateful that I have you in my life. I love you!
You all are great and awesome and I love you I love you I love you so much! The mission is crazy!
Love,
Elder Carpenter
I love you guys. I spent my time today reading your letters and I love you all, but please keep me in your prayers. I have a great April Fool's Joke too that I wanted to write but I didn't have enough time. I'll write it up next P-Day and you'll have to insert it where this e-mail would be. I was very thankful for all the awesome news and videos I got today.
The camera is fine now, and plus I put all my photos on a CD so I will send that to you guys with my journal in a couple weeks!! Unfortunately I didn't bring it with me this time so there's going to be another lack of media. Yeah, we emptied the font completely, cleaned it and then filled it up again. The water during the day is always lukewarm so it wasn't bad. About the shower water heaters on the mission, yeah, there is only one house somewhere in the mission that is rumored to have a hot water heater... looking forward to finding where it is and going to take a hot shower there, hah.
Woah, a new little cousin! That's awesome! Maybe you guys are there in Arizona right now!
Thank you so much for that awesome scripture and the kind, warm, wonderfully motherly comments. I needed those a lot and I love you so much, Mom. You make me feel like the person I need to be already and I am very grateful that I have you in my life. I love you!
You all are great and awesome and I love you I love you I love you so much! The mission is crazy!
Love,
Elder Carpenter
Monday, March 29, 2010
3-29-2010 Letter Home
Hey everybody!
Well, this week was really good as well. Lots of work, more rain, its all just flying by, really, this transfer. Next P-Day I could be in a different area and with a different companion! Yes, transfers are ending a week early this time around!!! Every year we have two transfers with only five weeks and President Batt chose this one. So, yeah, suspense!!
We had interviews with President Batt this week, and once again, it was very awesome to talk with him. He told me that he really trusts me as a missionary and he knows I have the potential to be a fantastic missionary. He also said I am very self-critical, and that I need to be more positive and confident about myself. Once again, more motivation! I love those interviews, always gives me a burst of missionary energy.
"My good friend Milenna took this of me when I fell asleep accidentally on the coach waiting for lunch to be ready."
Let’s see, I made seven months on the mission this last week, feels pretty crazy that I’m getting so old here. I’ve been living in Maracanau since December!! It feels so normal to walk around on the streets here, I feel so comfortable and used to this place.
" The cool bracelet Lynsey sent me! It is now permanently around my ankle and makes me look really cool when I go walking around in street clothes on P-Day."
I was able to get those songs off my birthday CDs and put them on my iPod at the mission office and man, those songs are awesome! You guys did a great job and put a little bit of everything on there! Some Jack Johnson-esque like stuff, We All Live in A Yellow Submarine, hah, that cool Indie stuff I like and some techno-ish kinda music that is awesome. That really made the week, I loved it, loved it! Hope you can get music soon too, Connor, definitely upgraded my iPod, haha.
After my interview with President I have drastically changed how I am studying and I am loving it. What I was doing was dividing my hour of personal study in twenty minutes of the Book of Mormon, twenty minutes of the Bible, and twenty minutes of Preach My Gospel, all in Portuguese, but let me tell you, twenty minutes reading anything in Portuguese will only get you so far. I was lucky to get a chapter or two done and I wasn’t absorbing much spiritual information. President Batt said that I should start basing my study time around Preach My Gospel, that I should read slowly, look up all the scriptures, and invest time in pondering and writing down everything I feel by the Spirit. It totally has amplified my study time, and I’m not even drowsy during the morning like I usually am. Was really awesome how my study time changed this week.
We have a baptism this Saturday, probably. A good spiritual series of events with our investigator Angelica, I want to relate it on video though. Good things are happening though. General Conference is coming up!! Yeah! I can’t wait to watch it with all of you guys, and I’ve heard there is a chance that the American missionaries in our district will get to watch it in English!
Hey Connor! Glad to hear about Sabino. Man, if you can help the head of a family get a testimony and be baptized, it’s likely that the rest will follow suit. Getting a new family into the Church is a big deal, so congratulations on finding and teaching him and keep praying for him! Sucks to hear about Elder Silva acting like that. So you’re pretty much being the Senior Companion this transfer, huh? That’s awesome! At least you are getting a lot of practice in teaching and in speaking Portuguese, that’s going to help out a lot. Hope things will improve, but who knows, maybe the Lord is preparing you to move up next transfer. I know that many times with all of my companions, it hasn’t been easy for them to let the American teach much. I always have to push my comp to let me teach, because, I think with all of them so far, they’ve always been directing the lessons, they want it their way and I’m just there to learn. I agree that I don’t know how to teach extremely well or speak Portuguese completely fluent, and that there is tons I can learn from their example, but I’ve been agitated for a long time that the Brazilian companion wants to hog most of the teaching. So, who knows, this could be a blessing for ya that you aren’t realizing, to get all that experience. Great stuff with the reading of the Book of Mormon completely out loud in Portuguese. I’ve been doing the same, but my study time kind of follows a different plan, and while I’m always reading in Portuguese now, I think its going to be a while before I can say I finished the Book of Mormon in Portuguese. Ah well, I feel very pleased with how I am using my study time, so it’s all good. You’ve been taking hot showers the whole freaking last five months? Argh!! Yeah, but I did have an awesome surprise birthday party, that was pretty sweet, hehe. If I become senior companion next transfer, which everyone says will happen but which I really don’t think will, I think I am going to take it kind of slow at first, work a lot with my companion as equals in the process. I want to do things a little differently but it’s not going to be a revolution or anything on our first few days. I think the biggest thing is that we are just going to work as hard as we possibly can. I think in a few more transfers, when I’ve got the hang of things, I’ll start to try out some more radical ideas, like Dad’s idea of passing out flyers for a weekly group lesson and other things.
"My breakfast I eat every day. One banana smoothie, two ham sandwiches! The best way to start your day!"
I love everyone one of you so much! Mom, Dad, Lynsey, Kaitlin, Grandma, Aunt Kauren, thanks for sending me e-mails! Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Brendon Carpenter
Well, this week was really good as well. Lots of work, more rain, its all just flying by, really, this transfer. Next P-Day I could be in a different area and with a different companion! Yes, transfers are ending a week early this time around!!! Every year we have two transfers with only five weeks and President Batt chose this one. So, yeah, suspense!!
We had interviews with President Batt this week, and once again, it was very awesome to talk with him. He told me that he really trusts me as a missionary and he knows I have the potential to be a fantastic missionary. He also said I am very self-critical, and that I need to be more positive and confident about myself. Once again, more motivation! I love those interviews, always gives me a burst of missionary energy.
Let’s see, I made seven months on the mission this last week, feels pretty crazy that I’m getting so old here. I’ve been living in Maracanau since December!! It feels so normal to walk around on the streets here, I feel so comfortable and used to this place.
I was able to get those songs off my birthday CDs and put them on my iPod at the mission office and man, those songs are awesome! You guys did a great job and put a little bit of everything on there! Some Jack Johnson-esque like stuff, We All Live in A Yellow Submarine, hah, that cool Indie stuff I like and some techno-ish kinda music that is awesome. That really made the week, I loved it, loved it! Hope you can get music soon too, Connor, definitely upgraded my iPod, haha.
After my interview with President I have drastically changed how I am studying and I am loving it. What I was doing was dividing my hour of personal study in twenty minutes of the Book of Mormon, twenty minutes of the Bible, and twenty minutes of Preach My Gospel, all in Portuguese, but let me tell you, twenty minutes reading anything in Portuguese will only get you so far. I was lucky to get a chapter or two done and I wasn’t absorbing much spiritual information. President Batt said that I should start basing my study time around Preach My Gospel, that I should read slowly, look up all the scriptures, and invest time in pondering and writing down everything I feel by the Spirit. It totally has amplified my study time, and I’m not even drowsy during the morning like I usually am. Was really awesome how my study time changed this week.
We have a baptism this Saturday, probably. A good spiritual series of events with our investigator Angelica, I want to relate it on video though. Good things are happening though. General Conference is coming up!! Yeah! I can’t wait to watch it with all of you guys, and I’ve heard there is a chance that the American missionaries in our district will get to watch it in English!
Hey Connor! Glad to hear about Sabino. Man, if you can help the head of a family get a testimony and be baptized, it’s likely that the rest will follow suit. Getting a new family into the Church is a big deal, so congratulations on finding and teaching him and keep praying for him! Sucks to hear about Elder Silva acting like that. So you’re pretty much being the Senior Companion this transfer, huh? That’s awesome! At least you are getting a lot of practice in teaching and in speaking Portuguese, that’s going to help out a lot. Hope things will improve, but who knows, maybe the Lord is preparing you to move up next transfer. I know that many times with all of my companions, it hasn’t been easy for them to let the American teach much. I always have to push my comp to let me teach, because, I think with all of them so far, they’ve always been directing the lessons, they want it their way and I’m just there to learn. I agree that I don’t know how to teach extremely well or speak Portuguese completely fluent, and that there is tons I can learn from their example, but I’ve been agitated for a long time that the Brazilian companion wants to hog most of the teaching. So, who knows, this could be a blessing for ya that you aren’t realizing, to get all that experience. Great stuff with the reading of the Book of Mormon completely out loud in Portuguese. I’ve been doing the same, but my study time kind of follows a different plan, and while I’m always reading in Portuguese now, I think its going to be a while before I can say I finished the Book of Mormon in Portuguese. Ah well, I feel very pleased with how I am using my study time, so it’s all good. You’ve been taking hot showers the whole freaking last five months? Argh!! Yeah, but I did have an awesome surprise birthday party, that was pretty sweet, hehe. If I become senior companion next transfer, which everyone says will happen but which I really don’t think will, I think I am going to take it kind of slow at first, work a lot with my companion as equals in the process. I want to do things a little differently but it’s not going to be a revolution or anything on our first few days. I think the biggest thing is that we are just going to work as hard as we possibly can. I think in a few more transfers, when I’ve got the hang of things, I’ll start to try out some more radical ideas, like Dad’s idea of passing out flyers for a weekly group lesson and other things.
I love everyone one of you so much! Mom, Dad, Lynsey, Kaitlin, Grandma, Aunt Kauren, thanks for sending me e-mails! Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Brendon Carpenter
Monday, March 22, 2010
3-22-2010 Letter Home
The Epic Elder!
Woah guys! Hello there! Lots of mail to answer! Thanks so much! Actually, my camera picked up a virus from one of these freaking LANhouse computers, so I'm going to have to get it reformatted sometime this week at a members house. But, I am very glad you got my birthday pictures from Milena, hopefully that'll satisfy some media hunger, hehe. She was so nice, she not only received those pictures from the house and got them on her laptop for my birthday, but she also sent you guys my pictures and put all of the pictures on my camera on a CD, which I will send to you soon with my journal. I'm only twenty or so pages away from the end! That'll be a fun treat for all of ya.
We had another baptism this week! We found Marcilo through Amanda, who was reactivated only two months ago. Marcilo is her boyfriend and he was really interested in the Church when Amanda started going to church again. Then he joined her at Seminary and he got really interested, started going to Seminary every night (its held at a member's house at 6:00 here) and when we got to him finally, he was this close to having a testimony. A few questions answered and a few powerful testimonies later (the Spirit was really strong during our first lesson with him), he knew the Gospel was true. He prayed, received a response from God that the Livro de Mormon and the Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias was true, we taught him a few more times and this Saturday he entered the waters of baptism! He is a great guy, we've definitely been blessed by being there for his conversion experience.
"Marcilo"
So on Saturday, we got the chapel early to clean everything and fill the font, only to find that the baptismal font had been left filled for the past MONTH and no one had emptied it, which meant it was really dirty, mucky. We tried to figure out how to drain the baptismal font automatically, but, we figured out the pump was broken. So how did we spend most of our Saturday, before Marcilo's baptism? Eeehhh... that's right, we emptied the baptismal font one bucketful at a time, pouring each into the bathroom toilets adjacent to the font. Oh man, Elder Peres and I were dripping wet, with dirty mucky water and sweat both, by the end of it, just exhausted after hours of work. We just layed stretched out on the pews in the chapel for an hour, completely wet and tired... we had to earn that baptism, I guess, with backbreaking labor.
Another thing funny about Marcilo's story... on Sunday he was confirmed and he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Who do you think confirmed him? That's right, yours truly. I was sitting in Sacrament, just expecting a nice three stress-free hours of learning, when suddenly I hear my name called out. So I go up there in front of the whole ward, tell the first counselor I hadn't ever done this before in Portuguese, but he just told me that I could repeat after him. So I have my hands on Marcilo's head, and the first counselor, Irmao Antonia, speaks so softly and quickly, and he already has a kind of thick Cearense accent... and I can't understand anything. Oh man, I was sweating bullets. I was praying for the Gift of Tongues and just repeated what I could hear into the microphone. Apparently it worked though, I don't know what happened, I thought they were going to call me down off the stand and get a Brazilian to do it, but I just kept on repeating these sounds I was hearing and not understanding and, well, the confirmation went through ok. I'm thinking, either I had the Gift of Tongues and everyone was understanding what I was saying through a miracle, or everyone was too embarassed for me to make me stop. I felt pretty embarassed regardless afterwards, just looked at my hands through the rest of the Sacrament Service, hah, I felt like a big idiot.
We had conference this week the morning of my Birthday! Cool huh? I got my package on the DAY OF my Birthday! Conference was good. The package was better! Haha, I love all the things you guys put in. The shirts are awesome!! We haven't made tacos or brownies yet because all of us in the house are strapped for cash and I want to make a big Missionary Dinner out of it with lots of other food. We've already devoured all the candy, hah. Thanks so much guys! I'm listening to the CDs for the first time right now on the computer, they are really awesome! I'll get them on my iPod soon. I love packages!!! Hehe.
Winter started finally! Its raining every day here, and we've gotten soaked pretty badly already. Rain starts FAST here. Its just a little bit cloudy, and the next moment, its raining buckets and buckets. The streets here don't have very effective drains, so when it starts raining hard, the streets become lakes and rivers, it makes moving around the city a little crazy. But, at least its gotten a lot cooler. Not much sun, and the nights are actually pretty cold now. Still humid like crazy though and nothing will stop me from sweating when we're marching to an appointment during the day.
The shower water is freezing in the mornings! I don't know if I told you guys... I've been showering with cold water since October 23rd, water heaters don't exist here. I've gotten kind of used to it, but lately the water has just been ice-cold, hah. I kind of just leap in, get wet, and dart out again, soap up my hair and then rinse it really quickly. Hey, Connor, are you showering with hot water? I miss a nice warm shower...
Alright, I guess I'll get to some responses.
I got Ashley's big stack of letters! Those were awesome, thanks Ashley! Awesome to hear about your perspectives on your mission in Denmark and hear a little about how things are goin in your life. Meant a lot to me.
I got John Church's letter too! That was cute.
Got a letter from Grandma as well, thank you so much for your letters Grandma, you've sent me the most, I think at least one every transfer, maybe more.
I love you guys! Thank you so much Aunt Karen, Aunt Jody and Ron for your e-mails! Thanks for showin that ya care about me, I love you guys so much. Haha, I liked the poem, Aunt Karen, and the spiritual
thoughts too, those were awesome.
Thank you so much Grandpa and Grandmere for the message! Hope you guys get better with the health issues. That temple experience in Mesa was awesome, definitely remember that clearly and longingly. I've gone to the Temple in Campinas, Brazil, and the Temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The nearest Temple to me here is in Recife, which unfortunately is too far away to visit during my mission. But, I'll get to a temple eventually! Thanks for the e-mail guys. :)
Thanks Aunt Becky for the long letter! Man, Jonah is going to be so big when I get back! Crazy! Thanks for your prayers and the letters you were GOING to send, haha. Love you and your family!
Did everyone like my videos, leaving comments on the YouTube page and everything? Haha, I want to do some more Frutas da Ceara videos, there's actually a lot of weird ones here, though the Jaca was definitely the biggest weirdest one around. We didn't eat it all, it wasn't something you could eat a lot of (imagine eating strong-flavored pear bubblegum with a fruit texture).
Hey Connor my bro, thanks so much for the scripture chain. Hey man, I had this dream that would totally make for an awesome indie video game! It's a side scroller, and it starts with this kid main character sitting on a roof, looking at the sun setting, but there is dark, almost blackish water that is level with the roof. This is the text that appears or there is some voice acting: "When the helicopters left that evening, I decided to look for someone out in the Waters." There's some graphic of black helicopters slowly moving in the horizon and some sound effect for them. So the kid gets into a grey rubber motorboat and he drives the thing out onto the water and the game starts. The environment gets really dark soon as the sun sets, but your motorboat has this old, bronze lantern that hangs above the character and it illuminates the nearby area. The game has some cool ambient background noises and some soft Explosions in the Sky kind of music, you know, soft, patient electric guitar and piano chords. You can move the kid into the dark water, and you can direct him to swim downwards. He has a flashlight too that he can illuminate the underwater world with. You discover that beneath the water is a whole suburban neighborhood. For some reason, its all underwater now. But some of the houses have the lights on, pouring out all orangey out of the windows. You can approach the houses and there are characters inside that will say stuff like "We're out of food! Bring us some food down here!" In text message bubbles that float out of the chimneys and up to the surface of the water. Or "We need fuel for our generators in here!" So you go and find these things for them around in the underwater environment, always returning frequently to the surface for air, and you drop it down their chimneys. But everytime you give them what they want, they start saying things like "Go away! Get out of here!" or "There's not enough food in here for you!" If you keep badgering them (knocking at their door) then the lights break in and the house fills with water and darkness. Creates a kind of emotion of not being wanted or being lonely, and the music could really amplify it. There's also these things in the water that are like shadows that are afraid of your flashlight, that grow bigger and more frequent as the game progresses. If they get to you they'll swallow you up and leave behind your flashlight. You've got to be strategic sometimes with your flashlight, which you have to find batteries for, or rechard at the electric poles that are the only things that rise up out of the water. You just have to drive your motorboat to an electric pole and it'll recharge your flashlight. You can also find other flashlights and leave them behind you, turned on, to create a kind of 'safe area' of light. You have to find so many houses and then the sun starts rising, and the main character always returns to his safehouse automatically during the daytime. Eventually you have to deal with these black helicopters, which have these big spotlights. They are looking for something in the waters, and if they see you or the light from the flashlight, they'll start shooting. So you've got to use that strategically. Sometimes they'll help you, though, accidentally, because their spotlights are much more powerful and they can keep the Dark Things at bay. I've got a secret reveal at the end that's cool but I'll keep it secret until we can make it. So that's what I've got so far, lots of room for improvement. Hope I didn't waste your whole P-Day with the explanation, hah.
Hey Dad, the transfer has been great. I discovered at the Conference from some other Elders that passed through here that Maracanau is one of the more difficult areas on the mission. So I'm not letting anything get me down, I'm just working hard with Elder Peres. I've actually learned so much and worked so hard this transfer, its awesome when you have a great companion and when you are committed to improving and being obedient to the rules and schedules with exactness. We have some great investigators and are working with inactive families a lot more than I ever have, and we are definitely going to leave this ward better and stronger, and hopefully there are some more baptisms on the horizon too!
Hey Mom! Yeah, there are some stories that circulate pretty frequently on the mission of Elders being mugged. It happens many times to some Elders, especially those who work in dangerous areas of Fortaleza.
With other Elders, nothing. I think it's pretty possible that I'll be held up at least once during my time here, but no Elder has ever gotten shot in Ceara or beat up, so that's a good thing. There are some funny stories about Elders teaching people that mugged them! I'll have to tell them at some point.
Awesome blessings that have happened in our family! The Lord is definitely looking out for us, we just need
to earn that protection with continued obedience to His Will and love for our brothers and sisters that
are around us every day. I love you so much!
I love you Lynsey and Kate! Sorry I didn't get to type much to ya this time. My companion is waiting
at the door for me, so I'm going to skidaddle. Anyway, Birthday was awesome, Package was awesome, I love
you guys so much, have a great week!
Tchau tchau!
- Elder Carpenter
Woah guys! Hello there! Lots of mail to answer! Thanks so much! Actually, my camera picked up a virus from one of these freaking LANhouse computers, so I'm going to have to get it reformatted sometime this week at a members house. But, I am very glad you got my birthday pictures from Milena, hopefully that'll satisfy some media hunger, hehe. She was so nice, she not only received those pictures from the house and got them on her laptop for my birthday, but she also sent you guys my pictures and put all of the pictures on my camera on a CD, which I will send to you soon with my journal. I'm only twenty or so pages away from the end! That'll be a fun treat for all of ya.
We had another baptism this week! We found Marcilo through Amanda, who was reactivated only two months ago. Marcilo is her boyfriend and he was really interested in the Church when Amanda started going to church again. Then he joined her at Seminary and he got really interested, started going to Seminary every night (its held at a member's house at 6:00 here) and when we got to him finally, he was this close to having a testimony. A few questions answered and a few powerful testimonies later (the Spirit was really strong during our first lesson with him), he knew the Gospel was true. He prayed, received a response from God that the Livro de Mormon and the Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias was true, we taught him a few more times and this Saturday he entered the waters of baptism! He is a great guy, we've definitely been blessed by being there for his conversion experience.
"Marcilo"
So on Saturday, we got the chapel early to clean everything and fill the font, only to find that the baptismal font had been left filled for the past MONTH and no one had emptied it, which meant it was really dirty, mucky. We tried to figure out how to drain the baptismal font automatically, but, we figured out the pump was broken. So how did we spend most of our Saturday, before Marcilo's baptism? Eeehhh... that's right, we emptied the baptismal font one bucketful at a time, pouring each into the bathroom toilets adjacent to the font. Oh man, Elder Peres and I were dripping wet, with dirty mucky water and sweat both, by the end of it, just exhausted after hours of work. We just layed stretched out on the pews in the chapel for an hour, completely wet and tired... we had to earn that baptism, I guess, with backbreaking labor.
Another thing funny about Marcilo's story... on Sunday he was confirmed and he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Who do you think confirmed him? That's right, yours truly. I was sitting in Sacrament, just expecting a nice three stress-free hours of learning, when suddenly I hear my name called out. So I go up there in front of the whole ward, tell the first counselor I hadn't ever done this before in Portuguese, but he just told me that I could repeat after him. So I have my hands on Marcilo's head, and the first counselor, Irmao Antonia, speaks so softly and quickly, and he already has a kind of thick Cearense accent... and I can't understand anything. Oh man, I was sweating bullets. I was praying for the Gift of Tongues and just repeated what I could hear into the microphone. Apparently it worked though, I don't know what happened, I thought they were going to call me down off the stand and get a Brazilian to do it, but I just kept on repeating these sounds I was hearing and not understanding and, well, the confirmation went through ok. I'm thinking, either I had the Gift of Tongues and everyone was understanding what I was saying through a miracle, or everyone was too embarassed for me to make me stop. I felt pretty embarassed regardless afterwards, just looked at my hands through the rest of the Sacrament Service, hah, I felt like a big idiot.
We had conference this week the morning of my Birthday! Cool huh? I got my package on the DAY OF my Birthday! Conference was good. The package was better! Haha, I love all the things you guys put in. The shirts are awesome!! We haven't made tacos or brownies yet because all of us in the house are strapped for cash and I want to make a big Missionary Dinner out of it with lots of other food. We've already devoured all the candy, hah. Thanks so much guys! I'm listening to the CDs for the first time right now on the computer, they are really awesome! I'll get them on my iPod soon. I love packages!!! Hehe.
Winter started finally! Its raining every day here, and we've gotten soaked pretty badly already. Rain starts FAST here. Its just a little bit cloudy, and the next moment, its raining buckets and buckets. The streets here don't have very effective drains, so when it starts raining hard, the streets become lakes and rivers, it makes moving around the city a little crazy. But, at least its gotten a lot cooler. Not much sun, and the nights are actually pretty cold now. Still humid like crazy though and nothing will stop me from sweating when we're marching to an appointment during the day.
The shower water is freezing in the mornings! I don't know if I told you guys... I've been showering with cold water since October 23rd, water heaters don't exist here. I've gotten kind of used to it, but lately the water has just been ice-cold, hah. I kind of just leap in, get wet, and dart out again, soap up my hair and then rinse it really quickly. Hey, Connor, are you showering with hot water? I miss a nice warm shower...
Alright, I guess I'll get to some responses.
I got Ashley's big stack of letters! Those were awesome, thanks Ashley! Awesome to hear about your perspectives on your mission in Denmark and hear a little about how things are goin in your life. Meant a lot to me.
I got John Church's letter too! That was cute.
Got a letter from Grandma as well, thank you so much for your letters Grandma, you've sent me the most, I think at least one every transfer, maybe more.
I love you guys! Thank you so much Aunt Karen, Aunt Jody and Ron for your e-mails! Thanks for showin that ya care about me, I love you guys so much. Haha, I liked the poem, Aunt Karen, and the spiritual
thoughts too, those were awesome.
Thank you so much Grandpa and Grandmere for the message! Hope you guys get better with the health issues. That temple experience in Mesa was awesome, definitely remember that clearly and longingly. I've gone to the Temple in Campinas, Brazil, and the Temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The nearest Temple to me here is in Recife, which unfortunately is too far away to visit during my mission. But, I'll get to a temple eventually! Thanks for the e-mail guys. :)
Thanks Aunt Becky for the long letter! Man, Jonah is going to be so big when I get back! Crazy! Thanks for your prayers and the letters you were GOING to send, haha. Love you and your family!
Did everyone like my videos, leaving comments on the YouTube page and everything? Haha, I want to do some more Frutas da Ceara videos, there's actually a lot of weird ones here, though the Jaca was definitely the biggest weirdest one around. We didn't eat it all, it wasn't something you could eat a lot of (imagine eating strong-flavored pear bubblegum with a fruit texture).
Hey Connor my bro, thanks so much for the scripture chain. Hey man, I had this dream that would totally make for an awesome indie video game! It's a side scroller, and it starts with this kid main character sitting on a roof, looking at the sun setting, but there is dark, almost blackish water that is level with the roof. This is the text that appears or there is some voice acting: "When the helicopters left that evening, I decided to look for someone out in the Waters." There's some graphic of black helicopters slowly moving in the horizon and some sound effect for them. So the kid gets into a grey rubber motorboat and he drives the thing out onto the water and the game starts. The environment gets really dark soon as the sun sets, but your motorboat has this old, bronze lantern that hangs above the character and it illuminates the nearby area. The game has some cool ambient background noises and some soft Explosions in the Sky kind of music, you know, soft, patient electric guitar and piano chords. You can move the kid into the dark water, and you can direct him to swim downwards. He has a flashlight too that he can illuminate the underwater world with. You discover that beneath the water is a whole suburban neighborhood. For some reason, its all underwater now. But some of the houses have the lights on, pouring out all orangey out of the windows. You can approach the houses and there are characters inside that will say stuff like "We're out of food! Bring us some food down here!" In text message bubbles that float out of the chimneys and up to the surface of the water. Or "We need fuel for our generators in here!" So you go and find these things for them around in the underwater environment, always returning frequently to the surface for air, and you drop it down their chimneys. But everytime you give them what they want, they start saying things like "Go away! Get out of here!" or "There's not enough food in here for you!" If you keep badgering them (knocking at their door) then the lights break in and the house fills with water and darkness. Creates a kind of emotion of not being wanted or being lonely, and the music could really amplify it. There's also these things in the water that are like shadows that are afraid of your flashlight, that grow bigger and more frequent as the game progresses. If they get to you they'll swallow you up and leave behind your flashlight. You've got to be strategic sometimes with your flashlight, which you have to find batteries for, or rechard at the electric poles that are the only things that rise up out of the water. You just have to drive your motorboat to an electric pole and it'll recharge your flashlight. You can also find other flashlights and leave them behind you, turned on, to create a kind of 'safe area' of light. You have to find so many houses and then the sun starts rising, and the main character always returns to his safehouse automatically during the daytime. Eventually you have to deal with these black helicopters, which have these big spotlights. They are looking for something in the waters, and if they see you or the light from the flashlight, they'll start shooting. So you've got to use that strategically. Sometimes they'll help you, though, accidentally, because their spotlights are much more powerful and they can keep the Dark Things at bay. I've got a secret reveal at the end that's cool but I'll keep it secret until we can make it. So that's what I've got so far, lots of room for improvement. Hope I didn't waste your whole P-Day with the explanation, hah.
Hey Dad, the transfer has been great. I discovered at the Conference from some other Elders that passed through here that Maracanau is one of the more difficult areas on the mission. So I'm not letting anything get me down, I'm just working hard with Elder Peres. I've actually learned so much and worked so hard this transfer, its awesome when you have a great companion and when you are committed to improving and being obedient to the rules and schedules with exactness. We have some great investigators and are working with inactive families a lot more than I ever have, and we are definitely going to leave this ward better and stronger, and hopefully there are some more baptisms on the horizon too!
Hey Mom! Yeah, there are some stories that circulate pretty frequently on the mission of Elders being mugged. It happens many times to some Elders, especially those who work in dangerous areas of Fortaleza.
With other Elders, nothing. I think it's pretty possible that I'll be held up at least once during my time here, but no Elder has ever gotten shot in Ceara or beat up, so that's a good thing. There are some funny stories about Elders teaching people that mugged them! I'll have to tell them at some point.
Awesome blessings that have happened in our family! The Lord is definitely looking out for us, we just need
to earn that protection with continued obedience to His Will and love for our brothers and sisters that
are around us every day. I love you so much!
I love you Lynsey and Kate! Sorry I didn't get to type much to ya this time. My companion is waiting
at the door for me, so I'm going to skidaddle. Anyway, Birthday was awesome, Package was awesome, I love
you guys so much, have a great week!
Tchau tchau!
- Elder Carpenter
Monday, March 15, 2010
3-15-2010 Letter Home
Essa semana foi muito show
"Show" is an English word adopted into the vocabulary, but here it is used for "really cool".
Hey everybody! Man I don't have much time, the videos and letters were so awesome I just had to relish in it all at a relaxed pace. Thanks for all the Happy Birthdays! Woah, can't believe I am turnin' twenty soonish. The other missionaries and some members and I are going to go out and buy I bunch of pizza on the 17th. I haven't got my package yet, but I should in the next week or two, so it'll kinda just be a staggered birthday. Anyway, right now its off to the sum-up of the week! I actually had a very interesting week, some strange experiences... but otherwise we are just working as hard as we can, walking in the sun all day, and I'm happy happy happy! Alright, here are the highlights:
First of all, ze videos:http://www.youtube.com/watch?
- This is the video I wanted to send LAST P-Day, when I climbed the Serra.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
- More recent.
And here are the photos from the hike:
Might want to edit this a bit if you want to for a younger audience. Good luck:
So, Tuesday night we were working in Alto Mangueira, which is close to A Colonia, two different neighborhoods of Maracanau, the poorest part of Maracanau actually. Just to remind you, Elder Matias and I never worked in this part of our area, so at the beginning of the transfer Elder Peres and I decided to focus primarily on this part of the city. Its kind of more dangerous though, this part of the city has a reputation for lots of theft and drug-use and so forth. And on Tuesday night, the power in the whole neighborhood shut off during the night! It was kind of nerve-wracking, because we had to walk from appointment to appointment without a single light and man was it incredibly dark, clouds were keeping out the moonlight and all. But nothing happened, just a lot of suspense and nervous strategizing on the part of Elder Peres and I about how we would get to our appointments safely. We got to teach a family completely in candle light, which was fun. That night we also went to one of our appointments, an inactive member's house, to find everyone completely drunk. Very sad story... the man had been baptized, had gotten married in the temple and had a happy family, and somehow he got to drinking, and it destroyed his marriage. He lost his job, he had to sell his house and all of his things to buy more and more alcohol, and now he lives with his mother, a poor old woman whose house is filled every night with broken men, because he's gotten in with a bad crowd. We were talking with these drunken, broken men and man, we were speaking face to face with street thieves and murderers, I'm not even kidding. I was pretty scared. We were talking about how Christ would accept anyone who came unto Him and repented, trying to encourage these men to choose a different life, when one of the men started telling a story, about how one of the men, had been stabbed in the side with a kitchen knife, and how the tip of the blade broke off in his ribs. He showed us the scars. Then he told us how this guy escaped from the hospital, found the two men responsible when they were drunk, and bashed both of their heads in with a big rock. This guy was just there - kind of smirking to himself. Dude... I felt really insecure, just praying to Heavenly Father. Elder Peres was a bold testifying machine though, just this light in this den of evil... he really wanted to help shake them out of the drunken craziness all of them were in. He was really the man that night. Yeah, we went back one more time this week but none of them had stopped drinking, so we decided to cut them out of our schedule.
Alright, other than that, I had the awesome opportunity to baptize Barbara, the daughter of Lindalva, the house where we ate Christmas Dinner! I think you have a photo of them already. Barbara turned eight years old and chose me to baptize her!
Awww, it was so touching. I have built up quite a friendship with that family, though I haven't worked in Pacatuba. Just every time we passed by there, Elder Matias and I, for interviews, I was very friendly and played with the kids and everything, so they really like me. We had cake and soda afterward and it was fun.
On the way to Linda's house from the baptism, I was with Elder Mendonca, another Elder I was on divisions with, and some members, and we were walking on this dark road when we heard something like a gunshot behind us. I turn my head just in time to see a guy on a motorcycle Tokyo Drift straight into a big stone lightpost! I don't know what happened, but he lost control and slammed into this lightpost. Everyone was frozen, but for some reason, I don't know, the adrenaline hit me and I just took off like a bolt towards this guy. I lifted the motorcycle off of him and started shouting "Alguma pessao, lige uma ambulancia!" Someone, call an ambulance! On second thought, lifting the motorcycle off of him probably broke protocol, but it looked like it didn't hurt him. So I lifted this motorcycle off of the guy and he kind of shuffled to the side, when I saw his leg... the skin was sheared off his leg. It was disgusting and gory and sickens my stomach even now. I could see his bones, I really could. And then it started bleeding like crazy. Oh man, it was horrible. By this time the others got to their senses and started helping out, but what was weird is that the first thing this guy said was "Leve esse moto! LEVE ELE AGORA!!" Nothing about an ambulance or help or anything, just TAKE THIS MOTORCYCLE OUT OF HERE!. So, wanting to please the bleeding victim, I pushed the motorcycle to 'Arnoldinho's House'... he pointed out a house in the distance where we should park it. When I had gotten the motorcycle there, the others were with me and we snapped to our senses and realized the motorcycle was stolen and the guy knew that the ambulance was coming, police too maybe, so he wanted to get rid of it. When we saw that the guy was getting help,we decided to walk very quickly away, realizing we may have helped the criminal. Crazy experience though. Everyone was saying stuff like, "Oh, Elder Carpenter was like Superman, just off to the rescue!" I felt good being there to help out first. Yeah, that was crazy.
Yep, so those were my interesting experiences this week.
Hey Dad, thank you for everything you said. I am so grateful that you are feeling better and more optimistic and that we were able to help. You really are our best friend and we are there with you in Spirit, in our prayers. You are an awesome role model Dad, sometimes out here when I am learning to be more hard working or a better problem solver, or when I am feeling a little hopeless and lazy about some investigators or something I'm dealing with with my companion, I think of you and the qualities you have that I want to imitate and how I should have those qualities because I am your son. Thanks for everything Dad, and I know you are on the right track with the Lord, and when we are aligned with His Will, we can accomplish so much, in this life and the next, for ourselves and for others. You might sell the quads, huh? Hrm. You know what's right to do. I trust you guys. If you sell them and you feel it had to be... then I understand and I'm not going to let it bother me. Urgh, I don't want to discuss or think about quads right now, actually, its making me trunky. Thank you for your kind words and congrats on the new initiative to work out! Sorry that you haven't got out of your office recently, that really sucks. Must feel like you were stuck in a hole. I'm here with ya though, and we just gotta laugh about it all, right?
Mom, Lyns, Kate, Connor, I love you guys and have enjoyed everything you've sent me. Lyns, I have given a few blessings out here, and its much more stressful in Portuguese, but I am getting it, hah. Cool stories and pictures Connor, jealous that you are working in the country so much, it looks quite pretty, especially in contrast with the ahm... trashy cityscape that I am working in. Thanks for the awesome advice and news, Mom. Kaitlin, you are so precious to me! I gotta get out of here, hope this week's e-mail and videos were satisfactory!
Paz e amor!
Seu filho, amigo, e irmao,
- Elder Brendon Carpenter
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