11-17-2009 Letter Home

My email is down!
Spent fifteen minutes trying to send video through GMail and its not working, either. Nossa, nossa, nossa. Well, handbook says I need to e-mail my family every week, so I guess I am using Gmail today, maybe the only time ever. (!) No messages from anybody today, either. That sucks.

I am going to try to send pictures real quick. I hope it works.

So... G-mail works worse than regular email for some reason. I am starting to hate internet cafes... can't get photos or video through every single time. Anyway, so while I was on Gmail I saw some mail from Facebook. Hmmm... is that okay? I don't know. But, it says that Ive gotten a lot of friend requests and messages. Mom, Lynsey, whoever, do you think you could accept those friend requests and possibly reply to some comments that I am serving a mission in Brazil, and will gladly take addresses so that I can mail friends? That'd be fantastic, thanks in advance!

                 Elder Carvalho, Talysson, and Elder Brendon

I hope you get the picture, but we had another baptism this week: Talysson, sixteen years old, really into Brazilian jujitsu. We had a tough time with him because he went to another church where the pastor and others regularly got up on the pulpit and slammed the Mormons. At one point he said he didn't want to see us any more. But we kept on testifying and persevering and finally he said he realized that God wanted him to join our church. Fantastic! I hope you get the picture.

Moto-taxis. Here in Juazeiro, you can hop on a motorcycle with the driver and get anywhere in the city
for three to five reals. Really cheap and fast. Really fun to ride them because you skip the long walks across cobblestone roads. Especially fun at night. Just yesterday I was riding through this one hilly part of Juazeiro at night and it was beautiful, with all the orange lights dotting the hillsides. Really cool. Also, outside of Juazeiro is very green! We were able to see the outskirts a lot for some reason this last week and its gorgeously green. Well, there are some fields that are completely dirt-covered with trash mixed in... but there are some areas that are very beautiful. The greens here are brighter, for some reason, makes it feel very tropical. There are hills that surround Juazeiro that are very beautiful... not like big rolling California hills, much more sculpted and rugged like Arizona, but covered with green brush. I want to show photos!

Man, people are nice here. Every time we stop to give a lesson its: "voce quer agua?"  "Ou comida (food)?" "Pastels? Bolu (cake)?" Lots of hospitality here. Not like the States at all.

Restaurants and kitchonettes (cafes) cook their meat outside in the streets, here. So while Elder Carvalho and I are walking to an appointment, every day we pass these big open grills with simmering sausage and chicken. Smells so good. The streets smell like shower-and-sink-water from the gutters mixed with freshly-cooked steak and sausage. Not a pleasant mix but its better than if there was no meat-smell at all.

 

                        Mangoes!


Sausages are big here. They must have gotten it from the Germans. Really good stuff. Rice, beans, mashed potatoes, this stuff like cuscus (sp?) and always fruit... though the way fruit hangs off every other tree (coconuts, mangos especially), I am surprised they dont use it more.

So, Connor, how about that one summer we went to four or five different water parks? Wasn't as fun as going to that one waterpark in Utah, but definitely a fun summer all around. Fortaleza is known for its huge waterparks, which I haven't seen, but I've seen advertisements. Looks so refreshing when I am walking under the sun to an appointment.

Last P-Day we went to the Lojas Americanas: American Shops. It's this big mall in the center of Juazeiro (that would probably be the best place to hole up in for a zombie outbreak). Anyway, it is just like a normal mall from the US and it made me feel quite at home. Ate ice cream, pizza, watched someone play Rockband on this huge bigscreen TV (a pay-to-play thing there), and hung out at the food court. It was very fun.

Every P-Day we play this Brazilian version of RISK, which is cool. Get some extra sleep... its very necessary for the rest of the week because by Sunday night we are dead tired.

We found this one family this week who lives in this big orchard in the middle of Juazeiro in this little house. Fourteen people in this family, mostly kids, all boys except the youngest. And they were fantastic! At the end of our message about the Restoration of the Gospel, we asked them if they wanted to go to Church, and the matriarch of the family, an older women, pauses for a moment, looks around, and says: "Sim, vamos para sua igreja". Yes, we will go to your church. She proceeded to explain that they didn't have enough religion in their lives and they wanted to see what it was like. Excellent, right? That Sunday Elder Carvalho and I walked ahead a group of eight for twenty minutes to the casapela, me singing "The Spirit of God" in English to entertain the kids. Because of that family, this week we were able to get twelve of our investigators to church, which is really, really good. The big family left before I was able to talk to them about the experience, but I think it went well.

Well, I love you guys. Sorry I wasnt able to get your messages! Not my fault! Keep up the good fight! The Gospel is true!

Your son, brother, friend, relative,
Elder Brendon Carpenter

Connor: Sweet e-mail. Pretty much the same on the language right now, Connor. I can understand most words but the context and everything... its weird, you cant understand the whole meaning of the conversation, you know? Elder Carvalho speaks English a lot to me too. We have to work on that. Cool adventure story, and Passo Fundo really sounds otimo.

Fortaleza accent is fun. Goshto instead of Gosto, por examplo. Very nasally compared to Sao Paulo, and very fast most of the times. People dont like to open their mouths here and really anunciate their words. Di and De is pronounced both ways, no set rule, which makes it difficult some times. It will be fun to compare after the mission.

Love you man,
Your brother

Dad: Thank you so much for the fantastic message, Dad. I've gotten used to much of my life here, it doesn't seem too weird anymore. I think our travels and open-mindset definitely helped here. Even in the CTM it has helped, as I've compared myself with other Elders who feel weirded out by little differences. The Church here is different, but the same. We don't have a chapel, and most people have joined the church if not in the last year, in the last handful of years. Our stake president and bishop are all converts of the last five years. Frontier of the Church, here in Juazeiro. Other than leaders and those involved in sacrament duties, members don't wear church clothes, which makes it feel much more like a Non-Denominational kind of church meeting, but we are definitely teaching the right doctrines. Those members that have leadership callings are very powerful, and some people make a lot of sacrifices to get to our small house-church. Very tight-knit group here, we feel like pioneers, I think, making do with what we have, but being stronger for it. The older members are exactly like members back in the US, though they might have less materially, they act just the same. But we have so many converts, it really feels more like a cross-section of average society, but that is better in some ways. I really love our branch here, I've made some great friends and they like me a lot even if I can't speak too much Portuguese.

Oh yeah, because its so hot, most of the women and girls do not like covering up, even in Church on Sundays... they wear nice clothes, but they would feel awkward in a chapel in the US, I think. Ah well, its not as horribly tempting as it sounds.

With some of our investigators, the problem that the LDS Church is too "American", with American origins, an American prophet and mostly American apostles does come up. We remind people that the Church had to be established somewhere, and then we mention that in Christ's Church during his ministry and afterward, all but one apostle was Jewish. It isn't as big of a problem as I thought it would be, and the members don't care about it at all. The members bring up the Kirtland Temple and the Pioneer Migration and other very American experiences for the Church very openly, and no one thinks different of it. There are times when Brazil is mentioned in a lesson in order to not alienate people too much, but there are some interesting experiences here for the Church as well. For example, one Apostle said that in the Last-Days, Brazil would be the safest place to live for the Saints, and another prophecy was made that Brazil would soon have the third most powerful economy, and other stuff specific for the Brazilian members. There is enough history here that the Church can be made to seem very Brazilian even when to the outward observer it is primarily an American church, with primarily American missionaries around the world.

You are the Elders Quorum President? Nossa, isto e loco! I don't even know where to begin! Man, that is so awesome. I'm sure it must seem like a huge responsibility right now but I think you are going to take to it very easily in time. Awesome that we can serve together. Wow, big responsibility. I know you will do great, though, Dad. The Lord has been preparing you.

Thank you so much for the motivating words and I will definitely read Alma 42 as soon as I get home. I love you Dad, I am thinking and praying for you every day as well. I am so grateful that you are my father. More and more every day here, too.

- Your son


Hope you are thinking of our RV and ATV trips a lot! I am!

Lynsey:  School is getting difficult, huh? It sounds fun to me! Hah. You are so awesome, Lynsey. Office is good, huh? And you saw 2012? Awesome. Want to see that movie so bad. Its showing in the theatres near here, too. So cool. I want the soundtrack to that! Dad is the new Quorum President? Wow! That is really crazy! Boa sorte, meu Pai! Muitos benoes para voe.

A Package? Right on! Cant wait to see what it is!

Love you so much! Thanks for the awesome message!
Your brother :)