This week was the toughest week I have had on the mission! Wow! Glad it is over. I am happy to report that I am over it and ready to finish out the last two weeks of this transfer strong. What kind of difficulties? Just new-American-missionary-feeling-frustrated-with-the-language and companions and the heat kind of difficulties. nothing big.
You will have to excuse the poor quality of this message. this keyboard wont let me delete anything without risking deleting entire sentences. it is very frustrating. Man, this message might be pretty short because it is so difficult to write. i never get what i want with e-mails...
So last week President Batt let us play Rockband for P-Day! It was very divertido!
hope you like the photo! We played for hours, all in English, and my favorite song to sing was "will you be my girl", hah! After that day we were singing rock and roll songs around the house for the rest of the week!
Streets of Juazeiro from bus window
The best news of this week was our Awesome Family, I think I mentioned them last e-mail. Both Elder Carvalho and I do not remember their surname. fourteen people. We found them on November 11 and gave them a short message.
We invited them to Church and what do you know, defying all convention, when we arrived Sunday morning they were all showered and ready to go! Yeah, I did write about this earlier.
ANYWAY, we returned to their home and we gave a great message about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which they really liked. It is awesome to just be surrounded by this giant family in their Living Room and teach them all at once. They really like us and say they feel a good spirit when we are in their homes. They have two twin three year olds, Andre and Andrea, who are very rambunctious (sp?) and cute. Anyway, we asked them if they had received an answer after praying and what do you know, almost half of the children did! They raised their hands, said they had prayed and felt the feelings in their heart which we told them is the Holy Ghost. One of the teenagers said that he felt as if a big fan started blowing in his heart! They have been excellent and if they join the church, it will bless their lives so much. Their grandmother has tuberculosis and Elder Carvalho felt inspired to tell them that if they we baptized and began living the commandments, their grandmother would be cured. Very powerful.
They were so excited yesterday when we drove up in this bus the Church bought for our area.We didn't actually drive it, but the driver stopped in front of their house and all the kids came running out. They thought it was so fun, that a bus came to pick them all up for free. They stayed all three hours in church, and I felt that they liked it. Andre and Andrea felt a little cooped up and were being a little crazy at the end, but I am sure they had a very spiritual experience. Tonight we are going to bring some member families to their house for family home evening and I think they will like that a lot as well.
Speaking about family home evenings, I have to tell you about our Elite Special Family Forces! There are three families in our branch that are super strong, they have been in the church for a while and the parents hold the important callings. We basically call on these families to help with missionary work once, sometimes multiple times in the week. They are very devoted, especially when you consider it costs them a lot to take bus rides across the town, but they are also very blessed by their informal calling to help fellowship all of our investigators. When investigators show up in Church, they are there introducing themselves, inviting them to their houses... just the nicest people with very powerful testimonies. If we didn't have them it would be so much more difficult to do missionary work here. Last night we had a Family Home Evening with the same people we will have FHE tonight with, and our investigator family just enjoyed the company so much. They went from having some doubts about getting baptized to being extremely enthusiastic about that.
I hope no one thinks that I am saying our American LDS families should be better like these people here, you cant really compare... but it is very cool, because in Juazeiro we live on the frontier of the Kingdom of God, and these awesome, powerful families that have nothing of the comforts that we Americans have, with our large membership and concentration in the States, are here, helping the work along in a big way and being super blessed and happy while doing it! I love being with them, they have become very good friends and I will miss them.
Other things... I had to fast this week. Hardest. Fast. Of. My Life. walking in the equatorial sun without being able to drink water at every house is tough. In Brazil, we eat lunch, the biggest meal, at noon, then skip dinner and breakfast the next day, culminating the fast with eating lunch the following day.
So that night it rained at about 4 in the morning and I just stumbled out of my room out into our hallway, which doesn't have a roof, and let the rain pour over my face. man. Tough. But that was also the day that our Awesome Family reported that many of the children and teenagers received responses to their prayers.
Well, I need to type responses to family:
First, to my brother Connor. Sorry that you had a tough week yo! I've been hurting too, though homesickness was only part of the equation. I still have the vision [for the work], but I have been burying it lately as it is hard to transform it into action when I do not know Portuguese. I think I need to take it easy and learn the basics out here before I really launch into my "epic missionary phase". Learn how to teach powerful lessons, get along with companions, and speak Portuguese. Once I have those down, I can start doing missionary work the way I feel it needs to be done. That experience with that guy with the broken legs must have been very cool, my friend! Don't feel like you aren't being as good as you can, you definitely are!
Memory: The Tuckfields, at their house, playing "Mario Party" and making a whirlpool in their swimming pool out back. Remember that? That was so fun. I miss those guys! I love you man! Keep strong! I know you can do everything you set your mind to!
shoot, I gotta go right now. I read all the letters and I hope you all have fun in Glamis! (Ah man...) And in Arizona with family! I miss that so much. I love you Lynsey and Kaitlin, I am glad to know you are both doing great. I love you Mom!
I am going to write until the second I have to send this message.
Mom, I am the cleanest, most organized missionary here, thanks to you! Actually, I have found washing dishes and mopping the floor, putting food away is a good stress-reliever and helps me feel like I am contributing to the household! I hope I keep this habit! I have had dreams of hugging or being with you guys as well. I like those. There was one time I drifted to sleep during study time that I hugged Kaitlin almost just as if she was really there, it was so real.
Hope the photos got through okay! A few more sights of Juazeiro. Oh, by the way, I saw the blogs! They looked great! Good job Mom, really good work.
I love you all! Have a fantastic Thanksgiving Week! Three more days and I'll have been out here for three months. Very cool! Shout out to relatives and friends! I know I don't pay enough attention to all of ya!
Sweet. Amo voces!
- Elder Brendon Carpenter
Ive seen parts of Wolverine, Click, Mission Impossible 3, the Nutty Professor, and Twilight (Crepusculo, here, and the members love the movie because the book was written by a member, hah), and others but I cant quite remember. These little tastes of cinema will help me get through the mission, I hope!
I was going through the blog and I noticed Mom typed up those fantastic entries about our last day, saying goodbye and everything. great job Mom! Very proud of ya.
yes, Lynsey, they do not have Thanksgiving here. But what day is Thanksgiving? I cannot remember. You are my best friend as well! i love ya Lyns!
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