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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