Merry Christmas from Brazil

Luke's District, 45-B.

Brazilian Sister's at the MTC

Other missionaries from Brazil.

T-shirts on Christmas Day.

So last week, I completely forgot that it was Christmas! It came up really fast. Things get so busy that I really do lose track of the date sometimes.

Anyway, it was great to hear about the BYU game. The doctor here at the MTC is a big BYU fan, so he posted the article about them winning. There are many BYU fans and students here as well, so most of the MTC was pretty happy. Man, I wish I could’ve been there to see that block. Planet Hollywood sounds like a blast as well. I only have to miss one more Utah vs. BYU game though, so there is hope. Ha!

Christmas was a blast here. We got to sleep in until 7:30, which is only an extra hour, but man, was it heaven! Then we got to play sports and do games all day. It was way fun. Also, the talent show went very well. I practiced pretty hard, and I think that was actually the best that I have ever played the piano and sang. I got a lot of compliments from people, so I was pretty stoked about that. One of the Elders from the district that we flew over with got a tape recording that was very good quality, so I got to hear how I did. I was actually pretty happy with it, cuz normally I hate listening to myself. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any way to get it over too you guys, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

I got compliments from Brazilian’s as well. One of the Brazilian Sisters that I know told me “Voce tocar piano e cantar muito bem” which I actually understood when she told me. It means "You play piano and sing very well." I was grateful for the compliment, and happy that I understood what she said. Another Brazilian called me something I didn’t understand, so I asked for the translation. She speaks very little English, but she was able to relate that I am A Beast On The Piano. I thought that was very kind and hilarious. Then the third Brazilian Sister called me Elton John, which may or may not be a good thing depending on if she’s talking about my piano playing or not. Ha, I was grateful for the sincere compliments from people of both languages though.

One of the other highlights was Elder H. and Elder F. (both Tongans) leading a Haka for the talent show. Some of the Brazilian’s found it more amusing than intimidating. Man, I wish that I had learned to do so that I could join. The only Maori in the whole Brazilian MTC, and I couldn’t help out with the Haka. Ah well, that’s OK.

We got to wear out street clothes around all day until the talent show that night, which was way fun. I forgot how much I miss t-shirts. We also got to watch The Other-side of Heaven, which was good times. You guys should watch that. That opening scene where they’re at BYU having a dance party with some good Rockabilly music playing... man that made me miss not specifically home, but just having some good times with friends. Also it made me want to listen to some Stray Cats. It was a good time to watch that.

So it was a good time to be here. I was very grateful for the break, and I think that I’ll be better prepared to work. A big thank you to the Falconers for that Christmas package! One of the Elders in my district is a big Edward Gorey fan, so he’s jealous of the card I received. Thank you!´

Till next week


Elder =w= Heperi

Tractin' and Tanactin'

Ha, so grandma thinks that I’m getting’ married as soon as I get back? Nah, besides, I already got a promise from Andy Magleby that we’d move in together... before either of us gets married.
So I’ll address the questions in the e-mail first. I don’t think that my message got cut off, it said it sent. And I sent about three, the first was the letter, the second was a backup, and the third just had pic’s with it. Maybe you didn’t get all of them?

Oh, by the way, I found out from a Dearelder that Andrea sent me that those get here in about a week. My departure date for the field is Jan. 8th. Scary! As of Friday, we will be the co-oldest district in the MTC. (co with the other elders that we flew over here with). I think that we fly over there [Londrina], which will be good. I love flying. Sao Paulo is incredibly huge from the air, it freaks me out. I dunno how far it [Londrina] is in terms of hours or distance. It doesn’t look very far on the map here in the MTC, but it could be…

I’ll try to get some pic’s this week for you guys. I forgot to take some this week, so any new pic’s will probably be a few weeks old.

In other news, my comp, Elder H… became the new district leader this week. Elder T…, who was the DL, became the AP. So I am officially the Assistant District Leader. (Assistant TO the District Leader, as I make Elder H... say.) He’s seen The Office, so it’s a good running joke between us. The bad side is that now I have to sit in an extra meeting on Sunday, so there goes part of my naptime. Ah well.

… thanks to Tota, Uncle Nate, Auntie Sue, Tiana, Elijah, and Ari for the packages. I appreciated them very much and would send them a letter to thank them, but of course I accidentally threw out the address that came with it. Please apologize for me and thank them a bunch!

So tracting was OK this week. We got dropped in the middle of downtown Sao Paulo. So many people! Spider-man could easily get around in that neighborhood. People weren’t as willing to listen to us here, and we got turned down and some people just walked away. It was kinda discouraging. I hope that we can do better next week.

So nothing new to report, Levi or Lauren? Ha, that’s funny, cuz sometimes I feel the same way. So I’ve got a Hendrix-Ninja Turtle coming in the mail, Levi? Very sweet. One of the guys in my district is a big Weezer fan like me. In fact, Rivers Cuomo´s solo album came out on Tues., as I recall. You wanna get it and tell me how it is in the next letter? Me and Elder B... would greatly appreciate it.

Sorry for that pic of Patchy coming thru. I was just testing [yeah, right!] to see if it worked. I know that you don’t need the pic’s of the cats cuz you have the real things. Man, I miss those animals. I really hope that they don’t die before I get home.

In other news, you know that Christmas is gonna be like a day off. We get to watch The Other-side of Heaven, which will probably make me a little homesick as it reminds me of home. (Just because there are Polynesians and such and the last time I watched it was at home.)

Also, there is a talent show that day, and I tried out for it. The MTC Pres. gave the OK to play pop songs and stuff, so I tried out by playing (Glycerine) by Bush on the Piano. I thought that it was a nice rendition, and I think that I played pretty well. I won’t know until Friday if I’m in, so pray that I make it. It’s in front of the whole MTC so I really hope that I make it in.

I think that me and only two other Elders are Polynesian. Elder F… from Mesa, Arizona who is Tongan, and Elder H… (Hay-Mu-Lee) who from Hawaii and is also Tongan. He is a very big guy, must be about 6-4 and over 300lbs. It’s funny to see him hang out with the Brazilian’s, because Brazilian’s are generally not huge people, as I’ve found out. I’m bigger than probably 98 percent of the Brazilian Elders here. And one Brazilian sister is seriously probably about as tall as my stomach.

Anyway, I’m doing well here. I actually like the schedule, and am able to do it. I feel that I am getting closer to the Lord, though obviously I need to keep improving. Sorry, this week I can’t really think of things to write as much as other weeks.

Thanks again for everyone who prays and writes.

I appreciate all of it. Stay classy, Provo!

-El-dah Heperi

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

First missionary photo sent by Luke from Brazil.

A picture of our cat "Patchy" just before Luke left Utah.

(Dad thinks it's quite hilarious... Mom is NOT amused!!!)

Luke and his MTC companion, Elder H...

... an impossible dream though. I’m sweating profusely as I type this, and there is a steady rain coming down outside. I miss snow. (hey oh)

Thanks Dad for sending me the blogs from the Magleby’s. It was great to hear what is goin’ on with those guys. I hope that Rob’s mission continues to do well, and that it doesn’t get too hard for the church to continue to do missionary work there. Although long train rides sound real nice.

So Berkeley is back on Friday, huh? Somebody tell her for me that if she’s willing to wait about 1 year and 11 months, I think we can have a great future together. There’s a temple altar with our name on it, Berkeley! I’ve seen quite a few German things around here (people speaking, signs, etc.) so maybe I’ll get to try some German on them. Was Kost du, madchen?

You can send pic’s, just make sure that they are at a low resolution, otherwise it can take a lot of time to download. Oh, and all three packages came, one from you guys, one from Auntie Sue & Nate, and one from Tota. Thank you very much everyone that sent me stuff.

American Candy is a big hit over here. I gave some to my teacher, Brother Silva, and he loved it so much he wanted to marry his Kit-Kat I think.

I’ll try to send pic’s this time, now that I have the card reader. Some of them are from about a month ago. We’re only allowed to take pic’s on p-day, and then only inside the MTC, so I don’t have any cool neighborhood pic’s, which is unfortunate. There is a pretty sweet mural of Ash, Misty, and Brock from Pokemon on the front of a store just two doors down from where I sit. I want a picture of that, but oh well.

There may be a tiny ray of hope for the phone call [Getting Mom's hopes up, again!]. It’s rumored that when you get to the mission home, they let you call home if you missed the Christmas call. I don’t know if that’s true, or just a well-intentioned Mormon Myth/False Doctrine (which as I read Elder Wells Magleby say, are one and the same), but there may be some hope come early January. What’s funny is, the districts that are one week ahead of us are the most peeved about not getting a phone call. Just one week ahead and they would get a phone call. Oh well.

Thankfully, the email came through... but no Christmas call this year.

Brazil Campinas Temple (Left) and Brazil Sao Paulo Temple (Right).

In case the first email didn’t go thru... so BYU is undefeated two years running in conference play? Nice! Ha, that’s funny that they have to play UCLA again, but way cool that you guys get to go again. Planet Hollywood? That sounds awesome. Way better than the Golden Nugget. My comp. Elder H... is from Vegas, so I’ll share with him the news. He went to UNLV, but he hated it down there, so I think he’ll cheer for BYU.

Oh, as for card reader and moleskins [small notebooks], I haven’t received them as of yet. Mail hasn’t come today yet, but as of this moment, about 12:20 pm, I haven’t gotten them. Thank you for shipping them though!... Oh, and you don’t have to wait by the phone on Christmas. We poor souls here at the MTC don’t get to call home on Christmas, cuz there would be too many of us to accommodate [ouch!!!]. Besides, I will have only been out a month at that point. Kinda lame that I only get 3 phone calls in my mission, but my Portuguese should be a lot better come Mother’s Day, so look forward to that.

So ol’ Christiansen [former Provo H.S. Football Coach] resigned, eh? Wow, that’s funny. He was good at the football side, but a little overbearing sometimes. Sad that he never got a win against Timpview, but who ever did? Maybe the next dude will be good.

Oh yeah, I heard that for packages, if you put a picture of Jesus on it, it’s less likely to get stolen.

Busy like always this week. Proselyting on Friday was cool/scary. I blanked on some of my Portuguese when I went up to people, but did OK in general. Elder H... and I passed out 3 Books of Mormon, and a few pass along cards. It was pretty good, although I’m still a little afraid to walk up and approach anyone and everyone. I got better as it went on. One guy that Elder H... talked too who got a BOM was reading it when we passed by 15 min later, and still reading after another 15 min! But then after another 15 min, we saw that he had put the BOM away and had pulled out his pack of cigarettes. Very nice... We proselyte again next Friday. They dropped us off in downtown Sao Paulo, main street. Looked kinda like Times Square, but Brazilian style. Man there were a lot of people. We talked to one guy who looked like Bob Marley, and he played “Oh Susanna” on his flute for us. He already had a BOM though, so that was okay. I wanted him to play some reggae for us, but I didn’t know how to ask. I’ll remember for next week.I wrote stuff down to say, but sometimes I forget it.

I always feel quite rushed, and I never remember to say all that I am trying too.

Oh, the most common name down here is Silva. No joke, if you picked out 10 Brazilians (missionaries or non), at least one of them would have the last name of Silva. It’s pretty crazy. It’s so common that you can’t have more than one Elder Silva, the nametags have to say Elder P. Silva or Elder C. Silva. It’s pretty funny.

We got a taste (or sound) of how crazy people are for soccer down here. I guess on Sunday there was a big game between two teams. I don’t remember one of them, but the other team was called the Corinthians. I only remember their name because one of my teachers (named S. Silva-- Silva’s everywhere!) has them as his favorite team. Well, it was on Sunday, and all during the day while the game was going on, we could here fireworks, singing, and yelling going on throughout the neighborhoods whenever something happened. And when the game ended, (I guess the Corinthians lost) fireworks went off for like 10 minutes straight, and some dude played a trumpet as loud as he could for about a half-hour. Seriously, I’ve watched football games where everyone in the house is loud, but not games where everyone in the NEIGHBORHOOD is loud. I love it, I wish that the World Cup was happening now. I’m definitely gonna try to come back when it comes here in 2014. My teacher claims that I don’t know insane till I see Brazil at World Cup time, ESPECIALLY when Brazil is hosting.

... I played Piano in the fireside a week ago, and did well. I love playing the piano a lot more since I got out here. I’m trying to learn to play the Brazilian National Anthem, cuz we sing it every Sunday as an MTC before the fireside, and the person who usually plays the accompaniment left for the field, so we’ve just been using a CD. It’s pretty difficult I think... way upbeat and catchy... Again, sorry that we won’t get to chat on Christmas, but you’ll hear from me in May [another ouch!!!]... I realized how many prayers are said for me and other missionaries when we were at the Temple today (today was Sao Paulo, we’ve been to Campinas as well), and I find it very encouraging.

Thank Grandma and Grandpa for me again for the letter I received, and I’ll keep my eyes out for that package.

.

Bye!´till next week

Elder Heperi =w=

Late Mail from Brazil

The following letter arrived today (November 21, 2007), two (2) weeks after Luke arrived at the Brazil MTC. Guess the mail takes a little time to arrive from Sao Paulo.

Hi, so I guess we made it safely. Tonight is Wednesday [November 7, 2007] night, and I haven’t had a decent sleep since I left Provo. I’m pretty tired, but luckily they’re letting us go to bed early of we want. I hope to take advantage of this.

Anyway, the flights were not too bad. Just cramped and kind of hard to sleep on. I got a window seat both times (Yay!) but that meant I couldn’t get up to walk around ‘cuz both times the guy in the seat next to me was asleep the majority of the time (Not cool!). Nothing noteworthy on the flight, except that it was cool to travel with so many Elder’s. I think there was 15 of us when we hit Dallas, [Texas].

Now, on to the MTC. It’s a cool Skyscraper-like building with a big fence around it. In fact, every house around here seems to have a big gate and walls around it. And, as a nice touch at the top of said walls, everyone has chards of broken glass cemented in, charming decorations here.

My room is on the 5th Floor of six (6), which isn’t bad except for the fact that everything else besides my room is not on said floor. Elevators are here, but as they told us in orientation, “You ride the elevators twice; once when you get here and once when you leave .” You know the song Twenty-Flight Rock” by Eddie Cochrane? I hear that chorus in my head every time I have to climb those stairs.

My comp. is a nice guy. His name is Elder H… He was raised in Las Vegas, but moved to Panguitch [Utah], last year. Nice guy, talks a lot, says he hates silence. We aren’t much alike and don’t have much in common, but we’ll see. We’ll get along, he says about 50 words to every ten (10) I say.

Also, it’s so humid here. I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna be sweating for two years , straight, but that’s OK, water-weight, right?

I’m almost outta time so bye until next week.

Elder Heperi

To the Faraway Towns

Ah, P-day. Thank you everyone for those letters. It’s really a motivational boost to hear from home. To tell you the truth, it feels like I have been gone for a LONG time. Seriously. I guess the MTC has that kind of effect on you.

To answer your question about mail, No I haven’t received any. Although, we haven’t checked the mailbox today, yet… but I haven’t received any as of yet. Kinda depressing, although our whole district hasn’t received any mail yet. I feel happy that I have some coming, though. Maybe I’ll be the first.

Oh, to clarify, Elder M. isn’t going into the field early. They were thinking of sending him, but now he’s just gonna stay and help our district along. He’s a way nice guy, and it’s nice that I have someone to talk about Utah stuff with. He’s actually typing right next to me as I type.

(Man, I feel rushed. There is an incredible amount to tell, and all in these little 45 min. that I have, but I’ll try.)

First of all, the traffic. The roads here are about a quarter-size of the ones at home, everyone drives very small cars, and it seems to be a rule that you must not drive UNDER 40 mph. at anytime, for any reason. You really have to look both ways when crossing the street, cuz here the driver apparently has the right of way. It’s insane, and I’m afraid to venture off the sidewalk. In addition, I learned from my teachers that Brazil has more Catholics than any country in the world. Makes some things easier in the sense that most people we talk too will already have some idea about God and Jesus Christ...

My companion [Elder H.] is a good guy... He’s from Vegas but then moved to Panguitch, UT last year. I doubt we’d hang out outside of a mission, but I guess such is the way companions go.

Now, my district leader. Oh, boy. I definitely had to have the faith to get on my knees and ask for the ability to get along with him. We are two completely opposite styles. Now, you know me, I like everyone. But in the first week, he basically embodied every guy I’ve never liked that I met at BYU. I can’t explain it, and he’s not a mean guy. Just the basic Band/Choir/Debate team guy that I’ve been very unable to tolerate throughout High School and my one year of college. He’s from Iowa, but went a year to BYU. Again, he did all the things that I dislike about BYU culture. I have a great love for BYU and the city of Provo, just not everything, and he represented those things. Can’t really explain. But, before you think I’m gonna have my experience tainted, things are better. He’s a very honorable and spiritual guy, just a little overzealous. I prayed VERY hard to like him, and it’s slowly coming. We talk, and I follow him as my leader. I think that things are continuing to improve. I realized that it would not be good for me to harbor those kinds of feelings toward my district leader.

Anyway, the first week was very tough. I knew that the Lord wanted me here, but I seriously doubted that I was cut out for it. It wasn’t anything specific, just the comforts of Provo (family, friends, sleeping in, etc.) seemed like it would be hard to deal with not having. I actually don’t mind getting up early, once I get rolling it’s good. One of the hardest parts was not being able to unwind at the end of the night. Class ends at 9:30, then I shower and brush teeth and stuff, then it’s about 10:00. I write in my journal, then bam, it’s light out. That was really hard, for all the Elders in my room too. But y’know, I got used to it.

So Vance is finally tying the knot, eh? Seems like they’ve been dating a while. I always wondered why he wasn’t getting hitched to her already. You know she’s Rob Magleby’s cousin, right? Rob’s gonna have Vance as a very distant in-law.

Oh, before I forget, last week I was really struggling mentally. Try as I might, my thoughts would dwell on things at home. Past and Present things. Living with Rob and Alex at good ol’ Penrose 80, Friday nights, lifting with Mat6t and Paul (although mat6t is very lazy when he lifts) and stuff that is yet to come, like hanging with the guys when we are all RMs. I realized that was not helping though, and prayed and sought a way to focus more on the work. It took a few days, but I was reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage, and I ran across a passage that I felt was an answer. You guys should read it, especially Levi for future mission reference. This passage especially. The page number escapes me, but it’s talking about when about three guys were talking to Christ and his apostles, and the first guy said that he’d love to follow Christ as an official minister. Christ responds that it is hard, because the foxes have their holes, and the birds have nests, but the son of man doesn’t have a place to rest his head. Now this is the part that got me. Elder Talmage writes (I’m paraphrasing), “Those who have been called and ordained and set apart as representatives of Jesus Christ, must be ready to abandon all comforts of home in order to attend the things of the ministry.”

Wow. I considered that an answer. I’ve been set apart as a missionary, right. So that applies to me. Since I read that, I realized that those things in the future are gonna be awesome, but if Christ could forsake all the comforts that he has, the least I can do is not be down about not hanging with my friends. I hope that two years from now, I can list this as a turning point in my mission. One from where I went from kind of a missionary missing the comforts of everything, to one who is completely lost in the work.

Thank you everyone, and to all friends, you got 1 year and 11 months to send me letters. So let’s get em coming!

Boa Tarde!

Elder Heperi =w=

First Email from Elder Heperi

Hi everyone,
Well, I~ve lasted thru my first week at this place, and made it to my first P-day! Glory be! Holy Prison as it is sometimes referred too as (even by the MTC Pres.). Flight over was...long. I only slept two hours. But it was way cool hanging with all the missionaries at the airport while we were traveling. We got a lot of strange looks, especially in Dallas and Brazil. So I~m like, alright, this mission thing is pretty good. I can do this.Then of course we arrive at the MTC, and everything changes. I sit in a classroom for eight hours. The room never changes, my seat never changes. Then we eat, go to bed.

Oh wow that was tough at first. By Friday, I thought I was wondering if I was mentally strong enough to last through this. Spiritually, I love it. The MTC (or CTM pronounced Say-Tay-Ehm) is very uplifting, and I~ve found that I have a great love for teaching the gospel. At least when it comes to English.

When it comes to Portuguese, I was way frustrated by trying to learn it. And when I thought that I~d have to teach in it, it just really overwhelmed me. But now, even though I~m far from being anything close to good, I see that it~s possible. They tell us here that there has never been a missionary who has not learned to speak the language. On Friday, I was convinced that I was destined to be the first. Now...I still might, but I don~t think so much so anymore.

Now, don~t get me wrong, I love being here, in the sense that I know that the Lord wants me here. Yeah, class is hard, and being in the same building 6 days outta 7 kind of can make people (everyone, not just me) go a little crazy sometimes, but overall I love it. I~m very grateful now for the advice that that Russian-boy Rob Magleby sent me. He said that he just got it into his mind to like the MTC, and he eventually did. Of course, he was in Provo, which has more buildings, but I~ll see how I can tolerate it. I~ve heard different advice from different Elders, but apparently if you can get past the first month, it becomes a little easier, at least in your minds. We~ll see.My district is good. I get along ok with everyone, some more than others. My companion is a good guy as well… It~s amazing to me that I could be the one to tell someone to settle down a little, but there you go.

Brazil (Braz-iw) from what I~ve seen of it, is beautiful. I was kind of imagining a lot of jungle stuff, but it appears to be more like some kind of very green New York City. The weather actually has been pretty pleasant, although the first day I thought that I was gonna be doomed to sweat for two years. but lately it~s been quite nice, Although it~s quite hot today, which I~m told is how it most likely is going to be. Although, I would love to trade the classroom sitting stuff for walking around.

The food is good at the MTC. Lots of Beans and rice, which I find very appealing actually. I could actually eat that for two years straight, I like it. Although, my digestive system appears to have to be adjusting to other shtuff here. I~m told that~s kinda what it~ll be like for two years, so I hope my bowels can take it. (heh heh). Also I~ve noticed that there is no apostrophe on this keyboard, just a weird squiggle, so I hope my contractions can be understood.

I~m trying hard to obey all the mission rules. It~s actually quite an adjustment, and sometimes I do feel like it is like a prison. (again, not my words, heard it from the MTC Pres.) But I~m obedient to them, even when I don~t understand all of them. I wake up at the right time, and get up and don~t take pictures on P-day. I know that the Lord will bless me for it. Most missionaries are obedient it seems, and I want to follow that example.I got pictures, but apparently I~m in the wrong kind of computer lab to send those, so I~ll have to send em next week. It~s pretty, but just the MTC.

Oh, I hope that my letter got received. Remember that the pouch system does NOT work anymore down here. You just have to send the letter directly. And please send me a letter anyone who reads this. No one has got any mail in our district, make me the first! Also, I~m not allowed to respond, or even read I think, e-mails from anyone else, but if anyone wants to shoot me and e-mail, MTC Pres. says it~s okay to have it forwarded by a family member. Can you be in charge of that, Levi? Talk to my friends, and if any of them wants to send me an e-mail (maybe not too lengthy, I only get 45 min. a week) they can do it thru you. Again, letter would be best since I can read it more often and have a hard copy, but this can be used to get anything too me fast.

Well, time is almost up. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and stuff, and I~ll keep working on this end.

Love,

Elder Heperi =w=