Oh, So Now We Get the Good Food...

As soon as I leave huh? So, I munch on the beans and rice for two years and you guys eat like kings, huh? Sheesh! Ha, just kidding. [Mom wrote, "We read scriptures every morning at 6:15am and then I cook breakfast for everyone."]

Sending another memory card for the camera sounds good, huh? Thanks. I’ve got a few interesting pic’s. There’s one I have of a bridge that we have to cross sometimes, Indiana Jones style one. It’s pretty cool.

So I made it thru my first transfer. It was hard, being the only English speaker (that I knew of) within my neighborhood, but my Portuguese definitely got better. Elder R.J. is good, although I have to keep remembering not to speak so much English all the time. It’s harder to remember, but now I actually speak more with the members, out of necessity, because I need the practice with native speakers now that I don’t have a Brazilian comp. Elder R. J. is a very good singer, but has different musical tastes than I do. (Who knows who Josh Groban is but not John Lennon, seriously?)

So the tracting is going better so far. Last transfer was hard because we couldn’t seem to keep any investigators. We’d find some people and teach them the first discussion, and they’d seem to be accepting and interested, but then when we’d ask if we could come back and teach more, they’d say "Nah, that’s ok." Was a bit annoying, but now we have a couple of solid investigator families.

One family is super interested and has a bunch of questions, which is good because people have a tendency not to have many questions because they’re disinterested. And, they’re actually reading from the Book of Mormon, which is a miracle here.

In my short time in this area, I’ve seen two big problems in getting people along the path to conversion. The first is that nobody seems to like to read. Even when we mark only a little part of the BOM, barely anyone reads it. The other problem is getting people to get married. Apparently it’s a little expensive, and everyone figures it’s just easier to just live together. So, I dunno, many difficulties.

Another experience is that we were knocking doors, and one guy came to the door. We figured that he was religious cuz he had a decal of the fish symbol thingy on his car. I forget what religion he was, but he was absolutely disgusted by us. He was shaking his head the whole time that Elder R. J. was explaining, and yelled that he hated to hear us telling lies, and that he had his Bible and he didn’t need our "devil-book". It was pretty intense, and needless to say, he didn’t get to hear the first lesson. I liked it because I think he was literally helping to fulfill that scripture in Nephi when he yelled "I’ve got my Bible, and I don’t need your book!" Good times!

Other than that, the weathers still hot, and the area is still steep. I dunno if I mention, but my area is like two half-pipes next to each other, so that we’re rarely walking on flat ground. And when it’s hot, oh man! I’ve never sweated so much in my life.

Oh, also, I keep forgetting to thank Grandma and Grandpa. They continually send letters and I love receiving them, but I always forget to thank them. Would you please pass along my thanks to them? And, I hope you allow them to read the non-blog stuff as well.

As always, ‘till next week, Excelsior!

-Elder =w= Heperi

P.S. Levi: Batman is still Batman in Portuguese, but the people pronounce it like "Bah-Tchee-Mahn". The Joker is "O Coringa". Spider-man is "Homem-Arahna", Superman is "Super-Homem" or just Superman. I love to learn how to say the names of Superheroes in Portuguese.

Of Football and Less Important Things

Hey Mom, I was reading your email again, and I didn´t realize that you met Pres. Monson during a football game last season (I assume that was Tulane, when it rained during that game?) So while you were conversing with the future Prophet of God in the loge, I was being yelled at by BYU Security-- sponsored by the Church-- to get my butt of the football field that we rushed. Ha, ha, ha….

Me Again...

Oh, today marks a good day, because today I can officially teach the whole first discussion in Portuguese without reading anything. Hallelujah! Now to the 2nd...

-Me again

Hope You Got My Email

I sent my message twice, so I hope that you received them.

I forgot, there´s an Elder in the other district who really likes “Redwall” like Lauren. Pretty funny. He reminds me a lot of Uncle Nate, funny enough. Something about the cadence of his voice and the glasses that he wears, uncanny…

The Bishop reminds me of your friend Dad, David Smith—the Irish, BYU Rugby coach. He looks like if your friend, born as a Brazilian. I laughed the first time I met him. He appears to like me, and actually he said that he likes that I talk more than the previous Americans, which is funny cuz I think that I don´t talk much.

Thanks again, and I hope all is well there.

Elder Heperi

P.S. How´s Rock Band, Liam? Any cool songs that I would know? Lemme know...

10 Days Without A P-Day

Hey, sorry you´ve been missing the e-mail from me, but the fact is that I didn´t send one. We got a letter from Pres. Leal last week, which was a letter from Pres. Didier, and our P-day got changed from Monday to Wednesday. So from now on, expect a letter on Wednesday. Needless to say, the last couple of days have been a bit difficult. 10 days straight without a P-day. Ouch!

Ha, so I hope that everybody wasn´t too worried about me. Rest assured that if I am struck by a car or bitten by a rabid animal (and there are many in this town), you´ll probably hear about it by phone, so no news from me is good news. [Mom is settled now because of the examples Luke shared… not!]

So first, I´m gettin’ letters from some of my missionary buddies? Sweet! From Mrs. Kelemen, huh? Mother of Mark Kelemen, who is serving in the Atlanta, Georgia Spanish speaking mission, very cool. I´ll be looking forward to those. Thank you!

Well, I made it thru my first transfer. It was hard, with not knowing the language and just generally being new, but I think that I did well. And surprise, I´m getting a new companion! Elder M. got transferred to another city, I just said goodbye to him this morning. I haven´t met my new companion yet, (right now I´m hanging with another Elder from my district until our new companions arrive from Londrina) but his name is Elder R. Johnson (R. because there are many Johnson’s, and there needs to be a difference on some nametags, and apparently he´s even more musically inclined then I am) and he´s American.

Now there are some good things and bad things about that. The good thing is that now if I have a question that I can´t express in Portuguese, I can ask him and get an answer in English. The bad part is that I have to watch the temptation to speak English too much, and also that my accent in Portuguese probably won´t develop as fast with an American, but that´s all right, I need to get the pronunciation down first.

So I have yet to meet my new companion, he should be here in about three hours. I´ve spent half this p-day waiting at the bus station because the LEZ´s didn´t know exactly what time they would be arriving, which was annoying, but that´s ok. I´ll let you guys know how it goes.

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention, but I got a violin from somebody here. Got, in the sense that a Sister in the ward heard that I play, and she´s letting me borrow it for as long as I´m in the area. I think it´s a 3/4 size one, not full, so it´s slightly awkward to play, but it´s nice to play the violin again. Apparently, I´m playing in Stake Conference at an undetermined date. Also, I managed to teach myself how to play some chords on the violin, so now it´s like I have a mini-guitar with me. Heh, it´s pretty cool. I learned to play A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief with the chords (It only has two, Ab and Eb, who knew? Hard to play on the Piano, Easy on the Violin/Guitar). So anyway, I´m pretty happy about that.

As far as getting adjusted, I think that I´m doing better, both language and culture-wise. As I get better with the language, I find that I can relate to the people better. Last week, some of the guys our age from our ward came over and we played a couple of games of Uno. It was pretty fun, and got a little competitive.

Well, not too much else. Again, P-day is Wednesday now (subject to further change, so if go more than the usual time without hearing from me, just assume that that´s the reason), and pray that my skills with the language will continue to improve with my new American comp.

Thanks again, and I look forward to the mail time. We´ll get some during our next district meeting (Monday or Tuesday I believe), so I´ll see if the shtuff you sent arrives.

Thanks again, and bye!

Well, ´till next week, Excelsior!

Elder =w= Heperi

Which Apostasy do you attend?

Well, this week was a little tough. I got a little sick about Wednesday or so (not completely sick, I just had a cold), and the roasting hot weather that we’ve been having hasn’t been great for it either. I think that I got a little dehydrated, so I’ve been drinking a lot more. It’s a bit of a pain, and I think that I literally sweat about 24 hrs. a day, but it’s fine. I’m still not 100% yet, but I’m definitely on the upswing from the cold. Besides that, the week was mostly good. I had to learn to stay motivated and continue to work hard even though I really just wanted to lie in bed. It was a good learning experience.

We also had another couple of spilt’s this week. One that was an all day split that I had with another American Elder, (Their house is a lot nicer than ours, so that was cool), and another split I had was with our American zone leader, again. His name’s Elder C., and I found out that he went to high school with Austin and Zack Collie (BYU!), and he knows them quite well. We talked some football at night, and that was pretty sweet.

When I was tracting with my zone leader, we knocked on a door (clapped actually, in Brazil everyone has the gates on their houses, so you have to clap to get their attention. A little strange at first, but I’m getting better at clapping) and asked the guy there if he would like to hear our message. He let us in to his front area, and we started teaching the first discussion. When it was my turn to teach about Joseph Smith, I struggled a little because I’m still learning to teach that part. Anyway, the guy kept interrupting me and saying that he didn’t understand a word that I was saying and that I needed to speak better. That was pretty discouraging, but then when my zone leader, Elder C.(who is fluent in Portuguese) continued teaching, the guy continued to say that he couldn’t understand what he was saying. It went something like this:

"So, Joseph Smith was a boy, who in 1820, was confused..."
"Wait, wait, wait, are you speaking Portuguese? Because I can’t understand what you’re saying!"
"Oh, sorry, the message is hard to understand?"
"No, no I can’t understand a word that you’re saying!"
"Really? Not a word?"
"Nope! Nothing!"
"Do you understand what I’m saying right now?"
"No! I can’t understand you!"

So the guy was just being stupid, thinking that he could convince these two missionaries that he couldn’t understand our Portuguese. So I felt better after that.

Obviously, I can’t speak very well yet, and I bet that he couldn’t understand everything I was saying, but that guy was telling someone who could speak that he couldn’t. My zone leader was pretty ticked after that, and he continued to teach a little bit, though he’d mutter some stuff in English… in between. Needless to say, we ended the lesson shortly thereafter. Ha, so not every experience is as uplifting as the next, but it’s good.

In other news, our washing machine arrived (finally!) this week. It’s been sitting at the house of the Sisters in our area, which is across town and we had no way of getting it, but a member was kind enough to pick it up for us, for which we are very grateful. It’s very nice to not have to take 2 hours every P-day to wash clothes. My nap time has greatly increased! Ha ha, just kidding. We don’t nap all day, but it’s nice to have some more time freed up.

Oh, something funny that we do with our contacts. A word that nobody outside of our church understands here in Brazil is "Apostasy". If you bring it up when talking with someone on the street, they think that it means Church. So sometimes, if people say they don’t want to hear our message because they attend some other church, we ask "Oh, which Apostasy do you attend?" And they’ll say "Oh, this church" or something like that. It’s kinda funny. I wondered why nobody knows what Apostasy means until Elder C. pointed out that this is the last doctrine the dominant religion, here, is gonna teach about. So, just some fun that we have with contacts down here.

Thanks for sending the music and stuff Mom. And also sometime in the future (not now of course, I’m trying not to be greedy) but when the church comes out with a new picture of the new First Presidency, could I get one? That’s actually one of the questions that comes up occasionally during lessons "You guys have a prophet? What’s he look like?" It was good when we found out that President Monson was sustained as the new prophet, because otherwise we were telling the people "Well, right now the last prophet just died, so now we have 14 men that collectively all guide the church..." So, it’s cool that we have him as the Prophet.

I’m plugging along pretty slowly with the Book of Mormon. First I read a chapter in English then write down any passage or knowledge that comes to me, and then I read it in Portuguese out loud. It’s painstakingly slow, but I know that it’ll get faster as I improve with the language. It helps my Portuguese a lot, and actually, I’m seeing that Portuguese is translated into somewhat more modern speak than in English. The down side is that things in Portuguese take a lot longer to say (word length wise) than in English. O Livro De Mórmon in Portuguese is about 100 pages longer than The Book of Mormon in English, so that’ll give you a little idea. Actually, I’m at the point where I can read basically any passage in the BOM and have a general idea about what is going on. Specifics are harder, but I’m happy that I can at least find something that I understand now.

Well, that’s it for this week, so c-ya!

Thanks for everything family. I’m doing good here. As I’ve said before, missions are incredibly different from what I thought that they were, and it’s pretty tough, but I’m coming to enjoy it more.

Elder =w= Heperi

Because this past week was brutal!

Newly formed First Presidency of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

(left: Elder Henry B. Eyring , 1st Counselor; center: President Monson;

right: Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 2nd Counselor.)

Thomas S. Monson, newly called President of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Presidents Monson and Eyring

preparing for President Gordon B. Hinckley's funeral.

Because this past week was brutal! Not really any more than a really hot Utah summer, but when you’ve gotta be in missionary clothes walking around, it seems a lot hotter than it really is. Everybody pray that a miracle happens and that Baurú receives two feet of snow this week.

So first off with the questions, me and my companion are assigned to a ward. Our stake is the Baurú Stake, and our ward is called Marechal Rondon. Maybe you can find the address from the church website and then see my chapel on Google Earth. And I´m assigned to work in the area of one ward, the rest of our district and zone are spread out over the course of Baurú.

Thanks for forwarding that letter from Rob, it was really good to hear from him. And actually, what he wrote about helped me immensely. It’s nice to know that what is hard to deal with in a mission in Brazil is the same as in a mission in Russia. Thanks Spidey. Anyone know how Elder Morrise is doing?

So last week, we had a split for a day and a half. These usually happen about once every other week. Elder M... is District Leader here, so he needs to work with the other Elders sometimes, and it also allows everyone to work with the rest of the Elders. I like them, cuz it lets me get to know the other Elders. We traded with our zone leaders, and I got to work with Elder C..., the American Zone leader (woot!). It was pretty good. We worked very hard, but we also had a good time. It was nice to hang with an American for a day. We spoke Portuguese as often as possible, but if I had a question that I couldn’t explain in Portuguese, it was nice to have it answered by a person who could understand it. The only bad part is that Elder M… neglected to tell me that I was going to be spending the night at the Zone Leaders house. Which meant that I had no new clothes, or any of my stuff other than what was in my bag. I felt gross for the better part of the next day, but it was fine after I got home, so no worries.

We got to watch Pres. Hinckley’s funeral live, which was very good. I thought that it wasn’t too sad, it just reminded me of how much he’s done for us. We got to watch the whole thing, and the Brazilian’s thought it was cool to see all the snow on the ground. As well as houses with lawns and without big gates all around. Ah, that made me miss Utah a bit. I miss being cold, and I miss carpet. There is very little of it here.

In the area of bad news, the past few days was not good in terms of our investigators. About five of them chose to stop investigation for various reasons, (Husband doesn’t like us teaching, joined a different church, just wants to bible bash) so that was hard. Ah well, hopefully it will improve. We gots to get us some new investigators!

Well, till next week.

Elder =w= Heperi