Well, I´d say that this week was pretty eventful. On Thursday night, the Zone Leaders called and said that I was going to have an emergency transfer, and that I needed to be packed and ready to go by Saturday morning! We knew that someone in our zone was gonna have to be moved around, (some Brazilian Elder was having heart problems and had to go home, but this was his last transfer anyway), but, it didn´t occur to me that that someone would be me. So we had to cancel some appointments for Friday (Including a FHE meeting with some inactives that are really nice), so that I would have time to pack. I spent sometime saying goodbye to people, and was almost done packing on Friday night, when the phone rang again. And guess what? The ZL said that I was NOT going after all. Pres. Leal had changed his mind. Ha ha, sheesh! I was relieved though, (though I still haven´t unpacked everything yet) because I didn´t wanna leave my area prematurely. Anyway, we only have two weeks left in the transfer, so I´ll see what happens then.
Oh yeah, I forgot to say congrat's to Britney on her wedding. You´ve been mentioning that in your emails, but I always forget. Hope the wedding goes/went well! (Did it happen yet? I forgot.)Also, I forgot to say congrat's to Josh Loner for gettin´ his call to Fortaleza. Talisa wrote me about that a couple months ago, but I kept forgetting. I hope you enjoy the heat man, and just make sure you keep your sanity in the MTC, it doesn´t last forever! The other American district that flew in with mine was a Fortaleza district, so ask any and all American Elders you meet if they know an Elder Heperi.
Zone Conference was two days ago in Marlilia, which is always fun because we get to take a van ride for a couple hours thru Brazil, and see some other missionaries. I saw Elder Monterossa there, and it was sweet to catch up and see how he´s doing. None of the Brazilians believe that he´s American because his accent is near perfect in Portuguese, of which I´m very jealous. And on the way up and back, we got to watch two movies. On the way up we watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks' (It´s translated as "Alvin and the Squirrels" in Portuguese, because no one knows what a Chipmunk is, and a few people know what a squirrel is from T.V. There are no squirrels here.), and about 2/3 of "Bee Movie". Both bootlegged and in Portuguese, but very enjoyable nonetheless. The only bad part of the day was that the secretaries in Londrina miss placed our letters, so while I got both packages (Tell Tota thank you for that package as well, I really appreciate the razors. I loved the pics that you got. I haven´t even seen half of those.), I probably won´t get those letters for a little while (possibly three weeks). Thank you to any and all who wrote me, and as soon as I get ém I´ll try to send a reply.
We had to cut some investigators this week because they were not progressing anymore and always had some excuse why they couldn´t attend church or receive our visits. One old man that we were teaching wouldn´t come to church because he thought his shoes were too ugly for the chapel, and as he put it, "Do you think the Lord had ugly shoes? No, so I can´t either."
I think that´s it for now.
Well, as always, stay classy Provo.
Excelsior!-Eldah =w= Hepdizzle
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Day at the Farm
Sorry the reply is a little late. It got a little busy, yesterday, so we had to do internet today. Anyway, yesterday, we went to somebody's farm to play soccer. It was pretty good, not much to report from there, other than that it reminded me of the farm back in New Zealand.
So this week was more eventful. Last week Elder RJ had to go to Londrina to renew his Visa, so I got to hang with the other Elders at the other house.We played Risk all P-day, and made a rule that every other game would have to all be spoken in English or Portuguese. It was funny to hear one of the Brazilians say "I will kill your people," in English to indicate that he was attacking.
Afterwards, we all went out in a big group to do contacts and stuff. There were about 7 Elders because Elder RJ wasn´t there, so we split off into smaller groups to talk to people. I was working with two Brazilian Elders when we met up with everyone else. I was still needing to talk to one more person to finish the night, so I walked just a little bit ahead of the group. I spotted an older lady who probably is about half my height walking alone, and decided that she looked good to talk to. We were headed back to the house, so all the contacts were pretty quick. Mine went kinda like this:
me-"Good evening Senhora, how are you?"
her-"Good" (At this point I talk for a second about the message and offer her a pass along card)
me-"Our Church is giving this DVD about Jesus Cristo, and all..." (At this point she looked at my name tag and realized which church I was from, and says something that I couldn´t quite hear.
me-"Sorry?" (At this point she snatches the pass along card from my had and says quite loudly while hitting me a couple of times in the chest.)
her- "I´M ALREADY PART OF THAT CHURCH RIGHT THERE!" (She says pointing at a Church that´s by us, (and it´s HUGE. It literally takes up the whole city block. It´s nowhere near as big as the conference center, but it´s big. You could easily drive a couple of trucks thru the front door.)
Then she grabs the pass along card and takes off. By this time the rest of the Elders have caught up to me and have been watching. They all saw what happened and everybody bursts out laughing, me too. It was probably the weirdest contact I´ve done yet, being assaulted by an old lady half my size. At least she took the card though!
This week we were gonna invite Pat... to get baptized, but she had a lot of concerns about the sacrament and other things. We did a split with a couple of the young men in our ward, and I had to be the one directing stuff for the first time, as the guy I was with is just a Priest. We taught the Plan of Salvation to Pat..., and she had many questions about everything. She got particularly hung up on the Fall of Adam part. Coming from a different Christian background, she was used to thinking that the Fall was a bad thing, and she was kinda having a hard time accepting the way we see it as necessary. But she said she´d pray and fast about it, and we´re going by there later today to teach her. Hopefully she´s gotten over her concerns.
Hey, that´s funny that you mentioned the mix up with the FLDS Church, because we have been getting a lot of that lately. Not being able to watch TV, we haven´t really heard about it, directly, but lately some people we talk to ask us why we´re doing that stuff that they´ve seen on TV. We´ve had to explain the difference, as the news programs here label them as LDS as well.
Well, that´s it for now. Hope everybody´s week is going well.
Excelcior!
-Elder =w= Heperi
p.s. Thanks for sharing that part about Elder Ballard. I was thinking a little bit about that too... Elder Ballard is one of my favorites, and I love his book Our Search for Happiness, in the mission library.
So Flogging Molly´s got a new album, huh, Levi? I´d love to hear it, ha.
Sorry Lauren, I don´t know what August Rush is. Is it that movie with Robin Williams in it? I saw the previews for that before I left. Also, one of the members kids was watching Alvin and the Chipmunks (It´s called "Alvin and the Squirrels" in Portuguese, because no one knows what a chipmunk is, here.) at lunch one day, and it looked pretty funny. Did you get to see it?
That´s okay that you haven´t won a game yet, Liam. My soccer team that I chose to like here in Brazil (The Corinthians), were so bad that they got demoted to the 2nd Division, so as long as you don´t play THAT badly you can feel good.
Thanks again guys, and look for that package in the mail. It´s bright orange so you can´t miss is. Aaaaannnd...in less than a month I´ll get to chat with you guys. So come prepared with any questions, and I´ll teach you to insult each other in Portuguese!
Bye!
-Me
p.p.s.-I heard about that Missionary who got killed. That is sad. But I read a quote by Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith that said that no righteous man is ever taken before his time, so that´s good.
So this week was more eventful. Last week Elder RJ had to go to Londrina to renew his Visa, so I got to hang with the other Elders at the other house.We played Risk all P-day, and made a rule that every other game would have to all be spoken in English or Portuguese. It was funny to hear one of the Brazilians say "I will kill your people," in English to indicate that he was attacking.
Afterwards, we all went out in a big group to do contacts and stuff. There were about 7 Elders because Elder RJ wasn´t there, so we split off into smaller groups to talk to people. I was working with two Brazilian Elders when we met up with everyone else. I was still needing to talk to one more person to finish the night, so I walked just a little bit ahead of the group. I spotted an older lady who probably is about half my height walking alone, and decided that she looked good to talk to. We were headed back to the house, so all the contacts were pretty quick. Mine went kinda like this:
me-"Good evening Senhora, how are you?"
her-"Good" (At this point I talk for a second about the message and offer her a pass along card)
me-"Our Church is giving this DVD about Jesus Cristo, and all..." (At this point she looked at my name tag and realized which church I was from, and says something that I couldn´t quite hear.
me-"Sorry?" (At this point she snatches the pass along card from my had and says quite loudly while hitting me a couple of times in the chest.)
her- "I´M ALREADY PART OF THAT CHURCH RIGHT THERE!" (She says pointing at a Church that´s by us, (and it´s HUGE. It literally takes up the whole city block. It´s nowhere near as big as the conference center, but it´s big. You could easily drive a couple of trucks thru the front door.)
Then she grabs the pass along card and takes off. By this time the rest of the Elders have caught up to me and have been watching. They all saw what happened and everybody bursts out laughing, me too. It was probably the weirdest contact I´ve done yet, being assaulted by an old lady half my size. At least she took the card though!
This week we were gonna invite Pat... to get baptized, but she had a lot of concerns about the sacrament and other things. We did a split with a couple of the young men in our ward, and I had to be the one directing stuff for the first time, as the guy I was with is just a Priest. We taught the Plan of Salvation to Pat..., and she had many questions about everything. She got particularly hung up on the Fall of Adam part. Coming from a different Christian background, she was used to thinking that the Fall was a bad thing, and she was kinda having a hard time accepting the way we see it as necessary. But she said she´d pray and fast about it, and we´re going by there later today to teach her. Hopefully she´s gotten over her concerns.
Hey, that´s funny that you mentioned the mix up with the FLDS Church, because we have been getting a lot of that lately. Not being able to watch TV, we haven´t really heard about it, directly, but lately some people we talk to ask us why we´re doing that stuff that they´ve seen on TV. We´ve had to explain the difference, as the news programs here label them as LDS as well.
Well, that´s it for now. Hope everybody´s week is going well.
Excelcior!
-Elder =w= Heperi
p.s. Thanks for sharing that part about Elder Ballard. I was thinking a little bit about that too... Elder Ballard is one of my favorites, and I love his book Our Search for Happiness, in the mission library.
So Flogging Molly´s got a new album, huh, Levi? I´d love to hear it, ha.
Sorry Lauren, I don´t know what August Rush is. Is it that movie with Robin Williams in it? I saw the previews for that before I left. Also, one of the members kids was watching Alvin and the Chipmunks (It´s called "Alvin and the Squirrels" in Portuguese, because no one knows what a chipmunk is, here.) at lunch one day, and it looked pretty funny. Did you get to see it?
That´s okay that you haven´t won a game yet, Liam. My soccer team that I chose to like here in Brazil (The Corinthians), were so bad that they got demoted to the 2nd Division, so as long as you don´t play THAT badly you can feel good.
Thanks again guys, and look for that package in the mail. It´s bright orange so you can´t miss is. Aaaaannnd...in less than a month I´ll get to chat with you guys. So come prepared with any questions, and I´ll teach you to insult each other in Portuguese!
Bye!
-Me
p.p.s.-I heard about that Missionary who got killed. That is sad. But I read a quote by Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith that said that no righteous man is ever taken before his time, so that´s good.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Chilly in Brazilly
So we´re finally having a bit of a cold spell here in Bauru. It was actually just a bit cold, which was paradise for me. But as for all the Brazilians here...you´d think it was a winter in downtown New York or something. Everyone was walking around in coats and sweaters and scarves, meanwhile I was loving it. Actually, yesterday was important, because it was the first day since I left the US that I didn't sweat a single drop. It was pretty awesome.
Hmmm, this week wasn't too eventful. More of the same, and I'm getting more and more used to things here. Right now Elder R. J. is on his way to Londrina to renew his visa, so I´m staying at the house of the Zone Leaders tonight. (On a side note, I've never been able to go to bed on time when we have to trade houses. Seriously, last time, my former zone leaders held a big wrestling match with the mattress, and when things finally settled down and I was saying my nightly prayers, all three Elders tackled me! But luckily I was able to fight them off.)
Yesterday, while we were walking around, a guy stopped me (kind of an older man) and asked me if we were Catholic. When I responded “No” he said “No? No?! Shut up!” Then he just continued walking. I dunno if he was just a little drunk or what, but I was pleased that I was able to answer his question about the church.
Well, I think that´s it for this instalment. Sorry it´s not long, I´ll try harder next week.
Excelsior!
Elder =w= Heperi
Kylen's home already? Sheesh, those two years weren´t very long. That´s weird how fast time passes. I mean, I´ve almost got 6 months, Rob and Alex with have a year this July, Andy comes home in August, Jeremy comes home in Dec., and Dave will be home in March. I´m trying to work harder as I realize that this time here is pretty short. Language is coming along better. Sometimes better than others... bye.
Hmmm, this week wasn't too eventful. More of the same, and I'm getting more and more used to things here. Right now Elder R. J. is on his way to Londrina to renew his visa, so I´m staying at the house of the Zone Leaders tonight. (On a side note, I've never been able to go to bed on time when we have to trade houses. Seriously, last time, my former zone leaders held a big wrestling match with the mattress, and when things finally settled down and I was saying my nightly prayers, all three Elders tackled me! But luckily I was able to fight them off.)
Yesterday, while we were walking around, a guy stopped me (kind of an older man) and asked me if we were Catholic. When I responded “No” he said “No? No?! Shut up!” Then he just continued walking. I dunno if he was just a little drunk or what, but I was pleased that I was able to answer his question about the church.
Well, I think that´s it for this instalment. Sorry it´s not long, I´ll try harder next week.
Excelsior!
Elder =w= Heperi
Kylen's home already? Sheesh, those two years weren´t very long. That´s weird how fast time passes. I mean, I´ve almost got 6 months, Rob and Alex with have a year this July, Andy comes home in August, Jeremy comes home in Dec., and Dave will be home in March. I´m trying to work harder as I realize that this time here is pretty short. Language is coming along better. Sometimes better than others... bye.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Who Messed With Kolob?
Well first off, I made a mistake in giving you that Portuguese word. The word that I gave last week, "Cada", means "each". The word that I wanted to give was "Cara", which is "Dude" or "Man". The pronunciations are pretty close, which is why I messed up. Now I feel even more like a "greenie" with that mistake.
Proselyting was good this week. We made some good contacts, and I found out that my least favorite phrase to hear is, "Listen guys, I already have God/Jesus inside my heart". I´m not quite sure why people use that on us... I think they use it to try to make us go away. I hear that phrase at least a few times a day.
General Conference week was good. We got to see all 5 sessions, though as I´m 5 hours ahead of you, Priesthood Session ended at around 11 pm, so I was almost falling asleep by then. Although I was very alert to see Pres. Monson´s first talk as Prophet. That ear thing he did was the best thing that I had seen all week!
I liked the conference sessions a lot. But I didn´t like one thing. I dunno if I ever said this, but "If You Could Hie To Kolob" is my favorite hymn (even more now since they don´t have it in the Portuguese Hymn book, which means we never get to sing it), and I was excited when I heard that they were singing it. But it was the wrong tune! Whoever decided that the tune should be changed to the one that they sang should be... I dunno, but I didn´t like it. That´s what makes the song so great, the cool tune that it had, and they had to go and change it. That was the first time that the M-tab has let me down.
We got Pat... to come to the 1st Sunday session. It was a huge pain trying to find someone who could give her and us a ride though, but finally the members that we had lunch with that day offered one. They´re kind of a younger couple, no kids yet. What was funny was when we pulled up at Pat´s house, the Brother who was driving turned around and said "Uhhh... she lives here?""Yeah""Hmmm... I think I used to date her." Ha, at this point his wife is looking at him and me and Elder Johnson are laughing. We asked him if this was gonna be an awkward car ride, but he said that he didn´t think so. Long story short, it wasn´t awkward, and turns out that he didn´t date her, just knew her in high school.
So anyway, Pat... came, which was great. But we were sad to hear that her and Vand... separated again (I say again because apparently they´ve separated and gotten back together a few times). But she said that she was doing well and that she really enjoyed conference. We´re gonna extend a baptismal invitation to her next time, so I hope she continues her reading in the BOM.
Oh yeah, you know in the Mormon Tab. Choir, did anyone see that guy in there who looks exactly like Conan O´Brien? I know that you must have seen him, Levi. It´s great to see that the gospel is spreading even to people who resemble Conan.
In addition, I got to teach my first real lesson in English. We practiced in the MTC during the first couple of weeks teaching in English, but from then on it´s just been straight Portuguese lessons. But at conference, (us Americans were watching it in a classroom in English while everyone else was in the chapel watching in Portuguese) some Brother from our stake came in with a girl who´s from Indonesia. I guess he was in charge of her, but he doesn´t really speak English at all, just a few phrases. I´d guess that she´s in her mid-twenties, and doesn´t speak a whole lot of Portuguese. Her name was Sukur or Sukor or something like that. (She speaks less Portuguese than I do, which is waaaaaaay little) and she´s about 2/3 fluent in English. Anyway, turns out she´s here working or something, and she´s investigating the church. So my zone leader assigned me and another American Elder to take her on a tour of the chapel in between sessions, and give her the first lesson. It was kinda strange to teach in English, and I´m sorry to say that I don´t think the lesson was really good, (partly because I´m not used to teaching in English, and partly because I still need to work on my teaching skills) but she seemed to understand. When I asked her how familiar she is with the Bible, she responded that she´s read the whole thing cover to cover 8 times! So... more familiar than the majority of us Elders-- I think.
She had many questions about the Church as she only found out who Joseph Smith was today, and I was grateful that the conference talks that followed afterward were about how the BIble connects with the Book of Mormon so she could see that for herself. She was very accepting, and accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon, (which is rare because the majority of the people that we teach don´t like to read. I swear that sometimes people just have books on the shelves to have books.) Unfortunately she doesn´t live in our area, so we won´t be able to see how she progresses, but it was cool to help someone out. I know what it´s like to be in a place where not many people are speaking your language (actually it´s worse for her, cuz I dunno if anyone speaks her Indonesian language in Brazil), so it was easy for me to see her situation.
One funny thing that happened was during the tour of the chapel when we were asking her about Indonesia. She had just finished explaining about her city and other stuff in kind of halting English, when one of the Brazilian Elders came up and asked in broken English as well "So, where are you from?" She kinda gave an exasperated sigh, and they tried to talk with each other. The conversation didn´t last very long, as it was a Brazilian speaking with a Brazilian accent to an Indonesian person speaking with an Indonesian accent in a language that is native to neither of them. It was just funny to watch, and not nearly as funny on paper. Somewhere there is a punchline in that situation, but I can´t find it.
Well, that´s it for this week. Oh yeah, I remember that I saw in the BYU choir (I think), James Duncan and Jessica Heaton. When I saw them I pointed at the TV and said "Those people went to my high school!", and everyone told me to shut up and watch conference. Nothing like the warm care of the Elders!
Again, ´till next week. Excelsior!
-Elder =w= Heperi
Oh yeah, I got the package with the music and cards, and will send the one out today or tomorrow depending if the Post office is closed already. I hope I haven´t forgotten anything. As always, thanks guys, and I´ll talk to you next week.
Proselyting was good this week. We made some good contacts, and I found out that my least favorite phrase to hear is, "Listen guys, I already have God/Jesus inside my heart". I´m not quite sure why people use that on us... I think they use it to try to make us go away. I hear that phrase at least a few times a day.
General Conference week was good. We got to see all 5 sessions, though as I´m 5 hours ahead of you, Priesthood Session ended at around 11 pm, so I was almost falling asleep by then. Although I was very alert to see Pres. Monson´s first talk as Prophet. That ear thing he did was the best thing that I had seen all week!
I liked the conference sessions a lot. But I didn´t like one thing. I dunno if I ever said this, but "If You Could Hie To Kolob" is my favorite hymn (even more now since they don´t have it in the Portuguese Hymn book, which means we never get to sing it), and I was excited when I heard that they were singing it. But it was the wrong tune! Whoever decided that the tune should be changed to the one that they sang should be... I dunno, but I didn´t like it. That´s what makes the song so great, the cool tune that it had, and they had to go and change it. That was the first time that the M-tab has let me down.
We got Pat... to come to the 1st Sunday session. It was a huge pain trying to find someone who could give her and us a ride though, but finally the members that we had lunch with that day offered one. They´re kind of a younger couple, no kids yet. What was funny was when we pulled up at Pat´s house, the Brother who was driving turned around and said "Uhhh... she lives here?""Yeah""Hmmm... I think I used to date her." Ha, at this point his wife is looking at him and me and Elder Johnson are laughing. We asked him if this was gonna be an awkward car ride, but he said that he didn´t think so. Long story short, it wasn´t awkward, and turns out that he didn´t date her, just knew her in high school.
So anyway, Pat... came, which was great. But we were sad to hear that her and Vand... separated again (I say again because apparently they´ve separated and gotten back together a few times). But she said that she was doing well and that she really enjoyed conference. We´re gonna extend a baptismal invitation to her next time, so I hope she continues her reading in the BOM.
Oh yeah, you know in the Mormon Tab. Choir, did anyone see that guy in there who looks exactly like Conan O´Brien? I know that you must have seen him, Levi. It´s great to see that the gospel is spreading even to people who resemble Conan.
In addition, I got to teach my first real lesson in English. We practiced in the MTC during the first couple of weeks teaching in English, but from then on it´s just been straight Portuguese lessons. But at conference, (us Americans were watching it in a classroom in English while everyone else was in the chapel watching in Portuguese) some Brother from our stake came in with a girl who´s from Indonesia. I guess he was in charge of her, but he doesn´t really speak English at all, just a few phrases. I´d guess that she´s in her mid-twenties, and doesn´t speak a whole lot of Portuguese. Her name was Sukur or Sukor or something like that. (She speaks less Portuguese than I do, which is waaaaaaay little) and she´s about 2/3 fluent in English. Anyway, turns out she´s here working or something, and she´s investigating the church. So my zone leader assigned me and another American Elder to take her on a tour of the chapel in between sessions, and give her the first lesson. It was kinda strange to teach in English, and I´m sorry to say that I don´t think the lesson was really good, (partly because I´m not used to teaching in English, and partly because I still need to work on my teaching skills) but she seemed to understand. When I asked her how familiar she is with the Bible, she responded that she´s read the whole thing cover to cover 8 times! So... more familiar than the majority of us Elders-- I think.
She had many questions about the Church as she only found out who Joseph Smith was today, and I was grateful that the conference talks that followed afterward were about how the BIble connects with the Book of Mormon so she could see that for herself. She was very accepting, and accepted the challenge to read the Book of Mormon, (which is rare because the majority of the people that we teach don´t like to read. I swear that sometimes people just have books on the shelves to have books.) Unfortunately she doesn´t live in our area, so we won´t be able to see how she progresses, but it was cool to help someone out. I know what it´s like to be in a place where not many people are speaking your language (actually it´s worse for her, cuz I dunno if anyone speaks her Indonesian language in Brazil), so it was easy for me to see her situation.
One funny thing that happened was during the tour of the chapel when we were asking her about Indonesia. She had just finished explaining about her city and other stuff in kind of halting English, when one of the Brazilian Elders came up and asked in broken English as well "So, where are you from?" She kinda gave an exasperated sigh, and they tried to talk with each other. The conversation didn´t last very long, as it was a Brazilian speaking with a Brazilian accent to an Indonesian person speaking with an Indonesian accent in a language that is native to neither of them. It was just funny to watch, and not nearly as funny on paper. Somewhere there is a punchline in that situation, but I can´t find it.
Well, that´s it for this week. Oh yeah, I remember that I saw in the BYU choir (I think), James Duncan and Jessica Heaton. When I saw them I pointed at the TV and said "Those people went to my high school!", and everyone told me to shut up and watch conference. Nothing like the warm care of the Elders!
Again, ´till next week. Excelsior!
-Elder =w= Heperi
Oh yeah, I got the package with the music and cards, and will send the one out today or tomorrow depending if the Post office is closed already. I hope I haven´t forgotten anything. As always, thanks guys, and I´ll talk to you next week.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Well, I Jumped the Gun on That One.
Turns out rumors of me leaving were a farce. We just goes to show you that you shouldn't always believe what your comp tells you. I'm still in Bauru. You were right this time, Dad.
(Oh yeah, the worms are gone. I guess that they just kind get digested after a while. I'm worm free as of right now.) Thanks for the letter, Mom (the worms are honestly gone, for sure)
On a side note, my comp. will definitely leave after this transfer because the singing group that we have in our mission will start up again next transfer. Taking that into consideration, I could be in my area for a while. Not that I´m complaining, I like my area, just not my house. Like that house Rob wrote about on his mission, ours is pretty "Soviet" as well. We're having roof leaking problems, and when it rains in the morning, I have to be careful where I'm sitting, otherwise I'll get rained on.
So, this week was pretty good. Almost everyone in our zone got transferred (I think that me and Elder R. J. are the only ones that didn't move), and right now we've been attending a BBQ with a bunch of other Elders. AND, I'm not the newest American anymore. We got a new American today, which means I'm no longer the "greenie" as members sometimes refer to me or "gringo." (Funny side note, I thought that I could get out of being called gringo because I don't look like a typical American to Brazilians, which turned out to be wrong, I still get the label. But one thing I did get out of being called is "Alemão". It means "German" in Portuguese, but some Brazilians here just use it to refer to any White American. At least they know I'm definitely not German. (I´m not, am I?)
Elder RJ's family lives in Orem, and he plans to attend BYU after the mission, so I guess that he's a "prospective" student/fan of the university.
Also, I´m excited for General Conference. It was cool to invite our investigators to attend conference this Saturday and Sunday to hear the Prophets and Apostles speak. Patricia said that she'd definitely be there with Vanderlay, so we´re excited. We've only had two discussions with them, but they´re progressing really well. Also, people are excited to see who the new apostle will be. I´m guessing Elder Groberg, because he´s the only seventy that I can remember.
So you guys are going to conference on Sat, huh? Who wants to yell "Luke Heperi is the *Cada!" really loud to see if the microphones pick it up for me? (That's a joke.)
Well, that´s all for this installment.
Excelsior!
-Elder =w= Heperi
*Possibly my favorite aspect of Portuguese, the word "Cada". Literally it means "Face", and Brazilians use it the same way that we use "Dude" or "Man". So when I hear teenagers greeting each other, it´s always "What's up, face?"
For Dad: Ha, so you took a listen to the Portuguese scriptures, huh? Well, there are many parts that I can´t understand exactly what´s going on either. (Like Isaiah, hard to understand in English...but actually surprisingly a little bit easier to understand in Portuguese. I've found that some of the words used in the Portuguese scrips are in slightly less formal language than English, and some of the words that Isaiah uses in the 2nd Nephi chapters use Portuguese words that I can look up and understand, so that's a bonus for the language. Nothin' like Isaiah to expand your vocabulary!)
(Oh yeah, the worms are gone. I guess that they just kind get digested after a while. I'm worm free as of right now.) Thanks for the letter, Mom (the worms are honestly gone, for sure)
On a side note, my comp. will definitely leave after this transfer because the singing group that we have in our mission will start up again next transfer. Taking that into consideration, I could be in my area for a while. Not that I´m complaining, I like my area, just not my house. Like that house Rob wrote about on his mission, ours is pretty "Soviet" as well. We're having roof leaking problems, and when it rains in the morning, I have to be careful where I'm sitting, otherwise I'll get rained on.
So, this week was pretty good. Almost everyone in our zone got transferred (I think that me and Elder R. J. are the only ones that didn't move), and right now we've been attending a BBQ with a bunch of other Elders. AND, I'm not the newest American anymore. We got a new American today, which means I'm no longer the "greenie" as members sometimes refer to me or "gringo." (Funny side note, I thought that I could get out of being called gringo because I don't look like a typical American to Brazilians, which turned out to be wrong, I still get the label. But one thing I did get out of being called is "Alemão". It means "German" in Portuguese, but some Brazilians here just use it to refer to any White American. At least they know I'm definitely not German. (I´m not, am I?)
Elder RJ's family lives in Orem, and he plans to attend BYU after the mission, so I guess that he's a "prospective" student/fan of the university.
Also, I´m excited for General Conference. It was cool to invite our investigators to attend conference this Saturday and Sunday to hear the Prophets and Apostles speak. Patricia said that she'd definitely be there with Vanderlay, so we´re excited. We've only had two discussions with them, but they´re progressing really well. Also, people are excited to see who the new apostle will be. I´m guessing Elder Groberg, because he´s the only seventy that I can remember.
So you guys are going to conference on Sat, huh? Who wants to yell "Luke Heperi is the *Cada!" really loud to see if the microphones pick it up for me? (That's a joke.)
Well, that´s all for this installment.
Excelsior!
-Elder =w= Heperi
*Possibly my favorite aspect of Portuguese, the word "Cada". Literally it means "Face", and Brazilians use it the same way that we use "Dude" or "Man". So when I hear teenagers greeting each other, it´s always "What's up, face?"
For Dad: Ha, so you took a listen to the Portuguese scriptures, huh? Well, there are many parts that I can´t understand exactly what´s going on either. (Like Isaiah, hard to understand in English...but actually surprisingly a little bit easier to understand in Portuguese. I've found that some of the words used in the Portuguese scrips are in slightly less formal language than English, and some of the words that Isaiah uses in the 2nd Nephi chapters use Portuguese words that I can look up and understand, so that's a bonus for the language. Nothin' like Isaiah to expand your vocabulary!)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Will I Stay or Will I Go?
So, the week is going good.
One item of interest is that I picked up my first parasite, in the form of worms. In short, I feel officially inagurated into the country, because I have picked up what I´m sure is just the first of many little vermin that live inside the bowels of humans. Little wormies. I´m actually quite excited because even though the thought of having them inside me is a little weird, I feel like South América hás finally accepted me by blessing me with something.
Well, this is the last week in the transfer. We find out Monday where we are going. Elder J. thinks that I´ll be heading out, because he´s in the singing group that our mission puts on, and it´s starting up after the next transfer. So it makes sense that I would leave so he, as a senior comp, could show a new Elder the area. I´m not taking that as fact yet though, but maybe I´ll leave. Who knows?
Answers to questions:
One item of interest is that I picked up my first parasite, in the form of worms. In short, I feel officially inagurated into the country, because I have picked up what I´m sure is just the first of many little vermin that live inside the bowels of humans. Little wormies. I´m actually quite excited because even though the thought of having them inside me is a little weird, I feel like South América hás finally accepted me by blessing me with something.
Well, this is the last week in the transfer. We find out Monday where we are going. Elder J. thinks that I´ll be heading out, because he´s in the singing group that our mission puts on, and it´s starting up after the next transfer. So it makes sense that I would leave so he, as a senior comp, could show a new Elder the area. I´m not taking that as fact yet though, but maybe I´ll leave. Who knows?
Answers to questions:
- No, I havent´recieved my packages yet. We won´t until next mission conference, or next transfer, so maybe in about 2-4 weeks I will.
- I haven´t sent the memory card because of that, but when I get them, I will send it.
- As for the scripture cases, you don´t have to worry about them. Whatever case you find that works will be fine. Actually, I can probably find a place here in Brazil that makes one, so I could just do that.
Well, this week was good. We´ve been teaching this couple named Vanderlay and Patrícia. They have four kids, which qualifies as a riduculously huge family here in Brazil. The majority of famalies that I´ve seen have only one or two. Anyway, me and my last comp had talked with Vanderlay once about two months ago, but he was always busy and so we just gave him a Proclamation to the World pamphlet, and said that we would try again. The problem is is that he lives on the other side of our área, and we don´t pass there tôo often. So we lost track of him.
Then, one day, I remembered about him, and we went to the house that I thought was his. Turns out it wasn´t, but we taught that family that lived there. They weren´t very interested, but one day some girl was over there and said that she remembered us. Turns out she´s the daughter of Vanderlay, and she invited us to go to his house, which was across the street. Vanderlay was really friendly and welcomed us, but his wife seemed kinda lukewarm towards our message. But as the first lesson went on, she seemed to be growing in interest. At the end of the message, she was the one with all the questions, and she told us that she had been praying to find the true church for about 8 years. She said that she had tried basically every religion, but had never felt that those were right. She actually hás attened church once with a member friend, but she felt kinda forced so she didn´t feel the spirit like she should have. She´s reading in the Book of Mórmon and actually vistited mormon.org to find more info on the Nephites and Lamanites. (I´ve never seen na investigator do that before!)
They´re really a cool family to teach, and they are progressing very well. Plus, they fed us some cake, and the only people who have ever fed us have been members, or a Sister that will get baptized as soon as the drunk guy that lives with her moves out, so I see the cake as a good sign of how they´ll progress. In short, it´s been good to finally find someone who´s been searching after so long of having people be resistent.
As always, ´til next week. And maybe from a new town!
Excelsior!
Elder =w= Heperi
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Church Is True... but the e-mail service isn't always,
Sorry about the late letter, but yesterday the ldsmail.net site was down, so as a result I only have about 20 minutes or so to type. Massively annoying. Rejections and people telling us that our message and our Church is full of it I can take. But when the rejection is coming from our email service...that makes the blood boil more than the Brazilian heat. Hopefully the e-mail system will learn how to serve the Church better...
Anyway, this is a pre-written letter that I wrote last night and am typing very quickly, so if stuff stops making sense at a certain point, that´s why.
First off, no problem with only a letter from Levi last week. I figured that it was a technical problem, not you guys forgetting the poor gringo here in Bauru.
Very little time, so just one experience. We did a trade last week, and I worked with Elder Davis, an American, and the newest American besides me. He has about 7 or 8 months out, and is fluent, so I hope I can be like him, language-wise in 8 months. We´ll see.
Anyway, we went to a teaching appointment. A pastor in fact. It was supposed to be a resolving concerns thing, but it quickly turned into a Bible bash. We weren’t making any headway with scripture references in the Bible. (Turns out that he was using a different translation than the one that we have, so half the references weren´t working.) So I started using script’s from the BOM, and he had less to fight with. He would always just answer, "I have the Bible, and that´s all I need." So, I showed him the verse in Nephi where it talks about people who say that. He read it and was like "That´s interesting, but God has revealed his word in the Bible." The appointment continued like that, and after about the 3rd time of him telling me to, "go pray and renounce these false things that you´re teaching and call your prophet in the United States and tell him to get you out of here, with the cancerous sun, and come follow Jesus, because right now you´re a lost soul."
I got sick of listening to that, So I said "Look, I don´t speak the language very well, and obviously you know a lot about the Bible, and I can´t find a response that you´d like to your doubts about us. All I can say is that I know that the BOM is true and contains the fullness of the gospel." At this point his ears perk up and his repeats, "Fullness?" I say, "Yep" At this point he points at me and says, "Then I will read to see if you are correct." He said it in a way that was obvious that he will look for what he can to not believe the BOM, but at least he accepted the challenge.
But this brings me to the point of my story. It was a great feeling to put everything on the BOM, because it can support it. I didn´t have the slightest hesitation telling him that it contained what it contained. Now, based on his reaction to the challenge, it seems that he´s going to read it just to spite me and try to find some error in it. And no doubt he´ll find something to disagree with in his mind. But I felt satisfied with my effort. Most likely I´ll never see him again since he´s not in my area, but I´d like to find out what happens.
In short, that was one of the good experiences out here.
Some days the things that happen are a pain, and it seems like a bad day. Bad times like when the Internet doesn´t work on P-day, and your companion has been playing the "Sons of Provo" soundtrack for 5 weeks straight, and people aren´t understanding your Portuguese. But the good times like having good investigators seem to outweigh that.
So I hope everyone is good. I hear that Nate has his ups and downs in his mission, and that makes me feel better to know that someone else has hard times in their mission.
Well, enough insight/babbling from me for today.
Times up, and I´m tired of listening to this guy next to me listen to Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson. ‘Til next week!
Excelcior!
-Elder Luke Heperi
Anyway, this is a pre-written letter that I wrote last night and am typing very quickly, so if stuff stops making sense at a certain point, that´s why.
First off, no problem with only a letter from Levi last week. I figured that it was a technical problem, not you guys forgetting the poor gringo here in Bauru.
Very little time, so just one experience. We did a trade last week, and I worked with Elder Davis, an American, and the newest American besides me. He has about 7 or 8 months out, and is fluent, so I hope I can be like him, language-wise in 8 months. We´ll see.
Anyway, we went to a teaching appointment. A pastor in fact. It was supposed to be a resolving concerns thing, but it quickly turned into a Bible bash. We weren’t making any headway with scripture references in the Bible. (Turns out that he was using a different translation than the one that we have, so half the references weren´t working.) So I started using script’s from the BOM, and he had less to fight with. He would always just answer, "I have the Bible, and that´s all I need." So, I showed him the verse in Nephi where it talks about people who say that. He read it and was like "That´s interesting, but God has revealed his word in the Bible." The appointment continued like that, and after about the 3rd time of him telling me to, "go pray and renounce these false things that you´re teaching and call your prophet in the United States and tell him to get you out of here, with the cancerous sun, and come follow Jesus, because right now you´re a lost soul."
I got sick of listening to that, So I said "Look, I don´t speak the language very well, and obviously you know a lot about the Bible, and I can´t find a response that you´d like to your doubts about us. All I can say is that I know that the BOM is true and contains the fullness of the gospel." At this point his ears perk up and his repeats, "Fullness?" I say, "Yep" At this point he points at me and says, "Then I will read to see if you are correct." He said it in a way that was obvious that he will look for what he can to not believe the BOM, but at least he accepted the challenge.
But this brings me to the point of my story. It was a great feeling to put everything on the BOM, because it can support it. I didn´t have the slightest hesitation telling him that it contained what it contained. Now, based on his reaction to the challenge, it seems that he´s going to read it just to spite me and try to find some error in it. And no doubt he´ll find something to disagree with in his mind. But I felt satisfied with my effort. Most likely I´ll never see him again since he´s not in my area, but I´d like to find out what happens.
In short, that was one of the good experiences out here.
Some days the things that happen are a pain, and it seems like a bad day. Bad times like when the Internet doesn´t work on P-day, and your companion has been playing the "Sons of Provo" soundtrack for 5 weeks straight, and people aren´t understanding your Portuguese. But the good times like having good investigators seem to outweigh that.
So I hope everyone is good. I hear that Nate has his ups and downs in his mission, and that makes me feel better to know that someone else has hard times in their mission.
Well, enough insight/babbling from me for today.
Times up, and I´m tired of listening to this guy next to me listen to Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson. ‘Til next week!
Excelcior!
-Elder Luke Heperi
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