Brazil-Paraguay-Bolivia
Sao Paulo, Brazil Saturday, June 28, 2008
Google Earth Tracking Luke (click on maps to enlarge)
Google Earth Screen Shots that track Luke's move from Bauru to his new area, Ponta Pora.
Brazil-Paraguay-Bolivia 
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Brazil-Paraguay-Bolivia Sao Paulo, Brazil 
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Heperi goes a travelin'
Well, turns out that Heperi finally left his missionary birthplace.
I officially left my first area in Bauru, and I´m currently en route to Ponta Porã. En route because right now I´m in Endourodos (That´s not how you spell it, but I can´t remember the correct way), passing P-day with the other Elders until my Bus leaves at about 7 tonight. I traveled alone from Bauru to Londrina, so I had all kinds of thoughts in my head about getting lost and not being able to remember my Portuguese, but in the end there was no worries. I got to see my comp, Elder Hanratty from the MTC today, and it was cool to catch up.
Apparently Ponta Porã just has one district with 6 Elders and no zone leaders, which will be quite a change from Bauru with about 24 missionaries. We´ll see how P-day works with just your district to hang out with... BTW, this keyboard is being stupid and substituting Portuguese words for English words, so IF my spelling is worse than usual, that´s why.
The trip so far has been good, though I´ve got bus-lag as a result of it. 4 Hrs from Bauru to Londrina, and 13 hrs. From Londrina to Endourados, and I´ve still got another 2 hrs. to go. Didn´t get much sleep on the bus last night, so I´m hoping that I´ll be able to sleep well tonight.
It was quite weird to leave my first area, after having comps come and go. What was good is that we wrapped up the transfer with a baptism. The wife of the member who´s Just returned to full activity accepted the invite. She couldn´t decide Who she wanted to baptize her, so me and Elder C. settled it in the ancient scriptural way of casting lots. ie: We played rock, paper, scissors. He won, so He did the baptism. Went perfectly, and we picked up 3 of her in-laws as new investigators. Zing!
Oh yeah, about 5 hours ago I got those letters that Corey, Carrie, Celeste, and Aunt Claudia and Uncle Conrad sent. I loved the missionary shirt envelopes, they were hilarious. So thanks to Corey (three kids? Wow, last time I checked there was only one), Carrie (Yes, I remember you were, despite how bad I am with remembering people in our family. I wasn´t aware that you got married, so here´s a belated congratulations!), Celeste (Your discounts that you gave me at Barnes & Noble Will always be remembered), And Uncle Conrad and Aunt Claudia (If you need anymore help will moving boxes, Levi is still in town...) I especially enjoyed the missionary drawings from all the kids. I´m very happy to know that I was the focus of somebody´s FHE for once.
While I´m at the thank you portion, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the letters from NZ, (my comp stole the stamps from me), from Elder Jacob Green in Canada, (I even thank people Who don´t read the blog), Steve, Mat6t, Talisa, Kamalei, Amy, Tristan for the postcard of the caves (If you guys did what Mat6t Said you did, I can see that Mat6t and Kamelei are gaining more influence on people. Yeah!) Also, of the above people group mentioned above, I believe Amy and Tristan are the only two who have yet to send me a letter. Let´s get on the ball kids! Every one who sends one to me gets one back. And remember, If you guys become married/pregnant/deported/Pres. Of the US etc. etc., I´d like an invitation to said event. Thanks.)
My next comp is going to be an American, which is a little funny considering that nobody else from my district has had an American comp yet, and I´m on my 2nd. I hear that he´s a nice guy, so I´m excited for a new area and new comp. Also, apparently Ponta Porã borders on Paraguay, so I get to meet some Spanish speakers. Unfortunately, we´re not allowed to cross over into Paraguay, except at one point which has just one store, so I won´t get to go country hopping. I guess earlier on in the mission it was allowed, but the rule was changed for some reason. Drat!
Well, that´s all my time for this week kiddies.
Thanks again, and see you next we from Ponta Porã.
Excelsior!
-Elder Hepdizzle
I officially left my first area in Bauru, and I´m currently en route to Ponta Porã. En route because right now I´m in Endourodos (That´s not how you spell it, but I can´t remember the correct way), passing P-day with the other Elders until my Bus leaves at about 7 tonight. I traveled alone from Bauru to Londrina, so I had all kinds of thoughts in my head about getting lost and not being able to remember my Portuguese, but in the end there was no worries. I got to see my comp, Elder Hanratty from the MTC today, and it was cool to catch up.
Apparently Ponta Porã just has one district with 6 Elders and no zone leaders, which will be quite a change from Bauru with about 24 missionaries. We´ll see how P-day works with just your district to hang out with... BTW, this keyboard is being stupid and substituting Portuguese words for English words, so IF my spelling is worse than usual, that´s why.
The trip so far has been good, though I´ve got bus-lag as a result of it. 4 Hrs from Bauru to Londrina, and 13 hrs. From Londrina to Endourados, and I´ve still got another 2 hrs. to go. Didn´t get much sleep on the bus last night, so I´m hoping that I´ll be able to sleep well tonight.
It was quite weird to leave my first area, after having comps come and go. What was good is that we wrapped up the transfer with a baptism. The wife of the member who´s Just returned to full activity accepted the invite. She couldn´t decide Who she wanted to baptize her, so me and Elder C. settled it in the ancient scriptural way of casting lots. ie: We played rock, paper, scissors. He won, so He did the baptism. Went perfectly, and we picked up 3 of her in-laws as new investigators. Zing!
Oh yeah, about 5 hours ago I got those letters that Corey, Carrie, Celeste, and Aunt Claudia and Uncle Conrad sent. I loved the missionary shirt envelopes, they were hilarious. So thanks to Corey (three kids? Wow, last time I checked there was only one), Carrie (Yes, I remember you were, despite how bad I am with remembering people in our family. I wasn´t aware that you got married, so here´s a belated congratulations!), Celeste (Your discounts that you gave me at Barnes & Noble Will always be remembered), And Uncle Conrad and Aunt Claudia (If you need anymore help will moving boxes, Levi is still in town...) I especially enjoyed the missionary drawings from all the kids. I´m very happy to know that I was the focus of somebody´s FHE for once.
While I´m at the thank you portion, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the letters from NZ, (my comp stole the stamps from me), from Elder Jacob Green in Canada, (I even thank people Who don´t read the blog), Steve, Mat6t, Talisa, Kamalei, Amy, Tristan for the postcard of the caves (If you guys did what Mat6t Said you did, I can see that Mat6t and Kamelei are gaining more influence on people. Yeah!) Also, of the above people group mentioned above, I believe Amy and Tristan are the only two who have yet to send me a letter. Let´s get on the ball kids! Every one who sends one to me gets one back. And remember, If you guys become married/pregnant/deported/Pres. Of the US etc. etc., I´d like an invitation to said event. Thanks.)
My next comp is going to be an American, which is a little funny considering that nobody else from my district has had an American comp yet, and I´m on my 2nd. I hear that he´s a nice guy, so I´m excited for a new area and new comp. Also, apparently Ponta Porã borders on Paraguay, so I get to meet some Spanish speakers. Unfortunately, we´re not allowed to cross over into Paraguay, except at one point which has just one store, so I won´t get to go country hopping. I guess earlier on in the mission it was allowed, but the rule was changed for some reason. Drat!
Well, that´s all my time for this week kiddies.
Thanks again, and see you next we from Ponta Porã.
Excelsior!
-Elder Hepdizzle
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Baptisms and Guns N' Roses in the Chapel
This week was pretty eventful.
So last week, (This actually happened before last P-day, but I forget to write about it last time) we got the call from our Zone Leaders that Pres. Leal was going to come to Bauru to make his usual visits and interviews. And, surprise, he had selected my ward to visit! In addition, Sis. Leal was going to visit the house to see how things are. Há, needless to say, we spent a good part of the last P-day cleaning the house. (By the way, in the end she decided that she didn´t have enough time, so our cleaning was in vain...ha ha) Anyway, we were a little nervous. Not that we´re slackers or anything, but you know, having “The Boss” come to visit your cubicle of the office for the day kinda makes you hope that everything goes well.
And actually, it did. That week we didn´t have many investigators at church, but the ones that were there Pres. Leal was really happy to meet. One of them is the wife of our neighbor. He´s an RM, but when they got married he was inactive in the church. But he returned to full activity right after last General Conference, so she´s been receiving our discussions. And what´s more, she accepted our baptismal invite, and is getting baptized on Saturday! Whoo hoo! The power of member referrals at work, eh?
Anyway, back to the visit with Pres. Leal. Turns out he made the visit to our ward because he wanted to see the population of the ward and area, because he might put one more companionship in our area, which would be a real relief. Our area is pretty big, and there are parts of it that we rarely get to visit.
In other news, the Sisters in our district have been teaching a single mom who has three daughters who have all been accepting baptism one by one. The Mom hasn´t yet, as they are going to move to the USA ((Some small town somewhere in New York)and she wants her future husband who lives there to accept the gospel first. And since my comp. Elder C. is the District Leader, we´ve been traveling every week to the Sister´s area to do the interviews. And funny enough, I got to baptize the two daughters who have accepted baptism. Elder C. asked the first kid who she wanted to baptize her (I thinks she´s about 12 or 13), and she pointed and me and said, “I want the Gringo to do it.” So I baptized her two weeks ago, and last week was her sister.
There´s kind of a funny story with the baptisms. When I baptized the other girl´s sister (I´d use names but they´re hard for me to remember...), I was a little nervous with because I was trying to remember the baptismal prayer in Portuguese AND her long and complicated name (all Brazilians have at least 4 names. She had about six.) I had to ask her to repeat it about 6 times while we were standing in the freezing cold water in the font. (The water heater is perpetually broken.) Also, the last baptism that I performed I had to do twice because she forgot to tie her hair up. Anyway, add up all those factors, and I ended up using a bit more force than was necessary when I was putting her under the water. Elder C. said it kinda looked more like a drowning than a baptism for a second. He and the girl´s sister laughed at me for a bit after that. I wasn´t trying to be irreverent or anything, just a combo of Portuguese and cold water = a good dunking.
So, it was a good learning experience for me to practice my baptism skills, and I was glad to help out the Sisters and get to know people outside of my area. The twelve year old girl always carries a guitar around, and has a strange affinity for Guns N´Roses. I never thought I´d hear “Sweet Child o`Mine” being played by a Brazilian twelve year old in an LDS church.
Oh yeah, last night as we were heading back to the house, I stopped and gave a pass along card to a lady standing in front of our house. After I said my part, she asked me if I was American. I said that I was. But even more interesting, she asked if I was from New Zealand! I said that my Dad was, then I asked her how she knew that. She replied that there used to be an old man who lived down the street, (just a few blocks from our house) who was from New Zealand and who spoke Portuguese like I did, and who looked a little like me. (By the way, she is the first Brazilian who correctly identified a part of my nationality. I was getting a little tired of being asked if I am Mexican...) Apparently he died a few years ago, and I tried to found out if she knew his name, but all she could tell me was “Donald something”. She said the other part to his name she couldn´t say because it was in English. Now, I know that I don´t have any New Zealand accent whatsoever, but maybe when you speak Portuguese it doesn´t matter, everybody sounds like a foreigner. Há, it was interesting to find out that there had been a Kiwi living among the Brazilians of Bauru. Small world, huh?
Well, my time´s spent for this week.
Catch you kids later.
-Luke “I´m-Maori/Mohawk-not-Mexican” Heperi
So last week, (This actually happened before last P-day, but I forget to write about it last time) we got the call from our Zone Leaders that Pres. Leal was going to come to Bauru to make his usual visits and interviews. And, surprise, he had selected my ward to visit! In addition, Sis. Leal was going to visit the house to see how things are. Há, needless to say, we spent a good part of the last P-day cleaning the house. (By the way, in the end she decided that she didn´t have enough time, so our cleaning was in vain...ha ha) Anyway, we were a little nervous. Not that we´re slackers or anything, but you know, having “The Boss” come to visit your cubicle of the office for the day kinda makes you hope that everything goes well.
And actually, it did. That week we didn´t have many investigators at church, but the ones that were there Pres. Leal was really happy to meet. One of them is the wife of our neighbor. He´s an RM, but when they got married he was inactive in the church. But he returned to full activity right after last General Conference, so she´s been receiving our discussions. And what´s more, she accepted our baptismal invite, and is getting baptized on Saturday! Whoo hoo! The power of member referrals at work, eh?
Anyway, back to the visit with Pres. Leal. Turns out he made the visit to our ward because he wanted to see the population of the ward and area, because he might put one more companionship in our area, which would be a real relief. Our area is pretty big, and there are parts of it that we rarely get to visit.
In other news, the Sisters in our district have been teaching a single mom who has three daughters who have all been accepting baptism one by one. The Mom hasn´t yet, as they are going to move to the USA ((Some small town somewhere in New York)and she wants her future husband who lives there to accept the gospel first. And since my comp. Elder C. is the District Leader, we´ve been traveling every week to the Sister´s area to do the interviews. And funny enough, I got to baptize the two daughters who have accepted baptism. Elder C. asked the first kid who she wanted to baptize her (I thinks she´s about 12 or 13), and she pointed and me and said, “I want the Gringo to do it.” So I baptized her two weeks ago, and last week was her sister.
There´s kind of a funny story with the baptisms. When I baptized the other girl´s sister (I´d use names but they´re hard for me to remember...), I was a little nervous with because I was trying to remember the baptismal prayer in Portuguese AND her long and complicated name (all Brazilians have at least 4 names. She had about six.) I had to ask her to repeat it about 6 times while we were standing in the freezing cold water in the font. (The water heater is perpetually broken.) Also, the last baptism that I performed I had to do twice because she forgot to tie her hair up. Anyway, add up all those factors, and I ended up using a bit more force than was necessary when I was putting her under the water. Elder C. said it kinda looked more like a drowning than a baptism for a second. He and the girl´s sister laughed at me for a bit after that. I wasn´t trying to be irreverent or anything, just a combo of Portuguese and cold water = a good dunking.
So, it was a good learning experience for me to practice my baptism skills, and I was glad to help out the Sisters and get to know people outside of my area. The twelve year old girl always carries a guitar around, and has a strange affinity for Guns N´Roses. I never thought I´d hear “Sweet Child o`Mine” being played by a Brazilian twelve year old in an LDS church.
Oh yeah, last night as we were heading back to the house, I stopped and gave a pass along card to a lady standing in front of our house. After I said my part, she asked me if I was American. I said that I was. But even more interesting, she asked if I was from New Zealand! I said that my Dad was, then I asked her how she knew that. She replied that there used to be an old man who lived down the street, (just a few blocks from our house) who was from New Zealand and who spoke Portuguese like I did, and who looked a little like me. (By the way, she is the first Brazilian who correctly identified a part of my nationality. I was getting a little tired of being asked if I am Mexican...) Apparently he died a few years ago, and I tried to found out if she knew his name, but all she could tell me was “Donald something”. She said the other part to his name she couldn´t say because it was in English. Now, I know that I don´t have any New Zealand accent whatsoever, but maybe when you speak Portuguese it doesn´t matter, everybody sounds like a foreigner. Há, it was interesting to find out that there had been a Kiwi living among the Brazilians of Bauru. Small world, huh?
Well, my time´s spent for this week.
Catch you kids later.
-Luke “I´m-Maori/Mohawk-not-Mexican” Heperi
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Weather Has Been Cooler
So Mom and Lauren are at Girl´s Camp, huh? Há, good luck with that. You know my opinion on the whole thing: You can´t call it “camping” if you spend a week in a cabin. Camping requires the use of a tent.
So this week the cold spell that we´ve been having went away, and now the weather feels a bit like Southern California, or something like that.
This week I got excited because we thought that we could mark Rita´s baptism...but when we went over to the appointment she was sick in bed, so we returned three days later. And, of course when we show up there, José has returned, not drunk, but still there. Yeesh. I´ve been teaching her since January, thought that we finally had her ready, but now we´re back to square one. It was pretty frustrating, but we´ll see how it goes.
I dunno if I mentioned, but about three weeks ago we got a reference for someone that wanted a Book of Mormon. We delivered it and taught the first lesson to a woman named Joice. She´s a newlywed and her and her husband live not too far from the bishop´s house. She was really excited to read, and we were really hopeful that she progress quickly. The only problem is is that she has to go to a job training in a city about two hours away from here every day, so she has no time for us for the next month and a half. She´s a good investigator, just way busy right now.
Also, I´ve been improving my phone conversation skills these past few weeks. We have lunch with a different member in the ward every day except P-day. Everyone in the ward gets a calender so that the know who´s day is who´s. The only problem is that about half the ward never remembers to check their calenders or forgets, so we have to constantly call to find out if their remembering. Both Elder R. J. and M. took care of that when they were here, but since Elder C. has only been here a month, I usually have to speak to the people. I feel encouraged that I make enough sense on the phone for people to understand me.
Well, as always, ´till next timey.
Excelsior!
-Eldiddle Hepdiddl
So this week the cold spell that we´ve been having went away, and now the weather feels a bit like Southern California, or something like that.
This week I got excited because we thought that we could mark Rita´s baptism...but when we went over to the appointment she was sick in bed, so we returned three days later. And, of course when we show up there, José has returned, not drunk, but still there. Yeesh. I´ve been teaching her since January, thought that we finally had her ready, but now we´re back to square one. It was pretty frustrating, but we´ll see how it goes.
I dunno if I mentioned, but about three weeks ago we got a reference for someone that wanted a Book of Mormon. We delivered it and taught the first lesson to a woman named Joice. She´s a newlywed and her and her husband live not too far from the bishop´s house. She was really excited to read, and we were really hopeful that she progress quickly. The only problem is is that she has to go to a job training in a city about two hours away from here every day, so she has no time for us for the next month and a half. She´s a good investigator, just way busy right now.
Also, I´ve been improving my phone conversation skills these past few weeks. We have lunch with a different member in the ward every day except P-day. Everyone in the ward gets a calender so that the know who´s day is who´s. The only problem is that about half the ward never remembers to check their calenders or forgets, so we have to constantly call to find out if their remembering. Both Elder R. J. and M. took care of that when they were here, but since Elder C. has only been here a month, I usually have to speak to the people. I feel encouraged that I make enough sense on the phone for people to understand me.
Well, as always, ´till next timey.
Excelsior!
-Eldiddle Hepdiddl
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Pork and Beans (I eat them every day!)
This week had some good ups and downs.
We´re still lacking in the investigator department, but the ones that we do have are doing well. And this week, Rita (the one investigator that couldn´t get baptized because the drunk guy that she lived with wouldn´t leave) finally got the guy to leave, so now she´s gonna get baptized. Zing! Heh, it´s been a long time coming. I´ve been teaching her ever since the first week in January, so I´m way excited for her. She told us she wants to wait a couple of weeks to mark the baptism, (I think she´s afraid that the guy will come back) but she´s getting baptized!
Also, instead of church on Sunday, we got to watch the temple dedication at the stake center. It was pretty cool to see Pres. Monson dedicating temple, and when they were putting the mortar into the side of the building outside, he was making a bunch of funny comments as people were sticking the mortar in. It was even funnier because the majority of the people there didn´t speak English, so I don´t think everyone quite grasped what he was saying. Even his translator couldn´t keep up sometimes with his comments. Pres. Monson said a couple words in Spanish to some of the people as well.
We also got to watch the celebration at the stake center the night before. It was kinda like an opening ceremony of the Olympics. They had a bunch of people dressed up to represent different countries, with traditional clothes. It looked pretty good, although the people who were dressed up and waving a flag that said “Estados Unidos” weren´t wearing anything that I´ve seen Americans wear-- at least not while I´ve been alive. I can´t describe the clothing, but it looked way 80´s. Kinda like something Will Smith wears on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Well, besides that , not too much else. Sorry for the shortness of this, but I promise that I´ll have more next week.
´till next time!
Excelsior!
-Eldah Heperi
We´re still lacking in the investigator department, but the ones that we do have are doing well. And this week, Rita (the one investigator that couldn´t get baptized because the drunk guy that she lived with wouldn´t leave) finally got the guy to leave, so now she´s gonna get baptized. Zing! Heh, it´s been a long time coming. I´ve been teaching her ever since the first week in January, so I´m way excited for her. She told us she wants to wait a couple of weeks to mark the baptism, (I think she´s afraid that the guy will come back) but she´s getting baptized!
Also, instead of church on Sunday, we got to watch the temple dedication at the stake center. It was pretty cool to see Pres. Monson dedicating temple, and when they were putting the mortar into the side of the building outside, he was making a bunch of funny comments as people were sticking the mortar in. It was even funnier because the majority of the people there didn´t speak English, so I don´t think everyone quite grasped what he was saying. Even his translator couldn´t keep up sometimes with his comments. Pres. Monson said a couple words in Spanish to some of the people as well.
We also got to watch the celebration at the stake center the night before. It was kinda like an opening ceremony of the Olympics. They had a bunch of people dressed up to represent different countries, with traditional clothes. It looked pretty good, although the people who were dressed up and waving a flag that said “Estados Unidos” weren´t wearing anything that I´ve seen Americans wear-- at least not while I´ve been alive. I can´t describe the clothing, but it looked way 80´s. Kinda like something Will Smith wears on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Well, besides that , not too much else. Sorry for the shortness of this, but I promise that I´ll have more next week.
´till next time!
Excelsior!
-Eldah Heperi
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Aliens?
Okay, so I hate to address a movie topic right off the bat, but Levi said that there were "aliens" in Indiana Jones? Yeeesh... I can see that George Lucas has tried to ruin another fine series with his grubby little hands. (Tell me the aliens weren´t a whole race of Jar Jar´s...) I´ll wait to pass judgement for now, but that might be a sad thought for me to know that Indy might take a fall like Star Wars.
So, this week had some nice low points. First off, everything that we have in our house is broken (the ironing board), breaking (the washing machine), or is in a state of somewhere in between (like the blender. It works, but smoke comes out of it when I use it.) So it´s only logical that something critical would break sooner or later. On Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday. Whatever day was Corpus Cristi), the key broke off in the lock as we were leaving the house. So we headed of to find a locksmith. I knew there was one down the street, but unfortunately because it was Corpus Cristi, (is that how you spell it?) most of the businesses had shut for the day. Elder C. had a baptismal interview to do later that evening, so we had to take care of it later in the day. Anyway, long story short, we managed to find a locksmith who came over and destroyed the lock for us at about 11 pm. Not the most exciting time.
In addition, I feel more like a hardcore missionary, as our little thingy that heats our shower water broke, so cold showers are now my thing. The water heater thing is electrical and attaches to the shower head, so if you mess with it it´ll give you a nice shock to wake up in the morning. But since it broke, I don´t have to worry about that anymore. Yay!
We´re still struggling to find good solid investigators. We worked in some areas this week that we don´t normally work in, but didn´t find much success. We got a couple references for a part of the area that I´ve never been too, waaaaaay at the edge of our area. It took almost 40 minutes to walk there, and I discovered that it´s actually the one rich part of our area. The houses are way nice, and that´s not just comparing it to the house that I live in, now. We worked a little around there, but as is always, the rich weren´t too receptive to the message. As we were heading out of that area, I picked a few of the biggest houses to knock at, to see if we could get people to listen. I´ve never seen doors slam so fast. Not much success with those who have the $$$.
So graduation is this week, huh? That´s nice to here that the theme for the senior all night party is Hawaiian, because that was the theme of mine. I kinda think that is the case with all the parties.
So Sis. Allred´s sister is in the same ward as Elder R.J´s parents, huh? That would mean they live in American Fork, right? That´s funny that you would hear about me thru someone else.
Also, this week in the grocery store they started selling juice of Acaí (that fruit that I like) with banana. I was excited till I saw that it was also mixed with Guaraná. (another fruit). Now I like guarana, but not with banana. But I was curious and bought it, and it turned out to be the worst thing that I´ve had. I feel that now I´ve sampled the highest highs with the Acaí/Banana/Milk combo, and the lowest lows with the Acaí/Banana/Guaraná-- I think that´s it for this week. I´ll keep plugging along here. ´till next time.
Excelsior!
-Elder “Acaí” Heperi
So, this week had some nice low points. First off, everything that we have in our house is broken (the ironing board), breaking (the washing machine), or is in a state of somewhere in between (like the blender. It works, but smoke comes out of it when I use it.) So it´s only logical that something critical would break sooner or later. On Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday. Whatever day was Corpus Cristi), the key broke off in the lock as we were leaving the house. So we headed of to find a locksmith. I knew there was one down the street, but unfortunately because it was Corpus Cristi, (is that how you spell it?) most of the businesses had shut for the day. Elder C. had a baptismal interview to do later that evening, so we had to take care of it later in the day. Anyway, long story short, we managed to find a locksmith who came over and destroyed the lock for us at about 11 pm. Not the most exciting time.
In addition, I feel more like a hardcore missionary, as our little thingy that heats our shower water broke, so cold showers are now my thing. The water heater thing is electrical and attaches to the shower head, so if you mess with it it´ll give you a nice shock to wake up in the morning. But since it broke, I don´t have to worry about that anymore. Yay!
We´re still struggling to find good solid investigators. We worked in some areas this week that we don´t normally work in, but didn´t find much success. We got a couple references for a part of the area that I´ve never been too, waaaaaay at the edge of our area. It took almost 40 minutes to walk there, and I discovered that it´s actually the one rich part of our area. The houses are way nice, and that´s not just comparing it to the house that I live in, now. We worked a little around there, but as is always, the rich weren´t too receptive to the message. As we were heading out of that area, I picked a few of the biggest houses to knock at, to see if we could get people to listen. I´ve never seen doors slam so fast. Not much success with those who have the $$$.
So graduation is this week, huh? That´s nice to here that the theme for the senior all night party is Hawaiian, because that was the theme of mine. I kinda think that is the case with all the parties.
So Sis. Allred´s sister is in the same ward as Elder R.J´s parents, huh? That would mean they live in American Fork, right? That´s funny that you would hear about me thru someone else.
Also, this week in the grocery store they started selling juice of Acaí (that fruit that I like) with banana. I was excited till I saw that it was also mixed with Guaraná. (another fruit). Now I like guarana, but not with banana. But I was curious and bought it, and it turned out to be the worst thing that I´ve had. I feel that now I´ve sampled the highest highs with the Acaí/Banana/Milk combo, and the lowest lows with the Acaí/Banana/Guaraná-- I think that´s it for this week. I´ll keep plugging along here. ´till next time.
Excelsior!
-Elder “Acaí” Heperi
Friday, May 23, 2008
I am 20, going on 21
´sup kids?
First off, I´ve gotta say that being 20 doesn´t feel too much different from 19. In fact, I´d say that I´d rank it as the 2nd to last in terms of how different the age feels, 2nd only to age 17. Because at 16 you can drive, 18 you´re like an adult but with training wheels, 19 you´re mission aged, and at 21 the training wheels come off and your a full adult. But 17 and 20? Tsk tsk, the only thing that I can say is that I´m not a teenager anymore. Whoo!
So my new comp is Elder Cassio. He´s from Bela Horizante, and is a pretty cool guy. He´s pretty small (I think maybe two or three of him equals one of me), and pretty laid back, and actually we have a lot more in common than I thought. I think he knows how to play more tunes on the guitar than I do, and while we where at a members house eating, he played some Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes for us, which was very cool. He doesn´t speak a whole lot of English, and most of his vocabulary in English comes from the songs that he knows how to sing. So while he can´t really carry on a conversation very well in English, he could probably try and serenade a bunch of people if he went to the US. He was actually the comp. of my comp from the MTC, so we have some stuff to talk about there as well.
As for some bad parts, Elder RJ managed to leave everything that he shouldn´t have (his batteries, photos, letters, notebook) at our house, and took everything he shouldn´t have (list of members, less-actives, references) with him to Londrina. So, unfortunately, we´re having to start over as far as finding people.
This first week has been nothing but knocking doors, visiting the less actives that I remember, and me trying to remember all that I know about this area. It´s been hard, and actually pretty discouraging, but we´re working thru it. Elder C. arrived a little discouraged, first of all because of our house (small and dinky like it is, everyone gets sad when the come to our house, so I don´t blame him there), and second because Bauru is well known in the mission as the city that is quite difficult to work in, and is known to many missionaries as the city that you don´t wanna get transferred too. But I´ve learned to try and push thru it, even when we've been knocking doors for 4 hours at a time.
But, on the up side we got a very good internet reference about someone named Joice who wanted a Book of Mormon. When we delivered it, she was very excited to begin reading it and said that as soon as she figured out her work schedule, she´d try to make it to church. We´ve only had one visit with her so far, as she just moved here and is still quite busy, but I´d rank her as the best 1st visit we´ve ever had. My only concern is that her husband might object in some way. He was sleeping when we gave the lesson, so we didn´t get to meet him, and it´s happened a couple of times that we teach one member of the family, (only the wife or vice-versa) and then show up the next time and get a nice talking too about how they don´t need our religion, etc. etc. So, I´m hopeful that Joice´s husband will be accepting when we do meet him.
In other news, I bought my first box of cereal out in the mission, (Called “Little Stars”, kinda like coco-puffs) and it was heavenly. No one really eats cereal because it´s a little expensive, plus they only have about three kinds of cereal at the grocery store. (Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, and about 30 different brands of chocolate cereal. How I miss Trix...) So anyway, I ended up buying it and eating the whole box, it was THAT good! The only thing that I´m concerned with is the milk. Milk tastes quite different down here, and I think it´s because although they have a cool system where none of the milk has to be refrigerated until after it´s opened, all cartons have a thing that says they´ve been hit by gamma rays to make it that way. So while it´s cool that the milk will keep for a while, I´m a little worried that consuming it in great quantities will eventually turn me into the Hulk. We´ll see...
Mom and Dad, that´s nice to here that you guys have AC now. I´d like to say that I feel that blessed by it too, but that´ll be about a year and a half in the future.
I think that wraps it up for this week.
Thanks to the people who´s letter´s I finally got yesterday, (Grandma, Grandpa, Talisa, and Kamalei. Some had been floating around since March...) and I hope the USA is good.
Excelsior!
-Elder Heperi
First off, I´ve gotta say that being 20 doesn´t feel too much different from 19. In fact, I´d say that I´d rank it as the 2nd to last in terms of how different the age feels, 2nd only to age 17. Because at 16 you can drive, 18 you´re like an adult but with training wheels, 19 you´re mission aged, and at 21 the training wheels come off and your a full adult. But 17 and 20? Tsk tsk, the only thing that I can say is that I´m not a teenager anymore. Whoo!
So my new comp is Elder Cassio. He´s from Bela Horizante, and is a pretty cool guy. He´s pretty small (I think maybe two or three of him equals one of me), and pretty laid back, and actually we have a lot more in common than I thought. I think he knows how to play more tunes on the guitar than I do, and while we where at a members house eating, he played some Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes for us, which was very cool. He doesn´t speak a whole lot of English, and most of his vocabulary in English comes from the songs that he knows how to sing. So while he can´t really carry on a conversation very well in English, he could probably try and serenade a bunch of people if he went to the US. He was actually the comp. of my comp from the MTC, so we have some stuff to talk about there as well.
As for some bad parts, Elder RJ managed to leave everything that he shouldn´t have (his batteries, photos, letters, notebook) at our house, and took everything he shouldn´t have (list of members, less-actives, references) with him to Londrina. So, unfortunately, we´re having to start over as far as finding people.
This first week has been nothing but knocking doors, visiting the less actives that I remember, and me trying to remember all that I know about this area. It´s been hard, and actually pretty discouraging, but we´re working thru it. Elder C. arrived a little discouraged, first of all because of our house (small and dinky like it is, everyone gets sad when the come to our house, so I don´t blame him there), and second because Bauru is well known in the mission as the city that is quite difficult to work in, and is known to many missionaries as the city that you don´t wanna get transferred too. But I´ve learned to try and push thru it, even when we've been knocking doors for 4 hours at a time.
But, on the up side we got a very good internet reference about someone named Joice who wanted a Book of Mormon. When we delivered it, she was very excited to begin reading it and said that as soon as she figured out her work schedule, she´d try to make it to church. We´ve only had one visit with her so far, as she just moved here and is still quite busy, but I´d rank her as the best 1st visit we´ve ever had. My only concern is that her husband might object in some way. He was sleeping when we gave the lesson, so we didn´t get to meet him, and it´s happened a couple of times that we teach one member of the family, (only the wife or vice-versa) and then show up the next time and get a nice talking too about how they don´t need our religion, etc. etc. So, I´m hopeful that Joice´s husband will be accepting when we do meet him.
In other news, I bought my first box of cereal out in the mission, (Called “Little Stars”, kinda like coco-puffs) and it was heavenly. No one really eats cereal because it´s a little expensive, plus they only have about three kinds of cereal at the grocery store. (Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, and about 30 different brands of chocolate cereal. How I miss Trix...) So anyway, I ended up buying it and eating the whole box, it was THAT good! The only thing that I´m concerned with is the milk. Milk tastes quite different down here, and I think it´s because although they have a cool system where none of the milk has to be refrigerated until after it´s opened, all cartons have a thing that says they´ve been hit by gamma rays to make it that way. So while it´s cool that the milk will keep for a while, I´m a little worried that consuming it in great quantities will eventually turn me into the Hulk. We´ll see...
Mom and Dad, that´s nice to here that you guys have AC now. I´d like to say that I feel that blessed by it too, but that´ll be about a year and a half in the future.
I think that wraps it up for this week.
Thanks to the people who´s letter´s I finally got yesterday, (Grandma, Grandpa, Talisa, and Kamalei. Some had been floating around since March...) and I hope the USA is good.
Excelsior!
-Elder Heperi
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