Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Going Private
Elder Brent Parsons has requests we make this blog private. If you would like to continue looking at his mission blog please leave your email in a comment or email it to karrissa{at}inpnet{dot}org. I will leave the blog open for a few weeks while I gather everyone's email addresses. After that you will need to log on with your google account to access this blog. I am sorry if this is an inconvenience for anyone. Thanks!
Zone Conference and a Baptism
Sup!
This week is Zone Conference week and it's been really rushed. There are three zone conferences that we do on the mission. The first one was yesterday and was for the four of the zones here in the capital in Zona Norte (the north part of S達o Paulo that our mission has). Today's P-day then tomorrow will be the next conference for the 4 more zones including the zone I belong to. It will be done here in the chapel right next to the Temple. Then on Friday we will go out to Sorocaba to do the conference for the 5 zones in the "interior" or rural part of the mission.
We had mission council last week on Tuesday and had to prepare a training for that but after Tuesday we started working on the zone conference training. We have about an hour in each conference. We spent a long time on it but I think it paid off because it went really well yesterday in the first conf.
We have very little time that we get to work in our actual area but usually any time we have in the area is spent teaching a family that we have. They are way cool. They have a kid that is on a mission right now and they finally accepted to be baptized last two Sundays ago! So this Sunday after church we had their baptisms. The missionary's Mom, 2 sisters, and 2 cousins got baptized! The missionary is alone in the church and has sent an email home every week of his mission (he has been on the mission as long as I have) encouraging the family to read the book of mormon, go to church, and get baptized; and finally after all this time they started going to church and reading and were baptized! I can't even imagine how happy this missionary will get when we send him the picture of his family finally getting baptized. I attached a photo of the baptism. And yes, I am well aware that I look HUUUUUGE and am in front of the poor child who just wanted to get in the picture...but unfortunately it's the only pic I got.
I am defintely learning about how stupid missionaries can be with this calling, but I am loving it. Every day is completely different...which is good because it breaks the routine of the last 18 months of my life. I have eaten 8 pizzas in the last 3 weeks. Just thought I'd throw that one in there.
Love ya'll! Thanks for the emails!
-Elder Brent Parsons
This week is Zone Conference week and it's been really rushed. There are three zone conferences that we do on the mission. The first one was yesterday and was for the four of the zones here in the capital in Zona Norte (the north part of S達o Paulo that our mission has). Today's P-day then tomorrow will be the next conference for the 4 more zones including the zone I belong to. It will be done here in the chapel right next to the Temple. Then on Friday we will go out to Sorocaba to do the conference for the 5 zones in the "interior" or rural part of the mission.
We had mission council last week on Tuesday and had to prepare a training for that but after Tuesday we started working on the zone conference training. We have about an hour in each conference. We spent a long time on it but I think it paid off because it went really well yesterday in the first conf.
We have very little time that we get to work in our actual area but usually any time we have in the area is spent teaching a family that we have. They are way cool. They have a kid that is on a mission right now and they finally accepted to be baptized last two Sundays ago! So this Sunday after church we had their baptisms. The missionary's Mom, 2 sisters, and 2 cousins got baptized! The missionary is alone in the church and has sent an email home every week of his mission (he has been on the mission as long as I have) encouraging the family to read the book of mormon, go to church, and get baptized; and finally after all this time they started going to church and reading and were baptized! I can't even imagine how happy this missionary will get when we send him the picture of his family finally getting baptized. I attached a photo of the baptism. And yes, I am well aware that I look HUUUUUGE and am in front of the poor child who just wanted to get in the picture...but unfortunately it's the only pic I got.
I am defintely learning about how stupid missionaries can be with this calling, but I am loving it. Every day is completely different...which is good because it breaks the routine of the last 18 months of my life. I have eaten 8 pizzas in the last 3 weeks. Just thought I'd throw that one in there.Love ya'll! Thanks for the emails!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
First week as Assistant
From Saturday until now was really good and somewhat stressful.
Every Sunday we have to get the mission's numbers which is probably the worst part of my new calling. Numbers suck. We have to stay up until like 11:30 or 12:00pm every Sunday night getting the numbers and making the relatórios for our meeting with President every Monday.
I have to do divisions with the Zone Leaders of the mission which is way cool though. Before I got here they usually did 5 or 6 divisions per transfer but as of Monday, President has asked us to do divisions with every companionship of ZLs in the whole mission (13) every transfer (6 weeks). Including this transfer that is already a week in...so yeah we now have to do more than 2 divisions a week and we have zones that are out in Sorocaba....2 and half hours by bus away.
And he also doesn't want OUR personal working area to start lacking too much. Woot! It's going to be crazy. In order to get all these divisions done we had to choose a zone to do a division with and leave THAT night to do it. WE decided in going out to Zona Osasco with the ZLs to do the division the following day.
My old comp from Barcelona is out there, Elder D. Gonçalves, and I got to spend the day working with him and it was really cool (all 4 of us stay in the area and just work the place out for the day). The area has been having a rough time and we were able to find some really good new investigators for them. He said "Wow, President really is an inspired man. We were REALLY needing this division." The division wouldn't have happened if President's hadn't asked us to do divisions with all the zones this transfer.
It's a pretty stressful life but I love it. It's really fun. We literally have so much crap to do all the time that I forget how tired I am until I hit the bed at night. It sounds like it would suck but it's actually really good. I am happy. There is crappy stuff that we have to deal with like numbers and finding out about the stupid crap that missionaries do, but it's still awesome.
(Sorry mom...I know you wrote me and told me to stop saying the word "crap" but it just describes it so well).
Love you all! Until next week.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Every Sunday we have to get the mission's numbers which is probably the worst part of my new calling. Numbers suck. We have to stay up until like 11:30 or 12:00pm every Sunday night getting the numbers and making the relatórios for our meeting with President every Monday.
I have to do divisions with the Zone Leaders of the mission which is way cool though. Before I got here they usually did 5 or 6 divisions per transfer but as of Monday, President has asked us to do divisions with every companionship of ZLs in the whole mission (13) every transfer (6 weeks). Including this transfer that is already a week in...so yeah we now have to do more than 2 divisions a week and we have zones that are out in Sorocaba....2 and half hours by bus away.
And he also doesn't want OUR personal working area to start lacking too much. Woot! It's going to be crazy. In order to get all these divisions done we had to choose a zone to do a division with and leave THAT night to do it. WE decided in going out to Zona Osasco with the ZLs to do the division the following day.
My old comp from Barcelona is out there, Elder D. Gonçalves, and I got to spend the day working with him and it was really cool (all 4 of us stay in the area and just work the place out for the day). The area has been having a rough time and we were able to find some really good new investigators for them. He said "Wow, President really is an inspired man. We were REALLY needing this division." The division wouldn't have happened if President's hadn't asked us to do divisions with all the zones this transfer.
It's a pretty stressful life but I love it. It's really fun. We literally have so much crap to do all the time that I forget how tired I am until I hit the bed at night. It sounds like it would suck but it's actually really good. I am happy. There is crappy stuff that we have to deal with like numbers and finding out about the stupid crap that missionaries do, but it's still awesome.
(Sorry mom...I know you wrote me and told me to stop saying the word "crap" but it just describes it so well).
Love you all! Until next week.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Back in the City of São Paulo
Ópa Gente!
Hello my friends! This week was transfers week and it went pretty crazy. After a year straight there I was taken out of Sorocaba and was sent back the the "capital" in São Paulo. I have been called to be the new AP actually and I am way stoked. It's tons different and I have a lot to learn but I am excited.
My companion is way cool too. His name is Elder Vasconcelos and he was actually my old ZL when I was out in Salto de Pirapora 3 months ago. I left that area and went to Barcelona for the last 2 transfers and he also left but came here to be AP for the last 2. Now we are comps and I am excited. He is Brazilian (surprise!) but he speaks completely fluent English so it's just like having an American by my side. We just go in and out of English and Portuguese whenever we want and we understand each other completely. It's way cool.
So we had transfers on Wed. and on Thursday we helped some people move here in our ward. I was unplugging all their computer stuff and in the back of the desk there was a bunch of dust and I started having a huge allergy attack. I went back home and slept for a little bit and woke up feeling a lot better.
We went over to the mission office (we just got a new house in our area that is about 20 minutes away on foot from the mission office) to do some stuff on the computer after lunch.
Around 5pm I started feeling really sick and went and lied down on my bed here (there is an extra room with a bunk-bed here in the office for us when we have stuff to do here and have to sleep over or something) and it just started getting worse. I had a terrible fever and extreme body pain.
Haha, my fever was so bad that I started hallucinating and stuff. I am serious I woke up in the middle of the night and saw an airplane falling on me. A freaking airplane! I got all scared and hid under the covers like a toddler. Then I woke up again and saw my comp messing around with his planner for like five minutes...then all the sudden he disappeared. I was trippin'!
Then I woke up again in the middle of the night and was like "Vasconcelos (my comp)! I'm scared!" He was like "Parsons, it's OK just go back to sleep." I was like "OK!" Then went right back to sleep. Funny...but a little creepy.
Then that night I asked my companion and the secretaries to give me a blessing. After the blessing I couldn't even stand anymore and fell down on my bed and started sweating like crazy and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and I was fine though! It was crazy. I woke up and my zone had interviews with President and everything was fine. It was literally a miracle. My body is a still a little sore but other than that things are all good. If it wasn't for the blessing I don't think I would be as good as I am right now.
My responsibilities now are a lot different. We work a lot in our area but it isn't quite as much as normal. We have to do a lot of divisions with all the ZLs and the areas that are having a really hard time. We have to make up trainings and have meetings with President and stuff so a lot of time it's hard to get a full day's work into our area.
It's different and sometimes I feel an urge to go out trying to find people all day but we can't because we have other things that we have to do. It's just different. It's really cool though and I am really excited. I have an awesome companion, we get to be around the secretaries all day who are awesome, we get to talk to all the ZLs in the mission who are usually all awesome guys, and we get to work with our Mission President - President Cooley who is amazing.
My companion has 3 months left so I will probably "kill" him and stay at least another month and a half so I will most likely be here for a while. We'll see though.
Anyway, I love you all! 7 more months my friends! Adeus!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Hello my friends! This week was transfers week and it went pretty crazy. After a year straight there I was taken out of Sorocaba and was sent back the the "capital" in São Paulo. I have been called to be the new AP actually and I am way stoked. It's tons different and I have a lot to learn but I am excited.
My companion is way cool too. His name is Elder Vasconcelos and he was actually my old ZL when I was out in Salto de Pirapora 3 months ago. I left that area and went to Barcelona for the last 2 transfers and he also left but came here to be AP for the last 2. Now we are comps and I am excited. He is Brazilian (surprise!) but he speaks completely fluent English so it's just like having an American by my side. We just go in and out of English and Portuguese whenever we want and we understand each other completely. It's way cool.
So we had transfers on Wed. and on Thursday we helped some people move here in our ward. I was unplugging all their computer stuff and in the back of the desk there was a bunch of dust and I started having a huge allergy attack. I went back home and slept for a little bit and woke up feeling a lot better.
We went over to the mission office (we just got a new house in our area that is about 20 minutes away on foot from the mission office) to do some stuff on the computer after lunch.
Around 5pm I started feeling really sick and went and lied down on my bed here (there is an extra room with a bunk-bed here in the office for us when we have stuff to do here and have to sleep over or something) and it just started getting worse. I had a terrible fever and extreme body pain.
Haha, my fever was so bad that I started hallucinating and stuff. I am serious I woke up in the middle of the night and saw an airplane falling on me. A freaking airplane! I got all scared and hid under the covers like a toddler. Then I woke up again and saw my comp messing around with his planner for like five minutes...then all the sudden he disappeared. I was trippin'!
Then I woke up again in the middle of the night and was like "Vasconcelos (my comp)! I'm scared!" He was like "Parsons, it's OK just go back to sleep." I was like "OK!" Then went right back to sleep. Funny...but a little creepy.
Then that night I asked my companion and the secretaries to give me a blessing. After the blessing I couldn't even stand anymore and fell down on my bed and started sweating like crazy and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and I was fine though! It was crazy. I woke up and my zone had interviews with President and everything was fine. It was literally a miracle. My body is a still a little sore but other than that things are all good. If it wasn't for the blessing I don't think I would be as good as I am right now.
My responsibilities now are a lot different. We work a lot in our area but it isn't quite as much as normal. We have to do a lot of divisions with all the ZLs and the areas that are having a really hard time. We have to make up trainings and have meetings with President and stuff so a lot of time it's hard to get a full day's work into our area.
It's different and sometimes I feel an urge to go out trying to find people all day but we can't because we have other things that we have to do. It's just different. It's really cool though and I am really excited. I have an awesome companion, we get to be around the secretaries all day who are awesome, we get to talk to all the ZLs in the mission who are usually all awesome guys, and we get to work with our Mission President - President Cooley who is amazing.
My companion has 3 months left so I will probably "kill" him and stay at least another month and a half so I will most likely be here for a while. We'll see though.
Anyway, I love you all! 7 more months my friends! Adeus!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Big Toe Surgery
So last week we played soccer with a bunch of missionaries. Everything was going fine until I was kicked in the foot wearing my extremely-thin-made-for-running-and-not-soccer tennis shoes. Some Elder kicked it and caught me right on the big toenail, lifting it up and nearly breaking it off completely. It hurt like inferno but I thought it would get better. It hurt as I walked but nothing bad enough to stop me from working.
Well a few days passed and I noticed it was turning different colors. It turned a really dark yellow and even slight purplish. So I was on division on Monday and went in with Elder Lopes to a little health post to have them check it out. The doctor looked at it and said that they were going to have to take the toenail off.
What...?! It became loose on the upper half and pretty much just "died". The bottom half still was attached though...thus I became a bit worrisome. So the next morning we woke up at 5:45 am to head out to the local hospital. Now...this is a country with socialized medicine so let's just say it wasn't the most cleanly and attentive institution that I have seen before.
We waited for a while among the sweaty crowd then went in to see the doc. He confirmed that it had to come off. I asked him how they did it and he was like "well we numb it with anestesia...then I grap a pair of pincers" (which is just a really cute way of saying pliers...) "and i'll rip it off." I was far from comforted.
Well I was sent to the little "emergency room" that had two tables to lay on with butcher paper on it and was told to lie down and wait. I gave my camera to Lopes for him to film and the doctor came in. He proceeded to apply the anestesia in a manner far from caring I felt. "Umm...doctor? Are you sure the anestesia has to go INTO the bone?" Then he grabbed the beautiful pair of pliers and with 20 seconds or so of working the little guy he came flying off.
Yeah, it was awesome. I won't lie when I say that I gave a few girly screams of pain but I came out triumphant! They cleaned it out, wrapped it up, then told me to walk out the door to my right (it was just the back door to the hospital. I am pretty sure that my surgery was performed in what used to be the garage) and gave me a piece of paper that I was supposed to take to the "pharmacy" which was located out in the back of the hospital which, at first glance, could easily have been mistaken with the utility closet.
I got my medicine and then I was on my way! Instructions on how to clean, take care of or what things I can/cannot do with it? No! Post-surgery treatment is for losers! It really was weird though. You just walk in, get it all done, get your medicine, and then you walk out. You don't pay a thing! Insurance? Not needed! Full name? Optional! It's different...
It was a "good experience" though. Definitely the most exciting thing of the week. My comp filmed it all and I will be sending the video pretty soon - but its a big file.
New Year's was really good too. We had a BBQ with our zone at our ward mission leader's house and played Risk there. Oh what a glorious game that is. We are pretty much addicted to it. I played two games already today because I was physically unable to play soccer due to my mutilated toe (won them both I might add. Why would they ever let me keep North America like that? 5 extra armies every round!) It was really fun.
We have transfers next Wednesday so I might be emailing y'all from a different area next week. We'll see what happens. Loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Big Toe Before
Big Toe After
Well a few days passed and I noticed it was turning different colors. It turned a really dark yellow and even slight purplish. So I was on division on Monday and went in with Elder Lopes to a little health post to have them check it out. The doctor looked at it and said that they were going to have to take the toenail off.
What...?! It became loose on the upper half and pretty much just "died". The bottom half still was attached though...thus I became a bit worrisome. So the next morning we woke up at 5:45 am to head out to the local hospital. Now...this is a country with socialized medicine so let's just say it wasn't the most cleanly and attentive institution that I have seen before.
We waited for a while among the sweaty crowd then went in to see the doc. He confirmed that it had to come off. I asked him how they did it and he was like "well we numb it with anestesia...then I grap a pair of pincers" (which is just a really cute way of saying pliers...) "and i'll rip it off." I was far from comforted.
Well I was sent to the little "emergency room" that had two tables to lay on with butcher paper on it and was told to lie down and wait. I gave my camera to Lopes for him to film and the doctor came in. He proceeded to apply the anestesia in a manner far from caring I felt. "Umm...doctor? Are you sure the anestesia has to go INTO the bone?" Then he grabbed the beautiful pair of pliers and with 20 seconds or so of working the little guy he came flying off.
Yeah, it was awesome. I won't lie when I say that I gave a few girly screams of pain but I came out triumphant! They cleaned it out, wrapped it up, then told me to walk out the door to my right (it was just the back door to the hospital. I am pretty sure that my surgery was performed in what used to be the garage) and gave me a piece of paper that I was supposed to take to the "pharmacy" which was located out in the back of the hospital which, at first glance, could easily have been mistaken with the utility closet.
I got my medicine and then I was on my way! Instructions on how to clean, take care of or what things I can/cannot do with it? No! Post-surgery treatment is for losers! It really was weird though. You just walk in, get it all done, get your medicine, and then you walk out. You don't pay a thing! Insurance? Not needed! Full name? Optional! It's different...
It was a "good experience" though. Definitely the most exciting thing of the week. My comp filmed it all and I will be sending the video pretty soon - but its a big file.
New Year's was really good too. We had a BBQ with our zone at our ward mission leader's house and played Risk there. Oh what a glorious game that is. We are pretty much addicted to it. I played two games already today because I was physically unable to play soccer due to my mutilated toe (won them both I might add. Why would they ever let me keep North America like that? 5 extra armies every round!) It was really fun.
We have transfers next Wednesday so I might be emailing y'all from a different area next week. We'll see what happens. Loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Big Toe Before
Big Toe AfterWednesday, December 16, 2009
Normal Pre-Christmas Week
Welp this week was pretty normal. My comp's family came here on Saturday but a few days before President called saying that he couldn't go to the sealing at the temple. My comp was a little bit angry to say the least. But it was cool because we were going to ditch out on the ward Christmas party on Saturday to go to the São Paulo Temple but we ended up being able to go and it was sweet! I played soccer for like 6 hours straight. They call me the American Ronaldo because I am that good. Haha, jk, I make a fool out of myself on the field amongst the brethren.
Yesterday we had Mission Counsel in São Paulo...it was cool.
I don't have much to say, just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays ("Merry Christmas" to all of you that believe in that Jesus guy)! Haha. Next week I will be talking to my family!
Oh yeah next week I will be using the internet on TUESDAY and NOT WEDNESDAY! So get all them awesome emails off to me before Tuesday!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Yesterday we had Mission Counsel in São Paulo...it was cool.
I don't have much to say, just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays ("Merry Christmas" to all of you that believe in that Jesus guy)! Haha. Next week I will be talking to my family!
Oh yeah next week I will be using the internet on TUESDAY and NOT WEDNESDAY! So get all them awesome emails off to me before Tuesday!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
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