Dad I just read your email, I sent off my email then we went over to the grocery store, but then E. Blackham forgot he had to write another email so we are back here. Sorry I couldn't catch you for a 'live' chat.
We are only allowed 45 minutes on the computer each p-day, no matter how much we pay for. It is an CTM rule.
We were just walking around the streets and saw some hilarious stuff. Drivers are crazy here. It is crazy enough to drive a car here, but even more crazy to drive a horse-drawn chariot made out of pure garbage, which is exactly what we just saw galloping down the street. Then we saw a man pulling a handcart, yes, a handcart down the middle of the street carrying what looked like all of his belongings. It is a weird place. Pure entertainment while walking down the street though. (Dont let Elder Blackham know I said that though. He is a very liberal man and believes poor people, no matter how hard they have tried or ever will try, have no fault for being poor. Thus we can never blame them for being poor).
Anyway, you can add this to the blog letter or whatever. Love you guys, talk to you later.
-Brent
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Brent's 2nd Letter from Brazil CTM
Hello everyone,
So to start my letter I would like to tell everyone a sad fact. I can only open emails from someone in my immediate family so if you want to send me an email please email it to my Dad at Keith@inpnet.org (please send any e-mails to Brent to keith.parsons@me.com with the word BRENT in the subject line and I'll forward them directly on) and I am sure he will be kind enough to forward it to me and will also be kind enough to not read it, right dad? If you have already wrote me an email ýou didnt know that so I read it don't worry, just for future notice send them to my parents first.
On that note I don't have enough time each week on the computer to write back to everyone that wrote me (and I can only write emails to my immediate family as well, yes I know how stupid it is and have spent many an hour frustrated about it, but they say 100% obedience brings blessings but it looks like "blessings" in Brazil means a punch in the groin of frustration), but please keep writing!Thank you to everyone who wrote me! It seriously helps time go by so much faster. I hold the mailbox key for my district so after lunch and dinner each day we crowd around the mailbox and make bets on who gets the most letters...I have won several times and it is all because of the you hard workers on the home front.
Oh yeah missionties is working perfect, thanks Mom and Dad for setting that up.
Karrissa your letter was hilarious, I laughed out loud probably 8 or 9 times (wipe that smile off your face). But seriously, well done and please keep them coming.
Thank you for writing me Aunt Linda, it was definitely a surprise to get emails from you but I am really glad you wrote me and thank you for your words of encouragement.
Thank you to everyone else who wrote me, it is much appreciated.
Life at the CTM is pretty ridiculous sometimes. I am in charge of the biggest district here (12 guys now, we picked up two more that had visa problems). Most districts have 6-8 guys. It is really annoying actually because most districts can easily get together with everyone but it is hard to get all 12 guys together on p day or something to go walk around the streets.
Speaking of that, São Paulo is huge. It is ridiculous. One of the best parts of the CTM is the view out of my window. We are on the fifth floor and we can look out and about two miles away is downtown São Paulo. The building stretch across the entire horizon and you cant see where they end, it is awesome. I will probably send pictures later, but it is kind of hard to see them on my camera. Oh yeah that reminds me, all the pics I take will just be of the MTC and what I can see from my window because we are not allowed to take our cameras outside of the CTM, it sucks...really bad. So many rules.
So Elder Blackham and I have been keeping a running total of how many times we climb the stairs from the bottom floor to our fifth story room (It's one of those things that we do to keep ourselves sane...like trying to sneak past the motion sensor lights in the stairwell or pretend to hate a companionship in your district for a few hours). You can only use the elevator on your first and last day, to help with the luggage. I think it is the CTM's anti-fat law. It doesn't work unfortunately. Anyway, as of the climb down to come here to write you we have got up/down the stairs 134 times. So much. My legs always hurt.
We got Brazilian roommates this week and they are really cool. The language is really annoying to learn and I can never remember words that I learned like five minutes before, but the Brazilians will help because they like to teach us how to speak Portuguese and we teach them english. Oh dad, you pronounce "boa noite" "bo-a noy-ch".
Speaking of the language I was having a really hard time last week with pronunciation. So i finally got sick of it and started talking in my Mexican accent. My teacher said that I must have been constantly practicing outside of class because my pronunciation was better than anyone in the class except my companion. It was hilarious. So I guess I just need to be a mexican speaking portuguese to master this language.
It is really hard to think of things to say because everyday literally is the same. They say that time goes by really fast here but I think it is only because if you look back it all just seems like one day.
Oh well, sorry this letter was pretty boring and not so funny. I really just go to class everyday and eat with a periodic break three times a week for a basketball game that would look like a special ed game to someone on the outside. We are all so terrible it is so funny. But it is fun.
I'll write again next tuesday, please keep the letters coming. Oh I just heard that the letters for missionties will only be delivered on wednesdays, not the days you guys send them. It is so stupid. Apparently missionaries were getting multiple letters everyday so they wouldn't focus on the work. Which is stupid because it takes 10 min to read the letters and we have 8-10 hours of class everyday. Cant we have a 10 min break warden? Oh well, love you guys and I really miss you but I know I am here doing the right thing.
Love you,
-Brent
P.S. Have fun in Moses lake family! Let me know how it goes. Man I sound like such a missionary in my emails I hate it.
So to start my letter I would like to tell everyone a sad fact. I can only open emails from someone in my immediate family so if you want to send me an email please email it to my Dad at Keith@inpnet.org (please send any e-mails to Brent to keith.parsons@me.com with the word BRENT in the subject line and I'll forward them directly on) and I am sure he will be kind enough to forward it to me and will also be kind enough to not read it, right dad? If you have already wrote me an email ýou didnt know that so I read it don't worry, just for future notice send them to my parents first.
On that note I don't have enough time each week on the computer to write back to everyone that wrote me (and I can only write emails to my immediate family as well, yes I know how stupid it is and have spent many an hour frustrated about it, but they say 100% obedience brings blessings but it looks like "blessings" in Brazil means a punch in the groin of frustration), but please keep writing!Thank you to everyone who wrote me! It seriously helps time go by so much faster. I hold the mailbox key for my district so after lunch and dinner each day we crowd around the mailbox and make bets on who gets the most letters...I have won several times and it is all because of the you hard workers on the home front.
Oh yeah missionties is working perfect, thanks Mom and Dad for setting that up.
Karrissa your letter was hilarious, I laughed out loud probably 8 or 9 times (wipe that smile off your face). But seriously, well done and please keep them coming.
Thank you for writing me Aunt Linda, it was definitely a surprise to get emails from you but I am really glad you wrote me and thank you for your words of encouragement.
Thank you to everyone else who wrote me, it is much appreciated.
Life at the CTM is pretty ridiculous sometimes. I am in charge of the biggest district here (12 guys now, we picked up two more that had visa problems). Most districts have 6-8 guys. It is really annoying actually because most districts can easily get together with everyone but it is hard to get all 12 guys together on p day or something to go walk around the streets.
Speaking of that, São Paulo is huge. It is ridiculous. One of the best parts of the CTM is the view out of my window. We are on the fifth floor and we can look out and about two miles away is downtown São Paulo. The building stretch across the entire horizon and you cant see where they end, it is awesome. I will probably send pictures later, but it is kind of hard to see them on my camera. Oh yeah that reminds me, all the pics I take will just be of the MTC and what I can see from my window because we are not allowed to take our cameras outside of the CTM, it sucks...really bad. So many rules.
So Elder Blackham and I have been keeping a running total of how many times we climb the stairs from the bottom floor to our fifth story room (It's one of those things that we do to keep ourselves sane...like trying to sneak past the motion sensor lights in the stairwell or pretend to hate a companionship in your district for a few hours). You can only use the elevator on your first and last day, to help with the luggage. I think it is the CTM's anti-fat law. It doesn't work unfortunately. Anyway, as of the climb down to come here to write you we have got up/down the stairs 134 times. So much. My legs always hurt.
We got Brazilian roommates this week and they are really cool. The language is really annoying to learn and I can never remember words that I learned like five minutes before, but the Brazilians will help because they like to teach us how to speak Portuguese and we teach them english. Oh dad, you pronounce "boa noite" "bo-a noy-ch".
Speaking of the language I was having a really hard time last week with pronunciation. So i finally got sick of it and started talking in my Mexican accent. My teacher said that I must have been constantly practicing outside of class because my pronunciation was better than anyone in the class except my companion. It was hilarious. So I guess I just need to be a mexican speaking portuguese to master this language.
It is really hard to think of things to say because everyday literally is the same. They say that time goes by really fast here but I think it is only because if you look back it all just seems like one day.
Oh well, sorry this letter was pretty boring and not so funny. I really just go to class everyday and eat with a periodic break three times a week for a basketball game that would look like a special ed game to someone on the outside. We are all so terrible it is so funny. But it is fun.
I'll write again next tuesday, please keep the letters coming. Oh I just heard that the letters for missionties will only be delivered on wednesdays, not the days you guys send them. It is so stupid. Apparently missionaries were getting multiple letters everyday so they wouldn't focus on the work. Which is stupid because it takes 10 min to read the letters and we have 8-10 hours of class everyday. Cant we have a 10 min break warden? Oh well, love you guys and I really miss you but I know I am here doing the right thing.
Love you,
-Brent
P.S. Have fun in Moses lake family! Let me know how it goes. Man I sound like such a missionary in my emails I hate it.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
A Brazillian Miles from Home
First email from Brent
Boa noite!
Sadly I can no longer say "buenos noches!" as my greeting seeing as I am speaking Portugalianese now. Well, not really speaking, more mumbling to any Brazilian and hoping they just think I am mumbling in Portuguese and they didn't understand me, rather than them > knowing that I was just straight mumbling because I am an idiot.
Wow it has been a weird last six days. We traveled here all of Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Literally the longest 20 hours of my whole life. Our flight from Salt Lake was delayed for about 45 minutes so we got to Dallas and hurried to our terminal to catch the flight to São Paulo but it had already left...fifteen minutes earlier. So we had to wait around for another two hours until the next flight left. No one in my district seemed worried at all about catching the flight except me, I felt like Mom. I was literally herding them through the airport (most of them somehow could not even follow the simplest of signs. "Yes we have to get to the "D" terminal so if you see an arrow and a "D" next to it, follow the direction the arrow is pointing). No else thought it was important to call the CTM (MTC) to let them know that we were going to be about 2 and a half hours late...so I had to do that as well. So we finally got on the plane to São Paulo and it was the worst plane ride of my life. Instead of arriving at 5:30 in the morning we ended up getting there at 8:30am São Paulo time (3 hours ahead of Utah). And we left Dallas at 8:30pm. Oh, and I didn't sleep at all the entire time. I am pretty sure I was the only one awake for several hours that wasn't employed by American Airlines. Anyway, it was horrible, but we got here. I traveled with most of my district that I am currently with so atleast we got a lot of time to get to know eachother right...? Not that two months in a stuffy classroom won't do the trick.
My district consists of 10 outstanding gentlemen. I actually really like the guys, some are a bit weird, some are a bit annoying, but it could have been a lot worse. My companion is hilarious though. Oh man, I wish you all could meet him. His name is Elder Blackham. He is from a small town from Green Valley, California...according to him in his town you are either LDS, a true hippie, a Wicka (practices witchcraft), or some odd combination of the three. He comes from a LDS/Hippie family. I would say he mostly reminds me of Spencer Mayberry (except his skin is actually white, not some weird half-black skin that Spence has and he is a lot smaller, he weighs about 132 lbs and is about 5 foot 7 inches). He is obsessed with choir. OBSESSED. He sings in every silent moment. I don't actually mind cause he is actually good and it is really funny. Oh yeah he is also like Ben because he is extremely cautious and deathly afraid of getting hurt. The first thing he told me is that he is so glad he wont be riding a bike in our mission (he is going to São Paulo North as well) because the drivers are out of control here and he knows he would get killed by a driver because his reflexes are not fast enough to get out of the way.
Oh yeah! The best part of my companion's wide array of personality characteristics is that he is an extreme hypochondriac. Rarely does a day go by where he doesn't mention some life threatening disease he thinks he has. I love it. It makes the days bearable here, listening to him complain about his acid reflex that will burn his esophageous (spelling?) or him thinking he swallowed a chicken bone and being worried all night that it will wreak havoc on his intestine. I told him to always share his hypochondrac thoughts with me becasue I will go insane without them. He believes that Wal-Mart's outsourcing is going to ruin America's economy and believes you are a terrorist if you buy from another country other than America. He is also an extreme liberal...but we can't talk politics in the CTM but every once in a while i'll get a small amount of debate out of him. He thinks it is hilarious when he slips up on Obama's name and calls him Osama..."I can't believe it, I just did it again!" He loves Obama. Anyway, we definitely wouldn't be friends outside of this place, so it's weird that I actually enjoy his company.
Oh yeah, I am writing from the comforts of Mr. Cheney's Cookies. It's a little place across from the CTM where all the missionaries go to write their emails. They do this thing called MissionTies that I need you to sign up for mom/dad. I don't really fully understand it but I am pretty sure that you have to do it all on your end. Go to MissionTies.com and sign me up for it. When anyone writes me a letter to this email account > (brentparsons@myldsmail.net) they will print it out and send it over to the CTM and they will put it in my mailbox which I check twice a day just hoping that I will get a letter. So if anyone wants to contact me send me an email to this account and it will be printed and given to me just like a letter would be. I can only send email to my immediate family so I will just send a letter to my parents that they can forward on to you. I only get 45 minutes every p-day to check and write email so I will probably just a write a big letter to everyone until I get out and have the chance to be on the computer more often. I hope that whole thing was clear, I dont really understand it myself but mom and dad, please just go to the website and sign me up. I want letters! I want to hear what is going on with everyone no matter how trivial you think it is. It has only been six days and I am already going insane.
Oh yeah, on top of everything I got called as district leader on friday night. I am still not sure what responsibilities that entitles but my branch president's counselor just said to be "a perfect example to your district in everything you do". Oh yeah thanks for that. That definitely eases the burden of adjusting to this prison-like setting, would you like me to do anything else besides be perfect? Unbelievable.
CTM life is extremely repetitive. I wake up, do personal study, go to breakfast, go back to the classroom and do companion study, then I do MDST (Missionary Directed Study Time, missionaries just study whatever they want during that time), then go to lunch at 12:15, then go to class at 1:15 until 4:45 then go to dinner, then go back to class from 5:45 until 9:00, then my companion and I plan for the next day, then we get ready for bed, lights out at 10:30. Oh and three times a week we get time for 45 minutes of gym during MDST. WHOOPIE! Everyday we do that. For two months. Which seems like two years from now. Just kidding, but not really. The CTM is not THAT bad it is just stressful and repetitive and I can usually hear myself getting fatter during most of the day due to large amounts of food and no exercise.
The food is pretty good, not as bad as I hear. I actually enjoy the rice and beans (I like to stuff a roll with the rice and beans, it's delicious) and the meat is good too. Although I think they keep accidentally spilling a large bottle of lemon juice into every batch of meat I have ever had...those clumsy cooks.
The language is really frustrating. It is so annoying to have Brazilians everywhere in the CTM and not be able to communicate with them. It has only been six days though and they say it will get better.
Anyway, I got to go, time is up. I hope I didn't forget anything. Mom and Dad make sure you sign up for the mission ties. Everyone write me! Thanks for doing the blog Karrissa. Will you guys make sure everyone knows about it? I didn't tell a lot of people about it. Make sure everyone knows...I don't think I told Tasha about it so let her know. Anwyay, thank you for everything and I love you guys and hope I will hear from you guys soon. I can only get on the computer once a week so I will make sure I write an email at least that often and maybe a letter sometime too. Farewell!
-Brent
Boa noite!
Sadly I can no longer say "buenos noches!" as my greeting seeing as I am speaking Portugalianese now. Well, not really speaking, more mumbling to any Brazilian and hoping they just think I am mumbling in Portuguese and they didn't understand me, rather than them > knowing that I was just straight mumbling because I am an idiot.
Wow it has been a weird last six days. We traveled here all of Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Literally the longest 20 hours of my whole life. Our flight from Salt Lake was delayed for about 45 minutes so we got to Dallas and hurried to our terminal to catch the flight to São Paulo but it had already left...fifteen minutes earlier. So we had to wait around for another two hours until the next flight left. No one in my district seemed worried at all about catching the flight except me, I felt like Mom. I was literally herding them through the airport (most of them somehow could not even follow the simplest of signs. "Yes we have to get to the "D" terminal so if you see an arrow and a "D" next to it, follow the direction the arrow is pointing). No else thought it was important to call the CTM (MTC) to let them know that we were going to be about 2 and a half hours late...so I had to do that as well. So we finally got on the plane to São Paulo and it was the worst plane ride of my life. Instead of arriving at 5:30 in the morning we ended up getting there at 8:30am São Paulo time (3 hours ahead of Utah). And we left Dallas at 8:30pm. Oh, and I didn't sleep at all the entire time. I am pretty sure I was the only one awake for several hours that wasn't employed by American Airlines. Anyway, it was horrible, but we got here. I traveled with most of my district that I am currently with so atleast we got a lot of time to get to know eachother right...? Not that two months in a stuffy classroom won't do the trick.
My district consists of 10 outstanding gentlemen. I actually really like the guys, some are a bit weird, some are a bit annoying, but it could have been a lot worse. My companion is hilarious though. Oh man, I wish you all could meet him. His name is Elder Blackham. He is from a small town from Green Valley, California...according to him in his town you are either LDS, a true hippie, a Wicka (practices witchcraft), or some odd combination of the three. He comes from a LDS/Hippie family. I would say he mostly reminds me of Spencer Mayberry (except his skin is actually white, not some weird half-black skin that Spence has and he is a lot smaller, he weighs about 132 lbs and is about 5 foot 7 inches). He is obsessed with choir. OBSESSED. He sings in every silent moment. I don't actually mind cause he is actually good and it is really funny. Oh yeah he is also like Ben because he is extremely cautious and deathly afraid of getting hurt. The first thing he told me is that he is so glad he wont be riding a bike in our mission (he is going to São Paulo North as well) because the drivers are out of control here and he knows he would get killed by a driver because his reflexes are not fast enough to get out of the way.
Oh yeah! The best part of my companion's wide array of personality characteristics is that he is an extreme hypochondriac. Rarely does a day go by where he doesn't mention some life threatening disease he thinks he has. I love it. It makes the days bearable here, listening to him complain about his acid reflex that will burn his esophageous (spelling?) or him thinking he swallowed a chicken bone and being worried all night that it will wreak havoc on his intestine. I told him to always share his hypochondrac thoughts with me becasue I will go insane without them. He believes that Wal-Mart's outsourcing is going to ruin America's economy and believes you are a terrorist if you buy from another country other than America. He is also an extreme liberal...but we can't talk politics in the CTM but every once in a while i'll get a small amount of debate out of him. He thinks it is hilarious when he slips up on Obama's name and calls him Osama..."I can't believe it, I just did it again!" He loves Obama. Anyway, we definitely wouldn't be friends outside of this place, so it's weird that I actually enjoy his company.
Oh yeah, I am writing from the comforts of Mr. Cheney's Cookies. It's a little place across from the CTM where all the missionaries go to write their emails. They do this thing called MissionTies that I need you to sign up for mom/dad. I don't really fully understand it but I am pretty sure that you have to do it all on your end. Go to MissionTies.com and sign me up for it. When anyone writes me a letter to this email account > (brentparsons@myldsmail.net) they will print it out and send it over to the CTM and they will put it in my mailbox which I check twice a day just hoping that I will get a letter. So if anyone wants to contact me send me an email to this account and it will be printed and given to me just like a letter would be. I can only send email to my immediate family so I will just send a letter to my parents that they can forward on to you. I only get 45 minutes every p-day to check and write email so I will probably just a write a big letter to everyone until I get out and have the chance to be on the computer more often. I hope that whole thing was clear, I dont really understand it myself but mom and dad, please just go to the website and sign me up. I want letters! I want to hear what is going on with everyone no matter how trivial you think it is. It has only been six days and I am already going insane.
Oh yeah, on top of everything I got called as district leader on friday night. I am still not sure what responsibilities that entitles but my branch president's counselor just said to be "a perfect example to your district in everything you do". Oh yeah thanks for that. That definitely eases the burden of adjusting to this prison-like setting, would you like me to do anything else besides be perfect? Unbelievable.
CTM life is extremely repetitive. I wake up, do personal study, go to breakfast, go back to the classroom and do companion study, then I do MDST (Missionary Directed Study Time, missionaries just study whatever they want during that time), then go to lunch at 12:15, then go to class at 1:15 until 4:45 then go to dinner, then go back to class from 5:45 until 9:00, then my companion and I plan for the next day, then we get ready for bed, lights out at 10:30. Oh and three times a week we get time for 45 minutes of gym during MDST. WHOOPIE! Everyday we do that. For two months. Which seems like two years from now. Just kidding, but not really. The CTM is not THAT bad it is just stressful and repetitive and I can usually hear myself getting fatter during most of the day due to large amounts of food and no exercise.
The food is pretty good, not as bad as I hear. I actually enjoy the rice and beans (I like to stuff a roll with the rice and beans, it's delicious) and the meat is good too. Although I think they keep accidentally spilling a large bottle of lemon juice into every batch of meat I have ever had...those clumsy cooks.
The language is really frustrating. It is so annoying to have Brazilians everywhere in the CTM and not be able to communicate with them. It has only been six days though and they say it will get better.
Anyway, I got to go, time is up. I hope I didn't forget anything. Mom and Dad make sure you sign up for the mission ties. Everyone write me! Thanks for doing the blog Karrissa. Will you guys make sure everyone knows about it? I didn't tell a lot of people about it. Make sure everyone knows...I don't think I told Tasha about it so let her know. Anwyay, thank you for everything and I love you guys and hope I will hear from you guys soon. I can only get on the computer once a week so I will make sure I write an email at least that often and maybe a letter sometime too. Farewell!
-Brent
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Goodbye Brenters!
Tuesday morning we had to say bye to Brent. He left for the airport at about 10:15 for his 1:00 flight to Dallas and then Sao Paulo. He decided he just wanted to say goodbye to us at the house and just have our parents take him to the airport. With my dad's excellent packing skills, they finished packing and weighing his bags. We had breakfast and took some pictures and then said bye. We are sure going to miss our Brenters!
last of mom's special egg-cheese-sausage-bacon bagel sandwich for a while
Elder Parsons
these brothers are so close
cute girls that love their Uncle B
I miss him already!
our great dad and mom
last of mom's special egg-cheese-sausage-bacon bagel sandwich for a while
Elder Parsons
these brothers are so close
cute girls that love their Uncle B
I miss him already!
our great dad and momHow to Mail to Elder Brent Parsons in the MTC
Elder Brent Parsons
District is 33-A Mailbox #28
Rua Padre Antônio D’Angelo, 121
Casa Verde, São Paulo, SP
Brazil 02516-040
HOW TO SEND MAIL TO MISSIONARIES WHILE THEY ARE IN THE BRAZIL MTC
LETTERS
Letters must be mailed directly to the MTC at the address below. They take one week to get to Brazil. Your missionary will also be able to e-mail you on his or her P-day.
OTHER MAIL
To send anything to your missionary while he or she is in the MTC use a GLOBAL PRIORITY ENVELOPE obtained at any U.S. Post Office.
Global Priority Envelopes or regular priority envelopes arrive fairly quickly and safely to Brazil (3-4 weeks). The flat rate is $11.00.
Priority boxes also work well, but are more expensive to send. If you need to get something to your missionary in a week, send it in an Express mail envelope or box.
DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY: FEDEX, DHL, UPS, ETC. WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THEM! Use the address below. Be sure to use the full name of the Elder or Sister!!
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Do not send any packages to your missionary using the MTC address after he or she has been in Brazil for four weeks. After your missionary has been in the Brazil MTC for seven weeks, send all mail directly to the mission home of the mission to which your son or daughter has been called. The address of your missionary’s mission home is found in the original materials sent to your home at the time of your missionary’s call.
Elder Brent Parsons
Brent was set apart as a missionary by President McGinn Monday night at 9:30 pm. We all kind of had a hard evening. We were helping Brent pack and he was getting pretty emotional and just felt overwhelmed. However, after his blessing he was was so calm and happy and excited. The blessing was great- so many neat things included in it. I loved how President McGinn mentioned his humor and fun-loving personality. He said to use it and encourage others with his enthusiasm. He blessed him with an open-mind while learning Portuguese and that he will have experiences where the Lord will talk through him and he may not even know what he is saying. He told him to be precisely obedient. He blessed him with health, strength, and stamina. It was a great blessing and the experience was such a strong testimony to me of not only missionary work but of the priesthood and its power.
President McGinn said, "If missionary work was just based on looks, he would be the greatest missionary ever." I totally agree- he is adorable! After the setting apart friends and family came over to visit with Brent one last time and have Brent's favorite dessert- cheesecake!
Brent with cousins Jenny and Laura
the boys- Ryan, Jake, Brady, Kenton, Brent, and Mike
Brent and Mike- cousins but more like brothers
This was one of the best moments for my dad. Brent really wanted a nice pen to take on his mission, even despite the fact that he may get mugged for it!! :) My dad is a collector of fine pens, namely Mont Blancs. Brent went into my dad's office and told him that he felt like he was old enough for a nice pen. My dad was thrilled. He brought his collection out and let Brent test drive some pens. After switching around some inks and deciding on the statement-making red of classy black, Brent is now the proud owner of a black Mont Blanc.
President McGinn said, "If missionary work was just based on looks, he would be the greatest missionary ever." I totally agree- he is adorable! After the setting apart friends and family came over to visit with Brent one last time and have Brent's favorite dessert- cheesecake!
Brent with cousins Jenny and Laura
the boys- Ryan, Jake, Brady, Kenton, Brent, and Mike
Brent and Mike- cousins but more like brothers
This was one of the best moments for my dad. Brent really wanted a nice pen to take on his mission, even despite the fact that he may get mugged for it!! :) My dad is a collector of fine pens, namely Mont Blancs. Brent went into my dad's office and told him that he felt like he was old enough for a nice pen. My dad was thrilled. He brought his collection out and let Brent test drive some pens. After switching around some inks and deciding on the statement-making red of classy black, Brent is now the proud owner of a black Mont Blanc. Last Temple Visit
Monday morning we all headed to the Provo Temple for one last temple visit with Brent. It was so neat to be there with the whole family. We kept saying that we can't wait until Alysha can join us too and have our whole family in the temple together. It was fun to see all the missionaries from the MTC there too.
Farewell
Brent had his mission farewell this past Sunday. He did such an awesome job with a great combination of humor and spirituality. We were all so proud of him and enjoyed the jokes, lessons learned from his preisthood leaders, and references to how much he loves his family! After his talk we had a great open house with an awesome waffle station. My mom sure knows how to throw a party! She borrowed four professional waffle irons (the kind that flip over) from a friend and had all kinds of syrup, whip cream, fresh fruits, bacon, sausage, and milk and juices. It was delicious- what a great idea huh?
Well we sure love Brent and are so proud of him. Thanks to all the family and friends who came to support him!
the waffle station
Brent and his nieces
Big sister!
Well we sure love Brent and are so proud of him. Thanks to all the family and friends who came to support him!
the waffle station
Brent and his nieces
Big sister!Brent Made it to the Brazil MTC
I just heard from a lady in our neighborhood… her son knew Brent from High School. He mentioned running into Brent in the MTC this morning, and sent it in his e-mail home to his Mom, and she called me.
So Brent arrived in Brazil safely!
She mentioned we should be getting a confirmation e-mail from the MTC President and his Branch President over the next couple of days. Brent’s first chance to e-mail will be his P-Day next Tuesday or Wednesday. So we’ll have to wait a week to find out about his trip and what he thinks of the MTC.
In the mean time. If you want to write to ‘Elder Parsons’ – he can be reached at one of the addresses below.
-------------------------------------------
Here is the 'official' addresses based on the documents from Brent's Mission
Mailing Letters (Mission Home Mailing Address)
The 'Pouch Mail' has been discontinued to Brazil!
There is also mail available directly to the MTC.
Here's the MTC Address
Brent should be at the Missionary Training Center till approximately October 15th. So if you are sending anything after that October 1st - it would be better to send it directly to the Mission Home address and they'll be able to get it to him.
After he has been assigned an area - we'll have his new mailing address for you.
"Note: Failure to send packages to the MTC by Airmail through the US Postal System will result in import taxes and possible loss of the package! It would be better to send packages to the Mission home."
Grandpa Parsons also checked USPS.com for postage rates.
Brazil: 1 oz letter = $ 94; 2 oz letter = $1.69
Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope = $11.95
Purchase of postage for priority mail online at http://www.usps.com is about $1.00 cheaper.
So Brent arrived in Brazil safely!
She mentioned we should be getting a confirmation e-mail from the MTC President and his Branch President over the next couple of days. Brent’s first chance to e-mail will be his P-Day next Tuesday or Wednesday. So we’ll have to wait a week to find out about his trip and what he thinks of the MTC.
In the mean time. If you want to write to ‘Elder Parsons’ – he can be reached at one of the addresses below.
-------------------------------------------
Here is the 'official' addresses based on the documents from Brent's Mission
Mailing Letters (Mission Home Mailing Address)
Elder Brent Thomas ParsonsMailing Packages (Mission Home Address)
Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission
Caixa Postal 26095
São Paulo-SP
05513-970
BRAZIL
Elder Brent Thomas Parsons
Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission
Rua Dr. Rui Batista Pereira, 165
Jardim Caxingui
São Paulo, SP
05517-080
BRAZIL
The 'Pouch Mail' has been discontinued to Brazil!
There is also mail available directly to the MTC.
Here's the MTC Address
Elder Brent Parsons
Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission
Brazilian Missionary Training Center
Rua Padre António D'Angelo, 121
Casa Verde
São Paulo, SP
02516-040
BRAZIL
Brent should be at the Missionary Training Center till approximately October 15th. So if you are sending anything after that October 1st - it would be better to send it directly to the Mission Home address and they'll be able to get it to him.
After he has been assigned an area - we'll have his new mailing address for you.
"Note: Failure to send packages to the MTC by Airmail through the US Postal System will result in import taxes and possible loss of the package! It would be better to send packages to the Mission home."
Grandpa Parsons also checked USPS.com for postage rates.
Brazil: 1 oz letter = $ 94; 2 oz letter = $1.69
Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope = $11.95
Purchase of postage for priority mail online at http://www.usps.com is about $1.00 cheaper.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
A Visit to the SLC Temple
On the afternoon of Saturday, July 14, some family members attended the Salt Lake City Temple with Brent for the first time in preparation for going on his mission to Brazil in August. After a great session, they all enjoyed dinner at The Roof, the restaurant on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
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