From the comforts of Casa Verde

Hello,

Ok, so I have no idea what to write right now. I am so confused...I will try to remember what I need to tell you but I will probably forget some stuff.

I will write about my new companion and area and stuff but first I will leave off on my last email. Last week was pretty much useless until Sunday when I started packing. Packing without a mommy is no fun. But I started and was doing pretty good with it until Monday when my Mission President (President Cooley), his wife, and the 2 APs of the mission came to the CTM and while the APs talked to the group of 15 of us (8 Americans, 7 Brazilians) that are going to serve in São Paulo North, our Mission President interviewed all of us. My Mission President is so awesome. He is a farmer from Arizona and is way cool. He is pretty laid back and is really easy to talk to. I will let you know more about him when I find out more. Anyway, so the APs were talking to us and told us that we can only take 1 suitcase out to our mission...some news that I would have liked to know before I packed TWO suitcases worth of stuff down here. So all of us were going pretty crazy trying to decide things we could leave in the other bag that we don't take to our area that wouldn't totally screw us over for the next 6 weeks or so. It was pretty hectic, but I think I got everything that I needed but we will see.

So then Monday night we said goodbye to the 3 Elders in our district that are not going to São Paulo North with us and went to sleep. We woke up Tuesday morning and packed all our stuff into a van and then left at 8:30 am to go to our mission office that is about 40 minutes away by car (by the way I am omitting many details due to lack of time and patience). So we arrived there, eyes wide and urine running freely, and went inside and met the 2 APs again and the office missionaries. They were actually really cool and I kind of envy their job. Then they gave us a presentation on the rules of the mission, financial stuff, and a bunch of other stuff, then we went to lunch at this amazing "Tucanos" style restaraunt but it was like 5 times better, and then we just kind of hung out until 5 pm. But then at 5 pm each AP and office missionary and some other elders in the area took each one of us as his companion and went out proselyting.

My companion was one of the APs named Elder Pando. Elder Pando has been out somewhere between 1 year and 3 months and 1 year and 10 months; he is a very vague man. So we said a prayer (which he of course made me say in Portuguese) then headed out the door. We walked right past the São Paulo Temple and then...several more miles (contacting many of the people who were obviously trying to avoid us along the way) until he finally said "so are you ready to go into the Favela?" Now in the U.S. a Favela would probably be called a Slum, but there aren't slums in the U.S. like there are here. We were literally walking past what I thought were two connected building, but then he took a sharp right turn into a small opening that was used as an entrance to this Favela. It really was straight out of a movie. We walked in and it was just this really long, dark corridor that had a small stream of feces accompanying it along side so we wouldn't get lonely and the high open air overhead. There were half-dressed and naked children running around too (they call us 'believers'). Then we walked down and stopped at this door and knocked. After waiting5 or so min we were let in and taught this 14 year old boy about how important it was for him to read the Book of Mormon. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it was boiling-lava hot outside and this entire time, especially after walking the several miles of mountainous terrain, I was dripping. It probably looked pretty ridiculous to this 14 year old kid to watch this plus-size American bear his testimony about the Book of Mormon in broken Portuguese while having a constant sweat-drip from his nose. Oh well, I am sure I will be sweating off a few hundred pounds in the next few weeks and there wont be anything left to sweat.

So after that we went to the church (yet again...several miles away) and taught the 3 old people and English lesson for an hour, which was actually pretty cool. Then we went to this lady's house (had to dodge the dog feces on her stairs) and talked to her for a minute while we drank the juice she made us. Right before we left the CTM they gave us this huge lecture on how to stay healthy in the field. One of the things was to NEVER drink the tap-water. Yeah that rule went out the window last night because that juice was definitely not made from delicious mineral water.

After that we went back home and ate pizza then went to bed in the "hotel"...which is just a storage area in the back of the Mission Office that they threw a few cots in. Then woke up this morning and went to the chapel where everyone in the entire mission were, awaiting the announcement of their new companions and areas.

So my new companion is Elder L. Sousa (There are so many people with the last names Sousa, Silva, De Silva, and Nascimento that they have to add their first initial to distinguish). I literally have been with him for about 2 and half hours. He is from Rio De Janeiro and has been on his mission for 1 year and 3 months. He speaks only a tiny bit of English so it forces me to call upon every word I ever learned in the CTM. He seems really cool though and has to be a very good soccer player because he played one of the most well-know teams here in brazil, the Flamingos from Rio. Crazy. I'll tell you more about him next week.

Oh yeah so some crazy news. My area is Casa Verde (Green House) and it is the same area of the CTM! I am literally 200 yards from the CTM right now (not in Cheney's but at this other place). It is so weird. I have seen a bunch of the elders I knew walking around because it is there P-day too.

Ok, I only have an hour so I have to go. Packages and letters go straight to the mission office and then we can pick them up when we go there for interviews, zone conferences, and the like. It sucks but that is how it is. You can address letters as normal but if you send a package put the return address name as "Elder Parsons" and the name that you are sending it to as "President Jeffry Cooley" so that he can sign for it. I really have to go hope that made sense but I need to go. Love you all, pray for me, I'll write more next week.

Mission Office Address: (CHECK THIS TO MAKE SURE IT IS RIGHT)

Rua Dr. Rui Batista Pereira 165
Caxingui
05571-080 São Paulo - SP

-Elder Brent Parsons