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Well I hope everyone had a good Christmas! In my book you all did solely for the fact that you had a lot of snow (SUCK IT AL GORE!). Christmas Day here was scorching hot...it didn't feel like Christmas at all. The only thing that made it feel like Christmas was the fact that I got to talk to my family which was sweet. It was weird because it felt so normal to talk to them. Anyway, I was thankful for the opportunity to talk to them and hear their voices again.
So this week was pretty crazy. On Christmas Eve L. Sousa and I received a call saying we were going to be emergency transferred over to the area next to us: Chora Menino (haha, it means "Cry Boy". The names of the areas here are ridiculous). Elder Bigelow and Elder Rariclay were in that area but E. Rariclay was going to end his mission January 7th but left 2 weeks early because he wanted to spend Christmas with his family, thus Elder Bigelow, who was in my district in the CTM so he has the same amount of time as me, didn't have a companion. So as of now Elders L. Sousa and Bigelow are my companions. We are rockin' a trio, woot! In some ways it is cool to be in a trio. I have the chance to talk some English with Elder Bigelow when we are in the house so I can actually tell stories from back home and listen to his in English...so much easier. It is more fun out on the street with three of us too, just cause we have more people and Sousa and I have someone different to talk to now.
Some things are really weird though, like teaching. Those of you who have served missions will probably understand. On your mission you will give each lesson hundreds of times and almost every time you give a lesson you are with just one person. But now that I am with two everything is messed up. It's hard to know when to switch from person to person, how much each person should say, who makes each of the commitments, etc.
The transfer has also been bad because our new house sucks. It doesn't have a normal washing machine like our other house had (you have to just put water in it, dump some soap in, then it turns the clothes. But that is it. Afterwards you have to rinse the clothes again in the sink and get all the soap out then hang them up to dry. Unfortunately it is really hard to get ALL of the soap out so you end up having really stiff clothes after they dry). The house really stinks too...not sure of what yet but all I know is that it smells bad. Probably mildew or a dead person or something like that. Oh and it also has an infestation problem. Whenever we come home we find atleast 2 more alive, but sometimes dead, cockroaches on our floor with hundreds more (I am sure) within the walls. Their stronghold is under the wall next to the shower so it is normal to find them in the shower before you take a shower. Them buggers are fast too and rarely can you step on them before they run under the wall too. Oh, and there is either a cat or a HUGE rat that lives in the ceiling of our bedroom. Unfortunately I think it is a huge rat. This morning we watched it run across the ceiling because the ceiling was bending wherever it was. I was definitely lucky to have the other house. It's funny because when I arrived here I thought the house was terrible! But now I see it is one of the nicest houses in our area. Oh well, only 1 more week in this house.
Teaching has been really difficult this week. Like REALLY difficult. It was reported on the news that 1 million inhabitants of São Paulo traveled for Christmas this year, and I swear everyone reference and investigator we have our part of that number. Nobody is ever home. We walk all day in the sun and never do anything because nobody is home. Yesterday we didn't teach a single lesson! The first day that has ever happened. It doesn't help that Chora Menino is not a very strong area at all. I don't know why they shut our area and sent us here. They should have shut Chora Menino and sent Bigelow to our area because our area was 5 times as strong as theirs. Sousa calls their investigators with baptism dates "fantasy dates" because that's all they are, fantasies.
I did have 1 really funny lesson this week. We were teaching these 2 girls that just love to talk to us but don't really like to hear about the gospel, but we try our best. Anyway, their friend came over and she took a liking to me...and began talking to me while my comps were talking to the other two. She began asking me a bunch of questions about things that are allowed in the church and things that aren't and throughout the whole conversation she kept leaning in more and more towards me...while I began pressing my back more and more into the back of my chair. She looked at me and said "Can you Mormons...Can you Mormons kiss on the mouth?" At this point Sousa said he began listening and he said she almost fell off her chair towards me because she was leaning in so far. Right when she asked that Sousa slammed his hands on the table and stood up and said "It's time to go!" I jumped at of my chair and said "Yes it is!" and whispered thank you to L. Sousa. Then we left haha.
Well that's about it. This week was really fun out on the street and in our house because there are three of us and it's just fun to tell stories and hang out and order pizza and stuff, but teaching-wise the week was pretty much a disaster. It should get better next Monday when everyone returns home from the holidays but in the meantime...just a lot of walking.
Love you all and I hope you all had a good Christmas and have a happy new year too. We aren't allowed out of our houses past 7:00pm unless we have a ride from a member (which we do. we are going over to a member's house tonight with Martinatto and Chaves to have a bbq. We can stay out till midnight too, sweet!). Tomorrow we won't work too much either due to all the drunks that I am sure will be passed out/trying to hurt us on the street. Oh well, that's how it is during this time of the season. See ya!
-Elder Brent Parsons
And a couple of pictures of the 'Big Dog' in our old area...
I've got to run quickly today - and since I'll talk with the Fam tomorrow, this will be a short blog entry. I had an 'emergency' transfer today - so I'll be off moving my stuff to the area/apartment next to where L Sousa and I have been working. We'll only be there for two weeks. There should be a new transfer in the works for me on Jan 7th.Here are some pics to share:
OK, I look kind of weird in the one with the bunch of us, but there you go. I really do look weird in that pic for some reason. Oh yeah, and the Elder with his head on my shoulder is one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life. He is Brazilian and he used to be a stripper...like for real. He is hilarious and sometimes treats us to one of the man-thong routines he used to give the old ladies at the club he worked at...priceless.
The other one is the fruit of a night of boredom with L. Sousa. Yeah, caught myself in the air with the self-timer on the camera...woot!
Ok, well I unfortunately don't have my journal with me and those of you that know me know how unbelievably horrible my memory is so I will probably leave something out that would have been life changing for you all and for that I ask for your forgiveness.
This week was a good week teaching wise. We started working in the favela (slum) this week a lot more and it has paid off. We marked 4 strong baptisms and will probably add 3 or 4 tonight and 2 more tomorrow. Not all of these are in the favela though, actually the four we marked this week weren't in the favela. Three were this family that we just found through a reference that were way cool (one wasn't a member of the family we taught but she said she wants us to teach her family too so we will probably mark their baptisms this week too) and the other date is our strongest of all because she approached US and told us that she wants to be baptized.
It was awesome. She came up to us after church and just asked us. She had been visiting with her member-daughter and I guess she really loved it and so she came up to us and said "I want to be baptized. And I want it to be by the end of the year." So we marked her baptism for the 28th of this month and have taught her two lessons so far...both of which were some of the best lessons I have had yet.
The only problem she has right now is with smoking...she was smoking 40 cigarettes a day and is already down to 4 a day. She also said last night that she read the Book of Mormon parts we marked and received an answer to her prayer but that she didn't want to share the experience with us right then because she was planning on sharing it in the next fast-and-testimony meeting in church, the Sunday after her baptism. She really is the perfect investigator. Oh and we will also baptize her 9 year-old niece but that will be a baptism of the ward because her Mom is a member. Freakin' sweet.
Sousa's knee still isn't the best...along with his work ethic. Working on that one.
I had a division yesterday with a missionary from another area. His name is Elder D. Gonçalves and he has the same amount of time on the mission as I do and we were in my area. So you know what that meant? I was the Senior Companion for a day! Yeah, didn't really mean anything because I told him that he needed to take the lead during the lessons due to my less-than-fluent Portuguese. He ended up just talking the whole time while I didn't say anything...which wasn't really what I had in mind but I guess it worked. It was kind of cool because it was my area and he didn't know anything about it so I got to decide everything that we did that day! We ended up going to see the new movie "Australia" with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. LOVED IT! OK just kidding, we checked out some references and taught that perfect investigator, actually a very good day.
Oh yeah! I also got to teach a lesson in English yesterday! That was sweet. We checked out this reference and this old guy came to the door and looked at us both and said "Do you guys speak English?". Gonçalves didn't understand but I obviously did and said "...yes". He then told me in English that he is an English Professor. His English was nearly flawless. Anyway, long story short he had been to Utah before and seen the Tabernacle and loved it. He called the Temple and wanted a CD of the Tabernacle Choir but they didn't have any. But they told him that he could receive a free DVD and so he said OK...and that's why we were there. So we went in and he asked me to give the message in English...so I did. It was so weird to teach in English. Like...unbelievably weird I can't even explain it. Everything just sounded so weird. But it was awesome because I could say EVERYTHING I wanted to! What a glorious feeling that was. Things that I had forgot about like voice inflection and pauses really make a lesson...I will need to work on doing that right in Portuguese in the future.
Still rocking out pizza every other night or so...it's actually delicious...I eat a whole one by myself sometimes...
Oh I forgot to tell you guys I shaved my head last week. Before Ryan poops his pants it actually wasn't THAT short (a number "3") and I actually think it looks kind of good. Different, but not bad. Definitely tons easier for me to deal with and there are many benefits that I didn't expect like rain just bouncing off and not matting my hair to my head.
Anyway, I am going to go try to attach some photos right now and hopefully it works this time. The week was good and I am extremely excited to talk to my family next week...woot! Merry Christmas chumps!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Here's the stuff that I think is.
This is a really LONG story and lots of things happened that I don't have time to write, but this is the gist of what happened. So last P-day after I slept for a large period of time, Sousa and I went out to some appointments and to check out some references. It was about 8:00 and we had just got done with checking out a reference that was unfortunately not home when we turned back to the street, preparing ourselves to figure out something else to do.
We were about to start walking when this 24 or so year old stopped, looked at us both and said "You are Brazilian (pointing to Sousa) and...you are American (pointing at me)." We both said yes then he slowly walked up to me. He stopped close to me and said "so I have a question for you, American", (at that point I knew this was not going to be good) "what do you think about your country making the Amazon International Territory?" I was extremely surprised at the question, first of all why he was asking me, and second that I actually understood! That was cool. Big words.
Anyway, so I said to him "uh...I don't know a lot about the subject so I don't really have an opinion". So he began to ask a lot of questions and talk a lot about how the USA is stupid for doing that. He kept asking me over and over the same question and I just said that I didn't care about that right now because I am a missionary and that's my only focus right now (probably not exactly true...but it was good to say that to him).
Anyway, so after a while he started getting a little hostile. He said "you know that all Americans are the worst people in the world right?" I said "OK look, it's fine if you hate our government and our president, you can say all that to me, but when you start talking about MY people like that, a people that YOU don't even know" (he had told me that I was the first American he had ever talked to) "that's when you need to stop."
Well, he obviously didn't and he started talking about the Amazon...and Africa and how Americans are horrible because they have money and Africa doesn't. It was useless gibberish that I didn't want to hear, nor did I have time for. So I said "look, I am a missionary and I don't really care about that stuff right now. So you can have your opinion, that's totally fine but I don't really want to talk about this right now with you." Then he said "you Americans are all the same. You all are the worst people in the whole world."
At that Sousa jumped in (he hadn't said a word the whole time and was just watching us two talk) and said "look, just leave. We both don't want to hear anything that you want to say so just leave. You don't know what you are talking about." He didn't leave then I said "you really think Americans are the worst people in the world while you also say this is the first time you have ever talked to one in your life?!" So he said "Yep, they are all worse then trash!" At that Sousa jumped in and grabbed both my arms to make sure I didn't punch the guy (I wasn't going to, but I definitely was really mad and had stepped forward a couple paces toward the guy. It was really funny because when I stepped forward the guy got really scared haha).
I yelled at the guy that he didn't know anything then he told us to "never come back to his area because the people here don't have sympathy for people like you (me)!" We have been back there almost every night since haha. Anyway, I am sure a lot of that didn't make sense but it was actually pretty tense, even Sousa said he was extremely offended at the words the guy was saying and he isn't even American.
Oh this week I saw the coolest dog of my entire life at a member's house, a dog Ryan would kill several children for. Not even kidding, biggest dog I have ever seen in my life by far. I will attach photos.
So Sousa is having a rough time with his knee. It had been hurting a lot but it was OK until the other day (actually was one of the funnier things I have ever seen) he stepped on a piece of cardboard in the street while writing something in his planner and completely slipped and fell on his back, pen and planner flying and all. It was hilarious. But after that his knee hasn't been quite the same. I will explain the consequences of this in what I like to call a "typical missionary paragraph" where I will use too many exclamation points, strange words, and capitalize words unnecessarily:I CAN'T believe it!! Sousa's knee is hurting SO bad! I really feel unbelievably bad for him, I just wish I could help him with the pain!! It's REALLY hard for him to stay focused on the work, which is so HARD sometimes!! He sometimes just doesn't even want to move so we often don't work very hard throughout the day!?! I don't know what to do!!! I don't have the language skills (YET, I hope!! haha!) to be the leader of our companionship so I NEED him to want to work or we won't be able to get much done!!! Sometimes I feel like I am just dragging him around the city haha! (Just like Joseph did with Mary on the donkey through Bethlehem!! Haha! The imagery!) So yeah, not sure what to do about the situation but hopefully some wisemen and shepards show up to help us out, right?!!! SORRY, I couldn't help myself but to throw that little biblical comparison in there!!! Hahaha!!!! I LOVE MY COMPANION!!
Anyway, hopefully you could read through the lines on that paragraph about the situation I have here...not sure what to do about it. Suggestions?
We have ordered pizza three times since last p-day. I don't think I will be losing much more this transfer...even though the pizza is slightly horrible, it's easy, pretty cheap, and after a while it actually starts tasting good despite the horribly thin crust.
Yesterday we met this lady in one of the two favelas (slums) in our area and she was baptized 20 years ago. We got to talking to her and asked her to come back to church. She started crying and said she knew God had put us there that day for a reason then asked us to pray for her, so we did right then and there. Was a really cool experience.
I forgot to say that we haven't had a refrigerator in our house for the past 2 weeks...and it looks like we aren't going to have one for another two. It is ridiculous. Martinatto was trying to scrape some of the ice out from the freezer with a knife and slipped and cut a cord and smoke started fuming out and it was just a big mess. So that is kind of ridiculous and frustrating.
Anyway, no more time. I'll attach a photo of the freakin' sweet dog, my desk (not sure why, just took a photo of it this morning and thought you might want to see), and my name tag. Hooray! Love you guys, thanks for all the emails again. I am still kind of living from p-day to p-day right now and it's great to receive all of your emails each week and hear about what's going on. Later!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Good to hear that Thanksgiving went well for everyone. I hope it went well for ALL of my readers, which I am sure the number is skyrocketing by the week. I might just blog the rest of my life and charge a subscription fee. Just kidding, I think I only know of 9 people who actually read this...oh well...I like to think that I am writing to the world right now.
This week went pretty well. We did have something really bad happen though. We had an investigator named Claudia with a baptism date and everything. We thought she was really progressing but we went there on Thursday and something bad had happened. The pastor (spelling?) of her church is also her boss...because she works for him. Anyway, so I guess he heard about us teaching her and he obviously couldn't lose a precious member/source of income of his church so he rescheduled her to work every Sunday at 9 am. We have church every Sunday at 9 am. It was so ridiculous. So she said that she could never come to church with us and said that we should probably just stop teaching her. She tried to give us back the Book of Mormon we gave her and everything. We obviously told her to keep it then just left...probably to never see her again due to the stupid pastor and his greediness. Ridiculous.
We had our every 6-week interviews with our President on Friday. Along with that we talk to his wife about our health and other things. It is kind of cool because she weighs us every transfer to make sure we aren't gaining or losing too much. I am not sure what is too much but I know I lost 12 pounds since I got in the field and she didn't say anything about it so I guess I am still healthy. I am working towards losing another 58 pounds this month so I can keep pace with what Ryan did. I'll keep you posted.
Sousa was sick the other night so we didn't work. I wrote a letter and then had nothing else to do so I got out my sweet chess set that I bought and decided to play a game...against myself. The funny thing is is that black won in a surprise check-mate that I didn't even see coming. It was epic.
On Monday I went with Elder Martinatto to the hospital because he messed up his knee. Turns out he needs surgery tomorrow and will be out for 3 weeks! He has to just sit at the mission office the whole time, sucks. Anyway, the hospital we went to was pretty much the nicest place I have ever seen. It's called Albert Einstein Hospital or something like that in São Paulo. Look it up. They tell me it is in the nicest hospital in all of South America and I believe it. It was really sweet. Martinatto said he slept there for 3 days one time because his companion messed up his knee just like he did and he said it was one of the better experiences of his life. Anyway, thought it was cool so you might want to see it.
So after the hospital we went back to the mission office where he had to do some physical therapy. I was bored and got to talking to a certain Elder Alkmim. He is Brazilian and his family lives in this mission and he often sees them on the street. How weird is that? Anyway, he's a little bit weird, but he happened to know every single one of the members of my district in the CTM that I have been dying to hear about so he told me all he knew about each one of them which was really sweet. He ranked them on how good their Portuguese is and told me about their companions and stuff. It was awesome. I have only seen 2 of the 7 in the past 2 months so it was really good to hear about all of them. Sounds like all of them are doing pretty well...more or less. I miss all those guys.
So yesterday was awesome. Mostly due to us teaching the homosexual guy. And yes, I found out, his "crush" on me is for real I think. Really good story actually. So we went there and he let us in but he was practicing his singing and playing the piano with this other girl so he told us just to watch for a little bit until they finished. I thought it was going to be torment. So we sat down and they started playing and singing and to be completely honest they were freaking amazing. He is one of the better piano players I have ever seen and his voice is even better. She could make a living off singing. It was incredible. So they played and sang for about 20 min and then she left and we began to talk. He happened to sit down right next to me...touching my knee with his. He showed me this book that he was reading that was helping him learn German...then all of the sudden he looked up at me, then looked at my hair and slowly moved his hand to my hair and grabbed a piece of something I guess I had in my hair and slowly pulled it away. Most awkward moment of my life.
So anyway he finally moved and went and sat at the piano and started playing again. He said "come here Elder Parsons" so I went of there and he preceded to sing to me several popular American songs. After the third song I slowly moved back to my spot on the couch where L. Sousa was trying to stifle his laughter without Moisés (gay guy) knowing. Anyway, long story short Moisés is actually pretty cool and extremely smart. He wants to learn English so bad so I used that as bribery to get him to come to church this week. I said I would give him one English class if he comes to church this week and he reluctantly agreed. So that was sweet. I don't know what is going to happen with him being gay and all...but at least he will come to church. (Oh yeah, we have a brazi elder in our district that is fluent in English that offered him lessons...he denied them and said "I want Parsons to teach me"). Really funny.
Well other than that it was just pretty normal this week. Lunches with the members were excellent and our other teaching appointments went fine. I know this was pretty short but I don't have much else to say. Keep me posted on the happity-haps of life in the US. Politics, sports, whatever. Love you guys, thanks for your love and support.
-Elder Brent Parsons
