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
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Basketball in "Little America"
I am exhausted. I just got done playing basketball for 4 hours. It was awesome though. Our own "Little America". 10 Americans together with no Portuguese haha. It was kind of weird actually.
My new comp is way cool. We get along really well. He is a bit "trunky" because he is about 4 months away from going home plus we are going to see his family this weekend because his brother is going to get sealed in the São Paulo temple but I don't blame him. We are all a little bit trunky at heart.
Last night was way cool because this investigator that we have had forever named Deone who is the mom of João that we baptized gave us her cigarrettes last night and said she wants to stop smoking be baptized. We have been trying to get her to stop smoking for like 2 months and lately I have just given up hope with her then out of nowhere she did that. It was way cool!
Other than that nothing to report from here. I am going to go to São Paulo 2 times in the next week. I have been here in Sorocaba for almost a year now...don't get me wrong...I love it here but it isn't THAT big and I am just used to everything now. I am just kind of sick of it I guess. I hope I go back to the capital for the last part of my mission. We'll see though.
-Elder Brent Parsons
My new comp is way cool. We get along really well. He is a bit "trunky" because he is about 4 months away from going home plus we are going to see his family this weekend because his brother is going to get sealed in the São Paulo temple but I don't blame him. We are all a little bit trunky at heart.
Last night was way cool because this investigator that we have had forever named Deone who is the mom of João that we baptized gave us her cigarrettes last night and said she wants to stop smoking be baptized. We have been trying to get her to stop smoking for like 2 months and lately I have just given up hope with her then out of nowhere she did that. It was way cool!
Other than that nothing to report from here. I am going to go to São Paulo 2 times in the next week. I have been here in Sorocaba for almost a year now...don't get me wrong...I love it here but it isn't THAT big and I am just used to everything now. I am just kind of sick of it I guess. I hope I go back to the capital for the last part of my mission. We'll see though.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Super Saturday
Saturday was such a great day eh? There were three baptisms here...BYU took a small crap on Utah. Awesome.
No really though...that is awesome about BYU. I can't wait to see the game when I get home. Sounds awesome.
Yeah and the baptisms went well. Unfortunately 2 of them didn't work out. 1 will be in the future and the other...who knows. Eliane's cousin who was doing way good just gave up out of nowhere saying she didn't want to live all the commandments and so she didn't want to get baptized. It sucked. But at least the others stayed strong.
Transfers were today and my comp got transferred. I got yet ANOTHER Brazilian comp. He has 4 and 1/2 months left in his mission. It is possible for me to be his last companion but I doubt it. We'll see though. He is from Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. His name is Elder Jara.
Anyway, things are pretty normal here. Loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
No really though...that is awesome about BYU. I can't wait to see the game when I get home. Sounds awesome.
Yeah and the baptisms went well. Unfortunately 2 of them didn't work out. 1 will be in the future and the other...who knows. Eliane's cousin who was doing way good just gave up out of nowhere saying she didn't want to live all the commandments and so she didn't want to get baptized. It sucked. But at least the others stayed strong.
Transfers were today and my comp got transferred. I got yet ANOTHER Brazilian comp. He has 4 and 1/2 months left in his mission. It is possible for me to be his last companion but I doubt it. We'll see though. He is from Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. His name is Elder Jara.
Anyway, things are pretty normal here. Loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Long P-day... bus to Sao Paulo Temple
Well we just got back from going to São Paulo for the day to go to the temple. We have to wake up at about 4:45 am in order for us to get on the bus and we get back about about 4:30 pm. Just enough time to use the internet real quick and go back to work...again...
So yeah I don't have much time just wanted to let y'all know that the mission is going well and that I am doing fine. The situation with the baptisms this week is a little bit complicated but I'll just have to see how it all works out by next week to let you guys know all about it.
Transfers are next week. It's pretty much a fact that I will stay here in the area but we'll see what happens with my comp. He'll prob stay too but anything can happen. See ya!
-Brent
P.S. I wanted to give a little "Shout out" to Jenny from South Carolina thanking you for the letter you sent me. It was "swimmingly" hilarious. I'll write you back a letter sometime in the future. Feel free to write again. Later!
So yeah I don't have much time just wanted to let y'all know that the mission is going well and that I am doing fine. The situation with the baptisms this week is a little bit complicated but I'll just have to see how it all works out by next week to let you guys know all about it.
Transfers are next week. It's pretty much a fact that I will stay here in the area but we'll see what happens with my comp. He'll prob stay too but anything can happen. See ya!
-Brent
P.S. I wanted to give a little "Shout out" to Jenny from South Carolina thanking you for the letter you sent me. It was "swimmingly" hilarious. I'll write you back a letter sometime in the future. Feel free to write again. Later!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Some more photos
This is what happens when you play soccer for a couple of hours in the sun with a t-shirt that does not cover your neck like a white shirt and tie does...
This week was great.
Remember the family we found with the drunk guy? After 30 years of smoking the mom stopped and so did the cousin. They literally are such an elect family it's ridiculous. They read EVERYTHING and thirst for knowledge about the gospel. The mom doesn't work and stays home during the day and just reads church material the whole day. She went over to one of our other investigator's houses to borrow the Joseph Smith manual in order to study the relief society class subject for Sunday. It's awesome. They have a baptism date for the 5th of December and are all really excited.
Other than that things are just normal. I am doing fine. I am healthy and happy. Farewell to all!
-Elder Parsons
Other than that things are just normal. I am doing fine. I am healthy and happy. Farewell to all!
-Elder Parsons
Mission and Zone Pics
Me and my zone with Elder Scott, President Cooley, and Sister Cooley.
"Mission Counsel"All the Zone Leaders, 2 Assistants, President and Sister Cooley
My entire Sao Paulo North MissionI am standing up on the last row up in the top-right side.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Just a pregnancy away!
From this moment on all of you frisky little lovers who get pregnant from now until the time I get home have no need to worry! I will see the birth of your child! I know you all have been waiting for this moment for a long time but no need to wait longer...let the sparks fly!
Everything is going fine here. Nothing much to report. We had a baptism of a 14 year old boy on Saturday, I'll get the pics up soon.
Loves!
-Elder Parsons
Everything is going fine here. Nothing much to report. We had a baptism of a 14 year old boy on Saturday, I'll get the pics up soon.
Loves!
-Elder Parsons
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Good week... and pictures too!
The internet is so crappy right now so I don't have much time.
This week went really well. I don't have many experiences as I did last week but it was really good.
The family that we found last week (the family of the drunk guy) are doing really good. We taught them the Word of Wisdom and the 2 sisters are now trying to stop. One of them stopped the night we taught it and didn't smoke for 4 days...until 2 days ago when her dog died and she got really stressed out and started smoking again which wasn't the best thing ever but it's ok she will be able to do it. The other 2 (the daughter and her boyfriend) are both already talking about serving missions here in a couple years (they are 17). Woot!
Oh so I was talking to the Elders from São Roque the other day and they said they went back to that girl that had cancer and to who we gave the blessing. They got there and the girl was looking perfectly fine and healthy. She saw them and got all excited and told them what had happened. A couple days after receiving the blessing she went to the doctor again for a check up on her cancer. The doctor saw the results and looked at her and said "I don't believe it..." She asked what had happened and the doctor said "the tumor...it...it disappeared. You don't have cancer anymore." Yeah...it was crazy. Take what you want from that one. I couldn't believe it when I heard it.
Other than that the week was pretty normal. I had my first Mission Counsel yesterday which was sweet. Mission Counsel is when all the zone leaders, the 2 assistants, and President get together 1 time per transfer and talk about the mission (problems, ideas, etc.). It was really fun. President's house is...SWEET. It's huge.
Loves and stuff for all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
The first is of my comp and I making pancakes at a family night for everyone (they don't make pancakes because nobody knows what maple syrup is but we got some so we made it for them). It was fun.
The other is of me looking over my new area.
This week went really well. I don't have many experiences as I did last week but it was really good.
The family that we found last week (the family of the drunk guy) are doing really good. We taught them the Word of Wisdom and the 2 sisters are now trying to stop. One of them stopped the night we taught it and didn't smoke for 4 days...until 2 days ago when her dog died and she got really stressed out and started smoking again which wasn't the best thing ever but it's ok she will be able to do it. The other 2 (the daughter and her boyfriend) are both already talking about serving missions here in a couple years (they are 17). Woot!
Oh so I was talking to the Elders from São Roque the other day and they said they went back to that girl that had cancer and to who we gave the blessing. They got there and the girl was looking perfectly fine and healthy. She saw them and got all excited and told them what had happened. A couple days after receiving the blessing she went to the doctor again for a check up on her cancer. The doctor saw the results and looked at her and said "I don't believe it..." She asked what had happened and the doctor said "the tumor...it...it disappeared. You don't have cancer anymore." Yeah...it was crazy. Take what you want from that one. I couldn't believe it when I heard it.
Other than that the week was pretty normal. I had my first Mission Counsel yesterday which was sweet. Mission Counsel is when all the zone leaders, the 2 assistants, and President get together 1 time per transfer and talk about the mission (problems, ideas, etc.). It was really fun. President's house is...SWEET. It's huge.
Loves and stuff for all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
The first is of my comp and I making pancakes at a family night for everyone (they don't make pancakes because nobody knows what maple syrup is but we got some so we made it for them). It was fun.
The other is of me looking over my new area.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wow, what a week!
Wow. What a week. I am going to write a lot because I can't stand writing by hand anymore in my journal and will just use this blog as my journal entry for the week...
This week...was...so sweet. I could say that it was definitely one of the best weeks of my mission so far.
My week here in Barcelona started off with me having to do a division on Thursday to do a baptismal interview in São Roque. I went up there with Elder Schoen, an American with about 4 months on the mission. He's way cool. The interview went fine but then that night I had a way good and spiritual experience with him. We got a reference from a recent convert there so that night we went to visit the reference with the recent convert. The reference was a mother of 3 who is about 28 years old. We got there and found her in bed, obviously in a lot of pain. She asked us if we could give her a blessing and we agreed. I asked "In order for us to give you a blessing it would be a lot easier if we knew what was wrong with you." Nobody seemed to want to tell us as they avoided our gaze. Then finally in a whisper the recent convert said "She...she has cancer." It was crazy. But we went ahead with the blessing. I gave her the blessing and it was definitely the most spiritual blessing that I have ever been a part of.
I talked to Elder Schoen about it after and we both literally felt power leaving our bodies and entering hers. As I gave her the blessing I felt the spirit so strong as it guided me as I truly felt like the Lord's mouthpiece in that moment. We ended the blessing and testified to her of God's love for her and the Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith as she looked into our eyes with tears pouring down her face.
Then I went back to my area on Friday for my first full day in my area. So, Mother, my area is here in Sorocaba where I have pretty much been for the last 9 months of my mission but Sorocaba is a really big city with 4 different Zones. Barcelona, Trujillo, Sorocaba, and Santana. There are about 60 missionaries here in Sorocaba. I have had areas now in Zone Trujillo (Area - Julio de Mesquita), Zone Sorocaba (Area - Salto de Pirapora, and now Barcelona (Area - Barcelona). I like to say that I am serving Mission Sorocaba and not Mission São Paulo North haha.
Seriously though. There are 4 Zones here in Sorocaba and 13 in the whole mission and I have gone through 3 of the 4 zones here in Sorocaba now haha. It's cool though. I feel like this town of 700,000 people has become my home. And seeing as I will probably stay here in Barcelona for a good 6 months or so, I will do around 3/5 of my mission here at least.
Anyway, so my whole mission I have heard of Barcelona being a really hard zone and the least baptizing zone in the whole mission. Like, really bad actually. Our area is a pretty difficult area because it is a rich part of Sorocaba. And we all know that rich people are meanies. Anyway, with Elder D. Gonçalves here for the past two transfers he was able to get a little bit going here in the zone...but still there isn't much. So when I got here Elder D. Gonçalves and I made some plans and goals to get this zone and our area going again. We had meetings with the Stake President, our Bishop, and the ward leadership to let them know that we are here to work and turn this place around.
The problem is that this ward is REALLY REALLY old. The chapel has been here for over 40 years. Luckily it's been reformed and is really good looking now but the members here are really old and have lost that "fire" for missionary work. Anyway, to show the members that we are here to work and to put that fire back into them we set out to get a new family of investigators in the chapel for Sunday to get them excited again.
So Friday we started working again. We were going to an appointment and we saw a drunk on the street. We watched him for a while as he kept running around and running into the walls and stuff...obviously a little funny. Then when he was WAY far away he fell down on the street. We saw that a guy went to help him, then we turned to go to our appointment and didn't think anything else of it. We taught then left from that appointment and went back from the way we came.
We were walking on the street and out of nowhere D. Gon. stopped in mid step and looked across the street and a really nice, rich looking house and said "I did a contact with a guy and he gave me this address a while ago. Let's check it out." So we went and "clapped" at the door and a lady that was crying came out. We asked her if the man was there and she said "Yes. But it's kind of impossible to see him right now." We asked why and she said as she started crying even more "It's my husband. He went to the bar this afternoon and got way drunk and fell on the street and hurt himself really bad." I thought to myself "there is no way it is the same guy..." The we asked if we could come in and share a message and she said yes.
She was there with her 2 sisters (all in there mid-30's) and so we went in and saw the drunk man passed out on the couch. I couldn't believe it. It was the same drunk guy we had seen earlier! He had fallen and messed himself up pretty bad with a swollen face and cut up knees and elbows. We asked if we could leave a message. His wife, Eliane, said that she really wanted to hear it but she wanted her husband to hear it too. We said "Alright then. We will leave our number with you so when he wakes up call us and we will come back and give you the message." She agreed and we left. I'll be honest...I didn't think she would call. But at 7:45 pm sure enough our cell rang and it was her asking us to come back because her husband had woken up.
Not only was her husband awake but Eliane called her dad to come over and got her daughter to come listen as well. They were all waiting expectantly to hear our message. We gave them the first lesson about the restoration but both of us were impressed to talk a lot about families. It was an awesome lesson. As was explaining about the Book of Mormon and hadn't even invited them to read it when Eliane was like "Yeah I'll read it for sure!" Haha. Anyway, they all agreed to go to church. The drunk dad paid a lot of attention even.
So Sunday 2 of the sisters, the daughter (17 years old and she speaks english unbelievably well) AND her boyfriend who she invited and their uncle who they also invited went to church. I had never seen anything like that with investigators taking other people besides themselves to church. In this area here investigators at church are pretty rare so when the members saw that we had a whole family with us along with other investigators the ward got really excited.
We had a meeting after church with the Bishop and our Ward Mission Leader and they said the we had put the fire back into the missionary work of this ward. It was way cool. We wanted to find a family to bring to church we did everything in our power to do so and the Lord fulfilled His part and helped us in doing so. This family is awesome too. They went to the church last night to start doing their genealogy work! We took advantage of the opportunity and followed up with their 3 Nephi 11 reading of the Book of Mormon. We invited them to baptism and they accepted. The 2 sisters have been smoking for 30 years but they want to stop and want our help.
Oh yeah then ANOTHER experience. Saturday Elder Richard G. Scott one of the 12 Apostles came to our mission! It was way cool. The entire mission got together which is extremely rare in the chapel by the São Paulo Temple and we listened to him speak. He told us all to get married as soon as possible after our missions haha :).
No joke though...he said that. "Marriage should be your HIGHEST priority after your mission." Other quote "I know Jesus Christ and God love you missionaries here because I KNOW them." Good stuff. Very powerful. Did you guys know that he speaks Portuguese? Well, he does. He had a translator with him to say the stuff he couldn't quite get right, but he speaks really well actually for someone who has never lived here in Brasil.
Anyway, I have written tons. It was a really good week though. It is awesome having a comp that...is good...and who I can trust to teach with me haha. I think we will be able to get a really good work done in this area. Loves and stuff for all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
This week...was...so sweet. I could say that it was definitely one of the best weeks of my mission so far.
My week here in Barcelona started off with me having to do a division on Thursday to do a baptismal interview in São Roque. I went up there with Elder Schoen, an American with about 4 months on the mission. He's way cool. The interview went fine but then that night I had a way good and spiritual experience with him. We got a reference from a recent convert there so that night we went to visit the reference with the recent convert. The reference was a mother of 3 who is about 28 years old. We got there and found her in bed, obviously in a lot of pain. She asked us if we could give her a blessing and we agreed. I asked "In order for us to give you a blessing it would be a lot easier if we knew what was wrong with you." Nobody seemed to want to tell us as they avoided our gaze. Then finally in a whisper the recent convert said "She...she has cancer." It was crazy. But we went ahead with the blessing. I gave her the blessing and it was definitely the most spiritual blessing that I have ever been a part of.
I talked to Elder Schoen about it after and we both literally felt power leaving our bodies and entering hers. As I gave her the blessing I felt the spirit so strong as it guided me as I truly felt like the Lord's mouthpiece in that moment. We ended the blessing and testified to her of God's love for her and the Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith as she looked into our eyes with tears pouring down her face.
Then I went back to my area on Friday for my first full day in my area. So, Mother, my area is here in Sorocaba where I have pretty much been for the last 9 months of my mission but Sorocaba is a really big city with 4 different Zones. Barcelona, Trujillo, Sorocaba, and Santana. There are about 60 missionaries here in Sorocaba. I have had areas now in Zone Trujillo (Area - Julio de Mesquita), Zone Sorocaba (Area - Salto de Pirapora, and now Barcelona (Area - Barcelona). I like to say that I am serving Mission Sorocaba and not Mission São Paulo North haha.
Seriously though. There are 4 Zones here in Sorocaba and 13 in the whole mission and I have gone through 3 of the 4 zones here in Sorocaba now haha. It's cool though. I feel like this town of 700,000 people has become my home. And seeing as I will probably stay here in Barcelona for a good 6 months or so, I will do around 3/5 of my mission here at least.
Anyway, so my whole mission I have heard of Barcelona being a really hard zone and the least baptizing zone in the whole mission. Like, really bad actually. Our area is a pretty difficult area because it is a rich part of Sorocaba. And we all know that rich people are meanies. Anyway, with Elder D. Gonçalves here for the past two transfers he was able to get a little bit going here in the zone...but still there isn't much. So when I got here Elder D. Gonçalves and I made some plans and goals to get this zone and our area going again. We had meetings with the Stake President, our Bishop, and the ward leadership to let them know that we are here to work and turn this place around.
The problem is that this ward is REALLY REALLY old. The chapel has been here for over 40 years. Luckily it's been reformed and is really good looking now but the members here are really old and have lost that "fire" for missionary work. Anyway, to show the members that we are here to work and to put that fire back into them we set out to get a new family of investigators in the chapel for Sunday to get them excited again.
So Friday we started working again. We were going to an appointment and we saw a drunk on the street. We watched him for a while as he kept running around and running into the walls and stuff...obviously a little funny. Then when he was WAY far away he fell down on the street. We saw that a guy went to help him, then we turned to go to our appointment and didn't think anything else of it. We taught then left from that appointment and went back from the way we came.
We were walking on the street and out of nowhere D. Gon. stopped in mid step and looked across the street and a really nice, rich looking house and said "I did a contact with a guy and he gave me this address a while ago. Let's check it out." So we went and "clapped" at the door and a lady that was crying came out. We asked her if the man was there and she said "Yes. But it's kind of impossible to see him right now." We asked why and she said as she started crying even more "It's my husband. He went to the bar this afternoon and got way drunk and fell on the street and hurt himself really bad." I thought to myself "there is no way it is the same guy..." The we asked if we could come in and share a message and she said yes.
She was there with her 2 sisters (all in there mid-30's) and so we went in and saw the drunk man passed out on the couch. I couldn't believe it. It was the same drunk guy we had seen earlier! He had fallen and messed himself up pretty bad with a swollen face and cut up knees and elbows. We asked if we could leave a message. His wife, Eliane, said that she really wanted to hear it but she wanted her husband to hear it too. We said "Alright then. We will leave our number with you so when he wakes up call us and we will come back and give you the message." She agreed and we left. I'll be honest...I didn't think she would call. But at 7:45 pm sure enough our cell rang and it was her asking us to come back because her husband had woken up.
Not only was her husband awake but Eliane called her dad to come over and got her daughter to come listen as well. They were all waiting expectantly to hear our message. We gave them the first lesson about the restoration but both of us were impressed to talk a lot about families. It was an awesome lesson. As was explaining about the Book of Mormon and hadn't even invited them to read it when Eliane was like "Yeah I'll read it for sure!" Haha. Anyway, they all agreed to go to church. The drunk dad paid a lot of attention even.
So Sunday 2 of the sisters, the daughter (17 years old and she speaks english unbelievably well) AND her boyfriend who she invited and their uncle who they also invited went to church. I had never seen anything like that with investigators taking other people besides themselves to church. In this area here investigators at church are pretty rare so when the members saw that we had a whole family with us along with other investigators the ward got really excited.
We had a meeting after church with the Bishop and our Ward Mission Leader and they said the we had put the fire back into the missionary work of this ward. It was way cool. We wanted to find a family to bring to church we did everything in our power to do so and the Lord fulfilled His part and helped us in doing so. This family is awesome too. They went to the church last night to start doing their genealogy work! We took advantage of the opportunity and followed up with their 3 Nephi 11 reading of the Book of Mormon. We invited them to baptism and they accepted. The 2 sisters have been smoking for 30 years but they want to stop and want our help.
Oh yeah then ANOTHER experience. Saturday Elder Richard G. Scott one of the 12 Apostles came to our mission! It was way cool. The entire mission got together which is extremely rare in the chapel by the São Paulo Temple and we listened to him speak. He told us all to get married as soon as possible after our missions haha :).
No joke though...he said that. "Marriage should be your HIGHEST priority after your mission." Other quote "I know Jesus Christ and God love you missionaries here because I KNOW them." Good stuff. Very powerful. Did you guys know that he speaks Portuguese? Well, he does. He had a translator with him to say the stuff he couldn't quite get right, but he speaks really well actually for someone who has never lived here in Brasil.
Anyway, I have written tons. It was a really good week though. It is awesome having a comp that...is good...and who I can trust to teach with me haha. I think we will be able to get a really good work done in this area. Loves and stuff for all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Emergency Transfer - more next week
Hello friends.
Welp this week was pretty crazy I will give you guys the quick breakdown.
So I had just got done eating at Burger King, bowling and using the internet on Wed. while my comp and I had gone to Sorocaba for P-day. It was 5:45 and we were waiting for the bus to go back to our area because it only came at 6:00. Anyway, at that moment I got a call from the assistants and they were like "how early can you be here in São Paulo tomorrow morning?" I was like "What...why?" "Oh, well you have been emergency transfered to Jacanã (São Paulo). So what time can you get here by?" I was like "What?! Are you serious? Why?" "What time Elder Parsons!?" "Uh...I can make it there by 10:30 am if I catch one of the first buses." "Alright. We will be waiting for you at 10:30 am with your suitcases ready." Hung up.
So yeah, I pretty much filled my shoes with feces at that point and then had to go back to my area (I got there at about 7:00pm) and so it only gave enough time to say bye to Viviane and her family (a family we just baptized that are like...awesome) and that included a large cry fest and then I went to the Bishop's house where a bunch of members were to say bye.
Then I stayed up until 1:30 am getting my suitcases packed, slept until 5:30, got up and took a bus to São Paulo, our bus driver ran into ANOTHER bus on the way there (just clipped it, I'm fine Jill/Mom) so we had to stand on the road to wait for another, then got to São Paulo where I picked up my new comp Elder Carvalho who is my brother on the mission (we were trained by the same Elder), stayed there from Thursday - Monday
Then on Monday I got a call that I was going to be transferred again so this morning I went to transfers and found out I just got transferred BACK to Sorocaba to be Zone Leader of Zona Barcelona with Elder D. Gonçalves who is from my group (he's got a year and 2 months too), Brazilian, and WAY sick, then we went back on the bus for 2 hours to Sorocaba, I got to the house, unpacked some stuff, now I am writing you guys.
It was crazy! Pretty cool though. My comp right now is way sick. Kind of sucks because I didn't get to train anyone before I turned Zone Leader...but whatevs. I am happy. I might be able to train in my last transfer or something. I am kind of glad just not to be District Leader anymore...it's a worrisome thing and I couldn't take anymore district meeting trainings. Let's see how it goes. I have a good comp and looks like this area should be cool so I am excited.
I'll get some pics of my comp a little bit later.
Thanks for everything....loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Welp this week was pretty crazy I will give you guys the quick breakdown.
So I had just got done eating at Burger King, bowling and using the internet on Wed. while my comp and I had gone to Sorocaba for P-day. It was 5:45 and we were waiting for the bus to go back to our area because it only came at 6:00. Anyway, at that moment I got a call from the assistants and they were like "how early can you be here in São Paulo tomorrow morning?" I was like "What...why?" "Oh, well you have been emergency transfered to Jacanã (São Paulo). So what time can you get here by?" I was like "What?! Are you serious? Why?" "What time Elder Parsons!?" "Uh...I can make it there by 10:30 am if I catch one of the first buses." "Alright. We will be waiting for you at 10:30 am with your suitcases ready." Hung up.
So yeah, I pretty much filled my shoes with feces at that point and then had to go back to my area (I got there at about 7:00pm) and so it only gave enough time to say bye to Viviane and her family (a family we just baptized that are like...awesome) and that included a large cry fest and then I went to the Bishop's house where a bunch of members were to say bye.
Then I stayed up until 1:30 am getting my suitcases packed, slept until 5:30, got up and took a bus to São Paulo, our bus driver ran into ANOTHER bus on the way there (just clipped it, I'm fine Jill/Mom) so we had to stand on the road to wait for another, then got to São Paulo where I picked up my new comp Elder Carvalho who is my brother on the mission (we were trained by the same Elder), stayed there from Thursday - Monday
Then on Monday I got a call that I was going to be transferred again so this morning I went to transfers and found out I just got transferred BACK to Sorocaba to be Zone Leader of Zona Barcelona with Elder D. Gonçalves who is from my group (he's got a year and 2 months too), Brazilian, and WAY sick, then we went back on the bus for 2 hours to Sorocaba, I got to the house, unpacked some stuff, now I am writing you guys.
It was crazy! Pretty cool though. My comp right now is way sick. Kind of sucks because I didn't get to train anyone before I turned Zone Leader...but whatevs. I am happy. I might be able to train in my last transfer or something. I am kind of glad just not to be District Leader anymore...it's a worrisome thing and I couldn't take anymore district meeting trainings. Let's see how it goes. I have a good comp and looks like this area should be cool so I am excited.
I'll get some pics of my comp a little bit later.
Thanks for everything....loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sorry - no time to write much
I don't have any time to write. Everything is fine here and we have transfers next week. I think I will stay here though and my companion will leave...we'll see though.
Last night we went to my ZLs house and played this MONOPOLY card game all night then went to Burger King and then went bowling to get a little taste of home. It was a good day.
I'll write better next week!
Thanks for all the support you all give me!
Last night we went to my ZLs house and played this MONOPOLY card game all night then went to Burger King and then went bowling to get a little taste of home. It was a good day.
I'll write better next week!
Thanks for all the support you all give me!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Conference Weekend
What up?!
Conference was sweet eh? I never really understood or valued conference before the mission, however I have learned better here on the mission. Watching conference as a missionary is COMPLETELY different than it is as a normal member. As a missionary you watch conference for yourself obviously but you also watch it thinking and seeking inspiration on how to better help your investigators. I dunno, it’s way different and way better.
So on Saturday we stayed in my area to watch the 2 first sessions which were way good but I had to watch them in Portuguese which dulls them a little bit. Not that I don’t understand what they are saying…it’s just I am used to their voices and listening to a translator just doesn’t quite cut it. So Saturday night we took a bus to the Stake Center in Sorocaba and watched the Priesthood Session with all the other Elders from our Zone in blessed English then 6 of us slept at our ZL’s house and watched the 2 next sessions on Sunday together again and when the got over it was already way late so we just stayed there another night because we had District Meeting the next morning anyway.
Yeah, so as I said, Conference was awesome I thought. I am so excited to read all the talks again. I have to be honest though…Elder Holland’s talk about the Book of Mormon was definitely my favorite. There were 4 of us Americans watching in our own little room and during the talk I don’t think one of us even blinked while staring at the television. It was awesome. I think I cried…at 3 separate times…during his talk. Big boys know how to cry! I dunno, it just was so awesome to hear because we go out every single day trying to show people that the BoM is true and giving our heart and souls to it, only to be rejected time and time again…but then to have an Apostle give such a strong testimony about it gave us a bit of an energy boost you know?
There were tons of other talks that I loved too but I won’t talk about them. Besides I am tired like crazy because we just went to Sorocaba and played basketball for like 5 hours straight and I think I might fall apart. It has been quite a while since I have ran for any extended period of time and let’s just say my red workout “raccoon eyes” were in full swing and the body odor was pungent. I now have a splintering headache and body aches that would put down a horse. However, it was way fun and was probably almost worth it
Farewell! A great week for everyone!
-Elder Parsons
Conference was sweet eh? I never really understood or valued conference before the mission, however I have learned better here on the mission. Watching conference as a missionary is COMPLETELY different than it is as a normal member. As a missionary you watch conference for yourself obviously but you also watch it thinking and seeking inspiration on how to better help your investigators. I dunno, it’s way different and way better.
So on Saturday we stayed in my area to watch the 2 first sessions which were way good but I had to watch them in Portuguese which dulls them a little bit. Not that I don’t understand what they are saying…it’s just I am used to their voices and listening to a translator just doesn’t quite cut it. So Saturday night we took a bus to the Stake Center in Sorocaba and watched the Priesthood Session with all the other Elders from our Zone in blessed English then 6 of us slept at our ZL’s house and watched the 2 next sessions on Sunday together again and when the got over it was already way late so we just stayed there another night because we had District Meeting the next morning anyway.
Yeah, so as I said, Conference was awesome I thought. I am so excited to read all the talks again. I have to be honest though…Elder Holland’s talk about the Book of Mormon was definitely my favorite. There were 4 of us Americans watching in our own little room and during the talk I don’t think one of us even blinked while staring at the television. It was awesome. I think I cried…at 3 separate times…during his talk. Big boys know how to cry! I dunno, it just was so awesome to hear because we go out every single day trying to show people that the BoM is true and giving our heart and souls to it, only to be rejected time and time again…but then to have an Apostle give such a strong testimony about it gave us a bit of an energy boost you know?
There were tons of other talks that I loved too but I won’t talk about them. Besides I am tired like crazy because we just went to Sorocaba and played basketball for like 5 hours straight and I think I might fall apart. It has been quite a while since I have ran for any extended period of time and let’s just say my red workout “raccoon eyes” were in full swing and the body odor was pungent. I now have a splintering headache and body aches that would put down a horse. However, it was way fun and was probably almost worth it
Farewell! A great week for everyone!
-Elder Parsons
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Nothing to report
Well I just created this email and realized that I have nothing to say...
The week was normal with nothing to report. Await further news next week!
The week was normal with nothing to report. Await further news next week!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Short Blog because of storm
Ok...freaking storm. I had been writing for a good 15 min when the power just went out. Oh poo. It's got to be short now.
BYU = Bye bye to the BCS.
This week my companion and I killed ourselves working trying to fill up our investigator list again. We worked way hard and found another 17 new investigators and marked another 5 baptism dates. It was really good. 2 of them are really firm for the end of this transfer. The other ones need to get married so will take a little bit...
We have another awesome investigator that we found named Jenaina. She is 22 and is from the "Assembly of God" which is a really popular church here in Brazil. Long story short she wasn't really wanting a whole lot but we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she LOVED it. Especially the whole 3 kingdoms of glory.
I told her that it would really make sense and God wouldn't be very just if there was only Heaven and Hell. Where's the line? There has to be a line that is drawn which 1 unrepented sin would mean the difference between eternal happiness or never-ending torment. She agreed completely and it was because of that she decided to miss her church on Sunday and come to ours.
I got really scared, as I am sure all you ex-missionaries can relate to, when I saw that the topic of the class was about temples and temple work. It's tough to explain to some people "why we baptize dead people" haha especially after 4 days of knowing that the church exists.
However, she loved it and now is wanting to do all of her genealogy work, something she has always thought was important but never had the courage to start. She is 22 and lives with a guy but isn't married and after learning about the sealing of the family in the temple she is wanting to separate herself from him because she could NEVER see herself together with him forever haha. She also has a little kid.
The baptism is going to take a long time I think but for sure it will happen...even if I am not here to see it. She said "I now see how ignorant I was; your church is way better than mine!"
Everything's fine here. It's been raining a lot which has been messing up the work a little but it's good. It's going to get REALLY hot really soon so it's OK if it stays a little chilly for a bit.
Farewell!
-Elder Parsons
Elder Bird (Logan) who played LAX at BYU last year - just arrived
BYU = Bye bye to the BCS.
This week my companion and I killed ourselves working trying to fill up our investigator list again. We worked way hard and found another 17 new investigators and marked another 5 baptism dates. It was really good. 2 of them are really firm for the end of this transfer. The other ones need to get married so will take a little bit...
We have another awesome investigator that we found named Jenaina. She is 22 and is from the "Assembly of God" which is a really popular church here in Brazil. Long story short she wasn't really wanting a whole lot but we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she LOVED it. Especially the whole 3 kingdoms of glory.
I told her that it would really make sense and God wouldn't be very just if there was only Heaven and Hell. Where's the line? There has to be a line that is drawn which 1 unrepented sin would mean the difference between eternal happiness or never-ending torment. She agreed completely and it was because of that she decided to miss her church on Sunday and come to ours.
I got really scared, as I am sure all you ex-missionaries can relate to, when I saw that the topic of the class was about temples and temple work. It's tough to explain to some people "why we baptize dead people" haha especially after 4 days of knowing that the church exists.
However, she loved it and now is wanting to do all of her genealogy work, something she has always thought was important but never had the courage to start. She is 22 and lives with a guy but isn't married and after learning about the sealing of the family in the temple she is wanting to separate herself from him because she could NEVER see herself together with him forever haha. She also has a little kid.
The baptism is going to take a long time I think but for sure it will happen...even if I am not here to see it. She said "I now see how ignorant I was; your church is way better than mine!"
Everything's fine here. It's been raining a lot which has been messing up the work a little but it's good. It's going to get REALLY hot really soon so it's OK if it stays a little chilly for a bit.
Farewell!
-Elder Parsons
Elder Bird (Logan) who played LAX at BYU last year - just arrivedMonday, September 21, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
11 months to go!
Greetings everyone! Glad to hear that all is good in your part of the world.
So our 2 baptisms this week went fine. The past month and a half has been the period of my mission that I have baptized the most which is way cool...however my companion and I have realized that we literally have "thrown" everything that we had in the water...now we are left with very little haha.
This week, and I am sure the next couple, will be completely dedicated to finding new, strong investigators to ensure even more baptisms for the end of this transfer.
I am glad to hear that BYU football took a small "number 2" on Tulane last Saturday. Looks like it could be their best year in a long time. Go team go! Win my favorite sports team, win!
Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
So our 2 baptisms this week went fine. The past month and a half has been the period of my mission that I have baptized the most which is way cool...however my companion and I have realized that we literally have "thrown" everything that we had in the water...now we are left with very little haha.
This week, and I am sure the next couple, will be completely dedicated to finding new, strong investigators to ensure even more baptisms for the end of this transfer.
I am glad to hear that BYU football took a small "number 2" on Tulane last Saturday. Looks like it could be their best year in a long time. Go team go! Win my favorite sports team, win!
Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
No transfer
So this week was the week of transfers. We were talking to our Bishop about how this transfer is going to be complicated because tons of new missionaries are going to show up and how Elder Bie was probably going to be transferred.
So then on Sunday after having lunch with him he asked me to give him my cell phone and put me on the line with President. I was a bit confused but I dialed President's number and gave it to him. He said a bunch of stuff to President but pretty much said that if there was anyway possible to keep both of us here in the area then he would be really happy because we are doing really good work here in the area. I relaxed as I heard this haha and thought it was way cool that he did that.
So then Monday night came and we received the call to see who was going to be transferred. I still thought, despite my Bishop's call, that Elder Bie was going to leave...but it wasn't so. My Bishop got his wish and we both are going to stay here another month and half at least.
Well we didn't have much else to do and my comp had to talk to President about some stuff so we went to the Mission Office for transfers today.
Both us and my entire zone were sure that my comp was going to be transferred and that I was going to train seeing as I am "in that season" of the mission and there are 21 new missionaries showing up, but alas that didn't happen.
I was actually kind of disappointed. I thought that maybe I had lost some of President's respect or something like that but one of my friends who is one of the Assistants called me over during transfers and told me that they literally had put me up on "the board" that President has with all the missionaries in the mission as a trainer with my new noobie companion and everything...but then right before they finalized the transfer my Bishop called saying that he really wanted us to stay.
And so President decided to change everything and now I will wait a bit longer to train I guess. I mean, it's cool what happened and everything but on the other hand I really wanted to train. But whatevs, I am still happy with everything that is going on here in the area so I don't have much to complain about.
Speaking of that we had 2 baptisms last week and 2 more this week. Last week was a girl named Larissa who is 12 whose mom Viviane actually "contacted" us on the street. Viviane is going to be baptized this week.
And the other baptism last week was ANOTHER Viviane who is 19 that we found from an address that my comp had grabbed from her mom on the street.
Then the other baptism this week is a 65 or so year old woman who has been going to church off and on for 10 years and solid for 2 years straight but never felt like she needed to get baptized and she could never stop drinking coffee but she just stopped drinking coffee about a month ago.
The other day I went up to her daughter who actually just got home from a mission and was like "What do we have to do to baptize your mom?" She was like "I think we just need to invite her now because it is now or never!" Haha.
So the following night we were in a meeting with our Bishop and told him about her and he said "Leave it to me...Sunday I will interview her and get her to get baptized." So Sunday I saw him call her into his office and when she came out she started telling everyone "I am going to get baptized on the 12th!" Haha so that was cool. It wasn't much work but hey, I'll take it.
SIDENOTE: I can't believe BYU beat Oklahoma! Sweet! Sounded like a good defensive game. That would be awesome if BYU broke the BCS this year. Could somebody send me BYU's schedule for this year?
Man I am getting all 'trunky' thinking about the lacrosse season starting! It didn't help that a kid named Logan Bird that I know who worked the BYU Lax camps with me just got here today! He played all last year as one of the starting Def. Middies and luckily got sent to here to the interior (actually my last area: Julio de Mesquita) and took the bus ride with me back here which gave him time to give me the breakdown of all last season. It unfortunately just made me even more trunky but it was way cool. It was way cool to see him and to hear about the stuff going on back home.
So my Dad sent me a pedometer to see how far I walk everyday. I have had it for about 2 weeks and the average so far is usually between 18 - 22 kilometers everyday. We have hit 24 km though so far. It's not as much as I thought it would be actually...what's that like 10 - 12 miles? I dunno. All I know is that I rarely get tired anymore. I can walk forever but if you ask me to run I will stop at about 100 meters...
I hope everyone has a good week, loves a stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
So then on Sunday after having lunch with him he asked me to give him my cell phone and put me on the line with President. I was a bit confused but I dialed President's number and gave it to him. He said a bunch of stuff to President but pretty much said that if there was anyway possible to keep both of us here in the area then he would be really happy because we are doing really good work here in the area. I relaxed as I heard this haha and thought it was way cool that he did that.
So then Monday night came and we received the call to see who was going to be transferred. I still thought, despite my Bishop's call, that Elder Bie was going to leave...but it wasn't so. My Bishop got his wish and we both are going to stay here another month and half at least.
Well we didn't have much else to do and my comp had to talk to President about some stuff so we went to the Mission Office for transfers today.
Both us and my entire zone were sure that my comp was going to be transferred and that I was going to train seeing as I am "in that season" of the mission and there are 21 new missionaries showing up, but alas that didn't happen.
I was actually kind of disappointed. I thought that maybe I had lost some of President's respect or something like that but one of my friends who is one of the Assistants called me over during transfers and told me that they literally had put me up on "the board" that President has with all the missionaries in the mission as a trainer with my new noobie companion and everything...but then right before they finalized the transfer my Bishop called saying that he really wanted us to stay.
And so President decided to change everything and now I will wait a bit longer to train I guess. I mean, it's cool what happened and everything but on the other hand I really wanted to train. But whatevs, I am still happy with everything that is going on here in the area so I don't have much to complain about.
Speaking of that we had 2 baptisms last week and 2 more this week. Last week was a girl named Larissa who is 12 whose mom Viviane actually "contacted" us on the street. Viviane is going to be baptized this week.
And the other baptism last week was ANOTHER Viviane who is 19 that we found from an address that my comp had grabbed from her mom on the street.
Then the other baptism this week is a 65 or so year old woman who has been going to church off and on for 10 years and solid for 2 years straight but never felt like she needed to get baptized and she could never stop drinking coffee but she just stopped drinking coffee about a month ago.
The other day I went up to her daughter who actually just got home from a mission and was like "What do we have to do to baptize your mom?" She was like "I think we just need to invite her now because it is now or never!" Haha.
So the following night we were in a meeting with our Bishop and told him about her and he said "Leave it to me...Sunday I will interview her and get her to get baptized." So Sunday I saw him call her into his office and when she came out she started telling everyone "I am going to get baptized on the 12th!" Haha so that was cool. It wasn't much work but hey, I'll take it.
SIDENOTE: I can't believe BYU beat Oklahoma! Sweet! Sounded like a good defensive game. That would be awesome if BYU broke the BCS this year. Could somebody send me BYU's schedule for this year?
Man I am getting all 'trunky' thinking about the lacrosse season starting! It didn't help that a kid named Logan Bird that I know who worked the BYU Lax camps with me just got here today! He played all last year as one of the starting Def. Middies and luckily got sent to here to the interior (actually my last area: Julio de Mesquita) and took the bus ride with me back here which gave him time to give me the breakdown of all last season. It unfortunately just made me even more trunky but it was way cool. It was way cool to see him and to hear about the stuff going on back home.
So my Dad sent me a pedometer to see how far I walk everyday. I have had it for about 2 weeks and the average so far is usually between 18 - 22 kilometers everyday. We have hit 24 km though so far. It's not as much as I thought it would be actually...what's that like 10 - 12 miles? I dunno. All I know is that I rarely get tired anymore. I can walk forever but if you ask me to run I will stop at about 100 meters...
I hope everyone has a good week, loves a stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Sweet Week...
This week was sweet.
The work here in my area is going extremely well which = I am happy. It definitely is the best the work has ever been on my mission yet. After a year I finally feel like I really know what I am doing on the mission. It's a good feeling.
The companions I have had so far (excluding my current companion) aren't really what you would call "diligent workers" and so it always hindered the work a bit...especially when I didn't speak very well or have a really good idea about how to do the work because I had to just follow in their "non-diligent" ways.
Now however, I know what I am doing and I have a companion that is willing to come along with me without hindering the work. It really shows how much it helps to have BOTH of the Elders in the companionship wanting to do the work instead of just one.
We have 2 baptisms this Saturday and more in the coming weeks. Unfortunately we have transfers next Wed. So most likely one of us isn't going to see the other baptisms. We both might stay together but it is pretty unlikely...one of us is going to go. We both think it is going to be my comp, Elder Bie but we will have to see. I hope I stay, but if I don't...whatevs. We'll find out on Monday night who is going to go and who is going to stay.
Loves and stuffs for all. Thanks for the emails!
-Elder Parsons
The work here in my area is going extremely well which = I am happy. It definitely is the best the work has ever been on my mission yet. After a year I finally feel like I really know what I am doing on the mission. It's a good feeling.
The companions I have had so far (excluding my current companion) aren't really what you would call "diligent workers" and so it always hindered the work a bit...especially when I didn't speak very well or have a really good idea about how to do the work because I had to just follow in their "non-diligent" ways.
Now however, I know what I am doing and I have a companion that is willing to come along with me without hindering the work. It really shows how much it helps to have BOTH of the Elders in the companionship wanting to do the work instead of just one.
We have 2 baptisms this Saturday and more in the coming weeks. Unfortunately we have transfers next Wed. So most likely one of us isn't going to see the other baptisms. We both might stay together but it is pretty unlikely...one of us is going to go. We both think it is going to be my comp, Elder Bie but we will have to see. I hope I stay, but if I don't...whatevs. We'll find out on Monday night who is going to go and who is going to stay.
Loves and stuffs for all. Thanks for the emails!
-Elder Parsons
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sup ma' nerds!
So I didn't have much to say this week but then my father made a slight complaint that I don't talk about my day to day stuff anymore...so I will write a little bit about that.
We study from 8 - 11 am everyday.
Then we have lunch at 12 noon at a members house. They actually have a lady from the Relief Society whose calling in the ward is to take care of the missionary's lunches. So she gives us a calender every month and we just show up at the houses and there is food there waiting for us.
We eat with the family, sit and talk for a while, then we leave a message. The lunch message switches between my companion and I every other day. The days where you don't have to give the message are the best because we are always freaking full after lunch and it's good to just sit on the couch and just listen without having to think at all. Then we ask for references (sometimes the message is directed to the family in order to show them they need to give a reference) then we pray and leave and start to work.
Those of you who have served in a country where lunch is the primary meal of the day knows that the hour after lunch is pretty much the worse time of the day because it feels like you weigh 20 lbs heavier, the sun is blazingly hot during this hour, and tons of people are still having lunch so it's hard to check out any addresses or anything that we got from our contacts.
Food = Rice and beans everyday with some sort of "mixture" as they call it which is just some sort of meat or something. I really like the food. It's funny because it can be the best meal ever but if it doesn't have rice and beans you will see fully grown men complaining at the table. I am starting to become like that. The meal can suck but as long as there is rice and beans you know you are going to get full.
Contacts are a huge part of the mission. We have to either contact someone on the street (talk with some on the street) or somebody at home 12 times as day. A contact can be really fast (30 seconds sometimes) but you have to say something about the restored gospel and ask for their address.
I am entering into the stage of my mission where I have pretty much heard every sort of excuse there is. Which pretty much means I get rather angry sometimes when I hear the same lie over and over when the people think they are being all original. I love Brazil but there are a few things that I will never accept or understand and one of the things is that they are taught from a young age that if you don't want to do something you can just lie about it and nothing will happen.
Dishonesty is a genetic trait I am beginning to believe. A crappy contact, which I am all too accustomed to having, usually goes something like this.
Me: "Hi, I know that you are in a hurry" (I always start like that because they love to blow me off with the whole 'I am in a hurry thing') "But we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ and ANOTHER DAY we would like to pass by your house and leave a message with you and your family" (you have to emphasize the whole ANOTHER DAY part or they will think that you want to share the message with them at that moment and they will just blow you off by saying they don't have time at the moment and will speed away) "that talks about how God called a prophet along with 12 apostles in our days, just like Jesus Christ's church was organized in His time. Would there be a time this week that we could come by and leave this message with you and your family really fast?"
Person I am contacting: "Oh, sorry young man, "Eu nunca paro em casa" which means "I am never at home" or literaly "I never stop in house." This is the phrase that I am sure I have heard over 3000 times on my mission.
So then I say "Our message will actually be really fast, only 5 minutes."
They say "No but I don't have 5 minutes, I work all day and only get home at night around 7 o'clock."
Then I say "Well that's perfect! We work until 9 o'clock at night. So can we pass by around 7:30 sometime this week?"
Seeing as they are caught, they move onto their second tactic. They say "Oh well I actually already go to another church so I am already following Jesus."
I say "You don't have to worry about that because our message doesn't argue about religion and the faith that you already have in Christ will only be increased by our message."
Then they understand that they can't wiggle out of it and move on to the third tactic.
They say (if it is a woman) "Sorry, but my husband doesn't accept other religions, he's kind of annoying" or if it is a man he mysteriously always lives with his mom still who is EXTREMELY Catholic or from the Congregaçao. Always. And she "doesn't accept other religions" either.
Then I start to get a little angry but still keep my calm "Well we could pass by there and see if they will accept us and if they yell and curse at us we won't mind because we are used to it don't worry about it. So can I grab your address and pass by there another day to talk to them and leave a message?"
Then they say "No I actually don't want the message, bye."
WHAT THE FREAK? I don't understand why they just don't say that in the beginning! They prefer to stay there lying to us over and over and over wasting both of our time instead of politely saying that they don't want to hear our message.
Every once in a while they add in a few creative excuses like "I live in a really far neighborhood" then I say "Well, seeing as we are the only missionaries in this ENTIRE CITY we for sure work over in your area as well!"
Haha, the other day this lady said "Oh no, thank you, I live really far away." I asked her where she lived and she obviously wasn't thinking to clearly while stuttering "Uh...umm...I live in...Salto de Pirapora." HMMM...interesting. That happens to be the name of the city THAT WE ARE IN RIGHT NOW! Haha. She couldn't even make up another name of a city other than the one we are in right now. I said "Well what an awesome coincidence...I live there too!"
Anyway, that was a long description for something so little. But it is actually a HUGE part of my life here considering I have to do 12 a day for 2 full years of my life...it just becomes part of me.
So this week we continued working with our 3 baptismal dates for next Saturday. Viviane and Larissa and another girl named Viviane as well. Viviane is that lady that stopped us on the street and we asked to pass by. We have been trying to help her stop smoking and she is doing well but has to stop really soon...like within 2 days...to get baptized next week. She was smoking 20 a day but now is at 2-3 a day but it is proving a little difficult to kick the habit. She can do it though.
We met her on the street the other day and stole her cigarettes from her haha. I filmed it and will send the video. I am really hoping that her and her daughter get baptized.
The other Viviane is 19 years old and is way cool. Everything was going fine until she went to church on Sunday then got back and her parents got really mad at her for going and stuff. We went there on Tuesday and she told us everything and was nearly crying because she thought she would have to give it up with us because she lives with her parents but we had an idea to teach her at a member's house that lives really close to her and she got all happy and said that's what she wanted.
She is 19 too so can sign her own baptismal form and everything...the parents just are really faithful to another church and it will just take a little time for them to adjust. I thought we were going to lose her but she still has the desire to keep going so we's good.
Welp, that's about it from these parts. We went to the Temple in São Paulo today which was way cool but we lose pretty much our whole p-day due to the 4 hour round trip bus ride plus the session and lunch. Not to mention the whole waking up at 3:30 to catch a bus from my area to Sorocaba in order to catch the other bus with all the missionaries from here in the interior to São Paulo.
It's all good though. Farewell to everyone!
-Elder Brent Parsons
We study from 8 - 11 am everyday.
Then we have lunch at 12 noon at a members house. They actually have a lady from the Relief Society whose calling in the ward is to take care of the missionary's lunches. So she gives us a calender every month and we just show up at the houses and there is food there waiting for us.
We eat with the family, sit and talk for a while, then we leave a message. The lunch message switches between my companion and I every other day. The days where you don't have to give the message are the best because we are always freaking full after lunch and it's good to just sit on the couch and just listen without having to think at all. Then we ask for references (sometimes the message is directed to the family in order to show them they need to give a reference) then we pray and leave and start to work.
Those of you who have served in a country where lunch is the primary meal of the day knows that the hour after lunch is pretty much the worse time of the day because it feels like you weigh 20 lbs heavier, the sun is blazingly hot during this hour, and tons of people are still having lunch so it's hard to check out any addresses or anything that we got from our contacts.
Food = Rice and beans everyday with some sort of "mixture" as they call it which is just some sort of meat or something. I really like the food. It's funny because it can be the best meal ever but if it doesn't have rice and beans you will see fully grown men complaining at the table. I am starting to become like that. The meal can suck but as long as there is rice and beans you know you are going to get full.
Contacts are a huge part of the mission. We have to either contact someone on the street (talk with some on the street) or somebody at home 12 times as day. A contact can be really fast (30 seconds sometimes) but you have to say something about the restored gospel and ask for their address.
I am entering into the stage of my mission where I have pretty much heard every sort of excuse there is. Which pretty much means I get rather angry sometimes when I hear the same lie over and over when the people think they are being all original. I love Brazil but there are a few things that I will never accept or understand and one of the things is that they are taught from a young age that if you don't want to do something you can just lie about it and nothing will happen.
Dishonesty is a genetic trait I am beginning to believe. A crappy contact, which I am all too accustomed to having, usually goes something like this.
Me: "Hi, I know that you are in a hurry" (I always start like that because they love to blow me off with the whole 'I am in a hurry thing') "But we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ and ANOTHER DAY we would like to pass by your house and leave a message with you and your family" (you have to emphasize the whole ANOTHER DAY part or they will think that you want to share the message with them at that moment and they will just blow you off by saying they don't have time at the moment and will speed away) "that talks about how God called a prophet along with 12 apostles in our days, just like Jesus Christ's church was organized in His time. Would there be a time this week that we could come by and leave this message with you and your family really fast?"
Person I am contacting: "Oh, sorry young man, "Eu nunca paro em casa" which means "I am never at home" or literaly "I never stop in house." This is the phrase that I am sure I have heard over 3000 times on my mission.
So then I say "Our message will actually be really fast, only 5 minutes."
They say "No but I don't have 5 minutes, I work all day and only get home at night around 7 o'clock."
Then I say "Well that's perfect! We work until 9 o'clock at night. So can we pass by around 7:30 sometime this week?"
Seeing as they are caught, they move onto their second tactic. They say "Oh well I actually already go to another church so I am already following Jesus."
I say "You don't have to worry about that because our message doesn't argue about religion and the faith that you already have in Christ will only be increased by our message."
Then they understand that they can't wiggle out of it and move on to the third tactic.
They say (if it is a woman) "Sorry, but my husband doesn't accept other religions, he's kind of annoying" or if it is a man he mysteriously always lives with his mom still who is EXTREMELY Catholic or from the Congregaçao. Always. And she "doesn't accept other religions" either.
Then I start to get a little angry but still keep my calm "Well we could pass by there and see if they will accept us and if they yell and curse at us we won't mind because we are used to it don't worry about it. So can I grab your address and pass by there another day to talk to them and leave a message?"
Then they say "No I actually don't want the message, bye."
WHAT THE FREAK? I don't understand why they just don't say that in the beginning! They prefer to stay there lying to us over and over and over wasting both of our time instead of politely saying that they don't want to hear our message.
Every once in a while they add in a few creative excuses like "I live in a really far neighborhood" then I say "Well, seeing as we are the only missionaries in this ENTIRE CITY we for sure work over in your area as well!"
Haha, the other day this lady said "Oh no, thank you, I live really far away." I asked her where she lived and she obviously wasn't thinking to clearly while stuttering "Uh...umm...I live in...Salto de Pirapora." HMMM...interesting. That happens to be the name of the city THAT WE ARE IN RIGHT NOW! Haha. She couldn't even make up another name of a city other than the one we are in right now. I said "Well what an awesome coincidence...I live there too!"
Anyway, that was a long description for something so little. But it is actually a HUGE part of my life here considering I have to do 12 a day for 2 full years of my life...it just becomes part of me.
So this week we continued working with our 3 baptismal dates for next Saturday. Viviane and Larissa and another girl named Viviane as well. Viviane is that lady that stopped us on the street and we asked to pass by. We have been trying to help her stop smoking and she is doing well but has to stop really soon...like within 2 days...to get baptized next week. She was smoking 20 a day but now is at 2-3 a day but it is proving a little difficult to kick the habit. She can do it though.
We met her on the street the other day and stole her cigarettes from her haha. I filmed it and will send the video. I am really hoping that her and her daughter get baptized.
The other Viviane is 19 years old and is way cool. Everything was going fine until she went to church on Sunday then got back and her parents got really mad at her for going and stuff. We went there on Tuesday and she told us everything and was nearly crying because she thought she would have to give it up with us because she lives with her parents but we had an idea to teach her at a member's house that lives really close to her and she got all happy and said that's what she wanted.
She is 19 too so can sign her own baptismal form and everything...the parents just are really faithful to another church and it will just take a little time for them to adjust. I thought we were going to lose her but she still has the desire to keep going so we's good.
Welp, that's about it from these parts. We went to the Temple in São Paulo today which was way cool but we lose pretty much our whole p-day due to the 4 hour round trip bus ride plus the session and lunch. Not to mention the whole waking up at 3:30 to catch a bus from my area to Sorocaba in order to catch the other bus with all the missionaries from here in the interior to São Paulo.
It's all good though. Farewell to everyone!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Thanks for the emails!
Greetings!
I thank all those who answered my plea and emailed me this week. It was actually way cool. My unknown fans Mr. Curt Lytle and Connor emailed me this week and said they have been following my blog for a while.
Curt Lytle has a son that just barely got onto the mission in Goiania, Brazil. He told me that his son has been struggling with the language and it reminded me of the ever so frustrating first months that I had here and how frustrating it was with the language. It gets better Curt! Let him know that. 6 months and he will be a pro.
I can't even remember what it feels like NOT to understand what the people are saying to me. Tell him that even though it doesn't seem like it right now, he is truly lucky for getting a Brazilian as a first companion and living with 2 other Brazilians. That is exactly what happened to me and it was the best thing that could have happened to help me with the language.
The other person who emailed me, Connor, has been following my blog ever since he got his call to Porto Alegre North, Brazil. I already gave him some tips in another email, but thanks for the email Connor. He is going to be heading to the CTM (actually was my first area) next week.
It was cool to see that me trying every week to inform people about what's going on here in my life actually have helped others.
Anyway, this week was really good. A lady named Viviani stopped us on the street and said her daughter, Lariça, who is a friend of Afonsinho's sister (kid we just baptized) is wanting to come to our church because she saw us going to Afonsinho's house a bunch. So then I said "Well, we would love to have her come to church, but we would like you to come too!" She said she would then I asked "Could we pass by your house and leave a message with you and the rest of your family?" She said yeah so then I pulled out my planner to find a day...then I noticed that we didn't have much to do that night so I was like "Could we come by...tonight?" She said "Oh sure! I would love it!" So we went by there.
It was awesome...and hilarious! She is a single mom with 4 kids and the oldest one is Lariça who is 11. The next is 6 years old (boy) , then 3 (boy), then 1 (girl). And they are all CRAZY. We gave the first lesson and while I was teaching I had to teach them with the 3 year old on my shoulders playing around with my hair because he climbed up on the couch and jumped down on top of me haha.
It's awesome though and the kids LOVE us. We arrive and they all come screaming out of the house to greet us. Then when we go to say the closing prayer they start climbing over us and yelling so we can't say the prayer. It's great though and I am truly happy when I am there with them. It's even better because both Viviani, the mom, and Lariça accepted baptism dates and are progressing like crazy. Viviani loves the Book of Mormon. Last night we went there and made a goal chart with Viviani to stop smoking by next week. She is smoking a pack a day but really wants to quit. We have really high hopes.
On Monday I did a division with Elder Puggina. It is impossible to describe him but he is just a bit "off". Anyway, we were sitting at the bus stop after district meeting to catch a bus back to my area when all of the sudden somebody yelled directly in my ear really loud. I jumped and looked over and there was a drunk there who started asking me for money. I told him no. Then he asked me if I was American then just to play around with him I told him no and said I was "Gaucho" (somebody from the southern state of Brazil - Rio Grande do Sul).
He then said that was good and we continued talking but a little ways through the convo I made a mistake in Portuguese...and I knew I did. He looked at me and said in his drunken voice "wait a second *hiccup*...you are American! And I am part of the police *hiccup* and you are under arrest! Show me your identification!" I was like "no...how about YOU show me your identification first."
Then my poor little friend Puggina was getting all scared and burst out "He was just joking! He is American! Sorry sir! Here are my documents!" and then Puggina panicky went fumbling around to pull out his documents from his pocket until I had to slap him and tell him that the guy was obviously a drunk and wasn't part of the police. Haha. Then he relaxed a little bit and we left the drunk (after the drunk actually hit me really hard on the back because I wouldn't give him any money) and caught the bus. It was hilarious...you kinda just had to be there and you have to know this Puggina kid.
Anyway, the work is going well here and I am happy. Thanks for all the support I have from home...love ya'll!
-Elder Parsons
I thank all those who answered my plea and emailed me this week. It was actually way cool. My unknown fans Mr. Curt Lytle and Connor emailed me this week and said they have been following my blog for a while.
Curt Lytle has a son that just barely got onto the mission in Goiania, Brazil. He told me that his son has been struggling with the language and it reminded me of the ever so frustrating first months that I had here and how frustrating it was with the language. It gets better Curt! Let him know that. 6 months and he will be a pro.
I can't even remember what it feels like NOT to understand what the people are saying to me. Tell him that even though it doesn't seem like it right now, he is truly lucky for getting a Brazilian as a first companion and living with 2 other Brazilians. That is exactly what happened to me and it was the best thing that could have happened to help me with the language.
The other person who emailed me, Connor, has been following my blog ever since he got his call to Porto Alegre North, Brazil. I already gave him some tips in another email, but thanks for the email Connor. He is going to be heading to the CTM (actually was my first area) next week.
It was cool to see that me trying every week to inform people about what's going on here in my life actually have helped others.
Anyway, this week was really good. A lady named Viviani stopped us on the street and said her daughter, Lariça, who is a friend of Afonsinho's sister (kid we just baptized) is wanting to come to our church because she saw us going to Afonsinho's house a bunch. So then I said "Well, we would love to have her come to church, but we would like you to come too!" She said she would then I asked "Could we pass by your house and leave a message with you and the rest of your family?" She said yeah so then I pulled out my planner to find a day...then I noticed that we didn't have much to do that night so I was like "Could we come by...tonight?" She said "Oh sure! I would love it!" So we went by there.
It was awesome...and hilarious! She is a single mom with 4 kids and the oldest one is Lariça who is 11. The next is 6 years old (boy) , then 3 (boy), then 1 (girl). And they are all CRAZY. We gave the first lesson and while I was teaching I had to teach them with the 3 year old on my shoulders playing around with my hair because he climbed up on the couch and jumped down on top of me haha.
It's awesome though and the kids LOVE us. We arrive and they all come screaming out of the house to greet us. Then when we go to say the closing prayer they start climbing over us and yelling so we can't say the prayer. It's great though and I am truly happy when I am there with them. It's even better because both Viviani, the mom, and Lariça accepted baptism dates and are progressing like crazy. Viviani loves the Book of Mormon. Last night we went there and made a goal chart with Viviani to stop smoking by next week. She is smoking a pack a day but really wants to quit. We have really high hopes.
On Monday I did a division with Elder Puggina. It is impossible to describe him but he is just a bit "off". Anyway, we were sitting at the bus stop after district meeting to catch a bus back to my area when all of the sudden somebody yelled directly in my ear really loud. I jumped and looked over and there was a drunk there who started asking me for money. I told him no. Then he asked me if I was American then just to play around with him I told him no and said I was "Gaucho" (somebody from the southern state of Brazil - Rio Grande do Sul).
He then said that was good and we continued talking but a little ways through the convo I made a mistake in Portuguese...and I knew I did. He looked at me and said in his drunken voice "wait a second *hiccup*...you are American! And I am part of the police *hiccup* and you are under arrest! Show me your identification!" I was like "no...how about YOU show me your identification first."
Then my poor little friend Puggina was getting all scared and burst out "He was just joking! He is American! Sorry sir! Here are my documents!" and then Puggina panicky went fumbling around to pull out his documents from his pocket until I had to slap him and tell him that the guy was obviously a drunk and wasn't part of the police. Haha. Then he relaxed a little bit and we left the drunk (after the drunk actually hit me really hard on the back because I wouldn't give him any money) and caught the bus. It was hilarious...you kinda just had to be there and you have to know this Puggina kid.
Anyway, the work is going well here and I am happy. Thanks for all the support I have from home...love ya'll!
-Elder Parsons
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Come On - write me an e-mail
Let's just say all the "cyber praise" that I asked for and was anxiously waiting for this week made for a super "cyber let down" today. I thank those in my immediate and extended family...and Jake Ferrin...for the congrats on the year of work I have given harvesting souls to greater build the Kingdom of God here on the earth. But you know...it's not that important anyway I guess. :). I know there are a bunch of free riders out there reading this well kept blog chalk full of great comedic and spiritual insights that don't send me anything. I say "send me a freakin letter or get the heck off my blog!"**
Well we had the baptism of our little Afonso friend this week. He is 9 years old and his family decided to come back to church after being away for about 4 years. We taught him (and his family...because they pretty much forgot everything) all the lessons the we dunked him nigh unto Oreo in milk on Saturday. Actually our Bishop was the one who "dunked" him. Did I tell you guys that our Bishop is American? It's a long story but he served here in this mission and even passed through this area. He is now married to a lady who is from here but he never met her while he was on his mission.
Anyway, his Portuguese is nigh unto amazing...I mean I can understand everything he says but to duplicate his speaking ability will take another few years for me. I take Portuguese very seriously and I don't think I speak too bad at all, but there are some things that just take time. You can't learn everything from a book. But anyway, our bishop is way cool and helps us tons in the work.
So we had 3 baptisms in the last two weeks which is really good considering the mission goal is 2 baptisms per month...however we are kind of out of investigators right now. Monday literally was one of the worst days of work that I have ever had on my mission too. We had only 3 appointments in the whole day, very few, and all 3 of them fell one after the other leaving us with absolutely nothing to do at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We had to resort to "hitting" doors for 6 hours straight and with one of the worst streaks of luck I have ever seen we did not enter 1 house the whole day. It was incredible.
But luckily we had a really good day yesterday and found 5 new investigators and marked 2 more baptismal dates. It's funny how your emotions change on the mission. On Monday I was nearly calling President to ask to be emergency transferred out of the area and then yesterday I didn't want the day to end haha.
I also had to go do an interview in the Sister's area yesterday. My city here is out in the middle of nowhere but their area is another 24 km even farther out into the middle of nowhere. A little city called Pilar do Sul. And seeing as we can't do divisions with the sisters to do the interview both my companion and I had to go out there. It was cool though and was fun to work with them for half the day. One of them, Sister Lotulelei is Tongan and she went to Timpanogos. It's crazy that we are both so far away from home walking in a little town out in the middle of nowhere in Brazil but we are both from the same place. The world is tiny in the church.
Welp, that's about it I guess. I'll talk to you guys next week. Farewell.
-Elder Brent Parsons
**Not to be taken seriously
Well we had the baptism of our little Afonso friend this week. He is 9 years old and his family decided to come back to church after being away for about 4 years. We taught him (and his family...because they pretty much forgot everything) all the lessons the we dunked him nigh unto Oreo in milk on Saturday. Actually our Bishop was the one who "dunked" him. Did I tell you guys that our Bishop is American? It's a long story but he served here in this mission and even passed through this area. He is now married to a lady who is from here but he never met her while he was on his mission.
Anyway, his Portuguese is nigh unto amazing...I mean I can understand everything he says but to duplicate his speaking ability will take another few years for me. I take Portuguese very seriously and I don't think I speak too bad at all, but there are some things that just take time. You can't learn everything from a book. But anyway, our bishop is way cool and helps us tons in the work.
So we had 3 baptisms in the last two weeks which is really good considering the mission goal is 2 baptisms per month...however we are kind of out of investigators right now. Monday literally was one of the worst days of work that I have ever had on my mission too. We had only 3 appointments in the whole day, very few, and all 3 of them fell one after the other leaving us with absolutely nothing to do at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We had to resort to "hitting" doors for 6 hours straight and with one of the worst streaks of luck I have ever seen we did not enter 1 house the whole day. It was incredible.
But luckily we had a really good day yesterday and found 5 new investigators and marked 2 more baptismal dates. It's funny how your emotions change on the mission. On Monday I was nearly calling President to ask to be emergency transferred out of the area and then yesterday I didn't want the day to end haha.
I also had to go do an interview in the Sister's area yesterday. My city here is out in the middle of nowhere but their area is another 24 km even farther out into the middle of nowhere. A little city called Pilar do Sul. And seeing as we can't do divisions with the sisters to do the interview both my companion and I had to go out there. It was cool though and was fun to work with them for half the day. One of them, Sister Lotulelei is Tongan and she went to Timpanogos. It's crazy that we are both so far away from home walking in a little town out in the middle of nowhere in Brazil but we are both from the same place. The world is tiny in the church.
Welp, that's about it I guess. I'll talk to you guys next week. Farewell.
-Elder Brent Parsons
**Not to be taken seriously
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
New Area
Well I spent this week getting to know my new area. The area is pretty cool, it is small but it has pretty much everything you need to survive I guess. It has a bank, like a thousand churches which makes for a great time for us, supermarket, and...yeah that's about it. It's cool though.
I took a bunch of pics with my new sweet camera that my Dad sent me. Enjoy! I realize that I look like a retard in the video I made but I hope it shows you my house and where I live at least a little bit. I swear I have not turned retarded here on the mission don't worry Mother!
We had two baptisms this week and we also have another one this week. I'll admit the last 2 last week I "stole" but the one this week I didn't. It is a son of a less active member who is coming back to the church right now but that unfortunately lives on the very other end of the city. The church is located right in the very entrance of the city which is good for the Church because everybody sees the church when the drive into the city but bad for the missionaries because it is an hour and 10 minute walk at the speed of my Mother's "strut" for those who are familiar with it to the other side of the city which is exactly where this little boy lives and where we have to go nearly everyday to teach him. However after the baptism it will get better...I hope.
Yes...the date has finally come. Next week my friends...I will complete a year on the mission (Aug 12th - date I left my house. Aug 13th - date I arrived in Brazil. You guys can call it a year for either one of these). It's been done my friends. Money and cyber praise will be gladly accepted.
Has it gone by fast? The first 6 months took forever but from 6 until now it flew by pretty fast. I dunno...as one of my friends here on the mission said in his final testimony before going home "People say that these 2 years fly by really fast, but to me 2 years was 2 years. It passed by as long as 2 years takes." It's true I guess. It's gone by fast but looking back to the day that I said goodbye to everyone it definitely seems like it has been a fully year. It's a good feeling to know that I won't have to repeat any of the days from here on out though haha. "Yep...that was the last August 14th on the mission..."
Anyway, loves and stuffs. If anyone has any questions or anything let me know. I love a good gossip too. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
I took a bunch of pics with my new sweet camera that my Dad sent me. Enjoy! I realize that I look like a retard in the video I made but I hope it shows you my house and where I live at least a little bit. I swear I have not turned retarded here on the mission don't worry Mother!
We had two baptisms this week and we also have another one this week. I'll admit the last 2 last week I "stole" but the one this week I didn't. It is a son of a less active member who is coming back to the church right now but that unfortunately lives on the very other end of the city. The church is located right in the very entrance of the city which is good for the Church because everybody sees the church when the drive into the city but bad for the missionaries because it is an hour and 10 minute walk at the speed of my Mother's "strut" for those who are familiar with it to the other side of the city which is exactly where this little boy lives and where we have to go nearly everyday to teach him. However after the baptism it will get better...I hope.
Yes...the date has finally come. Next week my friends...I will complete a year on the mission (Aug 12th - date I left my house. Aug 13th - date I arrived in Brazil. You guys can call it a year for either one of these). It's been done my friends. Money and cyber praise will be gladly accepted.
Has it gone by fast? The first 6 months took forever but from 6 until now it flew by pretty fast. I dunno...as one of my friends here on the mission said in his final testimony before going home "People say that these 2 years fly by really fast, but to me 2 years was 2 years. It passed by as long as 2 years takes." It's true I guess. It's gone by fast but looking back to the day that I said goodbye to everyone it definitely seems like it has been a fully year. It's a good feeling to know that I won't have to repeat any of the days from here on out though haha. "Yep...that was the last August 14th on the mission..."
Anyway, loves and stuffs. If anyone has any questions or anything let me know. I love a good gossip too. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Transfer!
President has heard my pleads and I was transferred! Woot!
Haha, I have been transfered FROM the "rural" part of the mission to a city OUTSIDE of the "rural" part of the mission called Salto de Piropora. I am not quite sure what that would be called, but yeah it's a 45 min bus ride from Sorocaba (the city where I was at) that has a population of around 28,000 people.
Elder Little, who is from my group from the CTM was here and I took his place here along with his companion: Elder Bie. Elder Bie is from Rio de Janeiro too! It's crazy, 3 out of my 5 comps have been from Rio and there are only 4 or 5 of them from there here on the mission.
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are sort of "rivals" here in Brazil. They are the 2 biggest cities, have the best soccer teams, and the people from one don't like the people from the other. Rio thinks all of the people from São Paulo work too much and are really cold.
São Paulo people think people from Rio are "Favelados" or people that live in the slums, have no money, are prideful, and don't like to work but just like to party and go to the beach all day. It is an extreme exaggeration on both sides but both of them have some truth behind their statements...
Elder Bie has about 5 months on the mission. He seems pretty cool. He is 24 and pretty intelligent. He already did college and graduated with a degree in mathematics. He seems cool enough but we have only been together for about 4 hours so we will see.
So this last week in Julio de Mesquita was tough because both Elder Affonso and I thought we were going to be the one leaving the area. Haha, we ran out of shampoo (well...I did...he doesn't buy stuff like that and just uses mine) but neither of us wanted to buy shampoo for just 1 week because it's annoying to take with you in your suitcase. So for the past week neither one of us was willing to buy shampoo so we just used regular soap as shampoo haha :). However...I won! I got transferred.
So here in Salto I am District Leader of another area called Jardim São Paulo and another area where there are sisters. One of the sisters is Tongan and went to Timpanogos High School (my high school...). I thought she looked familiar. She graduated in '05 so I am sure Ryan knows her. Don't know her first name but it is Sister Lotulelei (I think...I'll double check that). She's way cool though. Let me know if you know her Ryan. It is the first time I have ever had sisters in my zone, let alone my district.
I got here this week and looks like we are going to have 2 baptisms already this Saturday. Yeah, I pretty much will "steal" these baptisms but I also left 1 in my Julio de Mesquita for Elder Patten who took my place. That's how the mission is though. It doesn't look like this area is THAT strong but it should be pretty cool.
The city here isn't really very rural at all though. It's all by itself out here but it is actually very developed. 28,000 people is still a lot. It is just us 2 in this area so it's kind of weird...we are all alone out here. It's sweet though, I am excited to work here. Elder Affonso (who I spent 4 and a 1/2 months with...just to remind you guys...that was a really long time) was "born" (started his mission) in this area so he told me a bunch of stuff about it already. The Bishop here is actually American who went to BYU and served a mission here and came back and got married. I haven't met him yet but Affonso said I will like him a lot.
Well, I downloaded a few photos that I took really quick as we dropped my stuff off in the house and yes mother and father, I got the new camera! It's SWEET! Seriously, it's so awesome and I am so excited to play around with it tonight and find out all it's little cool stuff. THANK YOU SO MUCH, it's perfect. I felt like a little school girl as I opened up the box and saw it, jumping and squealing with joy. Thanks again! I was scared that it had been stolen too. It was a relief to get it.
Well, love you all and wish me luck in the new area! It should be good and I am excited to get to work. I have a good feeling about the area. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Haha, I have been transfered FROM the "rural" part of the mission to a city OUTSIDE of the "rural" part of the mission called Salto de Piropora. I am not quite sure what that would be called, but yeah it's a 45 min bus ride from Sorocaba (the city where I was at) that has a population of around 28,000 people.
Elder Little, who is from my group from the CTM was here and I took his place here along with his companion: Elder Bie. Elder Bie is from Rio de Janeiro too! It's crazy, 3 out of my 5 comps have been from Rio and there are only 4 or 5 of them from there here on the mission.
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are sort of "rivals" here in Brazil. They are the 2 biggest cities, have the best soccer teams, and the people from one don't like the people from the other. Rio thinks all of the people from São Paulo work too much and are really cold.
São Paulo people think people from Rio are "Favelados" or people that live in the slums, have no money, are prideful, and don't like to work but just like to party and go to the beach all day. It is an extreme exaggeration on both sides but both of them have some truth behind their statements...
Elder Bie has about 5 months on the mission. He seems pretty cool. He is 24 and pretty intelligent. He already did college and graduated with a degree in mathematics. He seems cool enough but we have only been together for about 4 hours so we will see.
So this last week in Julio de Mesquita was tough because both Elder Affonso and I thought we were going to be the one leaving the area. Haha, we ran out of shampoo (well...I did...he doesn't buy stuff like that and just uses mine) but neither of us wanted to buy shampoo for just 1 week because it's annoying to take with you in your suitcase. So for the past week neither one of us was willing to buy shampoo so we just used regular soap as shampoo haha :). However...I won! I got transferred.
So here in Salto I am District Leader of another area called Jardim São Paulo and another area where there are sisters. One of the sisters is Tongan and went to Timpanogos High School (my high school...). I thought she looked familiar. She graduated in '05 so I am sure Ryan knows her. Don't know her first name but it is Sister Lotulelei (I think...I'll double check that). She's way cool though. Let me know if you know her Ryan. It is the first time I have ever had sisters in my zone, let alone my district.
I got here this week and looks like we are going to have 2 baptisms already this Saturday. Yeah, I pretty much will "steal" these baptisms but I also left 1 in my Julio de Mesquita for Elder Patten who took my place. That's how the mission is though. It doesn't look like this area is THAT strong but it should be pretty cool.
The city here isn't really very rural at all though. It's all by itself out here but it is actually very developed. 28,000 people is still a lot. It is just us 2 in this area so it's kind of weird...we are all alone out here. It's sweet though, I am excited to work here. Elder Affonso (who I spent 4 and a 1/2 months with...just to remind you guys...that was a really long time) was "born" (started his mission) in this area so he told me a bunch of stuff about it already. The Bishop here is actually American who went to BYU and served a mission here and came back and got married. I haven't met him yet but Affonso said I will like him a lot.
Well, I downloaded a few photos that I took really quick as we dropped my stuff off in the house and yes mother and father, I got the new camera! It's SWEET! Seriously, it's so awesome and I am so excited to play around with it tonight and find out all it's little cool stuff. THANK YOU SO MUCH, it's perfect. I felt like a little school girl as I opened up the box and saw it, jumping and squealing with joy. Thanks again! I was scared that it had been stolen too. It was a relief to get it.
Well, love you all and wish me luck in the new area! It should be good and I am excited to get to work. I have a good feeling about the area. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Lost the big email...
Welp, I am pretty angry because there was just an error with the site and I had written a huge email but just lost it. Now I am out of time.
Next week is transfers and I am hoping to get transferred...I have got 6 months here in Julio and I think it is about time I left...I hope I do but we will see what happens. Affonso wants to leave too haha. I love the people here but it is definitely time for a change.
I am good...healthy and everything. Love ya all.
-Elder Parsons
Next week is transfers and I am hoping to get transferred...I have got 6 months here in Julio and I think it is about time I left...I hope I do but we will see what happens. Affonso wants to leave too haha. I love the people here but it is definitely time for a change.
I am good...healthy and everything. Love ya all.
-Elder Parsons
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Amish are coming the Amish are coming!
It's really happening too. So I am on division here in a little town of 40,000 outside of Sorocaba called Boituva and have been for the past 3 days (companionship problem...but not with me and my comp don't worry). Anyway, I am with an American named Elder Call and we were walking down the street of the little town and saw the most typical little Amish family standing on the corner, and yes, they looked as confused as...an American Amish family in the middle of nowhere with people speaking a language they don't understand.
So anyway...Elder Call said very loudly "And that's our local polygamist family" as we walked by them...believing that they were just a strange Brazilian family. But anyway, long story short Elder Call and I went to have lunch (we decided to get Chinese Food...first time in 11 months! It was good) and as we were eating who shows up! Our little polygamist friends. Well, we noticed that they were all speaking English...and ended up talking to them. They are here in the little town of Boituva to start up a church and a bible distribution center for the Mount Zion Distribution Center (talk about a "Mormon" name) and they don't speak Portuguese yet haha.
It was just an extremely random experience: 2 Mormon Missionaries who speak Portuguese as a second language, 3 Amish families from Kentucky and California who don't speak Portuguese, ordering Chinese food from a Chinese woman that also doesn't speak much Portuguese, in the middle of a small town called Boituva in the center of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was pretty sweet though and Elder Call and I just laughed about it afterward.
So Friday was my birthday but it was actually just a pretty normal day until the end of the night. We went to teach a girl named Julianna who is 17 and lives in our newly acquired area of Ouro Fino. She's friends with a lot of the youth from the Ouro Fino ward. Anyway, so we went there and she said "hey Jessica (youth from ouro fino) has a church movie that she wants to watch with us, let's go over there." So we went. As we opened the door to their house we heard the great "SURPRISE!" and we saw the entire youth body from Ouro Fino and some other members there.
They had thrown us a surprise party...with a Barbie theme haha. It was ADORABLE. So Elder Affonso's birthday was last Tuesday so it was for both of us. They had made this barbie cake for us and when Elder Affonso and I went to blow out the candle Affonso shoved my head into the cake haha. So then...long story short, it started a very large cake war that left my shirt, tie, pants, and nametag barely recognizable as belonging to a missionary haha. It was awesome though. Everyone there and the house too were completely covered in cake and icing. I took a bunch of pictures but I think some cake got into the camera or something and it messed up my memory card (some of the pictures worked, but some just turned black) but Elder Affonso's cousin is a professional photographer and knows how to fix it so we sent the card to Rio de Janeiro for him to fix it. It should get back next week and I will send the hilarious pics and videos then.
Welp, the week was pretty normal otherwise. Next transfer is in two weeks so these should be my last days with Elder Affonso. There is no way we will stay together for 4 transfers. I am excited and anxious to see what happens at the transfer because really anything could happen. Anyway, thanks for the sweet emails everyone, talk to yall later!
-Elder Brent Parsons
So anyway...Elder Call said very loudly "And that's our local polygamist family" as we walked by them...believing that they were just a strange Brazilian family. But anyway, long story short Elder Call and I went to have lunch (we decided to get Chinese Food...first time in 11 months! It was good) and as we were eating who shows up! Our little polygamist friends. Well, we noticed that they were all speaking English...and ended up talking to them. They are here in the little town of Boituva to start up a church and a bible distribution center for the Mount Zion Distribution Center (talk about a "Mormon" name) and they don't speak Portuguese yet haha.
It was just an extremely random experience: 2 Mormon Missionaries who speak Portuguese as a second language, 3 Amish families from Kentucky and California who don't speak Portuguese, ordering Chinese food from a Chinese woman that also doesn't speak much Portuguese, in the middle of a small town called Boituva in the center of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was pretty sweet though and Elder Call and I just laughed about it afterward.
So Friday was my birthday but it was actually just a pretty normal day until the end of the night. We went to teach a girl named Julianna who is 17 and lives in our newly acquired area of Ouro Fino. She's friends with a lot of the youth from the Ouro Fino ward. Anyway, so we went there and she said "hey Jessica (youth from ouro fino) has a church movie that she wants to watch with us, let's go over there." So we went. As we opened the door to their house we heard the great "SURPRISE!" and we saw the entire youth body from Ouro Fino and some other members there.
They had thrown us a surprise party...with a Barbie theme haha. It was ADORABLE. So Elder Affonso's birthday was last Tuesday so it was for both of us. They had made this barbie cake for us and when Elder Affonso and I went to blow out the candle Affonso shoved my head into the cake haha. So then...long story short, it started a very large cake war that left my shirt, tie, pants, and nametag barely recognizable as belonging to a missionary haha. It was awesome though. Everyone there and the house too were completely covered in cake and icing. I took a bunch of pictures but I think some cake got into the camera or something and it messed up my memory card (some of the pictures worked, but some just turned black) but Elder Affonso's cousin is a professional photographer and knows how to fix it so we sent the card to Rio de Janeiro for him to fix it. It should get back next week and I will send the hilarious pics and videos then.
Welp, the week was pretty normal otherwise. Next transfer is in two weeks so these should be my last days with Elder Affonso. There is no way we will stay together for 4 transfers. I am excited and anxious to see what happens at the transfer because really anything could happen. Anyway, thanks for the sweet emails everyone, talk to yall later!
-Elder Brent Parsons
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