This week it rained like crazy. Like seriously. The other night E. Almeida and I were waiting outside one of our recent converts' houses for him to get home when all of the sudden it started raining like crazy and we ended up hiding under this little building overhang while standing up on this step because it was raining so much that the water started rising in the street. We ended up standing on that little step together for 2 hours because our RC never showed up and we couldn't move! It was slightly irritating...but kind of cool too.
Right now we are teaching those two brothers that I told about last week (with that horribly annoying girl that went crazy in sacrament meeting and who, fortunately, didn't show up to church this week with them). They really are so cool and so humble. They just keep saying how they are so happy they finally found the way to follow God and Jesus Christ that they have been searching for for a while. I always get happy when we show up there because they are just so humble and happy that you can't stay mad while you are there.
Actually...that's not quite true. I did show up there angry once this week because my companion and I had a bit of a tussle before we went there this week. I'll simplify the fight into a few short sentences. He wanted to go visit someone on the far side of our area because they "have really good water" but it would take about 30 to walk to her house. So naturally, I just laughed at him because it was such a ridiculous statement. Then he got mad because "you never laugh at my face!" As he said. Then I just laughed again and said "fine, lets go there then!" Then he got mad and threw his folder on the ground (which exploded), then told me he was going to call president because "this just really isn't working", then he politely told me to shut up and go to hell, then he asked me if I wanted to punch him and got up in my face and stuck his arms out and told me he was ready whenever I wanted to fight. Now this entire time I was literally just laughing and was just saying "wait, are you being serious right now?" then I would just start laughing again. It was hilarious. But like 10 min after the one-sided fight, we were fine. Well, not that I hadn't been fine, but he finally cooled down atleast. Oh the wonders of living with just one other man!
But really, it actually is pretty sweet working with him because he is actually really funny and is an extremely good teacher. Sometimes I just sit there and listen while he teaches because I think I am learning just as much as our investigators (that and I think he enjoys hearing himself talk so he talks...a lot). But yeah, it's actually pretty good with him here.
Well, I actually am out of time. Sorry this is way short. Just know that I am doing fine here and that the language and this whole missionary stuff is coming along swimmingly. Thanks for all the support and prayers, love ya!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Happy Inauguration
Hope everyone had a good week this week. I hear that it is pretty cold...I miss the cold so much. It was scorching hot this week. Let's just say that I learned the verb "to melt" this week because I arrived at a member's house yesterday and he asked me if I was melting because of the amount of salty liquid pouring down my face.
This week went pretty well "numbers wise". We taught a lot with members, did all of our contacts (our mission has a goal/rule of getting 12 contacts per day. A contact is stopping someone on the street or knocking at a door and testifying of the gospel, ask if we can stop by their house and leave a message with them, and usually you give them a pass-along card too). As of late missionaries have had a hard time accomplishing this so they really cracked down on it this week...it's actually really hard to get 12 some days but we got all of them this week. Elder Almeida is a lot more into the "numbers" aspect of missionary work than L. Sousa was...which is good because we teach a lot of people and stuff...but sometimes he likes to give short, weak little lessons just for another number rather than really teach the person. I dunno, it's just different.
So are teaching these two brothers Josinaldo and Rosinaldo (yeah, I mix up their names all the time) and Josinaldo has a daughter. So all three of them went to church this week with us. Anyway, so we were in Sacrament Meeting
Anyway, despite everything that happened the two brothers absolutely loved church, so we went to Josinalo and Rosinalo's house yesterday and we marked their baptism dates, plus their neighbor's date who came over and listened to the lesson and loved it, so that was good.
My companion and I actually got in a pretty big fight this week over our investigator Lurdes. She is the one that is smoking 2 cigarettes a day right now and used to smoke 40. It is awesome that she has done that but she is still smoking 2 a day....and has been for 3 weeks. She always makes an excuse as to why she can't see us when we go over there...usually it is something completely lame like "oh sorry, I am resting right now. Can you come back another day?" I just want to yell at her "Are you serious! You resting is the reason you can't listen to our message? It's not like our message involves a game of soccer!"
So one night he was just sick of trying to persuade her to listen, and I said we should go try again. Then he just got all mad at me and looked at me and was like "look I already told you I don't want to go there! And when I tell you that I don't want to do something, NEVER ask me if I want to do it again because it just makes me mad and then I will lose my patience!" But...as I said if he started giving me crap I wasn't going to take it...so we ended up getting in a rather heated verbal fight right there on the street. But we ended up being cool with each other afterward and we were fine that night. And nobody got bloody and that's what really matters, right?
But really actually, besides that one fight Elder Almeida and I are doing pretty good together. We did this service project for one of our member friends this week and built him an entirely new roof so that was pretty sweet.
So I also had this way crazy experience this week in the Favela. Writing the story definitely won't do it justice because you kind of just had to be there....but I will try. So we had this lesson marked with these two brothers that live in the favela. We talked to them just for a minute and they seemed cool enough and they wanted us to come back so we marked an hour to come back the following day. So we went there and entered their...extremely humble abode...and I immediately had a bad feeling. There was incense burning at the door and the room was only about 10 x 8 ft. or so. So we went in there and immediately one of the brothers grabbed my arm and just started pleading with me to give him money. I told him I couldn't and E. Almeida explained our situation as missionaries and he finally let me go. Then he asked E. Almeida to read "his favorite scripture" in the bible so E. Almeida read it...but then afterward we just had this horrible feeling that we needed to leave so we said goodbye and shook their hands.
So I went to shake the other brother's hand and he grabbed it and started squeezing it while looking at me in the eyes with his unnatural yellow eyes. He held on to my hand for about 10 seconds until I finally had to use my other hand to get his hand off mine. Then Elder Almeida and I left. Now what happened with the two wasn't all that crazy...but it was just the feeling I had that made the experience so horrible. And yes, I will use a Harry Potter reference to describe it to you.
Oh we also went looking for another house this week that is actually in our area (as of now we have to walk 15 min just to get into our area) and we found a house that was perfect but unfortunately someone rented it out before we could get the contract to the Realtor, so we have to go looking again. Blah.
Anyway, the week was pretty good and I am really getting into the whole missionary thing now that I am getting better in the language and can actually talk how I want to talk. I am grateful for all your prayers and all your letters/emails. Please keep sending both of them. Hope everyone has a good week...and to all a good night!
-Elder Brent Parsons
This week went pretty well "numbers wise". We taught a lot with members, did all of our contacts (our mission has a goal/rule of getting 12 contacts per day. A contact is stopping someone on the street or knocking at a door and testifying of the gospel, ask if we can stop by their house and leave a message with them, and usually you give them a pass-along card too). As of late missionaries have had a hard time accomplishing this so they really cracked down on it this week...it's actually really hard to get 12 some days but we got all of them this week. Elder Almeida is a lot more into the "numbers" aspect of missionary work than L. Sousa was...which is good because we teach a lot of people and stuff...but sometimes he likes to give short, weak little lessons just for another number rather than really teach the person. I dunno, it's just different.
So are teaching these two brothers Josinaldo and Rosinaldo (yeah, I mix up their names all the time) and Josinaldo has a daughter. So all three of them went to church this week with us. Anyway, so we were in Sacrament Meeting
Elder Martinatto came up to me afterward and was like "you were sleeping in Sacrament weren't you! And I didn't remember sleeping so I told him that I hadn't been...but then he pulled out his camera and showed me the movie that he had filmed of me sleeping while sitting right next to my investigators. It was hilarious because Rosinaldo kept looking over at me with this surprised look on his face. But I really don't even remember sleeping at all ha ha.Anyway, so we were in Sacrament Meeting and all of the sudden Josinaldo's little daughter started screaming at the top of her lungs and started hitting and biting her dad. I looked over and asked what was the problem and his said "oh she's is just a little upset because she want candy right now." And by this time the entire chapel was looking over at us...at one point the guy giving his talk actually just stopped his talk and looked over at us because she was so loud. Two Sisters in the ward came over to try to calm the little girl down and give her candy but she wanted "candy from the street". I had never been so close to punching somebody so small in my entire life. I was like "Josinaldo! Just take her outside!" and he said "No Elder, it's fine, she will calm down." So after another 30 seconds of her screaming at the top of her lungs and everybody just staring at us I finally just stood up and looked at Josinaldo and said "Look, take her outside right now!" So he finally got up and we took her outside and her precious little daddy went and bought her some candy from the street. Yeah that was great for my image in the ward. I have investigators that completely ruin the entire sacrament meeting and then I allow them to break the Sabbath Day afterward. Hooray! Haha. Just kidding, they were all really sympathetic because most all of them were missionaries too and they know how it is, but it was definitely embarrassing for me.
Anyway, despite everything that happened the two brothers absolutely loved church, so we went to Josinalo and Rosinalo's house yesterday and we marked their baptism dates, plus their neighbor's date who came over and listened to the lesson and loved it, so that was good.
My companion and I actually got in a pretty big fight this week over our investigator Lurdes. She is the one that is smoking 2 cigarettes a day right now and used to smoke 40. It is awesome that she has done that but she is still smoking 2 a day....and has been for 3 weeks. She always makes an excuse as to why she can't see us when we go over there...usually it is something completely lame like "oh sorry, I am resting right now. Can you come back another day?" I just want to yell at her "Are you serious! You resting is the reason you can't listen to our message? It's not like our message involves a game of soccer!"
So one night he was just sick of trying to persuade her to listen, and I said we should go try again. Then he just got all mad at me and looked at me and was like "look I already told you I don't want to go there! And when I tell you that I don't want to do something, NEVER ask me if I want to do it again because it just makes me mad and then I will lose my patience!" But...as I said if he started giving me crap I wasn't going to take it...so we ended up getting in a rather heated verbal fight right there on the street. But we ended up being cool with each other afterward and we were fine that night. And nobody got bloody and that's what really matters, right?
But really actually, besides that one fight Elder Almeida and I are doing pretty good together. We did this service project for one of our member friends this week and built him an entirely new roof so that was pretty sweet.
So I also had this way crazy experience this week in the Favela. Writing the story definitely won't do it justice because you kind of just had to be there....but I will try. So we had this lesson marked with these two brothers that live in the favela. We talked to them just for a minute and they seemed cool enough and they wanted us to come back so we marked an hour to come back the following day. So we went there and entered their...extremely humble abode...and I immediately had a bad feeling. There was incense burning at the door and the room was only about 10 x 8 ft. or so. So we went in there and immediately one of the brothers grabbed my arm and just started pleading with me to give him money. I told him I couldn't and E. Almeida explained our situation as missionaries and he finally let me go. Then he asked E. Almeida to read "his favorite scripture" in the bible so E. Almeida read it...but then afterward we just had this horrible feeling that we needed to leave so we said goodbye and shook their hands.
So I went to shake the other brother's hand and he grabbed it and started squeezing it while looking at me in the eyes with his unnatural yellow eyes. He held on to my hand for about 10 seconds until I finally had to use my other hand to get his hand off mine. Then Elder Almeida and I left. Now what happened with the two wasn't all that crazy...but it was just the feeling I had that made the experience so horrible. And yes, I will use a Harry Potter reference to describe it to you.
I think I actually felt what it would feel like to be in the room with a Dementor. Yes, there you go, I said it. And I am not even kidding. There was not an ounce of happiness in that room. I really did feel like if I didn't leave that I would never be happy again.After we left, Elder Almeida said that they were both possessed but I don't believe it. I just think that they are so unbelievably unhappy with their lives and the choices that they have made that they don't have any amount of light or happiness within them...and unfortunately it is there own fault because of their choices they have made throughout their lives and their own laziness. So yeah, that was pretty intense...and please...no one burn me for my Harry Potter reference...it was the only way to describe it!
Oh we also went looking for another house this week that is actually in our area (as of now we have to walk 15 min just to get into our area) and we found a house that was perfect but unfortunately someone rented it out before we could get the contract to the Realtor, so we have to go looking again. Blah.
Anyway, the week was pretty good and I am really getting into the whole missionary thing now that I am getting better in the language and can actually talk how I want to talk. I am grateful for all your prayers and all your letters/emails. Please keep sending both of them. Hope everyone has a good week...and to all a good night!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Guten Morgen!
I just remembered that I tried this week to remember all of the German that I once knew...yeah didn't work. The Portuguese replace all of the words of the words I knew in German (even though I only ever knew a tiny bit). All I know now in German is to count to 19 (I forgot the number 20), good morning, and how to say "and threw the cat on the floor!".
Speaking of Portuguese it's coming pretty well. It's still coming a lot slower than I would like it to be, but it's getting a lot better.
So I received a new companion named Elder Almeida last week. He is from Florianopollis... which I hear is a very beautiful city. I have been trying to grow accustomed to him this week...which at times has been difficult. He is really cool and I like him, but just like a lot of Brazilians he is very prideful and arrogant. I also found out that he not only fought with his companion 3 weeks ago...but tried to hit him with his metal chin up bar, but luckily the ZL's stopped him before that happened ha ha. It was a bit unnerving to see him unpack it after knowing what he already tried to do with it... ha ha. But really, he is pretty cool and he just has a hard time listening to others tell him what to do... which is why I'll happily take the role as junior companion for the time being.
Elder Almeida is a very good teacher and I have already learned some things about how I should be teaching from him. It has been pretty hard this week to pretty much start over in my area...but we did visit some old investigators that have been really receptive, so hopefully that continues to go well. As of now we just need a larger teaching pool of investigators.
One of our investigators named Lurdes was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but she can't quit smoking. She was smoking 40 cigarettes a day when L. Sousa and I met her, but she is now smoking only 2 a day. She cuts the cigarettes in half to make them last longer haha. She is really cool and has a really strong desire to quit so I think she will stop sometime this week so we can baptize her pretty soon.
For Brazil our mission has a really low baptisms number. Not because we are a weak mission or anything (at least I don't think so) but because of a lot of reasons like we are in a city that is known as a city of business, a city where everyone is working ALL THE TIME. They don't stop...especially for our lessons haha. It's crazy when you hear that missions like Fortaleza are baptizing like 250 people a week when our mission is getting somewhere around 15-20 right now. Just a little point of information I thought you guys might like. Freak, you know it's bad when all you have to talk about in your emails is your mission's baptism numbers...
This drunk grabbed my arm out in the street yesterday. He grabbed it really hard so I threw it off and then he started yelling at me. There were a bunch of black guys standing off to the side and they were like "Punch him in the face, German!" (that's what everyone thinks I am... German). It was so funny. I obviously didn't punch him and Elder Almeida and I just walked away laughing.
Sorry I don't have tons to write. The week was pretty normal and we are just trying to get back into the groove of things in the area. Hopefully someone punches me or something so I have something good to write next week (just kidding mom!).
Thanks for the emails, love you guys! Peace!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Speaking of Portuguese it's coming pretty well. It's still coming a lot slower than I would like it to be, but it's getting a lot better.
So I received a new companion named Elder Almeida last week. He is from Florianopollis... which I hear is a very beautiful city. I have been trying to grow accustomed to him this week...which at times has been difficult. He is really cool and I like him, but just like a lot of Brazilians he is very prideful and arrogant. I also found out that he not only fought with his companion 3 weeks ago...but tried to hit him with his metal chin up bar, but luckily the ZL's stopped him before that happened ha ha. It was a bit unnerving to see him unpack it after knowing what he already tried to do with it... ha ha. But really, he is pretty cool and he just has a hard time listening to others tell him what to do... which is why I'll happily take the role as junior companion for the time being.
Elder Almeida is a very good teacher and I have already learned some things about how I should be teaching from him. It has been pretty hard this week to pretty much start over in my area...but we did visit some old investigators that have been really receptive, so hopefully that continues to go well. As of now we just need a larger teaching pool of investigators.
One of our investigators named Lurdes was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but she can't quit smoking. She was smoking 40 cigarettes a day when L. Sousa and I met her, but she is now smoking only 2 a day. She cuts the cigarettes in half to make them last longer haha. She is really cool and has a really strong desire to quit so I think she will stop sometime this week so we can baptize her pretty soon.
For Brazil our mission has a really low baptisms number. Not because we are a weak mission or anything (at least I don't think so) but because of a lot of reasons like we are in a city that is known as a city of business, a city where everyone is working ALL THE TIME. They don't stop...especially for our lessons haha. It's crazy when you hear that missions like Fortaleza are baptizing like 250 people a week when our mission is getting somewhere around 15-20 right now. Just a little point of information I thought you guys might like. Freak, you know it's bad when all you have to talk about in your emails is your mission's baptism numbers...
This drunk grabbed my arm out in the street yesterday. He grabbed it really hard so I threw it off and then he started yelling at me. There were a bunch of black guys standing off to the side and they were like "Punch him in the face, German!" (that's what everyone thinks I am... German). It was so funny. I obviously didn't punch him and Elder Almeida and I just walked away laughing.
Sorry I don't have tons to write. The week was pretty normal and we are just trying to get back into the groove of things in the area. Hopefully someone punches me or something so I have something good to write next week (just kidding mom!).
Thanks for the emails, love you guys! Peace!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Transfers
A friendly 'hello" to my subscribers,
So my "Pai" (Dad/First companion on your mission/Trainer) L. Sousa got transferred today. We had been together for 3 months and our time together finally ran out. I am grateful he was my companion. Even though sometimes he had a tough time motivating himself to work...I still owe a lot to him for my Portuguese abilities. I was just used to having him around and now it will be weird to grow accustomed to another companion. So yeah, I am going to "return" although I was only gone for 2 weeks to Limão/Casa Verde and am going to have to start all over again pretty much...hooray! Back to the same old...
Speaking of my new companion his name is Elder Almeida. He is a Brazilian from Florianopolis and speaks actually pretty good English. He was actually the companion of Elder Perry who was in my district in the CTM last transfer. I have heard a few shady things about him and L. Sousa told me to "be careful" when he saw that we would be companions. Apparently he has somewhat of a temper and doesn't have a problem with punching his companions...but you know, that's how it is here so I'll just have to find stuff we have in common and work that...but if he starts giving crap it might be hard not to give it back...we'll see though. I have only been with him about 3 hours so I'll let you know how it is with him next week.
So something crazy happened this Sunday at church. I was sitting there...you know just minding my own business, when the self-appointed church usher came over to me and said that some Americans from California just showed up and that I should go sit next to them and find out who they were. I saw a good opportunity to speak some english so I headed over there and sat next to them. I started talking to them and they told me that all three of them were brothers and that the two younger ones (one was about 28 years old and the other mid-30's) were professional tennis players and the other is their "coach", he was the older one. I think he just wanted to travel around and have fun with them though.
The two younger ones both served in Rio de Janeiro so they both were fluent in Portuguese and the other was fluent and Spanish and had taken some Portuguese lessons so all three could understand pretty much everything. Oh and they were here in São Paulo because they had a tennis tournament. The two players play doubles together and are apparently top 10 in the U.S. in it. The youngest one also plays singles and he is top 20 and is living in LA playing and coaching full time...so yeah they are pretty good I think.
Anyway so I got to talking to the younger one and he asked me where I was from. I told him Orem, UT and he asked me what school I went to. I said Timpanogos and he said "Are you serious, I went there for a year!" We both got pretty excited and he started asking me if I knew some people, most of which I didn't. He said "OK I'll try to think of someone your age...uh...do you happen to know Jenny Rife?" I stared at him in shock for a second and then said "Are you being serious right now dude?" He said yes and then I said "Dude, that's my cousin!"
He got all excited and said "Dude, I was Mary Rife's boyfriend for like 3 years!"
So it turns out his name is Brian Battistone (I think that is how you spell it, I am sure Mary will know him) and he has actually been to my house before for Christmas or something. He told me that when he was there he remembers my dad telling him something about my sister Karrissa doing this "no-candy" thing for a year in order to get 100 dollars...do you remember that dad? I do. Anyway it was way cool to talk to all three of these guys and they invited us to there game that they have today over in an area close to ours but we couldn't go because of transfers. Would have been cool though. I didn't have my camera with me but Brian did and he took a picture and said he was going to email Janet and Rich, who knows though. It was crazy though.
Other than that our week was pretty normal. It was still tough to find people in their houses.
We had a sweet BBQ last night at my house with our whole zone, it was really fun actually and extremely delicious.
It was really good to hear my mom's surgery went well and that she feels even better after the surgery than she felt before (...not sure how that works) but yeah, hooray for my mother's health!
Love you all and I will write next week...keep them letters and emails comin'...please!
-Elder Brent Parsons
So my "Pai" (Dad/First companion on your mission/Trainer) L. Sousa got transferred today. We had been together for 3 months and our time together finally ran out. I am grateful he was my companion. Even though sometimes he had a tough time motivating himself to work...I still owe a lot to him for my Portuguese abilities. I was just used to having him around and now it will be weird to grow accustomed to another companion. So yeah, I am going to "return" although I was only gone for 2 weeks to Limão/Casa Verde and am going to have to start all over again pretty much...hooray! Back to the same old...
Speaking of my new companion his name is Elder Almeida. He is a Brazilian from Florianopolis and speaks actually pretty good English. He was actually the companion of Elder Perry who was in my district in the CTM last transfer. I have heard a few shady things about him and L. Sousa told me to "be careful" when he saw that we would be companions. Apparently he has somewhat of a temper and doesn't have a problem with punching his companions...but you know, that's how it is here so I'll just have to find stuff we have in common and work that...but if he starts giving crap it might be hard not to give it back...we'll see though. I have only been with him about 3 hours so I'll let you know how it is with him next week.
So something crazy happened this Sunday at church. I was sitting there...you know just minding my own business, when the self-appointed church usher came over to me and said that some Americans from California just showed up and that I should go sit next to them and find out who they were. I saw a good opportunity to speak some english so I headed over there and sat next to them. I started talking to them and they told me that all three of them were brothers and that the two younger ones (one was about 28 years old and the other mid-30's) were professional tennis players and the other is their "coach", he was the older one. I think he just wanted to travel around and have fun with them though.
The two younger ones both served in Rio de Janeiro so they both were fluent in Portuguese and the other was fluent and Spanish and had taken some Portuguese lessons so all three could understand pretty much everything. Oh and they were here in São Paulo because they had a tennis tournament. The two players play doubles together and are apparently top 10 in the U.S. in it. The youngest one also plays singles and he is top 20 and is living in LA playing and coaching full time...so yeah they are pretty good I think.
Anyway so I got to talking to the younger one and he asked me where I was from. I told him Orem, UT and he asked me what school I went to. I said Timpanogos and he said "Are you serious, I went there for a year!" We both got pretty excited and he started asking me if I knew some people, most of which I didn't. He said "OK I'll try to think of someone your age...uh...do you happen to know Jenny Rife?" I stared at him in shock for a second and then said "Are you being serious right now dude?" He said yes and then I said "Dude, that's my cousin!"
He got all excited and said "Dude, I was Mary Rife's boyfriend for like 3 years!"
So it turns out his name is Brian Battistone (I think that is how you spell it, I am sure Mary will know him) and he has actually been to my house before for Christmas or something. He told me that when he was there he remembers my dad telling him something about my sister Karrissa doing this "no-candy" thing for a year in order to get 100 dollars...do you remember that dad? I do. Anyway it was way cool to talk to all three of these guys and they invited us to there game that they have today over in an area close to ours but we couldn't go because of transfers. Would have been cool though. I didn't have my camera with me but Brian did and he took a picture and said he was going to email Janet and Rich, who knows though. It was crazy though.
Other than that our week was pretty normal. It was still tough to find people in their houses.
We had a sweet BBQ last night at my house with our whole zone, it was really fun actually and extremely delicious.
It was really good to hear my mom's surgery went well and that she feels even better after the surgery than she felt before (...not sure how that works) but yeah, hooray for my mother's health!
Love you all and I will write next week...keep them letters and emails comin'...please!
-Elder Brent Parsons
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