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
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