I have received exciting news from my Father! My blog got a record 28 hits last week! What a self-esteem booster. Mom, have Alysha and her friends make posters or something to put up all around town about my blog. If we work hard we can crack 50!
Good work everyone.
I actually don't have much time to write, but I would like everyone to know that the Open House and the Dedication of the chapel were a success this week. It was way cool and even though TONS of people didn't come to the Open House the Dedication was packed. There literally wasn't any room to fit any more chairs in the over-flow of the chapel. I really think this new chapel is going to be the "jump-start" that this ward needs.
The biggest news of the week! This less-active family that we have been working with for almost 3 months have all finally come back! They have 2 kids: 1 son that is 16 and a daughter who is 14. The 16 year old was baptized but for the last 5 years he hasn't wanted anything to do with the church but we were there on Monday night and I was out on the street doing push-ups and stuff with him and he finally turned to me and was like "Elder Parsons, you and your companion have inspired me. I want to not just come back to church and stay firm in the church, but now I want to serve a mission too." I was so happy I gave him a huge, extremely manly hug.
Then to top it all off the 14 year old girl who wasn't baptized and who has been embarrassed to even say she was affiliated with the church for the last 5 years came up to us after starting to accept us these past few weeks and told us that she now really wants to be baptized! She also asked me to baptize her! So we have her baptism marked for after church this Sunday...woot!
It was such an amazing experience with that family this week and I am so grateful for them. We have been working for more than a month straight with our changed focus to the less-active members of the ward and it is awesome to see that we are finally "reaping the fruits of our labor" and that the Lord is preparing this ward to come back even stronger than it once was.
On to other news, we just got done playing soccer and had a "Brazilian BBQ" with our zone. It was pretty sweet.
Well, sorry that was so short but I don't have tons more time. Next week is transfers so let's see if I am going to stay another transfer here in Julio de Mesquita. I really think I will stay here but I don't know if I will stay with Elder Affonso, but we will see. It is likely that I will...
Farewell to all, and to all a good night!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Open House Starts Today!
Hey,
So this week was pretty much getting ready for the Open House that starts today and will go until Saturday night with the "re-dedication" of the chapel on Sunday night. We had these really sweet invites printed out to hand out to as many people as possible in our area and we started visiting less-actives and all our investigators like crazy to get all the invites out and to make sure that they were going to come.
So that's what Elder Affonso and I did and then yesterday 2 and 1/2 zones (about 35 missionaries) came to our area and the area of the other elders and helped us deliver invites to everyone. It was pretty annoying because I called my bishop like 3 times throughout this last week and then had lunch with him once to make sure that he was going to bring a map of the area for everyone to have and to color in parts in order to let all the companionships know where they had to work, but then we showed up at the chapel and he just told me that he forgot and then went and started talking to some other members and left me there with 36 missionaries just waiting in the chapel to do something.
Hooray! So I ended up just taking them out (Well half of them at least because the other half went to the other area) and showed them where they needed to go. Then I just let them go and it all worked out because all they needed to go was to go talk to the maximum amount of people as possible and deliver the invites...and they are missionaries so that's not too hard for them. So it all worked out but we lost like 1/2 hour of our time but whatevs...If I let a little something like that to get to me in this ward then I would have asked to be transferred away from the ward long ago haha.
It doesn't help that my companion doesn't help me at all with it or write anything in his planner because if he writes stuff down then it just "stresses (him) out too much" and he can't get stressed or else "bad things will happen".
But we's good!
I am really excited about the chapel and hope it will help turn this area around again. We have this family that is so awesome that says they will go to it and I really hope they do because I know they will love it. My companion says that if we baptize this family then his mission will be complete because they are really that awesome and would become members that would end up as stake leaders in a year or so from now. I don't know if my mission here would quite be "complete" but it would be a huge accomplishment for me and it would validate my nearly fruitless hard work in this area.
Thank you for all your prayers of support! I can't thank many people for emails this week unfortunately...but those who did email I am very grateful! Just kidding, I am grateful to everyone...but really...this week's inbox = sad.
-Elder Brent Parsons
So this week was pretty much getting ready for the Open House that starts today and will go until Saturday night with the "re-dedication" of the chapel on Sunday night. We had these really sweet invites printed out to hand out to as many people as possible in our area and we started visiting less-actives and all our investigators like crazy to get all the invites out and to make sure that they were going to come.
So that's what Elder Affonso and I did and then yesterday 2 and 1/2 zones (about 35 missionaries) came to our area and the area of the other elders and helped us deliver invites to everyone. It was pretty annoying because I called my bishop like 3 times throughout this last week and then had lunch with him once to make sure that he was going to bring a map of the area for everyone to have and to color in parts in order to let all the companionships know where they had to work, but then we showed up at the chapel and he just told me that he forgot and then went and started talking to some other members and left me there with 36 missionaries just waiting in the chapel to do something.
Hooray! So I ended up just taking them out (Well half of them at least because the other half went to the other area) and showed them where they needed to go. Then I just let them go and it all worked out because all they needed to go was to go talk to the maximum amount of people as possible and deliver the invites...and they are missionaries so that's not too hard for them. So it all worked out but we lost like 1/2 hour of our time but whatevs...If I let a little something like that to get to me in this ward then I would have asked to be transferred away from the ward long ago haha.
It doesn't help that my companion doesn't help me at all with it or write anything in his planner because if he writes stuff down then it just "stresses (him) out too much" and he can't get stressed or else "bad things will happen".
But we's good!
I am really excited about the chapel and hope it will help turn this area around again. We have this family that is so awesome that says they will go to it and I really hope they do because I know they will love it. My companion says that if we baptize this family then his mission will be complete because they are really that awesome and would become members that would end up as stake leaders in a year or so from now. I don't know if my mission here would quite be "complete" but it would be a huge accomplishment for me and it would validate my nearly fruitless hard work in this area.
Thank you for all your prayers of support! I can't thank many people for emails this week unfortunately...but those who did email I am very grateful! Just kidding, I am grateful to everyone...but really...this week's inbox = sad.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Photos
Here are some more photos.
The new improved church, our tree-cutting, and my companion Elder Affonso. Plus a little fun with the magnets.
The new improved church, our tree-cutting, and my companion Elder Affonso. Plus a little fun with the magnets.
Greetings
Oh the Easter season. How great it is. Especially being in a country where the word for "eggs" is the popular slang term referring to male-genitals (as to "balls" in the USA). Works for completely inappropriate humor all the day long.
But of course the Easter Eggs are not really what the season is about. For us missionaries almost everyday besides P-day is just about the same so I didn't feel much of a difference on Easter, but I hope everyone else did and had a chance to remind themselves of the Savior and his eternal-sacrifice for us. I know that he and his Atonement are the only way that we can inherit true happiness.
This week Elder Affonso and I found out that our Chapel will return to our area on the 26th of April! WOOT! The chapel we are using right now is like a 50 minute bus ride away...yeah not too easy to get people there every week. But now the chapel is in our area and is only about a 10 min walk for most of my area. I sent a picture of it. It used to be a really old beat up chapel but now it is way sweet and even has an elevator! I am excited to be able to start using it this month.
However with the new chapel will also come with a lot of work because there will be an "Open House" that will have to be done and unfortunately a lot of the planning and labor falls on the missionaries. There are 4 zones of missionaries here in Sorocaba and I am hoping we can get all of them to come to deliver invites and talk to everyone in the area to invite them to the Open House that will happen during the 23rd to the 25th. It will be a lot of work for my companion and I and the other 2 Elders that will share the chapel with us...but hopefully it will pay off.
Elder Affonso and I have been working TONS with less-active members in our area this week because there are seriously so many. It's a little bit ridiculous. Our ward has something like 450 members with only 80-90 that are going to church. We haven't stopped our search for new investigators and baptisms but we definitely have shifted our focus on the work to reactive the once extremely strong members of the church. It's crazy though because while working with the less-active members tons of them have tons of doubts about the church that need to be cleared up before they come back...which is where we come in. They ask SO many questions that are often extremely difficult so Elder Affonso and I are studying like crazy and trusting in the spirit in order to help them come back. After some of our appointments with these less-actives I feel completely mentally-drained it's crazy. But awesome. This week we helped 2 families come back with promises of 2 more this week. It's really satisfying work.
Our baptism that was planned for Saturday unfortunately fell through...due to 1 cigarette!!! That dang Fransisco just couldn't fight off the temptation with all his friends smoking at work and he smoked 1 this week. So we had to move his baptism to the 25th but he says he will never smoke again and felt really bad about it. We had to burn him with the good news a little bit to understand, but he was glad we did.
Wow, what a little perfect missionary-letter I just wrote for y'all. Excellent. But that's what my life is so...there ya go. Farewell! I am off to make a movie with my DL, his comp, and Elder Pratt (American I live with) that is going to be sick-tight! Elder Pratt has a sweet camera that he can edit and stuff on so the movie should be sweet. Loves and stuff.
-Elder Brent Parsons
But of course the Easter Eggs are not really what the season is about. For us missionaries almost everyday besides P-day is just about the same so I didn't feel much of a difference on Easter, but I hope everyone else did and had a chance to remind themselves of the Savior and his eternal-sacrifice for us. I know that he and his Atonement are the only way that we can inherit true happiness.
This week Elder Affonso and I found out that our Chapel will return to our area on the 26th of April! WOOT! The chapel we are using right now is like a 50 minute bus ride away...yeah not too easy to get people there every week. But now the chapel is in our area and is only about a 10 min walk for most of my area. I sent a picture of it. It used to be a really old beat up chapel but now it is way sweet and even has an elevator! I am excited to be able to start using it this month.
However with the new chapel will also come with a lot of work because there will be an "Open House" that will have to be done and unfortunately a lot of the planning and labor falls on the missionaries. There are 4 zones of missionaries here in Sorocaba and I am hoping we can get all of them to come to deliver invites and talk to everyone in the area to invite them to the Open House that will happen during the 23rd to the 25th. It will be a lot of work for my companion and I and the other 2 Elders that will share the chapel with us...but hopefully it will pay off.
Elder Affonso and I have been working TONS with less-active members in our area this week because there are seriously so many. It's a little bit ridiculous. Our ward has something like 450 members with only 80-90 that are going to church. We haven't stopped our search for new investigators and baptisms but we definitely have shifted our focus on the work to reactive the once extremely strong members of the church. It's crazy though because while working with the less-active members tons of them have tons of doubts about the church that need to be cleared up before they come back...which is where we come in. They ask SO many questions that are often extremely difficult so Elder Affonso and I are studying like crazy and trusting in the spirit in order to help them come back. After some of our appointments with these less-actives I feel completely mentally-drained it's crazy. But awesome. This week we helped 2 families come back with promises of 2 more this week. It's really satisfying work.
Our baptism that was planned for Saturday unfortunately fell through...due to 1 cigarette!!! That dang Fransisco just couldn't fight off the temptation with all his friends smoking at work and he smoked 1 this week. So we had to move his baptism to the 25th but he says he will never smoke again and felt really bad about it. We had to burn him with the good news a little bit to understand, but he was glad we did.
Wow, what a little perfect missionary-letter I just wrote for y'all. Excellent. But that's what my life is so...there ya go. Farewell! I am off to make a movie with my DL, his comp, and Elder Pratt (American I live with) that is going to be sick-tight! Elder Pratt has a sweet camera that he can edit and stuff on so the movie should be sweet. Loves and stuff.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Photos from Area and Zone
The name tag of Elder Rêgo... "Rêgo" is slang for "Plumber's crack" in Portuguese
My DL - Elder Anderson
My Zone
Great Conference
How about Conference eh? Yeah that was pretty sweet. Especially because us Americans in my zone got to go to a room in the chapel all by ourselves and watch it in the wonderful language of English. It wasn't working for the Saturday Morning session so we had to watch it in Portuguese and it was just not the same. When you have grown up your whole life listening to these inspired men with their own voices and everything but then you have to switch and listen to someone else's voice translating...just doesn't work.
Conference was also like 10 times better as a missionary. It just seems so much applicable and practical. It was all extremely good but I think Jefferey R. Holland's talk about us feeling alone but then telling the story of Christ's life and how he was alone as well was probably my favorite. I was so grateful for the opportunity I had to listen to it in English too because nobody can replace the ability he has to give discourses. All in all it was great.
The down side about conference is that I didn't get to work tons in my area and with my comp this week. My comp is pretty cool. Last transfer I guess he just slacked off the whole time but he says he wants to get back on track this transfer and get some real work done so that's good I guess. He pretty much will work at whatever level that I am going to work. In other words, if I work hard then he will too but if I turn into one of those missionaries that just sits at a lan house all day then he'll be right at my side too. But don't worry, I am choosing to do the former.
Speaking of that we have been working pretty hard this week to make up for the lost time last transfer. Not that Elder Lemos and I didn't work...it was just a different kind of work. More like the work between psychaitrist and patient. But whatevs...we're good now.
We at least have one baptism coming up named Fransisco. We have been working with him for a while and he is way cool. He is just here for a little while because he is just here to work for a bit to gain some money but then he will go back to his family in the nearly Amazonish state of Tochantins (I actually have no idea how to spell that). He loves the church though and LOVED General Conference.
He has been trying to stop smoking as of late. It was funny because on Monday we told him we were going to call him everyday to make sure he didn't smoke and I called him last night at 7:45 but I had told him I would call him at 7:00 but I called late because we ended up teaching an unexpected lesson with some crazy lady. He answered and was like "I have been sitting here for the past 45 min wanting to smoke really bad but I knew how angry you would be at me if I smoked so I have been just sitting here in the chair with the phone in my hand waiting for you to call so I could tell you that I didn't smoke." It was so funny...and kind of sad because I kept him waiting. But mostly just funny.
All the talk about Barack Obama has kind of just faded away here...I don't think anyone here cares about anything other than having a black president...and now that they have one they don't want to talk about him anymore. Who cares about the president's pork barrel spending? He's black! Thus he has had a hard life and thus he deserves to spend our tax dollars whichever way he pleases! Leave him alone!
Idiots.
Well anyway, I love to hear about anything that is going on their in the blessed USA...or about your lives. Sorry I don't have much to say...but I don't. LOVES AND KISSES! Farewell.
-Elder Parsons
Conference was also like 10 times better as a missionary. It just seems so much applicable and practical. It was all extremely good but I think Jefferey R. Holland's talk about us feeling alone but then telling the story of Christ's life and how he was alone as well was probably my favorite. I was so grateful for the opportunity I had to listen to it in English too because nobody can replace the ability he has to give discourses. All in all it was great.
The down side about conference is that I didn't get to work tons in my area and with my comp this week. My comp is pretty cool. Last transfer I guess he just slacked off the whole time but he says he wants to get back on track this transfer and get some real work done so that's good I guess. He pretty much will work at whatever level that I am going to work. In other words, if I work hard then he will too but if I turn into one of those missionaries that just sits at a lan house all day then he'll be right at my side too. But don't worry, I am choosing to do the former.
Speaking of that we have been working pretty hard this week to make up for the lost time last transfer. Not that Elder Lemos and I didn't work...it was just a different kind of work. More like the work between psychaitrist and patient. But whatevs...we're good now.
We at least have one baptism coming up named Fransisco. We have been working with him for a while and he is way cool. He is just here for a little while because he is just here to work for a bit to gain some money but then he will go back to his family in the nearly Amazonish state of Tochantins (I actually have no idea how to spell that). He loves the church though and LOVED General Conference.
He has been trying to stop smoking as of late. It was funny because on Monday we told him we were going to call him everyday to make sure he didn't smoke and I called him last night at 7:45 but I had told him I would call him at 7:00 but I called late because we ended up teaching an unexpected lesson with some crazy lady. He answered and was like "I have been sitting here for the past 45 min wanting to smoke really bad but I knew how angry you would be at me if I smoked so I have been just sitting here in the chair with the phone in my hand waiting for you to call so I could tell you that I didn't smoke." It was so funny...and kind of sad because I kept him waiting. But mostly just funny.
All the talk about Barack Obama has kind of just faded away here...I don't think anyone here cares about anything other than having a black president...and now that they have one they don't want to talk about him anymore. Who cares about the president's pork barrel spending? He's black! Thus he has had a hard life and thus he deserves to spend our tax dollars whichever way he pleases! Leave him alone!
Idiots.
Well anyway, I love to hear about anything that is going on their in the blessed USA...or about your lives. Sorry I don't have much to say...but I don't. LOVES AND KISSES! Farewell.
-Elder Parsons
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
New Companion
Good Afternoon!
I know I haven't written much in the past little while and for that I have to apologize to what I am sure are my millions of fans world-wide. The past few weeks have been some trying times in this missionary's life...and it looks like they are going to continue. However, show business is show business and I must please the ever-anxious crowd of subscribers.
This past week was pretty funny...mostly because how stupid it was. The other companionship that we were living with were fighting like crazy so Elder Lemos and I pretty much spent the week away from each other on division. We were on division last Tues and Wed and then we tried to leave them together on Thursday but we showed up at the house on Thurs night and they hadn't worked for the whole day because after lunch they got in a fight on the street. So then friday and saturday we went back on division. Hooray for infantiles!
So on Monday night we received "The Call" saying that Elder Lemos was going to be transferred. So today we went to transfers and he got moved down to Junior companion for his last transfer of the mission somewhere in the Capital. I received a new companion named Elder Affonso. He has 4 months on the mission and I turned into Senior Companion. Haha...yeah...pretty crazy for me. I am nervous, I won't lie. Us two together don't even have 1 year on the mission haha. But hey, that's what President decided so here we go. Elder Affonso seems cool enough...as many new Brazilians are he is a bit prideful, but I think it will work out. We'll see.
Love you all and I will write more next week. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
I know I haven't written much in the past little while and for that I have to apologize to what I am sure are my millions of fans world-wide. The past few weeks have been some trying times in this missionary's life...and it looks like they are going to continue. However, show business is show business and I must please the ever-anxious crowd of subscribers.
This past week was pretty funny...mostly because how stupid it was. The other companionship that we were living with were fighting like crazy so Elder Lemos and I pretty much spent the week away from each other on division. We were on division last Tues and Wed and then we tried to leave them together on Thursday but we showed up at the house on Thurs night and they hadn't worked for the whole day because after lunch they got in a fight on the street. So then friday and saturday we went back on division. Hooray for infantiles!
So on Monday night we received "The Call" saying that Elder Lemos was going to be transferred. So today we went to transfers and he got moved down to Junior companion for his last transfer of the mission somewhere in the Capital. I received a new companion named Elder Affonso. He has 4 months on the mission and I turned into Senior Companion. Haha...yeah...pretty crazy for me. I am nervous, I won't lie. Us two together don't even have 1 year on the mission haha. But hey, that's what President decided so here we go. Elder Affonso seems cool enough...as many new Brazilians are he is a bit prideful, but I think it will work out. We'll see.
Love you all and I will write more next week. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
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