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
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