Yes, Brent is coming home this week!
The family will be going to the Salt Lake City Airport this Thursday, August 5th to pick up Elder Brent Parsons - and welcome him home.
Brent's 'Homecoming' talk will be held at the Heatheridge 3rd Ward Sacrament Meeting - Sunday, August 8th at 11:00am. We welcome all those who would like to welcome Brent back to come to his talk, and then to an open house at our home afterward.
Heatheridge Stake Chapel
450 East 2000 North
Orem, UT 84097
Keith & Jill Parsons Home
383 East Ridge Road (1770 North)
Orem, UT 84057
801 223 9400
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Getting Short Now
Karrissa you asked if I am nervous to get home....yeah...yeah I am. Who knows what its going to be like. I am kind of a big ball of emotions right now though. The past month or so I have been working hard for sure and even enjoying it but I wanted nothing more than for it to end so I could finally rest and go home. And I still do its just now that it is so close its becoming a lot more...real, I guess...to me and its just weird.
Yesterday messed with my emotions and little bit too. I was on division in Jaçanã (North zone of the capital here in São Paulo) with Elder M. Silva. We ended up having one of the best and most spiritual days of work that I have ever had on my mission. We didn't have a single appointment until 7:30 pm as well. However, we had some awesome lessons in the afternoon then at 6:30 pm we hit a door and ended up finding a full family, the parents being legally married which was a miracle, that were going to another church and were even baptized in the church but understand our message so completely that they realized that they needed to be baptized again and so accepted baptimsal dates for the 14th of August.
I listened to a talk the other day by Elder Holland to the missionaries at the MTC. In the talk he describes what he calls "the perfect missionary lesson". And from what he described this type of lesson probably only happens a few times in a missionary's mission. I think I have only had 3 or 4 of these lessons. In part of his description he says that it seems like everything gets quite and nothing else in the world is happening except what's happening in that moment in that house, that the spirit is so strong that everyone feels it and everybody knows that the others are feeling it, and at the point it feels like the heavens comes a little closer and the veil becomes a little more transparent.
And then at that point the missionaries stop teaching what they are teaching, help the investigators recognize that the feeling they are having is coming from the Holy Ghost, and then they invite the investigators to baptism. I had one of those lessons last night. As I walked out of the lesson with Elder M. Silva, both of our eyes still slightly wet, I told him that if every day on the mission was like that then I wouldn't mind staying another transfer on the mission, or even another 2 years if it was needed. It really was that good. HOWEVER, that is definitely not what I want don't worry family. I was called for 2 years and that's what I will serve (really, there's no way I could stay longer anyway because my visa is going to expire anyway). Even if I could there I would have no intention in staying longer. It was just a really good experience because the past few weeks of divisions have been a little "blah" and I was starting to get a little trunky.
Last night was just a little wake up call to remind me that I am still a missionary and WHY I had worked so hard these 2 years. But I am REALLY REALLY excited to come home! It's going to be tiz-ight.
Here are some pics:
On a division I did in São Paulo Norte.
Check out the apartment building that is behind me.
Check out that house on top of the apartment building!!
I think it's my dream house.
Mission President Taking Pictures in Embu
Elder Whitesides, Elder Briggs, and me with our
American ties on the 4th of July.
Sister Cooley made cinnamon rolls for everyone at Mission Counsel.
It may not seem like a lot but it is actually the first cinnamon roll
I have eaten in 1 year and 11 months...
Our last Mission Counsel. My group with President and Sister Cooley.
Yesterday messed with my emotions and little bit too. I was on division in Jaçanã (North zone of the capital here in São Paulo) with Elder M. Silva. We ended up having one of the best and most spiritual days of work that I have ever had on my mission. We didn't have a single appointment until 7:30 pm as well. However, we had some awesome lessons in the afternoon then at 6:30 pm we hit a door and ended up finding a full family, the parents being legally married which was a miracle, that were going to another church and were even baptized in the church but understand our message so completely that they realized that they needed to be baptized again and so accepted baptimsal dates for the 14th of August.
I listened to a talk the other day by Elder Holland to the missionaries at the MTC. In the talk he describes what he calls "the perfect missionary lesson". And from what he described this type of lesson probably only happens a few times in a missionary's mission. I think I have only had 3 or 4 of these lessons. In part of his description he says that it seems like everything gets quite and nothing else in the world is happening except what's happening in that moment in that house, that the spirit is so strong that everyone feels it and everybody knows that the others are feeling it, and at the point it feels like the heavens comes a little closer and the veil becomes a little more transparent.
And then at that point the missionaries stop teaching what they are teaching, help the investigators recognize that the feeling they are having is coming from the Holy Ghost, and then they invite the investigators to baptism. I had one of those lessons last night. As I walked out of the lesson with Elder M. Silva, both of our eyes still slightly wet, I told him that if every day on the mission was like that then I wouldn't mind staying another transfer on the mission, or even another 2 years if it was needed. It really was that good. HOWEVER, that is definitely not what I want don't worry family. I was called for 2 years and that's what I will serve (really, there's no way I could stay longer anyway because my visa is going to expire anyway). Even if I could there I would have no intention in staying longer. It was just a really good experience because the past few weeks of divisions have been a little "blah" and I was starting to get a little trunky.
Last night was just a little wake up call to remind me that I am still a missionary and WHY I had worked so hard these 2 years. But I am REALLY REALLY excited to come home! It's going to be tiz-ight.
Here are some pics:
On a division I did in São Paulo Norte.Check out the apartment building that is behind me.
Check out that house on top of the apartment building!!
I think it's my dream house.
Mission President Taking Pictures in Embu
Elder Whitesides, Elder Briggs, and me with ourAmerican ties on the 4th of July.
Sister Cooley made cinnamon rolls for everyone at Mission Counsel.It may not seem like a lot but it is actually the first cinnamon roll
I have eaten in 1 year and 11 months...
Our last Mission Counsel. My group with President and Sister Cooley.Saturday, June 26, 2010
Pics for the week
Me and my comp on the street messin' around...
Elder Albuquerque (in the middle) taught mehow to make a sweet churrasco (bbq) today.
It was way good!
Looks delicious...Thursday, June 17, 2010
World Cup has begun
So the World Cup has officially begun. Now, I am sure there a lot of you there in the USA that don't even know that it is happening but I'll tell you something...there is not a Brazilian soul that doesn't know that the cup is going on right now. I can't really explain to you what it's like but let's just say that during the Brazil vs. North Korea game it looked like São Paulo turned into a ghost town in less than an hour. Serious. Literally the only business that stayed open were the bars because people would go drink and watch the game. School class ended early so that all the kids and teachers could go home to watch the game. Employees were let out an hour and a half before the game started so they could all get home in time to watch it. And this was just a simple game against North Korea! I can't even imagine what the future games will be like.
Unfortunately, President Cooley isn't allowing us to watch the games. I was on division with the Elders here close by and we were hitting doors at about 3:00 and the game was at 3:30. After not getting in to a single house we realized that it was useless to work during the game and just headed back to the house to wait it out. Them Brazi's love their soccer.
Last week we did divisions with Barueri, Osasco, and Jaraguá. We started transfers again on Monday...my last transfer starts next week! Crazy! Time is flying by.
-Elder Parsons
Unfortunately, President Cooley isn't allowing us to watch the games. I was on division with the Elders here close by and we were hitting doors at about 3:00 and the game was at 3:30. After not getting in to a single house we realized that it was useless to work during the game and just headed back to the house to wait it out. Them Brazi's love their soccer.
Last week we did divisions with Barueri, Osasco, and Jaraguá. We started transfers again on Monday...my last transfer starts next week! Crazy! Time is flying by.
-Elder Parsons
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Pics for the week
Me, my companion, President and Sister Cooley, and Elder Araújo and his wife after Zone Conference.
The mission baptized 30 people last week (which is our goal for every week) and President was in a good mood so he had us make some stuff for the Zone Leaders at Council. A box of candy and soda saying Congrats with a bunch of 30s on them. Haha.
At Council yesterday 6/8 of the people from my group were there so we took a picture. (From the left) Elders Fabian, Perry, Little, Taylor, Me, Bigelow. I never realized it but I think I am the shortest of the group...and it doesn't help that the Giant - Elder Taylor - is standing next to me. Dangit.
Elder Gratil got some Redvines from home so we bought some delicious drinks to use them as straws.
Me...drinking...with a Redvine...Just realized that I have been spelling "counsel" wrong this whole time. In Portuguese it's "conselho" and looks like counsel so that's why I spell it as such, but really in English it should be council. I sincerely apologize.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Attitude About Missionary Work
This week was a pretty hectic week because we had both Zone Conference and Mission Council. Fortunately we didn’t have to worry much about Zone Conference because one of the Area Seventies came in and talked to our mission which meant we wouldn’t have to prepare a training. Plus, it was even better because his training was incredible. I learned a ton and the missionaries gave really good feedback afterward too.
After that, we had a division with São Paulo Norte on Saturday. Then we had to get home and get ourselves ready for Mission Council on Tuesday. The mission is having a lot of trouble finding new investigators to teach so we focused our training on Finding. It went really well.
Part of our training was about the Elders having enough faith to understand that God knows where they are and when an appointment “falls” that they need to immediately look around to find somebody to teach because they are there for a reason.
It’s funny because many times I forget to follow my own counsel on the divisions I do and I definitely need to get better with that. So last night, after counsel, we did a division with the secretaries in their area. I was freakin’ tired from the day’s events already and I even told that to the Financial Sec. Elder Whitesides who is one of my good buddies on the mission. He has 11 months on the mission and is an excellent missionary with an extraordinary amount of faith. I said “Dude, I’ll be honest, I don’t have even the least desire to be here right now haha.” He told me to shut up and that miracles would happen that night if I would just work hard. I doubted it…
We started walking to our one and only appointment that was on top of a hill. There are two ways to get there but one way is somewhat of a short-cut that saves about 5 min walking up hill. We were about to go up that way when Elder Whitesides just stopped and said, “I don’t know why but I really think we should go up the other way even though it is longer.” I didn’t really care about what we did that night and just said OK and followed him. We were about half-way up the hill when a car stopped right by us and a member poked his head out and asked if we could go by his house that night at 8:00 to talk to him about something. We said yeah and then kept going.
The rest of the night until 8:00 actually wasn’t too bad and we had a couple good lessons. We even marked a baptismal date for another area. Anyway we got to the member’s house at about 8:00 and clapped at his door. Nobody was home. Now it’s normal for investigator appointments to fall but a member appointment that had been marked less than 3 hours before? I was still tired and truly just wanted to go home but I remembered the training that had been given that day about looking for somebody to teach when an appointment falls. I told Elder Whitesides “Welp, it’s extremely weird that he isn’t here right now so obviously God wants us to be on this street at this time so let’s find out why.”
Elder Whitesides, in his great amount of faith, got all excited and suggested for us to say a prayer. I reluctantly agreed and said I would say it. Before I could even start Elder Whitesides started moving his way over to the sidewalk saying “Alright, so let’s kneel down over here…” I cut him off and said “Bro…we really don’t need to kneel to say a prayer…especially when we are here right in the middle of the street. Just stand up and I’ll say it.” Haha. He said OK and got up and tightly closed his eyes while we said a prayer asking God to please show us why we had been sent there at that time.
We ended the prayer and started looking. I looked down the street and every house looked like it was completely empty. We started walking and I saw a house with a light on and decided to knock it. I went there and started clapping. Elder Whitesides suddenly appeared at my side and said “Did you feel that this is the house that has the person we should be looking for?” I just said “yes” and decided to leave out the part that it was the only house on the street that I saw with a light on.
We waited and waited and waited and the only living thing that came out of the house was a Golden Retriever. Elder Whitesides said “some revelation you have…” haha. I said “whatever, let’s just keep looking.” We continued down the street and I tried another house. A young girl opened the window and I asked if we could just sing a song from our church to her and she said “We don’t want anything from you guys” and slammed the window.
I was ready to give up and just go home.
However, Elder Whitesides was starting to get a little bit down and I felt bad so I said “It’s fine man, let’s just keep going.” We started walking down the street and up a little ways I saw a man checking his mail at the mailbox. I cautiously approached him and started talking with him. I saw that his house was nice and he had 2 nice cars in the drive-way…already dampening my hopes a little bit because rich people think they have everything already and don’t need the gospel. However, he treated us surprisingly well and invited us in.
We got in the house and everything went perfectly. It is a pretty well-off family and a family extremely united. His wife was just as accepting as he was and their two kids were way cool (17 year-old boy and 15 year-old boy). Their kids are studying English at a private school and were excited to see “real” Americans. The Secretaries will be going back there tomorrow to teach them again.
This experience really taught me a lesson about the attitude we should have about missionary work and about following the promptings of the Spirit. God knows what he is doing and who he wants to be in His church. He needed us to be in the front of that house at that time. Elder Whitesides followed the prompting of the Spirit right in the beginning of the day by going the long way to the appointment setting off a chain reaction. It allowed us to mark the appointment with the member for 8:00 that happened to be driving on that street at the moment, which allowed us to show up on that street even though he wasn’t even going to be home, which allowed us to find this awesome golden family for the Secretaries area.
I learned a lot.
-Elder Brent Parsons
After that, we had a division with São Paulo Norte on Saturday. Then we had to get home and get ourselves ready for Mission Council on Tuesday. The mission is having a lot of trouble finding new investigators to teach so we focused our training on Finding. It went really well.
Part of our training was about the Elders having enough faith to understand that God knows where they are and when an appointment “falls” that they need to immediately look around to find somebody to teach because they are there for a reason.
It’s funny because many times I forget to follow my own counsel on the divisions I do and I definitely need to get better with that. So last night, after counsel, we did a division with the secretaries in their area. I was freakin’ tired from the day’s events already and I even told that to the Financial Sec. Elder Whitesides who is one of my good buddies on the mission. He has 11 months on the mission and is an excellent missionary with an extraordinary amount of faith. I said “Dude, I’ll be honest, I don’t have even the least desire to be here right now haha.” He told me to shut up and that miracles would happen that night if I would just work hard. I doubted it…
We started walking to our one and only appointment that was on top of a hill. There are two ways to get there but one way is somewhat of a short-cut that saves about 5 min walking up hill. We were about to go up that way when Elder Whitesides just stopped and said, “I don’t know why but I really think we should go up the other way even though it is longer.” I didn’t really care about what we did that night and just said OK and followed him. We were about half-way up the hill when a car stopped right by us and a member poked his head out and asked if we could go by his house that night at 8:00 to talk to him about something. We said yeah and then kept going.
The rest of the night until 8:00 actually wasn’t too bad and we had a couple good lessons. We even marked a baptismal date for another area. Anyway we got to the member’s house at about 8:00 and clapped at his door. Nobody was home. Now it’s normal for investigator appointments to fall but a member appointment that had been marked less than 3 hours before? I was still tired and truly just wanted to go home but I remembered the training that had been given that day about looking for somebody to teach when an appointment falls. I told Elder Whitesides “Welp, it’s extremely weird that he isn’t here right now so obviously God wants us to be on this street at this time so let’s find out why.”
Elder Whitesides, in his great amount of faith, got all excited and suggested for us to say a prayer. I reluctantly agreed and said I would say it. Before I could even start Elder Whitesides started moving his way over to the sidewalk saying “Alright, so let’s kneel down over here…” I cut him off and said “Bro…we really don’t need to kneel to say a prayer…especially when we are here right in the middle of the street. Just stand up and I’ll say it.” Haha. He said OK and got up and tightly closed his eyes while we said a prayer asking God to please show us why we had been sent there at that time.
We ended the prayer and started looking. I looked down the street and every house looked like it was completely empty. We started walking and I saw a house with a light on and decided to knock it. I went there and started clapping. Elder Whitesides suddenly appeared at my side and said “Did you feel that this is the house that has the person we should be looking for?” I just said “yes” and decided to leave out the part that it was the only house on the street that I saw with a light on.
We waited and waited and waited and the only living thing that came out of the house was a Golden Retriever. Elder Whitesides said “some revelation you have…” haha. I said “whatever, let’s just keep looking.” We continued down the street and I tried another house. A young girl opened the window and I asked if we could just sing a song from our church to her and she said “We don’t want anything from you guys” and slammed the window.
I was ready to give up and just go home.
However, Elder Whitesides was starting to get a little bit down and I felt bad so I said “It’s fine man, let’s just keep going.” We started walking down the street and up a little ways I saw a man checking his mail at the mailbox. I cautiously approached him and started talking with him. I saw that his house was nice and he had 2 nice cars in the drive-way…already dampening my hopes a little bit because rich people think they have everything already and don’t need the gospel. However, he treated us surprisingly well and invited us in.
We got in the house and everything went perfectly. It is a pretty well-off family and a family extremely united. His wife was just as accepting as he was and their two kids were way cool (17 year-old boy and 15 year-old boy). Their kids are studying English at a private school and were excited to see “real” Americans. The Secretaries will be going back there tomorrow to teach them again.
This experience really taught me a lesson about the attitude we should have about missionary work and about following the promptings of the Spirit. God knows what he is doing and who he wants to be in His church. He needed us to be in the front of that house at that time. Elder Whitesides followed the prompting of the Spirit right in the beginning of the day by going the long way to the appointment setting off a chain reaction. It allowed us to mark the appointment with the member for 8:00 that happened to be driving on that street at the moment, which allowed us to show up on that street even though he wasn’t even going to be home, which allowed us to find this awesome golden family for the Secretaries area.
I learned a lot.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Thursday, May 27, 2010
10 weeks and counting... and some pics
Welp, the weeks I have left I can now count on my two hands. 10 weeks my peeps. 10 weeks. It's crazy.
I just went to the temple for the first time in about 7 months and it was awesome. It's funny how I live 5 minutes on foot away from the temple but I can't go until President schedules us to go.
Story of the week. So last Thursday was the new district leader training and the new DLs from Sorocaba came to spend the night Wednesday night because they would have to get up really early in order to get here on time for the training if they came on Thursday. Anyway, so their companions came with them. They ended up getting here pretty late (around 10:30) and before they were situated for bed it was past 11:00. My companion and I had gone to bed a little earlier and we were just getting to sleep as we heard an air horn coming from the back house of the office here. It was really loud. Now this neighborhood isn't what you would call poor and most people here are older and richer and probably already hate us because we are a bunch of rowdy 19-21 year old kids. So I hear this air horn and my heart stopped because for sure somebody was going to call the cops. He did it once and we thought he would stop but he started blowing it again.
So I am sleeping in the bottom bunk and my comp on top. I jump out of my bed and go running toward the kitchen door to kill this kid before he wakes up the whole neighborhood. My comp had the same idea and jumped out of the top bunk nearly landing on me. We got to the door but unfortunately it is kind of broken and is really hard to open. Frantically trying to open the door as that air horn kept blowing a constant stream of sound into the night we finally were able to get it open and went running to the back. I took off at full speed into the darkness, turned the corner, saw the clothesline, ducked and finally got there. I started chewing the kid out and we took the air horn from him.
However, I didn't see what had happened to my companion haha. He was running after me but lost sight of me as I turned the corner. He came running around the corner into the dark...but had forgotten there was a clothesline hung up. Whack! Haha. He hit the clothesline at a full speed, nearly knocking the beast off of his feet haha. Anyway, I attached pics to show that damage. It was so hilarious. I mean yeah, he could have gone blind...but he didnt! Hooray! So now we can laugh at it.
My comp was way worried about it scarring...and I...I was hoping it would lol. JK. It really would just be funny only so he would have to tell EVERYBODY the story that he meets after the mission about why he looks like Scar from the Lion King. We went to bed after saying our personal prayers the other night and after about 5 minutes of silence he asked "Elder Parsons, did you pray that my eye wouldn't heal right and that I would have a scar forever?" I was responded "Of course not! I would never ask God for something like that." Then after about a minute of silence I said "But...I DIDN'T ask him to help it heal right..." haha. I really was kidding it was just a way funny situation.
Welp, there ya go. Everything is going good here and I am loving the mission. Love ya'll!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Me talking to some hilarious old guy at lunch on the division in Itú last Friday
My companion and the mark from his unfortunate accident
We were messing around playing baseball at the Itú house. See the ball?
Picture from the temple today.
Me, my comp and my two really good friends
on the mission Elder Little and Elder Fabian.
I just went to the temple for the first time in about 7 months and it was awesome. It's funny how I live 5 minutes on foot away from the temple but I can't go until President schedules us to go.
Story of the week. So last Thursday was the new district leader training and the new DLs from Sorocaba came to spend the night Wednesday night because they would have to get up really early in order to get here on time for the training if they came on Thursday. Anyway, so their companions came with them. They ended up getting here pretty late (around 10:30) and before they were situated for bed it was past 11:00. My companion and I had gone to bed a little earlier and we were just getting to sleep as we heard an air horn coming from the back house of the office here. It was really loud. Now this neighborhood isn't what you would call poor and most people here are older and richer and probably already hate us because we are a bunch of rowdy 19-21 year old kids. So I hear this air horn and my heart stopped because for sure somebody was going to call the cops. He did it once and we thought he would stop but he started blowing it again.
So I am sleeping in the bottom bunk and my comp on top. I jump out of my bed and go running toward the kitchen door to kill this kid before he wakes up the whole neighborhood. My comp had the same idea and jumped out of the top bunk nearly landing on me. We got to the door but unfortunately it is kind of broken and is really hard to open. Frantically trying to open the door as that air horn kept blowing a constant stream of sound into the night we finally were able to get it open and went running to the back. I took off at full speed into the darkness, turned the corner, saw the clothesline, ducked and finally got there. I started chewing the kid out and we took the air horn from him.
However, I didn't see what had happened to my companion haha. He was running after me but lost sight of me as I turned the corner. He came running around the corner into the dark...but had forgotten there was a clothesline hung up. Whack! Haha. He hit the clothesline at a full speed, nearly knocking the beast off of his feet haha. Anyway, I attached pics to show that damage. It was so hilarious. I mean yeah, he could have gone blind...but he didnt! Hooray! So now we can laugh at it.
My comp was way worried about it scarring...and I...I was hoping it would lol. JK. It really would just be funny only so he would have to tell EVERYBODY the story that he meets after the mission about why he looks like Scar from the Lion King. We went to bed after saying our personal prayers the other night and after about 5 minutes of silence he asked "Elder Parsons, did you pray that my eye wouldn't heal right and that I would have a scar forever?" I was responded "Of course not! I would never ask God for something like that." Then after about a minute of silence I said "But...I DIDN'T ask him to help it heal right..." haha. I really was kidding it was just a way funny situation.
Welp, there ya go. Everything is going good here and I am loving the mission. Love ya'll!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Me talking to some hilarious old guy at lunch on the division in Itú last Friday 
My companion and the mark from his unfortunate accident 
We were messing around playing baseball at the Itú house. See the ball? 
Picture from the temple today.Me, my comp and my two really good friends
on the mission Elder Little and Elder Fabian.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
More Pics
Me and Elder Bigelow on our division when it rained like crazy and we got way wet.
Up in Guapira, zona Jaçanã when we were at lunch with a small favela behind me.
Downtown São Paulo in the background with one of them beautiful flying machines in the air oh so close...but yet so far.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Three Divisions and some Pics
We had three divisions straight in the interior last week (Itú, Rio Acima, and Trujillo) and then yesterday was our first Zone Conference. We were really pleased with it and President as well. The Zone Leaders came with some awesome trainings and the missionaries gave awesome feedback saying that they had never learned so much in a zone conference.
Everything is going fine. Farewell!
-Elder Parsons
Pic of me in the center with one of the
largest buildings in São Paulo behind me.
Pic of me with a "Jaca" which is a huge fruit.
It was a Jaca tree in the yard of a member
at lunch on one of our divisions.
A picture of the "Orelhão" - Brazilian phonebooth - in Itú.
The slogan in Itú is "Everything is bigger in Itú".
Everything is going fine. Farewell!
-Elder Parsons
Pic of me in the center with one of thelargest buildings in São Paulo behind me.
Pic of me with a "Jaca" which is a huge fruit.It was a Jaca tree in the yard of a member
at lunch on one of our divisions.
A picture of the "Orelhão" - Brazilian phonebooth - in Itú. The slogan in Itú is "Everything is bigger in Itú".
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Quick synopsis of week
Real quick synopsis of my week just for my own personal keepsake which for sure will not provide entertainment for anyone else:
Thursday - We did the new district leader training that my comp and I decided to change because it had a few problems. It went really well.
Friday - We rode out in President's car with him to Sorocaba to do some divisions e ZLs out there. We first went back to my old area of Barcelona and I went with Elder Call. It was way cool.
Some young member lady from the ward came running and jumping at me to give me a hug when she saw that I came back and I had to politely use my folder turned long ways as a barrier between us.
That night we were going to order pizza but then for some reason we all just wanted to get hamburgers instead. We went to the little hamburger place and found a family that is probably going to be baptized. They were extremely interested in the gospel. The Miracle Hamburger.
Saturday - Division with Santana. I went out with Elder Gratil (yes that is an American). We taught an English class at night with a bunch of people there and it was way cool.
Sunday/Monday - Meetings with President and we worked on the training for Mission Council.
Tuesday - We had mission council. It went really well. My companion and I have been working really hard on ideas that could help the mission and specifically different ways that we can train the missionaries. The Zone Leaders really liked the trainings and we had positive feedback. This Zone Conference each Zone Leader pair is going to give a training so there will be 4 "stations" that the missionaries will go around to while they are taught a different thing by a pair of ZLs at every one. We gave them the problems the mission is having and assigned each one a specific topic and gave them some ideas of trainings they can do, but they will have to come up with the trainings themselves.
Wednesday/Today - We went to the center and my comp bought a way expensive and sick watch. It is a replica but the original costs over $80,000. This one was about $100.
Later!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Thursday - We did the new district leader training that my comp and I decided to change because it had a few problems. It went really well.
Friday - We rode out in President's car with him to Sorocaba to do some divisions e ZLs out there. We first went back to my old area of Barcelona and I went with Elder Call. It was way cool.
Some young member lady from the ward came running and jumping at me to give me a hug when she saw that I came back and I had to politely use my folder turned long ways as a barrier between us.
That night we were going to order pizza but then for some reason we all just wanted to get hamburgers instead. We went to the little hamburger place and found a family that is probably going to be baptized. They were extremely interested in the gospel. The Miracle Hamburger.
Saturday - Division with Santana. I went out with Elder Gratil (yes that is an American). We taught an English class at night with a bunch of people there and it was way cool.
Sunday/Monday - Meetings with President and we worked on the training for Mission Council.
Tuesday - We had mission council. It went really well. My companion and I have been working really hard on ideas that could help the mission and specifically different ways that we can train the missionaries. The Zone Leaders really liked the trainings and we had positive feedback. This Zone Conference each Zone Leader pair is going to give a training so there will be 4 "stations" that the missionaries will go around to while they are taught a different thing by a pair of ZLs at every one. We gave them the problems the mission is having and assigned each one a specific topic and gave them some ideas of trainings they can do, but they will have to come up with the trainings themselves.
Wednesday/Today - We went to the center and my comp bought a way expensive and sick watch. It is a replica but the original costs over $80,000. This one was about $100.
Later!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Quick return to P-Day...
Welp, seeing as I emailed on last Saturday I don't have much to say.
Saturday we went to a baptism that the secretaries had at night. They have a really affluent and pretty hard area but they received a reference from a member of a full family. I think I explained a little bit about them already but Elder Briggs and I did their interviews and on Saturday night the 2 parents and 2 kids (22 and 24 years old) were baptized. Even President Cooley came to the baptism and he loved it. It was really well done and really spiritual. The Dad even went up on Sunday to bear his testimony. He said that he had been searching so long for the true church on the earth and that his search is finally over while crying a lot. It was awesome.
Sunday my comp and I got our mental sweat on thinking about things that can help the mission.
Monday we had a 9 hour long meeting with President about mission stuff. Then that night and Tuesday we went and did division in Casa Verde with Elder Christensen and Elder Bramwell. They are both way sweet and are doing awesome taking care of their zone.
For P-day today we went and got some açai (look it up on the internet...it's so delicious) and then we went to the Morumbi Stadium. It's the São Paulo's soccer team stadium. It is pretty close here to the office but I had never been before. (see pictures).
Pretty normal last few days. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Saturday we went to a baptism that the secretaries had at night. They have a really affluent and pretty hard area but they received a reference from a member of a full family. I think I explained a little bit about them already but Elder Briggs and I did their interviews and on Saturday night the 2 parents and 2 kids (22 and 24 years old) were baptized. Even President Cooley came to the baptism and he loved it. It was really well done and really spiritual. The Dad even went up on Sunday to bear his testimony. He said that he had been searching so long for the true church on the earth and that his search is finally over while crying a lot. It was awesome.
Sunday my comp and I got our mental sweat on thinking about things that can help the mission.
Monday we had a 9 hour long meeting with President about mission stuff. Then that night and Tuesday we went and did division in Casa Verde with Elder Christensen and Elder Bramwell. They are both way sweet and are doing awesome taking care of their zone.
For P-day today we went and got some açai (look it up on the internet...it's so delicious) and then we went to the Morumbi Stadium. It's the São Paulo's soccer team stadium. It is pretty close here to the office but I had never been before. (see pictures).
Pretty normal last few days. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Pictures from this week
New Companion!
So I got my new companion on Wednesday and he is way cool. It was really tough to see my old companion go because he was such a good guy and a great missionary and he taught me a lot...but his 2 years were done and that's how it is. I got an email from him already saying that it was weird getting home but that things are good at home and he will probably even get married soon. Go Filipão! If you are reading this :).
But my new comp is way cool. His name is Elder Briggs and by the name you can deduce that he is American...my first American companion on the mission. Pretay crazy. We already knew each other pretty well because we have been in the same zone twice already. We both are missionaries that have spent most of our time in the "interior" part of the mission so we always saw each other at zone conf. and stuff. He's from Seattle and went to the U of Washington for a year before coming out here. He has 1 transfer less than me on the mission so he has about 1 year and almost 7 months on the mission.
He got here on Wednesday and Wednesday night we were already brainstorming for a couple of hours about ideas that we could implement in the mission to help the elders and sisters fulfill with their callings then on Thursday and Friday we were already out doing divisions. On Thursday we went to do a division with the Zone Leaders with the zone leaders of the office here in Zona São Paulo but it didn't really work out for various reasons.
It was one of the weirdest days ever actually. We went to study with them in the morning but then our lunch was moved to 5 o'clock in the afternoon (lunch?). We were going to go out and work with them until 5 but it ended up that the secretaries needed them to do some baptismal interviews at 1 o'clock so seeing as we don't have an area to work in and if the ZLs left then we wouldn't have anything to do, we offered to go do the baptismal interviews in their place so they could stay working in the area.
These four baptisms that the secretaries will have are some of the best baptisms I have yet to see on the mission. It was a reference from one of the members in their ward and what a reference it was. It is a full family that was completely prepared to hear the gospel. They live in a really nice apartment building in one of the richest areas in São Paulo. The dad has a factory where he makes a snack product called "banana chips" haha. The dad isn't even baptized yet and said "I want to get my factory working in such a way that I don't have to even work in order for me to dedicate 100% of my time to the church." They have two kids that are a little over 20 years old and they are awesome too. It was a privilage to do their interviews. They all passed and their baptism will be today at 5:00 and we will probably go.
It was a weird day because we ended up doing those interviews which weren't planned and they insisted on feeding us "lunch" at 3:30 pm. Then we left at about 4:15, got a bus back to the ZL area and got there at about 4:45pm...right in time to go to THEIR lunch at 5:00 haha. It was with an American couple that works in the temple here and it reminded me of my mother's Sunday dinner. Crockpot meat, potatoes, and carrots, dinner rolls, ketchup, etc. It was delicious. I even gave the lunch message in english. Then we left and it was almost time for my comp and I to leave to the next day's division in Jaçanã. So we went back to the office to do a couple things their, packed our bags, and then headed out for the 2 hour journey to Jaçanã. Strange day indeed.
The division yesterday in Jaçanã was good, but normal.
So how about General Conference né? It was awesome. My companion didn't have to worry about any investigators or anything at church so we just chilled out here in the office watching it in pajamas while eating hot dogs and ice cream throughout the day watching it on the internet. Way better than getting all ready and going to the church haha. The talks were truly awesome though and helped me a lot. Hope you all could enjoy them as well wherever you are.
My p-day was on Saturday this week but should go back to the normal Wednesday next week. Love you all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
But my new comp is way cool. His name is Elder Briggs and by the name you can deduce that he is American...my first American companion on the mission. Pretay crazy. We already knew each other pretty well because we have been in the same zone twice already. We both are missionaries that have spent most of our time in the "interior" part of the mission so we always saw each other at zone conf. and stuff. He's from Seattle and went to the U of Washington for a year before coming out here. He has 1 transfer less than me on the mission so he has about 1 year and almost 7 months on the mission.
He got here on Wednesday and Wednesday night we were already brainstorming for a couple of hours about ideas that we could implement in the mission to help the elders and sisters fulfill with their callings then on Thursday and Friday we were already out doing divisions. On Thursday we went to do a division with the Zone Leaders with the zone leaders of the office here in Zona São Paulo but it didn't really work out for various reasons.
It was one of the weirdest days ever actually. We went to study with them in the morning but then our lunch was moved to 5 o'clock in the afternoon (lunch?). We were going to go out and work with them until 5 but it ended up that the secretaries needed them to do some baptismal interviews at 1 o'clock so seeing as we don't have an area to work in and if the ZLs left then we wouldn't have anything to do, we offered to go do the baptismal interviews in their place so they could stay working in the area.
These four baptisms that the secretaries will have are some of the best baptisms I have yet to see on the mission. It was a reference from one of the members in their ward and what a reference it was. It is a full family that was completely prepared to hear the gospel. They live in a really nice apartment building in one of the richest areas in São Paulo. The dad has a factory where he makes a snack product called "banana chips" haha. The dad isn't even baptized yet and said "I want to get my factory working in such a way that I don't have to even work in order for me to dedicate 100% of my time to the church." They have two kids that are a little over 20 years old and they are awesome too. It was a privilage to do their interviews. They all passed and their baptism will be today at 5:00 and we will probably go.
It was a weird day because we ended up doing those interviews which weren't planned and they insisted on feeding us "lunch" at 3:30 pm. Then we left at about 4:15, got a bus back to the ZL area and got there at about 4:45pm...right in time to go to THEIR lunch at 5:00 haha. It was with an American couple that works in the temple here and it reminded me of my mother's Sunday dinner. Crockpot meat, potatoes, and carrots, dinner rolls, ketchup, etc. It was delicious. I even gave the lunch message in english. Then we left and it was almost time for my comp and I to leave to the next day's division in Jaçanã. So we went back to the office to do a couple things their, packed our bags, and then headed out for the 2 hour journey to Jaçanã. Strange day indeed.
The division yesterday in Jaçanã was good, but normal.
So how about General Conference né? It was awesome. My companion didn't have to worry about any investigators or anything at church so we just chilled out here in the office watching it in pajamas while eating hot dogs and ice cream throughout the day watching it on the internet. Way better than getting all ready and going to the church haha. The talks were truly awesome though and helped me a lot. Hope you all could enjoy them as well wherever you are.
My p-day was on Saturday this week but should go back to the normal Wednesday next week. Love you all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Some more pictures
The first if an example of one of the pics that we take on every one of our divisions with the elders. I have tons of these already...
The second is of the Housing Secretary who went home last week. He actually stayed for 2 years and 1 month on his mission to help train the new missionary couple to be the new housing secretaries. Who knows why my comp and I put him up on our shoulders...it was funny though.
The third is of me with a piece of cold ham on my eye because we were playing this game we call "the slap game" and my comp slapped me in the eye...it hurt really bad and turned all red and stuff. I still have a headache because of it haha. It's all good though...ham works miracles!
The second is of the Housing Secretary who went home last week. He actually stayed for 2 years and 1 month on his mission to help train the new missionary couple to be the new housing secretaries. Who knows why my comp and I put him up on our shoulders...it was funny though.
The third is of me with a piece of cold ham on my eye because we were playing this game we call "the slap game" and my comp slapped me in the eye...it hurt really bad and turned all red and stuff. I still have a headache because of it haha. It's all good though...ham works miracles!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
My companion goes home next week!
Not much to report for this week. We stayed on division from last wed. night until saturday night (we went to Jaçanã, Jardim Bonilha, and Pirituba here in the capital) which was a swift kick in the nuts to our energy level. I get back after these three-day divisons wanting nothing more than a meangly bunk bed and patched up blanket; which is exactly what awaited me...
Then the fun began. Transfers! Woot. We started them on Monday and spent 7 hours in President's office but didn't finish; we'll do the rest on Friday. It's always a good experience.
This week is going to be awesome! Not only will we have the other transfer meeting, our visit to the MTC to see the noobies, and sending the old guys back home but it is going to be General Conference! I literally am so excited. I have been studying the talks from last general conference lately in our daily studies and it's made me really excited for this weekend.
I always took General Conference for granted when I was at home. Watching it on the couch, a little bit of eating, a lot of sleeping, and pretty much no paying attention was how it was. I have repented mother don't worry!
Love ya all! Later! This week I am going to make 1 year and 8 months on the mission. Weird.
-Elder Brent Parsons
By the way, The myldsmail email system changed. I am pretty sure all the emails sent to my old account will be forwarded to my new one but I am not sure if that will continue when the take down the old site in May.
So my new email is brent.parsons@myldsmail.net instead of brentparsons@myldsmail.net. OK?
Then the fun began. Transfers! Woot. We started them on Monday and spent 7 hours in President's office but didn't finish; we'll do the rest on Friday. It's always a good experience.
This week is going to be awesome! Not only will we have the other transfer meeting, our visit to the MTC to see the noobies, and sending the old guys back home but it is going to be General Conference! I literally am so excited. I have been studying the talks from last general conference lately in our daily studies and it's made me really excited for this weekend.
I always took General Conference for granted when I was at home. Watching it on the couch, a little bit of eating, a lot of sleeping, and pretty much no paying attention was how it was. I have repented mother don't worry!
Love ya all! Later! This week I am going to make 1 year and 8 months on the mission. Weird.
-Elder Brent Parsons
By the way, The myldsmail email system changed. I am pretty sure all the emails sent to my old account will be forwarded to my new one but I am not sure if that will continue when the take down the old site in May.
So my new email is brent.parsons@myldsmail.net instead of brentparsons@myldsmail.net. OK?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Update for the Week
We finished up the last 2 zone conferences last week and they went fine.
Last Thursday night we did a division with the Elders in Cerquiera César which is in the center of São Paulo. They had called us and asked us to come with them to a lesson that night. The lesson they marked was with a Baptist bible study group haha and they wanted us to go with them for "backup".
We got to the lesson with Mathew 18 fresh in our mind because that was the subject that the group was going to study (for no specific reason, they just happened to be debating that chapter and we wanted to be able to participate as well). After our debate about that chapter they allowed us to give our message.
We gave them the message of the Restoration and it went really well. They are actually very intelligent people and had good, honest questions which was a great break from the usual dull questions we get every day. They asked stuff like "If the Book of Mormon didn't exist, would there still be a way for us to be saved?" and stuff like that. Good questions I thought. We were able to answer them and we also learned stuff about their religion.
They invited us back for the next Thursday's study group which is going to be tomorrow night but unfortunately my comp and I will be doing a division in another area and won't be able to attend the session, but the other Elders are going to go.
Yesterday we went to the São Paulo Norte zone and did a division with the ZLs there. The next three days are going to be spent on divisions...yay! We are going to start doing the transfers next week so maybe my P-day will be changed to another day but we will see.
Until next week!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Last Thursday night we did a division with the Elders in Cerquiera César which is in the center of São Paulo. They had called us and asked us to come with them to a lesson that night. The lesson they marked was with a Baptist bible study group haha and they wanted us to go with them for "backup".
We got to the lesson with Mathew 18 fresh in our mind because that was the subject that the group was going to study (for no specific reason, they just happened to be debating that chapter and we wanted to be able to participate as well). After our debate about that chapter they allowed us to give our message.
We gave them the message of the Restoration and it went really well. They are actually very intelligent people and had good, honest questions which was a great break from the usual dull questions we get every day. They asked stuff like "If the Book of Mormon didn't exist, would there still be a way for us to be saved?" and stuff like that. Good questions I thought. We were able to answer them and we also learned stuff about their religion.
They invited us back for the next Thursday's study group which is going to be tomorrow night but unfortunately my comp and I will be doing a division in another area and won't be able to attend the session, but the other Elders are going to go.
Yesterday we went to the São Paulo Norte zone and did a division with the ZLs there. The next three days are going to be spent on divisions...yay! We are going to start doing the transfers next week so maybe my P-day will be changed to another day but we will see.
Until next week!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Zone Divisions
Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent on division in Itú and Sorocaba. 3 days in 3 different areas is pretty taxing on the body. But at least we were able to get the divisions done with all the Interior Zones for this transfer, now we will just stay here in the Capital.
After almost a 4 hour chain of bus rides getting back home on Saturday night my companion who only has 3 weeks left in the mission said "Dude, you know I don't like to say things that make you trunky...but I am SO glad that is the last time I ever have to do that." But after a good night's rest of 5 hours of sleep and the beautiful alarm clock ringing in our ears at 6:30 am it seemed like paradise was almost in our grasp.
It was really cool on Saturday because we went to Zona Trujillo and my companion stayed with one of the ZLs in that area and then the other ZL and I went off to one of the other areas in the zone to do a division: Julio de Mesquita. And for those faithful blog readers that name might sound familiar because that was my 2nd area on the mission where I spent 6 months of my life.
From 6 months until I had almost a year on the mission my time was spent walking the wonderfully organized streets of the Big Julio. It was probably the area that I grew the most on the mission. I spent 4 and a half months with 1 comp there too (Elder Affonso) which was the longest I spent with 1 comp.
It was really strange to do a division there, but really cool because I was able to go back to see some old recent converts and I got to talk to the bishop for a while. It was even cooler because I was able to do a division the division with my good buddy Elder Bird who played on BYU lax with me. He has over 8 months in the mission now and Julio is still his first area. It was really fun to do the division with him and I saw that he is an awesome missionary. He is speaking the language amazingly and cares a lot about his investigators. It was fun to remember the good ol' times on the lax field too.
I said "It's so crazy, imagine 2 years ago when we were together coaching lax at the BYU Lacrosse Camp, would you have ever imagined that 2 years later we would be walking the streets of some city in the rural part of São Paulo, Brasil called Sorocaba together speaking another language?" Crazy indeed.
Then on Sunday and Monday we had meetings with President and started our trainings for Zone Conference that is this week on Tuesday (yesterday), Thursday, and Friday. We are really trying to help the missionaries in the mission get over their fear of inviting people to baptism. Yesterday was a really good conference and I hope the next 2 are going to be good as well.
4 and half months left...it's coming! Love you all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
After almost a 4 hour chain of bus rides getting back home on Saturday night my companion who only has 3 weeks left in the mission said "Dude, you know I don't like to say things that make you trunky...but I am SO glad that is the last time I ever have to do that." But after a good night's rest of 5 hours of sleep and the beautiful alarm clock ringing in our ears at 6:30 am it seemed like paradise was almost in our grasp.
It was really cool on Saturday because we went to Zona Trujillo and my companion stayed with one of the ZLs in that area and then the other ZL and I went off to one of the other areas in the zone to do a division: Julio de Mesquita. And for those faithful blog readers that name might sound familiar because that was my 2nd area on the mission where I spent 6 months of my life.
From 6 months until I had almost a year on the mission my time was spent walking the wonderfully organized streets of the Big Julio. It was probably the area that I grew the most on the mission. I spent 4 and a half months with 1 comp there too (Elder Affonso) which was the longest I spent with 1 comp.
It was really strange to do a division there, but really cool because I was able to go back to see some old recent converts and I got to talk to the bishop for a while. It was even cooler because I was able to do a division the division with my good buddy Elder Bird who played on BYU lax with me. He has over 8 months in the mission now and Julio is still his first area. It was really fun to do the division with him and I saw that he is an awesome missionary. He is speaking the language amazingly and cares a lot about his investigators. It was fun to remember the good ol' times on the lax field too.
I said "It's so crazy, imagine 2 years ago when we were together coaching lax at the BYU Lacrosse Camp, would you have ever imagined that 2 years later we would be walking the streets of some city in the rural part of São Paulo, Brasil called Sorocaba together speaking another language?" Crazy indeed.
Then on Sunday and Monday we had meetings with President and started our trainings for Zone Conference that is this week on Tuesday (yesterday), Thursday, and Friday. We are really trying to help the missionaries in the mission get over their fear of inviting people to baptism. Yesterday was a really good conference and I hope the next 2 are going to be good as well.
4 and half months left...it's coming! Love you all!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Monday, March 15, 2010
Pictures from Sao Paulo Temple
Me "studying" in the front of the temple
The São Paulo temple
The construction dude sleeping on top of the temple haha
Waterfall with the temple
Pic of angel Moroni. Yeah it's under construction
What is that doing in there?It was funny because only one other time in 1 year and 7 months
have I ever forgot my nametag at home...
the second time was today...what a noobie mistake!
Whatever, it's p-day!
Me and the executive secretary elder Vianna with cute matching shirts.
Me with this sweet car we got a ride home inwith an investigator in the secretaries area.
Yes, I had just shaved my head completely the previous day.
Me...hitting another door haha. I love pics like this.
My comp Elder Vasconcelos, and President and Sister Cooleyat the CTM when we went to see the noobies a couple of weeks ago
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Transfers this week...
This week we had transfers which was cool. It's funny to be leading the transfer meeting up at the pulpit and to watch all the missionary's reaction from there as we call out their new companion's and new areas. It's impossible for them to hide what they are feeling in the first few seconds after we call it out. haha. Sometimes they get really happy because it's a friend or someone they have heard really good things about, but then it's even funnier to see them when an elder gets a guy they don't like very much or someone they have heard bad about. Haha. What can you do though?
On Monday we went with President to the MTC for him to interview the new missionaries that are coming to our mission and for us to give them a training about obedience and do some practices with them about how to do contacts on the street and stuff. It's hilarious to see all the new little Americans walking around there not understanding a word of what is being said around them and to realize that I was exactly the same haha. We got a new group of missionaries this week that are really good though.
We also did divisions with the zone leaders in Casa Verde and Jaguaré on Thursday and Friday. It was crazy because Casa Verde (MTC area) was my very first area and after 1 year and 4 months without going there I got to go and spend the day there. There is a kid member that used to be a little scrawny kid that wore glasses when I was first there, but I went and visited him on Thursday and he went through puberty and is a giant now! It's funny to talk to people now because they all say "You can understand Portuguese now? Poor little kid didn't understand a word when he first got here! You just sat a looked at me with a blank face when I tried to talk to you haha!" Good times, good times.
My p-day is going back to normal and is going to be on wed. for the next few weeks. Get them emails off before then!
Until next week my friends!
-Elder Brent Parsons
On Monday we went with President to the MTC for him to interview the new missionaries that are coming to our mission and for us to give them a training about obedience and do some practices with them about how to do contacts on the street and stuff. It's hilarious to see all the new little Americans walking around there not understanding a word of what is being said around them and to realize that I was exactly the same haha. We got a new group of missionaries this week that are really good though.
We also did divisions with the zone leaders in Casa Verde and Jaguaré on Thursday and Friday. It was crazy because Casa Verde (MTC area) was my very first area and after 1 year and 4 months without going there I got to go and spend the day there. There is a kid member that used to be a little scrawny kid that wore glasses when I was first there, but I went and visited him on Thursday and he went through puberty and is a giant now! It's funny to talk to people now because they all say "You can understand Portuguese now? Poor little kid didn't understand a word when he first got here! You just sat a looked at me with a blank face when I tried to talk to you haha!" Good times, good times.
My p-day is going back to normal and is going to be on wed. for the next few weeks. Get them emails off before then!
Until next week my friends!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Saturday, February 20, 2010
It's transfers week...woot!
This next Wed. (the 24th) is transfers so this week the President, my comp and I locked ourselves up in President's office and did the transfers. It sounds really funny but I loved it. It's hilarious. You sit there (in the spirit of prayer of course) and look at the board of the missionary's pics trying to decide whose life you are going to change by making him change areas, companions, houses, and/or responsibilities...and they have no idea. Haha.
That's why I am emailing today because we had a transfer meeting on my regular p-day so we switched it. This past week and a half was really good there. We are officialy just traveling missionaries here without an area so the free days of the past week were spent traveling the mission doing divisions.
I know these names don't mean anything to any one of you but it's funny to see all the zones names; we went to Barueri and Pirituba last Thursday and Friday then on to Jaraguá on Tuesday here in the capital then this Thursday and Friday were spent out in Sorocaba at Barcelona and then to Itú.
Yep, Barcelona was my old area last transfer so it was sweet to be able to do a division for a day there. I even got to spend the day with my old comp Elder Jara and got to visit a bunch of old investigators and members. When the Bishop found out I was there, he and his wife said that we had to come over that night. We went over and they ordered us 4 a bunch of pizza and stuff. It was awesome. It was a really good ward and area.
It's awesome to see the working-styles of all the missionaries. I learn new stuff on every division because every missionary has some sort of good quality about him that I can take with me and teach the other missionaries. I also get to see all the amazing investigators of the church that are in our mission.
Haha, the other day at Jaraguá one of their investigators told me about how she found out that the BoM was true. She was coming home from work and was really tired while waiting for the subway to pass by. At night the subway is REALLY crowded, hot, and it is really rare that you get lucky enough to get a seat. She had been investigating the church but still had doubts about the BoM. Standing there she silently said a prayer and said "Father, I am SO tired, and if the Book of Mormon is true then the subway is going to stop with a door right in front of me for me to be the first one to get on in order for me to get a seat." She finished her silent plea and waited for the subway some more. It came and the subway came to a stop as one of the sliding doors opened right at her front. She entered and was able to get a seat. Haha! She said that after that she knew the BoM was true and should be getting baptized in the coming weeks hahaha. It was really funny. Not the usual answer that people get but it works I guess :).
In Pirituba we were knocking doors and a lady came out and we could see that she really didn't want to let us in. But all of the sudden it looked like her countenance changed and she became warmer with us and let us in. We shared a message with her and her two daughters which was really good. She loved it and said "I never let anyone in my house because I am scared for the safety of my family and I didn't want to hear what you guys had to say. I was about to lie to you both and say that I didn't have any time to hear your message, but then I took a good look at you two and something whispered to me that you guys meant no harm and had something that I need to hear, so I let you in." There are tons of these little experiences that I am having on the divisions that strengthen my testimony of the Lord's restored gospel.
Throughout my whole mission I haven't been exactly very diligent with my exercises in the morning. I've been pathetic, actually. However I always told my self that "when I have 1 year and 6 months on the mission I will start doing them faithfully every morning." 1 year and 6 months just always seemed so far away so I never felt like I would have to start doing them again. But 2 weeks ago I made 1 year and 6 months on the mission ha. I have been faithul to my promise though and let's see if I can rid myself of the extra beans and rice I have accumalated around the waist-region.
I am grateful for all the supporty ya´ll give me. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
That's why I am emailing today because we had a transfer meeting on my regular p-day so we switched it. This past week and a half was really good there. We are officialy just traveling missionaries here without an area so the free days of the past week were spent traveling the mission doing divisions.
I know these names don't mean anything to any one of you but it's funny to see all the zones names; we went to Barueri and Pirituba last Thursday and Friday then on to Jaraguá on Tuesday here in the capital then this Thursday and Friday were spent out in Sorocaba at Barcelona and then to Itú.
Yep, Barcelona was my old area last transfer so it was sweet to be able to do a division for a day there. I even got to spend the day with my old comp Elder Jara and got to visit a bunch of old investigators and members. When the Bishop found out I was there, he and his wife said that we had to come over that night. We went over and they ordered us 4 a bunch of pizza and stuff. It was awesome. It was a really good ward and area.
It's awesome to see the working-styles of all the missionaries. I learn new stuff on every division because every missionary has some sort of good quality about him that I can take with me and teach the other missionaries. I also get to see all the amazing investigators of the church that are in our mission.
Haha, the other day at Jaraguá one of their investigators told me about how she found out that the BoM was true. She was coming home from work and was really tired while waiting for the subway to pass by. At night the subway is REALLY crowded, hot, and it is really rare that you get lucky enough to get a seat. She had been investigating the church but still had doubts about the BoM. Standing there she silently said a prayer and said "Father, I am SO tired, and if the Book of Mormon is true then the subway is going to stop with a door right in front of me for me to be the first one to get on in order for me to get a seat." She finished her silent plea and waited for the subway some more. It came and the subway came to a stop as one of the sliding doors opened right at her front. She entered and was able to get a seat. Haha! She said that after that she knew the BoM was true and should be getting baptized in the coming weeks hahaha. It was really funny. Not the usual answer that people get but it works I guess :).
In Pirituba we were knocking doors and a lady came out and we could see that she really didn't want to let us in. But all of the sudden it looked like her countenance changed and she became warmer with us and let us in. We shared a message with her and her two daughters which was really good. She loved it and said "I never let anyone in my house because I am scared for the safety of my family and I didn't want to hear what you guys had to say. I was about to lie to you both and say that I didn't have any time to hear your message, but then I took a good look at you two and something whispered to me that you guys meant no harm and had something that I need to hear, so I let you in." There are tons of these little experiences that I am having on the divisions that strengthen my testimony of the Lord's restored gospel.
Throughout my whole mission I haven't been exactly very diligent with my exercises in the morning. I've been pathetic, actually. However I always told my self that "when I have 1 year and 6 months on the mission I will start doing them faithfully every morning." 1 year and 6 months just always seemed so far away so I never felt like I would have to start doing them again. But 2 weeks ago I made 1 year and 6 months on the mission ha. I have been faithul to my promise though and let's see if I can rid myself of the extra beans and rice I have accumalated around the waist-region.
I am grateful for all the supporty ya´ll give me. Farewell!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Going Private
Elder Brent Parsons has requests we make this blog private. If you would like to continue looking at his mission blog please leave your email in a comment or email it to karrissa{at}inpnet{dot}org. I will leave the blog open for a few weeks while I gather everyone's email addresses. After that you will need to log on with your google account to access this blog. I am sorry if this is an inconvenience for anyone. Thanks!
Zone Conference and a Baptism
Sup!
This week is Zone Conference week and it's been really rushed. There are three zone conferences that we do on the mission. The first one was yesterday and was for the four of the zones here in the capital in Zona Norte (the north part of S達o Paulo that our mission has). Today's P-day then tomorrow will be the next conference for the 4 more zones including the zone I belong to. It will be done here in the chapel right next to the Temple. Then on Friday we will go out to Sorocaba to do the conference for the 5 zones in the "interior" or rural part of the mission.
We had mission council last week on Tuesday and had to prepare a training for that but after Tuesday we started working on the zone conference training. We have about an hour in each conference. We spent a long time on it but I think it paid off because it went really well yesterday in the first conf.
We have very little time that we get to work in our actual area but usually any time we have in the area is spent teaching a family that we have. They are way cool. They have a kid that is on a mission right now and they finally accepted to be baptized last two Sundays ago! So this Sunday after church we had their baptisms. The missionary's Mom, 2 sisters, and 2 cousins got baptized! The missionary is alone in the church and has sent an email home every week of his mission (he has been on the mission as long as I have) encouraging the family to read the book of mormon, go to church, and get baptized; and finally after all this time they started going to church and reading and were baptized! I can't even imagine how happy this missionary will get when we send him the picture of his family finally getting baptized. I attached a photo of the baptism. And yes, I am well aware that I look HUUUUUGE and am in front of the poor child who just wanted to get in the picture...but unfortunately it's the only pic I got.
I am defintely learning about how stupid missionaries can be with this calling, but I am loving it. Every day is completely different...which is good because it breaks the routine of the last 18 months of my life. I have eaten 8 pizzas in the last 3 weeks. Just thought I'd throw that one in there.
Love ya'll! Thanks for the emails!
-Elder Brent Parsons
This week is Zone Conference week and it's been really rushed. There are three zone conferences that we do on the mission. The first one was yesterday and was for the four of the zones here in the capital in Zona Norte (the north part of S達o Paulo that our mission has). Today's P-day then tomorrow will be the next conference for the 4 more zones including the zone I belong to. It will be done here in the chapel right next to the Temple. Then on Friday we will go out to Sorocaba to do the conference for the 5 zones in the "interior" or rural part of the mission.
We had mission council last week on Tuesday and had to prepare a training for that but after Tuesday we started working on the zone conference training. We have about an hour in each conference. We spent a long time on it but I think it paid off because it went really well yesterday in the first conf.
We have very little time that we get to work in our actual area but usually any time we have in the area is spent teaching a family that we have. They are way cool. They have a kid that is on a mission right now and they finally accepted to be baptized last two Sundays ago! So this Sunday after church we had their baptisms. The missionary's Mom, 2 sisters, and 2 cousins got baptized! The missionary is alone in the church and has sent an email home every week of his mission (he has been on the mission as long as I have) encouraging the family to read the book of mormon, go to church, and get baptized; and finally after all this time they started going to church and reading and were baptized! I can't even imagine how happy this missionary will get when we send him the picture of his family finally getting baptized. I attached a photo of the baptism. And yes, I am well aware that I look HUUUUUGE and am in front of the poor child who just wanted to get in the picture...but unfortunately it's the only pic I got.
I am defintely learning about how stupid missionaries can be with this calling, but I am loving it. Every day is completely different...which is good because it breaks the routine of the last 18 months of my life. I have eaten 8 pizzas in the last 3 weeks. Just thought I'd throw that one in there.Love ya'll! Thanks for the emails!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
First week as Assistant
From Saturday until now was really good and somewhat stressful.
Every Sunday we have to get the mission's numbers which is probably the worst part of my new calling. Numbers suck. We have to stay up until like 11:30 or 12:00pm every Sunday night getting the numbers and making the relatórios for our meeting with President every Monday.
I have to do divisions with the Zone Leaders of the mission which is way cool though. Before I got here they usually did 5 or 6 divisions per transfer but as of Monday, President has asked us to do divisions with every companionship of ZLs in the whole mission (13) every transfer (6 weeks). Including this transfer that is already a week in...so yeah we now have to do more than 2 divisions a week and we have zones that are out in Sorocaba....2 and half hours by bus away.
And he also doesn't want OUR personal working area to start lacking too much. Woot! It's going to be crazy. In order to get all these divisions done we had to choose a zone to do a division with and leave THAT night to do it. WE decided in going out to Zona Osasco with the ZLs to do the division the following day.
My old comp from Barcelona is out there, Elder D. Gonçalves, and I got to spend the day working with him and it was really cool (all 4 of us stay in the area and just work the place out for the day). The area has been having a rough time and we were able to find some really good new investigators for them. He said "Wow, President really is an inspired man. We were REALLY needing this division." The division wouldn't have happened if President's hadn't asked us to do divisions with all the zones this transfer.
It's a pretty stressful life but I love it. It's really fun. We literally have so much crap to do all the time that I forget how tired I am until I hit the bed at night. It sounds like it would suck but it's actually really good. I am happy. There is crappy stuff that we have to deal with like numbers and finding out about the stupid crap that missionaries do, but it's still awesome.
(Sorry mom...I know you wrote me and told me to stop saying the word "crap" but it just describes it so well).
Love you all! Until next week.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Every Sunday we have to get the mission's numbers which is probably the worst part of my new calling. Numbers suck. We have to stay up until like 11:30 or 12:00pm every Sunday night getting the numbers and making the relatórios for our meeting with President every Monday.
I have to do divisions with the Zone Leaders of the mission which is way cool though. Before I got here they usually did 5 or 6 divisions per transfer but as of Monday, President has asked us to do divisions with every companionship of ZLs in the whole mission (13) every transfer (6 weeks). Including this transfer that is already a week in...so yeah we now have to do more than 2 divisions a week and we have zones that are out in Sorocaba....2 and half hours by bus away.
And he also doesn't want OUR personal working area to start lacking too much. Woot! It's going to be crazy. In order to get all these divisions done we had to choose a zone to do a division with and leave THAT night to do it. WE decided in going out to Zona Osasco with the ZLs to do the division the following day.
My old comp from Barcelona is out there, Elder D. Gonçalves, and I got to spend the day working with him and it was really cool (all 4 of us stay in the area and just work the place out for the day). The area has been having a rough time and we were able to find some really good new investigators for them. He said "Wow, President really is an inspired man. We were REALLY needing this division." The division wouldn't have happened if President's hadn't asked us to do divisions with all the zones this transfer.
It's a pretty stressful life but I love it. It's really fun. We literally have so much crap to do all the time that I forget how tired I am until I hit the bed at night. It sounds like it would suck but it's actually really good. I am happy. There is crappy stuff that we have to deal with like numbers and finding out about the stupid crap that missionaries do, but it's still awesome.
(Sorry mom...I know you wrote me and told me to stop saying the word "crap" but it just describes it so well).
Love you all! Until next week.
-Elder Brent Parsons
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Back in the City of São Paulo
Ópa Gente!
Hello my friends! This week was transfers week and it went pretty crazy. After a year straight there I was taken out of Sorocaba and was sent back the the "capital" in São Paulo. I have been called to be the new AP actually and I am way stoked. It's tons different and I have a lot to learn but I am excited.
My companion is way cool too. His name is Elder Vasconcelos and he was actually my old ZL when I was out in Salto de Pirapora 3 months ago. I left that area and went to Barcelona for the last 2 transfers and he also left but came here to be AP for the last 2. Now we are comps and I am excited. He is Brazilian (surprise!) but he speaks completely fluent English so it's just like having an American by my side. We just go in and out of English and Portuguese whenever we want and we understand each other completely. It's way cool.
So we had transfers on Wed. and on Thursday we helped some people move here in our ward. I was unplugging all their computer stuff and in the back of the desk there was a bunch of dust and I started having a huge allergy attack. I went back home and slept for a little bit and woke up feeling a lot better.
We went over to the mission office (we just got a new house in our area that is about 20 minutes away on foot from the mission office) to do some stuff on the computer after lunch.
Around 5pm I started feeling really sick and went and lied down on my bed here (there is an extra room with a bunk-bed here in the office for us when we have stuff to do here and have to sleep over or something) and it just started getting worse. I had a terrible fever and extreme body pain.
Haha, my fever was so bad that I started hallucinating and stuff. I am serious I woke up in the middle of the night and saw an airplane falling on me. A freaking airplane! I got all scared and hid under the covers like a toddler. Then I woke up again and saw my comp messing around with his planner for like five minutes...then all the sudden he disappeared. I was trippin'!
Then I woke up again in the middle of the night and was like "Vasconcelos (my comp)! I'm scared!" He was like "Parsons, it's OK just go back to sleep." I was like "OK!" Then went right back to sleep. Funny...but a little creepy.
Then that night I asked my companion and the secretaries to give me a blessing. After the blessing I couldn't even stand anymore and fell down on my bed and started sweating like crazy and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and I was fine though! It was crazy. I woke up and my zone had interviews with President and everything was fine. It was literally a miracle. My body is a still a little sore but other than that things are all good. If it wasn't for the blessing I don't think I would be as good as I am right now.
My responsibilities now are a lot different. We work a lot in our area but it isn't quite as much as normal. We have to do a lot of divisions with all the ZLs and the areas that are having a really hard time. We have to make up trainings and have meetings with President and stuff so a lot of time it's hard to get a full day's work into our area.
It's different and sometimes I feel an urge to go out trying to find people all day but we can't because we have other things that we have to do. It's just different. It's really cool though and I am really excited. I have an awesome companion, we get to be around the secretaries all day who are awesome, we get to talk to all the ZLs in the mission who are usually all awesome guys, and we get to work with our Mission President - President Cooley who is amazing.
My companion has 3 months left so I will probably "kill" him and stay at least another month and a half so I will most likely be here for a while. We'll see though.
Anyway, I love you all! 7 more months my friends! Adeus!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Hello my friends! This week was transfers week and it went pretty crazy. After a year straight there I was taken out of Sorocaba and was sent back the the "capital" in São Paulo. I have been called to be the new AP actually and I am way stoked. It's tons different and I have a lot to learn but I am excited.
My companion is way cool too. His name is Elder Vasconcelos and he was actually my old ZL when I was out in Salto de Pirapora 3 months ago. I left that area and went to Barcelona for the last 2 transfers and he also left but came here to be AP for the last 2. Now we are comps and I am excited. He is Brazilian (surprise!) but he speaks completely fluent English so it's just like having an American by my side. We just go in and out of English and Portuguese whenever we want and we understand each other completely. It's way cool.
So we had transfers on Wed. and on Thursday we helped some people move here in our ward. I was unplugging all their computer stuff and in the back of the desk there was a bunch of dust and I started having a huge allergy attack. I went back home and slept for a little bit and woke up feeling a lot better.
We went over to the mission office (we just got a new house in our area that is about 20 minutes away on foot from the mission office) to do some stuff on the computer after lunch.
Around 5pm I started feeling really sick and went and lied down on my bed here (there is an extra room with a bunk-bed here in the office for us when we have stuff to do here and have to sleep over or something) and it just started getting worse. I had a terrible fever and extreme body pain.
Haha, my fever was so bad that I started hallucinating and stuff. I am serious I woke up in the middle of the night and saw an airplane falling on me. A freaking airplane! I got all scared and hid under the covers like a toddler. Then I woke up again and saw my comp messing around with his planner for like five minutes...then all the sudden he disappeared. I was trippin'!
Then I woke up again in the middle of the night and was like "Vasconcelos (my comp)! I'm scared!" He was like "Parsons, it's OK just go back to sleep." I was like "OK!" Then went right back to sleep. Funny...but a little creepy.
Then that night I asked my companion and the secretaries to give me a blessing. After the blessing I couldn't even stand anymore and fell down on my bed and started sweating like crazy and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and I was fine though! It was crazy. I woke up and my zone had interviews with President and everything was fine. It was literally a miracle. My body is a still a little sore but other than that things are all good. If it wasn't for the blessing I don't think I would be as good as I am right now.
My responsibilities now are a lot different. We work a lot in our area but it isn't quite as much as normal. We have to do a lot of divisions with all the ZLs and the areas that are having a really hard time. We have to make up trainings and have meetings with President and stuff so a lot of time it's hard to get a full day's work into our area.
It's different and sometimes I feel an urge to go out trying to find people all day but we can't because we have other things that we have to do. It's just different. It's really cool though and I am really excited. I have an awesome companion, we get to be around the secretaries all day who are awesome, we get to talk to all the ZLs in the mission who are usually all awesome guys, and we get to work with our Mission President - President Cooley who is amazing.
My companion has 3 months left so I will probably "kill" him and stay at least another month and a half so I will most likely be here for a while. We'll see though.
Anyway, I love you all! 7 more months my friends! Adeus!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Big Toe Surgery
So last week we played soccer with a bunch of missionaries. Everything was going fine until I was kicked in the foot wearing my extremely-thin-made-for-running-and-not-soccer tennis shoes. Some Elder kicked it and caught me right on the big toenail, lifting it up and nearly breaking it off completely. It hurt like inferno but I thought it would get better. It hurt as I walked but nothing bad enough to stop me from working.
Well a few days passed and I noticed it was turning different colors. It turned a really dark yellow and even slight purplish. So I was on division on Monday and went in with Elder Lopes to a little health post to have them check it out. The doctor looked at it and said that they were going to have to take the toenail off.
What...?! It became loose on the upper half and pretty much just "died". The bottom half still was attached though...thus I became a bit worrisome. So the next morning we woke up at 5:45 am to head out to the local hospital. Now...this is a country with socialized medicine so let's just say it wasn't the most cleanly and attentive institution that I have seen before.
We waited for a while among the sweaty crowd then went in to see the doc. He confirmed that it had to come off. I asked him how they did it and he was like "well we numb it with anestesia...then I grap a pair of pincers" (which is just a really cute way of saying pliers...) "and i'll rip it off." I was far from comforted.
Well I was sent to the little "emergency room" that had two tables to lay on with butcher paper on it and was told to lie down and wait. I gave my camera to Lopes for him to film and the doctor came in. He proceeded to apply the anestesia in a manner far from caring I felt. "Umm...doctor? Are you sure the anestesia has to go INTO the bone?" Then he grabbed the beautiful pair of pliers and with 20 seconds or so of working the little guy he came flying off.
Yeah, it was awesome. I won't lie when I say that I gave a few girly screams of pain but I came out triumphant! They cleaned it out, wrapped it up, then told me to walk out the door to my right (it was just the back door to the hospital. I am pretty sure that my surgery was performed in what used to be the garage) and gave me a piece of paper that I was supposed to take to the "pharmacy" which was located out in the back of the hospital which, at first glance, could easily have been mistaken with the utility closet.
I got my medicine and then I was on my way! Instructions on how to clean, take care of or what things I can/cannot do with it? No! Post-surgery treatment is for losers! It really was weird though. You just walk in, get it all done, get your medicine, and then you walk out. You don't pay a thing! Insurance? Not needed! Full name? Optional! It's different...
It was a "good experience" though. Definitely the most exciting thing of the week. My comp filmed it all and I will be sending the video pretty soon - but its a big file.
New Year's was really good too. We had a BBQ with our zone at our ward mission leader's house and played Risk there. Oh what a glorious game that is. We are pretty much addicted to it. I played two games already today because I was physically unable to play soccer due to my mutilated toe (won them both I might add. Why would they ever let me keep North America like that? 5 extra armies every round!) It was really fun.
We have transfers next Wednesday so I might be emailing y'all from a different area next week. We'll see what happens. Loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Big Toe Before
Big Toe After
Well a few days passed and I noticed it was turning different colors. It turned a really dark yellow and even slight purplish. So I was on division on Monday and went in with Elder Lopes to a little health post to have them check it out. The doctor looked at it and said that they were going to have to take the toenail off.
What...?! It became loose on the upper half and pretty much just "died". The bottom half still was attached though...thus I became a bit worrisome. So the next morning we woke up at 5:45 am to head out to the local hospital. Now...this is a country with socialized medicine so let's just say it wasn't the most cleanly and attentive institution that I have seen before.
We waited for a while among the sweaty crowd then went in to see the doc. He confirmed that it had to come off. I asked him how they did it and he was like "well we numb it with anestesia...then I grap a pair of pincers" (which is just a really cute way of saying pliers...) "and i'll rip it off." I was far from comforted.
Well I was sent to the little "emergency room" that had two tables to lay on with butcher paper on it and was told to lie down and wait. I gave my camera to Lopes for him to film and the doctor came in. He proceeded to apply the anestesia in a manner far from caring I felt. "Umm...doctor? Are you sure the anestesia has to go INTO the bone?" Then he grabbed the beautiful pair of pliers and with 20 seconds or so of working the little guy he came flying off.
Yeah, it was awesome. I won't lie when I say that I gave a few girly screams of pain but I came out triumphant! They cleaned it out, wrapped it up, then told me to walk out the door to my right (it was just the back door to the hospital. I am pretty sure that my surgery was performed in what used to be the garage) and gave me a piece of paper that I was supposed to take to the "pharmacy" which was located out in the back of the hospital which, at first glance, could easily have been mistaken with the utility closet.
I got my medicine and then I was on my way! Instructions on how to clean, take care of or what things I can/cannot do with it? No! Post-surgery treatment is for losers! It really was weird though. You just walk in, get it all done, get your medicine, and then you walk out. You don't pay a thing! Insurance? Not needed! Full name? Optional! It's different...
It was a "good experience" though. Definitely the most exciting thing of the week. My comp filmed it all and I will be sending the video pretty soon - but its a big file.
New Year's was really good too. We had a BBQ with our zone at our ward mission leader's house and played Risk there. Oh what a glorious game that is. We are pretty much addicted to it. I played two games already today because I was physically unable to play soccer due to my mutilated toe (won them both I might add. Why would they ever let me keep North America like that? 5 extra armies every round!) It was really fun.
We have transfers next Wednesday so I might be emailing y'all from a different area next week. We'll see what happens. Loves and stuff!
-Elder Brent Parsons
Big Toe Before
Big Toe After
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