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
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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!
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