Brent in Brazil

Brent's Coming Home!

2010-08-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

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

Getting Short Now

2010-08-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Pics for the week

2010-06-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

Me and my comp on the street messin' around...

Elder Albuquerque (in the middle) taught me
how to make a sweet churrasco (bbq) today.
It was way good!

Looks delicious...

World Cup has begun

2010-06-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

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

Pics for the week

2010-06-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Attitude About Missionary Work

2010-06-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

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

10 weeks and counting... and some pics

2010-05-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

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.

More Pics

2010-05-20T04:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Three Divisions and some Pics

2010-05-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

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".

Quick synopsis of week

2010-04-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

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

Quick return to P-Day...

2010-04-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

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

Pictures from this week

2010-04-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

Me and my new companion Elder Briggs.
It`s getting pretty cold actually so we put some jackets on.

Check out this dog`s eye!

Pic of me watching conference "só de boa"!

New Companion!

2010-04-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

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

Some more pictures

2010-04-01T05:37:00.000-07:00

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!

My companion goes home next week!

2010-03-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

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?

Update for the Week

2010-03-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

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

Zone Divisions

2010-03-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

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

Pictures from Sao Paulo Temple

2010-03-15T11:57:00.001-07:00

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 in
with 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 Cooley
at the CTM when we went to see the noobies a couple of weeks ago

Transfers this week...

2010-02-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

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

'Clapping' on Doors in Brazil - anyone home?

2010-02-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

It's transfers week...woot!

2010-02-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

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

Going Private

2010-02-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

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

First week as Assistant

2010-01-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

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

Back in the City of São Paulo

2010-01-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

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

Big Toe Surgery

2010-01-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

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

Normal Pre-Christmas Week

2009-12-16T16:08:00.000-08:00

Welp this week was pretty normal. My comp's family came here on Saturday but a few days before President called saying that he couldn't go to the sealing at the temple. My comp was a little bit angry to say the least. But it was cool because we were going to ditch out on the ward Christmas party on Saturday to go to the São Paulo Temple but we ended up being able to go and it was sweet! I played soccer for like 6 hours straight. They call me the American Ronaldo because I am that good. Haha, jk, I make a fool out of myself on the field amongst the brethren.

Yesterday we had Mission Counsel in São Paulo...it was cool.

I don't have much to say, just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays ("Merry Christmas" to all of you that believe in that Jesus guy)! Haha. Next week I will be talking to my family!

Oh yeah next week I will be using the internet on TUESDAY and NOT WEDNESDAY! So get all them awesome emails off to me before Tuesday!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Baptism and Rainbow Photos

2009-12-09T20:21:00.001-08:00

Basketball in "Little America"

2009-12-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

I am exhausted. I just got done playing basketball for 4 hours. It was awesome though. Our own "Little America". 10 Americans together with no Portuguese haha. It was kind of weird actually.

My new comp is way cool. We get along really well. He is a bit "trunky" because he is about 4 months away from going home plus we are going to see his family this weekend because his brother is going to get sealed in the São Paulo temple but I don't blame him. We are all a little bit trunky at heart.

Last night was way cool because this investigator that we have had forever named Deone who is the mom of João that we baptized gave us her cigarrettes last night and said she wants to stop smoking be baptized. We have been trying to get her to stop smoking for like 2 months and lately I have just given up hope with her then out of nowhere she did that. It was way cool!

Other than that nothing to report from here. I am going to go to São Paulo 2 times in the next week. I have been here in Sorocaba for almost a year now...don't get me wrong...I love it here but it isn't THAT big and I am just used to everything now. I am just kind of sick of it I guess. I hope I go back to the capital for the last part of my mission. We'll see though.

-Elder Brent Parsons

Super Saturday

2009-12-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday was such a great day eh? There were three baptisms here...BYU took a small crap on Utah. Awesome.

No really though...that is awesome about BYU. I can't wait to see the game when I get home. Sounds awesome.

Yeah and the baptisms went well. Unfortunately 2 of them didn't work out. 1 will be in the future and the other...who knows. Eliane's cousin who was doing way good just gave up out of nowhere saying she didn't want to live all the commandments and so she didn't want to get baptized. It sucked. But at least the others stayed strong.

Transfers were today and my comp got transferred. I got yet ANOTHER Brazilian comp. He has 4 and 1/2 months left in his mission. It is possible for me to be his last companion but I doubt it. We'll see though. He is from Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. His name is Elder Jara.

Anyway, things are pretty normal here. Loves and stuff!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Long P-day... bus to Sao Paulo Temple

2009-11-25T12:15:00.000-08:00

Well we just got back from going to São Paulo for the day to go to the temple. We have to wake up at about 4:45 am in order for us to get on the bus and we get back about about 4:30 pm. Just enough time to use the internet real quick and go back to work...again...

So yeah I don't have much time just wanted to let y'all know that the mission is going well and that I am doing fine. The situation with the baptisms this week is a little bit complicated but I'll just have to see how it all works out by next week to let you guys know all about it.

Transfers are next week. It's pretty much a fact that I will stay here in the area but we'll see what happens with my comp. He'll prob stay too but anything can happen. See ya!

-Brent

P.S. I wanted to give a little "Shout out" to Jenny from South Carolina thanking you for the letter you sent me. It was "swimmingly" hilarious. I'll write you back a letter sometime in the future. Feel free to write again. Later!

Some more photos

2009-11-18T10:24:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when you play soccer for a couple of hours in the sun with a t-shirt that does not cover your neck like a white shirt and tie does...

This week was great.

2009-11-18T10:13:00.001-08:00

Remember the family we found with the drunk guy? After 30 years of smoking the mom stopped and so did the cousin. They literally are such an elect family it's ridiculous. They read EVERYTHING and thirst for knowledge about the gospel. The mom doesn't work and stays home during the day and just reads church material the whole day. She went over to one of our other investigator's houses to borrow the Joseph Smith manual in order to study the relief society class subject for Sunday. It's awesome. They have a baptism date for the 5th of December and are all really excited.

Other than that things are just normal. I am doing fine. I am healthy and happy. Farewell to all!

-Elder Parsons

Mission and Zone Pics

2009-11-18T09:27:00.001-08:00

Me and my zone with Elder Scott, President Cooley, and Sister Cooley.

"Mission Counsel"
All the Zone Leaders, 2 Assistants, President and Sister Cooley

My entire Sao Paulo North Mission
I am standing up on the last row up in the top-right side.

Just a pregnancy away!

2009-11-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

From this moment on all of you frisky little lovers who get pregnant from now until the time I get home have no need to worry! I will see the birth of your child! I know you all have been waiting for this moment for a long time but no need to wait longer...let the sparks fly!

Everything is going fine here. Nothing much to report. We had a baptism of a 14 year old boy on Saturday, I'll get the pics up soon.

Loves!

-Elder Parsons

Good week... and pictures too!

2009-11-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

The internet is so crappy right now so I don't have much time.

This week went really well. I don't have many experiences as I did last week but it was really good.

The family that we found last week (the family of the drunk guy) are doing really good. We taught them the Word of Wisdom and the 2 sisters are now trying to stop. One of them stopped the night we taught it and didn't smoke for 4 days...until 2 days ago when her dog died and she got really stressed out and started smoking again which wasn't the best thing ever but it's ok she will be able to do it. The other 2 (the daughter and her boyfriend) are both already talking about serving missions here in a couple years (they are 17). Woot!

Oh so I was talking to the Elders from São Roque the other day and they said they went back to that girl that had cancer and to who we gave the blessing. They got there and the girl was looking perfectly fine and healthy. She saw them and got all excited and told them what had happened. A couple days after receiving the blessing she went to the doctor again for a check up on her cancer. The doctor saw the results and looked at her and said "I don't believe it..." She asked what had happened and the doctor said "the tumor...it...it disappeared. You don't have cancer anymore." Yeah...it was crazy. Take what you want from that one. I couldn't believe it when I heard it.

Other than that the week was pretty normal. I had my first Mission Counsel yesterday which was sweet. Mission Counsel is when all the zone leaders, the 2 assistants, and President get together 1 time per transfer and talk about the mission (problems, ideas, etc.). It was really fun. President's house is...SWEET. It's huge.

Loves and stuff for all!

-Elder Brent Parsons

The first is of my comp and I making pancakes at a family night for everyone (they don't make pancakes because nobody knows what maple syrup is but we got some so we made it for them). It was fun.The other is of me looking over my new area.

Wow, what a week!

2009-10-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. What a week. I am going to write a lot because I can't stand writing by hand anymore in my journal and will just use this blog as my journal entry for the week...

This week...was...so sweet. I could say that it was definitely one of the best weeks of my mission so far.

My week here in Barcelona started off with me having to do a division on Thursday to do a baptismal interview in São Roque. I went up there with Elder Schoen, an American with about 4 months on the mission. He's way cool. The interview went fine but then that night I had a way good and spiritual experience with him. We got a reference from a recent convert there so that night we went to visit the reference with the recent convert. The reference was a mother of 3 who is about 28 years old. We got there and found her in bed, obviously in a lot of pain. She asked us if we could give her a blessing and we agreed. I asked "In order for us to give you a blessing it would be a lot easier if we knew what was wrong with you." Nobody seemed to want to tell us as they avoided our gaze. Then finally in a whisper the recent convert said "She...she has cancer." It was crazy. But we went ahead with the blessing. I gave her the blessing and it was definitely the most spiritual blessing that I have ever been a part of.

I talked to Elder Schoen about it after and we both literally felt power leaving our bodies and entering hers. As I gave her the blessing I felt the spirit so strong as it guided me as I truly felt like the Lord's mouthpiece in that moment. We ended the blessing and testified to her of God's love for her and the Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith as she looked into our eyes with tears pouring down her face.

Then I went back to my area on Friday for my first full day in my area. So, Mother, my area is here in Sorocaba where I have pretty much been for the last 9 months of my mission but Sorocaba is a really big city with 4 different Zones. Barcelona, Trujillo, Sorocaba, and Santana. There are about 60 missionaries here in Sorocaba. I have had areas now in Zone Trujillo (Area - Julio de Mesquita), Zone Sorocaba (Area - Salto de Pirapora, and now Barcelona (Area - Barcelona). I like to say that I am serving Mission Sorocaba and not Mission São Paulo North haha.

Seriously though. There are 4 Zones here in Sorocaba and 13 in the whole mission and I have gone through 3 of the 4 zones here in Sorocaba now haha. It's cool though. I feel like this town of 700,000 people has become my home. And seeing as I will probably stay here in Barcelona for a good 6 months or so, I will do around 3/5 of my mission here at least.

Anyway, so my whole mission I have heard of Barcelona being a really hard zone and the least baptizing zone in the whole mission. Like, really bad actually. Our area is a pretty difficult area because it is a rich part of Sorocaba. And we all know that rich people are meanies. Anyway, with Elder D. Gonçalves here for the past two transfers he was able to get a little bit going here in the zone...but still there isn't much. So when I got here Elder D. Gonçalves and I made some plans and goals to get this zone and our area going again. We had meetings with the Stake President, our Bishop, and the ward leadership to let them know that we are here to work and turn this place around.

The problem is that this ward is REALLY REALLY old. The chapel has been here for over 40 years. Luckily it's been reformed and is really good looking now but the members here are really old and have lost that "fire" for missionary work. Anyway, to show the members that we are here to work and to put that fire back into them we set out to get a new family of investigators in the chapel for Sunday to get them excited again.

So Friday we started working again. We were going to an appointment and we saw a drunk on the street. We watched him for a while as he kept running around and running into the walls and stuff...obviously a little funny. Then when he was WAY far away he fell down on the street. We saw that a guy went to help him, then we turned to go to our appointment and didn't think anything else of it. We taught then left from that appointment and went back from the way we came.

We were walking on the street and out of nowhere D. Gon. stopped in mid step and looked across the street and a really nice, rich looking house and said "I did a contact with a guy and he gave me this address a while ago. Let's check it out." So we went and "clapped" at the door and a lady that was crying came out. We asked her if the man was there and she said "Yes. But it's kind of impossible to see him right now." We asked why and she said as she started crying even more "It's my husband. He went to the bar this afternoon and got way drunk and fell on the street and hurt himself really bad." I thought to myself "there is no way it is the same guy..." The we asked if we could come in and share a message and she said yes.

She was there with her 2 sisters (all in there mid-30's) and so we went in and saw the drunk man passed out on the couch. I couldn't believe it. It was the same drunk guy we had seen earlier! He had fallen and messed himself up pretty bad with a swollen face and cut up knees and elbows. We asked if we could leave a message. His wife, Eliane, said that she really wanted to hear it but she wanted her husband to hear it too. We said "Alright then. We will leave our number with you so when he wakes up call us and we will come back and give you the message." She agreed and we left. I'll be honest...I didn't think she would call. But at 7:45 pm sure enough our cell rang and it was her asking us to come back because her husband had woken up.

Not only was her husband awake but Eliane called her dad to come over and got her daughter to come listen as well. They were all waiting expectantly to hear our message. We gave them the first lesson about the restoration but both of us were impressed to talk a lot about families. It was an awesome lesson. As was explaining about the Book of Mormon and hadn't even invited them to read it when Eliane was like "Yeah I'll read it for sure!" Haha. Anyway, they all agreed to go to church. The drunk dad paid a lot of attention even.

So Sunday 2 of the sisters, the daughter (17 years old and she speaks english unbelievably well) AND her boyfriend who she invited and their uncle who they also invited went to church. I had never seen anything like that with investigators taking other people besides themselves to church. In this area here investigators at church are pretty rare so when the members saw that we had a whole family with us along with other investigators the ward got really excited.

We had a meeting after church with the Bishop and our Ward Mission Leader and they said the we had put the fire back into the missionary work of this ward. It was way cool. We wanted to find a family to bring to church we did everything in our power to do so and the Lord fulfilled His part and helped us in doing so. This family is awesome too. They went to the church last night to start doing their genealogy work! We took advantage of the opportunity and followed up with their 3 Nephi 11 reading of the Book of Mormon. We invited them to baptism and they accepted. The 2 sisters have been smoking for 30 years but they want to stop and want our help.

Oh yeah then ANOTHER experience. Saturday Elder Richard G. Scott one of the 12 Apostles came to our mission! It was way cool. The entire mission got together which is extremely rare in the chapel by the São Paulo Temple and we listened to him speak. He told us all to get married as soon as possible after our missions haha :).

No joke though...he said that. "Marriage should be your HIGHEST priority after your mission." Other quote "I know Jesus Christ and God love you missionaries here because I KNOW them." Good stuff. Very powerful. Did you guys know that he speaks Portuguese? Well, he does. He had a translator with him to say the stuff he couldn't quite get right, but he speaks really well actually for someone who has never lived here in Brasil.

Anyway, I have written tons. It was a really good week though. It is awesome having a comp that...is good...and who I can trust to teach with me haha. I think we will be able to get a really good work done in this area. Loves and stuff for all!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Emergency Transfer - more next week

2009-10-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hello friends.

Welp this week was pretty crazy I will give you guys the quick breakdown.

So I had just got done eating at Burger King, bowling and using the internet on Wed. while my comp and I had gone to Sorocaba for P-day. It was 5:45 and we were waiting for the bus to go back to our area because it only came at 6:00. Anyway, at that moment I got a call from the assistants and they were like "how early can you be here in São Paulo tomorrow morning?" I was like "What...why?" "Oh, well you have been emergency transfered to Jacanã (São Paulo). So what time can you get here by?" I was like "What?! Are you serious? Why?" "What time Elder Parsons!?" "Uh...I can make it there by 10:30 am if I catch one of the first buses." "Alright. We will be waiting for you at 10:30 am with your suitcases ready." Hung up.

So yeah, I pretty much filled my shoes with feces at that point and then had to go back to my area (I got there at about 7:00pm) and so it only gave enough time to say bye to Viviane and her family (a family we just baptized that are like...awesome) and that included a large cry fest and then I went to the Bishop's house where a bunch of members were to say bye.

Then I stayed up until 1:30 am getting my suitcases packed, slept until 5:30, got up and took a bus to São Paulo, our bus driver ran into ANOTHER bus on the way there (just clipped it, I'm fine Jill/Mom) so we had to stand on the road to wait for another, then got to São Paulo where I picked up my new comp Elder Carvalho who is my brother on the mission (we were trained by the same Elder), stayed there from Thursday - Monday

Then on Monday I got a call that I was going to be transferred again so this morning I went to transfers and found out I just got transferred BACK to Sorocaba to be Zone Leader of Zona Barcelona with Elder D. Gonçalves who is from my group (he's got a year and 2 months too), Brazilian, and WAY sick, then we went back on the bus for 2 hours to Sorocaba, I got to the house, unpacked some stuff, now I am writing you guys.

It was crazy! Pretty cool though. My comp right now is way sick. Kind of sucks because I didn't get to train anyone before I turned Zone Leader...but whatevs. I am happy. I might be able to train in my last transfer or something. I am kind of glad just not to be District Leader anymore...it's a worrisome thing and I couldn't take anymore district meeting trainings. Let's see how it goes. I have a good comp and looks like this area should be cool so I am excited.

I'll get some pics of my comp a little bit later.

Thanks for everything....loves and stuff!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Sorry - no time to write much

2009-10-14T12:58:00.001-07:00

I don't have any time to write. Everything is fine here and we have transfers next week. I think I will stay here though and my companion will leave...we'll see though.

Last night we went to my ZLs house and played this MONOPOLY card game all night then went to Burger King and then went bowling to get a little taste of home. It was a good day.

I'll write better next week!

Thanks for all the support you all give me!

Conference Weekend

2009-10-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

What up?!

Conference was sweet eh? I never really understood or valued conference before the mission, however I have learned better here on the mission. Watching conference as a missionary is COMPLETELY different than it is as a normal member. As a missionary you watch conference for yourself obviously but you also watch it thinking and seeking inspiration on how to better help your investigators. I dunno, it’s way different and way better.

So on Saturday we stayed in my area to watch the 2 first sessions which were way good but I had to watch them in Portuguese which dulls them a little bit. Not that I don’t understand what they are saying…it’s just I am used to their voices and listening to a translator just doesn’t quite cut it. So Saturday night we took a bus to the Stake Center in Sorocaba and watched the Priesthood Session with all the other Elders from our Zone in blessed English then 6 of us slept at our ZL’s house and watched the 2 next sessions on Sunday together again and when the got over it was already way late so we just stayed there another night because we had District Meeting the next morning anyway.

Yeah, so as I said, Conference was awesome I thought. I am so excited to read all the talks again. I have to be honest though…Elder Holland’s talk about the Book of Mormon was definitely my favorite. There were 4 of us Americans watching in our own little room and during the talk I don’t think one of us even blinked while staring at the television. It was awesome. I think I cried…at 3 separate times…during his talk. Big boys know how to cry! I dunno, it just was so awesome to hear because we go out every single day trying to show people that the BoM is true and giving our heart and souls to it, only to be rejected time and time again…but then to have an Apostle give such a strong testimony about it gave us a bit of an energy boost you know?

There were tons of other talks that I loved too but I won’t talk about them. Besides I am tired like crazy because we just went to Sorocaba and played basketball for like 5 hours straight and I think I might fall apart. It has been quite a while since I have ran for any extended period of time and let’s just say my red workout “raccoon eyes” were in full swing and the body odor was pungent. I now have a splintering headache and body aches that would put down a horse. However, it was way fun and was probably almost worth it

Farewell! A great week for everyone!

-Elder Parsons

Nothing to report

2009-09-30T12:40:00.001-07:00

Well I just created this email and realized that I have nothing to say...

The week was normal with nothing to report. Await further news next week!

Short Blog because of storm

2009-09-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

Ok...freaking storm. I had been writing for a good 15 min when the power just went out. Oh poo. It's got to be short now.

BYU = Bye bye to the BCS.

This week my companion and I killed ourselves working trying to fill up our investigator list again. We worked way hard and found another 17 new investigators and marked another 5 baptism dates. It was really good. 2 of them are really firm for the end of this transfer. The other ones need to get married so will take a little bit...

We have another awesome investigator that we found named Jenaina. She is 22 and is from the "Assembly of God" which is a really popular church here in Brazil. Long story short she wasn't really wanting a whole lot but we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she LOVED it. Especially the whole 3 kingdoms of glory.

I told her that it would really make sense and God wouldn't be very just if there was only Heaven and Hell. Where's the line? There has to be a line that is drawn which 1 unrepented sin would mean the difference between eternal happiness or never-ending torment. She agreed completely and it was because of that she decided to miss her church on Sunday and come to ours.

I got really scared, as I am sure all you ex-missionaries can relate to, when I saw that the topic of the class was about temples and temple work. It's tough to explain to some people "why we baptize dead people" haha especially after 4 days of knowing that the church exists.

However, she loved it and now is wanting to do all of her genealogy work, something she has always thought was important but never had the courage to start. She is 22 and lives with a guy but isn't married and after learning about the sealing of the family in the temple she is wanting to separate herself from him because she could NEVER see herself together with him forever haha. She also has a little kid.

The baptism is going to take a long time I think but for sure it will happen...even if I am not here to see it. She said "I now see how ignorant I was; your church is way better than mine!"

Everything's fine here. It's been raining a lot which has been messing up the work a little but it's good. It's going to get REALLY hot really soon so it's OK if it stays a little chilly for a bit.

Farewell!

-Elder Parsons

Elder Bird (Logan) who played LAX at BYU last year - just arrived

Photos

2009-09-21T16:45:00.003-07:00

Photos

2009-09-21T16:45:00.001-07:00

11 months to go!

2009-09-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! Glad to hear that all is good in your part of the world.

So our 2 baptisms this week went fine. The past month and a half has been the period of my mission that I have baptized the most which is way cool...however my companion and I have realized that we literally have "thrown" everything that we had in the water...now we are left with very little haha.

This week, and I am sure the next couple, will be completely dedicated to finding new, strong investigators to ensure even more baptisms for the end of this transfer.

I am glad to hear that BYU football took a small "number 2" on Tulane last Saturday. Looks like it could be their best year in a long time. Go team go! Win my favorite sports team, win!

Farewell!

-Elder Brent Parsons

No transfer

2009-09-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

So this week was the week of transfers. We were talking to our Bishop about how this transfer is going to be complicated because tons of new missionaries are going to show up and how Elder Bie was probably going to be transferred.

So then on Sunday after having lunch with him he asked me to give him my cell phone and put me on the line with President. I was a bit confused but I dialed President's number and gave it to him. He said a bunch of stuff to President but pretty much said that if there was anyway possible to keep both of us here in the area then he would be really happy because we are doing really good work here in the area. I relaxed as I heard this haha and thought it was way cool that he did that.

So then Monday night came and we received the call to see who was going to be transferred. I still thought, despite my Bishop's call, that Elder Bie was going to leave...but it wasn't so. My Bishop got his wish and we both are going to stay here another month and half at least.

Well we didn't have much else to do and my comp had to talk to President about some stuff so we went to the Mission Office for transfers today.

Both us and my entire zone were sure that my comp was going to be transferred and that I was going to train seeing as I am "in that season" of the mission and there are 21 new missionaries showing up, but alas that didn't happen.

I was actually kind of disappointed. I thought that maybe I had lost some of President's respect or something like that but one of my friends who is one of the Assistants called me over during transfers and told me that they literally had put me up on "the board" that President has with all the missionaries in the mission as a trainer with my new noobie companion and everything...but then right before they finalized the transfer my Bishop called saying that he really wanted us to stay.

And so President decided to change everything and now I will wait a bit longer to train I guess. I mean, it's cool what happened and everything but on the other hand I really wanted to train. But whatevs, I am still happy with everything that is going on here in the area so I don't have much to complain about.

Speaking of that we had 2 baptisms last week and 2 more this week. Last week was a girl named Larissa who is 12 whose mom Viviane actually "contacted" us on the street. Viviane is going to be baptized this week.

And the other baptism last week was ANOTHER Viviane who is 19 that we found from an address that my comp had grabbed from her mom on the street.

Then the other baptism this week is a 65 or so year old woman who has been going to church off and on for 10 years and solid for 2 years straight but never felt like she needed to get baptized and she could never stop drinking coffee but she just stopped drinking coffee about a month ago.

The other day I went up to her daughter who actually just got home from a mission and was like "What do we have to do to baptize your mom?" She was like "I think we just need to invite her now because it is now or never!" Haha.

So the following night we were in a meeting with our Bishop and told him about her and he said "Leave it to me...Sunday I will interview her and get her to get baptized." So Sunday I saw him call her into his office and when she came out she started telling everyone "I am going to get baptized on the 12th!" Haha so that was cool. It wasn't much work but hey, I'll take it.

SIDENOTE: I can't believe BYU beat Oklahoma! Sweet! Sounded like a good defensive game. That would be awesome if BYU broke the BCS this year. Could somebody send me BYU's schedule for this year?

Man I am getting all 'trunky' thinking about the lacrosse season starting! It didn't help that a kid named Logan Bird that I know who worked the BYU Lax camps with me just got here today! He played all last year as one of the starting Def. Middies and luckily got sent to here to the interior (actually my last area: Julio de Mesquita) and took the bus ride with me back here which gave him time to give me the breakdown of all last season. It unfortunately just made me even more trunky but it was way cool. It was way cool to see him and to hear about the stuff going on back home.

So my Dad sent me a pedometer to see how far I walk everyday. I have had it for about 2 weeks and the average so far is usually between 18 - 22 kilometers everyday. We have hit 24 km though so far. It's not as much as I thought it would be actually...what's that like 10 - 12 miles? I dunno. All I know is that I rarely get tired anymore. I can walk forever but if you ask me to run I will stop at about 100 meters...

I hope everyone has a good week, loves a stuff!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Sweet Week...

2009-09-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

This week was sweet.

The work here in my area is going extremely well which = I am happy. It definitely is the best the work has ever been on my mission yet. After a year I finally feel like I really know what I am doing on the mission. It's a good feeling.

The companions I have had so far (excluding my current companion) aren't really what you would call "diligent workers" and so it always hindered the work a bit...especially when I didn't speak very well or have a really good idea about how to do the work because I had to just follow in their "non-diligent" ways.

Now however, I know what I am doing and I have a companion that is willing to come along with me without hindering the work. It really shows how much it helps to have BOTH of the Elders in the companionship wanting to do the work instead of just one.

We have 2 baptisms this Saturday and more in the coming weeks. Unfortunately we have transfers next Wed. So most likely one of us isn't going to see the other baptisms. We both might stay together but it is pretty unlikely...one of us is going to go. We both think it is going to be my comp, Elder Bie but we will have to see. I hope I stay, but if I don't...whatevs. We'll find out on Monday night who is going to go and who is going to stay.

Loves and stuffs for all. Thanks for the emails!

-Elder Parsons

Sup ma' nerds!

2009-08-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

So I didn't have much to say this week but then my father made a slight complaint that I don't talk about my day to day stuff anymore...so I will write a little bit about that.

We study from 8 - 11 am everyday.

Then we have lunch at 12 noon at a members house. They actually have a lady from the Relief Society whose calling in the ward is to take care of the missionary's lunches. So she gives us a calender every month and we just show up at the houses and there is food there waiting for us.

We eat with the family, sit and talk for a while, then we leave a message. The lunch message switches between my companion and I every other day. The days where you don't have to give the message are the best because we are always freaking full after lunch and it's good to just sit on the couch and just listen without having to think at all. Then we ask for references (sometimes the message is directed to the family in order to show them they need to give a reference) then we pray and leave and start to work.

Those of you who have served in a country where lunch is the primary meal of the day knows that the hour after lunch is pretty much the worse time of the day because it feels like you weigh 20 lbs heavier, the sun is blazingly hot during this hour, and tons of people are still having lunch so it's hard to check out any addresses or anything that we got from our contacts.

Food = Rice and beans everyday with some sort of "mixture" as they call it which is just some sort of meat or something. I really like the food. It's funny because it can be the best meal ever but if it doesn't have rice and beans you will see fully grown men complaining at the table. I am starting to become like that. The meal can suck but as long as there is rice and beans you know you are going to get full.

Contacts are a huge part of the mission. We have to either contact someone on the street (talk with some on the street) or somebody at home 12 times as day. A contact can be really fast (30 seconds sometimes) but you have to say something about the restored gospel and ask for their address.

I am entering into the stage of my mission where I have pretty much heard every sort of excuse there is. Which pretty much means I get rather angry sometimes when I hear the same lie over and over when the people think they are being all original. I love Brazil but there are a few things that I will never accept or understand and one of the things is that they are taught from a young age that if you don't want to do something you can just lie about it and nothing will happen.

Dishonesty is a genetic trait I am beginning to believe. A crappy contact, which I am all too accustomed to having, usually goes something like this.

Me: "Hi, I know that you are in a hurry" (I always start like that because they love to blow me off with the whole 'I am in a hurry thing') "But we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ and ANOTHER DAY we would like to pass by your house and leave a message with you and your family" (you have to emphasize the whole ANOTHER DAY part or they will think that you want to share the message with them at that moment and they will just blow you off by saying they don't have time at the moment and will speed away) "that talks about how God called a prophet along with 12 apostles in our days, just like Jesus Christ's church was organized in His time. Would there be a time this week that we could come by and leave this message with you and your family really fast?"

Person I am contacting: "Oh, sorry young man, "Eu nunca paro em casa" which means "I am never at home" or literaly "I never stop in house." This is the phrase that I am sure I have heard over 3000 times on my mission.

So then I say "Our message will actually be really fast, only 5 minutes."

They say "No but I don't have 5 minutes, I work all day and only get home at night around 7 o'clock."

Then I say "Well that's perfect! We work until 9 o'clock at night. So can we pass by around 7:30 sometime this week?"

Seeing as they are caught, they move onto their second tactic. They say "Oh well I actually already go to another church so I am already following Jesus."

I say "You don't have to worry about that because our message doesn't argue about religion and the faith that you already have in Christ will only be increased by our message."

Then they understand that they can't wiggle out of it and move on to the third tactic.

They say (if it is a woman) "Sorry, but my husband doesn't accept other religions, he's kind of annoying" or if it is a man he mysteriously always lives with his mom still who is EXTREMELY Catholic or from the Congregaçao. Always. And she "doesn't accept other religions" either.

Then I start to get a little angry but still keep my calm "Well we could pass by there and see if they will accept us and if they yell and curse at us we won't mind because we are used to it don't worry about it. So can I grab your address and pass by there another day to talk to them and leave a message?"

Then they say "No I actually don't want the message, bye."

WHAT THE FREAK? I don't understand why they just don't say that in the beginning! They prefer to stay there lying to us over and over and over wasting both of our time instead of politely saying that they don't want to hear our message.

Every once in a while they add in a few creative excuses like "I live in a really far neighborhood" then I say "Well, seeing as we are the only missionaries in this ENTIRE CITY we for sure work over in your area as well!"

Haha, the other day this lady said "Oh no, thank you, I live really far away." I asked her where she lived and she obviously wasn't thinking to clearly while stuttering "Uh...umm...I live in...Salto de Pirapora." HMMM...interesting. That happens to be the name of the city THAT WE ARE IN RIGHT NOW! Haha. She couldn't even make up another name of a city other than the one we are in right now. I said "Well what an awesome coincidence...I live there too!"

Anyway, that was a long description for something so little. But it is actually a HUGE part of my life here considering I have to do 12 a day for 2 full years of my life...it just becomes part of me.

So this week we continued working with our 3 baptismal dates for next Saturday. Viviane and Larissa and another girl named Viviane as well. Viviane is that lady that stopped us on the street and we asked to pass by. We have been trying to help her stop smoking and she is doing well but has to stop really soon...like within 2 days...to get baptized next week. She was smoking 20 a day but now is at 2-3 a day but it is proving a little difficult to kick the habit. She can do it though.

We met her on the street the other day and stole her cigarettes from her haha. I filmed it and will send the video. I am really hoping that her and her daughter get baptized.

The other Viviane is 19 years old and is way cool. Everything was going fine until she went to church on Sunday then got back and her parents got really mad at her for going and stuff. We went there on Tuesday and she told us everything and was nearly crying because she thought she would have to give it up with us because she lives with her parents but we had an idea to teach her at a member's house that lives really close to her and she got all happy and said that's what she wanted.

She is 19 too so can sign her own baptismal form and everything...the parents just are really faithful to another church and it will just take a little time for them to adjust. I thought we were going to lose her but she still has the desire to keep going so we's good.

Welp, that's about it from these parts. We went to the Temple in São Paulo today which was way cool but we lose pretty much our whole p-day due to the 4 hour round trip bus ride plus the session and lunch. Not to mention the whole waking up at 3:30 to catch a bus from my area to Sorocaba in order to catch the other bus with all the missionaries from here in the interior to São Paulo.

It's all good though. Farewell to everyone!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Thanks for the emails!

2009-08-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

I thank all those who answered my plea and emailed me this week. It was actually way cool. My unknown fans Mr. Curt Lytle and Connor emailed me this week and said they have been following my blog for a while.

Curt Lytle has a son that just barely got onto the mission in Goiania, Brazil. He told me that his son has been struggling with the language and it reminded me of the ever so frustrating first months that I had here and how frustrating it was with the language. It gets better Curt! Let him know that. 6 months and he will be a pro.

I can't even remember what it feels like NOT to understand what the people are saying to me. Tell him that even though it doesn't seem like it right now, he is truly lucky for getting a Brazilian as a first companion and living with 2 other Brazilians. That is exactly what happened to me and it was the best thing that could have happened to help me with the language.

The other person who emailed me, Connor, has been following my blog ever since he got his call to Porto Alegre North, Brazil. I already gave him some tips in another email, but thanks for the email Connor. He is going to be heading to the CTM (actually was my first area) next week.

It was cool to see that me trying every week to inform people about what's going on here in my life actually have helped others.

Anyway, this week was really good. A lady named Viviani stopped us on the street and said her daughter, Lariça, who is a friend of Afonsinho's sister (kid we just baptized) is wanting to come to our church because she saw us going to Afonsinho's house a bunch. So then I said "Well, we would love to have her come to church, but we would like you to come too!" She said she would then I asked "Could we pass by your house and leave a message with you and the rest of your family?" She said yeah so then I pulled out my planner to find a day...then I noticed that we didn't have much to do that night so I was like "Could we come by...tonight?" She said "Oh sure! I would love it!" So we went by there.

It was awesome...and hilarious! She is a single mom with 4 kids and the oldest one is Lariça who is 11. The next is 6 years old (boy) , then 3 (boy), then 1 (girl). And they are all CRAZY. We gave the first lesson and while I was teaching I had to teach them with the 3 year old on my shoulders playing around with my hair because he climbed up on the couch and jumped down on top of me haha.

It's awesome though and the kids LOVE us. We arrive and they all come screaming out of the house to greet us. Then when we go to say the closing prayer they start climbing over us and yelling so we can't say the prayer. It's great though and I am truly happy when I am there with them. It's even better because both Viviani, the mom, and Lariça accepted baptism dates and are progressing like crazy. Viviani loves the Book of Mormon. Last night we went there and made a goal chart with Viviani to stop smoking by next week. She is smoking a pack a day but really wants to quit. We have really high hopes.

On Monday I did a division with Elder Puggina. It is impossible to describe him but he is just a bit "off". Anyway, we were sitting at the bus stop after district meeting to catch a bus back to my area when all of the sudden somebody yelled directly in my ear really loud. I jumped and looked over and there was a drunk there who started asking me for money. I told him no. Then he asked me if I was American then just to play around with him I told him no and said I was "Gaucho" (somebody from the southern state of Brazil - Rio Grande do Sul).

He then said that was good and we continued talking but a little ways through the convo I made a mistake in Portuguese...and I knew I did. He looked at me and said in his drunken voice "wait a second *hiccup*...you are American! And I am part of the police *hiccup* and you are under arrest! Show me your identification!" I was like "no...how about YOU show me your identification first."

Then my poor little friend Puggina was getting all scared and burst out "He was just joking! He is American! Sorry sir! Here are my documents!" and then Puggina panicky went fumbling around to pull out his documents from his pocket until I had to slap him and tell him that the guy was obviously a drunk and wasn't part of the police. Haha. Then he relaxed a little bit and we left the drunk (after the drunk actually hit me really hard on the back because I wouldn't give him any money) and caught the bus. It was hilarious...you kinda just had to be there and you have to know this Puggina kid.

Anyway, the work is going well here and I am happy. Thanks for all the support I have from home...love ya'll!

-Elder Parsons

Come On - write me an e-mail

2009-08-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

Let's just say all the "cyber praise" that I asked for and was anxiously waiting for this week made for a super "cyber let down" today. I thank those in my immediate and extended family...and Jake Ferrin...for the congrats on the year of work I have given harvesting souls to greater build the Kingdom of God here on the earth. But you know...it's not that important anyway I guess. :). I know there are a bunch of free riders out there reading this well kept blog chalk full of great comedic and spiritual insights that don't send me anything. I say "send me a freakin letter or get the heck off my blog!"**

Well we had the baptism of our little Afonso friend this week. He is 9 years old and his family decided to come back to church after being away for about 4 years. We taught him (and his family...because they pretty much forgot everything) all the lessons the we dunked him nigh unto Oreo in milk on Saturday. Actually our Bishop was the one who "dunked" him. Did I tell you guys that our Bishop is American? It's a long story but he served here in this mission and even passed through this area. He is now married to a lady who is from here but he never met her while he was on his mission.

Anyway, his Portuguese is nigh unto amazing...I mean I can understand everything he says but to duplicate his speaking ability will take another few years for me. I take Portuguese very seriously and I don't think I speak too bad at all, but there are some things that just take time. You can't learn everything from a book. But anyway, our bishop is way cool and helps us tons in the work.

So we had 3 baptisms in the last two weeks which is really good considering the mission goal is 2 baptisms per month...however we are kind of out of investigators right now. Monday literally was one of the worst days of work that I have ever had on my mission too. We had only 3 appointments in the whole day, very few, and all 3 of them fell one after the other leaving us with absolutely nothing to do at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We had to resort to "hitting" doors for 6 hours straight and with one of the worst streaks of luck I have ever seen we did not enter 1 house the whole day. It was incredible.

But luckily we had a really good day yesterday and found 5 new investigators and marked 2 more baptismal dates. It's funny how your emotions change on the mission. On Monday I was nearly calling President to ask to be emergency transferred out of the area and then yesterday I didn't want the day to end haha.

I also had to go do an interview in the Sister's area yesterday. My city here is out in the middle of nowhere but their area is another 24 km even farther out into the middle of nowhere. A little city called Pilar do Sul. And seeing as we can't do divisions with the sisters to do the interview both my companion and I had to go out there. It was cool though and was fun to work with them for half the day. One of them, Sister Lotulelei is Tongan and she went to Timpanogos. It's crazy that we are both so far away from home walking in a little town out in the middle of nowhere in Brazil but we are both from the same place. The world is tiny in the church.

Welp, that's about it I guess. I'll talk to you guys next week. Farewell.

-Elder Brent Parsons

**Not to be taken seriously

Photos of New Area

2009-08-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

New Area

2009-08-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

Well I spent this week getting to know my new area. The area is pretty cool, it is small but it has pretty much everything you need to survive I guess. It has a bank, like a thousand churches which makes for a great time for us, supermarket, and...yeah that's about it. It's cool though.

I took a bunch of pics with my new sweet camera that my Dad sent me. Enjoy! I realize that I look like a retard in the video I made but I hope it shows you my house and where I live at least a little bit. I swear I have not turned retarded here on the mission don't worry Mother!

We had two baptisms this week and we also have another one this week. I'll admit the last 2 last week I "stole" but the one this week I didn't. It is a son of a less active member who is coming back to the church right now but that unfortunately lives on the very other end of the city. The church is located right in the very entrance of the city which is good for the Church because everybody sees the church when the drive into the city but bad for the missionaries because it is an hour and 10 minute walk at the speed of my Mother's "strut" for those who are familiar with it to the other side of the city which is exactly where this little boy lives and where we have to go nearly everyday to teach him. However after the baptism it will get better...I hope.

Yes...the date has finally come. Next week my friends...I will complete a year on the mission (Aug 12th - date I left my house. Aug 13th - date I arrived in Brazil. You guys can call it a year for either one of these). It's been done my friends. Money and cyber praise will be gladly accepted.

Has it gone by fast? The first 6 months took forever but from 6 until now it flew by pretty fast. I dunno...as one of my friends here on the mission said in his final testimony before going home "People say that these 2 years fly by really fast, but to me 2 years was 2 years. It passed by as long as 2 years takes." It's true I guess. It's gone by fast but looking back to the day that I said goodbye to everyone it definitely seems like it has been a fully year. It's a good feeling to know that I won't have to repeat any of the days from here on out though haha. "Yep...that was the last August 14th on the mission..."

Anyway, loves and stuffs. If anyone has any questions or anything let me know. I love a good gossip too. Farewell!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Transfer!

2009-07-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

President has heard my pleads and I was transferred! Woot!

Haha, I have been transfered FROM the "rural" part of the mission to a city OUTSIDE of the "rural" part of the mission called Salto de Piropora. I am not quite sure what that would be called, but yeah it's a 45 min bus ride from Sorocaba (the city where I was at) that has a population of around 28,000 people.

Elder Little, who is from my group from the CTM was here and I took his place here along with his companion: Elder Bie. Elder Bie is from Rio de Janeiro too! It's crazy, 3 out of my 5 comps have been from Rio and there are only 4 or 5 of them from there here on the mission.

São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are sort of "rivals" here in Brazil. They are the 2 biggest cities, have the best soccer teams, and the people from one don't like the people from the other. Rio thinks all of the people from São Paulo work too much and are really cold.

São Paulo people think people from Rio are "Favelados" or people that live in the slums, have no money, are prideful, and don't like to work but just like to party and go to the beach all day. It is an extreme exaggeration on both sides but both of them have some truth behind their statements...

Elder Bie has about 5 months on the mission. He seems pretty cool. He is 24 and pretty intelligent. He already did college and graduated with a degree in mathematics. He seems cool enough but we have only been together for about 4 hours so we will see.

So this last week in Julio de Mesquita was tough because both Elder Affonso and I thought we were going to be the one leaving the area. Haha, we ran out of shampoo (well...I did...he doesn't buy stuff like that and just uses mine) but neither of us wanted to buy shampoo for just 1 week because it's annoying to take with you in your suitcase. So for the past week neither one of us was willing to buy shampoo so we just used regular soap as shampoo haha :). However...I won! I got transferred.

So here in Salto I am District Leader of another area called Jardim São Paulo and another area where there are sisters. One of the sisters is Tongan and went to Timpanogos High School (my high school...). I thought she looked familiar. She graduated in '05 so I am sure Ryan knows her. Don't know her first name but it is Sister Lotulelei (I think...I'll double check that). She's way cool though. Let me know if you know her Ryan. It is the first time I have ever had sisters in my zone, let alone my district.

I got here this week and looks like we are going to have 2 baptisms already this Saturday. Yeah, I pretty much will "steal" these baptisms but I also left 1 in my Julio de Mesquita for Elder Patten who took my place. That's how the mission is though. It doesn't look like this area is THAT strong but it should be pretty cool.

The city here isn't really very rural at all though. It's all by itself out here but it is actually very developed. 28,000 people is still a lot. It is just us 2 in this area so it's kind of weird...we are all alone out here. It's sweet though, I am excited to work here. Elder Affonso (who I spent 4 and a 1/2 months with...just to remind you guys...that was a really long time) was "born" (started his mission) in this area so he told me a bunch of stuff about it already. The Bishop here is actually American who went to BYU and served a mission here and came back and got married. I haven't met him yet but Affonso said I will like him a lot.

Well, I downloaded a few photos that I took really quick as we dropped my stuff off in the house and yes mother and father, I got the new camera! It's SWEET! Seriously, it's so awesome and I am so excited to play around with it tonight and find out all it's little cool stuff. THANK YOU SO MUCH, it's perfect. I felt like a little school girl as I opened up the box and saw it, jumping and squealing with joy. Thanks again! I was scared that it had been stolen too. It was a relief to get it.

Well, love you all and wish me luck in the new area! It should be good and I am excited to get to work. I have a good feeling about the area. Farewell!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Lost the big email...

2009-07-22T08:48:00.001-07:00

Welp, I am pretty angry because there was just an error with the site and I had written a huge email but just lost it. Now I am out of time.

Next week is transfers and I am hoping to get transferred...I have got 6 months here in Julio and I think it is about time I left...I hope I do but we will see what happens. Affonso wants to leave too haha. I love the people here but it is definitely time for a change.

I am good...healthy and everything. Love ya all.

-Elder Parsons

The Amish are coming the Amish are coming!

2009-07-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

It's really happening too. So I am on division here in a little town of 40,000 outside of Sorocaba called Boituva and have been for the past 3 days (companionship problem...but not with me and my comp don't worry). Anyway, I am with an American named Elder Call and we were walking down the street of the little town and saw the most typical little Amish family standing on the corner, and yes, they looked as confused as...an American Amish family in the middle of nowhere with people speaking a language they don't understand.

So anyway...Elder Call said very loudly "And that's our local polygamist family" as we walked by them...believing that they were just a strange Brazilian family. But anyway, long story short Elder Call and I went to have lunch (we decided to get Chinese Food...first time in 11 months! It was good) and as we were eating who shows up! Our little polygamist friends. Well, we noticed that they were all speaking English...and ended up talking to them. They are here in the little town of Boituva to start up a church and a bible distribution center for the Mount Zion Distribution Center (talk about a "Mormon" name) and they don't speak Portuguese yet haha.

It was just an extremely random experience: 2 Mormon Missionaries who speak Portuguese as a second language, 3 Amish families from Kentucky and California who don't speak Portuguese, ordering Chinese food from a Chinese woman that also doesn't speak much Portuguese, in the middle of a small town called Boituva in the center of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was pretty sweet though and Elder Call and I just laughed about it afterward.

So Friday was my birthday but it was actually just a pretty normal day until the end of the night. We went to teach a girl named Julianna who is 17 and lives in our newly acquired area of Ouro Fino. She's friends with a lot of the youth from the Ouro Fino ward. Anyway, so we went there and she said "hey Jessica (youth from ouro fino) has a church movie that she wants to watch with us, let's go over there." So we went. As we opened the door to their house we heard the great "SURPRISE!" and we saw the entire youth body from Ouro Fino and some other members there.

They had thrown us a surprise party...with a Barbie theme haha. It was ADORABLE. So Elder Affonso's birthday was last Tuesday so it was for both of us. They had made this barbie cake for us and when Elder Affonso and I went to blow out the candle Affonso shoved my head into the cake haha. So then...long story short, it started a very large cake war that left my shirt, tie, pants, and nametag barely recognizable as belonging to a missionary haha. It was awesome though. Everyone there and the house too were completely covered in cake and icing. I took a bunch of pictures but I think some cake got into the camera or something and it messed up my memory card (some of the pictures worked, but some just turned black) but Elder Affonso's cousin is a professional photographer and knows how to fix it so we sent the card to Rio de Janeiro for him to fix it. It should get back next week and I will send the hilarious pics and videos then.

Welp, the week was pretty normal otherwise. Next transfer is in two weeks so these should be my last days with Elder Affonso. There is no way we will stay together for 4 transfers. I am excited and anxious to see what happens at the transfer because really anything could happen. Anyway, thanks for the sweet emails everyone, talk to yall later!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Cat Tossing

2009-07-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

B-days all around

2009-07-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

So it worked out pretty well this week being comps with Elder Affonso because his B-Day was yesterday (the 7th) and mine is on Friday (the 10th) so the members were able to kill two extremely-large-and-ever-gaining-weight birds with one boulder. One family that takes care of a bunch of children threw us a little party yesterday which was pretty cool. The kids made up this little presentation that I filmed but ended up being really long and surprisingly extremely unorganized. Really funny though and they had a bunch of fun putting it on for us. I wouldn't pay to see it again though.

Today we are going to get another party actually at Rute and Alexandre's house. It is a tradition here in Brazil to throw eggs at the person who is having a b-day. I thought that b-days were supposed to be fun and not hurtful to the person that is HAVING the b-day...but you know...me and my twisted mind. Doesn't sound like it's going to be TOO much fun but we brought an extra set of clothes.

There are also photos of Nycoly's baptism that we had on Saturday. She asked me to baptize her so that was sweet and I got to put on the beloved white moo moo again. Any excuse to put it on is awesome. The baptism went really well and it was awesome because Nycoly's mom and grandpa loved it. Afterward they said "They did the whole baptismal service just for her!! I couldn't believe it!" That's because everyone here is used to all the other random churches here that could care less about their members. It was way cool.

Well, hope the 4th of July was good for everyone! Fireworks = cool/want to use them but can't. Farewell!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Death of a True American Hero: Billy Mays

2009-07-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

I was truly saddened to be informed of the death of the TRUE American Hero this week. The man who death has unfortunately been overshadowed by a lesser and whiter "star": Billy Mays.

I am sure the media has only talked about the death of Michael Jackson and thus the death of Billy Mays has not been given the attention and gratitude that he undoubtedly deserved. Billy Mays has done countless paid-programming commercials for a wide variety of cleaning/houseware products. Often his commercials came hand in hand with the thought "Why is he yelling at me!? I may call and by his product just to get him to stop yelling at me." However, without his constant yelling I truly would have never known of OxyClean's complete superiority over the other stain-removal competition.

Now you finally have time to rest your voice Billy, rest in peace. There is no need to yell now...

I thank my big bro Ryan for being the ONLY person to inform me of this Fallen Hero's death. Shame on all of you for not putting your priorities straight!

Anyway, speaking of Michael Jackson he really is like the 8th wonder of the world here. I am not even kidding. EVERYBODY, and yes I really do mean EVERYBODY loves him. It's really not healthy. I have yet to here a song play on the street here since his death that wasn't one of his. An Elder that went home this week because he finished his mission (the one that was living with me for the past two weeks) LOVED him and was one of his biggest fans. He never cried in front of us but admitted to shedding a few tears for the fallen hero on his own. To the dismay of many I was completely unaffected by Michael Jackson's passing. But you know...I am becoming heartless and cold here on the mission. Jill/Mom "What!?" Me "Yes mom, it is true."

Me wants to see Harry Potter VI.

Well the life and the mission go on here in Julio de Mesquita. The 2 elders who were living with us for the past two weeks left yesterday morning and are now having a wonderful lunch with their mommies. Freak. All they left for us here in our house is a air heavy and full of "trunkiness" (homesickness) that has slowly been consuming us the past 2 weeks. But alas, I have got over the feeling and I am fine here, no need to worry mother.

So with the two Elders "deaths" my companion and I have now truly taken over their area and will start the work their immediately. We have been especially tired the last few days because we have had to think and abnormal amount about the best and most effective ways to do the work here in the area. We have some ideas and we will see if they turn out well. It is pretty mentally draining though.

This Saturday we are going to have a baptism! Nycoly (yes...that is how you spell her name) is going to be baptized. She is the girl in the video of me and her throwing her cat back in forth (it was awesome). Her mom is also preparing herself to be baptized. They are way cool and even send pictures and letters to my parents.

Well I am off to clean the house that the 4 of us have pretty much destroyed in the last 2 weeks. Now that the other 2 are gone it should be easier to clean and keep clean. This will be the first time in my 10 and half months of the mission that I will live with just me and my companion. Crazy! Should be cool...and different. Farewell!

- Elder Brent Parsons

Nothing noteworthy...

2009-06-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Actually don't have much time to write and luckily this week was really good...but nothing that was too noteworthy.

Next week the two missionaries that are living with us are going to leave and we are going to have to take over their area...leaving our area HUGE. It will be cool though, I just have to do some divisions with them to make sure I know the area and where the investigator's houses are and everything before they leave...

I am grateful for the emails that I get and Happy Father's Day to all, and to all a good night!

-Elder Parsons

Photos as of late

2009-06-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

No transfer

2009-06-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well, my companion and I went to transfers today. However, neither of us were transferred.

Explanation: we live in our house with another set of missionaries. However, president "closed" there area and sent another 2 here to replace them. So we went to transfers to pick up the 2 in order to show them how to get there area...I also needed to pick up a pair of shoes that I was badly needing (both sets of shoes are completely ripped in half at the bottom). Transfers went pretty crazy with all the changes that happened in the mission...none of which you guys would understand neither care about.

So anyway, turns out that Elder Martinatto and Elder Cruz came here to live with us. Yes, the same Elder Martinatto who I lived with my first 3 transfers and who was my first ZL on the mission. I love the kid. Both he and Elder Cruz are going to leave in 2 weeks though, which means that Ouro Fino (their area) will be without missionaries. Long story short, here in 2 weeks my companion and I will more than double the size of our area and will have to take care of the 2 wards here. Pretty crazy.

Sidenote: I am now my first Zone Leader on the mission's District Leader. Haha. Never saw that one coming.

So yes, this means that I am going to spend 3 transfers (4 and half months) with my companion Elder Affonso. And yes, that IS a very long time. I have already done 3 months with him...6 more weeks on the way! I don't know if I want to...but...you know. That's how it is. Go team go!

They are working on our house right now and so they must have hit one of our water pipes because our toilets and our sinks are now without water. Fortunately we can still take a shower. And unfortunately...Elder Affonso found out about the toilet not working AFTER use. I provided my father a photo of it...if he chooses to put it on the blog is his choice...

We baptized Galdir this week! It is a long story but the Bishop ended up baptizing her. I don't think I ever said to you guys but she has an EXTREME fear of water. Like...it's unbelievable. She went into the font trembling out of control (Affonso and I were the witnesses). Bishop took her and tried to baptize her...but she ended up just screaming on the way down and jumping out of the water. Bishop tried again...but she BARELY didn't get covered all the way. Then she started crying, but good ol' Bishop Juca consoled her and they did it again. The water BARELY covered her head, but covered it did. It was pretty hilarious and a successful baptism. What faith the little woman has.

Until next week my friends! Keep them emails a comin'!

-Elder Brent Parsons

And I'm NOT in London Either...

2009-06-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Oh how great the mission is. I mean...to be here in Brazil with only another 20 year old Brazilian boy to keep me company while my family enjoys the wonderful delights that Paris/London have to offer. Oh how easy and wonderful it is!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone has at least one chance in their life to feel all these great feelings that I am feeling at this moment.

JK man...I'm good. I know my time will come to relax.

And besides, I am having my fair share of delicious experiences here in Sorocaba, like the one I had on Monday! I freakin hitch-hiked! It was so awesome. I did a division and I guess in there area they can either take a bus or hitch hike to get to this one neighborhood that is really far away. The Elders there don't like to spend money on buses...so they just hitch hike haha.

So it sounded like it could be fun so we did it. It was really funny actually. We hitch hiked there with this cool guy, then on the way back we finally waved a guy down and he stopped for us. I opened up the door and said "Thank you for stopping!" Then I heard this extremely flaming gay voice answer back "Your welcome! I am only doing it because you guys are men of god!" I thought..."oh crap". But we got in anyway.

Well turns out that he is openly gay and it shows by his clothes and voice. But he was cool enough so we started to make some small talk and he told us that he had already had the missionaries over at his house. I said "woah, that's cool. Have you ever been to church?" He said he had been tons of times but never got baptized. I asked him as we were getting closer to our house (he insisted on going out of his way by getting off the highway, driving a few more miles and dropping us off at our front door) "So why did the missionaries stop teaching you and why did you stop going to church?" He said "Well, they used to come to my house all the time, it was a Brazilian and a American. Well, long story short the American was GORGEOUS and I ended up falling in love with him. Unfortunately his companion noticed that I had fallen in love with him and that I was flirting tons with him...so they never came back. I was so sad.

Then, a few months later, some other missionaries came back to my house and asked if they could come in and share a message. They were both really fat and ugly Americans so I said no."...my goodness. I literally just bursted out laughing in the middle of the car. I couldn't contain myself. He didn't get offended or anything though and he dropped us off at our house in peace. It was hilarious.

Oh yeah, I did that division because I had to do some baptismal interviews for them. The interviews were awesome. I have decided that I love having a calling as a leader in the mission. Not because I get to order people around or anything but because I
1) I get to know tons of missionaries and their background and everything
2) I get to get out of my area sometimes and see what the other areas are like and
3) I get to see all the great investigators that the other areas have and how so many people are choosing to follow the teachings of Christ and change their lives.
It's extremely...fulfilling.

Transfers are next Wednesday! I am hoping to get transferred. We are going to have a baptism this Saturday (Galdir. That lady that stopped us on the street as we were walking and asked us to prayer for her son) but that is it for this transfer. However, next transfer looks like there should be tons of baptisms (maybe even around 7 or 8) but I will be honest...I am pretty sick of the area. I would award it the most repetitive area of the mission...and everyone that has done a division here with me would agree.

My ZL was like "wow...I don't know if I could handle being in this area for as long as you have...and you haven't even been here THAT long." Which is true. This is only my 3rd transfer here (4 and 1/2 months) but I think the time has arrived for a change. We will see though. My ZL said my companion and I won't stay together another transfer (we have 2 transfers together) so either him or I will go, and I have been here longer. Who knows though, anything can happen.

Love y'all! Hope the week goes well for everyone.

-Elder Brent Parsons

I am NOT in Paris

2009-06-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

I won't lie. It's pretty tough sitting here in the lonely LAN House knowing that my family is enjoying the elegant streets of Paris without me at the moment. I surely would like to be there as well. Fortunately, my week went pretty well so it hasn't been too hard to stay focused on the work.

I have been on division the last 2 days in the areas of Boituva and São Bento which are in my district because I had to do some baptismal interviews in the areas. Boituva had a little 9 year old boy and São Bento has this sweet family of 6 that are going to be baptized (actually 2 already were so I did only 4 interviews).

However I am now kind of sick because 1) the interviews last night took like 2 hours to do and I talked pretty much non-stop in the interviews so I woke up pretty much unable to talk today and 2) it is freakin COLD here! Like I am not joking.

I am wearing a little sweater right now that Affonso gave me. Like one of those typical Christmas sweaters that you see in movies. It's awesome. The houses here are just made of straight up concrete and bricks so they don't keep any amount of heat in. I could take my bed and sleep outside and it would be the exact same thing as sleeping inside. I never thought I would actually be cold here in Brazil but...I am. And from day to day the weather changes like crazy so I have ended up getting sick.

If I were at home in Utah I would take the day off...but we have a bunch of important appointments these days that I cant miss...plus it sucks staying inside all day in a missionary house. "I guess I'll just go...read the scriptures more then..." Yeah, I would rather walk the streets sick then stay at home with nothing to do.

Week was good though...yeah...that's about it. Love and pray for all of you. Thanks for the emails.

-Elder Brent Parsons

2009-05-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

This week was sick. Meant in both senses of the word. One because it seems like everyone is having health problems in my little social sphere, and second because the work here in Julio de Mesquita is going very well.

We were walking on the street on Friday night and we heard this 50 year old or so lady yell from behind us "Hey, little boys!" There was another kid walking ahead of us so we thought it was him that she was talking to, so we just kept going. Then she yelled "Hey, can't I talk to you 2??!" So we looked back and she was in fact talking to us "little boys." So we went back and she told us about her nephew who is having trouble with drugs and stuff and asked if we could say a prayer for him in our church. We said yes but also asked if she would like to hear our message. She said yes and we went in.

We gave her the first lesson and she really liked it. She is from a church called the Universal Church that pretty much just robs all of its humble little members of every cent they have. Anyway, at the end we even invited her to be baptized at the end of June and she said "Well...I guess I will have to stop going to the Universal...but alright then! What time is the baptism?" Ha ha, it was way funny...and cool. So we explained that we would have to prepare her by teaching her some few things about the church and she said that was fine. We told her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon too.

So we went back the next day and she said "Well, this morning I went back to the Universal for the normal morning meeting." At this point I just thought "Oh crap..." then she said "I have been going to the Universal Church for 15 years and have listened to the pastor's words every single time. However, this time I just sat there and couldn't pay attention at all to what the pastor was saying! All I heard were the words of the two little boys who past by my house and the words of the Book of Mormon. I have decided to never go back to the Universal Church because I know that this book, and the message you both gave me are true."

My companion and I just looked at each other and we both just started laughing at the same time. She was like "Why are you laughing!! I am being serious!" I was like "I know you are and that's why we are laughing so much! When things like this happen to us we have to show our excitement by either laughing or crying...and I don't really want to start crying in front of you." She started laughing...and in the end I did shed a few tears I won't lie.

She went to Stake Conference on Sunday and said "I just feel so bad that I have lived my whole life without even knowing about this church. I thank you both for giving me the opportunity to get to know it." Yesterday we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she said "Well I wont tell you that from this day on I won't drink coffee because I already drank some today, but I will tell you that from this moment on I will never drink it again." For all you ex-missionaries out there...just imagine hearing those words...

So then we have this other 30 year old girl named Cassiana with a 5 year old son and a 8 year old daughter (8...what a magic number) who also received an answer about the book of Mormon and now has been ex-communicated from the Baptist Church because she is receiving lessons from us ha ha. Her pastor has gone to her house almost every night for the last week trying to get her to come back but she won't.

Then we marked a bunch more baptismal dates this week too.

So all in all, I have been here in Julio for like 3 and half months now and have worked my best but for 3 months pretty much nothing has happened but now, finally, after all my work things are starting to pay off and it's pretty sweet. Transfers are on June 17th and I was getting really excited for them...but now I am starting to dread the day.

-Elder Brent Parsons

A couple of pictures

2009-05-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

a down-syndrome kid of an investigator that loves me and I love him. He's way cool.

a picture of Jesus with a little kid on his shoulders

Picture from a drug store with a wall of condoms but with a statue of Christ on the cross right above it

A bat in a tree

I'm getting fat...

2009-05-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

I would like to inform everyone that I am getting fat. I was weighed, yes WEIGHED, last Friday by Sister Cooley and both Elder Affonso and I have gained 6 pounds each in the last 6 weeks. Elder Affonso says we are like "The Golden Calf" and the people in our area worship us...with food...and it's true. Thems ward sistas like to give us food. That combined with the extremely small and flat area provide a perfect recipe for an excellent "muffin top". You know...when the fat hangs over the sides of your pants to creat a nice little muffin top. It's a brewin'.

So not tons has happened this week, it was pretty normal. I have been on division with Elder Pratt for the last 3 days because Monday we did a normal division but my comp got sick so he did work in the other area at all, then felt bad about it and asked if he could stay there another day in order to make up for the lost time. We live in the same house anyway so it's not all that weird, and I like working with Pratt. Not only is it fun talking to an American but we also got some good work done by marking 5 baptismal dates plus we had this lesson with this one lady named Casiana last night that was freaking awesome. She understands the Restoration of the Church like...perfectly. It's so cool. Definitely an Elite for all of you missionaries who know what that means.

So yeah...I am District Leader...which usually includes me calling up people every night and awkwardly saying "so...how was your day...?" "It was good? Well...that's good then...it's always good to have good days...you know..." Then I talk awkwardly about the people they have with baptismal dates and then I hang up the phone...breathing really heavy and try to prepare myself emotionally to call the next area. It's awkward.

Haha, just kidding...it's not that bad. Just kind of weird sometimes. But it's going fine. The only thing that I have to do that is hard is prepare the trainings for district meeting. It's hard to keep them interesting enough for missionaries who here about the gospel and study it pretty much 24/7. I have ideas though and we'll see if they work.

I am hearing good things about the new Star Trek movie. Sounds sweet and it was directed by JJ Abrams? I love him. I am sure it was way cool and am so excited to see it...here in a year and 3 months from now...

BYU Lacrosse loses to Chapman in overtime 10-9?! Freak. I heard Chapman scored the last goal on some badly thrown inbound pass or something like that? I think I would have pooped my pants in hatred at that moment. So Michigan is champion again. Crap.

Welp, so that's about it. Hope everyone has a good week and I thank everyone for the emails. Bye-bye.

All hail Barack Obama. I love this quote my dad sent me in an email that just gives a perfect look at Obama's campaign.

"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it."
- Barack Obama

Wait...what?

-Elder Brent Parsons

On my way to DL Training in Sao Paulo

2009-05-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well the internet went down all day today in the area I was in so we didn't have time to write any emails and now I don't have much time because I just grabbed a bus from Sorocaba for 2 hours until we got here in São Paulo at the Mission Office. Because tomorrow morning we have the new District Leader Training.

Elder Little from my group also turned DL so I came out with him and another Elder from Sorocaba. I miss this place...it's a bit more bumping here in São Paulo than it is in the peaceful little Sorocaba. I miss the bumpin'!

So the most significant event of the week was definitely the phone call to my family. For those of you I did not get to talk to...you missed out. We talked about CRAZY stuff...I mean...it was wild. Ok not really, but it was really good to hear my family's voices.

Other than that the week was pretty normal. We actually just got another baptism because of our work with that one family that we reactivated. The son Alexandre's friend Bruno started going to church the last couple weeks and went to play soccer and to all the activities almost every night of the week and is loving it. I was on division on Monday with my ZL but Affonso met up with him and Bruno told him that he wants to become a member of our church because he is going to start going every week from now on. Sweet!

I think I am getting really fat...we will see when I get "weighed" at interviews on Friday. I for sure am losing muscle...I haven't done a push-up in who knows how long.

Love ya'll!

-Elder Parsons

P.S. Sorry this letter is crap...it'll be better next week when I have more time.

Thanks

2009-05-10T09:53:00.001-07:00

Thanks to all how shared Brent's Blog URL with friends and family... see what you've done!

Photos from Baptism, Open House & District

2009-05-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

There are pics from the baptism,pics from a bbq thing we did as a zone, some pics from the Open House And some just from around the house and area - One with that military guy and the guy in the blue shirt who is the Mayor of Sorocaba)

Ok...I am kind of freaking out right now...

2009-05-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

So there were transfers today right? We got the call on Monday night saying that neither I nor Elder Affonso were going to be transferred. Woot! 6 more weeks of the repetitive streets of Julio de Mesquita...and...Elder Affonso...

But that's not really the reason why I am freaking out right now. I am sick to my stomach right now because I just got the call that I got moved to District Leader here. Yes...the little boy Parsons will now be in charge of 7 other Elders...5 of which have more time on the mission...3 of which have more than a year and 4 months on the mission...and 1 in his last transfer of the mission. I really am so scared...

Duties of the District Leader for those who don't know:
-Give the training or delegate somebody to give the training at District Meeting every Monday
-Call all the areas in the District every night to follow up on the work in the area and their baptism dates
-Do divisions (splits) with the other areas to provide training and to see how each area is going
-Do all baptismal interviews for the District. The Zone Leaders will do my area's baptismal interviews.
-Follow up with the zone leaders every night about each area.
-Collect my districts numbers for the week every Sunday.

I am pretty sure there is other stuff that I have to do but that stuff above is everything that I know at the moment. Next week I will go to São Paulo to get the "New District Leader Training". May God have mercy on my new District.

Well anyway, on with the news from the week! We had Arielle's baptism this Sunday after the first week of church in our new Chapel. It was awesome because we used to have like 70 or 80 in church at the old chapel but this week we had 130! The place was packed.

The baptism was freaking awesome too. It was the best baptismal meeting that I have ever seen and was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had here on the mission. The young women of the ward had a special musical number that was way good and one of them bore her testimony to Arielle which pretty much made the whole room cry. Then we had the baptism. We both changed into our clothes and the walked into the frigid water because unfortunately the heater was broken. I had to baptize her twice because her knee came up which was really funny and sad because she was shivering like crazy and I felt bad doing it again...but you know...the price of salvation young woman!

Then we went back to the chapel and her mom and her shed tears of joy for a while and it was all awesome. That night the parents Alexandre and Rute who we reactivated as well told us with tears in their eyes that we have done so much for their family and that we are literally part of their family now.

Mom, just wanted to say that Rute took me by the hand and looked into my eyes as she cried saying that I must have one of the most amazing mom's in the world because I have turned out to be such an amazing person (her words...not mine!). I just looked back and I told her that I really do.

However, we have been focusing so much on reactivating this family, getting their son excited to serve for a mission, and baptizing their daughter that we didn't have tons else going for us. Now that we accomplished what we wanted we have to start all over now...literally. We are now literally searching the area for more less active families to reactivate and baptize their children haha. It is what this area needs.

Well...now more than ever I will need everyone's prayers...I hope President knows what he is doing with this whole DL thing. Oh yeah! It will make 9 months that I am here on the mission next week! Whoever got frisky with someone and got pregnant the day I left should be having their baby by now! Ryan...

Love you all!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Good Work Everyone!

2009-04-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

I have received exciting news from my Father! My blog got a record 28 hits last week! What a self-esteem booster. Mom, have Alysha and her friends make posters or something to put up all around town about my blog. If we work hard we can crack 50!

Good work everyone.

I actually don't have much time to write, but I would like everyone to know that the Open House and the Dedication of the chapel were a success this week. It was way cool and even though TONS of people didn't come to the Open House the Dedication was packed. There literally wasn't any room to fit any more chairs in the over-flow of the chapel. I really think this new chapel is going to be the "jump-start" that this ward needs.

The biggest news of the week! This less-active family that we have been working with for almost 3 months have all finally come back! They have 2 kids: 1 son that is 16 and a daughter who is 14. The 16 year old was baptized but for the last 5 years he hasn't wanted anything to do with the church but we were there on Monday night and I was out on the street doing push-ups and stuff with him and he finally turned to me and was like "Elder Parsons, you and your companion have inspired me. I want to not just come back to church and stay firm in the church, but now I want to serve a mission too." I was so happy I gave him a huge, extremely manly hug.

Then to top it all off the 14 year old girl who wasn't baptized and who has been embarrassed to even say she was affiliated with the church for the last 5 years came up to us after starting to accept us these past few weeks and told us that she now really wants to be baptized! She also asked me to baptize her! So we have her baptism marked for after church this Sunday...woot!

It was such an amazing experience with that family this week and I am so grateful for them. We have been working for more than a month straight with our changed focus to the less-active members of the ward and it is awesome to see that we are finally "reaping the fruits of our labor" and that the Lord is preparing this ward to come back even stronger than it once was.

On to other news, we just got done playing soccer and had a "Brazilian BBQ" with our zone. It was pretty sweet.

Well, sorry that was so short but I don't have tons more time. Next week is transfers so let's see if I am going to stay another transfer here in Julio de Mesquita. I really think I will stay here but I don't know if I will stay with Elder Affonso, but we will see. It is likely that I will...

Farewell to all, and to all a good night!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Pictures

2009-04-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

The front yard of someone's house they "clapped" at but no one answered.

Open House Starts Today!

2009-04-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hey,

So this week was pretty much getting ready for the Open House that starts today and will go until Saturday night with the "re-dedication" of the chapel on Sunday night. We had these really sweet invites printed out to hand out to as many people as possible in our area and we started visiting less-actives and all our investigators like crazy to get all the invites out and to make sure that they were going to come.

So that's what Elder Affonso and I did and then yesterday 2 and 1/2 zones (about 35 missionaries) came to our area and the area of the other elders and helped us deliver invites to everyone. It was pretty annoying because I called my bishop like 3 times throughout this last week and then had lunch with him once to make sure that he was going to bring a map of the area for everyone to have and to color in parts in order to let all the companionships know where they had to work, but then we showed up at the chapel and he just told me that he forgot and then went and started talking to some other members and left me there with 36 missionaries just waiting in the chapel to do something.

Hooray! So I ended up just taking them out (Well half of them at least because the other half went to the other area) and showed them where they needed to go. Then I just let them go and it all worked out because all they needed to go was to go talk to the maximum amount of people as possible and deliver the invites...and they are missionaries so that's not too hard for them. So it all worked out but we lost like 1/2 hour of our time but whatevs...If I let a little something like that to get to me in this ward then I would have asked to be transferred away from the ward long ago haha.

It doesn't help that my companion doesn't help me at all with it or write anything in his planner because if he writes stuff down then it just "stresses (him) out too much" and he can't get stressed or else "bad things will happen".

But we's good!

I am really excited about the chapel and hope it will help turn this area around again. We have this family that is so awesome that says they will go to it and I really hope they do because I know they will love it. My companion says that if we baptize this family then his mission will be complete because they are really that awesome and would become members that would end up as stake leaders in a year or so from now. I don't know if my mission here would quite be "complete" but it would be a huge accomplishment for me and it would validate my nearly fruitless hard work in this area.

Thank you for all your prayers of support! I can't thank many people for emails this week unfortunately...but those who did email I am very grateful! Just kidding, I am grateful to everyone...but really...this week's inbox = sad.

-Elder Brent Parsons

Photos

2009-04-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photos.

The new improved church, our tree-cutting, and my companion Elder Affonso. Plus a little fun with the magnets.

Greetings

2009-04-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

Oh the Easter season. How great it is. Especially being in a country where the word for "eggs" is the popular slang term referring to male-genitals (as to "balls" in the USA). Works for completely inappropriate humor all the day long.

But of course the Easter Eggs are not really what the season is about. For us missionaries almost everyday besides P-day is just about the same so I didn't feel much of a difference on Easter, but I hope everyone else did and had a chance to remind themselves of the Savior and his eternal-sacrifice for us. I know that he and his Atonement are the only way that we can inherit true happiness.

This week Elder Affonso and I found out that our Chapel will return to our area on the 26th of April! WOOT! The chapel we are using right now is like a 50 minute bus ride away...yeah not too easy to get people there every week. But now the chapel is in our area and is only about a 10 min walk for most of my area. I sent a picture of it. It used to be a really old beat up chapel but now it is way sweet and even has an elevator! I am excited to be able to start using it this month.

However with the new chapel will also come with a lot of work because there will be an "Open House" that will have to be done and unfortunately a lot of the planning and labor falls on the missionaries. There are 4 zones of missionaries here in Sorocaba and I am hoping we can get all of them to come to deliver invites and talk to everyone in the area to invite them to the Open House that will happen during the 23rd to the 25th. It will be a lot of work for my companion and I and the other 2 Elders that will share the chapel with us...but hopefully it will pay off.

Elder Affonso and I have been working TONS with less-active members in our area this week because there are seriously so many. It's a little bit ridiculous. Our ward has something like 450 members with only 80-90 that are going to church. We haven't stopped our search for new investigators and baptisms but we definitely have shifted our focus on the work to reactive the once extremely strong members of the church. It's crazy though because while working with the less-active members tons of them have tons of doubts about the church that need to be cleared up before they come back...which is where we come in. They ask SO many questions that are often extremely difficult so Elder Affonso and I are studying like crazy and trusting in the spirit in order to help them come back. After some of our appointments with these less-actives I feel completely mentally-drained it's crazy. But awesome. This week we helped 2 families come back with promises of 2 more this week. It's really satisfying work.

Our baptism that was planned for Saturday unfortunately fell through...due to 1 cigarette!!! That dang Fransisco just couldn't fight off the temptation with all his friends smoking at work and he smoked 1 this week. So we had to move his baptism to the 25th but he says he will never smoke again and felt really bad about it. We had to burn him with the good news a little bit to understand, but he was glad we did.

Wow, what a little perfect missionary-letter I just wrote for y'all. Excellent. But that's what my life is so...there ya go. Farewell! I am off to make a movie with my DL, his comp, and Elder Pratt (American I live with) that is going to be sick-tight! Elder Pratt has a sweet camera that he can edit and stuff on so the movie should be sweet. Loves and stuff.

-Elder Brent Parsons

Photos from Area and Zone

2009-04-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

The name tag of Elder Rêgo... "Rêgo" is slang for "Plumber's crack" in Portuguese

My DL - Elder Anderson

My Zone

Great Conference

2009-04-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

How about Conference eh? Yeah that was pretty sweet. Especially because us Americans in my zone got to go to a room in the chapel all by ourselves and watch it in the wonderful language of English. It wasn't working for the Saturday Morning session so we had to watch it in Portuguese and it was just not the same. When you have grown up your whole life listening to these inspired men with their own voices and everything but then you have to switch and listen to someone else's voice translating...just doesn't work.

Conference was also like 10 times better as a missionary. It just seems so much applicable and practical. It was all extremely good but I think Jefferey R. Holland's talk about us feeling alone but then telling the story of Christ's life and how he was alone as well was probably my favorite. I was so grateful for the opportunity I had to listen to it in English too because nobody can replace the ability he has to give discourses. All in all it was great.

The down side about conference is that I didn't get to work tons in my area and with my comp this week. My comp is pretty cool. Last transfer I guess he just slacked off the whole time but he says he wants to get back on track this transfer and get some real work done so that's good I guess. He pretty much will work at whatever level that I am going to work. In other words, if I work hard then he will too but if I turn into one of those missionaries that just sits at a lan house all day then he'll be right at my side too. But don't worry, I am choosing to do the former.

Speaking of that we have been working pretty hard this week to make up for the lost time last transfer. Not that Elder Lemos and I didn't work...it was just a different kind of work. More like the work between psychaitrist and patient. But whatevs...we're good now.

We at least have one baptism coming up named Fransisco. We have been working with him for a while and he is way cool. He is just here for a little while because he is just here to work for a bit to gain some money but then he will go back to his family in the nearly Amazonish state of Tochantins (I actually have no idea how to spell that). He loves the church though and LOVED General Conference.

He has been trying to stop smoking as of late. It was funny because on Monday we told him we were going to call him everyday to make sure he didn't smoke and I called him last night at 7:45 but I had told him I would call him at 7:00 but I called late because we ended up teaching an unexpected lesson with some crazy lady. He answered and was like "I have been sitting here for the past 45 min wanting to smoke really bad but I knew how angry you would be at me if I smoked so I have been just sitting here in the chair with the phone in my hand waiting for you to call so I could tell you that I didn't smoke." It was so funny...and kind of sad because I kept him waiting. But mostly just funny.

All the talk about Barack Obama has kind of just faded away here...I don't think anyone here cares about anything other than having a black president...and now that they have one they don't want to talk about him anymore. Who cares about the president's pork barrel spending? He's black! Thus he has had a hard life and thus he deserves to spend our tax dollars whichever way he pleases! Leave him alone!

Idiots.

Well anyway, I love to hear about anything that is going on their in the blessed USA...or about your lives. Sorry I don't have much to say...but I don't. LOVES AND KISSES! Farewell.

-Elder Parsons

New Companion

2009-04-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon!

I know I haven't written much in the past little while and for that I have to apologize to what I am sure are my millions of fans world-wide. The past few weeks have been some trying times in this missionary's life...and it looks like they are going to continue. However, show business is show business and I must please the ever-anxious crowd of subscribers.

This past week was pretty funny...mostly because how stupid it was. The other companionship that we were living with were fighting like crazy so Elder Lemos and I pretty much spent the week away from each other on division. We were on division last Tues and Wed and then we tried to leave them together on Thursday but we showed up at the house on Thurs night and they hadn't worked for the whole day because after lunch they got in a fight on the street. So then friday and saturday we went back on division. Hooray for infantiles!

So on Monday night we received "The Call" saying that Elder Lemos was going to be transferred. So today we went to transfers and he got moved down to Junior companion for his last transfer of the mission somewhere in the Capital. I received a new companion named Elder Affonso. He has 4 months on the mission and I turned into Senior Companion. Haha...yeah...pretty crazy for me. I am nervous, I won't lie. Us two together don't even have 1 year on the mission haha. But hey, that's what President decided so here we go. Elder Affonso seems cool enough...as many new Brazilians are he is a bit prideful, but I think it will work out. We'll see.

Love you all and I will write more next week. Farewell!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Zone Conference with Elder Costas

2009-03-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

We had Zone Conference this week and Elder Costas from the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke to our mission. It was awesome! It was unbelievable how much I learned about missionary work in the short 3 hours that he spoke. I wanted him to keep going. He talked about every aspect of missionary work: from how to find people to our personal hygiene. It was really funny, spiritual, and extremely informational. Thoroughly enjoyed by all.Other than that the week was normal and I unfortunately don't have any really sweet stories from the week.

We are teaching this really cool guy though that is from way in the middle of nowhere in Brazil and is just working here to gain some money but he is going to go back there this summer he thinks. He really wants to be baptized but there isn't a church close to where he lives. We told him that he still has the Book of Mormon, prayer, and principles of the gospel that he can share with everyone there and can be an example to all his friends and family, thus spreading the gospel by his example. We'll see what happens.

We went to the Zoo today as a zone so there are a bunch of pictures from that for all to enjoy.That's all I have got for the week...and I would just like to say that my inbox was a bit skimpy this week...farewell!

-Elder Parsons

Never again...

2009-03-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

My sister never said to say "What's shakin' my masters of turkey bakin'" as the title for my blog letters again. It hurt my soul.

This week was pretty normal. I was pretty strict with my companion yesterday and talked to him pretty hard about what he wants to do with the last 2 months of his mission, what type of missionary he wants to be. He chose to try to work harder and hopefully it will help us out here in the coming weeks.

So like I said the week was pretty normal...I just have one story for the week and I think it's a good one for y'all. Here you go -- Funny Story for the Week:

Funny story for the week:

So we contacted this lady on the street the other day, this "senhora" who is probably like 65 years old. She was knitting while sitting on the sidewalk and allowed us to come into her humble little knitting store. She was very polite. She sat down in her chair and Elder Lemos and I stayed standing and began to give her our message.

Everything went well during the lesson, she participated and actually seemed interested in what we had to say (what a miracle!). I explained to her about the Book of Mormon and she said I could leave the book with her with a chapter marked for her to read. As I was marking 3 Nephi 11 for her to read my companion began to invite her to be baptized on April 18th (in our mission we are supposed to mark a baptism date during the 1st lesson with someone) but she politely declined saying that she is evangelical and was already baptized.

At this point I was finished marking the book and began an explanation about the priesthood and the way the baptismal ordinance should be ministered.

Now during my explanation I noticed she started getting, what appeared to be, bored with my explanation. I was a little confused but I kept going with what I was saying. Then about half way through she gave this huge YAWN and then her head fell back to lean against her back, and there it stayed, mouth gaping open. I was kind of confused and started to slow down what I was saying, when all of the sudden her head flew forward and hit her chest, then her cheeks started to shake and it looked like she was chewing on something in her mouth. I stopped speakin and said "Helena?..." She just kept going. "Helena?!" Then my companion grabbed her shoulder and shook her and little bit yelling "Senhora?! Helena?!"

He shook her some more but she kept going with what I had concluded at this moment was a seizure. We kept yelling and trying to wake her up but to no avail. After about 20 seconds a girl that worked in the store next to her came over and was all frantic and said "Ok, sometimes this happens. Will you guys say a prayer for her?!" Before we could even answer the girl had already put her hand on Helena's head and rose her left arm to the square and started chanting some expulsion prayer that I didn't quite understand. I told her to stop and we just kept trying to wake up Helena.

She finally woke up after about a minute and a half of her "convulsion" as they call it here. She looked up at us like she had no idea where she was...and I am pretty sure she didn't. We asked her if she remembered anything that had happened but she didn't. While she was talking I noticed she had a little bit of blood in her mouth because she had been biting her tongue I think. I asked her to open her mouth for me but she refused. She said she was fine and the other girl from the store said that she would stay there with her to take care of her and that we could leave. So we did haha. I said "Well, here's that book for you, please read the page that we marked." Then we left.

We went and sat over on a bench for a while while I laughed my head off and Elder Lemos told me that it wasn't funny. I called my DL Elder Anderson who is my good friend here and he loved it. He said "Wow, you two must have an extrememly powerful baptismal invite! I am going to ask you guys to demonstrate it for us at the next District Meeting so we can all learn to invite people to baptism with power!" Haha.

I had a division with Elder Anderson on Monday and we both wanted to go see her so we went over there and saw that she was fine...but we went to follow up on her reading and she said she hated the book and shoved it into my hands. We read a little part with her and when we told her that we have a prophet on the earth today she said "I know that we do! My pastor is a prophet" and when we tried to explain that he wasn't she got WAY mad and said she was going to start "treating us really bad" if we didn't leave. What I thought was just a nice old epileptic woman turned out to be a devil in disguise. She definitely won't join our church...but she gave me a great story and for that I am eternally grateful.

Well there you go, hopefully it was enjoyed. I am off to go sleep a little bit. We were going to go to the Zoo as a zone today but to our disappointed we woke up to the rain which wouldn't be so fun to walk around the zoo in so we canceled it until next week. Heartfelt farewell! Love you this............... much!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Cutting down the tree video

2009-03-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

Photos from new area and Tree Cutting

2009-03-04T11:37:00.001-08:00

My district
On the road again...
Finally... check out the 'ax'
Mid-way through the project
Sharpening the 'ax'

Cutting down a tree...

2009-03-04T11:12:00.000-08:00

I hear people enjoyed the videos and pics. I will try to take more but it's hard sometimes because usually there is nothing here that is worth filming or taking a picture of...

I sent some pictures of this tree Elder Lemos and I cut this week. It was a service project for one of the neighbors of one of the members in our ward...her son kept climbing the tree to go smoke pot and the thick branches fully covered him from the vision of those on the ground. Thus, Elder Lemos and I cut that sucker down...successfully ridding one of what I am sure are many of the kid's pot-hideouts.

It took us 2 mornings adding up to about 7 hours of work...but it was actually pretty fun. I cut up my hands pretty bad due to the lack of hard manual labor they have seen while on my mission...oh plus the other 19 years of my life. But wounds heal...trees shaped to a form that won't allow cover for pot-heads last forever. I was actually kind of a master lumberjack-monkey up in that tree (as I am sure it is easy to see from the video I sent of me chopping away at the stubborn branches). Good times.

This week was a bit difficult in some ways. My companion Elder Lemos entertains me for hours when he talks about all his insecurities. Sometimes he can't even work because he loses all confidence in himself. We are supposed to do 12 "contacts" a day, 85 a week, which I usually do, but he only did 30 last week because he usually can't summon the courage to go talk to people on the street. I feel so bad for him sometimes because he has a year and 10 months on the mission and I am sure this self-esteem curse has plagued his work and the work of his companions his entire mission.

Sometimes he just asks me to sit down with him under a tree for a while and he just tells me more about all the fears about the future that he has. I try my best to console him but usually to no avail. He thought he lost the cell phone the other night but we found out he just left it at a member's house when we were having lunch...but for that whole night his confidence hit an all time low...an abyss that even I couldn't pull him out of.

But to be honest the last few days we have found quite a few people, and many families, which are really looking promising so this week and the weeks to come I think the work will get better here. I hope at least. It's a lot harder here to teach than it was in my last area, I won't lie. But we are trying.

I was walking on the street the other day and saw this lady sitting on the ground smoking on the other side of the street...I planned on just walking by her but then I all the sudden just decided to leave my companion and walk across the street to talk to her. I started to present myself to her and she was like "look Elder, I am a member and I know about the church. I was baptized about 5 years ago. It would be really nice though if you could stop by my house and talk to me again about the gospel." Sounded perfect so we went there on Monday night and talked to her and her husband for like 3 hours about why they left and if they were going to come back.

The mom was offended by something one of the sisters in the ward said. But it was really funny because they have been inactive for almost 3 years but have never stopped reading the Book of Mormon everyday, doing family home evenings, or any of the stuff that normal member families usually do. We just had to convince them to come back to church and they actually are going to. It was pretty cool actually because she said they had been thinking about going back to church and when she saw me on the street she thought "if he comes over and talks to me then I think my husband and I will decide to go back to church." Glad I listened to the Spirit's prompting to go over there eh?

Well, I don't have tons more to write. Good bunch of emails this week, well done everyone! Thanks for the support, love you all.

-Elder Brent Parsons

Video of Julio de Mesquita

2009-02-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

More Photos

2009-02-25T20:24:00.001-08:00

What's shakin' my masters of Turkey bakin'!

2009-02-25T09:13:00.000-08:00

My first week has gone by in the tranquil area of Julio de Mesquita. And no, I have no idea what the name of the area means...I am pretty sure it is just a name and that's it. But I have learned quite a few things this week about my companion and my new area.

My new area is pretty much like a mix of an extremely old beaten down Las Vegas residential area with the great road organization of a Utah town. The blocks are perfectly square and the streets are called "Street 1, Street 2, Street 3" and so on. Pretty sweet and easy to learn. The problem with the area is that there is hardly anyone that is ever on the street and the people aren't all that receptive. The day I arrived my companion Elder Lemos told me that this area is "a little complicated". What he really meant to say is that it is extremely hard to baptize here, let alone have a progressing investigator. The day I arrived we didn't have ONE progressing investigator. So it's pretty much like I am "opening" an area...again.

But I really do like this area. The members are pretty cool and it's way more peaceful and relaxing here than it was in Limão. There is tons less noise, cars, and, to my dismay, drunks. I will miss the drunks. They always provided needed entertainment on those long days of walking. Speaking of walking, that's all that I pretty much have done this past week. We don't have really anyone to teach so we just walk and do contacts with pretty much anyone that doesn't try to avoid us on the street (and some that do) and we "clap" at doors. I have yet to teach a lesson besides the first lesson. I guess I do need the practice though. But we are getting a lot more investigators and I think the area will start to turn around.

My new companion Elder Lemos is pretty hilarious. He lacks quite a bit of self-confidence and entertains me when he voices his hilarious fears of talking to people, living life after the mission, and not knowing enough to support his future family. He has a year and 9 on the mission and says he isn't ready to go back because he didn't learn enough on the mission yet to go back to real life. It is kind of sad but really entertaining. I just let him talk all day while a listen and forget that we have been walking for the past 6 hours straight.

It's funny because he has been in the area for almost 2 months and I have a week here and almost every ten minutes or so he asks me where we are haha. Poor guy. But he really is cool and has taught me a lot of things. He is funny and knows the scriptures and how to teach using them too. I may "kill" him because he only has one more transfer in the mission so I may see this thing to the end with him.

We have this one "investigator" I guess you could call him but really he is just a guy that we like to talk to because he is extremely smart and funny. He won't allow us into his house but he loves to stay out on the street with us and talk to us about the gospel, politics, and whatever subject he thinks of. He is one of those guys that would be called as bishop a week after his baptism.

Anyway, so he has this extremely pleasing looking daughter who is 17 and who I met for the first time on Monday night. She introduced herself and said she was trying to learn English because she wants to move to America someday. So anyway, we started to talk to Levi, our almost investigator, out in front of his house for like an hour. The whole time his daughter was there just watching me talk to him. Yes, just me. She stared at me for over an hour and every time I looked over at her she gave me this little smile and started playing with her hair. Yeah, I knew I was in trouble at that point.

So finally we ended our conversation and we said goodbye. I went and shook Levi's hand and then went to shake his daughter's. I took her hand but she obviously wanted a lot more than a handshake because she leaned in...with her face...coming towards my face...with her lips...coming toward my lips. Now people, this happened in like a half a second so I had to make a quick decision. I jumped back with both my feet and thrust mine and her hand forward, not allowing her to come any closer. The quote from Ace Ventura rang in my hand "Back you Devil Bird!" In the end I explained to her that I can't kiss while on the mission and she got pretty embarrassed, but I told her that she shouldn't be and now we are fine. It was a close call though.

Well, that's about it for this week. The house we are in is freakin sweet and the other companionship that we live with is way cool too. One day I will get to live with another American...one day. Oh well, I get to learn the language better because I have only had brazi's roommates and companions (OK well I had Bigelow for 2 weeks in Chora Menino) but still, it would be sweet to be with an American. Stories I tell just aren't quite as good in Portuguese. Oh and explaining lacrosse to the people here is pretty much useless. They have never seen it in their entire life and just don't get the concept of hitting someone else with a stick and how much joy can come from it. Anyway, tata for now! Keep the emails coming...please.

-Elder Brent Parsons

Sweet city of Sorocaba

2009-02-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

Greetings! What's good?

First, a bit on the baptism.

So we had Rosinaldo's and Josinaldo's baptism this week. My companion was ever so nice to me by informing me WHILE we were walking to the chapel for the baptism that I was going to have to give a talk for the baptism because he forgot to ask someone to do it. Oh thank you so much companion! Once again well done.

So we got there, took some pics, then sat down and I stumbled through a what must surely had to have been a nearly incoherent speech about baptism. So then after I made a fool of myself we dunked those two brazis!

It was awesome actually and they loved it. I baptized Rosinaldo and Almeida baptized Josinaldo, and then on Sunday I confirmed Josinaldo and he confirmed Rosinaldo.

Yeah I don't think I have been so nervous in my life. Imagine 180 expectant eyes looking at you as you have to do something that is already a little bit hard in your first language...but then is amplified by like 8000 when you have to do it in a language that you are still learning.

Needless to say that had I needed to pee I most certainly would have right there in my suit. Who knows what I said in the blessing but I got the whole receive the holy ghost part right so I think we are good. Both Rosinaldo and Josinaldo were extremely happy nonetheless so I was really excited about that.

-----------------

Unlike the usual Mr. Chenney's, I am hailing from a LAN house in the pretty sweet city of Sorocaba. I was transferred today.

I found out on Monday night that I was going to be transferred. I was pretty excited about it...mainly because I wanted a...companion exchange...but also because I had been in my area for a while. So I was pretty excited to find out I was going to be transferred, even though I had no idea where I was going to go and didn't know until this morning when I arrived at the chapel next to the São Paulo Temple.

So I was excited to get transferred but Tuesday night I had to go around to all my investigators and recent converts houses to say bye to them...which was harder than I thought it was going to be. I very nearly cried several times but you all can keep calm because your boy held it in! But really, it was tough.

Gilmara, my first baptism, gave me a letter and told me to read it that night. She wrote about how glad she was to have met me and how she'll never forget me. I felt the same way. I didn't realize how attached I had become to them.

So anyway, this morning I showed up at the chapel and got to see some more of my friends from the CTM which was pretty cool. Then I learned that I was going to be transferred here to Sorocaba which is about 2 hours by bus west from the center of São Paulo. There are 6 of the 14 zones in the mission that are around here and I had heard a lot of good things about this place, so I am pretty excited to be here.

It is so much more QUIET here. I never realized how loud it was all the time in the Capital (city of São Paulo).

Sorocaba is pretty small for these parts and has 600,000 people...compared to the 18 million of São Paulo. It's also really strong in the church and has 4 stakes here. May not sound like tons to you Utah folk but it's kind of a big deal around these parts.

Side note: it's hilarious to see the Brazilian elders' faces when I tell them that there was one companionship of missionaries for 9 stakes back at my home. Some really just don't even believe it because here each ward has AT LEAST 2 missionaries and sometimes up to 6.

My new companion is named Elder...Lemos. I think. I can't see his nametag from here...and I have only got about 3 hours with him as of now...so give me a break! He is from the dirty Amazon and has been on the mission for a year and 9 months! It's possible that I might kill him (be his companion at the end of his mission). We'll see though. He is pretty shy, isn't a leader of any sort on the mission, wears sunglasses everytime we are ever on the street (or even inside sometimes...), and I get the feeling he doesn't like Americans. Once again...hooray! Man. Can't you throw me a bone President? Please!

A shining beacon of hope in my new area is our house. It's freakin sweet. It has 2 floors (nearly unheard of here for the missionary houses) two bathrooms, a huge desk, and best of all 2 couches! Ah yeah. Serious. It's awesome. It's like a fifth the size of most houses at home but I am stoked out of my mind to have it here.

Well, anyway, the area looks really calm and peaceful, which will be a good change I think. Lot more relaxed. We will see though, I'll send more information about it when I know more next week.

Later!

-Elder Parsons

6 Months. Jà era.

2009-02-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

So there we go. 6 months of my extremely valuable time has been spent here in the dirty city of São Paulo and it has caused me to reflect on what I have learned and what I have thought of my experience here. I was talking to my way good friend Elder Bigelow about the time we have spent here and what he thinks about it. He has had a tough time here but said something to me that I really agree with. He said "Parsons, I think if by the end of my mission I can say, as I am saying now, that I didn`t regret the time I spent on the mission then I will be happy." I think that sums it up pretty well.

I`ll be honest, people say that it`s the "Best Two Years" which is great but I am not going to say it has been the best 6 months of my life. I will say that I think I have grown more in this 6 months in almost every way possible (not physically you perverts) than I have in any other 6 months of my life, and the time I have spent here I definitely do not regret. But yeah, there you go. I hear the first 6 and the last 6 are the hardest...so looks like I am headed into the clearing!

But really, as this week showed I am already there. For me this week was awesome, mainly because of our two investigator brothers Rosinaldo and Josinaldo. We usually stop by there every night and it always brings a good end to a hot and often stressfull day. Last night I had a division in my area with the DL Elder Hooper who is way cool, and he did their Baptismal interviews and both of them passed. They are both way excited to get baptized this Saturday, but I think I might be just a little bit more excited.

In this short time we have become such good friends it`s crazy...and cool. And with the language barrier gradually diminishing it is even easier to connect with them. I`ll send photos of the baptism next week, along with the photos from the baptism we had last week.

We baptized marcello, that little boy that I talked about last week. It was cool because actually his grandpa got to baptize him and both of them were way happy afterwards. So yeah, i`ll send pics next week.

Oh and just to let you know we have transfers next week so my email might come pretty late next Wednesday depending on if I get transferred or not. I don`t like saying it but I really want to get transferred. We have Rosinaldo and Josinaldo`s baptisms coming up which is sweet...but to tell you the truth I am growing sick of this area. I know the area like the back of my hand and it still is a little weird to be right next to the CTM. It`s like it`s my babysitter or something. Let me out of the playpen.

How are things going back there in Obamaville? I still feel way out of the loop and it would be awesome if we could have a collaborate effort on the home front to bring me back in. Who is with me!!?? I heard that he is going to reopen Cuba or something like that?

Love you all...Hugh Grant for President!

-Elder Parsons

Videos

2009-02-05T07:47:00.001-08:00

The first video is just of Brent laughing at drunk people in the street.

This video of the boys scorching a cockroach and a quick tour of his apartment during a transfer.

Uploaded Photos

2009-02-05T06:39:00.000-08:00

Here are a bunch of photos Brent uploaded.

Enjoy
Here are a bunch of photos Brent uploaded.

Enjoy

Welcome to February!

2009-02-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

Good to hear that all is well on the home-front. Thanks for the Super Bowl update Grandpa! I am sure that my friend Ben is STILL having a bit of a rough time while serving his mission in Pittsburgh due to all the drunks that I am sure are roaming the streets. Hey! That's just like a regular day here!

My companion has been here for a year and 4 months and doesn't even put up with the drunks anymore. Usually I like to entertain myself (and them) by actually answering their questions and responding to their comments just because I think it is hilarious when they stumble through their answers or tell me that I am beautiful, but my companion just yells (literally) at them to shut up and go home. He definitely could do something a bit less destructive to the Church's image, but you know...each to his own.

Speaking of my companion we's doing good! Like really. In the past two days we have taught 20 lessons. We leave the house early and walk like crazy in the blazing heat to get those lessons...but it's worth it.

Actually we had a hilarious lesson this week. We showed up at this house and "clapped" at the door. A girl of about 18 years came out and greeted us. We explained who we were and asked if there was anyone else in the house that would like to hear the message too...she said "yes" and yelled at the house for someone to come out. So then another girl of about 15 years came out...and then two more girls of about 18 or 19 poked their heads out the window. Then the mom looked out the door. Then their little girl cousin came out of the house above them. Then 6 little girls came running out the door towards us. I looked at my companion and he was just as surprised as I was. This house was full of just women! I don't know how they fit all of them in their! In the end their were 5 girls between the ages of 12 and 20, plus their six little girls (yes, the 20 year-old has 2 girls...one that is 5 years old. The 18 year-old had 2 kids too, and the 15 year old was following her big sister's examples and was pregnant as well).

We taught all of them out in front of their house because we both were petrified to go into the house due to the mountain of girls we saw before us. The lesson was fine and afterward I told my companion that we had just found a rabbit's nest in our area. It was so funny...I really hope they come to church with us on Sunday, not just because of that whole exaltation thing but also because it would be so funny to show up with all of them.

That would really show the primary instructors who controls this ward!

So we were sent a little kid this week that "fell from heaven" as they say here. Literally though. He is 9 years old and his parents are less-active members but they came up to us and said they want him to get baptized. And seeing as he is 9 years old he has to be taught all of the lessons and after the mom asked us if we could baptize him. So that's what we will be doing this Friday night!

Oh yeah we had Zone Conference last Thursday and I got to see my old comp from the CTM Elder Blackham! He is a little chubster! He put on 20 pounds of fat on his small little frame it's hilarious. I miss that kid, and it was good to talk to him. He was there as one of the Assistant's companions because his old companion is a slacker and he told President...then his companion found out and started threatening him. So then he got emergency transfered. Hooray! I am not alone in my struggles.

Until next week my friends! Love ya'll! Keep on writin'!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Another Week in Brazil

2009-01-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

This week it rained like crazy. Like seriously. The other night E. Almeida and I were waiting outside one of our recent converts' houses for him to get home when all of the sudden it started raining like crazy and we ended up hiding under this little building overhang while standing up on this step because it was raining so much that the water started rising in the street. We ended up standing on that little step together for 2 hours because our RC never showed up and we couldn't move! It was slightly irritating...but kind of cool too.

Right now we are teaching those two brothers that I told about last week (with that horribly annoying girl that went crazy in sacrament meeting and who, fortunately, didn't show up to church this week with them). They really are so cool and so humble. They just keep saying how they are so happy they finally found the way to follow God and Jesus Christ that they have been searching for for a while. I always get happy when we show up there because they are just so humble and happy that you can't stay mad while you are there.

Actually...that's not quite true. I did show up there angry once this week because my companion and I had a bit of a tussle before we went there this week. I'll simplify the fight into a few short sentences. He wanted to go visit someone on the far side of our area because they "have really good water" but it would take about 30 to walk to her house. So naturally, I just laughed at him because it was such a ridiculous statement. Then he got mad because "you never laugh at my face!" As he said. Then I just laughed again and said "fine, lets go there then!" Then he got mad and threw his folder on the ground (which exploded), then told me he was going to call president because "this just really isn't working", then he politely told me to shut up and go to hell, then he asked me if I wanted to punch him and got up in my face and stuck his arms out and told me he was ready whenever I wanted to fight. Now this entire time I was literally just laughing and was just saying "wait, are you being serious right now?" then I would just start laughing again. It was hilarious. But like 10 min after the one-sided fight, we were fine. Well, not that I hadn't been fine, but he finally cooled down atleast. Oh the wonders of living with just one other man!

But really, it actually is pretty sweet working with him because he is actually really funny and is an extremely good teacher. Sometimes I just sit there and listen while he teaches because I think I am learning just as much as our investigators (that and I think he enjoys hearing himself talk so he talks...a lot). But yeah, it's actually pretty good with him here.

Well, I actually am out of time. Sorry this is way short. Just know that I am doing fine here and that the language and this whole missionary stuff is coming along swimmingly. Thanks for all the support and prayers, love ya!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Happy Inauguration

2009-01-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a good week this week. I hear that it is pretty cold...I miss the cold so much. It was scorching hot this week. Let's just say that I learned the verb "to melt" this week because I arrived at a member's house yesterday and he asked me if I was melting because of the amount of salty liquid pouring down my face.

This week went pretty well "numbers wise". We taught a lot with members, did all of our contacts (our mission has a goal/rule of getting 12 contacts per day. A contact is stopping someone on the street or knocking at a door and testifying of the gospel, ask if we can stop by their house and leave a message with them, and usually you give them a pass-along card too). As of late missionaries have had a hard time accomplishing this so they really cracked down on it this week...it's actually really hard to get 12 some days but we got all of them this week. Elder Almeida is a lot more into the "numbers" aspect of missionary work than L. Sousa was...which is good because we teach a lot of people and stuff...but sometimes he likes to give short, weak little lessons just for another number rather than really teach the person. I dunno, it's just different.

So are teaching these two brothers Josinaldo and Rosinaldo (yeah, I mix up their names all the time) and Josinaldo has a daughter. So all three of them went to church this week with us. Anyway, so we were in Sacrament Meeting

Elder Martinatto came up to me afterward and was like "you were sleeping in Sacrament weren't you! And I didn't remember sleeping so I told him that I hadn't been...but then he pulled out his camera and showed me the movie that he had filmed of me sleeping while sitting right next to my investigators. It was hilarious because Rosinaldo kept looking over at me with this surprised look on his face. But I really don't even remember sleeping at all ha ha.

Anyway, so we were in Sacrament Meeting and all of the sudden Josinaldo's little daughter started screaming at the top of her lungs and started hitting and biting her dad. I looked over and asked what was the problem and his said "oh she's is just a little upset because she want candy right now." And by this time the entire chapel was looking over at us...at one point the guy giving his talk actually just stopped his talk and looked over at us because she was so loud. Two Sisters in the ward came over to try to calm the little girl down and give her candy but she wanted "candy from the street". I had never been so close to punching somebody so small in my entire life. I was like "Josinaldo! Just take her outside!" and he said "No Elder, it's fine, she will calm down." So after another 30 seconds of her screaming at the top of her lungs and everybody just staring at us I finally just stood up and looked at Josinaldo and said "Look, take her outside right now!" So he finally got up and we took her outside and her precious little daddy went and bought her some candy from the street. Yeah that was great for my image in the ward. I have investigators that completely ruin the entire sacrament meeting and then I allow them to break the Sabbath Day afterward. Hooray! Haha. Just kidding, they were all really sympathetic because most all of them were missionaries too and they know how it is, but it was definitely embarrassing for me.

Anyway, despite everything that happened the two brothers absolutely loved church, so we went to Josinalo and Rosinalo's house yesterday and we marked their baptism dates, plus their neighbor's date who came over and listened to the lesson and loved it, so that was good.

My companion and I actually got in a pretty big fight this week over our investigator Lurdes. She is the one that is smoking 2 cigarettes a day right now and used to smoke 40. It is awesome that she has done that but she is still smoking 2 a day....and has been for 3 weeks. She always makes an excuse as to why she can't see us when we go over there...usually it is something completely lame like "oh sorry, I am resting right now. Can you come back another day?" I just want to yell at her "Are you serious! You resting is the reason you can't listen to our message? It's not like our message involves a game of soccer!"

So one night he was just sick of trying to persuade her to listen, and I said we should go try again. Then he just got all mad at me and looked at me and was like "look I already told you I don't want to go there! And when I tell you that I don't want to do something, NEVER ask me if I want to do it again because it just makes me mad and then I will lose my patience!" But...as I said if he started giving me crap I wasn't going to take it...so we ended up getting in a rather heated verbal fight right there on the street. But we ended up being cool with each other afterward and we were fine that night. And nobody got bloody and that's what really matters, right?

But really actually, besides that one fight Elder Almeida and I are doing pretty good together. We did this service project for one of our member friends this week and built him an entirely new roof so that was pretty sweet.

So I also had this way crazy experience this week in the Favela. Writing the story definitely won't do it justice because you kind of just had to be there....but I will try. So we had this lesson marked with these two brothers that live in the favela. We talked to them just for a minute and they seemed cool enough and they wanted us to come back so we marked an hour to come back the following day. So we went there and entered their...extremely humble abode...and I immediately had a bad feeling. There was incense burning at the door and the room was only about 10 x 8 ft. or so. So we went in there and immediately one of the brothers grabbed my arm and just started pleading with me to give him money. I told him I couldn't and E. Almeida explained our situation as missionaries and he finally let me go. Then he asked E. Almeida to read "his favorite scripture" in the bible so E. Almeida read it...but then afterward we just had this horrible feeling that we needed to leave so we said goodbye and shook their hands.

So I went to shake the other brother's hand and he grabbed it and started squeezing it while looking at me in the eyes with his unnatural yellow eyes. He held on to my hand for about 10 seconds until I finally had to use my other hand to get his hand off mine. Then Elder Almeida and I left. Now what happened with the two wasn't all that crazy...but it was just the feeling I had that made the experience so horrible. And yes, I will use a Harry Potter reference to describe it to you.

I think I actually felt what it would feel like to be in the room with a Dementor. Yes, there you go, I said it. And I am not even kidding. There was not an ounce of happiness in that room. I really did feel like if I didn't leave that I would never be happy again.

After we left, Elder Almeida said that they were both possessed but I don't believe it. I just think that they are so unbelievably unhappy with their lives and the choices that they have made that they don't have any amount of light or happiness within them...and unfortunately it is there own fault because of their choices they have made throughout their lives and their own laziness. So yeah, that was pretty intense...and please...no one burn me for my Harry Potter reference...it was the only way to describe it!

Oh we also went looking for another house this week that is actually in our area (as of now we have to walk 15 min just to get into our area) and we found a house that was perfect but unfortunately someone rented it out before we could get the contract to the Realtor, so we have to go looking again. Blah.

Anyway, the week was pretty good and I am really getting into the whole missionary thing now that I am getting better in the language and can actually talk how I want to talk. I am grateful for all your prayers and all your letters/emails. Please keep sending both of them. Hope everyone has a good week...and to all a good night!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Guten Morgen!

2009-01-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

I just remembered that I tried this week to remember all of the German that I once knew...yeah didn't work. The Portuguese replace all of the words of the words I knew in German (even though I only ever knew a tiny bit). All I know now in German is to count to 19 (I forgot the number 20), good morning, and how to say "and threw the cat on the floor!".

Speaking of Portuguese it's coming pretty well. It's still coming a lot slower than I would like it to be, but it's getting a lot better.

So I received a new companion named Elder Almeida last week. He is from Florianopollis... which I hear is a very beautiful city. I have been trying to grow accustomed to him this week...which at times has been difficult. He is really cool and I like him, but just like a lot of Brazilians he is very prideful and arrogant. I also found out that he not only fought with his companion 3 weeks ago...but tried to hit him with his metal chin up bar, but luckily the ZL's stopped him before that happened ha ha. It was a bit unnerving to see him unpack it after knowing what he already tried to do with it... ha ha. But really, he is pretty cool and he just has a hard time listening to others tell him what to do... which is why I'll happily take the role as junior companion for the time being.

Elder Almeida is a very good teacher and I have already learned some things about how I should be teaching from him. It has been pretty hard this week to pretty much start over in my area...but we did visit some old investigators that have been really receptive, so hopefully that continues to go well. As of now we just need a larger teaching pool of investigators.

One of our investigators named Lurdes was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but she can't quit smoking. She was smoking 40 cigarettes a day when L. Sousa and I met her, but she is now smoking only 2 a day. She cuts the cigarettes in half to make them last longer haha. She is really cool and has a really strong desire to quit so I think she will stop sometime this week so we can baptize her pretty soon.

For Brazil our mission has a really low baptisms number. Not because we are a weak mission or anything (at least I don't think so) but because of a lot of reasons like we are in a city that is known as a city of business, a city where everyone is working ALL THE TIME. They don't stop...especially for our lessons haha. It's crazy when you hear that missions like Fortaleza are baptizing like 250 people a week when our mission is getting somewhere around 15-20 right now. Just a little point of information I thought you guys might like. Freak, you know it's bad when all you have to talk about in your emails is your mission's baptism numbers...

This drunk grabbed my arm out in the street yesterday. He grabbed it really hard so I threw it off and then he started yelling at me. There were a bunch of black guys standing off to the side and they were like "Punch him in the face, German!" (that's what everyone thinks I am... German). It was so funny. I obviously didn't punch him and Elder Almeida and I just walked away laughing.

Sorry I don't have tons to write. The week was pretty normal and we are just trying to get back into the groove of things in the area. Hopefully someone punches me or something so I have something good to write next week (just kidding mom!).

Thanks for the emails, love you guys! Peace!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Transfers

2009-01-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

A friendly 'hello" to my subscribers,

So my "Pai" (Dad/First companion on your mission/Trainer) L. Sousa got transferred today. We had been together for 3 months and our time together finally ran out. I am grateful he was my companion. Even though sometimes he had a tough time motivating himself to work...I still owe a lot to him for my Portuguese abilities. I was just used to having him around and now it will be weird to grow accustomed to another companion. So yeah, I am going to "return" although I was only gone for 2 weeks to Limão/Casa Verde and am going to have to start all over again pretty much...hooray! Back to the same old...

Speaking of my new companion his name is Elder Almeida. He is a Brazilian from Florianopolis and speaks actually pretty good English. He was actually the companion of Elder Perry who was in my district in the CTM last transfer. I have heard a few shady things about him and L. Sousa told me to "be careful" when he saw that we would be companions. Apparently he has somewhat of a temper and doesn't have a problem with punching his companions...but you know, that's how it is here so I'll just have to find stuff we have in common and work that...but if he starts giving crap it might be hard not to give it back...we'll see though. I have only been with him about 3 hours so I'll let you know how it is with him next week.

So something crazy happened this Sunday at church. I was sitting there...you know just minding my own business, when the self-appointed church usher came over to me and said that some Americans from California just showed up and that I should go sit next to them and find out who they were. I saw a good opportunity to speak some english so I headed over there and sat next to them. I started talking to them and they told me that all three of them were brothers and that the two younger ones (one was about 28 years old and the other mid-30's) were professional tennis players and the other is their "coach", he was the older one. I think he just wanted to travel around and have fun with them though.

The two younger ones both served in Rio de Janeiro so they both were fluent in Portuguese and the other was fluent and Spanish and had taken some Portuguese lessons so all three could understand pretty much everything. Oh and they were here in São Paulo because they had a tennis tournament. The two players play doubles together and are apparently top 10 in the U.S. in it. The youngest one also plays singles and he is top 20 and is living in LA playing and coaching full time...so yeah they are pretty good I think.

Anyway so I got to talking to the younger one and he asked me where I was from. I told him Orem, UT and he asked me what school I went to. I said Timpanogos and he said "Are you serious, I went there for a year!" We both got pretty excited and he started asking me if I knew some people, most of which I didn't. He said "OK I'll try to think of someone your age...uh...do you happen to know Jenny Rife?" I stared at him in shock for a second and then said "Are you being serious right now dude?" He said yes and then I said "Dude, that's my cousin!"

He got all excited and said "Dude, I was Mary Rife's boyfriend for like 3 years!"

So it turns out his name is Brian Battistone (I think that is how you spell it, I am sure Mary will know him) and he has actually been to my house before for Christmas or something. He told me that when he was there he remembers my dad telling him something about my sister Karrissa doing this "no-candy" thing for a year in order to get 100 dollars...do you remember that dad? I do. Anyway it was way cool to talk to all three of these guys and they invited us to there game that they have today over in an area close to ours but we couldn't go because of transfers. Would have been cool though. I didn't have my camera with me but Brian did and he took a picture and said he was going to email Janet and Rich, who knows though. It was crazy though.

Other than that our week was pretty normal. It was still tough to find people in their houses.

We had a sweet BBQ last night at my house with our whole zone, it was really fun actually and extremely delicious.

It was really good to hear my mom's surgery went well and that she feels even better after the surgery than she felt before (...not sure how that works) but yeah, hooray for my mother's health!

Love you all and I will write next week...keep them letters and emails comin'...please!

-Elder Brent Parsons

Seasons Greetings!

2008-12-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

Well I hope everyone had a good Christmas! In my book you all did solely for the fact that you had a lot of snow (SUCK IT AL GORE!). Christmas Day here was scorching hot...it didn't feel like Christmas at all. The only thing that made it feel like Christmas was the fact that I got to talk to my family which was sweet. It was weird because it felt so normal to talk to them. Anyway, I was thankful for the opportunity to talk to them and hear their voices again.

So this week was pretty crazy. On Christmas Eve L. Sousa and I received a call saying we were going to be emergency transferred over to the area next to us: Chora Menino (haha, it means "Cry Boy". The names of the areas here are ridiculous). Elder Bigelow and Elder Rariclay were in that area but E. Rariclay was going to end his mission January 7th but left 2 weeks early because he wanted to spend Christmas with his family, thus Elder Bigelow, who was in my district in the CTM so he has the same amount of time as me, didn't have a companion. So as of now Elders L. Sousa and Bigelow are my companions. We are rockin' a trio, woot! In some ways it is cool to be in a trio. I have the chance to talk some English with Elder Bigelow when we are in the house so I can actually tell stories from back home and listen to his in English...so much easier. It is more fun out on the street with three of us too, just cause we have more people and Sousa and I have someone different to talk to now.

Some things are really weird though, like teaching. Those of you who have served missions will probably understand. On your mission you will give each lesson hundreds of times and almost every time you give a lesson you are with just one person. But now that I am with two everything is messed up. It's hard to know when to switch from person to person, how much each person should say, who makes each of the commitments, etc.

The transfer has also been bad because our new house sucks. It doesn't have a normal washing machine like our other house had (you have to just put water in it, dump some soap in, then it turns the clothes. But that is it. Afterwards you have to rinse the clothes again in the sink and get all the soap out then hang them up to dry. Unfortunately it is really hard to get ALL of the soap out so you end up having really stiff clothes after they dry). The house really stinks too...not sure of what yet but all I know is that it smells bad. Probably mildew or a dead person or something like that. Oh and it also has an infestation problem. Whenever we come home we find atleast 2 more alive, but sometimes dead, cockroaches on our floor with hundreds more (I am sure) within the walls. Their stronghold is under the wall next to the shower so it is normal to find them in the shower before you take a shower. Them buggers are fast too and rarely can you step on them before they run under the wall too. Oh, and there is either a cat or a HUGE rat that lives in the ceiling of our bedroom. Unfortunately I think it is a huge rat. This morning we watched it run across the ceiling because the ceiling was bending wherever it was. I was definitely lucky to have the other house. It's funny because when I arrived here I thought the house was terrible! But now I see it is one of the nicest houses in our area. Oh well, only 1 more week in this house.

Teaching has been really difficult this week. Like REALLY difficult. It was reported on the news that 1 million inhabitants of São Paulo traveled for Christmas this year, and I swear everyone reference and investigator we have our part of that number. Nobody is ever home. We walk all day in the sun and never do anything because nobody is home. Yesterday we didn't teach a single lesson! The first day that has ever happened. It doesn't help that Chora Menino is not a very strong area at all. I don't know why they shut our area and sent us here. They should have shut Chora Menino and sent Bigelow to our area because our area was 5 times as strong as theirs. Sousa calls their investigators with baptism dates "fantasy dates" because that's all they are, fantasies.

I did have 1 really funny lesson this week. We were teaching these 2 girls that just love to talk to us but don't really like to hear about the gospel, but we try our best. Anyway, their friend came over and she took a liking to me...and began talking to me while my comps were talking to the other two. She began asking me a bunch of questions about things that are allowed in the church and things that aren't and throughout the whole conversation she kept leaning in more and more towards me...while I began pressing my back more and more into the back of my chair. She looked at me and said "Can you Mormons...Can you Mormons kiss on the mouth?" At this point Sousa said he began listening and he said she almost fell off her chair towards me because she was leaning in so far. Right when she asked that Sousa slammed his hands on the table and stood up and said "It's time to go!" I jumped at of my chair and said "Yes it is!" and whispered thank you to L. Sousa. Then we left haha.

Well that's about it. This week was really fun out on the street and in our house because there are three of us and it's just fun to tell stories and hang out and order pizza and stuff, but teaching-wise the week was pretty much a disaster. It should get better next Monday when everyone returns home from the holidays but in the meantime...just a lot of walking.

Love you all and I hope you all had a good Christmas and have a happy new year too. We aren't allowed out of our houses past 7:00pm unless we have a ride from a member (which we do. we are going over to a member's house tonight with Martinatto and Chaves to have a bbq. We can stay out till midnight too, sweet!). Tomorrow we won't work too much either due to all the drunks that I am sure will be passed out/trying to hurt us on the street. Oh well, that's how it is during this time of the season. See ya!

-Elder Brent Parsons

And a couple of pictures of the 'Big Dog' in our old area...

Christmas Photos

2008-12-25T13:46:00.001-08:00

Thought I would send this so you could look at me while I was calling you guys. I made sure I looked really excited about what you guys will be/are talking about.So these pics are from last night (Christmas Eve). A lady in our ward (my favorite lady, the lady that I was going to call from her house so I could use Skype. Oh and she has the HUGE dog) made this for us. She told us we had to be out of the house for a couple hours and then when we came back she had done this. The stuff in the pot doesn't look all that great but it really is my favorite food here in Brasil. It's called stroganoff...delicious delicious stroganoff. I went to bed with a full bottom last night, let's just say that.She is so cool...too bad the rest of the ward isn't like her.

-Brent

And here is a couple of my new 'temp' house.

Oh yeah, and the house only has 2 beds and there are 3 of us...so Bigelow and I just went and stole my matress from the other house and put it on the floor...guess i'll be sleeping there for 2 weeks.