Subject: Querida minha familia!
Campinas, Brazil Temple
Aha, another P-day! Fantastic! I love it! Brendon and I just came back from our second trip to the Campinas temple. It was fantastic! It reminds me of what mom always used to say about how everywhere in the world there are people doing endowment sessions. Honestly, if the temple workers weren't so tan, I would've been convinced I was in America. It's so very beautiful. We also had a great ride to and from the temple, because it was raining very hard for a while, which was cool, but then everything just got really misty and foggy, and the jungle on the side of the road looked very mysterious and epic. Very cool.
I loved your letter! Thank you so much for writing so much! I don't care about the wait at all. Just to get something is amazing. The rest of my district has not been so lucky. Thanks for being such a good family. I think I am going to write a bunch of letters throughout the week, and then just do a quick summary over e-mails. But, I'm going to try to write as much as I can right now.
So this week has gone very fast. The biggest thing I think I can say about it is that I really bonded with my district this week. We've all gotten very close, and I love it. We regularily tell stories at meals and before bed, and it's cool to slowly understand more and more every person here. I've never been part of a group of friends like this, and it's a very good feeling. :).
Portuguese is going well. I havent really hit any rough spots yet. If anything, we're going too slow. Im just eating it all up. Just yesterday we taught the first discussion in Portuguese. A lot of the other people in my district memorized phrases, but I felt like that if I just studied vocabulary and grammar, that I would be blessed to know what to say when I actually taught the lesson. It worked! Our teacher, Irmao Ramon, said our companionship was the best in the class, sweet! Im so grateful for the blessings that Ive been given to accel here at the CTM.
I'm still having the time of my life. I am so thankful to be out here, and every chance I have to stop and think, I am completely rejuvenated by the fact that I'm out on my mission, on an adventure I've been preparing my entire life for.
Thanks for putting up the Vita! I loved hearing from extended family! It reminds me how much support I have only 7000 miles away. I can feel it. I really can. Thank you so much.
It was Independence Day in Brasil yesterday, and it was awesome. Decorations, songs, special meals, ect. We sang the National Anthem of Brasil 3 times yesterday, and I love it. Its completely different from ours. Its fast, exciting, and gets my heart pumping. I love Brasil.
Thanks for the kind words, they really helped. If there was any day that I felt a bit down, it was Friday. And then I got your letter. It completely changed everything. Sweet.
Here at the CTM.... it's groundhog day. Seriously, we do the same thing every day. Thus, I find its somewhat difficult to have cool stuff to tell you. We have 8 hours of class every day, which is a mix of sunday school and Portuguese class. Not interesting. We have 3 hours of eating in the day, which is always good, if a bit off. Im loving it still. Our district plays volleyball every day for gym time, and I'm getting quite good, I think. More excersize here than I have ever done before! Thats cool but also somewhat pathetic! Anyway, hopeful my letters will get more exciting as I get out into the field.
So I asked an Elder if you could send pictures over email last week, and he said we couldnt. So I didnt bring my camera today. And then I talk to someone else here and he says you can upload pictures and videos. Dang! So Im going to try to send videos and stuff later today, but I dont know if itll work. I might need to wait until I use computers out in the field. Hmmm.
Please write to me to tell me how I could improve my writing. I saw Brendon's and I was very impressed. How does he remember all those things? I will try to do better in the future. Also, just wait for my written letter, because I was able to take my time writing it. Here... its a bit rushed, with Elders behind me urging me to get off so they can write. It's alright, but I feel bad for ya, you wait all week for this!
However, I hope it'll sufficeth for me to tell you all this: I love you, and you are constantly in my thoughts. I am so thankful that I am here, and I am enjoying myself immensely. If you'd like to support me at all, your prayers will probably be enough. If you're very nice, a letter through missionties helps me sleep happily. Thank you very much everyone.
Mom, Dad, Lyns, Kait, and the rest of the extended family and friends, I love you. Write you in another week! It'll go by like nothin!
Com amor,
Connor Carpenter
Sept 6th - 8th 2009
6:10pm, September 6, 2009
My Dear Family,
Hello! I am writing to you on Day 11 of my mission. It’s so odd to me that I can actually say that! For surely it has not yet registered for me that I am now actually a missionary. For now I feel as if I am simply attending some sort of seminary boarding school, but I hear that changes as soon as you go proselyting for the first time. I am writing this on a Sunday, 2pm for you in California. On Sundays, we have a LOT of free time, actually, which I did not expect. I actually enjoy Sundays more than my P-Day, right now, because at the MTC it is certainly a day of rest. That’s a relative term, however J. This morning Elder Feller and I gave a lesson to our district on the Holy Ghost, and it went very well! The thing I liked most about it is when I was prompted with the following observation:
Everything we observe in the world is, for the most part, fairly explained. We know that the nerves send electric impulses through our fingers to our minds to give us the sense of touch; we know that what we see is explained by reflections of light off of object. What then is our sense to feel the spirit? It’s a very real thing which people all over the world are feeling right now even. It’s a quantifiable reaction. How then can we not explain it in scientific terms? The Holy Ghost is a very real testament to the existence of spiritual truth. I believe that sense is the connection to God. As missionaries, we can awaken that sense in others, as 2nd Nephi says, “Speaking with the tongues of angels”!! I know that as we repent and are obedient, we can improve this sense enough in ourselves to give it to others, and to help God guide our lives and understanding. Cool. It was a good lesson and we had the spirit there.
Brendon and I got to do something cool today! Every Sunday we have 3 hours of what they call “conference” before sacrament meeting, where the MTC presidency and other great speakers give talks. Anyway, Brendon and I sang in front of about 300 missionaries as the opening number. Woah! Actually, it wasn’t just us. We sang with 3 other sets of twins who were also at the MTC at the same time! We sang “Redeemer of Israel”. Two verses were in Portuguese and one verse was acapella. Everyone said it was great, but I am relieved it is over. Brendon and I have been preparing since we got here! Very cool.
You have no idea how excited I was to get your letter yesterday! It was better than a bag of candy! I was feeling a bit down yesterday because I finally caught the bug that’s been going around the district: headache and sore throat. And we were fasting since lunchtime. And class was somewhat more monotonous than usual. And there was your letter! I was smiling the rest of the day! Happiness must be a good cure, because this morning I was fine! Seriously, thank you so much Dad, Mom, Kate, Lyns and the rest of the extended family. That was awesome. Now I’ll reply to your letters!
Dad – Thank you so much for the spiritual message, for surely, that one part of thanking God even when you’re sick cheered me up lots! Thank you. I’m so glad you are doing well now. I think it was a tough separation, but I think it will be smooth sailing from here. J I’m going to sign out for now, there’s a fireside in 15 minutes. Time now: 6:45 PM (Brasil)
Time now: 10:00 pm. Alright! The fireside was great. One speaker talked about the necessity of being happy, and staying happy by looking forward to the changes in the lives of others. They put up pictures of a family that was baptized, who then sent out missionaries, who baptized families, who sent missionaries and then did a collage of all the people that had been baptized from that one family! It so got my whole district pumped.
…Back to Dad. I love you Dad. I continue to tell myself what you told me: that this work is exciting, and the most important that is going on in the world.
Time now: 12:33pm, Sept 8, 2009 I am on the bus coming back from the Campinas Temple. It was fantastic. There’s large, dark, low hanging storm clouds floating over the countryside. It reminds me of Torino (Italy), yet slightly more jungle-y. Cool.
What keeps me going is whenever I have some quiet moments, I think, “I’m on a mission.” Here I am now in a foreign land, with a divine mandate to change people’s hearts. I’m meeting lots of people, I’m learning new things constantly, and I feel like I’m applying myself in a way I never had before. Waves of excitement and euphoria rock me whenever I realize that I’m finally on the adventure I’ve been waiting for my entire life, that I’ve been preparing for my entire life. I can see myself as a young kid reading fantasy adventure books, escaping into these fantastic worlds, journeys, characters, and acts of heroism. I can see myself as a kid, wishing the day would come when I too, would be able to live those stories. And I find now that my call to action finally occurred; my escape across the threshold into a new world, new purpose has happened. I am in it now. I hope this doesn’t sound crazy or immature; I just feel that I’ve been yearning for this point in my life since before my life began, that every enjoyment and flight of imagination has stemmed from this fact. And I feel that it can only get better. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with this point of view; it has been a shield to me, I feel. A lot of my friends here have taken to venting their homesickness, their boredom, their frustrations. An elder who was on my plane here went home yesterday… I think these are all natural reactions, but I am thankful for this lens I’ve been building throughout my life, to turn frustrations into challenges, boredom into exhilaration, a feeling of homesickness into a feeling of something worth fighting for. As I ride through these misty green jungles, I can’t help but feel these things; I want to share them with you.
But back to more practical observations…
The Campinas temple is amazing but I can’t help but thinking about what mom always said, about how people all around the world were doing temple work exactly the same. In Brasil, this is absolutely correct! Save the slightly browner temple workers, it could be in the middle of Sacramento! People say that the church is the same throughout the world, and I am starting to feel that comment is truer than I supposed. Even the details are alike. Feels like a miracle.
It was Independence Day of Brasil yesterday. Sweet! Decorations, special food, fireworks, music! The CTM was completely different, and I loved it. I also sang the National Anthem of Brasil 3 times! It’s completely different from U.S.A.’s anthem! It’s fast, it’s intense, it’s over-the-top, and it’s so epic that it gets my heart pumping every time. I just want to give a big “Whoooop!” right after finishing. I love it!
Hear the Brazil National Anthem and see some great landscapes
Portuguese is going well! I feel like I need to challenge myself a bit more, but I taught the 1st discussion in Portuguese yesterday! It was short, but it went well! Most of the others memorized their sentences, but I put mine together on the spot! My teacher, Irmao Ramon, said our companionship was the best in the class! Beleza (awesome)! You guys better get ready to have me coming home with an accent! I want to go as completely Brazilian as I can get!
Anyway, we’re almost back to the CTM. I’m sorry if this letter is a bit sloppy/choppy. I loved Brendon’s letter, but it’s hard for me to plan my writing out; I like to do it more stream-of-consciousness-style.
Anyway, Love You Love You Love You! You guys keep me going.
Mom, I love you. Keep helping to comfort and strengthen the fam.
Dad, I love you. Have good success and keep the spirit with ya!
Lyns, I love you. Good luck with your performances! Thank you for the great updates! I love it all!
Kaitlin, I love you! You’ll be such a pretty Indian princess! Send me a picture! I love you!
I love you all!
-Con
P.S. – I am at Cheney’s cookies! It’s 1:45pm! Putting it in the box now! Bye!
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