So I am on my last P-day here in the CTM! This is the last e-mail from the CTM! Yes! I can´t explain how excited I am to leave on the 23rd (they changed it again) at 8:35AM, to board the plane with all of the 15 other missionaries heading to Porto Alegre, seeing São Paulo for the last time from the air, and enjoying the Brazilian landscape before setting down in the magical city of Porto Alegre, then setting my foot for the first time on the land that I was meant to serve in since before I was born, and meeting mission president, get briefed, and shuttled straight off onto a train for my first area in the field, to meet my trainer, and to finally start this journey I’ve waited for since before I received my call more than 6 months ago. Yeah!
Yesterday instead of class our district went to meetings for departing districts, and it totally psyched us all up. We got our schedules, had a nice spiritual message from Presidente Woodward’s wife, and then had a health meeting where I got an excersize band and a cool water filtration thing! Truly gifts for a warrior.
Also, for the past couple days our instructors have pretty much used up half the class just talking about mission stories, and I'm just really stoked right now. However, although I'm so excited for the field, the day keeps coming closer that I'll have to part with Brendon. It's going to be a bit harder than I thought, I think, just like it was a bit harder to leave my family at the airport than I had thought. He’s going to be an excellent missionary. I can’t wait to hear about his success.
So last Friday we did our 2nd proselyting day. And it was wild. So here’s what happened: they put our district on a bus, drove straight into the middle of the city, to a city square with a huge cathedral and crowds of busy people, and told us to get out really fast while we were waiting at an intersection, and out we went with 3 Livros de Mórmon, a couple passalong cards, our testimonies, and a very limited knowledge of Brasilian portuguese. Wow. It was intense. We managed to place all of our Livros, though, even handing out Elder Feller’s own copy, and all of our passalong cards. We were out on the street for about 4 hours. My past stories of proselyting were very interesting, but I'm afraid that wasn't the case this time. Some nice people, some more rude, but nothing out of the ordinary. The oddest thing was Elder Feller and I ending up talking to this homeless lady for about 20 minutes. She talked about her life, and she had a very very sad life. It made me feel so grateful for the life I've been given. We gave her a LdM (Livro de Mormon - Book of Mormon), read a scripture, and bore our testimonies that she would be taken care of, but I'm sad to say that it didn't seem to have much effect on her, and it didn't look like she would be taken care of very soon; how can you focus on God and spirituality when so much of your basic needs are severely lacking, and you are trapped by addiction and an unmerciful societal structure? I guess the best thing to do would be to have faith that the Lord can provide a way for her to change her life. But it really got me blue for a little while.
We also met some very nice people. Marcus was a college student on a working vacation to São Paulo, and he was a very active evangélico who knew the Bible inside and out. At first he was somewhat argumentative, but I know he could feel the spirit, and he was very curious and interested in the LdM, despite the fact that he beleived there could be nothing more than the Bible. I hope he reads it. It'll be so nice to be able to teach these people past the initial meeting. Sonha was a very nice old lady with bright red hair who, honestly, I couldnt understand what she was saying, but apparently my attempts to communicate with her eventually paid off because out of nowhere she was giving us huge (illegal!) hugs, and took our Book of Mórmon, kissed it, raised it to the sky and said Halleluhah! I came away from that very bewildered but also couldn't keep a smile off my face. Sweet! I hope she understood what it was she had taken... Hehe, the memory still makes me laugh. Anyway, it was a solid day. Can't wait to do it full time!
Well, I'm running out of time. I just want to let you know a couple things before I go:
- You might not get a letter or e-mail next week, for some reason, because I hear its harder for the first week in the field
– I finished reading the New Testament, and am starting the Book of Mormon in Portuguese
– I've done so much fun stuff here that I haven't told you about, a couple things:
- Closing the windows in the shower room, running them all on top heat, closing the drains, hanging a bedsheet by the entrance entrances, creates a sauna and our entire floor had a lot of fun during free time that day (sounds a little weird but it was cool)
– Shooting sharpened toothpicks out of straws at balloons during lunch
– Tying candy to a string and lowering it out the window to try to get people below us to reach for it
– Sleepovers in our room complete with ridiculously funny and ridiculously scary stories
– Doing service, lifting boxes of tile on the roof of the CTM, with 4 foot barriers guarding against an 8 story drop
– Trying to scare guys all the time as they come around the córner of the stairs
– Goofing around all the time in between intense study and class
– More details later I guess.
Brazilian Friends and Roomates
Family, I am thinking about you, and I love you.
I have a more personal written 3 page letter coming to you via MissionTiés. (And yeah mom, I haven't sent any for the past 2 weeks, sorry)
Okay, gotta go!
Love love love! Dad! Mom! Lynsey lyns! Kateyloo!
Till next (or next next) week!
Very much love,
Elder Con
P.S. Shout out to Uncle Kevin! I got his letter and I love it and I can't wait to get some pictures of my brand new cousin Jonah! Be strong guys! Also, some very interesting ideas about fun things to do from the top of tall buildings... Will try and see if it works in Brasil as well. Just as an experiment. :) Love you!
P.S.S. Also, thank you Randy and Codee for your awesome card. I actually got it two weeks ago. I loved the custom cut-outs and Jamison’s virtuoso artwork. That really made my day! Thank you!
P.S.S.S. Oh yeah, photos! Just remember I love all those guys! Especially the Brasilheiros. Funny people, all of them.
Bye!
Handwritten letter that he wrote that same day
(but I didn't get til 3 weeks later!)
10-20-2009
My dear Family!
I just finished with a temple session at the Sao Paulo temple. It was my third time there, my 5th time in Brazil, and my last time going with Brendon for at least 2 years. That’s odd to think about. I am so thankful that I have been able to go as much as I have in the last six months. I have so many good memories about the temple, especially of those times with family and extended family. For certainly all the temple sessions I can go to in the future will be reminding me and helping me feel connected to them.
So just yesterday me, and everyone else who arrived at the same time to the CTM, had a bunch of meetings about our departure schedule. It got all of us so pumped! I’ll be at the airport at about 6:30am on the 23rd, and we will depart at 8:30am, and we will arrive at the Porto Alegre airport at 11:30am. So awesome.
I’ve learned so much here at the CTM, and it’s already acquired a feeling of home. I will also miss so many people I’ve met here. More than anything I’m dreading that last moment with Brendon. We’ve spent more and more time together as it ha gotten closer, but it would never be enough. Although I love writing to you guys and are enjoying our communication, it’s still different. It’s weird that Brendon will turn into that same distant voice that I hear from you.
Honestly, I’ve gotten a bit homesick over the past week. Our teachers have lessened the work load, and we’ve all gotten so comfortable in our schedules, that it seems like there’s just so much more time to think. And thoughts eventually lead to home. I can’t wait till I can get out into the field so I can have a constant supply of new people, problems, and responsibilities to apply myself with. The CTM definitely gave me that rush at first, but I feel like I’ve conquered it now. Onto the next adventure!I feel like I’m prepared.
The language came fairly easily, although I’m far, far from any stage of fluency. It seems with the language, you get exactly what you put into it, I know that for “X” hours of study I can get “X” much better. There are ways to get “more bang for your buck”, of course, like by listening to Brazilians or using the scriptures, but I don’t think there’s any secret formula with learning how to live to a strict schedule full of steady and learning 14 hours a day, it’s a bit different. A little harder, but I still think it’s just a matter of time before you get used to it.
The hardest thing I think was to learn how to coexist with a bunch of strangers without going crazy. Especially being with one specific stranger 24/7. I was pretty scared at first. And during the first couple of weeks I didn’t know if I’d ever be good friends with Elder Feller. However, I think my relationship with him has been one of my greatest victories of the CTM. We are very good friends now, and enjoy being companions. We used to have companionship inventories where we would just talk about what we could do better, and what bugged us about each other, but for the past couple we just talk about stuff we’re succeeding at and about our lives, and I’m really going to miss him as a companion. It’s cool that someone you initially though would be incompatible with you could end up being your very good friend. I think that’s probably possible with a lot more people than we expect. Cool. My trick to becoming friends with him was to stop trying to win every argument, and stop trying to show off so much, and to not point out all his mistakes but instead celebrate his successes. There's definitely more lessons to learn, but I’m thankful for what I’ve learned from Elder Feller.
So, anyway, I miss you guys lots.
Dad, I think about you often and how you would have wanted to serve your mission. The excitement you had for us to go serve always puts what I am doing here into perspective. I also can’t wait to help people and families change their lives just like you did. There’s a lot of happiness to be had.
Mom, I am so very thankful for your constant correspondence and it always gets my hopes up when I need it. I’m so excited for you and Dad to go on a mission a little further down the road. Actually, let me rephrase that, I’m excited to return here to Brasil in a couple of years with you and the fam. (little more closer to look forward to). I think you would love Brasil, especially Brasilians. I t would be cool if we all moved down here later on for a year maybe. I just think you especially would love learning the language. Actually, all that goes for Kaitlin too! Anyway, Mom, you’re doing great at being a mother of missionaries, and I’m so thankful for you and how you’ve raised me, and all the great memories we have together.
Lynsey, you are also very often in my thoughts as I think of you having the high school experience. Live it up! There’s so much I wish I had done different, and you’re doing great, but remember that you’ll never be in high school again! I also think of how great you’ll be out here, and how much fun you’ll have on your mission. Thank you so much for your letters. I love them! I know you may think that nothing interesting is happening to you, but I just love hearing from you. I know writing letters are hard though, so don’t worry about it. I love ya so much Lyns.
Katilin! I especially miss you, and have been missing you lots! Don’t forget about me okay, my sis? I know you wouldn’t. But just know that I think of you always, and I can’t wait to see you! But don’t think about it too much, it’s a long way off, I just hope you can love every day, and have fun with our family, and have fun learning at school! There’s so much to be happy about my Kate! I hope you enjoy the fall, and seeing the trees change and have fun holidays! Halloween will be super fun and I can’t wait to see pictures of your costume! Also, you need to write me about the languages you’ve been learning about!
Alright guys! Next letter you get from me will be from Porto Alegre, and I’ll be a bonafide “greenie”!
I can’t wait!
Love you muchly!
Elder Connor Carpenter
Connor,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences. You are such a great writer! I am busy getting all those last minute seniors applying to college - it likely seems like ages ago that you were one of them! It sounds like you are learning and growing so much.
I think of you and your brother often and know that you will both continue to be an inspiration to people.
Take care,
Lynette Mathews
College Connection