Todo Mundo, Tem um Feliz Natal!
Feliz Natal!
Ahhh, the feelings of Christmas are in the air! Two nights ago, as many of you have seen already, (**IF NOT - SEE YOUTUBE VIDEO ON THE SIDEBAR ON THE RIGHT) we spent three hours on the streets of Passo Fundo singing Christmas carols with a couple other young men from the ward. Four days ago we had our Christmas Zone Conference, complete with presents from President Pavan, and a Christmas musical by the missionaries of Caxias. There I also received a Christmas package from my family, which had traveled thousands of miles to arrive in my hands. I cannot wait to open it on Christmas day! It has been very hard to resist opening it prematurely. But I am determined.
Elder Duarte and I have been listening to Christmas music constantly in our apartment, and for language study we sing Christmas songs… But most importantly, the topic of conversation here is about the opportunity to call home this Friday! I am so excited! I cannot believe this day has finally come! I remember thinking about where I would be a year from last Christmas, and now that imagined place is becoming a reality, here! It will be such a present to hear your voices and realize once again that you are all real, not just static words and pictures.
I will also call on Christmas eve at 1:30 your time (7:30 my time). I can only call for five minutes to schedule when to call with you, it’s going to be hard not to talk longer! It’s going to be really awesome, we are allowed to call from the Chapel, and it’ll be completely empty, just me and my family. Nice situation eh? Can’t wait. We should be able to schedule any time you like to call, because the chapel is very close to our house.
Singing carols was fun, I’m glad you got the video! That video is a little weird for me, because I really didn’t do anything in it other than sing. Kind of silent. Elder Duarte gets carried away sometimes and forgets his wing-man is waiting to provide another witness to his words. I keep having to remind him. It’s all cool. We’re working on it. Getting better. But just wanted to let you know I’m not just eye candy ALL the time. ; )
I actually am surprised at this week: I have a couple of new stories! It is really cool, like you said, that I am finally making my own stories here. Just you wait, after the mission all I’m ever going to talk about is things that happened here! :)
So Elder Duarte and I were walking to an appointment, and we realized that the route we were taking to this house was a big U-shape. There weren’t any roads on the map in the middle of that U. So we wondered, why not just go in a straight line to the next house? We looked to see what was blocking the way: just a field of soy plants. Easy. So we trekked through this field, which went up a slight hill, so that all of the surrounding neighborhood could see us walking. They were probably thinking: why are two professional looking young men trekking straight through a dirty field? It went well, and it was actually pretty nice, I should’ve taken my camera.
(**here's some lovely pictures of his area - sent later**)
However, we quickly found why more people didn’t take this shortcut: it ends in a 12 foot cliff, right before the end of the field! We were determined to make sure we hadn’t just wasted our time, so I went to got to see if I could take a couple steps down the cliff first, but I lost my grip, and luckily instead of falling end over end I kind of just skidded with my feet forward, and somehow didn’t even get dirt on my backside. I was safe on the other side! But then I realized: Elder Duarte had to come over now, or we would be separated. The problem is: Elder Duarte was born and raised in the middle of Sao Paulo, had very few experiences with nature, and whats more, weighs 1.5x more than I do. But he tried. He threw my his backpack, and with a grim look on his face, placed his foot on the first step and… it gave way! Elder Duarte gave a little yelp and practically rolled end over end down this 12 foot cliff!
He was a little dirty, had some stickers in is arms, and ripped his pants, but I dusted him off and we went back to work. He was pretty grumpy for the next couple minutes, but we’re laughing about it now. Haha! I wish I had my camera! Next time…
My other story is about this Saturday. Elder Duarte is the district leader here, and one of the things DLs do is do baptismal interviews with the investigators of the other Elders. So this Saturday we had to go to Lagoa to interview a young man for baptism. But we had to go early in the morning because it’s a two hour ride there, and the baptism was early in the afternoon.
The problem was that we had no money for the bus. So when we got back from the Christmas conference at 10:30 at night, with all of our supplies, Christmas packages, a (heavy) box of new livros de mormon, we took a 15 minute trek AWAY from our house towards an ATM to withdraw money for the next morning. I withdrew the money, stuffed it in my pocket, and we got home late, but ready for the next day.
Got up, rushed out the door at 5:30 in the morning, took a bus to the bus station, went to the ticket station and…. Oh no! Where’s the money!?!?! I had put on another pair of pants!!!! We scrambled around a bit to look for another ATM close but… the bus left. And it was my fault. We walked in silence to the Zone Leaders’ house, where we sat down in defeat. I’ll just say that I was feeling pretty lame. Kind of beating myself up. I shouldn’t have done that. However, after talking with the ZLs a bit, we figured out there’d be another bus in two hours. We also needed to grab our cellphone, which had been left at our house, to call a couple of investigators and cancel our appointments. Okay, so we kind of took our time getting out the door and had about 30 minutes to get back to the bus, but we took another bus 10 minutes home to get the phone. But there was traffic. And there was a 15 minute wait before the next bus left our house to the bus station. And it looked like we would have to take another bus to Lagoa, which would push the baptism back and be really inconvenient for the Elders in Lagoa, and would cancel the rest of our appointments that day. So we thought and thought about what we could do and: yes! We would get off of the bus to our house early, run to our house while it went a bit further into the neighborhood before looping back, and beat the bus back to the stop, with cellphone in hand! We got off the bus sprinting, but quickly found that we had misjudged the distance home, and it looked like we wouldn’t catch that bus back. We slackened our stride. When we finally got in view of our house, the bus hadn’t passed! Elder Duarte yelled, Go! And I ran as fast as I could to our house, jumping over piles of gravel and around trees and parked cars, got to our gate, threw the chain off, went to the door, slammed it open, looked onto Duartes desk where the phone usually is and… where is the phone!?!?! I throw some stuff around looking for the phone, in Duartes pants, on my desk, but nothing! I yell for Duarte, who I think is still coming, but no answer. I can feel the bus coming and passing us by. I pretty much give up there. But then a thought comes to me: on the bed! And I ran to Duartes bed and there it was. I grabbed it, grabbed the money in my other pair of pants, sprinted out the door, lassoed the chain around the gate, snapped it shut, and started down the street towards the bus stop. At the end of the street, what is it that I see? It’s Duarte, jumping and shouting and motioning to come fast! The bus is at the stop and I’m still 100 metres away! It’s passing the stop and I’m still far and I’m trying to run but it’s not enough. Duarte is motioning with his index finger for the driving to wait just one second, the bus is about to turn down the street, but I’m suddenly there, and I slam into the bus doors, knock a couple times, the driver looks and opens it, and I jump on while the bus is in motion, Duarte right behind me. And we sit down in unbelief that we managed to catch the same bus we had just gotten off. Because of this, we made it to the bus to Lagoa, and made it back in time to teach two awesome lessons with our investigators with baptismal dates, one of whom, Jessica, who had a smile waiting for us, and said that she had prayed and received an answer about the Book of Mormon. Now that… was a day. Awesome.
Elder Duarte at the Pie eating activity
Whew. I have another story but I’ll save it for later. I’m outta breath.
Anyway, this week was great. Other than that morning after missing the bus, I’ve been feeling really great. Starting to really accept this as my life, and actually get into it. It’ll probably be a bit difficult after our Christmas call, but will be well worth it.
Love you guys all so much! I love being here! I wish I could live this life and a life with you back at home simultaneously! But there’s plenty of time for that.
Until Thursday at 1:30! Love ya!
Elder C
Hey Mom!
I don’t think I have a compass… I think I could buy one around here it actually might really help. Good idea. I’m pretty proud of myself; I have been getting noticeably less lost over the week. It’s really cool to actually know where you are in the labrynth of a city that is Passo Fundo!
Oh yeah, I should have mentioned which album I’m listening to of Paul Cardell. Look up the album “Songs of Praise”. You will love it. Promise. I listen to it every morning almost.
I hope you’re having fun organizing all the activities with all the family! It’s so awesome that you’ll have Jeff and Anne and Randy and Cody all the other family over! I’m jealous. Mom, thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me out here, not just for keeping me in touch with the world and sending me packages of goodies, but for all the things you’ve done for me throughout the years to get me to this point. Thank you especially just for your love. It is a strength out here. So many family are torn apart here, and so much good could be done just through a couple more good mothers like you.
Love you so much mom! Can’t wait to talk to you! Thank you so much for the package, I can’t wait to open it! I think I’ll probably start crying once I open it and see everything you painstakingly arranged just so I could have a good Christmas. Love love love!
Hey my Dad,
Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for the letter, I loved it. Emails in my inbox are presents under the Christmas tree, ready to be clicked on and unwrapped. I’m glad you liked the video! I need to send more like that. I’m always scared to bring my camera out in public, but I haven’t been assaulted yet, so I could probably start taking even more photos and some videos now.
I am still thinking about Cottage Meetings, and I will do it. I think I’m kind of procrastinating doing it now, because it would be a lot of work. My excuse is that I would really like to be the main organizer of something like that, and I need a bit more experience with the language, I think, before I’d be able to communicate what I wanted to about how it would be run. I still feel like a greeny, but I need to shake that feeling off and start going on the offensive here in the mission field, getting stuff done. It will happen. I will talk to Elder Duarte about this. Probably next transfer it will happen. Thank you for reminding me! I still think it would be a very valuable way to find and teach new people!
Dad, I love you so much. I am so thankful for the huge part you have played in my life, making me who I am now. I am so thankful for the help you are giving me now, in your letters, prayers, and through the example you’ve been in our family, an example not just for me, but for all the people I teach and tell about how family is so much better with a righteous head of the family. Can’t wait to talk to you buddy. Love ya!
Hey Lynsey! I am so excited to talk to you this week! It was so nice to get a letter from you this week! Letters are the only Christmas presents I need! And you can be sure that while maybe a LONG time down the road we might be having our Christmases separate with our families and our grandchildren, we have many more Christmases yet together! Enough to make up for these two!
It’s way weird to me that Alex is already engaged… And yes, something about the mission does make you want to get married or something. When we had our conference with Elder Scott two months ago, Elder Scott talked primarily about getting married quickly after the mission! Pretty much a day doesn’t go past where your companion doesn’t make some mention about marriage. Weird. It might just rub off on me, really. Just get ready to talk some sense into me when I get home so I don’t go out and do anything stupid. I’ll have to depend on you guys to let me know what’s normal or not after being accustomed to mission life so long…
That’s so awesome you are in a rock band… With other adults… And you have a manager? And you’ll do shows? Holy smokes Lyns! That sounds so cool! I’m so excited to see you keep going and getting better and chasing the dream! So awesome Lyns! Just go for it and don’t hold back! Para bens (congrats)!
I’m glad you’re finally done with school for a little while. Enjoy every day of the holidays! Be sure to give yourself some time to unwind, even if it means forcing yourself to stay at home for a day just to read, listen to music, and do nothing! It’ll make you appreciate being busy after the holidays, because you know the difference.
As far as staying close to the spirit, I know it’s something you can do, even in the world with such a large amount of other activities and events going on. It’s pretty simple, or at least it seems simple to me because it’s just a part of my life now. Just read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes every day, and make sure to pray morning and night. Can you do that? Figure out a way to do that. I promise your hunger for the Spirit will be satiated if you do this, and you will be guided by the Spirit in your everyday decisions. Cool huh?
I really hope I can keep at least that up after my mission. I know it works.
Anyway Lyns, talk to you soon! I love you so very much!
Hey Kaitlin!
Merry Christmas! A person from our ward played the YouTube video of us getting our mission call with us in his home, and I got to see you in that video! Kaitlin, it was so nice to see you! I miss you so much! I hope you are having a good Christmas and have fun with all the cousins that are coming over! Especially all the little babies that will come over! Hug them tight for me okay Kate? What are you getting for Christmas?
Kaitlin, to say Merry Christmas in Portuguese, you say “Feliz Natal!” And Santa Claus is called “Papa Noel” here. Funny huh? And guess what, here Christmas is really hot! It’s summer here but people still have Christmas trees, presents, lights, decorations, and all the pictures of Santa have him wearing big heavy red clothes! But even here, little Brasilian kids will wake up Christmas morning and open presents with their families. All around the world this is happening. Cool huh?
I love you so much Kate and can’t wait to talk to you!
Hey Brendon!
Great idea about the baptism book! I haven’t heard of anyone doing it here, so I guess I have to start the tradition. Will be very useful after the mission, for sure.
What do you guys do for P-day usually? We play soccer and then are at the LanHouse for 4 hours. Do your companions not like using the internet for very long? How expensive is it? Ours is only 1 real an hour.
In my spare time I’ve started to make a trading card game for the mission. I should probably be doing better things with my time during breakfast and right before bed, but it’s helping vent all my game design itches. But my idea is that each card will have requirements for people to use them in the game, and will function like achievements for the xbox. So you can only have a certain card after, for example, contacting 3 families on the street in one hour, memorizing a scripture, cleaning the house, singing on the bus, preaching from a soapbox, taking a shortcut, asking for 10 referrals… there’s a million different things I could do. Their companion has to verify that the achievement was unlocked, and then on P-day they get their cards. The card game itself is standard fair, like how I remember Magic the Gathering played. But it based on missionaries, highly stylized, in fantastic settings. Some parts of the actual game will rely on missionaries being able to recite scriptures from memory or teach a scriptural point very quickly. You can see I’m trying to make some excuses for why I’m spending time making it : ) ? Maybe it’ll result in more effective missionaries, maybe it’s just a diversion. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll send you the rules and some cards after it’s further along.
I had a scary experience the other night. We were talking about scary stories in a member’s house after a family home evening activity, I don’t know why, but suddenly a dish by the sink exploded, showering the room with tiny little pieces of glass. The member was convinced it was an otherworldy event, Elder Duarte thinks that it was caused by a change in temperature and that it was a special kind of glass which does this often, and I… am kind of in the middle on my opinion about what the heck happened. But for surely there were spine-tinglies involved after this occurred. Weird eh?
Anyway buddy, I love you lots! Congrats on the other baptism! Holy smokes man! Fortaleza is crazy! I guess I better get used to it. :) It’s all cool.
Love love love, guys! Tchau tchau until Friday!
Elder Conman
* Just a couple photos this time, sorry, my camera was out of batteries for most of the week, and I just barely got around to recharge it, lazy me. One of Elder Duarte after last week's pie activity, and one of me with my very special present I can't wait to open it!
