May 11, 2010 - Letter Home

 Hey Mom! Thank you so much for the little letter. I just left feeling on top of the world. I felt a little melancholy the next morning, but that passed and I'm right back into the work. What's interesting is that all of the other missionaries say they feel more homesick after their calls, but I feel much less homesick, actually. Just so cool that we can get together even many many miles apart. I did a lot of thinking about what was said in our phone call, and it stirred up some new thoughts I'll share with you guys in my big-'ole e-mail.

Anyway, have a good morning! I'll be back here at 2:00, so if you want you can take a little longer before writing. Also, it may be that you talked about everything new already there, so don't worry if it's a bit more brief. The call made up for all of it. Hope you had a good Mother's day too!

I LOOOVE YOU! Here's a big morning hug. Until later,

Connor

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Starting over 

Hey Family!

This might be a little shorter of a post this week, being that we all just had a lengthy Mother’s day call with all the family together. That was awesome. It hás actually just left me feeling happier and more connected to my family. Very cool. Now just 7 months until the next call! That time will fly.

Earlier this week I had a division with Elder Barker in his área, Lagoa Vermelha. It was very awesome because we were in the same district in the CTM, and I have such an awesome connection with him and the rest of that group because of all the time and experiences and difficulties we shared there for 2 months. We got to walk around and do missionary work, showing off stuff we learned, recounting stories from the CTM, and generally just revel in the fact that we’ve come so far in the mission already. It was great to be working with a good friend for a day. He taught me how to make pastels (which were delicious) and we managed to eat at a bunch of appointments there, and so it seemed kind of like a holiday that day.

We had a couple high-powered days after that, really try to work hard to find new investigators, and praying and having faith that we would find some families to teach, and we came out this week with 5 new families to teach. I’m really proud of that. What is kind of worrisome is that we’ve managed to get our finding strategies working, but we have had trouble on figuring out how to teach them all effectively now that we’ve found them. They’ve all had different times that they’re available, and live in different places, and it hás been hard to schedule all the people we want to visit into one week. So that’s what the next big difficulty is going to be; is to figure out how to plan our time effectively to visit and teach these people according to their needs while still managing to find people. But it’s good to have a bunch of families moving through the lessons, and seeing if they’ll make the effort to pray and receive an answer and have the desire to become a member. But we’re in a good situation now here.

We went to Casca, a neighbooring city, yesterday. We are only allowed to teach people outside Marau if they’ve been to church before and are progressing, so seeing as the only bus to Casca left two hours before Tiago and Mônica, the family there, would be at home, and we couldn’t knock doors or make contacts there during this time, we went sightseeing in the city. It’s a small town of 8,000 people, but they have an impressive giant archaic Catholic chapel, and a big park. There was a monument there to the pioneers of Casca, which included people from the Torino área of Italy. Could it be our family? That was very interesting. We had a nice dinner and lesson there before returning via a late bus, which broke down in the middle of the way between Casca and Marau. We sat waiting for another bus to pass and pick us up, but the two buses which passed wouldn’t stop for us! We waited there 2 hours, it being 11 PM, until Elder Carvalho just got fed up, got into the engine compartment of the bus, and tried to fix whatever was wrong. He used a bunch of rocks, wet paper towels, a hanger we found, and a piece of rubber to fix the engine. We got home at half past midnight, all because of his crazy ingenuity. Otherwise we would’ve slept there and waited for morning. Go Elder Carvalho! Heheh. I never cease to be surprised.

So after reflecting a bit after our call, I just had the following simple thoughts: First of all, while our next call home and our homecoming and everything will seem like tomorrow when we actually get there, it is good to realize there’s a quite a bit of time left. 1 year and 4 months is a lot. What I meant to say on the phone was that there is value in just putting off the homesickness and realizing that this tôo will pass, and that we will be together for a long time in a little while, and that this time apart shouldn’t be the cause for tôo much longing for family. We just have to keep going, one day at a time, and acknowledge that the day o four reunion WILL come, if not necessarily soon. But the fact is that it WILL happen. That’s enough to keep me going.

The other thing I wish that I would have said is that while the main thing that I’ve learned here is how to take just one day at a time, and not try to push yourself tôo much, and just try to stay happy... That’s a good lesson. But I realized that I have so much more to learn still. One thing I want to learn is how to arrive at that point where I can actually push myself, and go above and beyond, and see honest miracles happen, without burning out or getting frustrated when my efforts don’t make a difference right away. I want to say that I’ll take it one step at a time, doing more every day to get there, but at the same time I don’t want to discount the value of a miraculous change of heart and attitude. Alma the Younger didn’t take it one step at a time; he went straight from ruffian to courageous missionary. Apostle Paul also had a huge change. Big things can happen NOW. If we want them to. If we let them.

So while that’s not necessarily a lesson I’ve learned, it’s something I want to learn, and I want to experience, and that I believe exists. Hopefully I can do that.

It was so cool to see the vídeo of Lynsey playing the drums. The solo was SO AWESOME! Lynsey sure is getting better! So awesome! It’s nice to see the band again and see everyone that makes up a part of it again. You guys are better but at the same time it’s nice to see everything the same still. Cool.

Hey Mom, thanks for Jordan’s letter. It’s just cool to know he’s going home very soon. Wild! I would like his letters forwarded to me from now on, if you don’t mind. Cool. Thanks Mom for the letter and the update. I am jealous you get to read sci-fi books. I love the scriptures but it’s something where you have to be trying to get something out of the activity. Sometimes I wish I could just read for leisure. Maybe the scriptures will get like that for me in a while. I love you so much. I am so happy when I think about my family. :)

Dad, I think a lot of the fact that you were on your mission in a similar kind of place like we have here, and how we’re here continuing the legacy of Elder Carpenter. I’m happy to be a part of that. Happy birthday again Daddio.

I loved hearing from my lil’ sis Kaitlin! Kaitlin, I love you so much and am glad we got to talk! I also love your vídeos and if you want to make more of them, I would like that! I hope you have a good middle school graduation on your birthday! I’m so excited for that. Will you send me some pictures from that? I hope your birthday is good and that you get some cool presents! I love you so much Kate. Stay happy, remember that you are beautiful and so so important to someone way far away here in Brasil. Love you.

Brendon, hope the transfers go right! Start in your new área as a different person, a new, better missionary! There’s never a better time to change than when your environment changes as well. I’m hoping you get the opportunity to turn Sênior. That’d be awesome. Also, print out the thing I sent you and use it! It actually works! I love you bro. Driving crazily in the parking lot of the theater at night. Yep. Awesome. We’re doin that again. For sure.

Love you all my fam! No photos this week because I left the cable at the house, but more next week! To all my extended family and friends: love you guys, hope all is going well, wish I could write more specifically to you!

Love love love!

Con