ELDER CONNOR CARPENTER
Full Time Missionary for the
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Mission: PORTO ALEGRE NORTH / Country: BRAZIL
Language: PORTUGUESE
Called on: APRIL 17, 2009
Departed on: AUGUST 25, 2009
Estimated Return Date: AUGUST 18, 2011
From the corners of the earth...
Hey fam! Got in late, again, read the awesome letters, and I have a quick video for you guys to watch about what I was doing last Pday and some quick photos. I just got back from a lunch with a member who is a history teacher and also a world war 2 buff who lives alone and is in the middle of a month-long holiday and was suffering from not having anyone to talk to so what did we end up doing? Listen to him talk about World War 2 for 4 hours! He is actually a really good teacher so it was actually kind of cool (this is why he is the Gospel Doctrine and Seminary teacher in our ward), but just that I had wanted to spend some more time on the net.
Quick temple trip video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErRfUFEGfsk
In our district photo, Elder Malheiros is the hooligan showing his tongue to the whole world. I am the hooligan wearing my very fanciful black scarf. Just in case you forgot.
Anyway, writin up a letter right now. Love you guys!
--
"a humble bumble"
Hey everyone! Life is good here in the Happy Port of Brasil! The sun is shining but the cold “gaucho wind” is blowing, meaning that while it LOOKS exactly like summer, it FEELS cold enough to wear thermal underwear, a long-sleeve shirt, a sweater, a (fanciful) scarf, and a jacket and STILL feel the frost nippin at your nose. Luckily, it hasn’t been raining too much, because I forgot to tell you last week that it rained and we got trapped in a member’s house because the streets were flooded until somebody came by with a car for us. I hear it’s not as bad as Sao Paulo, but it get’s a bit complicated when the rain comes down.
I made 11 months yesterday! Like the hippies of the treehouses of Santa Cruz, I’M STILL HERE BABY! I’m livin and lovin it. It does feel like it’s gone fast, and when I imagine being ready to go home in a year, I have to think that I’ll be feeling pretty panicked. It’s just that I want to do so much, and take advantage of the only 2 years I’ll have to preach the gospel and spread happiness like I can now, but it’s super hard to keep that in your head every single moment of every day. I hope I can make the most of it and feel good about my one and only mission by the time it’s through. Hm.
So the work is going crazy. After being depressed about losing Andressa, a family that had been taught before but stopped taking lessons, showed up at a member’s house, and this time the daughter of that family, Pamela, said she had been curious to visit church, so we invited her, and she came to church last Sunday with her brother! What’s more is that we showed up at her house yesterday and found that she had absolutely loved church and the members there, she was vigorously reading the Book of Mormon and our many pamphelets, and was way happy (to the point of tears) to hear that she could be baptized in two weeks without waiting for a long time! Alright!
We also spent a long time talking to her mother who had gotten interested after seeing her daughter act so different. I’m seeing good thing there. What a cool blessing.
But then, we went to go visit Gustavo, where Elder Malheiros went up to knock on the door, and Gustavo’s dalmation (who is usually tied up in the back yard) runs out and bites him on the leg! I look up and think to myself how I’m going to enter the yard and wrestle the thing off of my companion and escape before he gets bit in the throat. Luckily, Gustavo’s mom opens the door and scares away the dalmation, so we go in and start the lesson (with Malheiros hiding his bleeding bitewound), and in the middle of the lesson, Gustavo’s mom emerges from her room where she usually avoids us, and rants on about how we were invading her house and brainwashing her child who isn’t mature enough to think about religion (being just 18 years old) and when we offered to let her know what it was we were teaching, we got a boot out the door in response. Gustavo didn’t appear at Church Sunday… Way sad. And so we walked away from the situation with a bleeding leg (Malheiros´) and missing a good friend and investigator.
But… Then we got a phone call from an unknown source. It’s Andressa! Andressa bugged her mom to death trying to get her to call the missionaries so that she could be baptized, and so it caused Andressa’s mom, Patricia, to get our number from a member family so we could teach her and get her to church. Patricia was impressed with Andressa's desire to return to church so much that she decided she wanted to check it out too, so she and her husband and they’re other 3 kids jumped in a crowded Punchbuggie Sunday morning to come with us to church! It really was great, and I think the family has a lot of potential. Andressa will be baptized this Saturday.
So, it’s an up and down and crazy work. Man, it’s workin my emotions. I can’t imagine what will happen next.
Anyway, I’m out of time, so I love you guys, I’m so grateful to have you guys as my family. Dad, keep working hard and taking time out to relax and pray and read scriptures and realize that no matter what you’re facing at work, it’s going to work out with enough trust in the Lord and patience. Just worry enough to let it motivate you to work. More than that and you’re gonna burn out. Spend time with my sweet Kaitlin if you can.
Mom, thanks for the letter, I love you, and if you REALLY want to send me a package you can just fill it FULL of chocolate!!! Or maple syrup extract. Or peanut butter. Just those things. Love you Mom, thank you very much for the motivation to keep putting plastic-bags on my feet every morning :).
Tell Natalie I think it’s way exciting she’s investigating the church. Tell her to send any tough questions our way, or what she’s thinking about the whole thing! Cool cool.
Kaitlin! I love you so much my sis and it’s so cool you’re off to High school! You will like it SO much. My little sis growin up! How did the Japanese crafts go? Pics?
Hey LynsInLA! I want details of your adventure. Hope you’re safe and happy! Live up every moment until the end! Love you so much my bella sista.
Yo Brenn’n! My companion is funny. But he’s also awesome, humble, and very friendly. A bit of a humble bumble :). Which is I guess a lot like me! We're are good friends and it's going great. How's your companion?
Okay, adios folks! Love love to everyone!
Elder Con
P.S. Give a big congrats to Chase and to Lora Lynn! So cool, the news from both of them! Wow! Wish I could write more! Love!
"Ups! and downs."
Hey Family!
I gotta be quick this week because going to the temple yesterday killed our P-day (but in a good way!) and because the rules say I am OBLIGATED to communicate with my family every week, I am taking time to write you guys.
This week flew by fast also and I have few new things to tell. Unfortunately, we had some let downs here as Andressa and her family suddenly moved. It’s really sad because Andressa received such a strong testimony. Hopefully she will be able to keep her testimony until she can find missionaries wherever she is now. Also somewhat depressing is an investigator, Gabrielle, who was super enthusiastic to learn more, but the other day refused to even let us in their house. We don’t know what happened but we hope to discover what it is that happened.
But we have our victories. We had thought that our third awesome investigator with a baptism date, Gustavo, had fallen through when his mom refused us at her door and said Gustavo didn’t want to meet with us, but the next Sunday there was Gustavo, walking in the rain with a Book of Mormon in his hands to go to church! He even went with us to a fireside that night! He is a person that truly is trying to change his life and find the truth. So cool! It’s for moments like these that the mission is worth it.
Yesterday I got to visit the Porto Alegre temple for the first time!
It is beautiful. We will visit that temple as a family later in my life, I know it.
It sits on a hill that overlooks Porto Alegre, and we came out of the session to a sunset over the cityscape!
"temple parking lot at sunset"
Awesome! Elder Malheiros and I arrived late to the session, so we were hurrying and when we finally arrived to start the session there I saw Elder A. Lima, Elder Castellanos, Elder Bastos, Elder Lima, and Elder M. Oliveira, some of my very good friends that I hadn’t seen for so long, some since the CTM!
"Elder Lima and I at the temple"
It was a great reunion and we got to hang out a bit afterwards. I love the other missionaries here. I will be psyched to do big mission reunions later on.
Getting closer to the 11 month mark! Woah! Oh, other thing, I bought a Book of Mormon in Italian (only one copy in the temple, hardback, and for less than 80 cents! I had to snag it!) And a good member friend we hang out with here, Vincent, speaks Italian, so I’m gonna try my hand at it in my free time! Muolta Buona!
How cool it was to get e-mails from everyone this week! Very much cool stuff. I love the news from Dad, and though it must be tiring to keep running to and fro to keep things running, it’s cool that things are running! Dad, you are my idol for just making it work no matter what. Thank you also for the testimony. I’m praying for success for all you guys up there!
The news that Lynsey is all moved in and moving around in L.A. is crazy! I remember Lyns talking about it forever but it’s another thing to see it actually happening! Man, that must be such a cool experience. Parabens Lyns for stepping out into the wide world for the first time (temporarily)! It’s not every girl that is able or willing to take such opportunities. Just another testament of what I already know, that my Lyns is a one-of-a-kind sis. I love you Lyns! Stay safe and be smart out there!
Wow Mom! (-- You can read that upside down with the same meaning!)
I also liked the idea of helping Kaitlin make Japanese crafts! Do that Mom and send me pictures! I would love to do that myself with Kait so I’ve gotta live through you doing that for here!
Kaitlin is getting so smart and I am so proud of her for reading so many books! Congrats Kaitlin! Every book you read just makes you smarter, that’s how I got smart because I just read read read all the time! :P I love you my Kaitlin!
Liked getting news from Brendon!
Hmmm, nothing else of note happened this week, and I am running out of time, so I’ll end it here! I love you all, and I hope that you all are well and continue in straight paths. I am so so thankful for each one of you, my family, relatives, friends, and each one of you are a special blessing that Heavenly Father has placed in my life.
Love love love, until next week,
Older Carpenter
Today's Con Letter
Wassup family!
It’s cool to be writing to you all from Porto Alegre finally. If you want to find the part of Porto Alegre in which I live in, search for Sarandi, Porto Alegre in Google Maps. I don’t have the full address with me but I’ll pass it to you later. It’s a residential area that reminds me of where Grandma used to live in Sacramento. Just a huge suburban sprawl for the workers of the many factories of Porto Alegre to live in. Very cool place.
After last P-day Elder Malheiros and I drove off to the middle of Porto Alegre to see the sites with a recent convert, Vincent, who’s become a huge friend and a great help to the work here. And he has a car! How useful. We saw the river Rio Grande do Sul, went out to dinner, and Vincent took us to see the main cathedral of Porto Alegre, the State Headquarters, a Cultural Center, Central Park, we went walking in the Marketplace, went to the International Futbol Colliseum, and later went to the Undercity close to the University here where there’s a lot of famous cafés and a lot of cool art shops.
Elder Malheiros and I and Vincent
It was a packed day! I wish I could have taken more photos, but I was worried it would get stolen in a lot of parts and didn’t have the opportunity. But it’s a really sweet city and I’m excited to explore it later after the mission with you guys! You guys would really dig it.
The work is going great here. The members are providing the people and we are just teaching. That’s not normal here in Brasil: it’s just this one special ward. So I’m feeling really lucky to be here and see the miracles work.
Andressa is the daughter of an inactive family that moved to live with her grandparents and started to go to church for the first time and has read the Book of Mormon and has already received a testimony of the church. A really special girl that really needs the gospel in her life because her family problems.
Gustavo is 18, a friend of a member here, and has an atheistic family and has been partying most of his life but wants to change and feels like the church is the place to do it. On our first visit with him we prayed with him for an answer, he received it and accepted the invite to be baptized. Awesome! He’s going to church and seems to be fitting right in.
Tatiane is a friend of a member who lives in a poor neighborhood and works to support her sick dad who has drinking problems. She’s been reading the Book of Mormon and says she feels calmer when she reads, and wants to go to church. She has some problems with her boyfriend with church, but we are trying to help her with that.
Eloila is the mother of Gabriel and Nina, a very special family who is taking care of a grandfather with cancer, they just moved in to the neighborhood next to a strong member family, they are liking the lessons and church.
A recent convert, William, has a mother (Nair) and a sister in law (Maiara) who are taking the lessons, Maiara is almost done with the Book of Mormon, received an answer to her prayers about it, and finally found work after doing this, and wants to be baptized, but she has to get married first and her boyfriend is a bit resistant, but we’re working towards it. Really special family.
And that’s pretty much the work here. Great people, great spirit, people with testimonies already, who simply need to keep keeping commitments and receiving lessons and they should be baptized before the end of the month.
Let’s hope!
Anyway, I got here late, so I gotta run! I loved seeing Camp Connor and hearing about the great reunion experiences! Man I miss you guys and love you guys! Mom, good job on the missionary work! I am impressed with you. Dad, good job on keep going strong! I love you guys so much. Such great examples. Lyns, thanks for the letter and good job on keeping spirits high with Will and getting ready for L.A.! That’s so awesome that you get to go. Kaitlin, I love you so much! Brendon, thanks for asking for recipes from mom that I will definitely try to use.
Love you guys! Have a good week!
Com amor amor amor,
Elder Connor
... I am going to go to a lesson with an inactive family, Vilson and Karen. I love you my sweet mom. Here's a big fat son kiss. :) Have a good week. Thanks for all the recipes and stuff. Life is good! Laugh!
Your Con,
Tchau
The news about Will's cancer got to me, but I know that the matter is in the Lord´s hands and that if we have faith and ask of the Lord, the right thing will happen. There is a reason that this is happening.
Mom, I miss you and Dad and all my family so very much and had many reasons to do so this week. Not because this week was hard, but because I was very well received here, have been feeling very much love, and am remembering how good it feels to be with my family. It's good to write to you.
Sorry that I haven't been able to write very much. Today also I only have very little time to write. I gotta go in 10 minutes because a member is taking us to see the central park of Porto Alegre where there'll be fireworks at sunset (cool!).
This week has been awesome. I wish I could describe all the cool things that have happened. After being sad and a bit tired after my time in Marau, I was received into this awesome ward of Elizabete. There were a surprising amount of baptisms last transfer in this area, a lot of the success due to a previous Elder here that was apparently amazing. I arrived into a ward fully trusting of the missionaries and excited by missionary work, and I suddenly got happy and excited to work as well and know we're just going and it's just getting better!
I wasn't sure how I felt getting a new companion, but as I've got to know Elder Malheiros more, I am realizing that he could easily be my favoritest companion yet. We are really grooving together, want the same things, and are working to get there.
This last week we went with our positive attitude and my excitement of the area and now have 17 new investigators and 3 people which we found this week marked for baptism. We are aiming for more. We can feel that this area is just ripe for the work and we want to give it our all to harvest all the seeds that have been sown here by the many who have come before us. A recent convert, Vincent, has become a really good friend and helps us out in the work almost daily. He is (trying) to teach me how to play the guitar. (Who knows?)
Anyway, so many more details, but I gotta go. Hopefully next week I can get in a video and more info! But I am loving my time here and thanking Heavenly Father for letting me enjoy a really awesome area for a little while. Hope I stay here for a long time!
Okay, fireworks to watch! Love you guys! I am praying for you! Keep working hard and doing what is right!
Love love love,
Connor
