#5 Mother's Day call and a quick email

(We were able to Skype with Carl for about an hour.  It's weird to think that this is our last call to our missionary.  He will be home August 31st.)

 

After talking with you, Elder M talked with his family, then we went to talk to our ward mission leader and we went to Taguatinga 1 to watch the baptism there. Then we got home SUPER late. Well alright, two minutes late. But when you leave to catch a bus at 8:30 and you don't get to the end of a 15-20 minute ride until 9:30... annoying. Turns out our bus doesn't pass by very often at night. . .

As for fun stories form last week, you know that children's song "the pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked..." Yup, that was last week. We walked and walked and walked and nobody was ever home! But, our investigators are moving little by little. We also have some cool people to teach this week.

 

Today we are planning on doing not much at all. Clean the house a little and rest. For whatever reason, I'm really tired, and Elder M was saying yesterday that his knee was bugging him. SO, we will stay nice and quiet in the house.

But... for now that's all, so until later!

Tchau,

Elder Funnell

#84- waking up chilly...

Anyhow, this week was interesting. Elder M is a fun guy, we just didn't get along very well the first few days :P Now we are fine, he was just grumpy about something or another, and so I had to be the victim of his grumpiness... but whatever.

He's got nine months in the mission and is coming from Recanto. He is from Recife, he really doesn't have much to say about what he likes to do (play soccer... duh) and he wants to study something in computer sciences after the mission. He has already said that he becomes trunky very easily... awesome. But he is actually a really good missionary.

Funny note: He already has as many areas as I do :P

This week we did a lot of door knocking. In the process we found a few okays a few goods, and one or two really cool people. This week will basically just be catching all of these people again to see if they will progress or not.

A couple days ago I was talking with the stake something for teaching kids. Yeah. That. She oversees Sunday school for the young men and young women programs. Or something like that.

She said that they were having a lot of trouble with the teachers this year because of the new curriculum. She said it's great because the teacher has to think, but that it is getting complicated due to the kids getting bored out of their minds having the same class over and over and over again.

Sounds special. Similar story there?

Our relief society, young womens, and primary programs were all mixed up this week. Should be a fun change.

I think the most interesting day was yesterday. We went to church, lunch with the Bishop (which is always great), and then we went to the early-return-missionary's house with the Bishop. I said just about nothing, but it was a cool lesson that the bishop gave :)

Oh, and a note: he asked me to send you a 'hug' and say that you have an admirer.

I'm excited to hear about these stories... someday... but whatevs :P good idea though, being hostage does NOT sound fun. That's kinda the point of being hostage...

Ah, it's been really dry and kinda hotish this week. This is the month that its usually kinda cold, and I DO wake up cold, but everyone is complaining about how it’s hot here. Funny because I just think it’s warmish. The dry though, is somewhat annoying.

Anyhow, that's all I got for now…until later,

Tchau!

Elder Funnell

#83 Pics and transfers!

Numbers first: Our mission has 180 'seats'. About normal-smallish in size. The only real difference is that our mission is one of the few that weren’t changed at all, so we won't be getting too many missionaries for a little while. The newbies are going to the new missions or the missions that recently got split. We are just getting a little trickle for now. Already knew that :P

I was talking to Elder H (LZ) during our trade a few weeks ago about the sisters having a part in the mission counsel thingy. Was just announced today. Now there is a position for sisters that are basically like 'wandering assistants'. Our mission doesn’t have these, but they are kinda common. These sisters will be going to ALL of the sisters in the mission to spend a little bit of time training each one and will participate in the mission council.

Cool stuff. Different though

Transfers HAVE returned to Mondays, and they are once again six week-ers.
The dying missionaries will now be leaving on the Thursday before transfers, instead of transfer day (WIERD).

Oh, and my last senior companion left today. Elder E is headed home.

Dang... I'm getting old.

AAAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDDDDD.... Elder S left. Not super surprising. He was a sad panda though. Didn’t catch his area name, I got my companion first. HIS name is Elder M. I believe he is from Recife. He has a lisp. First Brazilian I've seen with a lisp. HARD TO UNDERSTAND. But whatever. We'll get there :P

He's got about 9 months on the mission, and is coming from Recanto das Emas JI talked to Elder M (who was with Elder G this transfer), and he gave me notice that M was baptized and that C and C Roberto will be baptized soon. YAY! I worked like crazy with them, they are the reason I wanted to stay there. Sounds like all is good :)

This week I had a special combination between allergy and cold-ishness. I got up one day with what seemed like super strong allergies, but it turned into a cold-like thing. Totally fine now, but I still have that random pressure in the sinuses... stupid. Can't hear quite right. VERY annoying. But all is well.

I have actually been feeling COLD here! 70s would probably just kill me :P

Hammock is bigish. Big enough for me for sure... But dunno exactly the size.

I DO have pictures. Eventually. Not many though.

Sounds like everyone is having a good time at home, that's good (except maybe Blake... but oh well...) our week was cool. I gave an English class on Saturday, and it looks like it will be a consistent thing. Look, perhaps I can teach some things, and perhaps I speak English... but I do NOT know how to teach English. We just kinda played around with pronunciation, alphabet, numbers, and saying our names. I'll have to think an awful lot more this next class.

We had stake conference yesterday. It was cool. President was there. Didn't see the people from Recanto that I wanted though.

Oh, elder H is somewhere else now, and Sister T as well. That's sad, she was a fun part of our district (and she makes cake!) Sister T stayed and now we have some other sister that I don't know yet, but she knows me. Weird.

Sounds like sister white was her trainer, so she must have told her something about everyone in the district from the CTM.

Our LZs are those kind of missionaries that are somewhat popular, really energetic, and quite funny. I think they are going to drive me crazy though... Elder Q was already bugging me yesterday. I love spastic missionaries... J

ummmmmmm.... I think that's it. I wrote literally non-stop until now, and now nothing else is coming to mind, so I'll leave it there.

Anyhow, I'll let you read that.

So, Tchau tchau!

Elder Funnell

 

 

#82- More exchanges this week that all together!

Our week was. . . Don't even remember.
Went fast. I'm pretty sure that it had a lot more of some people in it than was necessary, but it was good.

We've got a couple of new potential investigators. They are the son and daughter of a recent convert. I already knew both of them, but they didn't have any real desire until now. Out of nowhere M asked his mom if he could go to the church activity on Saturday and the meeting on Sunday. We'll be teaching him Wednesday.
T also moved out of her mother's house (four kids later :P) and ASKED when/if we would go visit her. She also is wanting to know more, she just didn't go to church because her two youngest (rather poorly behaved, although super-cute) kids had her really tired after the first week in her own house. Also will be visiting more.

We went out with members quite a bit this week, Saturday was an entire day with members. We started by visiting an AWESOME less active, hopped over to C's house with A to teach an English lesson, went out with G for the entire afternoon, visited another less active real quick and went to the activity.
Busy day, but quite fun.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Just the weekend was weird.

Thank heavens we only had patient people in the class (excluding me :P) (He is learning to deal with people that talk non-stop.  Shouldn’t be new to him considering his siblings… J)
I sort of (in the most polite way possible) told them both to be quiet and get back to the topic.
It's weird. I realized that I know WAAAAAAAAY more than I used to... but I don't really remember learning it all. Being an olderish missionary is bothersome. I liked keeping quiet in my corner. Oh well.

This IS the last week, but I'm still not sure which day will have transfers or when we will receive transfers... I'll have to tell you next week.

But, I think I'll stick at that.
Tchau tchau!
Elder Funnell

 

#81 The "New Elder" and a bunch of divisions

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! !

Ha! So Marques complained about talking too much? About time :P (Marques was just made Pres. of the 12-13 year old class at church and complained that he had to do most of the talking at their presidency meeting) ;)

 

I found out that I talk quite a lot too, but it IS a lot different in meetings...

 

Yay Maryn! Go BoM! (Maryn has started listening to the Book of Mormon and her goal is to complete the entire book before her brother is home.)

 

Our week was great... but I'm pretty sure last p-day was yesterday... or maybe two days ago. Our week FLEW.

Teaching and stuff is normal. We have a couple of people that are progressing a bit, but really the news this week lies with the craziness of it. We had TWO TRADES this week. TWO. Like... MORE THAN ONE! I think in my entire mission I've been on about six... including these two. We are supposed to have one trade per person per leader per transfer... but that doesn’t happen. Ever.

 

Until now. Elder H came here to do a trade on Tuesday, I went to Tagua 1 to trade with Elder T on Friday, and we had a division with members for our only free hour yesterday (more news on yesterday later).

 

From what I'm seeing, Elder H is pretty cool, Elder Q is kinda crazy (already knew that, a kinda goodish crazy though), Elder O is kinda new but determined to be good regardless of, Elder T, who is very much so dead. The sisters are perfect as normal. Don't understand how they do it. 

 

Good news about trades: Elder T no longer dislikes me :)

Bad news about trades: TIRED!

 

And then there's yesterday:

 

The day started at roughly 8:55 when the Gouber (bishopric) surprised the new Elder in the area (Carl) saying,

"Elder we have two baptisms today!"

And then surprised him even more by saying,

"Elder! Can you lead the meeting for me?!"

And then a little more by saying,

"Elder! Sorry but I don't have it planned at all, so good luck!"

. . .

The rest of the church meetings were used to get to know a bunch more members and assign things to different people.

 

The baptism worked out alright, although very last minute. 

 

The new Elder, now very tired from a ton of random pressure from nowhere, then went to a very fun but VERY FAR AWAY lunch.(1:00)

Roughly 3:30 He met up with some members he didn't know to visit some people (division) that he didn't remember where they lived. . .

5:00 was ward council meeting. The longest one that missionaries have had to attend (we are only supposed to stay 15 minutes...)

The new Elder sat next to the extremely-excited-and-well-intended ward mission leader, for two hours straight. Two hours later (and five years older), the meeting finally ended.

Then they had a meeting just between the missionaries and A. . .

 

Totally brain fried, wiped out, and dead, the Elder then went home... to do weekly planning!

YAY!

 

Man... Yesterday went super-fast too... but I'm pretty sure I aged like crazy with all those meetings.

Just with yesterday I must be 64 now...

 

But all is well! This week should be nice and normal finally. So today I just have food and sleep I think.

Well, all of a sudden I'm out of words. So, I'll be quiet: P

Tchau Tchau!

Elder Funnell

 

 

 

 

 

#80- My favorite General Conference quotes!

Well... in comparison my week was kinda lame... (I shared some crazy stuff that happened last week around here) until the weekend of course.
We had one of those work-and-walk-forever-and-don’t-run-into-anyone-thats-interested kind of weeks.
Perfectly normal. As they say in Portuguese, "faz parte". Just a part of the work. The kind of part that makes missionaries quite tired, and the kind that gives my companion blisters.
But all is well, and conference was super awesome.

I took notes again (I'm turning into a weirdo... I wasn’t like this before). I think I’ve filled every possible page (that I won’t use) of my planner. Then I took just the "top few phrases"... and filled a whole page. Oh well. That’s what you get for having a cool conference.

Oh, we had interviews this week with president. All happy and fine there as normal.

Oh yeah! I saw a bunch of people from Recanto! Not many of the people that I most wanted to see, but some. Also not for much time. Nélia is a lady that I taught in my last week there. It was the best plan of salvation lesson that I’ve taught, and the most elect investigator ever. Elder Hallinan told me when she got baptized a couple weeks later, and she said that she was sad that I wasn’t there.
Well, I saw her on Saturday. She and also her niece (who is now lives with her) got baptized and were at conference. They look super happy. Awesome.

We also have a stake conference coming up. With a little luck I'll be able to see the rest of the people from Recanto :)

Today we had lunch with a less active. A less active that knows how to cook SUPER WELL. WOW! And so I'm stuffed.

(He sent feedback for M&M learning languages) Just a note: I do NOT regret not learning Spanish... I honestly find it way uglier than Portuguese: P But that's just my opinion :)

A for mother's day and stuff, they usually don’t tell us until the last week... But whatever.

One last random note before a couple favorite lines: Having sisters in the district is AMAZING. They make food!
I mean sure, I do too... but now I'm not the only one making goodies for district meetings :)

Alrighty, I didn’t write the names of everyone in my "top 39 ideas from conference" page, but the idea is still there:

Temple in Rio! Whoo!
65,000 missionaries plus another roughly 30,000 missionaries waiting. WOW.
Some of the younger missionaries were in and ready with their papers in five days after the rule changed was announced.
(Did I mention that one of the new sisters this transfer is younger than me? WEIRD. That doesn’t (didn’t) happen)
"what 'ere thou art, act well thy part"
We were dignified spirits of our Father before this life. We developed our talents and practiced obedience.
We are capable of finding peace, not world peace, but individual and family peace, through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Saints in Africa have little of what matters least and much of what matters most.
The power to bring life to the world is God's power, and so it must be used in accordance to HIS plan.
Love increases through righteous constraint.
Is my happiness contagious?
A voice of perfect mildness unlocks the hearts of people and children.
Marriage: Priceless, faith, repentance, respect, love.
Obedience to law is liberty.
We need not explore unknown paths, we have the plan of God laid out for us!
Defend the truth, with words or sometimes silence.
What titles do we have? Which ones are important?
Plan your life with purpose. Study the scriptures with diligence. Teach by your testimony.
Balance the "concrete" of your life with prayer, scriptures, and sacrament.
Put more value on what you DO know, not on what you do not know.
Jesus taught literally, not theoretically.
We must extend our arms to the needy and lonely.

There. My favorite bits :)

Anyhow,
Tchautchau!
Elder Funnell

#79 Taguatina! I LOVE this city...

Well... Lots of stuff happened this week... Makes sense given that it's a transfer week.

So, I left miracema on Monday after emails, we waited around for a while, and I left for Brasilia with Elder B. There were some people that we were 'certain' would leave Palmas (and basically were begging to as well), and they... stayed

Now I'm in Taguatinga 2. When I was in Recanto, it was a part of stake Ceilandia, but now it's Taguatinga (makes sense given that it's literally IN Taguatinga...). That means that I should be able to see some people at conference this week. Cool stuff.

We have a HUGE district. It's also the first district that I've been in with Sisters. Recently all of my districts have been four people, this one is eight. Myself (1/6 months) and Elder S (5), Elder T (1/9) and Elder l (9), Elder H (1/8) and Elder Q (?), and Sister T (1/1) and Sister T (0). (I am not sure what all the numbers are…Could be how long they have been there and how long they have left on their missions? I will ask next week…) We are by ourselves in our ward, and we are the only ones in the district with a separate chapel. The other one isn’t too far away though.
This ward is pretty great. There are TONS of investigators here (unlike Miracema), the only problem is that they are only home at night. Our nights have been super crazy busy this week, and we are teaching tons of lessons. It's pretty awesome. Elder S was trained by elder C before me. Elder S didn’t even know it was possible to teach so much in one week :P

He's from Utah, his dad is from Argentina, and he lived with his aunt before the mission. He is yet ANOTHER nerd (possibly more so than my other companions), and... that's about it. (So pretty Much Carl is in heaven with someone else that his similar to him ;)) It's pretty fun working with him, but as always I have the title of 'second comp'... which is always interesting. But we are getting there.

We've got several people closeish to baptism already. Some are waiting to get married and some are parts of less active families that we found this week.
All in all, this area is great.

Oh, and we have a REAL STORE here. It’s SO COOL. Biggest store I’ve ever had in an area (also the 'biggest' city I’ve ever served in)
Luckily, all is going well, this has got to be the best city on earth. It’s huge, but people still talk to you. Weird combination, but I love it.

The LZs and Elder T have AMAZING areas as well. Baptisms like crazy.

I like this place. So far.

The LMA is new and is... kinda stressful... But we are getting there with him. He simply doesn’t know how to be a missionary, so he works very different than we do. It’s not all bad, but he will get it soon.

Anyhow, I'm super excited for this area. It should be pretty awesome. That week flew though... and with only 5 weeks again, the transfer will disappear faster than I can blink.

I think I'll leave it at that for now. I am off to find some meat and mashed potatoes... So, until later!
Tchau tchau!
Elder Funnell