#26

So... this week also was a blur. And a massive headache. It went really fast, and a lot of stuff happened, but it felt like we never got anything done. (Trying to keep in mind that this week was STILL more productive that the other transfers, but it still seemed really slow)

So, to begin, I don't know where. Let's go with Wednesday.

We went to Patricia's house (investigator with date for yesterday, been teaching her for a month) and she was being really goofy. That's not too abnormal I guess, but it was weirder than usual. Well, she said these words, "Eu vou batizar", (I go to baptize) which I think you can figure out. That was cool, but Elder G and I were kinda in shock. We have been teaching her all about answers and blessings and testimonies and such... And yeah wow. Lightbulb went on somewhere.

However, she then proceeded to say that she was joking? Which was hard to believe, and we learned was not true... So headache.

That night we had our activity in the church, Elder V and Elder N led it. It was a really cool idea, kinda like a relay of goofy things to do. Unfortunately, this ward is crazy competitive (like almost any ward I think) and it was... again... a headache.

Meanwhile Patricia is telling all her friends that she will be baptized this week. Great. Before interviewing. Great idea...

So she got interviewed the next day.  In the end, she didn't pass or wouldn't talk to us, and our district leader did not have a particular reason why she didn't pass. He said, "Falta um testemunho"... which is the most incorrect thing I've ever heard.

So we've had to interview people twice before. No problem. But she seriously was ready to be baptized. We had NO idea what we could teach. So, just for kicks, we watched the testaments. She kinda avoided talking to us after the movie, she looked 'kinda' grumpy.

But we went back on Saturday. She pretty much just broke down. She apologized for avoiding us and told us everything about her beliefs concerning the church. Before the interview, she was pretty sure that she had a testimony, but she went in a little nervous anyway. She then explained that our lovely interviewer scared her. She didn't understand the questions he asked, she felt like she was being tested, there were a billion questions. (which he felt was uncessessary)

However, the end of the story. She is not ready to interview again, she wants to wait a week or two. She has a much much stronger testimony now (in the words of Elder G, "She is the most converted investigator I've had") and she is completely ready for baptism, just didn't happen while I was there.

So yeah, I'm not in Paranoá now. I got transferred to Sobradinho (maybe I spelled that right) with Elder Gonçales. (About 50 miles North of Paranoa) I got my wish of a Brazilian, but I wanted to stay there for Patricia and Mayara.

She (Mayara) was baptized by the way. I didn't drown her or anything. Her friend was nervous since I'm so small. Well take that tall guy :P

But yeah. Nothing other than Patricia happened this week. Was crazy beyond belief. But she has some really good friends (RMs) in the church and maybe one potential boyfriend. Hehe. 

Conference this week! Probably won't see it in English! :(

I'll be asking the other Americans here. Who knows maybe I will, sounds like we have cool members here.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now.

Então tchau,

Boa Semana,

Elder Funnell 

I'm not leaving, I was just going to read your next email so I know what info you want :P

Elder G is still there, I believe he is not LD. But he supposedly has an interesting comp... Good luck Elder G.

We are now... I have no idea. It took us an hour and a half to get here from Asa Norte. By a member’s car. They did stop at the store for an hourish though... So yeah, no idea.

We are in the same zone still, very close to the LZs again actually. I only saw the house very very breifly before coming to the computers, but it's a very spacey apartment.

In my house, there are the two of us, plus Elder M and Elder B (maybe that's right). Sound pretty cool, and the latter was one of Elder G's favorite housemates.

He does seem nice. I met him very briefly one other time at a zone conference,  and he seems cool enough. Haven't talked a whole lot though. We have to figure out our method of communicating, cause my Portuguese is decent, but not marvelous. Takes a day or two to get used to how a person talks. We'll get there.

You should see how Brazilians react to maple syrup and peanut butter. those are always things that are welcome here :)

Oh, and those cookie recipes... I got them today, BUT... I don't think we have baking soda in Brasil.

Yup. Dunno yet. We'll get there. We've only had about two hours together. And the whole time the members were asking about me, because I'm the new guy, they already know him.

Oh, and he has something like 15 letters to read today. He's been rather busy reading.

Oh, did you know that Brasilia is shaped like an airplane? The major city part, when looked at as a map, is an airplane. This is why it's called asa norte and asa sul. Asa means wing.

I also learned that my favorite movie that I've seen here doesn't exist! Well it exists, but supposedly it isn't buyable yet... Apparently people have it because people in Brasil have a tendency to simply copy movies. Either it isn't a law, or that law is not enforced.

At any rate, if you do have the opportunity to watch it, it's really cool (Elder G said that maybe it plays at temple visitor centers). It's called Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. Gives a rundown of his whole life, not just the tiny little bit shown in the normal restoration movie. Starts with him as a kid when he has a major surgery and his brother dies and stuff and ends with his death. Now I'm sad though, because that's my favorite movie to show to investigators, and I CAN'T GET IT. Bother.

Oh by the way, any chance you could look about to see if a small primary hymn book exists in Portuguese? I've heard yes and no, and if there is a small one, I would love one, but if it's only the big ones, I dunno.

(BTW, I have a normal hymn book in Portuguese, just not the primary songs)

You get to see everyone that is transferring. And I don't know if it's the same for the zones in the middle of nowhere. For instance, we didn't go the last two transfers, but just had a regular P day, but this time I saw Elder C, Elder H, and Sister W. I am pleased to see that my Portuguese still is not the worst :)

Oh I get it now... I didn't bother to look at which part you replied to... Whoops. Elder C. He has an accent that says I'M AN AMERICAN AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT. And his wording is pretty... bad... still. I don't know about Sister W. The last time we talked she just didn't feel like speaking in Portuguese for a while, cause she had a Brazilian comp. This time we didn't talk at all, I just saw her on leaving.

(Are your district friends from the CTM doing well?)

The ones I've talked to seem too. Somehow Elder C keeps getting put in really rich areas... Like where the members just throw money at you. Hundreds of reais a week... He apparently went to McDonalds and Subway a lot the last few transfers. He's been with Americans until now, and his current comp still speaks fluent English. His Portuguese is rather weak, but he is confident about lessons at least.

Elder H is with yet another Brazilian, and he seems to be going perfectly fine.

Sister W... I dunno. Haven't talked in a while. She is with an American now though.

WOW! Just saw the roster. I'm realizing that I know a lot more missionaries now. Elder N was one of the office nerds, was an LD of the district that Paranoá used to be included in last transfer, and now is an LZ in... Tocantins!!! No wonder he wanted my email... You usually stay up there for quite a while.

Elder A is an LD now too. Good for him.

And Elder P too. He's is a total stud, that was not at all surprising.

(We started talking about eating in Brazil- one of his friends eats at McDonalds and Subway a lot, he prefers homemade food).

Homemade food is good always, unless it's made by people that like to eat chicken feet. Or whatever kind of juice I had the other week that was awful, or other weird stuff.

As of yet I've had very nice members that don't make you eat them, but it's an option sometimes. Our LMA loves them, but since he loves them and there are only two at once, we are fine. He also just laughs at us if we don't want something weird. Sometimes even he is scared of eating/drinking things they make (like some green smoothie thing... looked like radioactive waste. And tasted like grass)

Not literally grass…but very green. I think it had some rather tasty fruit inside too, but I can't remember because I couldn't taste it over the greenness

(What did you think of it?)

I thought it was... bad. Elder G almost died. I was imagining Marques drink it. Hehe

#25

(I told him that his friend- Samantha Peterson is getting married this weekend, he knew before, but wanted to make sure he knew it was this weekend.  He has another friend, Dani Quade that got engaged last week) Well about time... I was wondering when everyone was going to start getting married... It's kinda the missionary thing; reading about other people that they knew getting married. Yeah. It's weird.

So my week... Went fast. So not much extraordinary happened, as usual, but I did spend a night in Itapoá (North of Paranoá and considered a ghetto) during a trade. It's weird because their area is split up into three parts, green yellow, and red.

Green is normal.

Yellow is off limits after 8, and is most of the area.

Red is a 'no enter' area. Which is about a third of the map.

Basically, they have the hour between 8-9 to work within two blocks... Boring.

I spent the time there with Elder P. Who is turning 26 this week…Oldie. He is the transfer under me though, and we actually taught really well together if I say so myself (which I do). Meanwhile Elder G spent some time with our 'trunky' district leader (also one of his first companions. They did not have a good time together then...) our district leader has been a 'dying' missionary since a year ago... And he likes to break rules...Which is very sad. Particularly for Elder P and the other new missionary in Itapoá. He does teach really well says Elder G, just not with the spirit.

At any rate, sounds like he helped Patricia a good chunk (they also told her that I went home and she almost cried. Wow. Jerks) But she is progressing towards an answer. She fasted with us on Friday and she is reading and praying. With some luck she might decide to be baptized before the end of the transfer... (Transfers are next Monday)

We filled out the paperwork with Mayara (and I learned how to spell her name. That is spelled really weird for a Portuguese name) Her dad came home, so now we are just waiting for next Sunday (This is the mixed martial arts lady that they have been working with)

Elder G and I are very much equal in our desire to stay and leave. We are certain that one of us will stay, and we are begging that the other will leave. As much as we love Paranoá, we just want to go somewhere else, and if we stay together it will take even longer for both of us to leave (because usually one person stays out of each dupla). I think it would be fun to stick around for a while with Mayara and Patricia and some of the newer investigators, but I want to see somewhere else too. Sounds like Elder G might be a district leader next transfer (rumor rumor)

I think I found vanilla actually... But there were several other things that I couldn't find that I wanted... Can’t remember what now. (Carl keeps asking me to send ingredients that they can’t find easily there- vanilla was top on his list) It did occur to me however that that cake is pretty awesome (and fast too), but it really needs something to go on it. Know any good ideas for icing stuff that I can make?

Ahh... Mail system... I hate it.

We had zone conference this week, so we all got together right? Well, my lovely zone leaders (who I've seen every week the last three weeks) gave me two letters. The ones from Evan. (Carl’s cousin, Evan, is serving a mission in Germany and I forward his letters to Carl so he can see what Evan is up to) The ones that were mailed on Feb 16 and Feb 24... Thanks guys...I also got the braces one from the assistants the same day, but it was actually a recent date, so GO ASSISTANTS!

Them there braces look like fun.

Oh, I sent a box last week. With luck I actually did it right. I did not have time to write instructions in the box though, so I'll have to give them to you here:

Palmeiras and Corintians are for M and M, whoever likes whichever. The Flamingo and Gremial are for Blake, but he needs to somehow run into the Flamengo one first (dunno what you have to do to send it to him, but yeah, maybe hide Gremio inside or something) Luan (recent-convert-stud) likes Palmeiras Elder C (almost-gone-ex-assistant-stud) likes Corintians Everybody and their brother (minus most American missionaries) like Flamengo And nobody except the three other missionaries in the house like Gremio Apparently Gremio is a terrible team, but Elder N loves them (Elder G too) and Flamengo is the big team of Brasil that most people choose because they win (or everyone hates them because they win, either way) And there are a couple little bracelets in there somewhere, done by our friendly homeless guy on the street. I'll think about the sock monkey for pictures, not sold on that yet, but he is very amazingly awesome. (I sent a small sock monkey for Christmas and then again for Valentine’s Day- due to shipping issues) And he already has a name. Franke. Funniest name of a contact that we have had yet. (remember that you pronounce the 'e' like 'eee'

so frankee. Hehe)

I sorta wanted to look for a real soccer jersey here too, but I'm terrified of the prices... I think I picked a team, but now I can't tell anyone or they will go nuts at me. I like Vasco. Shh! Don't tell :P

Guess I forgot to mention that we had a baptism for both Itapoá

(yesterday) and Paranoá (Saturday) for little kids. Ready to get in the water now.

Maybe I'll join you in the swim a thon here in Paranoá... But I think

200 lengths in the font would only take about two minutes :)

Well I think that's all today,

Então, tchau!

Elder Funnell

(Tomorrow is Carl’s 6 month mark)

And yes, that is very weird. It does also seem about right though...

Goes like this.

Me:You have six months

Other me: WHAAAAAATT!!!?!?!

Me: Yup, six months in Brasil, cool eh?

Other me: WHAAAAAATTTT!!?!?!?

Other me: No way do I have that much time!

Me: Think silly... you do

Other me: Oh, yeah, I guess so huh?... Weird.

Like my narration? :P

Oh I DID forget a couple things...

At zone conference we had the mission medical guy come (for all of Brasil). His name is Elder C, and he was the first counselor to my branch president in the CTM (way cool!) He asked me if I've been in the field two months or just one. Haha And sister C said that yes, they are going to try just six weeks in the CTM. Should be cool. (It was 9 weeks, but they are shortening the times now)

(Talking about Elder P)

He is Brazilian yes, and he has been through a lot. I'll sum up by saying that he has (in directly translated Portuguese, which isn't exactly right) eight plastic bags of trash waiting for him in his ward.

It's actually trash bags of stuff, but that's what it sounds like in Portuguese, so everyone is confused when they hear it. He sold his house, his car, and all other things other than his washing machine (which he let his brother borrow) and those eight bags which he distributed to different members to hold on to.

Then he sold his motorcycle the last day before the mission.

Yeah. Cool guy

AND Elder G got kissed by a drunk guy on Saturday So... Tuesday we were headed to lunch like normal, but this guy stopped us in the street and asked for food. He made a point of asking for food, which is very very atypical. After begging uselessly to come with us to lunch (something tells me the sister wouldn't have been pleased) and after explaining that he didn't drink anything that day (but I expect tons the night before, says his breath) he asked, "Where are you from? Are you American?"

"yup, you got that right"

"Okay... So can I say something very sincere?"

"Yeah, shoot"

"Really? Can I say something honest?"

"Have a party old guy"

"lsglrukgvlsrutvglsruvn (Portuguese that is significantly dirtier than our vocabulary to understand, and very fast too) OBAMA!"

And he stormed off. Whatever, not too weird.

Then on Saturday he was feeling pretty special when he ran into us again in the middle of this market thing. The begged Elder G for forgiveness, gave him a three minute long hug, and, while still holding him, looks him in the face and said, "Now kisses"

Elder G almost died.

Fortunately, the guy went for his hand, and kissed his hand. Then got on his knees and proceeded to kiss his feet.

THAT was weird.

I made a contact because of it though :)

#24

There were a lot of back and forth emails this week, so I will try to make some sense of what is being said…

Well... I do not remember this week very well. I just remember being very tired and it being pretty quick. I guess it started with a very unexpected movie night with Luan and Patricia on Monday. We watched the restoration movie (very very funny movie in Portuguese for some reason... probably because we've seen it too many times) But they wanted to know more about Joseph smith, so we set up a family night with a member yesterday to watch the Prophet of the Restoration movie (which by the way is completely amazing) Miara, Rosiane, and Luan were there. Two recent converts and Miara, who still will be baptized on the 25th... This waiting thing is getting old.

Other than that... We had a zone meeting in the "woods" next to Paranoá. That was weird. There was a lot of Harry Potter quoting going on there. Dork missionaries... They need to get out more :P Oh and that zone meeting happened to include my box! It finally made it!  It looked very old and tired, but everything inside is good.

Thank you very much again!

I know more or less nothing about shorter CTM times, because I don't know anyone in the CTM...

I also know nothing about the dedication, because nobody likes to tell me things. Perhaps we can watch it, but I'm not going to bet on it.

Apparently we will have a general authority again in April or May though, so mission conference then. I have also pieced together bits of information about conference. IF you are in an area close to a stake center, you can watch it. And IF you have a stake center with other computers that you can use, you can watch it in English. And IF those facts aren't true... Well that just bites.

And yes, two more weeks in this transfer, with I think the next one being only five weeks long.

We are doing just fine here in Paranoá. Even the weeks we feel are kinda 'eh' we have better numbers than our best weeks in the last two transfers. So that's kinda cool. We are having a lot of scolding for not doing well enough in the mission (we are just glad it doesn't apply to us!) Those standards I was talking about, they were designed for at least 80% of the mission to make every week. They have been very consistently around 20-30% And we have been in that 20-30%.We are excited to have a baptism (only the third baptism in Paranoá since I've been here, and we've had three duplas until this transfer) We also added a few more goal dates for the 25th, but those people didn't go to church this week due to family issues. SO... We'll see next week.

I don't think I have much else, but of course I'll keep writing until I run out of ideas...

So until that moment that I have more to say (five minutes in the future)...

Tchau!

Até próxima semana!

Elder Funnell

(They do their shopping on Monday each week; Carl has never been a very good shopper, so I find this comment pretty funny!)

I might go on a shirt hunt today... Only problem is that we never find what we want when it's P-day, meaning we lose a ton of time. Then the next day we find everything we wanted but we can't buy it... Annoying beyond belief...

(I asked if he was shopping for soccer shirts or something else)

Same thing aren't they? There is almost no such thing as shirts that aren't soccer shirts. The only exceptions are really lame English shirts. It's funny though because they have no idea what they are wearing. I bet they are cheap. LOTS of Yankee's stuff and NO ONE knows what the symbol means.

(I asked if I should maybe send a Mariners shirt and some things for his companion…)

If you were to send me a Mariner shirt, I would be obligated to trade it with a Brazilian. Which now that I think of it, is not half bad... But I don't think anyone likes baseball. :P
He seems to enjoy everything I get well enough, and yeah he gets stuff too, just not as recently. Besides, everyone doubts that we will be together again, so just two weeks and we are separated.

(It is unusual for them to have the same companion this long- since November- so I asked if they had any guesses on whether one or both of them would be transferred this time)

Nope, no guesses, but Elder G REALLY wants to leave Paranoá. Apparently when you get used to transferring, sticking in one place gets old fast, which I can understand. I just haven't transferred yet.
We both want to go to Palmas though... Sounds really nice there, aside from the hotter than possible.
But, time to go again, so
Tchau!

#23

I would not be in least bit sad to receive Liahonas/Ensigns in English. Something about it making less sense in Portuguese...

Occasionally I used to steal one in English, but now we don't have district meeting at the office... so good luck me.

No baptism again. . . But she DID pass her interview! And she will be baptized (assuming no problems happen (which would result in more than three very unhappy people)) on March . . . . 25...

That's a loooooooong time to wait when it comes to baptisms... But she is still really excited, she just wants her dad to be there, and he is out of town until that week. Oh well, we will wait.

I got my card, so all is good there, but I have not heard anything about anything else yet. Could be that Elder Toledo didn't feel like saying anything, could be that nothing else came yet, dunno.

We still have the assistants in our house, but they were in the mission's version of Egypt last week for trainings, and they have more trainings this week in Brasilia. They got home yesterday at like 8 in the morning, after a 12 hour bus ride. Wheee... they look like zombies. Remind me to not be an assistant okay?

Of course our new members are awesome. They are seriously some awesome stories. From the sound of it, they were pretty much just waiting to be brought to church. Each of them was baptized within two weeks of meeting the missionaries, and they are seriously awesome.

Oh, our time did change, but I can never keep track of the forward or backward or whatever, I just know that I had another hour of sleep that night :) so what is the time difference now? (We are 5 hours behind right now, and next week it will be 4)

As for parties... I learned why Carnaval seemed like nothing much to us, it's because we (somehow) do not live near a bar. Very surprising actually. Our old house was right across the street from one. In fact, a couple days ago we went to the old house to clean the last few things there. There was the most massive party I have ever seen in Paranoá right outside. It was the type of thing that missionaries simply call 'iniquidade' or 'apostósia'. Not something I need to run into again.

As for adventures of the week... I think I just said everything worthy of note. We taught a ton of lessons this week though, which is tiring, but awesome. I really like teaching it turns out. Except with old people that I can't understand.  Old people and little kids make absolutely no sense still. Oh well, bit by bit. President said that your understanding of a language will be based just as much on the people as on the words. Accents and stuff make it easier to understand some people, and he said that that group of people you can't understand will shrink and shrink until you understand everything.

Well, if I think of any stories, I'll be sure to share in another email in the next little while, but until then, that's all I got.

Então...

Tchau!

Elder Funnell

Yeah now it's 12:45ish, we usually send emails at noon. We are allowed to leave the house at 11, but not email until 12. (They are studying until 11a) So we get groceries and stuff, then email.

So five hours now and by next week will be four hours different? Cool, I can remember that.

Other fear I have is if dad doesn't want to go... (to the baptism). His wife has been a member for a long time, but she is a 'little' less active.

We have one more date, the sister of one of the new members. She is scared of commitment though, and has that problem where she is positive she is not capable of receiving an answer. . . she also makes a lot of comments about how she is not very intelligent. I hate it when people say that, more so when they are wrong.

And we have another lady that is progressing towards maybe baptism.

She is living with someone though, and she doesn't want to get married... so that may be a problem. But otherwise she is pretty cool, learns quick, is very socially awkward, but is always at home.

Literally. Makes it easy to find her though.

Other than these we have a few here and there, but none that are progressing much.

(I asked how much money they get to live on each month)

I'm mister rich snot missionary. I live really cheap (because I don't eat as much as most people on missions(because I don't eat as much as most people my age period)) so I have NO problem with the allowance.

With the exception of when I lost my card. That was a pain.

We get 130ish reais ($75) per half-month. That's for food and all living supplies. Here in Paranoá, lunch has dropped only three times, so we are doing just fine there. Some of the richer or less active areas don't get lunch as often. The rich areas get tons of money in place of food (which I'm pretty sure is against a rule, but okay) and the poor and also less active areas get nothing. We are normal here though.