#29- I wish I was only funny on purpose

I wish I was only funny on purpose... Eh oh well

This week was slightly torturous... Elder G and his girlfriend had a disagreement last week, which made a bridge to all of the depressedness inside of him. All of the basic stuff: Wants to be home, misses the stuff he used to do, wants more freedom, doesn't feel like he's progressing, blah blah blah.

After a nice venting on Wednesday it straightened out. 

In other news, we have something close to 10 new/other investigators. That's cool. But every single one except T is a 14-22 year old girl... That's not soooo bad, but it is certainly an easy way to get "slacker" yelled at you. And now Elder G is feeling bad about teaching them, meaning I have to update all of the area book stuff and make calls and such and such... What a bother. Grow up a little and teach them.

But everything was just kinda okay this week. The investigator that I barely managed to baptize last week didn't show up to church this time... and his ex says he has been addicted to drugs for a while now. That's not something cool to hear. We'll see what we can do for him, hope it goes well.

The kid that was baptized two weeks ago was confirmed yesterday though. His sister brought him to church, and I'm pretty sure his mom completely gave up (again!). They have been seeing the missionaries for four years. Every time they start going to church on their own, but after talking to the missionaries about keeping the commandments and such, they give up. Bother. I'll have to try again if I stick around here. I generally have a softer approach than Elder G; he kinda beat on them a bit. She didn't like it. It was good for her though, I think we just have to wait a bit and then be a little friendlier after she has thought it all over.

I think its kinda fun, this whole missionary thing. And very much like coaching. Remember how you always said that it's a puzzle for each kid? You have to figure out how to put the pieces together correctly for each kid to get them to swim right. In the same way, you have to figure out which way the puzzle goes for each investigator. For instance, there are some that work best if you are loud and goofy and their friend (perfect for Elder G), there are some that you just have to bear through their hours of whining and then calmly respond to everything that they whined about afterwards (apparently Elder B is managing that with one special investigator currently), and then everything in between as well of course. Elder B also has an investigator that is making MY head hurt... but I never taught him. He went to church all ten weeks that Elder B has been here, he is in the middle of Mosiah, and he does literally everything that they ask. He stopped drinking coffee just on their saying "and we don't drink coffee" on the spot. He wants to be baptized, and everything. Just not right now. 

Those three words are terrible to hear. My favorite words being "eu vou batizar", my least favorite are probably "mas não agora" or "mais tarde". Grr.... Well he isn’t even my investigator! What am I complaining about!

In other news, Elder G has no money. A comp without money is a pain in the behind... He likes to use busses too much from my understanding. Elders B and M don't go very far every day it seems, but as dad said in the letter that I obviously received, Sobradinho is just a bunch of little stuff more or less put together. So now he has money-less, for a day or two. We'll make it.... If I or Elder M doesn't kill him first. Just till transfers M :)

OH!!!!! Forgot completely! So we had ward conference this week, meaning random people from the stake came to our meeting... Including some of my favorite sisters from Paranoá! Yay. (I do want to point out that by sisters, I mean the ladies who feed us and talk to us a lot, so don't be getting anything in your heads there) Talking to them is kinda like... awesome. I learned how to speak in Paranoá, as well as everything else really. Four months in one  area = poof, new temporary family. They said that everyone was missing me (well actually, I thought it was funny because it's phrased in Portuguese more like "we noticed your absence"), asked me for name, address, phone number, email address, social security number, favorite color... I only gave my name and emails though. When you do finally move, I would love to have that to give to the cool people I meet. They all really want to talk after the mission, and I always hear about missionaries that go back home and never talk with their families in Portuguese again :( how sad :( And of course, they are saying I have to be the next assistant so I can go back. Hehe. I really did like Paranoá. Not the city so much, it's kinda lame, but the members were fantastic.

Oh, and P got baptized and confirmed! Yay! At least my suffering last transfer helped :)

Well I think that is all for me, so good luck with the house, and the showers... And tell M that the kids here watch alien force (I think that’s when he is older), and Em J that she can't get under 56ish, and... I think that's all.

Random note: Rubik cubes with pictures on them instead of colors are harder to solve than diamonds are to chew.

Have a great week!

Tchau!

Elder Funnell 

So... People here don't just LIKE ben 10... They are absolutely obsessed. So at lunch yesterday I ran into a Rubik’s cube with ben 10 pictures on each side. SO HARD! Everyone thought I was magic or something when I put everything in right, but I had to point out to them that I messed up three of the centers... Bother. It's another piece to the puzzle... That I don't know and can't figure out! Grr..

And yeah probably... Elder G said that he LOVED his first area and wants to go back, even though he still didn't understand them when he left. I think it kinda had the same affect with the members there too; I became the new-missionary-that-needs-love-and-help. So they are attached to me too. Looks like I just have to go back sometime :P

And yes... His girlfriend is very annoying. Her personally, I don't know, but he is VERY distracted by her all week. Very bothersome. Examples like Elder M though (I didn't even know he had one until this week), he just says that she pushes him and inspires him to do his best. So... That's cool.

We get along perfectly fine. I think I said once that we will get in doctrine fights because he goes deeper than he can understand but is stubborn as an ox, but then we will be fine five minutes later. He is very very very very very biased against Americans. Very. But we work just fine. 

He and Elder M however... They don't have much more time living together I hope. Elder M is really cool, and honestly, Elder G is kinda really annoying sometimes (I'm just mister-perfect-patience). To make things worse, Elder G sees every stereotype about Americans in Elder G and Elder M sees every Brasilian stereotype in him... So they don't get along at all. I'm going to be the mean American and say that I'm pretty sure that Elder M is actually in the right this time...

I can only hope I'm helping... I have no idea what goes on in his mind. But with Elder M for instance, he doesn't like the whole touching thing that many guys seem to like (I don't like it either). But Elder G does. But instead of respecting the difference (which Elder M does A LOT) he just keeps doing it to bother him. Then he wonders why Elder M doesn't like him much. It's stuff that Americans would bicker over with other Americans, or that Brazilians would bicker over with other Brazilians, but Elder G blames everything he doesn’t like on the fact that we are American.

Basically, Elders G and M have very non-meshy personalities, and Elder G isn't willing to change his behavior even though Elder M already has. THAT is why I say that Elder M is in the right. And even worse is that I'm ALWAYS with Elder G, so I KNOW that Elder M doesn't do anything wrong. It's just very annoying. Open your eyes! It isn't because of cultural backgrounds! It's because you are being as annoying as a little brother on drugs!

Funny thing actually, he told me when he was venting that one of the things he wanted to change when he came on the mission is that he wanted to become less annoying. I didn't know what that meant when he said that in the beginning of the transfer... But I'm getting it...

I'm just glad he doesn't do much stupid stuff to me (mostly because I simply won't take it)

Of course! I'm sticking with what I said before the mission, "I can live with just about anybody". They generally don't do much to me that really bugs me; they just bug everyone else, which then bugs me just a little.

As for Elder M... I have nothing else to say to him about patience. From what I understand, he feels like I was put to be companions with the devil himself. They just aren't very good friends...

And of course I forgot:

I think this is the address of our house: ---

We live over a store called---

Our map of Sobradinho II doesn't even include the vast majority of our area. We have Sob  II, Setor de Mansões, Rabello I and II, Grande Colorado, Villa Verde, and I don't even know what else.

But yes, I understand it better. I can get to the important peoples' houses.

#28- Long Week...

Long week. Good week, but long.

(Be aware, this keyboard is very crazy, I might not have many capital letters)

I guess I can start with the baptism yesterday…was pretty cool, I baptized five times, a record for me! (Problem is, it was only one person :P)

We got a new pool type thing for Sobradinho 2, and the bishop wanted us to use that... Oh boy. I imagine that you understand how long it can take to fill something like that with just a hose (connected to a sink...) and buckets being carried from other sinks. 2+ hours yesterday were devoted to figuring out how to build, and then fill this tank. Then you've got the problem that the water goes up to about your knees, and that Sergio happens to be a rather big guy... Impossible. and bishop was sitting there saying "you should both kneel" (bad idea), "he should kneel and you should stand" (as if), or "you didn't pronounce the 'and'' (YES I DID! EVERYONE SAID SO EXCEPT YOU!)... not willing to try that again, next time I will fill that pool until it reaches the top of the rim... Only about another hour of bucket carrying.

--We had all three sinks in our tiny chapel working on that pool. One that had a hose and two that were being used with buckets.

Besides this, the baptisms were cool. The other dupla baptized a couple people too (lucky, they had midgets). Hopefully he does well. He has a lot of health problems.

To answer that first question. No and no. he still isn't planning much, but we are still fine together. I am seeing him do more than he would have the first week already. I explained to him that 'I follow the rules because I’m a major slacker, so I need the rules.' apparently this is a better answer than simply 'I’m trying to be obedient'... whatever works for ya. Not saying he is following all of them still breaks tons, but he is doing better.

I totally forgot. We had interviews with the president this week. YAY! Love the president. He came to interview us, sister comes to inspect the house, and the assistants came to check the area book. Elder G (who has problems with leadership... go figure) was horribly offended when Elder N (told the truth) told him that the area book was 'trash'... He didn't like that. He assumes it is because he is trying to be mister-cool-stuff... but really he was just pointing out that the area book is completely useless. We updated that this week :P Sister asked 'how does this person get into bed?!? With a chair?' You see, our bed is a bunk bed. Without a ladder.'Who has this bed on top?' G-'That is Elder Funnell' S-'So how do you?' Me-'Jump...'

To which she was somewhat impressed, but kinda yelled at Elder G for giving the junior all the crappy stuff... hehe... lots of chewing out that day then the interviews. We all love interviews because he basically comes to give you a confidence boost and answer questions. We settled a slight debate that we had about how numbers should be counted (Elder G was counting really high....) and I was given a very heavy hint that I’ll be a senior soonish.

He said that 'there will be a very big change in the mission soon. Every LZ that is serving right now and over half of the LDs will be ending their mission in the next four months. You will be one of the 'old missionaries' of the mission. Needless to say, you will be a senior before too long"

And other stuff like everyone seems to like me and I work hard and yadda yadda. Oh, and apparently my Portuguese is really good.

Other than this, I finally got Elder Goncalves out to find some news. (I dug up some names from the monster area book) and some of them are looking promising.

We also had another investigator come to church yesterday. When we visited him on Saturday, he didn't want to hear anything because he didn't believe that a person (john) could still be alive now or whatever. Kudos to the missionary that kept on talking... But I think I settled that problem well enough and he seems really interested now.

I told elders billin and manning that 'I’m here to learn to relax more'

They both died laughing.

It was quite the sight. Sitting there at lunch, with elder gonçcalves on the member's computer and the three of us cracking up... yeah... 

All that aside though, he really is a cool guy. He's here doing the lord's work for good reasons. Not exactly the right reasons I think, but still good ones. He truly wants to be better and help others as well. He just has a stereotypical Brasilian missionary attitude that 'spirit is over rules'... which it is. But the Spirit isn't going to tell you to break rules... 

Anyway, I think that's about it. Good luck editing all that: P and sorry. I don't want to spend another hour fixing it...

So, until next week!

Elder Funnell

Oh I know I’m not here to relax more, that's just his perspective. I'm here to try to reduce the racisms and stereotypes that he has against American missionaries without simply saying that rules aren't important. And I can always learn more patience... so I guess I'm doing that. And Portuguese! I'm very happy to have a Brasilian companion, one that I can talk to about whatever too. It's nice. Not all missionaries are willing to talk about random things in funny sounding Portuguese.

Note: I learned that the camera charges with the mission cell phone charger, so I am using that now. Only have about five pictures, but anyway. This camera is awesome! Elder G worked at HP, so he loves computers and stuff, and he is completely obsessed with my camera. It's kinda funny. 

So I figured that I would send that other memory card home today (or more likely tomorrow, he insists on going on Tuesdays instead...)

And he wanted to know if he could buy the other memory card that you sent. 8GB, but wouldn't work in the other camera and is too big for the new one. So I was wondering if you have a use for it, should I send it back there or give in to mister needy. :P

Funny... but I've seen quite enough sun. Oh, and I didn’t mention. We did a service project on Saturday. Roughly 2000 roof tiles (ceramic type) from the bottom of a lot to the top. Maybe like the width of a six lane pool. But with a very dramatic incline.

We had Elder B and me carrying three tiles at a time, Elder G carrying maybe two every half hour, and Elder M (aka superman) carrying five or more. Back and forth back and forth back and forth back and forth back and forth back and forth for two and a half hours. I am very done with roof tiles. Was fun, but I am quite sore still.

The way Elder G sees it, Brasilia has nothing. Which is kinda true. The central cities are really cool because they are very modern and all that, but the satellites are poorer than dirt, and the cities outside the border of the federal district are poorer still. Apparently there is a cool waterfall around here, but we were recently banned from going to visit natural sites like that.

Lots of Elders are annoying and will go shop for four hours... That is painful. Others are more moderate (Elder G in Paranoa) and will briefly look for shirts or something cool, maybe for thirty minutes, then go back home and mess around. My current comp likes to go to the lan house for four hours, then sleep for an hour, then write letters until 6.30

And sometimes the zone leaders get permission to play soccer or basketball or visit some place or something on p-days. And Elder G is one of the people that would say no to anything like that on a p day.

Oh yeah, forgot the number: 46 missionaries will be leaving the mission in two and a half transfers. Well we will be getting new people of course, that's no surprise. Always when people leave, people come. The problem is that we need a lot more leadership to be trained, and a lot of junior companions right now will be seniors soon. The start of every transfer usually has a bunch of trainings for the new LDs or sometimes LZs. Usually they put a new LZ with an old one so that you don't have two new ones in the same area. That's what they do with assistants as well. LDs really just get tossed in there, and they have relatively little to be trained. They just collect numbers, yell at missionaries for slacking, and conduct baptismal interviews.

Oh, and I have officially seen and eaten a part of a 2.1 kg chocolate bar. Wow... some member had it. She said "I don't have any dessert, just chocolate" BAH. Chocolate. It's partly divided into eight parts like normal. So she cut off one of those chunks, then cut that into eight pieces, and it was plenty. (well... or two or three...)

#27

Well, one week later and I still don't know the area. Unlike Paranoá, which I knew to be one of the smallest areas, Sobradinho is one of the largest. And it was split in half... It's still huge. Elder S is in Sobradinho I with one other dupla, and I am here in Sobradinho II with one more dupla. I asked Elder G how long it would take to walk from one side of the area to the other. His answer was 'about five hours'. So, our area is a bus area. We take 4 busses every day if we are lucky. Sometimes more. Apparently his past 'dumb American' companions couldn't figure out how to ride a bus. Sure, it's a pain and different and all that... but come on, three months in an area? Figure it out already :P The trick is this: Get where you want to be on the bus, and pretend you don't exist. If you are standing (probably are) squeeze as close as you can to the people that are sitting and try to ignore the 400 billion people squishing through the middle. In five words, learning to ride the busses here are: "Learn to be a sardine". He likes to impersonate them, sitting around in the middle of the aisle with people very very grumpy at you. So apparently I get some brownie points for using common sense. :)

It is SOOOOOOOO much different here. Really it feels more like a long trade than like a transfer. Seems like I should be going back to Paranoá any moment now to go visit my investigators and members and stuff. The companionship is A LOT different also. With Elder G (in Paranoa), we were equal in every way other than that he held the phone and I held the keys. Here... Elder G (in Sobradinho) is very much so the senior companion. The "my way or the highway" attitude. My role in this companionship is just to follow and not doubt what he is doing. Other than this though, he is really cool. Funny beyond belief, really smooth in lessons and things, really knows how to help the people we visit. But it's still different. Oh well, I’ll get used to most of it.

We had a baptism yesterday. Some eight-year old, in a mostly-not-member family. The dad has a date for the end of the month, and the mom... We'll see. They have been seeing missionaries since their other son and daughter were baptized... Four years ago. We'll find out eh?

In other news, there are some people that are quite well off in Sobradinho. Like in Paranoá you would sometimes see a decent house with electric fences and whatever, but there is a part of our map that is called "Sector of Mansions"... I haven't been to one of the really big ones, but some people that we have visited have really nice houses (even on American standards). I also saw the first PS3 that I've seen in Brasil. Very different from Paranoá.

The members seem really cool though, and I'm getting used to the stupid busses (the ones from Paranoá to Lago Norte were worse anyway) So I'm sure this transfer will go fine.

I think that's all that really happened to me this week. It went fast. Genral Confernece helped I think. Speaking of General Conference, I was able to attend, and (at the displeasure of my companion) was able to watch in English. I told him that there's something about 1. Hearing in my own language 2. Hearing THEIR voices and 3. Hearing the way that they actually say it is just a lot better about English. I really liked all of the first Presidency talks, as well as Elder Holland, Elder Anderson, and I can't even remember who else. Basically, I loved all of them. The seventies aren't quite as cool generally, but some of them are too, I just can't remember which.

Elder Holland is so funny…and really harsh. It's really cool. One of the talks that Elder G listened to a lot had a line that we laughed at every time (talk about lust) "...but you don't have to throw open the door, serve them tea and biscuits, and show them where the silverware is kept! ...you shouldn't be serving tea anyway..." :) This time it's "...but you don't have to drink a bottle of pickle juice every time that something good happens to someone else!" Other top lines of the day for us missionary dorks were "We thank all of you (with a finger waving in all directions)" (president Monson's last talk) and "Translate that!" (I think it was Christopherson after saying a really weird word)

However... I didn't get to attend Priesthood session :( Something about starting at 9... which is our be-at-home time. If you have a way to give me the talks from that, that would be very happily accepted :)

I'm glad they like the shirts :) Which one is who wearing?

I got out of the lan house right after I decided I was done. I think he was trying to finish since I was. We'll see what happens today, but today I have paper and scriptures, so I don't really care.

I think that was all of your questions... And I'm pretty sure I forgot to say something, but I don't remember what, so I'll tell you when it pops up.

Então... Até próxima vez!

Tchau

Elder Funnell

(Did you have to watch conference with your companion?)

If we had to stick together we would have watched in Portuguese, considering he doesn't know ANY english... But we had six duplas there, two for Asa Norte, two for Sobradinho I, and two for Sobradinho II, so we just mixed and matched until everything was right. I stuck around with Elder C for most of the time.

Apparently Elder G wanted me to do it, so I took all of my white stuff, but the guy that baptized the brother and sister came up to watch conference and visit, and he wanted to baptize him. That story is a pain... Basically this return missionary did a LOT of things that messed up with this family's baptisms.. Like they all had dates, but he told them to wait for him, so the parent's dates fell and only the kid was baptized. He didn't even seem excited for them. He just took a picture with them, baptized the kid, and left. I did not like that. But what can you do.

(Does your new companion like to have American companions?)

I don't think Elder G has a problem with Americans, he just hates being left out. Our house has three Americans and him, and it has been that way for several months. His past companion used to talk with the others in English a lot, so he was a bit grumpy. But I don't talk with them in English hardly at all, so I think all is fine :)

In this house we have us and Elder B and Elder M. I don't know the address yet.

I think he is a good teacher, but honestly we didn't teach a lot. He has a very different work ethic. He is always doing something the whole time yes, but he does not always use time efficiently. Lots of visiting this last week. Most of the visits were very needed and good and stuff, but most were also a lot longer than they should have been. I'm afraid that we might not be getting enough new investigators because we spend all of our time in people's houses. We'll see, I'm just not used to this method I guess.

He had one other person with a date for yesterday, but he went to the hospital. Same thing happened the week before. I think it might take a little luck to get him in soon if this keeps up.

He has something like 11 months, which leads me to a funny point. He keeps telling me that I have to relax (and trust me, I am MUCH more relaxed than many people are, and probably more relaxed than I should be) in regard to the rules. He says that 'with time you will learn that there is more"... But the person that taught me has more time than him in the mission. . . And I liked how Elder G (Paranoa companion) worked. Again, we'll see what we can agree to by the time the transfer ends. I'll plan with him if it kills him. :) 

(How much does it cost to ride the bus, since you are riding quite a few each day)

1.50 for busses within a city, 3.00 to go to a different city. This is fairly standard for all of brasilia.

(I sent pictures of our March snow)

Oh, and Elder G is gawking at the snow pictures. He says "It's like the movies that people watch"