#57 Jumper thingies and a possible new house??

(I sent a box about a month ago, the tracking site said it was lost…there are other letters that have been sent and not received, so this is the update)

About the box... I got it. So I don't know what it was whining about. Lago Norte is the mission office, so that's not too weird. At any rate, I got it on Tuesday, as well as grandpa's letter... Do I even WANT to know when M+M+Blake's were sent?...

I'll be responding to Grandpa this week or next.

I feel for Evan, I really do :P (Marques misses having the boys to talk to and bug, Evan was over last night and Marques tried making up for the time that he has missed) J

But yeah, I might find a rock to hide under when I DO get home :)

So... news for the Recanto... Well, baptism yesterday. I think that counts as news. So I learned something about baptisms: Like any other event, it is set up so that it will be a special moment for the person... but oh my gosh everyone that sets it up KILLS THEMSELVES. Sundays are always complicated after sacrament meeting; now let's just add a baptism... With some interesting details,

-The white jumpsuit thingies only get so big... and the guy that baptized Cleison is... a fair bit bigger... yikes (they did find a suit for him made work)

-We had no keys to anything (font, closet with clothes, other door to font, etc.)

-Our new LMA was in Aguas Lindas yesterday. . . Leaving us rather in the dark with his assistant (who is 18)

-I also had the lunch sister lady running around after me trying to change something on the November calendar

-And another sister trying to give me money for lunch tomorrow because someone-something-hospital-don't-know-what (I just remember that it's not an emergency of any sort)

Oh, and no one wanted to actually ENTER the room to watch the meeting. . . Thank you Steve for being convincing!

But, thanks to VERY much work on Israel's, Edson's, and our part, it worked out just fine :)

I'll be trying to steal pictures from Elder H today or next week.

Other than that, we have been teaching Leia and Valmir (and daughter Jennifer) this week. I think I might have said already that Valmir's family is mostly members (but if not, I said it now). Jennifer is EXTREMELY cute and 'quiet'. One of those 'quiet's that can only be found in shy little five year olds, and when turned off is VERY VERY NOT-QUIET. Babble-box. But at least she's really cute :)

And Steve's family. Steve is a returned missionary that was less active until about three weeks ago. His mom has been a member his whole life too, but she also has never been an active member his whole life. . . And she is very very crazy. Not crazy just because she calls us all sorts of weird names (darling, angels, sei-lá-que-mais). Not just crazy because she always professes her love for, and desire to go to, "The Perfect Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the only true and perfect and heavenly place on the earth" even though she only ever goes to catholic church?... Not just crazy because she believes in EVERY superstition that you have and have not heard of (including that I'm not allowed to leave through a different door than I enter through... Annoying. Also not just crazy because she is pretty much bipolar. Just one of those crazies that you just have to see to get. But I bet you get it a bit huh? :P

Steve is cool though. We like him.

Elder C is doing just fine, he and Elder A are doing great.

They have found about 10 houses recently, and it looks like one of them is already almost theirs (reserved and everything), so they will be leaving soon. And we are still loving their company.

As for sports in the house, we generally avoid it. When we do stuff together it's boring stuff like talking, laughing, or eating. Or all three. On p-day we play card games sometimes. Besides, literally the ONLY sport that Brasil plays is soccer, and that doesn't work too well inside.

Interesting note: We are no longer allowed to take our phones outside of the house (actually, we can't unplug them from the wall). So today is my last day with phone-in-pocket for a while... What a bother. We are very probably going to have some grumpy member try to call me during the day... Well I feel for them... But it might also be a little more peaceful for lessons :)

Anyhow, I think that's about it. I hope everyone has a good week!

So until next Monday!

Tchau

Elder Funnell

#56- Crazy week and being cozy

Well this week was crazy! Fun, but crazy.

First things first, the newbie got here on Tuesday. His name is Elder C, and he is from Rio Grande do Sul (from what I understand, one of the nicest areas in Brasil. He used to be the LMA of his branch, so he already knows a bit about missionary work. He and Elder A are both very cool.

HOWEVER... We still haven’t managed to find a new house for them. The SECOND house that I sent to the secretaries was also lost due to waiting. The President told us that if we don’t get a house soon, he will be taking a dupla back out of the Recanto... which is annoying... we ARE doing our part.

But anyway, all that means that all four of us are stuffed into our teeny house. Very very cozy. We shoved our study tables into our bedroom, so that now there is only a few square feet of space left. The other Elders put their new beds into the kitchen area, where our tables used to be. Now it's cozy. It does beat sleeping on the ground though (which I did the first two nights...)

So now we are in full gear getting used to our miniaturized area and finding a new house for the other Elders. Cleison could not get baptized this week due to work/illness/member family not being able to go. So, we reset it for this next Sunday. We also finally got a new family to come to church (usually the only people that go are permanent investigators or references), and they seem pretty good. And they might even get married!!! We'll see. I'll be taking the bishop there tomorrow.

The Brazilians don't even realize the 'news' about leaving with 18... It’s been that way for a while here. There ARE two or three girls getting ready to go this next year though. Our Sunday was also full of missionary. We had Israel talk (he is the new LMA assistant), he talked about how he is getting ready to leave this next year and how we should show our faith in all that we do (including going on a mission)

Then Diego (returned two weeksish ago and new LMA) talked about HIS mission, talking a lot about plans and goals (very important part of being a missionary). He cited a phrase that I've liked my whole mission too, "Meta sem ação é um sonho. Ação sem meta é um passa tempo"

Or, "Goal without action is a dream. Action without goal is a pastime"

He then explained how usually that 'passa tempo' is actually a 'perda tempo' (lost time)

Then the bishop talked. It was really good, he always gives good talks. BUT, he kinda just shadowed everything that  Diego said, and he talked a little too much about how he baptized five hundred million people. Did I mention he doesn't like how little Brasilia baptizes? He even gave us the STAKE's baptismal goal for a transfer, and said that we ought to get that no problem. That would be 10-15 per transfer, or 2-3 per week. This was followed by how we OBVIOUSLY aren’t working right. *sigh*

But whatever, he is really excited about having another dupla of missionaries (even more excited because they are both Brasilian), so maybe he will actually give some references. He made a deal with us though :)

He said he wants one baptism out of every 10 references that members bring to church... hehehehe

I accept.

He brought 1. We baptized her.

Aldaíza brought another. Elder Ellingson baptized him.

Daiane brought another. He will baptize this week.

I have yet to see 10...

So please, by all means, bring more!

(We are reading the Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year, so I asked his favorite parts of what we’ll be reading this week… )

The 2Ne27-Mos4 huh... 

Well honestly, 2Ne32 is one of my favorite chapters in the BoM. I love it completely. 

2Ne31 explains the entire gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure). 

2Ne33 is just neat. Neat to think about ACTUALLY being in front of Nephi (and then any other prophet you want to imagine). How do you suppose that encounter would go? I enjoy the invite he gives us, "if you deem it's not of Christ, that’s cool, I'll talk to you after the resurrection. Tell me then that it's not of Christ."

Very fun chapter.

Enos is a good example on prayer.

Omni and jarom... eh. A little about Mosiah and Benjamin.

WoM... lamezinho

Mos2-4? I think it's until 4, is King Benjamin. He seems like just an old fart saying a bunch of obvious stuff... but really he is SUPER cool. Try to imagine a king or leader that sacrificed as much as he did. He was almost the complete opposite of the connotation of king! Following his example, we can have a happy society (or at least family... considering we don't have kings...) if we follow his teachings.

There. A super summary of what you will be reading :P

Really all of the BoM is fun and interesting and cool if we apply it to ourselves. That’s a part of the promise in the BoM. "Convidamos todos os homens, de toda parte, a lerem o Livro de Mórmon, ponderarem no coração a mensagem que ele contém, e depois perguntarem a Deus..."

Yeah sorry, I don't remember in English. Go look it up in the intro: P

We are invited to read, ponder, and pray (like the kid song!)

Read is obvious, as is pray, but the ponder is a little more complicated. Someone described it to me (in Portuguese...) as to "see what the book is trying to teach you". It's easy to read the words, it's even fun to read the story, but if you can get the purpose of what is written it will be that much more valuable to you.

Hope the trip went wellish?

About the Christmas box... I really don't care TOO much how you send it. Do what you think will work. Either tell me in an email not to open it, or write on the box, or whatever you feel like doing. It will take forever to get to me any way :P

'chocolate Americano' is really all I'm after currently :)

Anywhos, I think I talked long enough, only got 30 minutes of computer left anyway. So I'm going to go ahead and stop now.

So, goodbye to everyone for a week, have a great one, and until the next one!

Tchau!

Elder Funnell

#55 A New Dupla!

Well, our weekend was crazy too, in a good way as well :)

So a couple of weeks ago our LMA was called as the Elder Quorum president . . . and so he was both for two weeks... weird.

But now the missionary that returned recently is our LMA, and that is just fine with me too, they are both great.

WE FINALLY HAVE ANOTHER DUPLA!!!

So, to start, I sent in the house stuff (again) on Monday, and the office got it right away and ‘got started' with it (yeah... alright). Then, I got a phone call on Thursday from the president (ahh! why is that sooooooooo scary?!?) But he basically asked "where the bejeebers is the house?!?" and "didnt I tell you to get a house twice now?!?"

Which was replied by a "yes president sir. You already did... BUT-I-DID-MY-PART-AND-I-DONT-KNOW-ANYTHING-SO-PLEASE-DONT-HURT-ME" or something like that anyway.

That was followed very quickly by a call to the office, and they said they weren’t sure if a dupla was coming so they were waiting to do anything with the house... WHAAAAT?

But now the bishop is now longer hounding me, because Elder A is coming! He will pick up his trainee (yes, he's training) tomorrow, and he is the district leader of the new Recanto das Emas District! Which means we don't have to meet up with Santo Antonio anymore :)

The two of us stayed the same by the way. And I think we get the cool part of the Recanto (well, currently cool part, it switches frequently) Good side of the city means that Cleison is on our side, as well as five of six new investigators from this past week. I'm sad about being partially separated from people in the 300's, but I'd be sadder to leave the people in the 200's.

We also have four people in a VERY small apartment until we can get the other house under control (please be nice to me office)

In other neat news, Elder G was just called to go BACK to Paranoá (last wish of his)...

AS ASSISTANT!!! Woo! He went from LD to assistant, THAT'S weird. But really cool, he is totally perfect for that job. Probably one of the most honest, obedient, and self-motivating people here. Go him!

Umm... really that was the highlight of the week. Lots of drama, stress, and hounding from a lot of people to figure out the transfers. Thank goodness they passed them early on Saturday! Now I just have to find a house, two beds, two desks, a fridge, a stove, ironing board and iron, microwave, closet thingy, and who knows what else. Otherwise I can sleep on the comfy tile floor all week.

All that's left really is that we are preparing someone to get baptized this week. So with any luck, that will go alright. well, we will be getting a very little bit of food (because the money didn't fall today...), a haircut, and then we will lounge about until Jaque and Valerio want to meet up to eat ice cream and play card games (Jaque almost burst into tears when she heard that we are not on her side of the city...)

And Valerio is in town! So we have to take advantage of that :)

Oh, and EVERYONE loves reeses (like I said before :P) and snickers are really good too.

So until later,

Tchau!

Elder Funnell

#54 New Pics and conferences

Carl, Elder H & Yuri (he said no smile because he had been fighting the camera)

Carl by the city sign

 Whoo hoo conference! I swear it snuck up on me... that makes another six months that zipped by.

Sad part: Thanks to 'awesome' public transit, we missed the first half hour of Saturday, and then  I missed almost all of the priesthood session (AGAIN!!!). BUT, I still enjoyed it greatly. Our friend Yuri (that used to be less active) watched it in English with us. I'm impressed with his level of understanding... He reads and listens EXTREMELY well, he just speaks awfully.

Today we had a zone activity (hence the lateness), and we will be running to get everything done today, including watching the restoration with him. well... our district was lame and talentless. (really no one did a 'talent' show, we all just did little skit thingys. And our was VERY last minute (because our LD didn't want to warn us before time)

Was simple and eh... and the LD didn't get the funny part, so he kinda screwed up his act... But whatevs.

(I asked what he thought/heard about the announcement on age for missions) The 18 limit for guys s actually and old rule here. Brasil has had that rule for a while…But the 19 year old girls is really cool. And Amanda (one of our awesome ward missionaries), was extremely happy to hear. She was simply dying waiting for 21. She turns 19 in January, and she is already starting to talk to the Bishop.

Favorite talks... Once again, Elder Holland was totally awesome. I also VERY much enjoyed Elder (I think it was) Ballard (I had studied 1Cor12 Saturday morning, which is basically that talk) and I loved Elder Anderson's as well (which also helped with some little problems that Yuri had. THANK YOU APOSTLES!!!) Yuri is doing VERY well. Only problem is that he still smokes every now and then... which obviously means he needs to stop that still...But we're getting there. Sounds like his BoM problems got resolved with Elder Anderson.

My goal at this moment is to find some of them online and to copy them to my card. Hope it goes well.

This week was very weird in terms of teaching. We had a trade with our LD, and the day happened to be really weird... But good. We got six lessons that day. The best part is that I get to do a 48 hour trade with him this week. That is VERY abnormal, and looks very interesting. But whatever I guess... Elder H gets to enjoy the longggg bus ride as he is the one that is “going” for this trade. Everything in The Recanto is actually going just fine, but sadly few stories are coming to my very rushed brain at the moment.

Oh, I guess one interesting thing is that we found this guy who is literally afraid of leaving his house (that, and I think he is a little addicted to games... literally all he does... LITERALLY)

Did I mention that he speaks the best English that I've ever heard leave a Brasilian mouth? And guess how he learned... That's right, the video games...

But other than that, the week was pretty simple. We didn't talk to anyone that I expected to, and we talked o many that I didn't expect to... Very weird, but pretty simple and 'boring'.

Hate to remind you, but I'm actually going into transfer 9, and I believe it's a normal transfer (6 weeks)

I think/hope that we will both stay here! I'm very much a fan of the Recanto, but let's see what happens.

Anyway, hope you all have a great week!

So, Tchau!

Elder Funnell

#53- Sundays are great!

Well, this week was fine-ish. Truly it was kinda sucky-ish, but with an awesome Sunday everything got better!

Elder E and I had to stop going to Adriane's house last transfer (really good investigator that suddenly decided to be not so good). But I asked the ward missionary 'sisters' to go visit her.... and.... She came to church for the first time this week!!! Whooo! One more good investigator again! (I love those girls... they are magic)

We have our Claeson guy too. Only visit him once a week, but he also came to church. He is an almost certain baptism, will just take a while is all. Visiting once a week takes a while to explain everything...

Then we have our normal people that sometimes progress and sometimes no. Our gospel principles teacher changed, which is both good and bad. Bad because we love Claudia, but good because Isabella is really good too.

We are still looking for houses and stuff for the new missionaries, and with any luck it will happen this transfer. We think that we might have found a house, now I just have to talk to the office people to get it all figured out.

Really not much else to say this week... Like I said, it was a bit slow and long... But we are VERY ready for a new week, VERY excited to not be in last week still. 

Did I mention that it rained two or three days?... bleh… and only at nightish, but when the rain starts, EVERYONE runs away from the streets, making it awfully difficult to talk to people.

Or that we spent four hours in busses on Thursday?.. bleh bleh! We had a conference in Gama (if you are using you map, you will see that is to the... dunno the direction, but going RIGHT out of our city)

And our LZs wanted to meet in Brasilia (if using you map, you may see that it is an hour to the LEFT going out of our city)

Don't ask me why, but that's what we did. One hour to Brasilia, one hour to pretty much just come back. Followed by a several hour long conference, followed by lunch, followed by an hour to Brasilia again, and an hour to come back.

We caught a bus in the Recanto at 5:45 and got back in the Recanto at 5:45 again. . . Long day. Expensive day too.

But today we are going to relax a little, so I'll probably get writing too (still no letters received, you can probably blame the correios for that). Dani, Blake, M + M... I don't know if my hand can take that. I'm NOT a writer.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week.

So, TCHAU!

Elder Funnell