#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

 

 

#78- Leaving Miracema...

Well, I'm still in Miracema, but transfer day was changed to Tuesday, so I'll be leaving at two today to get the bus to Brasilia... again...

 

So yeah, getting transferred. Still dunno where or with whom, but I'm leaving today. Riding south... I have a few ideas, but I’m not sure about anything. (I asked if he would be going with anyone or if would be traveling alone)  We aren't told anything until it happens. I actually learned a little early about transfers because I had to mark my own ride to Brasilia, so I got to pack at a nice slow pace. So all transfers are being done tomorrow, so I'll be getting there right as transfers happen. Then I'll grab my companion and go... somewhere.

It'll be a long day.

Sounds like transfers changed due to CTM stuff, so they should stay like this. And yes, this will be one more short one. (5 weeks)

I think I still have everything :P

 

Let's see where I go and who I'm with... This COULD be my last area (but I think I'll get one more).

 

I did. I also got some 'capim dourado' or 'golden weeds'

 

It'll make more sense when you see it.

 

(I asked his favorite thing about Miracema) I love the people here. It’s so calm and nice here. Mostly the people that I liked. The fruit is great too, They have bunches.

 

Here in Miracema all is well. We managed to get one of my favorite inactive families to church yesterday, and they looked pretty happy to be there. We also found a few people in the last couple weeks that could be potentials for Elder G. Also, and possibly coolest of all, C is very probably going to get married soon. The ONLY thing making her nervous is money. I don't accept that as an excuse. We (they) will be taking the bishop there to talk to her, as he has explained to us that the ward will pay for it, a little here and a little there. So HA.

 

A much less fun highlight this week was someone that 'testified' to us that we are 'serving the devil' and that 'Mormon was a crazy man that was lost in darkness'.

 

Alright then. Whatevs.

Not going back there.

 

It's very annoying, because I know without a doubt that the spirit was leading our words. There was a power in what we said. But, he was so close-hearted that he refused to see. It's as the Parable of the Sower (as James E Talmage says, the Parable of the Four Different Kinds of Soil), there are some people that are so closed to the gospel that it would require crazy circumstances "basically amounting to a miracle" for them to see clearly.

 

I've also seen a difference in me. In the beginning I got upset by this kind of encounter (he used to be an investigator by the way). The way that he can lie to my face and say that the BoM teaches anything by good used to drive me crazy (still nips at me, but not so much). I also didn't have any idea how to respond to this kind of statement. 

 

But now I understand. When you truly develop a sense of love for the person, you no longer feel angry or upset, you just feel sad and disappointed. You can then remain calm and work with the spirit to give the strongest testimony that you soul has.

 

The experience was not very pleasant, he had a very disturbed feeling about him, but you can be sure that my testimony (and I believe Elder G's) have only grown.

 

Not that I'm asking for more... Keep these guys away!

 

But, I'm pretty sure that's about it this week. Next week I'll be able to tell about my new area and companion :)

 

But until a little later,

Tchau!

Elder Funnell

 

 

#76- 30 hours on a bus, visas and smallest mission

The whole time thing is weird here too, going super quick.

But it didn't help that this week was so odd... The only normal days were Thursday and Saturday.

 

So we left at 2 for Palmas, to renew visa stuff. Normal for people with a bit over a year in the mission (my visa has been expired since September. . .) But unfortunately, that killed p-day a little. So after two hours to Palmas, we waited around for three more hours until the interstate bus left at 7. I went with Elder Wilde and Elder Cl. Elder G stayed in trio with Elder B and Elder R in Aureni. 13 hours later (7:52) we got to Brasilia. The mission driver didn’t get us until 9:30. From there we went to the airport to start the early birds (some people started visas at ten) so we sat around in the Airport doing nothing until 12, when we went to lunch real quick. Good thing: The food is really good and I talked to Elder E for a little bit. Bad thing: 17 reais for just food! Supposedly I get a reimbursement thingy, but we'll see. 12:30 and we were already in the airport again. Elder C and I had ours marked for 3:00, so we talked to a couple people from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The actual renewal took about 10 minutes, then we went to the 'bus station' gain to wait until 7. Then another 12 hours to Palmas. Then another 2 to Miracema.

 

Visa renewal is stupidly simple. They just take your fingerprints again. I'm pretty sure the only problems with visas are to get here in the first place. And yes, president said that there is not a single American in the CTM.

 

Visas expire after a year I think, but they are still 'usable' sort of... something. Dunno. For about another year.

 

Elder E seems to be fine, I only spoke very briefly. He came in when I was leaving. He's in Asa Norte right now.

 

 

And only then a shower.

 

Not like.

 

So I was dead all that day, but we worked quite a lot. We then had a neat conference with President on Friday. President told us lots of stuff about 'desire' as stated in DC4:3. He also told us some cool stuff just for fun after the conference. I seriously don't feel like I've been in Miracema at all this week.

 

For instance, our mission is the smallest in Brasil. By a lot. However, many missions are only with 70-90 missionaries because of the new missions. We have 180. Our mission has 6 stakes and a district, with 56 missionary areas. We have a missionary-to-ward/ranch ratio of 3.3. The other missions are close to a ratio of 1.6. The two missions in Curitiba (on being new) for example, have 180ish missionaries and 13 stakes between the two of them.

 

We are very likely to temporarily shrink in numbers until the other missions are filled, but we are going to be receiving 8 new sisters, and only one is leaving.

 

That means that about 6 junior sisters will be called as trainers this transfer.

 

Funnier still: Fortaleza has only three sister capable of training... and are going to have to train... 15. Six sisters will study together each morning and do the training (under the lead of one trainer) and then split up throughout the day to work.

 

Sound crazy. Fun though too. 

Oh, and yesterday we went out with Rosa and Michael (LMA). Wandered around to all of the less actives and investigators to give them some more friends. Sounds weird when I say it like that, but that's basically what it was. Michael wanted to meet everybody.

 

The family night that we planned last week was re-planned for today. So that should be cool too.

 

Other than that... Not much going.

 

Hehe. Not much... I already said a lot of goings on :P

 

Brick oven, Lord of the Rings, food, and annoying dogs sounds fun. I take it Blake enjoyed torture training? Sounds fun too.

 

I realized yesterday that it’s really hot here. 

 

Yeah, I already knew that, but I noticed because it was over 90 degrees and I didn’t think it was all that bad. . .

 

I'm toast this winter. . .

 

Oh, and it was Elder G's birthday yesterday. We didn't do anything, but today should be pretty fun. And I might get me a hammock finally.

 

But I'll leave it at that for now. So until next week!

 

Tchau!

Elder Funnell

 

#75- Round trip to Brasilia in the next two days

Well actually the other Carl DOES go by Fletcher... But whatever :P (His companion's first name is Carl too)

 

This week was kinda crazyish... We went to Palmas on Tuesday (normal), then as soon as we got back (five in the afternoon), they called again telling us to go back Wednesday...

 

Bother.

Tired of busses.

 

Speaking of busses, they called me today RIGHT before doing my prayer for study (kneeling and everything)... I'm going to Brasilia today to mess with visa stuff... WHAT ANNOYING. So our p-day will be basically dead at 2 when we catch the bus to Palmas, then I leave at 6 to arrive in Brasilia in the morning. THEN I get ANOTHER bus at 6 to get back here 8 in the morning on Wednesday. Then the bus to Miracema.

 

I do not like the look of these couple of days. But at least I get to hang out more with Elder Cottrell. Elder Wilde is coming too. All three juniors will be sitting around together in Aureny for a couple days.

 

So plans for today include getting ready to leave and leaving... not a super fun p-day. But whatever.

Was funny though, because I had to cancel a few appointments. When I said I was going to Brasilia, everyone that I called revolted "WHAT?!? ALREADY?!? CAN’T!" 

Ha-ha. Giggles.

 

This week was also super productive. Last Sunday, and also Tuesday we had super good lessons with Diego. Now we know that YES, he wants to be baptized. But he's also taking his nice pleasant time. He IS reading the BoM though, 2nd Nephi something or another. HE wants to finish in less than a month.

 

Josilene is also starting to show progress, but not a whole lot. She needs to realize that coffee is not THAT hard to give up. . . Thinks it’s impossible.

 

But mostly we are working with less actives and stuff. We ran around all over the place yesterday in order to solve a lot of problems all at once. We found out that André (super cool guy that knows WAAAAAY more church stuff than me, one of the oldest members here, used to be Elder Quorum president and ward secretary, etc. etc. etc.) has a problem with the bishop. He says that he knows he was called of God (considering he was there. .),  and he absolutely loves the bishop, BUT he doesn't support him as bishop anymore after having said some kinda dumb stuff to him. . .

 

So we'll see how that works out.

 

The Elder Quorum president is going nuts about home teaching visits (being one of the reasons that the ward is slowly shrinking), and we will be doing some splits with them to help them out with that... or to force them into doing it, whichever.

 

And the ward attendance went from about 50-60 to 75 this week. Whoo. 2 investigators and 6  inactives.

Win.

 

This week absolutely flew by, that's always a good sign. I'm pretty sure these couple of days will rag though.

 

Oh, and we did ANOTHER service project this Saturday. Last Saturday we 'weeded' the jungle behind a member's house (10 guys - 3-4 hours) and this week we leveled a giant mound of dirt. Sounded easy, until we started.

 

I'll try to get a picture from the first, but I don't have it right now.

 

And yeah. Basically this week we've run in circles all over the place. But productively.

 

Oh, the family night with Borges (less active) was super cool too, they agreed to go to church this week. Yay

 

Anyhow, I'll leave it at that. 

 

Tchau tchau!

Elder Funnell

 

 

 

#73 Transfers are weird...

Transfers here are weird.
So, Elder P got sick this week, it looked like dengue, so we almost didn't do transfers, but turned out not to be a problem, so I dropped him off at the bus yesterday, and I'm camping out in Palmas with Elder C (awesome guy) until tomorrow. Dunno where, but Elder P is in Brasilia, as well as Elder C's comp. I'm going to get an almost newbie American (third transfer, training just ended), and that should be really fun!

These last two weeks CRAWLED by. I noticed yesterday. But, now we can start again…Turns out Elder Co was Elder G's companion a little after I was, and we sat around talking with him last night. Wow. It's so weird, now that he's gone; I'm the last survivor from my first house in Paranoá. Weird.

I actually don't know what will be happening with transfers. . . I think it's a 6-weeker though. (It’s a 5 week this time). They are planning on changing a few things in the near future.

And yes, we had the great blessing of our time changing back to normal! I've never had such difficulty getting up at 6:30 in the mission... But now it's super easy! It's not super dark when you get up, so your body is actually willing to get up now! So good.

To be honest, very little happened this week, considering carnival ending and Elder P getting sick... But hopefully this next week I'll have some fun stuff for you.

Sorry about the typing. This keyboard really is AWFUL.

So, until next week

Tchau!
Elder Funnell

#72 I am tired of talking...

Wow. He is old. (We had Jon’s 16^th B-day yesterday)

I enjoyed the idea of taping stuff to death. Sounds quite annoying :P

It's always fun to have stuff move around in the wards. (We had our Women’s organization, Relief Society and our young children’s program given new Presidents and leaders yesterday) These kinds of changes happen MUCH more often here (considering that half of the ward is one family. . .). Two weeks ago someone was called as primary president. Then yesterday someone else was.

Coolest thing ever about yesterday... WE HAVE A WARD MISSION LEADER!!! WHOO!!!

And he's really cool too. M, the guy I talked about last week that came back from Rio recently. He's really neat, he just works a lot. Sounds like we will have an LMA every other week, but that's WAY better than never!

In other news, I gave a class and a talk yesterday. . . Tired of speaking now. Usually when the missionaries talk, it's just to introduce themselves or to fill a 5-10 minute hole in the program. This time they gave me the fifteen minute spot. Bother. So the surprise talk on Saturday was followed by the surprise class yesterday when we realized that the gospel principles teacher wasn't there. So I taught about Adam and Eve. At least it wasn't a hard one.

That, and the Sacrifice talk from last May (since I still don't have the recent conference) ended up being fun-ish, but I have no desire to do more.

This week was wierd!

So, Elder P was supposed to leave last Sunday, until we received the call that he needed to leave Friday. We got everything all set up to go, got to the bus stop and everything, and right when the bus got close, the assistant called me saying "DONT GET ON THAT BUS!!!"

...

Okay...

So he was moved to Saturday. Sounds like there weren’t any more spots in the bus to Brasilia.

So we dumped his stuff back at the house, and the assistant called a couple hours later to inform us that he simply won't be transferred until transfers.

...

Annoying.

So he's still here in Miracema! 

I find it very likely that I will stay this transfer. If Elder P stays again he will explode.

As for cool news, lessons, or persons, we met a bunch of less actives and family in a part of the city that Elder P never went to. But that's about it. We'll see where they can get this week.

Well... I think that's about it for the day... So I'll just leave it at that.

Tchau!

Elder Funnell