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2/26/2020
Olá todas!
Friday, 2/21/20
Today, we had to wake up a little earlier in the morning to go to the Federal Police Station and get fingerprinted for an extension of all our visas. When all the missionaries apply in the States, they only grant up to one year visas. We were there for about four hours, from about 7:10am when we left until about 12:00pm when we got back. Later in the day, my companion Elder Bone told us (our district) that he and his sister were the main actors in one of the EFY theme music videos. We aren't allowed to access youtube on the computers in the CTM (Centro de Treinamento Missionários), but we convinced one of our instructors, Irmã Nascimento to look it up on her account access in our classroom. She looked up the video and sure enough, there he was. I'm not sure exactly what the video is called, but if you look up "Trust in the Lord March 2019" you might find it.
Monday, 2/24/20
Our Brazilian roommates are leaving the CTM early tomorrow morning, which will mark about the halfway point for my district here. Portuguese has been coming along very well I'd say.
Our TRC interested person, Leonardo (I'm not sure exactly what TRC stands for, but it's where we practice teaching to one person (an instructor who is acting like a person they taught on their mission) in Portuguese over the course of two weeks), committed to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and I understood most of his questions. I know that as we keep progressing in the language we will be able to better share gospel principles and be able to more eloquently testify of those principles.
Elder Sabel, a Brazilian missionary who had previously learned a ton of English, will also be leaving in the morning, so the Elders in my district wanted to sing him his favorite hymn, "If You Could Hie to Kolob." We have been friends with him since we got here and it will be sad to see everyone leave. He got all of our emails though, so I hope to hear from him while in the field.
I forgot to grab my camera cable, so I can't add pictures this time, but I will put double the pictures next week.
Love you all, and I hope you all have a great week!
Tchau tchau!!!
-Elder Bird
Picture of us talking with Nathan [Elder Bird} this morning.
2/19/2020
Tudo Bem!
My district is awesome! We have a ton of fun with each other as we learn all that we are supposed to do, and someone is always cracking a joke. It helps that we got a little bit of bonding time over our journey in Miami.
Portuguese is coming much quicker than I would have thought. My companion Elder Bone and I have been doing practice lessons with our instructor, acting as a person who is interested in learning about the gospel, and we've been doing it entirely in whatever Portuguese we know. We were allowed to write down a couple key points for our lesson, but responding to his questions was difficult because we still have much to learn (obviously). It was very rewarding though leaving those lessons knowing we had spoken entirely in Portuguese.
Sundays are always a little scary because our Branch President doesn't give any of the missionary speakers any warning. When we walk in for Sacrament meeting, the names of those speaking are written on the board, and those people have to give a talk in Portuguese, coming up with about five minutes of material on the weekly topic including a relating scripture. After those people, some of the leaders give their talks in English.
Each P-Day, the missionaries get to visit one of two temples, either São Paulo or Campinas. Today we went to Campinas which is almost two hours away with traffic. After doing a session and taking some pictures, we come back to the MTC and are allowed to leave on foot to check out some of the shops within a certain boundary. Today before writing emails and talking with my family, Elder Bone and I checked out the post office and a little stand that sells some really cool leather scripture cases.
This week, for one whole day, our district made a goal to do an English fast, which means we wouldn't speak English for the entire day. It was very difficult. I think we all felt kind of trapped when we couldn't properly express our thoughts and feelings. It was interesting to see the different ways the missionaries came up with alternative ways of saying things. One example is that during lunch, we were trying to say "the chicken is dry," but we couldn't find the right words, so one of the other Elders came up with "Meu boca está deserto;" in English, "my mouth is a desert." By our last class for the day, all of our brains were fried and everyone was so tired.
Although it was hard, I think that we will be blessed for trying our hardest and making that sacrifice of our native language.
Considering my district has only been here for thirteen days, I'm very proud of how far we've already come. I think it is definitely much easier to learn a new language when you have a purpose for actually using it, but I also believe that we as missionaries are being blessed to be able to learn it much faster through our faith in the Spirit of God. I know that if we open our mouths to speak, the Lord will help us to know what to say.
-Elder Bird
Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Pictures:
1. Me and Elder Bone (my companion) in front of the Campinas Temple
2. Purple flowers and the Angel Moroni on top ot the temple
3. The Elders in my district (From left to right: Me, Elder Brinton, Elder Winters, Elder Pontius, Elder Bone, and Elder Hattori)
4. Some other Elders from the 'Miami District'
2/12/2020
Tudo Bem!
Hey everybody! This is my first Preparation Day in the MTC here in Brazil. On this email, I will try to share a couple stories or experiences and then a spiritual thought.
From the first day of being a missionary, I have been having some interesting adventures. My travel plan was to fly from SLC to Dallas, and then straight from Dallas to Sao Paulo; however, it did not exactly work out that way. From SLC to Dallas was great! I was with a couple of other missionaries who were also travelling to the MTC in São Paulo, and we talked a bit before the flight. Then in Dallas, we had a bit of a layover until our next flight. When we flew in, there were already some other missionaries waiting at the gate that we met, and then some missionaries from Colorado landed and we all formed kind of a big group There was about 20 of us. A couple of us went to get some Subway for the next leg of our trip, and I decided to save my sandwich for the flight. When it was time (around 7:30pm), we got onto the plane each in different seats around the plane and we were on our merry way. A few hours in, I thought it would be a good idea to get some sleep, so I set my screen to the flight plan and tried to get some sleep.
When I woke up, I checked my screen and it said we had turned around over Central America and we were now headed to Florida. There were a lot of confused people, and then the pilot came on the speaker and confirmed that we were going to land in Miami to fix some "maintenance problems." (Send me a separate email to get the scoop on what it actually was.)
We landed in Miami around 12:30am, and we were all hoping to leave again after the problems were solved. We did not. We were sitting stuck at the terminal for about another 3 hours, and then finally they said we had to deboard the plane. They said the flight would be there until a new flight crew could come back in the morning; they told us we will board at 6:30am. So the group of us missionaries found a different terminal to sit down, chat, or sleep.
Time rolls around to when they said we would board, and we stood there waiting for another half hour. They kept pushing back the time by a half hour every half hour. We finally got back on the plane around 9:30am, delayed another 3 hours. Then we sat on the tarmac waiting for our turn to take off. The captain came on the speaker saying we needed to go back to the gate so that he could sign some paperwork and refuel. Ugggh. We deboard again another half hour later. I was closer to the front of the plane, so it was kind of funny though seeing all the missionaries come off the plane and form this big group. They told us they needed a different flight crew and that the plane would leave at 3:30pm. Sit around, sleep on the floor, eat complimentary snacks; board the plane for the third time at 4:00pm. Sat on the tarmac for about another hour, and then finally took off around 5:00pm, almost 20 hours after we left Dallas. This time the flight actually went to Brazil, and we landed in São Paulo at 2:00am. Went through customs, got all our bags, and met our drivers around 4:00am. Traveled in our vans to the MTC and finally arrived at 4:40am, about 21 hours behind schedule.
We had a couple minutes to email our families that we arrived safely, and then just went on with our day without getting sleep.
Everything since then has gone very well, and I'm so thankful that we were able to have that time together to get to know each other. Many of those missionaries are in my district, and the rest are in the next district over, so it's really nice to have some friends here.
Have to go now, my time ran out. I'll try to get a spiritual thought in next time. Hope you all have a great week!!!
--
-Elder Bird
Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
02/06/2020
Hello!
I made it to the MTC in Brazil around 5:00am this morning, after spending 36+ hours in various airports and airplanes. Just allowed a quick email to let you know that I am alive and well. My companion is Elder Bone and we're just getting thrown into the fire here (not a pun, but also kind of, because it's blazing hot in Sao Paulo). The group of missionaries I was with in Miami have all gotten to know each other pretty well, so it's nice to have made some friends already. Hope you are all doing well. Love you!!
My P-day is on Wednesdays so an email will be coming then!!
-Elder Bird
Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
02/04/2020
Tim, Ryan, and I took Nathan to the airport this morning. He was bound for the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Sao Paolo Brazil. There were other missionaries that were on the same flight, so luckily he won't be traveling alone. They have a layover in Dallas, and I am sure there will be other missionaries bound for the Brazilian MTC that they will meet there.
Later in the day one of the parents of those missionaries texted me a notice that the flight the boys were on, left Dallas and after flying past Cuba and almost to South America, was diverted back to Miami Florida. We are assuming there was some sort of plane malfunction or medical emergency. We have been monitoring the flight status since then and they have not left Florida yet.
02/05/2020
After being delayed for several hours the flight finally left Florida around 5pm EST. Hopefully all is well now and they are actually on their way. I wonder what all those newly, off their cell phone boys, did to keep themselves busy for all those hours in the airport.
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