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[Same Old, Same Old]
11/1/2021
Hey all! This week was great! Not too much news, but I'll let you guys in on the highlights.
On Monday we played soccer with some other companionships in the zone. I ended up triggering my chronic back pain, so it was back to the brace this week for me.
We are teaching a family over in Sete Praias (in the Mata Virgem area). One of the daughters of the family brought her boyfriend to our lesson on Tuesday! His name is André and he's super interested in learning more about the gospel, along with the family! That's so exciting!
Wednesday was pretty busy, filled to the brim with visits, which was good. We visited with one guy who is a relatively famous Evangelical singer, (I got one of his CDs), and he is interested in learning more, but has a contract to sing at another church. He likes us to visit with him though. Later in the day, we visited Nair and her family, and we had another great lesson. This one was to clear up some misconceptions they had about our church. Nair and her grand daughter, Samara, are preparing for baptism sometime in November, so that'll be exciting!
Thursday we had another in-person Mission Leadership Council! It was another bus ride there, and the bus station made us a bit late again. What are you gonna do? It was a good meeting though and on the plus side lunch was included!
Saturday was another great day of lessons with our two families. First with João and Márcia (the family in Sete Praias). It was with just the parents this time because the daughters ended up going to a Halloween party. Then we headed over to Nair and Cláudio's house. Everyone was home and participated in our lesson, which was a blessing. One of the sons even had his girlfriend over to join. It was a great night!
Sunday was Halloween! It felt like a regular day though because it's not a huge holiday here in Brazil. Funny enough, we saw some stores already decorating for Christmas, as we walked by, on our way to church, so that was fun!
Hope you guys had a great week as well! Until next time!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Mission Leadership Council: October-November
- Elder França and I on our way to Sete Praias
[So Many Buses]
10/25/2021
Hey y'all, it's been a great week here in Brazil!
I'll start off by explaining the subject line, which is that every day this week, except for Sunday, we used the bus. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out the bus system, with the help of Google Maps. I've become the "cara do ônibus" [the bus guy] for our house. On Tuesday we took the bus way out to the corner of our area for a planned lesson. On both Wednesday and Saturday we had meetings in Jabaquara (the area of the APs), which required 3 different buses to get there, and then on Thursday and Friday we had an exchange with our district leader and his companion which required a bus ride too.
We had a mission meeting with the Brazil Area President, Elder Parrella, which is called a "mission tour". That was the meeting we had in Jabaquara on Wednesday. The day started off at 8am with a mini Mission Leadership Council meeting, then at 9am we started the session with the Sul and Diadema zones. The other two zones did their session with him on Thursday. It was a great conference! Elder Parrella talked a lot about mission culture and how we could improve our sense of urgency in finding people who are ready to let God prevail in their lives. He also did a question and answer session with all of us missionaries, which was enlightening. Overall we had great experiences with this mission tour!
Our other important meeting in Jabaquara was on Saturday. It was a Zoom conference with Elder Soares, one of the current apostles of the Church. He is from Brazil and was giving this conference to a few of the missions in Brazil. It was really cool to hear him speak in his native language and actually understand what he was saying. We saw Elder Parrella during the transmission [broadcast] of the conference talking with Elder Soares, so that was cool to see him again.
In terms of people we're teaching, most everyone lives in Mata Virgem, so we've been focusing our efforts there. These are the people who are really progressing towards the goal of baptism. Nair and her family are coming to church every week and we have faith that she will be prepared to be baptized before the end of this transfer. We're also teaching two other families in Mata Virgem, João and Márcia, and Dhiego and Mayara. We've been seeing many miracles in Mata Virgem and we want to keep the ball rolling!
Alright everyone, those are the highlights for this week. Thanks for reading, and catch you guys next time!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Us with Aline and Ana Laura again!
- A snack after our lesson with a family in the corner of Mata Virgem
- An exchange with Elder Kimball
- Elder Kimball is related to our past prophet Spencer W. Kimball
- A p-day soccer game with several Elders in our zone
[Surprise Visit]
10/18/2021
Hey all! We had an exciting week here!
I'll start off by talking about our surprise visit. On Wednesday, President Hirschi sent us a message, out of the blue, saying he wanted to spend the next day with us. He wanted to work with us in our area! We were glad that we had set up some good lessons, and had planned a good route of contacts to go see in Mata Virgem to be able to do with President.
Right, so on Thursday we started off our afternoon by having lunch with Aline, Bruno, and Ana Laura. After lunch, we taught Ana Laura the last missionary lesson so that she is ready for her baptism on Sunday (a change from Saturday). President Hirschi arrived during our visit with the family, and then came with us to visit our referrals in Sete Praias (an area in our branch) using his car which was nice for the longer distances. One of our contact visits turned into a lesson. It was with a family who had been receiving the missionary lessons before the pandemic, and still had their copy of the Book of Mormon that the previous missionaries gave them. It was a great lesson that President Hirschi really took the lead on - haha. After that, President Hirschi dropped us off at our next house for another lesson, and he returned back to the mission office. He later told us that he really enjoyed his time with us, so that made us feel good about the work we're doing.
The other big thing that happened this week was Ana Laura's baptism!! It was moved to Sunday after church for the Inamar ward, so that her brother Bruno could baptize her. First though, he had to be ordained to the office of priest. So, right after the second hour of church, Elder França and I got the baptism room set up, Bruno was ordained as a priest by Bishop Porfírio, and then the baptism started. We gave some quick instructions to Bruno as they entered the baptismal font, and he did a great job performing the ordinance. Ana Laura was so excited! The service was nice, with some great testimonies and some good musical numbers. She was blessed with the Holy Ghost and confirmed a member of the Church right after the baptism. What an amazing experience with an amazing family!
Right-io, that's all I'll share for this week! Hope it was a good read. This upcoming week we are finally having that mission tour, where we get to be instructed by one of the Seventies here in Brazil. It was alluded to by the mission since like the beginning of the year - haha. This will be in place of our Zone Conference, so we don't have to prepare a training this time, woot woot. At least until interviews with the Mission President come around, then we'll have to see if he asks the Zone leaders to do that training again.
In the meantime, hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Bird
-My new companion Elder C. França
-Our zone with their Book of Mormons (Mission collage)
-Us and President Hirschi with Aline, Bruno, and Ana Laura, (and Niclaus the dog)
-The legendary Diadema Zone leaders
-Ana Laura and her family after her baptism
[The Beginning of the End]
10/11/2021
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week. It certainly has been interesting around here!
For starters, our main focus this week was on Ana Laura, who is the young daughter of a member who is returning to church after the pandemic. Elder Eggleston and I have had the opportunity to visit with this family and teach Ana the missionary lessons getting her ready for baptism. She will be baptized this Saturday and we are so excited for her!! She is so great, and her mom and her brother as well. It has been a pleasure to feel like part of their family when we come by to teach about the gospel.
The other main thing that happened this week was the transfer!! (Today, in fact.) I had the great privilege of serving with Elder Eggleston for the past two months, but the time has come for him to move on from this area. He has big things ahead of him, opening an area in São Bernardo. He will be in a trio with another American and a Brazilian missionary. [As things are progressing here with Covid, and with people being vaccinated, more things are opening up. There are not so many restrictions, and so more missionaries are arriving into the country. This influx of missionaries means we can "re-open" areas that were shut down. Before Covid, the The mission had 10 zones, but when all the missionaries went home it was cut down to 3 zones.] Today a new zone opened up, bringing the amount of zones up from three to four. My new companion is Elder C. França and he will be the other Zone Leader with me over Diadema. Elder Pajaro got a new companion also, to take the place of Elder Antonio who went home this transfer. His name is Elder Araujo.
On Saturday, I had the privilege of attending a baptism over Zoom. It was for Sarah Scott who I helped teach back in February. It was with Elder Gray, back in Rye, Colorado right before I came to Brazil. How cool is that? She invited all the missionaries who helped teach her the gospel, to come to her baptism which meant by Zoom for most of us.
Other things of note that happened this week included:
- Meeting the brother of a person we are trying to get in contact with, on the street
- Setting a baptismal date with Nair
- Visiting lots of people in the pouring rain (because it's monsoon season here!)
There is a popular saying among missionaries here in Brazil when someone is starting to come to the close of their mission. They say the missionary is entering the "doze semanas" or the "twelve weeks" meaning the last two transfers. I envision it being a really great second-to-last transfer, and I intend to give it my all, until I return from my service.
That's it for this week, thanks for tuning in! I hope it's another great week, and I'll let y'all know how Ana Laura's baptism went next time!
Love,
Elder Bird
- A good view of Mata Virgem
- Our last house picture before the transfer [Elders Antonio, Pajaro, Eggleston and me]
10/4/2021
Hey all! It was a great week for us, but the highlight was General Conference.
Monday was pday and then in the evening we went over to Elias' house and started work on our Kanban [poster thingy] that he wanted us to make for us in relation to our missionary plans for the ward.
On Tuesday I caught some kind of cold, so I was totally sick the whole day. We spent our day doing missionary work from home.
By Wednesday I was feeling a bit better, so I went with Elder Antonio to host our training for the last two districts in my zone. These two districts meet together for their district council meetingss because they are pretty small and only have two or three companionships. This made it easy to do the training. President and Sister Hirschi were there again to do interviews with the missionaries. Then President and Sister Hirachi took Elder Antonio and I out for lunch again, which was awesome! After lunch, Elder Antonio and I went over to the APs' house and started an exchange with them. I went back to my area with Elder S. Silva. Felt like old times, when I was a DL in Santo André, and he was my ZL, now I'm the ZL and he's an AP. Anyways, we had a few really great lessons and made a couple of new friends.
On Thursday we exchanged back to our regular companions kinda. The APs went back to their companions, but Elder Antonio and I stayed together for a bit longer. We picked up our lunch and then he had his last English tutoring session before he has his end-of-mission test. Afterwards, Elder Pajaro and Elder Eggleston met us at the church building and we finally switched back fully. Then we headed out once again to knock on some more doors. Later we went back to Elias' house to finish up the Kanban. When we got home, Elias sent us a really nice message that made us feel good about the work we are doing in this area.
On Friday we had lots of lessons, in almost all ways possible. First, over the phone with a call to Ygor, then a video call with Ana, who is a recent convert in the Mata Virgem branch, then lastly in person with Ana Laura! She's the daughter of a member in Inamar ward that hasn't been baptized yet because of the pandemic. It was a really great lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Saturday, was General Conference!! We picked up lunch and headed to the church building to watch the first session. Then we went to our friend Diego's house, who is a super great young guy who talked with missionaries before the pandemic, and watched the Saturday afternoon session with him and his mother-in-law. After conference he said he enjoyed it and we had a good conversation with them. He was so nice, he even gave us a ride back to our house!
Sunday we started the morning off by watching the Saturday Evening session of General Conference at the church building. Some great talks in that one! Then we headed to Diego's house (a different Diego in the Inamar ward) to eat lunch and watch the Sunday "Morning" session with him and his wife. They were very thoughtful and wanted to put it on in English for us. We told them it was okay to watch in Portuguese, but they insisted. After the session and a bit more visiting with them, we went to do a member lesson with another member in Inamar. Then we went over to Elias' place to watch the Sunday Afternoon session. He put it on in English for us as well, and he watched it translated on his phone with earbuds. Once again very thoughtful. We had another nice conversation with him after the session, then returned home for the night.
It was really refreshing to watch most of Conference this time in my native language. Even though I have improved a lot since the last Conference in April, and understood for the most part the parts we watched in Portuguese, I could really feel the love that all the speakers demonstrated in their talks when I heard them in English. Overall, I loved this Conference!
Whelp that was my week! Today we went to a mall to check it out and grab a few things we needed. Now we're heading into the last week of this transfer. It's gonna be a good week, and hope it's a sublime week for you guys as well!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Lunch with Elder Antonio and President & Sister Hirschi
- say that 10 times [the fine print]
- time for a haircut
- a picture of President Nelson with SLC temple that I liked
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