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[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
[One More Week in the Life]
9/27/2021
Hey everyone, this week was great!!
On Tuesday we started our week off right - with a lesson with Dace. She is someone who has had contact with the missionaries in the past, but is having a bit of trouble believing in the Book of Mormon after growing up with only the Bible. But it was a great lesson! We answered some of her questions and were able to clear up some of her doubts. After our lesson with her, we followed our planned route of houses to knock in the Inamar area, but unfortunately nobody seemed to be home. The mission has also emphasized the importance of continuing to use the resources that were available to us during the pandemic, namely our areabook and the records and phone numbers we already have, and to continue to do lessons online as well.
On Wednesday Elder Antonio and I hosted a training for two of our four districts in the zone, and next week we will do the other two. We also got to have lunch with President and Sister Hirschi in between the two districts. Afterwards, President Hirschi drove us back to our area, and we switched back to our regular companions. Then Elder Eggleston and I headed to the church building and arrived just in time for my group piano lesson for the ward, which nobody showed up for this week, haha. I think I'll talk to the Bishop about it, because at the moment it's not really an effective missionary tool for us, and it's taking up valuable time in our schedule, that we could be using for something more productive. Now that we're liberated to do more missionary activities, we have to be more mindful about how to wisely use the limited time that we have.
On Thursday we started an exchange with Elder Novaes and his companion. We met up with them at the mall and then Elder Novaes and I headed back to our area. A few of the lessons that were planned fell through, but it was good to walk around the Mata Virgem area and chat with him. As we headed back home we stopped for a milkshake, and as it turned out, Elder Novaes ended up leaving his scriptures there. We didn't realize it though until we got all the way back to our apartment. Luckily, the place was still open when we returned, walking all the way down the steep road and then down the main street. Once back at home, with scriptures in hand, we used the rest of our day to make a few good phone calls. We ended up making a new friend named Moisés (which is Moses in English - there are lots of biblical names here in São Paulo [Saint Paul]). Moisés is very religious and we are excited to talk to him more!
Friday we had our mission training. This time it was all the district leaders sharing best practices from their districts. After that, Irmão Danilo came and picked Elder Novaes and I up to have lunch with him and his wife Laisla. We had a great visit with their family. They both served missions, so we traded stories and experiences. After lunch, we went to the mall and switched back to our regular companions, and Elder Eggleston and I headed home. In the evening we wrote up a report for Elias on how our work is going in the Inamar ward. We were supposed to have another lesson with Robson and Rafaela, but they had to cancel, so instead we made a few more good calls.
Saturday we had lunch with Gabriel, a returned missionary in the Mata Virgem branch. At his house the Disney movie Coco was playing in the background. It made me think that it will be nice to be able to watch movies again when I get home - haha. When we got back to our apartment, we had another good conversation over the phone with Moisés about the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and invited him to church. Later during our nightly calls, we had a cool experience finding someone who had been baptized some years ago, but had been inactive because of some lack of attention from her ward when she needed help. She lives in São Bernardo, so we plan to send her number to the missionaries over there, who will be able to help her out better than we can, long distance.
Sunday, the Day of the Lord! After sacrament meeting with the Mata Virgem branch, Elder Eggleston and I got stuck [locked] in one of the classrooms! Whoops! But, also kinda funny. Luckily we were able to get out using the ol' card-in-the-latch trick. Afterward, we had a quick correlation meeting with President Severiano, and then he took us to his house for lunch. Later in the day, I got to play piano for the Inamar ward's sacrament meeting, and then it was off to second hour! So exciting because this was the first week that we got to participate in Elder's Quorum in a long time. The Mata Virgem branch will start second hour the week after General Conference! That night we joined online for a Family Home Evening with the Mata Virgem branch, which was good.
This coming week, we've got exchanges planned with more of the district leaders, the APs, and one more training for the last two districts in our zone. I'll let you know how it goes next time! Hope it's another great week for everyone!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Elder Novaes and I petting a dog on the street
- Elder Novaes and I at the chapel for training
- Thinking real hard
- Stroganoff lunch at a member's house
- Elder Eggleston with a street mural
- Literally walking "down" the street
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