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[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
[How Does One Conduct a Meeting?]
9/20/2021
Hey everyone! Gotta make this one quick, so let's get to it!
Monday night we had a correlation meeting with Elias, our ward mission leader. He made us a nice stroganoff dinner and in addition to talking about missionary work, taught us some Brazilian culture stuff, which was cool! After we got home, Elder Antonio and I worked on our lesson/training for our Zone Conference for the next day.
Tuesday was my first Zone Conference as a Zone Leader, which was kind of nerve-racking thinking about the training we were supposed to give. But it ended up working out all great, even with the little time we had to plan. I also got to conduct the meeting, so that was fun! After the conference, I did an exchange with Elder C. França, going to his area, while his companion, Elder Phenix, went with Elder Eggleston back to our area.
On Wednesday after lunch we finished our exchange, and then Elder Eggleston and I headed to the church for my group piano lesson! It turned out to just be two people, and we learned about the names of all the notes! After our lesson, we went out to do a couple of in-person contacts (show up randomly at a person's house) in the Mata Virgem area.
On Thursday we had our correlation meeting with President Severiano, and then a really long weekly planning session, where we planned for a ton of future events.
On Friday I had one more piano lesson with Ana, who is a recent convert in the Mata Virgem branch. She came up to me after sacrament meeting one day and asked me to teach her, so more opportunities for teaching music! In the evening we went out to do more contacts in Mata Virgem and ended up finding a woman named Nair and her family. They had been in touch with the missionaries a couple years ago, but were left behind because of the pandemic. We had an uplifting visit with them.
On Saturday we helped out with a move for a couple in the Inamar ward. It was super easy compared to the other moves I've done here, because they lived on the ground floor, with no stairs. After the move, we had a very interesting visit with a guy in Mata Virgem named Luiz Fernando, who apparently is an inactive member of the Church. I have a feeling we were supposed to go there for him to have a reminder that God remembers him, and will never forget about him. Then we helped set up for a ward activity in the Mata Virgem branch!! It was hotdog night - super fun, with great food, and great company with the members of the branch. We also met some members who hadn't been to church in a while, and got to know them better. When we got home we worked on writing our talks that we were giving the next day for the Mata Virgem branch during sacrament meeting.
Sunday! Our talks went well in the Mata Virgem branch. Then after the Inamar ward meetings, we were invited to the ward council meeting because Elias couldn't make it. In the evening we had a lesson with Robson and his girlfriend Rafaela, where we talked about the Book of Mormon and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They were very engaged and ready to learn more. We have another lesson with them set up for this Friday!
Welp, that's this week. We have interviews with President Hirschi upcoming this week, and the ZLs have been asked to give a training for each of their districts (four for my zone), so I'll let you guys know how those were!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bird
-pictures from Zone Conference
[What Happened to Phase Two?]
9/14/2021
Yo yo yo! It's been a super duper interesting week out here!!
Monday night during our working hours, we had a pretty disappointing experience trying to call one of our friends. We were texting back and forth and she said yep, I'm ready for our call, but when we asked if we could make it a video call, she then blocked our number. Kind of funny, but really sad at the same time. Then we got a message from a young adult member of the Vila Paulina ward and we were able to visit with his friend Dace (who lives in our area). It was super last minute, but we tried to help her with some things she was going through. It was a special lesson and we ended up singing her a hymn. All in all, good night.
Tuesday was Brazilian Independence Day! Unfortunately, it was not "missionary independence day," because the Mission Office had us stay in our various missionary homes all day, to keep us safe from any protests or agglomerations. So, we did a deep clean of our house, which was much needed, and then did the missionary work we could do from home. We were also able to call our families again, so I called my wonderful brother, Ryan! I love him!
On Wednesday I went with Elder Antonio to our Mission Leadership Counsel meeting, or MLC as it's known to English speaking missionaries. The meeting is basically like a Zone Conference, but only the Zone leaders and the STLs [sister missionary leaders] attend. It was held at the church building in the AP's area, so we took the bus there - only one bus, luckily! It was super great to see everyone again and have some good convos during lunch. It was especially great to see Elder Pontious, who is from my MTC time, and my last companion, Elder Boize, and his new American companion, Elder Lewis.
We learned during the meeting that the Area Presidency just gave the approval for the Mission to move from Phase 1 (which is what we were in) to Phase 3 of missionary work. YAY! President Hirschi explained that in Phase 3, we could eat in people's homes, knock on doors, and do street contacting again!! That was super unexpected, but very welcome news indeed! We are so excited!!
Thursday was my first time being able to eat in someone's house in a year and seven months - the first time on my entire mission! We had a great lunch and visit with the Stake President and his family, who live in the Inamar ward. And then later, we were able to have a lesson with Mauro and his mom, Joana. We talked about how the Spirit speaks to us in our lives. It was a powerful lesson. Then Elder Eggleston and I followed our previously planned route that would take us from house to house, visiting people who were in our Areabook app. It was super great to be able to be out of the house, basically all night, and a great feeling to arrive home exhausted from walking all over our area. I'm sure I'll get much more used to walking that much now that we can do it, haha!
On Friday we felt humbled to eat lunch with a Venezuelan couple who spoke very little Portuguese, and even less English, but still wanted the missionaries in their home, to invite the spirit that we bring. It was a good opportunity to try out the few words in Spanish that I knew from doing lessons on Duolingo [a language app]. In the afternoon, we had a correlation meeting with President Severiano (of the Mata Virgem Branch) at the church building. While we were waiting for him to arrive, I was playing the piano, and Bishop Porfirio (of the Inamar Ward) was there and heard me. He then asked me to teach piano in mass for the entire ward! I'm not quite sure how to teach several people all at once, but we will see how that goes! Later, we delivered a Book of Mormon to a new friend and he accepted it, so we'll see if we can keep in touch with him! I think I'm getting a bit better at doing in-person contacts while visiting with people.
One of the members of the Inamar ward, Marcio, asked us to come to his house. So, on Saturday we went and visited with him and his wife. It was a great conversation about missionary work. He asked us how he could better share the gospel with his friends and neighbors, and explain it in a simple way so that that they can understand our beliefs. It was a great visit and I hope we will be able to go back there in the future and share more. In the afternoon, I had the privilege of performing a baptismal interview for Julia, a friend of the Elders in Serraria. It was an edifying experience, and an exciting time in her life to be able to get baptized. Then later we were able to visit Franklin! We talked all about the priesthood and callings in the church, and he made us "misto quente" [grilled ham and cheese] after the lesson, which was delish!
Sunday, we had lots of meetings! We went to the Vila Paulina ward because that's the ward Mauro's girlfriend lives in, and then went to our own ward and branch Sacrament meetings as well. During the Inamar ward meeting, Bishop Porfirio officially announced to the congregation that I would be teaching piano lesson at 6pm every Wednesday evening, for everyone who wants to come and participate. There's no backing out now -haha! I'm still not exactly sure how I will teach a group of people instead of individuals, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. In the evening, Elder Eggleston and I gave the message for a Family Home Evening lesson online with Mata Virgem, which went really well. Then we went out teaching, exchanging companions with the other Elder's in our house. We did two lessons in their area which went well. We ended up missing the Face to Face event with Elder Bednar, but we hope to watch it later this week in our downtime.
Alright, that's it for this week, hope you guys enjoyed reading it! And I hope you all have another great week as well!!
Love,
Elder Bird
-a nice picture of Christ stretching out his hand to all of us who might feel like we are drowning in our difficulties
[Reports, Reports, Reports!]
9/6/2021
Hey all you people!
Last Monday, like I mentioned in my post, we were out of a phone! It was supposed to arrive that morning, and I guess technically it did. The mission secretaries sent us one of the extra phones they had in the office in an Uber Flash, which is for object delivery, but the phone they sent didn't work. It ended up being a bit bugged and wouldn't initiate correctly. So, we had to use the other Elders' phone to write short emails and call our families. That was one phone for four Elders - haha!
Tuesday afternoon, we finally got a new phone that works! Two of the mission secretaries delivered it to us personally to our house. They also brought some hard-back copies of the Book of Mormon for our district. The whole mission has set a goal to read the Book of Mormon together, and they gave each missionary a new hard-back copy to annotate. It's been sweet! With our new goal we will read and be done with the whole book by the new year. That's right before I come home, so a great way to end the mission. In the evening, we headed to the church to set up our new phone and sent out our new number to all of our people. We ran into President Severiano while we were there, and had the opportunity to give him a priesthood blessing.
On Wednesday we had a mission correlation meeting with President Severiano where we talked about how we could work together to help the branch grow. Then, after lunch I sat in for a new leadership meeting. Next up, Elder Antonio and I did a bit of planning for the zone, with follow-up calls and exchanges and such. In the evening we went to the church building again for a stake report meeting for the Alvarenga Stake, to which the Mata Virgem branch belongs. And it was kinda funny, the stake president reminded me a LOT of Sylvester Stallone haha, in his appearance and the way he talked. Very Italian.
Thursday was our district council meeting. Elder Eggleston and I took the bus this time because we had the box of Book of Mormons that we were carrying to hand out at the meeting. On the bus we met someone who knew missionaries in the past! Unfortunately we didn't get any contact info for him before we had to get off at our stop, but we had a good short chat. After our council meeting and another quick zone leadership meeting, we took a district picture with all our new copies of the Book of Mormon. Later that night, we had another stake meeting, this time in person, for the Diadema Stake, which the Inamar Ward is in. It was cool to see all our district once again, and to take some sweet pictures posing with some Marvel props that the Stake President's family had. On the way home we were walking past a group of dogs, and Eldee Pajaro stomped really hard to scare them, and they totally came after us. I wasn't scared of the dogs, they were pretty small, but it made me uncomfortable because we were in our missionary clothes and he did it in front of a group of people. So, we all had a good chat about representing Christ and His church the rest of the way home.
After our Mission training meeting Friday morning, Bishop came over to pick us up and took us out to lunch. Bishop Porfirio is pretty awesome with the missionaries! After that, we sent yet another report to Irmão Elias, our ward mission leader of Inamar, and then one more report of the work in our areas to our district leader, Elder Novaes. In the evening, President Severiano asked for our help to set up tables for an activity the branch was having the next day, called Almoço de Jejum, which means Lunch of Fasting!
Saturday was Almoço de Jejum!! It was a great activity with some great food and some really good conversation with a member and his wife. After we ate, Irmão Thiago said the prayer to start our 24 hour fast. [In our church, members fast the 1st Sunday of each month.] Later, we had a lesson planned with Mauro, but he had to cancel on us, unfortunately. So we had a bit of time to stop by the house of a person in our area book that we don't have a phone number for. Turns out they weren't home, and we had forgotten a pen to write down our number on a pass-along card. Whoops! We passed by the church on our way home, and there was a baptism service the other Elders from our apartment were having. I ended up participating by accompanying the hymns on the piano. So that was cool.
On Sunday, Franklin came to church in the Mata Virgem branch! It was good for him to meet some more members and to start making some friendships. Then later after the meeting for the Inamar ward, a member gave us a few referrals of people who might be interested in hearing about the gospel, and two of them came to church and were there in the meeting! We got their number and will have a lesson with them this week! So exciting! In the evening, a member sent us some churrasco, which is like really good meat, and steaks! Super yummy.
That's all folks! Hope y'all have a great week! Until next time!!
Love,
Elder Bird
Pics:
- Happy Breakfast!
- Diadema Stake missionary work meeting
- President Hirschi with Marvel teaching props
- Thor would totally win over Capatain, just saying!
- Our district with their new personal hard copies of the Book of Mormon
[Exchanges and Sickness]
8/30/2021
Hey y'all, this week has been kind of insane! And to top it off, we lost our phone over the weekend so I'm kind of hard-pressed for time in writing this report. So much happened this week and I want to write everything, but unfortunately I'll have to just keep it to the highlights to save on time.
Last Monday in the evening I had the opportunity to do an exchange with Elder Antonio, because his companion, Elder Pajaro, was feeling super sick. We went to visit one of their friends who had a baptismal date set for Saturday, so kind of an important visit. It was a great lesson and her whole family was present.
On Tuesday night, we had a really awesome member lesson with a member of the Mata Virgem branch and his mom. We had a great visit and they are a sweet family.
On Wednesday, because of our dear, sick Elder Pajaro, we had our district council meeting online. In the evening, Elder Pajaro's companionship had another lesson planned for Leda, their friend on date for baptism, but we also had a lesson planned with a pretty important friend, so I couldn't do the exchange like we did on Monday. So instead we did an exchange with Elder Childers, our district leader, and his companion. Elder Childers and I stayed in our area, Elder Antonio and Elder Eggleston went to visit Leda, and Elder Pajaro went with Elder Pimentel back to their area. It was great to get to know Elder Childers a little more. He's an American, and a band kid as well, so we got along great! It was a fun day. We headed to the church building to do our chapel tour with Ginaldo, which went really well, and then ordered a pizza for when the other Elders got home.
Thursday was our most chill day, with just finishing our exchange and then doing contacts throughout the day.
On Friday, we did a double exchange, one in the afternoon to visit, Marisa, another friend of the other Elders, and another one in the evening to see Leda again. We did her baptismal interview online with Elder Childers. Elder Eggleston had been developing a bit of a sickness as well over the past couple of days, so he stayed back with Elder Pajaro. [BTW Pajaro means Bird in Spanish - so that's funny - Elder Bird and Elder Bird.]
Saturday was the big day for Leda! Elder Eggleston and I were able to attend her baptism. It was a great service, but somehow while we were at the church building, we ended up losing our phone. I remember having it while we were sitting down, kind of talking to some people waiting for the service to start, and then I think I either put it down on the bench or put it in my pocket which then fell out on the bench. In any case, we couldn't find it anywhere in the church building after the baptismal service. Later that afternoon we talked with a guy named Mauro, who is a friend of a member, and it was a good lesson. We arrived at home that day empty handed.
Sunday morning, I caught my own version of sickness, a stomach sickness - pain in my abdomen. With the two of us being sick, and without a phone, we stayed home most the day. We did however go to the church for the Inamar Ward services, because we were hoping our friend, Ginaldo would show up with his family. But, they ended up not coming. Fortunately, because we live with the other two Elders here in our house, we could use their phone to message our materials secretary about getting a new phone and Sister Hirschi about our sicknesses. It was a long, slow day.
Monday: Transfers! Interesting changes in the zone, but nothing new in our house. Our new phone (new to us at least, lol) arrived in the morning, so we're able to charge it up and get it ready to go for us to get back to work.
Hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bird
Pictures:
-The houze boyz
-Youth activity with whipped cream
-Pizza with Elder Childers
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