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[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
[Working Hard]
8/23/2021
Hey all! This week has been a TON of getting to know my new area and the people in it! It's kind of like I am white-washing this area (which means coming into a new area with no previous knowledge about it). My companion, Elder Eggleston, has only been here a few weeks and it's his first area in Brazil, so he's still working on his Portuguese comprehension. I've already been able to see some miracles, so, hype!
On Monday during the day, a man on a bike rode up to us and asked if we were those "Mormons." Then he started bashing us and saying how he doesn't like that us Americans are here dirtying up the place. We left him our testimonies and he said he'd pass by the church building on Sunday to check it out. That evening was filled with contacts and resolving a couple of things in the Zone. Elder Antonio, my ZL companion, is helping me out with some of my new responsibilities as a Zone Leader.
Tuesday was a great day for doing a bit of organizing of our Area Book because we had weekly planning. We took a good couple hours to contact all the people in our teaching pool and see where we should put our efforts. In the evening, we were asked by Branch President Severiano to fill a request for a priesthood blessing for a member in the Mata Virgem Branch. It was a really spiritual experience.
On Wednesday we started an exchange with the Assistants (APs). It had to be a bit of a three-fold exchange. I went with Elder Erickson to the APs' area, Elder Larson stayed with Elder Antonio in their area, and then Elder Pajaro went with Elder Eggleston back to our area. It was a long, busy day with Elder Erickson. In the evening we gave a blessing to a bit of a crazy member, then went to the gym to work out.. I mean teach a lesson for one of their friends who owns the gym and works out nonstop - haha. But it was a good lesson with him, despite the distraction of the ninjutsu class and the loud music playing in the background.
Thursday we finished our exchange with the APs early in the morning because they were giving a training lesson at the Mission Office. After we all switched back to our companions, we ordered lunch, did contacts, and then headed over to Franklin's house. We talked a lot about the importance of coming to sacrament meeting, so that he can be baptized at the end of the month, because he hasn't been coming. He told us the reason he hasn't been able to come and we were able to talk through it. We hope that he can keep his baptismal date. In the evening we did our weekly area report to with our District Leader.
On Friday we were able to have a really great lesson with Ricardo, in which we talked about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was a really good conversation. Unfortunately he doesn't live in our area, so we will have to give his name and address to the missionaries close to him, and they can deliver a Book of Mormon to him.
On Saturday we went to the house of a member who lives really far away, but the walk (more like a hike lol) to get to his house was really cool! We walked through a pretty jungley section of land, which we took advantage of on the way home for a photo shoot. It also has one of the sweetest vistas I've seen here in Brazil so far, overlooking a lake and some open, green land, very hard to come by here in the city. Then it was another long night of contacts setting up more lessons to get to know people in our ward and branch.
Sunday was our busiest day, going to all four sacrament meetings that we usually attend, two for our areas, and the other two for the other Elders' [who we live with] wards. We were able to pick up lunch from a member of the Mata Virgem branch, and then a couple of our appointments in the afternoon fell through. Then we were going to go to the house of a recent convert, Ana, who was just confirmed last Sunday during sacrament meeting to give her a blessing, but it turned out that President Severiano and another member of the branch had already gone to her house to do it. Then in the afternoon, we were going to go to the house of a referral that we received in our Area Book, but when we asked him for his address, it was somewhere in Utinga, a city in my last district. So we sent his info over to the Elders over there. It seemed like everything we tried fell through, so we ended up doing our studies instead! I love to study here in the mission.
That's about it! We've just been trying to work hard, getting to know as many people as we can in the area and get to teaching! This next week is the last one of the transfer, so it's gonna be interesting to see if anything changes next week. My bet is that nothing will because I just got here last week, but we'll see!
Oh funny story -- my new companion was serving in the Sacramento Mission before coming here to Brazil and was in the city of Stockton where my dad grew up. He was serving in my Uncle David, Uncle Bret, and Aunt Jeanine's ward and knew my cousins! How crazy is that? It can be such a small world sometimes.
Hope y'all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bird
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