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[One More]
7/19/2021
Hey all! This week was probably one of the most challenging and most rewarding weeks of my mission so far, and I'm always excited that I get to share a small portion of my experiences with you all every week.
On Wednesday we were so busy we barely had time to do our studies! We started off with our district council meeting, and then in the afternoon we had one more lesson with Valter. We talked about some of the commandments! Then in the evening we were able to do a church tour with Ataildo, which was amazing! He is so hungry to learn more and willing to do what the Lord asks of us. At the end of the tour we gave him a Book of Mormon. He expressed so much excitement to read it and learn more about finding lasting happiness rather than what he's experienced of temporal indulgences. I'm grateful to be part of his spiritual journey!
On Thursday we were able to meet a couple of our friends, José and his girlfriend Anailys, at the church building. Turned out that Bishop Zanini was there doing an interview, so it worked out perfectly for them to meet each other. They talked for a bit, and then we were able to give Anailys a priesthood blessing. It was good to see them again after a couple weeks without meeting. After they left, we stayed for a ward correlation meeting in which we shared an idea about an activity we could do to get the ward more active and involved in missionary work. We'll see where it goes!
Friday was awesome! An Irmã [Sister] in the ward asked us to help teach the lessons to her 8 year-old son to help prepare him for baptism, so we had our first lesson with him. After that, we got a request to dedicate a restaurant, because apparently they were seeing some weird stuff going on. But that was cool, to say that prayer for the woman, asking that the building could be a place for the Spirit to reside. In the evening, we had the opportunity to go over to Alquilino's house again and just sit, listen, and talk with him. It's super good to just listen sometimes. It was a really good night.
Saturday was mostly just a lot of contacting people and then we had a couple of member lessons. That is where we meet with people who are already members and share a spiritual thought with them. It helps us to know the members of the wards better. (Same for Tuesday btw)
Sunday. What a day. I cannot describe in detail what I felt today, both negative and positive, so I'll just give the events that occurred, surface-level. The day started out with church, and we were excited to have Ataildo come and see Elder Boize give a talk in the Guarará ward. But, he ended up not coming which was disappointing. After lunch, there was some confusion about who we had a lesson with in the afternoon. With the language barrier, I just could not understand what was going on, and Elder Boize got frustrated with me, and I was being impatient with myself and with him. It was just a mess. After some time we figured it out and went to have the lesson, which actually turned out to be pretty good.
That evening we went to visit Alquilino again, and we had the most amazing, heartfelt conversation with him. He talked for a while about various different things, but the things he said ended up answering pretty much every part of our day, if that makes sense. He told us a couple spiritual experiences he's had in his life, and said he felt like we were the only people he felt comfortable talking to about religious stuff. Then he told us that we were different than all the other missionaries he's ever known, that we carry the Spirit with us stronger than anyone he's met before. That made me feel so good. I can't explain everything we talked about or all the things he said, but it was very humbling, especially for me. It was pretty cool how we were all inspired by the Spirit to know exactly what to say, and that it was what each of us needed to hear that night.
Monday, transfers! Nothing will change for me - haha. Looks like I'll be able to finish off Elder Boize's training in this area, and that I will continue to be able to meet with Alquilino and the rest of our investigators.
Hey again, thanks for sticking with me and supporting me, I really appreciate all of the kind words, spiritual thoughts, and generally anything that I receive from y'all - haha. But hope you have a great week, like mine was!
Love,
Elder Bird
-Nice view looking west, from the hill on the east of our apartment
-Majestic roadside-field horse
-Goat/pig combo taking to the streets
-Looks like rocks, but actually is chocolate
-P-day hijinks
[Finding Purpose]
7/12/2021
Hey everyone! It's been a really good week here, lots of humbling myself and forgetting myself in the work.
I had a really touching experience with my companion Elder Boize this week that kind of opened my eyes a bit. It really helped me double down my focus on where I am, where I'm supposed to be, and how I can fulfill my responsibilities as a district leader and trainer for my companion. In mission slang, the relationship between a trainer and his trainee is referred to paternally, i.e. Elder Boize would be my mission "son." I usually would rather use proper, non-slang terms like trainer and trainee, but I discovered that me being Elder Boize's "father" actually caries a lot of meaning. He's had a pretty rough go during his first transfer in the field, and I feel blessed, honored, and humbled that the Lord has chosen me to be his support, his anchor, his companion, his "dad."
This week was filled to the brim with lessons, a huge blessing. We came up with an idea to go through all of the names of members of the Church in our areabook to set up some lessons. We ended up meeting some really awesome people who are less active or inactive in the Church. We also finally got in touch with Igor, a referral passed to us by Bishop Zanini, who originally asked for a priesthood blessing. Well it turns out he's actually a member who has been inactive for a long time as well. All in all, Elder Boize and I have been finding purpose here in our area, despite difficulties in finding new investigators to teach. We are helping these less active members recognize that they are loved, by us, by those around them, and most importantly, by God.
Alright that's it for this week. A lot more stuff happened, but I felt it would be better to keep this one shorter. We're heading into the last week of the transfer here. Not expecting any changes in our companionship, but we'll see what happens. Thanks for reading, and hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bird
-Stopped on this staircase again on our walk home after we helped someone in the ward move
-A member gave us these gift bags!! Awesome!!!
-Last week at the emergency room waiting for Elder Boize to come out (don't worry he's fine, just an infection)
[Weekend of Birthdays/Other Important Days]
7/6/2021
Hey! Happy 4th!!
On Tuesday we received a referral for a guy named Artur (sans 'h') and ended up having a really spiritual lesson with him over a video call. He was so humble and willing to learn. He told us later that the scripture we shared with him that night, about faith, was exactly what he needed to hear. Really cool.
Our district council meeting was moved to Wednesday because we had interviews with President and Sister Hirschi! Interviews are always so great, a real kick in the motivation, and this one was no different. They pull people from our meeting while district council is going on, and so it was like a double whammy in terms of the spirit.
Thursday morning we had a training about making your companion your best friend by Elder Koplin from the missionary department (I think). He didn't speak any Portuguese, so one of the APs translated for him. It was a good reminder that I'm literally functioning in a different country and with a different language. Huh, pretty cool. The training was good as well! Elder Boize and I are going to make some more time to play games together (like chess) and talk more, which will really boost our friendship!
In the afternoon we had some free time and noticed the church hasn't been getting cleaned regularly with the rise of church attendance after the pandemic. So, we spent a couple of hours sweeping and mopping the chapel, the bathrooms, and a few other major rooms of the church building. It was a good service project!
Friday was kind of a slow day, but good nonetheless. We've been going to the church more often when we have slow times, and I've noticed a difference in my attitude. I just feel better when we spend time there instead of spending time at our apartment. Friday was also Sister Hirschi's birthday, so we recorded a little video of us singing "Parabéns pra Você" [Happy Birthday] and sent it to her, which she really liked.
Saturday was my wonderful Mom's birthday!! I was able to call home and have a quick chat with her to wish her a Happy Birthday! In the afternoon, we had a really good lesson with Valter. We talked with him about the principle of baptism and he said he would pray for an answer to setting a baptismal date and whether or not Joseph Smith was really a prophet. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and already feels the spirit really strong when he reads. We have no doubt that he will be able to recognize the answer he receives about Joseph Smith and baptism!
Sunday was July 4th! How fun! We didn't really do anything to celebrate though because this is Brazil - haha. But it was also Elder Boize's birthday! How awesome! Unfortunately all of our lessons we had planned for the day fell through, and Elder Boize was in some pain - his nose was hurting him. Kind of a bummer of a birthday, but we'll make it up this week by buying him a cake or something.
Like I said, all of our lessons fell through, which included going to Gabrielle's house and talking to her parents about her baptism. Her dad had to work. BUT, we invited her to write a letter to herself containing her testimony and why she really wants to be baptized. We asked her to show it to her parents and try to help them understand how she truly feels about this important step in her life.
Today, p-day, was pretty chill, we didn't hang out with the district or anything, just chilled at the church, played some ping pong, and talked with our families. In the evening after our Mission Huddle (a brief Zoom call with the whole mission), we talked to Sister Hirschi and then walked to the emergency room for Elder Boize's pain. Which is where I am sitting right now writing this email - haha.
Valter and Gabrielle are two of the people we're teaching that are most progressing in the gospel right now, and they both have so much potential! I'm excited to see how these next few weeks play out. We have faith that everything will work out with them!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bird
-Brazilian hotdogs, yum!
-On our way to clean the chapel, (also, my shirt commemorating US Independence Day!)
[Attitude of Gratitude]
6/28/2021
Hey y'all, another great week here in Santo André! (My subject line doesn't rhyme too well in Portuguese, but it does in English - haha.) Had a lot of ups and a couple downs throughout the week, but I'm choosing to focus on the ups and see how my attitude changes!
We started off the week great on Tuesday with a service project in the 4th ward. One of the members there has a little store where he sells some bits and bobs, and some pieces of furniture. The Sister missionaries who cover that ward asked us and the ZLs to come and help them move and arrange some of the items for him, and clean and organize the store a bit. It was pretty fun to do some service after a bit of a hiatus, and he bought us all snacks and lunch!
On Wednesday we had Zone Conference, woohoo!! It was Elder Boize's first zone conference in the mission, and it was great to see everyone in the zone. I saw Elder França there, my old companion, and I talked to an American who had just arrived, and thought his Portuguese was already good. Anyway, I had the opportunity to play the piano during the conference, which was really fun because I finally learned how to play the Missão São Paulo Sul Mission Hymn for the meeting. All the trainings were inspiring and in the middle they provided pizza for lunch! President and Sister Hirschi love to give out chocolate bars (Hershey's of course) for birthdays within the last transfer and for other things they ask missionaries to do in between conferences, so I ended up with two! What a treat!
We talked with Valter again on Thursday. He invited us in and we talked about the whole Plan of Salvation with him. We spent almost 2 hours talking about all the points, and he was really into it. He also mentioned that he actually stopped drinking coffee, which was unexpected! He's making great progress and it's really cool to see the Spirit being manifested in him.
Friday was a big day with our lesson with Gabriele. We asked if her parents were okay with her getting baptized, and she said they had some doubts about if she's old enough to get baptized yet. But she talked it through with them and we are still going try to shoot for an official baptismal date. For the lesson, we talked about all of the commandments with her, and the importance and blessings of each one. She was really interested and good with it all. She even asked for a list of scriptures to go along with each one, so she could do a bit more studying on her own! What a champ!
On Saturday we had another lesson planned with Edilene, the one who lives straight up the mountain, but it ended up falling through. However, we received a couple of pretty solid referrals, one from the Areabook and another from the Sister missionaries.
Sunday morning we had a bit of a sickness scare. I woke up in the morning with a sore throat, but didn't really think much of it because that happens sometimes when I wake up. But today I had a runny nose as well. And here's the kicker, I took a cough drop to ease the sore throat and I didn't taste the flavor at all and barely noticed the menthol feeling. I checked the bag and they weren't supposed to expire for another year. Obviously a bit strange, no? I was thinking it might be Round II of Covid. So I texted Sister Hirschi my symptoms and they said we would have to stay at home until we could get a Covid test. We ended up missing our Sacrament meetings, but then the mission office called us an Uber to go to a nearby pharmacy. There they had a rapid Covid test
where we could get the results in just a few minutes. It turned out that both of us tested negative, which was a huge relief, and we were able to avoid the 10-day quarantine. Then we let all of our people know that we were fine.
Today for p-day we got to go bowling with most of our district. It was super fun!
Alright, that's all for this week! Hope you guys are doing great wherever you are, and focusing on what you're grateful for! I really saw a difference this week as I shifted my own perspective.
Love you all!
Elder Bird
-Elder Boize and me at the church for Zone Conference
-Our Zone
-Our District
-It is getting cold here heading into Winter - super foggy day
-Elder Boize and me at the mall on P-day
[From House to House]
6/21/2021
We got word this week that we are now allowed to go into people's homes if people invite us in or we have pre-planned lessons. So things have been picking up around here!
On Tuesday we had a Mission Leadership Counsel meeting, in-person, with just our zone, which included the District Leaders and their companions. It was a great, very spiritually uplifting meeting about how we can better work with our members. President Hirschi wants every companionship to set a goal to have lessons with 6 members/families every single day. We are supposed to ask for referrals from the members and to build up trust with them, in order to boost the amount of solid people who are really looking to change their lives for the better. He also asked us to not do Facebook contacting this week to see how our in person teaching improves. It was a pretty interesting meeting.
In the evening, Bishop Zanini of the 5th ward sent us the contact info of a man named José who was looking for some help in his life. We ended up meeting with him and his wife Analice that night at the church building to talk more. We had to opportunity as well, to give them both priesthood blessings of comfort and counsel. We left them with our testimonies of the power of faith and how it can give each of us the strength to push past the difficulties and challenges we face in our lives. It was an amazing lesson and we all felt the spirit really strong. We set up a day to meet with them again, next week at the same time.
Wednesday started off great with an amazing district council meeting, but then we had a couple of hiccups throughout the rest of the day. After the meeting. we realized that the member who was providing us lunch lived pretty far away from our apartment. I suggested we try taking a different bus home that would pass by her house on the way back to our terminal, or so I thought. It's the same bus we usually take to get to district council, and I thought it would just do a big loop and bring us back home, but it turned out not to do that. There was a final stop that was even farther away from home than where we started. Sooo Embarrassing! Elder Boize and I shared a quick laugh about it, but it put me in a not-so-great mood for the rest of the day. To get where we needed to be, I called my mission office secretary buddy and he called an Uber for us. We had to spend a bit more time and money on travel than we planned on, but that's okay. Then, on the long walk home from the member's house, we got splashed with mud by a car passing by. It's funny now, looking back at it, but in the moment, it worsened my mood. I was stuck in this mindset of "everything is going wrong today."
I was wondering how such a bad day (or so it seemed to me in that moment) could start off with such a spiritually rich district council meeting in the morning. To feel better, I started to read the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" booklet to help me deal with the anxiety I was feeling. I was thinking about my inability to say exactly what I mean and to understand people to the fullest extent, and then something caught my attention. It said, "Let go of what you cannot control (things like the past, the culture, your own limitations) and focus on things you can do something about, such as your behavior, your current choices, and your attitude." I realized then that I hadn't really been in good control of my attitude during the afternoon. I'm learning more and more here in Brazil what it means to truly put my trust in the One who is in control. With this in mind, I pushed forward through some lessons I was still a bit anxious over, and we ended up finishing the day where we had started, with the Spirit in our midst.
On Thursday we did a lot of traveling. In the morning, we had the chance to deliver a copy of the Book of Mormon to a person we are teaching named Valter. He invited us in to talk a bit about it. He told us he had done some "reading up" about some things we believe, so we had a good chat about the Word of Wisdom. We were able to bring the conversation back to the pattern of prophets in the lives of the God's children and the Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He told us he would read and pray about whether it was a good thing for his life, so everything turned out well.
Next up we walked from Valter's apartment to pick up lunch from a member. She invited us and we were able to share a quick message with her. This was the first time in a while since I'd been able to do an in person member lesson.
In the afternoon we were supposed to visit with a person who was referred to us and who we had set up a lesson with. But, it ended up falling through. Although we were sad to have a lesson fall through, her house was really far away, like a 30 minute walk from our place, and in a bit of a sketchy area, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
In the evening we had the opportunity to visit with a less active young man named Luis in the Guarará ward. He lives way down south in the Parque Miami/Vila Riviera area by the reservoir and the damn. So we took the bus to get there and had a great lesson with Luis and his friend Luan, an active member in the ward. We talked about the scripture reading from this week's "Come, Follow Me" Sunday School, and then invited Luis to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to a friend with an explanation of what it means to him in his life. Elder Boize was really good at being friendly with them (probably because he speaks Portuguese) and they were close to our age, so I think we made a good connection with them both, Luis and Luan.
On Friday after lunch and the EnglishConnect class for Elder Boize, we started our first exchange of this transfer, with the ZLs. I went with Elder Silva to their area, while Elder Larson stayed in our area with Elder Boize. While there, I was able to do a baptismal interview for a person they were teaching named Paulo. Everything went great with his interview, and he is ready. I'm excited for him, to be dressed in all white, for his baptism on Sunday. I won't be able to be there in person, but it's tradition for us to share pictures of our baptisms every week in our WhatsApp mission group chat, with their permission of course. Afterwards, we went back to the apartment and ordered a pizza to celebrate.
On Saturday we got up nice and early (the usual time-haha) to get ready and switch back companions for another successful day of missionary work.
The lesson that fell through on Thursday, was with a referral named Edilene, and we were able to teach her on this day. She lives on the border of the city to the south, the last road before it turns into a park/nature preserve, and straight up the mountain. Her house was in a favela [hood] but, we made it there after a while of hiking up the road. She nicely invited us in for the message we wanted to share with her. We taught her a few different things and she shared with us a bit about her life there. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited her to read about when Jesus appears to the people in the Americas. She seemed very excited to read and learn more. It was a great lesson, and she said she'll have some other family members over the next time we come to teach. Hurray!
Sunday-- Happy Father's Day!!!
We started our day off with our normal church meetings and Elder Boize gave a great talk during the 5th ward's sacrament meeting. In the Guarará ward, Marina brought her friend Gabriele again, and we followed up on the things we talked about in our video call lesson earlier in the week. She is really close to accepting a baptismal date, we just need to make sure her parents are aware that she is looking into the Church and that it is okay with them.
We had a couple lessons planned for the late afternoon, one by phone and the other in person, but they both fell through. Oh well. At least we got a good walk out of it. It's always so much better to be out of the apartment and seeing people on the street and getting some exercise.
In the evening, I was able to call my parents and wish my dad a Feliz Dia dos Pais! So grateful for my dad and everything he's taught me over the years.
Today for p-day, the ZLs organized a barbecue for our district and a couple of other missionaries. It was super fun! We bought some meat to grill up and then met at the chapel across the street from the ZL's apartment. We got there a bit early, so we helped set up and got the grill all fired up.
When the Sister missionaries arrived, they had a new American Sister with them, who must have just arrived on Saturday! How exciting!! Always good to see more Americans having the chance to come back to Brazil! Also, super nice to have another person I can talk to and relate to. Anyways, Elder Silva started grilling and we got a game of Uno going, and everyone was laughing and having a great time. It's been so long since I've had such a rejuvenating p-day like this one, and it was really amazing to feel like I was hanging out with friends again. We'll have to see if we can do stuff like this more often.
Hey all, I know it this was a really long one, so thanks for sticking with me! Overall it was an amazing week here and I can't wait to get started with this next week! We already have lots of lessons, and plans, and service projects set up. Plus we have Zone Conference! Super exciting to be getting back into the mission groove of things, and I just know my time here is gonna fly by with how busy we're becoming again. I'm trying to do my best to make the most of it by fulfilling my missionary purpose of helping others come unto Christ.
Love you all,
Elder Bird
-Elder Boize and I in front of the church, new profile picture for WhatsApp
-In front of a little park on the way from Valter's house
-Celebration Pizza with Elder S. Silva
-Me on a tall ledge overlooking a favela [poorer community]
-Crazy horse casually walking down the city street
-Me in front of the nighttime lights of our area - our street at night
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