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[New Developments]
5/31/2021
Hey all you people, hey all you people, hey all you people won't you listen to meeee! Alright now that we've gotten that obscure reference out of the way, let's get on with this weeks happenings!
On Wednesday, an older member of the Guarará ward was looking for some help with her English grammar for a test she's about to take, and asked me to go over a review sheet she had been given. So we gave her a call and talked through a couple of the questions she had doubts about. It felt good to be able to help her out, using my unique talent (at least here in Brazil) of being able to speak fluent English, and to be proficient enough in Portuguese to understand and resolve her concerns.
We are working a lot with the members here and helping them become more active in the church, and also with sharing what they know with the people around them. On Friday, we were invited to the home of a member of the 5th ward (which was great, because we're only allowed to go to people's homes if they explicitly invite us). He is a math professor at a university (I'm not sure where haha). He had a big, really energetic dog that was jumping around all over the place, it was kind of funny. The member was finally able to get his dog into another room and shut the door, and then we had a chance to visit with him for a bit. It was a good chat.
Saturday is when things got a bit interesting. In the morning, President Hirschi called us and asked how many beds we had in our apartment. We told him that we have two beds, but three mattresses. Then he told us there was an Elder who arrived last week, Elder Vivanco, that was having a bit of trouble adjusting to Brazil in his other area. President was looking for a place Elder Vivanco would feel a bit more comfortable, and then said he would get back to us after making a few more calls. Later that night, the mission office called an Uber for us to go and pick up Elder Vivanco from his area, which was on the far west side of the mission, so it was about a 45 minute drive both ways.
When we arrived, I started to understand what Elder Vivanco was feeling. This was a pretty rough part of town, and especially where their house was located it was super sketchy. As we drove back to our area, Elder Vivanco talked the whole way, relishing the opportunity to speak in English, after feeling a bit trapped with his Brazilian companions. He started his mission in the Denver Colorado South Mission, serving there for about a year, and was just transferred to Brazil. He only knew a tiny bit of Portuguese from his "at home" MTC training. Then he shared what his experiences were in this scary part of town, having only been there for just a week. I won't go into detail, but I can say the things he was telling me were really bad. I think it was good for him to get it all out, and I hope I can help him work through it, even if just a little bit. Well, when we got home it was pretty much bed time, so we showered up and I took the floor mattress. Funny to think how the dynamics of the mission and a companionship can change so quickly. When we woke up this morning, Elder França and I had no idea such a change would happen. But, we think it is an excellent addition to our companionship and we hope to be able to help him get better adjusted. We're not sure exactly how long it will be the three of us, but we're happy to be here. Transfers are next week, so we'll see what happens.
Thanks for reading, hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Bird
--Elder França, Elder Vivanco, and me
[Birthday Week]
5/24/2021
Hey y'all, it was a great birthday week here for me!! I want to send a big "thank you" to all those who were thinking of me and sent a message or an email. It was very much appreciated!
On Tuesday we called the wedding office in Diadema for Juliana (Cleiton's girlfriend) and related all the things they told us back to her. We are trying to help them get their marriage down on paper, so that Cleiton can get baptized! Juliana has been the one leading the charge in finishing up this whole process, but understandable because Cleiton works a lot.
Tuesday night was our final lesson with Isabella before her baptismal interview on Thursday!! It's been so much fun teaching her all about the Gospel and seeing her progress through the lessons with a clear knowledge that this is right.
On Wednesday, we had our district council meeting in conjunction with interviews with President and Sister Hirschi. The APs were also there to give a bit of a training. After our meeting finished, everyone gathered around me and sang the Brazilian Happy Birthday song to me! It was super nice!
On Thursday we started our exchange with the ZLs, where Elder Silva came and stayed in our area with Elder França to do the interview for Isabella, and I went with Elder Larson back to their area. It was seriously sooo nice to have an American companion again, just for a little bit. Don't get me wrong, Elder França and I get along really well, but it's just that I'm not proficient enough in Portuguese to have long, deep, and profound conversations with Brazilians yet. So it was an awesome English exchange really getting to know Elder Larson and developing a friendship with him. He was English deprived too, so we talked and joked around a lot - haha.
On Friday we finished our exchange and went back with our regualer companions. Elder França and I made some final preparations for Isabella's baptism for the next day. Friday was also my actual Birth Day!! Pretty exciting, officially not a teenager anymore - haha. Apparently Isabella made a cake for my birthday, which was so sweet of her! Elder Silva and França brought some back to the house for me after her baptismal interview on Thursday. Then later Elder França and I got some birthday ice cream, and President and Sister Hirschi called to wish me a happy birthday. So nice! Other than that, it was a pretty normal day. Oh, I was able to call my parents in the evening as well, which was the cherry on top!
Saturday was baptism day! Elder França and I spent pretty much the whole day at the church building, filling up and heating the baptismal font, and then after, draining it. All of those take more than an hour to complete, respectively, and need to have someone in the building to check the progress. But the baptism itself was so amazing to be able to be a part of. They asked me to lead the music, so that was my contribution, and Isabella's dad was able to perform the baptism and the confirmation.
That's all for this week, hope it was a good read! See y'all next time!!
Amorão,
Elder Bird
-Sunday sweater gang
-We are heading into winter and it's getting foggy and super cold at night! Time for some double blanket action - haha
-Birthday ice cream
-Baptism pics!!
Video - District wishing me a happy birthday after District Council
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Click to view video
[Zone Conference and Construction]
5/17/2021
Hey everyone! Last week we had our first in person zone conference! But first, a couple other updates..
We taught Isabella twice this week, first about the Plan of Salvation, and then about the Word of Wisdom. Both lessons went great, and she is just so awesome at remembering everything we've taught so far. At the end of each lesson we've been doing reviews of previous principles. She seems to be ready for her baptism on Saturday and we are super excited for it!
We finished our visits with the people on our recent-move-ins list, and made some good connections to people who are wanting to come back to church! One big family came on Sunday and we talked with them for a bit and set up a lesson with them for later this coming week. It is with one of the sons and his family.
I finally got around to mending a few of my pants. Some of the seams had come undone in a few places. I also redid the hem on two pairs of my pants. Even though I'm a beginner, they all turned out pretty good, and I'm proud of myself for a task completed.
Zone conference for our zone was on Thursday. We were excited that it was going to be in person. We got to the church building around 9:30am for a 10am start and it went all the way until 4pm. Sister Hirschi spoke first about how some of the pillars of our mission (Christ-like attributes) will lead to the Miracle of Conversion for our investigators. Then President Hirschi talked about what we, and the people in our wards, need to do in order to become who the Lord wants us to be, and how we can better work together with our ward leadership. Afterwards, our financial secretary gave a brief presentation and then our STLs and ZLs did their trainings. It was about lunch time by then, which was provided by one of the Bishops. It was super good!
After lunch, we took a zone-wide picture outside, and then the APs gave some thoughts and did a roleplay training for everyone. At the close of the meeting, the Mission President had some final thoughts and we sang our mission hymn. Overall it was an amazing conference and now I'm super pumped to be getting back into the work!
Saturday was pretty fun, we got to help with some construction on a member's house in the Guarará ward. We worked a lot with cement: mixing, filling buckets, and handing them up to the people pouring it into a preset mold to harden and dry. We got ourselves covered from head to toe in cement, so went straight into the shower when we got back home.
On Sunday we were super sore from the service project. It was a good workout - haha. One of the young women asked us to give a little talk/presentation on an article from the Liahona magazine for a "2nd hour" meeting. It went super well and we took up all the time we were supposed to.
This upcoming week should be super great, with my birthday on Friday and Isabella's baptism on Saturday!! We are super excited!
Love you all, boa semana!!!
Elder Bird
-Pics from Zone Conference!!
-The whole zone
-Elder França and I thumbs up
-The room set-up
-I got some packages and letters that took a while to get to me - haha
-Elder França and I quick selfie
-I couldn't snap a picture during the construction project because I didn't want the phone to get cement on it, but that night they ordered us a pizza as a thank you for coming to help out
-The poster for the Sunday night meeting we spoke in, "Super Heroes"
[Family Home Evening]
5/10/2021
Big howdy all you folks! Another blessed week has gone by here in Santo André.
Last week after P-day (P-day ends at 6pm, for those who didn't know), we were invited to join Family Home Evening by a member family in the Ala 5 ward, who had just recently moved into the ward. We were pretty excited to join in, but also a bit scared to be walking around their area at night. They live in one of the apartment buildings way up on the mountain to the east. But, we made it unscathed, and it was a real treat for us to be able to participate! One of the sons conducted and the other son gave a lesson about repentance. We basically just added a few comments here and there. It was so great being able to just hang out and visit for a bit in person. Then they ordered an Uber for us to get back to our apartment safe, which was super nice.
On Wednesday, we had to take a good part of our day to update our cell phone. I guess there is a new version of software that we had to get, so we did a factory reset on our phone and set it up completely new again. Since all of our work is dependent on our phone, we didn't really have anything to do for a couple hours. We recently heard from one of our bishops that the church building has a ping pong table that we didn't know about, so we pulled that out, and played a couple of games in the meantime.
On Friday, we taught Isabella about the Restoration of the Gospel, which includes prophets, apostles, the priesthood, and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Because she's a bit younger, we tried some more interactive methods of teaching of the principles, which seemed to work out great! She understood everything we talked about. The family even has the picture book that we used, so she could look at it more with her parents, who are going to help with some review. We were able to set a date for her to be baptized, so we're planning on May 22nd! We know that she'll be ready by then, after we teach each lesson and the ZLs do her baptismal interview. Super exciting!!
Throughout the week we have been making visits to people who have recently moved into the Ala 5 ward. So far, we've been able to talk to two families out of the few we've visited, and this is seriously the most I've felt like a missionary for my whole time here in Brazil. Being up on our feet out of our apartment, walking around our area, going to people's houses with a purpose in mind, and having really good conversations with those at home.
On the way home from one of our visits, a guy in a car waved for us to come over. We didn't recognize him but we went over, and he opened his car door and handed us two little blue pamphlets that said "For Mormons" on the front. Then the guy gave us a thumbs up and drove off - haha. Well I knew exactly what this pamphlet was, because I had seen some like it at our bus terminal, but those were "For Catholics" and "For Jehovah's Witnesses", so maybe this was the same guy who made those. They are pamphlets that discourage these religions. It had highlights a couple scriptures in the Bible and then does some mental gymnastics to say our church isn't biblical, but I gotta say, it wasn't very effective - haha. It was some of the same tired arguments I have seen hundreds of times before, and I could respond to each one if need be. Anyways, that was just a funny little experience from one of our journeys.
Yesterday during sacrament meeting for Ala 5, I was asked to give a short talk right before the meeting started. I was grateful to have a little something prepared to talk about from when we were asked a couple weeks ago. It went alright and I was able to get my points across.
Well that's pretty much it for this past week! Today we're heading over to Diadema area to get flu shots with our district.
Happy Mother's Day!! I hope everyone was able to do something nice for your Moms yesterday!!
Love you all! Until next week,
Elder Bird
-Photo taken from a part of our area we hadn't been to yet.
-"For Mormons," "Truths and Illustrations That a Mormon has to Know" lol
[Labor Day Move]
5/3/2021
Hey guys! It was a great first week of our transfer here!
I guess I forgot to mention last time that I stayed in my same area with Elder França in Ala 5 and Ala Guarará wards, which is what we were expecting because we're both still pretty new here. Not much else changed in our district either, except that Elder Barriga completed his service and went home. He was our Zone Leader, so we have a new one now, whose name is Elder Larson! He's from Florida! It is so relieving to have another American in the district, even if his Portuguese is way better than mine - haha. On Tuesday, he and his companion, Elder S. Silva, video called all the companionships within the zone to introduce themselves to all of us. I was glad we got to talk with them both for a bit.
On Wednesday, there was a training for all of the District Leaders. It was kind of horrendous because all of our cell phone data ran out really quickly, so throughout the zoom call there were a bunch of us getting randomly disconnected, including me. I was asked to be involved in a bit of a roleplay and of course I was disconnected and then reconnected right at that time. Luckily, after my reconnection, my phone lasted throughout the rest of our conversation, so that was good - haha.
I'm feeling so much better about my language skills now, especially after seeing other Americans have the same struggles as me, including those in leadership positions. A few more Americans have arrived with this past transfer and I'm grateful to see with my own eyes that I'm not alone. Even the new AP [Assistant to the President] is an American, still perfecting his idiomatic abilities. Anyways, it was a great DL training meeting that left me pumped and hyped for this transfer!
Wednesday night we were able to have a lesson in person, for the daughter of a member family who is wanting to get baptized! Her name is Isabella. We are going to move through the lessons very simply and quickly with her. Their family is already reading the Book of Mormon and praying together daily as a family, which is awesome!
Our District Council meeting was moved to Thursday because of the transfer and DL training. We met all together again in person (so great) and were able to set some goals for ourselves for this transfer, super exciting! It went much better than my last goal-setting segment - haha.
This week we've been in touch with Cleiton. He is one of our investigators who's basically already a member and is ready to be baptized, but is just waiting to get married to Juliana. On Saturday we helped them move to a different house (still in the Guarará ward) with a few other members of the ward. They moved to the same address as the family of Irmão Maicon, who's son was just baptized last week, so that's pretty cool! (I say "same address" because there is usually more than one house at each address, and this one has three.) At the house they were moving from, there was a stairway that was pretty narrow, so the decision was made to lower the two couches from the balcony with rope instead of going down the stairs. I was one of the ones holding the rope and got a bit of rope-burn on my hands, but better than a broken back I guess. At one point I also had a mattress thrown at me from the balcony by one of the members who is pretty funny. He's very outgoing and friendly, and he calls everyone inseto, which means bug - haha. Anyway, we were able to fit everything into the moving truck in two trips, which was nice, and got the whole thing done in about four hours. It felt super good to do some service again and to feel like we were being productive with our time.
On Sunday we had church again in person, and were able to attend the ward council meeting for Ala 5 later in the day. It is so nice to see everyone in person again. I'm beginning to understand so much more of what people are saying around me.
Thanks for reading, love you all! Until next next time!!
Elder Bird
-Some more pics from around our area - my apartment buildings
-Apparently April 30th was a national or international holiday, Day of the Pianist
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