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[I Learned a Lot]
3/29/2021
Hey all!! It's been a hard, but really good week.
Thank you all for the prayers! The gift of tounges is real for sure, and I had some cool experiences with it this week. It wasn't nearly as bad or humiliating as I thought it would be. The District Council meeting (that I was in charge of) was a bit rocky in the goal setting portion, because I don't really know any of that vocabulary, but everyone was very supportive. I am much less stressed about the responsibilities of being DL now that I know exactly what I'm expected to do after a week of doing it.
My new companion is Elder França. He is from the northern part of Brazil called São Luís, in the State of Maranhão. He speaks only a little English, so it has been a great week of immersion for me and I feel like I've come further. He likes to walk instead of taking buses, so one day when we went to pick up lunch from a member who lived kind of far away, and we walked for an hour and a half to get there. Luckily, they were able to drive us home, so that saved us - haha! The good thing was that it was beautiful countryside that we were walking through. It was very pretty!
This week the mission is actually doing a competition of sorts in anticipation for Easter and General Conference! President Hirschi asked all the companionships to submit four questions (related to mission rules or scripture/doctrine) for a "knowledge bowl." Every day apparently will be a different focus or activity to prepare for a weekend of high spirituality. Very exciting!!
As for General Conference, hearing it in Portuguese will be a first for sure. I'm hoping I'll have improved enough in my listening skills to be able to understand anything being said - haha. If all else fails, I will be able to read the talks when the Liahona magazine comes out or when they are put up on Gospel Library. But I'm hoping I will be able to understand everything I'm supposed to, with the help of the Spirit and diligent preparation.
Hope you guys are excited about Conference! And hope you have a great week!
-Elder Bird
Pictures:
-Elder França and I
-Very pretty countryside on our walk to get lunch
-I love this picture of Jesus. I feel like it really depicts what it will be like after this life to see Him and embrace Him
[First Brazilian Transfer]
3/22/2021
O que se passa meus amigos? [What is up my friends?]
Whelp, today we have transfers here in São Paulo Sul, which means it's time for me to say goodbye to Elder Capello, as he has completed his mission and returns home to Londrina. Our last week together was pretty normal (normal meaning sitting in our apartment all day), but with him packing and me jamming on the uke. On Saturday though we stopped by outside a member's house, so he could say goodbye to a family we are really close with.
The only lesson we were able to have this week was with Daniela, which we did over a video call with the sister missionaries. It was a great lesson, but the sisters had to carry most of it because a couple of things went crazy in our apartment, haha. First Elder Capello got a bloody nose, which he was able to stop surprisingly quick, and then our sink started over flowing. It was the sink that our washing machine drains into and there was a rag clogging it, so it was overflowing like crazy. We unclogged it pretty quick, but there was water all over our kitchen floor, which we cleaned up after the lesson. Fun stuff.
The real interesting part of the week was yesterday, Sunday. After we picked up and ate lunch. Elder Capello gathered all his things and we headed over to the ZLs apartment to stay the night. This made it easier for travel arrangements the next day because Elder Candido was going home too. Later, we got a call from President Hirschi, who said he wanted to talk to me. Maybe you can see where this is going. . .
Well, after some light banter, President Hirschi said he wanted to appoint me as the new District Leader in Santo André. I was a bit shocked and I don't feel prepared at all with the language, but I accepted after a bit of convincing. I do have experience being a DL from my previous assignments in the Colorado Springs Mission, but this will be a whole new expierence. I still can't even understand what people are saying when they're talking to me. But, now more than ever, I really need to understand what's going on and give council to the missionaries in my district here. I'm not excited to test my district's patience with me, but I do know that this will at least force me to get better with listening and comprehension skills in Portuguese. I'm anticipating this will be one of my hardest transfers of my mission. Please pray for me!
Later in the evening, the APs called the ZLs to give them the information for each missionary in the zone for the transfer. Then the ZLs hosted a zoom meeting for the whole zone to relay the info to all the missionaries! It's different from the transfer sheet they used in the Springs, but kind of cool! Turns out my new companion will be Elder França. I heard he doesn't know any English, which is probably better for learning the language anyway.
I'm currently staying with Elder Barriga, waiting to meet my companion later today (Monday). Wish me luck for the weeks ahead!
Love you all and hope you have a great week!
-Elder Bird
Pics:
-American Flag and Brazilian Flag on Rubiks cube
-Lightning storm came through
[State of Emergency]
3/15/2021
Hey everyone!
This week the state of São Paulo declared a state of emergency due to the rising number of Covid cases in the state. This resulted in us having a lot more restrictions placed on us as citizens of São Paulo and as missionaries. Basically it is a "stay at home" order unless it is essential for you to go out. So, no more church meetings or other missionary meetings in person. Our district council meeting was a video call and church was an at-home Sacrament meeting.
This has given us a lot of extra time at home, which has given me time to really reflect on my life and my mission so far. I am so thankful for my mission and had some personal revelation. I can see differences in myself. Before my mission I loved not having anything to do, but stay on my phone watching videos all the time. But, because of quarantines and Covid restrictions, my attitude has shifted now to longing to be with people and doing things that bring more lasting joy.
I have realized that I probably wouldn't have had this change of mindset without my mission and every experience I have had and will continue to have on my mission. Crazy how God knows His children so perfectly and gives us personal experiences we need to prepare us for so much more to come later in life. This is my second witness that I need to change the habits I had before my mission into more fulfilling pastimes, and give those old activities much, much less priority in my life. I've had a lot of time to think about how I can improve myself each day and live up to the divine potential I know my Heavenly Father sees in me.
Despite all of our restrictions, the work of the Lord doesn't stop, and the will of God cannot be altered. I have witnessed that this week, when we started teaching Daniela, who was a referral from some Sister missionaries in our district. We were able to have three lessons with her over video calls this week. She seems like she loves our calls and she even invited one of her relatives, Creusa, to join in our lesson on Sunday.
My language abilities are improving slowly, and I'm able to understand people better and better, especially during lessons. This is an undeniable miracle and I know that the Gift of Tongues is a real spiritual gift that I'm experiencing.
I cannot deny the spiritual experiences I am having. I am staying positive and I hope you all are able to focus on the positive things through difficult times.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
-Elder Bird
Pictures:
- I tried a new Brazilian food this week called pastel! It's like a warm pastry but it's meat instead of crème.
-A weird VW van/truck thing we saw -haha
-The view from our 11th story apartment during a cloudy twilight - you can see our church steeple in one of the photos
[Not much to write this time ...]
3/8/2021
Hey everyone!
On Tuesday we had interviews with President and Sister Hirschi after district council meeting. That really made my week! It's not often that I get to see other Americans here, and it was so good to get yet another witness that I'm not alone in this language learning process. Sister Hirschi said she is struggling too. Both interviews were in English, which was a huge relief for me. I love them both dearly and I think they are doing great work here in this mission.
In terms of lessons, we had a pretty slow week. Usually we get around 1-3 media referrals a day, which means that these people went onto the comeuntochrist.com website and signed up to have the missionaries contact them. But, then a lot of them ghost us after texting back and forth for a bit. Also, there are a bit more restrictions here in Brazil due to the pandemic than back in the US, so we are trying to work around that.
That's pretty much all I have for this week. Until next time!
Boa semana!! [Good week!!]
-Elder Bird
Pictures:
-Guaraná Jesus - great logo, bad soda. New slogan for them haha!
-Got some pics as a district right before interviews
[Our Cell Phone Was Stolen...]
3/1/2021
Hey everyone, it's been an exciting week over here in Santo André!
On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference, and in preparation, Presidente Hirschi asked all of us to prepare a 5 minute talk on repentance and it's importance in our lives and in our teaching. He only called on some of us to share our talk, and of course he picked the two people in the zone who are learning Portuguese, me and Sister Watterson. So I guess that was my first real talk in my mission language, pretty dope. The rest of the conference was pretty standard. The ZLs (LZs em português -líderes da zona) [in Portugese it's LZ - leaders of the zone] talked about working with our ward leadership and helping them develop a ward mission plan and the Assistentes [AP assistants to the president] shared some spiritual thoughts. Sister Hirschi gave her talk in English (thank goodness) with a missionary translating to Portuguese, and finally Presidente was the last speaker. It was kind of nice because he has an American accent when he speaks, so I can understand his Portuguese better - haha. Anyways, it was nice to see a ton of people, and I actually recognized some missionaries who are still in the mission from last year, for the brief amount of time I was here before, so it was really cool to reconnect.
After zone conference, Elder Capello and I went straight into exchanges (24 hour exchanges in this mission) with the LZs. This was our second exchange with them. This time I went with Elder Candido back to their area, and Elders Capello and Barriga went to ours. Elder Candido and I had a really good lesson at the church building and then another one with a member over a video call, which ended about 9pm. When we were finished we heard the apartment phone ring, which means there's someone outside the building, and it turned out to be Elder Capello and Barriga. I didn't catch all of what they said at first because they were talking really fast, but I heard the words assaltados and celulares. Then Elder Capello explains to me that as they were walking back from a member's place, that we go to often, he and the Elder Barriga were robbed. They passed a couple guys and apparently one of them asked what time it was and when they turned around, it looked like the guy was holding a gun in his waistband. He took both of their phones. So, because Elder Capello and I no longer had a cell phone, we had to stay with the LZs for another day, while the mission office got a new one for us. This way we could stay in touch with our investigators and members.
In terms of people we are teaching, we are teaching a guy named Cleyton and his girlfriend, Juliana. Cleyton was planning on being baptized last week, but things didn't go through at the last minute. The two of them need to get married before they are baptized because they are living together (which is very common here.) They went to the marriage office, but they said that Cleyton and Juliana needed to update a few more things before they could get married. But, Cleyton is super ready and working towards going to the temple as well! Other than that, we are having lessons with a few more people, but trying to gauge their interest in really hearing more of our message.
Hoping for another great week, and wish me luck for interviews with Presidente and his wife!
Boa semana! [Have a good week!]
-Elder Bird
Pictures:
-Good view of my area - Santo André
-Played some futebol today for pday
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