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[Cracked Screen]
12/6/2021
Hey all! How's it going? Good? It's December!!
A long walk - Elder C. França and I were trying to find the house of a referral that we received, actually from two different people. The first person didn't leave a phone number, just an address, so we headed over to the house and tried knocking. The person who came to the door said the person we were looking for, didn't live there. Then recently, we had someone else tell us about this person, and gave us her address and phone number. So we went to the address were maps took us again, and the same thing happened as the first time. But, this time we had her phone number so we called to confirm the address, and it turns out she lives way far away, on the same street at the same number, but on the other side of our area. Classic Brazilian house numbering system. So that day we had a long walk. In the end we found the house and had a good conversation with a woman named Lia.
Exchange with Elder Pedroso - On Thursday morning, the mission did it's transferal Mission Leadership Counsel. I didn't go this time because I'm not in leadership anymore, but my companion had to go, along with the other Zone Leader in the zone, Elder Vasconcelos. Because they each have a companion who doesn't go to the meetings, the APs told our two companionships to start an exchange Wednesday evening. So I stayed with Elder Pedroso in their area. I had some good conversations with everyone who lives over there, including a Brazilian Elder who will go home with me at the end of this transfer, and another American. After lunch the next day, we switched back companions.
Visits with André - On Saturday, a member of the ward went out with us to do some contacting and visits! We followed a route that would eventually lead us to a house where we had a lesson planned. The sad part was that nobody who we visited, including the lesson, answered their door. That was kind of a bummer, but we still had a good time. We ended up taking André back home a bit earlier than expected, but we had a good chat with him after.
Youth Christmas Activity - Later on Saturday, the other Elders had been asked to do a special musical number for their youth's Christmas party activity and they invited us to join them. I got to play the piano and they sang "The First Noel" (in Portuguese, of course). They also shared a bit of a message and the youth did their Secret Santa gift exchange. Then there was food! Which was good.
Cracked screen - The four of us were standing outside the church building, on concrete, as Elder Dale uses our phone to translate something. He then tried to put it back in Elder C. França's pocket, but misses, and it falls face down on the ground. We didn't ever receive a screen protector, so it got pretty smashed up.. Bummer!
Someone stole the light - Throughout the week, our church building kept losing more and more power. One day, the power was out in one hallway, then later, the chapel lost power, then finally the upstairs hallway lost light. We were talking to Bishop Porfirio about it and he said that someone was stealing the wiring for the power of the church. Apparently it's a super expensive type of cable, like R$300 per meter of wiring. So by the end of the week, there was no power in the whole church building. So for Sacrament Meeting, [Sunday Services] there was no light, no piano, and no microphone. We were still able to have church though because there are windows that line the chapel, so we had some natural light during the day. This is probably a good analogy about enduring through the dark times in life, but you guys can come to your own spiritual conclusions.
Alright guys, those are the highlights this week! It's gonna be a great last month of my mission here, I can already tell. The holiday season is always a magical time of year. Anyway, hope it's a great week!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Huge Butterfly/moth we saw in one of the churchs
- Close up
- The four of us at the Christmas youth activity
- me and my companion
- something strange we saw on our long walk
- playing ball in the rain
- Acai with the boiz
- I'm literally in Brazil
- This bus driver must really love Christmas [none of the other buses are decorated like this]
[Accompanist]
11/29/2021
Howdy my people. Another week here that has flown by.
English Class - This week we started offering an English class, mainly for the youth, who want to learn and bring their friends. Elder Dale and I are the ones teaching, and we had a pretty good turn-out for our first lesson. The plan is to do one lesson a week (until the transfer) to build up some interest, incentivize the participants to invite friends, and hopefully start teaching some new people of the youth that we meet.
Balling up with the youth - We are trying to teach more people and support the youth, so our plan is to play some ball with them a couple times throughout the week. We play either basketball or soccer after the English class, and then again on Saturday. This last Saturday we got the Vila Paulina Bishop and a few other members to come play with us.
Saturday Night Futebol - Saturday night there was a pretty huge national soccer game, and from what I could understand, it was for the yearly championship. I think it would be like the equivalent of the Superbowl for Americans. The teams playing off were the Palmeiras and the Flamengos. A lot of people here in São Paulo are Palmeiras fans because the team is from this state. Cláudio had the game on while Elder C. França and I were at their house waiting for Nair to get back from an errand.
Primary Program(s) - I was asked by the Primary of both the Mata Virgem Branch and Inamar Ward to be their pianist and accompany for the children's musical performances. Sunday was the Primary program for Mata Virgem's Sacrament meeting, and then Inamar did their program after the 2nd-hour of church. It was awesome to be a part of that! Turns out when people found out I can play the piano I am now in high demand. Haha! This time of the year, people are arranging choirs and special musical numbers. It's a good feeling being able to do that and help people out.
Lessons - This week we were blessed to have been able to have lessons with the following people: Franklin and his daughter Jennifer, Dalila, Djair, Jailson, Lurdes, Wallison, Sabrina, Nair, Cláudio, Samara, Bárbara, Felipe, Dace, and her son Guilherme. It's always a great feeling to get into that teaching mode and be able to explain something so beautiful as the Plan of Salvation, or so logical as the Restoration of the Gospel. I'm so grateful to have so many people to teach!
I love being a missionary, and although I'm feeling ready for my time to come to an end (in just about a month), I will definitely miss that feeling of the spirit testifying of all the things I say, and that I know to be true.
Hope y'all are thriving and prospering wherever you are.
Love,
Elder Bird
- Foggy Day
- Welcome to Diadema
- Christmas Decorations 1
- Christmas Decorations 2
- Christmas Decorations 3
[Various Subjects]
11/23/2021
Alright everyone, I'm gonna try something kinda different this time, start with a phrase of something that happened during the week and then explain it.
"Bird Connect" - With Elder Dale [the new American] being here in our house, we've been taking advantage of the opportunity to learn both Portuguese and English. I've been able to be a bit of a liaison between the two Brazilians and the American. There's a program in the Church called English Connect, where people can start learning English, and we've been doing kind of a collective language study in our two companionships and calling it "Bird Connect." I feel like I've come such a long way now that I can communicate quasi-fluently between English and Portuguese.
Franklin - We received some inspiration this week to return to Franklin's house after a little bit away. He is a person that Elder Eggleston and I were teaching, who is kind of a member, but no one can find his membership record. We've talked with the Bishop about it and it seems like he's going to have to get baptized again. We are going over to his house tonight to get his thoughts on that and maybe even mark a baptismal date.
Last-transfer missionary training - Being the first week of the transfer, the mission had a Zoom training for all the missionaries returning home at the end of this transfer, which will be a few days after New Year's. Turns out it will be all Elders. It was a good short training where President Hirschi talked about flights, a mission bazaar we could donate clothes to, and other "finish the mission strong" type stuff. It was good.
Basketball in the rain - One afternoon this week the four of us missionaries in our house arranged a bit of a pick-up basketball game with a few of the young men that we're teaching. It was a bit rainy during the day, but it started to clear up around the time we had set to play. Cue the tempest that arrived about a half an hour into it, but we kept on going because we were all already there. It turned out to be really fun to play in the rain, and afterwards the four of us gave a really spiritual lesson.
Sharing a "word" with the city drunks - as we walked home one night we passed by some drunk guys on the street. They yelled out, "hey Mormons! Mormons come over here! Mormons give us the good "word." Not wanting to disappoint I pulled out my scriptures and read to them Alma 32:21 - a great scripture about faith. I'm not sure what they remembered the next morning, but maybe they will remember something about faith.
Baptism miracle - Man I tell ya, God really knew what was up when Nair's and Samara's baptism didn't end up happening last week. Amazingly, during our weekly lesson on Wednesday, Cláudio told us that he wanted to be baptized the same day as his wife, Nair. So exciting! So we talked through it, and because he had already been coming to church every week and had started to diminish his coffee drinking, we were able to set up a baptismal interview, which was two days later along with Nair. They all passed and all three of them were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday during the branch meeting. It was truly a miracle, and we are excited to continue working with the rest of the family!
Alright people, it's late here, so hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Elder França and I chilin' at Franklin's
- Baptism!! Cláudio, Samara, and Nair
- Sunday School class with the Young Single Adults
[Christmas Party]
11/15/2021
Hey all! It was a great last week of the transfer here, and an exciting start to my last one.
I guess I'll start out with the not-so-fun part of the week. Unfortunately, Nair and Samara weren't able to be baptized on Saturday, but we're hopeful that they can be prepared sufficiently for this Saturday, and maybe make it a triple baptism with João. That would be really cool if those three members of the family are baptized at the same time.
We were able to keep in touch with Kelvin's friends from last week's youth activity. We have been mainly talking to Guilherme. We have had a couple of phone calls with him to talk about and read from the Book of Mormon. He keeps showing more and more interest, so we're excited for his progress, and hoping that the other friends will follow suit.
We had a lot of things going on over the weekend, with Diadema's Stake Conference, the baptism, another baptism for the other Elders here, a primary program rehearsal (that I was asked to help accompany on the piano), and the Mata Virgem branch Christmas party!
Now, you may be wondering, "Wow, Christmas already? We haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet." I thought the same thing, but they don't have Thanksgiving in Brazil. It was a great activity for the branch, and so many friends of members of the branch came, that we called the other Elders to come and help us with integration. Nair and her husband, Cláudio, came and sat at our table, along with some other people that we're teaching as well. There was great food, a short Christmas message, and Santa Claus even came by to all the tables and handed out candy.
Transfers turned out to be pretty interesting this time around, especially here in our zone. I was right about being rotated out of my position as a Zone Leader, and so now I am a district leader again for my last transfer. The weird part is that I will be staying with my current companion, Elder C. França, who will remain as Zone Leader. The other Zone Leader is in a completely different district in the zone, so that will make this a very interesting transfer indeed! The other cool thing that happened in our zone is that President split our district, so now my district will have only two companionships: us, and the companionship we live with! That will make our district council meetings super easy, haha. In other news, Elder Pajaro left our quaint house and Elder Araújo received a new American companion! His name is Elder Dale and he has only been in Sao Paulo for a couple weeks, so this will be his first full transfer. Luckily, we live together so I'll be able to be a support for him, and I can help translate for him and Elder Araujo when needed.
Thanks for reading everyone, we're excited for this week, and hope to have some good news for next time. Until then.
Love,
Elder Bird
- Christmas Party!
- Us with Nair and Claudio
- Festive Decorations
- Papai Noel [Santa Claus] and us with Presidente Severiano
[One More Baptismal Date]
11/8/2021
Hey everyone! We had lots of fun over here this week, plus interviews with President and Sister Hirschi!! It's always exciting to be able to chat with them about my mission experiences.
We started the week off with our interviews, which was a boost for our spiritual tanks. I had a good conversation with Sister Hirschi about how I'm coming to the close of my mission and how I can stay focused on the work the next few weeks. With President we talked about my area and what's going on there. He said that there will be a lot of new missionaries coming into the mission soon, and also mentioned that he likes missionaries in their last transfer, not to be leaders. From the conversation, I think I might be moving out of this area and my position as a Zone Leader, and maybe be a trainer for a new American companion to help with his Portuguese. I'll have to wait and see what actually happens next Monday. It will depend on what impressions or revelation the President receives from the Spirit. In any case, I'm super excited to find out how things will be and where I might go for my last transfer. (Tune in next week for the reveal.)
In other news, we continue to have lessons with our two families in Mata Virgem, João and Márcia, and Nair and Cláudio. Members of both families are all progressing at different rates, but it's been cool to see how everyone's testimonies of the gospel, and of the Book of Mormon, have increased since we've been teaching them.
On Saturday we had the chance to go over to Nair's house with Bruno (our recent-convert, Ana Laura's brother!) Nair's son, João, was the only one who was there for the lesson, but it was a cool experience teaching him about the Plan of Salvation. Bruno was very helpful and shared his testimony. We were actually able to set a baptismal date for him, for the end of November! Nair and her grand daughter. Samara, are set for baptism this Saturday, and we are so excited for them. We have faith that the whole family will be able to feel the Spirit and be baptized and sealed together in due time.
One more fun thing that happened on Saturday was a "torta na cara" [whipped-cream in the face] activity with the young men and young women in the Mata Virgem branch. We were invited to give a little presentation about the Restoration and then there were trivia questions after. I may or may not have lost my round with Elder C. França (see photo), but only because he grabbed the cup first and then thought about the answer for like 30 seconds - haha. By the way, I knew the answer right away, just for the record. One of the young men brought four friends to the activity, so we're hoping to keep in touch with them and to try and set up some lessons in the future.
Alright, those were the highlights for this week, hope you guys enjoyed reading! Coming up, a report on Nair's and Samara's baptism, with a reveal of where and who I'll be with for my last transfer!! Catch y'all next time!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Posing with weapons of mass destruction
- Playing with weapons of mass destruction
- The results of the activity "torta na cara"
- A night view of Sapopema, a prominent area in the Inamar ward
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