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[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
[Same Old, Same Old]
11/1/2021
Hey all! This week was great! Not too much news, but I'll let you guys in on the highlights.
On Monday we played soccer with some other companionships in the zone. I ended up triggering my chronic back pain, so it was back to the brace this week for me.
We are teaching a family over in Sete Praias (in the Mata Virgem area). One of the daughters of the family brought her boyfriend to our lesson on Tuesday! His name is André and he's super interested in learning more about the gospel, along with the family! That's so exciting!
Wednesday was pretty busy, filled to the brim with visits, which was good. We visited with one guy who is a relatively famous Evangelical singer, (I got one of his CDs), and he is interested in learning more, but has a contract to sing at another church. He likes us to visit with him though. Later in the day, we visited Nair and her family, and we had another great lesson. This one was to clear up some misconceptions they had about our church. Nair and her grand daughter, Samara, are preparing for baptism sometime in November, so that'll be exciting!
Thursday we had another in-person Mission Leadership Council! It was another bus ride there, and the bus station made us a bit late again. What are you gonna do? It was a good meeting though and on the plus side lunch was included!
Saturday was another great day of lessons with our two families. First with João and Márcia (the family in Sete Praias). It was with just the parents this time because the daughters ended up going to a Halloween party. Then we headed over to Nair and Cláudio's house. Everyone was home and participated in our lesson, which was a blessing. One of the sons even had his girlfriend over to join. It was a great night!
Sunday was Halloween! It felt like a regular day though because it's not a huge holiday here in Brazil. Funny enough, we saw some stores already decorating for Christmas, as we walked by, on our way to church, so that was fun!
Hope you guys had a great week as well! Until next time!
Love,
Elder Bird
- Mission Leadership Council: October-November
- Elder França and I on our way to Sete Praias
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