Super Chique, Almoco, Dez por Trez, and Doce de Leite

Oi Família! Tudo bem?
Fun plans for today... don't think so. To be honest, we're pretty far from most stuff (Christ the Redeemer, etc.), so I think p-days are just gonna be more relaxed and less super busy for the time being. Can't wait to get some super chique (a word they use a lot here. Means pretty much exactly the same thing, haha) pictures of cool stuff in the future though =)
Again, to be honest, I'm a little backed up on letters. I've got to write one to you guys, Grandma and Grandpa, Jay and Judy, the Primary, and Melissa. So my letters might be a little shorter, just because of sheer bulk. And thanks to everyone for the letters. It's really great to get them!
BTW, we've only got a short time here in Barra Mansa until the next transfer, so I've got a new address to send letters to. It's the home of a family in the ward, that's really wonderful, and they're happy to let us use their address to recieve mail and forward it to us if we've already left. So here it is:
Rua Joana D'Arc
Bairro Coitiara
Barra Mansa - RJ
CEP: 27345-060
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
So for now send letters here, until I can confirm what my next area is =)

Let's see, teaching... well one thing we've been doing is during almoço (lunch) with members (every day with a different family or member in our ward), we "play" a game called Dez por Trez (10x3). Each person gives us the names of ten people they know that aren't members that live in Barra Mansa, and then choose three to invite to a Family Home Evening. Then we, the missionaries, attend, teach a nice spiritual lesson, and leave. The goal is this: We don't actually expect there to be three investigators for each family member there. Usually there's two or three at most, but they're the ones that are willing to go, and are naturally likely to be receptive to our message and the spirit. We give our message and leave, and the family afterwards talks with the person, invites them to church etc, and if they attend, it shows their interest. Then we grab their address and teach them. Cool stuff. So far, we haven't actually had many FHE's because we only just started doing it, but we've gained two investigators already as a result. So it works. Huzzah!
And you're right. It's a lot harder to get men to come to church, to keep commitments, etc. Women and children are a little easier to help =)
This week, to be honest, wasn't too great. No baptisms, and the people we wanted to focus on didn't really want to be focused on. So this week we're going to double our efforts to have a good week. Huzzah =)
Anything new or crazy I've eaten.... nope. Just rice and beans haha. But I did have some Doce de Leite, which is fantastic. Something I really want to learn how to make. And I totally forgot about the shakes. I'll buy the stuff to do it today, cuz those were good =)
Testimony strengtheners... like I said, this week was kind of lixo (means trash in português, but that sounds really strong in English. It's not that strong, haha), so the testimony builder is that I know that when Elder Makiama and I double our efforts this week, to follow the spirit, to try to do what the Lord would have us do, we will see the fruits of our work.
Love you all!
Elder McGregor

P.S. I got one of the weekly letters from you guys this week at our house. Thanks a bunch!
P.P.S. BTW, Mom, thanks for doing the website and emails and weekly letters and all the other stuff. None of the other elders get weekly letters from their family, and it's a wonderful thing for me. I really appreciate the things you do =)

walk walk teach, walk walk, teach, walk walk, find out they're not home, teach their parents/cousin/whoever, walk walk teach, walk walk plan sleep

Hello all!
Things are pretty interesting here in Brazil. A couple of days ago we were speaking with a lady about their daughter, Bruna, being baptized, and her very young daughter ran up and Mom started breast-feeding her right in front of us. I was told this would happen, so I wasn't super shocked, but like I said, things are slightly different here. Yesterday the dog of one of our younger members one of the Moças (young women) was hit by a car right in front of her house. So we carried it into their backyard and buried it for them, because the parents just wanted to leave it there. Crazy.

I think the thing that surprised me most about the work here is our investigators. The first day, Elder Makiama said "we're gonna go teach Israel's brother, Carol's cousin, and Brenner's parents." Israel is 10, and a member, and his parents aren't. His two brothers, Vitor and Daniel (who we baptized this week) are both members as well, at 15ish and 13ish. Brenner is about 10 as well. Carol is about 15, and her cousin is 10ish. So yeah, we teach and baptize children here. Which is slightly odd at first because it would never happen in the States. But things are a little different here. Everyone, and I literally mean everyone, believes in God. And so when children want to be baptized, their parents let them. So Israel and his brothers walk to church every Sunday, as does Carol, and she lives pretty far from the building.

The language is coming along really well. I'm beginning to be able to understand people much better, although I'm still pretty lost a lot of the time. Oh well, it'll come. Although I feel I can express myself pretty well. You know how when you're talking to a foreign exchange student and they don't understand and you need to change the words you use? I do that every time I speak, ha. Because there are phrases in English that simply don't exist. For instance if I wanted to say, "You don't mean that," it doesn't exist. "I wonder if..." doesn't exist as well. Kinda hard sometimes. So I always have to change the words I want to use in English to fit what I need to say. Crazy stuff.

Kelsey wanted to know this:
How's your comp? What's he like, how do you get on, how long has he been out etc... Do you have any investigators? If yes, who and how is it going? What's your typical day like in the mish? Do you tract, street contact, etc? What's your favorite and least favorite things about your current area? Anything super interesting about Brazilian culture?

Elder Makiama is 9 months out on his mission, and this is his first time being Senior companion, training me. He does an excellent job, and I've got very few complaints.
Typical day is walk walk walk teach, walk walk walk, teach, walk walk walk, find out they're not home, teach their parents/cousin/whoever, walk walk teach, walk walk, plan, sleep. So lots of walking, and a good amount of teaching, which I'm grateful for, because it means we don't do a lot of finding =)

Favorite thing--it's flat. Very few hills. least favorite--it's huge, and we're the only pair here. So lots of walking. =)

Well, I'm out of time, sorry I couldn't write more. Yay questions for next time, right? Love you all!
Elder McGregor



- - - - - - - - - - - -
And a separate email:

Oi Família! Tudo bem?
Everything's great here in Barra Mansa. Answers to questions:

How do you spend your PDays now?
It starts the same--wake up, pray, excercise, personal study, companion study. Then we come here to the Internet Store, write emails, etc, for an hour and a half (30 minutes of which is spent writing the letter to the president). After, we go do whatever we need to, including buying stuff (food, commodities, precious metals to make new plates for our journals, etc), visiting Correios (the post office), write letters (which I didn't have time for the last three weeks--sad day), etc.

When we send you email attachments are you able to open them just fine and see the content? Yep--just fine =)

How's your new camera?
Fantastic, love it. Sent you some photos, you can see for yourself. And I sized them down considerably--it's an 8.1 megapixel camera.

Do you have a cable or someway to upload pictures?
Yep =)

Is Volta Rendonda quite a ways to travel?
Volta Rendonda is the Zone, I'm in the area Barra Mansa, and there's a church building here. So I'm not sure if you couldn't find it on the map, but it's about a 25 minute walk from our house.

Do you take lots of buses?
Yeah, Barra Mansa's a pretty big area, and we take at least one bus a day, but we walk far more often than we take buses. Far more often.

Do you see amazing bugs and animals where you are?
I've seen baratos (cockroaches), house flies, and that's about it thus far. Animals--lots of cachorros (dogs) and a member had a Papaguaya (parrot) that spoke português. Too funny.

Is it "Bairro Cotiara" in your address? Just checking because I'm thinking it might be Barro? Let me know if it's not so we can send your letters to the right place.

Yes it is Bairro Cotiara =)

Elder McGregor

Don't you love Google Maps!

The pinkish marker (A) is Sao Paulo, where Trent spent his first eight weeks in the Brazilian MTC. The yellow marker is Rio de Janeiro. The blue is Barra Mansa, Elder McGregor's first area, where he is now serving. And just for fun, the upper left marker is Bebedouro, where our Brazilian exchange student is from:

Here is a closer view of Barra Mansa and the red is approximately where the elders live.

And an even closer view:

Here is where the closest LDS churches are. The person icon marker is where the elders live and the #s 1 & 2 are the two closest wards (the LDS.org site did refer to them as wards, not branches, so that's cool!).

A nearby street - Vila na Cotiara:

São Silvestre (St. Silvester), which is across the road from them:

Ponte de Arcos (Arches Bridge) - straight east of them:

"Rua Albo Chiesse vista do viaduto Alexandre Fisher. Ed. Attaché ao centro" Albo Chiesse Road as seen from the Alexandre Fisher viaduct?

Rio Paraiba do Sul visto do Ed. Attachee

The South Paraiba River?

Buildings seemingly plunked down sporadically in the beautiful green!

Not far away:

Awesome:

Another frenzy of news and detail (not his fault)...

Oi família.
I don't believe it. I spend about 45 minutes writing a letter to you guys and it didn't send and it's lost. And I'm out of time and can't re-write it. Ugh.
My mail address is here:
Rua José Hipolito #556
Bairro Cotiara, Barra Mansa, Rio de Janeiro
CEP: 27345-000

I'm serving in Barra Mansa, which is part of the Volta Redonda area.
I'm really really sorry. Love you all.
Elder McGregor

An email but not much news ...

What? Apparently his P-Day is on Monday now. What is the name of the place he's serving? Where is his companion from? What did he do his first week in the field? We have no idea and apparently have no chance of finding out until next Monday. Sigh.

Oi Família! Tudo bem?
Everything's great here. My first week in Rio has been excellent--no baptisms yet, though ;)
My trainer is Elder Makiama, and I don't have a picture yet, but he's great. I don't think I could've asked for a better trainer.
Flight to Rio was about an hour? Maybe? Not long at all.
Wow, Katie's major... I dunno. Literary Analysis? Book critic? Housewife? (jota kah). "jota kah" is "JK" phonetically in Portuguese ("Just Kidding"). Katie's got a gift with writing really funny and interesting things. I greatly enjoy her letters, even when she's a bit of a fubeca (slacker).
I'm glad you guys enjoyed (are enjoying still?) Utah. I always liked "And Then There Were None" as well. You guys, for your next trip, could get 10 (twelve?) Angry Men. It's a play, so it might not be quite the same, but it's quite good as well. Also, congrats to Katie for the driving. Woohoo!
Anyway, yeah, things are great here. It's much easier to write letters when I know specifically what you guys want to know about, though =)
Love you all!
Elder McGregor

And here is my 'desperate mother' reply, which he won't see until next week:

Hey hey hey! Your Pday is on Mondays now??? I can't believe I missed you -- we are still wondering where you are serving. Name?

Aaack - write back, write back!

Love you,

Mom

PS

When you write us you don't need to worry about what we want to hear. We ply you with questions just so you'll write.

Just tell us about your week every week: What people did you teach? What interesting things happened? What did you learn? Anything funny? Did you eat anything outrageous? Experiences that strengthened your testimony and thus will strengthen ours. Mind dumps. Anything! Use the time like a journal entry if you want. Just give us news and help us stay in the loop of what you're experiencing.

xoxoxoxo

Mum

PPS

WHERE are you serving? All we know is you about 4 hours out of Rio proper. How did you get to your new area from Rio? Where is your companion from? Pretend you're us and tell us what we don't know but would want to know about.

We'd tell you where he is, but he didn't say ...

Oi família!

Tudo bem?
I'm here in Rio de Janeiro, with my new trainer, Elder Makiama. He's muito legal (cool), so I'm in good shape :) We haven't done anything in relation to the work yet, just a whole lot of unpacking and similar things, and I'm in an area pretty far from Rio proper--about 4 hours. But I love it here so far, and I'm excited to get to work! Sorry--I can't write a whole lot--I'm working on borrowed time ;) I love you all! Tenham um bom dia!!
Elder McGregor

So that's our lengthy email from Trent today. We now know he's alive, has a cool companion and is serving in a place with no name. And of course we forgive him his brevity, having just arrived, as we KNOW he'll tell us tons next week ... : )

Weather, pastels, and This is the Right Place?

Hey Elder Fent McGregor!

How was your morning at the temple? How's the weather today? Perfect?

Hey fam!

Temple was great, as usual. São Paulo temple is really great. Although it's raining today. It's been overcast for almost the last week, and it's rained at least 2 days. So we've been having good fun =]

Just one more week now? What day of the week do you leave for the field? Maybe Tuesday?

One more week, yep. This is the last p-day here at the CTM. Very exciting. We leave for the field on a teusday. So. Including today. One more week. =]

How are you getting to your mission? Train? Bus? Plane? Hitchiking? Walking? Bike?

We take a plane to Rio. Apparently it's cheaper, and definitely safer. You guys probably already know this, but just in case you didn't--my whole district is going to Rio. So we all will fly out together =]

Have you had any conversations with Brasileiros on your P-Days?

Well just now a new elder tried to print something out here at cheney's and the printer is acting funny, so I had to translate what the brasilian lady was saying. It's so funny--7 weeks ago all I heard was noise coming out of their mouths, and now at least half the words make sense, if they speak slowly enough =]

Tell us something fun and/or interesting that you've done or seen.

Love you so much!

Mom

Uh, gonna go eat pastels now! I'll see if I can dig up a good story for you later =]

Paz e amor!

Elder McGregor

What kind of pastels do you get that are good? Does "pastels" include bread baked goods or just sweets?

A pastel, here, is basically this--whatever type of meat and cheese (or desert items--fuit, chocolate, caramel, etc.) you want inside a once-folded square of dough, deep fried. And they're only about four R$. Really great =]

Wow - rain. I remember it rained your first P-Day at the temple as well.

Yeah, the rain either is coming down really hard or not at all. So you carry your umbrella with you in case it randomly begins to pour on you. Very intriguing.

... Yeah, I heard all about pioneer day from the Utahns in my district (over half). A nifty holiday, I think. A joke in our district--when Brigham Young arrived at the Salt Lake Valley, they quote the correct words, just not the correct punctuation-- "This is the place??" (probably not very original, but I get a kick out of it) =]

Oh, by the way, I went to use the camera the other day and when I turn it on the lens won't come out. It makes a loud noise because it's trying, but it isn't able. I don't know how it happened, because I didn't drop it or anything. I've been treating it very nicely.
I still have all the memory cards and the batteries work fine. The camera isn't able to take pictures, however. I'm not sure what to do :/
Sorry, I only just remembered that this happened--hopefully I'll have time next week to email in Rio to read your response.
I love you all,
Elder McGregor