Elder McGregor, the Elders Quorum president, Clauber, and new companion Elder Morris from Bountiful, Utah.
New district in Téresopolis
A "huge steel factory" in his first area.
Trent's first district (while serving in Barra Mansa)
Monday, September 28, 2009
Pictures
Elder McGregor, the Elders Quorum president, Clauber, and new companion Elder Morris from Bountiful, Utah.New district in TéresopolisA "huge steel factory" in his first area.Trent's first district (while serving in Barra Mansa)
Investigators, Conference, baptisms, "special" showers, and great winter weather,
Família!
This week was great. Elder Morris and I had two baptisms marked for Mateus and Rulian, two young men, 11 and 14 respectively. They both want to be baptized, but mom had a few doubts, along with having to speak with their dad about baptism (they're separated). However, we invited her to church and she greatly enjoyed it, so we're hoping we can baptize them this week, along with mom in the near future. We also have Deceir marked this week, who is the brother of one of our members. We don't see any problems with him being baptized, so hopefully nothing goes wrong in the near future =]
We're also very excited for general conference this week. We're inviting all of our investigators, and we get to attend all four sessions. And they have it in english as well =] I'm very excited. Our baptisms will most likely take place in between sessions on Sunday.
Other investigators--Joaquim, the father of Clauber (who is in one of the new pictures) is an incredibley intelligent man who is a little hard to teach, solely because we don't speak perfect Portuguese, and it's a little hard to answer some of the questions he's got. However, we were able to explain the plan of Salvation in a way he understood (including Adam and Eve falling because they ate of the fruit, and not because they had sex; explaining what exactly sin is, also about the ressurrection as a gift to all from Jesus Christ, the spirit world, etc). He had a ridiculous amount of questions, but we got them all out of him in the end. We don't have a baptism date for him yet because of a desafio pessoal (personal problem, stumbling block, etc.), but we're working on that with him.
On the 11 of October we have marked the baptisms of Irmã Maria Luiza, her husband and her daughter. They're an elect family, and I'm very excited for their baptism. Their son, Alexandre, is already a member, and he'll perform the baptism. It'll be wonderful--the baptism of an entire family is something truly special.
Questions:
-What are sister missionaries called in Brasil? (Hermana in Spanish, Sorrella in Italian...)
They're actually called Sisters. Sister da Silva, for example. Doesn't change. Interesting, huh?
-Do you have many sisters in your mission?
We have, I think, about 10 or 12 sisters. So a pretty good number, haha =]
-How often do you see / have interviews with your mission president?
Interviews are once per transfer. So we see President Bezerra at least once every month and a half.
-Remember the guy you hung out with when you spent a week or so in St. George at Grandma and Grandpa's (tennis, etc)? He is now in the Sao Paulo MTC and will be in the RJ mission! Sorry, we can't remember his name.
Yeah, don't remember his name either, but I'll have to keep an eye out for him. Way awesome, haha. If you guys know the date (roughly) he'll come into the field, that'd help =]
- Are you taking your vitamins and eating decently?
Yep =] We eat very well--nothing to worry about, promise.
- Do you have good shower pressure or do you have to take bucket showers?
The showers are special--almost all showers in Brazil are those special shower heads that heat the water. So turning the tap changes the pressure, and the head heats the water. So generally, you can take a freezing cold shower with lots of pressure, or semi-dribble hot water shower. Crazy. But I shower every day, sometimes twice, so I'm grateful for that =]
-Dad would like to know how you receive your monthly allowance... do you have a bank account now? How do you get into it?
I've got a bank account--I've had it since the day I arrived in Rio. They're on top of things here. I get R$120 every two weeks, and from now on it shouldn't be a problem--I won't need to pull out any from home.
-How are the bugs? mosquitos?
Here in Conselheiro Paulino there are no mosquitos, because we're way up in the mountains. And it's winter right now, more or less. But I had more than my fair share of mosquito bites in Barra Mansa. I'm not excited to see how many I'll have during the summer here.... blah.
-humidity? do you drip sweat?
Humidity in this area is great. Not super strong, unless it's raining. But again, it's winter, so summer, I assume, I'll be dripping sweat, yeah =]
-spiritual experience? funny experience?
don't have much time--next week, promise.
-how are your shoes holding up with all the walking? Are they soaked all the time?
Shoes are holding up fine. I've got three pair, and I trade every day. So they get two days to dry out (if they're wet, which doesn't happen often).
-Can we hear more about your companion?
Elder Morris is from Bountiful, Utah. He's engaged, and his nueva (fiancé) is waiting for him. His entire family is more or less inactive, although they are all members of the church. He's an excellent companion--we get along great. I'll write more next week, again, promise =]
-Should we be expecting a snail mail letter?
No =[ Sorry! I'll write you guys one of these days. I already write you guys every week, so I struggle to think of things to write about. I'll give it a go this week though.
With love,
Elder McGregor
This week was great. Elder Morris and I had two baptisms marked for Mateus and Rulian, two young men, 11 and 14 respectively. They both want to be baptized, but mom had a few doubts, along with having to speak with their dad about baptism (they're separated). However, we invited her to church and she greatly enjoyed it, so we're hoping we can baptize them this week, along with mom in the near future. We also have Deceir marked this week, who is the brother of one of our members. We don't see any problems with him being baptized, so hopefully nothing goes wrong in the near future =]
We're also very excited for general conference this week. We're inviting all of our investigators, and we get to attend all four sessions. And they have it in english as well =] I'm very excited. Our baptisms will most likely take place in between sessions on Sunday.
Other investigators--Joaquim, the father of Clauber (who is in one of the new pictures) is an incredibley intelligent man who is a little hard to teach, solely because we don't speak perfect Portuguese, and it's a little hard to answer some of the questions he's got. However, we were able to explain the plan of Salvation in a way he understood (including Adam and Eve falling because they ate of the fruit, and not because they had sex; explaining what exactly sin is, also about the ressurrection as a gift to all from Jesus Christ, the spirit world, etc). He had a ridiculous amount of questions, but we got them all out of him in the end. We don't have a baptism date for him yet because of a desafio pessoal (personal problem, stumbling block, etc.), but we're working on that with him.
On the 11 of October we have marked the baptisms of Irmã Maria Luiza, her husband and her daughter. They're an elect family, and I'm very excited for their baptism. Their son, Alexandre, is already a member, and he'll perform the baptism. It'll be wonderful--the baptism of an entire family is something truly special.
Questions:
-What are sister missionaries called in Brasil? (Hermana in Spanish, Sorrella in Italian...)
-Do you have many sisters in your mission?
-How often do you see / have interviews with your mission president?
-Remember the guy you hung out with when you spent a week or so in St. George at Grandma and Grandpa's (tennis, etc)? He is now in the Sao Paulo MTC and will be in the RJ mission! Sorry, we can't remember his name.
- Are you taking your vitamins and eating decently?
- Do you have good shower pressure or do you have to take bucket showers?
-Dad would like to know how you receive your monthly allowance... do you have a bank account now? How do you get into it?
I've got a bank account--I've had it since the day I arrived in Rio. They're on top of things here. I get R$120 every two weeks, and from now on it shouldn't be a problem--I won't need to pull out any from home.
-How are the bugs? mosquitos?
Here in Conselheiro Paulino there are no mosquitos, because we're way up in the mountains. And it's winter right now, more or less. But I had more than my fair share of mosquito bites in Barra Mansa. I'm not excited to see how many I'll have during the summer here.... blah.
-humidity? do you drip sweat?
Humidity in this area is great. Not super strong, unless it's raining. But again, it's winter, so summer, I assume, I'll be dripping sweat, yeah =]
-spiritual experience? funny experience?
don't have much time--next week, promise.
-how are your shoes holding up with all the walking? Are they soaked all the time?
Shoes are holding up fine. I've got three pair, and I trade every day. So they get two days to dry out (if they're wet, which doesn't happen often).
-Can we hear more about your companion?
Elder Morris is from Bountiful, Utah. He's engaged, and his nueva (fiancé) is waiting for him. His entire family is more or less inactive, although they are all members of the church. He's an excellent companion--we get along great. I'll write more next week, again, promise =]
-Should we be expecting a snail mail letter?
No =[ Sorry! I'll write you guys one of these days. I already write you guys every week, so I struggle to think of things to write about. I'll give it a go this week though.
With love,
Elder McGregor
Monday, September 21, 2009
The closure and re-opening of Conselheiro Paulino; Valter, Rosângela and Maicon; speaking Portuguese; and a faithful people
Família!
So I've decided to send a couple journal entries--they explain stuff pretty well =]
I've been transferred from Barra Mansa as of Monday of this last week and I'm now in the Téresopolis zone, area Conselheiro Paulino (CONE-sell-ee-AIR-o pow-LEEN-o). My new companion is Elder Morris from Bountiful Utah. He has 8 months on his mission, and it's his first time being a senior. The CP area is special, because it was closed before we arrived. Both Elder Morris and I are new to the area. Thankfully there is a member couple here that lives 2 doors down--Valter and Rosângela--who are very very helpful. We would have been completely lost without them. They are wonderful people, and are excited to help in the work.
We were speaking with Rosângela two days ago, and she spoke of a time in her life where she didn't really want to member missionary work (this is abnormal for her--she's always done member missionary work along with her husband, Valter, and son, Maicon [who is the bishop of our ward]). She explained soon afterward that the area closed--the missionaries were taken out. She then became very emotional, and cried, saying, "We suffered without missionaries. I suffered, my family suffered, and the ward suffered. And I knew immediately that my attitude was terribly wrong. We spoke with our son, the Bishop, about how we could re-open our area. We decided that we needed to show the mission president that the ward Conselheiro Paulino was ready to have missionaries again. The next Sunday, the leaders of our ward decided we would present investigators to the mission president to show our willingness to work with the missionaries. We came up with six names--six people who needed the lessons of the missionaries because they were very interested in the church. We presented them to President Bezerra, and he told us he would open the area again. And our hearts were filled with joy."
Now this isn't an exact quote, because she speaks Portuguese, but it is more or less what she said, and follows the spirit of what she said. And wow. I was amazed, and am still at her faithfulness. She truly is amazing. And so I'm thankful for the opportunity to open this area with Elder Morris, that we were chosen, and I don't want to screw it up =]
But also, things have changed significantly since Barra Mansa. I speak much better, and I understand the majority of what people say. I'm truly grateful, because I'm a much more effective missionary as a result. I have more or less 3.5 months on my mission--1.5 in the field. And I can speak Portuguese. In fact, I'm almost fluent--I don't think about it anymore. When I speak with Brazilians I don't have English words in my head. It's amazing, and I know it wouldn't be possible without the Lord's blessings.
I'm thankful everyday for everything I have been given. I'm thankful to be here in Brasil, with such a faithful people. When we do street contacts, people don't run. We ask them if we can share a message with them in their home, and they almost always accept. The people here love God and are always ready to receive his word.
With love, Elder McGregor
So I've decided to send a couple journal entries--they explain stuff pretty well =]
I've been transferred from Barra Mansa as of Monday of this last week and I'm now in the Téresopolis zone, area Conselheiro Paulino (CONE-sell-ee-AIR-o pow-LEEN-o). My new companion is Elder Morris from Bountiful Utah. He has 8 months on his mission, and it's his first time being a senior. The CP area is special, because it was closed before we arrived. Both Elder Morris and I are new to the area. Thankfully there is a member couple here that lives 2 doors down--Valter and Rosângela--who are very very helpful. We would have been completely lost without them. They are wonderful people, and are excited to help in the work.
We were speaking with Rosângela two days ago, and she spoke of a time in her life where she didn't really want to member missionary work (this is abnormal for her--she's always done member missionary work along with her husband, Valter, and son, Maicon [who is the bishop of our ward]). She explained soon afterward that the area closed--the missionaries were taken out. She then became very emotional, and cried, saying, "We suffered without missionaries. I suffered, my family suffered, and the ward suffered. And I knew immediately that my attitude was terribly wrong. We spoke with our son, the Bishop, about how we could re-open our area. We decided that we needed to show the mission president that the ward Conselheiro Paulino was ready to have missionaries again. The next Sunday, the leaders of our ward decided we would present investigators to the mission president to show our willingness to work with the missionaries. We came up with six names--six people who needed the lessons of the missionaries because they were very interested in the church. We presented them to President Bezerra, and he told us he would open the area again. And our hearts were filled with joy."
Now this isn't an exact quote, because she speaks Portuguese, but it is more or less what she said, and follows the spirit of what she said. And wow. I was amazed, and am still at her faithfulness. She truly is amazing. And so I'm thankful for the opportunity to open this area with Elder Morris, that we were chosen, and I don't want to screw it up =]
But also, things have changed significantly since Barra Mansa. I speak much better, and I understand the majority of what people say. I'm truly grateful, because I'm a much more effective missionary as a result. I have more or less 3.5 months on my mission--1.5 in the field. And I can speak Portuguese. In fact, I'm almost fluent--I don't think about it anymore. When I speak with Brazilians I don't have English words in my head. It's amazing, and I know it wouldn't be possible without the Lord's blessings.
I'm thankful everyday for everything I have been given. I'm thankful to be here in Brasil, with such a faithful people. When we do street contacts, people don't run. We ask them if we can share a message with them in their home, and they almost always accept. The people here love God and are always ready to receive his word.
With love, Elder McGregor
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
New area!: Conselheiro Paulino
Check out where E McGregor is now!
(pictures from Google Earth):
Yellow - new area, Conselheiro Paulino
Purple - first area, Barra Mansa
Red - Rio de Janeiro
(pictures from Google Earth):
Yellow - new area, Conselheiro PaulinoPurple - first area, Barra Mansa
Red - Rio de Janeiro
Photos from his first area (Barra Mansa)
Below are pictures Trent took in his first area, Barra Mansa. We got these with the latest email.
The descriptions are his.
A lovely picture of a part of Barra Mansa. Really pretty.
Tatiani and Patrick, who I and Elder Makiama baptized 2 weeks ago, along with Elson, who is the member who helped with the baptism.
A lizard we found in our house. We caught it and named it Bob. We let him go shortly afterward, not wanting to let him die.
A sloth I came across. I'll try to send a video as well. It's totally awesome.
A service project we did at the Stake President's house. We helped him construct the third level of his house.
The "after" photo of part of the wall. We actually filled the whole wall, not just half. So we got a lot done, actually. And I learned how to mix cement and do masonry. So now I'm a mason. And I'm free. But not both at the same time =]
LOL :D
The descriptions are his.
A lovely picture of a part of Barra Mansa. Really pretty.
Tatiani and Patrick, who I and Elder Makiama baptized 2 weeks ago, along with Elson, who is the member who helped with the baptism.
A lizard we found in our house. We caught it and named it Bob. We let him go shortly afterward, not wanting to let him die.
A sloth I came across. I'll try to send a video as well. It's totally awesome.
A service project we did at the Stake President's house. We helped him construct the third level of his house.
The "after" photo of part of the wall. We actually filled the whole wall, not just half. So we got a lot done, actually. And I learned how to mix cement and do masonry. So now I'm a mason. And I'm free. But not both at the same time =]LOL :D
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A transfer!
Yesterday evening when we hadn't received an email, I sent this email to him (a bit of chastisement):
The subject line was "Don't make me come down there >{ "
Hey Son -
Hey Son -
Barring major catastrophes, you should be emailing your family every week. Emails to us take precedence over anyone else save your mission president. It is distressing, and a major letdown, to have you so far away, knowing we are supposed to hear from you every week and to hear nothing. Please keep us in the loop. I've never heard of any other family who has had such "bad luck" with emails.
We love you bunches,
Mum
and this morning there was a response (I wasn't expecting to hear from him until next Monday, so it was a very pleasant surprise)!:
Sorry I didn't write you yesterday, but I've been transfered to a new area, so there wasn't time. I can tell you're a little put out, but please don't assume I didn't write you because I didn't feel like it. And I'm pretty sure I haven't missed a week yet without good reason. So things like this will happen, so I love you, and you're going to have to trust me that I'm not ignoring you. Because I'm not, and won't.
New area is interesting so far. It's called Conselheiro Paulino, in the Téresopolis zone. My new companion is Elder Morris, from Bountiful Utah. I'm his first Junior companion--he's got 8 months on his mission. And the area we're in was closed before, so we're opening it and know nothing about it. Crazy. But there's a member couple that lives very close to us that has been helpful thus far, and with their help I'm sure we'll get accustomed to the area fairly quickly (no baptisms yet =]) Sorry can't write much more, but I'm sending an email with lots of pictures, which hopefully will make up for it =]
Love you all!
Elder McGregor
New area is interesting so far. It's called Conselheiro Paulino, in the Téresopolis zone. My new companion is Elder Morris, from Bountiful Utah. I'm his first Junior companion--he's got 8 months on his mission. And the area we're in was closed before, so we're opening it and know nothing about it. Crazy. But there's a member couple that lives very close to us that has been helpful thus far, and with their help I'm sure we'll get accustomed to the area fairly quickly (no baptisms yet =]) Sorry can't write much more, but I'm sending an email with lots of pictures, which hopefully will make up for it =]
Love you all!
Elder McGregor
Monday, September 14, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
