Snail Mail dated 5 Oct 09

Oi Familia!
So primeiro, Katie's letter from 20 Sept was too funny; "Can I comment on the super cool sloth (comment: it was super cool)." Ah, I really miss our family's humor. There is a serious lack of it here. Apparently word play jokes, as I learned in the CTM, are generally groaners. I'd tell a joke or make a comment that would've had the family laughing and they'd all look at me like I'm this huge nerd. Which just goes to show what kind of humor I like. Which means, in turn, that I'd probably enjoy this "Phineas & Ferb" show Katie talked about. I guess we'll find out in about a year and 8 months.

And how nuts is that? I've been out here for four months. Feels like nothing. Crazy. Oh, BTW, Katie, "Peora do Cao Sentado" means "Rock of the seated dog." So the 'super cool bird-looking rock thing' is actually a super cool dog-looking rock thing. : )

So Dad. Generally on P-Days we relax. Haven't visited any cool sites. Fun fact: You can express smallness by adding "inho" (een-yo) to the end of a word. "Bolinha" is a little ball. And they use it here always. If the ball is little, it's not a "bola," it's a "bolinha." It's like using a different word - you always use it (if the ball is small). You can accomplish the opposite by adding "ao" (ow). "Canetao" is a big pen, or a whiteboard maker (not really, but that's the joke).
So the reason I tell you is because Ronaldinho means "Little Ronaldo." cool, huh? Also, when the letter "H" follows a consonant and is followed by a vowel, it makes the 'y' sound. "R" at the beginning of a word makes the "H" sound. So Ronaldinho is Hoe-nawl-JEEN-yo. "Di" and ti" make "gee" and "chee" respectively. Different, but I'm used to it now. Don't even think about it.

Also, Conseheiro Paulino is a bairro (section) of Nova Friburgo. So I haven't noticed any unusualities yet, but I'll keep you posed about any Swiss people that jump me : )

Also, I took a video of the sloth. I'll try to send it to you guys. It's pretty nifty. : )

So the picture Elise drew was great, too. Ha. So the stuff coming from the chimney - supposed to be smoke? LOL And "houses falling on witches with sparkly red shoes is tradition, you know!" --- ha ha ha... : )

So let's see, I read Jesus the Christ and loved it. All those people that said it's a hard read are liars -ha ha. I thought it was fantastic. And I didn't know half the stuff I learned while reading. James E. Talmage. Smart guy.

So yea, that's about it. Love you guys. Have a great week!

Elder Trenton McGregor

SFT

Tudo bem, upcoming baptisms, & new pictures

Tudo bem? Tudo bem aqui.

Things are good here--we're going to have a baptism this Sunday-- Maria Luiza and her daughter, Victoria will be baptized THIS week, due to some complications of their son traveling this week--he will baptize them. I think it might be possible to baptize dad, Claudermir, as well, but we need to get permission from President--he'll have only gone to church one time by next week. But we're very excited.

I'd say our greatest challenge right now, as I've said before, is that it's incredibly difficult to get people to go to church. And we can't baptize anyone without getting them to go to church. Que chato (how bothersome/annoying), neh?

But things are good here. I sent you guys another letter last week--you may have already gotten it. It's a little better than the last one, because I had something to write about--I responded to the letter I got from you guys. Always much easier.

Sorry, don't have much time this week to write (sorry sorry sorry!) But I love you guys, hope everything is well. I'll write another snail mail today =]

Love,
Elder McGregor

Elder Morris while out tracting

Sapos!

Conselheiro Paulino

Noite Familiar (Family Home Evening)
(E McGregor, E Morris, Valter Rosângela, Kayla, Mateus; Victor, Pedro Lucas, Rulian)

The Bishop!

What are Brazil Nuts called in Brazil? Snail Mail! dated 9/28

The first part is all in Portugese, which I will do my Spanish best to translate. He does finally write in English though, so just skip down to that if you want. I can tell he was writing quickly and I can't tell what some of his letters are ...

Oí Família!
Tudo Bem? Como voces estao? Coisas sao muito bom aqui no Brasil : ) Decidi eu escreveria um ponco de minna carta no Portugues para voces, para que possam desfruitar a idioma como eu desfruto.
Espero que mae va poder entender a maioria das palavras, mas se nao, voces pudem usar o internet para ajudar, neh?
E a comeca do meu terceiro semana aqui no Conselheiro Paulino, e Elder Morries e ue somos acustomado desta área agora. Os membros sao muito bons -- eles querem ajudar o mais que eles podem. E uma bencao quando os membros querem ajudar -- normalmente isto nao acontece. Sou grato por nossos membros. A ala (ward) e um poulo pequeno agora, mas sei com a ajuda dos membros, va crescer bastante. Nao temos uma capela (quando es uso "capela" quero dizer um edifício por si mesmo)-- igreja acontece num edifício encima de uma lojade som )pelos carros) na rua grande (Main Street). Mas, sei que quando a ala vá crescer, uma capela real será construido.

Translation attempt:
How's everything? How are you all doing? Things are great here in Brazil. I decided to write a little of my letter in Portuguese for you. So you can enjoy the lenguage as I do. I hope Mom can understand most of the words, more or less. You can use the internet to help you, yeah?
I've started my third week here in Conselheiro Paulino, and Elder Morris and I are used to the area now. The members are great - they want to help as much as they can. It's a blessing when the members want to help - usually that's not how it goes.
I'm grateful for our members. The ward is quite small now, but I know with the help of the members it will grow a lot. We have a chapel (when I use "chapel" I mean to say the entire building). church happens to be a building on top of a???, not a main street. But I konw when the ward grows, a dedicated chapel will be built.

So there you go. Portuguese. And much better than what I wrote my third week in the CTM, mind you. Although I'm sure there are still plenty of mistakes in there, ha.
So Elise, I finally found out what Brazil Nuts are called : ) They're called Castanha-do-Pará. Pará is the part of the country where they grow. So the world calls them Brazil nuts, Brazil calls them Pará nuts -- I wonder if Pará has another name for them? : )
I got an email from Aunt Linda a while back, so you might already know, but "Linda" in Portuguese means 'Beautiful.' So I wrote her back and addressed it to "Aunt Beautiful." Ha, I'm hoping she got a kick out of it.
So let's see... I'm listening to my iPod right now. Which, btw Mom, thanks for the Conference talks -- I listen to them in the morning while exercising and showering and eating, before Personal Study. I think Elder Makiama (first companion - Brazilian) got a little annoyed after a while, because he couldn't understand. But what's he gonna say -- "Hey Elder, stop listening to the words of the Profet! [yes, that's how he spelled it -- side note here that those who've gone to a foreign language mission already know - his English spelling and grammar will get worse over time : ) ] It's getting on my nerves!" Ha.
Yeah, so I'm kinda outa stuff to write about. Curse being able to write an email to you guys every week... : )
I love you guys. Hope everything is well at home.
Com amor,
Elder Trenton McGregor

Conferéncia General, Street Contacting, and commitment

oí família!
So we're trying a new LAN house today, and I must say, I'm really not a fan. The teclado (keyboard) I'm using is terrible (sticky keys), and I've been logged off twice for reasons unknown. Blah. Anyway, all is well.
Conferéncia General was fantastic. We attended all five sessions, which for us were in Portuguese. We tried to get English to work, but no such luck. Can I just say that I never realized all the big words Elder Holland uses until now?
We had 3 investigators attend respective sessions. One will not be baptized due to a personal "stumbling block," but the other two, Maria Luiza and her daughter Victoria will be baptized this week =] Very exciting. We're hoping to have at least one baptism next week as well.
We also have three investigators that are ready to be baptized but are waiting to get married, or divorced then married. So those will be a while, but they're more than ready and willing to be baptized (yay =])
So this week we really need to work on getting more investigators. Which either means getting references from the members or doing street contacts. The former, obviously, is better. I despise street contacts, because one, not only are they not very effective, but teaching someone who doesn't know any of the members, where the church is located etc. means it's pretty tough to get them to visit church. We invited at least 12 different people to attend general conference, but only 3 came--two of which already agreed to be baptized. So I think that this is one of the hardest parts of the work here--getting people to do their commitments. Oh woe is me. I'm sure all the missionaries from other countries are wanting to smack me right now for my "challenges," haha.
So yeah, not much else to report. I wrote you guys snail mail last week, and I'll send one again this week as well.
Love love love,
Elder McGregor

Pictures

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)

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

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