So this thanksgiving was pretty awesome! I'll get the sadder news out of the way first: no baptisms.
Anyway, on Thursday we were all a little frustrated and sad. So I spent a sizable amount of my mission money (I'm almost out until the 30th) buying food. We made couscous for dinner (it's REALLY common here) with eggs and hotdog-style sausage in tomato sauce, all mixed together. Everyone had two liters of juice. Then we ate popcorn and since salted popcorn without butter is weird, we put a salty flavored thing used to soften meat (it was all we had, okay!). And to top it off, I made a brownie (not nasty like my birthday; this time I made it) and one of the other elders bought Neapolitan ice cream. I made everyone list things they were grateful for before they could eat anything and we repeated the action several times during the evening. It wasn't exactly like finding a giant turkey and cooking it ourselves, but it was the best that my little ability in the kitchen could do. It was pretty awesome. By the way, I am impressed by the speed that I am writing this e-mail. I still don't know how to type and this keyboard is really worn out so you can't see most of the letters, but somehow, I almost never mess up. I'm just that cool!
Other than that, things are quiet here. All four of us stayed in the transfer and we are all praying to not have a mini-transfer (right before Christmas, come on!). I am hoping that we can start finding people who we can baptize because it's gotten slow, but God has blessed us a lot. I just want to move (my neighbor is going to drive me crazy!). Anyway, life is good here and I hope that all is good there. I love you all!
Elder Page
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
21 November 2011 - email
Olá família!
Como vocês estão? Aqui tudo está muito bom. Estamos fazendo muito aqui e o trabalho está melhorando bastante. We had 14 investigators in church yesterday. It's kind of a miracle, so I'll go back in time to explain it:
A month ago we were walking back toward the church and the fastest way was to get a passenger bridge that goes above a metro train. By the ramp to climb up there is a small stand of fruit and the man running it called us over. He said that his name was José George and that he wanted to become active in the church. He said that he had fallen away, but that his oldest son was starting to use drugs and he was desperate to bring him back. He saw that the only way is the gospel. He feels bad that he fell away, but he wants to make up for it and bring his three sons to church. He is a very intelligent man fallen on rough times. He speaks (or spoke) English, but now he sells fruit. Their house is horribly depressing as it is open and falling apart and being built and full of broken pieces of wall and floor. They all sleep on two half broken beds. We began by talking to the bishop, but he didn't want to go there. As soon as he decided to go there and saw their potential, it was all his idea. Anyway, last week we started teaching the two younger boys and the older kind of listened, but mostly just left. The youngest, Jefferson, had a dream that their neighborhood was divided in good and bad. He and his brother Janderson "died" and went to a light where the met up with their dead cousin. He told them that it wasn't their time and a voice said that they had a great mission to fulfill. They came back and just before he woke up, he saw many shadows grabbing his other brother, Jamesson, and pulling him into the dark part of the neighborhood. I immediately thought of Nephi and I felt prompted to ask him to start reading the story of this prophet.
They both said that they want to be baptized, we just need to get them to pray (they seem to be a little embarrassed) and teach them the commandments. They and their dad brought several young men to church and we got their addresses. José will talk to their parents and find out which families we can teach. It was truly a miracle.
I love you all,
Elder Page
Como vocês estão? Aqui tudo está muito bom. Estamos fazendo muito aqui e o trabalho está melhorando bastante. We had 14 investigators in church yesterday. It's kind of a miracle, so I'll go back in time to explain it:
A month ago we were walking back toward the church and the fastest way was to get a passenger bridge that goes above a metro train. By the ramp to climb up there is a small stand of fruit and the man running it called us over. He said that his name was José George and that he wanted to become active in the church. He said that he had fallen away, but that his oldest son was starting to use drugs and he was desperate to bring him back. He saw that the only way is the gospel. He feels bad that he fell away, but he wants to make up for it and bring his three sons to church. He is a very intelligent man fallen on rough times. He speaks (or spoke) English, but now he sells fruit. Their house is horribly depressing as it is open and falling apart and being built and full of broken pieces of wall and floor. They all sleep on two half broken beds. We began by talking to the bishop, but he didn't want to go there. As soon as he decided to go there and saw their potential, it was all his idea. Anyway, last week we started teaching the two younger boys and the older kind of listened, but mostly just left. The youngest, Jefferson, had a dream that their neighborhood was divided in good and bad. He and his brother Janderson "died" and went to a light where the met up with their dead cousin. He told them that it wasn't their time and a voice said that they had a great mission to fulfill. They came back and just before he woke up, he saw many shadows grabbing his other brother, Jamesson, and pulling him into the dark part of the neighborhood. I immediately thought of Nephi and I felt prompted to ask him to start reading the story of this prophet.
They both said that they want to be baptized, we just need to get them to pray (they seem to be a little embarrassed) and teach them the commandments. They and their dad brought several young men to church and we got their addresses. José will talk to their parents and find out which families we can teach. It was truly a miracle.
I love you all,
Elder Page
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| Find Elder Page! (This is half of the mission - he said that there are 13 zones each with 10-16 missionaries. His mission president and his wife are the couple in the center on the right. Elder and Sister Mazzagardi are next to them on the left. Elder Page is in the second row to the right of his mission president.) |
Monday, November 14, 2011
14 November 2011 - email
So, Recife feels...like home. It`s weird to say that, but it`s how I feel. I no longer think it's weird the way that things happen here (usually). I guess that`s why I haven't written much in that respect for a while. The bus system, the random street vendors, the suddenly drenching rain, even the sun isn't that weird anymore.
I am used to seeing a lot of poverty. I mean a lot. There are families that we meet that all live in one room (5 of them or more) whose roof has holes and they are reforming their house while living in it. It's a humbling sight. It makes me think of the stupid things I complained about as a kid. I have seen how blessed I have been. I have never had church leaders that caused me to stumble. I have never been beaten by my parents because I was held back a year in school. I've never had to choose between education and simple survival. What`s strange is that these conditions don't really affect who the people are, just the degree of extremity. I've seen people much more loving than people at home. I've also seen cruelty that knows no limits. It's strange, because seeing this has changed me; I used to be the first to talk and I spoke so loud that everyone had to listen to me. The most-heard comments are now: "You speak really quietly. Why?" and "Why doesn't this one speak?" I don't know what it is, but I feel a peace that doesn't entirely come from me. I am a little scared because the end is approaching; I really don't want it to. I can imagine how Elder Groberg felt when he got the letter telling him that his extension was denied. You can't feel either excited or sad; it just is.
I guess what I want to say is I don't really know how to say how it's similar to home and how it's different. In my dreams there exists a mixture. Everything that is good in the two, put together. I never dream of home anymore. I also never dream of Recife. I dream of both. Man, this letter is coming out weird, but I hope that the message is getting out.
I feel a little chastised this week. I studied the Pearl of Great Price and started the Doctrine and Covenants. There are so many promises of greater scripture and greater knowledge that we have lost (as a people) by not utilizing our scriptures now. I love the scriptures. I love the Savior. I love the plan of salvation. I love the mission and if there was a way to never end, I'd do it (aside from the missing the family part). I'm am slowly losing my fear of being called to serve the Lord. It's hard, but it is so much more rewarding than anything else.
I love you all,
Elder Page
Monday, November 7, 2011
7 November 2011 - email
Hey there!
Good stuff is happening to us here. We may not have many investigators, but we are in symphony with the spirit and each other. His attitude requires patience, (I don't think he likes the US) but we are doing well. One horribly false doctrine that we are confronting right now is that God's omniscience means that he controls us. So many people have said that he knows if we'll be saved or not, so it doesn't matter what we do. We met a man like that on Saturday. He was sitting on a wall in front of his house when we passed and we both felt strongly impressed to go back and talk to him. His name is Samuel and he doesn't believe in hell, the devil, God, life after death, or really anything (Just about the first atheist I've met in Brazil). After talking to him for a while this false doctrine popped up and it was blocking him from wanting to pray. I suddenly felt inspired to grab our house keys and hold them up in front of him. "What will happen if I let go of these keys?" I asked "They will fall," he sounded a little irritated that I would ask such a stupid question. I let go of the keys and...they fell (duh). Then I pointed at him and said, "It's your fault that the keys fell!" He started a little and asked be how it was his fault. "Because you knew that they would fall, therefore, by your reasoning, your knowledge caused them to fall, not me by releasing them, or gravity for being an eternal law of physics!" "But my knowledge wouldn't change anything, it just means that I can predict what will happen!" He protested. "In the same way, God's knowledge doesn't make us sin. It simply predicts it!" (Translator's note: in Portuguese "predict" is literally "prevision" or "pre-see", kind of like "foresee" but more certain). He seemed surprised by that and started to open a bit. Unfortunately, he quickly closed off and said that he would not pray, because he would never join our church (you have to join a church to pray to God?). In the end it just became a growing experience for me.
I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. That He prepared this world and the amazingly perfect plan of salvation under God's watchful care, just with the purpose to "bring about the immortality and eternal life of man". I love this gospel and this mission. I love all of you and I can't wait to talk to you (48 days 'til Christmas). But at the same time I'm getting trunky. Not home-trunky but mission-trunky. I have less than eight more months to live this life and do this work every waking hour. It seems like so little.
Com carinho,
Elder Page