First Transfer Day

February 25, 2013

NEW TRANSFER

So life is very interesting here in brazil. Especially in the becos. slums.   So on tuesday we were working in a beco and in that beco we taught a man who is a bank robber and has already killed two people, and he was getting more and more drunk, he was pretty funny, then we taught a bar owner who was drunk, but he gave us a cool Santa Maria emblem thing so that was cool. Then after that we found another guy who killed someone and spend three years in jail for it, plus his aunt killed his mother and his cousin killed his neighbor, it was all very interesting that he was telling us all this. I guess it´s something that happens when you represent Jesus Cristo. (Don´t worry mom I´m still safe) needless to say we are going to hold off on working in that beco for a while.....Actually the day after that was transfers. Transfers work like this. You get a call the night before and you have to be at the rodoviário highway (but I think he means bus station) at 8:30 the next morning. Elder Fleetwood got the call at 6 that night. Packed and then we left that next morning at 7:30 because the rodoviário is actually in our area. (our area is actually a lot bigger than Salem.....more like the size of SF or bigger. not sure)

So My new comp is Elder Barr. He is awesome. I´ve already said that various times but its true. Sadly he´s been sick this week, but we´re still working, just at a more relaxed pace and close to the Chapel which is not in the favelas. Slums Que Bênção! What Blessing!  So a new bishop was called last week and todo mundo (everybody...directly the whole world) thinks that I look like the new bishop which is pretty funny, we look similar even though I´m american and he´s brazilian. So there are a few people who speak english in the ward. Bispo Taylor, Bishop Taylor, his brother in law Tulio, João Mateus and Wendell is learning. So we´ve made really good friends with the members already this week. Tulio served his mission in Boise Idaho, he reminds me a lot of Matt. Fun loving, same body type, super nice. He bought us groceries on saturday night. He likes to practice his english with us so its pretty cool.

So we were going to have a baptism on sunday, but the rapaz boy  got sick that night before and had to go the hospital (at least thats what we were told, but we think his sister was lying, but we´ll find out the truth) We will have a baptism next week. A woman whose husband is a membro inativo, inactive member,  but she has desire to be baptised so yeah. The mother and son we were teaching  felt they didn´t want to live the Word of Wisdom, so yeah. But we´re finding people everyday so I´m not discouraged! :)

Well thats all for today!

Love ya lots!

Elder Applegate

PICTURES!!

Feb 18, 2013

Ta bom,

So here is whats up. Today is monday, tonight we could get a call saying that one of us is being transfered, so its all very suspenseful. :) so really i have no idea what might happen next week.

Photos: A couple from the CTM. 

My comp Elder Bleazard, with Sister Hoopes and Sister Tamario photo bombing. 

My district and instructors

Mr. Fox at Christmas time

The first view of BH from the plane.

My awesome sunburn/tan line

Sunrise from our house

One view of my Area

A thought about Prayer

Something to think about this week.

A quote that I heard in church has stuck with me this week.

"Por meio de um oração, a gente pode mudar nossas vidas"

"Through one prayer, we can change our lives"

Prayer is something very simple that has a lot of power. The two greatest things that have ever happened on this earth happened because of a prayer. 1st, the Restoration and The first vision. The world was changed through one prayer. 2nd The Atonement of Christ, We can return to our Father´s presence because of that prayer and be forgiven of our sins.

CARNAVAL - Feb 13, 2013

Carnaval is such a pain in the butt. I don’t know how this country functions when everything is closed for a week. 

I got the package! Thanks! I love candy!! YAY!!! :) Thanks

I also finally got the Christmas package, but it was just the letters the notebook and the SD card, if there was more with those I didn´t get it, because the CTM sent it through the church pouch system so yeah.

I really don´t have as much time today because of carnaval, today isn´t even p-day but we had to send our week letter to presidente so he let us use our language study time to email, but we had to find a lan house that was open. Seriously almost nothing is open, the area is so quite, nobody is on the streets its dead here, because all the parties are going on in other places, everyone is traveling for carnaval. What an awful holiday, but it ends in about half an hour so things will liven up. 

I am now bored of food, eating is such a hassell now. All I and Elder Fleetwood want to eat is fruits and random good looking stuff in padarias, bakeries, but we eat at members houses so its beans and rice and some type of meat. but the good things is vegetables have started to appear. After I wanted vegetables all of the restaurantes and the members started having vegetables available. I never thought vegetables would be a tender mercy of the lord. 

Most of my morning exercise is stretching and flexibility. I am so stiff in the morning from all the walking. Que Bênção! What a Blessing! I get enough cardio, and I am going to start working a little bit on upper body we have some homemade weights we can use. The area is all hills up and down, up and down up and down. The roads and sidewalks are uneven like a hiking trail and its hot, but not any hotter than Utah in the summer. and right now it’s not too humid, I feel like I am camping everyday, That keeps my spirits up because i love camping. 

So weddings take a while to do here. lots of waiting on paperwork and they still haven´t started because we haven´t got the husband to church yet, they were traveling last Sunday, so no news on the wedding yet, but the wife is still very firm, she´s got a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. 

J. & I. (aquela mãe e filho)(that mother and son) returned from their trip on monday, and I actually had inspiration that they had returned. I thought that we should knock on their door after our appointment and then we turned to corner and the mom was walking down the street. It was pretty cool.  We´re hoping that they can be batized on sunday. If she stops drinking coffee she can be.

We had an American adventure last p-day. We bought a big bag of hot dogs and ate them with american bbq sauce and listened to patriotic music. For my birthday, I’d like an american flag, like a real sized one to hang on my wall. :) I love america!! (and american food, but thats hard to come by here ;)) 

Keep praying for the language that I’ll be able to learn the grammer structure. :) The language is coming. One of our investigators asked why i had a portuguese accent. No idea where that came from. But things are really improving. I can understand the people now which is good because sometimes people say crazy things. I was trying to make a street contact and i asked this lady about her son, and she asked if I had children and i said no. Then she asked if I wanted to make one right then. Thank goodness I understood so I could see that this contact was going nowhere. So yeah. There are crazy people here. Usually drunk people talk to us, sadly. And people will say things to us in english and its pretty cool. A few people speak english. 

Well things are going well. I was going to send pictures this week, but the computer I am at doesn’t have a usb hub, so infelizmente unfortunately no pictures this week. Next week. :)

Love ya

Um Abraço

Elder App

Super Week, Interesting People, Rain Feb 4, 2013

This week many interesting things happened. I´ll start with the rain

Rain: Wednesday morning it started to rain, before lunch, but we had umbrellas so no problem right? well we got to lunch and nobody was there, lunch fell through (more of that story to come later) and it was really  pouring now, so we walked home, but the roads had turned into rivers and my shoes filled with water and my pants were soaked, but my head was dry. I hadn´t been that wet since that one ride at sea world. It was an experience, my shoes finally dried out today :) thank goodness I have more than one pair.

Lunches and the Sociedade do Socorro. Relief Society

So this month we had three lunches fall through, which isn't bad because we just eat a restaurante and get reimbursed, but apparently in relief society on sunday they had a lesson on not letting the missionaries ficar com fome (stay with hunger - be hungry) So we had all sorts of ladies tell us to call them if we ever didn't have a lunch, so you don't need to worry about me starving to death. We now have 6 women we can call to get food from if we ever need it for lunch. 

A Favela:

So we spent our week working in the Favelas. This is the place were there are so many random houses crammed in so little space. (brazil could really use some building codes :)) But the favela has been a gold mine for investigators, as well as some interesting people.

Investigators:

This week we´ve found four families who are interested. and two of them came to church. But the two who came to church need to get married before they can be baptized, so it looks like I'll be planning a wedding. :) Both of the women really really really loved church, so excited and the rest of the families are excited to go next week. Happy day. Still no baptisms, but this month for sure. Hopefully next week we´ll have one. 

People:

Omblech Guy: So we found this rapaz guy who is part of an african tribal religion. Really neat thing, very peaceful. He was wearing a turban and all white and in the middle of a 21 day cleansing period, but we got him to read the book of mormon and pray about it, he said if he finds something that gives him more happiness than omblech, we will join. WE haven´t been able to follow up on him yet, but the BoM has the power of that happiness

Birdseed: We tried to give a message to a guy, but he started to roll and smoke birdseed, so we said a prayer with him and left. He was interesting.

Language barrier x2: We are teaching a lady who has a deaf brother, and the sign langauge I know is not really going to help, plus Brasilian sign language is a little different than American,but I can say thank you and Jesus Loves you. so yeah, thats an adventure. but its all chill

Sundays are not relaxing. We had ward counsel at 7, then had to go get our investigators from the other side of the area and return. Then the church time. Sacrament, Gospel Principles  Priesthood. Then Trying to talk to all the members we need to after church, then lunch, then return home and plan, then go out and follow up with our investigators, then return home for weekly planning. so yeah, its busy, but i like it. Because we had people at church!!!!

Lunch on Sunday reminded me of fast sundays at home. The family had the whole family over, who are all in the same ward and it was just like our family dinners, except in portuguese. :)

Anyway thats the summary of my week. Things are going well. The language is coming, Pray to help me learn the congugations and tenses right, The understanding is coming along, the congugations are muito chato. very annoying

Love you all!

Um Abraço  A Hug

Elder Applegate