1/30/12 Letter

Dearest Family,

My joy has been at its fullest this last week. My joy is full to hear that all is well in Mesa Zion.

This past week was exciting because we had plenty of awesome things happen. I had my last interview with President Oliveira, where we renewed my temple recommend and finished up some things in order to go home. On Friday, Elder Duarte and I went to go see the doctor because he has a skin rash, but she didn´t go to work that day since she was a little sick. As we were leaving her office, we realized that our cell phone had fallen out while on the bus. Leaving a cell phone or wallet anywhere other than your pocket means that you can say tchau to those guys! But, we said a prayer and got our bus to go home in hopes that the bus driver could help us out. After a few calls and some helpful, honest workers, they found our phone on the bench that we´d been at and we went to the terminal to collect our prize. Wow! The Lord works in marvelous ways! While we had been thinking of giving up on the phone, we decided to trust in the Lord, do what we could, and see what happens. These are the moments in which God can truly help us.

We have been teaching Nelson and his family this past week. While all are opening up and learning with us, the only one which was ready and willing to be baptized this week was Deia! She is a mother of 6 (3 of which are "married") and a great example of faith. We shared with her the Lord´s teachings about forgiveness and she was basically teaching us. She said that even when someone does something to hurt her, that she´ll go and ask for forgiveness. Deia is so humble and loving! Every Saturday morning, she leaves at 7 in the morning to clean her widow neighbor´s house and wash her clothes and dishes. This is OTHER than having to clean her own house afterwards. Hands down to Deia. She was ready to be baptized. Now we´re helping her husband to get baptized this Saturday and also her youngest daughter who is extremely shy. Think of how I used to be when I was 12, and double the shyness and that´s Samanta! We´re learning how to be friends with her, but it´s difficult when she runs inside the house every time that we get to their gate.

Then, there´s Raquel, Sabrina, and Bruno who came to Church this week and partook of the greatness. Raquel has been a flip flopper of churches, and has currently stopped at the Baptist Church. She´s heard lots of strange doctrines and things and there are certain things that she doesn´t agree with about what we believe in, because of all the teachings that she´s had. But, her son Bruno is 14 and really interested in the Church, since he doesn´t go to the Baptist Church. They´re reading the Book of Mormon which is excellent.

In response to your question, we almost always eat at member´s houses or they give us money to eat out or make food at home. If we eat at home it usually means that we´ll be eating top ramen, spaghetti, hamburgers, French Toast, or stuff like that. If we get a reasonable amount of money, then  we´ll eat at the restaurant which is 9 reais. Restaurants here are just like normal good food, nothing fancy like Olive Garden or Maccoroni Grill,hahaha. And the members here like the missionaries again, so they make us good food. Nobody here is very rich, but they cook with love which is all that matters! There is only one lunch we have here which makes us scared because the lady is less active and kind of crazy. She talks about how she´s going to burn her house down and stuff. Yeah... 

 

Well, this next week should go by fast because we´ve got plenty of work to do. Endure to the end! Loves!

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: The Gang, and double baptisms (Elder Lira and Underwood baptized a lady that uses a wheel chair)!

1/23/12 Letter

Família Querida,

The piano player always gets "volunteered" to play in sacrament meeting which is fun. The members here have a simplified hymnbook, so that when they pick the hymns the day of, then I can actually play them without having to practice. Congrats on playing well at conference mother. The new stake presidency sounds excited and pumped to get things done. And it must be lots different with new stake members and activities to get everyone united. That´s sweet.

This last week was good, but sadly we didn´t get our couples to the marriage place. One of them has started studying from 7 in the morning til 7 at night, which doesn´t give any time to go get married. And the other ones have been working a lot and Jacqueline has been sick and going to the hospital. She has diabetes and sometimes has strong attacks. But, we´ve been looking for new people to teach because everyone has been kind of taking us for a spin. Lots of people in Pedra 90 are pretty humble so they always say yes to everything and mark for us to teach them, but that´s just because they were being polite. Womp. So we´ve been visiting lots of people including a new family! The dad´s name is Nelson, and he has a wife and a few daughters (one of which came to Church). He has a problem with drinking, but we´re helping him stop. And he has some funky Bible questions that he asks us, which we are glad to answer. He´s a cool guy and really liked Church. We´re going to visit them tonight. But, things are going well. Elder Duarte and I are teaching well and having lots of good experiences together. Our zone played volleyball today, so that was exciting. Now we´ve gotta go buy some food to stock up the fridge. Have a fantastic week folks! Last call for Brazilian items as well. Just let me know.

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Irmã Domingas and her granddaughters who made lunch for 8 missionaries last P-Day!

1/16/12 letter

Hey Family Carpenter,

Happy Martin Luther King Day, and Happy Birthday to Jaimee!

Here´s the low-down on newbies: Elder Gomes, S. Santos (D. Souza these days), Menezes and Duarte are my direct children because they were with me during their first transfers in the field. But, the "true" training is now 2 transfers. So I have Elder Furtado and Stipanich who are my step-children because I was with them on the second transfer in the field. It´s so nice to have family in the mission because I "killed" my trainer (since he went home on that transfer) and the other missionary that he trained went home early. Geneology, are you doing it?

This past week was fun though! The weather in Cuiabá is going bonkers! Every day it´ll be hot for an hour, then it starts pouring rain, then it´s hot again. Every day. So one minute we´ve got our umbrellas out, and the next we´re sweating in the humid hot of the sun! But, it´s better than just straight up sun every day, so don´t think that I´m complaining. We taught plenty of people this week, but nothing too amazing happened. We´ve been teaching this young man called Lucas that went to Church, but he doesn´t believe that there is a true Church on the earth. He told us he wanted to get baptized in a river, which we would be more than happy to do, but doesn´t want "to be a part of any church." Some of his funky ideas have kept him from progressing as well. Then, we´ve been teaching plenty of member´s friends and relatives, but all of pooped out on us Sunday morning when we went to pick them up. "I was watching UFC til 4 in the morning..."

Good news: We got Matheus at Church this Sunday to get confirmed! Matheus is a 16 year old that got baptized in December but he´s been working late and whatnot, but he finally came back. He´s an awesome kid and works at an açaí place which is amazing. And we´re going with Hudney and Jacqueline this Wednesday to mark the day for their wedding. Things are happening!

Happy trails folks! Gotta go. See ya soon!

-Elder Carpenter

Brazilian Fact: Açaí is a super good Brazilian fruit!

1/9/12 letter

Querida Família,

Wow, to make a long story short: Happy Birthday to EVERYONE! So good to see people aging and making delicious foods for their birthdays.

Elder Duarte had his first baptism last Saturday! It was so good to see Luciana so happy to get baptized, and Elder Duarte smiling from ear to ear (since he´s never baptized anyone before). We have been teaching Luciana every day and she´s really changed in this last week. The first time that we taught her, she was interested in the Church but didn´t really have that desire. Then, during the week the Lord had certainly worked with her and she started reading EVERYTHING that we left with her and understanding the gospel well. It´s so cool to the change in people´s attitudes and beliefs as missionaries. We are just here to teach and show the path, but it´s their decision as to whether or not they´ll benefit from it. And Luciana has 2 older sisters who are super strong in the Church and will be helping her out. 

During the week, we´ve been teaching and working like crazy. And I´ve forgotten how hot that Cuiabá is. Hahaha. Good thing it´s been having random rainstorms here. We´ve been visiting 2 couples that were going to get married while I was here the first time, but the missionaries stopped visiting them and they stopped worrying about marriage. Womp. Now, we´re seeing if they can get in to the marriage place ("cartório") this week. They are awesome couples that each have one kid. And we´ve been working with another family that Kaleu told us to visit. There is Luana (13) and Josiane (21) who are progressing and went to Church yesterday. They´ve been reading the Book of Mormon and are learning a lot. Sadly, they´ve been to some crazy Churches here in Brazil (Assembléia de Deus and Igreja Mundial) that LOVE to steal peoples money and force them to get baptized. Thankfully, they got out of there before being robbed and "baptized." And there is Lucas as well! He is a 17 year old that went to Church during Pedra 90: The 1st Run Through, but didn´t get baptized because of some different religious ideas that he´s got. But he came to Church with us yesterday and is going to read the Book of Mormon so we´ll see where that goes. We´re excited and happy to get things going here! The ward was really full and excited this Sunday like I´ve never seen it! And I´m blessed to use my piano skills again! It´s turning out good here. 

Until next week! If anyone wants me to buy something for them, just let me know! I´m only in Brazil for a little bit!

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Sadly, this internet house is lame and doesn´t know how to send pictures.

1/2/12 Letter

Sadly, we´ve been running around all day and FINALLY I have internet access to write you. This last week has been cool beans and all. We´ve been visiting recent converts and members, since things have changed a bit since I was last here, but it´s still the same old Pedra 90. During the week, we´ve been teaching people and we had one investigator at Church. Her name is Luciana and she´s the 14 year old sister of Neide and Mara. They are two members of the ward who are awesome. You probably will see them in a picture of when I made cookies during my first run through here. They help out the missionaries a lot, and they´re excited to have their sister get baptized on Saturday. Things are getting along!

 

Elder Duarte is a awesome companion! He makes me laugh everyday. He´s pretty shy and quiet but has a really good heart and testimony. We´re working on getting to know each other better and that´s been important. I think he´s whiter than me and people always assume that we´re both Americans. Womp! And Elder Lira and Underwood live in our house and are awesome as well. It´s been awhile since I´ve been in such a spectacular house.

 

Gotta go! The gospel needs to be preached brothers and sisters! Until next week. Love ya!

-Elder Carpenter

 

Pics: Elder Carpenter, Duarte, Underwood, and Lira

12/26/11 Letter

Glad to hear about the big day! Happy Birthday Dad!! One year older and wiser, too! Congratulations! It was good to see your smiling faces and different voices and attitudes from the nephews. Cool beans.

Hey, so I´m headed back to Cuiabá... in Pedra 90! Woot. Imma go on back there and train again! I think I should change my name to Elder Coelho. The newbie´s name is Elder Duarte and he´s from São Paulo. He´s 19 years old and that´s all of which I´m aware of! It´ll be fun stuff. I remember some people who we were teaching who weren´t baptized that we´ll have to visit. We´ll get things going up there! Have a fantastic week and a good start of 2012! Love ya!

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Giving out presents on Christmas Eve and the Big Ol´ Dinner afterwards!

12/19/11 Letter

Dear Family,

So glad to hear that Christmas is on its way! The spirit is in the air and everyone is thinking about Christ! Yes yes yes. To be honest, it doesn´t even feel like Christmas because of the heat, but at least you are all getting the cold! Make the best of it. Congrats on the calling mom. You´ll do amazing. Teach those kids just like you taught us.

Elder Menezes and I had a pretty interesting week. We got a call on Monday saying that we needed to find a new house until Christmas because we´re gonna have more elders in our house and Universitário will have to find a new one! We helped them to find a neat little apartment right by the chapel that I think will turn out fantastic. 

We have been visiting Sueli and Luis as well, and sadly they won´t be able to get married til January. They have some documents that need to get here to Campo Grande and the free marriages will only start up again in January 2012. But they are firm on getting married and baptized together! The sad thing is that their member neighbors, Rodolfo and Vanuce and children, will be moving to Ala Jardim Imã. We´ll miss them a lot because they´ve been helping us out a lot during our time here and the ward will not be the same. But we will move forward!

Eva is strong as a rock! She is learning a lot and helping her family be more united and loving. She was confirmed yesterday and gave an awesome prayer when we visited them last night. Woot! Her daughter came to Church this week (the one who offered a laptop to her daughter so she wouldn´t get baptized) and she loved Church. It was cool because all of a sudden she showed up in the middle of sacrament meeting, and everyone was surprised. It turns out that her husband was at the hospital clinic next door to the Church and it seemed like he´d be there for awhile, so she decided to pay a visit to the REAL Church of Jesus Christ. And of course, Marcia loved Church and wants all of her family to keep coming and to help her come as well, but she´s not ready to leave her Church. It was a bit of an intense lesson, but I know that she felt that our Church is true.

The ward had the coolest activity ever! It was like their Christmas Devocional Night- complete with some testimonies, funny videos, and a giant dinner afterwards. We did a cool thing with Danny about how we all need to turn ourselves like little children, because Jesus Christ himself came to the Earth as a babe. So, we got some pictures of members and recent converts (yes we are sneaky) and made a fancy slideshow showing people as little kids and then showing them as they are today. Everyone was laughing and guessing as to who was who and it was bomb. The best was when the three girls (Eva´s granddaughters) showed up and Ana was very upset (Imagine how "upset" that a 9 year old would be for getting some attention) and said,"I´m going to talk to the pastor about this!" Womp!

Yup, so we´re excited for this week. We need to find somebody who is ready to be baptized and do all we can to give a present to the Lord! Have a merry Christmas everybody! I love you all!

-Elder Carpenter

Habbib´s Fact: We ate lunch at Habbib´s today and it´s like an Arabian food style McDonald´s! The food is actually super good. The little bread things are called sfihas. I wanted one with some weird Arabian meat, but they didn´t have any. 

Fotos: Habbib´s!

12/12/11 Letter

Dearest Family Carpenter e outros,

 

Happy Holidays! All I hear about is Christmas parties and shopping and eating! Everyone must be getting fat. 

Last week was quite amazing gente. On Monday night, we had the best missionary work meeting with our ward mission leader EVER. We went to the chapel and he had bought us salgados (which are pastries with meat inside, such as ham and cheese) to eat with french fries and Coke! Que maravilha! Talk about awesomeness. We are planning on doing a cool activity next week for the ward and we got together a good heart-breaker lesson for Eva.

 

On Tuesday, I did a division with Elder Wanderley and we taught some cool people (despite the rain coming down), and at night we had to switch back so that Menezes and I could teach Eva with Danny! It was a good lesson but her granddaughter was screaming and nobody was paying attention. Eva said that she had not smoked for a few days and she started talking about how she had bought a new dress to wear at Church. So we butt in and said, "That´s good because you´ll be able to wear your dress to your baptizm this Sunday." The rest was history. We took her cigarettes away and she got baptized on Sunday! Yay! She was all nervous on Sunday and kept saying that she would take off and that her back would hurt (since she has some back problems), but after the baptizm she was fine. Danny baptized her and practically went all the way down with her so that she wouldn´t have to bend her spine. Oh Eva! Now the family is complete! The two grandparents and the 3 granddaughters who are 8 and above. Sadly, their 2 living kids aren´t very interested in going to Church, but they´ll wake up sooner or later.

On Thursday, we had our Christmas Conference! It was fun. Sister Oliveira talked about how we need to be happy wherever we are because that is how it´ll be for the rest of our lives. Totally true. We watched some videos about Christmas and with MoTab singing, and everyone had some music that they´d been practicing and sang for all to enjoy. It was funny because all of the sisters got up to sing that one hymn "Plains of Judea Where Christ Was Born." Uh... I don´t remember the name in English. So the sisters sang in front of everyone but let´s just say that it wasn´t up to par, so ALL of the Elders and President Oliveira got up and sang the hymn with gusto! It was a crackup. We got presents too! Some good chocolate from Switzerland and a dirty clothes thingy. It´s not a bag nor a hamper. It´s some mesh thing that folds up like the shade you throw up in a car while shopping at Wal-Mart. And I got a tie for my birthday and Zona Monte Líbano got certificates for completing our monthly goals in November! Sweetness.

 

At Church, we had William and Beatriz´s parents. Irmão Luis finally got back from swamp land! And they LOVED Church and are planning on getting married and having the ceremony at the Church and getting baptized! YES! I love this family. Sueli is the sweetest lady ever and she even has a testimony now! She´s been reading the Book of Mormon and is in Alma 36 now. It´s only been like 3 weeks since she´s had the book. So we have wedding and baptismal bells ringing on Christmas weekend!

 

Good week to all! Remember the true meaning of Christmas.

 

-Elder Carpenter

 

Brazilian Fact #1: To celebrate the holiday season, everyone eats meat on the 24th until midnight and then the party begins! 

#2: There are members that go caroling but it´s definately not as common as back in the states.

#3: People put up a strand or two of Christmas lights during this time of year! I have yet to see anything that compares to our yard though.

 

Fotos: The Best Zone Ever: Mount Lebanon Zone! and Feliz Eva!

 

 

12/05/11 Letter

Hey folks,

 

Christmas season is here! Make the best of the season! Everyone is thinking about Christ and is looking for happiness.

 

Elder Menezes and I had yet another amazing week! Ala Pioneiros is on fire! I love this ward and the members and investigators. I was kind of sick during the week, but we managed to get to our appointments every day. We have been visiting Sueli and her family almost everyday. Unfortunately, her husband has been on holiday since Wednesday, but because of rain and lack of bus coming to take him and the other workers home, he hasn´t gotten here yet. But, he already said that he wants to get married and then Sueli is definately gonna get baptized. She totally made me trunky this week. We went and visited her and asked what she felt at Church. She responded,"You guys who are away from home for 2 years, how do you feel when you come home?" I responded really dumbly,"I don´t know yet," to which Menezes did damage control and said,"REALLY good." Sueli said that that is just how she felt. Trunkeza! Everything went well for William and Beatriz´s baptisms last night! They are such innocent and good kids. I love this family.

 

Another trunky moment: On Thursday, the executive secretary in the mission home called to ask me which airport that I´d like to fly to. Wow.... February 8th is the day! But that´s when I´ll leave from Cuiabá to São Paulo to Houston to Phoenix. I calculated the time with Elder Syndergaard who used to be in the office and he said that I´ll probably get in Phoenix early morning on the 9th. Get ready!

 

During the week we have been teaching Rosimeire, Danny Presley´s mom. Danny is our ward mission leader and his mom has been an eternal investigator for over 12 years! They always say how EVERY companionship tries to teach her, but things changed after she had her dream and saw the need to help her less-active sister. And after teaching every day, Danny would make us something different to eat. Words don´t express my love for this family! Food and missionary work! Rose was SO happy to get baptized. After she came out of the water she started smiling and giving thumbs up to everyone. Hahahaha. I´ve never seen such a reaction! And there were plenty of people there, so it was quite the event.

 

We´ve been helping Eva to stop smoking but it´s turning out to be harder for her than we thought. But she´s super firm in coming to Church and even the baptisms at night! Just throw them ciggies out! And the sun sure isn´t getting any brownie points with us this last week. I feel like I have gone back to Cuiabá already. NO!!! But, we´re excited for this next week. We´re gonna find lots of new people to teach and have interviews with President and Zone/Christmas Conference this week. Sniff, sniff, it´ll be my last. There´s still plenty that I need to learn though, so I´m sure it´ll be great. Have a fantastic week! Merry Christmas!

 

-Elder Carpenter

 

Brazilian Fact: On the 24th, everyone gets together and eats a lot and parties until midnight when people will light off fireworks and whatnot. It´s kind of like New Years the Prequel.

 

11/28/11 Letter

Dearest Family,

Happy Thanksgiving! While I didn´t eat turkey, some members in another ward made turkey for the missionaries that work there. Yes, turkey does exist in Brazil, but it´s kind of rare to eat. I´m not even sure if I´ve eaten it during my time here... Sure happy that you guys ate my share of turkey though! And plenty of other foods. That´s awesome.

First, I want to talk about our P-Day adventures last week! We ate lunch at McDonald´s (blegh) because they have Pokémon toys and cards as the toys. Talk about a ripoff! I payed R$13 which is like $8 for a wimpy piece of meat on bread, cold fries, and a healthy cup of sliced apple (which was about 1/4 part of an actual apple). Gotta love McDonald´s. But I finally have a Pokémon card in Portuguese. We checked out plenty of crazy stuff downtown and I found a dart blower (with wooden stick darts), fancy pants necklace, Peruvian backpack, and a classic giant horn made of cow horns. Everyone has to bring one of those home from Brazil. And to top it off, we bought pastries of crocadile meat. Crocadile is some tasty stuff! It´s seems like a mix of chicken and fish. Funky taste and worth the ridiculous price. One more thing to check off my bucket list.

Then, we had a crazy amazing week as well. There is this amazing family that we are teaching which consists of Sueli (mom), Unnamed husband, Rodrigo, Beatriz and William. William and Beatriz came to Church last week and were preparing to get baptized this week, but their dad, who works in the Pantanal (famous swamp lands in this part of Brazil) really wants to be here to watch. Yay for parents who support their kids in important decisions! But he´s gonna get here on Wednesday, so we´ve just been teaching everyone together. The mom, Sueli, is so cool! She´s been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and already has a testimony that this is what she and her family have been needing and she just wants to keep learning and get married. We love them.

However, seeing as how their baptisms got moved to next week, we were running around trying to find someone ready to be baptized. We had plenty of people at Church, but they all became uninterested and running away from us. Blugh. But, we went and visited this guy that talked to us on the street last Saturday, who had been taught by lots of missionaries and told us to go visit him. We went and got to know Thiago and his family, and they are all really cool people. As we began to teach Thiago he told us about his crazy life! He used to be WAY in the world but in the past year or so he has freed himself of all addictions and is now much happier. Thiago has been to Church a few times and really knows his Bible! Rapaz. Anyways, after a spiritual lesson we invited him to be baptized on Sunday and he accepted. And it went through! Thiago is the bomb. We felt so good during his baptism because we know that it has been a long journey up until this point. It goes to show that the Lord is truly preparing his elect! It´s just a matter of us inviting and being instruments in His hands.

And other good news! Danny´s mom (he´s our ward mission leader) has decided to get baptized! We went and taught her during Elder Menezes 1st real day in the field! I felt like we would have to opportunity to teach and baptize her that day, but I didn´t know how, because at that time she had quite the hard heart. But, the Lord works through mysterious ways. Rose had a dream last week in which she saw the Saviour and some other things happened and now she knows that she needs to enter in to His Church and help her family. We´re so excited!

Wonder week to everyone. I give thanks to all of you for the support and love! You are all the best!

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Thiago´s baptism, McDonald´s, Crocadile meat!, and P-Day Spoils.

 

 

11/21/11 letter

What an exciting week you have all had! Thanksgiving is on its way as well! Hip hip hooray!

As always, the first week of a transfer is kind of nuts, and this one was no exception. On Monday night, we had some elders sleep over at our house (since our house is a street away from the Bus Terminal in Campo Grande) since they missed their buses. Gah! I hate having so many messy people in a house that want to eat all of your food. Caidaço. But, they left early in the morning, so that was good.

Tuesday, we had a short meeting with our new ward mission leader: Danny! Danny is awesome. He served his mission in Manaus (which is the Amazon rainforest mission) and he´s helping us to make this ward grow and get even better than it already is. We went and taught Jair and Eva (their granddaughters got baptized last week) and Danny helped us out a ton. He bore a powerful testimony that helped Jair decide to get baptized. "How can I support my granddaughters in doing what´s right, if I myself don´t follow?" That is what I´m talking about Jair. 

Wednesday, I did a division with Elder Stuart which was bomb. We taught Guilherme and Thais´ mom, but unfortunately she´s got her heart in her other Church. At least she supports her kids and wants them to keep going to Church. But wake up! Your evangelical Church is a joke! But, everyone has their agency. We taught a member´s friend as well, whose name is Maria (go figure). She´s a sweet lady, but is a little slow. We´re helping her out.

Thursday, we got stuck at lunch for forever, while the other companionship taught Sister Maria Lúcia´s neighbor who came to lunch (and church!). Lots of things didn´t go as planned , but we went to our most important committment: Jair! Jair´s son tried to question us about some stuff, but the poor guy doesn´t even know what´s in the Bible. Don´t worry, there was no contention nor Bible bashing, just a calm explaining of things as they really are. Eva insists that we baptize this son of hers before she gets baptized. But, the guy doesn´t even want to learn with us! We have a challenge on the horizon.

Friday, the big day! Elder Bednar stopped by in Cuiabá and we got to watch the transmission of our 3 and a half hours with him. He is the most calm, forward, and direct person that I think I´ve ever seen. Elder Bednar had us ask him questions as well as conversing with the Elders in Cuiabá. It was an open air discussion, and he kept asking us, "What do you notice about the form of this meeting?" He was teaching us that we need to TEACH people and not just spout out information at them and expect them to be "taught." And to ask questions that make people think and learn at the same time. Elder Bednar laid down the law in quite a few areas where we have old Mormon traditions as well. Like the practice of writing down everything that people say and then never reading the notes again. We need to take note of our feelings, impressions of the Spirit, and what we have learned. It was amazing! Sadly, the transmission was not so hot, so I hope that they recorded it in Cuiabá. Having an apostle in our mission has surely helped me out and I have felt and seen many things that I need to improve on. And I know that this is just the beginning! Gah!

Saturday was a big ol´mess of interviews and quick visits to people to see who would go to Church and who wouldn´t.

Sunday was equally hectic. We had to call for last minute rides to take all of the girls to the Church to get confirmed (since Sacrament Meeting starts at 9 now with the new ward). But they all got confirmed! And we had plenty of investigators at Church. Best of all was Jair´s baptism after Church! His family was so excited and happy. We invited Gleidson to baptize him, because we love Gleidson. He´s only been a member for 4 months and he just ordained as Elder and called as the ward secretary. Yes! At night, we visited Sueli, whose kids came to Church with their member neighbors. Sueli is a perfect example of love! She takes care of her blind, memory stricken, and humble mom all day. We taught them the Restauration and after the first vision, we asked her if she believed that God answers prayers. Sueli said that after we passed by on Saturday, she prayed to know if this was the right path for her and her kids. She felt that if her kids came home happy, then she would know that it was what they were needing. Willian and Beatriz (her kids) came home bundled with joy and Sueli knew that this truly is the Church of Jesus Christ! Now they´ve accepted for us to help them get baptized!

Yet another hectic week is on the horizon, but I wouldn´t trade it for anything. This is the best ward that I´ve ever been in and it´s because they members make all the difference. Inviting their friends to Church and not being ashamed to talk about the gospel. Vamos avante nessa obra! Love ya! Did you know that you are my favorite family ever?

-Elder Carpenter

11/14/11 letter

Dearest Family,

Happy Birthday to Sarah! Yip yip hooray! Congrats on getting all of the free things that you could! That´s how we do it. And mother has even overcome her fear of touching cilantro just to make your special dinner! Congratulations. I love cilantro by the way .

Elder Menezes and I had a pretty booked week. Wow! We had 3-4 houses to visit every day. Our schedule went like this: 4:15 to 5 we would wait and then teach Daniel (who is a recent convert´s grandson that went to Church), 6ish was when we tought Thaís (who is Guilherme´s sister), 7:30 is our time to teach Jair and Eva along with their 3 granddaughters (who came to Church), and sometimes 8:30 we taught Romano, who is Rodolfo´s dad. Whew! Talk about walking fast. If any of the visits took too long, then it would make everything late. Gah! But it´s all good. 

Our week was awesome though. Thais is BFF with a member and so teaching her was super simple. She was already living the commandments and just has a strong desire to do what´s right and follow Christ. We would include Thais´ mom so that she could see that what we´re teaching her is good and healthy. It was cool because the member family that lives right next to them is about to send their missionary off on Thursday, so we invited Antonio to baptize Thais. That lucky duck got to baptize on his last sunday at home! Now he´s off to baptize more people in São Paulo.

The other family that we´re teaching is AMAZING! The members taught with us EVERY single day because they´re all so awesome. We´ve been teaching the 3 granddaughters with their grandparents and they´re all so cool and happy to be doing the right things. One of the granddaughters, Ana, is 9 and actually lives with her parents behind her grandparents house (but her grandma is the legal guardian and the one who has raised them all). But Ana´s mom has been going to the dark side and told Ana that she would buy her a notebook computer if she didn´t get baptized. What?!?! But Eva (the grandma) is amazing and told her what´s up. And Ana´s mom has actually listened to our lessons on Friday and Saturday. Now, we´re helping the grandparents stop smoking and have the grandpa give the JW´s the boot and stop visiting him! Yes. 

Sadly, Daniel, who´s recent convert grandma has a ticket to the celestial kingdom for all that she´s through, 8 was taught and interviewed, but on Sunday gave up on getting baptized. We´re still not too sure of what happened, because we sat and tried to get him to come out for a while and just his brother came out to give lame excuses to us. We´re praying to know what to do with him.

In all, it was an amazing week! I couldn´t have asked for a better birthday present than being a part of the Lord´s work in bringing these people to his kingdom. We even ate gigantic pastels to celebrate the big day. The Lord is blessing us and we´ll be staying another transfer together! Elder Ertel is off to be a district leader in another area and Elder Stipanich will be with Elder Wanderley. Perseverar até o fim Stipanich! Love ya! Happy Veteran´s Day!

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Frafiti of Tereré, Thais and Guilherme and mom, The Jair Tribe consisting of Nathália, Alexia, Ana, and wife Eva!

 

11/7/11 letter

Olá Família,

 

Obrigado pela parabén por meu aniversário! Imma be 21! We were all gonna go out and get a drink to celebrate since I´ll be 21 and all, but then I realized that you only have to be 18 to drink in Brazil! So we are going bump the party up to tonight. But, happy birthday to Sarah! Use the birthday bear for me.

 

What an upside-down confusing week that we´ve had. We´ve been teaching this guy named Carlos all week. He came to Church and is in the process of moving to another state, but is staying in a hotel waiting for his giant Diesel to get registered so he can hit the road to Goias! But, Carlos is great because he gives us free food and does nothing all day so he would read the Book of Mormon. Carlos is REALLY smart and I felt like I was teaching somebody normal for a change! When he found out that he would be staying for the weekend during his long wait, we invited him to get interviewed and baptized, so he was interviewed on Saturday but REFUSED to be baptized this week. He´s convinced that he needs to do it in Goias, but by that time the devil will have already taken his soul down to the pit of misery and endless woe! Gah. We got sad, but not given up.

 

On Sunday, we had our first meetings of the Ala Pioneiros and a whopping 8 investigators! The members are awesome and brought their friends that we´ve been teaching to Church! Yes. One is a cool family that we started teaching. The grandma is a haircutter and pretty Catholic but willing to change ("I believe a lot in Saint Mary... blah blah blah."), but Eva is awesome because she let her granddaughters come to Church even though she couldn´t. They are 13, 12 and 9 and they watched the baptisms of Elder Ertel and Stipanich and almost cried! Wow. The little one who´s 9 said, "If I could I would get baptized right now!" That´s what I´m talking about. Guilherme´s sister came to Church to watch his confirmation and she´s all BFF with another young women in the ward and is getting baptized on Sunday! There is gonna be a line to get in the water this Sunday! We´re working with other people and making the best of the excitement in the ward. I´m so happy!

 

And (drumroll)...  Elder Bednar is coming to visit Cuiabá this month! He´s probably gonna get things straight and tell the members and missionaries to work so that President Oliveira can divide this stake before he leaves. Sadly, I don´t think I´ll be there but he´s gonna do a training thing with the missionaries and all of us in the south get to watch it via satelite. He´s gonna do an open-air question time, but I haven´t thought of anything yet. Help me out!

 

Best week to everyone! Until we meet again!

-Elder Carp.

 

Brazilian Fact: The Brazilian Flag looks awesome on a pumpkin!

10/31/11 Letter

Sorry this is late, but we have been super busy during our P-Day today, so I only have like 5 minutes to write to yall.

This last week was NUTS!! Craziness all around. Yesterday, the ward Universitário divided into 2 wards! We are now in Ala Pioneiros (Pioneers Ward) and Elder Ertel and Stipanich are in Ala Universitário. It was super cool because the members are pumped to get things going again to divide these two wards as soon as possible. Things are heating up! President and Sister Oliveira came for the special event and it´s definately a good thing that we had a baptism for them to watch. Hahahaha. Elder Menezes got to have his first baptism in the field! It´s so exciting. His name is Guilherme and he´s a friend of Antonio Iverson, who´s going off on his mission on Nov. 17th. That family is awesome and is starting to baptize their friends now. Guilherme is 16 and a really good, goofy kid. He basically acts just like Mark Cooley, hahaha. We taught him this week and we´d ask him "Guilherme, are you excited for your baptism?" to which he´d respond, "Uh... yeah. I thinhk so." Did you really have to think about that one? He´s bomb though, and now we´re trying to teach the rest of his family. Also, Sunday was nuts because this entire week has been flaming Cuiabá hot, and then there was a freak lightning storm Saturday night and then it started pouring Sunday morning from 2:30 until 10ish in the morning. So, not everyone came to Church that we wanted, but we still had some investigators. We´re working and getting everyone baptized! Woot. Have a wonderful week! See you all later. Have a happy Halloween!

-Elder Carpinteiro

Fotos: Guilherme´s Baptism, President Oliveira with friend (who just HAPPENS to be Elder Menezes´ uncle), and Pizza Hut (yes it exists in Brazil but it´s super expensive)!!

Brazilian Fact: Brazilians don´t celebrate Halloween!

10/24/11 letter

Beloved Family,

This week was super exciting. We got some news here in the ward, so we´ll be working our bums off this week, finding people to go to Church! We had some interesting experiences as well. During lunch last week, Irmão Rodolfo told us to visit his neighbors that live in front because they are parents of a member in another ward. Here´s the thing though: they have a Centro Espírita (Spirit Center) next door to their house, which they are in charge of (where they do funny spirit rituals and whatnot). We invited them to Church and they came! Invite everyone to come unto Christ. They don´t plan on changing their religion, but at least they are open to learning more about ours. 

We´ve been kind of a dead-end with our investigators this week.  One of them who was really interested, Romys, is actually moving back to his small town where they don´t have the Church. He´s a good kid, but we´re sad that he´s leaving and didn´t get baptized. The family that came to Church last week has shown that they want to rely on the world rather than in God. We decided to do a fast and ask the Lord for some help. There is a young man named Antonio in the ward who is going on his mission in less than a month, and we´ve been teaching two of his friends. On Sunday morning, we were going by to pick people up to go to Church, but nobody was coming. After nobody had come (except for the spirit couple), we only had Antonio to rely on. And he came through and brought his to friends to Church! Milagres acontecem. Guilherme, who´s 16, is all firm and set to get baptized next week, and Wesley wants to get baptized as well, except that his family is super Catholic. We´ll be working with both of them, and trying to find new people as well. I know that fasting is a true principle of the gospel! When we do our part, then the Lord will always do His.

Love you all! Have a marvelous week. Voces são os caras!

-Elder Smush

Brazilian Fact: Brazilians like eating persimmons! They are like sweet tomatoes.

Fotos: Elder Menezes with my glasses. What a stud.

10/17/11 letter

Family,

Neato! Baby showers. Halloween is coming! Glad to hear all the good news, Seth is going in to a new house, Grandma´s house is cleaner, and ASU is not doing so hot on the field. Puxa vida! Sweetness.

Hey, so we´re out of time and need to go, but we had a good week. We´ve been working hard and trying to find new people to teach, because Romys is being kind of mully. This awesome sister in our ward took us to teach her neighbors who have been going through some crazy family problems and the parents and one of the daughters came to Church. Now, we´re helping them to be happy and have the gospel in their lives. Elder Ertel and Stipanich had a baptism of Elza yesterday. She is an amazing older lady, and was the most elect person that I´ve had the opportunity to interview. Elza is the most loving person and she has such a desire to follow Jesus Christ. She was so happy at her baptism. Elza actually met us in the street (last transfer when I was on a division with Elder Stuart) and talked to us and bought us some cake at the bakery. Then, she finally was able to come to Church and be baptized in the true Church of Jesus Christ. We need to find more people like Elza, and I´m sure that they are all around us. Have a great week! I love you all tons!

-Elder Carpenter

Brazilian Fact: When it´s your birthday sometimes you get presents, but the only real thing guaranteed is a gigantic cake!

Photos: Mark 16:15 "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and 

preach the gospel to every creature."

10/10/11 letter

• Wassup!

Hey there, pals! October Break is officially here and to celebrate I´ll be helping people in their search for salvation. Score! Matt is practically home now! Gah! Mom, stop saying that cilantro is gross. I LOVE cilantro, because people use it all the time in the beans or salad, and it just makes everything better. But, I´m happy that you are at least eating cilantro when forced to.

My kid´s name is Elder Menezes! The kid is awesome and he´s a great missionary. He´s a surfer from Recife (which is up top on the coast of Brazil) that lived 5 minutes from the beach. He reminds me a lot of Californians (no offense intended Mike, I like Californians!). Elder Menezes is the oldest of 3 kids and both of his parents served in the Brazil Fortaleza Mission. And they are good friends of Presidente Oliveira, so Elder Menezes already knew President before the mission. Womp womp womp! As you can see in the picture, Elder Menezes looks kind of like Randy Cox, but is a bit crazier. He´s super easy to get along with and everyone loves him. We´re gonna work wonders here in Universitário!

We had kind of a half-week of work, since the newbies got here on Wednesday, and then we had a meeting that afternoon with all of the newbies and the trainers. We´ve never done that before, so we had a good time getting the basics down about and mission and how we teach. Then, we´ve been visiting some investigators that Elder Stuart and T. Silva were teaching, but they all turned mully. And we were kind of lost during the week since neither of us were here before, but things are getting on the road now. Romys came to Church (he is a member´s friend that already came once before) and we taught him yesterday. It was a sweet lesson! He´s actually super smart and I felt like I was teaching him things that he already knows. Romys was doubting because he´s already read the Book of Mormon and prayed, but nothing ever happened. We talked to him and found out that he was expecting something BIG, like Joseph Smith´s answer, to which we explained that usually our answers come in a much simpler form. Normally we have thoughts and feelings of the Spirit that will tell us if something is true or not. We´ll be visiting him tonight to help him out. We´re excited to see what happens.

Then we had another surprise on Sunday! This guys came to our chapel and wanted to get baptized. So, we talked with him, and he´d already come to Church and was taught by the missionaries a few months ago. We had a conversation with him and then did the interview and he was all set and willing to obey the commandments on got baptized! All out of nowhere. He lives in Elder Ertel and Stipanich´s area (the same ward as us) so they´ll be working with him and teaching him new things and getting to work with Geziel´s mom and sister. Crazy! He´s a really good-hearted guy that´s just kind of weird. But he´s so happy to be a member and keep following Jesus Christ. 

Have a wonderful week folks! October Break! That´s where it´s at. Love ya!

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Elder Menezes!

Campo Grande Fact: Almost nobody in Campo Grande has seen the beach before!

 

10/3/11 letter

Dear Fam,

Hey, so the computer just erased my letter up until now, and I don´t have the patience or time to write everything again. Thanks for the conference commentaries! We were super busy on Saturday and didn´t get to watch any of the sessions, but we did watch Sunday! Yay for Dallin H. Oaks and his awesome talk about following Christ! All of the talks were centered on missionary work and basic principles, which I thought was great. Not as much fun for old members, but wonderful for investigators and recent converts.

We had a good last week. Tieme, who is a member´s 9 year old niece, was all set to be baptized this Sunday. We´ve been teaching her and resolving ALL of her many doubts. I don´t think that I´ve met a 9 year old who is so smart. She pays attention to EVERYTHING that we say. But, her grandma is Catholic and kind of exploded on Saturday saying that Tieme is too young and doesn´t know what she wants in life and that she can´t get baptized right now. In reality, we already got permission from Tieme´s dad (since he´s the legal guardian) but grandma had to go in and mess things up. But, we´re working on making the grandma happy and let her know that Tieme is more than ready.

We spent lots of time visiting new and old investigators, and found a lady named Ruth. She goes around in a wheel chair and has had a stroke, so she basically uses just one arm and has little control over her right arm and legs. Ruth´s is a super sweet old lady and she didn´t want to go to Church because she was afraid that people would make fun of her in her wheelchair. We assured her that that wouldn´t happen, and reluctantly she came to conference with us. Ruth loved conference!! She loved that nobody asked her for money (like many churches do) and that it was so calm and peaceful. Now we´re helping her to be baptized on Sunday. Ruth is a such a loving person and it seems like she was just waiting for someone to come and invite her to Church.

In other news, we had transfer calls last night. Womp! The Zone Leaders will be going to a different area in our zone to help them out, and I´ve been called as District Leader and will be training again. This is the 3rd time! Rapaz. Trainings, practices, and follow up, hoo-ha! So, I´m super excited to be with the super-pumped greenie (who´s Brazilian by the way) and get things going. We´ll be in the Zone Leaders´ area, which I don´t know very well, so it´ll just be a new everything! Elder Stipanich is still gonna be in the same house with Elder Ertel. I´m so excited because Stipanich has been one of my all-time favorite companions. And now he´s gonna be old and have to help out the newby, hahahaha. It´ll be exciting.

Everybody have a marvelous week. October Break is around the corner! And Christmas for that matter. Start playing Christmas music, just like all of those crazy Americans. Hey there is another Arizona elder who will be going home on Wednesday. His name is Elder Williams and he´s from Mesa, but went to Mountain View. Gag... But maybe you´ll get to know him! I think that I talked to him twice during the mission. Love you guys!

-Elder Carpenter

Brazilian Fact: Peach = Pêssego and Raspberry = Amoura

Fotos: Gigantic 3.3 liter of Guaraná Antartica soda!

 

9/26/11 letter

Hello Friends at Home,

Conference is coming! Conference is coming! Get ready everybody.

Talk about a crazy week! We had 4 baptisms on Sunday! Elder Stipanich and I are on fire! Our week was us running around every day and teaching people. On Thursday night, we had a sudden big rainstorm. At the time, we were at Jose´s house teaching him and his two kids, Patrik and Kaique. While it was raining, the lights starting going out, and then everything went back to normal. And on Friday, it rained ALL DAY. It was actually pretty nice because then the sun went away for awhile. But, we taught Jose and his family every day last week and they just love the gospel and are progressing really fast. And Patrik and Kaique (who are 11 and 9), are obsessed with Dragonball Z, so I drew them a few pictures. My many hours spent drawing Dragonball Z pictures have finally come in handy! But, there were no hangups or anything until their baptisms on Sunday. They were so excited, that during church they would ask every 15 minutes or so, "Is it time for our baptisms?" Gotta love those guys!

Then, we had the miracle baptism! Last week, we talked to this guy in the street but never went to teach him until last Wednesday. His name is Genaro and he has one leg! Turns out that he´s already been to Church a couple of times, so we taught him and he REALLY wanted to be baptized. He´s 63 and lived in Paraguay for a little while, so he has a weird accent that makes him sound Mexican. But, we helped him out all week and he was baptized on Sunday. Genaro was even talking during Gospel Principles, "I´ve already been baptized in the Catholic Church, but now I want to be baptized in this one." Womp! He was. We had to have the help of Elder Stuart to baptize him (since he´s kind of a big guy and has one leg), and I also got in the font to make sure that he didn´t slip or anything. Woot.

We´re pretty excited and ready to go find more people to teach and baptize! Elder Stipanich is practicing his English with Elder Stuart and I. We´re convinced that he needs to be fluent at the end of the transfer. Now Elder Stipanich says things like, "I´m not going to fight against the crown anymore," and "Quit following me, you stalker." We´re very happy with his progress. And don´t think that we´re just teaching him stupid phrases, because he´s learning how to speak good English as well. Love you all! Have a wonderful week and let´s go listen to our prophet (1 Nefi 22: 2-3) and apostles and leaders of the Church! Take a friend with you!

-Elder Carpenter

Brazilian Fact: Rock in Rio is this week! Lots of famous artists are doing gigantic shows in Rio de Janeiro!

Fotos: Big ol´ Baptism! Our district at the Coke factory that we visited today! We got to see how they manufacture coke bottles and all sorts of things.

 

 

9/19/11 letter

Hullo!

The new stake callings and whatnot is kind of crazy. I know a few people in our new stake then, which is good. Our ward seems to be the Universitário of Mesa South! Here in Estaca Campo Grande Monte Líbano (Big Field Mount Lebanon Stake), about half of the stake callings are members of this ward. It´s awesome! Everyone is crazy to baptize and nobody blocks baptisms and people work and give rides to investigators. Amazing! 204 people at Church as well! Let´s get this ward split SOON. I´ve never seen so many people at Church in my time here in Brazil.

Our last week was pretty nuts! We went on lots of divisions with the Zone Leaders (in our house) so that we could teach everyone, since lots of our investigators are only home at night. Out of the nine that came to Church, not all of them were too interested in our message, or "didn´t like Church" (which is a straight up lie), but lots of them were. One of which was Jair. He used to drink EVERY night and smoke a pack of cigarettes per day, but the Lord was helping him until he had stopped using these harmful substances and he got interviewed on Saturday and passed. But, Satan is real good at tempting people, and Jair fell into temptation. So... we´ll be helping him this week. 

During the week, we´ve been teaching Ivaldo and Ilza, too. They are a couple (that´s legally married!) who loved Church, but have some things to work out before they are "ready" to be baptized. We had some really neat lessons with them including one with Ivaldo´s old friend, Armando, who is the 1st Counselor in the ward. Talk about a spiritual lesson! Irmão Armando can bear a strong testimony. I´m sure that Ivaldo and Ilza will get baptized, but there are some family situations going on that have postponed things.

And the winner of the week was Guilerme! Guilerme a 9 year-old cousin of a member family. We´ve been teaching him but had trouble finding his mom at home, so that we could talk with her. Everyone told us "she won´t let him get baptized" and all sorts of things, but she actually is a really cool lady. She accepted for him to be baptized and it happened last night! Woo hoo! Party.

Then, we had a family come to Church yesterday, consisting of José (dad), Patrick (11 year old son), and Caic (8 year old son). They have a complicated family, and José´s son was killed a few weeks ago, but now they want to turn their lives around. José LOVED Church and practically asked us to help him get baptized. Next Sunday is the date! Yes yes yes. He´s already putting a stop to the cigarettes and next up is coffee. We´re super excited for this week and we´ll make sure to bring plenty of members to get to know them.

I´m glad to hear that the sisters are baptizing back at home! Make sure to offer a time when you can visit these recent-converts and future baptisms with the sisters.They need willing people to help them! Members make all of the difference. And I´m sure that they would LOVE references. Whenever people ask about the Church, talk to them and invite them to learn more through the message that the missionaries have. We need to be happy and open as members of the Lord´s Church! Keep the Emerald Acres missionary spirit burning!

I love you all and thanks for the love and support and for being the best family ever. 

-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Guilerme with his fam and then with the Elders!