Monday, November 18, 2013

Three Companeros


Week 14: The colonoscopy of missionary work

(LIsten to my voicemail for informaton about this subject.)

Oi everybody!!

It feels like it was just 6 days ago that I was writing my last email. If any part of it didn't make exact sense, I do apologize. I was at the back end of a ridiculously long day, and I'll admit that I wasn't focused at all at what I was saying. So if I confessed my love to any of you, I am sorry. Unless you're cute and not related to me, in which case I meant every word that I said.

This week was a pretty good week. We're learning quickly how to work with EF/three people in general, and we're starting to get the hang of it. Honestly, there are fun parts to having three people, including the beauty that is voting when all of us have different opinions. Arguments are resolved so much easier, especially since none of us have made alliances yet. So for now, it's good. And it only took a little bit of time to clean the house this morning. I am sleeping on a mattress on the floor right now, but that's okay because I'm used to it. I slept on a mattress on the floor/a couch for a year and a half. I'm a man.

We didn't find a lot of new people this week, but we did get a lot of progress with a lot of our investigators. We decided to focus more on getting our people to pray and come to church. As far as coming to church, we only got 2 people (it was raining Sunday morning, and everybody walks to church. Curse you, Mother Nature.) But almost all of our investigators prayed!!

We have 2 investigators in particular that are very good, the ones that came to church. The first is Patricia. We had a date with her for the 16th, but it fell because of technical things. But we talked to her last night, and she's getting baptized the 30th! Her friend that introduced her to the church, Lucinaura, already told her about everything she needs to know, so that was the easiest commandments lesson I've ever given. "Do you know about the Word of Wisdom?" "Yeah, that's where we don't drink, smoke, do drugs, and we avoid tea and coffee, right?" "...yeah." So she is elect. The other person that came to church was Elinede. Elinede had her first lesson on Saturday, where she immediately told us that she has problems with depression and bipolar. But she said that she believes in our message. We got her to say that she'd come to church, but the moment we finished the prayer, she said that she shouldn't, because people would judge the fact that her teeth weren't very good (She got the idea from her husband, who sounds like a tool.) But we calmed her down, and the next day, when we went to pick her up, she was already to go! Pray for Patricia and Elinede this week!

Alright, this keyboard is sticky and we're trying out a new Lan House, so I'm gonna stop now and try and learn how to attach pictures and other files. Have a great week!

Elder Youd

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

House in Vila Mederios


Typical Street in Vila Mederios


Week 13: I'm so sorry Mom!!!

This is the subject of my email this week, because I owe about a million apologies to my mother. This week, our time for emailing changed because all of the missionaries went to the temple today. And i didn't realize that i wouldn't be emailing on monday until last wednesday. i was going to send my mom a quick email monday night, but our days have been ridiculously busy this week, and i got caught up. So i'm going to write a short email this week, dedicating a good portion of time apologizing to her for a long period of time. If any of you see my mom, tell her that I said sorry. This is not a joke. If you see her, tell her, "Elder Youd says that he's sorry, he's an idiot, and he made a giant mistake. And he'll never ever ever ever do it again." I'm serious on this. 3 "ever"s. Anyone that emails me saying that they told her will get a special surprise from me, from Brazil.

This week was good. On monday night, ECG and I got the call that we weren't being transferred, which is normal for new missionaries, who generally stay with their trainer for 12 weeks...however, on Tuesday night, at 10:35 pm (after we're supposed to be in bed), President Martins called us. He said that a new batch of American missionaries surprised him at the office door, and that he needs a place for them. That's right. I'm working in a trio this transfer. Our new person is Elder Fields (From now on, EF, or ef today because this shift key is awful). Ef is from arizona, had 12 weeks in Frezno CA while waiting for his visa, and is a bit strange, but has a good spirit. And he speaks absolutely awful Portuguese, which gives me comfort in my ability.

Our week has been crazy since then. Non stop contacting and lessons, and a lot of super highs and lows. At one point last week, we had 9 people with baptismal dates. As of right now, we only have 6, but we still have hope for these people. We have Gustavo, a kid who has interest, and a family of 5, that we'll have to work pretty hard for, but they have potential. So pray for them, as well as Marcio, another investigator who came to church, but has problems because his wife loves her church!!

Alright, I was serious about this week being a short letter. I'll write to some of you, but I've gotta write to my mom. Seriously, if you see her, tell her that. That is what you can do to help the missionary work. That, and pray for my investigators and write to me. 

Thanks everybody!

Just a little setback, but nothing a good pizza wouldn't cure!



Week 12: "Well the years went by, and rock just died, Suzy went and left me for some foreign guy."

This week's subject aren't anything significant. Just the Elton John song that's stuck in my head. Come on, people.

Oi everybody! Boa semana!

This week has been great. I went to the doctor on wednesday about my ankle. 2 pieces of information: 1, it's better and I can work again, and 2, apparently a good portion of this injury was actually a previous injury. Apparently that time last April when I was playing football and twisted my ankle? Yeah. Apparently I've been walking on a kinda-broken ankle for about 6 months now. So if you ever had doubts about my masculinity or Americanity, now your fears can die. I am a manly American.

This week, ECG and I went out of the gates running. We contacted a whole bunch of people (got 28 new addresses for people to visit in 5 days), and we got 2 new baptismal commitments! The first is Robinson, a younger family man that's mostly just looking for a church to go to. I don't know if he's going to follow through, but he accepted a date for the 16th. The other is Patricia, a 20-something young woman that works with a member, Lucinaura. Lucinaura has already told Patricia a ton about the church, so teaching a lesson with her last night was easy. And she said that she's already "80% sure that the church is true." So she said that she'd get baptized the 16th also! The only problem with her is that she technically lives in the boundaries of another ward, so we'll have to figure out if she can attend the same ward as Lucinaura. (Lucinaura lives barely in our ward boundaries.)

Unfortunately, we're starting to have some problems with Marcia and her family. For some reason we haven't been able to talk to her this week, because she's always had a problem with the times. But I have faith that she'll pull through to the waters of baptism.

I would try and think of more people that we've talked to this week, but we have so many right now! We've just done a TON of contacting this week. 

Oh! My new favorite excuse that I've heard someone say for why they can't meet with us today. We were about to visit Carmem, a kinda crazy investigator old woman. We visited her house, and she said, "I'm sorry, meninas (younglings), I can't talk with you today, because I have angry feelings towards my neighbor right now." I wasn't even disappointed. She's kinda crazy, and I kinda love it. During our first lesson with her, I asked if she had sinned since she was baptized with another church. She thought for about 30 seconds, then said, "Well...I don't drink and I don't have sex with people, so no, I don't think I've sinned." We had absolutely no idea what to say to that. We mostly just moved on.

Okay! Thanks for all the support that I've had from you all this week! Time to upload pictures and respond to individual emails! Thanks for all your support!

Elder Youd

Week 11: I literally have no clever subject this week, because nothing happened

Hey folks,

Sorry that my letter this week isnt going to be horribly exciting. Im at a different computer cafe (called Lan Houses here) than we usually go to, because I can only crutch so far, so I cant send pictures, audio recordings, or use the English keyboard setup, so excuse my lack of apostrophes. But luckily, there really isnt much to talk about this week. On Tuesday, we had a mission meeting about emotional health in the mission, which was nice, although it was funny to hear the different opinions of Sister Martins ("If you start feeling depressed, you need to do things to become healthy!") and President Martins ("Of course theres going to be stress, youre on a freaking mission.") But aside from that, absolutely nothing happened this week. Because we could only have lessons when we had members that could drive us, we had one lesson this week, where Marcia and Anderessa said that they werent ready for baptism yet because they wanted to learn more, although they fully believe in the message of the restoration, so they will eventually be baptized, or so I have faith. Aside from this, Ive spent most of my time studying, sleeping, and writing (many of you should expect letters this week.)

This is literally my entire week. Im going to the doctor tomorrow to see if my ankle is better (I hope so!) and then Ill be back on the streets, preaching and trying to pick up our lost ground with our investigators.

So Ill spend the rest of my time emailing individuals! Thanks for all the support everybody! Love you all!

Elder Youd