Hola todo mundo!
I am sorry to say that I have no funny portuguese mistakes to report this week! Mom, my back is doing okay and my portuguese just keeps getting better. I had burger king. Probably the first and the last time that I will ever have it here. It was so expensive. 16 reais for a value meal! That is about equal to maybe 9 dollars! Whoa! I am staying healthy out here though and many people have complimented me on how thin I am getting (dont worry nothing bad). I have lost a couple of pounds from all of the walking but I am eating alot and I try to excercise in the morning. I am excited to recieve your packages! I will let you know of any necessities. I do have a question I guess. My face is breaking out. Pretty badly, some of the other missionaries told me that with the hotter air and the more humidity I am probably having some sort of reaction to it or something. It hurts to shave the right side of my face sometimes. I went to a lotion type store and asked them what to do. I bought from them some type of sensitive skin shaving cream that they said would help. When I put it on, it burns! I guess that means its working. What do you think? I have only used it for one day so far because I bought it yesterday.
The portuguese is coming along, I have the opposite problem that everyone has, I can actually speak portuguese okay, but I dont understand anything. A person will talk and I don't get what they are saying but when they write it down, I know exactly what they are saying. We had a good week today. We have grown really close to Neli's family. Neli and her soon to be husband, Jaime, and their four kids, Gabi, Laura, Lisianne, and one that I cant quite pronounce and kind of dont really know... Neli and Jaime signed the marriage papers this week and I guess are legitimatly married now. Neli and Gabi will be baptized this saturday and also have a wedding ceremony and a big party. Its awesome. Jaime doesn't want to get baptized because of tithing but I know that in time, whether or not Elder P. Silva and I are around, he will. He is the kind of person that if he joined the church he would go all out just like he should. He would pay tithing whether or not he has the money for it. That scares him, he doesn't want to damage his family by paying tithing when they dont have that much money to begin with. Elder P. Silva explained that tithing is a law of faith and that he just needs to rely on the lord to help him. He still wont budge.
Ionice went to church again, but this time in a different ward. When we did divisions with the Zone leaders a while back, I went to the area of Elder Green, one of the zone leaders, and taught with him. One family of investigators that he is teaching gave me the reference of Ionice. Ionice is there grandma, or the father of the family's mom. She went to their ward last sunday. She did say that she wants to be baptized and we are working on getting a baptismal date set up this week.
Many of our other investigators have come and gone. We feel like we are making progress but then they stop keeping commitments. We eventually have to drop them, but we have met some new cool people. We taught these two nice old ladies and they were very excepting. I hope I am not getting my hopes up too high, but they are really taking in everything we say and seemed excited to go to church with us this upcoming sunday. We will walk by their house and try to walk with them to church. Its awesome.
One thing that I did notice that will be helpful in the future that isn't too big of a deal right now is that axe, deoderant, and sunscreen are very expensive here. If you could slide some stuff like that into the next package that you send me that would be amazing.
I am glad that you had a good thanksgiving. I don't even remember what day was thanksgiving. we didn't do anything special, just worked. For christmas though, we have a big christmas conference and they split the mission into two parts. They have two different conferences at different times and afterwards I think that they take a big mission picture. I will get a copy of the one I will be in and one of the other half of the mission.
This is the final week of my first transfer here and I will probably stay here in the same area with my companion elder P. Silva for another transfer. After that from what I here, I will stay here another transfer, but recieve a new companion. That's apparently what happens to all of the newbies. I am growing to love brazil more and more but there are some difficulties. I will tell you one problem I had and then tell you the positive things next.
You have probably realized that missionaries, and home teachers too, always ask, "Is there anything we can do for you or anything that you need help with?" They always say something like that. Sometimes the members like to joke around and say stuff like, "Yeah you can paint my house" or "Yeah you can wash my cars" and everyone laughs and then the members says no we are fine thank you. Well we have one family of recent converts that we have been visiting because the husband will be baptized someday but is working on some problem that no one will tell us. The bishop I think knows but we dont. Anyway, I dont understand anything that is going on ever and I didn't realize that we had a service project. We wake up one morning and start getting ready and elder P. Silva says, "Elder we need to leave the house early today for a service project." We get ready and go to this family's house. The man's name is Jose. Our service project was to wash his two cars, his motorcycle, and Spray the floor of his garage. First off he has two cars and a motorcycle, most people here have to walk everywhere they go. this means that he is pretty wealthy and I dont think that washing his cars is a greaty use of a missionariy's time. I did realize though, that I have been called to SERVE. So I thought, "okay, keep your head up, be patient, and help this man." I started helping clean the car and he kept telling me I was doing it wrong. I wasn't doing in wrong, I was just doing it different. I could tell that he was trying to fine "Little kid" jobs for me because he thought I didn't know how to work. One problem was that I couldn't understand almost everything he said and the other was that everytime I tried to do something the way I would have back home got frusturated and told me I was doing something wrong. He told me to start sweeping all of these little tiny leaf thingys that fell from a tree in his front of his house off the sidewalk. I tried to, but the broom wasn't picking up anything. So I grabbed the house and started spraying it off. The same way we use the house back home to clean our driveway or patio. As I was doing it Elder P. Silva was busy cleaning the car while this man, jose, just stood there watching me work and said mean things about me. I may not understand a lot but I am no idiot. I heard him say something about americans and work. When jose ran back inside the house to grab something, I asked what he said. Elder P. Silva explained that he said I look like an american who has never had to work for anything in my life and my parents probably just give me anything. Elder P. Silva felt uncomfortable telling me this because he really disagrees with jose. I was so mad, I am at this man's house wasting my time. We gave up our study time to help him. I could have been improving my knowledge of the gospel or helping someone who needed it. I continued working and he continued to make fun of me.
A couple days later we had family home evening with their family. When we showed up Jose wasnt even home and they hadn't started preparing anything. Jose finally got home and we told him that we need to leave at nine so that we can get home ontime. We have to be back in our house by nine thirty. He told us that it doesnt take that long and we should leave at nine thirty. Again Elder P. Silva is doing all of the talking because I dont understand. The man took us to the grocery store to buy some stuff for dinner. We got to back to their house at nine fifteen. We knew that we needed to leave so we asked if we could share a quick message. Jose put us off and kept telling us to wait. I dont know much about the culture and what is rude and what is not so I didn't say anything, but I had the words ready. Nos precisamos sair. We need to leave. Anyway, they had dinner for us ready at nine thirty and we didnt leave there house until ten. We got home at ten fifteen. Forty five minutes late. We missed our planning time and pretty much just went to bed. This man knew that we were supposed to leave at nine and we actually had to beg him for a ride home. He wouldn't give us one until his daughter begged too. Man I was mad.
The good that I mentioned earlier is that we had two other service projects this week and they were for people who needed it. One project we weeded a yard for a family. The mom is not a member but her sons are. The oldest is 16 and he gets everyone to church every sunday. I was happy to help. We also helped another man who recently got out of the hospital clean up a big storage garage. I felt good helping these people.
Life is hot out here. There have been a few days where I have taken three showers. One in the morning, one after some sort of labor, service projects, or on P-day when we play sports and then one at night. The missionary health guide actually tells us that we should take at least two showers a day. Pretty crazy huh?
I have stopped worrying about the language so much. As long as I do what I am supposed to, it will come. Fear only gets in the way, fear is the opposition of faith. I have finished my Search for happiness. It is a great book. I learned a lot. I am in alma in the book of mormon and have been slowly going through it because I read other material also. I love you guys and think about how you are all doing. Keep working hard at home. I learn more and more everyday. My purpose as a missionary is not to baptize. It is to INVITE others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the holy ghost and enduring to the end. Notice that the purpose is to INVITE others not force them not make these choices for them.
Work hard and I will see you all in August of 2011!
Elder Bullough
I am sorry to say that I have no funny portuguese mistakes to report this week! Mom, my back is doing okay and my portuguese just keeps getting better. I had burger king. Probably the first and the last time that I will ever have it here. It was so expensive. 16 reais for a value meal! That is about equal to maybe 9 dollars! Whoa! I am staying healthy out here though and many people have complimented me on how thin I am getting (dont worry nothing bad). I have lost a couple of pounds from all of the walking but I am eating alot and I try to excercise in the morning. I am excited to recieve your packages! I will let you know of any necessities. I do have a question I guess. My face is breaking out. Pretty badly, some of the other missionaries told me that with the hotter air and the more humidity I am probably having some sort of reaction to it or something. It hurts to shave the right side of my face sometimes. I went to a lotion type store and asked them what to do. I bought from them some type of sensitive skin shaving cream that they said would help. When I put it on, it burns! I guess that means its working. What do you think? I have only used it for one day so far because I bought it yesterday.
The portuguese is coming along, I have the opposite problem that everyone has, I can actually speak portuguese okay, but I dont understand anything. A person will talk and I don't get what they are saying but when they write it down, I know exactly what they are saying. We had a good week today. We have grown really close to Neli's family. Neli and her soon to be husband, Jaime, and their four kids, Gabi, Laura, Lisianne, and one that I cant quite pronounce and kind of dont really know... Neli and Jaime signed the marriage papers this week and I guess are legitimatly married now. Neli and Gabi will be baptized this saturday and also have a wedding ceremony and a big party. Its awesome. Jaime doesn't want to get baptized because of tithing but I know that in time, whether or not Elder P. Silva and I are around, he will. He is the kind of person that if he joined the church he would go all out just like he should. He would pay tithing whether or not he has the money for it. That scares him, he doesn't want to damage his family by paying tithing when they dont have that much money to begin with. Elder P. Silva explained that tithing is a law of faith and that he just needs to rely on the lord to help him. He still wont budge.
Ionice went to church again, but this time in a different ward. When we did divisions with the Zone leaders a while back, I went to the area of Elder Green, one of the zone leaders, and taught with him. One family of investigators that he is teaching gave me the reference of Ionice. Ionice is there grandma, or the father of the family's mom. She went to their ward last sunday. She did say that she wants to be baptized and we are working on getting a baptismal date set up this week.
Many of our other investigators have come and gone. We feel like we are making progress but then they stop keeping commitments. We eventually have to drop them, but we have met some new cool people. We taught these two nice old ladies and they were very excepting. I hope I am not getting my hopes up too high, but they are really taking in everything we say and seemed excited to go to church with us this upcoming sunday. We will walk by their house and try to walk with them to church. Its awesome.
One thing that I did notice that will be helpful in the future that isn't too big of a deal right now is that axe, deoderant, and sunscreen are very expensive here. If you could slide some stuff like that into the next package that you send me that would be amazing.
I am glad that you had a good thanksgiving. I don't even remember what day was thanksgiving. we didn't do anything special, just worked. For christmas though, we have a big christmas conference and they split the mission into two parts. They have two different conferences at different times and afterwards I think that they take a big mission picture. I will get a copy of the one I will be in and one of the other half of the mission.
This is the final week of my first transfer here and I will probably stay here in the same area with my companion elder P. Silva for another transfer. After that from what I here, I will stay here another transfer, but recieve a new companion. That's apparently what happens to all of the newbies. I am growing to love brazil more and more but there are some difficulties. I will tell you one problem I had and then tell you the positive things next.
You have probably realized that missionaries, and home teachers too, always ask, "Is there anything we can do for you or anything that you need help with?" They always say something like that. Sometimes the members like to joke around and say stuff like, "Yeah you can paint my house" or "Yeah you can wash my cars" and everyone laughs and then the members says no we are fine thank you. Well we have one family of recent converts that we have been visiting because the husband will be baptized someday but is working on some problem that no one will tell us. The bishop I think knows but we dont. Anyway, I dont understand anything that is going on ever and I didn't realize that we had a service project. We wake up one morning and start getting ready and elder P. Silva says, "Elder we need to leave the house early today for a service project." We get ready and go to this family's house. The man's name is Jose. Our service project was to wash his two cars, his motorcycle, and Spray the floor of his garage. First off he has two cars and a motorcycle, most people here have to walk everywhere they go. this means that he is pretty wealthy and I dont think that washing his cars is a greaty use of a missionariy's time. I did realize though, that I have been called to SERVE. So I thought, "okay, keep your head up, be patient, and help this man." I started helping clean the car and he kept telling me I was doing it wrong. I wasn't doing in wrong, I was just doing it different. I could tell that he was trying to fine "Little kid" jobs for me because he thought I didn't know how to work. One problem was that I couldn't understand almost everything he said and the other was that everytime I tried to do something the way I would have back home got frusturated and told me I was doing something wrong. He told me to start sweeping all of these little tiny leaf thingys that fell from a tree in his front of his house off the sidewalk. I tried to, but the broom wasn't picking up anything. So I grabbed the house and started spraying it off. The same way we use the house back home to clean our driveway or patio. As I was doing it Elder P. Silva was busy cleaning the car while this man, jose, just stood there watching me work and said mean things about me. I may not understand a lot but I am no idiot. I heard him say something about americans and work. When jose ran back inside the house to grab something, I asked what he said. Elder P. Silva explained that he said I look like an american who has never had to work for anything in my life and my parents probably just give me anything. Elder P. Silva felt uncomfortable telling me this because he really disagrees with jose. I was so mad, I am at this man's house wasting my time. We gave up our study time to help him. I could have been improving my knowledge of the gospel or helping someone who needed it. I continued working and he continued to make fun of me.
A couple days later we had family home evening with their family. When we showed up Jose wasnt even home and they hadn't started preparing anything. Jose finally got home and we told him that we need to leave at nine so that we can get home ontime. We have to be back in our house by nine thirty. He told us that it doesnt take that long and we should leave at nine thirty. Again Elder P. Silva is doing all of the talking because I dont understand. The man took us to the grocery store to buy some stuff for dinner. We got to back to their house at nine fifteen. We knew that we needed to leave so we asked if we could share a quick message. Jose put us off and kept telling us to wait. I dont know much about the culture and what is rude and what is not so I didn't say anything, but I had the words ready. Nos precisamos sair. We need to leave. Anyway, they had dinner for us ready at nine thirty and we didnt leave there house until ten. We got home at ten fifteen. Forty five minutes late. We missed our planning time and pretty much just went to bed. This man knew that we were supposed to leave at nine and we actually had to beg him for a ride home. He wouldn't give us one until his daughter begged too. Man I was mad.
The good that I mentioned earlier is that we had two other service projects this week and they were for people who needed it. One project we weeded a yard for a family. The mom is not a member but her sons are. The oldest is 16 and he gets everyone to church every sunday. I was happy to help. We also helped another man who recently got out of the hospital clean up a big storage garage. I felt good helping these people.
Life is hot out here. There have been a few days where I have taken three showers. One in the morning, one after some sort of labor, service projects, or on P-day when we play sports and then one at night. The missionary health guide actually tells us that we should take at least two showers a day. Pretty crazy huh?
I have stopped worrying about the language so much. As long as I do what I am supposed to, it will come. Fear only gets in the way, fear is the opposition of faith. I have finished my Search for happiness. It is a great book. I learned a lot. I am in alma in the book of mormon and have been slowly going through it because I read other material also. I love you guys and think about how you are all doing. Keep working hard at home. I learn more and more everyday. My purpose as a missionary is not to baptize. It is to INVITE others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the holy ghost and enduring to the end. Notice that the purpose is to INVITE others not force them not make these choices for them.
Work hard and I will see you all in August of 2011!
Elder Bullough
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