Week 25

Hey Everyone!

This week was a pretty normal one here in Julio de Mesquita. Last Thursday marked 6 months here in Brazil, which is the supposed "point" at which missionaries are fluent in the mission language. At this point I understand basically everything that's said and I can say what I want without thinking to much about the words themselves. Consistantly conjugating verbs correctly and adjusting to the fact that inanimate objects can be referred to as "him" or "her" ("it" doesn't really exist in portuguese) still prove to be the hardest parts of speaking. As far as fluency I'm either not fluent yet or I was already fluent when I left Itapetininga.

This week was great in that we have 7 people we are teaching who are preparing to be baptized on March 1st! We'll be working with them a bunch this week and the next to help them arrive at the waters of baptism that day. 6 of them live in the CDHU, the government funded houses, which means that they come from humbler living circumstances, but the people there are some of the people that would benefit the most from the gospel. The only problem is that it's kind of far from the chapel and getting to church is hard.

As far as the weather report: after weeks of record setting heat and drought (from what we heard, its been 70 years since it got this bad) we finally got some rain and cloud cover this week so its cooled down a lot.

After 8 weeks we finally got the beds and desks and furniture that we needed! It's been nice to sleep in a bed and study at a desk. My back hasn't been giving me too many problems. After a long day it's sore, but then again, so is the rest of my body! So I don't notice it too much.

And I hope that whoever stole my Valentine's package reads this and knows that I really do forgive them and I hope that they liked the candy :)

That's all I've got for now, I love you guys and I'm praying for you always!

Love, Elder Carr

Week 24

Hey Everyone!

So this week was pretty tough in the fact that we were working hard all day long every day but had little to show for it at the end of the day. We were starting to get discouraged and by the time Sunday came around we were ready to call it a week and head home. Personally, I was feeling kind of ripped off, we were working hard and it seemed like we couldnt get a break, the blessings just werent coming. But the Lord always pulls through in the end, especially after trials of our faith. On Sunday night we saw miracles, helped people that were in seroius need of help and found 6 new investigators, all within the last hour of the day. The temptation to go home and just collapse in bed was enormous, but I'm extremely grateful that we kept working.

To answer some of your questions mom, Elder Baldera was baptized when he was 13. We dont really have anything in common but we teach well together and he's a fast learner so training hasnt been too hard.

We've been having a drought here too and there are several neighborhoods that dont have water. The missionaries in Itu, a nearby city, have been taking showers with water bottles. We've been praying for rain and yesterday we received it! The heavens are open above Julio de Mesquita, literally and figuratively!

Love, Elder Carr

Week 23

Hey everyone!

This week I was transferred to... Julio de Mesquita 1! (I was in 2 this last transfer) That means that I'm still living in the same house and going to the same ward but now I have a new area, new investigators, and a new companion! Elder Baldera is from Lima, Peru and this is his first area! That also means that we are openning the area here and so, for the third time in my mission I'm coming into an area with nothing, just some old teaching records, so there's been a lot of work to do. Elder Baldera understands basically everything that's said, but he has a thick accent and sometimes slips into speaking spanish, so its been a little difficult to communicate.

Elder Sepulveda stayed in Julio 2 and is now companions with Elder Youd, whos from Missouri and was at BYU the same time as me, but lived in Heritage, so I didnt know him (even with all the time that I spent over there haha).

This week was a tough one because it was basically spent knocking doors and trying to find people to teach. In 4 days we knocked a total of 100 doors. We have the most sucess with getting in the door and teaching lessons in the CDHU, government funded appartment buildings, but we have had a hard time teaching people a second time. While there are much better ways to find investigators, we are still working to organize the Area Book and get to know the members in our area. We've got a lot of work in front of us!

Oh, and today marks 7 months on the mission!

Love,

Elder Carr

Week 22

Hey everyone!

So first off, we're going to have a baptism this saturday! Ednaldo (pronounced edgy-naldo)(26 years old), who we've been working with since my first week here was finally able to schedule things so that he doesnt have to work on Sundays! He's integrated really well with the members and is extremely excited to be a member of the church. We were walking down the street our second day here and a car pulled up along side us. It was a member of another stake and he told us that there was a young man on the next street over that wanted to be baptized, basically the dream reference that any missionary would dream of! He made the changes necessary in his life and I know that he will be extremely blessed because of his decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Transfers are this week on Wednesday, but we wont find out until tonight if I'll be staying here or transferred to a different area. It would be sad to not see Ednaldo get baptized and to leave the members here that have been so great, but I would also be excited to get to know other areas, so we'll see what happens!

We're teaching a bunch of people, but it was interesting to note that all of our investigators who are progressing have family members that are members of church. 

Marcio is a man who's wife died recently leaving him with two small children and it turns out that he has several family members that are church members, and Ana is the aunt of several of our ward members here. This just goes to show that your examples as members oof the church will help your friends and  family members accept the missionaries when they knock on their doors. Or you could just make life a lot easier for the missionaries and introduce your friends and family members to the missionaries!

As far as the weather report here, it's still hot and humid and the thunder here sets off car alarms.

Have a great week! Ate mais!

Love, Elder Carr

Week 21

Hey Everyone!

This week was set to be just another normal week here in Julio de Mesquita until I was asked to baptize a boy, Gabriel, in our ward whos family is coming back to church! Even though he's only 8 and it wasn't counted as a baptism for the mission, my joy was just as great as any of my other baptisms. He was so excited and after the baptism he  exclaimed that he felt so clean and like his life was going to be so much better. It was an awesome experience and I'm glad that I had to opportunity to be a part of it.

My portuguese has gotten pretty good, so much so that when Elder Sepulveda was in  the bathroom at church and I opened the door to say something to him, he thought it was a member and asked me later, "Did you see who was talking to me while I was in the bathroom?" Now I just have to learn to conjugate all the verbs correctly.

Our electricity came back on later that night, so that was good, but we are still without beds and desks.

Also, because of the change in mission offices, any packages that have not already arrived that have the old address will be sent back to the sender or lost in the limbo of the mail system. It's unfortunate that we were not notified until last week and that no arrangements were made to receive the packages, seeing as the building  will still belong to the church, but yeah, that's the scoop if any packages or letters are sent back or never get here.

The work here was pretty slow, but its picking up and we're concentrating on finding new investigators and helping the people that we are teaching realize the importance of the things that we are teaching them: Families can be together forever through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it to be true!

Love, Elder Carr

Week 20

Hey everyone!

This week was a tough one here in Julio de Mesquita. Our baptism date fell through again and we had a hard time finding many new people to teach. The people here are a lot less open as the people in Itapetininga. There it was rare to be turned down, but here we'll go the entire day just trying to talk to people and only teach 1 or 2 lessons. But we'll keep working hard to find the people that are willing to receive us!

In other news, we should be getting our beds and desks today, so I'm excited for that! You dont realize how nice it is to have a bed and table until you eat, sleep, and study on the ground every day for 4 weeks. Another blessing that I'm becoming very greatful for is electricity. Our power went out yesterday and has yet to come back on, so its been flashlights, no iron, microwave, no fans, and no washing machine for the last 24 hours. Last time this happened in this area it was out for 3 days, so we're praying hard for it to come back on! The worst part of this is the no fans part because it's been ridiculously hot this last week. It was more than 100 outside and 90 inside because air conditioning doesnt really exist here. Basically you just dont ever stop sweating. I'm still trying to figure out who chose to build a city here. But as usual, the heat is a blessing and most people are willing to bring us a cup of water and will usually ask us what in the world we are doing out in the sun. But as always, Heavenly Father is mindful of our trials and so it's been raining all morning so hopefully things will cool off a little.

Thats all I've got for now, ate mais!

Love, Elder Carr

Week 19

Well, it happened! This week I passed my first "mission milestone!" Elder Nielsen bought me a pizza to celebrate! Looking back, it seems like it's been a lifetime, but everyone says that these next couple months pass by the fastest, so we'll see! I got several Christmas cards from the wonderful members of Vacaville 3rd ward as well as others. Thank you all for your thoughtfulness and love!

This week was, as usual, hot and uneventful. Our baptism for next Saturday fell through because he didnt go to church, so we're going to pass by today and teach about keeping the Sabbath Day holy again and hopefully we'll be having a baptism soon!

We had a cool experience yesterday about the power of the Book of Mormon. We were speaking to a woman that had received the missionaries in the past and I began to get frustrated with her. We had been talking to her for several minutes and she didnt want anything to do with us. She told us that she would never leave her church, even if the same exact church that Jesus Christ established was on the earth today. I was shocked and this and asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon, and she said that she hadn't and that she never would. At that moment it started pouring rain and we asked if we could step inside for a moment to escape the down pour. She said we could, and once we were under the overhang I asked if she could get the Book of Mormon that the missionaries had given her. Thinking that we wanted it back, she went and retrieved it. I silently thanked Heavenly Father for the opportunity He had given us, and when she returned we read a couple verses with her. Her entire demeanor changed and she accepted to read a part of it and pray about it. My arguments and logic had absolutely no effect on her, but the power of the Book of Mormon opened her heart to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. While I can't promise that I won't ever try to convince someone of the  truthfulness of this gospel again, I can promise that I have seen firsthand the convincing and converting power of the Book of Mormon.

Ate mais!

Elder Carr