People Here are 'Molly'

Hi

I know I don’t write much. I’ve been in the same area for 3 months and will be for another 6 weeks and maybe 3 months. We don’t have good investigators and the people here are well very molly. (Don’t remember how to explain molly, it’s a term we use for I think something like cold feet or something)

Today for p-day I think me and my comp will see if we can get Rodrigo, (he’s one of the bishopric counselors in the ward here and only a return missionary for a year and already a high priest), to watch the movie Wall-e at his home. Should be fun but I haven’t gotten hold of him on my phone. We also marked with Jane, who is a member in the branch, to go to some kind of Indian place here where you need to have permission from the chief Indian tribe dude just to visit it. So we need to get that from a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy to get us permission and I think we’ll be going there next week to take picture etc...should be lots of fun. We also planned to go see if we can find waterfalls or something that people said exist out here on some trails w/e not to sure, but will be fun as well.

I’m going to be starting an English class at the church and are also planning to do an activity with the branch members to help unify them a bit and seek references and tomorrow night we will be watching a movie with them at the church on a projector screen with popcorn etc with the same purposes. So this last week was transfers and nothing new so it will be another 6 weeks here with a new start and hope we do better this transfer. So there’s your update. Hope you guys have a good week and nice to hear Roberts doing better.

Love you all, Brian

Clean Up in the Jungle

While cleaning up, Brian found a coconut.

Some neighbors help the elders with cleanup.
Preparing to burn some of the branches they cut up.

Smoke signals???

Cleaning and Baking!

Well I just don’t have that will to write a lot, but for you I’ll try. (After last week's email that was short due to a bad computer, I told him we expected a lot from him. :)

The area here is doing ok. We have lots of people we are teaching and getting to church, the problem is they are just all molly and not real firm. So I have yet to baptize here, but with a miracle we can get one this week or any week. My comp is cool, he teaches really well and likes to work and I believe I’ll stay here another transfer with him.

So I think I know why everyone in our house gets sick a lot. Our water boxes are dirty. Just picture water brown with a giant dead lizard and all sorts of bugs and mosquitoes and dengue. It’s a blessing none of us ever got dengue or any other crazy thing. So we spent all morning today cleaning out our water box and we cleaned it out good with acid and refilled it. Forgot to take pictures, but you can imagine it. Our backyard is looking like a jungle. I think we will clean that up next and we also cleaned our car port with acid because the tiles there were looking green. So we just cleaned everything all day today and it was fun.

Last night I made an orange cake and it was good. I think tonight I’ll make a chocolate one.
Last week we had interviews with president and he took us all out for chuhassco at that same Texaco place, all you can eat. Was lots of fun as always.

So things are just as normal as ever here and have nothing much else to write. Still teaching the same people and no one yet real firm for baptism.

So love you all, and hope everyone starts feeling better (He is talking about the Hubers and Robert)
Brian

(This is Brian’s response to sending him a picture of the food Tate eats. Brian thinks it looks really good. It probably looks better than it tastes. The photo is below.)

AHHAHAAHHhhhhhHAHAHAHAHAHahThat is not what we eat here but it looks way good and makes me have a mix of emotions of mad because I can’t eat it and sad because it’s a long ways away from me. But I’ll live. We eat rice, beans, spaghetti everyday so it isn’t much to complain about.

Computer Causing Trouble

Well mom, the internet is being retarded so I'll just email next week.

Umm Robert and Jim are both looking good.

And yes I am drinking a lot of caffeine here in the mission; coke, guarana, chimahão, pepsi, you name it it has caffein. The president says we can drink it. The members give it to us for lunch and all my comps drink it like water. But I'm not really addicted, so dont worry there. That's one of the things I learned from you was to drink apple juice so I know after the mission that won't be a problem. (I asked him if he was supposed to drink Mate'. Some missions don't allow it and his comp loves it and has him hooked on it too. That's the reason for his comments, because he is answering my question)

Anywhoo, love you and thanks for everyhting and will keep you all in my prayers.
Love Brian

Cleaning Up the Jungle

Cleaning up the backyard of a girl they are teaching. They are hoping to gain the confidence of her mother to let her be baptized.

Brian with his roomates and his companion doing service.

This Week Was Fun As Usual

Well it’s good that Robert is doing better. All that stuff sounds painful and like lots of fun. You should ask my sister Stacie for help, she’s a nurse now I think and knows how to take care of things like that.

So this last week was fun as usual. We have a new family we are teaching and the mother went to church. She has two sons and is separated from her husband and lives in a nice home and has a car and more things than most people here have, but is unhappy and doesn’t know if God loves her because of some things with her son who she thinks is with an evil spirit or something. But I believe the kid just had a bad childhood with parents who didn’t love him and a mix of teretz. So we are teaching her and her two boys, one 10 and the other 8yrs. So the thing she wants is for us to help her son. So we are going to play games with him tomorrow and try to gain his friendship etc and get him excited to go to church. And our other girl who can be baptized I’m not sure if it will be this week because her mom is all against her being baptized and she is scared of what her mom will do and wants her support and she won’t let us talk with her. So we are working with her and trying to get the trust of her mom. Yesterday we did a service project in her backyard and cleaned up their jungle backyard real well and helped show a different side of the church and was fun at the same time. Then that night we watched the movie Charly with them and had cake n popcorn and juice, was lots of fun. So I have some good people I’m working with and hope all goes well with them.

My comp is 19, from Rio Grande do sol, the southern state, he is really one of those not stubborn, but cocky type of people when it come to a lot of things and he even admitted that but he’s really cool and I’m addicted to that erva mate, called Chimahâo. We drink it every day and all night. The first time drinking it, it tasted like horse junk, but got used to it and like it now.

So I think that’s it for this week. Love ya all and will try n send some photos of the service thing we did.

We Worked Really Hard This Week!

That’s very scary, my prayers n fasts are all for Robert. Give him my love and support and keep me updated. Tell everyone else hi as well.

I won’t lie, I got a little sick again the other day and am still recovering today, but all part of life.

We have Paula who is excited to be baptized and is progressing well and went to church all on her own last Sunday. Our other family we have been teaching for a while didn’t make it to church last Sunday and was very disappointing for me and was a little mad at them for their sorry excuses, but will give them one last chance to go this week.

So yeah today I’m not gonna do much, but rest and do some visits tonight. This last week we worked really hard with the branch president visiting all the members who are listed inactive to help narrow that list down to know who has moved or if those people exist and look for opportunities to find investigators, so that made up most of our week. So send Robert and Nanette my love and until another week,
Love Brian

Silva, Souza and Santos

Oh that’s sad that my truck got hurt, but tell Craig it’s no problem and to keep driving and it’s kind of normal in our family to get into stupid accidents like that so be careful with Emily, hehe.

Yeah Santos and Silva and Souza and some others are a majority of names here in Brazil because of their ancestors who where slave owners. So yeah some missionaries will go their whole mission baptizing only Silva’s and Santos.

Ummm I remembered if you can some old spice after shave would be nice.

Tell Belinda hi and that all is going well and thanks for all the prayers and support and love.

So this last week was alright, didn’t exactly get anyone to church, but we are working with a girl whose cousin is active and boyfriend also is active and she isn’t a member but has desire to be baptized. Her mom is against it and so she is confused on what to do. She is 19 and went to church Sunday and we are trying to help her to make it to being baptized, but it can be confusing at times. We are also teaching a lady and her daughter and some of her sisters that live outside the city and they are all going to go to church this Sunday and are reading the Book of Mormon and are keeping the word of wisdom and are only lacking going to church and being baptized. So we’ve done a lot of work these last 2 days visiting all the members on the list of inactive and have been looking for investigators that way and narrowing the list of people of who have moved or don’t want us to come back etc...

Today for P-day we just played card games and think that’s what we will continue to do after.

So that’s about it for this week, thanks for everything
Love Brian.

A View From On High

The city all decorated for Sao Pedro'

Brian's new companion, Elder C. Santos, which makes his third comp with the name of Santos

Large statue of Christ that is on the hill in the city where Brian is serving. They got up at 4:30am so they could climb up and see this statue. Brian is showing us how big it really is.

This is the garden area of a Catholic church they went to see.
An early morning view of the city from the statue

A view of the city as they head back down to the city.

Brian holding Matte and the cup they use to drink Matte'. It is a huge drink in South America.

Long Talk on Fasting

So our week was pretty good, didn’t get better in our turnout in church, but had some good people we were teaching, but as always fell through.

They had me speak last week and I had prepared a 15min talk on fasting and then the second speaker didn’t show up and so they told me to speak longer and had my comp talk too after me so all I had in mind was to talk as long as I can to buy time for my comp. So the funny part of the story is while I was talking they passed a note to me saying my time was up, but I miss-interpreted the note in saying speak longer. So I spoke for 10 more minutes and when I finished the president just looked at me and laughed. It was funny and my comp thanked me because he didn’t have to speak as long. So I gave a 25min talk on fasting.

Yesterday was transfers and my comp was transferred and I stayed and as I feared they made me district leader here which means I’ll be here for a long time. My new comps name is C. Santos, which makes my third companion whose name is Santos. He is from Rio Grande do Sol which is in the southernest part of Brazil, and that’s the place where they drink mate out of their special cups and he has a lot of it at our home. I’ll send pictures today if time allows.

Yesterday we also had President of Brazil visit Palmeiras here, he talked at the soccer stadium and was the first time I saw helicopters here and had military and soldiers on every corner, street, blockades, police in special cars everywhere, was cool to see.

Today for p-day we are doing nothing, we just played games at home.

Last week we walked past a lady and she called us over and so we talked to her and taught her and she really liked everything we taught her. She wanted to go to church, but she went to her family’s home on the weekend and will go again this weekend so it’s hard to get her to church, but we taught her again yesterday and her sister was there and they promised they would go next week and are learning things really well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying and was cool to hear them say that they were certain that we were sent by God to them to help them at a tough time in their lives and they are doing really good in my opinion and know that they will accept baptism after they go to church.

Well, my clothes are still good in my opinion. My garments are a little old and molding out but still holding up good. I’m sure Jeff and anyone else that served knows what I’m mean. Terms of package: umbrella and SD cards. I think there’s something else, but can’t remember at the moment.

Never been chased by a dog yet, but have been chased by a drunk man.Have had a gun pulled on me, but don’t think knife. Brazil did win, but was a close game. The USA was winning 2-0, but Brazil came back and scored 3 times. They went nuts and it’s easy to tell what the score is just by the noises outside and fireworks etc...

OK well love you guys and have a great week, Brian

Inside a Catholic Church

Well I won’t promise I’ll write a lot because we need to go eat lunch. ( I wrote less, so I told him he could write more, haha)

Sunday was well fun. Didn’t get anyone to church and the two people that accepted to be baptized didn’t go and think that they have changed their minds. We worked really hard last week with lots of members that are inactive and will eat lunch with some of them right now and marked family nights with them to play card games etc....

It’s been raining and don’t know if I told you but I’ve gone through 3 umbrellas already, and would like it if you could send me one in the next package along with the memory cards. The nice umbrella I took with me here was stolen and the other ones I bought broke and it keeps adding up every time I buy one. My line of authority you can just email to me and I’ll get it printed.

Today we went to the Catholic Church with a member whose dad is a Padre or something there and we got his keys so that we could go everywhere. Was crazy we went up these steep steps up to the top of the building in all these crazy rooms filled with bats and was fun.

Right now we will have lunch and make brownies.Tell everyone at the reunion high for me. Yes Michael Jackson is dead, all of Brazil loves him and all the street venders are selling and playing his music and is impossible not to hear it while walking down the street and has already been a week, so it was a big deal here. Where is the sister missionary girl from?

Ok well get better. I love you all and until another week,
Brian

Brian hits his 1 year mark!

Brian burning his shirt in celebration of being out 1 YEAR!

These 3 celebrated being out a year by eating at a Texaco gas station

Brazil vs. USA

Olá how is it going?

I know the email is late, but there is always a reason. The President didn’t get kidnapped or anything but the power went out while I was typing your letter and then we had our activity to go to and I didn’t have any desire to rewrite it but tonight we don’t have any appointments and it’s raining so I decided to come write you.

This last week was better, we didn’t get any investigators to church, but we did get some inactive members to church and a lot of the members know them and they we excited to see them and they’ll be going again this week. But the better news is that one of them brought her friend to church with here and was our one person to church and then yesterday we taught her and her husband and they accepted to prepare to be baptized! The lady that brought her to church also is helping her brother and his wife to start going and we talked to her husband and hope that he will get that desire to go too. We also met a return missionary who has been inactive for over a year and we got him going too and marked next p-day to eat lunch and play UNO with him and many of the members loved this guy and were excited to see him. So we are excited to work with these people and hopefully get a train reaction going with the members.

Ohh something funny was that Sunday at church happened to end an hour n half early on the day that Brazil plays USA in the championship cup in Africa. They said they did it because someone died and they said anyone that can, can go there to support here but I’m pretty sure few people went there and the rest went home and watched the game. I just laughed and thought about how this would only happen here in Brazil. I ended up just staying at the church with my comp listening to see who wins the game. That’s something you can do here is just listen and know the score without watching, when you hear the awwww it means the other team scored and then when you hear the cheering and fireworks that means they scored. And it was also Sao Pedro so there was a lot of fireworks and fires again and music etc....

So our p-day was good and we watched the movie, Chronicles of Narnia and was cool to watch a film. I just figured out that the lion is Jesus Christ and all the other symbolism used the film.

Ok well don’t know if I’m forgetting something but that’s about it.
With love n kisses
Brian

Everyone is Well Now...Almost

So yeah me n my comp are all good, but I never mentioned the other two were sick and one of them is still sick to this day haha.

We worked and walked a lot last week and had many people we were teaching and some were firm to go to church and I had much faith we would be successful, and I even walked all the way to their house in the morning to confirm who was going and then went there in the afternoon to get them and that’s when all the excuses come and lies etc...It’s normal in Brazil to say you’ll go to church when they really are just saying no in a polite way. So yeah we spent the whole week working in our area outside the main part of the city behind the mountain were Christ is. Meaning it was a lot of walking and even was 30min late to church because of it and happened to be conference and President Beynon came to speak at this conference, so I walked in late with no investigators, which was funny. But hey we still ended up with 5 people there that came on their own and that’s a record for my comp who’s been here for more than 3 months. 2 of these people come every week and we already taught them and at first they wanted nothing to do with baptism and two others live outside the city and the other one I tried to mark appointments with him, but he didn’t want that either, so we’ll see how things turn out this week.

Yeah it wasn’t allergies when I was bedridden, but the first week here I believe it was allergies every day. But I haven’t had them for a week so that’s been nice for me and better for me to work with. So last week I was sad to see some of my recent converts that went inactive, but got one of them excited to go back this last Sunday. The old couple I baptized are firmer than ever and will start preparation for the temple and was cool to talk to him. He didn’t recognize it was me at first. He thought I was the other missionaries and then I asked him if he remembered me and he looked at me for a bit and got excited and hugged me and that was awesome to have him remember me. So this last week was pretty good.

For p-day today I got up at 4:30 to climb up the mountain to see Christ and was worth it to see the whole city and will send pictures. Yesterday was São João and so we didn’t work after 5:30 because that’s when all the fiestas started and every house had fires going in the streets and so the streets were just filled with smoke and fireworks etc all night...I took a lot of pictures and films that I’ll have to send. We just sat outside our house watching all the fireworks etc... The 28th will be são Pedro and will do it all over again.

Don’t worry about a hump day package. I didn’t even know that existed, but could use more SD cards for my camera. If you want ideas in junk food: beef jerky, m&ms, gummy bears, mac n cheese. So that’s about it.

Brazil is doing good in the soccer tournament and we watched the game of them vs. USA last week at our lunch with President Marcos. He had it going while we ate lunch and the people are crazy. It’s not even the world cup yet, but they treat every game as if it was.

Well lots of love, have fun on vacation at the ranch.
Brian

Palmeiras Dos Indios...Brian's New Area

This is the Mac and Cheese that Brian said saved his life when he was sick. Thanks to his brother for sending it to him.

Brian shows some wear and tear and his shoes, but they are still holding up pretty good, except for the laces.

A view from the church in his new area
Elder Wellington (Brian's new comp) and Elder Roberts standing in their new house

New sleeping quarters

A statue of Christ on the hill in Palmeiras

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Water on the floor of their apartment.

This is what it looks like when it rains.

The streets look like this after it rains.
A car driving through the flooded streets.

Lots and lots of rain.
The aftermath of rain

The rain brings out little creatures.

Big worms enjoy the rain.

A view of the city

I'm Doing Better Now!

I’m doing better now thankfully and now my comp is sick. I got nothing done the last week because I was sick in bed the whole week taking all sorts of medication, but I am better now and now my comp is taking the medicine. So this puts a damper on the work, but will continue to work hard to find people to bring to church.

So the rain stopped for maybe a day and was good to work a bit yesterday. But today its just raining again. Oh and I’m in Arapiraca right now to celebrate our year mark. We’re going to eat today at a nice restaurant and stuff.

Just about every night people light fires outside their homes and are lighting fireworks etc for the são joão thingy this month and that with the roosters that crow all night don’t help with sleep that much. The city here is cool, my area covers half of it and we walked out to the farthest part of my area yesterday and that’s like a 30min walk to get there and is on the other side of the mountain.

I have some questions: Can you send me my line of authority please? How do you play phase 10 with face cards? There was a game my brother Jason taught me called lucky kings or something, how do you play that?What’s the recipe for brownies?

So I’m feeling better and things are going great, so I think I’m going to try n send some photos right now.

So love you all and thanks for the prayers.
Love Elder Roberts

Beautiful San Lorenzo

The beautiful area of San Lorenzo

Elder Roberts and his comp and some people they met

What in the world is this? Must be a big melon or squash of some kind

Not sure if Brian likes it or not

A Really Sick Week!

I almost decided to not write this today because I am really sick and almost dead, but I'll write a bit about my week.

So yeah it's been raining nonstop and has got me sick with allergies every day now since I've been here, so I take benedryl every day and sleep it off a bit, but yesterday I had a fever and was leaking like crazy and the benadryl didn't help nor the Ibprofin. I had appointments and was doing a division and thought about not going to my appointments, but I wouldn't be able to see these people until Friday because p-day today and tommorrow conference in Maceio so I decided to go out to them all. By the way it never stopped raining yesterday so the streets were flooded and it stopped me from getting to a lot of my appointments because some of the roads were litterally turned into rushing rivers and so I was muddy, all wet, and things just got worse while we were visiting some of these people, so I finally decided to go home and sleep.

I haven't gotten much sleep and have been in bed since and barely had the energy to come here and email. Well other than that my week was pretty good. We worked hard, but weren't able to get people to church this week, mainly because of the rain, but the members are good and have about 40-50 people attending each week. It was a good fast n testimony meeting and got to know alot of people here.

OK well I'm going to try n get better. You guys have a nice week.
Love Brian

I've Been Transferred to Palmeiras dos Indios

Sorry I didn’t have time to email last week. I had gone to visit one of my last areas to visit some of my converts and had no time to write at all that day.

So yes Arilene wrote: (This is what she wrote: HE WAS:TRANSFERED TO: PALMEIRAS DOS INDIOS. Elder Roberts foi transferido para outra ala, ele é um bom missionário, sou grata ao Pai Celestial por tudo que ele compartilhou.Tenha uma boa noite. com amor,
Arilene)

In English is says: Elder Roberts was transferred to another ward, he is a good missionary, I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for all that he shared, have a good night. With love Arilene

So I’m back to the interior which means the whole middle of nowhere, dirt roads, cows n horses in the streets kind of thing. I’m loving it though and actually prefer it over the city. The area seems nice, I’ve only been here since yesterday though. There is a ward here and a branch and I’m working in the branch and hasn’t had a baptism in over 6months or more but am excited to turn that all around.

My comps real name is Dos Santos, but that was changed to Wellington so that what it says on his nametag. I think he is shorter than me. So there are 4 of us living in the same home and have to travel to get to conferences etc.And yeah I was made senior and am enjoying working, my comp was shocked that we worked last night because his last 2-3 comps never worked or planned or did much of anything.

So I took a 2-3 hour bus ride to get here and then taxi to my home. Its funny there’s like 20 little girls always outside our home wanting to talk to us and playing, I’ll see if I can get a picture of them. Haven’t been to church yet but have met some of the members and the branch president and look forward to working with them. The home is nice compared to were they lived before because it has water and a washing machine now and plenty of room in the backyard to hang clothing and it’s a lot bigger inside compared to the last one. A lot more mosquitoes and humid and it gets colder at night. I love it.

I guess this month is São Juão (I think), it’s a big fiesta. They spend this whole month celebrating and it’s really big here and all over the interiors in the north. Let’s just see if that affects the work at all.

OK well love you all, Brian