11-16 Still in Florenca!

Dear Family,

This week has been great! Towards the end of the week we had one of the 3-day Brazil rain storms where the rain just washes everything in sight down the dirt roads into the rivers in the valley (aka jungle). The shoes are taking a beating. Elder Jack showed me a sweet store where he buys tougher shoes that are still comfortable for only 20 Reals!! He’s going to give me some stuff when he leaves including the shoes he’s wearing now which I think will fit!

This week we were walking in the valley and were passed by a van with a bunch of guys who yelled "what’s up man! Need a ride?!" followed by a roar of laughter. I wonder if they realize I think it’s hilarious too. I love making fun of myself. Elder Jack is going home in a week so he’s been dreaming of home while trying to finish strong at the same time. I can see him on his last string though...especially training me haha. I’m sure I sound like an idiot sometimes after his great teaching and then he will look at me and Ill take 5 minutes to explain our life on earth.... ok, its actually going pretty well. I’m learning a lot.

This week we found an older lady named Dona Maria. Dona is like “Mrs” in English and everyone out here has a first name of "Maria Rosario" so right now were teaching 3 people all named Dona Maria Rosario…it’s a joke. Anyway, Dona Maria is awesome! Whenever we teach her something new she sits there wide-eyed and you can just see her eyes glow.  When we first started teaching her they were dull and now she sits in her house and literally reads the Book of Mormon all day! It’s amazing. I had the great opportunity to baptize her on Sunday. Before her baptism we were teaching her and her daughter. Her daughter found it funny that we don’t drink coffee. After about 10 minutes of explaining to her why we don’t, she finally understood. She then came out with cola which we’ve been told by President we can’t drink either for whatever reason. Elder Jack looked at me and I looked at him and just laughed...how the heck are we going to explain this one to her. She probably thought we were so weird. And then we had to leave and cut it short to be home by 9.

Lunch yesterday was great…just the normal Brazilian lunch. I was pretty hungry so I was eating pretty quick. I looked down at my plate really quickly and found a chicken foot and leg…ohh the Brasilian surprises!

Yesterday Elder Jack and I were in Belo turning in the fichas… forms—to the office. I was planning on sending some letters off but turns out the city was shut down due to some random Brasilian holiday…hahah...it reminded me of not being able to go swim because of some random holiday at the JCC at home. Haha. It’s really hot here in Brasil— in case anyone didn’t know yet. It’s pretty ridiculous. The other day elder Jack and I had just finished lunch and we stuffed ourselves just to leave and find that it was incredibly hot outside and we needed to be somewhere pretty quickly. We felt like a couple drunk people trying to walk down the dirt road stuffed with the sun beating down on us. It’s this crazy feeling where you feel dizzy and stuff...kinda cool actually.

I love hearing all about the family back at home!! I miss everyone…Catie that’s awesome you’re doing so well with swimming. And Spencer and Davis sound like they’re beasting it up with football. That’s all over now...time to beast up the baseball field. Get it done this season!!! Sarah— great to hear you’re still doing great swimming and ballet. Mary I miss you too! I love to read Elizabeth’s never ending emails that take half of my email time too! Hahaa just kidding—they’re hilarious. Keep ‘em coming! I heard this week from Brady Johnson from SVU and Noah Christian. They are both doing great!! Oh, and dad—I got a letter that you wrote about a month ago that was send to Arcadia! It’s the one where you promised you’d give me the civic when I get back. I liked that one. I love getting letters—pretty soon here I’m only going to be able to go to the office every month or so maybe even longer because come transfers I won’t be with a district leader anymore so we won’t have to go to the office every week. That’s gonna suck, but it’s all good.  And I mailed those letters today that I couldn’t get off yesterday.

People make you eat like crazy here! Elder Jack said he threw up 3 times after leaving a few lunches when he first got here. Don’t worry I’ve learned quick though! The big trick is when you go to lunch you just get a tiny bit so then when the host tells you to go get your millionth serving of beans you don’t barf all over them. It’s good stuff.  We do an incredible amount of walking everyday. That’s pretty good excercize I think… I’ve been trying to go some plyometric stuff every night and crunches and pushups so I think I’ll be alright. I just gotta make sure I don’t get fat from all this bread and wheat here! The fruit is great too! It’s almost mango picking season!! There’s mango trees everywhere you look so I’m stoked to start picking them and eating them on the walk. I ike to buy lots since it’s pretty cheap here!

It’s so great to hear from every one of you!! Everyone keep working hard with school, work, baseball, ect. whatever it is. The Lord will always bless you as long as you work as hard as you can and you’re studying the scriptures and trying your best to live like Christ.  This week I’ve thought a lot about living right consistently. It requires a firm and sincere desire to be like Christ. I’ve been reading Elder Ballard’s book, Our Search for Happiness. It talks about the need to really love the Lord and then we’ll be alright because He will shape our life. It’s pretty awesome. I’m excited for transfers. There’s really no way I stay here in Florenca since it’s a zone leader area and there’s 4 people living in a 2 person house. I think Elder Bowerbank and I will be headed somewhere else. I’m excited to learn a new area and new people! Jonathan, it’s great to hear you’re doing great too!! I continue to pray for you as well!

Well that’s about all the time I have!! Love you all!! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jones!!

Elder Jones and the city of Florenca at night

With Dona Maria Rosario on her baptism day

Brazilian License Plate

Andrew's Brazil ID and some of his money.

The missionaries are livin' in style...

At the Mission Office

Short letter from 11-9-11

Dear Family and Friends,

This week flew by just like all the time has here so far— well like the entire mission actually. It’s weird to think that it’s already been 3 months...crazy. My companion Elder Jack is going home at the end of this transfer.  He keeps telling me that he is almost positive that President will make me a senior companion and will transfer me since this area is only supposed to have 2 missionaries but it has 4 now. I think elder jack and i already have 8 or 10 baptisms since being here1!! So crazy. 

Something I really missed on Halloween was picking apples with the family. That’s something that I loved doing every year. I loved just going with the family and eating those delicious apples. The fruit is really awesome and cheap out here but it’s not the same as those apple orchards! 

One of our investigators told us that she thought we were 30 this week which was pretty funny. She’s doing really well. We’re supposed to be baptizing her this Sunday but she’s being iffy. Elder Jack is really good with being firm with people and telling them that it’s really important. The outline that the president gives us to teach doesn’t even mention the Book of Mormon until after they accept baptism which is surprising to me especially when they stressed using it ASAP in the MTC. Weird…I think I’m going to put more emphasis on the Book of Mormon when I’m senior companion and ask President about it. 

The work is still going great though! Christmas lights do actually exist in Brazil…it’s pretty funny. They’re just at random places and today I saw a Christmas store in the city. Today we’re in the city for our P-day because Elder Jack is gonna blow 400 Reals of stuff before he goes home (he says). So the whole 100 Reals a week allowance thing isn’t as much as I thought. Almost out…

We’re still working hard and the work is progressing. I miss and love everyone! This week I got 2 letters from dad and Catie and one from Derek. That was great to finally get mail in Brazil! Love everyone! Have a great week!

Letter from 11-2-11

Dear family and friends,

First off, I got emails from James Webb and Derek Dixon but the President has threatened to send us home if we respond to other people than our immediate family so tell them I wanted to respond but can just write letters, sorry! Tell James I give him a HUGE CONGRATS and that I’m beyond stoked. Elder Rios went to Curitiba. What mission exactly? Sooo sweet. This work is true and I will keep working hard to bring it to others.

Anyway, the mission is great. All is well.  I haven’t even got sick here so that’s pretty sweet. I love Brazil.

Letters take forever to get here apparently. Still haven’t received the one from dad. The office doesn’t forward the letters so we have to go pick them up at the office. Fortunately for us 4 who live in Florenca (45 min from Belo) we go to the office to drop off baptism forms for the zone since we live with 2 zone leaders. So we spend 7 bucks on bus tickets at least once a week. It’s all good though, they give us 100 Reals every 1st and 15th so that’s 50 Reals a week which isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

This week was fantastic!! Jessica and Maria, two of our investigators, were excited to be baptized and we worked on teaching them all week. Two more investigators committed to going to church this Sunday to see the baptisms of Jessica and Maria as well as another family we’ve been teaching this week.

On Thursday we were up in Florenca across the highway we have to cross many times a day (I’m gonna be the worst with hitch hiking when I get home haha) and we were up high in the hills in an area where Elder Jack said he’s never been before in his many, many months serving in this area. I was surprised to hear that since he’s always pointing out people in the street that he’s baptized. Everyone seems to know him and I’m just the new missionary haha. But yeah so we’re up there seeing all kinds of animals...i’m pretty sure there were llamas like in Napoleon Dynamite but who knows…they have fruit here and animals that nobody knows about in the states.  As we’re walking through this narrow dirt road in the jungle there are random shack houses-which I’m getting really used to-and we finally get to the end of the road without any luck. At the last house on the hill in this jungle neighborhood type area, Elder Jack says "that’s a humble house" so I clapped my hands and we met a 19 yr old girl named Isa Marie. She came out to tell us that she had been waiting for the missionaries to come by so she could be baptized right when she saw us. She went on to tell us that her mother and father had been baptized by Elders that had passed by their little house 3 years ago. They had been forbidden to go back after those missionaries left and their dad went inactive. He threw all the Bibles and  Book of Mormons away that her mother had and her mother has gone into a depression ever since. They weren’t home at the time, only Isa. We sat down with her and we started the first lesson and she said she’d be baptized in 2 weeks after going to church with us on Sunday.

The next day we passed to meet with Isa Marie again and met her dad who was the only one home. He was incredibly rude and hostile towards both us and his daughter. It was probably a good thing that I could only understand a little bit of it. He told us that many missionaries have come by over the years and have all wasted their time with their family because they were "all Catholic"  and he explained that he didn’t like all the "rules" in the church. We explained to him that we had taught his daughter and she wanted to be baptized. He said he wouldn’t stop her from being baptized but that she only talked to us because we were "americanos." Elder Jack told him that we’d be back and we left after telling him to have a good day.

I don’t know all of Isa’s motives but when I taught the restoration I looked carefully in her eyes to make sure she was serious about it. As we left and gave her a Book of Mormon, she held it close to her heart. When Sunday rolled around we went to go pick up Jessica and Marie for their baptisms early in the morning and walked through the mud before 9 o’clock church. They had locked their house and turned off their phone and we haven’t been able to find them since. They were golden and suddenly did a 180. We’re going to try to find them later tonight. Anyway, every baptism fell through and the 2 investigators that committed to come to church weren’t home. We stood outside their houses one after another clapping our hands. That was really hard. It killed me. In Alma chapter 15 I think it is verse 23 it talks about Alma and Amulek and the anxiety they felt when people would procrastinate the day of their repentance. It’s truly a killer especially when you get to love them and they don’t follow through.

So we walk frustrated to the bus stop to meet some members waiting there and then Isa showed up which brightened me up a little. We showed her through the meetings at church and suddenly out of nowhere Elder Jack tells her after gospel principles class that she could be baptized that same day if she wanted to. She freaked out a little bit and so did I but then I realized she had already sat through the lessons with her mom and dad and been to church a few times a while ago. She said she had the desire (which is all the people in the Book of Mormon needed when they were baptized at the waters of Mormon) so all the missionaries in the ward scrambled to set up chairs and get an interview set up to see if she still remembered the lessons and everyone was throwing paper work around.

Elder Jack told me to go quickly change my clothes and get my white baptismal clothes on (which Elder Bowerbank was so kind to hem). I was a little nervous but confident with the prayer and had practiced it a lot. Right before getting into the water I asked her name. I’m pretty sure she gave me at least 5 or 6 names that i couldn’t pronounce. She was freaking out so I was trying to remain calm. She didn’t know it was my first baptism and that I had no clue what she had just said. I started the prayer and said her name and heard an "espera" or wait from Elder Jack behind me on the stairs. He then had me repeat her name as he said it and then I proceeded with the prayer and everything went great. It was exciting for me and her. She said she felt a lot better after the baptism and that she felt good. We’re going to keep teaching her. Her whole story is just one example of the miracles the Lord has prepared for us.

This work continues to amaze me. It’s still pretty frustrating to not understand the old people that talk a million miles an hour but have no teeth— but I’ll get there. It’s really hard to speak still too –especially about non-gospel related stuff.

Halloween was weird. I woke up and Elder Bowerbank said happy halloween. Nobody celebrates it here. The children knew it was Halloween but they don’t know what trick or treating is. Apparently Elder Jack says they don’t celebrate anything here haha. Not really even Christmas. Either way well be knocking doors to share a message – but not for candy… although some chocolate would be nice a break from rice and beans 24/7. haha man I love it here. I wish I had more time to tell you about my experience of reading in John chap 13-15 this morning and the spirit I felt when I read the words that Christ spoke to his disciples before being crucified. Read those chapters and relate and liken them to you. It’s amazing!

Love you all and hope you all had a great Halloween! Gotta run and buy groceries. Love you all!

Love, Elder Jones