September 23, 2013 Week 6 Brazil!

Dear Family and Friends,

     Well, my first transfer in Brasil has been completed, and my news for this week is that I will be staying in São Mateus with Elder Moroni for this next transfer as well! Wahoo! Yesterday we sent off Elder Morgan on a bus headed for Vitória, and he´ll be going home on Wednesday (I think). It was sad to see him go, but we still have Elder Mason here with us, and he´ll be receiving a new companion shortly. 

     Unfortunately, this week was even slower on lessons than last week because we are having a hard time finding people at home. We did get to attend the baptism of Robson on Friday, though. He was an investigator of Elders Morgan and Mason. He´s fifteen years old, and really excited to be a part of the church. He´s solid.

     On p-day, we got to go see a sea turtle conservation exhibit in Guriri. It was a lot of fun to go around and take pictures of them, and learn about the conservation efforts in Brasil. (I´ll send you some of the pictures that I took).

     I realized that I hadn´t updated you on how Elder Stilson was doing. He´s doing a lot better. When he went to Vitória, they sent him to the doctors to get some tests done, and sent the results to both a Brazilian and American doctor. The interesting this is that the Brazilian doctor said that everything was fine, and that there was no problem. The American doctor called and said that Elder Stilson´s stomche was practically one gigantic ulcer. To be melodramatic: he could have died. It´s no wonder why he was in so much pain, and couldn´t hold any food down. The good news was that it was on the way to recovery, and Elder Stilson would be able to remain in the field under a strict diet. He´s been recovering well, from what I´ve heard. 

     I´m really glad that I´m able to stay in this area for at least one more transfer. We have a few people who are so close to accepting the gospel completely in their lives, and I want to be here for their baptisms. We had one lesson the other day with a 17 year old boy who´s dad had died. He had been a referral from a member, and she told us that he was having a hard time with the passing of his father, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation. At the end of the lesson, I felt impressed to share my experince with the loss of Julie to cancer and how I came to know for myself that the Plan of Salvation is a true message of hope for all people. I was... a little hesitant. I have a hard time teaching the memorized sentences I use, let alone tell a personal story! So I explained to him that I have a personal testimony of the Plan of Salvation, and that I´d like to share it, but to try to understand even though I don´t speak that language very well. He laughed, and agreed. I told him about Julie and what had happened, and explained about the great amount of time I spent on my knees praying for comfort to know that Julie was happy, and that she was in a place of peace, or that she existed still at all. I then testified of the comforting feelings that I felt from the spirit, confirming to me that she was indeed in a place of rest, where she could find peace and happiness. I told him he could find the same peace as well.

     Now, I highly doubt that a single one of my sentences was grammatically correct, or that my vocabulary and pronunciation was of the highest quality, but the spirit was there, and our investigator understood what I was trying to share. 

     I´m also starting to build up a really good relationship with the members of the branch. I always enjoy being around them. It gives me a headache trying to understand everything all the time, but it´s always a good time. Elders Morgan and Mason told me that the members tell them that they like me. ´´He doesn´t say a lot,´´ they say, ´´But I like him.´´ I can´t wait until I can really communicate with these wonderful people. They´ve really been so warm and welcoming.

     That being said, we´ll start off this next transfer with a renewed determination to learn the language as quickly and effectively as possible. I continue to learn new words and cultural phrases that they don´t teach in language books every day. It´s alot of fun, and it´s such a beautiful language. I love you all, and I´ll talk to you soon.

- Elder Crapo

                                              The sea turtles say, "Hey, dude!"

 This is Elder Mason (with the black hair)

Elder Morgan (with the pouty face)

And my companion, Elder Moroni (The Brazilian)

Each of these pictures completely describe the personalities of these people. They´re too perfect.

Elder Mason

Elder Morgan

Elder Moroni

September 16, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

     This week, I learned the true meaning of the word chuva (shoo-vuh). It means rain. Lots of it. It started near the beginning of this past week, and it´s been on and off this whole time. I learned really fast to always have my umbrella on me because sometimes it hits, and you really aren´t expecting it. Usually when it does start pouring, though, I really enjoy it. I´ll twirl my umbrella, watching the droplets spin off, and I wonder if I´ll ever grow up. Then I come to conclusion that it is unlikely. There was one time when it started raining while we were sitting at the bus stop, and I was reminded of the scene in the Miyazaki film ´´My Neighbor, Totoro´´ when the girls are waiting for their dad to come home at the bus stop, and then Totoro shows up, and there´s a funny bit that happens with the umbrella and the water droplets. 

     This week was really a strange one. We saw a lot of interesting things, the first being a man riding his bike down the street...with only one leg. My respect for that man is...I just have no words. I was so surprised and confused at how he was able to go as fast as he was with only one leg to use. We also ran into a really drunk guy (I´ve met some pretty drunk people on my mission, and this guy takes the cake), he reminded me of a Brazilian Robert Downey Jr. when he plays really crazy people. He tried to convince us that he was an American, and to run away with him to be apostles. He was really. really drunk. Those are just a few things.

     On Saturday, we had the wedding celebration of Sheila and Wilson. Not to brag or anything, but we had Brazilian Barbeque while listening to Brazilian music...in a grove of trees right next to the beach. Not only that, but I think it was the one day that it didn´t rain. The weather was beautiful. There was a lady named Carmen at the ice cream stand there who is interested in learning about the church, so we wrote down her address and phone number, and we´ll see if it goes anywhere. It was a good day.

     One more story: Yeaterday at Almoço, after we had finished eating, the husband asked us if we knew of an old tap dancer with short black hair that he couldn´t remember the name of. After asking a few questions more, nobody knew who it was. He told us he´d remember eventually, and that he´d tell us when he remembered. A little while later, it was Elder Morgan´s turn to give the message. He grabbed his scriptures and opened up to Doctrine and Covenants. About ten seconds into him giving his message, the husband yells, ´´BARBARA STREISAND!!!´´ (He´s not a member, and he was a little drunk). We all bust up laughing because nobody was expecting it, and it made us all jump.

     Just a few moments from this week. The language is improving for sure. I can say just a little bit more each week. Everyone tells me it takes about 6 months to get truly comfortable with Portuguese, so we´re in it for the long haul. It´s worth it, though. I love you all so much, and I´ll talk to you all soon.

com amor,

-Elder Crapo

A picture of the beach from where we were at the wedding celebration, a license plate with Landon´s initials, and a picture of the bathroom door in our apartment. I thought it was funny that it was marked ´´masculino´´, since no ´´feminino´´s do or ever will be in that apartment while we live there. 

 

Setembro 9, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

     Every day I love it more in Brasil! Do I speak the language perfectly? no. Do I try? My absolute hardest. Speaking of the language, I have a bit of a funny story about my Português progression:

     The other day, we went to teach a young man and his sister, but it turned out that he wasn´t there, and his sister had a friend over (I know. You want names, but at the moment, I can hardly pronounce them, let alone remember them. It´ll come someday). We taught a lesson on the commandments, with an emphasis on the O dia do Senhor and church attendance. At the end of the lesson, we asked if they had any more questions for us, and they sat there for a second. Then the friend said that she had just one question, and then turned to face me. I was expecting the question ´´Are you an American?´´ to come out of her mouth, but instead she asked, ´´Are you Italian?´´ I was pretty surprised by that, and my companion explained that I was from America, and why I´m here and what not. She said that she thought I was Italian because of my accent. People have told me before that my accent was pretty good, because it didn´t sound like the ugly American accent, but I had no idea that I sounded like an Italian. I got a kick out of that. 

     Other than that, it´s just pluggin along here in São Mateus. We had kinof another slow week with not many lessons taught, but we´re starting to find some pretty solid people that will probably be baptized soon. Saturday was a hard day to be a missionary because 1. It was Saturday. 2. It was a national holiday, and 3. It was game day. Brasil was facing Australia, and everybody knows how much Brazilians love futebol. Needless to say, practically no work got done, and not out of lack of effort. 

     Hopefully I´ll have more exciting news next week. Sorry the letter this week is short and kindof boring. I love you all, and I´ll see you soon!

-Elder Crapo

 

 

This Is Guriri. We are seriously out in the middle of nowhere, where starving horses run free on the streets. Also, the "Train do pecado". That goes around playing music and carrying disney-like mascots and dancing people. I have no idea why it exists.

September 2, 2013. Brasil Week 3

Dear Family and Friends,

     Things are finally starting to get a little less stressful as I´m learning more and more about Brasil and the language. I was actually able to have a real conversation with the relief society president of the branch yesterday about what I used to do before I came out on my mission, so that was a huge success! This past week has been a lot of walking. I don´t mind it that much, but Brazil has a lot of hills, so I´m usually pretty tuckered out by the time I get home at night. Besides all the walking we had a bit of a slow week this week, so I don´t really have any big news. Therefore, I´d like to tell you some fun things about Brasil that I´ve discovered over the past few weeks:

- We don´t knock on doors here. We stand outside the house and clap our hands. If anybody is home, they´ll come to the door. This is mainly because everybody here has locked gates around their houses, so you can´t get to the door. 

- When people say you eat a lot of rice and beans in Brasil, what they mean is that you eat it every day. Seriously. To say that Brasileiros don´t consider the meal to be complete without rice and beans would be the understatement of the century. I haven´t been in Brasil a single day where I didn´t eat rice and beans. That´s another thing. We´re fed almoço (lunch) every day. They love to feed you.

- In sacrament meeting, everyone sings as loud as they can. Sometimes it sounds like they´re having a competition to see who can sing with the most vigor. It´s really awesome.

-There is no such thing as a law against disturbing the peace. Part of the advertisement that is done in Brasil is done audibly. Companies will buy little trucks and pack it with the most powerful speakers ever (the kind used for rock concerts), and then hire people to drive the truck around the city, blasting their advertisement. Because of this, sometimes we´ll be trying to have a meeting or a study or something like that, and then nobody can hear anything but some guy shouting in Portuguese umtil the truck passes by. They do like to play music in between the advertisements, though. Which always makes it an instant dance party whenever we´re not in public. That´s a lot of fun.

-To get people´s attention in the states, we go : ´´psst´´. Not Brasileiros. They go, ´´pseeoo´´ (or ´´psiu´´, for those who know portuguese pronunciation). It sounds like they´re pretending to be on Star Wars, and they´re shooting laser guns. It´s hilarious.

-Never. Ever. Try to tell a Brasilian knock knock jokes. They will never understand. They just don´t get it. I´ve tried.

-The kids like to run up to Elders who look like Americans, and they always ask the same questions every time:

                1. ´´Fala Inglés!´´ (Speak English!)

                2. ´´Qual é meu nome em inglés?´´ (what´s my name in english)

                3.  ´´Have you seen Obama?´´

                4. ´´Fala isso!´´ (´´say this!´´ or, ´´what is that, in English?´´)

    The ´´What´s my name in English´´ question is usually pretty funny, because you´ll ask them what their name is, and they´ll say something like ´´Lucas´´, and you´ll say: Lucas. Then they´ll say,´´No, in English´´, and you have to explain that it´s the same in English as it is in Portuguese. They don´t get it most of the time.

     Anyway, those are just a few of the fun things that are going on in São Mateus. I´ll keep you updated with other things going on with investigators and such. It´s hard to talk about the people we teach because half the time I can´t even understand what their name is, let alone say it or remember what it is. I know, it´s bad. We´re getting there, though. I love you all so much, and I´ll see you soon!

-Elder Crapo

 

 

One of these is of a bunch of buildings in a square built by the slaves hundreds of years ago. I liked the fun colors.

Another is of the river side, right next to the square.