Hello, it..s me, and I..m using a better keyboard! I left my list of stuff I recorded for the entire week back in the room, so now my day-by-day break down of the week is going to be absolutely winged, which is sad, because I had some REALLY good things written down.
WEDNESDAY LAST, we went to the Federal Police, and it was an utterly, thoroughly dull experience. In every single way. We boarded the bus, sat on it, got there, went through a dull waiting process, and then had our fingers printed. Essentially, it was about the same as any other government office in the Western World. I learned a little about the divisions of Police and such, but I don..t remember anything, except that Firemen here are part of the Military. The entire experience was sullied by the young district with us, which held some pretty inappropriate conversations on a bus that had women on it, too. I mean, maybe I take being a representative of the Lord a little too seriously, but well, I dunno, I..ve never felt very right about locker room conversations in the presence of ladies.
THURSDAY, it rained, and I played in the rain, and it was incredible. We ran and splashed and did all those things that grown ups shouldn..t do in the rain, just because it was coming down so loud, fast, and hard that it inspired an equally intense reaction. I also picked up a cool blue 1-up Mushroom from the lost and found, like the green one in my room back home. Which reminds me that I..m going to have to either a) figure out how to send stuff home soon, or b) keep a lenghty list of the things I purchase in my mission- especially since I aim to purchase a tie today. I got a "trunkie" clip last P-day. I think Dad has one? It..s an airplane tie clip, and they told us you wear them before you travel. I dunno, I got it because I could have sworn I saw it among Dad or Uncle Rob..s missionary possessions. Because I ran, though, in the rain, I..ve gotten sick, and I have a bit of a hack and a such, but I will live.
FRIDAY-- Undoubtedly the biggest day of my week, Friday we went proselyting on the Rua Paulista, the biggest, busiest street in São Paulo, the third biggest city in the world. I can..t even put into words how overwhelming it seemed at first. But the whole time I was praying frantically, and just moments in, things really took off for us.
Elder Scadden, who had previously been far too timid in our last Proselyting, seemed to catch on fire- "Oi!" He..d shout, "Qual é o seu nome?" And people would stop, and he..d teach them! And Elder Ulbrich, oh man, talk about in tune with the Spirit! Elder Ulbrich was prompted not once, but TWICE to return places, and both times we wound up in some amazing situations, which I..ll explain a bit more in a moment. We went to one place, and we taught these ladies with clip-boards, and then after giving them a lot of our Pass Along Cards, we went and met this young man whose brother had lived with Mormons in the States, and who was learning English BY READING THE BOOK OF MORMON!! We laughed so hard, and then explained we were learning Portuguese the exact same way!
Later, after running up and down segments of this incredibly huge street, Elder Ulbrich decided we should go back and talk to the ladies with clipboards again. So we did, and we stopped and talked with them. And he told me, "Hey, talk about the appearance of Christ." And, to our astonishment, I was able to explain, more or less, that a major part of the Book of Mormon was people waiting for Christ, then the appearance OF Christ, and how after, people believed in and followed his teachings. ALMOST COMPLETELY IN PORTUGUESE! It was incredible! I actually managed to hold a conversation that was mostly in Portuguese! After this, we were still talking with them, and one lady, who was about our age interrupted, and apparently she said I was cute. She asked us if we had girlfriends. And so, incredibly embarassed and caught off guard, we explained about how Missionaries didn..t date. So then she told us to come back for her in Two Years!! Hahaha. They told Elder Scadden he looked like Harry Potter, too. It was a lot of fun.
Afterward, we were teaching a man about Mormon, because he..d asked us who Mormon was, and what that meant, and so we were explaining, when that same girl came up to us, interrupted our lesson, and asked to take a picture with us! So after we finished with this young man, we took a picture with her.
Then, on the way back to the van, we met a group of five young men, and spoke briefly to them, and gave them a passalong card. Then we left, because we were in a hurry, but Elder Ulbrich was prompted to turn back. So we did, and, since it was nearly time to go, our entire district showed up. AND THEN, all the young men..s friends arrived, too! And so there, in the busiest street in one of the biggest modern cities in the world, stood some twenty to thirty young men discussing the Gospel. All of them received pass along cards, one got a Book of Mormon, and one courageous Elder taught as far as the first vision in the message of the Restoration before both groups had to split.
All in all, Friday was pretty awesome. We did get back though and find out gym was canceled, because we were going to have our LGM that night, instead of the standard Saturday. The Meeting, conducted by Irmão López turned out to be pretty good, actually. It was on the Atonement, Salvation, and Why Missionary Work Is Not Easy. It was really good.
SATURDAY- Saturday was fairly uneventful. Because there was no LGM, there was this large gap of MDT after dinner (Held at the ungodly hour of 4:15, almost every day), but, as if from no where, we miraculously were granted our Gym time, and were allowed to run off and play some volleyball, which is just about the best thing to play here, since the only other option is half-court basket-ball.
Have I said yet that my 1st Companion, Elder Lewis is here? He and I aren..t companions now, but it..s still nice to run into him and have a chance to chat every once in a while. His new companion, Elder Nyman is a pretty nice guy, too. I..m sure we..ll see each other once in a while in the field, too, since Elder Lewis and I are both off to Goiania-- speaking of which, I..m not convinced Goiania is a real place. I..ve been in Brazil a few weeks now, and had plenty of opportunities to speak to real live Brazilians, and not one has ever been there or is from there. Someone told us while we were Proselyting that Goiania was famous for having the most beautiful women in Brazil, but they said they..d never been there, so haha.
Oh, and as a footnote, Elder Clark and Elder Lamoreaux, two members of my district here, have the same birth day and month, just not year. Go figure, huh?
SUNDAY-- Not much to report here. Sunday I had to give my first talk as a missionary- thankfully it was in English- but I had to wing most of it. It turned out pretty well, though. It was on Patience, so I referred back to my previous calling as an excellent example of how we all need patience. Then in Priesthood we had to get up and talk about our Proselyting experience. Apparently my companions and I all had written our Branch Presidency about it, haha. They told us last Sunday, during Mid-Term interviews, that "We..re always very interested and excited in the Trios." I also found out all the furniture in my room is MAHOGANY. I certainly feel more compelled to respect my bed, haha.
MONDAY- It was Monday. Nothing happened. At all. It was a struggle just to fill my journal page, where normally I complain for lack of space, haha. I did start sort of reading Jesus the Christ, though. I..m again impressed by that book. I can..t devote all my time to it, though, because I..m still churning my way through the Standard Works. I..m almost to 3rd Nephi, and after the Book of Mormon I..ll probably focus my studies on the Doctrine and Covenants and New Testament, though I..ll likely read the Pearl of Great Price in a week or so.The Old Testament will likely have to wait a while.
TUESDAY- Today we went to the São Paulo Temple again. It..s really nice there. After it, we came back, and, well, now I..m here. After this we..ll go and write (though I..m not sending letters out, so tell the family now is the time to try and catch up) then head back out. I intend to at least buy a new tie this week, because the only tie I..m not sick of is my White Temple tie, because I wear that for maybe 2 hours once a week. Otherwise, I regret not bringing more ties.
I also need to seek out something to remove stains. How hard is it to get blood stains out of white cloth? I cut myself shaving one morning and stained a collar.
So just some quick wrap up- it..s interesting to hear it..s cold back home. My fellow Washingtonians (Sister Badger and Elder Millet, of my old Provo crew) will undoubtedly find it just as ironic as I that it..s snowing the year we leave for the land of endless summer. Actually though, it has been raining a lot. It is overcast most days. It was a lovely 21 degrees Celsius this morning (at around 6, mind you).
I can purchase double As, I bet, that should not be a problem. If he sent it to the Mission office, I won..t be getting it for another few weeks. I..m so excited though! We are in week 7, and there are a mere 9 days to Christmas! On the 30th, Sis. Badger and Elder Millet depart for their missions, and just 7 days later I leave for mine! Woo!!
I hope you all have a very merry Christmas. Rumor has it ours is going to be good- do 2 things all day 1) Remember your Savior and 2) Have fun. I hear we may get to watch some other kinds of movies (Disney!) and I..m still holding out that we get to watch the Christmas Devotional soon.
I love you all so much, and I hope you are all doing fine.
With love,
Elder Bryan Jay Barney
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