June 24, 2013

Good morning everyone! And happy birthday, São João da Boa Vista!!!!

It's the city's birthday today, and therefore everything is closed. Which kind of ruins our whole P-Day thing. But that's alright. We'll figure out some way to get some food. And not die of hunger.

 

So this week was pretty good. We found some cool people. We actually were walking past a house this week at about 8 at night. I looked at the house and thought, "That's a pretty cool looking house. Let's knock on it." So we did. And then some young, hipster looking kid opened the door and we told him who we were and all that. He said we could come in, but he had to talk to his mom first. So she came out, but she was on the phone. And she came out in that sort of "I'm about to tell you meddling kids to get off my lawn" look. But then, she told us to come back the next day! And she was on the phone with her sister who wanted us to go to her house! So we started teaching this family this week. So far we've taught the boy, João Victor, the mom, Ivana, the kid's best friend, Luiz, and one of the daughters, Pamela. And they're progressing great! They all read the day that we left the first message and they're loving it. They didn't go to church this week because João Victor got sick, but they would have gone. Next week I'm sure they'll go!

 

There are also quite a bit of protests going on in Brasil right now... And I saw a video of the protests in Ribeirão Preto the other day. Where 12 people were ran over, and 1 was killed by some crazy rich dude in a Range Rover. And they showed video of it. I recognized the place, considering I served a good time there, and realized that it was literally RIGHT in front of the missionary's' house in Irajá, my last area. That must have been lots of fun for the missionaries there! I'm sure they loved it. 

 

Well, I'll send some pictures of Poços de Caldas a couple of weeks ago for you guys. 

 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

 

-Elder Hopper #1

June 17, 2013

Hello family!

I always start my emails like that and will continue to do so until the end of time.

This week we had TRANSFERS!!!!! Not many changes happened in the zone. 5 Elders were transferred, and we'll have two sisters in the zone now. So that'll be a big change. Pretty much the city of Poços de Caldas will be cleaned out, but that's alright because it was needing some changes. Some fun information about this transfers: of the 14 missionaries in the zone, 11 are American, 2 are Brazilian, and 1 is from Uruguay. So basically everyone here speaks English. Should be fun.

So while all you back home are enjoying summer time goodness and being free of school, I'm sitting here working still. But that's alright because we're actually getting some progress! We think. We met some super good families this week and looks like they'll be pretty promising. One is a lady named Soraia, but we haven't met her husband yet. Only her 13 year old kid. We found her in the area book and decided to pass by her house, and when we did, we knocked and she immediately invited us in.  So we went in and started talking to her, and turns out that a couple of days earlier when she had seen us walking in the street, she had a huge desire to stop us and talk to us. But she was all embarrassed and didn't want to because of the.... vergonha. So then, when we knocked on her door a couple days later, she was super happy and was willing to hear everything! She said she would go to church this week too, but she didn't go... We'll have to see what's up with that later this week. But she seems like a pretty promising investigator.

We went to Poços de Caldas this week and climbed up a big mountain. I almost died. And I was sore for the rest of the week. BUT. It was awesome! I'll include a couple of pictures.

 

But that's about all I've got for now. This week should be great! I hope you guys all have a great week, too! Love you all!

Oh, and happy Father's Day! We had no idea that it was yesterday until just now....

Love,

Elder Hopper #1

June 10, 2013

Hello family! 

so this week i have a keyboard that is obnoxiously hard to press the shift keys, so i won't be capitalizing many things.

Last Monday we went to Riberão Preto for a mission leader meeting. it was awesome because we went a little bit early to go and see a few of the recent converts that I had there. so we got to see Vera, Victor, and Jessica, then we went and had a delicious stroganoff with Maria and Carlos. It was really cool to see all of them. Victor is already a teacher in the Aaronic priesthood, and Carlos will receive the priesthood on the 17th of this month. And Carlos told me that he's going to baptize his other son. That would be AWESOME.

So then we came home, and it got hot again. It's been in the 80s here and the sun is BLAZING hot. I want the rain back. But this week we're spending P-Day in Poços de Caldas. Where it's cold. Yay! Today we'll be climbing up a mountain to a statue of Christ that looks over the whole city. we'll have some good pictures next week!

Umm... I'm not sure of any cool stories this week. But I'm excited to go up this mountain! And we have transfers next week! i don't think i'm going anywhere this time. but I hope you all have a good week! I'm gonna stop struggling with this crappy keyboard now.

 

Love you all!

-Elder  Hopper #1

June 3, 2013

Hellloooo todo mundo!

So this week was a normal week as a missionary. Last Monday after we got home from the LAN house, it just started pouring rain. And didn't stop until Thursday night. So the local rivers went up about 3 feet, and everything got all wet, and our clothes wouldn't dry. That's one of the bad things about having to let your clothes dry on a line. But it was nice, because it cooled off quite a bit. It only got down to around 60 at night, but didn't get above 70 during the day. But then on Friday the sun came out again. The sun is HOT, in case you didn't know. But on Sunday afternoon it got all cloudy again, and by the time we left our lunch appointment it was already raining and it's still sprinkling on and off since that point. But it's completely overcast and there's no sun! Woooo! So it's cool today as well.

Today me and Elder Kevin (Davis) are heading out to Ribeirão Preto as soon as I get this email sent off to you guys. Tomorrow we are going to have a Conselho da Liderança da Missão. Mission leaders council? Something like that. So we'll go spend the rest of the day today there (after a 3-4 hour bus ride) and visit a few of the people I baptized while I was there with Elder Gade! Should be fun!

So there's an inactive member of this ward here who's name is Ditinha. Her husband, Donizette, is not a member and has not allowed her to go to church in the past. When we got here and talked to her, turns out that the missionaries before us had done some good work and talked Donizette into letting her go to church. But Donizette had a ton of health problems, which he had already gone through various surgeries for, but this time is was getting really bad. He had told Ditinha that he was going to die during the surgery this time. So Ditinha was never able to go to church because she has to be sitting at home taking care of him all the time. So what'd we do? We gave him a blessing! Right before he went in for this surgery we went to his house and gave him a blessing so that everything would go alright. We've been visiting him ever since, and he's been recovering just fine. He had no difficulties in the surgery, he's healing great, and he's looking a lot better. And Ditinha said that during the surgery she was perfectly fine, didn't worry about him at all and just had this feeling of peace around her while the surgery was being done. So now we're trying to get Donizette to come to church. Which might take a while since he 1) is a die-hard Catholic, 2) is stuck in bed with a pump attached to his stomach, and 3) is Catholic. But we'll get him there. He already likes us, and he knows other members pretty well. So it shouldn't take too long. Just gotta get that pump out of his stomach now.

Also, the other night, I was quietly, peacefully sleeping, when suddenly I heard a *CRAAAAACK* and then my companion jumped up from his bed as it split down one side. This was about 2:30 AM, mind you. His bed randomly pretty much split in half while we were sleeping. I just rolled over and went to sleep. But he had to sleep on the ground because his bed broke. And he's been sleeping on a mattress on the ground ever since. Coitado dele (pity).

Anyways, that's all for this week. I love you all! Have a great week!

 

-Elder Hopper #1