September 23, 2013

Sometimes weird things happen on the mission. 

So on Thursday afternoon, I was walking in the street, trying to contact some old investigators from the area book with my companion, Elder Freitas, when we got a phone call from the assistants. Which is pretty normal, being the Zone Leaders and all. They tell us that there's going to be a transfer, and I figured it would be a member of our zone that would be leaving, right? Yeaaahhh.... Nope. They then proceeded to tell me that we had to go home immediately so that Elder Freitas could pack his bags and be in Piracicaba the next day at 9 in the morning, because he was being transferred, and would be going to Pirassununga. Tudo bem. So, logically, I thought that the Zone Leader from Pirassununga would be coming to stay with me, which is Elder Russel, who is from my group. It made more sense because I knew that he wasn't getting along too well with his companion. But then Elder Shumway, the assistant, asked if I wanted to talk to my new companion. And of course, I did. So what does he do? He hands the phone to his companion, Elder Mesquita.

Now wait a minute. Elder Mesquita has 2 weeks left until his mission is over, and is currently the other AP. Buuuuuuut he is now my companion! Elder Russel ended up going to São João da Boa Vista, and Elder Albernaz (my last companion who was in São João) became the new AP! I told him that would happen! So now I have been the companion of three different APs. Elder Gade (who is the assistant in Ribeirão), Elder Albernaz, and now Elder Mesquita. I am super happy having Elder Mesquita here. I've known him since São Carlos more than a year ago, and I feel really privileged to have him as my companion. Although he'll only be here until the 4th of October, I'm really excited to work with him here.

 

Also, I drove a car this week.

 

Last night, we also had a fireside with President Canuto. He came here with Sister Canuto and the APs, and that was really cool. Elder Freitas had been planning everything, but then he got transferred, so his plans got wiped out and we went with something completely different. But it ended up really good. There were almost 100 people there (which is really good for a ward that has a frequency of 80-90) and the ward is now really excited to do missionary work. Not to mention the fact that we're going to have another set of Elders in our ward in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty excited about that.

Today I went to the doctor to talk about my hernia. He told me nothing. Absolutely nothing. Soo..... we'll just have to wait until I get home to see what we'll do about it. Like... He said some things... But it was basically everything I know and that I'm already doing. So he told me nothing. 

 

Well, I love you all! And Elder Hopper #2 only has 10 weeks left of being number two! TEN WEEKS.

-Elder Hopper #1

September 16, 2013

Hello family!

This week! We had some cool things happen! We found some good new families! I'll tell you about one.

On Thursday, we got a call from the secretaries saying that they had a reference for us. From a guy named Carlos Wizard. Who happens to be one of the richest people in Brasil. But that's beside the point. Generally, his references are junk and the person has no idea why we were sent to their house and ends up rejecting us. Buuuut we decided to try and contact this person! So we went to her house (which was way in the back of this dirt road and looked like it didn't exist), and knocked on the door. The girl's name was Gisele. We told her who we were, and she just invited us in as if she was expecting us. Turns out, she works at a place called Skill, which is a language school. And she takes English classes there as well (She works in sales). Apparently she had requested a visit from the missionaries on Wizard's site because she knew that we were generally American and therefore speak English fluently. If you could see the typos that I just made you would know that's a complete lie. Anyways. We went there, and turns out she is needing quite a bit of help spiritually, and not only with the school. She and her husband had been fighting a bit, and she had pretty much given up on God. But then we showed up and now we're going to help her and her husband! We're super excited. They also have two kids, one who is 8 and the other is 4. So we could have three baptisms here in a bit! And we're gonna go help out at the English school!

That's pretty much the exciting story for this week. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Hopper #1

September 9, 2013

Hello, familiares.

 

Well, it seems as if Mom has already been informed of the biggest news for this week. I got a phone call from Elder Longhurst (the executive secretary) again this morning, and he started it off saying that he had some bad news. And some good news. He then proceeded to announce the flight dates for the group of Elders that are going home with me. Aaaaand we're not going home on the 26th of November anymore. We leave São Paulo on the 2nd of December, and I'll get into the Portland airport around 11:00AM on the 3rd of December. Soooo no more Thanksgiving at home. But that's alright. I guess I can deal with that.

 

Other than that, not a whole ton happened this week. Just more knocking doors, teaching people, the usually. Although, on Sunday there was an activity for the YSA group in the ward. Just before it started, we talked to the YSA leaders and they told us to go talk to a couple of inactive members just down the street from them and so we did! Only of them was home, whose name is Jackson. So we get to talking to him, and turns out he has a ton of problems... But he wants to change! So we took him to the activity, which his mom only let him go to because he was going and would come back with us, and he was talking about how he wants to come back to church, go to the temple, bring some friends to church with him, and all that stuff. It was really cool to see that in spite of his problems, he still has a testimony of the church and believes it's true and knows that the church is the right place for him to be. We're really excited to start working with him and help him to get back on the right track.

 

For this week, that's about all the cool stuff. We're preparing to have a fireside here with the mission president in a couple of weeks, and that should be really good. We're trying to get the members here to work a little more with us, just as the Prophet wants them to. It's just that difficult part of teaching an old dog new tricks. But it'll work! And we'll have more success here!

 

Oh, and I have a doctor's appointment set for the 23rd of this month to get my hernia checked out. We'll see what they say!

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Hopper #1

September 4, 2013

Hello family!

It looks like the other Elder Hopper and I are falling into the same trend. I have almost nothing exciting to say to you all today.

But, I do have something kind of exciting I guess. Last Thursday (almost a week ago... this week went by fast), I got the trunkiest phone call of my mission. The executive secretary, Elder Longhurst, called and asked what airport I wanted to fly into. Obviously, I said the Portland airport. Then he told me the date that they were buying the tickets for. You wanna know? Cool. I'll tell you, then. They bought them for the 26th of November. So, I'll be home the day before Thanksgiving. Pretty cool, huh?

This week I basically got acquainted with me area. My new companion, Elder Freitas, is from Maceió, Alagoas. He's got basically the same amount of time on the mission as me, he'll actually go home two weeks before me, on the 12th of November. Our area, which I'm pretty sure I said was Nova Dessa last week but is actually Nova Odessa, is pretty cool. It's just outside of Campinas, and we have the whole city to ourselves. The ward seems to function pretty well; we've already done a couple of divisions and other visits with some ward leaders. I'm pretty excited to be working here. 

So, I'm sending a couple of pictures. The first one is of a Volkswagen Bus that someone decided to shorten. I liked it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second one is of a Honda Civic. You guys have to find the error.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third is when I took a quick trip to New York this week. Or rather, they're building a huge market in a neighboring area, and it's apparently an American store. I dunno.

Hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

-Elder Hopper #1