Merry Christmas!

On Friday we got on the bus to go work in our area and there just seemed to be a lot of confusion. There was a lot of yelling and I just couldn't figure out what was going on. Then we got closer to the middle of the bus and saw that there was a very old man with a bible in his hand "preaching" to the crowded bus. He was actually just sort of yelling about how no one could stop him from preaching the gospel. Not his mom, not his son-in-law who is a sargeant in the army, not anyone on the bus, not the police, not even the Devil. I thought it was interesting that he did more yelling about how no one could stop him from preaching than he did actually preaching.
There was this heavy black woman who got up and started making fun of him and yelling "hallelujah!" and "praise Jesus!" and so he turned around and they started arguing. She said some things about his mom, I think, so he called her a fat cow. "Not even this fat cow can stop me from preaching the gospel!"
It was some good entertainment that we don't normally have the opportunity to watch on the daily trip to our area.
We had to pass right through the middle of it though to get to the back of the bus, and I was afraid he was going to drag us into it. Luckily I don't think he knew who we were.
On Sunday night we went to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional at the stake center. We were standing out in front waiting for some people with an older woman who is a member of a different ward when this guy got off of the bus like a block away from the chapel. He was yelling and banging on all of the street signs as we walked down the road towards us. We didn't pay much attention to him until he started yelling louder and running towards us. The three of us turned around and ran towards the chapel entrance. We got in and slammed the door shut with him right behind us. When we closed the door he turned around and ran out and disappeared down the road. Some of the older priesthood holders got in their cars and went looking for him, but no one found him. It was weird.
Last week was our mission Christmas Party. We just played soccer all day, ate, and watched Dreamer which was actually a really good movie. Maybe I've just been so removed from media that anything is good to me now. But no, I think it really was good.
The lady that we helped last week didn't go to church again this week. We're having doubts about her; she's not committing to much. And it's difficult because we haven't been able to work in our area lately because of transfers. But we still have a lot of hope for her. Keep those prayers a-comin'.
Love,
Elder Sisco

On Sunday night at 8:00 we were getting ready to get the bus to go home, but we both still had a few contacts to do with people so we kind of just hung around on this corner waiting for people to pass. After 10 minutes of standing there, and only two people had passed, I looked at Elder Rodrigo and said, "why don't we just start walking that way and do our contacts on the way to the bus stop?" So we started walking that way.
We got to the top of a hill, and there was a taxi parked on the side of the road, and the guy was unloading a bunch of heavy things. We went over and asked if they needed help carrying anything, and this lady looked at us and said, "It was God that sent you." She and her 82 year old mother were standing there about to go look for someone to help carry a bunch of items for remodeling their house (like, a new toilet and sink) up to their third floor apartment.
We picked up as much as we could and started walking up the stairs to her apartment, and as we walked we explained who we are and mentioned some things about the church. Before we had reached the door, she was already crying and saying how she had been praying to God for guidance these last days.
So we went in and taught them the first lesson, and it was amazing. And the Spirit was very, very strong, and everyone cried again. And they accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of December. It's all very exciting.
Last friday, the assistents and us and President and Sister Frei all went out to lunch and to go bowling for Elder Hill's last PDay. In the first game I was in last place for the first four frames, and then started slowly coming back until the 10th frame when I was neck and neck with Elder Hill. I don't remember the numbers, but he pulled ahead of me in the last frame, and on my first bowl I knocked down seven pins.
At this point I was down by two and needed to nail all three to secure the game (see diagram).
I bowled to the left side, knocked down both pins on the left, and in sequence, knocked down the third pin on the right and was champion, ending up having bowled a 145, my best score ever, beating Elder Hill's 144.
It goes down as one of the greatest moments in sporting history.
President Frei said that he was impressed with my bowling skills.
In the second game I got creamed; but no one remembers the second game anyway.
This is the week that we are getting everything ready for transfers next week, so it's been pretty busy. But to make things easier for me, my computer crashed yesterday and I lost everything. We had to have a guy come spend all day fixing it and reinstalling windows and stuff. It was horrible. But now it's back and we're good to go.
Welp, that seems to be all for this week.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

Hello!
We had a baptism on Sunday. On Wednesday (before) they got a little unsure and unstable about it and so we invited them to fast with us about being baptized. Andrei (the mom) fasted with us for 24 hours and she said it was a marvelous experience and that she knew that she needed to be baptized on Sunday. And of course, with her lead, the two kids got baptized as well. It was really a testimony to me of the power of the fast. Other than them, at the moment, our area's not too hot. We've got a couple of good investigators but no one really firm.
At the baptism the second counselor of the bishopric conducted the meeting, all in all it was a great meeting and everyone loved it. It had the largest attendance of any of the baptisms this year.
This month the mission baptized 139 which is one away from tieing the record, and two from breaking it. President Frei is really pushing for us to have a "Miraculous Christmas" and so far we have been having one.
At a members house on Saturday, we ate cow tail. Not the delicious caramel candy, but the actual meat and bones from the cow's tail. The bones look like vertebrae (which I guess it actually is, isn't it?) and there's so little meat on it, it was difficult. What little meat I did eat was delicious, but definitely not worth the work to get at it. This was the same place that I ate at and then threw up everything after I got home. Luckily that didn't happen this time.
I guess that's all the news I've got for this week. Thanks for all the emails, I love you all.
-Elder Sisco

All is well here in the mission. On Saturday I made one year. Or maybe it was Friday. I'm really not sure. But regardless of the date, I now am a one year old missionary, which is awesome.

Last week we went to visit the wife of one of the members in our ward, who is not a member. She really likes the missionaries though, and she prepared a dinner for us. It was kind of like a Brazilian Chicken Noodle Soup, with lots of meat and other stuff in it. It was delicious.
When it started to get late, Adam (the member) said he would drive us home to our apartment. Midway through the car ride home, my stomach started complaining about some foreign intruders. They were having trouble working out their differences and by the time we got home war had been declared.
We got into the elevator and climbed the 18 floors to our apartment. By the time I finally entered the apartment, I knew what had to be done, but I danced a reluctant dance, doing everything within my power to avoid the inevitable.
Finally, I submitted myself to this horrible fate and released everything that I had just consumed to be free. Not yet satisfied, I discharged my lunch as well. Moments later, feeling alone and left out, my breakfast made a last minute daring escape.
For the first time in many years, I threw up.
You can imagine my concern when, three days later, they invited us back for dinner.

On Saturday night we had a Dessert Festival at our ward and Elder Rodrigo and I made Lemon Squares from a recipe that I got from Sister Frei. I couldn't find any powdered sugar at the supermarket, and we put in too much lemon. There were a lot left over at the end of the night, and we didn't even place in the competition.
The good news though is that the family we're teaching went and loved it. They're progressing well towards their baptism this Sunday.
There was actually an attendance of 85 people, 23 of whom were investigators, so that was excellent. It was a good activity.

'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

Note from Amy: Write Dan some letters! He'd love to get mail, so drop him a postcard or something. Here are a few recent pictures; enjoy!


Me with the berimbau.

Here's Debora, Bahia's daughter, baptism from a couple weeks ago.

This week we found the most elect person I've seen so far on my mission. A long time ago when I first got into the area, a guy passed by us in his car, stopped, and came back to talk to us. He only wanted to talk because he assosciates white shirts and nametags with Americans and wanted to practice his english. But he was nice enough, and invited us to his house to talk- except that as he was leaving he started using some pretty heavy language and Elder Anderson was offended and said we weren't going back to talk to him.
Elder Anderson got transfered last week and we went back to talk to the guy. We got to his house, and the lady (who turned out to be his mother) said that he wasn't home and to come back later- but there was a kid sitting on the steps so we started talking to him and he mentioned that his family was very important to him and when we asked if we could share a message with his family this voice from above said, "Of course you can! Come on up!" It was his mom looking out from the second story window; she had been listening to the conversation.
It turns out that she had had a bad experience in the church that she attended and had recently been praying to Heavenly Father asking for His help to find the church that she and her family should go to. When she saw us, she said, she knew that he had answered her prayer.
The first lesson was fantastic. The Spirit was so strong, she cried at the end, and through tears when we invited her to pray and ask God if what we had said was true, she said, "I already know." When we asked her if, receiving an answer from God that our message was true, she would be baptized in His church she said, "of course."
The second lesson was also exciting. She had read 3 Nephi 11 and Moroni 10:3-5. We asked her if she prayed about it and she said, "I didn't need to ask, I felt that I was true as I read it."
So anyway, it's a family of four people. They're all very excited to go to church with us this Sunday. She and her two sons have baptismal dates for the 30th of November, so if you could all pray for that that would be wonderful. I've wanted my whole mission to baptize a whole family- complete with a Father- and we have an excellent chance now to help these people progress.
In other news, Transfers was last week and I'm so glad that's over. I had to take care of everything myself, since Elder Anderson was leaving and it was rough. But it's over now, and I can take a deep breath. Things have returned to their normal level of stressfulness.
The other day we had to go to another city to pick up a missionary so he could come to the office to fix our computers which were not working correctly. We got on the bus and asked the driver if he was heading in that direction and he was like, "Yep, I'll show you where you need to go, just stay up here with me," and he made us stand in the front of the crowded bus next to him.
It was actually kind of cool, I felt like a VIP standing behind his giant Bus Driver Seat. Turns out that he's a member of the church for like 12 years and he has three sons that all served missions. He wouldn't let us pay for the bus either. If the transit system found out that he was letting people ride for free he could get in big trouble- even fired- so we insisted on paying, and then he got angry and was like, "I'm in charge here! If I say you don't pay you aren't going to pay!"
So we didn't pay.
That's all my news for this week.
Let it be known that I am still waiting for letters from anyone who reads this Blog. There's been a letter drought since I got here in the office; it'd be fantastic if we could all work together and resolve this problem.
Love,
Elder Sisco

October 31, 2008

Let me tell you a little bit about The Best Sunday Ever. I woke up, went to church, ate a fantastic lunch, and then because it was my day to stay with Elder Dantas, we took a bus home and I took a two hour Sunday Afternoon Nap. I believe that I will never again have the opportunity to do this. At least not for another 13 months.
That night, we took a bus to the chapel where we had a baptism. Debora, Bahia's daughter, was baptized by the Bishop. It was an awesome meeting. Also, I sat next to our new Ward Mission Leader who is 80 years old. He was baptized 36 years ago, when the church was just getting it's roots down here in Brazil, and he was confirmed a new member by Elder Howard W. Hunter of the quorum of the twelve at the time. Sweet, huh? He showed me an old Aaronic Priesthood manual that has a story about him in it. Y'know how whenever they read those example stories with morals in them you always wonder if they're actually true? Well this one used his name and everything.
It talked about one time while he was a taxi driver in São Paulo and he rear-ended someone and he got out of the taxi and was like, "I'm sorry, this is completely my fault, I'll take care of everything. Now, I know that everything happens for a reason, so I'd like to take this opportunity to share a message with you about the gospel of Jesus Christ." The guy was baptized two weeks later. When I was done reading the story in the manual he leaned over and said, "that guy is a Patriarch now in São Paulo." Pretty crazy, huh? He's been a missionary for a very, very long time, and has had a lot of success.
The other day we ran into this guy who seemed to know the missionaries, so we asked if we could go to his house. Turns out his whole family, minus him, was baptized in the church but now are inactive. They go to some evangelical church now. We asked his wife (who is a member of the church. Or was.) if she could pray and she was like "sure, but I'm going to do it my way" and then she started praying really loudly and saying a lot of hallelujah's and Praise Jesus's and up until then I was thinking "this is the most horrible irreverant thing I've ever heard."
But she quickly outdid herself and started speaking with her "Gift of Tongues."
It went something like this: "chamalamahamawama oohwee oh chamahamahama (about a minute of this, coupled with a lot of rolling of the tongue. we had trouble controlling ourselves). Amen."
I was unable to identify the language.

So I'm still here with three companions. Elder Dantas, the missionary who had surgery on his knee, is getting a little bit better, but we're worried that he just wont get better enough soon enough for him to be able to go back into the field. We'll see how it goes, though. He has two more weeks to be able to be on his feet and moving. Every third day I stay home with him (we rotated days) at night while the others two go to the area to work, and during the day he stays in the office and... doesn't do much.
I had an interesting experience this week. I noticed that in my prayers I always asked for "everything to go well," and then I stopped one night and remembered something that someone had told me, I think it might've been Mom, to pray for all the problems to happen while Elder Anderson is still here to help me. And so I did that. And then the next day it just seemed like everything went wrong, and I learned more about being independent and taking care of problems on that day than I had on any other day since I've been here.
Tuesday was President's birthday, and at night we went to his house for a litle cake and ice cream. The Assistents got him a really cool picture of Captain Moroni engraved/burned into a big piece of cork. We got him.... lame cards that we made. But it was fun anyway.
Nothing really exciting has happened unfortunately.
So, until next week,
Elder Sisco

Last night President Frei officially signed the mission over to me, and so I am now the Financial Secretary of the Belo Horizonte Mission. Elder Anderson will still be here in the office though for three more weeks to be able to help me out if I need anything.
The work in the area is going well. We're getting a lot of good references from our recent converts.
On Monday we taught her next door neighbor and the ladies family the first lesson, and invited them to pray about it and everything. Then two days later we found out that the lady had gone on the internet, looked up "Mormons" and printed out a bunch of Anti-Mormon crap and sent it to Bahia, which she threw away (yes!). I don't think we'll be going back there. We asked her to pray and ask God, and not look up trash on the internet.
That's all the news I have for this week, so, until next week!
-Elder Sisco

Last Friday, I woke up and I was hideous. Even today, I don't know what happened. It could have been something I ate. President Frei thought it was probably something I touched. I really just don't know. But my face swelled up a little bit and had this horrible, itchy rash all over from my chin to even my eyelids. It itched like crazy! I wanted to die. I bought some things to help it on Sunday (sinner!) and on Monday it started getting better and now I'm fine.
It was unfortunate though that I had to go to conference like that and see a bunch of people from my old area (same stake) and then we had a baptism on Sunday night. I will always remember the baptism with the itchy, ugly face. I'll try to send pictures, but I don't know if you'll be able to tell.
The baptism was of Bahia and her two twin sons, Isac and Isan. It was one of the best I've ever seen.
Aside from the itchy face, conference was fantastic. I got to see the Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon sessions. I really like Jeffery R. Holland. His talks are always very powerful, and he talks with a lot of force. It's like he's forcing us to feel the Spirit when he speaks. And it's always good to hear the Prophet speak and have that confirmation that, yes, he is a true prophet of God.
After the baptism on Sunday, a woman that Elder Alfaro and I baptized in my third transfer (Monica, if you remember her, I don't know) came up to me (first of all, it was exciting just to see her going to church still) and said that she was getting ready to go to the temple to do baptisms. It was so awesome. I'm so excited that she's still firm and that she's progressing.
I'm no longer in a trio, I think I mentioned before. We have an injured Elder who will be staying with us, probably until the end of the transfer. He had to have surgery on his knee, and he'll be on crutches for a little while, so he's recuperating in the office and in our house for a while. Since there are four of us, we rotate taking turns staying at home with him at night, while the other two go to the area. It's a good opportunity to study more. I kind of enjoy it. I think I'm the first missionary ever to have three companions.
I've been in the office now for almost four weeks, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Soon I will be in charge. I really am grateful for this experience that I'm having. It's great preparation for a job in the future. (Or to manage my touring band. Either one.)
Love,
Elder Sisco

Here's a picture from the baptism last Saturday.

So things are going well.
We're teaching a great family. The mom's name is Bahia. She's in her 60's, and all of her kids are adopted. Her and two of her adopted (twin) sons are going to be interviewed tonight and baptized on Sunday. So, the work here (proselyting-wise) is progressing. It's a lot better than I expected coming into the office.
Bahia has so many adopted kids that I don't even know all of them. It's hard to keep track. She also has a parrot, a cat, and like, 5 dogs. They just got a new dog two days ago- a little Terrier- and named it Sisquinho (little Sisco). It was a deep honor. I'll try and get a picture of Sisquinho and me to send home.
This week I lost a pair of pants. I'm not really sure how it happened. I remember that they were dirty, and it was late and dark, and so I threw them into a corner somewhere. My concern is that the window stays open 100% of the time and that it's very possible that I threw a pair of pants out the 18th story window.
Things in the office are going smoothly. I'm starting to the the hang of things around here. In about a week, Elder Anderson will sign the mission over to me and I will officially become the new Financial Secretary.
It's a little nervewracking to work with such large sums of money that don't belong to me, but I'm getting more and more used to it. I just hope I don't get too lax. But it's better than at the beginning when I was practically too scared to do anything.
Anyway, that's all that's going on around here. Hopefully next week I'll have some more exciting news.
Love and miss you all,
Elder Sisco


This first one is the last baptism I had before I left my last area, Nacional. Her name is Fernanda, and she's this guy's girlfriend. He baptized her. That's Elder Tolotti, my favorite companion to date.


This next one is my last district before coming to the office: Elder Frost (from my group, we were in the CTM together), Elder Tolotti, Elder Tiago and Me.


And a sweet picture of a tiger drinking water (you can see the drops of water coming off of his tongue!) at the zoo.

So just last week I was in my area, Nacional. I had been there for almost one month. We had baptized five people already, and had just started a big weekly branch activity. The work was catching fire there. The members were excited, my companion was the man, we were living in the best house in the mission with two other excellent missionaries. It was going so well in fact that in my interview with President Frei that he has with every missionary each transfer I specifically asked to stay in my area with my companion for the next transfer.
But that all ended on Saturday morning while I was in the shower. Elder Tolotti knocked on the door shouting "it's President!" I got out of the shower to talk to him. I don't remember exactly, but he said something along the lines of, "I know you want to stay in your area, but unfortunately that's just not going to happen." I remember him citing that hymn "I'll go where you want me to go" or whatever it's called. He told me to get my bags packed because the following day he would be passing by the house to pick me up to bring me to my new area, where I would be serving as the Financial Secretary of the mission. Granted, I was a little surprised.
"Me? A music major? Financial Secretary? Are you serious?"
But, as promised, on Sunday afternoon after church he passed by and he and I drove back to his house where I sat around and hung out with him and Sister Frei until the current Secretaries could pass by to pick me up.
So, I'm back in the center of Belo Horizonte, living in the Staff House- the very same house that I spent the last 4 1/2 months of my mission in, only this time I'm here as the Financial Secretary in training. We're in a trio now (Elder Anderson, the current FS, Elder Rodrigo, the Executive Secretary, and me), and will stay until the end of next transfer (six weeks). In about three weeks Elder Anderson will officially sign the mission over to me, and he will no longer be in charge- but will stick around for a while just to make sure the transition goes smoothly.
Here are some perks to the job:
- My office is next door to President's; I see and work with him every day
- I'm in the center of Belo Horizonte
- Learning stuff that will be beneficial in the future
- Christmas here with President and the Staff will be infinitely better than if I was anywhere else in the mission (last year they had T-Bone steaks. I don't even think those exist here)
- I have a sweet flip phone and no more "80 Minutes a month business"
- I get mail the day it shows up at the office and don't have to wait for large group meetings to get letters
- Our area is doing very well at the moment; I came at a good time

And some downsides:
- My PDay is now on Thursday, unlike everyone else in the mission whose PDay is Wednesday
- The secretaries haven't had a real, full PDay in 7 weeks. Something always happens that needs to be tended to. Even today, my first PDay, I spent here in the office (that's why it took me so long to finish this email, I've been running all over the place getting stuff ready for transfers next week and writing when I have a chance)
- The Financial Secretary usually stays in the office for six to eight months, but since there will be a change of mission presidents in July, it's very possible that I'll be here for a long, long time
- Dealing with the Lord's money is scary business.
So that's the news. It's pretty good, I think. I was really sad to leave my awesome companion and awesome area, but it's okay. It's going to be cool working here.
The picture is of Elder Rodrigo and I at the Hard Rock Cafe. We went there this morning before everything in the office got all hectic and we had to work. It was probably the trunkiest thing I've done on the mission so far. There was a band setting up and practicing for a show that's going to happen there tonight.
I wrote this all very hurriedly, I hope it's comprehendable.
Love,
Elder Sisco

Last PDay a bunch of missionaries from our zone went to the center to play soccer on this indoor court near the LZ's house. It was awesome, we played for like two hours, and everything was dandy, except that I wasn't aware of how painful turf actually is when you slide on it. It seemed really soft walking on it, but when I slid to try and keep Elder Tolotti from scoring, I'm pretty sure I left the other half of my leg on the ground. Taking a shower in the days following was brutal, and it's still all scabbed up and nasty. I have pictures, but out of respect for Mom, I will refrain from sending them. On the plus side, Tolotti didn't score.
After the game we went to get the bus home and ended up waiting at the bus stop for over an hour. Every bus that passed going back to our area was packed with people. Literally, so packed that there were people smushed up against the doors and windows like human sardines. I was surprised they didn't pop out.
Eventually a white VW Van passed by and the guys called for anyone going to Bairro Nacional (our area), so we got in. Then more people got in behind us. Then more still until they could fit no more. We were no better off than the sardines on the buses, except it had more of a "Mexican-fleeing-to-the-

border" feel to it.
On Saturday night, we saw the first torrential downpour that this town has seen in several months. And of course, when it rains, it RAINS. We were lucky enough to be waiting in the church for a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader when it happened, so we just waited it out there. Elder Frost and Elder Tiago however, were not so lucky. They got stuck in the rain, which was so hard that it destroyed both of the umbrellas that they had and ruined all of their books, scriptures, DVDs, other teaching materials... They went straight home to dry off, and when they got there saw that the wind had blown all of Elder Tolotti's clothes that he had left out to dry that morning off of the line and into the street, our neighbors yard, etc. so we had to go home and gather them up.
Some of his clothes had been blown into a corner of the little walkway we have outside (we live on the third floor), blocking the drainage pipe and causing this sort of dirty rain water pool effect (pictures included).
And of course the highlight of the week was walking down the street conversing normally with Elder Tolotti, him stopping suddenly and with fear in his eyes saying "I had a brown day." Meaning that we had to go back to the house so that he could take a shower and get cleaned up. Luckily, this hasn't happened to me yet. I figure if I can make it nine months without a problem, what's 15 more? Keep those prayers going.
We're teaching the girlfriend of this kid in our ward, whose name is Fernanda. She's only 15 but she's really receptive, and has already been to church a bunch of times. She should be baptized this Sunday after Stake Conference.
Last night we met her dad, who is Buddhist. I think he's the first non-Christian that I've met in this country. We talked to him for about half an hour about Buddhism, but he's only been Buddhist for four years so he didn't know much about the history or origins. He did know his daily prayers, though and recites them quite well.
That's all for this week.
Love and miss you all,
Elder Sisco


The pictures are of Elder Tolotti (my companion) pulling his clothes out of the pool of water on our walkway, and Elder Tiago (Frost's companion, who also happens to be the son [as in, was trained by] Elder Franklin), using one of the destroyed umbrellas to fill up the tanquina to do laundry(we've graduated from using the two blender jugs. This way seems to be more efficient).

So, we had four baptisms this week (photo included!). It was an amazing Baptsimal Service as well. The daughter of the first counselor in the branch and her three children were all baptized.
I think I mentioned before that our chapel is a rented house (much like the Damariscotta Branch library/mobius situation, many years ago). We just don't have enough attendance yet to be a ward and have our own chapel. So things sometimes are a little tight. For example, this week I left to go to the bathroom in the middle of Gospel Principles; what I didn't know was that to use the Men's bathroom you have to interrupt the Young Women's class by walking through the classroom and into the bathroom. Demerits for whoever decided to put the Men's bathroom in the corner of the Young Women's classroom.
This week we got a reference from Elder Tobias, the area authority in Belo Horizonte. We went there, and the lady was really nice and receptive. We went in and started talking and she told us the story about how she learned about the church. She was walking down the street thinking deeply about her alcoholic son, and then she looked up and saw a spire (that's what that thing on the church is called, right? maybe i mean steeple). In that moment, she said a prayer to God promising that if he helped her son with his addiction she would go to this church. The NEXT DAY her son came up to her and said something along the lines of, "man, I slept so well last night. And I had the weirdest dream... I woke up having absolutely no will to drink anymore."
So she went to the church on a friday night, not really knowing anything about it, but she just walked in and there happened to be an activity, and there happened to be Elder Tobias, a member of the quorum of the 70 there (funny how God works) and she talked to him for a long time and he explained a lot about the church and said that he would send missionaries to her house.
So there we were. Hearing this story, already preparing her baptism in our heads. So we taught her a little bit of the first lesson, and testified and the Spirit was amazingly strong there. And then I asked, "so, what do you think is something you might be able to do to know that these things are true?" and she responded, "my son, I'm catholic." (note: "my son" is a direct translation- it doesn't sound weird in portuguese, it's something everyone says) So at this point, I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. But we recovered and try to explain a little bit better. We testified more and the Spirit continued being incredibly strong. And yet, nothing. This woman's heart was completely closed and locked. She would not move. I told her clearly, "I know that what you've felt right now, and what you felt before is the Holy Ghost testifying to you of the truthfulness of these things. I know that Heavely Father responded to your prayer, and you're denying it." Finally she ended up standing up, opening the door and saying, "okay, well, I'll go ahead and visit your church someday if I have some free time." And that was it. It was impossible. I was so sad.
Oh well. We did our part.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

PICTURES:
The baptism we had this Saturday: Fatima, and her 2 sons and 1 daughter. She's the daughter of the first counselor of the branch, and so he baptized her and one son, and then her brother (his son the one with the beard, who is also a member, was the pioneer member of the family, went on a mission, came home and baptized his family, etc.) baptized the daughter and the other son. It was awesome.

I also took a picture of our shower, because I don't think you've ever seen it before. It heats up the water as it sprinkles down on you. So there's no such thing as water pressure or really hot water here.

Also, the tanquina- this new house unfortunately does not have a washing machine and I remembered that you had wanted to see our water box that swishes the clothes around. This one is broken, so if you don't turn it off, it goes forever. One time Elder Frost left it on overnight and when he woke up in the morning the water was so hot there was steam pouring off of it.

Also, I found these SUPER cheap strawberries at a market, so I bought a cheap cake and make strawberry shortcake.

I've been here one week in my new area, Nacional, and it's AMAZING. It's a lot like my first area in Sete Lagoas, just that we're way on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte. It's not ghetto like the last area, nor is it huge apartment buildings where no one lets you in, just a lot of humble people in normal houses.
We have four baptisms lined up for this Saturday: The 25 year old daughter of the first counselor in the branch, and her 3 children- two 13 year old boys (twins) and a 15 year old girl. So the work is going very well. My personal goal for this transfer is to baptize every week.
The branch is so supportive and willing to work, it's incredible. They want to grow! A lot of the members do visits with us, and even give references. References from members are gold!! They're the people who baptize!
The pictures are of me and this Zebra-Donkey (zonkey?) that we encountered while proselyting (the owner didn't want to be in the picture), me, Elder Tiago and Elder Tolotti (my companion, with the plunger that we had just bought for the new house) and a part of our area.
That's all for now,
Elder Sisco

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It was a good day- some recent converts even threw a surprise party for me that night complete with cake and everything.
Speaking of recent converts, Janice, the woman who died and came back, told us she hasn't been paying her tithing because she can't afford it. We spent an hour talking to her about it and yet she didn't budge. It was very distressing, especially because I know she's missing out on the blessings that she needs the most.
My first transfer as District Leader has gone well, more or less. We're a tight district, which is good. We're all good friends- but Elder Allen and I haven't baptized anyone this transfer. It's horrible. The sisters have six baptisms lined up for this Sunday, though- I interviewed two of them last night and will interview four more on Friday. The lady I interviewed last night even bawled in front of me because of how horrible her life has been. Her baptism will be very, very good. So that's all fine and dandy for the sisters, but meanwhile, over in our area we have ZERO investigators right now.
We went to the one 15 year old investigator we had yesterday- our last hope of baptizing this transfer- and started talking to her. Every time we go there she doesn't let us in, but goes inside and grabs two chairs so we can sit on the porch. I should mention that she lives on the second floor of an evangelical church of which her father is the pastor (he even has an official police looking badge that says "Ecclesiastical Authority"). I imagine that's why she doesn't want us to enter her house. This, of course, I should have realized would cause problems. The other problem is that she's extremely shy and never looks anyone in the eye or talks above a whisper, so I'm never really sure if she's understanding anything we're saying. The third problem is that she gave us back the Book of Mormon and claimed she didn't know how to read. She was not exactly the golden investigator. But anyway, we went there and were talking to her and her brother came out and started listening, which was fine. We asked if we could start with a prayer and they said that was fine. Elder Allen started to pray, at which point she got up and walked back inside leaving just her 11 year old brother. I felt something touch my head, and then pain. The brat had grabbed a chunk of my hair and just started yanking on it- I have no idea why! I grabbed his wrist with every intention of breaking it, but decided that was not the best thing to do to the son of a pastor in his own home, so I pushed him away and said to Elder Allen "finish the prayer." He finished, we got up, I said "goodbye" and we started walking down the stairs to the door. To put the icing on the cake, as we were leaving, the kid spit in my hair! I spent the rest of the day with crusty kid-spit in my hair and no investigators left. It was awesome.
We've also had a couple more run-ins with the police this week. They seem to be increasing pressure on our area to get the drug traffickers out. The other day we were contacting a media reference in this tiny alley, and as we were talking to the lady in her doorway a big police SUV pulled up and four cops jumped out with guns in their hands ready for action. They started descending into the alley towards us until they got to the door right next to where we were standing. I looked at them, and then at Elder Allen and we just started going down deeper into the alleyway. Turns out it was a dead end. We ended up staying in the depths of the alley for like, 20 minutes while the cops busted into the house and arrested everyone. I imagine it had something to do with drugs.
That's all the news I've got this week; I'll see if I can send some pictures next week.
Much love,
Elder Sisco

Pictures

Here's my district.
And here are some of the pictures of the cool things that I saw that are not native to Brazil. (The monkey was actually on a tree on the path to the zoo, so that counts as wild). And Elder Allen and I in front of a falcon or something that you can't really see.

We live in the center of Belo Horizonte, and our area is way on the outskirts of the city, so we have to walk like, 8 blocks to the bus stop and then take the bus to our area from there. Between our house and the bus stop, there's this one street that we walk down every day that only sells mannequins. The whole street is just a huge line of naked mannequins. Apparently it's the only place in the city that sells mannequins, so it's a hot spot for clothing retailers- people come from all over to get their mannequins here by our house.
Our whole mission has been fighting to get all of our media references contacted before the end of the month, and we had a couple that we weren't sure where the were, so we just kept asking directions and finally ended up very far into the sisters area- so far in fact that we ended up running into them around 7pm. We told them where we were going and one sister says, "Don't go there at night; you will die." So we turned around and started heading back to our area. We hadn't walked 20 yards when this guy walks up to us and starts telling us not to go to house number 90. We were like, "no problem, we were leaving anyway. We don't even work here." But then he kept insisting that we not go there. He was very concerned about his friend that lives there who has started following this religion of ours. "I have nothing against you guys," he says, "I just don't want her to be brainwashed by your church. And let me tell you another thing: Jesus is not an American! And he never went to the United States! You know why? Because they didn't have airplanes in his time!" It was all very unreal. I wrote down the address just to appease him and assured him that we would not go there. I found out later that it's one of the sisters' recent converts and that the guy is the lady's crazed ex-boyfriend.
I did my first baptismal interviews this week. The first two weren't really ready; they each took about an hour. Neither of them passed. The third one though, went really well. She was a 13 year old girl that has been coming to church for about a month. She knew everything, and really seemed like she was ready to be baptized. So we were all set and I just asked her if she could say the closing prayer for us, and she was like, "no."
"What? I'll help you."
"No. I know how to pray already. I don't want to."
"It's really simple, you can just repeat what I say then."
"No! I'm not doing that."
I spent about ten minutes trying to get her to pray, and to figure out why she wouldn't do it, and finally she stands up and says, "Man! This is taking forever! I'm outta here!" And she left. Weird. But she's still getting baptized on Sunday.
Two days ago we were waiting for the bus to take us home at night and this guy drove by and offered us a ride. He said he's a member from another stake but he knows a bunch of people from our ward. When he saw us waiting for the bus, he just drove by, but the spirit reprimanded him, he said, and he felt like he just needed to give the elders a ride so he turned around and came back to pick us up. Who knows? Maybe we would've died.
Then yesterday, Elder Madeiros the 70 year old missionary from our ward came out to work with us all afternoon. It was really good to work with him, he has no fear of anyone. I sent you a picture of him a while ago; he's the old man with a plastic white hand. So, that being the case, I'm concerned that he may have been offended when, as he was descending a muddy slope, I asked, "do you need a hand?" Especially since that doesn't translate in Portuguese.
"What?"
"I mean, do you need help?"
Hopefully he knows I wasn't mocking him.
I decided I'm going to kill whatever missionary came through our area and did magic tricks for all the little kids. Everyone under the age of 12 in our area knows the missionaries as "those guys who do magic." They all follow us around when we're walking asking us to do magic. I learned how to "rip off my finger", but I think that one's getting old. It's so bad that last night a girl followed us onto the bus asking us to do magic. The driver told her to get off so she left and ran and jumped onto the side of the bus and, looking through the window, yelled, "magic!" I felt like a famous person being persecuted by paparazzi.
Well, that's all I've got for now.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

July 17th, 2008

My first two weeks as District Leader have gone pretty well so far. I haven't had to do anything really leader-ey; I haven't even had to give a training yet. But tomorrow I believe that it begins. I not only have my first baptismal interview, but also my second and third. I'll let you know how that goes.
President Frei asked that every companionship in the mission do something special for their bishop to show that we love and appreciate them. This Monday we're having a special FHE at our bishop's house, with our Ward Mission Leader, his wife, and the couple missionaries in our ward. The sisters planned out everything, since they're amazing at that sort of thing, and we're sort of socially retarded when it comes to planning out special appreciation parties. They even made three special gift baskets of chocolates and things- one for every couple.
The two guys we baptized a few weeks ago, Claudio and Cesar, are doing really well. They've improved dramatically; they have friends in the ward and they come every week to church and to all the activities. I'm very proud. They went to the movie theater for the first time this past week. The girls that brought them told us that the theater was so packed they had to sit in the second row, and that Claudio and Cesar were sick by the time the movie ended because they were sitting so close to the screen it looked like things were going to pop out on top of them.
Elder Allen and I are doing well. He's from Sandy, and he used to be an artist for a video game company near Salt Lake, and I'm pretty sure he's gonna keep doing that after the mission.
The gang wars in the area have died down a bit, but we always see people smoking weed in the middle of the street in broad daylight, which is strange to me. They don't even try to hide it. I was talking to one of the sisters the other day, and she was like, "on my mission I learned to distinguish the smell of weed. I also learned what cocaine looks like and how people act when they are on it."
I tried to make brownies last night by substituting chocolate milk powder for brownie mix. It turned out like more of a soft chocolate bread/cake deal, but everyone seemed to like it anyway.
So things are pretty hectic these days. The church headquarters in São Paulo is threatening to shut down the referrals system in this mission if we don't start contacting ours. Our mission is ranked last in percentage of referrals contacted. The problem is actually just that the missionaries are lazy about relating them on the site. They're probably all contacted, just that no one bothers to tell the people in São Paulo. So we've been running all over the place trying to get all of our references contacted as fast as we can. The whole mission is.
That's all I've got for this week.
'Til wednesday,
Elder Sisco

July 9th, 2008

Note from Amy: This email came to Pop and I with the following:
I'm gonna send this email to you guys, and if you could just remove the part about guns and gang wars and forward it on to Mom, that'd be great. Thanks.
But, Mom already found out, so I guess it can all go in the blog now.

So things are going pretty well.
On Thursday, Elder Allen's first day, we were walking through the middle of the ghetto part of our area and he saw this guy run by with a gun in his hand. He turned to me and was like, "I think that guy had a gun!" So, we turned the corner and started walking down the hill. Not a minute later we heard a volley of gunshots coming from not too far away. I became concerned. More gunshots. We went to a members house who lived on the street we were standing on and she said this kind of thing is normal, but if we really wanted to get out of there we could go down the hill and to the right. We went down the hill, and when we turned right there were three police officers with guns drawn sitting crouched around the corner getting ready for more volleys of gunfire. We went back up the hill and waited in the doorway of the members house. Things only got worse the longer we waited. More police cars. More cops walking by with huge machine guns. More gunshots. They even sent a helicopter. After about an hour, it all ended, and we went and got ice cream. Apparently it all started with two kids who had tried to steal a car.
This issue of discrimination and prejudice in our ward is not getting better, but it's becoming recognized by the bishopric. Last week we had a great experience with the Area Book. After study, I picked it up and started leafing through it, and the teaching record of an old investigator of an elder who passed by here two years ago caught my eye. I wrote down the address and we went there the next day, a Saturday, at night. We talked to him really quickly in his doorway, but he said he had been thinking about the church lately and even asked if we would come by and pick him up the next day. He went to church on Sunday, loved it, and on Monday we went to his house again. We taught another quick lesson, and marked a baptismal date with him, and asked if he would say a prayer for us. In his prayer, he asked Heavenly Father to remove the doubt and fear he had about baptism and to help him have courage. The Spirit was so strong that he even shed tears- even we almost did. Afterwards he said that not only had he been thinking about coming back to the church, he had also been praying to know the right path before we showed up at his door. It was really clear that we had been instruments in the Lord's hands.
I'm hoping that his baptism will help clear up some of this "the missionaries only baptize ghetto folk" idea that has been floating around the ward. He's 19 but seems well off.
I haven't had to give a training yet as District Leader, because we had Zone Conference this week. I think next week I'll have to prepare something for our district. It's a little intimidating with sisters...
Anyway, that's all that's going on with me lately.
Love you all,
Elder Sisco

July 1, 2008 BIG NEWS!!

This has been a very, very trunky week. Elder Franklin is going home tomorrow. A lot of our Weekly Planning Session was him drawing a very detailed picture of him in an airplane in his planner. Don't get me wrong, it was a good planning session. It just made me sad, and wanting to see my family, and everyone at home. But I should snap out of that pretty quickly.
I'm a District Leader! I found out last night, I'm going to turn both Senior and DL in this next transfer on Wednesday. The DL of two sisters, even. They say this is the transfer when you learn/grow the most (turning senior).
Last P Day we went bowling with a bunch of Elders from our zone. It was very weird- very American. I bowled a 132. And to top it off, we ate at Pizza Hut afterwards.
On Sunday in sacrament meeting I confirmed one of the two boys that we baptized a week ago. I was pretty nervous about it since it was only the second confirmation I'd ever done- and this time it was in front of a bunch of people- and because President Frei was there. But it went well. It was short and simple, but I pulled it off.
Our ward is having some difficulties. It's actually a problem in all of Brazil, but it's loud and clear here in our ward: discrimination. If anyone remembers me saying that in Paraguay there is no middle class- just very poor and very rich people- it's the exact same thing here. And we mostly baptize very humble people, because it's extremely difficult to get to even talk with the wealthy here. But our ward consists of mostly people who are very well off. So things get difficult when you have 22 investigators (between the sisters and us) in church, all from very humble, poor circumstances, and the members act as if they're above these people and even have the nerve to complain about the people we're baptizing. Do you think our investigators are going to want to come back? Absolutely not. It's an ongoing war.; keep us in your prayers.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

June 25th, 2008

Well, this week we had the baptism of Janice's two sons. The one, Cesar, is 20 years old and the poor guy not know how to read. He is also the size of a grizzly bear. When Elder Franklin baptized him, he didn't plug his nose adequately and went into the water with his mouth open, so it didn't take the first time because he came out of the water yelling and thrashing, and clinging to the glass on the wall, trying not to drown. I wasn't fortunate enough to witness the event, but I heard his gruesome screams from the hallway where I was waiting with his brother. The second time went a lot smoother.
The water heater in the baptismal font is broken, so after Cesar, when I went to get in the water with Claudio, Janice's 19 year old son, he put his right foot in, pulled it out very quickly, and decided that salvation just wasn't worth it. He fled from the font to the bathroom, and I had to chase after him and calm him down, and then lure him back to the water. Once he got in, it was fine.
On Sunday we had ten investigators at church. I want you all to just take a moment and reflect on that. TEN! It was excellent. We even made the "Extraordinary Accomplishments" section of President Frei's weekly email. We invited this one 15 year old kid that we're teaching named Elton, and told him that if he went to church, he would be blessed. He went, and loved it. The next day, the police raided his house and found cocaine in his dresser and arrested him for trafficing drugs. I feel kind of bad about that, but I guess these promises don't apply to people who are breaking the law.
Next week is transfers, and Elder Franklin will be going home. It looks like our area is going to stay open, so I'll be at least one more transfer in Belo Horizonte, living in the center. I admit I wont be terribly upset when I finally do get transfered. Two transfers is a long time to be working in the ghetto. And three is certainly sufficient.
Elder Franklin and I have made a companionship goal to try every flavor of Ice Cream at this little shop in our area. To date, I've tried 16 of the 28.
Tchau,
Elder Sisco

June 18th, 2008 Pictures

Here's us at lunch with the APs. The guy is a security guard at a prison, and he let us play with his hand cuffs. The blue pants is a 72 year old woman who is a black belt and was helping me try to get out of them. they were taking off my shoes in this picture.


This one is the official staff house picture. The guy in the back left is Elder Pruitt, the AP, who's going home at the end of this transfer. Next to him is Elder Franklin, my comp, who is also going home this transfer. Next to Franklin is Elder Grahl who went home on Monday so that he could be home in time for his wedding. The guy to my right is the other AP Elder Hill, and the other three guys are the secretaries.


These two here are of me at the top of the big hill in our area, then one of me in the main part of our area where we work (notice the HUGE set of stairs- you can't even see how high up they go).




The lady that got baptized the Sunday before last: Janice- The Lady Who Died.

Wednesday June 11th, 2008

It is P-Day once again! Thanks for all the emails, I got tons this week. You guys did well. This last Sunday Janice got baptized. She's the woman who died and came back. She's one of the weirdest people I've ever met, but cool. At her baptism after the Bishop and Relief Society President gave the boas vindas (welcoming?) she was like "can I give my message?" and everyone was kind of like "uh... sure... go for it," (complete with weird looks and sideglances). So she got up and crossed her arms, bowed her head and started her message/prayer. It wasn't as bad as we anticipated- she just sort of rambled about the importance of love and the love the Savior has for us, which is great, just that she did it in a really weird, offbeat way. But whatever, she's cool.
Because of Stake Conference this Sunday we got permission to confirm her at the baptism instead of waiting two weeks, and she asked me if I would do it (ah!!). But I did, for the first time, with Elder Franklin and our Bishop and it was suh-weet! I was way nervous that I'd mess something up and like, accidentally condemn her or something, but it turned out really well. Everyone said it was really good. As for her two sons, well, they're goons. One's 19 and the other's 20. Neither of them know how to read, so she reads the Book of Mormon to them which we really appreciate. The problem is that she's only been a member for like, 3 days so she tries to explain things to them and then starts to create her own little personal apostasy. I wish we could be there all the time to help out. The other problem is that they're complete idiots. It took three weeks before the 20 year old would say "bom dia" to us. The OTHER problem is that the 19 year old son is in love with one of the members. We're really trying to get it across that he shouldn't get baptized because he thinks that what she wants him to, but that he should do it because he knows that it's the right thing to do.
Last Friday I did a division with Elder Wilson, my Trainer/Current Zone Leader in his area, and that was really fun to teach with him again. That night we had to go back to the church for an interview and while he and I were waiting around for it to get done this guy walked into the church and called us over to the door where he was standing. He wanted R$2.50 for a bus. As missionaries, we're not allowed to give out money, and we explained that to him, but I told him I would go upstairs and see if there was anyone that could help him out. There was a lady parked in the parking lot and he kept telling us to go ask her to give him a ride, but like we're going to put some crazy homeless guy in a car with an old woman and have her drive him home. Anyway, I went upstairs and looked around a bit and then came back down and informed him that there was, unfortunately no one up there. Not 30 seconds later, the Stake President and Bishop walked down the stairs and out the door past us. Luckily I think he was too drunk to notice that I completely lied to his face, and so he just kept talking to us. But because we insisted that we couldnt give him money, he started to get a little angry: "If Jesus Christ was here right now, would you deny him?" Well, first of all I don't think Jesus would come to the church just to ask for a couple bucks, but we just told him "no, of course not." To which he responded, "well guess what- you just did. I am Jesus!" It was very dramatic.
But he wouldn't leave. He just kept standing in the doorway talking to us. Then his story started to change. He informed us that he was the last prophet of the Jehova's Witnesses ("they just don't know me yet") and then he started to prophesy: "One day, a bottle of wine will fall from the sky and will land right here!" as he points to the floor, "and wine will be everywhere! And then everyone will know..." He didn't mention what it was that everyone will know, but he made it quite clear that we will definitely know it."And then the walls of this church will fall!" Excellent, thank you. I'll keep an eye out for that bottle. He also prophesied that one day two JWs will knock on Elder Wilson's door, and that Wilson will remember him and let them in and that he will be converted. Elder Wilson will then return to this ward in Brazil and convert every single one of them to the Jehova's Witnesses. I hope there aren't crazy, drunk people that go around talking about the Mormons like that. That's pretty much it. Peace out 'til next week.
-Elder Sisco

Wednesday June 4th, 2008

Hello!
I'm praying for Sam and everyone all the time. I don't like to imagine him being in the situation that he is; I imagine it's a little more difficult actually being there, but all will work out in the end. We have to suffer through these trials in order to grow. President Frei said yesterday at zone conference that sacrifice is just preperation for receiving more blessings, and I liked that. Pay your tithing. Study the scriptures EVERY DAY without fail. Pay fast offerings. Have family prayer. Go to church. Love it! There is no greater blessing than being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the only true and living church on the face of the earth. There are 6 BILLION people in the world and only 13 million are members. I don't even know how many people I've met already who think they're saved just because their pastor said so, and I feel bad for them because they're not willing to open their hearts and ask Heavenly Father for guidance. It makes getting rejected and treated badly easier to handle though. BUT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL THE BLESSINGS WE CAN GET FROM KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS!! Think of how lucky we are to know the truth! How selfish is it to be disobedient to the God who has been kind enough to show us the way to return back to him?
Yesterday at zone conference President Frei also talked about how we can obligate God to bless us when we do what he asks of us. There will be times when we can kneel down and say "ok, Heavenly Father, I've done my part, it's your turn now." And he will be completely obligated to pour blessings upon our heads. If we don't pay our tithing, we're screwing ourselves out of blessings. We're taking our ticket to the kingdom of heaven and tearing it to shreds. Just as an example. Anyway, that's all.
Today my LZs, the APs and another companionship in our zone went to President Frei's back yard and played some basketball and some volleyball. And I ate at Subway again. It was amazing. My Dad, Elder Wilson, is my LZ, so that's cool. He's going home this transfer.The work is going very well. Janice, the woman who died and ressuscitated, is getting interviewed tonight and baptized on Sunday. This past Sunday she got up and bore her testimony, and it was AWESOME. I was so proud, I told everyone around me "that's my investigator!" We're also teaching the rest of her family, and they all have dates for next Sunday.The past Sunday morning, instead of regular church, everyone went to our chapel and watched the satellite broadcast of the Curitiba Temple dedication. I sat in a group of 8 missionaries (6 Americans), and the whole time they were doing the part where President Monson and a bunch of other people go up and put mortar on the wall, we were the only ones laughing because President Monson kept making hilarious side comments, but the translator didn't translate any of the comments that he made- only when he addressed the crowd. But it was a great experience. There are now 5 working temples in Brazil; soon to be 6 when the one in Manaus is finished. We had a testimony meeting later that afternoon.
Elder Franklin, from Alaska, is great. He's going home this transfer, too. He's a great missionary- I've already learned a lot from him.
Here's a funny missionary story that happened to an Elder here recently. He was teaching a woman who was very receptive to the 1st lesson, but had heard a lot of bad things about the church, especially in regards to the temples. She kept mentioning that she heard the church was a cult or sect and that sort of weirdness that people spread around. The Elder decided to leave the lesson, quickly explaining to her that the Lord wants us to keep his commandments, and that he will provide a way for us to keep every one of them, and he left 1 Nephi 3:7 for her to read. Or rather, he thought he did. What he actually left was 3 Nephi 3:7, the part that talks about the bad secret combinations and says: "Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us—not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance." Oops.
The other night I got my first haircut from a missionary- or, 3. It took 3 Elders an hour and a half to cut my hair because none of them had ever done it before, and I wouldn't let them just buzz it. They had to use scissors. It turned out surprisingly well. I'll send pictures next week.
Anyway, that's all I've got for this week. Pictures to come next week, I hope.
Love,
Elder Sisco

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 (Bonus Email!)

Hey all, Sorry about the confusion- since the transfer meeting is today and it takes up most of the day, we did email yesterday because a lot of people spend all day traveling to their new areas today and it doesn't work out for them. In my case, since I live like 5 minutes away from the chapel where transfers happen, I just do email twice this week. My new comp is Elder Franklin, from Alaska. He's also going home at the end of this transfer. Elder Alfaro will be meeting his parents in about an hour and a half, so I'm pretty excited for him. This transfer we're gonna have lots of baptisms. We're teaching a ton of people. The undead woman is awesome. She smokes, but is stopping. When we went there yesterday she was sitting on her couch reading the Book of Mormon, and she was already 8 chapters in. Also, she kept thanking us and telling us how grateful she is that we come teach her. She's great. I'll send a picture of her when I can. Yesterday all the new missionaries showed up in the mission and 4 of them slept in our house- 2 of them were the only 2 Americans that showed up in this group of 15. Our Work Leader's wife made a HUGE feast for us since one of the sisters and my companion are both going home today. It was amazing. One of the best meals I've had so far. She made so much food, it barely looked like we had eaten anything by the time we were done. That's pretty much all that has happened since yesterday. I had a huge dinner and got a new comp. I'm kind of disappointed that he's not Brasilian because my Portuguese won't get any better this transfer, but it'll be fun; he's way cool. Also, this is a 5 week transfer instead of 6. Happens every 2 years. I can't remember why. Love, Elder Sisco

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Transfers are tomorrow, but I already know who my companion is and basically everything because I spent all day in the office yesterday while my companion helped out the executive secretary. I did random errands. It was boring. But it's cool to know almost everything that's going to happen before everyone else does. My next companion is leaving after this transfer- again. I'm "killing" another missionary. Two in a row- I think that might be rare. I'm so glad our area is staying open though- I was afraid it was going to get shut down. But we have a lot of good prospects. One of them is named Janice, and 6 weeks ago one of the sisters did a contact with her in the street and marked a baptismal date with her, but nothing really happened. Then 4 weeks later she was sleeping on her couch and she died. Her hands turned black and she wasn't breathing. Her husband tried to wake her up but she didn't respond. She had actually gone to the spirit world where, as she describes it, everyone is dressed in white and they're "all equal there" (I thought that was the most interesting thing that she said about it, for some reason) and it was the most beautiful place she had ever been, but before she could enjoy it anymore a very tall, beautiful man with long hair and a beard dressed in a white tunic came up to her and told her that it wasn't her time to go yet, and that she had to return, and then she woke up on her couch and was fine. A few days later I did a contact with her in the street and invited her to learn more about the Book of Mormon. She called the number and on Saturday we got her address and delivered it and gave the first lesson and she was way excited about it and went to church on Sunday and loved it and already has a testimony and is bringing her whole family next Sunday. She told us all about the dream/death thing on Sunday, and it was soooo coool. I'm excited. She'll be baptized very soon I hope.
Last night I went out with the assistants to work in their area, because my comp was still working in the office, and we only had time to teach one lesson but it was with these 3 old women who just talked and talked and talked and the 2 APs could barely get a word in, so of course I just sat there and said nothing. But at one point, she asked about the word of wisdom and she was like "well, what do you drink instead of coffee?" and I was like "mango juice is good" and that was all I said the whole lesson. Then at the end she was like "and this one" pointing to me "is he an American too? Wow, but he's speaking Portuguese really well!" They made fun of me the whole rest of the night: "You must've said that perfectly, without a hint of an accent!" Anyway, I thought it was funny.
Well that's pretty much it. Hopefully I'll get to write to you tomorrow- and read the emails that I hope you all send me.
Love you all,
Elder Sisco

Pictures 5-23-08

Yay, more pictures again!

Our LO and us


Part of the crappy view from our apartment

Me killing my comp (because he's dying in the mission)


Our strongest investigator with the strongest testimony (on the couch) with her husband. she made lunch for us yesterday and it was amazing. her friend on the floor is one of the sister's investigators and she's great too.

Friday May 23rd, 2008

I lost a big email that I just wrote, so now I'm upset, because I have to write more. In short, what I just wrote was: today I went to Pizza Hut with President and the APs and one of the secretaries for the last P-day of the transfer. President was in our ward on Sunday and it was scary- he sat next to me in priesthood. Unfortunately, he's going to be there again this coming Sunday, and we have to do a special musical number. The sisters and I are going to sing This is the Christ while my comp plays piano. I don't know why they asked us to do that, none of us sing very well. I'm sorry that President has to be there for that. I'm getting anxious about transfers. I don't know if my area is going to close or stay open. If it stays open, we're going to have a lot of baptisms this coming transfer. If it closes, it'll become part of the sisters' area and they're going to have lots of baptisms. It stinks that everyone in the house knows where I'm going except me. And they like to let me know that they know. I do love living in that house though, I'll be sad if I get transfered. I even got to go running this morning for the first time ever in my mission. It felt so good. We went up to this park near our house that was way neat and did a couple laps there.
Oh, I need to add something to the list of things that I need in the package that I hope you'll be sending me. You'd better send it soon or the list is just gonna keep getting bigger. But yeah, I need some cool gym/basketball shorts. They don't have them in Brazil, and all the Brazilians want them. I traded the only pair of lame Nike shorts I had for this sweet soccer jersey. But now I don't have any more shorts to do exercises in. So, if you could throw some shorts in there for me that'd be sweet. Yep, so transfers are next week. I don't know what's going to happen. I dunno what else to write to you guys, sorry. That's basically all that I've been thinking about lately. I can't really think about what else we've done that's interesting lately. We just work... and preach and stuff. And that's fun. This picture is from today, of us in front of Pizza Hut.

Love you all,
Elder Sisco

Latest Pictures

my district this transfer- me, elder alfaro, sister da silva, sister keyser from illinois, elder marques and elder vasconcelos


last sundays baptism: all of us, the baptism and the old man missionary with a plastic left arm


zona belo horizonte oeste and zona contagem on our combined zone pday






going back in time: my old zone, sete lagoas, after we came out of the cave on zone pday.


pday with elder anderson- tennis in presidents "back yard"




me emailing you in the mission office last week after tennis


looking up at presidents house


elder sisco and elder alfaro. this was the closest fit we had in the closet for him to use....