Hello! It's p-day again!
First of all, Happy Birthday, Pop!
The other day we were walking, and I saw this handcart in the middle of the street and someone walked over and tossed a match on it and it erupted into flames. I guess it had been previously doused with a flammable substance of some sort. Shortly thereafter, a man came running out of this house being chased by a fat woman with a broom, and she was beating him with it! She had no mercy! The broom broke and she started hitting him with both ends. It was his wife and kids all ganging up against him. I don't know what he did to deserve it, but it was sad to see. But really, at the same time, despite the sadness, it was pretty awesome to be there. Or exciting, I'll say. You know how it is. I saw him after all the commotion and he was sitting on the side of the road licking his wounds. He was pretty beaten. He was bleeding in a lot of places. Luckily she didn't stab him with one of the broom ends, that would be bad. The police came after and everything. Way exciting. And as if that wasn't enough for the neighborhood to erupt in a tremor of gossipy excitement, the next day there was a triple homicide on the other side of the city. Unfortunately one of the people was the son of recent convert who lives on this same street. He apparently "knew too much" about some criminals. One of the people that died, since he knew he was going to die, filmed it on his cell phone and hid it from the guys who killed him, and so they know who did it because of him. Clever, eh? It was sad to go to the mom's house though. She was pretty distraught, obviously.
But don't worry, I'm safe. I don't know any drug lords or have any information that anyone would kill me to keep secret. Sete Lagoas is a pretty safe city anyway.
I went to "The Cave of the King of the Wilderness" (a gruta do rei do mato) today, on the outskirts of the city. It was pretty awesome. Reminded me a lot of that Timpanogus cave that we went to in Utah. Way cool. Most of the people in my zone went. Very exciting.
I think I told you this before, but our zone made a new key indicator that we have to mark 2 dates every day. One per person, two per companionship. I've gotten way good at marking baptismal dates, I've even been marking with people in the street, just in regular street contacts. A lot of people used to be afraid of marking dates, so they're trying to get rid of that fear, because that's why we're here. They say that if you don't mark a date by the second lesson, you're wasting time.
We had this guy in church on Sunday who's like, 65. And our church is backwards by the way; priesthood, Sunday school, sacrament. So he's this great investigator. And he was there for the first two hours, and then he disappeared! We lost him the crowd (because there are two wards that meet in the same chapel) and when the dust had settled he was gone. Turns out, he thought it had ended and he went home. Unfortunately, having an investigator in priesthood and gospel principles doesn't count for us. He missed the most important part! Our fault, for not explaining it to him though. Whoops. But he's going again next week, and hopefully he'll be baptized on the next Saturday, which will be conference! I cant wait for conference, it's gonna be sweet. No sleeping for me this time.
Okay, I can't think of what else I need to write, so I'm signing off.
Much love,
Elder Sisco
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Pictures!
Me jumping off a rock on top of a mountain over Sete Lagoas. 
Same mountain. Same me. Only... different picture. 
Most of my district at a lake thing before climbing the mountain 
Adrianno, the one day baptism. A member baptized him 
My dad, Wilson; and his son before me, Marquiss, at transfers.
The oldest member ever.
Jennifer, my baptism last week.
Same mountain. Same me. Only... different picture.
Most of my district at a lake thing before climbing the mountain
Adrianno, the one day baptism. A member baptized him
My dad, Wilson; and his son before me, Marquiss, at transfers.
The oldest member ever.
Jennifer, my baptism last week.
On Monday, Elder Da Costa, my District Leader/house-mate, decided to do a random division, so I went with him and his companion went with mine. It was the best day that I've had this transfer. I even marked a baptismal date with a guy in the street in a regular street contact. It was probably the best contact I've done thus far. Very cool.
We had a baptism on Saturday- this little girl whose mom is less active, living with this weird guy and with a new child. But the girl is really great, I just hope she stays strong in her problem of a family.
Oh, I had my first miracle. Y'know how people always say "Oh, you'll see miracles on your mission." Weelllll, on Saturday morning during study I was thinking a lot about this girl Silmara that we've been teaching for like, 7 weeks, basically since I got here. She's definitely elect, and she wants to be baptized but the problem is that she doesn't live with her mom (who is also getting baptized soon), she lives with her uncle who hates the church. There are a lot more little details about why she can't get baptized but that's basically the gist of it. So during study in the morning I was really thinking a lot about her, and then I decided to make a plan about how we were going to baptize her. I set a goal for her to be in the water the 22nd. 1 week. I wrote down the goal, what I was going to do to make it happen, the Lord's part, and then other important things to remember (love companion, be obedient, etc.) and then I said a prayer. It didn't take long for the answer to come. Roughly an hour later, after companion study, Elder Da Costa came into our room and was like "I want to go see Silmara today. Let's go now." So we went there that morning, before lunch and we just went and started talking to her and then her cousin who she lives with was there and we talked to her about the baptism, and then she decided it was a good idea, and then Elder Da Costa asked if he could talk to the uncle. So they called him. It was a tense moment. I was nervous... and I wasn't even the one talking to him. But what happened in the end is, we proposed that she be baptized that afternoon, since the uncle authorized it, but he said that he and the rest of the family would like to participate in the baptism, but he couldn't make it that day. So he said how about next Saturday, the 22nd? Eh? Answer to prayer? I do believe so. So yeah, she's going in the water. It's sweet.
For some reason, I've been thinking about LOST lately. Are you guys watching that? Just out of curiosity.... I really want to know what happens. But really, don't tell me. I'll find out when I get home.
I achieved 45 pushups. Woohooo.
Sorry, I can't think of any other news. Just keep those prayers coming.
Love you all,
Elder Sisco
Sunday, March 9, 2008
March 4th, 2008
Transfers are tomorrow, so I get to write to you all today. Since tomorrow's P-day I'll probably get to come email again, but most likely I won't write to you, since I'm doing that now- I won't have anything of interest to say. But if you love me there will be lots of new emails in my inbox by tomorrow! I'll at least write to tell you who my new companion is and all that tomorrow.
Last night we got "o ligação" or The Call. There were 8 elders that all came over to our house, including the Zone Leaders so we didn't have to wait for them to call us since they were already in the house (The president tells the assistants, they call the zone leaders, they call the district leaders, they call their district)- it eliminated a lot of time waiting. So anyway, as we all knew, I'm staying and Elder Wilson is leaving. We don't know to where yet, but this morning President Frei called him to be a Zone Leader, so that's exciting.
Tell me some more current events, I like to hear what's going on in the states- Amy's blog doesn't quite satiate me (is that right? satiate me? I'm afraid my English is waning)
So last Sunday one of the priests in our ward brought two friends, and they both were like "Wow, we want to be baptized!" so, we were like "Ok, sweet. We can do that." We went to one kid's house that afternoon and taught him and marked Saturday as his baptism, and the other kid wasn't home. Through the whole week we kept going and going and he was never home. Then on Saturday, his member friend called us and was like "is Adrianno's baptism still going to be today? I talked to him yesterday and he was way excited about it." It was amazing. So we basically dropped all of our plans and spent the whole day planning this baptism. We had to teach him EVERYTHING but the third lesson and get him interviewed by the Zone Leader and just get everything ready like getting the font filled up and the paperwork done and all that. Then in the middle of it Elder Wilson stops and says "Oh, no..." and calls the kid back and asks, "Do you drink coffee?" and he says "Yeah..." and Elder Wilson asks,"Did you drink it today?"
"No..."
"What about yesterday?"
"Nope"
"Perfect."
It was a miracle! And there was a stake mutual activity for all the youth in our chapel that night, so he went to that, and right after we had his baptism. It was amazing; this baptism came out of nowhere. And he's super excited and strong.
That was the highlight of the week; I cant really think of what else happened that was interesting.
But tomorrow Elder Wilson is leaving me, and I'll be getting a new companion, probably a Brazilian, and also another companionship will be moving into the house, because they're dividing our area this transfer. So I'll be the only one in the house who knows both areas. And I don't know both areas. That'll be interesting. At least we have a map. I think living with 4 will be fun though...
I have some neat pictures, but I'll have to wait and send them to you later. Maybe I'll even write you a real letter soon.
Last night Elder Wilson had to do 6 baptismal interviews and they couldn't make it to the church so we had to go their house, and it was reaaaaalllly sketchy. They are very very poor. We got there and they offered us this sort of cornmeal gelatin dish, and I had to take it. I was praying very hard that it would do me no harm. Then I sat outside for a very long time filling out baptismal papers and talking to the family while they each got interviewed. By the way, this family of 6 is all getting baptized in the zone leaders' area because of one lady that Elder Wilson baptized last transfer; they're related. So that's cool. I hope some of my baptisms produce families of 6.
It was way nice to see pictures of you guys. I think mom looks a little different. Is she doing a diet or something? But you all look happy and that's good to see. Unfortunately they made me miss home, but that's okay.
Oh! i achieved a milestone the other night and did 40 pushups! Woohoo... Then after that I did 2 sets of 30. So I set 2 personal records in one night: a set of 40 and then 100 in a night. I realized that that's probably why I've gained more weight- less to do with the stuffing of myself and more to do with the daily exercise. I'm hoping this new comp will want to run with me in the morning. maybe I'll make him.
Alrighty, I cant think of anything else.
Hope to see some more emails from ya'll tomorrow. I'll let you know about transfers.
chau
-Elder Sisco
Last night we got "o ligação" or The Call. There were 8 elders that all came over to our house, including the Zone Leaders so we didn't have to wait for them to call us since they were already in the house (The president tells the assistants, they call the zone leaders, they call the district leaders, they call their district)- it eliminated a lot of time waiting. So anyway, as we all knew, I'm staying and Elder Wilson is leaving. We don't know to where yet, but this morning President Frei called him to be a Zone Leader, so that's exciting.
Tell me some more current events, I like to hear what's going on in the states- Amy's blog doesn't quite satiate me (is that right? satiate me? I'm afraid my English is waning)
So last Sunday one of the priests in our ward brought two friends, and they both were like "Wow, we want to be baptized!" so, we were like "Ok, sweet. We can do that." We went to one kid's house that afternoon and taught him and marked Saturday as his baptism, and the other kid wasn't home. Through the whole week we kept going and going and he was never home. Then on Saturday, his member friend called us and was like "is Adrianno's baptism still going to be today? I talked to him yesterday and he was way excited about it." It was amazing. So we basically dropped all of our plans and spent the whole day planning this baptism. We had to teach him EVERYTHING but the third lesson and get him interviewed by the Zone Leader and just get everything ready like getting the font filled up and the paperwork done and all that. Then in the middle of it Elder Wilson stops and says "Oh, no..." and calls the kid back and asks, "Do you drink coffee?" and he says "Yeah..." and Elder Wilson asks,"Did you drink it today?"
"No..."
"What about yesterday?"
"Nope"
"Perfect."
It was a miracle! And there was a stake mutual activity for all the youth in our chapel that night, so he went to that, and right after we had his baptism. It was amazing; this baptism came out of nowhere. And he's super excited and strong.
That was the highlight of the week; I cant really think of what else happened that was interesting.
But tomorrow Elder Wilson is leaving me, and I'll be getting a new companion, probably a Brazilian, and also another companionship will be moving into the house, because they're dividing our area this transfer. So I'll be the only one in the house who knows both areas. And I don't know both areas. That'll be interesting. At least we have a map. I think living with 4 will be fun though...
I have some neat pictures, but I'll have to wait and send them to you later. Maybe I'll even write you a real letter soon.
Last night Elder Wilson had to do 6 baptismal interviews and they couldn't make it to the church so we had to go their house, and it was reaaaaalllly sketchy. They are very very poor. We got there and they offered us this sort of cornmeal gelatin dish, and I had to take it. I was praying very hard that it would do me no harm. Then I sat outside for a very long time filling out baptismal papers and talking to the family while they each got interviewed. By the way, this family of 6 is all getting baptized in the zone leaders' area because of one lady that Elder Wilson baptized last transfer; they're related. So that's cool. I hope some of my baptisms produce families of 6.
It was way nice to see pictures of you guys. I think mom looks a little different. Is she doing a diet or something? But you all look happy and that's good to see. Unfortunately they made me miss home, but that's okay.
Oh! i achieved a milestone the other night and did 40 pushups! Woohoo... Then after that I did 2 sets of 30. So I set 2 personal records in one night: a set of 40 and then 100 in a night. I realized that that's probably why I've gained more weight- less to do with the stuffing of myself and more to do with the daily exercise. I'm hoping this new comp will want to run with me in the morning. maybe I'll make him.
Alrighty, I cant think of anything else.
Hope to see some more emails from ya'll tomorrow. I'll let you know about transfers.
chau
-Elder Sisco
Friday, March 7, 2008
February 27, 2008
If you could, dot your emails with current events, I like to know what's going on. I also heard the patriots lost the super bowl. I think you never told me that, so I just assumed they won, being 18-0.
As far as food goes, my weight fluctuates daily, I haven't eaten anything yet today except a bowl of cereal, so I'm starving. We're going to eat right after this. but I'm getting better about standing up for myself and not cramming it in. But actually sometimes it's so good that I have to. And then they bring dessert. And you never know if there's going to be dessert, so it's like a guessing game. And I don't want to ask, "hey, um, is there going to be dessert or should I just fill up on the beans and rice?" But yeah, I'm doing exercises and everything that I should be to avoid diseases and such, so I trust that the Lord will take card of the rest.
I just recently (this week) started making lassies (I don't know how to spell that but I think you know what I mean. The Indian drink? I think Lassie is the dog. I don't how to spell the drink) I think I can make them better than you guys here because we have fresh mangoes. And good bananas. And coconut yogurt, and basically that Cerres juice that mom buys that I love, but cheap. Sort of. And honey. So we have everything, and a blender, and I think I'm going to start doing those a lot more often. I heard yogurt is fattening though. I've started worrying about eating fattening things. I'm worried that I'm worrying about that.
Yesterday I stayed home all day because Elder Wilson got very sick. We think it was dehydration (don't worry, Mom, that's not going to happen to me. I drink plenty of water.); he was vomiting and diarrhea-ing all day. So I took a nap, studied some scripture, studied some Jesus the Christ and played our landlord's guitar ALL DAY. Then today he stayed home again, but we did a division with the ZLs and our district and another district in the zone all hiked up this mountain and at the very top is the oldest Catholic chapel in Sete Lagoas. I sent you a postcard of it last week, now I've actually been there. Also there's a giant cross at the top that lights up at night and looks over the city... a neon cross. Awesome. I took lots of pictures, up until my camera died. Unfortunately it died before we did the cool stuff, so you won't be getting very cool pictures. Maybe after the mission if I'm still in touch with any of these people they can send me ones they took. but we went down to this waterfall, and then descended basically into the jungle and went all over exploring and found caves and all kinds of cool things. So I spent most of the day hiking; it was super fun.
On Sunday we had a combined activity with our ward and another ward that meets in the chapel where we watched the Joseph Smith movie on the giant screen. Our landlord is one of the coolest Brazilians I've met yet, he's amazing, and he said he's been looking for the "caminho certo" or right path to take that will lead him to God. So we invited him to come see this movie. It was great, he loved it and he's coming to church on Sunday and he's already reading the Book of Mormon and during the movie like, after the first vision part he leans over and asks "so, you guys have meetings here every Sunday morning?" "yep." and then after it talks about the Book of Mormon he leans over and says "so, is that this book right here?" *points to hymnal* "No, that's hymns, we'll get one for you." "I'd like that." He also wants a copy of the movie. Before it started I told Elder Wilson "in about an hour, Alvi Mastor is going to have a testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet." And it was true!
Next week is transfers- my training will be complete! I'm nervous, mostly because I'm probably going to get a Brazilian companion and we're going to get another companionship in our ward and they'll all live in our house and if Wilson gets transfered out of our area or zone completely instead of just moving over to one of the elders that's moving in with us, I'll be the only one in our house that knows the area. And I don't know the area very well. It's a rush this week to try and learn as much as I can. I don't know if I made this clear or not, but they're dividing our area and we're going to get another companionship in our ward and in our house. Right now it's just us 2.
We have this investigator that we were teaching, but all of a sudden one day, in the middle of a lesson (everything was going great...) she decides that our equilibrium is off and that she doesn't want us to come back anymore. She says she's still going to go to church, and she does, but that she's also going to the Catholic church and to some evangelical church. So on Saturday during our baptism she comes into the church in running gear (spandex body suit, headband, etc.) all sweaty and goes into one of the classrooms in the back. Elder Wilson and I left and went to see what she was doing and she was opening up hymnbooks and putting them on a table, in no particular order that we know of. Just opening, placing, grabbing another, placing. And when we asked if we could help her with anything or if she wanted to come watch the baptism she got startled, said no and left very loudly. She was basically yelling "no, no that's okay thank you" as she walked down the hall and out the door. Then this Sunday, she went to the other elders ward (same chapel, different meeting times) and they said during the sacrament she was just walking up and down the rows, standing, sitting, walking. And then when church ended we saw her walk out with a hymnbook! She stole from the church! So weird....
Well I don't know what else to write. I think I covered everything interesting that has happened.
-Elder Sisco
As far as food goes, my weight fluctuates daily, I haven't eaten anything yet today except a bowl of cereal, so I'm starving. We're going to eat right after this. but I'm getting better about standing up for myself and not cramming it in. But actually sometimes it's so good that I have to. And then they bring dessert. And you never know if there's going to be dessert, so it's like a guessing game. And I don't want to ask, "hey, um, is there going to be dessert or should I just fill up on the beans and rice?" But yeah, I'm doing exercises and everything that I should be to avoid diseases and such, so I trust that the Lord will take card of the rest.
I just recently (this week) started making lassies (I don't know how to spell that but I think you know what I mean. The Indian drink? I think Lassie is the dog. I don't how to spell the drink) I think I can make them better than you guys here because we have fresh mangoes. And good bananas. And coconut yogurt, and basically that Cerres juice that mom buys that I love, but cheap. Sort of. And honey. So we have everything, and a blender, and I think I'm going to start doing those a lot more often. I heard yogurt is fattening though. I've started worrying about eating fattening things. I'm worried that I'm worrying about that.
Yesterday I stayed home all day because Elder Wilson got very sick. We think it was dehydration (don't worry, Mom, that's not going to happen to me. I drink plenty of water.); he was vomiting and diarrhea-ing all day. So I took a nap, studied some scripture, studied some Jesus the Christ and played our landlord's guitar ALL DAY. Then today he stayed home again, but we did a division with the ZLs and our district and another district in the zone all hiked up this mountain and at the very top is the oldest Catholic chapel in Sete Lagoas. I sent you a postcard of it last week, now I've actually been there. Also there's a giant cross at the top that lights up at night and looks over the city... a neon cross. Awesome. I took lots of pictures, up until my camera died. Unfortunately it died before we did the cool stuff, so you won't be getting very cool pictures. Maybe after the mission if I'm still in touch with any of these people they can send me ones they took. but we went down to this waterfall, and then descended basically into the jungle and went all over exploring and found caves and all kinds of cool things. So I spent most of the day hiking; it was super fun.
On Sunday we had a combined activity with our ward and another ward that meets in the chapel where we watched the Joseph Smith movie on the giant screen. Our landlord is one of the coolest Brazilians I've met yet, he's amazing, and he said he's been looking for the "caminho certo" or right path to take that will lead him to God. So we invited him to come see this movie. It was great, he loved it and he's coming to church on Sunday and he's already reading the Book of Mormon and during the movie like, after the first vision part he leans over and asks "so, you guys have meetings here every Sunday morning?" "yep." and then after it talks about the Book of Mormon he leans over and says "so, is that this book right here?" *points to hymnal* "No, that's hymns, we'll get one for you." "I'd like that." He also wants a copy of the movie. Before it started I told Elder Wilson "in about an hour, Alvi Mastor is going to have a testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet." And it was true!
Next week is transfers- my training will be complete! I'm nervous, mostly because I'm probably going to get a Brazilian companion and we're going to get another companionship in our ward and they'll all live in our house and if Wilson gets transfered out of our area or zone completely instead of just moving over to one of the elders that's moving in with us, I'll be the only one in our house that knows the area. And I don't know the area very well. It's a rush this week to try and learn as much as I can. I don't know if I made this clear or not, but they're dividing our area and we're going to get another companionship in our ward and in our house. Right now it's just us 2.
We have this investigator that we were teaching, but all of a sudden one day, in the middle of a lesson (everything was going great...) she decides that our equilibrium is off and that she doesn't want us to come back anymore. She says she's still going to go to church, and she does, but that she's also going to the Catholic church and to some evangelical church. So on Saturday during our baptism she comes into the church in running gear (spandex body suit, headband, etc.) all sweaty and goes into one of the classrooms in the back. Elder Wilson and I left and went to see what she was doing and she was opening up hymnbooks and putting them on a table, in no particular order that we know of. Just opening, placing, grabbing another, placing. And when we asked if we could help her with anything or if she wanted to come watch the baptism she got startled, said no and left very loudly. She was basically yelling "no, no that's okay thank you" as she walked down the hall and out the door. Then this Sunday, she went to the other elders ward (same chapel, different meeting times) and they said during the sacrament she was just walking up and down the rows, standing, sitting, walking. And then when church ended we saw her walk out with a hymnbook! She stole from the church! So weird....
Well I don't know what else to write. I think I covered everything interesting that has happened.
-Elder Sisco
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