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....

Address

Note that I updated Dan's mailing address on the sidebar. I think the previous one was getting to him (I sent stuff via that address), but apparently this new one is better.

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Hello,
Talking to you guys on Sunday was great. I was a little disappointed that it went so fast.
I'm sending some pictures, and some of them are sort of crappy, sorry... but it's what I've got.
After the phone call, when Elder Alfaro went to talk to his family, I sat in the kitchen with our missionary work leader (I don't remember what that calling is in English...) and talked to him for the whole hour. He's got an interesting story. He's amazing and knows everything. I talked to him about all the apostles that he's friends with. He and Elder Faust used to be tight. It was Faust who set him apart to go on his mission, and they were friends 'til he died. Also he and Henry B. Eyring used to work together. And he told me this story about how once at a stake conference when he was stake president, Elder Ballard (I think- don't quote me on that part) was there, and since he doesn't speak Portuguese very well, he spoke in English and had a translator, but in the middle of his talk he turned around, sat the translator down in his seat and went back to the podium and gave the rest of his talk in perfect, comprehendable Portuguese and sat down. After his talk they could barely communicate with him again- because he doesn't speak Portuguese. Cool, eh?
He's also had lunch with or at least met like, 9 other apostles.
So we keep running into these 7th Day Adventists (is that right?) who just want to argue scripture with us in the road. This woman on Monday just walked up to me and started talking to me about her bible study and how she discovered that the sabbath is really Saturday. by the way, in the Portuguese bible the commandment isn't "keep the sabbath day holy," it's "keep the Saturday holy." That's a mistranslation that's given us some trouble.
I can't think of anything else to write, so I'm signing off.
Love you all,
Elder Sisco

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Okay. So today was my p-day, because we switched it so that I could play tennis with Elder Anderson, one of the office elders. I beat him 6-3, 6-4 and 6-4. Yup, still got it.
Yesterday we stayed home because Alfaro was sick. We left lunch and he was feeling really dizzy, so we went to the chapel and laid down for a bit, and he talked to president and I gave him a blessing and then we went to the hospital and that took like 2 hours, and then we went home and I just wrote letters and read Jesus the Christ.
I also did a division with one of the assistants, Elder Grahl, on Tuesday because he was sick, so Elder Pruitt the other assistant went with Alfaro so that they could cover both areas, and I stayed home and wrote letters and read Jesus the Christ. Yup. Productive week.
But we did have a baptism on Sunday finally, of this 25 year old woman who is amazing. Her sister was baptized a few months ago and is so firm that this baptism will stay firm, I'm confident. Alfaro baptized her and me and 2 other elders and 2 sisters sang Teach Me to Walk in the Light.
Sorry I'm a little out of time. You'll have to wait to talk to me on Sunday, sorry. I'll have lots of good things to say.
I'm working on sending pictures, but I still don't have much of interest.
much love
'til Sunday
Elder Sisco.

It's Friday morning. I didn't get to do email on Wednesday because it was our zone p-day and it we didn't even get home 'til 7 (p-day ends at 6). Our zone (BH West) and Zona Contagem (other city by BH) went to Bedin (another city outside of BH) to the Fiat Club. Some member owns it. It's like this rich person country club sort of deal and he invited the missionaries. So we went. All 50 of us. The place was ridiculously amazing, but would be a lot cooler if I wasn't a missionary. All the pools were pretty tempting; especially since it was like 90 degrees out. So instead of swimming we had a soccer tournament on one of the 800 soccer fields. Then I played ping pong with Elder Wilson (my dad in the mission, if you'll remember- now the zone leader in Contagem) and he beat me 8 times in a row. But it was close every time... and then we ate and went home. Pretty fun day, but not very well planned- so that's why I'm emailing on Friday morning.
Yesterday we did a division with the Assistants. I went with Elder Grahl into their area and Elder Pruitt went with my comp Alfaro into ours. The division had barely started- we had just left the church- and we were walking down the street and this lady in a second floor apartment looked out the window and started yelling at us. The following:

"I know you guys! You're the Mormons!"
"Yes..."
"I know John Smith!"
"I don't know who that is."
"John Smith!"
"No..."
"Yes, John Smith your leader!"
"No, I think you're thinking of Joseph Smith. And he's not our 'leader.'"
"Whatever. What's your name?"
-Introductions-
"Sisco, like a sisco in your eye, y'know?"
"Ah, like a little grain of sand! Well, I'm going to sing a pretty Brasilian song for you."
-Proceeds to sing "My Little Grain of Sand" to me. Note: My Little Grain of Sand is not a real song. I don't remember the rest of the words of the song she sang after that, unfortunately-

So I thanked her, invited her to church and we left.
The work in our area is going well. We have a baptism this Sunday, and we're working to get this amazing couple married so that they can get baptized too. The woman has an incredible testimony of the church. We had one of those "what you're feeling right now is the Spirit testifying that what we said is true" experiences, complete with tears and everything. That was neat. The guy is a little bit harder to work with, but he's getting there.
I'm snotting all over the place, I need to go. I found out that I'm allergic to Brazilian dust. Fantastic.
Until next Friday,
Elder Sisco