What adventures?

Yes, I know what most of you must be thinking at this point: "What adventures was he talking about? I've been checking this, my favorite blog of all time religiously for three weeks and have yet to see documentation of adventures in Maine. Why would he rename his blog to 'Post-Mission Adventures' if there are no adventures here?"

As it turns out, post-mission life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Every missionary dreams of the day that he will disembark that airplane home, embrace his family and take a step towards his new life free of the stresses that come from being a full-time missionary for the Latter-Day Saint church. The day that he will be able to nap on Sunday afternoons, take more than an hour for lunch, stay up past 10:30pm, etc. Ironically, it didn't take long before this certain missionary began feeling the same thing for Brazil that he had felt for his home just days before arriving, probably best described as longing. I just can't win.

Life in the mission is exciting and fast paced. Lots of things happen during a single day, which makes it easy to write about. Life home is not, which makes it difficult to write about. Who wants to read about the movies I watched last night, or the hours I spent adjusting my Facebook homepage?

As a recently returned missionary, I have learned several new things. First I've learned that life as a couch potato is not fulfilling.

I've learned that days really need to be planned, because when they aren't, nothing happens.

I've learned that isolation is tragic and depressing.

Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed myself during these past three weeks of being home. Maine is a lovely place, and has been especially beautiful during these past few days following a snowstorm (the first of the season!). I've been re-learning how to drive, play guitar, and read books as a pass-time rather than obligatory study material, and of course have been reconnecting with my family whom I had not seen for two years.

I basically wanted to write this to apologize for the lack of material recently, and would like to assure all that dansisco.blogspot.com will never die. It may just remain in a dormant state for a little while, until my life becomes more exciting and document-able. Probably between now and Christmas.

Thank you all for your support!

Dan Sisco (formerly known as Elder)

Pajama Time!

While Amy and Sam were here visiting, Amy showed me Sam's favorite book and asked me to to put it to music.

I put it off for a little while, but had a free day today so I decided to finish the project.

The quality isn't the best, but that's easy to get past.

The final product can be heard here or view my iLike page on Facebook.

Enjoy!

I'm back!

Just after landing in Boston

Motherly love

A visit to the Boston Temple the night of my return

It's good to be back...

Gildeny and Ricardo, Tales' and Nardel's parents, are getting prepared for their marriage which will probably be in December. Then they will be baptized. The other night Gildeny asked us to get the Gospel Principles manual for her so that she could study that weeks lesson in case the teacher asked her a question on sunday. They're a really awesome family.
I will see you all next thursday at 10am! I can't wait.
I guess I should finish the last email with my testimony. That would be appropriate.
I know that the church is true. It is the same church that Jesus Christ organized while he was here on the earth. It was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. On my mission I've gained a firm testimony that these things are true. The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect, it contains everything that we need to be able to return to the presence of God one day. I know that God loves us and wants us to be able to return to live with him with our families.
I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve a mission here in Brazil. I know that there is nothing better that I could have done in the last two years of my life than serve the people here in Brazil and bring the gospel to all of the people I ran into.
I've developed so many skills and learned so many great things. The greatest conversion among all the people that I taught was my own. I'm excited to get home to be able to live the gospel, and apply all the things that I've been teaching for the past two years into my own life.
I developed a love for the scriptures. They are the word of God, and are one of the ways God has to communicate with us. I have loved studying them daily, and plan to continue this valuable practice for the rest of my life. I know it will bless me, and anyone else who does so.
I can truly say that my mission transformed my life. Everyone says that young men who go on missions go boys and come back men. I am no exception.
That's all I can think of for now.
I love you guys, and am way excited to see everyone next week.
Love,
Elder Sisco

On Sunday we baptized Brenda. She is Rosângela's daughter. Sunday was one of the most stressful days of my mission. Everyone from Rosângela's family was interviewed on Saturday, and they were all supposed to be baptized together on Sunday, but were not because of the following reasons:

Vitor - His friends went to his house late Saturday night after his interview and made him go to this party with them, at which he drank his face off and then went home and puked his guts out all over the house.

Vera - Spent all Saturday night/Sunday morning taking care of Vitor, and Sunday morning decided that she didn't know if she wanted to be baptized or not.

Rosângela - Had a problem with the 4th question of the baptismal interview and therefore had to be interviewed by President Parrella before she could be baptized. She was interviewed by him on Monday morning, and he said that she was prepared and so she will be baptized on Sunday.

We are working with the other two still, to help them a) repent and b) get excited again about their baptism.

The Bishop questioned our baptizing just Brenda, since she's only 10 years old and kept asking us "where's her mom? you need to be baptizing families, not children, why aren't her parents here to support her?" So that was nice, to add to my stress. Then after that, the Bishopric had a counsel among themselves to treat the subject: "why are we baptizing children in this ward?" It's as if they didn't understand when I said, "her mom couldn't come today, but she is preparing to be baptized next Sunday."
Apparently some people starting badmouthing the missionaries for baptizing just the little girl.
I told President Parrella about this, and he said, "Elder, I'm not concerned about any meeting that any bishopric had, or any gossip that members might be spreading, I'm concerned about salvation of God's children," or something along those lines. Anyway, it made me feel better.
So that's basically all that happened this week. I can't really think of anything else.
Oh, Sister Clement was transfered to a different city yesterday out of the blue. Apparently there was another sister there who needed medical attention, but there they didn't have a doctor that could treat her, so she had to come her, and so she switched with Sister Clement. That was sad. Oh, Sister Clement was this sister from Utah that was in my District. Now it's Sister Santos from Fortaleza and Sister Reis from São Paulo.
Love,
Elder Sisco

We returned to teach the Baptists last night. It did not go as well as planned. The owner of the house who hosts them said that we would be able to leave a 15-20 minute message at the end of their bible study, but the study took over an hour and a half. We weren't even able to stay til the end because we had to be home by 9:30. That was unfortunate. Their message was about "why bad things happen to good people." I testified of Jesus Christ and his Atonement, but that was pretty much all we were able to get out during our time there. While I was talking, the Pastor was on the edge of his seat. My companion said that he looked like he was just waiting for me to say something that he could jump all over.
We have a family of four people that we are preparing to be baptized on Sunday. Rosangela is a single mom, and she has four kids, but only three of them will be able to be baptized on Sunday. They are elects, and are very excited about Sunday. It will be Elder Eve's first baptism. Their baptismal interviews are on Saturday. Please pray for them. Rosangela, Vera, Vitor and Brenda. Thanks.
Just four more weeks!
Love,
Elder Sisco

Here's some news from two weeks ago that I forgot to put in last weeks email. If I repeat anything, I apologize.
While Elder Vasquez and I were studying, two Jehova's Witnesses knocked on the door and asked if they could share a message from the Bible with us. We said that was fine. When we answered the door, the ladies eyes doubled in size; I guess she didn't know that the Mormons lived there. She shared some scripture in Psalms with us, and told us about how we could get more out of our Bible study, and then invited us to their church. We thanked them, invited them to the Church of Jesus Christ and they left. I learned quite a bit.
Two Sundays ago, Luiz received the priesthood (the guy that we baptized a couple weeks ago whose son is on his mission), and I was able to participate. That was a lot of fun.
This weekend was General Conference. We were able to watch all of the sessions except for the saturday morning. The best talk was Jeffery R. Holland's about the Book of Mormon. Before he even stood up, when they announced that he was going to speak all the missionaries got excited, his talks are always amazing. That was among my favorite of all conference talks of all time.
We finally managed to get into our apartment. Because of the missionary that brought our key with him to his new area, we had to sleep at the Zone Leaders house for two nights. But on Friday night we finally got into our apartment, it's quite nice, I like it. We live on the fourth and final floor of the apartment building.
Last night Elder Eve and I went to visit one of our investigators and when we got to the door we saw her and some other ladies bringing plastic chairs from the bar accross the street into her house. We asked what was going on and she said that they were going to have a prayer meeting, and invited us to stay and participate. We were reluctant at first, but when she said that there were 15 people inside waiting for it to start we went in. When we walked into the living room there were a bunch of people standing in a circle holding hands while the pastor of the church yelled/prayed and everyone in the circle kept repeating things that he said or just saying "amen", "hallelujah" "glory to God" and other things along those same lines.
Apparently what was going on was that our investigator is an ex-Baptist, and so some of the members of the Baptist church are doing a seven week program in her house to reactivate her. Last night was the third of seven weekly meetings.
After the prayer, we all sat down and the pastor started to talk about Psalms 42, which I've never read in my life, so it was interesting. Basically he talked for 45 minutes about how when we're down or feeling sad, or in a rough spot in our life, we need to believe in the Lord, have faith and always seek his help. When he was finished, he asked if anyone would like to comment, and he looked at us. So I asked him, "after I have faith, and am seeking the Lord, what else can I do to improve my life?" He said some things about continuing in the faith and whatnot, and briefly mentioned baptism. So I took it and ran with it, and taught the third lesson to everyone that was there. I talked about how faith is the base of everything that we do, but that we also need to constantly repent, and that our repentance isn't complete until we are baptized by someone who has authority from God and then receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I think everyone understood, the Pastor didn't seem very pleased that I was teaching his people, but I think it was good.
Then when I was done, he said that they were going to finish with a closing prayer, so everyone stood up and grabbed hands, and they put our investigator and her family in the middle of the circle to "bless" them. Before he started the prayer I was like, "so you're going to finish with a prayer?" and he said, "yes, we are." And I asked, "after your prayer, could I offer one as well as a thank you for letting us watch your meeting?" He said that was fine, said his prayer, and then at the end, put his hand on everyone's head... apparently to bless them even more. I'm not really sure what that was all about.
Then there was silence, and one girl looked at me and asked, "didn't you want to say a prayer too?" and I said to everyone, "that's right, but my voice isn't very strong, so I'm not going to yell, ok? If you could all just pay attention, I'm going to pray for us." And then I prayed. A few people threw in some "amens" and "hallelujahs" here and there, but it was nice.
Afterward, the pastor came and hugged us and called us "brothers." Then there was cake and everyone was talking to us and asking us about our work.
As we were leaving, the owner of the house (our investigator) asked us if we were going to come back to preach next tuesday. I told her that if they would give us some time to leave a message that we would come bacf. She said that it was open for whoever wanted to talk, so we marked to go back there next tuesday. We'll have to visit her during this week to strengthen her and help her recognize the difference between the truth and... not the truth. Hopefully that goes well.
Welp, that's everything.
Love you guys!
Elder Sisco

We just got to Contagem, our new area. When I say "we" I mean Elder Eve and I. I was transfered to Contagem today from Sete Lagoas and will finish my mission here training Elder Eve who got here from the MTC yesterday. He's from Kentucky. This transfer is sure to pass quickly, I think it'll be fun. Neither of us know the area because both of the missionaries who were here before us were transfered.
When I got to the bus station in Belo Horizonte this morning I found out that one of them forgot to leave the key here and went to Montes Claros with the house key in his pocket. Montes Claros is ten hours away from here. He's going to overnight it to us. Until then, we're going to have to sleep at the Zone Leaders house.
It was a very eventful final week in Sete Lagoas. On Sunday we were supposed to baptize two kids, Henrique and Kesley, but they both had to go work with their parents and were unable to attend church. Then on Monday when we found out that I was going to be transfered, they both insisted that they be baptized on Tuesday before I left, and so we talked to the Bishop and organized a baptismal service for tuesday night. It was really hurried and poorly organized, but also really fun to be able to baptized those two before I left the area. Elder Vasquez and his new companion will continue working with both of their families.
After the baptism, we went to Kesley's house and his family had made a going away dinner/party for me, which was delicious. I was sad to leave them, and leave the area, but at the same time kind of relieved. Six months is a long time to stay in one place. But overall, this last area that I was in - Sete Lagoas Ala 1 was my favorite of all the other areas I've passed in. It really is a great place. When I come back I will visit there for sure.
It was also sad to say goodbye to Rosa and Luiz, who we baptized a little while ago. They're the family who have a son on his mission in São Paulo and will be sealed in the São Paulo temple in July. Their son's mission president said that they could go there to be sealed while he is still in his mission. I'm hoping that I'll be able to come back to watch that happen next July.
On Sunday, Elder Vasquez went with Irmão Branco to Paraopeba to confirm Marcia who was baptized last week and to return her purse which she forgot in the bathroom of the church, unfortunately they didn't make it to Paraopeba because a semi-truck hit them from the front. Luckily, Elder Vasquez was in the back so it didn't flip, and the Lord probably gave them extra protection because there was a missionary in the car. So that was wild... luckily I wasn't with them.
Love you guys, and see you in six weeks!
Elder Sisco

On Sunday we had three people lined up to be baptized. Only one of them went. Marcia, from Paraopeba, the lady who had a fear of water and backed out of her baptism while she was changing clothes came by herself on Sunday on a bus and was baptized.
Sunday was the Sete Lagoas Stake Conference from 9-11 and then from 5-7. Henrique's family all went (five in total), and Henrique was supposed to be baptized after the first session, but he backed out at the last minute. He had even brought a towel and underwear and everything, and was all excited. I think he was sad that he wasn't going to be baptized together with his dad. But on Sunday we are preparing for the whole family to go together.
President Parrella was there on Sunday for the conference and he stayed to watch Marcia's baptism, which was a blessing because I think that if he hadn't been there with Sister Parrella she may not have gone, they gave her so much support. After she came out of the bathroom she didn't smile anymore, she was scared to death. President and Sister Parrella talked to her quite a bit and calmed her down. President Parrella suggested that when she was baptized, everyone stay in the cultural hall and wait, and not to fill up the room, so just he and I and the Bishop and Sister Parrella went to watch the baptism.
The first time didn't give, her head popped out of the water. The second time the same thing happened. Because of her fear, when Elder Vasquez tried to immerse her in the water, she stiffened her whole body and didn't bend her knees or do anything to facilitate the baptism. After President talked to her again while she was standing there in the water, and explained to her a little bit better, the third time she was baptized. It was very exciting.
Elder Vasquez underwent a mini-surgery for his ingrown toenail this morning. The doctor told him that he has to stay 2-3 days at home resting, so we have to find members that can divide with us so that we don't have to abandon our area in this critical moment.
The other night I did a contact with two ladies and one of them kept asking these stupid questions about the church, and making ridiculous, false comments, but after she left and we were talking to her friend, her friend said, "I think that she's of the Devil, but I want you guys to go to my house." And then she told us about how she use to be from the Universal church, but she didn't like how the pastor talked so much about money, so she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to enlighten her. She opened the Bible, and read that scripture in 1 Peter 5 that says that people who take care of the church shouldn't be paid, but should do the work voluntarily and for love, and so she stopped going to the Universal church and said she was looking for the truth.
We went there yesterday and taught the restauration to her. The Spirit was very strong. At the end of the lesson I asked her, "how are you feeling right now?" and she said, "I feel like an emptiness that was inside of me has been filled." We invited her to be baptized on the fourth of October and she accepted willingingly.
"Os eleitos ouvirão a minha voz e não endurecerão o coração."
"The elects will hear my voice, and will not harden their hearts." (I think that's what it is in english)
I love and miss you all,
Elder Sisco

On Thursday morning Elder Leme my Zone Leader called me and told me he needed me to go to Curvelo with him to do baptismal interviews. Curvelo is a 3 hour bus ride from Sete Lagoas. We left at 2:00 and got there at 5:00. The Elders showed up way late and we didn't start the interviews until 7:00. Luckily, because there were two of us, it was fast and we were able to catch the last bus at 8:00 back to Sete Lagoas. We ended up getting to his apartment at 11:00 at night. Traveling is tiring.
On the bus ride there there were two girls sitting behind us who kept asking us questions. First they wanted to know about the church, so I explained to them about the Book of Mormon and bunch of other stuff, and then I guess they got tired of that so they started asking things like, "do you have a girlfriend?" "can you date people that aren't from your religion?" "can you have sex outside of marriage?"
They promised they would go to church on Sunday to see us, but they didn't go. That's probably a good thing.
On Sunday, though, we did have nine investigators at church. Everyone from the Family we're teaching, plus three cousins went. We also had a woman named Carla that we're teaching there. It was very fun to enter into the sacrament meeting with that huge group of people. I think the members were impressed.
That night, we marked a Family Home Evening at the Bishop's house with the family. Everyone except the oldest daughter went. They loved it. It was a success.
The bus company that we use to go to Paraopeba called us and told us that they found our cell phone. I was so relieved. Now I don't have to pay for it.
Marcia, the woman from Paraopeba who was supposed to be baptized but ended up not, went to church on Sunday and told the members there to tell us that she wanted us to go to her house. We went there on monday and she said that she wants to be baptized, and that she overcame the fears that she had. We marked her baptism for Saturday. I'm skeptical, but we'll see what happens. I called the Bishop and told him, and he was also skeptical, but I think she'll go through with it this time.
Today Elder Vasquez and I slept for 3 1/2 hours after our study. From 10am to 1:30pm. It was one of the best naps ever. I think I probably wont sleep again until tomorrow night.
Well, that's all the news for this week.
Love you guys,
Elder Sisco

This week, on Thursday, we went and did some visits with Paul, the guy from London that's in our ward. He said he has 30 references of people that he wants us to contact, so he drove us around and we started contacting them. We got 7, I think, it was good. The problem is that he doesn't really speak Portuguese, but we were able to help him out. He's very outgoing and talks to everyone about the gospel. He does more missionary work than anyone else in the ward.
Our ward has an attendance rate of about 160 on average. It's close to being split.
On Sunday Irmão Branco, the high counselor who is in charge of Paraopeba went there to see how things are going and he said that Marcia was there and she told him to tell us to go back to her house because she wants to be baptized. He also said there was a married couple who talked to him and also said they wanted to be baptized. We thought, "fantastic! three baptisms this Sunday!" So we went there yesterday to teach this couple and see how marcia is doing. I personally don't really have much faith in her anymore, but we went to see.
Marcia wasn't home, so we went and invited the couple to the house where we have the meetings so we could teach them. They're from the Assembleia de Deus (Assembly of God? Does that exist?) They were very nice. Deli, the husband, has already worked for a church-owned business, so he knows much about the church already.
We taught them the first lesson, and the Spirit was very strong. Then we arrived at the end, and I said, "knowing from God that all of these things that we have said right now are true, would you follow Christ's example and be baptized in the church on the 20th of September?" But really, I didn't get to the part about the date, because before I finished Maria Lucia, the wife, said "No! no, no, no. I have already been baptized in the Assembleia church. Absolutely not." I was a little taken aback. I looked at Deli, and asked him and he said the same thing. We spent another 20 minutes talking about authority and Joseph Smith again, but it really didn't help. We ended up leaving the Book of Mormon with them and inviting them to church. So that was disappointing. I have no idea how Irmão Branco understood that they wanted to be baptized.
On the way to Paraopeba, Elder Vasquez called Sister Parrella, but she didn't answer so he waited for her to call back. He handed me the phone, but I said "no, you can keep it. After she calls give it back to me." He put it on his lap and fell asleep. She never called. Then our stop came and we got off. And the cell phone? It's still on the bus.
That means that I'm going to have to pay R$100,00 (like, $60) out of my missionary allowance to cover the lost cell phone. Really, it's not my fault, but since I'm the senior companion, the phone is my responsibility. The situation is under control, though.
So, now we have no cell phone and no communication with anyone. I talked to Elder Rospirski today and he said that by next Tuesday we'll be able to get our new phone.
Love you guys,
Elder Sisco

here are some pictures, finally !

The first is Luiz's baptism, from two weeks ago. From the left to right is João, his son, Ednaldo, family friend, the Bishop (herton) who baptised him, Luiz, his wife who was baptized last month, Elder Vasquez and Me. I think I got that right, I didn't see the picture.

Next is me and Elder Vasquez with our district t-shirts: Missão Brasil Belo Horizonte - Missão de Metas e Milagres (Brazil Belo Horizonte Mission - The Mission of Goals and Miracles. Sounds cooler in Portuguese)

And then me with a parrot in Paraopeba.

So lots of exciting things have happened. And lots of not exciting things.
Let's start on Saturday. Saturday night we went to our investigator Kesley's house. He's 12 and his mom doesn't want him to be baptized. He's Stanley's brother, the drug addict who got baptized, and went back to drugs and is now in rehabilitation. He goes to church every Sunday with us, and has been for a month. But she's afraid that he'll baptize and then fall away just like Stanely (although Stanley didn't technically "fall away" he was more like "forced away by the habit of drug abuse and his family who sent him to a farm to get off of drugs". He can still get confirmed when he gets back in March). On the bus home from Paraopeba on Saturday I felt that we should go visit him and ask his mom one more time for permission to baptize him. We planned a lesson on the bus and when we got back to Sete Lagoas we went straight there and started the lesson with her and Kesley. Before we started, Elder Vasquez had pulled Kesley aside and told him our plan, and at the end of the lesson, before I asked her to sign the slip, we prepared him to bear his testimony to his mom. The lesson went great, she was very interactive, made comments and is very understanding. When we touched on baptism though she started talking a bunch and already showed that she didn't want him to be baptized, but then she slowed down, looked at Kesley and said "but that's just my opinion, what's yours?" Elder Vasquez and I both got excited at this point and looked at Kesley for him to bear his testimony. He thought for a second and then said, "Well, I'd like to keep going to church a little bit more to get to know things a little bit more, and who knows, maybe I can be baptized sometime in the future." I wanted to punch him. He got scared of what his mom would say if he said the truth, and just said what he thought she wanted to her. We lost the Spirit, and all was lost. It was very disappointing.
But on Sunday we had Marcia, from Paraopeba, who was a firm baptism. I went there Sunday morning with the High Counselor and picked her up to go to church with us. She watched the meetings with us and then we all got in the car to go to Sete Lagoas for her to baptize. Marcia, by the way, is the same Marcia who ran away from baptism for fear of water. But she came back.
On the way to Sete Lagoas, I sat in the backseat, in the middle between Marcia and Marileine a member from Paraopeba who came to accompany Marcia. Halfway there, Marcia put her head in her lap and when we asked her what was wrong she said, with her head still in her lap, "headache," and just stayed in that position. She didn't want to stop for air or water or anything, she said to just keep going. After time, her positioning slowly changed so that her head instead of being on her own lap buried in her arms, rested on my lap buried in her arms. It was incredibly awkward, and I had no idea how to stop it. I didn't want to be rude, and I of course was conscious that she was having a bad headache so I just waited patiently. She didn't get up until 20 minutes later when we finally arrived in Sete Lagoas. The member who was seated in the front said that she looked back and saw me turn green, yellow, blue, red, and all sorts of neat colors, haha.
So we got to Sete Lagoas and Marileine stayed with Marcia while we prepared the baptism with the Bishop. Church had ended and everyone was in the sacrament room waiting for the meeting to start. My companion had already changed into his white clothes to do the baptism, and we were just waiting for Marcia to change into the baptismal clothing so that we could start. And so we waited. And waited. And waited some more. And she never came out of the bathroom. Finally, Rejane (the can opener woman who I love), the Relief Society President went in to talk with her to see what was going on . She was in the bathroom holding the clothes in her arms and crying. Rejane started talking to her about the church and her feelings to try and figure out what was going on. She told Marcia to pray about what she was about to do, and ask God to confirm for her that is was right, and then came out of the bathroom running telling us to hurry and pray for her to know.
Marcia came out of the bathroom and said that she didn't want to get baptized. We invited her into the Bishop's office to talk to her and see what had happened. It was Marcia, The Bishop, Rejane, and me and my companion. It should be mentioned that Marcia does not hear well, so we always have to talk a little bit louder than normal for her to hear us. And the Bishop has a tendency to speak very softly. He started talking with her and bearing his testimony about the church and how her life would change after her baptism, and lots of other good things. I think he must've talked for a solid five minutes, and then he looked at her and said, "what we want to know from you Marcia is, are you ready to make this covenant with the Lord?" And there was silence. Then she looked back and said, "what?"
"Are you ready to make this covenant with the Lord?"
"Sorry, I still didn't hear you."
So Rejane yelled in her ear, "DO YOU WANT TO GET BAPTIZED TODAY, OR DO YOU WANT MORE TIME TO PREPARE??"
"oh, I want to wait."
And that was that. We gave her money to get a bus back to Paraopeba, and sent everyone home to eat lunch. It was tragic, really.
I almost cried.
Then on Monday we spent the whole day waiting for President Parrella to call us and tell us who was going to be transferred. Except he failed to mention to everyone that the new system is, "whoever doesn't get a call can just assume that you're not going to be transferred." So we waited all day anxiously for the phone call that never arrived. Finally, at 8 o'clock at night, we found out that he had finished the calls, and that no one was going to be transferred. So I am staying her in Sete Lagoas for six more week. Six. More. Weeks. Possibly twelve, who can tell? I was devastated. I wanted so badly to go to a new area. In my whole mission I've only worked in Sete Lagoas and Belo Horizonte. There are 10 other zones that I could have gone to. But, I stayed here. Again. Oh well.
Then, after all of this disappointment and devastation, on our way home Monday night, an investigator saw us in the road and went over to say hi. When I stopped to greet him, a bomb from above fell and covered my shoulder, my back, my backpack and got a little bit in my hair. I should have been more careful, I had seen all of the pidgeon poop on the ground where we were standing under the tree. I think it was God's way of saying, "See? Things could always be worse." Thanks.
It was the perfect way to end my perfect weekend.
Ah, here are the latest Paraopeba experiences: On Sunday, when I blessed the sacrament, as I was kneeling saying the prayer the four year old son of one of the members ran over to the table and stuck his hand in the bread tray to try and steal some bread. I grabbed his hand and we battled while I continued saying the prayer. By the time the prayer was done, he had returned to his seat.
Then Marileine, the lady who went to Sete Lagoas with us that day, got up to give her talk. The talk was nice, minus comments like, "I think all of the churches are led by Jesus, ours just happens to be the true one." Then at the end, she closed in the name of Jesus Christ, and said "now, to finish, I'd like to pray. May I?" No one argued, so she stuck out her arms towards the heavens and said this half-Mormon half-evangelical prayer, that used the phrase "in the name of Jesus" a lot. It was entertaining, at least.
Well, I think that's all the news for this week.
I love you guys, and will be home in three months.
-Elder Sisco

This week we experienced one of the biggest miracles of my mission. Luiz, Rosa's husband (who we baptized two transfers ago - her son is on his mission, left in may), was baptized. We ate lunch at Regina's house on Friday who is Rosa's visiting teaching companion, and Rosa was there. They said that Luiz commented that he was contemplating being baptized, he just didn't know when. He goes to church every Sunday and is keeping all of the commandments, he just needed to be baptized. We marked to go visit him that very night. After lunch, we started a fast specifically for him. Regina said she would prepare a message about temples and eternal families and then would pass it to us for us to challenge him for the baptism.
That night, at 7:30 we all went there and sat in their living room with Luiz, Rosa, Regina, João (their 14 year old son who's also a member), me and Elder Vasquez. We started by watching Together Forever, that old, cheesy church film. It brought the Spirit, and then Regina talked about eternal families and temples and then passed the lesson to us. I talked about what a blessing being sealed to my family was, and talked about all the blessings that they would receive when they are sealed together, and then said "but in order for that to happen, everyone needs to do their part. In order to enter into the temple, everyone needs to be a member of the church, and we'd like to invite you, Luiz, to become a member of the church by being baptized on Sunday." He evaded the question and changed the subject. Then I asked again, and he evaded the subject again. Then there was silence and Regina said, "Lu, the Elder asked you a question." And he said, "what's the question again?" and I said, "will you be baptized on Sunday so that your family can be sealed in the temple when Felipe gets home from his mission?" And he sat, and thought, and then said, "yes." Then everyone jumped out of their seats and hugged and it was a marvelous experience.
Our bishop baptized him after church on Sunday, it was great. We took lots of pictures. I have a stronger testimony of the power of the fast.
That's the biggest news of the week.
We also had our first interviews with the new president on monday. The interview was different, but really good. He's a very spiritual man. He's changing lots of things in the mission.
Last night we did visits with Junior, the 18 year old that Elder Martinez and I baptized. He's dating a member and is already excited about his mission. He will be eligible in July of 2010. He said if he doesn't leave the country he wont go haha. I'm going to give him some ties. One of my mission goals was to baptize a future missionary, so I'm really excited that he's really excited.
Next week is transfers, I'll probably be transfered out of here and to my last area.
Three months left!
Love,
Elder Sisco

We found Stanley, the investigator that ran away. He fell to the power of drugs again, and sold his brother's bike and his cell phone for more, so he was afraid to come home for fear of his brother.
Today he went to a rehabilitation clinic where he will stay (it's like a farm in the middle of nowhere) for the next seven months. Which means that he will not be confirmed and will have to be re-baptized when he gets out. I'll have to leave a post-it note on the wall or something for the Elders that will be here in March.
Marcia, the woman from Paraopeba that was supposed to be baptized on Sunday fled from us. I went there with a member in his car on Sunday morning. We went to get her at her house and she answered the door and was ready to go already, we didn't even have to wait for her. We went to the church/house where we have the meetings and she watched the sacrament meeting and then in the interval before Gospel Principles she came up to me and said "I'm just going to run back home to invite my niece to the baptism and grab the things you told me to bring to the baptism (towel, sandals, etc.)." I, suspecting nothing, said "that's fine, we'll pass by your house to pick you up and then we'll all go to Sete Lagoas together for the baptism." She agreed. When church ended (in Paraopeba it's only 2 hours), we went to pick her up and her mom said that she had left and that she said she didn't want to be baptized anymore. We went to the house where her mom said she had gone, and the people there said she had just left. We're going back this week to see what happened.
It's difficult to work in two areas. Everyone who gets baptized from Paraopeba has to go to Sete Lagoas, because there's no baptismal font in Paraopeba. It's rough.
So, my birthday was yesterday. For lunch the members whose house we ate at made a special meal (beans, rice, french fries, and these parmesean chicken things - excellent. I loved it) and then at night we had an appointment at Rosa's house, the lady who Elder Martinez and I baptized last transfer. Turns out that it was a surprise party, and her husband was doing a churrasco (barbecue) for us, with all of my favorite meats. It was awesome. He also said that he's going to be baptized. Probably next Sunday. All in all, it was a blast. I think I ate cake in four different houses. By the time we got home, I was dead from having eaten so much during the day.
Elder Rodrigo (remember him?) sent me a really expensive cologne called Carpe Diem from some perfume store called Boticário. I've never heard of it, but my companion said it's really expensive. I don't even use cologne, but I guess I can start now. Anyway, that was neat.
Today we played soccer, and a bunch of our investigators went. Soccer is the best integration tool that exists in Brazil.
Love,
Elder Sisco

On thursday I went to a city called Curvelo to do baptismal interviews with one of the zone leaders here. It's two hours from Sete Lagoas, but they're rebuilding the highway and there's a part on the way to curvelo where they only allow one lane to function at a time, and the stretch is large. We sat in the non-moving bus for an hour and a half while all the cars going in the opposite direction drove by us. What should have been a two hour journey lasted three and a half.
When we got to Curvelo the Elders there met us at the bus station and took us to the area. It was already 8:00 so we had to go fast. Two of the people that were supposed to be interviewed traveled without notifying anyone and so they weren't there. I ended up doing one interview with another one of their investigators.
While we were there at the bus station waiting, we saw this truck filled with frozen foods parked on the side of the road and there was a guy unloading a bunch of boxes behind it. All of a sudden, the brakes went and the truck started rolling backwards because it was on a hill. It rolled over the guys leg and broke it and totalled the front of the car that was behind it. It was scary, but cool to see. The guy with the broken leg was fine - aside from the broken leg.
When we went home the next day we sat in the bus watching the cars go by for another hour.
On Friday we went to visit Rosa, the woman Elder Martinez and I baptized a few months ago. Her family was there, and there was a member who is a friend of her son that was also with us. She gave us dinner and everything, it was great. And then when we had to leave we asked the member to say the closing prayer for us. Everyone was sitting around the table while he prayed, and then in the prayer he said "please bless Irmão (brother) Teodoro that he will get well, and that his recovery may be quick" and Rosa in the middle of the prayer said "he died last week!" Then, without stopping, he said "Then bless him that he may rest in Paradise." Haha no one had told him that this Irmão had died. It's the same guy that we went to give the blessing to in the hospital two weeks ago, and then he died two days later. Now that I think of it, I don't remember if I mentioned that or not.
I did a contact with a group of kids the other night - 4 teenage guys. When I asked them what the most important thing in their lives was, one said "girls." So I said, "you should come to church with us. In the church of Jesus Christ there are lots of girls just like you." I don't think he liked it. I was trying to say that there were lots of girls who had the same age and ideas as him, but it came out wrong, and I didn't have time to correct myself.
Training has been an adventure so far.
The guy we baptized last Sunday, Stanley, went to work on Saturday and never came home. Even today, his parents don't know where he is. He used to be a drug dealer, and they're afraid that either he relapsed and is using drugs again or that someone who he owed went after him to collect. We've gone all over the city looking for him. He didn't even get confirmed on Sunday. So that worries us. The message for the Family Home Evening at one of the members' homes on monday was his. They think that he was fleeing from giving the message.
Today we played lots of soccer and then had a Churrasco at a restaurant where some elders are teaching the couple that owns the restaurant. They wanted to do something nice for the elders, so they said that all the missionaries in the zone could go to their restaurant for this churrasco (like, a barbecue, but better). It was fantastic. We ate a lot.
Tomorrow is zone conference in Belo Horizonte. We're going to have to wake up at 5:30 to get the bus on time. Ouch.
I love you all.
Have a good week.
-Elder Sisco

This week went well, we had one baptism. Stanley, a 19 year old kid that we'd been teaching for a while finally got baptized. He stopped using drugs, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and drinking coffee, so that was a miracle. Now we're trying to get his 13 year old brother to be baptized as well. He's friends with the Stake President's son which is already a good start, and he's already been to a few activities in the church.
Stanley was Elder Vasquez's first baptism in the mission. In fact, it was the first person that he had ever baptized in his life, so that was fun. He ended up having to do it three times because Stanley's elbow didn't want to go under the water.
On Sunday President and Sister Parrella and their family went to our ward and President Parrella spoke. I wasn't there to see it because I was at church in Paraopeba, but they say it was good. Afterwards when I arrived at noon I invited him to stay and watch the baptism and they stuck around. It was good to be able to talk to them a little bit and get to know them better.
As far as Paraopeba goes, well, things aren't looking so good. We met with the Stake President last wednesday night, and he explained to us his plan and what he wants to happen. He wants them to be able to sustain themselves. In theory his plan makes sense, but I'm pretty sure in practice it's going to flop. I just hope it was inspired. So we're not allowed to proselyte there anymore. We can only teach the people we've been teaching and finish up there and leave. We have a few good people left that will probably be baptized soon, but it sucks to not be able to do contacts. It makes me feel useless. I see people in the street and want to talk to them, but I can't. We had one investigator at church on Sunday, we're going to see if we can mark her baptim for this Sunday.
This week the water company cut the water at the Zone Leader's house, where there are four missionaries, and this week all of them went to our house every day to take showers and shave and stuff. It was kind of incomidating, but fun to have a change of pace at our house.
I had a fun experience during a division that I did on Monday in one of the other Elder's in my district's area. They had an investigator who when they went to pick him up to go to church on Sunday gave back the Book of Mormon and said he didn't want to participate anymore with the church. During the division we passed by his house and he was sitting out front, and we went and talked to him and I asked if we could go inside and talk for a bit. I think Elder Serafim (the elder I was with) was still mad at him about giving back the BOM so he just let me do all the talking. They thought that the guy's problem was that he didn't want to give up coffee, but it turns out he just didn't believe in the Book of Mormon. We started teaching him about why it's important and he wouldn't budge or do anything to try to understand. He kept saying "the bible, the bible, blah blah blah" and so I opened 2 Nephi 29 and had him read it. After that we bore more testimony and then he started talking about baptism and how people needed to prepare and how he wasn't ready to be baptized, so I showed him Acts 2 where Peter baptized 3,000 people in one day after teaching them once. Then we bore more testimony. I figured he wouldn't budge and that we were just wasting our time but at the very end when we were leaving I invited him to go to church he said, "ok, this Sunday I'll go. I think my mom said she wanted to go too." It was awesome. Elder Serafim was pleased.
Things with Elder Vasquez are going well. Training is definitely a different experience, but I'm enjoying it. He's intelligent and willing to learn, so it's fun.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

Something horrible has happened. All of last week we went to Paraopeba (the city that we're opening) and worked there. On Saturday I went with one of the Zone Leaders and he interviewed one of our investigators for her to be baptized on the 19th. On Sunday we showed up at the chapel at 7:30 just like we do every Sunday so that I could go to Paraopeba with the High Counselor and my companion could go get investigators in Sete Lagoas with one of the members. When we got there, we had a quick meeting with the Bishop and then I sent my companion off to get people while I waited for the High Counselor to come pick me up in the chapel. 8:15 rolled around and I decided to call him. When he answered the phone, I asked "are you close to the chapel?" and he said "no, I'm halfway to Paraopeba already. We've received new instructions from the Stake President, we aren't going to be needing you anymore, I'll explain more later when I get back."
I, confused, hung up the phone and sought answers to my questions. The relief society president told me that the Stake President had gone to Paraopeba on Saturday, interviewed all of the members and then made an announcement: No one from the stake is going to come here anymore and support this group. Also, the missionaries will no longer be coming here to proselyte. You all will have to support yourselves, find people to baptize and when you have people to teach here you can call the missionaries to come teach them.
The problem: There is only one family that's firm, the Leader of the Group doesn't know how to read, and when he found out that the stake wouldn't give support anymore he started saying that he was going to fall away.
I called the mission president to seek council. He told me there's not much we can do, because the group is the stake's, not the mission's. He told me to finish teaching all the people that we're teaching there and then to not go back anymore.
Everyone in the stake is in arms. If this really happens, everyone in Paraopeba will fall away and the group will close. Including the family that was sealed. I almost got sick from how angry I was. I'm pleased with the support that the ward has given us, that all the members have given us, about Paraopeba.
So that's what's going on here.
The baptism that we were supposed to have on Sunday fell. He drank on Saturday night and didn't go to church on Sunday. That was sad, but he'll be baptized on this sunday. We'll also be baptizing one of our recent convert's sisters. Her interview is marked for tomorrow night.
Training has been an adventure so far. It seems like with new missionaries all the crazy things happen. Like the Stake President decides to close your area.
We're teaching a girl in our area and we gave her a Book of Mormon and then some JWs went to her house and talked trash about us and told her to give the Book of Mormon back. She doesn't want to receive the visits anymore. This makes me sad.
Love you all,
Elder Sisco

Today we all went to Belo Horizonte for transfers. My new companion is Elder Vasquez from São Paulo. He's fresh out of the MTC as of yesterday, or in other words, I am training him. He seems cool, I think things will go well with us this transfers. I'm excited to train.
On Sunday we had a baptism. A kid named Junior who we had been teaching for a week or so. He's 18, which means that by this time next year he should be getting ready to go on his mission. He said that he will think about it. He's dating one of the girls from our ward, which is how he got to know the church. I will send pictures.
Junior's sister went to church and watched the baptism and asked us to go to her house and teach her too. We marked for tomorrow. While we were taking pictures she hugged me which was awkward. But people told her that you couldn't hug the Elders, so that wont happen again.
The Belo Horizonte East Mission and the Belo Horizonte Mission are now one. Some of our missionaries went over to areas in the east mission today and some of theirs came to ours. Now our mission is huge - almost 200 missionaries!
Yesterday Stanley was interviewed and will be baptized on Sunday. He's 19 years old and is the son of an old investigator. She basically told us, "no, I don't want to go to your church, but bring my son he needs it." So we did, and he loved it, and now he's getting baptized. We've helped him stop using drugs, stop smoking, stop drinking coffee and stop drinking. He's made enormous progress in the two weeks that we've been teaching him. I'm going to have Elder Vasquez baptize him - his first Sunday in the mission! The same thing happened with me when I first got on the mission. He said he's never baptized anyone before, so it'll be a neat experience.
My district now is 4 Brazilians and 2 Americans. The other American is Elder Kezerian, Boyd K. Packer's nephew. Hopefully we will have much success this transfer.
Love you guys,
Elder Sisco

We had 3 baptisms for this week - 2 from Paraopeba and 1 from Sete Lagoas - but it's not looking good for them. One is an elderly lady and her daughter, and this week her grandson went and said a bunch of trash about the church and talked her out of being baptized. We're going there on Friday to talk to her. The other one is this kid who has been to church a bunch of times. He is 18, and is friends with a ton of members from our ward. He's a sure baptism, we're just having trouble getting in contact with him this week for him to be interviewed and prepared by Sunday. His name is Junior.
This transfer it's looking like our only baptism is going to be Wilson, who we baptized on the first Sunday of the transfer.
Speaking of transfers, we will go to Belo Horizonte next Wednesday. I don't know if I will stay or go, but imagine that I'll stay since my companion was already here one transfer when I got here, and we've been together for two. Usually missionaries don't stay longer than 3. We'll know on Monday night.
Today was our zone pday. We went hiking up a big mountain that is here in Sete Lagoas. We hiked up one side and down the other and at the bottom there was a little pond with a playground and a beach volleyball court, so we spent most of the day playing volleyball, which is always fun. Not as fun as soccer, but fun. I'm exhausted, just like every Pday. We never get to rest here, there's always something going on.
Tomorrow we will go to Belo Horizonte to have a mini-Zone Conference with President and Sister Parrella, our new Mission President. President and Sister Frei fly home today, and the Parrella's arrive at the same time.
We're working a bunch in Paraopeba. On a division with one of the Zone Leaders we found a family of 11 people (the youngest girl is 9) that were interested in the church. On Sunday, 5 of them went. Elder Martinez and I showed up at their house yesterday and they gave back the Book of Mormon and said they didn't want to hear the messages anymore, but didn't say why. I think it has to do with having to give up coffee. We're going to go back on Friday to see if we can save them. They love us, it just appears that they love coffee more, and didn't completely understand the things we taught.
On Monday I went to Paraopeba with Elder Leme, one of the zone leaders, and we went to visit a family that we're teaching there and only the sons were home and they hid from us. Their neighbor, some little kid, who was visiting came out and told us that no one was home, but he was obviously lying. We gave him 2 Halls and told him to suck on them. Then we gave him a glass of water and told him to drink it all. He didn't finish the cup of water, he spit it out because of the burning.
We went into the house and the sons were on the couch watching a soccer game and drinking beer. We reprimanded them, and left, but they told us to come back later in the afternoon for a Churrasco (like, a barbeque, but better). We went. We decided that they're not interested in the church, but are only interested in having our friendship. It seems like everyone in Paraopeba is falling.
I guess I don't have much else to say. I love you guys and miss you.
-Elder Sisco

On thursday the whole zone went to Belo Horizonte to have our last zone conference with President and Sister Frei. It was very cool. Sad, but good. Sister Frei made a giant quilt out of ties from every missionary that has ever passed through this mission since she got here. Every time a missionary leaves she cuts one of his ties, and this past month she's been asking that everyone send a tie so that she can finish the quilt. It turned out really neat. Each one has the missionary's name on it.
I've been sick since last Monday. 9 days now. It's rough. I had a cold, then it turned into something else and then a sore throat. I've been through a whole medical dictionary of sicknesses this past week. Just today I've started feeling a little bit better. Good enough to play soccer at least.
Raimundo and Beatriz did not get baptized on Sunday. They both got sick and were unable to travel to Sete Lagoas to attend our ward conference and be baptized afterwards. We are accompanying them this week and preparing them for the 21st.
Yesterday I did a division with Elder Kim in the area where I started my mission. The guy who owned the old house where we used to live saw us and stopped me in the street and we talked a little. He said that he would go to church on Sunday because of me. We met some other girls who said they would go to church on Sunday to take a picture with me, because I look like Harry Potter. I told them only if they went to church that we would do that.
Love you all,
Elder Sisco

Not too much to report this week. We're going a lot more during the week to Paraopeba to teach the people there. The work is going really well there, we have a lot of good investigators. Unfortunately, half of the city is living together, but not married.
We're teaching an elderly coupled named Raimundo and Beatriz. They live in front of the house where we have our meetings on Sunday. They went to church once, and to a Family Home Evening that we had there last week. They love it and are preparing to be baptized this Sunday. Unfortunately, Beatriz has been in the hospital since Friday, and we don't know where she is or when she's coming back. But if she comes back by Friday, we will get them interviewed and ready to go by Sunday.
We were teaching a girl that's addicted to crack and living with a drug dealer, but she never went to church so we'll probably stop going to her house. Also, if we managed to get her to stop using drugs, I'm afraid that her crack-head boyfriend/dealer might come after us.
-Elder Sisco

Today I am broken. We played soccer this morning and everything hurts. I'm not sure why, I must have played harder than usual. We usually play for like, 3 hours.
Elder Martinez and I have been jogging in the morning when we wake up, so maybe that has something to do with it. I like running around here in the morning when hardly anyone is out yet, it's a pretty place.
On Sunday I went to Paraopbeba for church. Nothing of great significance happened. The Group Leader whose house we meet in works every day of the wekk until 5am and so he doesn't get a lot of sleep on Sunday because of church. During the sacrament meeting he sneakily put on a pair of sunglasses (bearing in mind that he sits in the front) so that he could close his eyes and sleep without anyone noticing. When I looked over from the sacrament table and saw him I almost laughed out loud; I had to control myself.
I gave the Gospel Principles lesson on Faith, and aside from the mini-apostasies it was a good lesson. After that we drove back to Sete Lagoas.
On Sunday afternoon Wilson was baptized. We found him through a contact that I did in the street. He chose me to baptize him, and I was nervous because he weighs about 180 pounds, I didn't know if I could handle it. Before we went into the water, I told him that, and then when we went to do the baptism he threw himself into the water and back up, which made things a lot easier for me. Unfortunately, I left a word out of the prayer and had to do it a second time. I looked up at the guy who told me to repeat it and told him, "but at least the baptism part worked out." The second time everything went great.
Afterwards, Wilson told us that when he was in the water, despite the fact that it was freezing cold because the water heater is broken, it was really "gostoso" (felt really good) to be under the water, and he wished that I had left him under longer.
Wilson is unemployed and we've been trying to find him a job. He is an ex-paramedic and is trying to get back into the field. On Sunday night, he got a phone call from a guy he used to work with asking him to come back and work on the Ambulance team because they need him. He has to do a 6-month course to finish his qualifications and it costs R$2,000 (about $800) but we're trying to see if the church can't help him out with that. When he called us to tell us about what had happened, I told him "the Lord didn't even wait one day after your baptism to pour out the blessings!"

Today was transfers. I am staying in my area here in Sete Lagoas with the same companion, Elder Martinez, but we had to go to Belo Horizonte to watch the transfer meeting because I had a District Leader meeting afterwards. It's always fun to travel a little bit, even if it's only an hour away. And it's good to see friends that you haven't seen in a long time.
On Sunday we baptized two people. Rosa, the mom of a missionary (Felipe) who left from our ward three weeks ago and is now in the São Paulo South Mision and Fred, that kid (22 years old) who appeared out of nowhere last Sunday. Hopefuly Rosa's husband will go soon as well. We had marked a date with him for this Sunday, but he decided he didn't want to on Friday.
Everyone in the ward was very happy. Or rather, very happy with the baptisms, but not so enthusiastic about the fact that during church on Sunday I forgot to fill up the baptismal font, so everyone had to wait 45 minutes in the chapel for it to fill up after church ended, and that my companion forgot the baptismal clothing at our house so he had to go home with one of the Bishop's counselors to get it. During all the post-church/pre-baptism confusion the bishop came up to me and, in english, said "I want to kill you." He was kidding, though. I think.
Every wednesday night our ward has an activity, and last wednesday when we went there Fred gave us a scare. One of the members came up to us in the chapel and said "Fred is on the corner, run there!" So we ran. He was sitting on the curb of the sidewalk cradling his head in his arms and crying and rocking back and forth.
I thought he was having some sort of seizure or something. We ran over to him and starting talking to him. He understood everything we said, but couldn't communicate very well. I started telling him to focus on breathing, and when he did that he fell over on his back. I told my comp to call an ambulance, but Fred was coherent enough to tell us (or at least signal to us) that he didn't want that.
We finally got him up on his feet and into the church and he calmed down a bit. We sat down and tried to talk to him, but he ended up storming out of the room and back into the street where he stayed pacing on the other side of the street in front of the church.
This whole scene lasted about an hour. Finally, one of his friends came, talked to him and got him to calm down. He later came and apologized for the event. He apparently had had some kind of nervous breakdown. He said that he's having a lot of difficulties at home, and he has been searching for a job and he's not finding anything, and his love life is a mess, etc. and it all built up and he never let anything out, and so it just exploded all at once inside of him. But by the end of the night he was back to normal and we even got to teach him a few gospel principles. He was interviewed the next night and baptized on Sunday.
We have an investigator named Wilson who was interviewed yesterday and will be baptized on Sunday. I think he's the investigator that I've most made friends with of all the people that I've taught here in a year and a half. He's an unemployed paramedic from São Paulo that moved here to live with his family. He lives with his Mom, Dad and one younger brother. He's 34 years old. He loves us. Every time we go to his house, we plan to stay for no more than 45 minutes and end up staying for an hour and a half. It's impossible to leave. I always try to bring the subject back to what we're teaching him, but I always get lost in what he's talking about because he's so interesting. He also served in the army when he was younger. In 1999, he ran head on into a Semi-Truck going 105 MPH. He almost died. Lots of his insides came out. He showed us all the scars that he has where they grafted skin over where he had lost it. He spent nearly three years recovering in the hospital, and then quite a bit more recovering at home. He wants me to bring him to the United States and wants to meet my family. I told him Mom would make dinner for him if he wanted to come over and stay for a night, but that I couldn't promise much more than that.
That's all the news I've got for now. Love you all, and am looking forward to next week!
Elder Sisco

On Sunday we met a guy named Frede. He's 22 and is dating a member of our ward. She brought him to church for the first time. On Monday we went to teach him at another member's house. We taught him the first lesson and explained about the church and at the end asked him if he would pray and ask the Lord if it was true. He said, "I don't need to ask, I already know it is. I received a confirmation at church yesterday." Our jaws hit the floor. So we invited him to be baptized on Sunday and he willingly accepted.
Yesterday we taught him the Word of Wisdom and at the end when I asked him if he had any difficulty with any of the five substances, he said "Just coffee, but I'll stop drinking it now." Then he started asking us about missions and how he could serve one. I think he's the most elect person I've ever taught in my mission.
Felipe's parents, Luiz and Rosa are progressing. She went to church on Sunday, but he had to work. We finally marked their baptismal date for the 24th. On Friday they will be interviewed, and hopefully everything will work out. Please pray for them, I'm nervous about them.
We're teaching a guy named Wilson that I did a contact with in the street last week. He's an unemployed doctor and he served in the army for two years. He's 34, and would like to be married. He loves us, and every time we go there it's almost impossible to leave. Our lessons end up being two hours long. The problem is that he's so interesting to talk to that I always get into what he's talking about and forget that we're there to teach him. We invited him to go play soccer with us today, but he woke up this morning with a fever. I think he might have a touch of depression as well.
On Sunday I went to Paraopeba. I blessed the sacrament, gave a 25 minute talk about repentance and gave the Gospel Principles lesson. I can't wait for that place to get more members.
Transfers will be next wednesday; I imagine I'll probably stay here at least one more since I just got here. We'll see, though.
This next transfer will be President Frei's last, and then President Parrella from São Paulo will take over.
Today we played soccer... again. Just like we do every pday. Not that I'm complaining; I love it. From here we're going to eat lunch that some sisters made.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

We had a great experience last night with the couple we're teaching whose son left for his mission two weeks ago. Last week we talked a lot with his Mom, Rosa, about the Book of Mormon and marked several different parts for her to read (she's already in Second Nephi on her own, but we marked some other special parts we thought she might like) and invited her to pray about it and ask if it's true. She said she would.
When we went back last night we asked her how the reading went, and if she had said a prayer to ask. She told us that on Thursday afternoon she grabbed the Book of Mormon and sat down to read it. She read the parts that we marked and started saying a prayer to ask the Lord if what she was reading was true. Before she had even finished the prayer her dog started barking so she got up to see what it was. She went to the front door and saw that the mail had arrived, and when she grabbed it she saw that her son had written her a letter from the mission. In the letter he talked about everything he was learning in the mission, bore his testimony about the church, and said how happy and excited he was to see his family progress in the gospel. I told her she couldn't have gotten a response any clearer than that.
We managed to mark a baptismal date for her and her husband for the 24th of May, though her husband was a little bit more reluctant. He hasn't read the Book of Mormon yet, but said that he would.
On Saturday we're going there and we're going to watch "Joseph Smith: The Prophet" at their house with some members.
We're teaching a guy named Dirceu, and he has stood us up three Sundays in a row. He still hasn't gone to church. We went there on Sunday night to see what happened, and basically with the intention of letting him know that we weren't going to be passing by anymore to teach him, but when we got to his house and started talking to him he started talking about "a problem" that he has. He didn't go into details, but by the questions I asked and the way he answered them basically what we figured out is that he didn't just use drugs, but he also trafficked them, and that when he went to leave for church on Sunday morning the people that he used to work with started giving him trouble. He didn't want to go into details because his family was present, so we marked with him to go to a member's house that's a friend of his tonight for him to tell us the whole story. He will be baptized on the 24th by this friend of his if everything works out right.
On Sunday night before we talked to our families we watched a Fireside Transmission from BYUI with Elder Bednar. I thought it was cool that he talked from the same stage that I played guitar on once.
Welp, I'll talk to you all next week.
Elder Sisco

I loaned my copy of the Restauration DVD to an investigator for her to watch this week. When we went back and asked her how it was she said "my son broke the remote control, so we couldn't change the language options. We watched it in english and I didn't understand anything, but the images were pretty."
On Monday I did a division with an elder from my district. He came to my area to work for a day. There is an old lady in our ward whose husband went to church on Sunday so we went there to visit them and see if he would let us teach him. He's old and crazy. He told us that he's a prophet. We talked to him (or rather, he talked to us, since he was the only person doing any talking) and then his wife (the member) came out with a tray and offered us coffee. When we declined, she insisted several time and finally brought the tray back into the house and gave us water instead. I think someone needs to have a talk with her.
Sunday was my week to go to Paraopeba. I went with Gabriel, the second counselour of our ward this time.
Since we have our meetings in this guy's garage, sometimes things can be a little informal. For example, at 9:00 everyone had arrived and was sitting down waiting for the meeting to start. Alcide's (the guy who owns the house) daughter was still in the bathroom getting ready, and so he stuck his head in the window of the house and yelled "HEY, JESSICA, WE'RE WAITING FOR YOU, LET'S GO!" And then she came and we started sacrament meeting.
Since it was Fast Sunday, we were nervous that there would be a lot of dead space during sacrament meeting, since there are only about 12-15 people who go every Sunday. Things went pretty well at first, and then after everyone who wanted to had borne (word?) their testimony, there was a dead space. Then this old lady looked around to see if anyone else would go, saw no one and got up for the second time and bore her testimony again. Only the second time she bore her testimony that Joseph was NOT Jesus's father, he was his Step-Father. She made that very clear, stating it several times, and then sat down again. The meeting ended on that spiritual note.
This is the same lady who makes comments to everyone on every person's testimony after they're done.
Afterwards, I gave the Gospel Principles lesson about the Priesthood. I think it went over pretty well. I hadn't given a lesson in church in my whole mission until Sunday.
A year and a half ago, some missionaries baptized a kid named Felipe. On thursday he left for his mission in São Paulo. His parents are not members. The missionaries have been teaching them ever since Felipe and his brother were baptized. Now that their son has left for his mission they are showing more interest in the church, and are even attending church and reading the Book of Mormon. We're going there tonight with a member (Felipe's future mother-in-law) to teach them. Wish us luck!
The work here is going incredibly well. I've gained a strong testimony of obedience, and how we can obligate the Lord to bless us when we obey his laws. This week has been great so far. Yesterday we found seven new people and marked seven baptismal dates. It was great.
The Bishop here in our ward is amazing. Remind me if I'm ever bishop that I want to be just like him. He's very kind, spiritual, and everyone loves him. Every time we go to his house he gives us fruit.
A girl that was baptized a few months ago had an epillepsie attack out of nowhere and went to the hospital yesterday. We went there to see her, but she was sleeping. Hopefully she gets better.
-Elder Sisco

Hello! Once again I have no time to write everything that I want to write. We need to leave basically now to get home on time and start proselyting.
But lets see what I can get out really quickly.
Tomorrow we are going to Paraopeba again. I'm excited to work there. On Sunday we had 7 investigators in church in Sete Lagoas and 2 in Paraopeba. All of the investigators that we invited and that I went to get with a member on Sunday morning fell, yet somehow a bunch of members brought friends to church so we had a ton of now-investigators there. If it wasn't for the members here, we would have had 0. I love this ward. Now we have a bunch of referralls from members to visit. There's a kid named Felipe who's going on his mission tomorrow. He was baptized a year ago, and his parents aren't members. They went to church to see him speak, and he told me last night that his dad says he wants to be baptized. We're going there tonight. His parents love the missionaries, they know all the missionaries that have passed here in the past year, but they never got baptized. Now that their son is going on a mission, it looks like something has sparked. They are GREAT people, and will make great leaders in the church. Pray for them that we can do a miracle in their house. I don't know their names, I just know them as Felipe's Parents. Thanks!
We're also helping a guy named Dirceu. He has a proble mwith 4 of the 5 prohibited substances (he just doesn't drink tea, but coffee, drugs, cigarettes and alcohol he does use) but has a great desire to change. He is keeping all the committments so far (except he didn't go to church, but he is readin gthe BOM).
I did 2 divisions this week. One for 24 hours and the other for 48 so Martinez has basically been taking care of our area this week. The 24 hour one I did last week was great. We found some great people. I marked a date with two teenage boys and they went to church on Sunday and are excited to be baptized on Sunday. Too bad it's not my area, but I can't help but feel a little bit of pride in that. One is in a wheelchair, he got shot in the back by a drug dealer last year. He is an elect.
The 48 hour one wasn't so successful, but it was neat because it was in the area that I started my mission. I went to visit some recent converts and that was fun.
I gave a training yesterday morning to my district. A lot of people in this mission have done this "collective faith" thing where they all pray at a certain time during the day for the same objective. With my district, we decided that instead of just saying a prayer for our goals at 6:00 every day, we would knock doors and ask to say a prayer in someone's house until they let us in. That way our faith is being demonstrated by our actions. On the division last night, we knocked 10 door before someone let us in. It was a nice, normal family with 3 kids. We left a brief message and marked to come back. It was fantastic.
Anyway, things are great. Hopefully next week I'll have more time.
Next Sunday is my turn to go to Paraopeba. I have to give the Gospel Principles lesson, bless the sacrament and possibly give a talk as well. Should be a blast.
Love you all!
Elder Sisco

So I'm finally out of the office, after seven months of being the financial secretary. It is a huge relief. Although I'm not entirely free. It's 4:00pm and Elder Montgomery has already called me three times with questions. Soon he'll get through that phase though.
My new area, like I said last week, is in Sete Lagoas - the same zone where I was born. Making the grand total of zones that I have passed in my whole mission: 2. But I'm happy to be here, it's the "Promised Land" of the BH Mission. I'm now working in Ala 1 (1st Ward).
I think I forgot to mention the fact that not only is my district big and possibly problematic, but we are opening a city! There is a city 40 minutes outside of SL called Pareopeba (possibly misspelled) where the SL Stake is trying to form a branch. Right now they have one Melchizedek priesthood holder there. They need three to form a branch. It is however an official "group" and they are free to have independent meetings on Sundays. They usually have between 20 and 25 people there every Sunday.
I talked to President Frei about how we should work the area and he told me to get two priesthood holders and for one of us to go with one guy to our area in Sete Lagoas to bring the investigators to church and the other one to go to Pareopeba to get the investigators and bring them to church there. How sweet is that! I'm excited. The church is new there, and so the people there don't know much about it, and are apparently very open. We're going to have much success there. I'm excited!
My new companion is Elder Martinez from São Paulo (my third companion from SP). He is apparently a very good missionary. The assistants spoke very highly of him. I'm excited to get to work with him.
Elder McArthur went home today. It's always sad to lose close friends in the mission.
Easter was great. Everyone in the office got an Easter Egg from President and Sister Frei (I can't remember if that has the same meaning in the States. It's one of those big, hollow, chocolate eggs with a prize inside. Delicious).
On Sunday, miraculously, José and Gabriel were baptized. I baptized Gabriel, and Elder Montgomery baptized José, making in total seven baptisms that we had during our time together. Gabriel was the first person I've baptized on my mission that I had to repeat. Apparently his knee popped out. Only one person saw it, so I'm suspicious, and would like to think that my perfect record still continues. But oh well, no one's perfect.
When we got to their house on Sunday afternoon to pick them and their mom up to go to the baptism, I was doing a contact with a guy in the street while Elder Montgomery knocked and waited at the door. While I was still talking to the guy, the mom answered and said, "Oh, it's you guys. Well, I have some bad news, my sons aren't getting baptized today. In fact, they're not even here." and E. Montgomery started freaking out and asking why, and she was like "look, Sisco is leaving us this week, and there's going to be just you to take care of them, and I don't want that." And after Elder Montgomery talked her ear off for a few minutes, she smiled and said, "I'm just kidding, they're getting ready right now. Why don't you come on in and have a seat while you wait for them." He wasn't pleased.
I thought it was funny, though.
All three of them went, and she said she liked it. I have a strong belief that she will get baptized too. It wont be easy, she smokes, but I think that she'll see the changes in her son's lives and will have the same desire that they have. If Elder Montgomery and Rospirski keep at her, I believe she will.
-Elder Sisco

Okay, so these pictures aren't that great - but they were on the computer anyway so I figured I'd send them to you.
Here's us with the secretaries from the Belo Horizonte Leste (east) mission. We slept at their house last weekend for two nights while we were being kicked out of our house. They have a sweet apartment in the center of BH.
The next one is Elder Rodrigo and Elder Montgomery playing on the bed in the hotel.
And then me planning in our old apartment, in the middle of all our things which were being prepared for the move. We didn't even have chairs to sit in!
Love,
Elder Sisco



So, we're being kicked out of our apartment. We've all spent this whole week looking for new apartments. They made changes in the contract with the apartment building and they no longer allow resident changes. Whoever lives there, has to stay and you can't keep changing residents. That presents a big problem for us, since it changes every 6 weeks. The problem we've run into now is that no apartment building in the center accepts these changes. We have to clear out the apartment by the 17th.
All of our suitcases are in the office. We took all of the beds, tables, chairs, desks, etc. and put them in the back room. We're sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Four people in one room, and three in the other. Every night when we go to leave for our area to work, I have to remember to grab some essentials from my suitcase and stick it in my backpack for the next day. So our house is empty, and currently being remodeled.
On top of looking for a new apartment, packing all of our belongings, remodeling our old apartment, working in the office during the day and working in our area at night, we have the yearly audit of the mission office on Monday and Tuesday. The guy who is responsible for our mission that works at the church headquarters in São Paulo is going to come stay with us for two days and make sure that we're doing everything correctly and that everything is in order. I imagine he'll stay in a hotel- if not, someone might have to sacrifice a mattress on the floor for him. So this last week has been pretty stressful. And I imagine that it will continue to be until we leave here.
The amazing elect lady that we found last week fell last night. She didn't go to church on Sunday and stopped reading the Book of Mormon. I had promised her that as long as she was reading the Book of Mormon she wouldn't have even a desire to smoke. She did it, and didn't smoke on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. On Sunday, when she stopped keeping the commitments we had made with her, she returned to her cigarettes. I believe that her daughter and son-in-law who are from the Assembléia de Deus (Assembly of God? Does this church exist in the states?) probably talked bad about the church to her and she got scared or something. I told her "we knelt on the ground with you and prayed to know that these things are true, and I know that you felt the same Spirit that I felt; there is no way you can deny that these things are true." And she literally said that she knew it was true, and that if she were to die tomorrow she "wouldn't go to a very good place" but that it just "isn't something I can do right now". I was sad for her, needless to say, but the work continues.
Love you guys!
Elder Sisco

I'm three weeks away from leaving the office. Woohoo! Only two more Pdays after this one and I'm out.
This week we had one more baptism. Adriene (see photos), Andreia's neighbor was baptized. She has a very strong testimony about the Book of Mormon, and had a great desire to be baptized, but the problem was that she worked on Sundays in the morning. We finally convinced her to just simply tell her boss "I can't work on Sundays anymore" and she did. And he was fine with it! It was fantastic.
This week President Frei got a letter from the First Presidency stating that Pass Along Cards are no longer to be used by missionaries. Only members can give them out now. Now we no longer have an "in" to talk to people. I always go up to people in the street with a card in my hand and say "can I leave this present with you?" and then start in on the conversation. Now I have to find a new tactic.
But on Monday, our first day without cards, I got off the bus and the very first lady that I went to talk to was very excited to talk to me. I got her address and marked to go to her house the next day. On tuesday when we went there, we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and the Book of Mormon with her. She gave us all her cigarettes and lighters and we marked her baptismal day for the 5th of April. We went there again last night and she not only read the part that we marked for her, but five more pages. She hasn't smoked since we took her cigarettes and is very excited to go to church with us on Sunday and to be baptized on the 5th.
We got kicked out of our apartment last week because they made a new rule in the apartment building that says that the people who live in the apartment have to remain there, and since the assistants and secretaries are always changing and every six weeks people come and go we have to find a new place to live. We'd been looking all week, and finally found one that accepted us. We'll probably move in next week. Unfortuantely, I wont have much time to enjoy the new house.
Elder Rodrigo's birthday was on Tuesday and some of the members made a cake and threw a party for him (see photo). Then on Wednesday President and Sister Frei invited us all over for cake and ice cream to celebrate as well. Score.
'Til next week!
Love,
Elder Sisco

- Elder Montgomery, Kaylor Sister Frei's nephew, and me
- Missionaries and Andreia
- Everyone at Andreia and Moacir's baptism: Bishop William, Andreia, Moacir, Erondina (his wife), Irmã Irma (a supportive member), Adrienne (friend of andreia), me, montgomery, rodrigo, rospirski.
- The 4 secretaries.

enjoy!
Elder Sisco

Today we went to play soccer again with all the missionaries here in Belo Horizonte. It was way fun, especially since my team won most of the time. Not much thanks to me, but it's still satisfying. And now I am broken. I probably will have difficulty walking tomorrow.
This week Andreia finally got baptized! Thanks for all your prayers and help. I'm so happy- it only took her six weeks. Sheesh! I think most missionaries would have dropped her by now. But she decided it was time, and went through with it on Sunday. Also, Moacir, the husband of a member in our ward, got baptized after many months of attending church. The missionaries in this ward have been teaching him for a long time before I got here. We'd been there, stopped, gone back, stopped, etc. quite a few times while I've been in theis area as well. But something changed and he finally decided he needed to take that step.
So far this month we've baptized four people, and the assistants have baptized two. If we hit 10 we will break the Staff record for one month! We have two strong prospects for this next week, and so do the assistants. It's looking like a definite possibility. Woohoo!
Elder Montgomery and I found this lady through a street contact named Elizabeth. She lives alone with her two 19 year old twin sons, Matheus and Lucas. They are jerks and treat her very poorly, and also she is crazy.
On Saturday when we went there she was at home with her son Matheus, and she was making dinner, so she stayed in the kitchen while we talked to him. We kept inviting her to come participate, and she kept saying "I'm making a delicious cake for you all. You're going to stay and eat dinner with us." And we had already been there for like, 45 minutes. I asked if I could wash my hands, and walked over to the kitchen where she was. When I opened the door, a cloud of cigarette smoke wafted its way into my face and I saw her standing there with a burning cigarette in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other, churning the cake mix. On the counter next to her was an empty beer can. I quickly washed my hands and went back and told Elder Montgomery "we need to go, I'm not eating here." Matheus left, and we told her we needed to go and she kept saying "no, you're going to stay for dinner." She came out and sat down with a glass of wine in her hand, offered some to us and was like, "okay, I'm ready now." So we started teaching the first lesson to her. When we got to the end, and tried to mark a baptismal date with her, she resisted. She acted like she wasn't going to accept, so we decided to leave. We asked if we could say a prayer and end the lesson. Then she got very serious and said, "You are not going to abandon me. I need help. I deserve help. No one helps me. Don't you dare abandon me," as she pointed her finger in our faces. We told her to keep reading the Book of Mormon, praying about it, and to be at church on Sunday. She did all those things, so now we have no choice but to go back and teach her. She's pretty crazy, but maybe there's hope for her and her family.
At church on Sunday a couple people commented to Elder Montgomery and me: "Whose that lady? Is she your investigator? She's pretty weird." So it looks like she'll fit in well.
Sister Frei's family came down to visit last week, including her 13 year old nephew Kaylor. On thursday we invited him to go proselyting with is. It was lots of fun- even though he didn't understand anything, he seemed to enjoy it as well. He told his parents that the highlights were riding the packed city buses, doing contacts with people and seeing cockroaches on the street.
On Monday we got a phone call from the owner of our apartment telling us that she wanted to pay us a visit and see the state of the apartment. No one went to their area to work on monday night. We all went home to clean the house and make it at least appear decent. Yesterday morning when she went to see, she said, "you're going to have to move out." Apparently not because of the apartment, but because the rules changed in the apartment building and they no longer accept the fact that the people living in the apartment always changes- because of transfers and all that. So we have 30 days starting yesterday to find a new place, and to get out of the apartment that the missionaries have lived in for eight years. Dang.
Welp, that's all the news I have for this week. Hopefully I'll hear from you guys later.
Love,
Elder Sisco