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
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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
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
Thursday, April 2, 2009
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
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
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