Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
On Friday we got on the bus to go work in our area and there just seemed to be a lot of confusion. There was a lot of yelling and I just couldn't figure out what was going on. Then we got closer to the middle of the bus and saw that there was a very old man with a bible in his hand "preaching" to the crowded bus. He was actually just sort of yelling about how no one could stop him from preaching the gospel. Not his mom, not his son-in-law who is a sargeant in the army, not anyone on the bus, not the police, not even the Devil. I thought it was interesting that he did more yelling about how no one could stop him from preaching than he did actually preaching.
There was this heavy black woman who got up and started making fun of him and yelling "hallelujah!" and "praise Jesus!" and so he turned around and they started arguing. She said some things about his mom, I think, so he called her a fat cow. "Not even this fat cow can stop me from preaching the gospel!"
It was some good entertainment that we don't normally have the opportunity to watch on the daily trip to our area.
We had to pass right through the middle of it though to get to the back of the bus, and I was afraid he was going to drag us into it. Luckily I don't think he knew who we were.
On Sunday night we went to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional at the stake center. We were standing out in front waiting for some people with an older woman who is a member of a different ward when this guy got off of the bus like a block away from the chapel. He was yelling and banging on all of the street signs as we walked down the road towards us. We didn't pay much attention to him until he started yelling louder and running towards us. The three of us turned around and ran towards the chapel entrance. We got in and slammed the door shut with him right behind us. When we closed the door he turned around and ran out and disappeared down the road. Some of the older priesthood holders got in their cars and went looking for him, but no one found him. It was weird.
Last week was our mission Christmas Party. We just played soccer all day, ate, and watched Dreamer which was actually a really good movie. Maybe I've just been so removed from media that anything is good to me now. But no, I think it really was good.
The lady that we helped last week didn't go to church again this week. We're having doubts about her; she's not committing to much. And it's difficult because we haven't been able to work in our area lately because of transfers. But we still have a lot of hope for her. Keep those prayers a-comin'.
Love,
Elder Sisco
There was this heavy black woman who got up and started making fun of him and yelling "hallelujah!" and "praise Jesus!" and so he turned around and they started arguing. She said some things about his mom, I think, so he called her a fat cow. "Not even this fat cow can stop me from preaching the gospel!"
It was some good entertainment that we don't normally have the opportunity to watch on the daily trip to our area.
We had to pass right through the middle of it though to get to the back of the bus, and I was afraid he was going to drag us into it. Luckily I don't think he knew who we were.
On Sunday night we went to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional at the stake center. We were standing out in front waiting for some people with an older woman who is a member of a different ward when this guy got off of the bus like a block away from the chapel. He was yelling and banging on all of the street signs as we walked down the road towards us. We didn't pay much attention to him until he started yelling louder and running towards us. The three of us turned around and ran towards the chapel entrance. We got in and slammed the door shut with him right behind us. When we closed the door he turned around and ran out and disappeared down the road. Some of the older priesthood holders got in their cars and went looking for him, but no one found him. It was weird.
Last week was our mission Christmas Party. We just played soccer all day, ate, and watched Dreamer which was actually a really good movie. Maybe I've just been so removed from media that anything is good to me now. But no, I think it really was good.
The lady that we helped last week didn't go to church again this week. We're having doubts about her; she's not committing to much. And it's difficult because we haven't been able to work in our area lately because of transfers. But we still have a lot of hope for her. Keep those prayers a-comin'.
Love,
Elder Sisco
Thursday, December 11, 2008
On Sunday night at 8:00 we were getting ready to get the bus to go home, but we both still had a few contacts to do with people so we kind of just hung around on this corner waiting for people to pass. After 10 minutes of standing there, and only two people had passed, I looked at Elder Rodrigo and said, "why don't we just start walking that way and do our contacts on the way to the bus stop?" So we started walking that way.
We got to the top of a hill, and there was a taxi parked on the side of the road, and the guy was unloading a bunch of heavy things. We went over and asked if they needed help carrying anything, and this lady looked at us and said, "It was God that sent you." She and her 82 year old mother were standing there about to go look for someone to help carry a bunch of items for remodeling their house (like, a new toilet and sink) up to their third floor apartment.
We picked up as much as we could and started walking up the stairs to her apartment, and as we walked we explained who we are and mentioned some things about the church. Before we had reached the door, she was already crying and saying how she had been praying to God for guidance these last days.
So we went in and taught them the first lesson, and it was amazing. And the Spirit was very, very strong, and everyone cried again. And they accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of December. It's all very exciting.
Last friday, the assistents and us and President and Sister Frei all went out to lunch and to go bowling for Elder Hill's last PDay. In the first game I was in last place for the first four frames, and then started slowly coming back until the 10th frame when I was neck and neck with Elder Hill. I don't remember the numbers, but he pulled ahead of me in the last frame, and on my first bowl I knocked down seven pins.
At this point I was down by two and needed to nail all three to secure the game (see diagram).
I bowled to the left side, knocked down both pins on the left, and in sequence, knocked down the third pin on the right and was champion, ending up having bowled a 145, my best score ever, beating Elder Hill's 144.
It goes down as one of the greatest moments in sporting history.
President Frei said that he was impressed with my bowling skills.
In the second game I got creamed; but no one remembers the second game anyway.
This is the week that we are getting everything ready for transfers next week, so it's been pretty busy. But to make things easier for me, my computer crashed yesterday and I lost everything. We had to have a guy come spend all day fixing it and reinstalling windows and stuff. It was horrible. But now it's back and we're good to go.
Welp, that seems to be all for this week.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco
We got to the top of a hill, and there was a taxi parked on the side of the road, and the guy was unloading a bunch of heavy things. We went over and asked if they needed help carrying anything, and this lady looked at us and said, "It was God that sent you." She and her 82 year old mother were standing there about to go look for someone to help carry a bunch of items for remodeling their house (like, a new toilet and sink) up to their third floor apartment.
We picked up as much as we could and started walking up the stairs to her apartment, and as we walked we explained who we are and mentioned some things about the church. Before we had reached the door, she was already crying and saying how she had been praying to God for guidance these last days.
So we went in and taught them the first lesson, and it was amazing. And the Spirit was very, very strong, and everyone cried again. And they accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of December. It's all very exciting.
Last friday, the assistents and us and President and Sister Frei all went out to lunch and to go bowling for Elder Hill's last PDay. In the first game I was in last place for the first four frames, and then started slowly coming back until the 10th frame when I was neck and neck with Elder Hill. I don't remember the numbers, but he pulled ahead of me in the last frame, and on my first bowl I knocked down seven pins.
At this point I was down by two and needed to nail all three to secure the game (see diagram).
I bowled to the left side, knocked down both pins on the left, and in sequence, knocked down the third pin on the right and was champion, ending up having bowled a 145, my best score ever, beating Elder Hill's 144.
It goes down as one of the greatest moments in sporting history.
President Frei said that he was impressed with my bowling skills.
In the second game I got creamed; but no one remembers the second game anyway.
This is the week that we are getting everything ready for transfers next week, so it's been pretty busy. But to make things easier for me, my computer crashed yesterday and I lost everything. We had to have a guy come spend all day fixing it and reinstalling windows and stuff. It was horrible. But now it's back and we're good to go.
Welp, that seems to be all for this week.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco
Friday, December 5, 2008
Hello!
We had a baptism on Sunday. On Wednesday (before) they got a little unsure and unstable about it and so we invited them to fast with us about being baptized. Andrei (the mom) fasted with us for 24 hours and she said it was a marvelous experience and that she knew that she needed to be baptized on Sunday. And of course, with her lead, the two kids got baptized as well. It was really a testimony to me of the power of the fast. Other than them, at the moment, our area's not too hot. We've got a couple of good investigators but no one really firm.
At the baptism the second counselor of the bishopric conducted the meeting, all in all it was a great meeting and everyone loved it. It had the largest attendance of any of the baptisms this year.
This month the mission baptized 139 which is one away from tieing the record, and two from breaking it. President Frei is really pushing for us to have a "Miraculous Christmas" and so far we have been having one.
At a members house on Saturday, we ate cow tail. Not the delicious caramel candy, but the actual meat and bones from the cow's tail. The bones look like vertebrae (which I guess it actually is, isn't it?) and there's so little meat on it, it was difficult. What little meat I did eat was delicious, but definitely not worth the work to get at it. This was the same place that I ate at and then threw up everything after I got home. Luckily that didn't happen this time.
I guess that's all the news I've got for this week. Thanks for all the emails, I love you all.
-Elder Sisco
We had a baptism on Sunday. On Wednesday (before) they got a little unsure and unstable about it and so we invited them to fast with us about being baptized. Andrei (the mom) fasted with us for 24 hours and she said it was a marvelous experience and that she knew that she needed to be baptized on Sunday. And of course, with her lead, the two kids got baptized as well. It was really a testimony to me of the power of the fast. Other than them, at the moment, our area's not too hot. We've got a couple of good investigators but no one really firm.
At the baptism the second counselor of the bishopric conducted the meeting, all in all it was a great meeting and everyone loved it. It had the largest attendance of any of the baptisms this year.
This month the mission baptized 139 which is one away from tieing the record, and two from breaking it. President Frei is really pushing for us to have a "Miraculous Christmas" and so far we have been having one.
At a members house on Saturday, we ate cow tail. Not the delicious caramel candy, but the actual meat and bones from the cow's tail. The bones look like vertebrae (which I guess it actually is, isn't it?) and there's so little meat on it, it was difficult. What little meat I did eat was delicious, but definitely not worth the work to get at it. This was the same place that I ate at and then threw up everything after I got home. Luckily that didn't happen this time.
I guess that's all the news I've got for this week. Thanks for all the emails, I love you all.
-Elder Sisco
Monday, December 1, 2008
All is well here in the mission. On Saturday I made one year. Or maybe it was Friday. I'm really not sure. But regardless of the date, I now am a one year old missionary, which is awesome.
Last week we went to visit the wife of one of the members in our ward, who is not a member. She really likes the missionaries though, and she prepared a dinner for us. It was kind of like a Brazilian Chicken Noodle Soup, with lots of meat and other stuff in it. It was delicious.
When it started to get late, Adam (the member) said he would drive us home to our apartment. Midway through the car ride home, my stomach started complaining about some foreign intruders. They were having trouble working out their differences and by the time we got home war had been declared.
We got into the elevator and climbed the 18 floors to our apartment. By the time I finally entered the apartment, I knew what had to be done, but I danced a reluctant dance, doing everything within my power to avoid the inevitable.
Finally, I submitted myself to this horrible fate and released everything that I had just consumed to be free. Not yet satisfied, I discharged my lunch as well. Moments later, feeling alone and left out, my breakfast made a last minute daring escape.
For the first time in many years, I threw up.
You can imagine my concern when, three days later, they invited us back for dinner.
On Saturday night we had a Dessert Festival at our ward and Elder Rodrigo and I made Lemon Squares from a recipe that I got from Sister Frei. I couldn't find any powdered sugar at the supermarket, and we put in too much lemon. There were a lot left over at the end of the night, and we didn't even place in the competition.
The good news though is that the family we're teaching went and loved it. They're progressing well towards their baptism this Sunday.
There was actually an attendance of 85 people, 23 of whom were investigators, so that was excellent. It was a good activity.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco
Last week we went to visit the wife of one of the members in our ward, who is not a member. She really likes the missionaries though, and she prepared a dinner for us. It was kind of like a Brazilian Chicken Noodle Soup, with lots of meat and other stuff in it. It was delicious.
When it started to get late, Adam (the member) said he would drive us home to our apartment. Midway through the car ride home, my stomach started complaining about some foreign intruders. They were having trouble working out their differences and by the time we got home war had been declared.
We got into the elevator and climbed the 18 floors to our apartment. By the time I finally entered the apartment, I knew what had to be done, but I danced a reluctant dance, doing everything within my power to avoid the inevitable.
Finally, I submitted myself to this horrible fate and released everything that I had just consumed to be free. Not yet satisfied, I discharged my lunch as well. Moments later, feeling alone and left out, my breakfast made a last minute daring escape.
For the first time in many years, I threw up.
You can imagine my concern when, three days later, they invited us back for dinner.
On Saturday night we had a Dessert Festival at our ward and Elder Rodrigo and I made Lemon Squares from a recipe that I got from Sister Frei. I couldn't find any powdered sugar at the supermarket, and we put in too much lemon. There were a lot left over at the end of the night, and we didn't even place in the competition.
The good news though is that the family we're teaching went and loved it. They're progressing well towards their baptism this Sunday.
There was actually an attendance of 85 people, 23 of whom were investigators, so that was excellent. It was a good activity.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco
Thursday, November 20, 2008
This week we found the most elect person I've seen so far on my mission. A long time ago when I first got into the area, a guy passed by us in his car, stopped, and came back to talk to us. He only wanted to talk because he assosciates white shirts and nametags with Americans and wanted to practice his english. But he was nice enough, and invited us to his house to talk- except that as he was leaving he started using some pretty heavy language and Elder Anderson was offended and said we weren't going back to talk to him.
Elder Anderson got transfered last week and we went back to talk to the guy. We got to his house, and the lady (who turned out to be his mother) said that he wasn't home and to come back later- but there was a kid sitting on the steps so we started talking to him and he mentioned that his family was very important to him and when we asked if we could share a message with his family this voice from above said, "Of course you can! Come on up!" It was his mom looking out from the second story window; she had been listening to the conversation.
It turns out that she had had a bad experience in the church that she attended and had recently been praying to Heavenly Father asking for His help to find the church that she and her family should go to. When she saw us, she said, she knew that he had answered her prayer.
The first lesson was fantastic. The Spirit was so strong, she cried at the end, and through tears when we invited her to pray and ask God if what we had said was true, she said, "I already know." When we asked her if, receiving an answer from God that our message was true, she would be baptized in His church she said, "of course."
The second lesson was also exciting. She had read 3 Nephi 11 and Moroni 10:3-5. We asked her if she prayed about it and she said, "I didn't need to ask, I felt that I was true as I read it."
So anyway, it's a family of four people. They're all very excited to go to church with us this Sunday. She and her two sons have baptismal dates for the 30th of November, so if you could all pray for that that would be wonderful. I've wanted my whole mission to baptize a whole family- complete with a Father- and we have an excellent chance now to help these people progress.
In other news, Transfers was last week and I'm so glad that's over. I had to take care of everything myself, since Elder Anderson was leaving and it was rough. But it's over now, and I can take a deep breath. Things have returned to their normal level of stressfulness.
The other day we had to go to another city to pick up a missionary so he could come to the office to fix our computers which were not working correctly. We got on the bus and asked the driver if he was heading in that direction and he was like, "Yep, I'll show you where you need to go, just stay up here with me," and he made us stand in the front of the crowded bus next to him.
It was actually kind of cool, I felt like a VIP standing behind his giant Bus Driver Seat. Turns out that he's a member of the church for like 12 years and he has three sons that all served missions. He wouldn't let us pay for the bus either. If the transit system found out that he was letting people ride for free he could get in big trouble- even fired- so we insisted on paying, and then he got angry and was like, "I'm in charge here! If I say you don't pay you aren't going to pay!"
So we didn't pay.
That's all my news for this week.
Let it be known that I am still waiting for letters from anyone who reads this Blog. There's been a letter drought since I got here in the office; it'd be fantastic if we could all work together and resolve this problem.
Love,
Elder Sisco
Elder Anderson got transfered last week and we went back to talk to the guy. We got to his house, and the lady (who turned out to be his mother) said that he wasn't home and to come back later- but there was a kid sitting on the steps so we started talking to him and he mentioned that his family was very important to him and when we asked if we could share a message with his family this voice from above said, "Of course you can! Come on up!" It was his mom looking out from the second story window; she had been listening to the conversation.
It turns out that she had had a bad experience in the church that she attended and had recently been praying to Heavenly Father asking for His help to find the church that she and her family should go to. When she saw us, she said, she knew that he had answered her prayer.
The first lesson was fantastic. The Spirit was so strong, she cried at the end, and through tears when we invited her to pray and ask God if what we had said was true, she said, "I already know." When we asked her if, receiving an answer from God that our message was true, she would be baptized in His church she said, "of course."
The second lesson was also exciting. She had read 3 Nephi 11 and Moroni 10:3-5. We asked her if she prayed about it and she said, "I didn't need to ask, I felt that I was true as I read it."
So anyway, it's a family of four people. They're all very excited to go to church with us this Sunday. She and her two sons have baptismal dates for the 30th of November, so if you could all pray for that that would be wonderful. I've wanted my whole mission to baptize a whole family- complete with a Father- and we have an excellent chance now to help these people progress.
In other news, Transfers was last week and I'm so glad that's over. I had to take care of everything myself, since Elder Anderson was leaving and it was rough. But it's over now, and I can take a deep breath. Things have returned to their normal level of stressfulness.
The other day we had to go to another city to pick up a missionary so he could come to the office to fix our computers which were not working correctly. We got on the bus and asked the driver if he was heading in that direction and he was like, "Yep, I'll show you where you need to go, just stay up here with me," and he made us stand in the front of the crowded bus next to him.
It was actually kind of cool, I felt like a VIP standing behind his giant Bus Driver Seat. Turns out that he's a member of the church for like 12 years and he has three sons that all served missions. He wouldn't let us pay for the bus either. If the transit system found out that he was letting people ride for free he could get in big trouble- even fired- so we insisted on paying, and then he got angry and was like, "I'm in charge here! If I say you don't pay you aren't going to pay!"
So we didn't pay.
That's all my news for this week.
Let it be known that I am still waiting for letters from anyone who reads this Blog. There's been a letter drought since I got here in the office; it'd be fantastic if we could all work together and resolve this problem.
Love,
Elder Sisco
Thursday, November 6, 2008
October 31, 2008
Let me tell you a little bit about The Best Sunday Ever. I woke up, went to church, ate a fantastic lunch, and then because it was my day to stay with Elder Dantas, we took a bus home and I took a two hour Sunday Afternoon Nap. I believe that I will never again have the opportunity to do this. At least not for another 13 months.
That night, we took a bus to the chapel where we had a baptism. Debora, Bahia's daughter, was baptized by the Bishop. It was an awesome meeting. Also, I sat next to our new Ward Mission Leader who is 80 years old. He was baptized 36 years ago, when the church was just getting it's roots down here in Brazil, and he was confirmed a new member by Elder Howard W. Hunter of the quorum of the twelve at the time. Sweet, huh? He showed me an old Aaronic Priesthood manual that has a story about him in it. Y'know how whenever they read those example stories with morals in them you always wonder if they're actually true? Well this one used his name and everything.
It talked about one time while he was a taxi driver in São Paulo and he rear-ended someone and he got out of the taxi and was like, "I'm sorry, this is completely my fault, I'll take care of everything. Now, I know that everything happens for a reason, so I'd like to take this opportunity to share a message with you about the gospel of Jesus Christ." The guy was baptized two weeks later. When I was done reading the story in the manual he leaned over and said, "that guy is a Patriarch now in São Paulo." Pretty crazy, huh? He's been a missionary for a very, very long time, and has had a lot of success.
The other day we ran into this guy who seemed to know the missionaries, so we asked if we could go to his house. Turns out his whole family, minus him, was baptized in the church but now are inactive. They go to some evangelical church now. We asked his wife (who is a member of the church. Or was.) if she could pray and she was like "sure, but I'm going to do it my way" and then she started praying really loudly and saying a lot of hallelujah's and Praise Jesus's and up until then I was thinking "this is the most horrible irreverant thing I've ever heard."
But she quickly outdid herself and started speaking with her "Gift of Tongues."
It went something like this: "chamalamahamawama oohwee oh chamahamahama (about a minute of this, coupled with a lot of rolling of the tongue. we had trouble controlling ourselves). Amen."
I was unable to identify the language.
That night, we took a bus to the chapel where we had a baptism. Debora, Bahia's daughter, was baptized by the Bishop. It was an awesome meeting. Also, I sat next to our new Ward Mission Leader who is 80 years old. He was baptized 36 years ago, when the church was just getting it's roots down here in Brazil, and he was confirmed a new member by Elder Howard W. Hunter of the quorum of the twelve at the time. Sweet, huh? He showed me an old Aaronic Priesthood manual that has a story about him in it. Y'know how whenever they read those example stories with morals in them you always wonder if they're actually true? Well this one used his name and everything.
It talked about one time while he was a taxi driver in São Paulo and he rear-ended someone and he got out of the taxi and was like, "I'm sorry, this is completely my fault, I'll take care of everything. Now, I know that everything happens for a reason, so I'd like to take this opportunity to share a message with you about the gospel of Jesus Christ." The guy was baptized two weeks later. When I was done reading the story in the manual he leaned over and said, "that guy is a Patriarch now in São Paulo." Pretty crazy, huh? He's been a missionary for a very, very long time, and has had a lot of success.
The other day we ran into this guy who seemed to know the missionaries, so we asked if we could go to his house. Turns out his whole family, minus him, was baptized in the church but now are inactive. They go to some evangelical church now. We asked his wife (who is a member of the church. Or was.) if she could pray and she was like "sure, but I'm going to do it my way" and then she started praying really loudly and saying a lot of hallelujah's and Praise Jesus's and up until then I was thinking "this is the most horrible irreverant thing I've ever heard."
But she quickly outdid herself and started speaking with her "Gift of Tongues."
It went something like this: "chamalamahamawama oohwee oh chamahamahama (about a minute of this, coupled with a lot of rolling of the tongue. we had trouble controlling ourselves). Amen."
I was unable to identify the language.
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