Fast Week

Well this week flew by! We had some interesting moments (like when there came a new fridge and four mattresses for us, when we already HAVE a fridge and 6 mattresses) but oh well!

So, Tuesday, we contacted a reference we had gotten and taught a good lesson of the restoration. The reference, Clécia, is looking for a church where she really feels good (a.k.a. the Spirit.) and we are helping her find this church! One of her sons (about five years old) wanted his mother´s pamphlet, so I gave him one of the Plan of Salvation instead, and everytime we pass by, he yells ´´Hey! You gave me the little book!´´ hahaha. The other part of the day is that we closed a baptismal date with Gabriella and Verlanya (who went to conference and LOVED it). After conference, they no longer felt the desire to participate in this other church they were doing activities in. So we had set the date, and passed by about every day this week to help them get everything set... but more on that later.

Wednesday was a bit slower. We visited a less-active member (who I now consider active) Jonas, and left a message with him to help him get the courage to come back to church. The rest of the day, we tried to talk to less-actives and do contacts.

Thursday, we filled out the baptism papers with Gabriella and Verlanya and had them work with their parents to approve the baptism (Verlanya wanted to wait because she will be turning 18 next month, but we explained that baptism really isn´t a thing to put off until next month). Then that night, we went to Clécia again, and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (we had already left a Book of Mormon for her... she had a bunch of questions about it). She told us that she had prayed and had a dream that she was at our Church in a skirt. She didn´t see it as an answer to her prayer, but she said it was weird, because she doesn´t wear skirts, let alone own a skirt hahaha! 

Friday was a holiday, so we tried to get stuff done, but no one was home, or wanted to talk to us.

Saturday was a really busy day. We left early to talk to an old investigator, and then headed off to lunch. After lunch, we headed out to visit all of our investigators and contact some contacts we had made and so forth. WE contacted a reference from a member of a man named Adolfo. He said he had interest in our message just because of the way a member had talked to him about the church in a normal conversation. He said he didn´t like how churches are all about the money now. We got to leave a message of a humble boy, who was just seeking God wherever he was, and only desiring his salvation, and not money. At night, we had marked the baptismal interview for the two girls, but their parents wanted them to wait a little bit (in all reality, one of them is holding baptism over their daughter´s head as a reason to do anything she says without complaining.) So they won´t be baptised this week, but they will next week.

Then, this week was fast and testimony meeting here. In Conjunto Ceará 3, I bore my testimony about how the church is the same wherever we go. I said that my first meeting, I didn´t understand a lot, but I felt the same as I did at home. In Conjunto Novo Ceará. there is a member heading off to a mission in Colombia on Wednesday, so there was a lot of ´´Two years is such a long time, but you will do so great ´sobs´´´ and so forth from his friends and family.

Today, we are headed off to the center to pick up my package, and get some other things... what those are, I don´t know yet, but we will get them!

So that was my week! Love you all!

Oh! and tell Trent and Cassie that their letter is written, but I just need to buy envelopes and send it to them haha!

 

Elder Cornwell

I asked some questions and Kyle answered them:

1.       Did you receive the package yet? It is in Fortaleza and the status online is still the same: Aguardando retirada. Yes... and about that, It was held back at Correios, and I will have to pay about R$180 (about $88 US Dollars!!!!) to take it out, which I´m going to do today at about 3 or 4 our time.

2.       Are you senior companion with Elder Moraes? Yes... he is the fourth in a row that I get out of his training.

3.       Where geographically are you? What is your house address? We are on the northwest part of Fortaleza, close to Caucaia (which is a municipal of Fortaleza) R. Quinhentos E Quarenta e Umb, Fortaleza - Ceará

4.       How are your shoes holding up? They are still surviving...the insoles of one of them got used up pretty well already, so I´m going to try to buy some new insoles later.

5.       Do you do lots of walking in this area? Yeah! We cover two wards that covers a good part of conjunto Ceará.

6.       Are you having more opportunities to teach in this new area? Yeah, we have two wards, and  lot bigger area, so it is a lot easier to get out and teach.

7.       Did you get along with Elder Nelson…why were you transferred so soon? I got a long pretty well with him. I think we were both put there just as a transition of Elders, and then he stayed and I left.

Aqui vem o sangue novo!

Hello everybody!

So I´ve personally named all of President Monson´s first address´ in conference ´´Revelation Time´´. I immediately assumed that when he said ´´we´´, he meant ´´Jesus Christ and I´´. Anyways, we are all super excited about the new missionary age (especially for sisters).

So, this week was pretty good... I got a cold and so I couldn´t go full steam, but that´s alright. Oh, right. I forgot to tell you all last week, but I was transferred to a new area(s). I am now working in Alas Conjunto Novo Ceará and Conjunto Ceará 3. My companion is Elder Moraes, from Brasília, but he lives in Goiás. So this week, we took time to get to know members and to work with less-actives.

So it was really awesome to teach this week, because we really went in depth about prophets for General Conference. I remember one lesson in particular, with a woman whose daughter is a member for 7 years already. We were just talking and conversing about what she had learned already (she a little closed off with our message, so we went very easily). Eventually, we invited her to General conference, but she said she couldn´t go because she would go to another church at that time. So I busted out an analogy and asked her, imagining she was in the time of Christ ´´Would you not go to hear Jesus, just because you were already a Jew?´´. Obviously she answered ´´NO´´ and so I asked why she would miss hearing the prophet just because of a different church. She said my analogy didn´t work because I compared just a man to the Son of God. I said that she didn´t know who ´that man´ was. I opened up in Amos 3:7 to show why it is necessary that we listen to the prophet. I told her that God always has something in store for us, but she would only know if she listened to the prophet. I then cited about how President Hinckley advised all the members of the church to get out of debt and get food storage in about 1999. I continued telling this story by reminding her what happened in 2003-2010 and the economy. I asked her what would have happened to people if they hadn´t prepared for that, and she thought about it. All in all, it was a great chance to grow my testimony of prophets.

That was the main highlight of our week besides General Conference. We got to know a bunch of the members, and I just got a feel for the area and what they needed there so I could get working as fast as possible.

Anyways, Conference this time around, for me, was themed about being a ´´True Disciple of Christ´´. I learned that we need to do all we can through acts of service, diligence, obedience to the commandments and so forth to show our love of Christ, and to prove that we are truly his friends. So I got to thinking about how I could be a true disciple of Christ, and someone had commented about Peter´s work in the Acts. I also remembered about Acts 4 that Brother Porter passed to me the day before I left for the mission. He put on a little sticky note ´´Alma 34 - Prayer of Love´´ and ´´Acts 4 - Peter´s Boldness´´ both of which apply well in being a disciple of Christ. I decided I need to be more like Peter and let nothing come between me and my sacred service, even my fears. I need to a bold witness of Christ in all places, all times and all things. That is how I am going to be a true disciple of Christ.

The most important part of our work as missionaries is the invite to action, and so to all of you who are reading this letter, reflect on your life and your actions, and think of how you can be the best disciple of Christ possible. You can do whatever you want to remember what you come up with, but I challenge you all to do all you can to show your love for Christ in all times, places and things.

This is my letter this week... so until next week!

Elder Cornwell

What's With "Thumbs Up" in Brazil? A Primer to Non-Verbal Communication

In case you were wondering why so many of the pictures on Kyle's blog have people giving the "Thumbs Up" gesture, I went to the internet to see if it has a secret meaning. Not so much. I did find that there are some gestures we use that might be best left in the United States.


Non-verbal communication

Brazilians use a lot of gestures in informal communication, and the meaning of certain words or expressions may be influenced by them.

• The thumbs up gesture is used to mean everything's OK, yes or even thanks. Avoid using the OK hand gesture for these meanings, as it can be considered obscene. 
• The Shaka gesture is common on the coast of Brazil, and is known as the "hang loose" sign.
• Wagging your extended index finger back and forth and/or clicking your tongue behind your teeth two or three times means no
• Using your index finger to pull down one of your lower eyelids means watch out.
• Stroking your two biggest fingers with your thumb is a way of saying that something is expensive.
• Snapping a few times means fast or a long time (ago).
• Stroking your lips and then snapping means delicious; pinching your earlobe means the same in some regions.
• Making a fist with your thumb between the index and middle finger, known as the figa, is a sign of good or bad luck depending on the region.
• Touching the palm with the thumb and making a circular movement with the hand means I am being robbed/ripped off/ in some regions.
• The hush gesture is considered extremely impolite, about the same as shouting "shut up!" to someone.
• An informal way to get someone's attention, similar to a whistle, is a hissing sound: "pssiu!" It is not perceived as unpolite, but gets really annoying if repeated too often.

Tudo bem! Tudo bem!

Hello Everybody!

So this week was more of the same difficulties. We had a lot of trouble finding people in their houses. There are plenty of people around, but only after 7 on the weekends... so it is very hard for us to have a real FULL day here.

The main highlights of the week were the lessons we gave for two different households.

Anderson is the young man who went to church last week, and so we passed by his house in the mornings Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to teach him more. Our focus with him is to help him understand that there is only one true church, and he needs to follow that church to stay firm following Christ. He is young, and easily influenced, so we have tried to make him do things himself instead of us forcing him. That way, he can truly have a testimony of the church, and not of us Elders! But we did get to be pretty good friends... we even traded soccer jerseys (He wanted a Neymar Santos jersey, so I traded for one of Fortaleza!). His Mother was really touched by that, so there was probably another door opened in that household for us. I´ve gotten used to doing that in my areas... becoming friends with the people I work with and teach. One because they will trust me more and two because my love for them will just increase the feelings of the spirit for them. If I am teaching just to teach, it will not be the same as teaching a dear friend the restored Gospel. What Dad said about having to be the friends of the members is very true here. Missionary work does NOT work well without Member´s help... That is what was faulting in Montese. We ended up making some good connections with certain members that are very capable of increasing the productivity of everything in the ward.

The other visit we did was with a less active young man and his mother. We had passed by the Saturday last week, and this kid´s Dad had paid for him to do some process in the Catholic church. As we were doing visits with Wilker ( a counselor in the YM´s Presidency), we stopped by there and got to know them a little bit, and Wilk invited the young man to an activity at the church. Later we saw the fruits of that visit. The young man had decided to stop the process, and continue to just go to our church, which he knew to be true. We also talked with his mother, who actually has a testimony of everything. I believe her doubt was that she was helping her brother stay firm in another church, and didn´t think it was right to go to two churches at the same time. She knew that the Church was God´s will for her, so I told her to go to the other church to help her brother, and go to ours to do God´s will. There was also a man of 25 years less active there, just hanging around. We talked with him some, and he told us how he was firm in the church until he had to move and lost contact. He said he didn´t want to go over to that house in no way shape or form, but he just felt he should go. He recognized it to be the Spirit after we had come. It is really good to know you are being used as a tool of God in his work.

The rest of the week was kind of slow, but I felt different about it this week than previous weeks. As appointment after appointment fell, I didn´t get tired or disappointed. I got more energy, I walked straighter and faster, and I couldn´t figure out why! It was really strange to me... but then in Church, as we sung the first hymn, I realized what it was that had changed. We were singing Come Come Ye Saints, and the words made more sense to me than ever. It Portuguese, they are this...

Vinde, ó santos, sem medo ou temor; Come, oh saints, without fear or worry
Mas alegres andai, But happily walk
Rude é o caminho ao triste viajor, Rough is the path to the sad voyager
Mas com fé caminhai. But walk with faith.
É bem melhor encorajar It is much better to encourage
E o sofrimento amenizar; and the suffering to ease
Podeis agora em paz cantar You now can in peace sing
Tudo bem! Tudo bem! All is well! All is well!

Por que dizeis: "É dura a provação?" Why do you say, it is hard the trial
Tudo é bom, não temais. All is well, do not fear.
Por que pensais em grande galardão, Why thinkest in great rewards
Se a luta evitais? if thou evaid the fight?
Mas não deveis desanimar But shouldst not discourage
Se tendes Deus para vos amar; if thou hast God to love thee
Podeis agora proclamar: Thou canst now proclaim

Tudo bem! Tudo bem! All is well! All is well!

Sem aflição, em paz e sem temor, Without affliction, in peace without worry
Encontramos um lar. We find a place
Hoje, libertos do pesar e dor, Today, freed from weight and pain
Vamos todos cantar. We will all sing
Partindo de nosso coração Leaving from our heart
Bem alto e com resolução, Loud and with resolution
O nosso glorioso refrão: Our glorious refrain
Tudo bem! Tudo bem! All is well! All is well!

It looks like "thumbs up" is big in Brazil.

Chegando a morte, tudo irá bem, Coming to death, all will go well
Vamos paz todos ter. Peace we all will have
Livres das lutas e dores também, Free of the fights and pains as well
Com os justos viver With the just to live
Mas se a vida Deus nos poupar but if life God us saves
Bem alto poderemos cantar, Loud we will be able to sing
A uma só voz entoar: with one voice in unison
Tudo bem! Tudo bem! All is well! All is well!

I realized that I had learned how to support trials... and not just support them, but to love them. I think that is the key to our happiness in this life. If we love even the worst times of our life, our life will only be full of joy. I can now see that I will be able to look back on my mission and see all the hard times, all the fallen appointments and miss those things.

That was the important parts of my week! I hope you all enjoyed.

Elder Cornwell

´Nuther one!

Hello everyone!

So this is probably going to be a quick one again because the week was a slow one, but passed by real fast... if that makes sense!

So here are the highlights of the week.

Tuesday, we contacted a contact that we had made earlier on. His name is Gabriel and he had already been to church a lot, but he had to move to Brasilia to help family there. Anyways, he doesn´t remember much from what the missionaries had taught him... just that what they taught him and the church are all true. WE gave the message of the restoration again and then we committed him to start towards baptism again.

Wednesday, we had lunch with a less active member, and there was a bunch of people there, so we left a message from the Book of Mormon and invited them to come back to church.

Thursday we met with Ramone (our Ward Mission Leader) to talk about ways to get everyone in our ward excited (they are pretty depressing at this point). I just decided to find something I could do (and be as ´annoying´as possible to stop from getting demotivated haha) because I thought, ´´Hey, if I get down about the state of this ward... who is going to be excited about changing things?´´ The answer to which is NO ONE. So I just made myself excited (to change something). I´ve learned over time that if I´m not completely happy doing something, I´m not doing it right! So I realized the way I was going about helping this ward wasn´t the way the Lord wanted! So after that day, we would pass by quickly with members, and get them excited about making changes, and sharing the gospel. I even had an idea to give a member a birthday present (this Friday) that is going to be something random that I have no problem parting with, then I´m going to stick a Book of Mormon in the middle with a little note that says ´´The best gift you could ever receive is your testimony of the Gospel... why not share it with someone else?´´. I´m hoping it works!

Friday was full of contacts (at first, I misspelled ´full´ as ´dull´ I´m still trying to decide which word is correct).

Saturday, we had lunch with Adriano (I lied, he is excited about making changes as well... three of us!) and he had a reference for us... as well as a less active member. He invited them over for lunch to start the friendship (the Less active is 19, and his friend is 15), so naturally, I start talking about soccer, which worked really well. We left a little message from the Book of Mormon, which I forgot what it was. Anyways, afterwards, I gave the Book to the new investigator, and told the 19 year old that his mom would get off his case if he went to church, to which he excited declared that he ´´would go every Sunday from now on!´´ I laughed and said that is EXACTLY how to do it. Little does he know that nothing will change with his Mom, but with him!

At church, they both came and had a good experience (even told a friend that he missed out by going to the beach).

So that was my week. My new learnings were confined to a series of Hugh Nibley talks that someone had left in the house. (it can be found here http://www.lds.org/ensign/1975/10/a-strange-thing-in-the-land-the-return-of-the-book-of-enoch-part-1?lang=eng&query=hugh+nibley+enoch ) really awesome stuff... I resolved to find and buy some of the texts referenced here... as well as an expanse Gospel library hahaha.

So, that was my week! I don´t have any more to say, so I´ll close with that!

Love you all!

Elder Cornwell

Eating the Pizza Sandwich that he mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

The pizza sandwich

Elder Cornwell wearing a "real" football (soccer) jersey