Macumba! (VooDoo); Mission Week 13; Area: 31 de Marco; Ponta Grossa, PR, Brasil

 This week was a very interesting week with many things happening. 

Tuesday we ran into an older lady who had 30 dogs in her house. That is 30 pugs and pitbulls with some of them being pregnant. She was really nice, but also funny because she kept calling her neighbor a "vagabunda". Afterwards we met with Priscila one of the people we are teaching and she was very nice. She made us spaghetti; we talked with her and answered many questions that she had.

Wednesday, as we were walking the train tracks, we came across a bunch of pots filled with stuff: candles, coconuts, and peppers. Elder Blackburn and I didn't know what it was for so he grabbed two coconuts and we packed two of the pots which was empty and clean into his backpack. Later that evening when we were visiting a family in the Invasão we asked if they wanted a coconut. We opened the bag and showed the coconuts and the pots to them.  The dona was shocked. Turns out all of the stuff we found on the tracks was macumba or black magic. It was apparently an offering for something, but we didn't know, so we eventually got rid of all the stuff. It happens that sometimes you see something cool and you don't realize it's for black magic...oh well it's gone now. 

Also, on that same day we saw the aftermath of an 11 year-old kid getting beat up in the Invasão. We found him crying with a large bruise from his shoulder down his back. There is more to the story, but I don't want to get into it. Also that night Elder Blackburn and I got told that we are going to hell...we just walked away laughing.

Thursday was a good day, but after lunch we were walking down Condomínio Real, Rua 2 and as we were walking there were 3 dogs off to our right. I saw a little rock and wanted to hit it so I scraped my shoe across the cement and kicked the rock. Well, the dogs thought I was going to kick them or something because they went insane barking at me, and of course I got bit in the butt by a 3-legged dog. Yep, out of the 3 dogs I got bit by the one with 3 legs. I'm good though it didn't puncture through my pants it just hurt quite a bit after.

Friday we went to the temple and that was good. Its always nice being able to go to the temple every 3 weeks. It really is a special and sacred place.

Saturday was another busy day with cleaning the church, English class and working in both areas trying to talk to everyone about going to church the following day. 

Sunday I gave a talk in the 31 de Março Ward and it went really well. It was kinda nervous because it is the first talk that I've given fully in Portuguese, so yeah, I was a tad nervous. I'll send another email with only my talk so this email isn't too long.

Also, we found a Book of Mormon from 1975!  It looks different than any I have seen, it even has pictures in it. It's amazing to find something so old and classic.  

Anyway that's pretty much it for the week. It's been busy and hot. It's supposed to be winter here and it's still 25 degrees Celso (about 77 degrees Fahrenheit). Anyway here are some pictures.

Photo 1:  On the left is the current Book of Mormon, on the right is the Book of Mormon from 1975

Photo 2:  Title page from 1975

Photo 3:  House with so many cats

Photo 4:  Railroad track Macumba

Photo 5:  A cool picture I took one night

Elder Hyatt

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility; Mission Week 12; Area: 31 de Marco; Ponta Grossa, PR Brasil

This week was the week of rain. It rained Monday afternoon until Thursday morning. 

It was the first time I've seen it rain so much here and I had to get an umbrella because I forgot mine at home (Missouri). Whoops. 

In all reality not too much actually happened this week, but I'll do my best to explain it all.

Tuesday - it Rained

Wednesday - 9am-12:30 zoom meeting with Elder Uceda of the Quorum of the Seventy. Did splits with Elder Felix and Elder Rodríguez. Elder Felix and I left our area and our zone to go buy him a suit; since he is our district leader and President Bikman told him he had to have one by Thusday, so we walked and got him a new suit and back to our area. It was a long walk into Central. Afterwards,  Elder Blackburn and I did some visits with Bispo Jonatas. Oh yeah and it Rained

Thursday - We went to the church of Ala 1 and from 9am-12:30 we met and listened in person to Elder Uceda. He gave many great lessons and discussions which I'll touch upon later in the email. Oh yeah, it stopped Raining that day.

Friday - We went out with Irmão Franklin and visited a bunch of members who haven't been to church in years. The majority of them moved out of the area more than 4 years ago. We are trying to update the records and move the records to the right areas. Also, it was windy and cloudy with a taste of sun.

Saturday - English class brought in 6 people which is a lot for us and 4 were not members of the church. After that we played a little bit of soccer with Everson and then visited some more families. It was a partly cloudy day with sun.

Sunday - Really cold morning that when we woke up we saw our own breath. There are no heaters in the homes here so it was pretty cold getting ready that morning. Went to church where  Ariene e Yon got confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ. After church we made a lot of visits and then I called my Dad for Father's day.

Monday - We went shopping. I made coconut popcorn Shrimp and rice, and Elder Blackburn is making Chili for us now.

That's the summary of the week, and now for some interesting things:

- Last Sunday some kids asked their parents if I was Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) and the parents joked and said that I was. That is the 3rd time I've heard it now since being on the mission, so I guess I have some sort of similarly and I guess I'm now Spider-Man to those kids.

- The uncle of a member who lives in the Invasão almost had his eye taken out due to a roof sheet (I don't know what the English word for telhado is) he was rushed to the hospital because it cut above the eyebrow and along the side of his head. Also here they don't sell medicine the same and so they didn't have enough money to pay for all the pills of Keflex they needed, so I gave enough Cephalexin to finish off the rest of what he needed (my dad made me bring some medications just in case I needed them and couldn't get them). The day after he thanked us and was very grateful for the help.

- Elder Uceda gave a great discussion over various topics. The main one is his talk about our mission. He expressed to us all the importance of the mission and on preaching the gospel. He said that the more important work that we could be doing is preaching the truth of the gospel and bring people to church, and that the members, recent converts, and members who have stopped going is our responsibility. We are here to help all and not just focus on baptisms. It was nice to hear that since Elder Blackburn and I have been really focusing on recent converts and not baptizing and through that we have had the blessings of baptism.

I'd lastly like to close off this blog with a story that Bispo Jonatas told while we were visiting a member.

This story is about a King and his Advisor or Hand to the King. The King was great friends with the Advisor and the advisor knew the entire kingdom like the back of his hand. The Advisor would lead the King on hunting trips because the King always loved it. One day as they were out hunting the Advisor was notching an arrow and it misfired and took off the top of the thumb of the King. The King was angry and asked what the Advisor was doing. The Advisor told him that he didn't mean for it to happen, but that since it did happen that there would have to be a reason for it. The King was furious and asked what King doesn't have a thumb and what purpose could it serve. The Advisor told the King that sometimes things happen that are necessary. The King, not liking the response, threw the Advisor into prison and selected a new Advisor. The New Advisor didn't know the area as well and after many weeks of going out and hunting the King ended up going out alone. As he was out he ran into a tribe of cannibals. The cannibals tied him up and was preparing him to be eaten, but then one of the cannibals noticed that the king was missing a thumb, and in their culture if an animal was missing an appendage it was considered unclean, and so they let the king go. The King returned, released the Advisor, and apologized greatly for keeping him locked up and not trusting in him. The Advisor told him that he was happy that he was in the cell the whole time for if he was with the king he, the advisor, would have been eaten.

This story shows how sometimes the many things that happen in our life might be hard, painful, or outright horrible, but that's because we don't understand the purpose. The Lord never gives us challenges we can't overcome, and often times things happen in our lives to help us and guide us. Much like the king didn't know why he had to lose a thumb, but it was necessary because it saved his life. How many times do we bicker and complain about things not going our way or how we don't have everything we want in life. How often do we only look at life at one point of view. Sometimes we need to take a step back and see our lives much like our creator does. If we don't go through trials and tribulations how can we grow and mature? If you don't understand all the bad in the world then how would you understand the good and the joy? This life is for us to learn and grow to become like our Savior and everyone needs different trials to help them get there.

Pictures:

1. Soaking wet, sudden downpour.  I wish I had my umbrella

2. Wall of rain

3. The railroad tracks between our areas

4. Reading the Good Word

5. Our group of missionaries

6. Our Zone with Pres and Sis Bikman

Elder Hyatt

The Old Timers; Mission Week 11; Area 31 de Marco, Ponta Grossa, Brasil

 This week was actually a pretty fast week. I mean almost every week feels fast to me, but this one kinda flew by.

You are probably wondering why I titled this email 'The Old-timers', well we stay in an apartment with 3 levels and we are on level 2. Anyway, below us lives two old ladies who are constantly saying that we are making so much noise. We aren't even home the whole day, but they keep complaining about us. We understand that some of the noise is us scooting our chairs, but there are people living above us and we don't hear them...except for the chairs. So yeah, I really only put that title because nothing else really fit for the week. 

Tuesday as we were walking through the field to the Invasão a 24 year old man yelled out to us, so we walked over and began to talk with him. We found out that João was baptized already way back in 2009 and that he wants to go back to church after all these years. He wears an ankle monitor because apparently he robbed some places and did quite a few drugs, but as we got to know him more we learned that his desire is actually very sincere. He is trying to be clean of everything and says that he wants to return to church because he knows that going to church can bring about blessings. So we are working with him right now trying to help him in the ways that we can and strengthen his desire to return back to church.

Also, Tuesday I burned my finger making Arrepas and accidently broke a plate by bumping it off the table, so yeah, oops.

Thursday I was briefly reuited with my MTC companion Elder Cutler. I say brief because we were going to do divisons with Elder Cutler and Elder Johnston, and I went with Elder Johnston. For those who know/understand Elder Johnston is considered my Mission Grandpa because he trained my current companion Elder Blackburn who is training me. Yes, I know it's strange, but anyhow. Elder Johnston and I worked in Jardim Florença and ended in the Invasão. During that division a blessing came for us. Ariene (13 year old girl) and Yon (12 year old boy) have been going to church for the last 6 weeks, but Yon's mother/Ariene's sister told them and us that they have to know that they are ready and they have to tell her. Well, when Elder Johnston and I went and visited them we left a very special message about baptism and temples; afterwards Yon exclaimed that he wanted to be baptized and Ariene agreed. And just like that all three kids who I played soccer with my second week here got baptized! I was able to baptise them that Saturday and everyone was so happy for them.

That basically sums up the week. Today I made rice and chicken hearts for us to eat, so that was a great and fulfilling lunch. Other than that not much else happened.

1. Me and Elder Johnston walking through the field from the Invasão.

2. The baptism with Ariene and Yon

3. Here is a big frog we found

4. Us cleaning a driveway for the Bispo of 31

5. Chicken hearts and Rice

Little Blessings; Mission Week 10; Area: 31 de Março, Ponta Grossa, PR, Brasil

This week was not one of the more exciting weeks, however, I've witnessed the hand of the Lord in the lives of the people here through many small blessings.

We walk at least 10-15k everyday, in doing so we pass by and talk with quite a few people. Taking care of two wards (congregations) is not easy, but also not the most difficult. We have learned to balance it out as much as we can and it's been great so far.

The first blessing came at the beginning of the week from Irmão Pedro Porn (yes that's his actual name). He has a 15 year old daughter named Thalyta who has been going to church for the past 4 years. She has had two baptism dates planned, but her mom never allowed her to get baptized. I was told by Elder Blackburn that he heard from the members, and even his previous companion, that all the missionaries have tried so hard to help her get baptized but it never seemed to work out. It became a surprise to us when Irmão Pedro Porn told us that he asked her and that she accepted being baptized that this past Saturday. It was a nice surprise and we were very grateful for the opportunity. As it so happened, they and other members were all at the temple in Curitiba, about 2 hours away from here, the morning of the baptism and they left to return to Ponta Grossa at 4pm. Well, the bus broke down two times. They had to have another bus pick them up and bring them back to the church. So when they didn't show up at 6pm we went back to work in the area waiting on them. They didn't get back until a little before 9pm; we finally had her baptism and it ended up being a great and wonderful day for her and her father.

The second blessing happened earlier in the week. We were walking down past the bairro of 31 de Março to the train tracks to head over into the Invasão. As we turned the corner of the road we saw a young lady and her younger brother chasing after a pit bull and another furry dog (I don't know my breeds). We watched as the boy grabbed the furry dog and the lady grabbed the pitbull. In my mind I felt/knew that they needed help, so I began walking over. I'm glad I did because when the lady picked up the pitbull he kicked her face and landed on her foot as she fell to the ground. I sprinted to the lady as I yelled for Blackburn to chase after the dog. The young lady was lucky that the only thing she had was a twisted ankle and a bruised foot from where the dog landed. She was crying in pain and I did my best to comfort her because there was nothing that truly needed to be treated. I watched as Elder Blackburn picked up the pitbull and latched him closed in his arms. The dog managed to escape once, but not again. He carried the dog and I held the lady's arm as we helped get them back to their home. It turns out they were both members of the church and related to the family that we had lunch with that day. That was when I first realized how much of a blessing it was for them that we so happened to be at the right place at the right time to help them because that dog was not light to carry. 

The third blessing came in a funny way. Yesterday, after a great and wonderful lunch with Irmão e Irmã Botini who knows Sister Mumford, we were walking and we both needed to use the bathroom to go #2.  We had been holding it in because we were in the Invasão and didn't want to stop at a members house and bother them. So we decided at 7pm that we would go to the church and use the bathrooms there since neither of us wanted to go after the other in in our apartment😬. Off to the church we went and to our surprise we actually needed to be there. When we arrived the first councilor of the Stake Presidency was there and didn't have the keys to the chapel. He asked if we could lock up the chapel for him. It was a win-win because he got blessed that we showed up with the keys to lock up the church, and we got blessed with bathrooms and afterwards with a free ride to referências house. So a great blessing.

Also, Sunday during 31 de Março Ward's church meeting a random man walked into the church and was attempting to sell stuff to people. It was actually funny because he walked in with two bags from SuperSpin (a mercado 3 minutes away from the chapel where we shop every Monday). Elder Blackburn walked over and talked to him about not selling stuff in church. After he left, Bispo Jonatas texted us and told us that we should've brought up the scripture about Jesus and the people selling stuff in the temple in Mark 11: 15-19.  That was a great idea and something that we will keep in mind if that every happens again.

Mark 11

15 ¶ And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;

16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.

17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might ^adestroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.

Lastly, I bought a Futsal ball for the church here since they didn't have one. Also, I learned how to make and made my first pizza today. We learned how to make Venezuelan Arrepas which are absolutely amazing😋. That's pretty much it for this week though.

1. New Bomba for my chimarrão cup which I like. Also found out that ginger with orange peals mixed in with the powder is amazing)

2. Our Arrepas cooking for the first time

3. A member gave us bananas and Elder Blackburns was a lot bigger and thicker, it was funny.

4/5. As we were walking along a dirt/trash road near the bairro of 31 de Março, which is very well populated, I found that coin; it's from 1924.

6. The Futsal ball 

7. The baptism of Thalyta

Elder Hyatt