Hey all!
So much has happened but I´ll try to encapsulate the major points. We
have been walking a lot, we take care of two wards here in Jordao. People are
sometimes open, sometimes not. We have one investigator who is intrigued by the
Book of Mormon as being a sacred record from the Americas. Another works with a
ton of members down in Recife, so he became interested in the church. A lot of
people have friends and families that are members, and a lot of people here are
much more open about going inactive and things of that nature. We work with a
nice kid from the ward named Haziel (the h is silent, pronounced like
Aa-zee-l/Aziel) who reminds me of Aladdin, especially yesterday when we were
planning since his paints were baggy-and also pleated, which I had never seen
on dress pants before. He was familiar with Monk, so he tried how to say
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Portuguese, I´m still practicing that one
haha. We have two marvelous investigators that are scheduled to be baptized in
January. They both have eye problems, Cleonildo killed a poisonous frog when he
was young and the venom went into his eyes permanently damaging them, so now
people seem like blurry phantoms to him. As far as we know, there is no known
antidote. Adriana had a dream of the Recife Temple, she said she in her dream
that she saw the House of the Lord next to some shops in Recife and that she
needed to go there! It was incredible! Another note, occasionally here you will
see Moreno people in Pernambuco with green eyes-it´s the coolest. I´m told this
is due to the fact that the Netherlands set it´s colonial gaze on this region
hundreds of years ago, and one thing lead to another, and now certain people
have green Dutch eyes. At least that´s the history I heard, makes sense to me.
Our district leader Elder Borba is the coolest! He´s from Rio Grande do Sul and
I´m not sure if I said this but his voice is like the Brazilian version of the
soothing 40´s radio announcers to me. He told me I speak Portuguese well, I
said likewise, and he said Yeah, I practice with my mom all the time, but it
took me a year and six months to learn the language haha We saw a Macumba
temple here in Jordao! Macumba is tantamount to voodoo and mysticism, think Dr.
Facilier, needless to say, we kept walking haha. People here for some reason
think Masonry (as in Freemasons), is tantamount to devil worshipping. Some of
the notions people have here that I´ve heard I did not expect. The pineapple
(abacaxi) here is amazing, far better than any I ever tasted at home. The
tropical fruits and juices are wonderful, and fortunately, Brazil does have a
good water system, at least by the coast.
I have been asked if I´m from Germany, Rio Grande do Suil, England,
and the United States. A British missionary here asked if I were American (he
knew about Ohio from Glee), and one Brazilian teenager who happened to have an
aunt in England thought I was English. He was nice. We met a man in the train
station who served a mission in Manaus, at the end of the conversation in
English he said, Ì like your tie`haha.
Some people here demand to know my first name, and whenever I say
´Scott, they reply Scar?-it´s nice to know I’m being put in line with the
villain from The Lion King. Always provides mental support you know. We have
one inactive lady who lives on our street and whenever we pass her store she
says `Boa noite abencoados!`-Good night, blessed ones, haha It it´s a nice part
of the day. She really loves the missionaries, talked about how were lights in
the world, helping people who are deceived. The accent here is extremely,
extremely, strong. Think Southerners in English. They talk somewhat akin to
Sylvester the Cat or Jim Carey as The Grinch-Shindy-Lou-
Who-.
Example: Respostas e pessoas-(Heshpostash, e pessoash, e Jesuish
Crishto, verdade, Whatsappy, etc.).
Rice and beans are made practically every day, actually it´s safe to
say every day. One member was asking if he went to an English mission if he
would get to eat it, I was trying hard to explain how I could say yes, but not
like here haha. We get asked a lot here why we only have church in the morning
on Sundays-definitely didn´t expect that! I expected, you have church for more
than 30 minutes? Why? haha. Here though, the evangelical churches are open 4, 5
days of the week and are extremely loud. It also seems to help people lose the
concept of the Sabbath day. I also had someone ask if my ward started at
10 AM, in Ohio, wouldn´t that interfere with Almorco/lunch, it´s a big deal
here, so the thought of doing that later schedule was astonishing haha. Last
night we went to a house, part of the family is Jehovah´s Witnesses, all very
friendly. One lady there asked if our church is indeed worldwide, we explained
that it is, and she said she wanted to know because we are indeed living in the
Last/Latter days. I was quite impressed by her knowledge and understanding of
the Bible. One member of the family fell ill while we where there, fortunately
we were able to call a member, Marcus Bomba, who gave her a ride to a health
center. The hand of God was certainly there. Providential indeed. At church on
Sunday I didn´t rub in my sunscreen quite well enough, so one lady there was
talking to me and telling her daughter look, he wears sunscreen! Almost like,
these white creatures come here from foreign lands and use a magical lotion
called sunscreen haha.
Christmas was wonderful, I loved talking to the family and spending
the day with the wonderful and caring Duarte family. IT was great to see the
family again! I love all of you! It was funny because Pedro told me that I
don´t act like an American since I´m a bit more social and affectionate, less
cold I suppose, than other Americans. He was like, you´re not American, you´re
not Brazilian, maybe you´re Italian haha. He does sound like a Russian though in
English doesn´t he dad! My nickname for him is Russo haha, reminded me of when
Irma Bakr finally spoke English to us and our CTM district was all like, Irma
Bakr, why are you Russian!? haha We also had a great investigator, she´s a
teenager, when we asked her to read the Book of Mormon she replied
enthusiastically `claro`! And gave a prayer to help her keep Christian standards
in a cruel, condescending world. It was quite moving. People here usually stay
out much later than those in Twinsburg and Logan and Silver Spring, etc. haha
Also, they have a tendency here to negate in this manner Gostei nao, falei nao,
after the conjugted verb. It´s actually endearing to me. One boy here in the
ward wanted me to read him lots of books, I think it was because of my English
accent. Then he turned to me and said with an extremely strong Nordeste accent,
you have eyes that are orange, aaaaand, lime haha Vitor e bem legal! (his name
is Victor). We have a lot of work to do but it´s difficult with the size of our
area. We know the Lord will help us and would like for us to be in your prayers.
Until the next post!
Love,
Elder Talentino
Mission Conference December 23, 2015 Recife
MTC Missionaries
Scott's Signature and hometown
Elder Perez, From Durango, Mexico (pianist)
