Recife Journeys: April 2016

Elder Carvalho and Elder Pedrosa goin home! Using our near the aiport pad to spend the night.

Dear family and friends,

This first new week in a relatively new area-Massaranduba, was interesting.

I have already been to the area before since it is the stake center of Jaboatao dos Guararapes-the same stake as Jordao. I gave a talk on Sunday, it was funny because one member said to me, you know you had a bit of a Pernambucano accent, it wasn´t one, or two words, but various words-this Pernambuco-American English accent mixed together. haha Another member agreed. Also, I have already seen a bunch of members from Jordao as it is literally an area next door (think the Solon and Hiram wards), They have seen me and are all, Elder! Were you transferred here? Where´s your companion! I saw Saul in the stake center, which was a plus, but also painful upon leaving.

Vanusa, who was baptized this past Sunday-is ELECT beyond belief.

She belonged to another church but was disillusioned with the corruption

there and the focus on money. When we asked why she began to search

and was interested in the Church of Jesus Christ she replied, you know,

I reached the point where I wanted more than...blah,blah,blah. She has

already read about half of the Book of Mormon, and when we gave a copy

to her son, she looked at him and said É um tesouro-It´s a treasure. =)

The missionaries before us did a good job, the ward here has been struggling a lot,

however fortunately some elect investigators and new converts should breathe new life into the ward.

Vanusa´s baptism (not during the ordinance to be clear, she´s simulating).

We also have two other investigators, Cleyde, and Amaury, who remind me a bit of Don and Kay, if Don and Kay were Brazilian haha. Anyway, they understand the doctrine rapidly, Amaury has already stopped drinking coffee and they have both accepted baptismal dates. If all goes well they should be baptized on the same day! Yay! Their daughter, Vitoria, has already been baptized and really wants to serve a mission, I talked to her a little bit about what Natalie is doing. =)

Also, this is for Julia Perez, Elder Carvalho, who is in the pictures, moreno with glasses that has left the mission already, saw a picture from Logan with Julia in it and asked, is she Japanese.

Elder Talentino

The Massaranduba Gang

Vanusa and her son

Vanusa with her son and the bishop

Mission Work

Packin´my bags-peace Jordao!

Massaranduba-a new chapter? I was transferred this week and possibly lost the camera-ahhhh!!! Hopefully the I´ll get lucky and be able to recover it. I have faith! haha

Massaranduba is in the same stake as Jordao, the Zone Leaders we´re transferred there and I basically switched with them, Elder Russi was transferred to Muribeca, and my new companion, Elder Lima, is from the city of Sao Paulo. I really, really wanted to show you guys the pictures from this week, it was sweet! We were invited to the Municipal Camera of Recife (City Hall), and the council honored The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 15 years of the program Maos Que Ajudam (Helping Hands), in Brazil. It was the first time I had ever heard words like `Heavenly Father/Pai Celestial, Testimony Meeting, Moroni´mentioned in a city council. It´s similar to the Miami City Council inviting church representatives and a bunch of missionaries and talking about how great Heavenly Father is, needless to say, it was awesome! As missionaries we sang, and Brivaldo from the ward received recognition-Irma Michella was there also! One representative of the church came real close to saying Ì say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen, however, she just said Éu decha esas coisas, and then caught herself haha.

We met a super cool lady going home-Claudia, I thought she was a European, elegantly dressed in black, turns out she just has an extremely strong Paulista accent that made me think she was a foreigner haha. Anyway, she was extremely cool with us, started talking to us first, told us that she is a lawyer, said she is interested in human related work-including missionary service. When we explained how the companion system works she responded, Ah, que legal! She works somewhat with prisons and the underdog (it reminded me a lot of Serial), and was in Pernambuco to help a friend out legally. She passed us her personal and office number without us asking. Anyway, that was a plus during the week. We did some proselyting in the city, and it was a reminder to me of how unpredictable people can be, and how we really don´t see the hearts of people. Also, more pride exists in the city than in the suburbs. One kid, Silas, told us he didn´t have any interest in being Mormon, but wanted to get acquainted with the doctrine, I reflected that certain members began that way as well. =)

When I told Irma Michella we were both transferred, she responded dramatically ´Mentira!!`haha Sarah got emotional and thanked us for our service with her family there, and I responded by commenting on her amazing spiritual progress from the beginning of my time in Jordao until now, it was a special experience.

Maybe you guys can find the video of the missionaries in the Municipal Camera, it passed on the Globo in Pernambuco! Sarah saw us on tv, she said she saw it, and was all, the Elders, the Elders! There´s the gallego and the moreno! haha Also, that camera stayed on Elder Parrish and Elder Fialho haha

This week we also talked to a young man named Mateus, who is friends with a member of the ward in Jordao who is serving a mission, Italo. Mateus talked to us a lot about culture and language, and was quite well-mannered, and almost accepted the invitation for us to teach him, but in the end refused. However, I feel that Italo will be able to help him progress in the future. When we asked Mateus why he never talked to missionaries before he replied that he never had the opportunity. However, in the future he will have more, for sure, haha.

One of our last lessons in Jordao was with youth named Vitor and Lukas,

it was interesting because Lukas said that he already knew that it was the obligation of members to serve missions,

Lukas also said he knew that it was our job to ´llevar´or bring people to the church and baptize them, which is true haha. However, the beginning of the lesson was great until his grandma came in and ruined everything. She just spoke a mountain of bisteira and just rambled about Christianity and pastors with no real purpose. The Spirit in the lesson was lost and it was really frustrating because I didn´t know how I could get her to leave to help Lukas and Vitor understand and feel the Spirit that exists in the message of The Restoration. We invited Lukas to pray, and when he started to pray it was good, except the Grandma actually started to pray over him in a loud voice so we couldn´t hear him anymore, when I looked up his eyes were red.

As Natalie would say, it was one of the most ignorant things I have ever seen. I was beyond irritated by it, but we left a pamphlet about The Restoration and hopefully in the future he´ll find the way. It is interesting to see how the Adversary uses scriptures mixed with the philosophies of the world to deceive and confuse so many.

We taught a girl named Danyelle, from Sao Paulo, who lives near the aerial base. She was awesome! She said she had already searched through various churches, strongly believes in personal revelation, and would be baptized in May if she knew the message the missionaries bring is true. Hopefully she´ll have a ton of progress.

Dennis, one of our investigators, discovered where we live, he was all, I saw you guys go into that house at night this week! You guys live there? Me thinking-you know what that means? -time for transfers! haha Claudez also went to church this week and has great potential to progress. He just needs some ward integration to overcome his timidity and spiritual guidance. Barbara, who was baptized recently, is keeping up with him and helping him progress, which is a huge plus! She also went to the park on Sunday to read The Book of Mormon in peace!

The members in the ward thanked us tremendously for our work in Jordao, and we felt satisfied in ending that chapter. Now on to the next one!

Love Elder Talentino