December 28, 2015 - Ipatinga

I see a belo horizonte,
 

Well, so this is Christmas, at least on a mission. It was good, but a little weird to wake up Christmas morning with just me and my companion. We turned to each other and decided we still had to do studies.
 

But, I´m way out of order. the first thing that happened this week was a noiter familiar. It was really good and we even ad a few investigators there. People need to feel comfortable with the other people in the ward. They can feel that the church is true, but if they feel uncomfortable there they won´t attend. NF is a great way to help with this.
 

That night I got really sick, which caused me not to be able to eat red meat, dairy, or candies for 3 days including Christmas. I am recovered now, but the timing was horrible.
 

Christmas day I was able to skype the family. That is the real gift of Christmas for missionaries. It was fun to talk with the family and simply to talk in English. It just felt really natural and really quick. It was a little weird when I had difficulty saying the word difficult in English.
 

This week we made a contact that wouldn´t give us his address. So, we didn´t think too much about it. The ward was having a baptism this Saturday and he was walking by and decided to walk in. He was able to watch part of it and then came to church the next day with his daughter. That was our miracle for the week.
 

Randoms:

*They don´t have Mexican food for Christmas eve here.

*My companion talked in Creole for his call home.

*I can understand parts of Creole.

*To say you in Creole you say boo, so they call everyone their boo.
 

Elder Quain

Elder Quain & Elder Goncalves skying :)

December 21, 2015 - Ipatinga

I see a Belo Horizonte. (I noticed I never explained what it means, it´s Beautiful Horizon)

Well this week we had a Conferencia de Natal. It was really fun. We left mid day on p-day in a van with the whole district. That meant there were 3 other English speakers. We had a half Portuguese mostly English conversation. I felt kind of bad that the others couldn´t understand, but I guess that´s pay back for the first three months of my mission. It was a five hour drive, but it felt a lot shorter. We then got to stay in a hotel overnight. I love a good shower and air conditioning. 

The next day we had a continental breakfast, on a different continent and headed to the conference. There were some good talks and it was fun to talk with Elders Karren, Hollingshouas and Nelson from the MTC again. They gave us a big lunch and packages. Then we watched meet the Mormons in Portuguese. I ate a lot of candy from one of my packages during the movie. After that we headed home. This time the ride was a long 5 hours as I had a headache and the roads are rather bumpy. We ended up getting to bed about 12:30.

Nothing else really happened until my Birthday. I bought myself an orange cake that I had for breakfast and the ward had a party. Really it was for Christmas, but it was on my birthday, so it´s kind of like a birthday party. The food was good and they invited us to sing in the choir, which was fun.

Yes, the packages came. Thanks a ton. The only bad part was that I had to give one stocking to Elder Gonçalves. Very tempting to keep it! Both my past companions were jealous, and the guys thought I should split it up in between the MTC district. Thanks for the music. Right now we have a dvd player. It doesn´t work on it, but I looked on the computer and it´s there, so I´ll buy a different speaker to play it.

Randoms:

* I think I ate too much candy this week

* People here adore peanut butter

* One pair of shoes died this week

* I wonder if the mission president will let us watch Star Wars?

Thanks a Bunch, lots of love,

Elder Quain

Elder Quain - Elder Goncalves - & coconuts

Merry Christmas!

 Can you find Elder Quain? He's 2nd row from the top just off center from the Christmas tree.

   

December 14, 2015 - Ipatinga

It´s a Belo Horizonte.

This week was interesting. Every week here is interesting, but somehow normal.

The first thing that happened this week is that we were sitting in a FHE (family home evening) and they had a non-member present. He came over to us and told us that he wanted to be baptized this Saturday. We were super excited. He is in a part member family and when we asked him what made him decide that he wants to be baptized now, he said that he had prayed about the Book of Mormon last week and knew it was true. We do have the rule that a person has to attend church twice before baptism, so he couldn't be baptized this Saturday, but he did come this Sunday. Half way there!

We had a guy get really angry at us. We have been visiting and giving the lessons to his wife and he hasn´t really wanted them. We were talking with him and he kept saying that his wife didn´t want anymore lessons, but seemed really nervous. He kept messing up on conjugations and saying more or less, she doesn´t I want more. We said that we would talk to her as she still had our book. When we all got there he spent about 20 minutes yelling, "why can´t you go to a closer church?" and "It´s that church or me. We will divorce." We are only trying to bless your entire family. Marriage is very important, but salvation is more important.

There was a Christmas activity this Sunday. So my Companion and I decided to try and invite everyone that lived near the chapel. We knocked on over 30 doors, and talked with over 30 families, but none of the came. We did give out some of the churches Christmas cards, so maybe someone will visit the sight.

Randoms:

* The fruit salad here is really good and even better when covered in honey

* A bird pooped in my hand this week

* You can literally pick mangoes up off the street as they fall off the trees when they are ripe

* Yesterday I had 4 mangoes and a coconut

Elder Quain

December 7, 2015 - Ipatinga

Well, I still see a Belo Horizonte.

First things first, I got a new companion. His name Is Elder Gonçalves and he is from Cape Verde. Most people don´t know where that is, so he has to explain it a lot. This means that I can already explain where it is in Portuguese rather well. They do speak Portuguese there, so he is almost a native speaker, but definitely has a different accent. He´s good and he is different from my other companions, which is good. It will help me. Everyone here says that you learn something different from each companion.

Other than that the week has been pretty normal. We had some really good lessons, but none of our investigators showed up to church. I kind of just want to drag them there, but need to remember that people have their agency. Feels kind of like trying to feed a little kid fruits and vegetables, they´re good for you and it will help you grow stronger.

I like to think that I have learned to be more patient on my mission, but as you can see I still have a little ways to go.

 

Randoms:

We got to ride the train again. this time with almost out whole zone. I think we contacted nearly every person is our car.

 

Elder Quain

November 30 - Ipatinga

It´s a Belo Horizonte.

This week was actually pretty eventful. I hope I don´t forget anything important.

 

The first big thing that happened this week happened while we were knocking doors. We barely ever do that, but we had a little unplanned time. One of the doors we knocked on was interested to hear what we had to say. Unfortunately, like what normally happens, it was only girls. But while we were talking at the door step some members were walking by. We talked with them and they had time to go in and do a visit with us. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

The next day we had a split. I enjoy splits because they make you grow and realize how much you actually know. I still don´t know all the streets yet though. I was paired up with Elder Agiar who was being persistent in wanting to know exactly how we were going to get to the next location. Finally I just told him, it´s in about this direction and we will walk this direction until I feel wee need to turn. We only had to do a little backtracking.

 

We had 6 people staying in the apartment one night for zone conference. The conference was really good and I learned a lot, like being more confident in our invitations to act. After the conference we had interviews. This took about 4 hours and I was the last person to go out of 36. I took less then ten minuets. It was pretty much, how are you feeling? Good. Any problems right now? no. Anything you need to tell me? no. Are you happy? Yes. Well, if you´re happy I´m happy.

 

We also had a talent show this week and Barbosa and I did a duet of the song Glorious. It went really well until I forgot the words. I also forgot that only about 2 other people understand any English, so I should have just kept blabbing. I was able to jump back in and it ended up pretty well. There were quite a few singing acts and they were all in English. I was told by one of the girls that I was not allowed to comment on her pronunciation. 

 

Randoms:

* Elder Barbosa is getting transferred, but I don´t know who will be my new companion yet

* Elder Barbosa got Glasses this week

* Two other people I know have also gotten glasses while here - I don´t want glasses

* For Thanksgiving here they have rice, beans and meat 

* I found in the Portuguese English dictionary Benjamin means favorite son in Portuguese. The book has a lot of errors though.

 

Elder Quain