Brock - November 29

Sorry that I´m a day late today. It´s a long story. 

So last week, I received my "son", Elder Michelsen! He is eighteen, from San José, California, and he´s kinda Dwight Schrute-ish, but he´s funny. He certainly speaks a lot more Portuguese than I did when I got here, even if he did pronounce "arroz" a-huuuz, which sounded pretty funny. 

We also moved houses last week, which took all day, but now we have a new house. It´s a lot better than the old one, just has a few kinks the rental place has to work out, like broken outlets and stuff. 

We knocked at SO MANY doors this week. So many. It was also very hot. 

This week, we had to go to São Paulo again on Sunday (hence the money withdrawal) because my comp had to get his documents. It´s called a protocolo or RNE, which stands for words meaning things but anyway, we also had our Multi-Zone Conference today, which meant we couldn´t return to our area on Monday night. We slept in Sorocaba on Monday night in the area of Elder Lima, one of my former companions. That was pretty cool. But the MyLDSMail site was apparently down, so we didn´t have a chance to use the computer yesterday (hence the late email). 

Today we had our Multi-Zone, and wow. It was just so good. The love that President Farnes has for us is palpable. We learned so many great things today. One of the main things we learned about today was the "victim" mentality. I din´t bring my notes to the LAN House, so I´ll tell you guys more about it next week, but it was so good. Also, this happened.

​That´s right. We were in the meeting, and President was like, "Do you guys like Star Wars?" And everyone was like, whaaaaaaaaat and then he turned on the famous "Do or do not" scene from Empire. 

​It had to do with the "victim" training, where we blame circumstances instead of ourselves for failure. It was really cool though. We have the best mission president in the whole world (no offense, Parker).

So that´s all I really have right now. I love you guys, sorry we missed each other the other day. When I logged into today, the email at the top of my inbox from dad smiply read "We missed you today, we are so sad."

Broke my heart. Love you guys. 

Elder Blaylock

Parker - November 28

Hey Everyone! 

Sounds like you´ve had some fun this week at the beach! You guys are so lucky, and decorating the tree? Oh man, that´s the best! Though I am sorry that you guys have a busy December, I do too, but I´ll get to that later. This week was interesting. On Monday we did splits, and what I was gonna do was just go with the ward mission leader to a family home evening we had planned, but when we showed up, they said that they couldn´t do it that night and we´re gonna have to reschedule. So I decided to visit our recent converts and continue our review of the lessons. It was on the Gospel of Christ, which is pretty simple, but the mother was also there, and she stayed and listened to the lesson. I even almost got her to say the final prayer. It was great. And then, we left that night from San Pedro to where the Zone Leaders are and we stayed the night there, because Elder O and the other senior companion in our district needed to do ´´Trámites´´ (and the answer to what that is is always ´´good question, we don´t know, but we have to do it.´´) And then the next day we had to go back to that area to have a leadership meeting. Also, every day this week, we stopped by the O. family. Wow! Were they super ready to be baptized! Every day we would find them at their table studying the pamphlets we left them and the scriptures associated with them. The father wasn´t baptized this week just because he doesn´t have clothes to attend church, but we managed to get him some so he could attend the baptism and start to get his church attendance. And after the baptism, he stood up and began to testify. Wow. Just wow. Also, after the baptism, I started to think about the Holy Ghost, and how oftentimes we forget that He´s an actual Personage. I also thought about the unity of the Godhead and yet how They are all distinct Personalities. This can be explained through the prophets, they all do the same thing: prophesy of Christ, but they all did it in their own unique ways, if they didn´t, then all the books of the Bible would just be on repeat. And if Their servants can have that kind of unity while being distinct, why not The Godhead themselves? They all do the same thing: Bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, but they all do it in different ways: God is the Organizer, He laid out the plan, Jesus Christ is the Example, He laid out the path for us, and the Holy Ghost is the Guide, who helps us get through the path. Thus, They all work in unison to complete Their great work, but they are still distinct and separate.

I know that this is the work of the Lord, and I know that we can all achieve exaltation and live with our Heavenly Father again, and we do so through Jesus Christ and His doctrine, and the Holy Ghost is here to help us though life´s trials. Eso es lo que quiero compartir en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amén.

Yo amo a todo de ustedes, yo oro para ustedes cada noche,

Elder Blaylock

PS The O. kids call me Baile Loco, because its easier for them to say and remember than my last name. :)

PPS I´m also gonna have a busy December, we have Ilumina el Mundo, Interviews with the Mission President, Splits with the other missionaries, and something called White Storm

Parker - November 21

Hey Everyone! 

This week was interesting. We had to move everything from our old residence to the new one, and it took an entire day. But now we´re pretty much settled in, we just need to get someone to come in and fix the water and replace the oven, because the current oven doesn´t work, and we don´t have hot water. Also, we got a surprise on Thursday, apparently, in spite of what all of us were told, the two new elders did not inherit the two vacant areas, they inherited one, and the other was added to ours, so now we have to do splits every monday, wednesday, and friday so my companion can get to know the new area, and I have to basically work on my own (I´m with a member, but still). But everything´s fine, I´ve realized the secret to missionary work: It´s listen, if we´re listening, to the Spirit, to the people, then everything will be taken care of by the Lord, we´ll know what to do, where to go, what to say, everything. It truly is a miracle. Other than that, not much has happened with me this week, I hope you´re all having fun at the BEACH oh my gosh I miss it so much. 

I love you all

Elder Blaylock

Brock - November 21

So I´ll be staying here for this transfer as well. I´ll be training a new missionary this transfer. It´ll be interesting staying here, because once I leave it will have been six months here--and it will be a new year. 

Not really sure what to write about this week. I haven´t got much time. I´ve got to go to Sorocaba again for the trainer meeting. 

I feel like my face is getting all worn out? Like, sun and wind burn (yes I´m using sunscreen), stress lines. It´s turning weird colors. My shoes (the ones you guys sent me in February, that I had the soles redone) are starting to open at the sides. That means that they are close to done. I´ll have to use my other shoes now. 

Hope you guys are having fun at the beach. Grandma and Grandpa are living there now? That´s the good life. Also hope everyone´s doing well. Love you guys. We´ll talk more next week

Parker - November 14

Well, I don´t have much this week, just my Baptism on saturday, my first ever Baptism. It was great, but a little stressful because we found out that one of the candidates did something that might have disqualified him from Baptism a few days before, so me and Elder O spent a lot of time calling Zone Leaders for advice, and then eventually the Mission President, as well as talking with the parents and Bishop. But eventually we worked it out and I was able to Baptize him. And yeah, we got news for Transfers. I´m staying here with Elder O because I´m still in training, but all of the other four missionaries (who were Sister Missionaries) left, and we´re getting two completely new missionaries and the two areas are gonna be combined and "whitewashed" which means basically starting from scratch. And we have to switch apartments, so us 4 elders are in one apartment. So yeah, still gonna have to do some moving around. But everything´s gonna work out. We also had a torrential rainstorm on Thursday. It was so crazy!  We went to an appointment and I felt some drops and looked up and there was one cloud in the sky and I was confused, but by the time we left the appointment, the streets were basically rivers. It was both awesome and insane at the same time. But I held up pretty well. I want to say to you all that I am super grateful for your support and everything. I love you all,

Elder Blaylock

PS I found out what made me sick last week. There´s this type of bread here called Bollo, basically imagine a pancake that tastes like bread. It´s really delicious, and it´s also served with meat. When I tried it, it wasn´t bad, but it really did a number on me, wow.

Brock - November 14

So this week was pretty slow. It was mostly switching between struggling to work in the hot sun and struggling to work in the rain. I had asked earlier in the transfer to stay in the area, but I´m feeling that I´m probably going to leave anyway. 

So today I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about dilligence in little things. A couple of years ago, Mom shared a lesson with us about habits, and why they are so important. She said that the little things we do every day make up our personal character. The scriptures also uphold this statement; in five or more places, the Lord says: Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. I don´t understand how I am constantly surprised to find Mom and Dad (and ultimately, God) correct. Don´t take it the wrong way. I always knew that they were right. But I couldn´t know for myself until I had "proven the word". The difference that obedience in little things brings over time is astounding. Waking up at 6:29 to pray, exercising for half an hour, following the schedule completely. Studying (not just reading) the scriptures, particularly when it is early. What we constantly do, the small choices that we constantly make, are just as important, if not more so, than the big milestones. Just as God needs us to be willing to die in testimony, he needs us to live in testimony. I love you guys. Hope you have a good week.

Elder B. Blaylock

Parker - November 7

Hey Everyone! Man has this been a WEEK. First of all, I have a horror story for you all. I know last week was halloween, but I´m still gonna share it. Wednesday Morning (and by morning, I mean like 2:30) While still half asleep, I feel some kind of object in my hand. I´m half asleep, so I don´t really think about it, I try to grab it and put it out of my bed, but it keeps slipping out of my grasp. Eventually I catch it on my arm.....only it squishes.....I fully wake up now, and throw it out of my bed, and yup THERE WAS A FREAKING COCKROACH IN MY BED!!!!!!!! And a pretty big one too. Sigh.  And on Friday, we head to Jujuy for a Zone Conference, and when we get up to go, I am feeling just awful. At first I thought it was just because I was tired, but then, about halfway through the conference, I realized that nope, I was sick, and I was about to vomit. I tried to run, but i lost it...three times until I hit the bathroom. I puked about two more times after this later at the zone conference and then again the next day, so I didn´t work at all on Friday or Saturday, just sat in my bed. But it wasn´t a picnic either. On Friday, I was super hot and had my chilling towel on my head the entire time.  But other than that, I´m doing alright. During companionship inventory, we worked through some things and now we´re working much better together. On Sunday, one of our super shy investigators (that´s going to get baptized this Saturday!) volunteered to give the last prayer in principles of the gospel class. It was so cool. But yeah, it´s awesome, we´re going to have a baptism this saturday, M. and J., two siblings who live basically in between two houses with a fence and a roof, and a dirt floor, and then D., who lives on that hill in a two-room shack, and who asks us questions like ´´God is Jehovah right?´´ and then the next would be the O. family, who live in a one room house surrounded by a fence, but came to Church the first sunday after we met them. It´s pretty cool to see the fruits of our labors. Elder O. says that this area hasn´t had a baptism in a while. Also, just some other things this week, I found out how they get less actives to church here: they have a special activity every Friday. It´s crazy. And I also found out that the scripture ´´feast on the word of Christ´´ (2 Nephi, 33:3) doesn´t translate well, instead it says ´´delight in the word of Christ´´ and in the footnotes it says something to the effect of ´´more like enjoy the word of Christ like you would a banquet or a feast´´ it was pretty funny when I found out. Anyway that´s all I have for you guys this week. I hope you´re all doing great! I love all of you!

Elder Blaylock

Brock - November 7

So this week has been rather interesting. I got my new companion on Monday. His name is Elder A. He´s eighteen, and he´s putting in his own mission call as soon as this transfer ends. We´ve also been accompanying with some investigators this week, and there were baptized this Sunday! We also had stake conference this weekend, so the whole zone was there, and we ended up having ten people all together get baptized. President and Sister Farnes were also there. 

So on Saturday we were at the bus terminal waiting for a division with the zone leaders to do the baptismal interviews. When we first got there, we met with this guy who had been living with one of our recent-converts until about a week ago. He´s cool, he´s just one of those "young" people that doesn´t go that much for religion. Then, this guy came over and started trying to sell us some hammocks. Now, I´ve always heard that hammocks here in São Paulo are really expensive, but I´ve wanted one for a while. So he comes at me this offer for 95 reais. I kept telling him that we didn´t really have any money. So he began lowering. First seventy, then seventy for two, then forty for two, then thirty. At this point I was hooked. I offered him twenty for one. He gave me both for the twenty. As I began pulling out the money, however, a cop showed up with a submachine gun and started shouting at us, asking what we were doing, where we were going. Then I noticed he was shouting in English. Turns out, he had stopped Elder W., the other American here, earlier this week to speak English (pulled a similar stunt as well), and met them on the way to the division again. And gave them a ride. And let them hold the guns. So anyway, it was pretty interesting. 

Glad to have heard from everyone this week. Sorry about Parker getting sick. Happens to everyone at some point, though. Hope you get better. Love you guys, have a great week.