Merry late Christmas and now more important Happy New Year!!!!!! Feliz ano novo!!!! Weird to think that I won´t see my house or actually see (not through a computer) any of you this year, but hey, this is the first and maybe last time I´ll be able to say that! 

So, as my mom knows last week I mentioned ``Space Jam`` in my email to her because I saw a cool Space Jam tie I wanted and I remembered how awesome that show is, well of course, the next day while I was at Tiagos house we saw a commercial for Space Jam, that was going to be on the next day, talk about temptation... I think that was kind of unfair, but luckily there was no chance to watch it...

Speaking of Tiago (and Helena) Their baptism has been moved up a Saturday!!!! They will be baptized Saturday (05-13)! Why? What made them move the date up? Well, becuase last Saturday after Tiago smoked the last ciggaret in the pack he decided he was done. He had 1 more week of smoking was the goal but he decided to buy a lot of hard candy instead and so far he´s going strong. He said it hasn´t been that hard too, he said he´s felt fine, just happier. So, we marked a new date with them, well. He was ready we knew that, we were a little worried though about Helena because the whole time she´s been the pesimist. Always saying, are you sure Tiago, you have to be sure this is what you want, Tiago you need to think... But, after 3 weeks of telling her she needs to believe in Tiago, and have faith she finally has a testimhoney. When we asked her, well, what do you think about being baptized with your son This Saturday she said... Why not? If I´m going to be baptized on the 12 why not on the 5? Well, this is way different than usual, becuase she was always saying stuff like ``I don´t know if I´m going to be baptized`` Her story, she was baptized last year in a different church then stopped going and doesn´t want that to happen again. But then she went on to say other stuff about how she believes this will be good for her and her family, this is the right thing for them. She finally said that she sees the help of God through this church with Tiago and his problemS!!!! Passed tence! 

Well ya´ll, I was sick this week too, I had my first sick day (it wasn´t a sick day, just a sick morning) Thursday when I tried to wake up, I couldn´t. My whole body hurt, I felt like I had to throw up, I had a nasty cough, so we got some medicine, I slept until about 10, then we started working at about 2. It was miserable, but we´re through it now... Dad, you´ll be happy to know, that on Wednesday we started teaching at 9 and continued until 9... Is that a little better for you?

I don´t know if any of you remember Max and Jaque, but they´ve been the ``perfect`` (not so perfect) investigators... Who are now again perfect. They know everything, but until 3 weeks ago they´d been really flakey with church and with our visits. The day of our Zone Christmas party with the president, during his training for us, she called, just randomly called. She asked when we were gonna visit, and all the normal stuff she used to do like nothing changed. Well, we visited Saturday, and she was normal, nothing special nothing bad. The next day was Sunday (obviously) and the other missionaries were preparing for a baptism the next Saturday so it was announced to the ward that there would be a baptism next week. Well, in a good way Max and Jaque were a little mad about that (mad at themselves) because they´ve been going to church for about 5 months, know everything, want to be baptized and this other couple has been going for just a month, so that kind of lit a fire in them... We went and visited with them Wednesday and Jaque said ``I know if I or Max die today our Judgements won´t be good, becuase we know everything. We know this is true, and right for us, but we aren´t baptized, we´re not doing our part´´ Báh, even their 6 year old daughter has been asking them why they aren´t baptized. So finally, they´re setting a marriage date this week, then we have to wait 20 days after, then they can get married then they can get baptized!!!!!!! After Elder Aires left (he was the missionary before me) Max kinda lost his fire, and trust in the missionaries, but yesterday I got it back a little more... He didn´t lost his trust just his good friendship with them because Elder Viana doesn´t have a lot of fun... But yesterday some music came on and I started singing along to it (it was Bruno Mars:Lazy song) Then Max pulled out his big pile of Hip Hop music, and when I knew most of it he was happy and said stuff like... Tchê, I don´t understand it but I like it, I love Hip Hop, so now we have that common ground. 

This is one of those things where it´s not exactly the best way for it to happen, but it´s a good thing because of the friendship again. Sabe?

That was all that happened this week, next week I´ll be sending photos of a baptism!!!!

Pray for Tiago and Helena so they can be baptized this week!!!! :D   

I just think this baby is adorable... She´s 1 of the 7 kids of Franciele and Marciel. That house is crazy but a lot of fun when we go to visit....

Eu amo vocês!

Monday, December 24, 2012

First off, I will apologize,the keyboard I´m using is awful, I can´t use the top row... The numbers, and I can´t  use the spacebar, g and h verywell,so.Today X will be exclamation pointXXX

First offXXXXXXX Santa cameXXX Papi Noel visited the missionariesXXX On Thursday we had our christmas party with the president, was  my zone, pelotas, Rio Grande and Bajé, we had a devotional in the morning, a huge lunch with chicken, potatoes ice cream and all sorts of other good stuffXXX We did skits after lunch, my zone sang a version of Jingle bells, I wish I could send the video but,,, not possible. Bajé had a good skit to, the other two were a little below average but, tudo bem.

I love stickers, I bought a bunch of christmas stickers, that´s the whole story, sorry it´s not a good one. And thank you again to everyone who sent me stickersXXX Also Christmas cards and just other cards as wellXXX I will write you back eventually, the last  pdays have been really busy but I´ll find time, promise
   
Today is so hot... 91 with a 63 percent humidity... It´s miserable.

Congrats to everyone for living past the end of the worldXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Saturday E.V. and I had the chance to do more service for Paulina... That means we didn´t want to study, so we decided to bring Tiago along tooXXX It was a good morning to just talk and do other fun things... 

Tonight we have permission to stay out until 11, as long as we have a ride from a member back to our house... Problem is, the ward found out about that and now the whole world is trying to get us to go... We don´t know what we´re going to do... We´re gonna try to talk to the whole world I guessXXX
I want to wish everyone a merry CHRISTmasXXX Let this Christmas be a good one, and 2013 be a great year for everyoneXXX After tomorrow I have just 1 more christmas in BrasilX

Eu amo vocêsX

IT was a pretty slow week because of all the conferences we had, but a week full of lots of fun things, I really don´t know what more to say, I´ll send lots of photos todayXXX 

Questions and Answers

Elder Beary,
How are you?  I hope you had a great week!  We have some questions for you, when you have time, please include these in an email or letter.  Is your area a safe area?  What are their homes like?  Are the streets paved?  What is your favorite food that you have had so far?  Where do you eat your meals?  Do you have any restrictions on what you can and cannot eat?  Have you had a zone conference yet?  Where is your companion from?  How many families/people are you teaching?  What is your most common mode of transportation...feet?

Love,

Lorie

I´m great!!! My area is safe, we have 1 street we don´tlike to work on @ night because it´s drug trafficing but, we don´t have investigators there anyway so no problem. The homes are small, usually dirty because they always leave their flip flops on, but they´re nice. The streets are not paved, usually, the main ones are, others have bricks, and others have dirt... Lots of dirt. No, I eat anything and everything... I don-t know what my favorite is, I just like the rice and beans. Zone conference tomorrow!!!! With Elder Goday of the 70! Yahoo, we have to be at the church at 6:30 A.M. So that means I get to wake up at 5 tomorrow!!! :D Feet, almost always, when we have to travel far, we use the bus. But that´s not very common.

This week has been a little bit of a pain, because the bus workers are on STRIKE!!! We don´t use the bus often, but of course yesterday we needed to go to the stake center for choir ( we are rehearsing for Natal Branco) (Natal Branco is the stake baptism service this week, no we don´t have any. :(   )   But, we couldn´t go because we don´t have any money for a taxi, because we don-t have a bank next to us, so we need to use the bus to go to the bank so we can have money for other stuff, problem right???

I´ll start with today!!! Today we did service, it was easy, we just pulled weeds for 3 hours... I actually prefer that because then I can wake up, do service and have P-day... I don´t love studying on P-day, I can´t focus very well... We did service for a man we found last week while waiting for the bus, after talking for a bit we found out he was baptized about 3 years ago, so now, we´re bringing him back!!! You´d be surprised how often we find less active people while tracting... I´d say probably 2 a day, so our work with less actives is really high!!!

I need to give everyone some advice, if you´re planning on leaving the country to get away from Justin Bieber... It doesn´t work, I hear his music almost every day here... It´s a shame but life will go on. On a high note though, I heard Backstreet boys this week, yes the gospel is true. 

Last Saturday we had our end of the year/christmas ward activity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I would include photos but my camera just died so... Next week I will. :( But it was really the most organized activity of nothing I´ve ever been to... First off, E.V. was stressed becasue he didn´t think we had time to go to the activity (the activity went from 8 until 6) (the church rented a bus and picked up everyone that wanted to go) well, I told him that I thought we needed to, we invited all of our progressing investigators, and almost every single person that we had planned on visiting ended up going to the activity so it was perfect!!!! What did we do there??? Played a lot of soccer, I scored my first goal in International play... No big deal. I have never been called Greenie so much in my life, but at the same time I got complemented a lot too everyone kept asking where I learned to play, I responed with ´´Here, everything I know about soccer I learned in Brasil`` It ended up being a good answer so I kept using it. Santa visited!!!!!!!!!! Santa came and gave candy to everyone and wrapped presents w/ their names on it to EVERY SINGLE primary child at the activity, investigators too!!! Everyone was happy, well except the daughter of Diego (Diego is the Elders Quorum president) She was crying the whole time until she recieved here present, then she was happy. For lunch was a Churrasco, paid for by the ward as well, all the investigators (even some of the members) were in shock that the ward could just pay for all of this. We played a LOT of soccer, My whole body hurts because it´s not used to running, only walking, so I have blisters, and sore muscles, even in my shoulders, don´t ask me how that´s possible. 

Mom, well all people but I know my mom will like this, if you want to see the area I live it´s called Cohab Lindóia, in Pelotas. 

Last week we were teaching a lesson w/ a member and I said something to our investigator on accident that really stuck out to the member, then when she told me what I said a couple days later it´s really stuck out to me too... Convia no amor de Deus...     I´ve been thinking about it a lot lately and it´s really been inspiring... So yes, I inspire myself, even if it is on accident!

Alexandre Lisboa recieved the preisthood yesterday!!!! That was a cool thing to see even though I wasn´t here for his baptism. it took so long because he can only go to church 2 out of every 7 weeks because of his work... He works the whole week except Monday and Tuesday, then the next week he has off Tuesday and Wednesday, then Wednesday and Thursday... etc. 

That´s all my news from Pelotas!!!!!!!!!!! Eu amo vocês!!! :D

Well, another week!!!!!! What happened this week? Well, first I´m just going to mention that my favorite fruits now are... Peaches, and Mangos. In that order, weird, I never liked peaches back in the States, but probably because I never ate them!!! I eat peaches and Mango every day here, literally every day! 

So, last week we painted another house, and with the sun, paint and sweat I got a rash on my arm, really small, not a big deal, but everyone here thinks I´m going to die, when the members see it they think it´´s cancer, I´m not joking, and I can´t explain what it is, and there´s no word here for rash  so they all say something like... If it´s not gone by next week you need to go to the doctor!!! So I just say, vou, I will if it doesn´t leave, bah.

This week I spent the morning (W/ Elder Viana) with Tiago, Tiago is a 21 year old that´s only home on the weekends because he´s in the hospital the rest of the week doing drug recovery (crack). Well, his mom had to go to the doctor, and he didn´t want to go, so the night before we said we´d stay with him in the morning (5-12) and make lunch, all the good stuff. (He can´t be left alone for obvious reasons.) So we did, First thing that happened, I was washing the dishes, but nobody told me that when you turn the water on high the thing explodes and water shoots all over you... So, about 3 minutes into it, the water shot all over me, all right, whatever no harm done... About 5 minutes later, I forgot and did it again, I was wet, and had to end up mopping. Well, about 3 hours later it happened to Tiago too... And he lives there so I didn´t feel as dumb after!    Tiago is great, he has a baptism date for the 12 of January, he´s recovered from drugs, but has a big problem right now... He smokes, not just a little, he smokes a ton, so we need to teach the WOW and start making goals. We´re not sure if he´s allowed to stop smoking though because well, it´s better than what he used to do. He went to church yesterday, didn´t smoke, loved it and it was great for everyone!!!

Speaking of church yesterday... IT was my favorite  Sunday of the year!!! Primary program!!! It´s even great when you can´t understand most of it! :D 

Yesterday we had lunch with the Lisboas (I´ll send a photo with them next week) well, lunch was good but at the end I ended up leaving the house with a hammock... Why? Well, let me try to explain, I still don´t exactly know why.

Every time we work in the apartments (a area we work) we see 3 guys going door to door selling hammocks, and every day I say to Elder Viana, I will buy a hammock before I leave, I´ve always wanted one... That´s that. Well, when we were about to leave lunch yesterday Elder Viana saw one of the hammocks, unused, sitting on their couch and he said... ``Ahhh, a hammock, cool, Elder Beary´s always wanted one`` Irmão Lisboa said, you can have it. After rejecting it, and saying I didn´t need it all that stuff, and he saying Ahhh, we don´t need it, we don´t have a place for it, I just bought it to be nice... I ended up with a hammock. I am very happy, very greatful but I feel a little bad because people here, would honestly give me their house if they could. 

My foot is taking a beating right now... I´ve got some nasty athletes foot and a nasty ingrown toenail... (I hope you´re eating while reading this so you can know my pain)

Hals (the sore throat stuff) here is basically candy, candy with the most powerful affect in the world. People eat it just for fun but it´s seriously so powerful here, way more that back home. 

My last story, sorry I don´t have any good ones like last week...

Well, a couple nights ago there was a huge moth flying around in our house, and I´´m so tired of bugs here so I smacked it out of the air... But being me, I couldn´t kill it, so I picked it up and started walking towards the door. Well, the stupid thing, not knowing how nice I was being... Bit me!!! With the most painful bite/sting of my life!!! Ya, I did end up killing it... But it wasn´t my fault!!!

Oh ya, one more thing, this morning I gave blood here, the needles are way thicker so it´s faster but a lot more painful... :(

I love you all!!!! Today is the end of my first transfer! I will be staying in Pelotas, with Elder Viana, but we changed districts! It´s now us and 4 sisters, Elder Viana will be the DL.

Elder Justin Beary

Well, this was the week of blisters and no money!!!!!!

 

I´ll start with the blisters, well, we did 2 service projects this week, both with shovels and hoe´s pulling up weeds. We did them Wednesday and Thursday so my hands were just a giant blister by Thursday, though it was fun and worth it, the 2nd service project was @ the house of Arlei (where I had my first chimarrão) well, there Elder Viana had the opporitunity to kill our lunch, literally. The chicken in this picture died just 2 minutes later to the hands of Elder Viana. I have a video but I can´t send it because it´s too big.      

 

Now the no money, well, my companion doesn´t know how to budget, and I had to pay R$ 30 to send something and I´m waiting for my reimbursement. So, I had R$ 20 to start the week, and Elder Viana had 0... Don´t ask me how. Well, we had to use the bus twice... When I´m paying for both of us that´s R$20.. So on Tuesday we had 0... Awesome right, pay day wasn´t until Friday. What were wer going to do, we definitely needed some money. Well, we had about R$7 in change so, that should last us right? Wrong, even with the 0 money Elder Viana needed to buy peaches... Every night. They don´t cost much but when you have as little money as we do it´s pretty annoying. We had an appointment far away Thursday night, we would need the bus but wait, we had no money, what were we going to do? Well, Wednesday night the lady we were supposed to have lunch with on thursday called and said ``sorry, I have to leave tomorrow afternoon so I can´t fix lunch, so come by my house and I´ll give you some money`` it´s strange how God works, and how everything always works out for the best. That´s my story for the week.

 

It´s weird how you won´t hear a single thing for the whole month hear but I heard this a lot the last week... ``Ahhh mormons, like Doctor Ray`` I guess the news just got out down here.

 

Yesterday (02/12/12) Was the day Pelotas stopped moving, there was seriously nobody out on the street, why? Because Gremio and Internacional had a game against each other. Every single person was in their house watching the game, or watching it on the street with 40 other people crowded around a tiny t.v, it was cool, I wanted to be a part of it, oh well.

 

We had 2 FHE´s this week, both with the same people. With the Lisboa family and with Bete and Arnold... All members, Alexandre Lisboa (the dad) is a recent convert so we talk with them a lot, no I don´t have any photos yet, I will though eventually.

 

I have 2 more stories, both with the same investigator (carla) well, Saturday we visited her just to visit and check up on her progress with the smoking... well, I was about to share a scripture (3rd Nefi 3:7) I said, ``this scripture is about a prophet Nephi, but we can apply it for us too, and for your smoking. I will read for...`` snap!!!! The chair I was sitting on snapped in half and I hit the deck, everyone else started laughing and the spirit was gone. Though, it was really funny and something I´ll never forget!!!!

 

 

2nd story if you´re young stop reading now... This is the story about Chasity (Carla and Luciano aren´t married... Shocker) Well, we started talking about it and we said ``today we need to talk about the lei de castidade before you can get baptized and Lucianos face just looked scared. We were a little confused but we found out after.... When we asked if they had any comments or questions he went on to say. When he saw the name castidade he though of (I don´t remember the word in Português but in English it´s castorate) and he said he didn´t want that. He said ``marriage is easy compared to what I was thinking I would have to do``

 

On that note, I love you all!!! Have a good week!!! I´ve been on the mission now for 5 months! (August, September, October, November and December!)

 

 

Eu amo vocês!!!

11-26-2012

Another week in the books!!!

Well, this week Paulina was baptized!!! Picture attached!!! I didn´t have the opporitunity to baptize her but I confirmed her!!! Ya, that was a disaster. I hope the congregation had the gift of tounges and understood the blessing because I think not... Well, I at least got the confirming and the holy ghost part down becuase I didn´t have to redo it so I guess all is well!!! The day before her baptism her old pastor (I don´t think I spelled this right) made 1 final attempt to stop the baptism... Well, he was telling her all about how they still loved her and why she isn´t coming anymore and all that stuff (he knew why but wanted her to say it) well, she told him she was going to be baptized tomorrow into the church of Jesus Christ... He responded, oh, the Mormons? After she said yes he said to her something along the lines of (while pointing to a Book of Mormon) that whole church is based off a lie. Well, being bold loving Paulina she said to him. and I quote (in english) You read that book, actually read it, and you won´t find 1 lie.    So, there you have it folks, she really was the perfect investigator that we had the fortune to run into. 

Mom: Can you email me a picture of my plack at the church, I want to see it. :D 
I don´t think I ever talked about ioio´s (yoyo´s) Every single kid here uses them, it´s cool, I want to buy one but so far I´ve been good and haven´t given in yet. The last couple of days have been burning hot during the day but freezing at night, ya, that´s been quite a bummer I don´t like the extremes both ways but oh well. Better than what Trevor is going through with the negative weather all day, count my blessings!!! :D

2 weeks ago (I forgot to tell ya´ll last week) I was fortunate enough to recieve my first Gaúcho C.D.!!! Irmão Diego gave it to me, and in 21 months, I will listen to it! And, hopefully by then, actually understand it!!! Can´t wait for the day where Português is just like Inglês, 1 day, 1 day... Though, I realized today how much better I understand people, I think that´s a big step!!! Now that I understand people I realize how they talk now hopefully I will start speaking the same way!!! We can hope right??? 

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!!! I didn´t, I had a good day but there´s no such thing as Thanksgiving down here... Plus, my companion knows about Black Friday so he would tell people about that and everyone was far more interested in cheap electronics than they were football and turkey... Psssh.

The ward boundries here are huge!!! At least 4 times the size of the stake boundries in SF... No joke, I did splits this week with Elder Staples and they serve in our ward too (Staples and Marques) Well, they´re area is so far away, they have to take the bus everyday to get there, then saturday we went to a birthday of 1 of the kids of our investigators who I had never visted before and it was a 30 minute bus ride away, no wonder we never visit them... 

I saw and held my first lightning bug!!! That´s the whole story but I was pretty excited.


Eu amo vocês!!! 

Elder Justin Beary

November 19, 2012

Well, first off!!!!!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!! (I think, I don´t actually know for sure but I assume.)

First news, rumor on the street is that Portuguese is the 5th hardest language to learn... I beg to differ, I think it´s the hardest. Second, it´s weird how our brains work... 2 nights ago I had a dream, and in that dream I was punched in the jaw... Don´t ask why, I just was... Since I woke up yesterday my jaw has hurt... Strange.

Here-s the biggest news out of Pelotas!!!!!!!!!!! 5 more days until my first Baptism!!!!!!!! This is the first you´ve heard about it because as of last MOnday we´d only known her for 3 days... So... Story time, remember the radio thing I did? Well, we took a LDM to Paulo he had zero interest but... His mom invited us in, we taught the Plan of  Salvation and invited her to church... The next day we called her to remind her about church, but we didn´t really think she would go... Well, she went!!! And we´ve s!!!!!! So, we visited with her every day since, she always makes us food (which isn´t always a good thing) it´s good food but contrary to popular belief missionareis don´t always have to eat!!! She has a very christian background and family in the church (1 sister). A couple days ago she told one of her friends from her other church (she´s evangelico) well, was. ``I´m not going to go to church anymore`` Her friend asked why? And she said ``Because I have a new church now! ANd I´m going to be be baptized on saturday`` Everyone knows about it, she told and invited her whole street. When we told her people will probably try to talk her out of it and tell her it´s a bad idea she replied with... I know... And I don´t care. :D She´s very sweet. She has... 76 years. 

Other than that not a lot more has happened! I will tell you more about Paulina next week because we´ll have a baptism!!! 

We´re walking a lot and not getting a lot of lessons taught... I don´t know why but it´s been slow... And hot... I got 8 letters today!!! Can´t wait to go home and read them all!!! Thank you to everyone who rights and emails me! I love ya´ll!!!!


Te amo!!! :D

typical dinner with Irmã Paulina

statue in the center of Pelotas

Another week!!!

I don´t really know what to say this week... Ummm, it was really hot, and even more humid. I don´t know the numbers but, I honestly felt like I was swimming when I walked. I got sunburned, but it has now turned nicely into my mission tan line. It´s been cloudy and rainy the last 3 days though which I like so much more, I say that now but we´ll see how I feel once July comes around. I forgot to mention my other nicname I got before I left the CTM, and I actually kinda dig this one because I love Spiderman. But, the brazillians that left the same week as I did called me Peter Parker, I will hear that every time I see them, and I´m okay with that. 

The mosquitos have finally started to leave me alone, maybe because I´m becoming a real Brazillian!!! Or, maybe because I´m using repellent, either way I´m happy with it. Too bad about Romney right??? Every time I walk some where I´m told that Obama won, I think because every Brazillian wants to be the first to let me know, but all they do is remind me, it´s nice down here. I love the ward, I had my first and second churrasco this week, the first 1 was for one of the brothers birthday (the same one that I had my first chimarrão), the second one was yesterday for lunch with one of our investigators and her family. (extended family).

Oh, we have 3 investigators with baptism dates now!!! That doesn´t mean they WILL get baptized but, it´s a good start! I think they will, :D December 22nd is the goal!  Though, we think 1 of them will be later this month. 

On Saturday we did a service project, we turned 1 of the nastiest back yards into one of the most organized nasty back yards! I don´t know how much you can see in the photo but hopefully enough to kinda know! 

We had a very very very good week, not just by my standards but also according to our numbers!!! Last week we had 4 people attend church... This week... 12. Ya, in case you were wondering that´s really good for down here! :D 

It´s nice getting an hour to email now but... Now I don´t really know what to say because I haven´t been writing stuff down, this week I will write down everything that I want to share!!!! I am doing pretty well with the language, got great, but better than I was expecting. My goal is to be comfortable with the language by Christmas time, that´s definitely reasonable. I still have a hard time understanding everything. And some people are definitely harder to understand than others. There´s a couple families that I can talk with fine, then others that I just sit there and listen because I have no idea what´s going on. Still drinking a lot of Chimarrão, and Guarará. I´m eating a lot more now too, I don´t know if that´s a good thing or not though, as of now I´ve lost 2 kilos since last P-day but I´m sure it´l start catching up to me. I want to go bowling, that´d be too fun. 

I hope everything is good at home!!! Almost happy tThanksgiving!!! (I actually don´t know what day it is) But while you´re eating a turkey who knows, maybe I´ll hold another one!!!

Te amo!

-Elder Justin Beary

Picture Time

Pictures from the CTM

Pictures from Elder Beary's first area.

First Week in the Mission Field!!!

Well, I don´t even know what to say about the last week in the CTM it seems so long ago but, I liked it a lot. There was a fair amount of tears and happiness... Now, to the field!!!

I woke up at 3:30 to finish packing and leave the CTM by 4:30, got to the airport at about 6, flight left at 8. We arrived in Porto Alegre at about 10, then got to the mission home at about 11. We did some orientation, interviews and then got our trainers!!! The new elders sat on one side, the trainers on the other then they would call our names and we would meet in the middle to hug and sit, we had a little advice given to us, then it was off to the bus station to go to our areas!!! Some of my group stayed in Porto Alegre but... Not me, I took a 3 hour bus ride to the beautiful city of................................................................. Pelotas!!!! I´m in the Pelotas Norte zone, serving in the Fernando Osórlo ward!!! The ward is too good, they´re all really nice and cook really well... That night I had my first experience with chimarrão... Not going to lie, not the best thing I´ve ever tasted, plus it burned my tongue a fair amount. Though now I love it!!! The best way I can think of how to describe it is... WHen you have a lot of original sunflower seeds in your mouth at the same time... But it feels like it´s on fire, ya´ll will have to try it in 22 months!!!  before this though (this was all at the 2nd counselors house) We went into his back yard where he has a bunch of birds and we held his turkeys... Ya, you read that right, I don´t know why but we did. My companion is a native, Elder Viana, I like him a lot, he´s been really helpful, I can´t wait to learn more from him for the next 3 months. He´s from Fortaleza, he´s been here just 7 months, he knows enough english to get by. It was weird being here on halloween because,,, very few people cared about it... The next day though we had a ward activity and it was a halloween party, we couldn´t do much because it was a dance but it was fun to be at! We have a couple investigators ready for baptism!!! But, 1 big problem... Not legally married, I think I´ll be running into this a lot, they´re close though, by the end of the month they should be baptized!!! They´ve been members, all but baptized for months now. 

Here´s my embarrasing portuguese story for week 1... While talking to the bishop I told him. ``Eu não falo muito bom, mas eu quero ajudar sua mala`` well, for all you english speakers that don´t know what I said I told him... I don´t speak well, but I want to help your bag.`` Mala is bag... I meant to say ala, which is ward... Oh well, I caught myself right after, not to much harm done! 

Everytime we go to someones house they give us juice, I´ve never had so much in my life, but I´m starting to like it!!! Though, sometimes I would kill for a glass of water. I can´t help a ton in the lessons because I don´t understand it all, but... I can bare my testimony... Plus, my lack of portuguese I think is helpful when we´re making contacts because people think it´s cute... Legit, I think it helps, plus they don´t want to make me feel bad. Mom, please send more afterbite. I hate mosquitos and I don´t think what I have now is going to last very long... Thanks! ÇD

I´m going to start teaching an english class next week!!! It´s an idea we have to get us new investigators and help the ward... I think it has potential!!!

Coolest story of the week time... So, one of the members in the ward is a DJ for a Saturday night radio show... Guess who was on the radio in Pelotas last Saturday!!! This guy... I didn´t say much but Good night Pelotas and I helped the Irmão say ``make fun of`` my name; Oh well, I can say I was on the radio in a different country, beat that Jordan!

I´m so happy to be here, even though it´s a lot of walking it´s worth it! I want you all to know that I have a testimony that Jesus Christ lives! That Joseph Smith restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Te amo!!!!

Elder Justin Beary

Week Eight

1st. I learned that I am allowed to play soccer on my mission, I´m very excited about that. Ummm, I get to drink and eat all the things down there, nothing is against the word of wisdom. Winning. I really regret not bringing some sauces for the CTM (A1, Tapito... etc...) But I wouldn´t need it in the field anyways. We sang Ye Elders Of Israel this Sunday and people said we did well, not much more news on that. Sunday, the CTM choir (everyone is in it) Sang Joseph Smiths prayer and the president liked it so much he asked us to do an encore... So that was pretty darn neat, we always do a verse in english, portuguese and spanish because those are the 3 languages peop.e here speak. We have started palying basketball here during gym because the brazillians swarm you when you try to play that, ummmm, Tuesday morning we wooke up and didn´t have any water becasue they were changing the filters, that kind of sucked. Especially since missionaries were leaving they woke up early to shower and catch their planes, the water turned off early on them so 1 kid (elder Shepard) Was all sudded up, the water turned off so he had nothing to do. People worked together and filled up cups of water from the sink ( it took about 5 minutes to fill up the cups) Then gave them to him to throw on himself, it ended up working out so I guess there´s no complaints. Ummm, day light saving sucked, like it wasn´t bad enough waking up at 630 we had to do 530 for a day, and they didn´t let us go to bed earlier... i think we´re 5 hours different from Utah now?  Weird. 

I definitely see an improvemnt in my portuguese, thank goodness to since I leave in just 5 days... Hmmm, ready or not. 
I realized I´ve never talked about my good friends from the week below us, Elder Howard and Elder Huxeford, they´re sick dudes,that´s about it. Oh, google ``Seth Huxeford, Indiana Baseball`` or something like that and see if anything pops up, he´s got a cool article about his mission in a paper. 

Thank you everyone who sent me packages!!! I don´t know where to start, mom for the cookies/cereal/milkshakes Jess and Richard for the Twix. Grandma for the pizza parties... Yes parties (Best grandma ever) Today my district has 4 pizza parties coming so, ya, we´re going to be very fat today... I couldn´t be happier.

Monday we got to go proceliting... I know that word isn´t spelled right, oh well. We had 2 really cool experiences.

 

1st, we talked to one kid about the church, he alrdeady had a LDM (Livro de Mormon) Because sisters had talked to him earlier, he was interested in the church so when he saw us he wanted to talk to us again. We basically ended up teaching him the restoration, gave him a pamphlet about it and he said ``I will read this because I want to feel in my heart what you do`` So, I asked him if he knew how to pray, he did because he´s a churchy guy, he reads the bible every day, that kind of stuff. So I challenged him to pray about it and he smiled and agreed to it... That´s that, we´re not allowed to give them info or anything, all we can do is hope they call the number to receive missionaries to there house... I don´t have time for the other one, but it´s in my journal so ya´ll can read it in 2 years!!!!

Dad... Happy Birhday!!!

Love you all, I´m doing great, hope you are too!!!

Eu amo vocas!!!

-Elder Justin Beary

Week Seven

Well, another uneventful week... It must seem like we never do anything here but I swear we do!!! Man, I don´t know where to start, hopefully if I start typing I´ll remember something interesting.... Nope, nothing... Well, last night we had our Tuesday night devotional, and finally got a general authority, now before you get too excited, no, it wasn´t the prophet, or anyone you´ve heard of, Elder Junot from the 70 spoke to us, it was a really good message about missionary work. He told us not to stress on the language becasue it will come through fé. But to study the doctorine more, if we know that God will help us say it in whatever language we need, in my case Portoguêse. All the guys in my district signed up to sing ye elders of israel next tuesday at our last tuesday night devotional, we´ll see how that goes. (I know I didn´t use the right grammar there... Oh well, no time to fix it... Or to put this, but too late.) Ummm, Elder Russell and Spencer are doing a little prank war, last thing that happened Elder Russell sprayed our room with a bunch of Axe... Ya, our room smelled like a Junior High locker room. MOM!!!! Thank you for the cookies and leite today, it´s exactly what I needed... The milk today wasn´t as good as the milk in the states but I´ll take whatever I can get.  Someone please update me on polotics, I´m hearing Romney is making some noise, Obama had some 9-11 scandal? That´s all I have heard so I would love to be given the DL... How are the Cougs doing??? Do I even want to know? Too bad the Cardinals are doing well... Again, down to their final strike again? That blows... I´m hearing all this information from the blue dots coming in every week. But really, politics update would be sweet. I reallyl do have the best insturctors at the CTM. Irmão Israel and Irmã Matos just kill it. Mom, please accept them on Facebook for me, they said they both added me. Ummm, We took a little test that Irmão made for us last week, and besides subjunctives... I did pretty well, I guess. I´m super excited to go into the field. 13 more days!!! I feel confident enough to do it now... Though, these 13 days will be big time.

 

I love you all!!!

-Elder Justin Beary

Week Six

All right, lets try to bust another week of information out in 12 minutes... 1st off before I forget, somebody please ask the Brandons if they know an Elder Vilas Boas... He now works at the CTM and he was part of the baptism for Mikey and for Klint King.

 I´ll try to do the rest in some kind of order unlike usual. Well, nothing happened thursday... But friday morning my district got to be investigators for TRC instead of teaching, it´s a lot less stressful because you don´t have to prepare a lesson and you can have a little bit of fun with the new people. Example, Elder taylor told some kid the word for show off was pudar which is the verb to fart. So they were talking about Kobe and one of the elders said I don´t like him because he shows off, but he said how do you say to show off So Elder Taylor said ``pudar" the kid said ya, ele puda. Which translates to he is a farter. Something along those lines. Elder Spencer told the missionaries his parents were dead and the missionary didn´t understand so his next comment was... ´uhhh, so where´s your sister?. So Friday had a great start, that night during Irmo Israel´s class the power went out, now usually it goes off for about 5-10 minutes, but this time it stayed off for about 2 hours, that was a fun new adventure, anything to mix the days up is a plus.

  Saturday, well, we all know what the big news was here on Saturday, Mission age is now 18... Crazy, I didn´t even know other countries could go at 18 until I got here and met some 18 year olds from Brasil. (How will that effect Jordan?) That really set the spirit of the rest of conference, I loved Elder Andersons talk, he´s 1 of my favorites. It was just a solid day of talksI don´t have my notes on me so I don´t remember what day was what so... I´ll just mix the days... I loved Elder Hollands talk, obviously, so much power in his words, it would be scary if you didn´t feel the spirit at the same time. I especially like how he said he´s going to go away from the scriptures for a little bit, but by doing that, he´s basically making new scripture because you know everything he says is exact. Preisthood was awesome, we watched in Sunday morning at 8 while the sisters watched relief society. President Monson is awesome, I really enjoy how he speaks with love at all times. I liked the air plane reference from Uchtdorf, sorry sisters, you didn´t get to hear it this year. Elder Bednar has so much great doctorine in his talks it´s hard to catch everything, I´m going to need to reread that one. I´m short on time, I´ll write more about conference. P.s. yes we got to watch conference live... at 1 and 5.

Monday... Average day

Tuesday was sick, president Degn gave the devotional and he killed it, also we had a CTM miracle and we´re able to take our coats off during it because he was hot to so he invited us all to follow his example.

P day has been good so far, Mom, everyone loves you and says thanks for the milkshakes, i BOUGHT another  jersey today... I´ll stop eventually, they´re just too cheap not too. I´m good now until I get to the field though.

 

I love you all, remember one thing!!! ``Ask the missionaries, they can help you!!!``

-Elder Justin Beary

PS.  The best part about being in Brazil for conference was nobody posted about it on facebook.  A kid I went to high school with came to the CTM today... Tim Porter, I think he´s going to Sao Paulo east... 

Week Five

Well, a good week, a pretty quick week... and... I´m half way done with my MTC experience! :D D: Saturday was our 1 month point, so technically our half way point. To celebrate this we tied our ties half way, everyone was wearing blue and we did a middle part and during gym time we tucked in our shirts and pulled our shorts up... Before you make fun, we ran the court. For an hour straight we didn´t  lose a game.. Now that´s just as good as a half way point can get. (pictures to come eventually) It was just a good day, we nailed TRC like usual. (TRC is our practice teaching fake investigators) we took pictures, we had a workshop at night which is always good. Fast Sunday was really good, especially the nap part... And the testemants ( I don´t think I spelled that right) in Portuguese. Its hard to remember what we did all week because time is blending.. And I forgot my notebook upstairs with all my notes in it reminding me what to talk about. Today we went to a hamburger place next day for our half way point with the whole district and Irmo Israel. I got a bacon and chedder... it was 6 dollars, huge and had real bacon, not that stuff you get from Wendys. Earlier this week we had Mango at lunch... Pretty sad that that´s a highlight but it was the best mango I´ve ever tasted... Thank goodness they had a lot becasue everyone was just pounding it down. Needless to say the bathrooms were full the whole night after all the Mango. On Friday we get to be investigators for TRC... That means no more preparing lessons, we just show up and follow the lesson the first weeks try to give us in super bad Portuguese. Then, we get to mess with them a little bit... And you can be sure that I will mess with them. Not too much though, I don´t want to make their first week here awful. On Friday I went to some super nice doctors office because Elder Georgianna and I had to get our Hep booster. thank goodness she spoke enlgish but it took from... 2 until 8 because traffic was bad and it was about 30 miles away... Ya, you read that right. On the way we passed some super poor parts of Sao Paulo but we also passed some really nice areas. We saw some really cool street art... Because I don´t remember if I ever told ya´ll this but there´s so much street art here. Not much stupid graffiti, but street art, and it´s pointless for the city to paint over it. The ``artists´ though are super respectful, you never see it on a sign or on a business, just walls, but if there´s a wall, it´ll be painted. We saw a ``space invader`` character too, that was pretty exciting.

Story time. On the way to get shots we stopped at a train station and 2 kids and the instructor got off the bus, then the bus driver who speaks 0 enlgish drove off, Elder Georgianna and I had the most experience in the country so... We weren´t in great hands... We drove for about 5 minutes then just stopped, we sat there for seriously 15 minutes, then the bus turned on and we drove off. We picked those 3 up where we dropped them off... turns out, they had to get their free yellow fever shot there, in some corner store at the train station... I guess we paid the 100 dollars in the states for safety and security.

This letter ended up being longer than I though it would, I´m pretty proud of myself!!!

Picture

Letters

8-28-12   Sorry, it's hard to write on a plane.

Hi famiy!

Brazil is great. Well, the plane to Brazil. The Brazilian people are very friendly and very helpful.  The other missionaries and I are gonna need help once we land.  This flight would be so easy if I could watch the in flight movies. (Avengers, Hunger games, Lorax)  It's kind of weird thinking I'm going to be gone for 2 years.  I don't know when it'll really hit me.  A lot of funny looks in Atlanta.  Something about 11 well dressed kids I guess.  Though we've also had a lot of well wishes and nice gestures (like the 2 ladies offering all of us to use their phones).  1 of the guys next to me on the plane tried to help me with portuguese...well, he tried.  One of the Elders ran with Spencer at BYU.  Fun fact.  

Well, I'm gonna try to get some sleep.  Elder Tapp is the other to Porto Alegre south.

Love you all!  Deus abencoe!

Elder Beary

9-9-12

Minha Familia! (All is well?)

Tudo bem?  Direct translation.  It means like "Hey, what's up?  Pretty much the 1 must know phrase for living in Brazil.  To answer you say "Tudo bem".  Pretty easy, huh?  Too bad the rest of portuguese isn't that easy.

The MTC is great, it's hard sometimes but there's no where else I'd rather be.  Everyone here is just fantastic.  I'm learning so much every day.  I feel like I'm behind in the language since I don't have a spanish background but when I compare myself to day 1, I feel pretty good.  P days are the best thing in the world though.  I decided on my team for down here, gotta stay with the blue, so I'm going to support Gremul!!

Turns out Porto Alegre is kind of like the San Francisco of Brazil.  OH!!! Porto Alegre will be hosting world cup games, that makes me really happy.  

Stuff is so cheap here.  I bought 6 pounds of snacks for 6 hais (3ish dollars). Electronics are expensive, but I don't need those anyway.  I'm going to buy a Gremul jersey on p-day.  So, by the time you get this I'll already have it. They're 25 hais (13ish bucks).  I don't think they are that authentic but I don't care.  I'll get Brazil t-shirts at some point as well.  We got new roomies and 1 is from fort Eliza? and the other...Porto Alegre.  He helped me declare my Gremul pride.  They have a great team song.

Jordan, you've definitely got to do this whole mission thing.  Best decision ever.

Vos unico viver uma (ves) --- You Only Live Once!  (close enough)

Deus Abencoe!

Love you all!

Elder Beary

9-11-12

Mae,

Thank you for all of your letters!  I haven't had time to read the novel that I just got today but I'll read it at 21:30!!  Mail is nice.  I like getting letters.  It makes me feel good, plus it's a pick me up.  Closest thing to a surprise around here.  Also, I have time to detail letters/personalize them.  30 minutes for 3-mail barely gives me enough time to detail 1 email.

Garments down here are .75 cents.  I'm gonna buy some tomorrow.  I don't like the kind I got.  Plus, there's a top not sold in America.  It's super light and absorbs moisture.

My new roommate (who might be gone by the time you get this) and 1 of my instructors are from Porto Alegre.

I get more and more excited to go everyday!

Eu Ama Voce,  Elder Beary

9-12-12

Irmo Jordan, (not sure if I spelled that right)

1st off, you've definitely got to do 1 of these mission things.  They're great.  Hard sometimes but definitely worth it.

2nd, can you try to get me Kyle, Curtis, and Alex's adress, thanks.

How's school and XC going?  By now you're probably the fastest on the team, if not the state.

Everything besides electronics are so cheap here.  I feel super rich here and the money is way cool.

Keep stron and get out here... well, maybe not here, but on a mission.

Love, Elder Beary

9-12-12

Pa,

Thanks for that letter Dad.  You guys are slacking on the sports updates.  How about USU beating the U?  That news brought joy to my heart.

It's fun here, hard sometimes, especially the portuguese.  But, I'm starting to understand it.

We're on a bus right now on our way home from the temple.  We're still in Sao Paulo, but we're 45 minutes away from the CTM.  That's how big this city is.  It's really hot here too. (This bus is so shaky)

Oh, the people drive crazy here.  Especially, the motorcyclists.

I've got that letter hanging up in my "closet".  Thanks again.

Love, Elder Beary