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