October 29, 2012

Yup. It seems nothing like Halloween weather here. It is getting HOT HOT HOT. I handle it decently though, but my companion is struggling a little. He is from the South of Brazil where it doesn't really get this hot and humid. It doesn't seem as bad as last year, but I'm not in the Baixada so that is probably why. I feel bad for everyone down there. And I only use an umbrella when it's raining.

Woo hoo. So a family said that they would be willing to help me out on the whole Thanksgiving dinner thing. So now I have an Irmã who will actually know how to cook and stuff to help me out. They are a really great family. They always have us over for family nights where they invite non member friends.

So yesterday was stake conference and to our surprise President Tanner was there. He and Sister Tanner both spoke. Sister Tanner spoke without a translator!! It was great. She did read most of the talk but still bore testimony and a few other things without reading. She spoke about true conversion and how it comes through each of us having our own Sacred Grove experience. It was simple but great. President spoke about fruits. He talked a lot about how fruits in Brazil are so great, and how they have so many here. Did you know that the Pineapple originates from Brazil? And that people in the US loved it so much that you can find all sorts of paintings and sculptures and other art in New England about pineapples? He spoke about how we have the fruit of the gospel that is the sweetest of all fruits and how we need to share it. Great talk. Next house inspection I'll be sure to have a bunch of fruit in the kitchen, especially pineapple.

Back issues (for Mom). Sounds painful and annoying. At least now you have an excuse to lay around a few more hours everyday. I hope everything heals quickly.

I don't know anything really about my last area. I just know that Milton's kids are still going to church but haven't been baptized still. Here things are picking up. We have a few good people that could be baptized at any moment. Just have to find the missing piece of the puzzle.

I hadn't heard anything about the hurricane. Most people here don't really understand that kind of stuff since they have never seen a natural disaster here. I think that natural disasters have very positive results for a country. Here they aren't prepared for anything. Houses don't need to built to any code or anything. A real strong wind would destroy a lot here. As a matter of fact that happened last year in Rio. We need to be happy and learn from our trials. Maybe I'll use that in my homecoming talk.....

Elder Perrell is doing good. I did a division with him last week. It was cool to be able to go out and work together again. It was funny how much both of us have changed since we were working together. Hopefully for the better. The package probably won't be sent for another few weeks. We are still looking for stuff here and there to send in it.

I think that Hannah and Stephen will come to Brazil. Stephen is going to go up in the north and Hannah is coming to the same mission as me. We are hurting for sisters in our mission right now.

WHAT,  NOW THERE IS GOING TO BE A RED ROBIN IN LACEY?? I don't think I'm completely understanding where these things are being built. Is it behind the Goodwill? That sounds awesome.

Agradeço pelas ocrações e mensagems. Até semana que vem.

Com amor,

Elder Cameron Bruce

October 22, 2012

Answer to DAD:

(Dad told him that 298 people attended sacrament meeting on the Primary Program Sunday.)

298!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! What? I can't even imagine that anymore, the most I have seen in a ward since I have been here is like 150 at a ward conference. Very different.

 

Last night we had a meeting with President Tanner, his councilors, all the Bishops, all the Stake Presidents, and all the Ward Mission Leaders. I got a ride their with one of the Mission Councilors, he drives an 06 Honda Accord. You don't see Accords here very often. It was a VERY surreal experience. VERY trunky. But he also gave some great advice. He was a mission president in Recife, up in the North of Brazil, he had a ton of success and even brought a Temple to the city.

 

Is McChord going to be a significant change in driving time to the clinic or not so bad? Is it closer to the Golf Course up there?

 

Well sounds like it just isn't meant to be BYU's year.

 

Off to mother's email. Tchau tchau.

 

Elder Bruce

Answer to MOM:

Before I forget, I was thinking about Thanksgiving and I would like to make a big dinner, could you send some recipes and stuff to help me out a little. I completely forgot about it last year and this year I need to make up for it.

 

I'm doing really well. The area here is difficult, it has only baptized once in the last 6 months. The ward has an attendance of 50-70 I think. But we already have some people that are progressing and should be baptized here shortly. We just need to work. That reminds me of an experience in our District meeting last week. The Zone leader asked if anyone had any questions on how to improve and I jokingly asked "yeah, how do you baptize more" he then opened Preach My Gospel and read a quote from President Benson I think, that talks about how the biggest secret in missionary work is often the work. He says if we work we will have success. But even then Preach My Gospel says that our success isn't measured by numbers of baptisms and lessons, but on our effort to find, teach, baptize and confirm. I'm currently re-reading Preach My Gospel in my personal study, I think that after the Book of Mormon it might be the most correct book on the Earth.

 

The church is a rented building. Not so nice. Bigger than the one I had in Diadema for a while but still a little incommidating. Also they have a fair (like a farmers market kind of) right in front of the chapel so there is a bunch of noise coming in. But all in all the ward is good. Just small.

 

I'll be doing a division with Elder Perrell tomorrow, we are putting together another package to send home. I'm mostly going to send home books and stuff that I have collected on the mission. I want to have a bunch of things in Português when I get home. And maybe a few gift type items too.

 

Being Senior companion isn't too different. You just feel a little more responsibility. Elder F. Oliveira didn't have a very good trainer so President asked us to do the training program. I hope that maybe this is a sign of things to come. But since I'm new in the area I still depend on Elder F. Oliveira to make a lot of decisions and show me around and stuff.

 

I'm thinking we might steal the 40 day fast idea. Our new Ward Mission Leader wants to excite the ward and feel like the fast could help quite a bit. Also we are going to plan an activity/training for the ward on how to share the gospel with friends.

 

Well I haven't heard about any new missionaries coming. The age limit was already 18 for boys here, but I'm expecting a massive amount of sisters to be coming in. I wouldn't be surprised if Santo André turns into an only sister zone. There are already 3 companionships of sisters and its a nice safe area so the sisters could go everywhere here.

 

If Hannah and Stephen both leave soon that'll mean like 3 and a half years at least till we see each other. Bummer. But still that will be sweet to have so many from the family in the field at the same time.

 

They have a holiday on November 2nd. The Day of the Dead. But it's not real strong here and nothing like Halloween really. I don't know if I will do anything for Halloween. Maybe I'll go knock some doors. (ba dum tish)

 

Of course I remember Ben. He was my big brother on trek when we first moved to Washington. His sister is in our ward? Older sister I assume since he had a sister younger than me and I hope she doesn't have a little family yet. She can't be more than 18.

 

Wait a Popeyes close to Goodwill? Isn't there a KFC right there? That could be dangerous. I can already see the popcorn chicken wars that are bound to come.

 

Well I'm doing great here. Working, tired, but happy. Agradeço por tudo. Amo vocês.

 

Elder Cameron Bruce

October 15, 2012

Answer to DAD:

Well here I am, in Santo André, right next to Mauá. I can literally see my old zone from on top of some of the hills in our area. Our area borders Mauá. So I didn't go to far at all. But it's very different here. A little bit more well off here, but it still has it's favelas. And my new companion is Elder F. Oliveira. They had to put an F in the front because there are so many Oliveiras in the mission. Our zone has a W. Oliveira, N. Oliveira, and F. Oliveira. He is from Rio Grande do Sul. It's the very bottom of the country. He's cool though. He has 6 months on the mission so he just got out of being a greenie, but he is a good worker. He has already been here 3 months in the area so he knows it pretty well.

 

The NFL sounds like everything is wrong. Wasn't the NFC west the worst division in history two years ago?

 

Well I shall go read the Mother's email now, até mais.

 

Elder Cameron Bruce

Answer to MOM:

So as I said to Dad. I'm in Santo André, and am currently without any mission funds. Haha. That's why I had to use the card here. Our allowance was supposed to fall for us today but hasn't. Luckily the lan house guy knows the missionaries and trusts us to pay tomorrow.

 

The area here is MUCH bigger that the last. It's really nice though. I think I needed a change of view. Lots of new area to work in now. So we got the call about transfers about 5 minutes after we left the lan house....... but we did go to a chapel that is always used for missionary meetings and the transfers were read by the mission secretary and we all had to find our companions and then leave. It was very different. Pretty cool though. Everybody was laughing and yelling stuff and having fun hearing where people were going and who would be there companion. I don't really understand why President did it like that. He wasn't even there, since he was doing orientation for the new missionaries. But then we were off. Basically Santo André is like Olympia to Lacey. We got off the train one stop before Mauá. The house is nice, it is two stories, with a little kitchen and bathroom downstairs and the bedroom and study upstairs. Oh funny story, Elder Perrell got transferred to Santo André too and he is my District Leader. So we have now been in the same zone since March. It's pretty cool and now we can do divisions together since he is my leader. Everyone thought that was pretty funny. My companion is Elder F. Oliveira. He's a cool guy and has a family that is very old in the church for Brazil. It's actually pretty rare to see a missionary that was born in the covenant.

 

The weather here is strange, it was super hot, but then it was cold and rainy and today it warmed up again. I'm not exactly sure what's going on here.

 

I'm eagerly waiting for all the letters. And I haven't thought of anything for my Christmas list. Sooo just whatever. I still have the stocking and hat. No need for another. And I still use the pillow case haha. Obviously it gets washed and such, but it is used just as much as the other two I have. I actually was using it when I got transferred and I just carry my pillow in my hand since it doesn't fit anywhere and a few people commented on it in the metro.

Yeah I don't think that Mormon Times would show the real fashion here. Not so modest. Yes there is a very large amount of Evangelicals here. And a lot of them do dress modestly to go to church. There are some that are very strict, requiring women to always use skirts or dresses, not cutting hair, and no make up or jewelry. Usually I can identify what church someone goes to by what they are wearing and their age. By the way that Universal Church is one of the biggest in Brazil. Let me just say that I think there are certain verses in the Bible and Book of Mormon that refer to this church.  Let your mind wander on what I'm trying to say. All in all the evangelical experience is very strange, they kind of brainwash people into giving us responses that don't really make any sense. Most of their meetings consist of lots of yelling and shaking and falling to the ground and convulsing......... different. But as far as the fashion really being that popular. Ehhhhhhhh more or less.

 

Well everything is going great here. Thanks for everything. Até mais.

 

Com amor,

Elder Cameron Bruce

October 8, 2012

Answer to MOM:

Conference was awesome. Always one of the best weekends of the year. I think my favorite talk might have been President Uchtdorf's about taking advantage of the moment and everything. I found it very applicable to a mission life, where we only have two years to enjoy. I also enjoyed President Monson's with all the stories about answering prayers of others. It seemed like a mini theme in conference to me, I noticed a few people mentioning similar topics. And there were definitely a bunch of other good ones too. Everyone came up to the Elder's after Elder Nelson's talk and said, "Hey I've got some questions for you"

The new age for missionaries is insane!!!! It's going to change soooo much. First off there will be thousands of more sisters now. THOUSANDS. I think that was a far bigger change than the move to 18 for the boys. Here in Brasil it was already 18. One thing I thought about is that BYU is going to be completely different now. Just crazy. The congregation didn't react too much, but all the Elders freaked out a little bit. It was pretty crazy to hear. Also we watched the press conference after the session where they talked about the changes. It seemed as though Elder Holland suggested to that fact that in the future we should be expecting changes in the lengths of missions too. Probably not for a year or two though. 

We will get the Liahonna pretty soon so there is no need to send talks yet. I think. If not I'll ask here in a week or two.

I got the package WOOT. The only thing is I got it one week before transfers so I had to pound out the candy. I still have a little left over, but quite a bit is gone already. It was quite delicious, and I laughed out loud at the pumpkin seed tic tacs. 

I feel like I had thought of something to ask for for Christmas but I forgot. Oh well no big deal.

Here in Brasil they don't give much credit to Columbus. I don't remember the name of the guy they always talk about. He was Portuguese, surprise. That's all I remember. Oh and another thing that they say is different is that the Wright Brothers weren't the first to fly, they think it was some Brazilian guy. When President Uchtdorf talked about the Wright brothers I nudged the Brazilian Elders and gave them a little wink.

So the wedding didn't happen this week. The lady didn't have all the right documents when we went with her. Actually we were just going to mark the wedding, it won't happen until 30 days after the day we go get everything cleared. Soooooo yeah. 

The elections here are sooooo crazy, and annoying. Constant cars blasting music. Yesterday was election day. The only problem is that in Maua no one won. Two candidates will run again against each other. You have to win by a certain majority and neither of them reached it. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I heard that Romney did well in the debate. Very nice. How do the polls look?

Why is Isaac wearing a Braves hat?

The District!! We have those DVDs and use them in our study and trainings. Haha. I have them all memorized. Did you watch season one or two? I actually met one of the Elders in the MTC in Provo, he is a teacher there. Just so you know, some of the things those Elders teach is done poorly. They have those in there for us to learn too. It's also very different from English to Portuguese.

So they decided to change how transfers work so we won't know until sometime today if we are being transferred, and they won't tell us where we are going or who will be our companion. I understand a little of what they are doing, but it is also making it really difficult, because now I don't know if I need to spend P-day packing my bags or not. It's the first time they have done it like this so they haven't perfected it yet. Oh well. Hopefully the Zone leaders call while we are sending emails so I can let you know. We'll see.

Obrigado por tudo, te amo, tchau.

Com amor,
Elder Cameron Bruce

Answer to DAD:

My little calendar actually told me today was thanksgiving day in Canada and it's Columbus day, so you're not working, yay. President Uchtdorf was my fav. I think all the new dorms will just have to be used by the MTC to hold the tons of new elders and sisters that will be going after this next school year. I think the year away was good, but if the option had been presented to me I think I would have gone right after high school. I feel it really would make college a better experience instead of splitting it up. It sounded like that and the ability to have many more missionaries were some of the biggest reasons for the change. Forty day fast, interesting idea. Sounds like the sisters are trying everything they can.

Well sports sound like they are heating up. Next playoffs I'll be home. Yay baseball.

Bem, até semana que vem, tchau tchau.

Com amor,
Elder Cameron Bruce (son)

October 1, 2012

Yeah everyone goes to the temple every three months. Unless you are in the Baixada, then it's only every 6 months because they have to rent a bus for the missionaries.

So unfortunately the baptism didn't go through for this weekend, and it will probably have to wait until after conference. Which means that it will be after transfers too. I also think that I will be transferred. Oh I hope I stay, but I don't think it's possible.

The work is still going well we are actually going to marry a couple this week so they can be baptized. Also there is another couple that will be married and baptized here in a little while. 

But the problem is that his "wife" works for a candidate for mayor here in Mauá. So basically here the world goes insane for like two months before the election. They have cars that drive around with giant speakers that just blast music about the candidate. Also there are millions of banners around, and people that walk around hand out a ton of little pamphlets. So that's what that lady is doing. Her hours are literally the only time that the place that does the weddings is open. Marriage works very different here, at least the whole process of it.

General Conference will be in the stake center and we'll get to watch it in English. I'm pumped.

I haven't gotten any mail in a little while but this week the zone leaders will be picking up the mail. I hope I have something. We'll see.

Well this week was pretty uneventful other than that, just work as normal. Well until next week. 

Com amor,
Elder Cameron Bruce