August 15, 2011

So this last week has been full of crazy stuff. So first off my zone leaders are leaving tomorrow and last Monday was their last P-day. We spent it in Búzios. After walking around Búzios and stuff most of the day we wanted dinner. So we went looking at all the restaurants. All of them were super expensive. But we went by this one and we talked to the manager and asked him the prices. He said 54 reals per kilo. We immediately turned it down and started to leave. He then offered us a sweet deal. 25 reals for all you can eat minus the sushi bar. We said we´d think about it and if we decided to we´d come back. He said ok, and so we went and checked one other place. Terrible prices. So we went back. Yeah turns out that place was super super nice. Definitely like a 3 star establishment. We had really really good steak grilled up right in front of us. And shrimp penne and Caesar salad, and this ham stuff wrapped in bacon. Wow! it was so so so good! Especially the steak. Never had a steak that good. Anyways, was my comp´s last week as well this last week. He´s so checked out. It´s really sad. Um other than that the Ward in Cabo Frio had a party last Friday. That was pretty cool. Turns out Brasil has this like three month holiday. It´s basically a harvest thing. But you get 3 months to have a party. Because usually, as I have been informed, everyone usually has one party and it happens at some point during the three months. But anyways, transfers are happening tomorrow. Elder Richins was looking up on the mission website, and apparently most of the transfers are up and I´m getting transferred. Some place called Trindade and my new comp´s name is Elder Pinheiro. Elder Richins doesn´t know much about him, so we´ll be starting off fresh. Don´t know what is in store for me this next week but hopefully lots of work and learning a lot. It´s going to be awesome. Love you all. Elder Bender

August 29, 2011

Things are good here, This last week we taught 3 families, all of which we committed to go to church this past Sunday. And all of them didn´t go. Was sad. Because now we have to wait another 2 weeks before they can be baptized. Been prayin for them everyday. But I feel that things will work out. Churches here are crazy! It´s a miracle if you can walk more than 4 blocks and not find another church. Crazy. And you can really see how real the scriptures are when they talk about the people that are honest seekers of truth but they know not where to find it or are blinded by the craftiness of men. I have a picture of one such crazy church that I´m including with this email. But We had zone conference this last week. It was really good. Got to see my buddies Elder Sanchez and Elder Richins and Elder Laurindo......was awesome. Our Mission pres. taught us some really good stuff to incorporate into our teaching and invitations to investigators and it´s been accepted really well by investigators. Found out that I only get mail like every 3 months. Unless I eventually get transferred to an area close to the office. So that's a bit of a downer. But, oh well. Summer is coming quickly. It´s hot everyday. Humid too. I´m going to a shell of my past self here soon. gonna sweat everything away. Don´t know what I´m going to do when all my clothes don´t fit. But, it will be good. I´m loving it here and am having a great time serving. Learning alot everyday. Love my companion. He´s awesome. Everyday I love him more. We´ll be friends for a long time after the mission, I already know it. Haha had my first close encounter with an angry dog. Haha he almost attacked my companion. But I was ready to punt that cachorro into a world of pain and I think he knew it because he backed down when I got closer. Smart dog. It was really funny afterwards. Haha our zone leaders stayed with us last night because of a gay parade in their city. Haha apparently they mess up church peoples if they see them on the street, so they stayed with us. Hahaha. Anyways that's all for this last week. Looking forward to this next week. Can´t believe it´s almost been 4 months. Crazy. Love Elder Bender

Community Evangelical Pentecostal
Team Spiritual Fighter
Hunters of Souls
Cures-Miracles-Revelations
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God scripture.

August 8, 2011

OK so this week was crazy! Elder Richins and I were in Rio staying with the secretaries from Sunday night until Wednesday night. So crazy. So Monday morning when we got to the Policia Federal at 5am, we waited for 3 hours for them to open the door and start. When they opened the door, the guy came out and explained that as of that day they no longer accepted the old applications and that everyone needed to have new ones from the internet printed out and have appointments scheduled. So we went to the LAN house there at the airport and found out the next available time was Wednesday morning. So we stayed until then. Did a lot of cool things. Rio is really cool. We went to this giant outdoor vendor place. Rose the subway there, that was cool. Then later Monday night went to a family night out in one of the favelas. That was cool. The next day we had lunch at a member's house out in Copacabana. Found out that the telephone booths there are horrible. Plastered with pornographic ads for hookers. Really really horrible. Anyways, I got to see my first companion Elder Sanchez for a few days! That was cool. We had fun hanging out again. I should have taken pictures with him but I didn't. Transfers are coming up soon. I'm kind of wondering what is going to happen with me. Who my new companion will be, if I will stay in Cabo Frio or if I'll get moved. I don't know. But I do know that wherever I go and whoever I'm put with I'll learn a lot and it will be a good experience. So, I'm excited. Hey I really want to have some of the kids start skyping with some members here that want to better learn English. And they in turn could teach Portuguese. That would be cool. Let me know about that. Going out to Buzios again for P-day today. Our zone leaders are going home next week so we're hangin out with them. They are pretty cool. Oh forgot to say the office is not way inland, it's really not that far from the beach, and Copacabana is rally close to the beach. It's awesome. The home schooling thing sounds like a good thing. You can never get enough scripture study. They really need it. It really helped me as a kid. I learned a lot from the scriptures and had a pretty good understanding of the things taught in them at a young age. And if they do the same thing they will greatly benefit from it. Anyways, got to go lots to do today. I will send some more pictures soon. Hopefully, computer and internet are slow. Lol. Love you all, and miss you. Elder Bender

June 1, 2011

Here is Spencer's letter from June 1, 2011 that I didn't get for some reason. Spencer forwarded all the emails he's sent home so far to me, so I will be posting the ones that I have been missing.  Here is from June 1.

Things are going well. But I still feel a little under par as far as the language goes. It's still really hard for me to understand when its spoken. I just don't know enough of the vocabulary. That and there are a ton of different accents here. Well maybe just a few but they are very different from each other so it's really hard to understand people sometimes. That and my memory isn't that great a lot of the times. But I think that's mostly just because I need to use the language more. Then things will start clicking. Thank you for the prayers, I sure need em. Especially for blessings that are directed toward me learning the language. I pray for you all daily. My comps and I are getting along and we have really started helping each other out with personal flaws that we are trying to overcome. So it's pretty good. Um the food here is getting old. And I don't get nearly enough fiber. Which I'm sure you can guess what that does to a person. Uh, I forgot to say I had kind of a cold slash sickness for the past week and a half. Twas annoying, but it's almost gone. FREAK! Mosquitoes here are dumb. They are small but their bites swell up like twice the normal size and they itch like crazy. Also I hate the dogs here. HATE them. I want to put shock collars on all of them and synchronize a remote to all of them and shock them all at once. They are so dumb. You know the scene in Disney's 101 Dalmatians where the dogs are barking like crazy talking to one another over long distances? Yeah pretty sure that happens here every night, like within a 8 or 9 block radius, and the dogs don't go to sleep until like 3 or 4 am. So it's been waking me up in the middle of the night several times a week. I need earplugs, but then again I need to wake up to my alarm. Kind of a lose-lose situation. Wish I hadn't lost my good in-ear headphones then I could sleep with those and just use my ipod as an alarm clock since it has that option in the clock thing for it. It's what I usually use just minus the head phones. Found out on our last day they give us these sweet filter water bottles. They cost like $60 American they're legit. Oh I should have told you I got my hair cut super short like the week after getting here. The barber here sucked, so like a week later I went to the barber like a block and a half from the MTC and got it cut for 12 Reals and it was 100 times better. I think I have like barely over a hundred Reals left. I need to work out a way to get money from y'all. I think that the church will do it, but I don't know. If you could call travel services about it for me and let me know that would be cool. Then you could just get some money from my account and have them get it to me, however they do. The Temple here in Sao Paulo is really pretty. Especially inside. They have really nice wood all over and probably the coolest chandelier in the celestial room I've ever seen. Lots of cool stone work and some sweet glass mosaics in the baptismal room. Haha one last thing, did I tell you about the toilet paper here? Well I bought some wet wipes...best purchase here so far. Anyways, I love you all I miss you, can't wait to hear from you next week. I think I have only like 4 or 5 more weeks left here in Sao Paulo, Crazy how time flies. Anyways g2g Love Elder Bender

Monday, September 19, 2011

 So this week was good. Our Confirmations happened. But our Baptism fell through. The Irma was really sick. But she still wants to get baptized. I think we are going to have the baptism tomorrow. But, also we found out the reason why the daughter in one of the families we are teaching didn't want to get baptized. The mother of the family is against it. So we are working on seeing what the Lord wants us to do. Taught a new family yesterday. Taught them about the restoration, they really liked it and when we asked them to read the book of mormon, the Father said he would, and then he said, they all will, every one of them. He's a military man. Lol, but it's a bit sad because he will be leaving for duty for a few months in about a week and a half so we don't have enough time to teach him and the family and have them go to church enough to be baptized before he leaves and before transfers. But also when we asked if they would go to church this sunday one of the daughters said that they go to this other church and that they would be going there, the dad cut in and said, I'll go, and they all will too. It was awesome. The dad said he'll read and pray about the book of mormon as well. They are really cool. When we were talking about being missionaries and our everyday lives, the mom asked about meals, my comp told her that we provide for our breakfast but that lunches are usually in the home of a member. But that sometimes lunch falls through and we have to provide it for ourselves. After he said this the mom said if that ever happens call us up and pass by here and we'll make you something to eat. Then the dad reaffirmed what she said. Anytime you need lunch don't hesitate to call us. They are legit. Mission President will be in our area tomorrow to conduct an interview with an investigator that killed someone when they were younger. So, it will be good to see him, get some advice and ask some questions. Our mission Pres. is legit. He always has good counsel. Hahahaha yesterday on the way to bring an investigator to church, these two kids were sitting in this car that was parked on the side road by a little grocery store. as we were walking up, this little old lady walked right by their door. They opened it really fast and made loud barking sounds, the Old lady about died where she stood. I felt bad because the old lady saw me laughing. But as we walked past the car the two kids were dying inside, they were laughing so hard. Had a good laugh about that. I don't know what it is about Sundays here but I seem to see the funniest and strangest things on Sundays. I think it's mostly because people are still drunk in the streets from the party the night before. Hahaha also saw some drunk fat people dancing to music in the parking lot of a gas station / little bar was funny. People are ridiculous here. But it makes for great stories. Looking forward to this next week. Should be really good. Looking forward to helping that girl know that getting baptized is the right decision, and that she will be a light to her family and a guide for them on the path to getting baptized, and eventually being sealed in the Temple.

Elder Bender

Fun Fact: A little bit of Brazil History: 

History

Amerindian tribes populated present-day Brazil prior to the arrival Pedro Alvares Cabral who claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500.  Portuguese rule continued into the early nineteenth century.  Dom Joao VI and the remnants of the Portuguese royal family fled Napoleon's army to Brazil in 1808 and returned to Portugal in 1821.  The following year, Brazil declared independence from Portugal and Dom Joao VI's son, Dom Pedro I, was proclaimed emperor of Brazil.  Slavery was abolished in 1888.  The Dom Pedro family maintained control of the government until 1889 when a coup led by Marshal of the Army Deodoro da Fonseca established a federal republic and effectively ended monarchial rule.  A constitutional republic government operated until 1930 when a military coup instated a dictatorship under Getulio Vargas.  Vargas ruled until 1945.  Political instability marked the 1950s and 1960s as six presidents successively served between 1945 and 1961.  Brazil's population has historically been densely concentrated along the southern coastal areas.  To ameliorate overcrowding, facilitate government administration over a large geographical area, and spur economic development, the government relocated the capital city from Rio de Janeiro to the government-planned city of Brasilia in 1960.  A coup occurred in 1964 and the military-controlled government exiled political opponents and determined Brazil's presidents until the early 1980s when a return to democracy began.  A total return to civilian rule occurred in 1985.  Since 1989, Brazil's presidents have been successively elected.  With a large population, abundant natural resources, and strategic geographic location, Brazil has emerged as the region's greatest economic power.

  - Taken from: http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=missiology_articles&story_id=192

Monday, September 5, 2011

Just got this forwarded to me yesterday...it's last Monday's email from Spencer.

Things are good. We had a good week. Had some disappointment with this awesome family we were teaching. Apparently someone was bad mouthing the church to them and now they don´t want to go to church. But we were blessed because the daughter has been to church before and she still went this Sunday, which was fast and testimony meeting. She really liked it and is going to continue coming to church. We will be going over on Tuesday to teach the family and clear all the doubts that were created by some idiot bad mouthing the church and the missionaries. So that should be good. We also had a lady come to church that we have been teaching. She really liked everything and is going to continue to come to church. She also, gave up smoking and drinking coffee. She´s legit. I think she will be the leader for her family and they will soon be coming to church too. She wants to be baptized too. So that's way cool. Because she loves everything we´ve taught her and she has great faith. So, it´s been a good week. Met a family that just moved here the other day. Went to their house and got to know them better. And then Sunday night we went over again with a member and had a little lesson/chat. And the Mom wants to be baptized next Sunday. Her two kids are already baptized and they are all active. It´s awesome. But other than that, it´s been a bit chilly here lately, well for my companion. Between 60 and 70 degrees? I´m loving it. It´s really funny to see people bundled up in coats and hats and things in the morning. They´re all freezing. Hahahaha! But it sucks because I know by the end of the 2 years I´ll be the same way. But luckily it will be almost summer back home when I return. That's it for this week. Love Elder Bender

Monday September 12, 2011

So this week was good. We had two baptisms yesterday! Two sisters. They are cool. Also the Mother of the sisters told me the other day that she wants us to teach and save the whole family. So, we´re going to do just that. Just got to help the mom and dad get married. Apparently it´s really hard to do here. Takes like a month and like $300. Ridiculous. Anyways, we have our work cut out for us this next week. We also met a single mom this last Saturday that lives in our area, and she is going to allow us to share a message with her this next week. She´s a non practicing Catholic, so hopefully we can help her out. Had a fire at our apartment building this morning. Apparently our fault. Our breaker box blew up and caught fire. But totally because of bad wiring and bad quality everything. The box overloaded because I was taking a shower and the washing machine was going at the same time. Ridiculous. Don´t know exactly what is going to happen with that, but hopefully we can get it fixed this week, if not today. Had some really good Churrascu at a member´s house on friday. Amazing! Never thought I´d like the taste of grilled fat with a little bit of meat, but it was really good. There was some other meat that was more like steak that was only seasoned with rock salt, HOLY COW! So good! But all is good here in Brasil, saw a small clip of the news at a member´s house that the police in the main city of Rio basically had a little war about a week ago with the baditos, aka drug traffickers. Crazy but far from where I am. So that's good. Although did come across a charred car in our area last night. Took a picture. Was weird because usually there are a ton of people selling things in that area at that time on that day, but there was nobody. and a charred car in the middle of the street. Well that's it for this week, but next week should be good. Hopefully 2 more baptisms next Sunday.

Elder Bender

Spencer found this quote from Joseph Smith and sent it. 

I think it's really neat so I decided to post it with this week's update...especially since they got to help a couple get married!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Things are good here, This last week we taught 3 families, all of which we committed to go to church this past sunday. And all of them didn´t go. Was sad. Because now we have to wait another 2 weeks before they can be baptized. Been prayin for them everyday. But I feel that things will work out. Churches here are crazy! It´s a miracle if you can walk more than 4 blocks and not find another church. It´s crazy. And you can really see how real the scriptures are when they talk about the people that are honest seekers of truth but they know not where to find it or are blinded by the craftiness of men. I have a picture of one such crazy church that I´m including with this email. We had zone conference this last week. It was really good. Got to see my buddies Elder Sanchez and Elder Richins and Elder Laurindo......was awesome. Our Mission pres. taught us some really good stuff to incorporate into our teaching and invitations to investigators and it´s been accepted really well by investigators. Found out that I only get mail like every 3 months. Unless I eventually get transferred to an area close to the office. So thats a bit of a downer. But, oh well. Summer is coming quickly. It´s hot everyday. Humid too. I´m going to a shell of my past self here soon. gonna sweat everything away. Don´t know what I´m going to do when all my clothes don´t fit. But, it will be good. I´m loving it here and am having a great time serving. Learning alot everyday. Love my companion. He´s awesome. Everyday I love him more. We´ll be friends for a long time after the mission, I already know it. Haha had my first close encounter with an angry dog. Haha he almost attacked my companion. But I was ready to punt that cachorro into a world of pain and I think he knew it because he backed down when I got closer. Smart dog. It was really funny afterwards. Haha our zone leaders stayed with us last night because of a gay parade in their city. Haha apparently they mess up church peoples if they see them on the street, so they stayed with us. Hahaha. Anyways thats all for this last week. Looking forward to this next week. Can´t believe it´s almost been 4 months. Crazy. Love Elder Bender

**Note: There wasn't a picture attached...it may not have come through with his email. He's had trouble with it before.

Fun Fact:  Carnival fact - Rio Carnival as we know it today is a far cry from the event's beginnings in 1641, when the Portuguese settlers celebrated Ash Wednesday with masked balls and sophisticated parties. Samba began to make its mark on the carnival festivities at the beginning of the 20th Century, with the first official Samba School created in 1928.

Monday, August 22, 2011

**I didn't get an email forwarded to me from Spencer between Aug 1 until now...I'll see if there were any emails that my parents forgot to forward to me! At any rate, here is the latest:

Ok, so, New area, new comp, new experiences. So my new comp is cool. Elder Pinheiro. He, like me, thinks that Japanese is one of the coolest languages ever and that anime/cartoons are awesome. We get along well and he is a really good teacher. Trying to learn as much as I can from him. The new area is crazy. pretty good sized city with a ton of people living in a tiny area. So, there´s always alot of people out and about. We work with members as much as we can and we´ve been working hard. Met some skateboarders here and skated with them for a bit, scratched the heck out of my church shoes. (I know mom it was dumb.) But in the process we made 5 new contacts at once all of which were fine with us coming over and sharing a message with them and their families later. How´s that for using your talents? Anyways, so I guess at some point this week we taught this 17 year old guy who apparently has killed someone. Didn´t know until afterwards when my comp told me about it. I wondered why when we were at the house he came running inside and shut the door and was peeking out the window. Turns out a cop drove by. LOL. The weather here is strange. The first part of the week it was really hot. and all this weekend it´s been cold. I say cold but I mean 63F so cold for what i´ve been used to here in Brasil. Our apartment is kind of big but as everyone knows size isn´t better for apartments when you don´t have stuff to fill it with. Also, it´s on the 6th floor so going up stairs is fun. Um, oh I have had the chance to see some of those people that worship saints or whatever and don´t believe in God. Weird, statues everywhere and stuff and Crosses on their property. Oh and my Comp was on a split with the district leader´s comp and they had a crazy experience with a macumba. Aka Satan worshipper. I won´t go into details but she was absolutely psycho to say the least. Found out there are a lot of snakes here in Brasil. ´´Snakes´´ here in brasil to members of the church are girls that flirt with and try to get with Missionaries.  Haha can´t believe I didn´t say anything about that before. Anyways things are good here and I´m learning alot. It´s very different than Cabo Frio thats for sure. Anyways, thats it for this week, Love you all and miss you as well. Elder Bender

the photo is of me and elder richins on the bus back from búzios on our second to last p-day together in the Cabo Frio area.

 

Fun Fact: Arcos de Lapa: One of the few surviving landmarks from the colonial era, this aqueduct was finished in 1750. At one time it carried water down from the Rio Carioca, it now serves as a viaduct to the wonderful Bondinho de Santa Teresa (tram) that connects the downtown area to the Santa Teresa area. With 42 arcs and at 800-feet long, it is also known as Aqueduto da Carioca. A wonderfully stark example of the old and new architecture that defines this area.

Monday August 1, 2011

Hey thanks mom. Turns out a ton has happened today. So we got up at 4am to go to the airport and get in line for the policia federal thing. Waited for 3 and a half hours just to find out that they changed the way you do everything.......starting today. And so you have to do everything online and schedule an appointment and everything. So we went to a LAN house to get online and the administrative secretary Elder Isom found out that all the spots for today were taken. And tomorrow they had a few times but they filled up by the time we got back to the office. So since we live like 4 hours away from the mission office and it costs 35 reals one way for the bus to our area. We get to stay here until Wednesday night. Oh and 35 reals is alot for us considering we only get like 260 reals a month, it's a huge amount for a bus. Anyways, so today for lunch we went to this Pizza Rodizio. Basically the waiters come around with different pizzas and ask you if you want some. I ate a ton. Including dessert pizza. Pretty sure they have the best dessert pizza I have ever eaten. So good! Anyways, the next two days should be fun/interesting. Because we are in Rio. it's so cool here. Awesome views, and I think it's going to rain tonight, so the sky will be way clear and free of smog so I will be able to take some sweet pictures. I hope. Not much new happened this last week, just alot of looking for people with no success finding them. Made some good contacts this week. Sadly they weren't living in our area. So that's a bummer but we'll find people to teach. No worries. Loving my new backpack. way better than that one CTR one that you got for free mom. It was kind of screwed up anyways. But this new one should last for quite some time. It's really nice. anyways tah tah for now I miss you all and love you too. I will send you some pics. If I get some time on the other computer today. this one has Linux on it and itś way restricted because one of the elders is good with Linux and stuff. Bye bye.

Rio Fun Fact:

Parque Nacional de Tijuca is the largest area of urban rainforest in the world, and is testament to the huge success of a reforestation scheme from the Brazilian government. When the Portuguese arrived, the area which is now the city of Rio was covered by dense green tropical forest. As the city grew the trees were felled and the timber used in construction or for charcoal. However, if you look up from the streets of Zona Sul today, the mountains running southwest from the Corcovado are still covered with exuberant forest, the periphery of the Parque Nacional da Tijuca which covers an area of approximately 120 square kilometres, and is maintained by Brazil's State Institute of Forestry (IBDF). In the seventeenth century the forests of Tijuca were cut down for their valuable hardwood and the trees replaced by sugar cane and, later, coffee plantations and small-scale agriculture. In the early nineteenth century the city authorities became alarmed by a shortage of pure water and by landslides from the Tijuca slopes. Eventually it was decided that a concerted effort was needed to restore Rio's watershed and, in 1857, a reforestation project was initiated: by 1870 over 100,000 trees had been planted and the forest was reborn. Most of the seeds and cuttings that were planted were native to the region, and today the park serves as a remarkable example of the potential for the regeneration of the Atlantic forest.

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