Week #37

Dearest Family,

I´m sorry that it took me so long to write to you! And I´m also sorry that I didn´t call you in the airport.  Things have been nuts here!

So I was sent to my first area, which is Franca, Brazil.  A few facts about it: it has one of the largest shoe manufacturing industries in the world, is a lot more cooler than Ribeirão Preto (temperature wise) and barely anybody speaks English!  It has definitely been an interesting experience up to this point.

My companion is Elder Rock, and he is super cool.  He´s from Colorado and has been on his mission for a little over a year.  He´s American, so he is very understanding of my situation, but he told me that I can already speak pretty well, I just need to learn to understand the different accents that people have here. Everyone has a differrent accent, so that can make things difficult, but all in good time.

Willy Tomaz has been helping me a lot, too.  He is a member here that pretty much chills with for the majority of the day, and he speaks a little English that he learned from the missionary.  I´m beginning to understand him a little bit more, more than I do other people that randomly come and talk to me.

My experience so far has been as Brazilian as possible.  When I got off the plane, we went to President´s house to eat, driving throught downtown Ribeirão.  Here zoning laws don´t exist, so houses borders stores which border houses which border factories and so forth.  It´s kind of weird.  But cool, nonetheless.  When I got to my area by bus, driving through the country and seeing a ton of sugar cane, we were picked by Daniel, a member.  It was legit, he was driving a fusca, which is one of those old bugs that are all over South America and everyone in the US wants.  Traffic laws are basically non-existent here.  Daniel was driving all over the road, and signals and signs are more of suggestions than laws.  It was super fun.

The food is super good, too.  So far I have had rice and beans at every meal with members, but it´s always accompanied with something else.  We tend to eat less here, it´s interesting, you just don´t get hungry as much.

Last night we had a cockroach massacre.  They were everywhere.  We went wild on them with chemicals because one flew out of Elder Rock´s towel onto his face.  We woke up this morning when it was light and swept all of them up, so I´ll send you a picture next week.  

he trash system is different here.  Instead of nice, clean cans, all we do is stack our trash on this little raised pad outside our house.  And then dogs come and eat it.  I´m not even sure if a trash man really exists.

Well, I´m sorry if this seemed rushed, but I´m only allowed an hour to write here, and we´re running a little bit lit. Know that I love all of you and am so grateful for all that you do for me.  I´m super grateful for all of the prayers and blessings you send, and the great pictures, always!  Love your guts!

Sincerely,

Jack

Week #36

Hey, Family!

I'm just sending a quick letter because we have to go get some stuff taken care of before I fly out today.  I should be able to call y'all in the airport in Atlanta; I'll be there from about 6:30 to 7:30 pm, in Atlanta time.  I think that's 5:30 time for y'all, but you might want to double check.  I'll be calling dad's phone so that everyone can hear.

I love you all!  I'm going to Brazil!

Love,

Jack

Week #35

Dear Family,

We had a pretty solid week this week.  It's funny how as soon as I get close to leaving the work seems to explode.  We had an investigator come to church on Sunday for the first time, and this guy that we found yesterday was practically waiting for us to come because he had been reading in the Book of Mormon and had questions to ask us.  There's all sorts of little miracles every day, and it's crazy to see how much God's hand is in all of this work.  The grace of the Atonement is real, because I find myself doing stuff that I would not be able to do otherwise.

So here's my little tidbit for the week.  Elder Burnett and I were rulers of the office this past weekend.  All of the senior couples were at a conference with some visitors from church headquarters, so Elder Burnett and I dominated.  He was in the back working on editing the video, and I did my thing up at the front, answering phones and taking orders and sending out referrals.  Living the dream.  

But I had a pretty cool series of thoughts the other day.  Sister Mills asked me if I could design a business card for the mission office since we don't have one here.  Since I otherwise would have absolutely nothing to do, I agreed.  I've never been super good with graphic design, but I felt comfortable enough with some of the design work that I did for Cole and for Sandy Amp that I thought that I could do it.  I sat at the computer and it was super hard, I just couldn't get things figured out like I used to, and it didn't flow.  After working on it for a while, it started coming together, but it took quite a while.  I just haven't exercised the visual side of by brain in so long that it's undergoing some super crazy visual atrophy.  My ability to think in visuals has been debilitated by not exercising it through actions on a medium.

So here's my thought: When we have a physical body, we are able to create symbiosis between the way we think, a creative process to create something, and the actual something that is created.   When we create something based upon a thought, that thing reiterates to our mind what we were trying to think in the first place.  It's like plastering your mind on the world so you can see it in clear light.  

Here's another way to look at it.  This is why we needed to leave our Heavenly Father's presence in the pre-mortal existence and gain a body.  In the pre-mortal existence as spiritual entities, the most we could do was try to create in our minds. 

Here's an analogy:  it is like we are sitting in the middle of a room with yellow walls, and then trying to imagine to ourselves that the walls are actually blue.  It's not super hard to do, but as soon as our train of thought changes or we forget, the walls go back to being yellow, because that's how they really are.  But with a body we can physically change the color of the walls, paint them blue, and then our thoughts and reality are aligned, and they speak to each other.  We can only make our thoughts real by acting with physical body.  Faith without works is dead.  

That may have made no sense at all.  I'm still trying to get it all figured out in my brain, but it did help to right it down.  

But yeah, Portuguese!  I'm gonna speak it here pretty soon.  I'm super excited, even though I'm sure I won't understand a thing when I get there.  I've been studying language every day, so I'm sure that will benefit, but we'll see what happens.  

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and gifts last week.  Happy Birthday, Addie!  You are 24, going on 25, and Calvin is 23, going on 24.  You can probably take care of him.  

Love you so much,

Jack

Week #34

My Dear Family,

MIRACLES!  It's truly a miracle!  This week has been a week of absolute miracles, I say!  It's true!

Miracle #1- Trader Joe's

I'm putting this one first, because it's not as important as my other miracles, but it was just a tender mercy.  Today is P-day, and up until this point I've been trying to figure out how to get more vegetables in my diet so that I don't feel like garbage all week, and lo and behold, A MIRACLE!  We decided to try Trader Joe's for kicks and giggles.  Mind blown.  Can anybody say avocado for 99 cents?  And apples for 39 cents each?  It sounds super dumb, but I was freaking out, I bought so many vegetables, it was fantastic.  I was raving about it to every employee that I saw, and considered going into the grocery store across the street to tell everyone that they were being ravenously cheated.  If there's a Trader Joe's in Utah, try it.  Maybe there won't be the same discrepancy in prices as there was here, but my mind was blown.

Miracle #2

I got my visa!  My travel plans are right here next to me.  I leave here on December 2 at 5:12 pm and then arrive in Riberao Preto the following day at 5:02 pm.  Full 24 hours of jamming in as much Portuguese Book of Mormon reading as I can, only shortly interrupted by two layovers, a dinner, a snack, and a few bathroom breaks.  It's going to be legit.  It will be sad to leave Florida, but the time is now.  A miracle!

Miracle #3

We set a baptismal date with Drake Anderson, aka, Chief Osceola.  He promised us that he would read and pray to find out for himself by November 30 if the Book of Mormon was really true and if it was then he would be baptized!  That would be right before I left, so it would be perfect.  He seems pretty sincere, even though there is some pretty serious flirt-to-convert going on with his girlfriend, but we'll see what happens.  He is a really good guy and very genuine and one of his greatest goals in life is to have a good family well-founded in the teachings of the gospel.  He's totally going to get there.

Alright, to preface miracles #4-5, I need to give a quick introduction.  Our district leader and one of my favorite missionaries of all time, Elder Musgrave, gave us a challenge in our last district meeting to find a unique way of contacting people and inviting them to come unto Christ and feel a bit closer to him.  I chose to invite people to come participate in our church choir, and Elder Burnett studied up on the stripling warriors as a way of talking about how the gospel blesses families.  We put these together on Sunday in preparation for that evening when we were to go out.  And then we ventured forth.

Miracle #4

I wish that I had a picture to send you of this miracle, but I don't, so I'll try to paint the image in your mind with my words.  So we went to visit Darrel Alfred, a young man who we had only spoken to briefly once before and then had never been able to contact again.  We finally caught him.  He lives with his mom in the Tallahassee Housing Authority, which is one of the nicer groupings of projects in Tallahassee.  When we knocked he opened his door to give me a swift reminder of what he looked like: ridiculously huge fro and a nice little mustache that was thin and crisp just like his bodily frame.  He was wearing this multi-colored shirt with a picture of King Tut's sarcophagus on it.  He couldn't have looked like more of a hippy if he were wearing a tie-dye shirt.  I felt like I was about to evangelize to Jimmy Hendrix.

He told us that he was tied and about to lie down because he had just gotten back from working at Whole Foods, an organic foods place just down the road that he bikes to.  But, a miracle happened.  When we were talking with him, it came to my mind to invite him to come participate in our church Christmas choir.  Even though his response seemed a bit apprehensive at first, we could tell that he was actually considering it.  He had been taught choir in school by a member of our ward, and we told him that that same member would be participating.  We started talking about music, found out he could play guitar, and me, having no reservations about that kind of stuff, I struck like a viper and asked "Wanna play some music for us?"  

Again, he hesitated, but after a second agreed and brought us into his house.  We sat down and he played us a couple songs by The Decemberists which were super cool, he was actually pretty good.  You'd think him being a hippy and all he would say things like chill or cool or whatever hippies say, but his saying was "true".  He said it to everything, and it was way awesome.  

After the music, we started talking about Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of the Killers and how he is a Mormon.  And by some crazy link between that and the Restoration of the gospel, we started teaching him from the Book of Mormon.  Miraculous!  His beliefs were somewhat out there, but we're going to be going back on Wednesday to visit with him and do some gardening.  Stoked.

Miracle #5

After that, we started making out way to the Valentines, a member family that we had planned on seeing that night for no particular reason.  On our way over there, we started coming close to the house of an inactive member who we had tried a few times but to no avail, he was never there.  When we were almost to his house, we decided that we would try him again to see if anything might come of it.  We pulled into the Rolling Hills apartments on John Knox Road and went up to number 131 to see if we could finally contact Dwight Webbe.  We gave it a knock and within ten seconds an elderly African-American gentleman answered the door.  He wasn't Dwight Webb, his name was Johnny Threatts.  Apparently Dwight had moved.  We had a pretty ordinary doorstep conversation, asked him about what he did for a living and if he had a family and all that jazz.  We found out that he had been in the military for a long time and had also contracted out to train different military and police forces around the world.  It was interesting, but we kind of reached an apogee in the conversation.  There was that few seconds of silence that usually ends with us being left on the outside of a closed door.  But all of a sudden he spoke up and said, "Y'all want to come in?"

Yes.  Yes I do.

We came in and started talking with him, and Elder Burnett whipped out the stripling warriors bit.  And it worked PERFECTLY.  We found out that Brother Threatts had retired from his most recent contract in Afghanistan after nearly having been killed by a suicide bomber.  He attributed everything, his life and family, to God and the great blessings from that.  He was one of the most humble men that I have ever met.  Elder Burnett testified like nobody's business and seemed to say exactly what Brother Threatts was feeling.  When things started winding down, we invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  With eagerness, he avidly said that he would.  He said that we could come back anytime and that he would love to hear more.  We are going back Friday.  Miracles!  God is on our side!

Miracle #6

We finally made it to the Valentines' home, and they just happened to have made a huge turkey and twice as much food as they actually needed.  Miracles are real.  That was some of the best tasting turkey that I have ever had.

That's my splurge for the week.  Thank you all for your fantastic birthday wishes and gifts.  I got my birthday gift, which was delicious, my Christmas gift, which I have not opened, and my hard drive, which I keep protected in a sock.  Being a missionary is great, and I have a ton to learn, especially about my relationship with Jesus Christ.  But those things that I do understand, I am so grateful for.  My testimony of the Atonement is really growing, even when I try to resist it because of pigheadedness.  I love my mission.

Sincerely,

Jack

Week #33

Dearest Family,

We had a pretty epic P-day today.  We ventured over to Tom Brown Park to do some mountain biking.  We've done it before, and it's super fun, even though I have to do it on my mission bike.  I look like a clown riding on that bike that was made for a missionary about half my size.  But it's still super fun.  We got a touch lost, so we ended up making about a seven-mile loop, but it was still super legit.  

We got a new investigator this week, and he's actually somewhat famous in these parts.  His name is Drake Anderson, and he actually plays Chief Osceola, the FSU mascot who comes into the stadium and throws the spear into the ground.  He was a referral from a member.  We are also going to be working with a less-active member this week who apparently played Jesus is one of the old church videos, so we're going to see if he has it and watch it with him.  And then we have LaiTaras, of course.  That's pretty much our teaching pool right now.  We're having a lot of fun.  And Elder Burnett and I are learning a lot better how to work with each other and be patient with one another, so we've made a lot of progress.

I've been trying something new that I really like that's super simple but makes a big difference.  Every night when i write in my journal I write down five new things that I'm grateful for.

Yeah, I'm sorry that I don't really have much to say this week.  We've just been in the office.  Doing boring but important stuff.  Elder Burnett is editing away on the other computer, so I usually just have to search for ways to fill my time effectively.  That includes writing essays about the best way to do missionary work using social media, organizing missionary choirs, logging all of our potentials in our area book into a digital form, eating some peanut butter M&Ms here and there.  The supply closet is all organized, so that doesn't occupy my time too much anymore.  If you can't tell, I'm kind of disillusioned with office work just about now.  It's time for me to get back out proselyting full time.  At least I want it to be time.  I want to teach.  In Portuguese, preferably.

Hope everything is going well.  Thanks for all of your pictures and kind notes.

Love,

Jack

Week #32

Dear Family,

I wrote another poem.  I think I wrote this a couple of weeks ago.  

God sees us better

Than we may now see ourselves

Both inside and out

"A companion? Why?

I know me better than he.

I think my own thoughts."

But "in" is just half

The eternal equation;

We need insight out

No mirrors can be

Used to reflect our actions

Like somebody else

Their eyes reflect us

And we know our own thinking

God's sight comes through both

I see him,

And he sees me.

We see ourselves

As God would see.

I wrote this poem because a thought came to mind one day about the way that God sees us.  We always say that God knows us better than we know ourselves, and I think that I know why.  Not only is he perfectly pure in his judgment, and knows where we're coming from, but at the same time he not only sees us from the inside but also from outside.  He can see how we act from the eyes of another person, whereas we cannot.  So I think that's why it's super important to surround yourself with other people because we can't really become our best selves without someone else letting us know how we appear from the outside.

So we had an interesting week this week.  Especially because of our fast and testimony meeting yesterday.  Good night, it was a sight to behold.  So I told you about LaiTaras Stokes, the black man we've been working with every week for like the past three weeks.  Since we've been meeting with him he's progressively gotten better and better at communicating, but it's still going to take some time to get him to speak clearly in a public group.

So he came to church on Sunday again, and it happened to be fast and testimony meeting.  We're not allowed to drive him, so we had a member bring him to church.  He sat with that family, a few rows in front of us pretty close to the front.  As soon as the first counselor turned the time over for testimonies to go down, LaiTaras stood straight up, preceded only by one person who had also jumped the gun.  Elder Burnett and I waited anxiously for LaiTaras's turn, and then it came.  He stood up and started preaching.  This is how he started: "Belief...(pause)...Belief...(pause)...Belief...(pause)..." and with his last pause I thought he was going to say it again.  After that he went into kind of a spew of words that didn't make sense together, and then he finally started making sense, made a few powerful statements, sang a line from "Amazing Grace" and then went and sat down.  The funny thing is that as soon as he sat down, both Elder Burnett and I had the thought, "I wonder if LaiTaras would dare stand up again."  Well, he did, and my heart dropped into my stomach as soon as he stood up.  That is the first time that I have ever seen someone stand up twice to bear their testimony.  Apparently he had not finished his thoughts, so he walked up their.  Brother Bishop stopped him and spoke with him for a sec, and then let him finish his testimony, which wasn't too crazy, just kind of out of place.  So that's went down, we had the gospel preached to us by a Mormon with a Baptist Preacher attitude.  

That was probably the highlight of the week.  We're going to see LaiTaras again today, and we're hoping at some point to be able to meet with his entire family.  We'll see what happens.

Thanks for all of the pictures of little Penny's baby blessing.  That little kidney bean is super cute, especially in her humongous dress.  That's way cool that that used to be Addie's dress and now little Penny is wearing it.  Super cute.  And Dad, congrats on your colonoscopy, I hope it was an enlightening experience.

Thanks much, you goons.  Keep being awesome!

Sincerely,

Jack

Week #31

Family!

This week has been a good week.  Especially because of yesterday, our Sunday was super boss.  Sister Beal finally came to church, even though she has told us at almost every meeting that we've had with her that she doesn't think that she will ever come back.  Liar!  But yeah, she came, and the LaiTaras Stokes came to all the meetings.  He is doing super well and we are getting a long ways with him, so I'm super happy.

So here's the scuttlebutt.  Within one week my visa went from step one to step four.  So it is technically ready to be picked up, meaning that the church probably will be jumping on that lickety-split.  Judging from my very precise calculations with absolutely no foundation whatsoever, I will probably be going to Brazil in a couple weeks or so.  Super exciting.  I should be staying in the office up until that point, with Elder Burnett as my companion, which should be fun because we are learning to get along really well.  Like I said before, we are both very particular about the way that we like things, and those things happen to just be completely opposite.  Our differences play upon our similarities.  So I almost have to try to be different than him so that I can be closer to him.  Super weird stuff.

So we attended a Marvin Goldstein performance this week, which was super cool.  He is in our stake and invited all of the missionaries in the Tallahassee area to attend one of his concerts at TCC, so we all got to go for free and hear some crazy piano-key magic this past Tuesday.  Something cool about him is that he actually plays on a regular basis at that church up in Brighton Canyon that Grandpa Copier built, and I actually talked to him about it.  It was a super cool performance, and I loved it.  

Hmm...I don't know what to say.  I feel like working in the office I never have anything to write to you all about, simply because it's pretty mundane.  Every so often I'll have some epiphany with some profound truth about something.  One thing that was pretty cool that I found in the Old Testament that I never realized before was how much in talks about baptism and the sacrament symbolically in the Book of Exodus.  Crossing the Red Sea under these huge heaps of water is like passing into the waters of baptism, leaving behind captivity in the land of Egypt and coming out into the promised land.  And then when the Israelites forget who had saved them, God makes sure to remind them by giving them bread and water, the sacrament.  It's all there!

There's not really anything else of too much significance.  Been setting lots of goals and moving steps closer.  I love my mission.  

Sincerely,

Jack