December 30, 2013

Christmas Party!

Merry Christmas everybody! I had a great Christmas here in Porto Alegre. We got to participate in a party of one of the families here. They also let us use their computers on Christmas day and I got to call home via Skype and talk with my family! That was awesome!

Christmas Skype!
talking with the family

Anyway, before I get carried away, I liked a few scriptures this week. In the spirit of the charity of natal, look up Mosiah 4:17-18. I think all of us have difficulties with being charitable.

After that, I really liked D&C 6:23. Sometimes we spend years searching for an answer to a prayer, when the answer already came in the simple feeling of peace during a prayer. A response to a prayer doesn't have to be a voice, a shock, or a dream. It can be as simple as a feeling of peace.

Lastly, I studied Nehemiah (Neemias in Portuguese) and liked the principle of staying true to our purposes found in 6:3.

Outside of the famous "call to the family" of Christmas, this week included a lot of work. We walked and walked and walked and I don't think I've stopped sweating yet. Christmas day and Saturday were the hottest days of the week. The sun is super bright too and it just sucks out all of our energy. But Elder Soares and I decided to work hard anyway and we had a bunch of success this week. In fact, we were blessed to be able to baptize Francisco, Cícera, and Evilânia on Sunday. Their baptism was great, especially because their neighbors (who we are teaching too) were there. We are working to baptize some of them next week!

Baptism - Elder Soares, Evilania, Maria, Cicera, Fred (in front of Cicera), Francisco, Elder Jasperson

In the picture of the baptism, you'll find Francisco, a quiet but super nice man and his wife, Cícera. They have one son, Fred, who has an underdeveloped nervous system. He recently learned to walk, and we're hoping that one day he might be able to learn to talk and listen. He's super cute and expresses happiness in the form of movement. When we go to their house he always starts jumping up and down and flailing his arms around. They live with Maria, Cícera's mom and Evilânia, Cícera's sister. They are all from the northern part of Brazil and have super cool accents.

Saturday night we had a challenge. We'd been in the sun all day, and it was super hot. As I've mentioned previously, we have one small fan in our house, and we set it up in our bedroom. Despite that, we couldn't sleep. I laid awake on my bed, dying of thirst until midnight, when, after tossing and turning, I sat up and leaned against the wall, which was a little cooler. Elder Soares was no better, lying in bed with a leg hanging out the window. What made it worse is that we were fasting, and super dehydrated. We talked and decided that we should break our fast because if we didn't sleep, we wouldn't be able to work the next day. We prayed and then ran to the fridge. We store water in two-liter soda bottles, and each of us grabbed one and chugged it. As I drank, I started sweating again, which was a really weird sensation, but meant that at least I had water in me. Even after that, it was really hard to sleep, so I climbed out of bed and slept on the tile floor (which was also a little cooler). Elder Soares was scared of the bugs so he suffered the night on his bed. But we woke up on Sunday morning and had a great day. We had 14 investigators at church, which was a huge blessing because most of the ward was traveling. Thanks to them, the benches weren't empty!

And in case you were wondering, last night was great. There was a huge wind passing through the city so we left the windows and doors open. We slept super good! The only problem is when we woke up we had to clean up because it looked like a tornado hit our house.

One other funny story from this week- we have two huge fire extinguishers in the house- I don't know why because there's no way our concrete house will burn down! Anyway, one of them had the pin pulled- that little safety thing that prevents you from using it. So we decided to put the pin back in. For fear of setting off the extinguisher, we wisely pointed the hose into the bathroom. And set it off we did! That was funny! I was trying to squeeze the handle shut sufficiently so that Elder Soares could put the pin back in, and all of this while we were trying to control the hose! Well Elder Soares got the pin stuck in and we learned why it had been pulled- because the pin locked the valve open, not shut, and we couldn't stop the water flow! So the extinguisher is back on the wall now, a little lighter, but thankfully with the pin pulled. And our bathroom is a lot cleaner too!

I'm so happy to be here serving the lord! I know that this Church has the fullness of the gospel. I used an analogy the other day- when I was in high school, I went through the lunch line every day and always got the same thing- chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes. I'd tried other things, like the salads and the chicken sandwiches, but the nuggets were the best that I could find. So for about 3 years I ate them for lunch. I can't complain, I like chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes. But one day someone asked me why I didn't ever eat the baked potatoes. So I tried it. And wow! Those baked potatoes were great! So my last few weeks of school, I ate baked potatoes. What I learn from this is lots of times we have something good that we like, and we follow it because it's the best we've found. But when someone shows us something new, sometimes it can be thing we were missing without knowing it.

I am so grateful to have learned about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ here on the earth and to have the chance to help other people learn of it too!

Happy New Year and all of that good stuff!

Elder Jasperson

Christmas Dinner

gift box from ward relief society sisters

helping to cook the churrascos

December 23, 2013

This week was super long, but it was great! It started with the transfer. Elder Luz was transferred to Canoas, and now I'm with Elder Soares. He's from Minas Gerais, although his family lives in Espírito Santo now.

Goodbye Elder Luz

Hello Elder Soares

This week I liked reading in 2 Nephi. 2 Nep 8:16 stuck out to me. I also studied something else - read the following scriptures to see what they have in common -

• Alma 50:20
• Jarem 1:9
• Leviticus 25:18-19
• 1 Nephi 4:14
• Mosiah 2:22

All of them say the same thing. Until now, I've found 13 scriptures that have the same message. How many can y'all find?

The message is simple - if we keep the commandments, we'll prosper. I've seen this a ton of times here.

Here's an example -

Carlos and Katia are two of our investigators. We baptized their kids last week (Andre Samuel and Vinicius). They had a really difficult relationship and were thinking about separating. We thought that we'd teach them about the law of chastity and help them separate so they could be baptized. But guess what? As they've been going to church, reading the scriptures and keeping the commandments, their lives have changed. Without us prompting, they started to talk about getting married legally. Their lives literally changed 100 percent! It's really awesome to see the gospel change them. They now have baptism and marriage dates marked for the 30th of January. (That might change depending on when they can get the papers to marry).

Anyway, for the transfer, Elder Luz went to the bus station with Elder Neff, and I stayed with his companion, Elder Shreeve, as we waited for our new companions. During this time, I made breakfast cake which was super delicious. But I learned that if you keep leftover breakfast cake in a box in the fridge for a week it no longer will be super delicious. But I think Elder Soares likes me just because I welcomed him to our area with breakfast cake. Elder Shreeve has the same amount of time on the mission as me. But he went through the MTC in Provo and his first area was in Colorado. But he made it here so that's cool. I realized how incredibly blessed I am. I am speaking Portuguese fluently without much problem at all, but he still has a lot of problems. I truly was blessed to receive my visa on time so I could have all this time here in Brazil, and more, the gift of tongues is really helping.

With the transfer, Elder de Oliveira moved into our zone, so when we had district meetings on Wednesday, I was able to see him for a bit. He was wearing my tie (probably because it's the only cool tie he has :P)

This week was our Ward Christmas party. And that was a blast. We had a bunch of investigators there too! I sent some photos of the party. It all was pretty good.

Ward Christmas Party (Festa da ala)

Ward Christmas Party

This week was super super great because we found Fransisco, Cícera and their family. They are from Ceará, a state way up north. They have super cool accents, and are really open. They already have baptism dates for the week that comes :) It's super awesome to teach them. They made us tapioca and tea when we went there yesterday to teach. Tapioca is pretty good, but the tea (from fruit so it's okay to drink) was not. I don't like tea at all. They brought us each a cup and I managed to somehow get it all down, but I was about ready to throw up. They asked if I wanted more, and I told them they didn't need to worry about it. But they brought another cup. I prayed like crazy that I could drink it without throwing up in front of them, and managed to get it down. Teaching after that was hard because I was feeling really nauseated, but somehow I managed it. We left their house and I ran a little farther down the path so I could spit the taste out of my mouth! I guess you can't like everything, but Elder Soares sure got a hoot out of it!

On Sunday, I played the piano again in sacrament meeting, and I guess I'm getting better, so that's nice. I'm glad that I can help out the ward a little through music.

Lastly, we had a cool experience this week when we taught a mom and her daughter who is part deaf. Because she has trouble hearing, she goes to a school of deaf kids where they only speak sign language (called libras, and is different than ASL). She can speak aloud too, unlike from most of her classmates, with only a little difficulty. It was super cool because she talks while she signs. We want to learn how to sign a baptism invitation to invite her to be baptized! :)

Anyway, Christmas is basically here so MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love you all! Thanks for your prayers and thoughts!

Elder Jasperson

PS - I forgot to tell y'all that I ate a new fruit. I've been branching out a bit with my fruit milkshakes, and Elder Luz had told me that Maracujá is really good with milk. So I bought one and froze it. I was really surprised when I cut it open! I bet it would be even weirder if I hadn't frozen it (see attached pictures). But Elder Luz was right! It was really good with milk! Elder Soares helped me - the trick is you have to strain out the seeds because they taste bad.

Maracuja

Maracuja with seeds!

December 16, 2013

Good morning America! This week (today, actually) I learned that I'm 4 hours away (time zone difference) from Texas. That means y'all are just waking up and stuff as I'm here getting ready for lunch! Weird.

It's funny how different the world is.

Here's some nice scripture moments - I studied a bit of the Bible this week and especially liked James 2:21-22 (Our works perfect our faith) and James 3:2 (how to be perfect). The thing is, to be perfect, we have to dominate our tongues (speech), and that's not possible. But I liked the thought that one of the biggest errors we make is through use of our tongues. We all need to improve how we talk.

Lastly, I liked 2 Nephi 10:23. I don't think I've ever heard this scripture used before because we always use 2 Nephi 2:27. But I liked how Jacob puts it in Chapter 10. Be happy! Salvation is easy- you just have to choose it, and act with that choice.

So we had some miracles happen this week. And some awesome stuff too. On Pday, we went to a mall. It was probably the nicest mall I've ever been in in my life. And we ate Burger King there. Which was probably the nicest Burger King I've eaten in my life. 

Then, we made a sacrifice of some of our Pday to teach Catia and Carlos. We taught about the Word of Wisdom, and Catia told us about an experience she had. She was super addicted to coffee. But on Sunday, she didn't drink any coffee at all. She had been thinking about how strange that was when we showed up and taught about the Word of Wisdom- that coffee does bad things to us. And then and there her family and she made a commitment to never drink coffee again. And they didn't. As a result of the power of the testimony of Catia, we were able to baptize her sons this Sunday. She asked us when they could be baptized, and asked that it be done as soon as possible. Sweet. Andre Samuel and Vinicius are two really smart boys. They are reading the scriptures often and always listen to our lessons. They remember almost everything we teach. Catia and Carlos are talking about getting married, and after that, they'll be baptized too!

This week was our Mission Christmas Conference. It was great to get to see the Mission President, his wife, and all the other Missionaries. I got to talk with Elder Angus again, and was happy to hear that things are going great in Osório. João and Adinam were both baptized! The Christmas conference was awesome.

We found Rose this week, and her family and started teaching them. She and her husband love to laugh. We had a ton of fun visiting them this week. In our first visit, as we were sharing our message about the restoration of the gospel, Rose interrupted us and said- "Well y'all should be out sharing this message with everyone and gathering the people who will listen" and then after a short pause "Ohhhh Now I understand! Y'all are here to baptize me!" That was pretty funny, but we're hoping that the family can be baptized. They are understanding a lot of our messages. On Saturday, we taught a lesson there and couldn't stop laughing. We laughed and laughed with them. 

Rose and her family have pretty much nothing. They live in a wood shack and she works with recycling. Which means that she walks around pulling a cart all day trying to find tin cans and cardboard boxes. We know that the gospel will bless their lives and are happy to get to share with them. Sadly, they didn't go to church this Sunday.

Yesterday, I made a challenge contact - what Elder Luz and I call contacts with people who are carrying bibles (which is actually pretty common because some of the more popular churches here teach the members to carry bibles always) because usually it starts a debate. In situations like these, people usually start to question our doctrines to prove them false. In Bible Bashes (these debates) it's pretty much impossible to win and we avoid trying to. We just explain what we believe. Anyway, in this case, I won. I've never, ever, ever won a bible bash before, but as I explained the gospel principles to him, he felt the spirit and realized that they were true. So we marked to pass by his house and talk with him.

This week Elder Luz and I did a massacre of mosquitos. They have been eating us alive every night. (Editor's Note: Elder Jasperson's mom tried to send a mosquito net with him when he left home....but he refused and stated the mosquitos would not be too bad!) So we went around our little house hunting them. The best way to hunt mosquitos is to smack them out of the air with your hand. The get knocked out or something and can't fly anymore- they stay on the ground and limp around. After about an hour the ground was covered in bugs and we were certain that the house was mosquito free. We're still finding some of the little pests in the mornings, but we're not getting bitten as often J  

At lunch the other day, the Sister asked what sort of food I used to eat at home. I told her that we don't eat rice and beans and she couldn't believe it! Without rice and beans, what on earth did we eat? Even I couldn't remember. What did I eat for dinner every day? I guess that means I'm pretty much Brasilian now. Because rice and beans are delicious.

To finish, I want to let you all know that I know that this church is true. I know that the work I am doing is the work of God. I know he loves your personally. Because we know this, we should all be happy, as he wants us to be. Have a wonderful week and Christmas season!

Elder Jasperson

December 16, 2013 Picture Post

BATISMO! Catia (mom) Andre Samuel (13) Vinicius (9)

BATISMO! Catia (mom) Andre Samuel (13) Vinicius (9) Benito (9) Carlos (Step dad)
Taila (Oldest daugter) two of Taila's daugters that I don't know

Burger King!

some cool chimarrão moments

some cool chimarrão moments

 

I made a cabinet of boxes as we did not have a real cabinet

December 9, 2013

This week was one of the best weeks of my mission so far. Elder Luz and I focused on being positive and energetic. And it worked. We were happy and really blessed. Here is a cool motivational poster that I like. It says that we need to work, because the reward will come (eventually). As you can see in the picture, that well requires a lot of work. Elder Luz and I relate to this because the past couple weeks were pretty difficult and this week was the wonderful reward.

There's one scripture I'd like to share with y'all this week - James 5:19-20. This is James talking about how we should help inactives. I also really liked 2 Nephi 1:15.

This week I had a new challenge I hadn't faced yet on the mission. I made a contact in English. I made regular contact with a guy in the street, and it turned out he spoke English. And I tell you - I've never had so much trouble making a contact in my life! It was really hard, almost impossible to talk to that poor guy in English. And I've only been here for 5 months! So that was funny. Elder Luz laughed and laughed.

In my study of the Language, I'm focusing on verbs. This week I learned some cool ones. Bochechar means "to wash out your mouth with liquid" and calar means "to hold your tongue." So for all you parents out there, "bocheche!" is how you would command your child to wash their mouth.

I learned a cool lesson this week about cornbread. This week I made the best cornbread I've made in my life. The secret is this- I preheated the oven. I've been too lazy to preheat the oven and never did it. But this week I did and the cornbread was delicious and fluffy. This made me think of the gospel. How we have to keep all of the rules and follow all of the steps to get the best result - (celestial kingdom) if we follow only some of the steps, we'll get something of lesser value (a lower kingdom)

Also, since I'm talking about food, here's a bit for you mom - I'm choosing to eat vegetables, for the first time in my life! I'm actually enjoying having a bit of color on my plate. Also, I'm turning into a milkshake lover. Fruit is really cheap here and we have a blender :)

One day this week we found a cute little fuzzy caterpillar on our wall. Good thing that Elder Luz is Brazilian, and recognized the little guy. Because he is deathly. You touch him and your finger doesn't stop hurting for a day or two. (Don't ask how we know that). So we scooped him up and threw him out. The next day, he was on the wall again. This time we left him. He climbed all the way up to the top and made a cocoon there. We thought that was pretty cool until today, when the cocoon was gone... D:

This week was our Stake Conference, and it was really excellent. During the adult session, one of the speakers called up volunteers and did live practices of how to share the gospel up in front. I'd never seen that done before, but it was pretty good. He had a powerful message. There was also a Stake Christmas activity this week. Everyone was told to bring a friend and we took our investigators. At the end of the program (this is brilliant) they asked all of the people there that weren't members to stand up. Little primary kids walked around with "presents" for each of them. It was super cute, and a great way to get everyone to accept a book of Mormon and an Ensign (of Conference) (they were wrapped up all cute in little boxes).

We ended the week with an awesome Sunday. We are teaching Catia, Carlos and their kids. They really have a ton of will to follow the gospel. On Sunday, Carlos took a bus to go to Stake Conference, leaving Catia with the kids (there was a problem with tickets for the bus). We were inspired to pass by their house with a member to give them a ride (even though they'd said they'd all go by bus). So we gave Catia and the kids a ride to Stake Conference. Carlos got lost and ended up not finding the chapel. So, having a huge desire to feel the spirit and keep the Sabbath day holy, he returned to our zone of Porto Alegre and sat in front of our chapel there. He said he prayed and sat there until mid-day, when he returned home. We invited the whole family to be baptized and will baptize the boys next week, because Catia wants them to be baptized as soon as possible. Carlos and Catia have some things they'll have to work out before their baptisms.

After the powerful lesson with that family, when we invited them to be baptized, we passed by Regina´s house. Honestly, I had been doubting that she still had interest, but she started off our lessons by saying "I think I received an answer to my prayer!" We are really excited for her. Her problem is that she works on Sundays. So we're hoping and praying that she can figure out what she'll do.

Lastly, we baptized Valério, Jane and David this week. They got married last week, and this week were baptized. It was an awesome service.

To end, I want to thank my awesome friends and relatives who sent me cards because I don't think there is anything better in the world then hearing from our friends that live far away.

setting up a Christmas tree we found under Elder Luz' bed

Christmas Gig 'Em!

Love you all. Merry Christmas!

Elder Jasperson

December 2, 2013

Well this week went by pretty slowly. Probably because we did so much. It started one morning when I got fed up with my hair. I don't really like Brazilian haircuts very much, and my hair was being annoying. So I did what any self-confident person would do. I grabbed some scissors and cut it. It actually worked better than I was expecting, so a bit later in the week I gave it a better cut. Now, it's looking pretty good. PS - children, don't try this at home.

Anyway, the scriptures of the week are Acts 16:31 and James2:17. These two, together, teach us that when we really believe, we will act. And through our actions, we will find exaltation.

I studied a bit about how to share a testimony in a better way. I liked the example in Alma 34:8

Anyway, this week I bought, for the first time in Brazil, fruit. I went with a pretty normal one, the banana. Thanks to all of the times that I sat around and watched my mom cook, I was able to make banana shakes! That was good. But even better was Thursday. We ate tacos. And that was a taste of home. See, here in Brazil, we don't eat Mexican food. Elder Luz and I probably ate 10 or more tacos apiece. After eating tacos, we were served pumpkin pie. And I tell you- I have never eaten a pumpkin pie so delicious in my life! What a blessing.

We had some cool experiences this week. We visited some less actives called Marlei and Bernardinho. Marlei was so happy to have missionaries in her house again that she almost started crying. It really showed us that sometimes the only thing we need to do to help people return to church is visit them. Because this Sunday, Marlei and her husband were there.

Valerio and Jane got married this week. I have a bunch of pictures, but this computer isn't working very well today so I'm not able to send them. Anyway, it was a good ceremony. They wanted to be baptized the same day, (before the wedding party, while everyone was there), but there were some complications and we had to call the baptism off. So they'll be baptized this Wednesday instead. It was a great wedding though.

Valerio and Jane with their son David at the wedding

One cool experience is that this week, our key to the chapel stopped working. (One of the keys, the chapel has 5 locks). The thing is, you have to unlock all five locks to open the chapel, and we couldn't get in. We called the bishop and he opened it for us. 

Later in the week, when we needed to prepare some things for the wedding, we had to open the chapel. I remembered an experience I had a lot of years ago in Oklahoma, when Jamie was babysitting and locked the keys in the house. I remember how we went to the Jensen’s house to wait for the locksmith. I felt impressed to go and try the door again. So I ran home, and opened the door- it wasn't locked. I than ran all the way back to the Jensen’s house to tell mom to stop calling the Locksmith. 

I shared this experience with Elder Luz, and we decided to go ahead and try to open the chapel, despite having a malfunctioning key. Well guess what, the key worked. I'm grateful for the little tender mercies of the Lord in our lives.

This week, a lot of activities were happening at the chapel. One of them is something that I never imagined I'd ever participate in again. A piano recital. Not very many people here take piano lessons, so people from all over Porto Alegre came to watch their kids (like uncles, grandparents, cousins...). And along with the little kids who were to perform, guess who was asked to play? .......... Me!

my invitation to the piano recital!

I'd accidentally let it slip to the sister that teaches piano that I used to play. So, even though I finished with my last piano recital years ago, and quit taking lessons because I didn't want to do it anymore, I performed in a piano recital. 

To further the story, the Bishop's wife was there at the recital. And heard me play. And guess which calling our ward doesn't have filled right now? Yep, ward pianist. So I was asked to play the hymns in sacrament meeting. I accepted, of course, and she told me the hymns. They weren't hymns that I recognized, but I managed to play them. Would you believe it? Me- playing the piano in sacrament meeting? I'm expecting that it's going to be a regular thing now.

Lastly, here's a pleasant thought- here in Brazil, avocado is used in sweet foods. Like they mix it with sugar. I still haven't tried it. But the face that you make as you think about eating avocado with sugar is the same face that they make when you talk about avocado as a salty food- eating as a sauce on a taco. That made for a funny conversation.

Anyway, hope that everything is going well as y'all prepare for a great Christmas! Remember that Christmas is more than snow and trees- it's about our savior, Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Jasperson

our pink chapel in Elizabete