13 April 2015

So this week was a food thing. We're at the end of our food money, but there's always a way- a Sister from the ward gave us some weird green beans and some Asian noodles, so we ate something like Chinese takeout day and night for a few days. And then one night guess what we found? A potato promotion- 3kg for 2 royals! So we bought a bag and we've been eating all types of potatoes! Fried, baked, boiled, mashed- I haven't figured out how to make potatoes with sugar yet but we've had them in about every other possible manner!

Chinese take out

potatoes!!!!

Flávio was baptized this week- he's 19 and works as a personal trainer- his bicep is bigger than my head! That was a good thing.

So cleaning out some old stuff in the house, I found a bed canopy! I managed to hang it up with "durepoxi" (that same thing I used to fix my suitcase wheels) and I've been sleeping in the "princess bed" now! Haha it looks like something from "Sleeping beauty" :)

putting up the princess bed

finished product

sleeping like a baby

sleeping princess

We worked a lot in the central park of Alvorada this week- and we made a new record of contacts in an hour- 150! Elder Tavares is a great worker too!

Here's to another great week!

Elder Jasperson

central park in Alvorada

a shoe problem

April 6, 2015

Well General Conference passed by well and was the highlight of the week. The rest of our week was a series of lunch problems.

For example- On Wednesday we'd marked lunch with Sister Cheli (or shulé or Cirlei- we still don't know her name) so we set off to her house. We'd called her to confirm our lunch and she gave us an address- Felipe Ferrari Rd. It's about 35 minutes away from our house, walking, so we decided to go for it and walk there. Well we finally walked up to her house to find out that she didn't actually live there! It was a wrong address! We called some Sisters and they got us the real address- In a different road on the other side of the city! We took off walking, starving, and about an hour afterwards, we walked up to her house- and she wasn't home! Her husband (who isn't a member, he said) told us she was traveling and that she wasn't there! (We still don't know who we talked with to confirm our lunch or where the address on Felipe Ferrari Rd came from!) It was already 2:30 and we had a marked visit to make, so instead of going to a restaurant, we went and taught first and finally we ended up eating around 3:30 that afternoon! The restaurant was closing, but luckily the manager knows the missionaries and he got us in :)

Would you be surprised to hear that the same story happened again on Saturday? We're just training our legs and our stomachs. As some might say, we are "testing the flesh"-- that's what Gabriel, an investigator, told us! That was funny.

At general conference, we learned a lot about celestial marriage and enduring to the end. Those things are important guys! We didn't get to watch the Priesthood session yet but we'll download it and watch it this week.

Love y'all!

Elder Jasperson

Us with a guy in a banana suit
(his sign says take a picture with me- fifty cents)

March 30, 2015

So with the transfer I ended up in Alvorada. I'm training a new missionary- Elder Tavares. He's from the north of Brazil, a city called Olinda, in Pernambuco. He has a TON of energy. Sometimes I feel like I got the companion from "The Best Two Years" - Elder Calhoun.

Our first day we arrived in Alvorada and started to work. We´re opening a new area here. I got the map and gave it to Elder Tavares, telling him to hold onto it. Then we got out of the house and out in the road and I asked him for the map. Oops! He forgot it at home! Well, I kind of remembered the things I'd seen on the map, so we kind of wandered around and we ended up managing to find where we wanted to go. And then Elder Tavares looked at me with those giant greeny eyes and said "Wow! We followed the Spirit!" :)

That night we kind of got lost getting back home. Elder Tavares started running around like a crazy guy saying "this way... no, that way!" in the end, we managed to find our house :) I made a "torta de bolacha" to welcome him to the mission.

So we passed most of the week walking and walking and walking... but we managed to teach a lot too. In the end, it was a good week.

Ever since I've been on the mission, I've heard about Alvorada- how it is a really dangerous city. They say that the Burro "Umbu" is the most dangerous in the state. Well, we decided to go and check it out. From what we saw, it wasn't actually that bad! But I guess that depends on what you call bad. That Burro is really far away from the church though, so we won't be going there that much, I think.

In the countdown, I'm down to 10 weeks left! I can tease elder Tavares a lot- the number of days he has on the mission is the number of weeks I have left! But actually, I'm really going to miss the mission. I don't want to go home that much (even though I love y'all!) In sacrament meeting, a young woman who returned from her mission last week bore her testimony. She too didn't want to come home yet! I guess most missionaries feel like that. She received her mission call, went on the mission, and came home, all in the time that I've been on the mission.

And the best part about Alvorada? It is beside the airport so I get a constant reminder every day of airplanes passing overhead!

Love Y'all!

Elder Jasperson

??, Elder Jasperson, and Elder Hortêncio 

pig's head barbeque

elder dos anjos and me ready to leave

celebratory cracker pie

March 23, 2015

I read a great article in the Ensign this week. We have lots of old ones in our house and I was leafing through them. In the February 2007 issue, there is an article about the Good Samaritan. I liked it a lot.

I'm being transferred tomorrow! So my time in Novo Hamburgo has finally ended! We had a good week, especially because Wesley and Natã were baptized. We reactivated Wesley's family and he was baptized, since his family stopped going to church before he turned 8. Natã is his neighbor and was baptized with him. Elder dos Anjos played and I sang "I need thee every hour" for the service. Natã's mom was so happy to see her son being baptized (even though she definitely doesn't want to be baptized--yet!) and she cried during the whole meeting.

Elder dos Anjos, Wesley, Natã, and me

Wesley and his family

Natã and his family

Other people that I've taught were also baptized Gabriel, Ismael's brother was baptized in Sapucaia, and Adriana, a woman that I found in Campo Bom on division with Elder J. Silva was baptized too. So it was a happy week.

Fátima, the Bishop's wife taught us how to make a "Torta de Bolacha" (Cracker Pie) and so we made one and it turned out yummy :)

Torta de Bolacha
(cracker pie)

close up of Torta de Bolacha
(cracker pie)

I did a division with Elder Hortêncio on Friday, and it was fun to relive old times for a moment. We talked a lot about Rio Pardo and stuff. It was fun to see how our teaching styles are similar (I wonder who taught him to teach like that... haha)

On Sunday the Teacher of the Gospel Principles class didn't show up, so I gave the lesson about the Atonement. It's one of the best lessons to teach. Since I hadn't prepared beforehand, so I took notes on a paper towel from the bathroom really quick. Since it was hot, the fans were all on (there isn't air conditioning in the rooms) and the paper towel kept flying away!

my paper towel notes

I'm excited to be transferred, and I'll let y'all know next week where I'm at!

Elder Jasperson

March 16, 2015

D&C 90:15 - we need to learn from "Good Books" It is important that we know many truths, or that we are instructed in various fields. God wants us to be intelligent.

This some good things happened - Rute was baptized in Ivoti. And way back in Rio Pardo, a young woman named Ana that I taught was also baptized :)

We did a division with the area called Sapiranga this week. So I worked with Elder Merrit in our area and Elder Dos Anjos went to Sapiranga. Elder Merrit was trained by Elder Hortêncio and he's new on the mission. He has a lot of trouble speaking Portuguese since he's new and it was a different challenge for me to work with him- it was the first time that I've worked with somebody who doesn't speak the language. Despite that, we had a great division. We got a ton done and had a bit of fun too. At the end of our division, Elder Merrit said "Can I be honest with you? I don't want to go back to Sapiranga"!

One of the fun things we did was Thursday night. We were walking back home that night and we passed by a group of boys in the street playing basketball. They'd nailed a strip of metal up on the light post as a basket and they had a basketball (which is pretty rare). So I stopped and asked the boys if they'd ever played basketball with an American (since basketball isn't really a sport in Brazil, everyone knows that Americans play it cause the watch the NBA). Clearly, they said no, then I told them that we were American and that Elder Merrit and I would take them on. So it was the 7 guys against us two. We're both tall and it was well-matched :) We got a good sweat out before getting back home. The kids were all yelling "Wow! These guys are 3 meters tall! They're professionals!" It was a fun night.

Another funny experience was on Friday when this guy in the street started yelling after us that we were Americans and spies from Obama! Since he didn't want to listen to reason, I just asked him if he wanted to give me his citizenship number for me to pass to Obama! Ha ha

This Sunday, we were arriving a bit late at church, coming from picking up some investigators when Brother Thomas stopped me and asked me to talk in sacrament meeting. Of course I accepted! I love to give talks. I hurried to find some good scriptures about prayer and talked about how God answers our prayers. Then I invited everyone to pray daily asking to have missionary experiences.

Speaking of prayer, last week in Ivoti, I lost my bag and with it some money and my Bible. That was the saddest thing - losing my bible because I've had that guy my whole mission. I'd left the bag on the bench at the bus stop, when we were returning to Novo Hamburgo from Ivoti. So I'd been praying that somebody would find it and recognize it as being a missionaries', and that they'd take it to the chapel in Ivoti. But that didn't happen and I was pretty depressed. But I kept praying that somebody would find it. And on Tuesday, the missionaries from Ivoti called saying that they'd found it! See that? God really does answer prayers :)

Elder Jasperson

Elder Merrit and me

with Elder Merrit

personal pan breakfast cake
(Mom: I finally learned how to make it right!)

the last of the breakfast cake

down to the end of my shoes!

This is what we do after a long day of walking in the hot, humid sunny weather

March 9, 2015

D&C 117:13 Our Sacrifices are worth more than our success to God.

This week was great because we went to the temple and we had a mission conference in Porto Alegre. We had some problems catching the right bus and stuff, but it all worked out in the end. I worked in Ivoti this week and helped Elder Andrade lift up the area there. They'd been having a hard time and now they've got a ton of new investigators to teach! It was a great faith-building experience because we saw that as we used our faith and diligent, God blessed us with results.

One funny part of the division was that when we asked a Lady to pray, she started "Ó Pai Celestial meu gostoso..." which is calling God "Delicious" ha-ha.

You can listen to my voice recording for more information about the week :)

Sorry I don't have any other cool stories from the week, but I know that the Church is True and that God is Good. (And maybe delicious).

I was with Elder Hortêncio in Porto Alegre this week. Can you find us in the pictures in the shopping mall?

on the bus

at the temple

at the temple

at the temple

at the shopping mall

at the shopping mall

March 3, 2015

Doctrine and Covenants 98:2 - the Lord promised that he will always, always answer our prayers :)

This week flew by! It all started on Monday with Churrasco (BBQ) at Flávio's house.

our churrasco last monday

our churrasco last monday

Tuesday we went out in search of new investigators and we had little success. It was a long day.

Then, on Wednesday, I went to Porto Alegre to work. I was on division with Elder Burgos and we worked in the "Elizabeth" area, where I served in Nov 2013 - Feb 2014. I had some cool experiences there, when I met up with Thiago, Gabriel, and Diego, three of the boys I taught and baptized last year. Wednesday night, after tracting all day (and a lot of success!) we passed by the chapel to get my bag of clothes and stuff (since I stayed the night there) and seminary was going on. Thiago was there and he saw & recognized me before I could remember who he was! He's grown a bunch and his hair is longer (see the picture). Luckily, I had some ties with me in my bag and I gave him one.

Me and Thiago and the tie I gave him

On Thursday, I was still in Porto Alegre (I stayed there two days on division) and while in the street that afternoon, two boys came running over- Diego and Gabriel! They both are still going to church too and were really excited to see me! They kept asking if Elder Soares was back too (my companion when I taught them). The rest of the division was good too. Thursday, around dinner time, a man was killed in the Burro we were in, São Borja. Everyone got scared and hid in their houses so there wasn't much for us to do there. We saw the guy, lying in the gravel on the side of the road as we were walking to a different Burro. Thursday night, the Missionaries there give a Piano class, so I participated (and taught) with Elder Burgos.

Since I was in Porto Alegre, I stopped by in the mission office to talk with President Wright, pick up materials, and stuff, and I ended up fixing-up some of the computers there. Sister Wright called me over later to help her with her computer. Ha-ha maybe it was a bad idea to tell them that I know computers!

Friday morning, I returned to Novo Hamburgo with Elder dos Anjos, but not to our Burro of Canudos. As soon as we arrived in the train station, I went on division with Elder J. Silva in Campo Bom. He's Elder Hortêncio's companion. (I trained Elder Hortêncio in Rio Pardo and now he's training Elder J. Silva). Elder J. Silva has 3 weeks on the mission. Our division also went well, but we got really, really soaked that afternoon. We stopped under a bus stop to escape the rain a bit and a woman passing on a bike also stopped. So we taught her while it rained and invited her to the church and to be baptized and she accepted! So we took down her address. She lives with her son so now the missionaries have a family to teach! Elder J. Silva is new so he still has all that "Greenie energy" and he walks so fast he's almost running in the road! I could feel my 'age' a bit trying to keep up with him! Ha-ha it was first time on the mission that somebody had more energy than me!

Elder J.Silva and I on the bus to Novo Hamburgo

I finally got back to good old Jardim Alcântara on Saturday morning. Since I'd been on division for three days, I didn't have any clean clothes. I actually had run out of clean shirts on the division and I had to put on a dirty one that morning. I washed a shirt to use for that day, but I didn't have any clean socks except for my pair of white socks that I use with my tennis shoes to do service. So I had to use the so-called "old man style" of white socks with black shoes! How embarrassing! (Don't worry, I have clean clothes now)

Rocking the old guy style

Sunday was a decent day, but sadly, none of our investigators came to church. That was annoying. We even left church to go and pick them up in their houses, but nobody woke up (and some weren't even home 'cause they went traveling Saturday and didn't tell us). We're hoping that this week will be better. We worked yesterday (Monday) 'cause we're going to the temple today. So yesterday we went out with João to teach (he's a young man in the ward) and we taught a bunch of lessons.

This week I'm going to do a three-day division in Ivoti so I'm hoping to have some fun adventures (they say that Ivoti is the city of Germans).

Love y'all!

Elder Jasperson

a preview of a wonderful missionary breakfast- apple tea (don't worry, there's no black tea involved here), 

oatmeal and brown sugar. (Boil the oatmeal with the tea bag in the water)

my new tie

Elder J. Silva and me resting
(Jehovah's Witness missionaries in background)