1 December 2010

This week was a fast one. I’m still loving working together with Elder Sardinha. Last week, we stopped by the house of one girl who has been going to church for almost a year (She lives in Capão Raso, the neighbor ward, where we go when there are referrals). Her God-mother was anything but friendly, but we still acted courteous. At church, the bishop and other leaders from Capão Raso told us that things would be difficult with Elza (the God-mother) and that it would take some time. Well, Daiane expressed her desire (without us saying anything) to be baptized, and we went over on Monday to see if her mother had signed the baptismal form. What a surprise it was for us when Elza invited us to some in and wait for Daiane! And what a bigger surprise it was when she started to ask us questions about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! She asked us why evil exists in the world. She asked us about life after death. It was a wonderful teaching opportunity, and we were very grateful for the blessing that Heavenly Father had bestowed upon us. Daiane was baptizes yesterday night, and Elza is excited to have us over again soon.

Not much has changed outside of that. The mission choir is still going strong. We’ll be presenting next week. I still don’t know anything about our presentation for the governor. I’ll call the brother who’s in charge of all this tonight to see what’s going on.

I hope the computer won’t have blown up when I get home .

Love,

Elder Floyd

24 November 2010

Elder Sardinha and I are having a great time here in Novo Mundo. There
are a few new people at church that I didn’t know one year ago, but
for the most part I knew everyone. It was great to see the looks on
people’s faces when we greeted them at church on Sunday. Most of them
seemed to be thinking, “Wait, haven’t you already been here before?”

Outside of finding new people to teach, Elder Sardinha and I have been
visiting a few of the people that I taught a year ago. From the looks
of things, a few of them may be ready for baptism this time around.

Lyn, the best thing you can do when you give a Book of Mormon to
someone is bear your testimony. Let her know what the book means to
you and why you’re giving it to her. Tell you you’re giving it because
it’s the best thing you could give. If I know you, it may end up being
kind of comedic, but I’m sure it will be spiritual. And most important
of all: follow up! After giving her the book, ask her every
once-in-a-while how her reading is going.

I didn’t quite understand what was wrong with the Simplified Hymnal;
maybe a picture would help. I’m grateful that you thought so highly if
the member here to order a new one, and I’m sure she would be, too.

Thanksgiving here will be a pretty normal day. Maybe I’ll buy a
roasted chicken again.

Elder Sardinha is a great companion. We work really hard together. I
hope we can keep up the excitement for the next five weeks.

Until next week,
Elder Floyd

17 November 2010

You won’t guess where I’m writing from: Novo Mundo! Transfers were
today, and I have been called back to my second area as a trainer. My
new companion is Elder Sardinha (pronounced: sar-jeen-ya) from
Brasília. He arrived in the mission field yesterday. After the initial
shock wore off, I was really very happy to come back to this area.
Last year, I made my Christmas phone call from this chapel, and it
looks like I’ll be doing it again this year. The members that I’ve
seen so far have all been very welcoming. They all look at me as if
something weren’t quite right, and then we have a little chat about
how things have changed in the last year. I guess there’s some
unfinished business for me to take care of here.

Elder Floyd’s Christmas List (Ordered by Priority):
A Christmas letter signed by families I know in the ward
Sunscreen
Intermediary hymnal (for a member)
Maple extract (for a member)
Peanut Butter M&M’s
Cheez-its
Cranberry sauce

The intermediary hymnal can come in English. She doesn’t have to sing
to it; she only has to play it. I think the sunscreen was from some
company that I though only made lotion. I can’t think of the name at
the moment.

Outside of the transfers, I’m not sure what else to report. I think
this is going to be an excellent transfer with Elder Sardinha. We have
lunch with a member right now, so we’ll have a lot of catching up to
do.

Until next week,
Elder Floyd

10 November 2010

I made root beer. I found that if you melt the sugar and then add it to carbonated water, it doesn’t take out too much gas. We had our zone barbeque today, and the Americans really liked the idea, so I made 6 liters of it. Very few Brazilians like root beer. I’ve heard from some of them before that it tastes like medicine. Today the Sisters said it tasted like toothpaste or mouthwash. Anyway, we liked it. Thanks for sending me the extract.

That reminds me of something else I want to add to my Christmas wish list (I hope it’s not getting too long): 1 more tube of that awesome sunscreen. It is getting hot around here. One more thing I just discovered: the link I put in my last email may not work. The sister asked for any intermediary hymnal, not a beginner’s one. I think that if you put “Hymns, Simplified Accompaniments” into the search bar, there should be no trouble.

Can I drink the water? Yes, but it is always better to drink filtered or mineral water because there is a slight (very slight) chance that you may get sick. I’ve heard that Curitiba has the best faucet water in Brazil.

There’s one more week in the transfer. I may be sending my email from another area next Wednesday.

It’s good to hear that everything is still going great for Dad at work. It sounds like blessing are not absent from your lives, and Vinnie coming back inside the house on command is a miracle blatant enough to convert any disbelieving soul. I’m counting the blessing I’m receiving here, too. They are many. I hope that I do not let them go unnoticed.

Until next week,
Elder Floyd

3 November 2010

Not many changes to report from last week. Transfers are now two weeks away, and the choir practice today was really good. Actually, there’s some good news to report about that: We now have two performances confirmed, one on the 8th and one on the 10th of December at the Estação Shopping Center. Now, drum roll please. . . . We might be singing for the governor of Paraná! The details still have to be worked out, but it looks like a brother from our area has worked his magic to get us to sing at the state government headquarters here in Curitiba. The event will be on television, and there will be a live internet stream for people to watch from anywhere in the world. Like I said, it is not yet official, but it’s almost there.

We had a great training from President Cordon and his assistants yesterday. It was a review of a couple of the new missionary trainings: The Doctrine of Christ – The Missionary Purpose and The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion. We were reminded about listening to the small, subtle promptings of the Holy Ghost during our teaching (and during the day in general, too) to help our investigators become converted. I’ve decided that that is going to be one of the major themes of things I’ve learned on my mission: How to recognize (and respond to) the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Brother Cheney gave me some good tips for the last part of my mission. Let him know that I’ll do my best to implement them. I need to get a letter off to him, actually. I think he’s written to me three or more times without having received a response. Also, a question: Isn’t Sister Achiu getting home soon?

Love,
Elder Floyd

P.S. Things to add to my Christmas wish list: two families in the ward have asked for items that are impossible to get here, and they’re willing to pay for them: an intermediary hymnal (which can be found here) and a ½ liter to a liter of maple extract. I told them I would ask you for them. I thought of one more thing that I wanted to ask for, but I’ve forgotten now.

27 October 2010

It was great to receive photos of Aaron, Justin, and William. Here I was thinking that William was still this little baby, and he’s already getting big! Aaron and Justin are growing up, too! I miss them a lot. I don’t think I spent enough time with them before, and it always seemed like Amanda was good with that. I can’t wait to see them when I get back!

As for spurt-of-the-moment sacrament talks: I don’t think I’ve ever had to give one of those. About a month ago, the Bishop asked us to fill in for someone in case he didn’t show up. Well, he showed up, and the Bishop asked me to give my talk the next week. The same thing happened about three times in-a-row now, and I’ve still be warned that I may be giving my talk this Sunday. Talk about preparation time.

We are teaching another excellent man by the name of Sílvio. He is the coworker of a member who recently moved here for construction work. Before we even taught him, he received a Book of Mormon, went to the temple, and received a witness that this work is true. I told our ward mission leader that we’re only teaching him the Preach My Gospel lessons to review. He really is a great person, and he plans on moving his wife and three daughters down here, too, because he wants to find permanent work here.

And that’s wonderful news for us because we are desperately searching for families to be taught. Our ward mission leader is a genius, and he’s working really hard with us so that we can find families to teach.

The mission choir is going great. We now have a small group of sisters singing one hymn. That’s a pleasant addition.

Until next week,

Elder Floyd

20 October 2010

We met an elect man on Monday. His name is Antônio, and he read eighty
pages of the Book of Mormon between the time that we met him and the
time that we taught him (less than twenty-four hours). That’s fast
enough to read it in a little over a week! He is very excited to go to
church on Sunday, and we’re really excited to teach him again on
Friday.

Last week was a pretty slow one for us. We worked very hard, but a lot
of our appointments fell through. That left us with a lot of time at
night without a marked appointment, so we decided to take advantage of
the situation and take a look through our area book. We started
calling people that were taught by missionaries in the past, and
within a short amount of time we marked three appointments and another
8-10 people asked us to call back on a specific day to mark an
appointment. Our week so far has started out great, and we’re gearing
up to teach a lot of people!

I made peanut butter cookies today. Elder Flynn in our district wanted
to use his good American peanut butter to make them, but I convinced
him to let me make some with the Brazilian stuff (which is far from
the same, peanut butter not being very common here). I found in the
past that the taste turns out the same. Even though it’s not very good
to put on a sandwich, the Brazilian peanut butter works out great for
cookies, and it’s a lot cheaper than importing.

Elder Treasure and I, along with the district leaders in our zone,
will be going to a Mexican restaurant for lunch tomorrow. It’s part of
our plan to get to know them better and make a happy zone leadership.

Now, I forgot about the Christmas box last week, so I’d better get to
that now. I’m not really sure about specifics to ask for. Much of the
stuff I have I´d like to leave here in February. I love peanut butter
M&M’s, so those are a must have. Also, the cranberry sauce was a nice
touch last Christmas. Does that make me sound fat, just asking for a
bunch of food? Cheez-its: that’s what Elder Treasure just suggested. I
asked him to name something that wasn’t food, and he couldn’t think of
anything either. You don’t need to send peanut butter; I don’t feel as
much lack of it as some other people. Worth more to me than peanut
butter M&M’s or Cheez-its, are letters. If the ward could sign a
Christmas card, I think that would be the best present of all.

That’s all I can think of for now. It sounds like to Lord is taking
good care of everyone over there. That makes me a lot happier to be
here in Brazil. Next week, I’ll try to send pictures from the Mexican
lunch we’ll be enjoying tomorrow.

Until next week,
Elder Floyd

Pictures of a museum Visit - October 2010

13 October 2010

Dad, nice car. I was wondering a while ago when you would be getting a new one. It seems like you’ve been driving the Impala around forever. Also, Lyn has a very keen eye. When we went to Promontory Point and took pictures with the train engines, she pointed out that you had put your foot up on the train and that you always do that. Well she was right: It looks like you’ve conquered your new car.

We had a great activity today with the district leaders in our zone and their companions. We went to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum of Art. I’ve attached some pictures. Elder Treasure is the missionary with me in front of the mural. This week has been a slow one, sad to say. We had a great time at the museum, but the pictures tell the best story.

The Christmas choir is still going great. We’ll be starting to practice While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night next week (which I translated).

Until next week,
Elder Floyd

6 October 2010

It was good to hear that my last email was so well received. I think

I’m finally getting a hang of this missionary email thing!

I have not been transferred as I had thought. Elder Treasure and I

will both be staying together for another six weeks. The next transfer

will happen a week before Thanksgiving. I’m really happy to be staying

here in the center, though. It is a great area, and Elder Treasure and

I will see a lot of the fruits of our labors over the next six weeks.

General Conference was awesome! I really enjoyed President Monson’s

last talk on gratitude. It made me think a lot more about the

blessings that I have here on the mission. How many others don’t have

the opportunity I am having right now!

Yesterday we had another amazing experience: We had a pretty full day

planned: lesson in the morning, lunch, service in the afternoon,

lesson at 6, lesson at 7:30. While we were waiting for lunch to be

served, we received a call from the assistants asking us to go to

Barigüi to help organize the new trainers (missionaries that would be

receiving companions from the Missionary Training Center in São

Paulo). So, we planned on shortening the service, ate lunch, and

launched off to Barigüi. We called the sister who we would be helping

that afternoon and told her we would arrive about 4:00.

Well, after all was said and done we didn’t even leave Barigüi until

4. We didn’t get back to our area until 5:00. For some reason, I felt

impressed to get off the bus one stop earlier than usual, thinking it

would be faster for us to get home. The decision was made at the last

second, so Elder Treasure got attacked by the bus doors when he

followed me off the bus. He’s okay.

While we were walking up the road, we deduced that there would no

longer be sufficient time to serve the sister, and we planned on

stopping by her house to remark. As we were contemplating this

failure, who did we happen to pass on the street that we had never

passed by before? Our appointment for 6:00! We were able to invite him

to go to mutual that night with a member that lives close by him, and

we decided to teach him at the church before mutual started.

So, with a little extra time, we went and served the sister who needed

us. While we were there, we received a call from our 7:30 appointment

who told us our appointment wouldn’t work out and we’d have to remark.

Well, we got to church at 7:30 anyway to meet Adilson (our original

6:00 appointment), and we were invited to share our lesson for him

with the whole mutual group, thus helping him to make a lot of

friends. Because our appointment at 7:30 had fallen, this was quite

easy to do. The kids participated, and many of them bore their

testimonies about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the best of all:

Adilson bore his testimony voluntarily at the end.

At that’s how Adilson was introduced to the church for the first time.

We hope he’ll be there on Sunday to assist Sacrament meeting. Even

though things often looked like they were disasters, it all worked out

for the better in the end.

Remember: Even if the bus doors are closing, it’s not too late to

follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

I love you,

Elder Floyd