WEEK 2: Another Exciting Week!

Elder Perry and his mission district at the Campinas Temple on P-day

Hey everyone! Another exciting week here in Sao Paulo.

This last P-day we all got to drive an hour and half through Brazil to the Campinas temple! It was an amazing drive through Sao Paulo, and the temple was beautiful. It was great to have a break from the grind of classes in the MTC.

Here at the CMT, we wake up at 6:30 am, eat breakfast of bread/meat/cheese, morning study, eat lunch of rice and beans at 11:30, classes till dinner at 4:30 pm, then classes until bedtime at 9:00 pm. And it's that all day every day. It's great, but also not easy.

Our companionship of three got two more roommates this week! We are now rooming with Elder Rojo and Elder Santos, who are from Argentina and Brazil respectively. It's funny at night when Elder Rojo and I are both trying to learn new words from Elder Santos, even though we all speak different languages. My Spanish has helped with talking to Elder Rojo, and we have both learned a lot since we got here. I have also been teaching Elder Santos some English this week, and on Sunday night he said his first prayer with us in English. That was a pretty cool experience. It's great to be learning with these guys.

My Portuguese is progressing faster than I ever expected. Our district has been practicing every day to role-play teaching lessons in Portuguese. Even though there are some awkward moments of having to flip through dictionaries to find words, we're all able to teach very well. We have also had to memorize several things this last week. We started with memorizing our missionary purpose in Portuguese and a baptismal invitation. These last two days, I have memorized the first vision and Moroni 10:3-5. I feel more and more confident talking with people in Portuguese every day.

I had my first really cool missionary experience on Thursday too. All of us new missionaries traveled to the federal police station to sign documents and get fingerprinted (again). While we were all sitting around, it was cool to see that every missionary was talking with someone else at the station. I was talking with this man named Sami who spoke English (thank goodness). He was from Pakistan and was getting his PhD in Sao Paulo. He asked what we were all doing in Brazil, why everyone's names were "Elder", and who we were older than. I gave him an overview of the church and he was really engaged. Then he asked me, "How do you know any of this is true?" right as we were leaving the building. I wish I could remember better what I had said to him, because as I stood up to leave, he handed me a business card and said he was interested in learning more. I can tell you it was the spirit talking to him then, not me. I have talked to an instructor and he said he will help me or someone else get in contact with him. I'll keep you all updated.

We were able to listen to a MTC devotional last night that was given by Elder Bednar a week ago. He told all the missionaries to "Be good and go." That was the main premise of his message. As long as we're doing what's right, Christ will help us with whatever we're doing.

Elder Perry

Elder Perry with companions Elder Roylance and Elder Magleby

WEEK 1: Bom Dia!

Missionaries arriving from North America to the

Centro de Treinamento Missionário in Sao Paulo on August 14, 2019

Bom Dia! Hey everyone! My first week here in the CTM is in the books, even though it has felt like several months. After the 14 combined hours flying, I made it to the CTM here in Sao Paulo. I am companions here with Elder Magleby and Elder Roylance. They are both great guys, and I look forward to learning a lot from them over the next six weeks.

In the Brazil MTC, we are all thrown into this boiling pot that is Portuguese. Fortunately, a couple of the instructors speak English pretty well, but my path of having to learn to speak and understand Portuguese has been a lot steeper than I expected. But I know that “ô dom de linguas” is real and is helping me to learn faster as well. We have to memorize certain phrases and words in Portuguese, like the missionary purpose very quickly. We have a small green pamphlet with several hundred words that we have already had to memorize. At this point, most everyone in our district can pray and bear their testimonies in Portuguese. I can’t wait to see how far we’ll go.

This week, I was called to be our district leader! There is not a lot of responsibility attached to the assignment this first week, but I look forward to helping our group of 9 elders (all going to Fortaleza) to prepare the best that we can to get into the mission field. Despite the weird bugs all over the bathroom, and daily meals of rice and beans, everyone here seems really happy and eager to learn. 

Ate mais! 
Elder Perry

The Adventure Begins

Elder Jack Perry before departing for the
Centro de Treinamento Missionário
in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Hey everyone! Thank you for all the nice messages. I love and miss all of you. We just arrived in the MTC like 30 minutes ago. This first day/day and a half have been crazy. It has basically just been a huge herd of missionaries wandering around airports and trying to sleep on the airplane. I was with Elder Hickman and Elder Roylance on the airplane. They are both great. My MTC companions are now Elder Roylance and Elder Magleby! (Someone in the ward said they knew Elder Magleby, but I can't remember who, do you remember Mom?) They are both going to be awesome. I am so excited to be learning more about the language and about the gospel here. Thank you for all the kind wishes, it really helps. We were also instructed to tell you to look on the Facebook CTM page, but knowing Mom she is probably already following it. I know this email is short, we don't have much time, but I will be able to talk to you for a little longer this Tuesday. Muito amor. 

Love, Jack