WEEK 11: Time is Flying By plus Zone Conference in a Really Tall Chapel

View of Fortaleza

Guess what, I’m still alive! It has been another very, very fast week. It was so great. We are finally collecting some fruit from all of our labors.

Zone conference was this week! It was really great. I’m not sure exactly why, but we had 4 zones gathered together for our zone conference. We all met in the chapel of this one area - surrounded by buildings. The chapel was 5 stories high, no joke. I think I heard someone say that it is the Church’s tallest chapel in the world. Crazy. We had our meeting on the first floor, and then climbed up to the 5th floor for lunch. We were also very lucky because all 8 of us from our CTM district were in the 4 zones making up our zone conference, so that was cool to see all of them again. We learned a lot there and it was great to see everyone.

This week we were able to make a lot more contacts, and have been working really hard. These days are a lot easier when we are teaching lessons more often than we are just walking around trying to find people to teach. We were finally able to set baptismal dates with Glacianie and Elvis - who are both very firm. So, they will probably be baptized on November 9th!

This week also concluded my first transfer out in the field. Of our district of 6, 2 are leaving us. Elder Duque, our district leader is off to be a zone leader in Oeste and Elder Ball is off to Calcaia. Our district was really tight, so it is hard to say goodbye, but they are going to go do great things.

My time here in Brazil has been flying by, so I have been trying to take into practice the advice that says, “Treat every week of your mission like it is your last.”

Love,
Elder Perry

CTM district reunion

Elder Perry and Elder Makino out making contacts

WEEK 10: Best Week Yet!

Elder Perry with friends on their way to church

This has probably been the best and most successful week of the mission. Also full of some very hard and very tiring work but it has all been wonderful.

Baratas anyone…? Yes, our apartment was sprayed this week for cockroaches. No, I am not claiming any responsibility for it. The exterminators came in quickly, did their job, left, and the roaches came out to play. The super big ones all crawled out onto the floor and died, but the smaller ones continued running around the sink area. After some serious work we took care of them. Mostly. But things are a lot cleaner now. A bit of a scarring experience I would say.

The work here has been great this week. We did some more work out in Caca e Pesca, where things are much more humble. It is a little surreal at times, walking around the favelas. It all looks like it’s straight out of a movie. Houses with red adobe shingles on top, sidewalks and roads of sand, chickens and roosters walking around, the occasional donkey or band of goats, and of course, the beach 5 minutes walking. It is really quite incredible.

We marked some baptismal dates and had some fall this week. But that’s the way things go around here. We found 2 sisters, one of which was looking for a church to join. We went and taught them the first lesson, and they seemed to really enjoy it and said that they would attend church with us. The next day, when we arrived at their house, they said that they had no interest in learning more.

We also found a really great family. One day when Makino and I were walking down the street, we ran into this woman named Patricia. She was super nice and happy and we marked a date to return. After looking for several days (because her part of Caca e Pesca has no street signs, or even really house numbers) we found it. She was very excited to see us again and invited us inside to meet her 5 children. They were all super nice and happy as well. It was very humbling to walk into their house. Only one queen sized mattress for 6 people and very, very tight quarters. I can’t describe fully the spirit I felt being in that house with them. We taught them the first lesson as well and they accepted everything very well. They were not able to attend church with us this week, but they said they would certainly attend with us next week. Yessssss.

The food this week was superb as always. There wasn’t anything too crazy. We had some goat meat a couple more times. The taste is amazing but it is super hard to chew. Sunday we went to lunch at a member’s house who is a professional chef. He prepared rice, beans, spaghetti, french fries, potato casserole, salad, and a whole tray full of meat. For 4 of us. I won’t lie, I ate 4 whole plates. So good. The food coma after, also very nice. I have come to enjoy rice and beans quite a bit after eating them every single day. I feel incomplete during the days when we don’t eat them now.

I have been officially called to be the ward organist! It is brutal. Yesterday, I had to play a hymn that I had never heard before in my life. I think the title translates literally to “Don’t Leave Harsh Words.” It’s Hymn 138 in the Portuguese hymnal if you want to look it up. So as you can imagine, a little stressful. Not only that, but I have been practicing playing the piano with the stake choir and we have stake conference coming up. I think they have an official pianist, but I need to be prepared. I have also been asked to play the piano for our zone conference this week and possibly for our mission Christmas meeting. I’m so glad I said that I play the piano.

The work here is going well and I am loving Brazil and loving this service!

Elder Perry

Elder Perry with uplifting wall art

Elder Perry with his companion and other area Elders

WEEK 9: Finding Beauty in Everything

Elder Perry and Elder Makino at the beach (not ON the beach)

Hello everybody! Another week done here in Fortaleza. The time seems to be going by so quickly now. Those first few weeks of just looking for people to teach, walking miles and miles in the heat, clapping at doors, were excruciating. But now, we've gotten into a bit of a groove and have found some more people to teach, so that has been great.

This week, we were able to set 2 baptismal dates. Both with older women, who were both very accepting of our messages. Sometimes, I'm not sure if they're fully understanding everything, because usually they just have a distant look in their eyes, and say "sim" to everything. But they both have said "ëu aceito" or "Ï accept" so... hopefully that yields some fruit. They have been with Celia and Socorro, who are always taking care of little children when we come by their homes. So that has been wonderful.

On Tuesday, our member who was going to provide us lunch had forgotten, and gave us each some money to go buy something. Feeling rich, the senior comps hailed an uber and took me and Elder Haddock to Dallas Grill. Imagine Chuck-A-Rama, but all-you-can-eat Brazilian meats as well. A lot of American food, sushi, salad, fruit, you name it. The place had a really cool vibe. So the 4 of us sat there and ate and ate and ate. It was so great. Needless to say, the final bill was a little larger than we imagined, but we were able to pay it off without any problems. Mostly.

We had a couple of cool days this week as well. On Wednesday, we did a "Divisao"with Elder Duque and Elder Haddock. I was Duque's senior companion for the day, and we went around and mostly contacted in our area. That was fun. The contacting has gotten a lot more interesting for me because I am finally able to understand nearly 100% of what people are saying and am able to respond. It was on that split with Duque when we found Celia. Nice. Then on Saturday, Makino and I did some work with Paulo, a young man in the ward. He was very helpful. He showed us some of the houses of his nonmember friends who we are going to teach this coming week.

Anyway, lots of good work this week. Finding people who will fully accept the gospel and be baptized is not always super easy, but I have felt day after day the benefits and blessings that come from hard work. We were really all over the map. From bible discussions, to eating Acai, to passing by untamed animals, to seeing the ocean. I have learned to find beauty in everything, because this country truly is beautiful.

Elder Perry

Casa E Pesca, one of the neighborhoods in Elder Perry's area

Parque Estadual do Coco

WEEK 8: Another Week, Another Real

Elder Perry with new Brazilian friends

Ola! This week was significantly better than the last. Elder Makino and I have started to gel and we have gotten to know the area quite well. We also have a list of all the members in the ward, which has been seriously helpful also. We have actually been able to teach quite a few lessons, and are working hard to get some baptisms. Also, conference happened. We have to talk about that too.

Our task that we will be working on this week will be one young man named Brendo. The missionaries before us had already taught him many of the lessons, and he says that he wants to be baptized, but right now his dad does not want him to be baptized. We are going to visit with him with another family that had similar doubts, who are now all baptized, to help him understand a little more, so that he will allow Brendo to be baptized.

Our other investigators include Silvia, and her daughter Dianie. They are both great. Silvia is always trying to feed us food and give us Coke. The other night, we arrived at their house, ready to teach about the restoration, when they quickly invited us in and took us to the back of the house. They were cooking all this meat on this grill, and pouring cups of Coca Cola. They made us sit down and eat unhealthily large portions of this mystery meat. As I have learned here, if you try to deny any food, the immediate response is, “You don’t like it….” I later learned that it was in fact goat meat. But after eating all that, they offered us sweet bananas that had been completely charred on the grill. They actually tasted pretty good. Some of the other people at the house started drinking large amounts of alcohol after that, and started rubbing the charred banana peels on their faces to make mustaches. Once they approached us, we decided that that was our cue to leave. We left a pamphlet with them to read, and will be returning later this week to follow up.

Another story this week is about Carlos. He was one of the first young men we met here in the area who had not yet been baptized. His house was really small, but he lived in there with his parents, and 8 younger siblings. Every time we would go to his house, we would be greeted by at least 5 of them. We taught Carlos a little, and invited him to be baptized. He accepted our date and we left. We came back the next day, and he wasn’t there. The next day, we talked to him, and he said he hadn’t read, and his dad came out and said Carlos wasn’t interested. So that was a real bummer. But, we were not deterred.

One last really cool experience. Our area is fortunately really diverse. We have “Cidade 2000” and the “Barreiros” which are a little more wealth, and a little less, respectively. One day, after growing tired of walking, Makino and I decided to make another trip to the Barreiros to do some contacting. (The walk from our apartment to this area is probably 25-30 minutes). But we started knocking on doors. A few people would respond, but a majority of the homes were empty. We walked down one street, past a few people sitting on the side of the road, to this home of a man who we could see inside. We gave him the basic church invitation, which he said “maybe” to, just like basically everyone else. But during this, I noticed one of the people across the street watching us talk to this man. Once Elder Makino had wrapped up, he turned and started walking down the road in the opposite direction of the people watching. I told him to wait, and we walked over and talked to them. The woman who had been watching us is named Glaciani. She was sitting with her friend, who is a hardcore Catholic. Her friend seemed really angry that we were talking with them, but Glaciani was very kind and said that she would attend church with us…maybe. Two days later, we felt impressed to stop by her house. When we did, she greeted us very warmly, and let us sit down. She lives currently with her husband, and her 14 year old son. She told us that she was born and raised Catholic, but had always felt like it was wrong. She said that she had tried to visit many other churches, but they all felt wrong also. We taught her the first lesson and she ate it all up. She was so excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon, and wrote our testimonies in it for her. She said that she wants us to return to teach some more when her husband and son are both home to hear our message. I cannot wait to see the progression of this family.

Anyway, that’s about all for now. We are also going to try to teach a really old woman named “Socorro” which translates to “relief” in English. It would be great to see Socorro in the “Sociedade de Socorro.” We have a few more leads, and plan on dishing out a few more baptismal dates this week.

About conference... my favorite talk was probably Elder Uchtdorf’s during the Sunday morning (afternoon here) session. And not just because he talked about The Hobbit. This life, the mission, everything has its own path that we must try to follow, all with the intention of returning home with a great reward. Despite the trolls, orcs, goblins, and dragon, we will be protected in everything we do. So yeah, definitely my favorite. Also, I am already getting hyped for the super secret special general conference in 6 months... Who else??

I love you all! I love this work!
Elder Perry

P.S. Also, shoutout to Elias Stewart, who is leaving to the MTC this week. Good luck, you'll be a great missionary! (Hopefully your time down in Provo doesn't mess with your head too much!)

Elder Perry & the Fortaleza Temple

Elder Perry & Elder Makino with more friends