WEEK 20: Celebrations Continue

Several children at the Internet house today wanted to practice their English with Rachel

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Our Christmas here was very great - full of sun and Christmas festivities.

On Christmas Eve, we went and visited some of the people in our ward - including our recent converts in this area. We brought them some cookies that we had made in our apartment. Let me just say that my cooking abilities definitely leave something to be desired. But enough sugar and anything tastes at least a little good. 

We spent the evening at another member's house who had prepared a nice spread of turkey, chicken, and rice with raisins. It was all really great. Spending time with that family was really fun. We ate a lot, talked a lot, watched some families open gifts, and played soccer in the street. We were basically just waiting for the fireworks that usually begin around midnight. It was really cool being here and experiencing the Christmas spirit in another way. 

Christmas day was spent visiting more members. They are all really great and willing to give us lots of food around this time. We ate lots of great food, including some fried pork bits, which several pieces of skin still had little hairs sticking out. With some of these things, you just need to throw it into your mouth and try not to think about what it is. In this case, it was actually really good. 

It was a little difficult this week to meet up with our investigators because everyone here in Brazil is on their equivalent of summer vacation until the beginning of February. So a ton of people here went to the interior of Ceara to see family. That made for slower work, but we were able to teach a lot and meet lots of great new people. 

For now, we are preparing for another week like that, as everyone is getting ready for the new year. But we are striving here in the area and I am glad to be receiving the blessings of this service. 

Elder Perry

Christmas Eve celebrating

Elder Perry and Elder Makino bake cookies

WEEK 19: Feliz Natal!

Elder Perry and friends at the ward Christmas party

Hello everybody! I hope you're all doing well and enjoying a great Christmas season. I must say that I am missing the snow and hot chocolate while working here in the heat of Fortaleza. 

But anyway, lots of great work here. We have been meeting with one family that has been coming to church with us the last couple of weeks. They include the sister and friends of one other member in our ward, so it has been really great teaching them all together. They are all committed to learn more and they have accepted baptismal dates. We are going to keep working to get them baptized. 

Lots of great Christmas festivities here as well. We had our Christmas party on Friday night with the ward - with lots of food and partying. I was able to play the song "You Raise Me Up" with one other Elder from the district singing -- per request of the Relief Society President. So that was interesting. I enjoyed it. And on Sunday, I was able to play for the stake choir which was pretty fun. We played a bunch of Christmas hymns, which was really great. I am grateful that I am able to bless the ward with that talent. 

That about wraps it up for this week. Just enjoying the heat and the happiness of the people here. Love you all! 

Elder Perry

The Guararapes Ward Christmas Party

A gift from the ward to Elder Perry and Elder Makino

Elder Perry and another Elder with stake choir members
(Red bowtie "costumes" provided by the Stake Choir Director)

WEEK 18: I Don't Know if There'll Be Snow...But Have a Cup of Guarana

Elder Perry's District

Another incredibly hot and work-filled week here in Fortaleza. Lots of great people we have been meeting this week and lots of great new contacts. It has all been really great and. as always, quite warm. As the missionaries say down here: The warmer the climate, the warmer the hearts of the people. 

This week ended my second transfer here in the field and I have officially ended my training. I am going to stay this next transfer in the same area, Gurararapes A with Elder Makino. So as far as the area and the companion goes, nothing will change for me this next transfer. I am looking forward to the work and the success that we will have in this area over the next 6 weeks. We have a lot of people ready and being prepared to be baptized, so I look forward to getting this work done.  

This last week, I was able to do a transfer with one of our zone leaders, who is actually heading back for Utah tomorrow. We were able to meet with a few people, and a few of the members that he baptized or met when he passed through this area towards the beginning of his mission here. That was a pretty cool experience. He, like all of the other older people here in the mission, really only give one piece of advice: "Passa rapido" or "It passes fast." Grateful for all the people who constantly remind me that I will not be leaving this year, nor in the next, but the one after that. Those reminders should stop once we reach 2020. (Sorry if that doesn't make any sense)

Lots of sun but even more sunscreen here for me. It really does feel like every day it is getting hotter. BUT, some days it does start to rain in the morning before clearing for more sun in the afternoon. That is always really nice. I feel like I have adjusted to it quite a bit now. The cold showers have started to grow on me. Being here has made me appreciate how great the white Christmases were back in UT. 

Also more piano playing responsibilities for me! Now that everyone knows that I will be spending one more transfer here, I have been assigned to be the official pianist for the new ward, Dunas, and I will be playing with our stake choir for our Sunday Christmas meeting in one week. Needless to say, quite a bit of practice will be required of me this week. I look forward to using my talents to bless the people here in these wards. I really have been enjoying using the piano to serve. 

That's just about it for this week. The work continues and I have been loving it all. Thank you all for the love and support. 

Love,

Elder Perry

One of many giant frogs in Fortaleza

WEEK 17: At Least the Baptismal Font Water is Cold....

Elder Perry and Fernanda at her baptism

Another week of great work here in the Guararapes ward. We were able to get a lot of great things done this week and teach a ton of people. The work here is wonderful.

This last Saturday I had the privilege to baptize our good friend, Fernanda. She is 15 years old and has been going to church with us for a little while now. She is very close friends with the other young women in the ward. I felt the spirit so strongly there at her baptism. It was really quite amazing to see how far she had come and how much she had grown spiritually to reach this point. We are now working on getting her mother baptized in the coming weeks.

This last Thursday was our mission conference. Dubbed “Conferencia 2020” because apparently we are not allowed to have a mission-wide Christmas conference. But that was a cool experience -- getting to see all of the missionaries serving here. Seeing some of the new missionaries who just arrived served to remind me just how fast this mission is going by. It was in the gigantic 5-story chapel again, so that was pretty neat. It was really cool to see everyone from my CTM district as well.

The rest of this week was full of hard work. Finding and teaching people. Elder Makino and I have been able to connect really well with the young people in this ward, so that has helped tremendously with getting references, and continually finding new people to teach.

The heat continues. Every day feels a little hotter than the last. But lots of sunscreen and my Indiana Jones hat have helped quite a bit. Someone told me this last week that I would be great as a tour guide on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. Not sure if that was a compliment or what.

I am absolutely loving the work here and all of these great people. Over these first 4 months of the mission, I have really grown a deep and meaningful relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. Every day, devoted to his service, standing here as a representative of Him has really brought me closer to Christ than ever before.

Elder Perry

Elder Perry's CTM district reunion at the Fortaleza Mission Conference

Jack finally got his Christmas package!

WEEK 16: Thanksgiving in Brazil

Mais uma semana! Still alive and well here in Fortaleza. And baking here in the sun. The heat here during the night when the sun has gone down is basically the equivalent to midday summer in Utah. It’s pretty brutal. But, I use sunscreen every day as well as the now signature hat. 

We had some good work this week. We have been preparing some people to be baptized coming up this Saturday, so that is pretty exciting. We also received a couple of references from now recent convert, Gleiciane. She has a couple of friends in the neighborhood who are interested in going to church and learning from us. We were able to talk to one of them briefly and we are setting up times to meet with them this week. That is always great, receiving references as opposed to going out and knocking on every door. 

My piano responsibilities have now expanded to a stake-wide level. Apparently there is only one other ward in this stake of like 6 wards who has a pianist. I am the pianist now for our main ward, Guararapes. But because of the ward split, part of our area is in area Dunas, so Makino and I attend that ward also. I am the pianist in that ward as well. I have also been called upon to play in the ward Christmas performance on the 20th. And yesterday I was asked to accompany for the Guararapes Ward’s primary program this coming Sunday. It’s a little stressful because I don’t have a lot of time to practice with all of the work we are doing, and the chapel is a good 20 minute walk from our area. We’ll see how it goes. I know that relying on the Lord is really the only way I will be able to get all of these things done. 

I also convinced the Brazilian elders in our district of the importance of eating a ton on Thanksgiving (even thought they don’t celebrate that holiday). So Makino and I went and bought a bucket of fried chicken from KFC. That was one of the strangest experiences, eating an American meal here in Brazil. So good. Also, we got to celebrate a little Black Friday over at the local Sam’s club. I’m pretty sure this area is one of the few with such American commodities. Got some ketchup, Doritos, and Nutella. Never have I felt more American here in Brazil. But things are all great and we are continuing to work hard. 

As always, I am loving the work and the people I am serving here in Fortaleza. 

Elder Perry