WEEK 24: Tchau Fortaleza, Ola Itapipoca!

Baptisms of Victoria and Ana Gabrielle

Hey everyone! 

Another great and very hot week here in Fortaleza. We were able to get some good work done this last week before the transfer comes to a close tomorrow. 

This last Wednesday we baptized Victoria and her cousin, Ana Gabrielle. That was an amazing experience. From meeting them for the first time up until the baptism, it was quite the amazing journey. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary here, changing the lives of these people through our savior Jesus Christ. We were very happy that Victoria and Ana Gabrielle took this first great step in their lives. 

I have just learned that I will be transferred tomorrow. I am going to be headed to the interior city of Itapipoca. I am excited to go and get to know more parts of this great mission and the Itapipoca Branch. I will also now be the senior companion, so a little more responsibility as well. I am excited to see how the work is going over there.

It will be sad to say goodbye to my first area after spending over 4 months here, but it really has been a great experience. I met lots of really great people, and had many great experiences. I am certain that the Lord sent me to this area for a reason, and that he knows exactly what we need to do and who we need to meet here in the mission. I am really grateful for the Guararapes Ward. 

I love you all and I love this gospel. I know that it has the power to change lives. 

Elder Perry

Saying goodbye to good friends

WEEK 23: Sleep Talking in Portuguese

Hello everyone!

Not a whole lot happened these last few days. Our baptisms last week had to be postponed due to some coffee problems, but I think that we will be able to get it taken care of by the end of this week. We are loving the work here in this area and getting ready for transfers at the end of this week. 

On another note, apparently I do a lot of talking while I am sleeping from what Elder Makino tells me. And from what he says, it has been in only Portuguese. So, for what it's worth, I'm thinking in Portuguese even when I'm sleeping.

I also gave my first blessing in Portuguese earlier this week. The grandson of our bishop was at home and asked for us to give him a blessing because he underwent surgery on his knee. He asked me to seal the anointing and give him a blessing. That was a pretty cool experience, finally being able to give a blessing in Portuguese. I feel more confident with the language every day. As of now, I am learning to understand the younger people who tend to use a lot of slang. 

I am really enjoying the mission here, even if it sometimes feels like we are walking on the face of the sun. I love these people and the Lord. He is there to lift us up in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. 

Love,

Elder Perry

CTM district reunion at a recent zone conference
Elder Perry/Elder Haddock/Elder Gygi

WEEK 22 (and a half): MORE SUN!

Actually, we have gotten some rain in the mornings, which is pretty nice until about midday when it starts heating up again and gets hotter than normal. So that's nice.

We had our zone meeting recently. It was cool to see some of the other missionaries here in the mission. We got to hear some great messages and wish some of the missionaries goodbye. The transfer is ending at the end of next week, so everyone's preparing for that too. It's great to see and feel the changes here in the mission. 

We are having great success here in the area with people we are finding. We should have a couple of baptisms this week which would be great. We are working hard on constantly finding more people and getting them to go come to church with us. When we were making contacts the other day, this dude came out of his house and showed us a bunch of books and bibles he had marked up. He had a bunch of random and completely unreadable calculations that he had written out, claiming that the Earth was flat, and that NASA doesn't exist. Needless to say, he will not be going to church with us this Sunday.

We got to go to the Fortaleza temple today also! Which was a really cool experience. Our temple attendance is restricted here to only when the President calls everyone to go to the temple, so this was my first time going to the Fortaleza temple. It was a really great and spiritual experience in the temple. 

We are still working and sweating hard. I am loving the work and the people here! So glad to be serving the Lord here in Brazil. 

Elder Perry

WEEK 21: More Holidays in the Heat

Riding the Church Bus

2020 has finally arrived! It was definitely a little different passing all of these holidays in the burning sun, but at least I can live knowing I'll never have a vitamin D deficiency. 

We were directed by President to spend New Year's Eve at home to avoid the shenanigans of the immense amount of drinking that goes on in the streets. So we got some money together and bought some small “salgados.” Think of this basically as a miniature corn-dog but with chicken inside the bread part. That definitely wasn't the best way to describe them but I tried. And some Coke to drink because we needed it to feel like we were celebrating a little bit. 

Most of our investigators are returning from their vacations so it has been a little easier to get into touch with people. We are continuing to work forward towards the baptisms of several people for the next couple of weeks. So the work is going well. It has also really been better meeting with our people in their homes instead of going out in the sun the whole day. It definitely keeps me from turning into a literal tomato. 

It did rain once this week for basically the whole day, but then returned back to more sun. We dried very quickly to say the least. It feels like it is getting hotter every day. 

That's really about it! Some really great work. I am really feeling an improvement in my Portuguese and I am very happy to be here serving the people of Fortaleza! Love you all.

Elder Perry