WEEKS 32 and 33: What Just Happened?

Elder Perry and Elder Damo on their last day as companions

Hello Everyone! I am still alive! 

These last weeks have been the craziest of my mission, without a doubt. It's hard to think about how far I have traveled physically and emotionally in the last couple of weeks. But yes, I have returned home to the United States along with the other American missionaries in South America. 

Last week in Itapipoca, we had been instructed to be under strict quarantine in our apartment. It was a little brutal because it was just me and Elder Damo in the apartment, but we made it work. Lots of sitting around, eating, reading, and sleeping. I am not sure how much more of that I would have been able to endure. The mission had sent all of us 200 Brazillian reais to spend creating a food storage of non-perishable items. Because our oven and stove were not working, we just had the microwave to work with. So, naturally our food storages consisted entirely of ramen. It is not the greatest thing, but we survived. For currently unknown reasons, we also did not have running water in the apartment during that last week. We needed to take showers in a member's house who lived close by, and try to make do with the water that we buy to drink in large 20 liter tanks. That last week really seemed to drag on, but it all ended very abruptly on Monday morning, March 23.

Our flip phone sometimes wouldn't work great at night, and we usually could not receive calls. Monday morning, I saw that our district leader had called several times on Sunday night, so I called him back. He said that I needed to start packing up my stuff immediately, and that I would be sent back to the United States. I was honestly in shock. With very little access to the news, I had no idea that things had become so serious here in Brazil. I started getting all of my things together, but I had no idea what was going to happen. My companion started getting his things together too, because he probably would not be allowed to stay alone in Itapipoca. We started getting all of our things together when the mission president's wife, Sister Chamberlain, called us and gave us instructions on closing up our apartment and that we would need to get out of the city in the next couple of days. We had to figure out how to get out of Itapipoca all on our own as soon as possible. The only problem was, there were no buses entering or leaving the city.

We called one of the members in the ward to see if there was any way we could get a ride in the coming days to Fortaleza which is a two-hour ride by car. He quickly informed us that the city would be closed completely that night, and it would be impossible to get a car out of the city after that day. Besides, hardly anyone in Itapipoca owns a car. He said he would help us to get a ride that same day (Monday). He called us back 10 minutes later, and said that the only person leaving that day was leaving in 20 minutes. Elder Damo and I were both half packed and the apartment was still pretty messy. In a 20-minute frenzy, we got everything together, packed up the suitcases, and threw so much garbage away. I was impressed that we were able to get it all done so quickly. We found the guy, got in his car, and embarked off to Fortaleza. 

We spent the rest of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in quarantine with 2 other missionaries, Elder Stevens and Elder Vieira. There wasn't much to do there either. So we mostly just spent our days sitting around and reading. We didn't receive a whole lot of information. We just knew that some time at the end of the week, we would be sent out of Fortaleza and back to SLC. Our flight was going to leave on Thursday morning. We got up, got everything together, and headed out to the airport. It was kind of a surreal experience, seeing all of these American missionaries going home. 

We flew first to Recife from Fortaleza to pick up more missionaries, then we were off to Sao Paulo. There were so many missionaries there in the airport. Several thousand missionaries have been sent from Brazil these last couple of days. Then an incredibly long flight up to Atlanta, and then one more flight into Salt Lake City. I can't describe what it was like seeing my family after only 7 months into my mission. It was wonderful to see my family again but I really miss Brazil and the people of Fortaleza. Some of the highlights of being home include taking hot showers, seeing myself in a clean mirror, actually feeling cold, eating American food, and not seeing dogs in the street. I feel like I have learned so much these last several months in Brazil. 

I am still set apart as a missionary and trying to prepare for the next phase of my mission no matter where that may be. As far as I know, I will be spending 14 days at home in quarantine and then maybe I will be reassigned to another mission in the United States. But in the end, my hope is that I can eventually return back to serve the people of Fortaleza. I hope that you all stay home and stay healthy. 

Love you all and love this great work. I am faithfully preparing to serve wherever that may be. 

Love,

Elder Perry

Working on food storage (ramen) in Itapipoca

Dashing out to the car before leaving Itapipoca

Final days in Fortaleza

Farewell to Fortaleza

Elder Perry arrived home on Friday, March 27, 2020
7 months and 2 weeks after leaving for Brazil

WEEK 31: More baptisms! ... And Fish Heads

Yes, every one of the fish heads were consumed. 

We had the great opportunity to baptized Carliane! She is the mother of the young man that we baptized last week. She has a similar growth disorder but she has an amazing heart. We have been helping her prepare for baptism for a couple of weeks, so we were happy to finally see her take this important step in her life. She and her son live basically across the street from the chapel and are very happy to be the newest members of the branch. 

As far as our other work has been going, we have been progressing towards several more baptisms that should be happening these next couple of weeks. We have some great families that we are teaching, and we look forward to seeing their progress in the coming weeks. 

And yes, we did eat fried fish heads this week. I was not really expecting it when we showed up to the house for lunch. We sat down and started filling our plates with beans, rice, and spaghetti. The woman who had made our lunch brought out this tub that was filled with fish. It seemed rather simple to prepare them. Just get a raw fish straight from the lake, cut it in half, and fry it. Then you eat it, but you need to be careful to not swallow the small bones. It actually tasted really great. 

Things have been pretty strange lately with the new changes the church has been announcing. Here in the interior, we don't hear much about what's going on in the world, and we don't have much contact with the other missionaries. But, we finally got all the news by way of a long phone call with the mission president's wife. We were shortly thereafter assigned some families to visit on Sunday to give the sacrament. That was a very unique experience. Elder Damo and I visited five families in our town and blessed and passed to sacrament to all of them. I was grateful for all of the branch members' willingness to adapt to the changes that are happening right now.

We have been instructed to have a 2 week non-perishable food storage, to not shake hands with anyone in the street, to keep hand sanitizer with us at all times, and to avoid large crowds of people. I'm not even sure yet if the virus has made its way into this part of Brazil, but from what I hear, we all need to be careful no matter what. 

Spiritual thought: When Jesus Christ first called his apostles, he said, "Come, and I will make you fishers of men." Jesus never said to them, "Come, and I will give you fish." In our lives, we need to learn to be self-sufficient in our service of the Lord. We can not be lazy and wait for someone to instruct us on how we should serve. We are more productive, and generally happier, when we are fishing because we want to, rather than being forced to do so. We must be fishers, not just receivers of fish. 

I love you all so much and I love this missionary work. Let's get more fish! 

Love, Elder Perry 

WEEK 30: Paradise

Wow, what a week! We got so much good work done and we have been blessed with many miracles here in Itapipoca. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve here in this city. On Wednesday morning we were able to go to the marriage of 2 couples! One was a couple that Elder Damo found contacting and the other is from a woman in the branch with her husband who wants to be baptized. That was an amazing experience -- seeing the happiness on their faces as we watched the proceedings. There were lots of family and friends from both families.

Later that night, we were able to perform the baptisms of Dhiego and Liliana, the couple that we found and helped get married. They were both very excited to be baptized now that they were keeping all the commandments. They have a daughter who is 4 years old and a son who is almost 1 year old. It has been truly amazing to see the growth of this young family and to see the difference that family prayer and scripture study has made in their lives. I feel so blessed to have been a part of this family.

This Saturday, we had 3 other baptisms - other young men that we had found that we were teaching. Renato, João Pedro, and Renan (from the photo, left to right). They have all been learning and growing so much these past few weeks, and it was such a great experience to help them all get baptized. The missionaries had been working quite some time getting Joao Pedro (JP) ready for baptism, and finally, our leaders allowed us to baptize him. He has a few challenges as well as a growth disorder, but he is a really great young man, full of the light of Christ. He gave me a hug and said that he loved me after his confirmation on Sunday.

Another amazing miracle took place this week as we were knocking on doors. Near the center of the city, I knocked on a door to this woman named Maria. She was just taking care of the house, but she lives pretty far from the center. She said that she had been praying for 3 days for God to send her someone to unite her family a little more. She seemed impressed that God sent someone all the way from the United States to answer her prayer. We have started teaching her family including her husband (Francisco), and her two teenage sons. They all went to church with us on Sunday and accepted baptismal dates. We have been so blessed here in this area.

I played the piano again in church yesterday and right after the sacrament the branch president told me I would need to give a talk in the meeting. I spoke about the importance of love and missionary work and luckily I spoke last so I had at least a few minutes to prepare. I am still teaching my English class here. I taught last week about future tense and names of family members. This week we focused on answering basic questions like "What are you doing?" and "How old are you?" The class continues to grow in numbers and we're helping Itapipoca become bilingual little by little.

I am so happy to be serving here in Itapipoca. With this new transfer, we found out that Elder Damo and I would be spending one more transfer together here in this great city, to see more miracles and to complete the work that is prepared for us here.

I love this work, and our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. Also, a handy scripture that has been helping us quite a bit with all these baptisms, has been 2 Nephi 31. Give it a good read, and you'll understand the importance and purpose of our work.

Elder Perry

Two weddings

Elder Perry signing as a witness on the marriage documents

A field ready to harvest or also just helping with weed abatement

Saturday lunch with a great family from the Itapipoca branch

WEEK 29: A Marvelous Work

Elder Perry and Elder Damo

A marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of Itapipoca.

We are still grinding away here in Itapipoca. It always feels like there are new parts of the city to explore, more places to contact, and more people to baptize. That's one of the good parts of an area that's a whole city - you'll never really run out of places to find people.

This last week was pretty crazy too. Sorry that I wasn't able to respond to emails last week also. Over in Fortaleza, there have been a few issues. First was with Carnaval, which causes everyone to get either drunk or crazy, which is not great for missionary work. And also, the police force went on strike to receive better wages, so there was no police. There was a ton of crime this week, and it was eventually necessary for the government to send the army into Fortaleza to calm things down. Here in Itapipoca, things were really chill. Not even close to the craziness in Fortaleza, but our mission president had everyone returning home early this week, and for a few days this week we were asked to stay in our apartments. But all is well and we're all safe.

The work is going really well here in this city. And while there were no baptisms this week, we are preparing for several that should happen here this next week. We feel so blessed to have a great teaching pool, with lots of people preparing for baptism. I have really been a witness of God's power to change lives these past few weeks.

That's about it that has been going on this week. Always some crazy experiences, and sometimes a large pig in the road, but we are loving this city. For anyone has not yet, I would highly recommend a deep reading and pondering of 2 Nephi 9. The chapter is full of scriptural gems, and I have been able to learn something new every time I have reread it.

Love this work and all of you!
Love,
Elder Perry

New whip