10/21/24 - Gotta love São Paulo

This week has been wild! There has been so many crazy experiences, so I'll tell you about the most memorable ones and I'll save the best for last.

On Friday we got to go to one of the schools here and help them with family search and teach a couple english classes.  One kid that I helped knows said his teacher said that he was the best English speaker in the class. We had a pretty good conversation, his English is very good, and he told me about school in Brazil. Let's just say, I'm very glad I did school in the US. School here lasts 10 hours and there's a lot of violence in the school.  The school looks like a prison.  

Thursday night me and my comp, Elder Beaumont, went to buy light bulbs for our apartment. We went to a store he knew but it was closed, so we asked a guy on the street if he knew where we could get some. Then a drunk dude came up and started leading us to the light bulbs. We walked to the big store near our apartment and went in, all the while this drunk dude was telling everyone we passed we were foreigners.  To give him some credit, he did lead us to light bulbs and then he spent 20 minutes telling us what light bulbs we should get, even though it wasn't what we needed, and then he got mad at us for not buying him anything and not giving him money, which he would have used to get drugs. One thing he said was, "you brought me all the way here and won't buy me anything!" Which we shut down really quick, he brought us there. He eventually walked off and we were able to buy our light bulbs and get out of there before he found us again. The whole situation was pretty funny.

It's like Thanksgiving almost every time we eat with members.  Yesterday we ate lunch with a member and they just kept bringing out more food.  I was pretty stuffed from the first dish of rice beans lasagna and chicken then they brought out dessert and then they brought out a bowl of fruit.  It was pretty good, but I was about to burst at the end.  Also, I found out I very much dislike flan. 

Our pesquisadora, Endilena, has a baptism date! 

Now for the big reveal.  The best story of the week.  *drum roll*  I got robbed! That's right, I didn't make it 10 days in Brazil before getting robbed. We were doing our usual media references on Friday, we had stopped for a bit to figure out where we were going next and to make a call. We were about to start walking and then two guys pulled up on a moto.  The guy on the back had a little revolver.  He pointed it at Elder Beaumont and started yelling "me-dá celular!" So Elder Beaumont just handed him his phone.  Then he pointed it at me.  I was kinda in shock and didn't understand what he was saying because at this point he was swearing at me a ton.  I heard the the word Celular so I handed him my Phone and they drove off. While they we driving off the dude shot the revolver in the air, because why not.  But it did show us that the revolver was loaded.  As my companion likes to say, It was more embarrassing than anything.  It was a tiny gun.  Also something he told me is that everyone hates the people who rob on motos.  It is very rare for them to have a gun.  My comp, who's been here a year has never been robbed, so I don't know if I'm unlucky or just look really robbable, but it's a fun story.

This week I've been reading out of the Pearl of Great Price.  It's so interesting to me that the same church we have today is the same church they had in ancient Egypt and all around the ancient world.  But like the scriptures say, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  The true church on the Earth is going to be the same always.  

Elder Bliss

Thanks for all the emails, I love hearing from you all. 

Here's my Google photos

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EQG3K68BLWXZWLEz8

A cool sunset

Brazilian barbecue with the zone

Brazilian Barbecue with the zone

A cool photo I got

10/14/24 - Muitos morros

I'm finally here in Brazil! I never thought this day would get here so soon!  It is definitely not the US.  There's so many things different I don't know where to start. I guess I'll start with one of the first things I noticed.

The people drive crazy here. They'll use as much of the road as possible. And they'll pass wherever they want. And the motos(motorcycles) will just pass all the traffic honking the whole way to let people know they're there.  It's kinda of scary being in cars and busses here.

The food here is really good.  We have mostly had rice and beans, but they are really good, different than in the US.  We've had a couple lunches with members and we had pancakes, which are very different. They arn't the flat sweet bread with syrup, they are more of a crepe with meat in them.  They are really good. Also they've got stuffed crust pizza here! But it's not normal stuffed crust.  It's stuffed with chocolate.  Milk chocolate or white chocolate.  I'm not sure I like it yet, but it's not bad weirdly enough. 

Comparing the prices to the US is crazy, cause of how cheep everything is in comparison.  I bought groceries today for the week for 60 reais, which sounds like alot but it's only 12 US dollars. And a restaurant here was 12 reais for food with is just over 2 dollars.  

We have so many morros(hills) in my area. It makes walking around really "fun".  And the houses are all fenced in so we clap to get the people inside the houses attention. There are a tin of stray dogs here, and with those come dog poop everywhere.  You have to constantly watch the street while you're walking around the streets.  

We went to one of our friend's church yesterday and it was very very different from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Alot of the time they were singing karaoke Christian Rock (in Português of course) and they were yelling "Aleluia!!" and "Gloria Jesus!!"  It was very interesting.  But it was also interesting because the spirit was there for part of it like the scriptures say, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20.   Some of the stuff they were preaching was true so the spirit was there testifying, but as soon as they started yelling or doing stuff they didn't have the authority for the spirit left because he could not reside there.

I dont really have time to write more, but São Paulo is amazing.  And there's so much more I could write but I should probably go to bed. Shout out to Gilberto for teaching me Português. Goodnight

From Brasil

Elder Bliss

The four elders living in our apartment. My companion, Elder Beaumont is left of me.

Elder Graham on the right.  Elder Wright on the far left.

Bem-Vindos

The Sao Paulo Temple!

This rain came out of nowhere.  It was a few clouds and then a downpour within a few seconds!

This is what happens when you don't close your windows in Brazil.

This also.  My bed and my suit that was hanging there got soaked!

One of the giant hills we have in my area of Vila Luzita

The same hill as the last picture but zoomed in.

Giant moth that was nice and fuzzy

Wild Parakeets

The matos in my area are super cool

Pizza Delivery

Here's my google photos 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EQG3K68BLWXZWLEz8

10/8/24 - Brazil Tomorrow!

Last day in the MTC!! 

Sorry, I forgot to send this yesterday so I'll send it now, on the way to the airport.

This week has been amazing and a great last week in the MTC! 

This week we have spoken a lot of Português. 

On Monday we had the Semi-annual MTC cleanse. Which is a physical and metaphorical thing. We all got together and cleaned our rooms and our classrooms. We did all that to get ready for General Conference. It's also to help is clean ourselves to prepare spiritually for General Conference. 

On Tuesday we had a practice with the whole Missionary choir it was amazing. We also got to hear from Elder Boom. He talked about the field that is white already to harvest. We need to take ul our sickles and do the work, for it truly is work. To do the work need to keep our sickle sharp through daily 

On Wednesday we also had a practice with the choir, but in the conference this time it was even more amazing than the Tuesday practice. The feeling of the organ that we are pretty much sitting on is soo cool! And we got some pretty cool pictures. Shout out to my photo album

Thursday was the goodbye of Irmão Esplin one of our MTC teachers he was amazing. 

Friday was the rest of the goodbyes to the rest of our teachers. Shout out to Irmã Daynes and Irmã Headquist. Our teachers were the best teachers in the MTC. 

Saturday was the first day of General Conference! Being able to hear from the apostles is so amazing and I love the opportunity to be spiritually filled. It was also the big day of singing in front of the world! And if you watch the video in my google photos you'll see me trying my hardest not to cough so loud in the middle of I Will Walk With Jesus. Otherwise, it was amazing. The view from the loft and being able to see the behind the scenes of a world wide production. There is such a spirit while being in the room along with most of the apostles and those men who God has called to lead his church. 

Sunday was day 2 of General Conference! Definitely the best talk was by President Russell M. Nelson. And coming in second was Bradley R. Wilcox. Two amazing talks by two amazing men who are called by God to help the world hear His Gospel. Bradley R. Wilcox talked about why members of the church are so different from the rest of the world. He used the analogy that we are the crew members on the cruise ship of life. We are given an added responsibility to guide those other passengers to the truth, and with that responsibility comes compensation through added blessings and the spirit with us.

My district also played a lot of card games in-between sessions and we also found what we think to be a haunted floor in T2 We went into some of the classrooms, most of which are not used and filled with storage, but these few were being used. It was all about shoulder tapping. There were sticky notes and cut up pieces of paper all over the walls. They all seemed to be tied back to this "shoulder tapping". If anyone knows what shoulder tapping is please let me know.

Today was full of packing, and playing games with the district. We played games such as, Scum, Skull King, hearts, Spoons, and speed. I'm gonna miss my MTC district. Weve gotten pretty tight these last 6 weeks. Also great story, Elder Woodward made friends with one of the cafeteria staff when we did our cafeteria service a few weeks ago. And him, Elder Bethers, and Elder Chapman convinced her to bring us Canes!! I basically got Canes by affiliation and I am not complaining. It was delicious. So shout out to Sarah, your the best, thank you for the Canes.

Travel plans:

I check out of the MTC at 3:37am on Tuesday and fly to Atlanta Georgia at 9:56 am where I have a layover. I get there at 3:40pm. I leave Atlanta at 7:00pm and have a red eye flight to São Paulo. I land in Brazil at 5:40 am Wednesday morning. When i get there I'll figure out the rest.

Thanks for sticking it through the MTC emails, the next email will be from Brazil. Out in the field that is white already to harvest. I shall be bringing the gospel to all those wonderful people in Brazil. So, the emails Should be getting more interesting from now on.

I love getting emails from everyone. So send them my way.

Elder Bliss

Here's a link to the Google Photos

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EQG3K68BLWXZWLEz8

October 5, 2024 - Saturday Evening Session of General Conference Missionary Choir