Condensed Milk

Oi Tudo Bem?! Tudo Bem! So this week has been pretty awesome. I first had zone conference which was pretty awesome. President Lacerda talked for four hours and from what I could understand it was great! I am glad we could have the opportunity to have that conference especially since I also got to meet a good amount of people in my mission. Then I was back in my area and we got back to work. It was a little tough to start because we had one investigator tell us to go away, but the other ones are cool, just sometimes they aren’t very motivated so it is hard to make commitments with them. But we just contacted three people that seem really promising so we are hoping it works out. Also, people here are really nice and are very generous. For example, we went to just visit with a less active family and they had just bought chocolate milk and bread with meat and gave us some. And we went and took the sacrament to a member and she made us fruit salad which was good but I noticed that they love condensed milk here. It is very interesting. Another thing is that we celebrated my companion’s tenth month in the field so that was great. 

One last thing was that I had to give a talk in straight Portuguese for 10 minutes with a day’s notice. So guess who used language study for that talk? This guy. But it went really well and I am glad for a trainer that went over my main points to help make sure I was speaking the way I should. Well I hope everyone has a great week!

Love, 

Elder Kupferer

Welcome to the Mission Field

What’s up everyone! 

So these past few weeks have been interesting.  First off, I had to fly to my mission and that was really interesting because I was with 5 other people and we all decided to go on splits and divided into duplas (companionships) and we started handing out cards and information so that was fun.

Then, when we arrived, first the airport was super small (it was one building) so when we landed, we had to turn around to get to it, but when we were waiting for our bags, there were missionaries with the mission president waiting for us.

We then went to his (the mission president) house, got lunch and he showed us his skateboarding video that happened because he was trying to get someone to come to his institute class. (My president skateboards what’s up?!)  We then figured out our companions that night (mine is Elder Western from Salt Lake City which means he speaks English (yes) but we have been trying to only speak it when I need him too).  We then had dinner and my mission president then showed us pictures of when he had long hair and played the bass (like what!)

The next day, we headed to the area. It is this place called São João Del Rei, it is this super Catholic town with about 8-10 different Catholic cathedrals (or churches sorry I don’t know the correct term) which is cool but that means all the people are super Catholic which makes it a little harder to contact people but it’s great. 

The members here are great, they feed us lunch every day, and it is always fun to visit them (there are only about 20 members though so that is interesting). I am just trying to get used to being in a new area but I am loving it, loving my companion, and I love working. Thanks for all the emails and talk to you all soon!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Man with A Bear Tattoo

Oi! Tudo Bem? Tudo Bem! 

This week has been killer!  So first thing, I love always getting new missionaries, especially when you are the ones here longer. It is nice that we can tell them that it gets better but the best thing happened yesterday. I saw some new missionaries coming so I just said “Oi novos missionarios!” and they just gave me the biggest stare in the world. I felt accomplished that I sort of gotten better from that. 

I also had my first dream in Portuguese. I was at a concert and someone came up and needed me to translate for him because he was sick so I helped talked to someone in Portuguese which was awesome.  

We went to do Proteletismo and it was awesome. We handed out 8 Book of Mormons and had some fun experiences. 

The first one was I went to talk to a guy and he said “Meu paí é Satanás” (My dad is Satan) so Elder Carlson and I just said thanks and walked away. 

Then there was the man with the bear tattoo. We approached him and his brother (we will call his brother Jared and him the Brother of Jared {Book of Mormon reference, you should read it} because I cannot for the life of me remember his name because it was long and complicated).  We approached them and he stared at the book for a while, then just handed it back so we kept going, but when we were talking to another person, he came running up and grabbed my hand, and asked to see the book again but didn’t take it. THEN we walked past one more time and said that his brother would want it so I had to go get another book from a sister because we ran out and then handed it to him. And when we shook our hands and after we got his and Jared’s reference he grabbed my hand, lifted his shirt, and showed us his bear tattoo and closed his eyes, and said no power. SO that was fun. 

Then we had conference and that was honestly the best. I have such a strong testimony that we have a living prophet on this earth today and he still gives us constant guidance and council. Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you guys!

Love,

Elder Joseph A. Kupferer