Mission Tour with Elder W. Mark Bassett

Oi tudo mundo! This week has been pretty great! We had a lot happen this week. 

First thing was we had a mission tour which is when a General Authority comes and talks to us and we get to meet him which is pretty cool! Elder W. Mark Bassett is a General Authority Seventy and is a member of the Brazil Area Presidency. 

We also took a picture of the entire mission with him but he was taking a while to show up so we were all standing and I was talking to a guy from Shelley, Idaho and we were talking about random stuff and I was trying to tell him that my grandparents who live in Arizona used to have a spot for missionaries (an apartment for missionaries to live in) but the word for grandparents is avos, and the word for eggs is ovos. Então, I told him that my eggs live in Arizona which makes absolutely no sense. Got to love mess ups with the language! 

Then after that, we continued to work and went to a possible investigator's house. She wasn’t there but her son was and he let us in. His name is Douglas and we continued to talk to him and by the end we set a baptism date! That was great but now we just need to continue to work with him. 

We also had stake conference which was good. All the talks were good and I understood a good amount! Overall this has been a good week and I can’t wait to continue. Talk to you guys later!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Transfers

Esta semana foi muito bom! [This week was really good!]

I did a lot this past week but I will start by talking about how we had transfers and we will be staying here! (Elder Western, Kzeczik, and I) Elder Igure got transferred to Teresopolis and we gained Elder Papalino who is really cool (and Elder Pereira until his companion shows up). But starting with last P day, we went and hiked this hill called O Morro de Cristo (the hill of Christ) which had this awesome view at the top. The next day we had district meeting which was good because we did some role-playing that helped me out this week. Then on Thursday, we helped someone move and then got some food afterwards so that is always good! The next day we had an emergency practice for the Mission Tour this coming week. What a mission tour is, it is basically when an Area Authority (in the Seventy which is a separate quorum) who comes and talks with us (or chastises us, we’ll see haha) and then he has a bigger meeting with all the wards and stakes in the area. So that will be fun. Also, this week we have two baptismal dates that we got so I am excited to help them prepare! This week has been good and I can´t wait to continue to work in Grajaú for another transfer! Oh, we also had a festa for the new transfer. 

Love, 

Elder Joseph A. Kupferer

A Week of Splits

Cara esta semana foi interesante! Hey everyone so this week has been interesting. 

So we did splits three times this week because I think we were supposed to and for some of the work to progress it was necessary (for the other dupla to change up) so I was with Elder Igure half the week which was interesting but we were working hard and I have gotten way better at making contacts in front of the church enquanto nós fazemos capela aberta (while we do open church (I think?)) which was a struggle before but it started to get better. 

I also visited a great investigator that has great potential. He also plays the accordion so that was a lot of fun. Also, there was a divisão com um outro missionário and he stayed with us for a night which was awesome. 

Overall this week has been filled with helping members, going with members to menos ativos, and just finding and teaching! Sorry it is short but I am a little pressed for time. Talk to you guys next week!

Love,

Elder Kupferer

Welcome to Grajaú 2

So this has been a really interesting week. So first off, right as I sent the previous email from last week, my trainer gets a call from President Lacerda (but he only said President so I thought he meant Branch President) and as soon as he hangs up, he says, "Well, we are being transfered." I honestly did not believe him but we were having an emergency transfer to Grajaú 2 which is in the city of Juiz de Fora because apparently the bishop called the mission president and said that he needed more missionaries. So President Lacerda prayed and thought of us. So after I finally started getting some great investigators that I felt that we had some great progress with, we got transfered but God has a plan for each of us and we are apparently needed here so we packed all of our stuff and we moved out. The night we arrived, we had a meeting with the bishop and I think his councilors so that was fun because I barely understood anything but it is great. We moved in with two different missionaries which is always fun. They are cool and will help us with the area. It is just tough because our area book had barely any good information so we were basically starting from scratch but the Lord has helped along the way and we have run into some great people that I feel that have great potential including this one guy that had been taught 8 years ago and wanted a tri (the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price) so that was awesome. We had someone help get that and will give that to him soon. Other than that we have been just working hard. The members are good, possible investigators are great, and we just are trying to love every minute! Talk to you guys later! I would send pictures but this LAN House doesn’t really send them that well so until next week! 

Love, 

Elder Kupferer

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