One more week has passed us by. Many sports have been played, work has been worked.
This week we worked quite a bit. We got hit by an absolutely massive amount of rain on Monday and Tuesday, and it actually flooded some of the lower parts of the city. Missionary Work doesn't stop for weather though, so we toughed it out in the rain. My rain jacket really doesn't work all that well though, and as a result of being wet for so long, I got sick. And I'm still kinda sick. That's the price you have to pay though. This week we found a family of 6 that have been looking for a true church to go to. Sacrifice paying off!
Do you have any mission goals or slogans?
As for mission wide goals and slogans, it's a little hard to explain. Our mission is a very "living" mission, in that things are being changed and tweaked almost constantly. We have a mission hymn, but we sing it very rarely. A good part of the zones have hymns too, but it seems like I am the only person that knows the words to these songs. The slogan that appears on our symbol is "Hard work. Dedication. Love." But this slogan is rarely used and the logo is rarely seen. In the end, is just "Missão Brasil Campinas". That's our slogan. That's all we need.
Do you have weekly contact goals?
Let me tell you the history of the weekly contact goal. We had a goal of 140 per companionship, shortly before I arrived. Then President Hill got here and got rid of the goal because people were just handing out cards without any explanation just to hit the goal. A time passed, and the missionaries stopped talking to people on the roads, so we stopped baptizing as much. President then came upon a plan to change this. He implemented 50 "principles" per companionship per week. A principle is like a contact, but you have to teach the person some sort of principle of the Gospel. That way, you can't cheat around it. But our mission still had problems with baptisms, so our AP called up Curitiba (the most baptizing mission in Brazil), and asked what they were doing. And they said lots and lots and lots of contacts. So, we received a goal of 300 contacts per companionship per week. This one was pretty hard to hit consistently. Right as I figured out how to get 300 contacts per week, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve gave a transmission for all of the missions of the world and cut our number of key indicators down to 4. As such, we can no longer have a contact goal.
Do you play sports on p-day? Are you getting better at soccer?
I play soccer every p-day. I still get wiped by all of the Brazilians, every single week. I'm persistent though, so I keep playing.
If you could any souvenirs for yourself, what would they be?
As for souvenirs, I think I'll just get some cool soccer shirts that they only sell here, and I've already got a gaucho cuia. I think I'll just look around for cool Brazil-only things.
Do you have any good restaurants in your new area?
Our area doesn't really have any cool restaurants like some of my other areas did. In this area, I've just been eating at members homes and cooking. I've learned a lot of recipes though!
Tell us about some of your ward members.
I'll tell you about some of the cooler members of our ward. There's a guy here called Walter. He gives us dinner at least once a week. He has a huge family of six and all of his children are rather crazy. He's a more or less recent convert (1 year and a bit as a member), and he's an endless fountain of wisdom and intelligent sayings. I'll write some down and send them in our letter next week. He's also not afraid to call the other members to repentance if they are being slackers on home teaching. Another member here is semi-recently returned missionary called Thais. She sets a personal goal to bring non-members to institute. As such, she gives us a lot of referrals. Another cool guy is Washington Pastana. He's like a gospel library. He's read just about all of the books that Bruce R. McConkie and Neal A. Maxwell have ever written. He's got a crazy, crazy knowledge about the Gospel.
Thanks for supporting me all back home! The Church is true! Have a great week!
One more chance to offer all I have.
Elder Murray
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