Elder Chandler Hyer

Elder Chandler Hyer
Elder Chandler Hyer

Monday, January 25, 2016

Planalto - Asa Norte - Brasilia Week 1

Oi Pessoal!! 

I hope you all have had an amazing week as I have had the pleasure of having here.

Brasilia is a really cool city, planned from the beginning before it was built, built in the shape of an airplane (look it up), and it´s very pretty, (not as pretty as Hilton Head), and just really neat. Brasila also has everything, it's like living back in the States. I was shocked when I walked into a normal air-conditioned grocery store that had literally everything including some imported food that is from the States, that was neat. We have every American fast-food restaurant as well as some of the nicer ones (I saw Outback the other day), and some cool tourist places as well. But what comes with having everything also comes people that are a little bit less receptive. It can be hard to show people that they need the gospel of Jesus Christ when they feel like they have everything. But we have managed to find a few really cool people to teach.

It has rained every single day this week, and it rained hard. Friday I forgot my umbrella (not overly smart) and my companion lost his (less smart) and we both ended up coming home completely soaked which was less than fun.

The ward here is great, it is such a difference coming from a place where the church is just getting started, still in the beginning stages, to a strong established Ward building with lots of members. We have lunch in a different place every day, and here if our lunch appointment falls through (the members feed us) they give us money to go eat out! so that's cool.

Not a whole lot else to say besides I really am liking it here, I love life as a missionary, there is really no better life than this one. The time is flying by.

Love you all tons, have a great week,

Elder Hyer

Monday, January 18, 2016

Padre Bernardo /Asa Norte - Brasilia Week 23

Hello Brasilia!!

Well, It´s official. After 6 incredibly fast months of working in the tiny, poor, minimally populated town of Padre Bernardo, I have been transferred to work in the incredibly rich, gigantic, highly populated area of the Asa Norte ward. Things are different.

To explain transfers, everyone stayed in Padre Bernardo except Deleray and I. Deleray went to Paracatu (even smaller than Padre Bernardo), and I am here right smack dab in the middle of Brasilia, the big city.

My new companion is Elder Machado, he is from Paraná Brasil and seems like a hard worker and I´m excited. I´ll talk a little more about the area next week after I know more. Oh and they took out the last two missionaries working here which means both Elder Machado and I know literally nothing about the area, so wish us luck as we try to get the work moving here.

My last week in Padre Bernardo was great, Mainly it was a normal week with a lot of visits to members to say goodbye those last two days. We did also happen to find a lot of new people to teach. But mainly I want to talk about what happened with Diuly.

So last Monday night we stopped by Açai (juice store) to ask Diuly if she received an answer about being baptized on the 16th of Jan. and she told us that she knew she needed to be baptized but was just feeling nervous about the 16th. So she asked us when we would be having the next baptismal service. We took out our phone to look at the calendar and said more as a joke "the 17th of january" (the next day) and she looked at us kind of funny and asked "you guys do service the day after the other?" and we told her "sim!" she paused for a second and said "ok, can you mark it for that day." and we then got really excited.

We marked the day for baptism and she ended up getting baptized the very last day before I left. It was a small but amazing baptismal service. and it started raining right in the middle if it. But I loved it. Diuly is one of these people that you just know is going to stay so strong in the church.

Anyways, then I left the area. Now I am here in Brasilia and it´s the start to something new, but I´m also really excited.

I love you all, and I hope you have a perfect week. Tchau!


Elder Hyer

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Padre Bernardo Week 22

Sickness, Goodbye Padre Bernardo

Well good day to everyone, this week was really just chuck full of stuff that happened so let’s get started.

Tuesday, Elder Deleray and I went on exchanges together working with his investigators, which was a blast. We got a lot done, and I feel like as two Americans working together teaching we are able to work effectively with our Portuguese at this point and it felt really good! Unfortunately with the other missionaries my companion ended up getting way sick and Elder Peralta spent the whole day in the house with him.

So Wednesday comes around and my companion is even worse, pain in the body, headache, tired, just not good. So I end up staying home all day with him, which was ok. I got some stuff done (cleaned our kitchen which was a wreck) all and all pretty good but also unproductive as far as missionary work goes.

Thursday my companion was still sick, and so in order to get me out of the house I went working with Elder Peralta in my area which was really enjoyable, we taught some great lessons, and I had some good spiritual teaching experiences with him.

Friday Elder Valerio finally got back to working, but that day we also had a decent amount of appointments fall through. So in the end we were walking by the city orphanage and decided to give it a visit. That was actually pretty sad and kind of an eye-opener. These kids, before we even had a chance to say much at all, swarmed us as we sat down, just hugging us, showing us their toys, just the nicest kids, way sad as well though. We ended up sharing a simple message, gave them our pass-along Jesus cards, (which they loved!), and left after a little bit. The saddest part is that most of these kids have parents in Padre Bernardo who just bring them there because they can’t take care of them which is just awful.

Saturday was normal, nothing too crazy to report.

Sunday was full of ups and downs. Church was frustrating because our Golden Investigator Diuly didn't show up to church, but we got over there that night and found out why she didn't come and then had a very spiritual lesson with her. She told us yesterday that she is going to pray about being baptized on the 16th of January and told us she would tell us her answer today, so wish us luck as we go talk to her tonight!

This will probably be my last email from Padre Bernardo, I've had six months here and generally that’s the max time a missionary stays in one area, I'll find out for sure Saturday. I'll be way sad to leave this blessed area that I've literally worked in the entire time I've been in Brasil. They say that the first area is the hardest to leave and I'd have to agree with them. I have grown so much here and I've had the pleasure to spend the entire six months with Elder Deleray, and that just doesn't happen, I'll let you guys know next week what happens, love you all, have a good week, tchau!

Elder Hyer

Monday, January 4, 2016

Padre Bernardo Week 21

Blue Parrot! Missionary Work, Ano Novo!!

Boã tarde todo mundo! Welcome to the brief recap of the amazing week of Elder Hyer. To start today's adventure, I would like to show you all the amazing Parrot I found the other day walking around town. (pic below)

So we were a little early for our appointment and decided to walk down the street a little ways to kill some time, and we found this way cool bird! It came really close and wouldn't fly but came right up to us, really neat.

So that happened Tuesday and after the parrot experience we arrived at our appointment with Diuly (pronounced Julie) and man was that amazing. Diuly is a girl we cantacted at the Açai shop where we frequently buy juice and such and she is awesome! Diuly is a single mom who just wants more faith and is willing to do anything to gain that faith. She came to church this week and is just amazing, she has a date to be baptized 16th of January. I´m so excited.

We also had Guilherme this week at church with his grandma, he is a 10 year old kid who loves church and the missionaries. His grandma doesn't have quite as much interest but doesn't seem to have any problem with the church. We are hoping to baptize him as well in the coming weeks.

Ano Novo (New Year) was fun, well to tell the truth work was pretty slow that day as everyone seemed to be leaving to some other place right as we would arrive, but we stayed up until midnight from the window of our church (which is part of our house) and watched the firework show, reflecting on 2015 and what it's going to be like to spend the entire year of 2016 in the mission field.

All in all a great week that ended with our zone activity (volleyball, futbol, and a little pool) it was a good time.

Anyway, love you all and hope you have a decently okay week.

Elder Hyer

Friday, January 1, 2016

Padre Bernardo Week 20

Christmas, apologies 12/28/15

First of all to everyone (especially my loving Mother) I apologize for the lack of pictures recently and not even sending an email last week, things have just been so busy, for the last like 3 Mondays.

But Merry late Christmas to everyone!! I hope your Christmas was as good as mine, (Because mine was pretty dang good). So first I guess I should update you guys on what happened two weeks ago, and it's incredibly simple, 2 things.

1. We found a sweet new investigator named Diuly, she works at the Acaí shop that we go to all the time, and she is way cool, really wants to grow her faith in Christ and seems willing to do her part to find it. So we are really excited.

2. STAR WARS!!! Basically the day Star Wars came out, Elder Deleray and I were just generally pretty sad. One of the member families here ended up watching it and came in the church on Sunday and literally told us every major spoiler in the movie within 2 minutes. I was dying of shock, though I won't say anything here in case someone hasn't seen it, but yeah I'm excited to watch that here in a few years.

And now for this week,

Monday we bused into Brasilia because the next morning was the mission Christmas Conference, which was a blast.

Tuesday the conference started with a great training by the AP's and President, we all had lunch (I at McDonald's here in Brasil for the first time), We had a talent show (our Zone sang a Christmas song) also people are way more talented than I am, and then afterwards the mission president let us all watch the movie "Inside Out" which was pretty good, I enjoyed it.

Wednesday we bused back to Padre Bernardo and was one of our only normal days of work, not much to report there.

Thursday was Christmas eve, which is really where the Christmas celebrations happen here in Brasil. Everyone does secret Santa and everyone opens presents Christmas eve. We did secret Santa (in Portuguese "amiga secreta") and it was really fun! I got colored pencils and some workout shorts, and I gave elder Deleray a cheap Batman mask.

Also I almost forgot that Elder Deleray and I were commissioned to make American cookies to bring to dinner by Irmã Eva.... Let´s just say they looked interesting, really just quite ugly, but people ate them so já erá.

Friday was Christmas. And this Christmas was one of my favorites. I got to talk with my family over Skype which was really exciting, and we all opened our presents from home. One sister hadn't received her Christmas package yet and had nothing to open, and so Christmas Eve we got the Fedex box my parents sent decorated it for Christmas and threw in tons of random stuff for her to open and then wrapped it up, it was pretty funny. Afterwards we and the sisters sang Christmas songs to our recent converts and investigators. But yeah it was a blast.

After that it was just normal work until today. This is getting pretty long so that's it!! I love you guys so much and hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!

Love Elder Hyer

Padre Bernardo Week 19

Nothing