Padre Bernardo Week 2

From Elder Chandler Hyer​

Soooo. There is so much to talk about here In Padre Bernardo, I hope I remember everything.

First of all My companion´s name is Elder Lafiete he is an awesome missionary, been out about a year and is learning English which is really helpful for trying to talk to him. We also live with a second companionship Elder Nascimento (a really tall Brazilian who is just awesome) and Elder Deleray who is from Florida and has been here in Brazil two weeks longer than I have, and has been on his mission one transfer less than me. He served one transfer in the Farmington, New Mexico mission. He´s way cool and a huge nerd so we talk about Star Wars and, well, nerdy things all the time. I´m trying not to take advantage of the fact that I can speak English with him and speak Portuguese as often as possible.

Padre Bernardo is a small town with wild dogs all over the place, amazing people, and a really really hot sun. We walk everywhere which is fun, but sweaty is probably the best way to describe it.

Everyday we wake up at 5:40 get dressed and walk to the gym and work out until a little after 7:00. and my companions all work out hard. I've never been this sore my entire life, but it´s good. Afterwards we eat breakfast and shower (the showers have these weird electric shower heads to heat up the water but it works pretty well and I love having hot showers.) Then we basically have our studies (1 hour of personal study, 1 hour of companionship study, 1 hour of training in Portuguese, and 1 hour of studying the language.) After that it´s lunch at Silo´s house everyday with his wife and kids (Eva, Isaac, and Rebecca.) They are the best family ever, Silo is amazing and they are all so nice, the kids are just great.

The food is amazing here, that is the last thing you need to worry about. The only food we ever buy are eggs for breakfast which are dirt cheap. Other than that we are fed large lunches every day at Silo´s house, and we are fed constantly by every random investigator/recent convert that we come in contact with.

After lunch we head out and walk all over Padre Bernardo teaching everybody. Lessons are kind of hard because I can hardly understand anybody, and some people I literally can´t understand a single word. But we have had some really cool experiences. We were sitting on the curb for a minute one day making a phone call when this Brazilian asked us what church we were with. We told him and he just started asking question after question and gave us juice (everybody has fresh juice) and Ice-cream. Something about Brazilians is it doesn't matter who you are they just feed you and give you everything. But we are going back to teach him this week.

Knocking is incredibly different than in Washington. Here every single house has a wall with a gate surrounding the house and you simply stand outside the gate and clap, and so far I haven't gone two houses clapping without being let in, fed, and teach a lesson. It´s amazing!.

Every Saturday we also host an English class for anybody that wants to come, and the Americans teach it. Elder Deleray teaches the kids and I teach the adults. It´s way fun.

Then after teaching English we spend the entire Saturday inviting our investigators and recent members to attend church the next day. We invited roughly 15-20 people to attend church and we had 4 show up which is very normal. Between both companionships on Sunday we had 10 investigators attend and a total attendance of 28 people which is pretty decent.

Church is really small but awesome, we only do 2 hours, sacrament meeting and gospel principles and we do it at the local elementary school outside under a pavilion. We bless the sacrament and Isaac (Silo´s son) passes it, and then usually some of us missionaries will give talks every week and sometimes a member, then we split up the adult and kids for the second hour and once again we teach the adults, or really my companion teaches.

We email from a local internet place with way slow internet and the keyboard I´m using is awful, I keep on misspelling words but I've stopped caring.

This has been one of the hardest things I've ever done physically (Because of the workouts and walking) and mentally (because I´m just mentally exhausted trying to understand Portuguese). By the end of the day I collapse on my bed and fall asleep every night around 10-10:30. But spiritually this has been amazing.

We had a great experience with an investigator who came to church yesterday. She wasn't feeling very good that morning and kind of didn't want to go, in fact she almost didn't but we decided to go wake them up that morning before church. She decided to come with one of her daughters and she loved church. Afterwards we went to her house and talked with her and she said while she was at church her cough was gone and it was just really neat. She will definitely be baptized.

Today was insane and we ended up doing service all day and had no p-day. This resulted in me not being able to get my cords for sending pictures or downloading recordings. So one of 2 things could happen.   1- I download the recordings and send the recordings at Silo's house tomorrow.   Or 2- I wait one more week and send everything then. Sorry about the frustration but it´s really not a big deal. I love you guys a ton and just know that things are great.

I have to go but I love you all, until next week, bye.

Elder Hyer

Brasilia - Padre Bernardo Week 1

Wow guys its way awesome here!!

First of all my area here in Brazil is Padre Bernardo. The church is just starting here, its not even a branch yet and currently about 30 people attend every week. Elder Lafiete is my companion, he is from Sao Paulo and is awesome. There is also another set of missionaries living with us covering this area. Their names are Elder Nascimento and Elder Deleray. Nascimento is also from Brazil but Deleray just got here 2 weeks ago and in mission age he is one transfer behind me, so we are both struggling with the language. I don´t have pictures of here yet but I will send the ones of the CTM. 

Other than that just know that I am alive and that I´m already loving it. I´m learning the language, and I already love the missionaries I´m with. That's it for today, I love you guys

BRAZIL !!!

Hey everyone!! It´s your favorite Brazilian from the Sao Paulo CTM. Things have been really great here.

Let's see, the plane ride here first of all was one of the longest days of my entire life, like it was long long long. I´m pretty sure it was roughly 14 hours total of flying, and I didn't sleep the entire time which made the first day here at the CTM pretty... well lets just say I was tired :) By the time I got to sleep it was over 35 hours that I hadn't slept. I was exhausted. But now I am all recovered and loving it.

I am once again in a trio (as a side note, because of all the trios I've been in if you include MTC time, I have now had 8 companions which is a lot). Anyways their names are Elder Young who was actually in my district at the Provo MTC and Elder Remund who just got back on his mission after going home for 3 months because he broke his hand. They´re both good guys.

As far as which MTC is better It's a hard choice, on one hand I really loved the Provo MTC because I just had a blast. But here the food is better. We have rice and beans literally every day and fresh juice of all different kinds every day and just really good food.

The people here are amazing, especially the Brazilians. We have some in our room and in our hallway and we just talk with them all the time, and I laugh so hard, they are some of the funniest people I've ever met, and you know what? Now that I've been here for a while I´m understanding so much better and I can actually talk with them, it´s epic. Every day we play volleyball with the Brazilians and it´s way fun, although half of them use their feet instead of their hands :)

Not a whole lot more to say other than that we have been studying Portuguese literally all day every day here and it´s great. That's the good thing about this MTC is you probably learn the language twice as fast which is amazing. We have 3 teachers for the morning afternoon and evening. Irma Silva, Orfilla, and Fouco. They are all great.

Another great thing about this MTC is you get to take the Onibus to some busy place in Sao Paulo and try to teach people and give them a Book of Mormon. It´s really fun. And every time we go out (we got to go 3 times total) we get better and better at it.

There is graffiti all over Sao Paulo but some of it is actually quite amazing, that really was neat to see. And there are just stray dogs walking around the city, it´s crazy!

By the way the Onibus is insane, because the traffic here is just so crazy. I mean people are weaving in and out all over the place, motorcycles everywhere and the buses are just as crazy, and half the people are standing up, like us, and getting thrown around all over the place, it´s pretty funny. For you Harry Potter fans basically imagine the Knight bus from harry potter, the way it drives and you understand the Onibus:).

Anyways that's it for now. Now I get to go walk around outside and shop because on P-days here you can do that! I´m way excited. I love you all so much.

Elder Chandler Hyer

MTC Sao Paulo Week 1

Hey so basically I'm alive and made it here safely.

You won`t hear from me again until Wednesday or Friday when I have my P-day again. Things are going well.  I am so so so tired.  I didn't sleep very well on the flight here.  Oddly enough I am in another trio, and one of my companions was in my district at the MTC in Provo.  Not much else to say as this has to be pretty quick but I'm safe.

Brazil is awesome and I love you!!

Dear Parents,

Sister Swensen and I are very happy to let you know that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil Missionary Training Center. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they begin their missionary experiences with us. We will surely take good care of your missionary.

The missionaries now have companions and are settled into their rooms. They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study. Their branch presidents and wives, will meet them this Sunday. These wonderful couples are richly blessed as they work with, motivate, and interview the missionaries assigned to their branch.

The MTC has a full-time live-in physician to care for their health needs. He is assisted by his able wife who is a nurse. We are also happy to report that the cafeteria food is plentiful, healthy and very good.

Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple. This will be either Wednesday or Friday, depending on individual assignments.

Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of many others. President Lorenzo Snow said: “There is no mortal man that is as interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the Gospel as is the Lord who sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children". We love these missionaries as if they were our own. We will watch over them carefully to ensure they are ready for a wonderful missionary experience after the rewarding time they will have in the MTC.

We thank you for preparing such a wonderful representative of the Lord.

President Robert Swensen and Sister Julie Swensen

Wa-Tac Week 10

Good Bye Washington

Well This is it, It's weird to think about, but I'm flying to Brazil tomorrow. I had mixed feelings about leaving but things really worked out perfectly this week before I left.

First of all and most exciting is we had two baptisms this week!!

On Thursday Candice got baptized which was really special. She was first married to her husband Justin by Bishop Erickson and afterward she was able to be baptized which was just amazing.

Then two days later Kurt was able to be baptized as well, he is such a great guy. He told us this week that when missionaries first talked to him he had a few problems but as we kept coming by he slowly changed his habits to the point where he doesn't drink or smoke anymore. He's an amazing guy and I was so lucky to be able to see him baptized.

Natasha had a bit of a set back this week but she is working on things and will most likely get baptized very soon. Repentance is an amazing thing and I am excited for her to get baptized even if I won't see it.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a really neat fireside. Marvin Goldstein and Vannessa Joy came to our stake and played the piano and sang beautifully. It was actually quite amazing. Marvin is a jewish man who converted to the church and Vanessa is also a member. They are both very talented.

I have unfortunately ran out of time this week but I love you all and I'm exited to fly to Brazil tomorrow!! I guess the next post will be from Sao Paulo!!
Love you all,

Elder Hyer

My last week in Washington

It's a little hard to believe but my last week in Washington is finally here. I feel like I'm ending one mission and starting another..

This last week has been so busy.  Tuesday we had an exchange with the AP's (Assistant's to the President) and that was really fun.  The AP's are both really cool.  Then two days later we did an exchange with the 5th ward elders and so I spent the day with Elder Seegmiller, and that was pretty fun too.

Portuguese study has gotten a lot better since I've found out I got my Visa.  I've realized that I let my Portuguese skills slip away and so I'm looking forward to a refresher in the Sao Paulo MTC before I'm thrown into my new area in Brasilia.

This week a few miracles happened.

Curt ( the one who wanted to read the whole Bible before being baptized) told us he wanted to get baptized as soon as possible, I think he just realized the importance of it and so we are having his baptism on Saturday.  He is such a neat guy and I'm so excited to finally see him make that covenant.  He has such a strong desire to do what's right and it's just really exciting.

Candace finally got her marriage license and is getting married and baptized this Thursday.  And perhaps even a greater miracle is that we started teaching her 9 year old son Josiah this week.  Now Josiah barely knew the concept of God and had only heard the name of Jesus Christ, and teaching him is such a joy.  He is such a sweet kid who is amazed at the concept of prayer.  He wants to get baptized and we are hoping to baptize him on the same day as Candace which would be awesome.

Natasha is also still on date for baptism on Friday this week.  She has the light of Christ shining so brightly within her.  You can see her taking comfort from what we are teaching her and what she has been learning as she comes to church.  She has made some mistakes in her life and more than anything wants those mistakes and sins to be washed away through repentance and baptism.

This week has been great!  This area is having a lot of success right now and it's going to be nice to be able to have a few really wonderful people baptized this upcoming week before I leave.

I don't know what else to say besides I love you all so much, and I love it here in Washington, but I'm sure I'll also grow to love Brazil as I serve the rest of my mission there.  I have no idea what to expect (I've heard so many crazy stories from people I don't even know what is true and isn't true).  But I'm excited! That's it for this week Bye!

Elder Hyer

Wa-Tac Week 10

VISA!!!!

Hello everyone this is Elder Hyer emailing you out of Lacey, Washington, but soon to be emailing you out of Brazil!!

Yep, this week I found out that I got my Visa. On Thursday we had zone conference, where we basically receive a bunch of training and it's really spiritual. During one of the meetings President Blatter called me outside and told me the news that I received my Visa. The first words that came out of my mouth was "Oh no" because usually once you get the Visa they send you out of there as soon as possible, like in a couple days. But I was then told that I will not be leaving this area until August 4th, the last day of the transfer, which couldn't be better. I will then be spending two weeks in the Brazil MTC in São Paulo to refresh my Portuguese skills and then I will finally be in Brasilia!

Needless to say I am really excited. But there has been some other really neat things that occurred this week as well,

For one, Curt, an investigator of ours is finally on date for the 25th of July. He is such a good guy and I am so excited to see him enter the waters of baptism. He strives so hard to live worthily and he reads the scriptures more than just about anyone I know (other than maybe missionaries :) ). But his change of heart is a blessing and I'm excited.

Sister Church has chosen a date for her marriage and baptism so that will be happening in a few weeks.

Yesterday during Gospel Principles class in church there was a lady there that we had never met before, and at the beginning of the class when the teacher asked if anybody had any questions this week, she raised her hand and said "I want to be baptized, how do I do that?" Naturally we were pretty shocked and at the end we set up an appointment to teach her that evening and she is now excitedly on date for baptism on July 31st!!! That just doesn't happen everyday.

I was also able to go see Erick's baptism this week, he was an investigator that we were working with in my last area and so that was really cool to see.

Heavenly Father is amazing, he has given me so many blessings and opportunities for me to learn and to have joy. I love being a missionary so much. I'm so excited to go to Brazil, but I still have work to do here. I love you all so much and I look forward to emailing next week!

Elder Hyer