Hello Everyone, January 23, 2012
This week definitely wasn't quite as awesome as the past two weeks; we went back to our usual number of investigators at church, zero. And stuff is still hard with Tica. We don't teach her anymore but we visit her almost every day to see how her reading is going and ask if she's ready to get baptized yet, but she never is. I hope that before I leave Trindade I will get to see her baptism. We aren't sure what happened to Dora's family, that awesome family we found last week. They weren't there at church and our other investigator avoided us all this week and wasn't at church either, so that was sad.
Something that I thought you'd find funny; the buses here are crazy! They almost run people over and run red lights and the likes. So, we were on the bus in Juaziero and I started singing real soft to myself, "crazy bus, crazy bus, ridin' on a crazy bus", that stupid song that DW sings from Arthur.
We had interviews with the Pres. in Juaziero on Friday and that was cool cause I hardly get to see that guy! Plus Juaziero got a real chapel. It is beautiful! I really wish Trindade had a chapel but we just meet in a cute little tiny building with a couple of rooms. Anyway, traveling and stuff this week was really tiring and we went hiking today so it's kinda bad but I'm starting the week off totally beat. We'll see how that goes.
Also, I'm losing my trainer this week and getting a new guy next week, which is really sad for me. My trainer is awesome! But, I'm hoping the next fella is a brazillian times better. ;) Mom, you can give that pun to Paul for me.
Oh, I almost forgot! I got my first death threat this week! It was awesome. We were walking through "Narnia" (this little tiny jungle next to Trindade) and this man rode up on his motorcycle yelling to me and my 3 Brazillians, "You Americans come here to take our land! You think you're real cute with your shirt and tie. If you ever come back here, I'll kill you!" But, it sounded more like this, "Americanos vem aqui para robo nossa terra, Voces sao bonitinhos..." and it would have been real scary but he was just a drunken little man, not a killer. So, my companion started to walk toward him and he hopped back on his mototcycle real fast and rode away. It was actually kinda funny.
Anyways, love you guys like there aint no tomorrow.
Elder Swinney
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
January 16, 2012
Oi Todos!
Sounds like it's pretty dry there. I'm getting really used to it being humid and hot all the time here. I applaud the kids for their missionary work. That is awesome!
This week was awesome too! We had six investigators at church on Sunday, which is better than our past few weeks (0,0,2,0) and we found a really awesome family. The mom told us she is looking for a church that will be good for kids...and also, they can read so that's super cool. She was the only one there at church but she said she liked it and we've got an appointment to go back tomorrow (ha, Pedro, her son, just came into the internet cafe here). Yeah, so, I'm really excited for her and her family. We had to drop Tica; she already knows everything, but she just decided to read the Book of Mormon, so we'll check up on her reading, but we have nothing more to teach her. This week was slow but the prospect for next week is very promising. Hope all is well for you guys back home.
Elder Swinney
Sounds like it's pretty dry there. I'm getting really used to it being humid and hot all the time here. I applaud the kids for their missionary work. That is awesome!
This week was awesome too! We had six investigators at church on Sunday, which is better than our past few weeks (0,0,2,0) and we found a really awesome family. The mom told us she is looking for a church that will be good for kids...and also, they can read so that's super cool. She was the only one there at church but she said she liked it and we've got an appointment to go back tomorrow (ha, Pedro, her son, just came into the internet cafe here). Yeah, so, I'm really excited for her and her family. We had to drop Tica; she already knows everything, but she just decided to read the Book of Mormon, so we'll check up on her reading, but we have nothing more to teach her. This week was slow but the prospect for next week is very promising. Hope all is well for you guys back home.
Elder Swinney
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Elder Swinney is Fluent!!!
Dear Family, January 9, 2012
I guess I'm fluent now! I had a lot of compliments this week from everyone. One investigator even said that my accent is less strong than my Brazilian companion, and I asked some kids to guess where I was from, and they said, Sao Paulo, Curritiba, and Rio Grande, do sul! Ha! And then to top it all off, two days ago Elder S. Rebierto said to me "four months and you're already fluent and most elders take 6 months." I said, "I'm fluent?" He said I speak better Portuguese than some guys that have been out a year. My trainer said to me this week, "Hey, here in Trindade I can't teach you all the techniques and scriptures you'll need (because the people here are very simple and we teach very simply) and for this I'm sorry, but I'm glad that I could help you to speak fluently".
Sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging, I'm not. I had tons of help from the Lord, the members, my dictionary, and my trainer. It's just that these past 2 months were without a doubt the absolute hardest, loneliest, and most depressing months of my entire life. And I am so happy that with the help of the Lord and the love from you guys back home I made it over the first of my real hard trials in the mission. So, thank you everyone.
I guess I'm fluent now! I had a lot of compliments this week from everyone. One investigator even said that my accent is less strong than my Brazilian companion, and I asked some kids to guess where I was from, and they said, Sao Paulo, Curritiba, and Rio Grande, do sul! Ha! And then to top it all off, two days ago Elder S. Rebierto said to me "four months and you're already fluent and most elders take 6 months." I said, "I'm fluent?" He said I speak better Portuguese than some guys that have been out a year. My trainer said to me this week, "Hey, here in Trindade I can't teach you all the techniques and scriptures you'll need (because the people here are very simple and we teach very simply) and for this I'm sorry, but I'm glad that I could help you to speak fluently".
Sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging, I'm not. I had tons of help from the Lord, the members, my dictionary, and my trainer. It's just that these past 2 months were without a doubt the absolute hardest, loneliest, and most depressing months of my entire life. And I am so happy that with the help of the Lord and the love from you guys back home I made it over the first of my real hard trials in the mission. So, thank you everyone.
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