A missionary from my mission had a story that became very popular very quickly amongst the missionaries in our mission because of how funny and entertaining it was. I still remember it very clear because I have heard it so many times and it still never gets old to me.
The missionary was an Elder from Salt Lake City. He said that he and his companion had had a very long day with no success. The people in Brazil showed no interest in their message or lessons and nothing was going right that day. He was very tired and they still had a long bus ride back to their home before they could end they day. He said that they got onto the bus and he found a seat in the very back that was open. He plopped down in it, put down the window and gently leaned back with his head part way out the window feeling the nice breeze in the warm night air of Brazil. As he laid there it lightly started to rain as he felt the rain patter against his face and lightly dampen it. He went on to explain that after a very long and bad day it felt amazing to just finally lean back and relax with his eyes closed and he felt the rain fall upon his face. After a moment of this he opened his eyes to see that it in fact was not raining....the woman a couple seats in front of him had an infant with her who I guess had too pee very bad. This woman put down her window and held her son up next to it with his pants down as he peed freely out the window and relieved himself. Meanwhile the pee was coming back and smacking the missionary in the face, turns out it wasn't rain after all. This Elder said that he his day had been so long and gone so bad that at this point he didn't even care. He just laughed as he kept his head there and the pee continued to come back and wet his face until the young child had finished.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Drug Deal Gone Bad
One of my former companions shared this story with me about one of his first experiences arriving in Brazil.
"One time I was in the middle of the ghetto of the city. We kept walking along this dark road and passed a bunch of these guys as they were finishing up a drug deal. The kind of guys you don't want to meet in a dark corner. The last time we passed them, they started to take pictures of us so that they could remember who we were and punish us the next time we came by that way. At that time of my mission, I didn 't understand much, so when I saw them with the camera, I gave them the cheesiest grin and posed for the camera. My companion was screaming at me to stop and get out of there. I thought the whole situation was funny until he told me what they were doing."
-Elder Hart
Brazil Salvador South Mission
"One time I was in the middle of the ghetto of the city. We kept walking along this dark road and passed a bunch of these guys as they were finishing up a drug deal. The kind of guys you don't want to meet in a dark corner. The last time we passed them, they started to take pictures of us so that they could remember who we were and punish us the next time we came by that way. At that time of my mission, I didn 't understand much, so when I saw them with the camera, I gave them the cheesiest grin and posed for the camera. My companion was screaming at me to stop and get out of there. I thought the whole situation was funny until he told me what they were doing."
-Elder Hart
Brazil Salvador South Mission
Grateful For the Little Things
The following story comes from a missionary who served in Brazil with me, we became very close friends and he shared this story with me
"One night I was walking through the alleyways in the red district of Salvador, near the beach of Amaralina. Tiago, a local member of the church, was with us to help us find our way around, but we had found ourselves in a very dark and dangerous part of the city. Both sides of the alley were made up of dilapidated houses connected side by side. Distance-wise we were probably only about half of a mile from the tourist crowded beach covered in luxurious hotels and expensive condos owned by the wealthy. The demographical contrast in such a short distance illustrated the two extremes of wealth and poverty.
Together we decided that we should head back to a safer neighborhood to work as it was getting dark and the alleyway was crowded with men who were known by Tiago as some of the neighborhood’s biggest gangsters. As we turned around to head back to more familiar territory, we were approached by a girl who looked to be about seventeen years old. She and Tiago embraced and began conversing excitedly. The girl was a cousin of Tiago’s who he had not seen for nearly ten years even though they lived five minutes apart. After their brief reunion,Tiago shared us a little bit of his cousin’s story. The cousin we had just seen was the sister of one of the city’s gang leaders. It was because of this relationship she had with a notorious gang leader that she and Tiago had not seen one another for years. Because of her affiliation with that gang she could not leave the gang boundaries without risking her life. In the seventeen years of her life, she had not once seen the ocean despite the fact that it was only half of a mile away.
The fact that this girl had never seen the ocean, made me grateful for the small things in my life. Those of us fortunate enough to live in America, rarely will face the economic disparity seen in other nations. We have the freedom to be what we want to be and do what we want to do and should be grateful for it."
-Elder Howard
Brazil Salvador South Mission
"One night I was walking through the alleyways in the red district of Salvador, near the beach of Amaralina. Tiago, a local member of the church, was with us to help us find our way around, but we had found ourselves in a very dark and dangerous part of the city. Both sides of the alley were made up of dilapidated houses connected side by side. Distance-wise we were probably only about half of a mile from the tourist crowded beach covered in luxurious hotels and expensive condos owned by the wealthy. The demographical contrast in such a short distance illustrated the two extremes of wealth and poverty.
Together we decided that we should head back to a safer neighborhood to work as it was getting dark and the alleyway was crowded with men who were known by Tiago as some of the neighborhood’s biggest gangsters. As we turned around to head back to more familiar territory, we were approached by a girl who looked to be about seventeen years old. She and Tiago embraced and began conversing excitedly. The girl was a cousin of Tiago’s who he had not seen for nearly ten years even though they lived five minutes apart. After their brief reunion,Tiago shared us a little bit of his cousin’s story. The cousin we had just seen was the sister of one of the city’s gang leaders. It was because of this relationship she had with a notorious gang leader that she and Tiago had not seen one another for years. Because of her affiliation with that gang she could not leave the gang boundaries without risking her life. In the seventeen years of her life, she had not once seen the ocean despite the fact that it was only half of a mile away.
The fact that this girl had never seen the ocean, made me grateful for the small things in my life. Those of us fortunate enough to live in America, rarely will face the economic disparity seen in other nations. We have the freedom to be what we want to be and do what we want to do and should be grateful for it."
-Elder Howard
Brazil Salvador South Mission
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Straight Outta Compton
This story comes from my friend Eric who served in Southern California. He told me the story that follows:
"So, I had just got a new trainee, and I was taking him contacting on a street in San Pedro, CA. (Just south of LA) We ran into this seemingly nice gentleman at a bus stop, and he politely dismissed us, "Hey, guys, I appreciate what you do, but I already have my faith." We thanked him for his time, and said our pleasantries right as a Escalade pulled up slowly and rolled down its window. A man yelled out "Go back to Utah, you fu**ing Mormons!" Just then the man we were talking to lifts up his shirt and pulls out his pistol, yelling. "YOU DON'T TALK TO THEM LIKE THAT! YOU DON'T TALK TO THEM LIKE THAT!!" The Escalade sped off, and he put away his gun. "I hate people that don't have any respect." We were still pretty shocked to say the least. We said a pretty quiet thank you, and we crossed the street and kept contacting. Needless to say, my new trainee was quite a bit shocked, and I just laughed, and said, "Welcome to LA."
"So, I had just got a new trainee, and I was taking him contacting on a street in San Pedro, CA. (Just south of LA) We ran into this seemingly nice gentleman at a bus stop, and he politely dismissed us, "Hey, guys, I appreciate what you do, but I already have my faith." We thanked him for his time, and said our pleasantries right as a Escalade pulled up slowly and rolled down its window. A man yelled out "Go back to Utah, you fu**ing Mormons!" Just then the man we were talking to lifts up his shirt and pulls out his pistol, yelling. "YOU DON'T TALK TO THEM LIKE THAT! YOU DON'T TALK TO THEM LIKE THAT!!" The Escalade sped off, and he put away his gun. "I hate people that don't have any respect." We were still pretty shocked to say the least. We said a pretty quiet thank you, and we crossed the street and kept contacting. Needless to say, my new trainee was quite a bit shocked, and I just laughed, and said, "Welcome to LA."
Monday, February 11, 2013
Marijuana Noodles
As a missionary serving in the country of Brazil I had the opportunity to learn the national language, Portuguese. It was by no means an easy task! As I first arrived to Brazil I spent 2 months in the busy city of Sao Paulo in a missionary center called the MTC (Missionary Training Center) where I was taught the Portuguese language. After the 2 months I knew more than the average American but I was by no means fluent. Ready or not I was sent to do the service as a Missionary with my limited vocabulary. As weeks turned to months I found myself slowly making progress with the language. I found myself being able to understand more and more what the native Brazilians were saying and I was slowly being able to communicate with them....sometimes it was better than others. One of those instances where it didn't turn out so great happened while I was serving in a small little town called Pocoes. In this area the members of the church were in charge of feeding us lunch everyday and making sure we were getting fed and nourished well. The missionary I was working with in this area, my companion, was Brazilian so whenever the church members needed information they always went to him rather than the new American who had a more difficult time communicating and I honestly can't blame them. Well one day after our church services a woman in the church had a question but saw that my companion was busy, she then turned to me as the 2nd option. She started to talk as I listened intently doing my best and hoping that I would understand her. As she talked I was very happy to realize that by the time she was done I had understood her completely and knew what she had asked me. She was curious if we had lunch scheduled that day and wanted to know what our plans were. Knowing the day before that we didn't have a lunch scheduled me and my companion had gone to the grocery store and bought noodles to make spaghetti and pasta for our lunch. I looked at the woman who had asked me about our lunch situation and prepared to answer her question. I told her that we didn't have lunch scheduled with a member that day but it was okay because we had noodles in our house that we were ready to use. I thought I had answered the question perfectly but the look on this woman's face worried me that I had not. One of the problems that I had with the language was switching words in the language that had a similar sound but very different meanings. I meant to tell her we had noodles in our home, the Portuguese word for noodles is "macaron" but instead of using this word I used the word "maconha" which is the Portuguese word for Marijuana. This nice woman of the church had asked if we had lunch to eat but I told her no but that it was okay because we had gone out and bought a bunch of Marijuana that was waiting for us at our house. It wasn't until my Brazilian companion came over and helped sort out the situation and let the church members know that the men their representing Jesus Christ didn't have a bunch of joints waiting for them to go home and smoke.
-Garrett Hadley
Brazil Salvador South Mission
-Garrett Hadley
Brazil Salvador South Mission
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