Monday, December 26, 2011
Christmas 2011
Feliz Natal Tchê!
This past week was a bit slow.The first few days of the week went really well, relatively without incident. Then to our absolute horror my entire apartment was struck with some sort of dysenteric madness, which left our entire apartment inside for two days straight. I will explain what happened. We came home one night and Elder Bott had a fever of 101, which as we all know is not good. Yet that was just the beginning. The next day Elder Bott was feeling a bit better, and mine and Elder de Souza´s lunch fell through so we went to Elder Garrett and Bott´s lunch. That is where we thing we contracted the affliction of the bowel that we suffered later that night and all the next day. So we were forced to stay in the house the next day. The sickness eased itself off me first, so I got better bythe middle of the day, but the others still had it. Eventually, one by one, the others got better. The next
day we would have gone out, but two Elders were still in stricken, and it was raining like crazy. And windy. I have never seen such a river in the middle of the street as I saw last week. It was awesome, but also we
were tired of being stuck inside. We did have a lot of fun bonding though. We are all better now and ready
for action this next week.
Christmas here in Brazil was pretty awesome, but quite different from the states. The Brazilians dont usually start the big festivities until midnight, but as missionaries we werent allowed to be out so late. Luckily we had an awesome ward member who invited us over and had a nice dinner of Brazilian BBQ ready for us nice and early (9:50 PM). (We were allowed to stay out until 10:30 on Christmas eve, so we were not breaking a rule. Anyway, it was delicious and awesome, and my wrists are complaining and demanding that I stop writing because I´m creating crazy run on sentences that may or may not be filled with logical fallaciesand all around buffoonary. Então, vou encerrar. Espero que todos vocês tinham boas festas, e um feliz ano novo!
Tcau meninos.
-Elder Eskildsen
Monday, December 19, 2011
December 19
E aí pessoas,Como estão?
This week was a bit slow, but successful nonetheless. We had two morebaptisms which was notable to say the least.We baptized a set of twins: Leonardo e Leandro,who are both nine years old and quite awesome!
They were a lot of fun to teach and have alot of excitement towards the gospel! We have a few great investigators right now andI am excited to be able to see them progress. It´s going to require some hard work to be successfulduring the holiday season though. No one seems to have time to talk to us during Christmas. Who knew? Not me. (I did in fact just answer my own rhetorical question). We had a lot of great lessons and good food this last week. Also we attended zone conference which was splendid.
I got bit by a dog for the first time here last monday night.I can´t say I enjoyed it, but I can now cross it off the list of things I have yet to do here. It only bruised lightly (mainly because my manly integumentary system withstands mosttypes of bruising.), but It hurt all the same. I´m starting to like dogs less and less here. Also last night in our apartment we had a little friend in our apartment. He was about 2 inches long, brown, and is commonly called a cockroach. He was gross. We killed him. I have a feeling we will be seeing his
family in the future. Woohoo for sketchy missionary housing! Its not too bad though. I hope everyone is doing well and that you enjoyed my scanty post today. Até mais!
Elder Eskildsen
This week was a bit slow, but successful nonetheless. We had two morebaptisms which was notable to say the least.We baptized a set of twins: Leonardo e Leandro,who are both nine years old and quite awesome!
They were a lot of fun to teach and have alot of excitement towards the gospel! We have a few great investigators right now andI am excited to be able to see them progress. It´s going to require some hard work to be successfulduring the holiday season though. No one seems to have time to talk to us during Christmas. Who knew? Not me. (I did in fact just answer my own rhetorical question). We had a lot of great lessons and good food this last week. Also we attended zone conference which was splendid.
I got bit by a dog for the first time here last monday night.I can´t say I enjoyed it, but I can now cross it off the list of things I have yet to do here. It only bruised lightly (mainly because my manly integumentary system withstands mosttypes of bruising.), but It hurt all the same. I´m starting to like dogs less and less here. Also last night in our apartment we had a little friend in our apartment. He was about 2 inches long, brown, and is commonly called a cockroach. He was gross. We killed him. I have a feeling we will be seeing his
family in the future. Woohoo for sketchy missionary housing! Its not too bad though. I hope everyone is doing well and that you enjoyed my scanty post today. Até mais!
Elder Eskildsen
Monday, December 12, 2011
Dec 12, 2011
To my friends and/or fans in the real world, This past week has gone fairly well. It was fairly uneventful, yet even so I will proceed to talk about uneventful (albeit interesting) things. The crazy lady showed up at church yesterday. She didn´t make too much noise during sacrament meeting, but she did steal some trash out of the refuse bin. She also danced a bit, and made kissy faces at me through the window. I was afraid. Oh, so afraid. Luckily we essentially evaded her the entire time. (Evaded meaning that we kept enough distance from her and us that she was unable to touch us). I found out what the word piolho means. It means lice. I know this because, as I was teaching a set of twins that are 9 years of age, I was questioned by one of them ´´ Você tem piolho?´´. I was not familiar with this word,so I looked at my companion who mouthed the word ´´lice´´. I replied to the aforementioned child, Não, não tenho piolho´´. He then added ´´oh, porque eu tenho.´´ He was sitting quite close to me, which was quite disconcerting. Up until this point I do not have said lice. Hopefully nothing becomes of that. Lice are bad. I have come to the conclusion that just because Portuguese has no translational equivalent for the word awkward does not mean that Brazil, or any other Portuguese speaking country is devoid of awkward situations. More on that later. (Meaning I cant think of any awkward situations at the moment, but they are bound to occur in the next few days, or possibly even hours.)
Well because of a little mixup with the box full of our zone´s mail, I have not received any letters from anyone. So if you sent me any sort of letter or anything like that, there is no reason to fear. I look forward to hearing from people. Also, for those of you who are´´window shopping´´ with my blog: If you can´t get enough of hearing about my life and the details concerned with it, feel free to write. You may even feel obligated to write. Thats completely fine too, I am not one to tell you how to live your life. Então, adeus meus amigos. Só alegria.
-Elder Eskildsen
Monday, December 5, 2011
Dec 5, Churassco
Oi, Tudo bem?
All is well here in the southern hemisphere. The moon is upside down, which is a little unnerving, (not scientific fact) but that is an odd side note. We didnt do a lot of knocking doors today, which is a good thing. We had quite a few referals and taught our fair share of lessons. There was still immense amounts of walking though. We spent a lot of Teusday searching for a new apartment, because President is sending two new sets of missionaries here, and thus we need to find a new place in which
to live. It was not near as wild and exhilirating as it sounds.
When we were looking at apartments we ran into the same crazy lady who snuck into the
chapel two weeks ago and was dancing around. Sufficeth to say it was an odd experience. We
were downtown, in front of a store, asking someone for directions when I (regrettably)
caught the attention of an (Also regrettably)familiar face. As soon as she perceived that I
saw her, she dropped (or rather threw) the trash in her hand onto the ground. (I assume it was
trash because I have been told that she has a habit of gathering refuse [Apparently all of the
missionaries are aware of this same crazy woman, because they all knew who I was talking
about when I recounted the story]) Anyway, I digress. She threw her beloved trash to the
ground and started dancing to the music that was conveniently playing in a nearby store.
In my infinite wisdom I decided that the best alternative would be to simply ignore her.
Good idea: DENIED; I soon found that when you ignore her, she touchs you. The more I
ignored, the more aggressive she got in touching my arm. It was like an old crazy Brazilian version
of my little brother Bergen. In the end we got the directions we were asking for and took
our speedy flight away from her, never to return again. I will admit, it was both an awkward and
funny experience while it was happening, and even now as I retell it.
I have had some very delicious meals this past week, including a wonderful churrasco
that we had yesterday. I sent pictures with which to instill jealousy in anyone who views
them. Not much else worth mentioning has occured this week, but we worked hard
teaching and searching our those that the lord has prepared to accept our message.
I am so excited to be here doing this work! I hope that everyone is doing well!
-Elder Eskildsen
P.S. We ate at the house of a member who just got back from Bela Horizante and he said
that he knew Elder Michael Casper, so thats pretty cool.
All is well here in the southern hemisphere. The moon is upside down, which is a little unnerving, (not scientific fact) but that is an odd side note. We didnt do a lot of knocking doors today, which is a good thing. We had quite a few referals and taught our fair share of lessons. There was still immense amounts of walking though. We spent a lot of Teusday searching for a new apartment, because President is sending two new sets of missionaries here, and thus we need to find a new place in which
to live. It was not near as wild and exhilirating as it sounds.
When we were looking at apartments we ran into the same crazy lady who snuck into the
chapel two weeks ago and was dancing around. Sufficeth to say it was an odd experience. We
were downtown, in front of a store, asking someone for directions when I (regrettably)
caught the attention of an (Also regrettably)familiar face. As soon as she perceived that I
saw her, she dropped (or rather threw) the trash in her hand onto the ground. (I assume it was
trash because I have been told that she has a habit of gathering refuse [Apparently all of the
missionaries are aware of this same crazy woman, because they all knew who I was talking
about when I recounted the story]) Anyway, I digress. She threw her beloved trash to the
ground and started dancing to the music that was conveniently playing in a nearby store.
In my infinite wisdom I decided that the best alternative would be to simply ignore her.
Good idea: DENIED; I soon found that when you ignore her, she touchs you. The more I
ignored, the more aggressive she got in touching my arm. It was like an old crazy Brazilian version
of my little brother Bergen. In the end we got the directions we were asking for and took
our speedy flight away from her, never to return again. I will admit, it was both an awkward and
funny experience while it was happening, and even now as I retell it.
I have had some very delicious meals this past week, including a wonderful churrasco
that we had yesterday. I sent pictures with which to instill jealousy in anyone who views
them. Not much else worth mentioning has occured this week, but we worked hard
teaching and searching our those that the lord has prepared to accept our message.
I am so excited to be here doing this work! I hope that everyone is doing well!
-Elder Eskildsen
P.S. We ate at the house of a member who just got back from Bela Horizante and he said
that he knew Elder Michael Casper, so thats pretty cool.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
November 28, 2011
Olá amigos,
I´m still in Brazil and it is awesome. I am typing on a brazilian computer, with a Portuguese keyboard, in a brazilian internet café, getting stared at by Brazilians because Ilook very out of place. Also this morning during my run I was chased by a pack of mangey ´´almost on the verge of death´´ Brazilian dogs. Super exotic. There are a lot of great things here that the U.S. is bereft of. Like Guaraná
and delicious fresh breads filled with sketchy fruit whose name is unknown in English: (Passionfruit) Thats just a taste of whatI am priveleged with here.
This week has been slow and altogether unfruitful. A lot of our lessons fell through, and
we had a few referalls to people who appear not to exist. We did a lot of walking between houses only to find that no one was home or that they did not want to be bothered by the missionaries. We had a baptism though! I got to baptized Guilherme who is part of a part member family. He is an awesome kid and hasa lot of excitement about the gospel.
This past week had some pretty hot days and I have found myself in a state of perpetual dampness. Luckily we are moving around a lot, or I would be growing mold. This week to come
is going to be pretty mild though, so that is envigorating.
I have had good days and bad days this past week in terms of the language. There are people
that I can converse with for hours and not sound like too much of an idiot, and then there are others
whose speech I couldnt decipher without a Urim and Thummim (LDS joke). I´m learning quickly and
people are generally very gracious in thier efforts to assimilate me into Brazilian culture.
This next week is looking really good, so I´m super stoked! I hope you all have a good week as well.
-Elder Eskildsen
I´m still in Brazil and it is awesome. I am typing on a brazilian computer, with a Portuguese keyboard, in a brazilian internet café, getting stared at by Brazilians because Ilook very out of place. Also this morning during my run I was chased by a pack of mangey ´´almost on the verge of death´´ Brazilian dogs. Super exotic. There are a lot of great things here that the U.S. is bereft of. Like Guaraná
and delicious fresh breads filled with sketchy fruit whose name is unknown in English: (Passionfruit) Thats just a taste of whatI am priveleged with here.
This week has been slow and altogether unfruitful. A lot of our lessons fell through, and
we had a few referalls to people who appear not to exist. We did a lot of walking between houses only to find that no one was home or that they did not want to be bothered by the missionaries. We had a baptism though! I got to baptized Guilherme who is part of a part member family. He is an awesome kid and hasa lot of excitement about the gospel.
This past week had some pretty hot days and I have found myself in a state of perpetual dampness. Luckily we are moving around a lot, or I would be growing mold. This week to come
is going to be pretty mild though, so that is envigorating.
I have had good days and bad days this past week in terms of the language. There are people
that I can converse with for hours and not sound like too much of an idiot, and then there are others
whose speech I couldnt decipher without a Urim and Thummim (LDS joke). I´m learning quickly and
people are generally very gracious in thier efforts to assimilate me into Brazilian culture.
This next week is looking really good, so I´m super stoked! I hope you all have a good week as well.
-Elder Eskildsen
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