13 Sep 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

[BYU played at Air Force on Saturday. A dismal day, unfortunately... Oh, and #13 Virginia Tech lost to powerhouse James Madison, 16-21.] Lost to Air Force? Those bums can't lose to teams like that.... I am getting crazy information here. We had Zone Pday today so we were with a bunch of missionaries and they said that BYU won and some other kid that went to Virginia Tech before the mission said they lost to another team. Oh well.

[Ok, I see Fernandes Tavora on the map. Unfortunately, big Catholic church and big field aren't labeled on Google Maps. Can you give a cross street, etc?] I live on Rua Audizio Pinheiro and Rua Prof. Edgard de Arruda, it's at an intersection. 466 Rua Audizio Pinheiro I think. The church is big and has a field in the background. It has 2 schools on either side of it. We live in an apartment right now but we are supposed to be changing to anothe apartment one of these days because ours is too small and has 1 tank of water for 4 people. I actually don't know if we have one, but pretty much every house has a terracotta roof. [On the Church lds.org map site, I see many buildings where the wards meet at 9-10 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. Is that correct, that some wards meet in the early evening? Just curious why.] Our ward meets from 9am  to 12 pm. The Fernandes Tavorá ward meets from 4-7. I guess it's because the building is small and can only fit one ward at a time and here in Brazil lunch is the most important meal and biggest. Plus here in Ceará everybody is asleep/drunk from 1-3 pm so I think thats why they do it like that. All the Brazilians apologize and swear that this is not what Brazil is like. Men hardly ever have shirts on unless they are going to school or work. Everyone sits on the sidewalk around 6 when the sun goes down and just stares at the other side of the street. Like I said everyone sleeps after lunch. There are no rules here and there was an accident at our intersection and like 3 cops just kept driving. Cops do nothing here. It's just a real lazy part of Brazil.

This week was Independence Day here on the 7th so there was a lot of drunk people and the schools all had parades. At night we were walking around and here they have bars everywhere and they are usually on the corners too. They are all outside as well. One of them had a band, or a guy and a microphone, and they were singing ABBA songs. There was 6-8 drunk people all huddled around the one and only table wobbling back and forth to the song. I told my companion it was the lamest club I have ever seen, but it was funny. You have to watch out for the drunk people too because they never let go of your hand. For some reason they always want to know what time it is too. It was a good week, we had a lot of new investigators and one of the girls told us she wanted to be baptized the first sunday we took her to church so that was good. We saw a wild parrot too, it was pretty....and Elder Alves tried to catch it but he failed. Usually all we see are Calungas (sp?) which are just lizards. The church building is the gathering place for the cats too so we have like 15 chilling in the parking lot. I slept outside the other day on our porch thing that we have and it was terrible. It's super windy here so I was freezing cold and of course it rained during the night too so we bailed and went back inside at 4 to finish sleeping.

Elder Hawkes

6 Sep 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

[Last Wednesday BYU came out with a big sports announcement. They decided to go independent in football and join the West Coast Conference in the other sports starting next year.] NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! It won't be so bad for other sports, basketball is pretty good in the WCC. Being independent gives them as much chance to be in a BCS bowl as the wheelchair football team of Minnesota :( They did all this even after Boise left the WAC? Wait they are independent this year?? I thought the other changes were for the next year after this season. I remember all the talk about the quarterbacks, who is the running back now? [Well, don't mean to distract you with a bunch of sports news.] Pssh I could love hearing about BYU sports anyday even if it as heinous as going independent. [If you can give me some landmarks in the area, I'd like to try to find your place on the map.] The big road Fernandes Tavorá goes by my house but there aren't really and landmarks that I know of. My area is small but I don't know those names. There is a big field and a big catholic church but I don't know much. [What makes it hard to walk there? Is it because your balance is accustomed to the Northern Hemisphere instead of the Southern Hemisphere? Can't you just learn to lean a little to the other side to compensate?] All the sidewalks are unlevel here and the roads are just made of rough rocks so I usually trip on the random rocks and steps on the sidewalk. It's hard for my to know what to write. I usually think that most of the things are nice but not really worth remembering, but I try to write down a bunch of random things that happened during the day, and if anything special happened when we taught. My journal is really at 4 pm we did that 6pm we did this. I would love to write more but Lauren and Michael wrote me this week so I don't have much time.

I am excited to be here and I just love thinking about the people we teach in white clothes. Not because they are a statistic, but because they will be so much happier and receive so much when they get baptized. People here live in the humblest of circumstances, more than I ever imagined but they are so happy still. They laugh and play like the rest of the world. They read and pray just like everyone else and the Lord loves them as much as everyone else. I just want to share that love with everyone.

6 Sep 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

[Just a short note today.I was just looking on aol and there was an article on the best water park slides in the world. Coming in at number two is "the Insano" at Beach Park in Fortaleza Brazil.] Short note eh? It's as long as the others. I haven't seen that part of Fortaleza yet, and we aren't allowed to go on the beaches. I hear a lot of people talking about the beaches here, but I have yet to see any body of water. It never rains here so I don't know how any rivers or lakes exist. My companion said it has rained 3 times the 10 months he has been here so who knows. I wish you were here to clean our house :) It's dirty forever and always, there is nothing to be done. Our house is super small and ghetto too, you can sit on the toilet and take a shower at the same time, so basically its the best bathroom you could ever think of :)

[I was looking online today about the Fortaleza Temple....] I have no idea where the temple is going to be, that is in downtown Fortaleza. I haven't been there yet. I will probably see it someday but I haven't seen much of Fortaleza proper at all, just the cities around it. I have taken the bus a lot for random things and that is kind of exciting. I get pushed on and the bus drivers are downright crazy here. You are all crowded and holdling on to whatever you can and the bus driver is flying down the skinniest roads, taking turns at 40 kph. I have almost fallen a couple of times when they start moving and I'm not holding on to anything. A lot of people here have never been to the temple and they have been members for 30 years. Usually the returned missionaries are the only ones that have gone. They have caravans every month that go down to Recife though. A lot of people only have the puny Book of Mormons we give out, with the blue covers. I would say 70% of the ward doesn't have D&C or Pearl of Great Price.

30 Aug 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

[We just got back from Utah today. We spent a few days in the mountains of Colorado on the way up in Breckenridge, a ski resort (no snow this time of year though). Lauren, Michael, and I took a few trips down an alpine slide.... Somehow I managed to get dislodged from my sled on one run and left a few square inches of skin from my elbows on the track, so I had some nifty looking souvineers to remember the trip by.] Who needs mountains, all you need is desert and dust in the air. What is there to do on a ski resort but play in the snow? That sounds safe, fiberglass and sled.  I can imagine the excitement as you steered to your death. Oh your injuries explain the safeness and security of this slide. Well I guess you can sell the house and move up north now so that you can enjoy the mountains now that you're old an alone. The mountains are ok for fishing, hunting and the occasional man trip but other than that they just kill people. [The three of us (Mom stayed at the condo and read a book) also hiked a few miles up in the mountains to a small lake.... Lauren hiked around the little lake to a snow patch and said she saw some bear tracks in the snow. We didn't slay any bear or chipmunk for food though since I was wise enough to pack some water and fig newtons (hm, and for some reason the old man ended up carrying the backpack).] We did the same thing on the man trip, and we found a natural lake from a spring. Oddly they had bear tracks there too, I have pictures of those. Well we had already ate all the poptarts and drank the tuna water before we killed chipmunks for food! The old man carried it because you put granola food in it and you're from California, the Texas Proud couldn't carry that stuff.

Yep I'm in Henrique Jorge right now, I have no idea where that it is in relation to Downtown Fortaleza. Just the usual...bars, people riding bikes, old fat guys walking around shirtless, and sad reminders every 2 steps of Brasil's defeat. Every street has a Brazil flag painted on a wall or street or both, every telephone wire has yellow and green streamers. I tell my companion that they didn't think about all the possibilities before they plastered hexa (7 championships) every where. Its hard to walk here, I'm always tripping. So when I trip and lunge forward I say "Vamos correr!!" lets run!! so my companion doesn't think I am a dork and my plan for tripping and falling is "Vamos sentar aqui e orar" you can read it, its the same in spanish. That hasn't happened to me yet but a kid we were with slipped on the curb and I said that and we all sat there for a bit and then kept moving.

I'm glad to be here. We have one family of 4 that is close to being baptized and we just have to get them married so they can be baptized. I am so happy for them, I have only known them for a 12 days and I can't wait for them to receive the blessings. I love this work and I love this church so much. I fear everyday that I'm not doing enough or all that I can because I don't want to come home with any regrets. I love these people. I love preaching the gospel. Nobody here hates us, I have had a few old ladies tell me to go back to my country but thats only because they love me ;)

30 Aug 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

That's good that you made it home. [Mom and Dad just returned home from dropping off Michael and Lauren at BYU.] I forgot that you were dropping of Michael and Lauren at school. What are you going to do now that everyone is gone?? [I (Mom) cried of course when we left the chitlins.  I didn't think I would, but when we got to Michael's apartment after spending the evening at Dan and Becca's with all the Utah Hawkes/cousins, we gave them a back-to-school blessing. Then I cried. It had been two years since dad had given Michael a father's blessing and I got teary-eyed thinking that dad won't be giving Father's blessings very much longer (on a regular basis).] Girl the whole world knew that you were going to cry when you dropped the kids off. It's because you're a mom and you love your kids. Only people that are glad to get rid of their kids don't cry :) Did Michael get to stay with any of the people from his mission? Dad won't be giving very many more blessings, he is just going to be the old wrinkly hand that holds up the baby or for the confirmation and stuff like that :) It's good that Dad is worthy to do that and he can gives blessings whenever he wants. They haven't left yet, they still are going to come home all the time and they still need you. There is nothing to worry about, you will see Lauren and Michael a lot!

I have been feeling crummy the past few days. It's all the walking finally caught up to me. My feet hurt and I had intense constipation. I swore my poop was going to be white from all the rice. But it has all passed, just one of those things that happens when you completely change your lifestyle.

This place is so great. I am glad that I am here. Whenever I am just sitting after we get back or maybe for a second during a lesson I look around and realize that I am in Brasil. I don't always remember, sometimes I forget but I love this place so much, I love these people with all my heart. I have only been here a few weeks and when I see these people in church I just want to cry. The family that we have ready to be baptized just needs to get married and I always think about the day that they will get baptized, the day when they are dressed in white. They are my first family I ever taught and I love them more than I could ever describe. This is God's work, and I cannot even imagine how happy he is for these people. I'm kind of glad that 2 years seems like eternity.

23 Aug 2010 - Henrique Jorge Area

[Time really flies as an adult. When you are little things seem to take eternity to happen.] Time flies my foot, 2 years right now seems like an eternity. Everyone says that time flies here but it hasn't so far :) It's 90ish outside everyday for the whole year, it will rain more in the summer so it will be more humid there. It's windy here so its not bad at all, I have been in much worse. The worst part is waiting outside the door for some reason. You are hot and there is no breeze and the sun is beating on your back. Houses are bad too, that's where you usually sweat a gallon in the houses because it is so stuffy. Yeah 3 days for you is like .00000000000000000000000000000000000000008 of your life :)

[I don't know if you have access to the Ensign magazine. We've been leaving it on the table and people read it as they eat various meals. I was reading the first Presidency article for August by President Uchtdorf. The article is on Temple Blessings....] They give us a Liahona every month here so it has some of the same things. I might be in the Portuguese Liahona one of these months. There was an open house for a chapel near the CTM so they made a missionary choir to sing there for 3 days. One of the days the Liahona people were there taking pictures, I signed release forms too so maybe.

Well thanks for all the words about temples, even though I won't see one for another 2 years :) I liked going to the temple in São Paulo, and I was bummed because the week I left the missionaries are going to the Campinas temple. [Take some pictures....] I have pictures, mostly from when I was leaving the MTC because they would only let you take them your last day. I have a few here but I don't carry around my camera with me. I don't carry anything with me but scriptures and some money in my front pockets so I don't get beat up. muahah I haven't even washed my pants yet, they haven't needed it but it is dusty here so I will have to. The shirts don't hurt anymore.

It has been a good first week here, the people are so nice and when you see a member on the street they usually just walk with you to the next house and teach with you so it's not hard to get members when you teach. It's hard to understand people, that is probably the hardest thing to do because they have a lot of slang here. I've had some spiritual experiences too, we cast out a devil the 3rd day I was here. My companion has been out for 10 months, his name is Elder Alves from São Paulo, and he has never done it before. It was intense but wasn't scary and it was totally different than what you usually think. I am working hard and walking a lot because this is the highest baptizing mission in the world and we have tons of investigators that need to hear messages.

23 Aug 2010 - First week in Fortaleza

[Still over 100 degrees here every day, but we'll be headed to cooler lands on Thursday. We plan on staying in the Colorado mountains for 3-4 days on the way to Utah to see what there is to see. BYU starts the 30th, so we'll have a week or so with the little ones before they have to get to studying.] It's not too hot here and we get a nice breeze from the ocean all day. There is nothin' to see in the mountains but cold and despair :) Yeah those little chitlins are off to school before you know it Lauren will be married in 6 months and you are going to have to buy oxygen tanks every month. I hear those old people scooters are cool though. Thats cool though, I'm not missing the cold of BYU-I right now. I did burn my shins in an attempt to become less white oops :) Today was P Day as you can tell so we were rocking out to a guitar and I realized how white I was, but now I am pink. They don't hurt though, they didn't get burned bad at all.

[You mentioned eating chicken hearts. I've eaten them before, although I actually like chicken livers a lot more. And they had more than rice and beans in Central America. We had tortillas too. And other stuff. But lots of rice, beans, and tortillas.] Chicken hearts were good, but just a little rubbery. Livers are nasty but that is all exquisite food here. I have only eaten rice and beans and noodles and some random bits of chicken. I had ramen noodle omelets the other day for breakfast, so chicken hearts are a delicacy right now.

[Any better luck this week getting Elder Olson to speak Portuguese in public?] We didn't go proselyting anymore so I don't know, but he speaks a lot better than when I first met him. The speaking part is the easy part, it's so much harder to understand the people. Especially here, they speak with so much slang and they say cara every 4 seconds with basically means dude, well my roommates do. The people of Ceará have so much slang and they say their 'r's weird here too. So I still haven't gotten the listening thing down yet. My companion elder Alves only speaks Portuguese so it will only be a matter of time I guess.

I got jipped when I got here, some random elders met me at the airport. The other elders said the Pres. met them and 10 elders and they had dinner at his house and slept there. I ate pizza on a dark stage in the church, they had chocolate pizza though which is dough and a half inch of chocolate.

I have done a lot already, we walk around because we have sooo many investigators that we have to talk to. The people here are so nice and I have only taught a few lessons without a member there. The most spiritual thing so far is when we cast out of a devil from a possessed lady, it was cool because she is a strong investigator so that's good we got to help her. I am so grateful for the authority on this earth, the priesthood. This land of Brazil is a blessed country and I think it can easily surpass America's number of members. I have never been yelled at or had slammed gates or anything bad yet.