Lucca's baptism; leadership; dinner with Brazilian members and Elder Emmett is a great companion

So wow! Sounds like a super party over there. All sorts of fun stuff to be excited about! So let me know when you guys get new callings and all that.

Well, yesterday was Lucca's baptism! Sorry, don't have my camera with me to send pictures, but I'll make sure I do it next week. His baptism was super great, and he asked me to baptise him. Fatima (his mom) was SUPER touched. Lucca finally turned to her at one point and was like, "could you please stop crying?" She laughed =] But she also made sure to tell me afterwards that she fully intended on being the next to enter into the font. So I'll keep you updated with Fatima & CO., and all the stuff that goes on there.

We have leadership meeting this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This'll be the first one I go to, and I'm excited because I've been kinda put in somewhat of a leadership position with a lot of the responsibilities, but no "authority," if you will--very few of the trainings and all that. But no more! I'm really excited.

Let's see... we had dinner with a few of the Brazilian members this week. That's always nice. We had a bunch more miles than normal (well, not really; we just didn't use a lot during the Great Atlanta Snowstorm of 2011), so we were able to travel a good distance to the members homes. It's always nice to be able to spend time with the brazilian members outside of sacrament meeting for fellowship, etc.

Well, let's see. Elder Emmett's a great companion--it's a change of pace to work with someone willing and able to contribute to the lesson (I think I've said that before, but really is true, so I'll say it again).

Well, I hope everything's going well at home! I'll be on for a bit longer, so shoot me an email if you so desire! Love you guys!

Elder McGregor

And some back and forth:

Hooray for Lucca!  That's funny about his mom crying.  How old is Lucca?  10?  That's cool that you got to baptize him.

Any speaking Spanish for you this week?

Yep, 10.

No Spanish this week. Someone from that Spanish family anti'd them and they told us they would call us. :/

Oh, I'm sad about the Spanish-speaking family.  Geez.

Yeah, the anti thing is actually something that happens pretty regularly.

I also told him BYU had emailed about his deferment - welcoming him back Fall 2011.  I called and got his deferment deferred (haha) until January. 

thanks for all the stuff you do for me =] you rock mom =]

News Article regarding Visas to Brazil

Here's an article discussing the problem Americans have had lately getting Visas to Brasil.
And, for the purposes of this blog, also explains why Elder McGregor gets 1-2 greenie companions every six weeks that are waiting for their Brazilian Visas:

Visa snags slow LDS missions to Brazil

By Peggy Fletcher Stack

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published Jan 25 2011 08:12PM Updated Jan 26, 2011 09:29AM

Hundreds of Mormon missionaries assigned to serve in Brazil increasingly find themselves preaching not in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo or Fortaleza, but instead in Philadelphia, Pocatello, Idaho, or even Provo.

The LDS Church’s São Paulo Missionary Training Center, which can accommodate up to 700 trainees, currently houses only about 60, none of them U.S. citizens. (In 2009 Trenton did get his Visa well in time and was able to train in the Sao Paulo MTC) And the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has lowered the missionary age from 19 to 18 for male Brazilians to make up for the loss of full-time American missionaries.

The reason? Visa snags. And who can Mormon missionaries and their parents blame for the delays? The U.S. State Department and its counterpart in Brazil.

This is no small headache for the LDS Church. Brazil boasts more than a million members, the world’s third-largest Mormon population, after the United States and Mexico. It has 27 missions, more than any country outside the U.S. About 10 percent of the faith’s 52,000 missionaries are called to Brazil. Any disruption in the flow of full-time missionaries could slow the number of converts and hamper the stability of LDS congregations there.

Waiting for weeks or months for visas takes an emotional toll on individual missionaries.

Rachel Smith, of Taylorsville, assigned to the Brazil Maceio Mission, was initially told to report to the São Paulo training center in October 2009. But a week before her departure, she got a call saying she would learn Portuguese instead at the Provo MTC. She ended up staying five weeks beyond the usual two-month training, waiting for her visa. (Some of those waiting on visas are temporarily assigned to other missions.)

“Rachel tried to keep a positive attitude,” said her mother, Susan Smith, on Tuesday. “But she said it was hard to see people arrive at the MTC after her and leave before her.”

Susan Smith also noted the issue’s financial impact. Her daughter left for Brazil a day after her visa arrived without warning and, her mother said, the airfare was several times more than it would have been if the church had been able to buy it well in advance.  

Susan Smith also noted the issue’s financial impact. Her daughter left for Brazil a day after her visa arrived without warning and, her mother said, the airfare was several times more than it would have been if the church had been able to buy it well in advance.

 Observers say the problem has escalated in the past 18 months — after the U.S. government moved to a fully computerized visa process and required visitors from certain countries such as Brazil to be fingerprinted, pass a background check and pay higher fees.

Brazil complained about the new rules, wrote Mormon blogger Kent Larsen (times-andseasons.org), who is in the South American country this week attending a Mormon studies conference.

“It has also retaliated against some of those trying to visit Brazil, including LDS missionaries,” Larsen wrote.

Gary Neeleman, Utah’s honorary consul to Brazil, acknowledges that retaliation may motivate some of the delays. But he says the Brazilian bottleneck is caused largely by “bad planning.”

“The new system was not thought out as well as it should have been,” Neeleman said. “There are too few people dealing with the rush of visa applications, which is overwhelming.”

All Utah visas for Brazil have to be issued in Los Angeles, he said, which has half as many personnel as needed. It would be nice to ship some of the applications to less-swamped San Francisco, Neeleman said, but the system doesn’t work that way.

He has suggested that, until the problem is resolved, the LDS Church call its Brazil-bound missionaries not from Utah but from other states such as Idaho, Illinois and Indiana, which don’t have to get their visas through Los Angeles.

The process on both ends is a long one, with dual background checks here and in Brazil, said Heather Barney, spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

“There’s not a lot we can do to speed it up,” Barney says.

Neeleman is in contact with Brazilian officials and hopes the process can be streamlined. He is encouraged by the recent appointment of Antonio Patriota as the country’s new foreign minister. Two years ago, Neeleman said, Patriota was in Utah, where he met with LDS leaders and visited Provo’s MTC.

The LDS Church believes the Brazilian visa waiting game soon will end.

The church has “a long, congenial history with Brazil and its people,” spokesman Scott Trotter said, “and we’ll continue to work through the ebb and flow of the visa process.”

But one change may be here to stay: calling Brazilian men on missions as early as age 18.

“The Brazilian educational system doesn’t normally accommodate a two-year deferment as the colleges and universities do in the United States,” Trotter said. “This allows young men to serve missions, fulfill their military obligations and receive higher-level education.” 

                 

God's plans; 'Rub some dirt in it!'; a new companion; new investigators; and speaking Español

Our emails to Elder McGregor told him about how our ward here in California was dissolved yesterday and our family will now be attending another ward.  We also asked him if he got his birthday packages, since he never acknowledged that he had (who is his mother and why didn't she teach him better!?) and about his new companion and his week.

Woah, ok, so hold the phone. The ward was dissolved... GB3 no longer exists. I understand why that might be something unexpected, but, as I'm sure you know, it doesn't amount to any sort of failure (Bryon mentioned how hard it was as a member of the bishopric to 'poof' all of the sudden just be done...  Someone else in our ward said last night's meeting felt like a funeral...). I mean, I might not have all of the information, but generally changes and stuff like that mean that the church has grown sufficiently in our area to merit divisions and re-evaluations of ward boundaries and all of those types of things. And church growth is always good, right? ; )  (Unfortunately, I think it's because many people have left the area in this economy.)  So I guess while it may be hard to be in a new ward without having moved to a new house (which has always been the reason we've changed wards in the past), this is a huge opportunity for everyone involved to learn and grow. I've always felt that once I start getting comfortable I start to push myself less, and I'm much more happy just to skate along, to not rock the boat. But if there's any family that's prepared for change like this, it's ours! I mean, I guess you guys know how hard it was for me to leave GBHS and do my senior year in England, but as I look back more and more, I'm beginning to realize that Dad's job change was truly inspired, and part of God's plan for my life, and I've come away a better person because of it. I'm certain that this change will allow great opportunities for the spiritual growth of all the members involved.

Or I guess as Riley McKeon would say, "Rub some dirt in it." ; )
(Riley is a fun Mia Maid in our ward who gave that response to a somewhat despondent older sister once on facebook...)

So things are going well here in PM (Paper Mill). On Wednesday we had transfers and we got one Visa waiter, Elder Emmett. He's originally from Guatemala, but has lived in New York, Texas, Germany, and all sorts of other places. Spanish is his first language, English his second. He knows a few others, and is well on his way to being fluent in Portuguese. I'm grateful to have a companion who is willing and able to contribute to the teaching process-- a nice change of pace to say the least.

Elder Blum (Trent's first comp in Georgia) was transferred and is now a Zone Leader in some other area--can't remember where. Elder Smith came to replace him, and now is companions with Elder Herzog. Elder Gneiting is now comps with Elder Mundt.

Let's see--why don't we live closer to where we work? Because we have the van to get us where we need to go. And because we live pretty dang close to the ward building. But mostly because the complex we live in is fantastic. Apparently a long time ago the missionaries lived in the area we work in, but it was a super sketch complex with all sorts of bad stuff going down. So I guess that's why =]

Work this last week was pretty interesting. With only one companionship up until Wednesday, we weren't able to get all that much done, but we were able to get a pretty awesome amount done from Wednesday onward. We had dinner with a few Brazilian families and found four new investigators. We visited Fatima last night and helped her out with the tough times she's having right now. And Lucca is right on track for his baptism this Sunday.

Yep, I got everyone's birthday packages. Do me a favor and send me a couple addresses? G&G McGregor, G&G Fillerup, Bishop Cota, President Olsen, and Kelsey and Jordan.

Love you guys! Have a great week! I'll be on for a little longer, so shoot me an email if you guys are there.

Elder McGregor
(We were around this morning, so there's a little more back and forth below):

Bryon mildly chastised him that we hadn't heard if he'd received his packages and this was his response:

Wait, what? No, they were great! Sorry, I guess I didn't respond with the thanks I should have... But the electric shaver is SO great. It gives my face a break from the razor and I don't have a rash on my face ALL the time now. And we used the cupcakes and the candles to celebrate! It was super funny. Grandma and Grandpa McGregor sent me white shirts and a pair of shoes, and the shoes are fantastic. I'm wearing them right now. They're so shiny and new, and I feel like a new missionary! Well, I feel like I have all of the benefits of being a new missionary, but with all the experience I have. I guess new shoes do that?

But thanks so much Mom! Sorry, I guess I'm pretty bad at showing thanks. I feel like it's much easier in person... so yeah, sorry I'm such a terrible thank-er through letters and emails.

In a separate email he sent this:

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, please consider the following: Your mormon.org profile doesn't have to be perfect to submit it. Make a simple one with basic answers to the questions just to get your page up, and then edit your page from there to your liking. The most important thing at this point is to get your page UP so that you can share it when the opportunity arises. I promise that as you guys look for missionary opportunities, you'll be able to use your mormon.org profile as a missionary tool.

Love!

And this was a GREAT story he added later:

Oh, guess what? We found a spanish couple (from Mexico) this last week, and as my new companion is originally from Guatemala, we taught them. And I was speaking SPANISH. WHAT THE HECK?? It came out of nowhere! It was nowhere near perfect, but it couldn't have been anything but the gift of tongues. I literally have no idea where it came from. I took two semesters of Spanish in High School, but the only thing I remember learning was like, "yo soy," and stuff like that. And I guess Spanish is really similar to Portuguese, but not enough that I would be able to speak it like that from my own knowledge. We left the lesson and my comp was like, "You know Spanish?"

And I was like, "Nope!"

And he was like, "Wait, what?"

So yeah, good fun. But really, I really can't express in words how amazed I am at how that happened.

And that was it for this week.  Love you Elder McGregor!!!

"Hurricane Georgia" and service

Wow! So an interesting week this week.

Hurricane Georgia pretty much put us out of commission this week as far as missionary work went. Monday through Thursday we weren't allowed to drive, so we struggled to find Brazilians to teach near our apartment complex (with little to no success). Elder Vitorio left on Tuesday for London, and Elders Bodily and Nickel left for their missions in Espirito Santo and Goiania. So that was exciting =]

So we were able to go out on Friday and Saturday, but most of our appointments we had made for those days fell through. Luckily we were able to do some service yesterday--The Henrys, who are recent converts to the church (they were baptized last transfer) had an emergency with their house and their roof caved in because of water leakage. So we had an ox in the mire yesterday, and the ward really stepped up to help them out. I'm left to wonder what would have happened if they hadn't been baptized and hadn't had the members of the church there to support them.

Luckily, there was also a Brazilian family who lived next door to whom we gave a hand afterward to move some of their stuff as well, and they asked us to please come back in the future. There's nothing like service to soften someone's heart.

It's good to hear everything is going well at home. Give everyone my best! Love you all!

Elder McGregor

Snow!; good progress; only 5 elders (temporarily) in Paper Mill; and a fun birthday on Saturday

So wow! We've got quite a bit of snow here! It's crazy--Georgia isn't really accustomed to it, so it's super dangerous to drive--they don't have snow plows. So all of the mission vehicles are grounded. So yeah, fun fun!

Isabella was confirmed on Sunday, and she's doing fantastic. Edilberto is going to receive the Aaronic Priesthood this  Sunday, and we're still working with Fatima and Lucca. Lucca will probably be baptized next Sunday, and Fatima some time in February. So things are going really well, and we're super happy.

And hey! A bunch of visa waiters got their visas! Elder Vitorio (the brazilian) leaves tomorrow! Elder Bodily (my comp) and Elder Nickel (Elder Mundt's comp) leave on Wednesday! So it'll be me and Elders Mundt, Gneiting, Blum and Herzog here in Paper Mill. We haven't had this few in many moons =] But it appears that Elder Mundt, Gneiting and I will all be companions until this upcoming transfer when we'll probably get a fresh load of visa waiters (oh joy!). Boy, I'll be the first to admit that getting two new greenie companions every transfer is kinda stressful and difficult. But I'll get over it.

My birthday was fun! We got a ride with President Alba (first counselor in the mission presidency, and a member of the Paper Mill ward) way up to Cumming, Georgia where Isabella lives to prep her for being confirmed, and to teach her parents (only her mom was home, but it went well). Then we went to a Brazilian family's home (The Naliatis, who are members) and had dinner with Fatima and her kids. Which was lots of fun. Isabella and her family made a bunch of food for us, and the Naliatis obviously made some food as well. So it was a really great day.

So wow! Robert the Bruce! I figured we had to be related to him. I mean, he's awesome, we're awesome; what else could be missing?

Other than that though, it's been a pretty normal-ish week! Don't worry though--transfers are coming soon! More chaos to be had! If there's one thing I've learned very quickly, it's that my mission experience here in Georgia is NOTHING like a normal stateside mission. But I wouldn't want it any other way ;)

Love you guys!

Elder McGregor

Inspiration thought:

"Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! Just keep swiiiiimming, swiiiiiiiiimming, swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimming-- what do we do? We swim, swim-- HAH AH AH AAAH, I love to SWIIIIIIIIIIIIMMING!"

-Dory

Winter Wonderland in Georgia

We received an email early this morning from the mission President's wife (God bless her!):

Dear families of our Georgia Atlanta North missionaries...

Take a look at this!   Last night and all day today (and maybe into tomorrow), Georgia's been under a winter storm warning...and all schools and many businesses are closed.  This is the view out our front door--hard to believe there are 3+ inches out there, depending where you live. Because Georgia is not accustomed to dealing with much snow removal, this can be a slow process--and freezing rain is also expected, turning roads into ice rinks!   President King has understandably invited the missionaries not to drive their cars today--as many vehicles are off the road and accidents have been prevalent.  So, many of you will likely not hear from your missionaries today...hopefully, they can email you at a future time this week.  Please still email them, though--and they will respond when it's safe to do so.

Have a great week...and, as always, many thanks for your support of these wonderful missionaries!

President and Sister King

It's Tuesday morning now.  We did not hear from Elder McGregor yesterday, but I did just get an email from a dear friend whose son is serving in the Atlanta Georgia Mission (Trent is in the Atlanta Georgia NORTH Mission).  Her son's email comments made me laugh and it was fun to hear from a missionary in a relatively nearby area.  Here's a portion of the email from Elder Giles:

"it snowed about 4 inches last night. The whole city shut down, all schools are cancelled, no stores are open. Luckily we found a member who was willing to pick us up and drive us to his house and let us use his computers. We hopefully will be going sledding this afternoon. Georgia is funny place when snow storms are possible. People flood Wal-Mart and buy food and provisions, expecting to be quarantined in their houses for weeks. Firewood becomes really scarce, anxiety is at an all-time high and threats of another ice-age seems to be the general expectation. Residents of the upper north west must find this unbelievable."

haha - having lived in NJ I can say it is pretty amusing.  Although, before and after large storms all the milk and bread would be totally cleaned out of all the stores there as well!

A sincere plug for mormon.org profiles

I responded to E McGregor's email and then didn't see until much later that he had responded to me.  I'm including what I sent him so that his reply makes more sense:


    Wow!  I'm so glad things have been going well!  That's funny about Fatima being so inquisitive - kind of like a Portuguese-speaking Kelsey - jaja
     We hadn't looked at the photos yet.  So thanks for the link and for reminding me.  Someone is really great at posting the pix right away.  Hugs to them.  I'm sad you're not in them  : (   Were you "running around with your head cut off" again?  Those are Isabella's parents in the photo with her?   Who's in white that did the baptising?  And I think I see your comps?

     Does Isabella have to wait until next Sunday to be confirmed?  It seems odd they would want them to wait so long to receive the Holy Ghost.  I guess they want to do it in Sac Mtg for the members see.

     Mom

     Yeah, I actually showed Fatima (who speaks good english) Kelsey's mormon.org profile and she LOVED it. So thank Kelsey for me, and tell her her testimony is helping people she's never even met. I know I've asked you all multiple times to post your profiles as well, and I know you guys are all in the process of doing that. So thank you guys too! Make sure you thoughtfully answer the questions, as it may make the difference in someone's conversion, just as Kelsey's has in Fatima's =]

     Yep, more running around. I do a lot of that on Sunday ;)

     Yeah, those are her parents who we're also teaching. Elder Sieverts was the one who baptized her, and she asked me to do the confirmation. And you got it just right-- the church has expressed that from now on, confirmations should take place IN sacrament meeting for just that reason =]

     Love!

A baptism, a confirmation, and "It's almost like there's someone directing this whole thing..."

Great letter this week!  
In our emails to E McGregor we asked him about Isabella's baptism; what they did on New Year's Day; have they found more people to teach; has there been more snow; does he translate Sac Mtgs each week; and who is their 'go to' person for the PMP (Paper Mill Portuguese).
Here's his reply:

http://www.ctrlds.org/album21

Well, that's the website for baptism pictures, as you guys probably already know. But yeah, it's been super exciting! Isabella got baptized yesterday, and the service was really great. We had 6 investigators at church on Sunday! Isabella is technically an investigator until she's confirmed. Fatima, her son Lucca, and his friend Austin all came to church. And Isabella's parents were there as well. So yep, six! Super fantastic!

Fatima is coming along great--she's SUPER inquisitive; probably the most inquisitive investigator I've ever worked with. So when we teach, most of the time it becomes kind of a question and answer type lesson. But she's mentioned to us that she plans on coming to church every week from now on--she really loved Sunday. Oh, I forgot to mention, Tania and Edilberto asked me to confirm them, and their confirmation was yesterday as well. So I had the pleasure of doing that (in Portuguese, of course), and it was interesting to see that Fatima got to see both a baptism and confirmation yesterday (as did Lucca).

So things are moving right along =] It's difficult at times to keep things focused when teaching Fatima, just because she asks SO many questions. See, the subject I originally intended on teaching usually is something we may not actually touch on very much. But I've noticed that whenever we respond to her questions with a clear answer that makes sense (almost always backed up by scripture), she is always happy with the response. So it's clear to me that she already has recieved a testimony as to the truthfulness of the BoM, and maybe she just hasn't recognized it yet. So I intend to work with her this week on recognizing that answer.

Lucca has been coming along quite well too. We're trying to help him to be a good example to his younger brother (Lucca's ten, and Rafael is two), and you can really see the difference in his life. He's a LOT happier than he used to be. And I think that's part of the reason Fatima has become so receptive. So that's a blessing. And yeah, we'll work with him this week to mark a day for baptism. Woohoo!

Let's see--New Year's day we actually got to teach a few people. But our evenings are always the most exciting, and we taught Fatima that night. That's kinda how the work is here-- before dinner we really struggle to find effective ways to fulfill our purpose, and then after dinner it's this huge rush to try and teach a bunch of people once they get home. So yeah. Fun fun =]

Let's see, we've found a few more people to teach, but not a whole lot. We're going to be working with Isabella's parents, but that's difficult because they live so far away. But we'll make it work =]

No more snow. Just on Christmas day.

Sacrament meeting is in Portuguese every week. Which is probably one of the reasons we've been able to have the recent success we've been having. Without the weekly meetings there really was little we could do to show people what church was like. And yeah, no need to translate because it's all in Portuguese. We had about 45 people at the Sacrament Meeting yesterday =] The "go-to" person is either Bro Baker (who's a member of the Stake High Council), or another member of the Stake High Council--Bro Tedjamulia, who is actually originally from Sao Paulo. It's quite interesting to see how the group here is starting to recieve all the tools it needs to become a branch. It's almost like there's someone directing this whole thing...... ;)

Well, that's the news! Hope everything is going well! Love you guys so much!

Elder McGregor

Isabella, the PMP Group's newest member, with her parents.

New Year's Eve for the Paper Mill Elders

Got this fun email from a member:

Eight Elders just left our home after having pizza, noisemakers, and firecrackers to celebrate the New Year. Attached are some pictures we promised to send. Happy New Year! Jon and Becky Paget And here are the pics!  E McGregor is left front.  I think those are his companions right next to and across the table from him.  (Bodily & Gneiting) HAPPY NEW YEAR! ☆•* FELIZ ANO NOVO! *•☆