Cold Showers

Dear Family,

This week was great! Lots of work and lots of blessings! First off, I want to comment that the funeral sounded like it went really great. Very beautiful and could tell it was a special and spiritual one; as it was for a very special, studly, and appreciated man.- My Grandpa Sargent. At times during my service, I really do feel that I can feel his spirit. It always warms and comforts my soul, and gives me the desire to work even harder. Makes me walk tall and have joy when I testify of the truthfulness of this gospel. 

At night I enjoy looking at the stars. You can see them really well here in Itaqui. I think I enjoy them so much because its just about the only thing that is the same in the United States.. hah! Besides the gospel and this church! My companion. had to get his braces changed this week! I got to sit and watch. pretty cool. especially because I got to experience what It feels like to be a patient as a missionary just like in your dental office mom! pretty cool haha.

 So we are going to move this week into a nicer apartment. finally! haha. but until we do, we still have cold showers. and its starting to be cold in the mornings, so a cold shower does not sound fun at 6:30 in the morning anymore! But we found the cure. what we do is boil water, then add cold water until we have sufficient water for a ´´shower´´. Take the bucket of warm water to the shower, and just splash the water on myself until I'm clean. hah. takes longer to shower, but so worth it! haha. 

I'm starting to like the food here. at least parts of it. I like it hear in itaqui because they have ´´cherrascos´´ all the time! Which is basically a big open barbeque! lots of chicken, pork, beef on sticks and then they cut it off for you. pretty cool.and there is a famous dessert called ´´torta de bolacha´´ the people here make it all the time. its way good! idk how to describe it but its like graham crackers with milk and dulce de leite, man is delicious! oh and the other day i had bread that tasted exactly like your Finnish bread mom!! i ate tons of it. haha! 

So Sunday, I gave my first talk at church in the mission field! All in Portuguese of course. It was great! the Holy Ghost really helped me share my thoughts and feelings in Portuguese. Another example of the gift of tongues, Seriously! I talked about what it means to take Christs name upon yourself, and especially applied it to member missionary work. Went well.

The best of the week, was definitely the baptism Saturday!! We had two baptisms. José and Junior. José is the adult, he chose to be baptized by a member, Clayton, really a cool experience! We love it when the investigators chose a member to baptize them because the member will be around long after we leave because we change cities every so often! The other baptism was for Nelson Barcellos Junior. The boy with his mom (all of her kids are members of the church except for her, her names Nadia, were working with her now!) Junior is 9 years old and guess who he chose to baptize him. Me! I was very privileged and thankful for the opportunity. Love that kid.

  It went great. and the spirit was felt so strong. My 1st baptism of many more to come! I kinda got to to experience what it was like for dad to baptize me because junior is just about 8 like i was when I got baptized! Pretty neat. Anyways the scripture that keeps coming to my mind is (D&C 18:10, 15-16)

 10 Remember the worth of  souls is great in the sight of God;

 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

 So true! Well I want to talk more about the baptism experience but I am  unfortunately out of time again! Thank you so much for the pics and updates! Love you all! Have a great week.

 More Pictures that he sent us this week!!

 (We think its a Carnival Float?)

Love,

Elder Jairus Sargent

Photos of Elder Sargent

PHOTOS FROM ELDER SARGENT'S TIME IN THE 

BRAZIL MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER (CTM)

              Overlooking Sao Paulo, Brazil 

ELDER SARGENT AND HIS COMPANION IN THE CTM

His District in the CTM (above)

PHOTOS FROM ELDER SARGENT'S FIRST ASSIGNED AREA: ITAQUI

Elder Sol (right next to him) is his Trainer

 

 Where he sleeps and studies

 

Hello Family,

Very sad to hear the news about Grandpa Sargent. I've actually been thinking about him a lot this past week, and now I know why. I am really going to miss him. Brought tears to my eyes to hear about his passing away. But I too know, hes in a better place, on the other side, reunited with his family. We will still be able to feel the presence of his spirit and love in our lives. He really was a great example to me. Even though I didn't get to know him well, when he was healthy, I was able to learn about him through all of the wonderful stories and  the spirit I could feel in his presence. He is an incredible man. I will miss him, and I will always love him.

 

 You guys are especially in my prayers during this hard time of family news. I wish i could be there, but I can´t. There is a reason I am called to serve at this time, and its my duty to fulfill it. I give you all my love and prayers and service. Not a better time to be serving the Lord and fulfilling His work full-time

 

This weeks update-

We always show pics of our families to new members or investigators we meet because they love them! They especially love my little albums of pics! (americano, estados unidos haha) But they always say how beautiful my family is! Which is true, so lucky to have such an awesome family, and for all of them to be active members in the church. What a blessing. The women here especailly comment on how I have such a beautiful mother! haha always. 

 

So Friday was the strangest day of my life I think. so many different strange things happened that day. But I wont get into that, and I dont have time haha. Another day maybe. So here is a short funny story. I get confused all the time with English and Portuguese now! So i had just finished personal study, which is in English, and we were about to start companionship study. We always start with a prayer, and it was my turn. I started out ``Dear Heavenly Father... I mean Querido Pai Celestial...`` haha this happens all the time!  I don't realize if I am  speaking English or portuguese. I get confused. 

 

 This work is great and so true. 

Sorry this email is not very long this week! (today is some city holiday here and all the stores including lan houses are closed! Thus, we are taking turns at a members house with slow internet) but hopefully a few pics will upload! (I have some many stories but no time to share! haha, Eventually) 

 

 

I love you all and thank you so much for your love and prayers. 

I pray for all of you especially at this time.

Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Jairus Sargent

SO IM IN ITAQUI!!

Hello Family,

SO IM IN ITAQUI!! (safe and sound) Its completely on the other side of the mission. But it boarders Argentina!

 How cool right!? So excited that my first area is so close to Dads. This is the land of the gauchos! I love it! hah, Cowboys, real cowboys everywhere. always old guys sitting on their porch with no shirt drinking their chimarrao! ha the people love chimarrao around here! and yes dad, just like mate! so cool. I think it’s really similar here to your mission. so cool to be a part of. there is also another drink similar to chimarrao that I absolutely love! it’s called terere. It’s a cold drink that’s very similar and drunk the same, but is fruit flavored almost like lemonade! the lime flavor is fantastic! you will have to YouTube how to make it and try it! so good. 

 

Oh, and the flight to Santa Maria all went well! we took two flights, oh and security is so easy and simple here! You have to do practically nothing and just walk through without taking anything off. It was nice and easy. The first few days here have been so much to take in! Completely new culture, food, people, way of living, and no English! There are 4 missionaries here in itaqui, we all room together, 3 Brazilians and 1 American. I’m the American. hah! 

I am really learning humility and patience right now. hopefully Portuguese will come fast. Because they don’t speak what I learned in the Ctm, its somethin else. hah! 

My companion, Elder Sol, is great! He’s been out 11 months and works really hard. We’ve been doing a lot of walking, ALOT OF WALKING, because there is tons of land and takes hours just to get to one house. So more walking than teaching, but every person is worth it! We really probably have a lot of baptisms coming up soon. the other Elders, which have been here for a transfer already, had one the other day, such a great experience! really excited to be here. There is work to do.

So imagine Itaqui as a giant farm! Tons of land, dirt and rock roads, horses, cows everywhere, sheep, chicken, tons of animals! Dogs wandering around everywhere! hah it’s pretty cool. People are really receptive here and miracles happen all the time, we always find people ready to hear our gospel and just happen to run into them at the right time in same place. It’s so awesome to be a part of this great work.  So many stories but just don’t have time to tell them all. Many miracles and blessings let’s just say the first house we visited when we just arrived,  I expected Portuguese for first time, was full with a family from Utah! hah! I could speak English again! They were visiting some family for the week. So funny that first house we visit in Brazil had members from Utah that speak English! Probably won’t see that again.

 My comp and I are new to this area. So our first night we were lost and walked in circles until our feet feel off. 100 miles later I think we finally made it back to the house around 11. Definitely an adventure! But again I love the work here. The hardest thing I’ve ever done. And definitely a roller coaster of emotions. but overall it’s great. 

So our apartment is like a shack compared to home, but at least it’s a place to put our stuff and sleep. So tired every night, it doesn’t even matter. I fall asleep so fast.  We have limited water and right now everything broken, hah, but cold showers aren’t too bad since it’s so hot here!  

A picture from his time at the CTM 

 I gotta go!! I love you all and hearing from all of you! you guys sound great. keep me posted. love you all and have a great week!

love you all

love, 

Elder Sargent

Last Few days at the CTM

Glad to here you guys are doing great! I can’t believe this is my last few days at the CTM! Where did the time go! It’s so weird being the oldest district here at the Ctm already. I am super excited for the field and a little nervous. But I definitely am going to miss my district, the people here, and the Ctm. I mean, come on, I am just staring to enjoy the food! haha. Anyways, this Ctm has been a great experience I will never forget. So many miracles and blessings! The gift of tongues for example. There is no way any of us could know as much Portuguese as we do without out it.

 

 So here's some new news! Right now they are only sending visa-waiters to the Ctm. No more brazil mission calls for a while! what! ha I guess there just too many waiting on their visas! But they’re coming in. Slowly but surely. we had a district come in the other day. They've been on their missions for over a year. and just now got their visas. How in the world did I get mine! Such a miracle.

 

 I was asked to give the opening prayer in Portuguese for the entire Ctm during Tuesday devotional! what! hah I was nervous I don't know why, but I opened my mouth and it was easy as pie! the Lord provides, we just need to act in faith.

 

 I’m learning these Brazilian culture games from our new Brazilian roommates! hah! one is where we flip our shower sandals and if one land up and other down your safe. If both land upside down, the people that flipped and landed both right side up get to smack the hand of the people (with the flip-flop) that landed both upside down! hah! we had some laughs from this. the things you learn in the Ctm.

 

Today we went to the Campinas temple!!! It was so awesome and beautiful! I loved there area! It was much nicer than Sao Paulo. Lots of trees everywhere! Looks like the Amazon! the temple was so beautiful in Campinas. 

 

Pictures of the Campinas Brazil Temple

from lds.org and ldschurchtemples.com

 



 

 Anyways it has been a good day so far! last Pday before the field. crazy! Oh and I have not yet received my scriptures! I’m a little worried because I do not know how I will get them if I leave before they get here! But all is well. I have faith in our Heavenly Father, everything will eventually work out. Love you all and thank you so much for everything! Sorry I only had like 15 min today because rest of time took just reading all the emails! But I love them! Thanks again! have a great week! Wish me luck, and yes I will be safe mom! haha love you all.

 

Love,

Elder Jairus Sargent