Forget Dogs...

October 13, 2014 Forget dogs...WATER is mans best friend, Im convinced. Dogs are much lower on the priority scale of man. This week was rough, unsurprisingly, and muito chato. It was eye opening though to understand how many things you truly take for granted in your native land, that you never really think about, such as two knobs on your faucets and shower, to adjust the water to hot and cold. Everywhere here has one knob, and one knob only. But things much more important than this are things such as the ability to communicate with those around you! Some people are timid to talk with strangers, but others just cant do it because they dont know what the heck anyone is saying! Thats pertty much where Im at right now. Im definitely improving as far as understanding other people, but Im still timid to speak a lot in conversations because I dont want to mess up the flow of the lesson that my companion is engaged in. In the CTM the teachers pretend like they can basically understand what you are saying, even if you make some gramatical mistakes. This is very misleading, because in the field, when you make gramatical mistakes or say something wrong, people look at you like something is wrong with you haha which has happened many a time. So needless to say its a struggle here in Brazil country, but its not without successes as well. Some of our conversations with people I can understand almost everything, while other times I cant understand bulufas. Its most hard to put myself out there and try to converse with people even though theyll probably look at me like my head is on backwards, or theyll just start talking to my companion instead haha often times also I feel like I totally know that what I just said made sense, and was said in a way that the person on the other side should have understood perfectly, and then they say O QUE? WHAT?? But its ok. Missionary work in Brazil is a little different than in the US also, for example we got let into probably 8 houses in 2 days here while clapping in front of houses, offering to say a prayer to bless families living in the house. In the US, I got let in 3 or 4 times at most in 15 months haha Ive met some awesome people with so much faith and humility, most of whos names have failed me but some include Iliana, Fernando, Philipe, and Flavia. I know with time, with prayers, and with faith Ill learn this darnd language eventually. Thank you so much for your prayers and faith- keep it up! Love, Elder Hirschi

Update

October 8th, 2014 I have just arrived in Birigui, my first area! Actually I left the MTC in São Paulo on Tuesday at 3:30, after waking up at 230. We took a 1 hour flight to Ribeirão Preto, and met th emission President and his wife, and the two assistants there. After meeting them at the airport we went straight to the mission office, in the middle of Ribeirão, where we got a series of trainings, yata yata yata. It was great. And the craziest thing about it, is that right as a I arrived, I recognized 3 different people who were all in the MTC with me in Provo. Including my first companion! It´s crazy how things ´work out´ but Elder Oelkers, who is my trainer, was in the MTC with me in Provo, along with like 7 other missionaries I know in this mission. The good news is that there exist many familiar faces here. The bad news is that it´s a bit discouraging to see everybody I started out with fluent, and loving life, while Im struggling to know what theyre all saying haha but Im grateful that Im here. Im happy for everybody who is fluent, and it gives me a vision of what I want to be also, hopefully sooner than later. But anyways, combining the two hours of sleep, the new experiences, new culture, the many trainings, and the deer in the headlights effect, the last few days have pretty much been a blur. When we got in to the mission office, tons of missionaries started to pile in and greet you, all excited and hyper while youre trying to not fall on the ground from exhaustion. Thats a bit dramatic it wasnt that bad but let´s just say I´m more than grateful that I was transferred to Birigui, which is a six hour bus ride from where we stayed last night in Ribeirão Preto. We just arrived a couple hours ago and the bus ride sleeptime was fantastic. I have to tell the story of my first lesson in the actual field. I went on divisions for some reason with one of the zone leaders in RP. Hes been out a while and is of course fluent (hes from Argentina). As we met up with these elders in their apartment, I could talk fairly well about where Im from and the CTM and whatnot, so I was feeling pretty good. Then we arrived at the house of someone who´s name I can´t pronounce or remember (this was before the bus ride...). When we got there she had us sit down and we started to talk. Well, she started to talk. I sat there and tried to concentrate on what she was saying, and I caught literally nothing. She found out that I was new, and she started to ask me questions, and then started to laugh because I couldn´t understand her thick accent, then I think she started to get annoyed haha so the progress is slow but hopefully somewhat sure. Elder Oelkers is American, so I can ask him questions in English, which I´m not sure if I like or not. Hes really good at he language, and we can talk pretty easily together, but I can´t seem to quite catch the overall idea of what people are saying yet. Ill pick out words here and there but connecting them is a challenge right now. I´m a little worried about learning without being in a classroom. Everyone always says oh just listen to everybody and speak as much as you can, but if you can´t catch much of what people are saying, it´s a bit tough to learn new words! Plus I´m a little bit timid in trying to speak as much as I can because I don´t want people to get annoyed at me not being able to communicate like a normal human being. But I know neither of these are good excuses, and I know that each day, especially as I pray really hard with real intent for the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues, that I´ll have it down in no time. Thank you for all the prayers, I know that I need them and that they are being heard. So many people dont have families who pray for them or who even care that theyre on a mission, and I know that Im blessed being on measure to have family and friends to support me and pray for me! Have a great week! back to Portuguese! Love, Elder Hirschi

Brazil for life...

October 3rd, 2014 A week has gone by at the good old CTM here in Brazil. Despite not knowing if I would survive, it's been pretty good. It's weird to goto the MTC in Provo Utah, then serve a mission in the field for more than a year, then have to go back to the training center, back to school, back to everything included in surrounding yourself with a bunch of not-yet-quite-grown-up 19 year old dudes in a classroom all day. But, I love it. I always said that I learned more Portguese in 6 weeks in Provo than I did in 3 years of spanish in high school. But now I can say that I have probably learned more in one week here in the CTM in Brazil than I did in 6 weeks in Provo haha crazy. We have special privileges as 2 weekers in this CTM to actually go do some proselyting in the city, whereas the 6 weekers here (who didn\t serve missions before) don't get to proselyte. We´re to the point where we´re pretty comfortable talking to people on the street, which is a complete miracle because we´ve only been here for a week! I should explain a bit more though...it´s not like we understand everything the people are saying. By any means. But I can understand basically what they are talking about, and yesterday we had a 45 minute conversation with a college professor, and she accepted a Book of Mormon, so we´re making a little progress! I have spoken probably 90% Portuguese and 10% English since I´ve been here, so typing this email is a little odd, in fact I hope it doesn´t throw me off... Overall, it´s been a pretty good experience being here at the CTM. Beautiful views, new culture, good food, and new people you get to meet. I´m ready to go to the field though and really start getting the language down. The more talking and listening and having to listen and form conversations because you´re trying to proselyte to them, the better. It´s going to be really hard to focus and try to understand and talk with people when youre not fluent, and the culture is probably going to be a little bit of a shock, but I´d rather be in the field right now. We went to the Sao Paulo temple this morning, and it was great. Unfortunately they had a special session for Americans in English, even though I was looking forward to hearing Portuguese in the temple. It´s cool to actually experience words and things that I´ve studied for so long in the states, like people actually saying oi tudo bem, or street signs that I only saw videos of while studying Portuguese, etc. The only frustrating thing is wanted to know and master everything right now. I know the language will come with time, but I feel like its not really going to come until I leave the CTM... Thank you so much for all the prayers and the thoughts. You don~t really know all the prayes Heavenly Father hears on your behalf, and it´s nice to know that there are so many people on the Lord´s side, cheering each other on. I can´t wait to report on next week, because I´ll be back in the field! Love, Elder Hirschi

Brazil Update

Elder Hirschi has arrived in São Paulo, Brazil. Here is his email he sent from the Missionary Training Center in São Paulo, where he will be for the next two weeks. I have committed to keeping his blog updated! He also has a Facebook page that he kept in New York. It's under Elder Jacob Hirschi. However, he won't have an iPad in Brazil, so it won't be updated. He has some awesome quotes, pictures and video clips on it. He also says goodbye to the wonderful people in the New York, Rochester Mission. Here is his email: So we arrived at the CTM and we were told to send an email home to settle the hearts of the worried ones back in America... I got dropped off at the airport in rochester by one of the office staff members, then i went from Rochester to Detroit, on a flight that took probably an hour or so. Then we geared up for the flight from Detroit to Sao Paulo, where the CTM is located. It was a grueling 10 hour flight overnight, but luckily I sat next to a pretty cool guy from Brazil who was willing to practice his English while I practiced my Portuguese with me. We arrived in Sao Paulo at 7/30 this morning and went straight to the CTM. It was crazy when I walked into the gate for my flight to SP, and heard more Portuguese being spoken around me than I had my whole life combined! It was awesome, although I didn't understand everything that was being said. I understand more than i thought, but it's pretty stressful to be in the CTM where all the native speakers are being trained. Well, here goes nothing, and I'll possibly email next week to tell you if I survived- Love you all- Elder Hirschi

What just happened???

This week was pretty interesting, needless to say. We had a week of two exchanges in a row with different missionaries, because it's the last week of the transfer and we put off doing exchanges. But it was great, and we were able to teach more lessons this week than we have in all 6 weeks of the transfer! The week was filled with both miracles and rejections, which is common if you are putting yourself out there to talk to the people in your area. We ran into Jews, Atheists, Christians, and anti Mormon Christians haha but what else is new? We did indeed find a few people that were genuinely wanting to learn more about our church, including Jill and Mary, which were both miracles. This week was a microcosm of the rest of my mission because of how many times we felt like we were guided to a certain place to find someone prepared to hear our message. I couldn't ask for a better final week as a missionary in Pittsford. On Thursday we hosted Gladys Knight at one of our chapels to sing, direct a Grammy award winning choir, and tell her story and testimony to anyone in the community willing to listen. We were on the help crew of 12 missionaries in the mission, so we were there from about 3 to midnight. We passed info brochures on Gladys Knight and her testimony, greeted people, and collected any referral cards people filled out to have missionaries come by and talk with them. It was a great event that connected the culture of our church to the cultures of other churches, and it showed people that race and culture shouldn't divide us, but we should be united as Christians. They (Gladys Knight and her husband) did bear pretty strong testimonies about the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. What an experience it was to hear the chapel booming with angelic voices! Ok that's only somewhat of an exaggeration, but they were good! I will say though that the baptist gospel fest I went to in the city last year was way more intense, but I enjoyed them pretty much equally! We were the VIP greeters, so we saw some big rigs in the Rochester area, which was cool. Friday was one of the craziest days of my mission. We volunteered at the Pittsford food cupboard, then raced to practice our songs for round II of our senior center volunteering/ sing along time with the old folks. I must say, we nailed it because we brought one of the senior office staff missionaries with us, and she already knew all the songs from the 40s, so it obviously went a lot better than when I tried to sing these unknown (to me) oldie beauties. We walked out feeling pretty famous, and then we went on with our day. I got an interesting call on Friday. Apparently, The Lord decided to deliver my visa this week. I was told I needed to make a decision right then and there, and so I did, because I had already decided that if my visa came before I hit my 18 month mark, I would go. So here I go, and I don't have time to mention all the details, but it's been a crazy few days. I leave Tuesday night form. Foreign land called Brazil, and I have no idea what the next 9 months have in store for me, but I'll let you know when I know. Fun fact: I received my visa on my exact 15 month mark. Coincidence? Maybe. Love, Elder Hirschi Ps I will miss NY more than anything else in the world, he it's going to be hard to leave to understate. I've come to call this place home, and I have to leave my home with only a few days notice, so I'm not euphoric yet, but hopefully when I get there I will be. I know it's where God wants me to be. Enviada do meu iPad, for the last time.

Senior Moments

September 15, 2014 Hello all! This week was filled with many interesting experiences,some falling into the "once in a lifetime" category. I'll start with one special experience: We've been doing everything in our power to find volunteer experiences in Pittsford, so people will get a little more acclimated to seeing our faces and shirts and ties. Some people, especially in Pittsford who are a little hesitant to even let us volunteer at their places, but that's why we're going and introducing ourselves to many places. That being said, we applied at a senior center and put on our applications that we both play the piano. We got a call from them last week, requesting that we fill in for their piano player and come to play for their "rock around the clock" hour, where we play songs from their time and help complete their sing along time haha Of course we accepted, and we collected the music from them. It wasn't that tough of sheet music, and we took a couple hours out of the week to practice, feeling like we had them down pretty well. The time comes for the volunteer hour to rock around the clock, and it was much different than expected...we didn't know they wanted us to A) play the songs B) get everybody excited and engaged in the music and C) BE THE LEAD SINGERS FOR THE SONGS! I had no idea how to sing any of the songs Elder Bruner played, so just picture me trying to sing into a microphone for the group of 40-50 seniors listening, not knowing any melodies, but trying to endure to the end without giving up and running out of there haha I was really called to repentance when I suggested we do a certain song next and one woman bitterly responded with "well do you know how to sing it?" Ouch. Oh well, they still asked us to come back which we were extremely surprised to hear! So that was that. Updates on how next week goes to come... I also attended my first zone conference as a zone leader. The only difference really is that we give one training and conduct the meeting, but it was cool to be able to pray about what the whole zone needs, and help them by training on specific things that should help them. A good thing the church emphasizes when you hold leadership positions is that with more leadership positions and "higher" responsibilities, comes more opportunity for you to serve, not more power or dominion over others. We get to go on exchanges with other missionaries and be with them, helping them improve, and often learning from them how to be better missionaries, which is nice. One miracle we experienced was meeting S. We invited her to the devotional hosted by Gladys Knight coming up this week, and although she was on the phone when we invited her, she seemed excited about it. We started to walk away, but then thought, you know what, we need to go back and talk to her! So we did, and even though we gave her our number and asked her if she wanted a little more background on our religion all when she was on the phone, she was definitely interested and talked to us when she got off the phone. She was from Jamaica, from Montego Bay, which I told her I had been to before! Mom and Dad that's where we went right? i didn't lie to her? It was cool to explain a little bit about our religion, and see her sincerely interested in learning. She was on a search for truth. She didn't have definite beliefs in a God, but she said she wanted definite beliefs. I think God is happy when people are earnestly searching for truth. If He is a loving God, then He will let His children know He's there, especially if they're searching. I know that S will feel that God loves her if and that God is real when she listens and watches for His hands in her life. I know that because that's what He's done in my life. Sometimes we have to look closely, but we can always see His hand in our life. Just look around you! Think about how perfectly everything works in this Earth. Our bodies have millions of reactions that occur every day that happen to work together in perfect combination and timing to function properly. The earth is placed at a perfect distance away from the sun so that we as humans can live peaceably. If it was the slightest distance farther from the sun, we would freeze up and die. If it were the slightest distance closer to the sun, we'd burn up and die. This Earth is designed for us! This life is designed for our happiness, and it's a gift from God! I'm thankful for it, and I''m thankful for you! Love, Elder Hirschi

Ready, Set, WHEEL!!

Monday, September 8th, 2014

Thursday we had exchanges, which means a missionary from a different area comes and spends the day with me or Elder Bruner, and the other one of us goes to that missionary's normal area with his normal companion. So I stayed here in Pittsford with an Elder Kelly. We saw many miracles as we traversed the rough trip from ritzy Pittsford to small town Honeoye Falls. Honeoye Falls got it's name from a tiny waterfall you can observe on the canal that runs between the town's tiny Main Street. Quaint. Anyways, we were able to connect with a lot of people, and have some really good conversations. Although people aren't keen on necessarily letting you in and letting you come back to teach their families, sometimes missionary work is only about planting seeds, and helping others feel the love of Christ in she, friendly conversations. If you humbly bear testimony of the divine power of Christ's atonement, and they are able to feel the spirit, you've done well. Just because someone doesn't accept a Book of Mormon, or an invitation to be baptized or to come to church, doesn't mean you've failed as a missionary. It's easy to feel this way, especially in an area where people are prone to politely rejecting you, time and time again. But we have no power over people's agency, one of the greatest gifts of God. So we're working on being successful missionaries, despite not seeing nearly as much success as we want to. Another exciting event was the Old Folks Olympics in Palmyra, NY. We were asked to volunteer, and we then voluntarily agreed to be the designated face painters. I had don't it before in Greece NY but definitely thought I was better at it than I actually was. One kid's "Spider-man face" turned out to be, well, something besides spider man haha (it's bad that I can't even come up with a comparison to it...) To end the event we helped Irene gear up to compete in the epic wheelchair race. Despite her efforts being more focused on finding some ice cream than actually competing in the race, she finished at an honorable third place. Out of three. It was a good time, and I'll post pictures of it transferred from elder Bruner's camera to my IPad, so sorry about the quality. We've also started giving each family a chance to come up with goals that constitute their own family mission plan, and it's been really successful. It's a great way to be connected with, and on the same page as our families in the ward. The only way we're really going to see progress in our area long term is if we work with members. We can knock on doors or contact people on the canal all day long (which is what we're doing sometimes!) but ultimately if people have a connection to someone at church besides the missionaries, they're a lot more willing to talk and to actually attend church, etc. So this week we have zone conference, a 6-7 hour long set of meetings where us, president, and a few others give trainings to the zone of about 20 missionaries. It should be fun! Love, Elder Hirschi