June 12, 2010

Dear Family,

Time is flying! How ya' all doing? This morning I bought bread for the first time! Well, the first time from the bread guy that bikes around our neighborhood honking his duck like horn. Also trucks with propane gas drive thru the neighborhood, since most people don't have cars... most people don't even know how to drive! That is weird to me.. HA! Also most of the neighborhood roads in this area are dirt (or mud when it rains). Not fun at all when it rains. You have to try your best to not step in a puddle or step into a pit of brown!

Pretty much nightly I have drunks come up and try to preach to me. hahah "no thanks, your breath smells". The other day I saw a bum sleeping in a pile of 5 dogs!!

Here they call kites 'pipas' and they fly them TOTALLY different They don't need to much wind when they fly them. I don't think there is a way to explain..... I'll have to show you when I get home. Because so many people fly them here lines break and fall down a lot, and end up slitting motorcyclist throat nearly killing them. So they are actually prohibited, but cops don't go around enforcing it.

Right now I am sitting on a mattress in a friends door way as the sun falls behind the palms and hills. The temperature is already dropping. There are sounds of playful birds, neighborhood kids with pipas, dogs barking in the distance and a car passing here or there.

The world cup is coming up, our President loves soccer, so everyone was expecting to be able to watch the games, but to help us in our mission he asked us to make more commitments to not watch the games. It is not hard for me, but for every Brazilian it is going to be super tough!

I love you all very much!

June 9th, 2010

Just a creek going through a neighborhood. Ya, it always looks like someone dumped ALL the paint in! It is a grey/purple.. more grey than it shows in this picture.

Ya!! I saw Uno and bought it instantly! It's cool, because most Brazilians know how to play... so we play (me & Elder Gil) at night and also at FHE's & other events!

June 7, 2010

Sorry about the mushroom:D This house right now is HUGE and there is always dust dirt and cobwebs...no matter how much time I spend sweeping...ugh. Ha!

-I guess where Andrew is, in Guatemala they had a volcano erupt=ash everrrywhere! and after that they had a bad storm=mudslides like we had in Rio! Crazy! Here its just kind of

warm. nothing exciting.

-Exciting for Beau and Simone! I'm excited for them. Give them all my Love :D Cool stories about their weddings! And insights. They seem like really insight fully people, the people who married them. My President is really wise. His letters to us every week are ENORMOUS! i had to read the one for today, because they were expecting responses to questions in the email.,..i understood maybe half...maybe...haha! Kinda frustrating, especial with the Free way 20 feet to my right and 3 pinball machines 10 feet to my left. Haha, i got through it though:D...I'm hungry.,..(sorry just my

thought).

I'm so proud of you and Dad for working together to solve these money things. Its a good example to me to want to use my money more wisely...i need to teach my companion the same importance. His 120$R is gone with in the first 1week...idk why!? But, i think he just needs to budget better.

ill do what i can to help...with my little Portuguese. Its funny...we´ll take 30 minutes to translate a word he

says into English and totally forget what the conversation was about. HAhah! Sometimes i don't even learn the word...The other day it sounded like he was saying Creme(cremy) but he was trying to say Crime in English...when i though he was speaking Portuguese...but Cremy has nothing to do with Drugs or law! haha...:D I do a lot of stress relief exercises through out the day. HAha:D

Hey Jill! How you doing? Havent heard from you in a little bit! haha...funnny story! I love awkward moments like that! There's always a weird awkward moment in church with a new investigator...when they fart really loud, or they stand up yelling HALLELUUHA!!...during the sacrament. Haha... Its fine, the ward is used to it. Haha! I EXPECT a LETTER FROM YOU!...aight! Have a good week Jilli:D

Well, nothing much new here on the mission. I did baptize my 2 person(personally) and 4 person as a companionship. His name is Robson(Hobson) and he is 18 years old and really excited to

receive the Holy Ghost. Good for him. Haha... other than that not much.

I love you soo much! And thank you for having me in your prayers! IUm doing good so far. I don't need anything. Maybe some tips to clean your clothes by hand better...Its tough.HAha...our washer here is broken.,.

I Love you Mum, and thank you for caring about me!

Com AMOR!

Elder D. Parker McCormick

May 20th 2010

Oi, my family! Have I told you all about the 20 Americans that stopped by? They were with a youth service organization and here in Rio for 2 weeks to help a few members in the ward here in Nitaroi to rebuild their houses after the storms. Super cool! They first came to our ward talent show. An Asian kid played "Hie to Kolob" on the piano really good! 2 girls did a weird arm thing where they held hands and like a jump rope, put their bodies thru their arms. . ugh.. it is really hard to explain. A few of them did the cultural dance/fight of Brazil, they do a lot of martial art spins and kicks with dancing, it was really cool. It was weird to talk to them in English about normal things. Ha! They came back on Monday for FHE, they split up in groups of 5-7 kids and came with us to teach a lesson. The daughter of the house we were in gave the first lesson in Portuguese, twisting the principle inside out and upside down, making it almost impossible to translate into English.Ya! I was able to do the translating for the night. It was tough!! HAHA On the bus back to our church on the of the leaders snuck (magically) 3 packs of skittles, 1 of m&ms and a ton of laughy taffy and fruit snacks in our bags. So awesome! I don't think I'll eat it for awhile (but won't save it like Jill hahah).

The other day we found an old lady sitting on the curb, so we said hi and did our contact with her. She seemed interested enough for us to teach her so we followed her back to her house. Her husband was laying in bed with a chair along side of it, which his bandaged foot was resting upon. We started to get to know them, and like all old people (here in Rio) they went off on their whole week, dawn to dusk. "blah, blah, blah".... I saw a guitar in the corner of the room with some clothes on it, so I asked if he played. He huffed, "psh! give it to me!" I grabbed the dusty instrument (Milton '87) and handed it to the crippled man. He stretched his fingers in ways only Wesley Bronson can do. He dusted his guitar with is ripped shirt and continued his preparation in tuning his guitar by ear. Every string in its proper notes! All the random notes coming together into a humming like a rain storm just starting. His plunking went into strumming as he started to sing about the beauty of God in his life. He sang well for an 87 year old man! He then starts to beat the guitar like the kid from August Rush and ends with the same plunking/plinking form which he started. It was amazing!! BUUUUTTT they didn't care for our message at all!!!! hahahaha

I love you all! Keep your smile on!!

May 2010

Good Morning! 6:30am out my condo window in Arsenal, Nitiaroi, Rio De Janeiro

May 5th 2010

I guess there is a tradition on the mission to burn:

6 months = tie

1 year = shirt

1.5 years = pants

My companion, Elder Gil, just finished his first year... so that was a shirt. HA!

We came to the end of the road that was suppose to continue on... the only way across this creek was the moldy couch in the middle . Yes.... we both crossed dry :P

Elder Gil, Grandpa of Wallace, Grandma of Wallace, Wallace (11), Me

They are not sure where Wallaces' parent are. We made him a cake for his Happy Baptism! Ha.... cute kid!

May 1 2010

"Hey, lets go skate!~We can't... The horse is in the way".

This is a stray horse that wonders around like a dog, and this day I found him in the skate park! HA!

Yay!! Imagine all the things I can make with this GOLD MINE!!

I don't know how no one saw this by the shower until now. It is HUGE! Probably been growing for months! Don't worry, we did a big cleaning on the whole house after this!!

Parkers letters are a work of art, not to mention fun to read.