Igreja Universal

I turned this in for an assignment, but then decided to post it on the blog.

After attending the Igreja Universal, I almost decided that I wanted to attend a Catholic mass instead in order to complete this assignment because my experience was so negative. However, the experience helped me learn quite a bit about Brazilian culture, and perhaps more importantly, culture outside of the Church. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Univeral) represents Brazil's strong religious movement away from Catholicism towards various protestant sects. Ironically, however, A Igreja Universal almost comes full circle back to many of the ideas and practices of the Catholic church. In fact, I noted in my journal that it seemed like the Catholic church on steroids. My own thoughts are that as Brazil moves away from the Catholic Church towards protestantism, many people still feel the need for ritual, and are uncomfortable in a church that focuses on teaching doctrine. A Igreja Universal fills that need, since it is heavy in ritual, and extremely light on doctrine. The church also mimics the Catholic church in its more ornate building, stained glass windows, and hierarchal organization.

As I participated in the services, I tried to participate with the other members of the congregation, but with my strong Mormon background, it was extremely difficult and uncomfortable. The meeting began with a sermon on overcoming our difficulties in life. The sermon was very general, and light on scripture, but the pastor was very excited as he spoke. He frequently said “Amen” or any of a variety of other phrases that invoked some kind of response from the congregation, normally a repetition of what he said. In my own opinion, these phrases came at relatively random points. I had to wonder if he was doing it to wake up any members of the congregation that may have been dozing off—which would have been hard since everyone was standing.

After the brief sermon, the pastor encouraged the congregation to give tithing, promising that if they did, they would receive blessings for their family. Upon saying this, between 30 and 50 helpers went out into the congregation to hand out envelopes. After some more words, those who had accepted envelopes put money in the envelopes and brought them to the front (for the whole world to see).

The prayer session followed. However, the prayer in this service was very different from an LDS prayer. The pastor lead the prayer, and the congregation chanted along with him. Instead of addressing God, the pastor addressed the Devil, for him to leave the church and the people that were there. He also prayed for the illnesses and other problems of the members of the congregation to leave. At different points during the prayer, at the pastor's indication, the members of the congregation would raise their hand in the air, or put them on top of their heads, or hold them close to their chest. Also as he prayed, several other pastors or workers went out into the congregation to lay their hands on their heads and bless them. During this time, several “endemoniados”—all women—were taken to the front of the congregation, onto the stage where several lower pastors were struggling with them, their hands held on the back of the possessed person's neck. Music was also playing in the background, and after a worker came by to personally invite me to close my eyes so that I “could feel the spirit of the Lord”, I began to experience what the other members of the congregation were probably also experiencing: sensory overload. There were so many sounds and so much commotion that I wanted to break down and cry, almost out of fear. This part of the meeting had all the energy of a rock concert. In fact, as the pastor and members of the congregation chanted “Sai! Sai! Sai!” for the cancer, demons, bad luck, etc. to leave, I felt like I was at basketball game in the moments before the team enters the court.

The prayer session lasted much longer than I was comfortable with, and at this point I may have left were it not for the nice young lady that invited us to sit with some other youth. I then noticed that the congregation had groups of youth grouped into different colors. Skyler and I were invited by Cathedral 4, which dresses in blue for these meetings, and we were even given some blue to wear with them. The youth were all extremely friendly and happy to see some new faces among them.

The meeting continued with members of the congregation pulling out their bags, books, pictures of family members, keys, and wallets to be blessed. As the people held these items high in the air, some of the workers and other pastors passed by with large bowls of water and what looked like olive branches. They passed through the aisles throwing this water on the congregation in order to bless their things. Shortly after, members of the congregation were invited to go forward and wash their hands in what I assume was some kind of holy water. One of the youth whisked me to the front in order to participate, and so I dipped my hands in the water, and left somewhat confused as to what to do with my now wet hands, and determined that I would just wait for them to dry.

During all this time the possessed people were still in the front struggling with the pastors. The head pastor then spoke to one of the devils, asking what he/she wanted with the body of the possessed woman, to which the woman responded “kill her and her family” in the best Golum impression I've heard in a long time. The pastor then took an opportunity to reinforce his invitation to come on Sunday by asking the possessed woman (or the demon inside of her) if she wanted the members of the congregation to come on Sunday. The possessed woman answer no, and as though the members of the congregation weren't following along very well, pointed out that if the devil wants us to not come, we should come. The pastor then asked the demon if it wanted to possess his body, and the possessed woman answered no, because it was full of the holy ghost.

The meeting continued in much the same manner, and ended with two more offerings, once again handing out envelopes to the congregation. The pastor first invited those with faith to donate 100 R$ to come forward, then those donating 50 R$, and so on until arriving at 5 R$. At some point after the offerings, the possessed women were simultaneously cured of their demons, and the congregation left.

The whole experience opened my eyes to some of the ideas about religion in this country. Religious views are diverse in Brazil, and it was interesting to see the services in Brazil's fastest growing church, and coincidentally the largest church that began in Brazil. The church reflects Brazil's sometimes tumultuous struggle between a desire to become independent of the Catholic church and a yearning for ritual.

More Bahia

Bahia pics

Bahia!!!!

This week has certainly been interesting. Monday morning we left real early in th emorning to head down to Bahia. We drove most of the day, and then we stayed in some podunk town in Pernambuco. It was interesting to see the difference in the highways between states. We knew exactly when we left Ceará and entered Pernambuco because suddenly the streets weren't full of potholes. Speaking of which, I really thought that Brazil's highways would be better than they are, but apparently that's taken care of by the individual states, and Ceara for some reason is way behind. We hit several large potholes that basically had the same effect as going over a speed bump at 70 mph.

Anyway, we got to Bahia, and we thought we were going to stay in Feira de Santana, and travel to Salvador everyday, but as it turns out, there weren't any rooms available in any reasonable hotel in Feira because of some conference they were having, so we ended up staying in a hotel that overlooks the beach in Salvador (I know my life sucks). We taught the workshop in the afternoon in Salvador, then got in the car to rush out to Feira to teach the workshop there. Both were definitely different experiences. We only started with 9 people in Salvador, and we ended with 7, so that was a REALLY small group for us, but I really liked teaching the small group because we could focus more individual time with them. All but 1 were members of the church, which really helps. I don't know if I've written this yet, but serving in the church really helps people get jobs because it gives experience they wouldn't otherwise have. Also, I'm not sure why, but members of the church just get it easier. They understand what's going on and aren't afraid to make mistakes in the workshop. Anyway, that group was a ton of fun and I think they learned really well. The group in Feira started with 19 and ended with I think 12, and all were members of the church. I felt bad because we arrived late everyday, so someone else always started teaching for that day and we picked up where they left off, so I didn't feel like we got to know them really well, but they were really prepared and just got everything the first time we explained it.

We didn't have a lot of time to go out and see the city until today, but today was a ton of fun. First, we went to the Farol da Barra/Forte de Santo Antonio which was the first lighthouse in the Americas or the first in South America depending on if you read the English version or Portuguese version of the info sheet. In any event, it's a really old lighthouse and also Brazil's first fort. Outside I bought a berinbau (an instrument used in Capoeira) and learned to play with this guy they call "O Mestre" (The Master). Then we headed downtown and saw the Cathedral of Sao Francisco. It was honestly kind of sad to see they way the Catholic church looks at Christ (always sad, suffering, or dead), and to see the ridiculous amount of gold that was thrown into that cathedral. Then we just kind of walked around and ate some typical Bahian food. It was a ton of fun. I love Bahia. If I marry a girl whose rich parents want to fund my honeymoon, I think I'll come here.

We're headed back up to Fort tomorrow, but we won't get there til Monday. Amo todos voces! Sejam felizes e não façam nada que eu não faria, ta?

Going to Bahia!

Hey, so tomorrow morning at 6 am, that is, in 7 hours, we're leaving to go to Bahia. It'll take us a while to get there, but it'll be awesome. Salvador (the capital of Bahia) is a really historic city with lots of old buildings and stuff, so it should be fun.

This week was a lot of fun. We went to the beach and hung out all day on Tuesday--by all day I really mean all afternoon, since it was after the CASP. I felt like a tourist on vacation, because we spent a lot of money on a little bit of food that wasn't very good (it was all right), just because it was right on the beach. Then I did something I haven't done since I was a kid: I made tunnels in the sand. It was really cool. There's something about the beach that's just relaxing. It might just be that I've lived my whole life without it that it being something new is cool.

Yesterday we hiked the highest peak in the area, which would have been a relatively quick and easy hike were it not for the girls complaining the whole way. We should have just continued with the 4 guys and left the 3 girls behind (see, sometimes I hang out with groups of more guys than girls) but we put up with it. Anyway, it was an incredible view from the top, to see the whole city and the ocean on one side, and Brazil just going on and on on the other side. The area was also pretty much jungle, so that was an awesome experience.

This last group that we taught was pretty large, but they participated well. It's always disappointing to teach a principle, practice with them, see how well they CAN do it, and then in the final interview at the end they just fall into old habits. Oh well. I guess it requires more practice than just a week can provide. I have a lot of hope for a middle-aged mom, member of the church, who just really got into everything. If she puts into practice the stuff she's learned in her job search, she could get a really nice job even though she doesn't have a lot of professional experience. I'm also excited to see if my new Argentine friend Guillermo, middle-aged Jehovah's Witness, gets the job he wants--spanish teacher. He's the first Jehovah's Witness I ever met and really liked.

Well, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures in Bahia and post them here. Peace.

We just finsihed with another group, and let me tell you, this group was something different. The other two groups had at least one or two people who were kind of disruptive and didn't show sincere interest in learning, but this group had a few very outspoken individuals that were kind of hard to keep under control. They didn't act like little kids or anything, they just asked irrelevant questions and refused to fully participate in some activities. The whole week both Skyler and I felt overwhelmed and at a loss as to what we could do for them. But in the end I could tell that a few people were understanding, and with some practice were really going to knock 'em dead out in the professional world. But I also felt that we could have done better for those individuals if we hadn't felt overwhelmed by the others. I guess we're going to have to learn to deal with those situations.

It looks like we're going to Bahia, but we're not exactly sure when. Fernando seems pretty intent on sending us, but if he has to go the week after next to take care of some technical stuff out there, we might just go with him in his car. If not, we might go by bus next week. Who knows. Either way, we'll have a ton of fun in Bahia (and get some work done too...), and I'll make sure I send pictures of Salvador.

This week I've had some small moments that were just one of those little things in life that makes a big difference. For example, I watched the sunset over the ocean for the first time in my life. Fortaleza is great because you can see both the sunrise and sunset over the ocean. I'll watch the sunrise some time soon, but that means getting up at like 4 am to make it to the beach by about 4:45. But hey, I've got to make the most of it, eh?

I'm getting some cool tastes of Brazil. For example, I learned how to make passion fruit juice the other day. Maracujá (passion fruit) is kind of like a lemon, and to make a juice that's worth tasting you've got to add plenty of sugar. Just thought I'd share that with ya'll. K, well gotta go to an institute party. Peace.

More pictures

Corpus Christi

We're almost done teaching our second workshop. We finish teaching Monday, and I'm really excited because it's a really cool group. The last day is kind of a test for everyone because the students do a practice interview with either Fernando or Enrique, the two professionals at the center. It's a test for them to see how they did, but it's also a test for us because we get to see how well we taught. Last time I was kind of disappointed because despite our having preached the importance of using power statements and the Me in 30 Seconds, the people got to the interview and just answered the way everyone else in the world does: with relatively flat answers that don't say much about who you are. But I think this group is really getting it, and I think we'll see a big difference when they do the practice interviews.

This group has also been a lot of fun because it's a little smaller. We finished with something like 23 students in the last workshop, and it was just hard to manage that large of a group. This time we only have about 16, which has made the workshop a lot more personal and manageable. For example, we have this one girl, Fernanda, who's 18 and looking for her first job. She doesn't really have any experience, and so she had trouble with the power statements because she thought she hadn't ever accomplished anything. So I asked her if she ever had a really difficult class that she improved in. She responded that she never did well in math, but she decided she was going to get better grades. So she ended up with a power statement that went something like “I'm diligent. For example, I used to have trouble in math, but I decided to study more and work a little harder. As a result, I improved my grades 100%. I'm sure my diligence can help achieve goals in your company...”

We're finishing on Monday because Thursday was Corpus Christi. Man, we had a lot of fun. We went to a ward YSA party of a ward we don't belong to, which went literally all night. I learned a little forró and listened to a lot of Brazilian music. To be honest, it was the first time I've had fun at what was basically a dance party in a long time. I didn't get a wink of sleep, but at 8 am we went off to a stake YSA activity in a stake we don't belong to at a public swimming pool/rec center. Other than being totally exhausted, I really enjoyed it. So that's what some of those pictures are.

Today was also a ton of fun. Our friend Priscilla called us up and told us that her brother wanted to meet us, and she was going to take us to some really cool place, but she wouldn't tell us where. So we met up in front of the Cathedral (where I bought a hammock) and then went over to her brother's office and just kind of hung out for a while. Eventually, Priscilla's brother took us up to the top of the building where we had an incredible view of the city and the ocean.

I've been having a lot of fun just hanging out with people. I was so afraid that I wasn't going to be able to make any friends before I came out here, but that has definitely not been a problem. It may just be because we're something new and different, but a lot of people have been really willing to invite us to stuff, and what's more important to me is that we have some close friends that I really trust.

So there you go. That's life here in Brazil.

Some pictures

May 14, 17

May 14

We started teaching the workshop this week, and after the first two days, I think we're doing all right. We definitely could have improved a few things, and every time I teach I realize how much more I need to improve my Portuguese, but it's been nice to have people participate and actually teach the class to people who haven't ever had it before. The class is interesting because it's pretty diverse. Most of the students are in their late teens or early twenties, and they're looking for work to break into their career or just trying to get any kind of work experience. But there are some others, like a guy who's about 30 years old and very well educated. He has worked as a branch manager for a bank. He just moved to Fortaleza for some reason I didn't understand when he told me, but he's looking for a specific kind of job. Then there is a mother of about 45 years who is also looking for her first job, and she's got a pretty good idea of what she wants to do, but she seems to be pretty flexible. Then there's another guy who is about 20 years old who knows how to read and write, but not very well, so he has required some extra help to get some of the assignments done in a timely manner. But they're all wonderful people who are eager to learn.

I feel bad because I haven't really done much since I've been here. We've just been trying to get our bearings and make some friends. But the worst is that I haven't really done any homework. That's not good. Guess I better get started.

May 17

We finished teaching the workshop, and only 4 people that started didn’t finish! We had been told that a lot of people drop out, but out of the 26 or so people we started with, some 22 finished the workshop. It was awesome. Someone even gave Skyler and I clocks as a gift to thank us for teaching the workshop. Why a clock, I’m not sure, but oh well.

May 9th and 11th

May 9th

I've decided that I love the beach, but I sure hate the sand. Just a thought. I swam for the first time in the Atlantic ocean today. The water here is a perfect temperature. I could probably be content going to the beach every day, even if I don't actually go swimming every day.

It's definitely time to get friends. The sun sets here at about 6 o'clock, and we don't really know what to do around here after dark. I suppose we could go find a dance club, but that can be risky business, and I don't really like to dance anyway. So we're going to institute tomorrow to hopefully find some friends and some other things to do with our time. I suppose the other thing I could do with my time is homework, but that's honestly not so appealing at the moment. Besides, I need an Internet connection, and Fernando hasn't given us that thing yet, so it's kind of hard for me to do my homework at the moment.

Wow, I'm going to stop right now. I'm sorry if this is boring. Here, I'll take some pictures and put them here to make up for it.

May 11th

We have friends now! I'm not going to lie, the last few nights we really haven't done much after dark. It's been kind of boring just kind of sitting in our apartment with nothing really important to do, and absolutely no communication with the outside world. But yesterday we went to institute and made friends. It was quite the adventure getting there, though. We weren't exactly sure which bus to take there, so we started asking around, and one of the taxi drivers that hangs out about two blocks from our house told us just to take any bus down to the terminal, and from there we could find a bus to take directly there. But we went to the wrong terminal at first, so we then took a bus from that terminal to another one, and then waited like 45 minutes for a bus that finally took us to where we needed to be.

After institute we went with some of our new friends to take advantage of being in Brazil: we went to the mall, ate Burger King, and played Dance Dance Revolution. Hey, at least I drank a Guaraná with my Whopper, né?

Our ward is one of those center of the city, in one of the first chapels in the area wards. As far as I can tell, the ward functions pretty well by any standard, except they function on Brazilian time, which is if you're on time, then you're early. My guess is that's why they have priesthood first, and sacrament meeting last. I attended the YSA class and made some other new friends, so hopefully I won't be stuck in my apartment playing pinball on my computer on the weekends anymore.

I have to tell y'all about something that touched my heart in sacrament meeting today. When the Aaronic priesthood began passing the sacrament today, I noticed that there was one tray given to two boys. It didn't take long for me to notice that the smaller boy, who must have been Deacon-age, was blind, and the older boy, who was about Priest-age, was helping him pass the sacrament. I could have noticed the little blind-boy's courage and desire to fulfill his priesthood responsibilities, but that's not what really stuck out. What really stuck out was the older boy's attitude in helping this younger ward member complete his priesthood assignment. The older boy gently and humbly led the younger boy along. He didn't make a big show out of it, but I could tell by the smile on his face that he genuinely enjoyed serving in this way. I almost cried when I saw that, actually.

Here I am

May 7th

Well, here I am in Fortaleza Brazil. Driving through the city on our way to our house reminded me a lot of Santa Cruz. It's hot and humid here, just like Santa Cruz. It's extremely green, especially coming in, just like Santa Cruz. And there are a lot of homeless people begging in the streets, just like Santa Cruz. I'll be honest, that last one surprised me a bit. I wasn't really expecting Brazil to be like the United States, but a part of me at least wanted to believe that I would not see the same amount of poverty here in Fortaleza that I saw in Santa Cruz. I probably won't see the extremely poor neighborhoods like the ones I worked in on my mission, but that's only because I probably won't be getting very far out of the city center.

Our manager, Fernando, seems like a really nice guy and does everything he can to look out for us. He will probably even be lending us his satellite internet card so that we can get internet in our place (or any other place we may decide to go for that matter). He said he's paying for the service for when he goes out of town, but since he doesn't need it unless he goes on a trip, he's just going to let us use it. That'll be nice.

I was pretty exhausted from the flight. In fact, I should probably be sleeping right now instead of writing this, but I'm past the point of feeling sleepy. We made it safe and sound and thirty minutes late to Fortaleza, but our stuff didn't. It's still in Miami. At least I hope it is. Assuming all goes according to plans, we'll get our bags back tomorrow morning. So I don't have any clean clothes to wear for the day :(

It's barely dawning on me that this is going to be hard. I speak well enough to get around, but it is frustrating having to have someone repeat what they say three times so that I can understand. But this is going to be so much fun. I mean, hey, I live like three blocks away from the beach.

May 8^th

I feel a lot better today considering I actually got some sleep last night. Actually, I might have got too much sleep.

We got our stuff back! Apparently it took a lot of effort on the part of our manager to get our stuff back, including him being detained briefly because he was trying to get stuff that didn't belong to him, but I now have clean clothes, which is a huge comfort.

I'm getting really excited to teach next week. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow we have just been (will be) observing. But I'm noticing all the cool things that we're going to be able to do with the workshop.

We went into one of the neighborhoods today. I actually felt more at home there than I did in the area that we live in because the area was so much more like Bolivia: that is, the houses were really close together, there were people playing out in the street, and there were little corner stores all over the place. It was really weird though how that made me feel more at home than anything else. K, well that's it for today. Hopefully I get to post this before I have too much to write tomorrow.

P.S. Sorry this is so long...

Training

"A man out of work is of special moment to the Church, because deprived of his inheritance, he is on trial as Job was on trial—for his integrity. . . . The Church cannot hope to save a man on Sunday if during the week it is a complacent witness to the crucifixion of his soul" (Gordon B. Hinckley)

Well, we just (Friday) completed our training from church headquarters. It was kind of like the MTC and EFY mixed, although I guess I can't be quite sure since I've never been to EFY. We learned a ton, and I have a much greater testimony of the church welfare system than I ever had before. One of the most amazing things was what we did on Friday. We toured Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center, and just seeing the sheer immensity of the program almost blew my mind. I was deeply touched when I saw the Bishop's Storehouse. For some reason the idea of a grocery store with no price tags nearly made me cry. I think it gave me a taste of what a Zion society is really like.

The most important thing to remember about the entire welfare system is that the Church does not (or at least should not) give out handouts. The people that receive aid (not "help," which we learned is a bad word :) ) have to do some kind of service to earn what they get. And that's the key: when someone is working, they retain their dignity and their desire to contribute.

That's why I'm so excited to go teach the workshop. I'll be able to teach people how to arm themselves to provide for themselves and their families.

I am a little nervous though. Teaching in Portuguese has helped me to notice that I have a lot of words to learn. But I'll be fine. It'll be a blast.

Oh, and how it's like EFY: I got to know a lot of awesome people. I guess I had met them before, but we just all became friends during the week, and I hope that I remain friends with at least some of them. But just like EFY, the reality is that I will probably not see most of them again. But for any one of them reading this: write me! That's all. Peace.

Here's my blog

Man, I haven't blogged since the days of free open diary.  I guess since they talk about how valuable this medium is all the time in my communications classes, I can consider this professional development.  Anyway, this is for anyone interested in keeping up to date with what I'm doing in Brazil.  I'll probably only maintain this for three months or so, but it will be good for me to post pictures and tell stories.  This is mostly for family, since the Cammack clan seems to be getting into the blogging scene, but I hope to gain a few fans that aren't family....maybe?