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Welcome to the Missão Brasil Recife family!
We were delighted to welcome your missionary to the Brazil Recife Mission today. After their plane landed, we loaded the new missionaries and their luggage onto a bus and visited a historic part of the city named Recife Antigo that was settled by the Portuguese in the 16th century. There we took a group photo and discussed the significance of Marco Zero which marks the point where Recife was born. From this spot, the entire city of Recife and the state of Pernambuco were measured. We discussed with the missionaries that just as Recife began in this very spot, so does their missionary service in the Brazil Recife Mission. We asked the new missionaries to decide what direction they will take in their missionary service and what kind of missionary they will work to become as we compared the beginning of their mission to the simple starting point of such a great city and state. We then went to the mission office where they received training regarding matters of health, safety, finances and daily missionary life and work. We spent some time with each missionary individually to get to know them better and to discuss any personal or medical needs that they might have. When all of this was completed at the office, we went to the mission home for dinner. They are spending the night in Recife and tomorrow morning they will attend the temple and meet their trainers at lunch. After that, they will be on their way to their new areas!
We like to see our new missionaries often so we can discuss in person with them how well they are adjusting to their new surroundings and to mission life. In two weeks, the new missionaries and their trainers will return to the mission office for a day of follow-up training. A week or two after that training, we will see them again at zone conference. At some point during the two weeks following zone conferences, they will have a personal interview. This guarantees that we will see each new missionary at least three times during their first six weeks in the mission. If they are serving in Recife, we will most likely see them more than that.
We have been serving in the Brazil Recife Mission since July 1 so we are adjusting to many of the same things that every new missionary experiences. We love Brazil! The missionaries and members here are wonderful! We have three children who came to Brazil with us - a 17 year old son, a 13 year old son and a 10 year old daughter. We have three other children who live in the United States - a married daughter who lives in Provo, Utah and teaches first grade, a married daughter who lives in Vancouver, Washington and a 20 year old son who returned from serving a mission in the Italy Rome Mission this summer who lives in Provo, Utah and attends school there.
The best place to send letters and packages to your missionary is the mission office. Someone is at the office Monday through Saturday from 8:00am until 6:00pm so the mail is immediately brought into the office. We do our best to get mail to the missionaries as often as possible. However, if they are serving in areas far from Recife, it might be a week or two before someone travels to their area. Since the time that your missionary received their mission call and packet, the mission office has moved. The new mailing address that you should use is:
Elder/Sister __________
Missão Brasil Recife
Rua João Fernandes Vieira, 80
Soledade, Recife - Pernambuco
50050-215
BRAZIL
We have a private Facebook group called Missão Brasil Recife - Presidente e Sister Houseman (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1879988122246250/?ref=group_header). You will need to submit a request to join the group in order to view what is posted. We use this page to post announcements, information and pictures. However, any important information will also be emailed to you.
Your missionary will be provided with enough funds to provide for their needs. There might be times where they will need to pay for expenses such as prescriptions and extra transportation but they will always be reimbursed once they submit their receipt. They should not need additional funds during their mission except for personal purchases such as souvenirs. If your missionary requests that you supplement their monthly mission allotment, please let us know so we can see how we can review their financial situation with them.
You will probably receive requests on social media from members who live in the areas where your missionary will serve. You are more than welcome to accept these requests if you would like but please do not ask the local members for information about and/or photos of your missionary and please do not ask them to deliver messages to your missionary. It makes it hard for missionaries to stay focused when they receive messages through the members. Please share messages and pictures with your missionary in your emails with them. Also, please help them to follow the rules by encouraging them to not pass messages or pictures to you through members on social media. Encourage them to send their messages and pictures to you in their weekly emails each Monday.
If you share your missionary's emails and photos with others, please be sensitive with the information you receive from them. Before forwarding or posting emails, please make sure that no information in the email or comments about photos, etc. would be upsetting for the local members or the people mentioned in the emails if they were to read it themselves. You would be surprised at how easy it is for an email to be forwarded a few times or how fast an online post can go viral. Also, please do the same when posting photos that your missionary sends to you.
You are always welcome to contact us with any questions or concerns that you might have by email, phone, iMessage (using our phone numbers) or Facebook messenger:
We are grateful for your efforts to prepare your missionary. We are excited for the opportunity to serve as missionaries with them. We love them already and we know that love will continue to grow!
With love,
President and Sister Houseman
Missão Brasil Recife
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