Busiest Week Ever

 This will be a little longer then the normal emails but a lot happend. 

This week we did so much we spent about 14 hours of this week on 5 different busses. Received transfers, had a farewell for Elder Haris who Flys home today, had a baptism, went to a giant waterfall, had divisions with the other elders and did district councle in person. It was very fun but very tiring. 

TRANSFERS

So transfers happen every 6 weeks where you have a chance to move areas or switch companions. But i will be staying in unai and will be companions with Elder Lima he is from Brazil and has 2 more weeks then me so it will be fun. I don't think he knows English but I guess well see he gets here tomorrow because he was all the way at the top of our mission boundaries and has a 20 hour bus ride. I am very excited to be with a Brazilian and to use Portuguese a lot more. 

TCHAU ELDER HARRIS

This morning I said goodbye to Elder Haris and saw him off at the airport. He was a great missionary and everyone I talked to always had great things to say about him he always knew how to help people with what they needed most and everyone adored him. He has a 20ish hour travel home so it will be great. 

ANA GABRIELLA 

Ana Gabriella is the newest member of our church she was baptized Saturday and she is awesome. She know lots of english and is very intelligent and all of the members love her so she was very excited to be baptized. The water was very cold but other than that it was great. 

SPAGHETTI 

For ana Gabriellas baptism the members wanted me to make Spaghetti and I agreed before I knew that it would be for everyone there so I made a ton. It was the biggest pot of Spaghetti I had ever seen. But it turned out very good and now they want me to cook for a festival they're having next week. I'm not sure how to feel I'm glad they liked it but i would  rather just cook for 3 or 4 people not 25-30. 

PDAY IN FORMOZA

It is crazy to thing that all of this happened in the past week it seems like so long ago. But we went to formosa for our P-day (preparation day) and went to a giant waterfall it was so cool but we were all soaked. Then we also had dinner with some of the member that elder Harris knew there they were all super cool and the food was great. One of them asked me if I was a Brazilian because I asked Elder Harris a question in portuguese and not English she was confused. 

DISTRICT COUNCLE 

Usually we just do district council over zoom because we are so far but since it was our last one for this transfer we all meet in person and it was way better. It was a lot easier to tell that my Portuguese is getting better because I could understand probably 90% of what everyone was saying so it was very relieving. At the end we did a mini "testimony" thing where everyone in the district shared what they learned in the transfer and a miracle that happened and it was amazing to see all the things going on in our district (3 pairs of Elder and 2 pairs of sister across difrent areas)

PHOTOS

We also found monkeys and cookies better than anything I've had before. 

Scones and Visits

 

This week was great we did lots of finding and are helping prepare some people for baptisms this Saturday so lots of work. 

 

COOKIES AMERICANO AND SCONES

So even though their called cookies americano it's really just chocolate chip cookies but chocolate chips are very hard to find here and are not cheap, so we used other chocolate and they turned out great. We made then for family night and had to wait on one of the members to bring the eggs and sugar, so we started a little late and there were some people who were very hungry to say the least. But then when they finished, they didn't look the best, but they were filled with love so that’s all that matter 

I also made blueberry scones with a lemon glaze (they don't have blueberry’s here, so I used strawberries). So technically they were strawberry scones and I just made them for Elder Haris and 2 other people because some plans fell through. But they turned out amazing and I was very happy I think I'll be able to make them for all the members one of these Sundays. 

 

FINDING

This week we did a lot of finding because we have been traveling a lot and are actually back out 4 hours away from our area again until Wednesday, so we wanted to find people to teach for when we get back. There were 3 days in a row where we spent 3-4 hours straight only doing new contacts and lessons. It went decently there was a lot of people who would answer or answer and tell us to come back other day then not be home the next day. But we found 5 people who were very interested, and we had really good lessons with them. 

Not a whole lot this week but lots of work being done. :)

PHOTOS 

Cursed baby, abandoned apartments, scones, free cotton candy, cookies. 

Exploring Brasilia

 

This week was great. We went to Brasilia and were there from Sunday to Wednesday, so we were very busy with lots of fun stuff throughout the week. We almost met the first lady of Brazil. Also last week my email was disabled for some reason so that's why my emails went out on Tuesday so if you sent me anything from the 17th to the 20th, I didn't get it.

 

EXPLORING BRASÍLIA

So on pday Elder Harris had his exit interview with our mission president and we were in the mission office waiting from 2-about 6 so our p-day was cut short so Tuesday we didn't have anything and had to wait until 5:30 for the last dinner with all the missionaries going home(which I unfortunately didn't end up getting into) But while we waited we explored all the cool things in Brasilia. We went to the giant cathedral, an art museum, the T.V tower which is a big tower you can go half way up and see the city, The national library(I found a really cool book about architecture and gastronomy), The mall and got pizza hut and the planetarium where we almost met the first lady of Brazil. So we were getting a tour and half way through the guy giving us the tour said that they were expecting the first lady of Brazil so we tried waiting but we think she was coming at 6 because by the time we got out and were leaving we saw a bunch of security guys checking on everything, it made us a little nervous but was actually really cool.

 

BACK TO SCHOOL AGAIN

We got back Wednesday afternoon and went to a school where they had an English class and they all spoke so well it was students from the age of 16-20. They were all super cool too. They asked us about what missionary work is like and what the United States is like too. Then Friday and Saturday a different school had a nation's fair where groups of students presented about different countries and all in English and these kids were a lot younger probably from 12-15. They were all super excited that we were actually from North America and very surprised we spoke Portuguese. One of the kids asked his friend if we could understand them and I responded to her, and she was shocked.

 

THE LANGUAGE

I don't remember the last time I gave a language update, but it is going great. There is a lot I still need to learn but I can pretty much understand everything that is going on like the general idea of things and just have to ask about the details. I can also sort of hold conversations we were talking to three kids we met who didn't think we could speak Portuguese, so we stopped and talked to them, and they said that mine was really good for only being in Brazil for 2 months. I was very proud of myself. It was the first compliment I got from someone who wasn't a member.

                                                    

Learning from the Best.

 

Bom dia todos!

This week I received a lot of advice and also many recipes. We had zone conference and there were lots of missionaries ending their missions along with our mission president.

 

ZONE CONFERANCE 

This zone conference I feel was a little more special than most (Although I have only had 2 so who knows) In the zones that were there we had I think 7 or 8 missionaries finishing their missions and they all spoke about what they learned, the experiences they had and advice they had for others. It was very in sight

full and then the mission president and his wife did the same exact thing and it was amazing. Our mission president talked about staying strong with our works even if we feel discouraged and what we can do to be the best missionaries.

 

RECIPES

This week was amazing in the recipe world. I was able to learn to make pão de queijo homemade from a grandma and it was amazing, it took a long time and you could tell which ones I made and which ones she made but it was still great. Then yesterday we were having lunch with a member and she is also a grandma who likes to paint cook, and has some very cool plants. And she gave me 3 cookbooks to study and copy the recipes. 2 of them are family recipes that she handwrote and the other one is a foods of Minas Gerais cookbook so I am very excited to copy them all down in my cookbook and have them for when I get home and miss the food here. 

 

BACK IN BRASÍLIA 

So also, this week we're back in Brasília from Sunday to Wednesday. One of Elder Harris’s friends wanted him to baptize him so we made a trip 4 hours away and are now staying with the elders in the area. Then Tuesday he has his last dinner with President so I'm going to try and sneak in to that with him and after that we'll go home Wednesday morning so it should be an interesting few days. 

 

PHOTOS

Birthday party

Zone Conference 

Family night cup pong

Sunrise and sunset

We tried preaching to a Cow but it was already cowtholic 

Yummy food 

Cooking and Sign Language

 Hello everybody this week was great. We cooked a lot and we had lots of great food so if you have any recipes I would love them.

COOKING EVERYTHING 

This week I did a lot of cooking and I love it. I now have my own knife, pan, and a bunch of seasonings. We made spaghetti, my special soup that has potato sausage bacon and all the other yummy stuff, cinnamon banana pancakes with reese's peanut butter that Elder Bangerter left, grilled cheese and tomato soup, AND Elder Harris had taco seasoning which I can not find anywhere so I was very happy and we made quesadillas. When we made the soup we had to triple the recipe because we made it for the ward family night and everyone seemed to love it so I was very happy because sometimes I get a tiny bit stressed that people won´t like it but it all worked out:). I also think that some of the people were surprised that it was good. I don't think they believed me when I said I knew how to cook.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

So we had a very interesting experience where I was reminded that everything happens for a reason even if we can't see it at the moment. Friday we had a lot of people cancel or not be home when we would go to visit or say they were busy when we got there so we decided that we would go a different route and try visiting someone that we met once a while ago and had not seen since because he lives far away. But we went up over a hill across town to go visit him but on the way we stopped to get water and if you know me I have to look at anything that looks interesting and i found a notebook and some drinks and a little snack and it was great I didn't think anything about it. Then we kept going and got to his house and we saw someone there and we went to talk to her but she was deft and only did sign language to us so we decided to look for him across the street BUT THEN i remembered when i was looking to see if i wanted to buy the notebook it had the alphabet in sign language in the back so we figured out how to spell her sons name and she understood! she then signed that he was at the store getting groceries so we decided that we would write down a lesson and try and communicate that way for when we return but it was just a miracle that the book had sign language and was able to help us, I didn't think anything of it when i saw it at the store but it was a blessing that it had it and it was a perfect reminder that everything happens for a reason.

That's mainly all that happened. We did a lot of exploring and found some cool spots to take pictures:). But yeah I love you all and hope everyone is doing amazing. And again if you have any recipes and could send them to me it would be greatly appreciated.

Com amor

-Elder Amata

PICTURES

The food we made

I found and broke open a coconut

We got a really good pizza half was dinner and half was dessert

Cool spots we found 

We found an I <3 Unai sign 

Pictures I forgot to add from last week

                 

Why is Elder Amata Here?

 

Bom dia, this week was full of exciting things and so much happened this week it was very busy and full of surprises.

 

BAPTISM

This week we had 2 baptisms, Karine and her son Pedro and they have a funny story. So, we had been teaching them for 6-7 weeks, so longer than I've actually been here and they knew the church is true and had been going to church every week and all the activities and were friends with the members, but they didn't think they were ready, and Karine wanted a sign. She decided to have the interview and was ready to go when she wanted but even after the interview and the zone leaders telling her she was good to go she still wanted a sign that she was ready and later that day we got a message from her and it was a picture of a rainbow and she shortly said after that that she was ready and the rainbow was the sign. So later that day we had the baptism, and it was great both her and her son are super smart and are down to earth good people, so we were very happy for them.

 

TRANSFERS

This week we had transfers, and it was just all crazy. Sadly, Elder Paz and Elder Bangerter left me in unai, which was not expected. We thought that one of them would stay but I guess that wasn't in the plan. It all ended up working out though my new companion is awesome. His name is Elder Haris, and he will end his mission this transfer so it is cool that he has a lot of experience. It has only been 2 days of us being in unai, but it has been fun and also very difficult because although he is training me, I have to explain the area and the people to him so it's like we are training each other in different ways. For the actual transfer part, it was very fun to see everyone there were a bunch of missionaries at the bus station and we had time to catch up and see how everyone was doing while we waited. 

 

HANGING OUT WITH PRESIDENT 

This week I also had the opportunity to have lunch with the mission president and all the new missionaries that came in this transfer, and it was a little strange but also amazing. It was a little strange because I went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries and it was me an elder in an area that no one knows about and all the secretaries and assistants so they were very confused of who I was and most of them were from Brazil and I didn’t know how to explain the situation in Portuguese but after a lot of portu-english I was able to explain the general concept of why I was there. It was funny because the president wanted a picture with all the assistants and secretaries, and he also wanted me in the picture and I'm sure if he posted it everyone would be very confused as to who I am. After that I was the lucky one who got to ride with the mission president in his car while we went to some places around Brasilia and the mission house. It was a very cool and unique experience. It was about 30-40 minutes in total between just me and the mission president, so I was able to learn a lot about him and his experience as a missionary almost 40 years ago and being a mission president, so I learned a lot. Then we had lunch at the mission house, and I was able to get to know the new missionaries with the little Portuguese that i know. 

 

STUCK IN BRASILIA

So yeah, we were supposed to be back in unai Thursday night but that did not happen we ended up getting back Saturday afternoon. Thursday while we were at the bus station the president told me that I would have lunch with him on Friday then go home after, so we thought ok well stay one more day than go home and it was cool we got dinner with the secretaries and some of the other missionaries staying. Then the next day after lunch with the president we got to the mission office, and they told us that all the buses had already left or were full SOOO we had to stay another night. It was fun. We went to the store and had to cross the freeway while running with macarons. So, despite the waiting and being stuck it was really fun. I got to talk with all the assistants and secretaries who all have lots of knowledge and are great missionaries.

 

OTHER STUFF

It also was kind of cool because the night before we left unai for transfers everyone was sad to see the elders’ level and it rained for the first time in a month, and I don't think it will rain for a while longer, so it was like a movie. 

It was also very weird to be with the new missionaries and important people because I was the only one not in a suit because I didn't know it would be happening until I was already in Brasilia. 

PHOTOS :)

Baptism 

Cooking 

New kitchen knife 

We found macarons.