Lights of Others

 This week was great. We stayed very busy and went by a lot faster than the past few weeks. We had a service project, game nights, and 2 baptisms.

 

BAPTISMS

The baptisms this week were of 2 brothers, Rhysllon (10) and Raylanderson (11). We had been teaching their mom for about a month or so and then this Monday we asked the 2 kids if they wanted to be baptized after we had a lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right after we asked them, they responded instantly saying Quero which translates to I want, and we were like ok let's do this then. It has been a little difficult to take them to the church and all the activities because it is a 30-minute walk, but they were there at all of them, Family night, game night and church and they love it. After the baptisms we were walking them home and they said that it was really cool, and they wished all of their family could feel the same. It was a great feeling, and I can tell that they have a special light in them.

 

"SERVICE"

I'm not too sure if I would call this service because it was so fun. We were able to break a wall. Yes, just us mallets and a big wall and it was great and very much needed, there's nothing like being able to shatter a wall with a big mallet. The only bad part was the cleanup. We spent 3/4 of the time just cleaning up and taking buckets of broken bricks to the dumpster. I'm not really sure if what we actually did makes sense, but I'll add photos, so it makes sense. 

 

FINDING

This week our finding was great. We found lots of people who were very receptive to our messages. We have a couple we found at the park who after our lesson were asking questions about why we were serving missions and we talked to her for like 20 minutes about what missionary work is. Then we have a 19-year-old who has tons of questions about the gospel and thought what we were teaching him was a little strange but after we answered some of his questions, he felt a lot better and even asked when we were available to come back.

 

FLOWERS

We were doing a lesson at a park one night and we were teaching an older lady who and they came up to us and gave her a flower and me a flower and said God bless and that's all then they went off and continued with their night. After this happened the lady was so happy and you could see her mood change.

Getting to know the Mission President

 

This week was great. I had the opportunity to meet the new mission president a lot. We also returned to Unai with my new companion. Not a whole lot happened, and I don't have a ton of time so sorry if I don't respond.

 

BREAKFAST LUNCH AND DINNER WITH PRESIDENT

Sunday night me and 2 other missionaries had dinner with the mission president and his wife, and they are awesome. He is very funny and loving but also wants us to work hard. His wife made the best lasagna I have ever had. Then we slept there and had sandwiches and juice for breakfast. During lunch he told me to come with him too. I'm not too sure why he wanted me to go with him, but I did, and we had rice beans and beef and it was great. 

 

RETURNING TO UNAI WITH ELDER LIMA

After we returned this week, we did a lot of finding and are trying to do lessons but were having a little bit of a struggle. Elder Lima is great with teaching people and knows a lot about the gospel and the doctrine. My Portuguese is getting a lot better because he hardly knows hardly any English. I started having dreams in Portuguese too so it's very cool.

 

Festa Julina 

I'm not too sure how to explain what this was. There's not a whole lot I could compare it to from the United States but, it was very fun. They had a bunch of food, lots of games, singing and dancing. 

 

PHOTOS

Don't have a lot this week I was waiting on people to send me them, but they didn’t!

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