Staying in Lago Azul...Maybe

 

So, this week was a tough one, my knee has been getting worse again and I got a little sick. The sickness is getting better thanks to some good tea and passion fruit juice. Things are getting better with my knee too. I went to the doctor, and he helped me a little and I'm supposed to talk to some more people this week to figure out what I can do. 

 KNEE

So, things with my knee have gotten a little worse and it made things a little harder with the work and stuff. I got to the point where we had to go to the doctor again to see what I can do to help it and they gave me some stuff but it's not going super good it's helping a little, so I guess with time we'll see. But after talking with family and other missionaries I figured that it should get better eventually and as long as I don't puss it too hard it should heal with time. I do know that whatever happens that the lord has a plan, so it'll be good. 

 TRANSFERS

So, I'm staying in Lago Azul for now, but I might get moved because of how the area is with my knee so I guess we'll see. We might just try to move houses and that would help a lot. I would be a little sad if I left just because of how much progress we've been making but also, I cannot handle walking 4 hours a day on my knee so well find out soon. 

 ZONE CHURRASCO 

We had a BBQ in our zone this week too. It was great I forgot to take pictures but after they played football and basketball, and we got milkshakes. Very good. 

 That's pretty much all I can think of this week. I’ll try and do better with remembering and writing interesting stuff down but for now here are the pics.

 Love you all, have a great week and have a great Thanksgiving!

 

-Elder Amata

Mission Tour

 

So, this week we had a mission tour which is different from what I thought it would be. We went to the temple and an old lady let me name her cat. 

 MISSION TOUR

We had a general authority come to our mission to give us some words of wisdom and advice on how we can utilize our time better and focus on the people who are needing help. We are using a lot more of the book of Mormon to teach people too and focusing on how people can feel the spirit and know that this is the church of God through the book of Mormon. It explains more about this in Moroni 10:3-5 go give it a read. 

 TEMPLE

Having the opportunity to go to the temple was amazing. It is absolutely beautiful in there you can really tell that it is a house of God. I want to invite everyone who receives this email to go to the temple. Just search Temple of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints and one should come up. 

 TITO

We have a new member, and her name is Adriana, and she is probably 60ish years old, and we go to her house every week to read the book of Mormon with her and do a little study session. She told us that her cat just had kittens and we could name one, so the little cat’s name is Tito which apparently means power? I don't think it actually does but she said it does so we're going with it. 

 Love you guys have a great week and do something nice for someone else this week. 

-Elder Amata

 

Google photos 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mdFN5cxsLANs1HkQ9

Mudancas

 

This week was great we had a ton of rain but it's also super hot. We had stake conference, and our mission president came and talked, and we are passing our P-Day over here with a ton of other missionaries. 

 PRESIDENT SANTOS

I love this man he is amazing. He talked during stake conference and after he got all of the missionaries in our zone and gave us some words of wisdom to help us in our work. He is always talking about duck too and makes the quack sound a lot. 

 RAIN

It has been very rainy almost every day. Working in the rain is way better because it cools us of, the only bad part is when we have lessons or when we get home and are just super wet. But I'd much rather work in the rain then the hot sun. 

 ACCIDENTS 

So, we saw 2 crazy things happen this week I won't go too much in detail, but we saw 2 ambulances and we saw the actual accident that happened, so it was a little frightening. But we're all good nothing too bad.

 MUDANÇAS 

We learned a lot this week and have a lot we are going to move so I'll let you guys know how it goes. 

 Photos 

So, I'll add the photos from the week but I'm just going to put the link for Google photos in all my email now.

 

Mini MTC

 

Not a lot happened this week that I can think of, training is going pretty decent, his Portuguese is getting a lot better, but we've been a little behind on the work. But this week we're going to go get it done. 

MINI MTC

This week we had a stake mini mtc which is like a mini missionary preparation class, so it was very fun. We had about 35 kids there all from 16-18 from 6 different areas. We did some practices and let them teach some lessons. They seemed to have a good time, so I think it went well. 

 TRAINING UPDATE 

Training is going well were both learning a lot we, we are going to try and speak in Portuguese more so hopefully he can learn more. He's been doing better with talking to more people and being able to answer some questions they have. 

 That's it for this week we had a big p day with 8 people doing soccer and volleyball, so we played for a long time. I'll send a better email next week, love you guys. 

 PHOTOS 

I Forgot to take photos this week and my companion is having troubles with his phone so he can't send them to me.

  -Elder Amata 

Storms of Brazil

 

This week we had some crazy stuff happen. We had the craziest storm I've ever seen, had a bunch of stomach problems, and stuff with our house go off. But it was still a good week, and we had a great time, my companion Elder Andrus has 3 weeks in the field and already has some of the craziest stories. 

 STORM

So, this storm we had was absolutely crazy, the day started off with super sunny and hot I got a good burn. But in that same day it started to rain, and we love Rain, so we were hoping for more and we definitely got it, it started hailing then had super strong winds and tons of lightning super close. We had to run home in the middle of the worse part, we got to our area and all the roads were flooded and we had water up to our calf. It was so fun though we were living our best lives. 

 SICK 

So, we got a pretty bad stomach bug and we're out of commission for a day or 2 then just had a little bit of suffering but we got some really good food given to us to help and also some açaí that always helps. We also made some homemade doughnuts. Having the power and water go out made it a little worse when trying to get better. 

 I can't really remember anything else but there's a lot going on that I'll fill you guys in better next week.

-Elder Amata

 PHOTOS

So, we've been doing a lot more videos that don't load so I'll make a Google photos for everyone. 

Forgot to Send This Last Week

 Ok so first this email didn't send because last week we were having lost of trouble with the Internet I did not miss it. 

 This week I've had a lot more to do. With training my companion, he is already talking really well but he doesn't understand everything so it's been a lot more dependent on what I can understand. It's been a little more challenging, but it's been a great growing opportunity my Portuguese is sky rocketing. 

  PUTTING IN THE WORK

So, this week we've been absolutely working our butts off. We have been having to go around and confirm all the addresses of the people we have on our map because everyone was wrong, so we were running around doing that. Then we also found a lot of new people too that are really cool. Unfortunately, none of them could make it to church but they said they wanted to so that's good, we'll find out next week. 

 TRAINING UPDATE

So Elder Andrus has been picking up Portuguese really well and can almost do a contact with people alone now. It's been a little difficult to know what to teach him, but we've been getting it done. I've had to talk a lot and really make sure I focus to not miss anything, so it's been super helpful for me too. 

 Honestly, that's pretty much it not a whole lot to update on just been getting up and getting out to everywhere. Had a cool meeting with the leaders of the church here and told them our plans and what we need help with it went well.

 PHOTOS

Training an American

 This week was crazy we had a lot happen we had transfers so went spent have the week saying goodbyes and the other half meeting new people. I'm trying Elder Andrus from Lehi, Utah and we moved to a new area. 

 NEW AREA, LAGO AZUL 

This new area has a lot of people, and the area is giant. We came into it having no one to teach and are going to have to basically start new. There is lots of hills and we have people in the north then 2 hours down we have people in the south, so we are already walking a lot I hope I don't kill my newbie. I think the weirdest part is that in English it translates to blue lake but there are no lakes here. 

 TRAINING

So, my companion finished the missionary training center Friday, and we started working on Saturday. His Portuguese is pretty good speaking wise but it's hard for him to understand what the people are saying and sometimes he asks me, and I don't even know so these next few weeks will be fun. If any of you have tips or tricks send them my way. 

 HELPING WITH TEMPLE ORDANCES 

On Wednesday we were walking around the temple, and we decided to talk to a lady that was walking around. It turned out to be the temple president’s wife and she said they need people to help with some of the ordinances that happen in the temple, so we were able to help her. The ordinances that happen are to help people who have passed away receive an opportunity to make covenants with God because we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to learn about God and receive his glory and promises. This is one thing I thought about a lot when I was inside and we need to be doing more on both sides, we need to start giving people the opportunity to learn about God right now, but also people who are able to and have the ability to do temple work need to be helping. We have people who have died and are waiting to receive these ordinances. (If this doesn't make since reach out to me or the missionaries and we can explain more about what we believe) 

 That's pretty much it a lot happen but we're running out of time, so I'll see you guys next. 

 -Elder Amata