It finally happened, I missed a week. But I'm proud I made it 7 months in the field without missing. Anyways, I'll catch you up with last week, and then in another email later, tell you about this week.
Tuesday Jan 26th:
We went off to service at a place called Bread of Life. While we were there, a big snow storm came and traffic built up a ton. That made us super late getting home, but the one positive side is the ability to chuck frozen ice at each others' faces. We would roll down the windows and scrap snow off the car and chuck it at each other, haha. And once we got there, I threw one at Elder Slade; it hit him and slid into his pocket. Then he picked it up and threw it back at me, lol. Another exciting thing, an older guy I was teaching who wasn't doing well and was feeling suicidal off and on then stopped responding, just posted on his story for the first time in months, meaning that he's made it after all! I had been so worried.
Wednesday:
We had my final zone conference in the mission! It was really good, and I had the chance to give my departing testimony with three other sisters. The others were leaving, and I was just getting reassigned, but it was still fun. We practiced rapping the whole ride home, then did a facebook live where we played a game. Elder Meshke chose a topic and then a book of scripture while Elder Slade and I had a race to find a scripture that talks about it. We called it "Bichos and Biscoitos" just 'cause we were eating Oreos while we played. Elder Meshke isn't too familiar with the Bible, so beforehand, I spent 15 minutes explaining that the Old Testament never directly references certain topics, like baptism, and that if he gets a topic like that, use ANYTHING but the Old Testament. But he really wasn't getting it, so I went and wrote on the flash cards OT, if they would be found in the Old Testament. Anyways, we start the game and are a couple rounds in when he pulls out the card baptism, and I kid you not he looks at me, nods, and says "In the Old Testament!" Kkk. So we cut it there and redid that round, but it made for a funny story, haha, and we teased him a bit for it.
Thursday:
When I do my weekly plans, I do this thing where you look at each person your teaching and write down your vision for that person, then your goals for what that person will do, and your plans to make that happen. Today, Elder Slade showed me the way he implements it, and not only is it super organized but also really effective. I'm excited to bring his way to my new areas. After that we had a member lesson with a guy named Ellwood. He's a really cool guy, and told us his conversion story and about his DJ career. His Book of Mormon has been signed by hundreds of missionaries which is crazy. He accidentally ratted 2 of them out though by telling us a couple missionaries went to his house the other day to see his DJ equipment, which is kinda not allowed during the quarantine. After the day was over we did a video call with our district, and we all played never have I ever.
Friday:
My last District Council! It was a fun one. I got everyone to sign my transfer journal which was cool. The office elders called me to let me know that my Covid test had accidentally been shipped to the office, so we decided to meet them half way to pick it up. Naturally, we were waiting for them for an extra hour or so, and it would have been faster to just drive to Boston to get it. When we got back, some of the sisters had gotten me a pizza as a going away present which I thought was sweet. We ended the day by going on exchanges, where Elder Meshke and I went with Elder Moody.
Saturday:
We had a ton of English classes today. You really only need one person for English class, but normally I would still participate. Except there's no point introducing myself for one class, so while the other Elders did it, I read from my Portuguese Grammar book. I really wish I had been reading it the entire time I've been here. I already know most everything just from talking, but I would have learned a lot faster, haha. It helps a lot of things make sense. We were making cookies tomorrow, so we ran to the store across the street to get flour. Then we realized we didn't have butter when we got home, haha. Luckily the zone leaders did.
Sunday:
We went to my final Sacrament meeting here. It feels like everything I'm doing these days is the last time, haha. They asked one of us to give a talk, and we convinced Elder Meshke into doing it. He wanted me to, but I kept saying I had already given one in this ward. When we got home, I made the cookies, and we delivered them with some copies of The Book of Mormon, one of whom was to Nancy. She stopped responding to our messages, so in a last ditch effort I wrote my testimony and a message to her in the book, and Elder Meshke highlighted some passages, and we dropped it off at her house. When we got home, we couldn't find my phone anywhere. Which is especially a problem, because I have the sim card. We looked everywhere with no luck. My hotspot was turned on, but the other elders couldn't connect to it, which made us think we had dropped it when delivering stuff. Even worse, I remembered seeing a crazy guy by our car, and the last time I saw my phone was when it was on the dash next to him. And the other elders who were calling me said that someone was active on facebook on my account. After about 30 minutes we got the elders upstairs involved so they could be calling my phone while we drove around. As soon as we left though, we noticed that the car said calling. So I said, wait a minute, turn audio onto bluetooth. And my music started playing. Turns out it slid into the backseat, and my case was black, so it blended in. It was on mute, so it didn't ring, and after everyone disconnected, the hotspot automatically turned off. Guess what, the day's not over. After that, I had my first real Bible Bash. I don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty proud of my knowledge of the Old Testament. It helps that I've actually read it all the way through, haha. So when this lady opens up about how temples are of the devil, I knew how to respond. But I decided her learning would be better than the satisfaction I would get by roasting her. So instead of that I just worked with her as well as I could. I can't lie, by the end of the lesson I had corrected her once or twice, but I was proud of myself for holding back. Her statements included but were not limited to: Moses was the devil; the law of Moses came from the devil; God and Heavenly Father are two people; there's no such thing as the holy spirit; Jesus and Messiah are two different people; almost all the scriptures are inspired by the devil other than Isaiah and much much more. Afterwards Elder Slade was shook, and said it was the best modern example of apostasy he had seen in his mission. She was misquoting and making up scriptures as back-up; kept telling us we were going to hell if we believed that the law of Moses came from God; and kept taking things out of context. At one point, I just told the entire history of the Jews from the coming of Moses to a testimony of the fulfillment of the law by Christ. Crazy night!
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