Divison with Elder Goodsell and Elder Johnson

This week, as you may have guessed from the title, I went on an exchange with Elders Goodsell and Johnson. (Division and exchange are the same thing. When I write division, just pretend I said exchange.) But it was great. They are the two best looking elders in the mission. That typical stereotype of a tall, blond, blue-eyed, square-jawed American that Brazilians go crazy for. So, it’s kind of a joke in the mission that street contacting is always a lot easier for them because everyone wants to say hi. And while I can attest that that is true, it also has a lot to do with the fact that Elder Goodsell talks to everyone he passes. Including people in cars, chases down people, doesn't let them walk away, ha-ha. He's really good at that. I have a hard time starting the conversation, but once I'm there I'm a pretty strong contacter. So together we were able to make some really good contacts. We would have less contacts, but each one would be really solid. Elder Johnson is really awesome. He's super funny and has a super big desire to improve his Portuguese and his standards as a missionary. I think that's a thing I've seen from many of the American greenie's I’ve been with my mission; they are always asking, "But what can I improve." I don't know if it’s a culture thing or not, but it was an observation I made. But the division was really good. The mission is focusing on something called ROTA right now: Retidão, Obediência, Trabalho, e Aperfeiçoamento de ensino através o Livro De Mórmon. aka worthiness, obedience, work ethic, and teaching skills especially with the Book of Mormon. They were both really worthy, obedient elders, with a strong work ethic. The only area they really had to improve was on using the Book of Mormon, so we focused on that. I feel like it was a pretty valuable exchange for that reason. But we definitely could have used time better ha-ha. A lot of lessons fell through, and we ended up losing a lot of time just talking and laughing. 

We also had a leadership council. It was funny, because the leadership council is only zone leaders and the assistants, and I was district leader for almost a year, so I never went. Then the second I turned assistant they decided to invite all the district leaders. So, we were joking with the other elders about how it’s not even special anymore, ha-ha. But it was awesome. We talked a lot about obedience and the little details of the mission, not making excuses, more effective following up; the mission is definitely headed in the right direction. I do need to learn to talk less though in these meetings. I just love burning missionaries ha-ha. But the elder that talked the most also happened to be an elder who is really disobedient but covers it up really well. Elder Lima did a division with him this week. It’s better that it was him and not me since I was frustrated with him. The fact that he can go home and do whatever he wants, not work, not follow the rules, not care, yet in the meeting talk all about obedience and how important it is and how missionaries need to try harder, etc.  So Elder Lima was the best to help them.

Elder Lima had a harder division. Every single point of ROTA was a problem for the elders he was working with, and one of them is someone who has 20 months in the mission and kind of refuses to change because he thinks he knows everything. It’s hard talking to him about obedience, because he makes a LOT of excuses, "It’s not possible to be perfect, you think your better than me because you wake up earlier, you don't need to be perfectly obedient to teach with the spirit, what can you teach me that I don't already know, I have 20 months in the mission." It was definitely a more stressful week for Elder Lima, but he said that he had a breakthrough, and at the end of the week this elder started to show the desire to improve. It’s hard, because this elder is a Zone Leader and Training. But he is also showing a desire to change. If we leave him as zone leader he may continue on as a bad example, and lead the mission further down in progress, but little by little he'll progress. But this elder also happens to LOVE being in charge. And if he is returned to being a normal missionary, I'm 98% positive that any personal progress he could have had will not happen, because he will be bitter. It is a really hard situation, and I have no idea where to go with it. We need to talk to the president in a bit and advise him on a recommendation. It's a tricky situation, ultimately, president will decide.

Oh, fun fact. My visa needed work 6 months ago, and I've been trying to get the executive secretaries to renew it for at least 9 months. Elder S… kept on saying he was just waiting on the government, and that he did it and was just waiting for an answer. I talked to Elder Gonçalves, the new secretary. Ya, turns out that Elder S never even sent the paperwork. He either forgot or just was lazy, and every time I reminded him, he was just like, "Ya ya I'll get to it." Luckily, Elder Gonçalves is amazing and helping me out now, but it's really annoying. I want to be on good terms with the government, so I can come back to Brazil after my mission.

I Guess I'm Old

I don't remember if I mentioned this in the last mail, but I'm no longer DL; I'm training. I think President was worried I'd be overwhelmed training and a district leader. My new companion is Elder Silva (Another one I know), and he is just the best. He's from Recife, Brazil. I love him so much I can't even put it into words. He's so sweet and happy and not at all arrogant or anything I was worried about, haha. He knows the doctrine well and teaches well, but also listens to and follows advice. He follows my example in terms of obedience and there isn't really too much conflict there. One quick thing, on the off chance that there's a future missionary reading this. BE OBEDIENT! The only real scuffle we've gotten in this week was today on P-day. I was reminding him to wear a white shirt and a tie unless we are going to go do something where we'll sweat, and he's like "Oh I believe you that it's a rule, but here in Brazil the missionaries don't do that one." This is a really small example, but it's something that carries over into a lot of other stuff. Maybe in Brazil the members grow up watching missionaries not care about the rules and do whatever they want, and then when they make it to their mission, it's a lot easier to fall in those habits. Someone is always watching you. That is the lesson I am most grateful to Dad for teaching me when I was younger. Ok are you ready? Are you sure? Really? Ok, let's do this. 

Tuesday: 

So first off, transfers!!!! That's right, I get to see real life missionaries! I got to see Elder Lima real quick. (The one that was companions with the Elder Silva after me.) There are 4 missionaries in our mission training right now. 2 Sisters and 2 Elders, and I'm the oldest. That's right; I guess I'm old now. The new missionaries kind of just chilled for a while. Elder Morrison went to the bathroom, and I never saw him again, haha. We just joked around trading tongue twisters in Portuguese and English. Looking back now, there's really not much to talk about, but it was soooo nice just being able to sit back, relax and talk to other people face to face. Not thinking, "Oh, when's my next appointment? or How long should this phone call be? or When should we call it and hang up? We were waiting for at least an hour, probably closer to 2, and then the office Elder decided to go out and get ice cream for the new missionary dinner, so he took me with him. After all that time waiting, as soon as we left, the assistants called us and were like, "Elder Bassett, where are you??? We are ready to introduce the greenies, and we are just waiting for you." Haha. So I gave myself the shin splints speed walking back, haha. This is where we all met our new companions, then had a little lunch together. Apparently, we have KFC here??? I gotta be honest, it wasn't very good. But I was starving, so I pounded down two sandwiches. The ice cream, on the other hand, was amazing. It was the Blue Bell of Brazil. Sooo good. When we got home, pretty much all of our lessons fell through, and Elder Silva was really disappointed. I didn't want to crush his dreams by pointing out he should get ready for a lot of that. Things were pretty awkward. The mission has changed me; I don't need to talk anymore. I'm more than happy sitting in silence for an entire day if I really have to. But because he was there, I was hyper aware, haha. "How is he feeling? Is he happy? Is he disappointed?" I found myself wishing we lived in a four elder apartment, so he could have a more entertaining first day. But that's ok, because our last lesson of the day went through. It was with a member I've been helping to reactivate, and she is the HAPPIEST person I've met in my life. I can't even put it into words. The second we called she was yelled, "HIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!" and started talking our ears off. It was great. We barely got a word in, but it was a warm welcome for Elder Silva's first lesson. 

Wednesday: 

To start off, I ripped my best long sleeve white shirt. This is my second time doing this! I was just stretching during a trainer training and the back ripped. Oh well, at least now I know which shirt to burn when I hit a year. Ok now get ready for the first, but not the last time I talk about my personal study this week. It was bomb. I was reading in 2 Nephi 25, and it was just amazing. Basically, this is the perfect chapter to answer challenges somebody makes about the Book of Mormon verses the Bible. Nephi kinda just goes through and sums up the purpose of the scriptures, and it's really good. Our personal study got interrupted by a lady who I thought was a member of one of our wards, because she called me Elder. But then she started talking all about a present she had for me, and I still thought it was a member until she said that the present was that my first month of online English classes would be FREE. You know I can't resist a bargain, but with all this missionary work, I really just couldn't see myself having the time. SO I said thank you very much, but I'm actually from the US, and English is my mother language. I hate rejecting gifts. Anyways, today I taught Elder Silva how to call referrals which was exciting (for a missionary at least). He even set up his first lesson. When she said she was interested, he said, "Great! Tonight at 6." And she accepted. After he hung up, I asked him if he checked our schedule first to make sure we don't already have a lesson at 6, and he froze for a second. Good learning moment. ALWAYS CHECK THE SCHEDULE! One cool thing is that he's really excited for me to teach him English. We will see if that lasts though, because so was the other Elder Silva in the beginning. His first lesson with an investigator ended up being the one that he set earlier. Her name was Maria, and we read Jeremiah 1 and talked about how God would support us when we are doing His will, and we introduced the concept of the premortal life. It went pretty good, but I wish his first lesson would have been with someone more enthusiastic about talking to missionaries. But that's ok, because afterwards we had a lesson with my favorite person we are teaching, Ana. She is soooooo sweet, and the lessons with her are really spiritual. She is working on preparing for baptism right now, but it's definitely a challenge, because she needs to reschedule 66% of the time. We plan on meeting with her every night at 8:30. She confirms every morning but frequently sends a message at 8 canceling. But at least she actually gives us a heads up! 

Thursday: 

Funny thing that happened this morning, Elder Silva kept telling me my scale was wrong, because it said he was 200 kilos, haha. He forgot that Americans use pounds. My studies this morning were really good. I was studying about prayer in 1 Nephi 2. We like to focus on verse 16, and how he prayed with faith and immediately got an answer. But let's look at the answer he got. Was it a voice? A vision? A manifestation? No, the Lord softened his heart so he could believe. Think about that, really think about that. The answer he got to his prayer was so unbelievably imperceptible. It's my belief that he probably didn't even notice at fist, but rather as he was writing this record in retrospect he had the perspective to see how the Lord had responded to him. It wasn't until later in verse 19 that he had a super strong manifestation. And it wasn't at the time he was asking for help for himself, rather he was crying out to the Lord on behalf of his brothers. I'm not gonna comment too much; I just want to put that out there to let anyone reading this to consider it. But I will say this, Nephi prayed fervently, got a small answer, decided to trust in the Lord with a soft heart, and only then did he get the big one. I don't know, I've just been really happy this week. And today especially I noticed it. One of my goals lately has been to spend more time thanking the Lord. You hear that all the time. People say, "Try saying an entire prayer just thanking the Lord." I never even tried, because I have wayyyyy too much I need help on, haha. But I kinda realized there's no cap on how many prayers you're allowed to say, haha. So, what I've been doing is just praying, closing my prayer, then praying again and only thanking the Lord. It's made a big difference, and I highly recommend it. This is a really sappy email; sorry, Taylor. We had a lesson with Jeferson today. He's a really good guy, but his comprehension is low which makes it hard to teach him. We repeat ourselves a lot. I think it's the type of thing that would normally annoy me, but I can't explain it; it just made me love him more. Seeing how earnest he was to understand. And more importantly, seeing that he doesn't just say ya and move on; when he has a question, he asks. We were planning on reading the first chapter of Nephi with him, but we ended up just reading the summary at the beginning of the book for 30 minutes straight. At the end, we mentioned something about Joseph Smith, and he had no idea who we were talking about. So I think we need to teach the restoration a 4th time. After we hung up, he sent an audio message like a half an hour later and said, "I did it! I read the entire thing! All of Nephi! After you guys hung up I just Read and Read and Read until the very End!!!" It made me so happy, I love him so much. I didn't want to point out that he read the first chapter not the entire book, though. He's so pure. After that, we had a lesson with Diego, and it went really well. Our first lesson since his baptism. At the very end, I asked him to pray, and he immediately said ya sure and did it. It just struck me how much of a difference that was. We couldn't even get him to pray for the first couple of lessons and now look at him. It's so gratifying to see the differences! After that, I taught Elder Silva how to weekly plan... he wasn't a fan. Oh well, not everyone can be I guess. Something funny about Elder Silva is that he REFUSES anything I make. I offered him some off my curry, and he started gagging at the thought of mixing vegetables and sauce with rice. But at the same time he went through two loaves of bread in three days. For breakfast, he just butters up 6 pieces of soggy bread and thinks it's the most gourmet meal in the world, haha. That and CusCus, a food really popular in Recife he's obsessed with. He says he eats it normally for breakfast lunch and dinner which is astounding to me. It reminds me of what the Pioneers ate on their trek to Utah... Flour and water, haha. Just kidding; it's not that bad, just also not that good. I got kind of annoyed at Elder Silva for the first time today. He was talking to me about how we need to call our interested person list more. I said sure and let's do it, but he kept saying, "When I'm done, we will have called all of them; we need to just go through and call each and every one." It's hard to come across over text, but he was saying it in a way of like, "Now that I'm here, we are going to pull it together." And I don't need to remind you of the days where I spent 3 hours a day every day for a week calling that list. Then he was saying, "Also we need to do lessons with members, family nights, include them in the work. We can't just keep doing stuff without them" And we had at least 8  member lessons planned over the weekend which he had forgotten about, haha. Man I sound really negative here, don't I? I got kinda fed up and ended up saying something along the lines of, "This is only your second day here; that is literally all I have been doing for 6 weeks non stop." Then immediately afterwards felt really bad. The thought popped into my head, "When I'm a husband, is this how I'm gonna treat my wife? and when I'm a father, is this how I'm gonna treat my kids?" and I felt like an idiot. So I gave him a hug, and said I was sorry, and that it was a good idea. Then we went, and we scheduled family nights with all of the wards for Sunday.  

Friday: 

More personal study talk!! 2 Nephi 26:8. Everything points to Christ. Literally everything: every scripture, every prayer, every talk, points to Him. The whole point of the scriptures is to convince us of His healing power. This was a really sad scripture to study. Seeing Nephi lament the destruction of his people. Read verse 10 and imagine that instead of Nephi talking, it's our Heavenly Father.  10 And when these things have passed away a speedy ^adestruction cometh unto my people; for, notwithstanding the pains of my soul, I have seen it; wherefore, I know that it shall come to pass; and they sell themselves for naught; for, for the reward of their pride and their ^bfoolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and ^cchoose works of ^ddarkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to ^ehell.  It is a super sad verse. When I was reading this, the scripture from Jacob popped into my head of the Lord crying and saying, "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" In my head, I could see a beautiful painting of the Hill  Cummorah, with bodies of Nephites and Lamanites all around the top of the hill. On the top of the hill, Heavenly Father crying into the shoulder of Jesus Christ and crying this out. "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" I wish I had the artistic skills to bring this into form, but sadly that's not a gift I've been given. After this experience during Companion study, I received a strong spiritual impression to do the Preach my Gospel study activities for the Chapter about how to recognize the Spirit. I decided starting next week, I'll  start setting my alarm for 5:30 and doing that before I exercise. Let's see how it goes, haha. Our lunch cancelled for the day, so Elder Silva decided he was going to cook something up. Then after a half an hour when he was ready to eat, they called us and told us they ordered food for us. But it was at their work a 30 minute walk away. So an hour later we started eating, only a half an hour after our lunch ended, haha. Can't complain though! Last night a girl sent me a message and flirted it up reeeeeaaaal hard. She was like ohhhh what church I wanna know more! Then after we set a lesson she asked me if I had a girlfriend and if I was seeing anyone. I told her that it wasn't something I was focusing on right now, and this morning when I went to confirm she had blocked us on whatsapp and facebook. I guess she wasn't interested after all, haha. We had a lesson with a lady I really like, but in the middle of it, the call cut out. I was worried that she blocked us, but we were able to call the next day; the reason was just cause the phone died. But I remember being really sad; anyways, she's really hard to mark a time with. After that, we had a lesson with a member. It was my first time talking to someone under 18 about the gospel since Ryan, haha. She's a 14-year-old convert with a 16 year-old-sister, and it was a fun lesson. Especially when I dropped my pen cap, and Elder Silva bent over to get it and the chair toppled over, and he fell, hahah. All four of us laughed sooo hard. It was right as we were able to get them to focus, too, haha. When we finally got home, there was no rest, because I've gotten used to Elder Morrison being super clean. Elder Silva is... less so. I spent all night putting away all the food he left out. Plus sweeping up the spaghetti and mopping up the sauce that he poured into our wire trash can, haha. Elder Silva walked in when I was done wearing normal clothes, and I hated to be the one to break it to him that we had to stay in proselyting clothes until 9:00 (It was only 8). 

Saturday: 

Well, in two days, he ate all of my food. So on Thursday, I went to the store to buy some more bread and stuff. Then this morning when I went to make a sandwich... no bread. In the future, I'll hide it. So with no eggs, no bread, and no milk, my normal fast breakfast options were up, and we had daily planning in 5 so no food for me, haha. One cool thing happened, he grabbed a broom and started sweeping. I got really excited, then watched in shock and confusion as he went outside, and swept all the dirt from the patio... into the house. We're working on it, hahaha. We had a lesson with Jeferson to teach the restoration suuuuper simply, so this time something sticks. I started off simply by saying God is our loving Heavenly Father, and He gives us the Gospel to bless us. Then I looked as Elder Silva, and he launched into the passing of authority down to President Nelson and how today we have a modern living prophet who received revelation from the Lord. But I still love Jeferson. Afterwards, I sent a couple texts and gave probably the simplest restoration I've given in my life. I´ll send it later, and you can post it, mom. After that, I linked the movie about the Restoration and an hour later after our lesson, he sent us a text and let us know that he had watched the entire thing!!! I love him so much. My two favorite people to teach are Jeferson and Ana; what a blessing that we had both today!! Afterwards, I remember just thinking I love Ana, and I love my companion, haha. After that we had a fun family night with the zone. It's always good to be able to see other missionaries and relax. We all just answered some get to know you questions, and it was great. Something I've started doing is reading Taylor's emails from his mission blog while I'm contacting. I sent one part of it to Elder Koford, because I thought it could be a good training for district council. We had a fun conversation afterwards; I'll link the screenshot, haha. There's another funny part where he's talking about how everyone has the flu, and he says, "Everyone's dying. And no one can go to church," You have noooo idea. Gift of prophecy? Final thing of the day. Fabio sent me a tie. A REALLY nice silk one, too. I'm super grateful, but I'm also afraid to put it on, because just the oils from my hands leave grease stains, haha. 

Sunday: 

Something really weird happened today. We called someone for an early morning lesson, and they didn't answer. A wave of anger came over me out of no where. In my head I was like, "How dare she! Why does she think her time is more important than us? How is she so self obsessed that she doesn't care about our time enough to tell us she's not interested, and instead just tells us to call, then declines us. " It was super weird, because I wasn't actually really angry. It was like a cold anger that was injected into my brain. I think it was just frustration, but it was still really weird, and I didn't like it. Just guys, be nice to the missionaries. They have it hard right now. Anyways, personal study got me over that. I was studying 2 Nephi 26:30 and for some reason today the phrase that "if ye have not charity ye have nothing" really stuck out to me. Why do we waste our times setting other goals? Why do we even make new year's resolutions that don't help with this? Why do we work on patience, humility, knowledge when we have yet to master the most base of commandments? Love one another as I have loved you. That's what I need to do. Just a thought. One exciting thing, Sister Saucedo announced that we get to open our emergency kits and eat everything inside. OHHHHHHH BOY. I am gonna gain a ton of weight. I've been losing a ton lately which has been frustrating, but let me tell you this is not gonna be muscle. I FINALLY was able to stop drinking sugary drinks. But now we have like 12 liters of milk, chocolate powder, liters of juice mix, jellos mixes, and on top of all of that as we were doing an inventory of our haul, a member came by and gave us two Liters of coke... Let's do this! Man, I need to write less in my emails. Sorry folks, I just really use these emails as my journal, haha. Anyways, it ended up working out because like I said Elder Silva ate all our bread, but now we had crackers for the sacrament.  After that, we had 5 hours straight of meetings! We had set up family nights with all of our wards. First was Jaguariúna, and only a couple people showed up, but it was a good lesson, and we talked about my favorite story in the Book of Mormon (Anti Nephi Lehies). Specifically looking at the Nephites answer when they asked for help while considering the fact that these two peoples have been in bloody conflict for hundreds of years. Afterwards, we had the Conchal ward, and it was awesome!! It kinda felt like going to church again. We had like 15 people in the call with at least some people's families. At the end, because it was fast Sunday, we invited people to bear their testimonies if they wanted to, and it was soo cool. Too bad that is the one area we don't have any investigators. Next was the Artur Nogheira ward, and only one family showed up which was disappointing, because that's the area where all the people we teach live. But Michelle went, so at the very least she met a member and got to know the Book of Mormon better. The Cosmópolis ward we sent a reminder an hour before, but still only Anderson and one other lady went. That was a bit disappointing, but all in all we were happy with the day. 

Diego's baptism

Crazy week. So let's see how much I remember; probably a lot, so sorry for the long email. (I say this every week) 

Tuesday:

Pretty normal day. We had a surprise devotional; it was long. That's because it wasn't really one devotional, but a string of devotionals from half the mission. It was one of those ones where everyone wants a turn to talk. We were talking about the conference talk of Elder Bednar. After that, we finally broke the no lesson curse! (Or so we thought) We finally got in contact with 3 of our best investigators, Denis, Ana, and Odair. We had lessons with all three, and they were so much fun. Our new strategy for when people aren't progressing is to switch to 15 minute lessons that happen every other day, and read the Book of Mormon with them. So far it's been working really well, especially with Ana.

Wednesday: 

Speaking of random unplanned events, the Zone leaders called us and let us know we would be doing an exchange starting today. This was a good surprise, 'cause it would be my first exchange and everyone says they are SUUUUUPER fun. Plus, I love my Zone Leaders right now. Elder Pompeu is this super energetic, super obedient Brazilian who loves everyone! And Elder Mons is the cousin of a missionary I knew in the MBM. Elder Mons and I hit it off just talking about the mission. We really bonded a lot over working hard in a difficult mission. He said the mission was getting "baptized" which is what happens when really suddenly a mission goes from having a low obedience standard to being super diligent. He was telling me in his old mission the Zone Leaders woke up at 6:00 am every day and stopped working at 10:15 pm, and that in one week they found 42 people... That's double what we found this month! And we are in Brazil! Elder Morrison and I ended up sticking together for our lesson, because the Zone Leaders had another meeting, but we read the Book of Mormon with Ana, then helped Diego prepare for his baptism. While we were in our lesson, the other elders bought us hot dogs. For those of you who don't know, Brazilian Hot Dogs are not my favorite thing in the world, haha. They have a brand of bread that's really soggy, plus they put on mashed potatoes, corn, this crunchy potato stuff called batata-palha. I tried to force it down, but ended up throwing it out the second they weren't looking. 

Thursday: Elder Mons and I opened our day on daily planning at 8:30, and before we knew it, it was 10 o'clock!  CRAZY! We had a day full of lessons planned but every single one fell through, so Elder Mons and I never actually ended up getting to teach together. But hey, at least I got to have the joy of a four elder companionship for a day. We played cards during our lunch hour, went and got subway together, and I finally had a little mental break which was nice, haha. More importantly, I filled out my first Baptismal form on the mission! 

Friday:

So no lunch for today 'cause when we tried to confirm with the member he blocked us haha, but that's fine 'cause I like cooking for myself anyways. After lunch, we had a devotional with Elder Bednar. I have to say, it was one of the highlights of my mission so far. It'd be impossible for me to say everything, but I learned soooo much, especially about how to seek personal revelation and teach by the Spirit. In the beginning, I got a shout out from Sister Bednar. She asked if I was Elder and Sister Bassett's son and talked about when they visited us when we lived in Brazil. They said it was so nice to see me all grown up, haha. Looks like my disguise is up. I have to say, I was kinda in shock when she said my name and asked if I was their son. I wasn't sure if I should unmute and say something or just give a thumbs up. I wasn't aware of what the zoom etiquette would be. But it worked out and I remembered why Elder Bednar is my favorite apostle. Of all the ones I've met, he seems the most real and the easiest to talk to. I love them so much. He encouraged us to never take notes on anything he says, whether in a devotional or general conference. Only to take notes on the words that aren't being said, the things the Spirit tells you. It was the most personal revelation I've ever gotten from a meeting. I had written down two questions from the heart that I wanted an answer to, and even though he never even remotely touched either topic, I had two amazing answers. Normally, I prefer to stay quiet during devotionals, but it's not every day you talk to an apostle, so that was the most engaged I've ever been in a devotional. Plus the new General Authority (Elder and Sister J. Costa) for Brazil was there, and I recognized that they were at our old apartment and sitting in my room, haha. 

When the devotional was over, the Bednar's said goodbye and no one left. We were all wishing it would keep on going. I felt like the Nephites in 3 Nephi 17:5 (I think, read around and see which one) One of the answers I got though referred to our missionary purpose. I wanted to know how to find more joy in the mission, even when things weren't going very well. The answer I got was that if you want to find the joy, you need to find the why. If you just go on your mission to go on your mission, or because it's what everyone does, you are going to hate it. You are leaving your family for two years, sacrificing your life, your hobbies, your interests everything, for no reason. If you go just to go, then you might as well stay home. But if you're here, be here for the right reason. Because you love the Lord, because you want to improve. Don't baptize just to baptize, baptize to bring souls unto Christ and help people find more joy in their life. People aren't numbers. There were a lot of really good tips he gave us on how to teach and speak with power. Sadly, after that every single one of our lessons fell through again. hahah. So no application time. At least, not yet.

Saturday: 

I'm really out here breaking all sorts of records. 3 Days in a row of every lesson falling through. I really can't complain, because there are a ton of missions where you scrape by to get one or two lessons. But the funny thing of the day is that today was supposed to be Diego's baptism. The Bishop asked that we move it, because there was a meeting with Elder Bednar later, and he wanted time to spiritually prepare. Ok no problem, but we forgot to tell the Elders quorum president, and so he went to the chapel and was waiting for everyone to get there. We had a really great zone family night. Everyone bore their testimonies, and it was really spiritual. 

Sunday: 

This day is gonna be the longest, so hang in there, Grandma, almost done. To start off, I'm gonna tell you about my personal study, because it was another home run. I was studying 2 Nephi 25, which is the chapter after he's been quoting Isaiah nonstop for like 12 chapters. And as he was talking about the plainness in Isaiah's words, it clicked to me what it teaches. I've been studying looking to understand prophecies and words. But Isaiah shows something much more importante. It teaches us about the nature of God. It just hammers in nonstop the law of Justice in connection with the Law of Mercy. It shows the personality and desires of God in a pure, raw and unrefined way all in one. I can't put everything into words, but it was really cool. After that, it made me realize something else that testified to the validity of the Book of Mormon for me. The Book of Mormon is very clearly written by multiple authors. It's something super subtle, but you can clearly see it if you're paying attention. Plus the very way each book is written changes. Nephi, for example, is written as a narrative; Moroni is written as a commentary; Alma is written as a historical depiction of events. And the different authors have different personalities. Where it most came across to me was in Nephi. Nephi has a very consistent personality. He is a person who bases everything on patience waiting upon the Lord, trusting in him, yet at the same time is very impatient with his brothers. You might consider that a character flaw, but I think it's more like he understood so clearly and is super exasperated with everyone else for not understanding. With his brothers for never having an eternal perspective, with his people for not understanding Isaiah... He understands the gospel more clearly than everyone else, but it wasn't always like this. In 1st Nephi Chapter 2, we see him diverge from his brothers and ask for help understanding. Because of this, his heart is softened by the Lord. From this moment on, we see him begin to express these character traits. He understands better than everyone else, not because he's smarter, but because he made the decision early on in life to trust the Lord and was blessed by it. That's why moving on he always talks plainly, he doesn't enjoy using parables or comparison like his father, Lehi, or like Alma. He just tells it how it is, and I have a lot of respect for him for that reason. It also gave me an interesting thought about the Book of Mormon. In this chapter, he's talking about how Isaiah was written in the language of the Jews, for that reason he understands it, but his people don't. It wasn't written for them. He kind of praises the Jews for their ability to literally understand prophecy. It's the same thing with the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon was written by a people with a very different speech pattern than us. Nephi was able to understand Isaiah's words plainly, because he grew up with it. But you see later in life he kind of regrets not teaching more from the Bible, cause his people did not grow up with that advantage. So start while you're young folks! Just do it, study even when it doesn't make sense and the more you study the more you'll understand. As for me, I plan to read Isaiah 10 times or as many as it takes for it to be just as clear to me as it was to Nephi. BTW this entire time I was studying 8 verses haha. 8 Verses for an hour, just keep reading. Ok, now that that's done... Baptism. It was great but also a mess. It was set for 11, but we wanted to be plenty early, so we asked the Office Elders to order an Uber at 10. But when 10 rolled around they didn't order it. They also wouldn't respond to our texts. We finally got the uber at 10:20.  The Uber dropped us off at 11:06, but it was clearly not the chapel. The Uber made us get out anyways. We called the bishop in that ward, but he had no idea where we were and doesn't know how to use technology to send his location. Plus our location wasn't working right. Eventually we got there at 11:40 walking down the street until we found it. (Google maps said the closest church was in Campinas a couple hours away.) Once we got there, we had another problem. It turns out Diego is really tall, and the clothes the ward leaders had for him didn't fit. When we finally did find something we went to start the zoom, but zoom wasn't working! So I had to create another zoom account, create a meeting, send it to all the people, then start the service. But it doesn't end there, turns out no one in this ward knows the song, "When I am Baptized," which is like the one song everyone knows! So it was just Elder Morrison and I singing. But he had zoomed in a ton and didn't know where we were so we only found our spot when the song was over and sang like the last two lines. But after that it was smooth sailing. It was a really great baptism. He didn't have a preference for who baptized him, so we had Elder Morrison do it. Then we had the confirmation. And Fabio received the priesthood, then Diego. After that, we showed them how to bless the sacrament and took the sacrament, just the 8 of us. It was an extremely intimate and special moment. I'm so happy for them! Luckily, we were able to get a ride back home! But on our way back home a member called us upset that we weren't home. She was going to drop off lunch, and we weren't there. We tried to explain to her that we were supposed to have been home an hour ago, and that we texted her husband telling him we would be late, but she was still very unhappy with us.  

Elder Morrison, Diego, & Yours Truly

Elder Koford & Elder Lima, Me & Elder Morrison, Sisters Freitas & Lemes, Elder Silva and the other Elder Lima

Fábio joined the church recently and is a great support in the Jaguariuna ward.

Me, Diego (who got baptized), Bishop Salvador, Elder Morrison, Fábio

Diego, Alice and their daughter

Now, a sad note. When we got home, we received word that our bishop in our Cosmópolis ward passed away from Covid. (This is the ward we live in.) It's really crazy, because we were talking to him just a week and a half earlier. It's hard to know how to handle that. We had a slow quiet rest of the day, with all of our lessons falling through. 

But then Ana rescheduled to talk at 9:15. And I'm glad we did! It wasn't really a lesson, more of a conversation. We talked to her about the baptism, and she was super interested. She asked about temples and sealings. We asked her if she wanted to be sealed to her son. She said yes, but that she knows first there's a ton she has to do like being baptized. So we said, "Well, let's talk about baptism." And we set a goal with her to be baptized May 22! Afterwards, Elder Morrison was still pretty mad at me for making us doing a lesson so late in the day, but I have no regrets! When we finally finished it was way too late, like 9:45. So I journaled about the day and FINALLY went to eat dinner before bed. Before I could take a bite, the phone rang one more time. It was Anderson, he asked me if I had already eaten dinner. I said no, and he said ok I just wanted to see if you guys had eaten yet, we'll talk more tomorrow. After THAT, I finally got to eat. 

The Bottom Line

Tuesday:

Started the day off by talking to Bishop at his MarmiTex. What did we talk about? Honey of course; how it was the only food in existence that provides all the essential nutrients for life. He actually decided to grab some honey out of the back and get three cups. He drank his with lime which is something I really want to try. We found out the next day that he actually has Covid. Luckily, we were wearing masks pretty much the entire time and no symptoms yet. All of our lessons fell through except one (see if you notice a pattern this week). But the one lesson we did have was with someone named Geovana. It was a really simple lesson but really good. We talked all about the plan of salvation and why we are here, and I realized it truly is the lesson that brings me the most joy. Understanding who we are and what we are here for is essential to happiness through challenges. 

Wednesday: 

The start to the day was just peachy. I put my contacts in and accidentally ripped the left one. It took me 20 minutes to find the little piece that had rolled above my eye. But hey, alls well that ends well. Which reminds me, out of our 9 lessons, 8 of them fell through. Now that I think of it, that's not a great example, but that one lesson we had was fun, and that's all that matters. No rest for the righteous though. After that we had our first ward council of the day. The elder's quorum president talks in parables. Which can be a challenge to understand in English let along Portuguese. He was telling us all about how we were clam fishers in a wide ocean, gardeners in a sungarden, timekeepers etc. (I went to google translate after.)  It was the most emotionally taxing thirty minutes of my mission, haha. But after that we had another ward council. Although I was fearful, I found it was for nought. For it was there I met my hero, Helenice. It was the first coordination with this ward, so there was a lot to work out. Which naturally means an information overload. I was thinking to myself "Oh boy, how am I gonna keep track of all these groupchats," when Helenice spoke up and said, "The Elders have 4 wards that they are taking care of. They are probably overwhelmed with all the groupchats. How about after this meeting, we organize a summary for them and send it through bishop rather than adding them to more chats?" It was the best moment of my mission. 

OK Anderson's baptism was a little better. From there we had a lesson with Diego. Our minds were so scrambled, it should have been a horrible lesson. Four different times we knocked something off the table, neither one of us could remember Portuguese, and we didn't have time to review the plan first, so we started teaching a lesson we had prepared for Fábio! Luckily, his wife is a member, and she translated everything we tried to say, but said wrong. And he's a super cool guy. So instead of being awful, we were all just laughing. It was the best bad lesson of my mission. From there I met João Agusto from last week. He went to the chapel to pick up the Book of Mormon, and we talked a bit, marked with him, and suggested a good place to start. 

Thursday:

12 lessons planned for today, 2 happened... Just to be clear, that's over 6 hours of lessons falling through. But lessons normally take 45 minutes so closer to 9. But hey, Dennis is really cool and one of the lessons was with him! He is sooo ready to get baptized; he just has a really busy schedule. But we got to know him and coordinated the plan to prepare for his baptism. We decided to do 15 minute calls every day... and we haven't gotten in touch with him since, kkk. Twice during the lesson, a member called us who has a habit of calling us daily until we pick up called. I sent a quick message saying that normally if we decline it's, because we are in a lesson, but he called us after and said, "I'm so sorry for calling you so much, but I have SUPER important news to tell you guys." So we said no we get it; it's no problem and asked him how we could help him. He replied, "Ok so did you know that Bishop has Covid." We told him we did, but you can see it is really impacting the people here. But here's the big news of the day, we officially called every person in our areabook. Hundreds of names! The last name was written in asian characters, and we had no idea what to expect, but we saw the name Vinicius on his email and guessed. We were right, and luckily he spoke Portuguese, haha. We had a little on the spot lesson and helped him out. His brother passed away from Covid, and now his mom has it. It's so sad to see how negatively people are being impacted here. After this, I had a super special spiritual existence where I was laying on my bed listening to a talk. After the talk was over I listened in silence and a little bit of self pity after such a long day. I said out loud something along the lines of, "Why do you let others hear your voice and not me?" and one other question that I don't remember. The second I finished, one of our group chats went off and the phone glitched, then the phone immediately started playing the next talk titled, "Put your trust in the Lord" this talk responded perfectly to the concerns I was having and is probably the coolest miracle I've seen in my life. 

Friday: 

We have marked morning lessons with Ana the past three days, and every day she says she can't and moves it to the next day. So we decided to try again next week and see if her schedule clears up a bit. One funny story we have is that our bedroom door is SUUUPER loud and creeky. And the wind is always blowing it. Over the course of 5 to 10 minutes it was slowly closing and being super distracting during our personal study. Finally, Elder Morrison had enough and stands up and stomps over to go slam it and right as he gets there, the wind blows it shut for him, haha. I had yet another cool spiritual experience. I've been studying my patriarchal blessing for the past 2 months now. Analyzing every blessing, and how it prepares me for my responsibilities in life. And analyzing all the things the Lord expects of me. Today, I got to my last paragraph and read an interesting blessing that basically promised me repeatedly I would be able to find joy in my existence and work. The thought suddenly popped into my head, "The bottom line, was always joy." I think that's the number one thing I've learned in my mission. Life is work; there is a lot to do; we have to overcome a lot of challenges, and at times it feels like there's nothing good left out there. But eventually, all of us come to realize the same thing. The bottom line was always joy. Every single action the Lord does is to push forward this cause. Our responsibilities aren't here to stress us out, they are here to make us self reliant. Men are that they might have joy. It says in 2 Nephi that it was necessary for men to know sorrow and sin for them to be righteous and joyful. What an important distinction between knowing and being. We aren't here to be unhappy, we are here to know it; know what it's like and how it makes us feel as well as how it's brought about so that one day when we live in an existence without pain or iniquity we can have an eternal satisfaction, the likes of which won't truly be able to be comprehended until we do arrive at our inheritance. With that bottom line in mind, today was the first day in Brasil I think where every lesson we had fell through. 6 out of 6. That's hard, but what's the bottom line? Joy. We had an interesting experience while on a walk. We met an old guy whose nephews were members of the church. We asked him if he wanted to hear a message and he responded, "Once you get as old as me, you grow out of faith and religion stuff. I've read the Book of Mormon and stuff, but I just can't make myself have faith. " I wanted to point out that there were older and smarter people than him who did not in fact grow out of faith, but who grew in faith. But instead, I gave him the parable Alma gave to the poor in Alma 32 and encouraged him to read. But at the end of the day, something else I've learned is that it's a choice. Some people decide to give it a chance, other people decide from the start that they are above faith. Imagine choosing to believe that existence is meaningless. The impossibility of atheism. An interesting idea I saw is there are not very many true atheists out there, because the conclusion of atheism is that life has no meaning, and yet they live as though their lives do have meaning. Abiding by moral codes, taking care of themselves and family. The atheism part is a self deception designed to take away personal responsibility. 

Saturday: 

1st two lessons of the day were people who we called, laughed with, scheduled, then the second we hung up blocked us. I don't understand it. What kind of a person sees an ad, clicks on it, decides to learn more, puts in their private information for contacting them, clicks on a box that says they understand they will be contacted by missionaries. Then a few minutes later when they are called, panic and blocks us? It's something that happens on the regular, and I do not understand, haha. Anyways, funny story of the day: every Sunday we have an onslaught of meetings and Sunday school classes. It's so hard to know which is which especially in order to invite our investigators. So we went to all the group chats and got the times for Sunday school, relief society, and elders quorum, for all 4 wards. FINALLY! ORGANIZED! Then I kid you not, 15 minutes later every one of our wards gets their meetings shut down by new covid restrictions. The meetings are online, but if you don't have a sacrament meeting you can't organize a second hour... bruhhhh. Anyways, I had a cool thought while preparing for a lesson that didn't happen. Who do you think had more joy? Lived happier? You, or Christ? I imagine it was Christ. Who had a harder life? You, or Christ? Sorry, but there's no buts here; it was Christ. Now look at the degree of success Christ had at finding joy in his life. How can we emulate His success in our own lives? Welcome to the gospel, the font is already filled up just for you. It's weird to say, but two days in a row all our lessons fell through. After 2 months without a single day like that, haha. There was one lady who when we called she said she couldn't talk, because she had something to do, but then she talked nonstop for 15 minutes about her life and her house. We didn't complain, we were just happy to hear another living person, but it was definitely funny, because she was clearly free to talk haha. It's ok though, because that meant we were able to watch our zone FHE. We were in charge of the game; it was a big mess; you don't need to know the details. 

Sunday:

Ok, one more day, I can do this. No sacrament meeting in our area, so we watched a sacrament in Rio. After that, we had the 2nd worst lesson of my mission. It was a lady who says yes and agrees with everything over text but doesn't actually listen. She talked to me for like an hour and a half about her problems and how she wants to know how to solve them and fix her relationship with God.

Then I sent her the talk on faith by President Nelson. 3 minutes later, she texted me and said ok done...... I asked her what she thought, and she said it was very good, and asked what the steps were to increase her faith. I said it literally said that in the talk, haha. During the lesson, she was clearly on instagram or something, and every time we asked a question there would be 30 seconds of silence before she realized we had addressed her, and she would just say "I didn't understand." Then when we asked again she would do the same thing. We kept asking her if she had interest and she said ya and that she needed it. Eventually, we just closed and said goodbye. After days of no lessons, to have that be our first one was frustrating to say the least. But after that, we caught a break. We met a really nice guy that was a member of another church but had questions that couldn't be answered. He knew some members and went to the church website where he found a page offering Book of Mormon studies. He is a super cool guy, and we are excited to teach him. He's gonna watch the live we do of the Book of Mormon every day and keep up with us. I'm so happy we started at the beginning now, haha. 

No Brasil for you

Tuesday:

We left early morning to drop off my covid test in a FedEx drop box before the pick up truck came. I would later learn that this would be my downfall. From there, we went to service where we sorted meat product for 3 hours. One cool thing is that Elder Moody and Elder Thomas were there, so we got to hang out a bit. I talked most of the time to Elder Thomas about Wheel of Time, Stormlight Archive, and working out. After that, I sent all my winter stuff home! My first time sending a package, and I hope I didn't mess it up. Especially because I insured none of the stuff in it. After that, we had one final lesson with Nancy! After she got The Book of Mormon, she read all the stuff we highlighted and sent me a message on facebook thanking me for everything. We marked a lesson for that night, and it went great! We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and explained the Gospel of Jesus Christ to her. I got a screenshot with me and her for old times sake then waved goodbye! 

Wednesday: 

Dang, my last day with Elder Meshke and Elder Slade. I can't lie; it was weird. I've had probably my best start to a transfer so far, and it was sad to be leaving. But I was still more than ready to go to Brasil (ironic).Yesterday, I borrowed the sisters' blow dryer to dry off a sweater I hand washed, plus give them my transfer journal. So in the morning we went to get the stuff, and took one last walk around the park. We even found a really cool snow bear someone made. I got all my stuff together while the other elders signed my book, then wrote in theirs, and we took off to go to Revere! Once we got there, we went and got haircuts together, because everything in Conneticut was closed for the snow storm. It was there I learned something interesting; I speak spanish. Ok ok, not really haha, but I was able to communicate with the barber. After that, we went to a Brazilian bakery Elder Slade used to go to when he worked here. By that time, the other elders were finally home from service. So we made our goodbyes and I made my hellos to Elder Newman, Elder Neeleman, and Elder Feliciano. (Plus Elder Derosia, but he wasn't a part of our original apartment, haha). I called a lady from my old area named Katia and had one final lesson with her, then updated Elder Slade and Elder Meshke on how the lesson went and got to work with Elder Feliciano's phone. I called all the old people I used to teach in Revere, but who they had stopped teaching. I set lessons with 6-7 of my old friends, including Pedro Oliveira and Francis!!! Both people I had invited to be baptized, but they had lost contact with. They were both excited to talk with me, and in Francis's case, he stopped using his old phone, which is why he stopped answering. He only answered this time by a miracle. So he gave me his new number for the other elders to call on Friday. It's really sad when someone you're teaching ghosts you, especially when they were preparing for baptism, so it's really nice to see that not only did it work out, it wasn't because of any negative feelings on his part. Then we went to see Elder Morris to get the key to the chapel. He was stoked to see me, and you already know we took some pics together. From there, I went to the chapel to print out all my flight info. for the next morning. It was then I got an email telling me I needed to register my covid test. I was worried, because the instructions didn't say anything about that when I took the test and sent it in. Then when I made my account, it said the Covid test hadn't been received. I called a bunch of people and everyone told me to sit tight, and that's what I did. We were, however, late back to the apartment, haha. My last thought was that on my last night of my mission in MBM, I'm sleeping on the floor at the foot of the bed, exactly what I did my first day of the mission. Same apartment, same spot, haha. 

Thursday: 

And here's the bad news. I woke up to the information that FedEx lost my Covid test, and because of that, I would no longer be cleared to fly to Brasil. My flight was cancelled, but I wasn't too worried. Revere is MY area!!! And I love it here and have a lot of connections to the ward and people being taught. I had a lesson with Augosto too which was AWESOME!!! He still hasn't been baptized, because he can't go to church. But I had some real talk with him, and he gave me a hard promise to go two times this month. We will see! After that, I went to service with Elder Feliciano and Elder Neeleman. We went to a place where people donate stuff for the homeless and needy. We organized random boxes of stuff that makes no sense for 3 hours then I got a call from the assistants. Here's where things spice up. Rather than having me stay in Revere, in my OG area, that is next to the airport, they are having me go all the way to Rhode Island until my flight next week. I can't complain, because I'll be with Elder Bodily, and I love that guy, but I don't have much interest in working in someone else's area for a week. On top of that, the area book app we use for the mission kicked me out, because it thinks I'm in Brazil and won't let me use it which makes it a lot harder to work. AND, the office elders assumed I would be leaving, so last week when they gave everyone funds for food, they didn't give me any. I decided not to complain, because I had enough left over in my account to make it a week. But now I'm staying another week and at this point it's too late for them to put money in, so I have to beg extra money from home for groceries, etc. Anyways, it was still really good seeing Elder Bodily when he came to get me, and his companion, Elder Bradshaw, is a lot of fun. Once I got down there, I got notified that they found my Covid test, and because my connecting flight to Brazil hadn't left yet, I would have been able to go had I just flown on the plane to Georgia lol. (We fou d out later that they wouldn't have let him take the flight to Georgia since it checks him all the way to Brazil.) Oh well. We had exchanges in Rhode Island. The other elders' internet had been down all day, and I said, "I don't mean to brag, but I set up my own router in college," and turned it on and off again, and it started working, haha. Dumb luck.

Friday:

Sooooo, I accidentally took Elder Feliciano's car keys with me, and we had to drive all the way back to drop them off. Once we were home, we also had a Zone training to get to. It was a great Zone training, and I always love meeting new people. From there we parked and sprinted back to the apartment for lessons and had lessons for two hours straight. Only 2 lessons, but both ran long. We had a normal contacting time after that and went to the chapel for an English class. On our way home, we passed by the apartment basketball courts, and the other elders showed me. There were two drunk girls in there who were trying really hard to get us to play with them. They kept saying 5 minutes just 5 minutes, you guys are soooo lame, what are you scared. They thought we had British accents and were telling us we could drink wine with them and chill etc. I pointed out we were wearing white shirts and ties and they suggested we just take them off. After minute or two of them not taking no for an answer, I got annoyed and just walked away. The other elders couldn't leave me, so they were forced to follow and that solved that problem. They kept asking which floor we lived on and saying they lived on the second, so we made double sure to lock our doors that night in case those crazies followed us or something. 

Saturday: 

The other elders had their interviews with President, but because I already did mine I took the chance to study and annotate my patriarchal blessing. It was a blast! We started our fast for Sunday after lunch, and decided to play some basketball for exercise time. When we got there, some other elders from the apartment were there, and what would have been some casual shooting turned into intense game of knockout. The reason I bring this up is because it worked all our appetites up a ton. And we were super thirsty haha. Makes for a stressful contacting time!

Sunday: 

My first time going to a Portuguese ward on the mission! I really liked it, and a lot of the testimonies were amazing! There are a lot of Cape Verdians here, and their accent is hard to pick up, but I still got a lot out of it. Afterwards, a Cape Verdian man started telling me about his mission to Portugal when he was younger. He told us a ton of stories about the racism he saw there, being chased off the street, a kid throwing mud at him and when he asked why the kid said cause he's an n word, (Actually P word, but that's the English equivalent), and people always yelling at them from vans and stuff. It kinda puts into perspective how much simpler my mission is, and I respect him a lot. 

Monday: 

Pretty great P-day. I got to go to District P-day with Bods District, and it was fun. We went to a trampoline park and messed around for an hour and a half. I finally found a sport I'm good at. The one where you stand on the beam and have a big foam stick and try and knock each other off. I can't quite say I went undefeated, but I am ready to go pro, and was declared champ. From there we headed home, let's see what this week holds. I'm optimistic, especially because my covid test came today (even though FedEx mismailed it).  The only problem is that Elder Bodily can't taste anything he eats 😶. If I get covid now I'm gonna be so annoyed, haha. Ate mais 

Brazil!!!!

Tuesday:

Interviews with President were today. He had a bunch of questions about the area, and so I gave him a rundown of how things were going and our progressing friends. Then he gave me some great news; I'm going to Brazil February 4th! Super exciting. The funny thing was that yesterday we went to Costco and for the first time ever bought food for the entire transfer, but now I won't be able to enjoy any of it, haha. Elder Meshke bet me that I couldn't go through all 77 servings of protein powder before leaving. I'm always up to a challenge, so I have to drink 5 scoops a day until I leave! After that whole fiasco, we had a lesson with Micael and Lidia, two new members. They were baptized at the beginning of the quarantine, and despite having almost no member support, and not speaking English in an English ward, they are still active! Now we are helping them on preparing for the temple!!! After that lesson, I got a call from the office elders, and that's when I officially got my info for leaving. 

Wednesday:

So we had to go to the church building to use their computers to sign up for service hours. Unfortunately, we didn't have a key, so we had to drive to the English elders apartment to get their key. Once we had that, we had to go to the church building and find the clerk's office. We were told there would be a key in a drawer that would unlock the drawer that had the rack of keys to the family history center which had the computers. Only problem is that there were multiple drawers of keys. So we had to try every key in every drawer till we got that right one. Obviously, it was the second to last key we found. Then we had to try all those keys until we found the right one for the family history center. The most exciting part of all this is getting home. For some reason, our sim cards cellular data was shut off, so if we aren't on wifi we can't use google maps which led to a confusing ride home. I had been fasting all day for a lesson with Bryce to go well; the lesson was at 9:00 PM. I was nervous, because we were introducing him to the other elders, and I was hoping it would go well. So before the lesson, I put an apple pie in the oven and broke my fast with an entire half of the pie and half a thing of dryers ice cream. It, was, amazing! 

Thursday: 

P-day is ending, so imma speed through this. Went on a walk, got home and had 4 member lessons then a lesson with Marjorie. While I was on Facebook finding, I was talking to a guy who said he was pretty busy and didn't know if he would have time to meet. We were talking a couple days later, and he was telling me about how he had to quarantine, because someone from work got corona. So I took this opportunity to catch him and say, "Now that your quarantining, do you have time for a message," and I got the lesson! Lol. 

Friday: 

We went to district counsel and while we were there we had a lesson. Then after we had a lesson with the guy from yesterday, Everton. He was a really great guy and accepted a commitment to read The Book of Mormon! Later that night, we had a call with a really sweet older lady. She had a stroke and is learning how to talk again, but she's such a tender soul, and I loved her instantly. Finally, we had a lady I had a lesson with once send me 12 minutes of audio recordings including her singing hymns, haha! 

Saturday:

We got back in touch with Mary! I lost contact when I went to Goshan, but she was so happy to talk to us again, and there was a complete change of her countenance. I think she realized how much she missed having the gospel's influence in her life. Now she's much more open to work with us going forward. After that, we finished with a lesson with Bryce. My favorite times of the week! 

Sunday:

Went to church and tried to make Elder Meshke translate, but he respectably declined, haha. After that, I went to Elder's Quorum for the first time in this area. It was so cool to see Michael there. He's so determined to learn English and be a part of the ward. It's so inspiring to see!!!

Trio!!

 Tuesday:

This was the day the Goshen elders moved out of our apartment. It was a sad moment, but they also live an hour away from their area, so they were excited to go. We helped move all their stuff out; the highlight was definitely riding the mattresses down the stairs. After they were gone, Elder Bilar and I completely cleaned and rearranged the apartment. We vacuumed all the floors where the bed and couches used to be and moved in a dinner table- finally. It looked nice! We made some more curry and then had a normal prime proselyting time. 

Wednesday:

Elder Bilar and my first and last day together as a two elder companionship. It was a great day! Started it off by being surprised by a centipede in the shower, then we finished cleaning and rearranging the house to start off. I think having a clean house just helps you have a clean mind, because it was so much easier to focus after that. We had a great rest of the day. No lessons, but we just contacted a lot of people and went hard. I taught Elder Bilar a little bit about how to use area book, including how to stop teaching someone. We stopped teaching a guy named Celestino, because we couldn't get ahold of him. Afterwards, Elder Bilar commented that it was kind of sad. Immediately, Celestino called us, and we marked a lesson with him! Little miracles! Elder Parrish, our district leader, had to do a baptismal interview for a Portuguese speaking guy named Luca, so we went over to help with translation then stayed for ward coordination. When we finally got home, we sorted through all the stuff the other elders left behind which included about 150 packets of hot chocolate from varying brands and companies. We won't be needing new ones for a while! 

Thursday: 

We got a sad call from President at 6:30 am; he let us know Elder Bilar was going to return home for a little while for medical reasons. So we spent the morning packing, and figuring out what I was going to do for the rest of the transfer. The Zone leaders  went with us to the airport. By 1:00, he was on the plane. On our way home, we stopped by Five Guys where I got some food in me finally. I made Elder Bilar one final breakfast that morning but other than that hadn't eaten. On our way home, we got another sad call from President telling us to stop talking to one of our closest member friends, so that was another super hard thing. But the Goshen elders came back to pick me up and now we are in a trio together! I'm excited because we all get along really well. I get in on all their lessons, and they help me in mine when they can. 

Friday:

My first day in the new area went great. We started off by going to a ward football activity where I rolled my ankle in football. So I decided to play it safe and sit out, and I just walked/limped the track with a really cool guy named Mario. The entire ward was fun. I talked to a guy who served a mission in Mozambique, so we called Elder Feliciano, and they chatted in Portuguese for a bit. 

Saturday:

Started Saturday off with an early 9:00 lesson. We started teaching a new lady named Kedishia, by sharing the story of Lazarus with her. We also had district council and on the way stopped by my old apartment. I told the other elders to grab any food they wanted, except by Reeces. I told them about how I had been searching for fastbreaks my entire mission, and as I opened the freezer to get them, they were all gone! I told the Zone Leaders they could get any stuff that was going bad, and apparently they helped themselves to a ton of other stuff! I called them immediately and luckily they hadn't eaten it yet, but now they are holding all MY christmas food hostage 😂 After that fiasco, we went to district counsel, and I went to the other elders district for a change. It was an interesting one. I helped record a game show obstacle course video for the sisters. 

Sunday:

I went to the new ward, and it was awesome! Every other ward I've been to, people can only go once a month (due to covid size restrictions). But here the congregation is small enough that everyone goes every week. They have two sessions in order to get everyone in. The ward is almost made up entirely of converts which is also really cool. We stayed late and had a dance party/played Simon says with a bunch of the kids. It was a ton of fun. Afterwards, we went to a member's house so they could pick up Christmas presents a member had gotten for them. They also lent me a Christmas jacket, so we could take a picture. Then we went to pick up food from another member. They made some of the BEST enchiladas I've ever had. Finally, I got the chance to have a lesson with Bryce on 2 Nephi 2. One of my favorite scriptures, because I love getting philosophical and deep in my lessons. And Bryce is the perfect person to do it with because he's sharp and catches a lot. 

Monday: 

One of my best P-days on the mission. We went to Panera Bread to start off. We decided not to shop, because we don't have any money. We had to buy plates and stuff for the new apartment and now we can't afford food that's not coming by way of a gift card, haha. We then went to a gym, and I taught the other elders how to play Racketball! I overestimated my abilities a lot though, and the games were not one sided like I thought they would be. On our way home we stopped by another gym to get smoothies, and then called the day!