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!