Bianca was baptized!

Hey guys, this week has been great. We had a zone conference at the temple, and all of us got to pass through!!! It was such a cool experience, and only the second time I've visited the temple in my mission. I was the last one to leave, so the assistants were mad at me for being late to lunch, but it was worth it ha-ha. The Zone Leaders had me participate in the training. That doesn't make sense, because the District Leaders aren't supposed to usually, but I did as I was told. They told me to help plan and sent me the verse it was about. So I quickly read D&C 4:2 for 30 seconds then came in and outlined my thoughts for a training, and they said sure. That was basically all the planning ha-ha. Then we just assigned everyone to talk. The basic idea was talking about the connection between sin and guilt. In D&C 4:2 it uses the phrase “held without guilt”. Guilt is something that comes about when we know there was something we were supposed to do, and we don't do it. So, then we went in and talked about a bunch of examples of how the prophets expressed anxiety, stress or sadness when people made the wrong choice, but how that inspired the prophets to be more diligent in their missionary work. I gave examples of how we could do the same by inviting people and following up more because we are anxious about whether or not they're keeping commitments. It was good training. Elder Medeiros talked for a really long time, so I only had like 2 minutes and had to rush through. But it was all ok. 

Another big thing is that we had Bianca's baptism this week! It was really cool, though the day of I have to admit I forgot so much: to fill the font, set up the chairs, update the program, bring a towel and more... But in the end it turned out all right. This week was really busy just because we were getting to know Bianca and helping her get to know the ward. Plus, our friend Julia also accepted a baptismal invitation for next week. We had to remark (reschedule), because she takes care of her sick mom who had to go to the hospital, so she couldn't go to church. We did have a super spiritual lesson with her and a return missionary named Paulo. He's a good friend of mine and had some really helpful tips afterwards. 

 

We had a lesson with Mila this week! We met with her while doing an exchange with a 16-year-old named Ruan in our area. He's a really dope kid who asks the most genuine questions I've ever seen in my life. But he's also very hyper... ha-ha. We got to her house and were going to walk to a park. It was packed, so we walked to another park, and only sat down for the lesson after well over an hour. Then it was IMPOSSIBLE to start because every time I said "So Mila," Ruan jumped in and asked something like,

 "If you're companion was drowning, would you jump in to save him?"

"We can't go to the beach; it’s against the rules"

"Let’s say a member took you."

"Elder Serdoski can't swim, why would he go into the water?"

"I don't know but just imagine..."

and so on. Imagine, trying to teach a lesson where about every 36-7 seconds he asks, "What happens if you put a fork in the microwave?" "Can you beat me in an arm wrestling match?" "Have you seen Star Wars? I haven't but I just was curious if you have?" 

Elder Serdoski was struggling to be engaged. When I asked him if he wants to explain about something he laughed and said no. That is what anxiety sounds like ha-ha. Eventually, I made everyone get up. We just walked around the park and Mila, and I chatted about all the stuff she read and all her problems. Then Ruan asked her to race him to see who has faster and so forth. When we got home Elder Serdoski complained to anyone who would listen about how I made him walk so much today all around the park for no reason. This is just a taste of mission life folks. 

 

Buuut on the way home, we were stopped by a guy named Vitor to take a picture of him and his motorcycle. He then immediately asked where our church was and gave us his number. Even crazier, he then went to both hours of church; asked what baptism for the dead were. He explained that his dad was never baptized, and he wanted to go for his dad, but there were so many baptisms and so many churches, he had no idea which baptism was authorized of God... Ya, I know... We are just as excited as you!!!

 

And that’s all folks. We had district P-Day today which was a blast. We went to the Martin’s, ate churrasco, played magic the gathering, card games, a little fute mesa until their son kicked the table and split open his foot. It was dope. This kid is the next Steven Erwing. It’s crazy how much he knows about animals. Literally any animal. I always ask people who would win in a fight, a Tiger or a Lion. People are always wrong and say tiger. I asked him and he explains in extreme detail why a male lion would win. I casually said what about female. And he says well let’s just talk about the facts. Then he said them... All the facts. He talked about tooth size, claw size, claw curve, average weight, height, length, muscle ratio, daily diet, maximum eating capacity, maximum sprint, mating habits, raising habits, the differences in the psychology of the animals, the difference in their hunting habits, and much much more. Long story short, it was the lioness, by a very, very large margin. Oh and this kid is 13, by the way, and can do this with basically any animal. 

 

New Trio in Town

Tuesday:

Today was my last full day with the Goshen Elders. That should have made it a bit sad, but I think it just made us appreciate the day a little more. We had service early morning at the kids' place; we did our normal chores and played some connect 4. On our way home, we tried out a restaurant in their area everyone always talked about called AJ's. IT. WAS. GOOD. I blew a lot of my food money but it was worth it. A steak, a pizzookie, and a lava cake. After that, we made the long drive back to the apartment in Hartford so we could spend the night up there before transfers. Right as we arrived, I realized I left the keys in the other place. Luckily, the zone leaders had a spare. If not it would have meant driving for another 2 hours! It's tricky managing two areas. When we got in, I had to rush to do a lesson with a member named Maria. In the middle of the lesson, our reception office called us to tell me I left one of my suitcases in the middle of the road! So I had to run and go get it in the middle of the lesson, but wait, there's more! I forgot I didn't have they key and got locked out again, so I had to go back to get the spare for the second time that night. After that, I had a lesson with one of my favorite people, Nancy. As always it was fun, and I shared a spiritual thought and invited her to read a scripture from the Bible.

Wednesday:

Today was the day I went to pick up my first new companion, Elder Meshke. He was started in my first district in Revere where we served together for about a transfer. It was great seeing people at transfers, and after 3 months I finally was able to get Elder Bodily to sign my transfer journal. It was an interesting drive up. Elder Meshke is a big talker, and normally so am I, but for some reason I just felt really quiet. It was weird, because I felt so much like Elder Bodily, and Elder Meshke reminded me a lot of myself when I got to the mission. But one thing that did stay the same with me was my ability to lose things. When we got back, we spent 20 minutes trying to find my phone! When we finally did get it, it was in the car where I always put it, in a place I checked 4 times. Since then, Elder Meshke has become really good at instantly finding stuff other elders leave around. We decided to christen our first day together by making some curry. Every single time I make curry, I have to go ask the other elders for their can opener, and I always forget to bring it back. So this time, I thought ahead and brought the can to them. You can imagine my frustration, when I got back and realized I had another can I needed opening. 2 others actually. I decided to avoid the shame, and cried death before dishonor as I used a knife to pry open holes in the other 2 cans. There was blood and sweat, literally, but I got it open. 

Thursday:

We only had one day alone together, but it was a good today. I frequently caught myself remembering my time with Elder Bodily, but switching the roles and being him instead of me. After our 1st contacting session, I laid on the couch for a break. It struck me I was laying down with my feet crossed, hand on my head in the exact same position Elder Feliciano would always rest. I was even wearing the same jacket he did. It cracked me up to think of how my old companions rub off on me. Our first call of the day went through and we got a lesson set from it, which was an encouraging launch to the rest of the day. 

Friday:

Friday we had an early 9:00 lesson with Marjorie on obedience. We shared the story of the Lamanites who threw away their weapons of war and talked about how they were favored of the Lord. Marjorie really connected to the story and was very open to our invitation to read every day from the Book of Mormon. We had a very long drive to pick up Elder Slade, but we had to go early in order to have a lesson in the car with the Relief Society president, Debra Jones. It was a great lesson. In our last ward council, I had received a spiritual prompting to invite her to our lessons with Nancy; today I saw why. As she shared her conversion story, I realized that she had many of the same concerns and background that Nancy does. God really does look after His children, and He is an active part of this work. On our way home, we just talked to each other and all got to know one another, which is one of the reasons I missed our Exit 3 times in a row, and added 40 minutes onto our travel time.

Saturday:

We had district council with our new district. Sorry, no pictures, but every companionship except for 1 changed! After that, we started to make our phone calls. Elder Slade is a fantastic missionary! I would say one of the best in the mission. And I am excited beyond description so see what he can teach me. One of our calls was for a woman named Seana, and apparently Elder Slade sounds like her cousin, because when we answered she started cussing at us and yelling inside jokes and greetings, haha. When she realized, she was full of apologies. That night we had our Walk in the Light program, and it was one of my favorites so far. One story he shared that teared me up, was when he was talking of a bishop who had helped a young boy prepare to enter the temple. He whispered in the boy's ear once he made it, "I knew you'd make it. I knew you could do it." He then went on to say that one day the Lord would say that to each of us. I am excited for that day. There was one awkward episode with Walk in the Light. This entire time I've been here, I've been tagging the wrong Walk in the Light page for Portuguese! I've been tagging some knitting page! haha. Oh well, now I know. After that we had the lesson with Nancy and Sister Jones. My first member lesson, and it was amazing. Sister Jones was such a great help, and Nancy really connected and enjoyed it.

Sunday:

Sadly, Nancy wasn't able to get into the Zoom link. But one exciting thing was that I got my first ever chance to do translation for church today. It was really hard, haha. We only had 2 speakers and one of them spoke in Portuguese, so I even had it easy. After that, we had a lesson with someone I found on Facebook named Katia. She didn't understand very much, but all she knew was that a year ago she went to one of our churches, and she felt something Good and Different. She wanted to know what that thing was! Hold onto that Katia! Our District was 1 away from their finding goal at the beginning of Prime Proselyting (time set aside to look for people interested in hearing our message), so Elder Slade said the next person to find someone to teach would get free Popeyes. You can imagine all of our surprise when we checked again an hour and a half later to see that the Spanish Sisters had found 5 people! Have fun with the Popeyes!!! Later, I was talking to the other elders, and said I wanted to beat my personal record for wide grip pull-ups and get 17. Elder Meshke then said "What?? You can only do 17 pull-ups???" He then told us about how he could do much more than that. When we challenged him to prove it, he explained that because of joint problems, he couldn't straighten his arm all the way, in fact, he could only go a little less than half way down, lol. We cracked up and teased him about that, but it was a really funny moment. 

Big Plans

Man this was an interesting week. There's a lot to do in this area, but I'm still getting used to the quarantine, so I'll have to figure out how to do it all in a way different than what I expected, haha. For now though let me just review my week real "quick".  

Tuesday 

We didn't end up doing weekly planning for last week so we had a mini session in the morning. This area is really established in Portuguese, and the president has a vision of preparing this area for the establishment of a Portuguese speaking ward. Elder Bodily and I made plans for how to contact all the Brazilian members in this area, reach out to people who may be interested, and bring Brazilians from other areas to our Portuguese Sunday School. There's a lot of unique challenges. I won't get into it, but there's a lot of work. I'm so grateful for that, because I'm not sure I would survive being a missionary with nothing clear cut to do during the quarantine haha. 

After that, we went to a mission wide family home afternoon meeting where people from the mission share lessons and play games to keep spirits up. It was cool and fun, but Elder Bodily and I were talking to each other when through the camera we heard, "from Elder Bassett, then going to sister.... and Elder...." I was like wait, what did she say we are doing? Elder Bodily kinda shrugs and says "I don't know" and before I can say anything else, it unmutes us. I'd like to remind you 200 people are watching this! I sit there like a deer in headlights for at least 30 seconds with my mouth open looking between Elder Bodily and the camera not being able to ask him anything cause he unmuted, haha. Then I kinda just go "What are we supposed to be doing???" They just kinda say moving on and go to the next lesson which was drawing pictures on top of your heads haha. Apparently, they decided I was gonna teach a lesson to the mission, and then forgot to tell me. Whoops. The funniest part was that I was supposed to give the opening prayer the Sunday before with the entire mission on zoom, but I was in a ward Sunday School lesson (which is supposed to be our first priority)  that ran 20 minutes long and showed up late. So they called on me to say the prayer and there was like 5 minutes of silence while they waited for me. Basically, I'd been on the mission for a grand total of 7 days and had already embarrassed myself in front of the entire mission twice. And then of course, an hour later I got a message asking me to say the closing prayer on Sunday. Seriously guys; there's 200 missionaries here, why are you so set on me? 😂  I had my first Interview with President Mavromatis, and he wanted to know why I didn't day the prayer. I kinda didn't know what to say. 

Anyways, after that we taught the message of the restoration to our friend named Deborah. My Portuguese was awful, but luckily she's awesome and engaged so the lesson didn't go badly. Then we taught a lesson about the plan of salvation to Pedro Martin, and it went GREAT. Both of them are so awesome and attentive and into it. 

For the last 7 days I had been saying nearly every prayer asking for very specific things and more importantly using very specific wording that wasn't what I would normally say. Tuesday morning after my personal study, I decided to read my Patriarchal blessing. I was amazed that in the exact same wording I had been using, I found the promised blessings and attributes I had been praying for every day. When I first got my blessing, I was getting ready to move to Brazil. It was a big event for me, and my blessing was a source of comfort and inspiration. But it didn't really say anything about that experience, or let me know what I could to to prepare for it, yet it perfectly told me what I would need to do and become for my mission 4 years later, which would be a more challenging experience by far. This is an example of how God knows what's best for us, and He is willing to help us. But the way we think we need to be helped isn't the way we always need it. He knew I would be able to handle moving fine, but also knew that on my mission I would find myself challenged in ways I had never experienced before, so He spent His time reassuring me for something I hadn't even begun to think about. 

Wednesday 

We started the day with the normal stuff, personal and companion study. We were reading out of the general handbook for adjusting to missionary life and Elder Bodily reads the words "try not to stay for too long in your apartment" haha. Believe me if we didn't have to, we wouldn't! The big thing that happened today was our first companion exchange, which is where you and another companionship switch companions and go on lessons with each other. Because of Corona, it's less of a switch and more of a 3 hour phone call, but I still had a great time with my district leader, Elder Despain. Bonus, I finally got to meet one of the members in the area; she was American, too, so it was refreshing to talk for a bit in English.