1st Full Week in Brazil

Tuesday: 

One of those days where every single one of our lessons fell through, but still a great day nonetheless. It left us with some time to go on a walk, and I was excited to get to know the city a bit better. Plus, I'm teaching Elder Silva English, so when we had nothing left to do we would just read from the Book of Mormon out loud. After the day was over, Elder Silva taught me how to play a Brazilian card game called Pif Paf, and I went to go write in my journal. When I wrote the date, I realized something kinda funny; I've been writing 2020 for the past month and a half instead of 2021 haha. Acontece

Wednesday:

Big News! I finished reading my Portuguese grammar book cover to cover! Now all I have to do it learn it! Our first lesson of the day was with a guy named Gustavo. When we were talking to him, he told me all about the Book of Mormon and how great it is; he really loves Nephi. Elder Silva asked if he had prayed about being baptized, and Gustavo said he'd like to get to know the church better, but he wanted to one day. After the lesson, I said, "Wow, he's elect." Elder Silva turned to me and said, "How is he elect! He said he wouldn't get baptized!" and I just told him he should try a mission in the USA. After that, we met with Luis Henrique, another cool guy. I love getting to know this area, because it has so many great people. At one point, Henrique asked me when and how I realized this church was true. I told him it happened when I was about 17, and it was, because I made the decision to start reading the Book of Mormon and asking questions about it. When I finished, Elder Silva said, "But what he really means to say is the Priesthood; it's the priesthood that makes the difference." I was entertained and not annoyed don't worry, just a funny moment. It's definitely an interesting dynamic. I have a lot to work on with my Portuguese and need to practice my accent, but at the same time I want to help Elder Silva with English. So we don't know if we should be trying to speak in Portugues or English; we'll figure it out though. After our lessons, we went to go find a recent convert whose number we didn't have, but when we got there, we weren't sure whose house it was. Wo we called the president of the congregation. We then got the sad news he had passed away shortly after from addiction problems. The only reason I bring it up is because after his baptism, he lost contact with the church. As he lived alone, he fell back into the same habits. It goes to stress the responsibility of the congregation to fellowship new members, and the responsibility of the missionaries to invite members into lessons. A harsh reminder though. When we got home, I went about making a google sheet where I could put all the information for the people we are teaching. On our way home, I asked Elder Silva how street contacting worked. He just said, "Like this," and walked up to a lady and started talking to her and invited her to church, haha. So that's how my first street contact went. 

Thursday:

We only had one lesson to prepare for today with a really cool guy named Pedro (I know so many Pedros). We spent our entire companion study planning for the lesson. Then at the very end, we realized he was in the other elders' area not ours, haha. So we gave them his contact info and our lesson plan, haha. After that, we went about contacting all our referrals. For the second time, I accidentally called the sisters in São Paulo who sent the referrals over instead of the actual person, which they thought was funny. Then 5 minutes later, I did it a 3rd time! We all had a big laugh. It's funny, because each time they let us talk for a minute or two before letting us know. After that fiasco, I needed a break from calling. So I worked on getting together a mission wide training on how to use the area book app. President asked me to prepare it on Monday in our interviews. We finished the day calling referrals, and I have an interesting note. In my entire previous experience with Brazilians, I have never met a single one without WhatsApp. But almost every single person we tried calling did not have one; it was sooooo weird.  

Friday:

OK. Almost done. Then I have an email to read. Today, we had the longest weekly planning session of my life. Mostly because they don't really weekly plan in this mission, so there wasn't much info to go off of. We opened it around noon, but then had a lesson. After an hour and a half, we continued on, had another lesson, then another, then finally had our last hour in peace. It's hard because in my google spreadsheet, I want to put what they've been taught already, but the other elders don't write anything down, so we have to call Elder Lima constantly to check. "What have they been taught?" "Put the plan of salvation. No wait, never-mind. Oh ya we did. Let me call Lima." We finally closed weekly planning with a prayer at 7:00, 6 hours later. After that, we had a lesson with a new person named Ana Claudia, and we actually asked if she'd like to be baptized when she received an answer to her prayers. She was more than excited, and said she would be baptized today. We told her we had plenty to teach her, and that we were excited to help her and her family make changes. Then we had a lesson at the chapel with Luis-Henrique. Only the second new friend I've ever had a lesson with in person, and my 1st in Brazil. I loved it. He's super smart and loves philosophy. The only problem is that I don't know how to talk about philosophy in Portuguese. At one point, Elder Silva just said, "Dude, he has no idea what you're saying." hahahaha. Then we has a lesson with André, a friend with a date for baptism. It went super well and we taught the Law of Chastity to which he was very open. Then, the saddest thing to happen on my mission. We found a baby chick at the front door of the chapel. We brought it over to the tree we think it fell out of but had no clue what to do. We went inside to ask the other elders. We joked about taking it to the apartment and making it a pet, then Elder Silva said, "It stopped chirping." When we went back, we saw that a hawk or some other bird had gotten it and was eating it on a tree branch. Circle of life, but I'm traumatized.

Saturday: 

My first time ever eating with a member! It was awesome: beans, chicken, and rice with coke and grape juice. I loooooove Brazilian homes, haha. We had to rush back to the chapel to call a member for a lesson. When we called, her grandson was playing minecraft in her tablet and wouldn't give the phone to her so the lesson fell through, haha. I love listening to kids talk in Portuguese; it's so cute. At the end of the day, some members came to clean the chapel. We decided to help them sweep and mop. They bought some coke and pastéis, and we sat and talked for about an hour or so. They immigrated here from Venezuela. The daughter is putting in her mission papers in two weeks. I can't explain why, but it's one of the fondest memories on my mission. Just sitting and chatting with a really sweet family. We talked about English and Portuguese. They complimented my Portuguese a ton, and said that it was really hard for them. I was really sad when we had to leave, but it was getting late.

Sunday: 

Today we got a ride to go to church in Itajubá, just over an hour away. The drive up was beautiful. It made me realize how badly I want to visit Brazil after my mission. Church itself wasn't great. The fans were super loud and the microphone didn't work, so no one heard a thing. But I loved meeting the people, and Ana-Claudia. The ward is made up of mostly women and children, which definitely also makes for a fun time, haha. When we got back, we had lunch with the President of the Pouso Alegre branch (congregation). He showed us how to make sushi and we talked/argued about languages the entire time, haha. I really like him; we see eye to eye on a lot. He talked to me about what kind of American music I liked and talked about a bunch of songs. (All of which are on my playlist back home hah.) His kid was super cute. I showed him magic tricks and a hand slapping game, but it's weird playing with kids on the mission for sure. On the drive back up, he told us how the church's clerk was saying we shouldn't be allowed in the church outside of Sunday, because the clerk's cousin had a stake president who went into his office and saw a missionary chilling with his feet on the desk. President fought for us and only told us to let us know. It's a funny interaction, but also goes to show the importance of being on your best behavior. The poor decision of one elder was effecting a ward miles and miles away. 

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. 

Tuesday:

So, an exciting thing today, Devanir is an older guy we are teaching. We are on a timeline to teach him fast, because he's in ill health. Unfortunately, he's almost impossible to contact. He's really elect but is constantly in the hospital. We've called him over a dozen times and sent texts and no response. So we decided to mark him as stopped teaching. But as we were doing it, I got a bad feeling, and Elder Bodily said he felt it too. So we decided to call one more time. And guess what! He lives with his brother in law, and he said his brother in law didn't want us coming over and "mixing things up" as he put it. His brother in law is a very prominent religious leader in Boston, but Devanir said he didn't see a reason why we couldn't drop off a Book of Mormon. He gave us the name of his street, but his accent was so thick that we couldn't understand him, and he didn't know how to spell it! So we wrote down a couple versions of the name before he had to go. Bodimer, Bolderler, Boldier, etc. Then Bodily and I zoomed in on the map and went street by street through east Boston until I found a street that seemed close. Elder Bodily said it out loud but saying the name in a Brazilian accent. We decided that was the one! Then we didn't have a house number, just the description that it was a green house. We were praying there was a green house on that street. And guess what? There was. So we dropped off the Book of Mormon and are praying he got it. We haven't been able to reach him since, but that is the way it goes with him. 

Elder Bodily was Facebook finding later and talking to a guy who asked him how he could know his purpose... which is an amazing question! I made the comment, "I wish I could get questions like that, all I get are pro-debaters trying to tear into me about why my beliefs are wrong!" We cracked up about that, then moments later I had the opportunity to respond to a similar question haha! From there we had another amazing lesson with Francis, and it ended with him asking if we could meet again on Friday. I love him so much. 

Wednesday:

Today Elder Bodily and I got ready and dressed for an interview with president. We were waiting for the zoom link for about ten minutes of silence before we realized our meeting was tomorrow, haha. Anyways, after that we had some service to do. We were working on giving out food baskets. The way it works is the people go to the counter, say how many people in their family, then get a ticket for the appropriate amount of food, and finally Elder Bodily and I get it for them. The largest food package is for 7 people. Along with the other volunteers were cracking up a bit at... how big the families were today. We had about 50 people come through in a row all with 7 people in the family, which was weird because all of them were elderly and alone! No harm no foul though, haha. It mainly is funny, because the food pantry is open all week and never has a long wait, so if you are running low on food you can just come back. Oh well. Maybe they don't like going out. We stayed a little longer than normal, because there were some shortages, and they needed our help. Then rushed home for a lesson, and an English Class. Brother Horta called and said he has some stuff to give us. You see we, had mentioned we were going to give gift bags with invitations to to some families in our ward for our new family home evening idea. He had some stuff for us to put in the bags. 

Thursday:

We went over to get the stuff from Brother Horta. We were thinking it would be some candy or mints, but we should have known better, haha. This is Brother Horta. Instead, he gave us a giant duffel bag of water bottles, about 100 pens, a bunch of mints, and some pill counter containers. We needed bigger bags after that! Elder Bodily and I turned to go to the store to get some but on our way out he asked us if we wanted some more apples. When we went back, he asked if we drank milk. When we said ya, he brought a gallon of milk and asked if we liked ribs. Then he brought us three things of pork ribs and told us how to slow cook them properly!!! He is just the best, no other word appropriate. 

After that we had a lesson with Augosto and marked a day to meet him at the chapel next week, which will be my first in person lesson! Actually my first time seeing a person we are teaching, haha. After that spiritual high, we had weekly planning and interviews with president. From there we started the Pork Ribs and had a lesson with a guy I met named Roni. It was an ok lesson, but there was a party or something in the background 'cause it was SOOOOO loud. Elder Bodily and I were basically yelling for the entire hour it lasted. But he's a great guy and has a beautiful family. After that lesson we were exhausted, so we made some hot chocolate and took the ribs out of the oven. Thank you sooooo much brother Horta cause they were BOMB. 

Friday:

Started off with district counsel. The meeting went a little over and the Zone leaders came to talk to us and told us we shouldn't be talking to people any longer than district counsel because of corona. That was disappointing, but it's also life. We went home and made some mac and cheese for lunch. I wanted to grate some sharp cheese they gave us at service, but I may have grated too much, because it made the macaroni sooooo gross. While we were sick from that, I made cookies for the gift bags and Elder Bodily wrote the FHE invitations. 

Saturday:

Started off interesting. I got poked by a bodybuilder on Facebook. I was excited to talk to someone who shared my interested, so I responded and asked him how he was. He said ok just a little sore. I asked how his quarantine was going and he blocked me. 😅 Interesting to say the least. Elder Bodily and I dropped off the gift bags after that. At one of the houses, we walked by the kid who lived there. He's around 6. He said hi to us, and we said hi back and asked how he was. He was really cute, but we thought it was the next house over that was the member's house! So we walked over, then Elder Bodily said, wait, I think that was him😅. So we hurried back and gave him the gift bag and waved at them through the door. When we got home, I was talking to Roni about our love for Churrasco, and he invited me to come over and have one. He said he'd do the meat if I'd bring the pão de açucar. It broke my heart to politely decline, but I promised as soon as I was allowed to I'd let him know.  

Sunday: 

Sunday started off with Elder Bodily and I making a video for the zone page, which I would then post on my Facebook. Elder Bodily had a disappointing start. He made a plate of bacon and eggs and was walking to the table when he remembered it was fast Sunday. Heartbreaking, but it happens to the best of us. When the time finally came for us to break our fast, we were starving! As we were getting ready to eat, the phone rang, and the member on the line asked where we were and said she was at the park waiting. We were very panicked, especially because she was speaking in Portugese, and we are the only Portuguese Elders in the area. But as it turns out she was meeting with the Zone Leaders, not us. So crisis averted. From there we went to the park to grab the keys to the church from the Zone Leaders and that member was the member from earlier! She said when we were leaving she was waving at us and telling us to stop but we couldn't hear. She said she had a pizza she wanted to give us. Needless to say we were broken hearted, haha. After that, she went calling a bunch of missionaries trying to figure out who gave her the gift bag. (Didn't see that we left our number in the bag) How funny that when she finally did call us it was by accident, haha. Anyways, once we got the keys, we went to the church to use the computer to look up games to play over zoom for our FHE. We worked with the Sisters to plan the rest of our FHE which happened Monday. 

Monday: 

Not much to talk about other than the FHE. There were only two other member families other than us and the sisters, but it was a blast! We hope it grows and turns into something they can invite friends. We all got to know each other, played two truths and a lie with the kids, then had a spiritual thought about General Conference. It was incredibly spiritual. One of the members shared about her son's medical problems and the stress of knowing he could die any day. She talked about the peace she felt throughout as she listened to general conference and bore her testimony that she knew it would be ok. It was so powerful!

October 2020 General Conference

 Tuesday:

Started off the day by getting a ride to the Firestone to pick up our car. The guy there said that he called us, and we didn't answer. We asked him what number he called, and he read off our number but changed the 3 to a 4. It felt good to get the car back, until we had to give it to the Haitian Creole Elders two hours later. We got to work inviting people to general conference. Over the course of the week, we sent messages or wrote letters to 91 people about general conference. And 5 people responded. 

Wednesday: 

The sisters asked us if they could borrow our car at 8:15 AM. Because sisters and elders aren't allowed to drive together, we meet half way in between, so that the person without the car doesn't have to walk as far. But first we had to wake up early and have the Haitian Creole elders bring our car back, then we dropped them back off, only for the sisters to cancel and say they didn't need it anymore, haha. We had service to do after that. I don't think I need to say anything more than it was as fun as always seeing real life people other then quick drive-bys. After the food bank, we got a call from Brother Horta; we talked about getting him in contact with some people we were teaching to help fellowship them. He was really willing and went on to say he had been thinking about what we could do to help get in touch with other members here and introduce them to our friends we are teaching. We suggested that on Mondays we have a family night where the sisters and we can invite the members and their families along with anyone we're teaching, to have some time to study the scriptures together, play some games, and maybe play some get-to-know-you games. He then let us know he would be there to help us for anything. It's so awesome to have such a great guy in our corner, and we are really excited to implement his ideas. 

Thursday:

We had our weekly lesson Augosto and extended the invitation to be baptized. He was really excited, and expressed that it was his intention but, he was just waiting for God to issue a personal calling to him to be baptized. We took that opportunity to remind him about General Conference, and invite him again. After that, we had a call with Francis. He answered and each time just said "oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi," until we hung up. Maybe it's just a bad connection? We hope he doesn't start dodging us, but if he does, he does. It's not our job to control peoples actions just try to give them the chance to listen. After that ,we worked on delivering letters for a bit aaaaaand the unthinkable happened. A big truck parked in front of our parking space, and while I was trying to squeeze in I scraped the side of our car. It's not too bad, just the paint, but I took a hit to my pride as I can no longer say that I've got a clean record. After that we had an English class. Our Thursday classes are extremely advanced, so we mainly just practiced talking in Portugese, and one of them asked our favorite movies. Elder Bodily was explaining his, The Count of Monte Cristo, and encouraging them to watch it. I searched it on facebook to see if I could find a picture of the cover to send to the group and the first result was the entire movie just uploaded onto Facebook hahaha. Poor Elder Bodily, so close yet so far. (As missionaries, we don't watch movies for the 2 years we are serving.)

Friday:

We had my second ever zone conference which is so awesome. It's pretty much my only opportunity to talk to missionaries outside of my district, so it was super refreshing. I loved hearing from President Mavromatis. Elder Bodily brought a guitar brother Horta gave to us and preformed a musical number. From there we all got a group picture and went home. I had one interesting experience with the gift of tongues, and it's not what you think. A lot of missionaries have stories of when they were talking and all the sudden they spoke words they didn't even remember and gave the perfect message. I'm going the other way. We were having a lesson, and Elder Bodily did something that annoyed me, and because it was late and I was tired, I spent the rest of the lesson getting angry about it. I fixated it in my mind and the Spirit immediately left. Even though I dropped it, I felt the Spirit's absence. I couldn't understand as well; I could barely respond; and my communication was horrible. In time, I repented and humbled myself, and like putting on a pair of glasses, everything became clearer. It didn't get easier, I just had what I needed to communicate in the lesson. God's blessings are real, and so present that often times we don't even recognize them or take them for granted. But we need to be worthy of the Spirit in order to be blessed. 

Saturday: 

So, first session of General Conference... wow... it was awesome. If anyone reading this hasn't watched it, I'd encourage you to do so TODAY. I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies my mom sent me, and they were great. We went in between sessions and gave some away. In the second session, I was taking notes on Elder Utchdorf's talk in a journal my grandma gave me. On the bottom of each page, it has a scripture. Right as Elder Utchdorf was talking about patience through our burdens, and how we will be uplifted through our challenges in the quarantine, I got to the edge of the page where Mosiah 24:15 is shown. "The Lord did strengthen them, that they could bear their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." God isn't going to take away our problems every time, but He will strengthen us, and uplift us. 

Sunday: 

After the first session of General Conference, which let me say was another awesome one, we went to drop some cookies off at the Salem Portuguese Elders' apartment. We got about 20 minutes in and Elder Bodily asked, "Did you grab any cookies?" So we had to drive all the way back to get them. By that time traffic picked up, and we got caught driving for an hour and half so we ended up watching conference at their apartment. I can't lie, it was nice to have an excuse to be around other people. During conference in the Sunday afternoon session, several speakers spoke on covenants made in the temple to prepare for missions and life. These covenants are referred to as an endowment. Because I left while the temples were still closed, I never received my temple endowment (something missionaries do in preparation to serve missions). I'm one of about 10 missionaries in our mission who hasn't gone yet. This conference, there was a big theme of unity and faith during hardship. And, Elder (Jeffrey) Holland did not disappoint. A thought occurred to me during his talk that helped me to think about why God allows us to have trials, and doesn't immediately answer our prayers every time. I love going to the gym, I like training, practicing, and most importantly, getting stronger. THE most frustrating experience you can have at the gym, is an overzealous spotter. Your spotter is intended to watch you press or lift a weight. And if you fail, help you track it rather than crush yourself. When you are in the middle of a set, and a spotter takes the weight before you are done, it is extremely annoying. Not only do they deny you the satisfaction of finishing strong, they deny you the growth and increase of strength that comes with activating your muscles. No one wants an overzealous spotter in the gym; it would take away the whole point of going to the gym. So why would we want an overzealous spotter everywhere else. If God always did all of the heavy lifting, we would never get the chance to get spiritually ripped. It was a great talk. Unfortunately, right in the middle of it the, Salem Elders got a phone call. The lady on the other end was not very technologically savvy. So we spent the rest of conference trying to tell her how to flip her camera back around and click the link. Then as soon as we finished helping her, Elder Bodily and I had to rush home for a lesson with a member. We didn't finished the last couple talks, or get to see the new temple assignments.But we have that to look forward to this week! One exciting thing happened after that. After months of hard work... I finished first place in diamond league for duolingo, haha. Funny how having an hour of language study a day can help you learn a language.