Milagrão!

Hello to all my subscribers, 

How are you? I'm great, this was a great week. I've stopped taking notes on what happens which makes it really hard to remember at the end of the week. It was an interesting one for our area. 6 of our investigators are moving, which is too bad, especially in the case of Isabelle, because she really wants to get baptized. But as it happens, we got to go over to their house Friday morning to help them move. I woke up at 5:30, and we got there at about 8:00. Then there was nothing to do yet, so we ate breakfast with them and helped wrap plates for an hour and waited to be told what to do. In the middle of plate wrapping, I burst out laughing, and her 11-year-old daughter thought I was crazy. I just thought about how it’s someone’s profession to write all these newspapers, and somebody else’s to collect the data, and someone else’s to make the graphs, and someone else’s to make the title. All this work just for one newspaper. And all people use them for is to light fires and wrap glass plates. It just cracked me up. 

We only found a couple new friends this week and all outside of our area, but one was Bartholomew. (Definitely didn't spell that right.) He is a 17-year-old who's really shy. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and it really captivated him. The good news is that he lives in the Zone Leaders’ area, so I can still keep an eye on him! We even got two references this week. Mikaelly, who had a baptismal date then moved to our area. She is really busy but really nice. We talked a lot, and I'm really excited to get to know her. The office elders also passed the contact of someone who has a date for this Sunday! So, in 7 days we have to introduce her to the bishop and make sure she knows the ward; that'll be exciting!

And the big miracle of the week. I was in the car with a member on Sunday. We had gone to church in the Costa and Silva wards. He asked us about, "That girl who went to church a couple times way back." Mila... I told him about how she was really cool, but blocked us and expressed that she wanted nothing to do with us out of nowhere, because of stuff she read online. Then a couple minutes later, Claudia sent us a message. She's the member we invited to the lessons with Mila. She said that Mila and her had been talking, and Mila asked when church was coming back. She then went to church and said she felt the Spirit, and asked if she could hear the messages again, and apologized to us for being rude! How cool is that? It's the first and probably only time in my mission someone who was marked as do not contact has had a sudden drastic change of heart. The funniest part, I was talking to Elder Frost earlier in the week about a story dad told me. Where some missionaries contacted people marked as do not contact, and one of them ended up getting baptized. But I talked about how you don't hear about the hundreds or thousands of do not contacts who react in... different ways, and that that never actually happens... Well, I was wrong ha-ha. We will see how this next week goes, I love you guys, talk to you next week!

 

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 

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! 

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!

Best Week

So before I start. Really eventful week, one of the best of my mission. I had so many spiritual experiences, and the Spirit was present in so many of our lessons. It was a lesson to me that if we can do our part, the Lord will take care of us.  

Tuesday:

So today started off really well. We had a lesson with a guy named Willian. I can't recall if I had met him last week or this week, so this might be a recap. But he's awesome, a really special guy just going through some rough times. I was so glad to get to know him, and we were able to drop him off a Book of Mormon. I went through and highlighted and annotated a bunch of up lifting scriptures for him. Those scriptures proved useful again later in the week. He said he went through and read them, and they helped him out which is really awesome. After that, the Haitian elders asked us for a ride to the church, and to chaperone a chapel tour with them and one of their friends. When we got there, the zone leaders told us that in a meeting with a member of the opposite sex, the meeting has to include another member of your own sex. So instead, they stood out in the sun and had a lesson. I got to watch them invite her to be baptized, and it was so awesome to see. After that, they had some lessons, so we couldn't take them home. We waited for them at the chapel... we ended up being there 11:00 to 6:30 haha. After they finished all their stuff, we were able to go home and eat lunch/dinner after a quick lesson. From there we just had English class with a member named Deborah. 

Wednesday:

Started off by going to a chapel to pick up an English connect book. (The book we use for English class.) Transfers were going on, so there were a ton of missionaries which was awesome. Always nice to see real life people haha. After that I shared a post on my story, with a picture of Jesus and a scripture. And someone messaged me and in said (roughly translated), "Do you really think Jesus was white? And that he was blonde? He was from the middle east." Which was even more confusing because in the picture Jesus had brown hair haha. Anyways, I just said, "Well, I don't know exactly what He looked like, but we know He was Jewish, and this artist's interpretation is more focused on depicting the care of Jesus towards his children." Then I asked him what his relationship with Christ was, and how it had affected his life. We talked about that a little. I introduced the Book of Mormon and promised him that if he read it and prayed, he could know it's true. He was curious, but we'll see how that goes. Then, we had a lesson with a woman named Adrianna. This was an interesting experience. We shared the message of the restoration; it was a super interactive lesson. I have NEVER felt the Spirit stronger during a lesson than there, and yet it ended with her saying, "Church isn't a place; it's in us," and we could tell she wasn't interested. It showed me, that no matter how much testament we receive that something is true, if we aren't receptive, then the Spirit can't help us. Later, we had a lesson with Debora F., and we invited her to be baptized. She said she wanted to think about it and told us she was gonna give us her answer next time we talked. One little miracle; the connection in that lesson was awful. We could barely hear her and vise versa; three times we had to hang up and call again. We knew this was an important lesson and needed to call her. The last time, I said a prayer and simply asked that God would strengthen the signal, so that we could communicate with her. As soon as we called back, like flipping a switch, the connection was perfect; the rest of the time it never even so much as flickered. This may seem small, but it was the most instant prayer I have ever seen on my life, and more importantly, goes to show that by small things, do great things come to pass. Anyways, after that we studied for a bit, and suddenly, I remembered I had put cookies in the oven, and they were gonna burn. That made me remember that we were late for a lesson with Jorge. And so once again cookies save the day. 

Thursday:

You know the deal, weekly planning. A lot less to talk about these days. My Portuguese is getting a lot better, but I need to work on the formal version you use in a prayer. I was asking for help for Willian and said... "Você pode ajudar...... Você pode ajudas..... Tu pode ajudas..... Tu podes ajudar" well, at least I notice when I use the wrong form now, and I got there eventually. Afterwords, we spent 3-4 hours writing a lot of letters to members with unlisted phone numbers. 

Friday:

This was a crazy day. It started off with district counsel, where we had a lesson and roleplay from the Haitian Elders on the importance of bearing our testimony during lessons, making invitations, and promising blessings. This was by far the best roleplay I've had while on my mission. Later in the day, it would completely change my experience in 2 lessons. From there I got home and made some cheesy eggs.... (well, I got the proportions very wrong so more like eggy cheese), and we made some calls. One guy we talk to keeps saying he's interested but when we call, every single time he puts his phone in his pocket. We finally realized it's, so we don't call back. We got the message after the third day this happened and decided to stop talking to him. (This does raise the question of, instead of ignoring us and telling us to call again... why not just say no when we ask if you want to hear a message??? Oh well.) We made some decisions to stop teaching some people, one of whom was a man named Devanir. We had tried calling him repeatedly but he was always busy. About twenty minutes after we made this decision, he called us for the first time and said he wanted to talk to us. We had a lesson later, and he shared that from the moment we opened our meeting with a prayer, the Spirit confirmed to him that we were sent from God. The roleplay we had earlier was fresh on my mind, and I shared my testimony throughout the discussion, and he shared his. He is an old man who is having medical problems. Because of this, we can't visit him as he's in the hospital. But he's such a special sweet man, and I know he is loved dearly by a Heavenly Father. In that lesson, I felt that love as we got to know him. Immediately after that, we had a lesson with a man named Junior. We shared the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him. He was an awesome guy, close to our age so it was a lot easy to connect with him and become friends. I ended up inviting him to make the covenant of baptism. He responded positively, and said he'd like to learn more about our faith before making that decision. He then asked "What's the name of your church exactly?" I may have jumped the gun on that invitation. Oh well haha. He then asked if we were the people who had a little blue book and we said yes. Then out of no where he held up a Book of Mormon and said, "Like this?" It was really funny at the time, and all three of us laughed about it. He said he had been given it years ago, and that he wanted to read it and meet with us again. We set up a time next week to talk to him and gave him some stuff to read. It was a great discussion, and we look forward to talking to him in the future. 

Saturday:

So Saturday I did as I do... and made more cookie dough. This time I used some gluten free flour for Sister Lawlor, and they turned out super dry. I was upset with this, because we had had a conversation with Sister Freire where she said chocolate chip cookies weren't that good, and I did NOT want dry cookies to represent why I know that she's wrong. haha Oh well. After that we had another lesson with Willian and got to know him. The more we talk with him, the more I love him. There are so many people on this world who feel alone. It makes me realize how much I've taken granted going to church in my life. Most people don't have a community they can enter into and be cared for. I hope we can create a feeling like that for Willian and everyone else we come into contact with. More and more each day, I realize how much this church has blessed me, and I just want to help other people get that as well. At the end of the lesson, I turned to Elder Bodily and said, "Man, the Spirit takes care of us." As we sacrifice to make God a priority in our lives, He will make us see how we as individuals are a priority to Him.

Sunday:

Started off with Elder Bodily and I sleeping through our alarms and waking up at 8:00. Then we did our personal studies. The night before, Elder Bodily had told me a story in which a priest of another unnamed religion had come up to him and said, "You know where you people got it wrong? Laying on of hands. At no point in the entire Bible does that occur." Now I know the Bible well enough to know that does occur, and so does Elder Bodily. But at that point in his life, he didn't know the Bible well enough to find that. And the guy dismissed him condescendingly. I was thinking about that during my personal study, but decided to put it off my mind and continue reading where I had left off in the New Testament. I opened up and started reading, and almost immediately came across Acts 6:5-6, and you can guess to what happens there. It helped to alleviate my concern and strengthened my testimony that we can find the answers to any questions we need if we look to divinely appointed sources. God has given us so much to testify of the truth. Too many people these days focus on what they don't know, and they lose out the opportunity to learn from what they do know. From there we went to church. There were 9 people in total because it was the 1:00 session. It was a great experience, and it's so nice seeing members in person. Speaking of members, let's talk about Brother Horta. He is AWESOME! No other word for it. It's such a blessing to have him work so much with us when we've had so much trouble getting in touch with other members in the area. He wants to have a barbecue with us and the Sisters so bad. We've tried to explain the situation to him (at this point we aren't allowed to eat with members in order to respect health and safety regulations), but he wants to meet with us. It's so hard for us, because we feel like we are rejecting his love, (especially when juicy steaks are involved) but rules are rules. He asked at one point, if he could call our mission president and explain the situation to him. We explained that it comes from the area seventy, and it's outside of President Mavromatis's control. One day I hope, sadly not today. From there we had 4 lessons, each one with 30 minutes of wait time until the next time. That's the worst kind of day, because when there are cancellations, it leaves you with an unplanned hour and nothing to do. In this case, 3 of them were canceled. Leaving us unscheduled for 3 hours. Oh well. 

All in all, an amazing week. This week especially I've seen the benefits of trusting in the Lord. I would encourage anyone reading this to get on their knees tonight, and pray in humility, and ask to feel God's love in their life. And I promise that with patience and faith you will receive this confirmation. 

This is David; we taught him twice. So awesome, and we loved teaching him. He lives far away so we introduced him to some Portuguese elders in his area. He posted on Facebook about his experience with them, and went on to send someone in the comments a link to the Book of Mormon. It's awesome to see how he's progressed, and what a valiant man he is, but I still wish I could have gotten the chance to teach him more haha. He's such a special person, and I would have loved to interact with him more. 

I'm a chef now, btw, but I guess I still need my mom to make my shopping lists for me; too much meat.

Still a chef in case you forgot. Creating new recipes all the time.

One of the best

So before I start. Really eventful week, one of the best of my mission. I had so many spiritual experiences, and the Spirit was present in so many of our lessons. It was a lesson to me that if we can do our part, the Lord will take care of us  

Tuesday:

So today started off really well. We had a lesson with a guy named Willian. I can't recall if I had met him last week or this week, so I'm not sure if this is a recap. But he's awesome, a really special guy; just going through some rough times. I was so glad to get to know him, and we were able to drop him off a Book of Mormon. I went through and highlighted and annotated a bunch of up lifting scriptures for him. Those scriptures proved useful again later in the week, and he said he went through and read them, and they helped him out which is really awesome. After that, the Haitian elders asked us for a ride to the church, and to chaperone a chapel tour with them and one of their friends. When we got there, the zone leaders told us that in a meeting with a member of the opposite sex the meeting has to include a member of your own sex. So instead, they stood out in the sun and had a lesson. I got to watch them invite her to be baptized, and it was so awesome to see. After that, they had some lessons, so we couldn't take them home. We had to wait for them at the chapel... we ended up being there 11:00 to 6:30, haha. But after they finished all their stuff, we were able to go home and eat lunch/dinner after a quick lesson. From there we just had English class with a member named Deborah. 

Wednesday:

Started off by going to a chapel to pick up an english connect book. (The book we use for English class.) Transfers were going on, so there were a ton of missionaries which was awesome. Always nice to see real life people, haha. Then I shared a post on my story, with a picture of Jesus and a scripture. And someone messaged me and said (roughly translated), "Do you really think Jesus was white? And that he was blonde? He was from the middle east." Which was even more confusing because in the picture Jesus had brown hair. Anyways I just said, "Well, I don't know exactly what He looked like, but we know He was Jewish, and this artist's interpretation is more focused on depicting the care of Jesus towards His children." Then I asked him what his relationship was with Christ and how it had affected his life. We talked about that a little, and I introduced the Book of Mormon and promised him that if he read it and prayed, he could know it's true. He was curious, but we'll see how that goes. Later, we had a lesson with a woman named Adrianna. This was an interesting experience. We shared the message of the restoration, and it was a super interactive lesson. I have NEVER felt the Spirit stronger during a lesson than there, and yet it ended with her saying, "Church isn't a place; it's in us." We could tell she wasn't interested. It kind of showed me, that no matter how much testament we receive that something is true, if we aren't receptive, then the Spirit can't help us. After that, we had a lesson with Debora F. We invited her to be baptized; she said she wanted to think about it and told us she was gonna give us her answer next time we talked. One little miracle; the connection in that lesson was awful; we could barely hear her and vise versa. Three times we had to hang up and call again. We knew this was an important lesson, and needed to call her. The last time I said a prayer, and simply asked that God would strengthen the signal, so that we could communicate with her. As soon as we called back, like flipping a switch, the connection was perfect, and the rest of the time it never even so much as flickered. This may seem small, but it was the most instant prayer I have ever seen in my life, and more importantly, goes to show that 'by little things, do great things come to pass'. Anyways, after that we studied for a bit. Suddenly, I remembered I had put cookies in the oven, and they were gonna burn. That made me remember that we were late for a lesson with Jorge. And so once again, cookies save the day! 

Thursday:

You know the deal, weekly planning. A lot less to talk about these days. My Portuguese is getting a lot better, but I need to work on the formal version you use in a prayer. I was asking for help for Willian and said... "Você pode ajudar...... Você pode ajudas..... Tu pode ajudas..... Tu podes ajudar" well, at least I notice when I use the wrong form now, and I got there eventually. After that we spent 3-4 hours writing a lot of letters to members with unlisted phone numbers. 

Friday:

This was a crazy day. It started off with district counsel, where we had a lesson and role play from the Haitian elders on the importance of bearing our testimony during lessons, making invitations, and promising blessings. This was by far the best role play I've had while on my mission. Later in the day, it would completely change my experience in 2 lessons. After I got home and made some cheesy eggs.... (well I got the proportions very wrong so more like eggy cheese), we made some calls. One guy we talk to keeps saying he's interested, but when we call, every single time he puts his phone in his pocket. We finally realized, it's so we don't call back. We got the message after the third day this happened and decided to stop talking to him. This does raise the question of, instead of ignoring us and telling us to call again... why not just say no when we ask if you want to hear a message??? Oh well. After that we made some decisions to stop teaching some people, one of whom was a man named Devanir. We had tried calling him repeatedly, but he was always busy. About twenty minutes after we made this decision, he called us for the first time and said he wanted to talk to us. We had a lesson later, and he shared that from the moment we opened our meeting with a prayer, the Spirit confirmed to him that we were sent from God. The role play we had earlier was fresh on my mind, and I shared my testimony throughout the discussion, and he shared his. He is an old man who is having medical problems. Because of this, we can't visit him as he's in the hospital. But he's such a special sweet man, and I know he is loved dearly by Heavenly Father. In that lesson, I felt that love as we got to know him. Immediately after that, we had a lesson with a man named Junior. We shared the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him. He was an awesome guy, close to our age, so it was easier to connect with him and become friends. I ended up inviting him to make the covenant of Baptism. He responded positively, and said he'd like to learn more about our faith before making that decision. He then asked "What's the name of your church exactly?" I may have jumped the gun on that invitation. Oh well, haha. He then asked if we were the people who had a little blue book, and we said yes. Then out of nowhere, he held up a Book of Mormon and said, "Like this?" It was really funny at the time, and all three of us laughed about it. He said he had been given it years ago, and that he wanted to read it and meet with us again. We set up a time next week to talk to him and gave him some stuff to read. It was a great discussion, and we look forward to talking to him in the future. 

Saturday:

So Saturday. I did as I do... and made more cookie dough. This time I used some gluten free flour for Sister Lawlor, and they turned out super dry. I was upset with this, because we had had a conversation with Sister Freire where she said chocolate chip cookies weren't that good, and I did NOT want dry cookies to represent why I know that she's wrong. Oh well. After that we had another lesson with Willian, and got to know him. The more we talk with him, the more I love him. There are so many people in this world who feel alone; it makes me realize how much I've taken granted going to church in my life. Most people don't have a community they can enter into and be cared for. I hope we can create a feeling like that for Willian and everyone else we come into contact with. More and more each day, I realize how much this church has blessed me, and I just want to help other people get that as well. At the end of the lesson, I turned to Elder Bodily and said, "Man, the Spirit takes care of us dude." As we sacrifice to make God a priority in our lives, He will make us see how we as individuals are a priority to Him."

Sunday:

Started off with Elder Bodily and I sleeping through our alarms and waking up at 8:00. Then we did our personal studies. The night before, Elder Bodily had told me a story in which a priest of another unnamed religion had come up to him and said "you know where you people got it wrong? Laying on of hands. At no point in the entire Bible does that occur." Now I know the bible well enough to know that does occur, and so does Elder Bodily. But at that point in his life he didn't know the bible well enough to find that. And the guy dismissed him condescendingly. I was thinking about that during my personal study, but decided to put it off my mind and continue reading where I had left off in the New Testament. I opened up and started reading, and almost immediately came across Acts 6:5-6, and you can guess to what happens there. It helped to alleviate my concern, and strengthened my testimony that we can find the answers to any questions we need if we look to divinely appointed sources. God has given us so much to testify of the truth, too many people these days focus on what they dont know, and they lose out the opportunity to learn from what they do know. From there we went to church, there were 9 people in total because it was the 1:00 session. It was a great experience, and it's so nice seeing members in person. Speaking of Members, let's talk about Brother Horta. He is AWESOME! No other word for it. It's such a blessing to have him work so much with us, when we've had so much trouble getting in touch with other members in the area. He wants to have a barbecue with us and the Sisters so bad. We've tried to explain the situation to him, but he wants to meet with us. It's so hard for us because we feel like we are rejecting his love, (especially when juicy steaks are involved) but rules are rules. He asked at one point, if he could call our mission president and explain the situation to him. We explained that it comes from the area seventy, and its outside of President Mavromatis's control. One day I hope, sadly not today. From there we had 4 lessons, each one with 30 minutes of wait time until the next time. That's the worst kind of day, because when there's cancellations, it leaves you with an unplanned hour and nothing to do. In this case 3 of them were canceled. Leaving us bored for 3 hours. Oh well. 

All in all am amazing week. This week especially I've seen the benefits of trusting in the lord. I would encourage anyone reading this to get on their knees tonight, and pray in humility, and ask to feel Gods love in our life. And I promise that with Patience and Faith you will receive this confirmation.