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 

First baptism date, kind of

This is what a typical
day looks like

Monday:

Monday we had a lesson with a lady named Andrine. She had said her goal with meeting with us was to learn how she could draw closer to God. We decided to share James 1 and 2 with her. We talked about how faith without works is dead and about the ways we show our faith. It was an AMAZING first lesson, and a great way to start the week. The next fun thing included a guy named Jay-Ar. He wanted to hear a message, but because he's in the Philippines, we wanted to refer him to missionaries over there. So I used a Facebbok group I'm in whose purpose is to find missionaries all over the world and shared the situation. Within seconds, I had a ton of missionaries helping me. Someone responded and said that was their old mission, then he tagged some other missionaries and said some stuff in Taglog, tagging the appropriate missionaries. All I could think of was the scene in Lord of the Rings where they light the beacons and you see a bunch of lights go on through the skies and Eragorn yells, "The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid." 

Tuesday:

We forgot to take the car in to get the oil changed, so we made plans to do it next week. Skip to Monday to see what went down with that cause it's interesting. We went to the Horta's to borrow something. There was no-one home, so we got to eat the cookies we made them which is a plus. We have plenty of work to get ready for General Conference. (This week had a lot of work under the scenes that I won't talk about.) We drove to the Zone Leaders' apartment so they could borrow the car. A sister in our ward gave us money last week to go out to dinner, and we went to a churrasco called Oliveiras. It was so good! We also had great member lessons with brother Wright and Sister Barros. A guy we were talking to asked if we could have a lesson at 9:30. We weren't excited about having one as we had been getting ready for bed, but decided that we needed to meet the schedule of the people whom we are teaching, not the other way around. And I'm glad we did. He started off by asking about 3 Nephi 11. He asked about baptism and how when Christ arrived He gave authority to the apostles. We shared the importance of authority to him and extended the invitation to be baptized, and he accepted. I'm very excited to get to know Francis more in the future and love seeing his relationship with God growing. He's already been baptized two times; first when he was 3, then when he was 18, he wanted to be baptized again because it didn't make sense that he had been baptized before he knew what right and wrong was, not to mention the fact that it wasn't by immersion. So when we explained the importance for authority, he was excited. 

Wednesday:

I talked a little with Jay-Ar, and he had questions about why missionaries can't hold lessons after 10:30. I explained that it was to make sure we were getting enough sleep and talked about the importance of obedience. He responded "Ok, I'll go to bed now to be obedient." Haha. I told him that was a rule for missionaries and not a commandment, and it was all ok. That day we went to pick up our car from the Zone Leaders; while we were there; they gave us a slice of pie, some cookies, and some biscuits. All in all, a fair trade. We also went to do service at our food kitchen. As always, it was great. We have good relationships with all the people there, and it's nice being outside. Once people pick up their food bags, there's an area where they bring out trays of extra fruit they have. 

Thursday:

Nothing much to say here. We had a weekly planning session where we coordinated our efforts and talked about how we would get ready for general conference. We had am amazing lesson with Augosto, and he said he couldn't wait to go to church with us. 

Friday: 

I made good use of the steak from
the members!

We went to district counsel. While we were at the chapel, we got some meat from the fridge. A sister in the ward had accidentally ordered a ton in excess and gave it to the missionaries to share. Man, I didn't mind that at all haha! I made a nice thick steak cooked in mustard and garlic. While we were making the steak however, another member came by and gave us a pizza. No complaints here. We dropped off some cookies to our friend Carlos and went home just in time for a lesson with Pedro M. It was a great lesson, and we helped him download the book of Mormon app on his phones, and showed him how to listen to it. Plus we invited him to general conference, and he was really excited to see what it was all about. 

Saturday:

So funny story from today: we went on a walk to get out of the house, and were waiting at this big intersection. Across the street, there was this old lady with a walker. She decided not to wait for the go sign for pedestrians. She just went for it. As you can imagine, cars had to slam on their breaks, the intersection got clogged up, people started yelling at each other, and slowly but surely, she crossed the street. Finally, the second she made it to the other side, the pedestrian light turned on. Patience isn't for everyone, haha. We have been talking about Augosto and how awesome he is. I went back to look at what our first messages were like. He was the first person I ever talked to on Facebook, so as you can imagine I was pretty new to missionary work. The conversation was as follows (translated) 

"Hi, is everything good?"

"Everything is good" 

"I'm good too, and how are you?"

"Very good also"

"Awesome, so I'm a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of later day saints, and I'm sharing a message...."

Elder Bodily and I laughed about my lack of tact; he made the comment that I basically just said hi then slapped him in the face with a Book of Mormon. But it seems to be working, haha. We also had a lesson with Willian, but he canceled. We think he might be avoiding us. It's always sad when that happens; you build relationships with people then all the sudden they ghost you out of nowhere. It's definitely going to take getting used to. This week was a very busy week. We did everything we needed to do and worked hard, but we didn't have very much success finding people to teach. Other weeks maybe we do less work and find more people. Sometimes things aren't going to go exactly the way you would hope, circumstances change, and we live in a dynamic world. But as you press forward with faith and trust in God, He will bless you. 

Sunday: 

Big day, we finally got to go to church in person with Augosto, except for the fact that he never showed up. We were on the phone with him before, and he said he was waiting on a call from his boss before leaving. Turns out his boss called him and told him they were understaffed, and he had to come in. He was super apologetic, and we understood, but it was still disappointing. Especially because church was so awesome. One of the people who gave a talk was an old guy whose been a member here for a long time. He shared that it may be his last talk before he dies; he shared his life story and experience with the church. It was so powerful, and I'm so grateful I could be there to listen. At home, I attempted to make Brigadeiro which is a Brazilian dessert that is essentially chocolate balls. The only problem is that they never solidified, so instead I was left with brigadeiro soup. Oh well. We finished the day with a lesson with the Vandanburgs and talked about the upcoming conference with them. They shared that sometimes it could be hard to focus on listening to the talks with so many kids around, but they did their best. We were reading in Jacob, and I remembered that there was a scripture that talks about our intentions and actions being reflected in our work. I decided to read that on the next page. I thought it talked about how we are blessed for bringing forth good fruit, and I wanted to talk about how God just wants us to do our best. BUT, the one I was thinking of was about how if we bring forth evil fruit we are cursed. So essentially they said they were having a hard time focusing in conference, and I told them they would be dammed. Luckily Elder Bodily saved it, and I corrected my mistake, but still pretty funny. 

Monday: 

So, the car. We took it in to get the oil changed, thinking it would be about 30 minutes. The guy in the Firestone was rude, and we could tell why for some reason he didn't like us. We assume it's because we are missionaries. He asked when we need our car by, and we said however long they needed. He responded, "OK. Come back here at 7..." It was 11 in the morning. We didn't need our car; however, so we weren't too worried about it and asked another pair of elders to bring us home. Here's the kicker. At 6:30, we checked and found at their hours are from 8-5; this guy was just trying to get us to come back when they were closed to be a nuisance. I don't know why. We haven't done anything to him, but it's the way of the world, haha. Before my mission, I would have gotten real angry, and probably tried to get him in trouble. As it is right now, I'm trying to remember that I'm a representative of Christ. The people who tortured and killed him showed no mercy, no love, and no kindness. Yet He forgave them anyways. Who would I be, if I took my anger out over something as petty as needing to come a day later to pick up my car. If I go in there and get mad and talk to the manager, all I'm doing is affirming whatever he thinks he knows about me, but maybe if I act with civility and kindness, I can give him a different impression. Then maybe next time he won't act the same way. 

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.

What are the odds

 Tuesday:

So we started off the day as normal, with planning, then we decided to make some phone calls. While it was dialing, I picked up 5 die and rolled them and then got psyched put of my mind when I saw the results. I rolled 5 1's. Which, according to my math, has a .012655 percent chance of occurring. So in other words, this week was gonna be a special one. And boy oh boy, it was. To start off, we took the car in at 11 to get the tires switched out. We got there at 12 and were told it was gonna be about 5 hours before they finished... So, we had a lesson with Augosto on a picnic bench and did a lot of calling and online work. The lesson with Augosto went great! We already teach him with just audio calls, so it wasn't a big deal that we were outside. He's also great at keeping commitments and is always really engaged in the conversation. We prayed and decided the best way we could help Deborah F, but that lesson ended up being canceled. We got our car about 5:30 and were home by 6:30. That's when Elder Bodily and I had a real lesson in patience. We teach English classes. Last week, the class started late at 7:30; so we then decided to leave all the other classes until that time since that's when people show up. But no one showed up at the class, and at 8:15 the mother of the family said that our lesson was at 8:15, and without getting into too much detail was super condescending and rude to people who were trying to help her speak English. At that point, I just got on my knees and said a prayer to have patience and feel Christ's love for this woman. And after that it was like a switch in my brain; I couldn't feel any anger. We need to learn to rely on Christ for our problems. If we aren't rooting our actions in Him, we will never be able to become the people we strive to be. Anyways, after that we had a call with the Sisters. Elder Bodily is district leader, and they had asked that we call them now and then to check up on them. This particular day, we just complained and moaned about how we were stuck in the middle of no where all day and then a lady was rude to us... essentially we undid all the good work we had done learning patience throughout the day. Oh well, sorry for taking over the phone call sisters. 

Wednesday:

I woke up 6:30 sharp and had an analogy on my mind, I went and wrote a 2-3 page talk on it. I might link it later on or share it on my facebook profile so I won't get into it too much right now other than to say weightlifting is involved. After that, the sisters brought us muffins cause of how much we complained about our day yesterday. First off, the sisters are awesome. Secondly, we had a great day. We just found it easier at the end when we were tired to focus on all the negatives. Our minds are weird like that; we always bring the negatives up before the positives. Doing otherwise takes training, but if we can do it, we will be able to find so much more joy in our days and in our lives. We had exchanges with our zone leaders after that, which is essentially a 3 hour phone call, but it's a lot more fun than it sounds. You just gotta try it one day to find out haha. 

Thursday: 

We had our daily planning. As a part of it, I made a graph for us to examine. On one axis it was Fubeca and robot. A fubeca is someone who doesn't care about the rules and is disobedient, a robot is someone who is perfect, always doing what they are supposed to be doing, and always on topic. On the y axis we had trunky and eye of the tiger. If you are trunky, you are unmotivated, thinking about home; if you have the eye of the tiger you are driven, focused, and energetic. We use this to mark how we are feeling with our work the last day, and graph how we can improve, as well as talk about why we felt the way we did. After that, we went to a member, Brother H, to pick up a guitar for a music video Elder Bodily is doing. We ended up talking to him and his family for almost an hour and a half on the front porch. I can't even explain to you how needed that was for me. We got to know their amazing family. While we were talking, I bore my testimony on prayer and asked the kids what something they wanted to pray for was. 13 year old Camilla said she wanted to find ways to serve her friends and family. 10 year old Bela said she wanted to pray to have more patience. And 8 year old Jacob said he wanted help expressing his emotions better and controlling himself.... do I even need to comment? What amazing kids!!! If we could all have motives as simple and pure as that, think about how much closer we would be to our friends and families. Brother H started crying, and talked about how he had been having a hard time communicating with his son, and had been praying for weeks that he could know why. He bore testimony that we were an answer to his prayers, and that missionaries are sent from God to bless the lives of the people they serve. It was such a pure moment and the Spirit was so powerful. After that, we had a lesson with Pedro M that went well, and invited him to go to church on August 30. He said yes and that he would bring a friend with him. This day was simple and by far the best day on my mission so far. We had 4 nonstop hours of lessons and discussions before it ended, and every second of it was wonderful. 

Friday:

Today was my birthday. I loved reading all the messages from my friends and family. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful people I've come into contact in my life. We had district counsel, too, which was a great birthday activity, because I got to see our district in person and talk face to face. After that, I spent the next 3 hours making a video about the plan of salvation using eggs, haha. The day ended simply: blowing out a candle in some beans and rice. 

Saturday: 

So, my parents sent me a giant black happy birthday banner for yesterday. Which first off is awesome!!! Secondly, our bedroom blinds don't work, and the room gets bright SUPER early in MA. So we put it over the window Friday night and Saturday Morning was the first day I have woken up truly well rested while I've been here. Next up, I put some cookies in the oven and while I ate them, Elder Bodily and I read from the Missionary handbook. It just so happens that the section we read today was nutrition and safety... no comment. It was a slow day. I spent about 2 hours studying Preach My Gospel and fell asleep while taking a short break. I woke up with Elder Bodily shaking me and then starting to pray. Very confused I folded my arms and then looked up while Elder Bodily started teaching. Apparently, someone had called and asked if we could have a lesson early. I was very groggy and confused at first, but the lesson went great. I studied Preach My Gospel the rest of the day more or less and that was that. 

Sunday:

We had church, which today was taught by the sisters. Sister Freire is the brand new sister to the mission, and she taught the lesson fresh out of the MTC and killed it which was cool to see. After that, we had 3 lessons; all 3 which got cancelled. The sisters brought us some muffins for my birthday for the second time that week; once again, awesome. And we had 2 more lessons fall through, making a grand total of 5. I would like to say that that is not typical, but the days where that does happen is unfortunate. Anyways, after that I did some work on Facebook, got hit on by a 30 year old man and 13 year old girl, and wrapped up. One man we talked to was named Marcelo. We asked him if he was interested in hearing about Jesus Christ, and he responded he already knew of Christ. We asked if he had heard about his ministry in the Americas, and he said yes. We then asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon which testified of His ministry in the Americas. This time he said no, and when we explained it, he asked how much it would cost to get one. We explained it was free, and offered to bring one to his house on Monday. 

Monday:

Today was district P day, which is a day where our district can meet-up in person and hang out. We went to the beach where we just talked, caught crabs, and baked in the sun. Then we went to get some Italian pizza and some ice cream. The missionaries in my district are all so awesome; any chance we have to hang out in person is a blessing. After that, we had 2 more lessons fall through, making an unprecedented 7 in a row. But we got to drop off a copy of the Book of Mormon at Marcelo's house. We hope to have the chance to talk with him more and have a call planned on Wednesday. 

Not as steep as it looks. I promise.

Catching Crabs

Me & Elder Bodily (The Bod Squad)

The District

The Graph

Elder Terry's Last District Counsel

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.