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 

Brazil!!!!

Tuesday:

Interviews with President were today. He had a bunch of questions about the area, and so I gave him a rundown of how things were going and our progressing friends. Then he gave me some great news; I'm going to Brazil February 4th! Super exciting. The funny thing was that yesterday we went to Costco and for the first time ever bought food for the entire transfer, but now I won't be able to enjoy any of it, haha. Elder Meshke bet me that I couldn't go through all 77 servings of protein powder before leaving. I'm always up to a challenge, so I have to drink 5 scoops a day until I leave! After that whole fiasco, we had a lesson with Micael and Lidia, two new members. They were baptized at the beginning of the quarantine, and despite having almost no member support, and not speaking English in an English ward, they are still active! Now we are helping them on preparing for the temple!!! After that lesson, I got a call from the office elders, and that's when I officially got my info for leaving. 

Wednesday:

So we had to go to the church building to use their computers to sign up for service hours. Unfortunately, we didn't have a key, so we had to drive to the English elders apartment to get their key. Once we had that, we had to go to the church building and find the clerk's office. We were told there would be a key in a drawer that would unlock the drawer that had the rack of keys to the family history center which had the computers. Only problem is that there were multiple drawers of keys. So we had to try every key in every drawer till we got that right one. Obviously, it was the second to last key we found. Then we had to try all those keys until we found the right one for the family history center. The most exciting part of all this is getting home. For some reason, our sim cards cellular data was shut off, so if we aren't on wifi we can't use google maps which led to a confusing ride home. I had been fasting all day for a lesson with Bryce to go well; the lesson was at 9:00 PM. I was nervous, because we were introducing him to the other elders, and I was hoping it would go well. So before the lesson, I put an apple pie in the oven and broke my fast with an entire half of the pie and half a thing of dryers ice cream. It, was, amazing! 

Thursday: 

P-day is ending, so imma speed through this. Went on a walk, got home and had 4 member lessons then a lesson with Marjorie. While I was on Facebook finding, I was talking to a guy who said he was pretty busy and didn't know if he would have time to meet. We were talking a couple days later, and he was telling me about how he had to quarantine, because someone from work got corona. So I took this opportunity to catch him and say, "Now that your quarantining, do you have time for a message," and I got the lesson! Lol. 

Friday: 

We went to district counsel and while we were there we had a lesson. Then after we had a lesson with the guy from yesterday, Everton. He was a really great guy and accepted a commitment to read The Book of Mormon! Later that night, we had a call with a really sweet older lady. She had a stroke and is learning how to talk again, but she's such a tender soul, and I loved her instantly. Finally, we had a lady I had a lesson with once send me 12 minutes of audio recordings including her singing hymns, haha! 

Saturday:

We got back in touch with Mary! I lost contact when I went to Goshan, but she was so happy to talk to us again, and there was a complete change of her countenance. I think she realized how much she missed having the gospel's influence in her life. Now she's much more open to work with us going forward. After that, we finished with a lesson with Bryce. My favorite times of the week! 

Sunday:

Went to church and tried to make Elder Meshke translate, but he respectably declined, haha. After that, I went to Elder's Quorum for the first time in this area. It was so cool to see Michael there. He's so determined to learn English and be a part of the ward. It's so inspiring to see!!!

New Trio in Town

Tuesday:

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

Wednesday:

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

Thursday:

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

Friday:

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

Saturday:

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

Sunday:

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

Last Week as a Trio

Tuesday:

Here's the funny story of the day: my entire mission I've never actually had anyone go to church with me. That sounds crazy, but it's just the way it's gone with Covid restrictions. This week, I finally found someone interested and a slot available at the same time! She even sent me her address, so that we could organize a ride for her! We called to confirm for our lesson, and she let us know that she got Covid and wouldn't be able to anymore. Next week! We actually had 5 lessons planned this afternoon which is a pretty busy day. In total this week, we found 6 new people to teach! That's exciting. We also had to go pick up Elder Hoopes' passport from some elders in Massachusetts; we decided to meet them half way. We were waiting for about 3 hours before the other elders got there! They said they were a little late out the door, lol. At least we can get work done from our phone.

Wednesday:

Another great day. We missed our dinner time because of lessons and had a super busy night. So we made a big feast at 9:00 with smashed potatoes, rice, chicken, and pop tarts. Then that night in our ward coordination, we were feasting throughout. Today I also had some of my favorite lessons so far. We met a girl named Joseydi and talked to her about the plan of salvation. She's 25 and studying in university right now, so it was super cool for us to talk to someone close to our age we can relate to a little better. 

Thursday:

Pretty straightforward, I did my weekly planning mostly by myself, because the other elders and I cover different areas, but it was still a ton of fun. I'm just excited to get back home, so I can use our whiteboard. It makes planning so much easier.

Friday:

I went to district council with the other elders' district today. We got caught recording a video afterwards, so we were pretty late. It was ok though, because our lesson got cancelled. We got wings on the way home. We were about 40 minutes down the road when we decided to stop for gas and got a phone call from the wing place asking if "a Jacob" had left his credit card. The only reason they even had our number was because Elder Kelly called them to ask, "if their wings were good." 

Saturday: 

Today we had district council for my district. I gave a talk on how to bear bold and personal testimonies. We also played a game where you have to ask questions going back and forth; if you ask a yes or no question or repeat a question, you're out. We finished with a harmonica recital from Elder Parrish and went home. We are feeling spendy this week, because we went to another restaurant. I ended the day by having a lesson with one of my favorite people, Nancy. We talked about family history and Bible stories, then at the end shared a message about the importance of families. 

Sunday: 

My last time at the other elders' ward (congregation). I love this ward so much, and it's a shame to leave. I especially like that there are kids to play with and have dance parties. I scheduled 3 lessons and the other elders had 1. All of mine fell through, but at least we got to talk to the guy they just recently baptized. 

Monday:

P-dayyyyy! We went to a diner for breakfast, another diner for lunch, went bowling with our district, went to target to get speakers and shirts, then ordered wings when we got home. 

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! 

Christmas!!!

Thursday:

It's weird starting on a Thursday, but here we go. Big thing of the day... there's this candy I REALLY like called Reeses Fastbreaks. Every single time I go to a new store, I check all the candy areas for them. I have checked dozens of stores in Massachusetts and Conneticut and never found them. But we had a pre-Christmas miracle. Elder Bilar was out of shampoo, so we went across the street to the dollar tree, and as we were checking out, I saw them! I made Elder Bilar buy 4 of them and they are just as great as I remember. That night we had exchanges. I was with our district leader, Elder Parish. He's a super cool guy, and we actually met in the beginning of my mission. We didn't have a busy night, so we just talked for a couple of hours. The Christmas season is pretty weird for missionaries, so it was nice to relax a bit. 

Friday:

Christmas!!!! It was a really fun day, but here's one funny thing. Last Thursday, it snowed, and again on Sunday. About 18 inches in all. We have been trudging through snow all week. Then, we wake up and all of the snow is gone! Disappeared! Apparently, last night it got really warm and rained and melted all the snow. So every other day, except Christmas, was white- haha! Anyways, it was a great day. We woke up and got ready, then opened all of our presents, taking turns. The other elders went first, because they got 2 giant stockings from their ward plus some big FedEx boxes, haha. It was great, and I got everything I needed! We wanted to play spikeball with the other elders, but we had to go to a Christmas zoom call with our district. And when we finished 2 hours later, the other elders had theirs! So it was dark by the time we finished, haha. So we just called all of our families, and I finally got to see all my nieces and nephews. When I called Taylor, Liam was there and when he saw me he said "Jeffee! Jeffee! Jeffee's coming! Jeffee's coming!" It was so cute. It was so crazy to see how all the kids are all so big! Brooke doesn't crawl but she army crawls and is crazy fast, so it's hilarious to watch, haha. 

Saturday:

Saturday was the most productive day we have had in a while. We had more exchanges! But this time I was with Elder Moody. It was a lot of fun and we actually had 4 lessons planned. The first one was with a member in the Ward, but we also talked to Bryce and Lucca. It's so much fun talking about the Gospel with my friends. Now that I've gotten over my social fear it's really chill, and I love it. We talked about the story of Enos with Bryce. And gave the message of the restoration to Lucca. He was pretty receptive and said he would pray about it which was awesome. Our last lesson didnt go through but all in all a good day. 

Sunday:

Normally we exercise in the mornings, but not on Sunday for obvious reasons. So we have a lot of extra prep time. A guy in our ward is writing a book about his conversion story, so I spent the time reading a little bit. It's an awesome story. From there we got ready and went to church. Elder Bilar and I usually sit in the back, and he translates into a mic. I like to talk to myself and just translate as well just to practice. I was going strong when Elder Bilar needed to get his Book of Mormon, so he handed me the mic and said translate. I was pretty confident, after all I, I had been doing it the entire time. The next words out of Bishop's mouth were, "Now I'm going to let my inner English Teacher out for a moment." Then he said something along the lines of "The background of this verse helps to shed an interesting light on what his motivations may have been in this case." Then he continued to assault my head with words I didn't even know in English let alone Portuguese. Elder Bilar was back within 15 seconds, but it felt like an eternity. And I'll tell you right now that was 15 seconds of silence, because I did not say a word, haha. The English elders are moving out of our apartment so we needed to go all the way to Boston to bring them to their new car. So we spent the rest of the day on a road trip; that was a lot of fun. I had a fight with the car's bluetooth, we talked a bit with the sisters who had the car, then we headed back home. 

Monday: 

Today is our last full day with the other elders. They are really excited to leave, because they are an hour away from their area right now, but it's still sad. We decided to make our last p-day a good one by going out to a restaurant my parents recommended called The Place 2 Be. It looked really nice, so we were excited as well as nervous about the prices. We had good news and bad news when we got there. The good news is that the prices were much lower than we thought, not cheap but not too expensive. The bad news is that the food reflected that, haha. It still looked really pretty though, and it filled our stomachs. From there we went to the mall and spent a long time looking for a barber shop that wasn't there. And I bought a new sweater from banana republic. Elder Hoopes and I went to get hair cuts, and we got home and had a spikeball tourney with the boys. Finished the P-day with boneless wings and watching clips from the Chosen, a tv series about the New Testament. Not bad.  

Yet Another Week

Tuesday:

Yesterday was a busy day with the temple, so I never got the chance to clean, and this apartment needs it. I did go to the store and several precious dollars later had all the stuff that the apartment didn't already have: sponges, rags, soap, bleach etc. I got started cleaning the mold out of the showers and hair off the bathroom floor, then went to the kitchen and the floors and 4 hours later we had half our apartment livable, lol. I guess I'm the 'clean roommate' in this group. I celebrated the clean kitchen by making it dirty again with pork chops and then spent the night calling people and finding people to teach on Facebook. 

Wednesday: 

The big thing from today was ward council. The ward mission leader is married to one of my parents' missionaries, so we talked a bit about that. While my parents were here on Monday, they actually had dinner with them which was cool.

Thursday:

We left a bit early today to go to service, and it was a lot of fun. A little less intimate which is too bad. One of the guys from my old area's service sent me a $5 gift card which I thought was nice. Elder Bilar and I were bagging oranges when I said that after he finished that box we were going to race to see who could finish a box faster. Right as we were about to start, the manager walked up and said, "All right guys, we're finishing up so you can start cleaning." So much for that, haha. I decided I want to make a more concrete meal plan, so we decided to go to the store to grab one of those white boards that sticks to the fridge. We got all ready to head out, and I went to grab a snack for the road and wouldn't you know, the only thing on the fridge was a whiteboard. I don't know how we both missed that. It's a good thing we didn't leave, because the moving elders ended up coming over to drop some stuff off. We talked to them, but had to go because we had a lesson with a member named Keith. He's the coolest guy ever! He's a dean at Harvard and has a really great conversion story. We talked for about an hour so there's too much to go into, but it was great. Now some sad news, that investigator from last week who was SUPER excited cancelled on us. We asked if she wanted to reschedule, and she said no. Basically the reason she cancelled her baptism was, because she did a bunch of research on Anti-Church of Jesus Christ websites and believed them more than us. Once it got her to doubt the feelings she had received, it was over. She explained her concerns to us, and we bore our testimonies, but she wasn't listening. Why would you go to the people who hate us in order to learn what we believe in? It doesn't make sense. I think she will soften her heart again one day.

Friday:

We had a zone training which was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we all took pictures together, and it was a blast to be with everyone. We had some alerts there were 4 packages for us, so we were all excited. When we went to the mail room, all 4 were for Elder Hoopes! We went to check the mail, and I jokingly said, "Why bother? It's all gonna be for Elder Hoopes." Then when we got there, there were 2 letters and another package for him, haha. We joked about how it was like the scene from Best Two Years. After that we went upstairs to do Facebook finding. 

Saturday:

We started off with an amazing lesson with Vanessa. People often struggle to keep commitments, but she said that she's been praying every night. We extended an invitation to be baptized, and she wasn't quite ready. But we were still able to refer her to the sister missionaries for more lessons and continued on with our next lesson. That night our ward put on a Christmas-light-drive-through at a golf course. We went with our Zone leaders and had a ton of fun. Then we went to Chic-Fil-A. When the lady came to take our orders and asked our names, Elder Parish said, "Just call us Elders." Then I pointed out that we were all Elders. The lady at the dive through went by Diva, and she was a ton of fun. She put our names as Elder 1 2 3 and 4. 

Sunday: 

Church day! Always a good day! Apparently the Spanish elders complained to the sisters that they were starving and needed food. Elder Bilar and I thought that was funny because we have SOOOOOO much food, but they just survive off fast food. A sister gave us some steaks and pasta. When we got home, we showed them our fridge, so they would see how full it was. Then they sent a picture of their fridge, and it was empty! I made some sweet potato fries and steaks letting the steaks marinate in mustard, garlic and cinnamon beforehand. They were amazing if I do say so myself. After that we called a guy named Alex who used to be taught by the missionaries here. He was drunk but nice. He was telling us he reads the Book of Mormon every day! We lives in MA right now, but we are going to try and help him. He's Brazilian, but has been here so long and was so drunk that he couldn't really speak Portuguese. We set a lesson with him for the future and hope he's sober next time. After that, a self-referral named Earl called us. He's from the UK and came across the Church online; it sparked his interest. He's a good guy, and we look forward to seeing where it goes. I took a break to organize some drawers and now we can put things on the shelf! It's not that I like to clean, but sometimes the process of putting things right helps me clear my head and makes life less distracting.