Semana 3

BOM DIAAAAAAAA!!! How yall doin? This week was slow not an insane amount of stuff happened. Some crazy things did happen tho. 

So one thing to happen was a family we were teaching, the mom said they were not gonna baptize. It sucked to hear cause the kids are awesome and hey always listen and participate in the lessons. We had a time were we sat and just talked to each other about what to do with them. I told my comp that we should talk to them, it won't hurt. We went to their house just to talk to them about stuff. We gave a little prayer before and this is how I know God's hears our thoughts, when we talked to the dad a couple days before one of the reasons was it was tooo fast to baptize. After that I thought we should give them another week. Back to the prayer, I gave it in inglês because I wanted to ask and say a lot to our Heavenly Father. After the prayer my comp goes I have an idea let's give them another week. I NEVER told him that I thought we should wait and yet we had the same thought. We knew the dad wasn't gonna be there so we just were gonna talk to the mom. As soon as we got there, the dad pulled up and we had a good convo. So we are gonna give them another week and still go teach and talk to them.

Another thing that happened was there was 4 baptisms on Sunday, 4! It was caos, we didn't have enough jumpsuits for the kids and we were panicking. Luckily we got another and we made it all work. I got to baptize the cousin of the kid I baptized a couple weeks ago. 

Those are some of the good things that happened. 

The language still sucks and practicing suckkkkksss. But it helps and I am more confident in the lessons when talking to people. I am definitely more confident when talking and less scared of messing up. 

We are teaching this family of 11 kids. They are a lot of people. They are fun a couple of them are my age 21 23 and 22. One of the kids keeps saying pão to me cause I can't say it so I plug my nose and say it. Hahaa so he does the same thing .  But the last time we talk to them my companion and on of the brothers and some friend of theirs got into a little bit of a bash. It sucks and I could tell my comp was getting a Lil heated. But luckily he left and me being me tried lightening the mood. There had just been a game on it was croithans vs flemengoes I don't remember how to spell but, the guy we usually teach is a flemengoes fan and they one. I go Feliz com flemengoes. He is like yeah yeah. I mouth that my comp is a croithian fan and we all start laughing it was a lot better.

Also shout out to Francisco cause he drove his motorcycle and bought frozen acai!!! I payed for it but he is a G for that. It was soooooo good!!

But the week was a lot of walking which is good. I am tired everyyyyyy day and it sucks but the work must go on. I still try working out everyday with at least 20 to 30 pull-ups and 40 push ups, including 20 decline and 20 normal. I'll take a chair and curl it like 40 times maybe 2 or 3 times. It's nice to workout but I still got some stomach fat cause I basically get forced to eat at lunch.   they are lime you barely ate eat more, and my zls and comp will mess with me saying eat more eat more. I am full every time I leave. But me and my comp always go to the church for a bathroom break hahahaha. 

Just want yall to know the gift of tongues is real and the gift of understanding tongues is real. I prayed that I wouldn't leave my comp stranded while talking to Gustavos dad about getting baptized. I understood more than I have ever understood my whole 3 weeks of being here. I also have been talking a lot better having actual good conversation with members. It is soooo much better than when I first got here.

Yall have a good one love all yall! 

Second week in the field

This week has been great! We have 2 baptisms next week and more to come. Although a lot of them are kids they all seem very happy and interested. We usually ask if they parents are will to hear it too, sometimes they are willing to, sometimes they are not home. But everyone is willing to hear about Jesus. This past week was Easter week. We really sent our message towards that and what Jesus did for us. This week was a little more ruff especially towards the end. We would walk and talk to people on the street, but most people weren't home when we would go to someone's house. So we had a lot of aimless walking. But I know God knows hears and sees everything. He gives us opportunity when we need them the most. One specific time was we were tired so we decided to sit and look for people of the pmg app. We felt like we couldn't do anything, find anyone or think of anyone. As my companion was looking for people on the app I gave a short pray in my head. To send or give us a direction or think of a person to talk to. As we sat there I was people watching and it's crazy to see these mopeds holding up to 5 people. Usually 2 adults and 2 kids or 3 adults. But I was just watching and looking for signs and listening. Maybe 5 minutes later someone we talked to the day before comes walking up. I was so happy we started talking to him and just checking up on him. We told him to come to church that it was at 9 to 10. We kept telling him come to church 9 to 10. Sadly he was not at church. But I know God hears our prayers. We have met so many people in the streets it's crazzyyyyy!!! That's were we do most our contacts. Just a short message about the gospel of Jesus christ. Everyday we have lunch!!!! They don't do dinner but lunch and it's alwayyyssss good! Usually rice, butter spaghetti noodles and some sort of meat or chicken. Yes mom they have salad tooo and I eat it. But the food is always good!!!! I want to finish this with my testimony in honer of Easter. Eu sei que Jesus cristo é nosso Salvador. Jesus cristo sacrificado por nós. Não deveríamos ficar triste, mas alegrar ele sacrifício. Alegrai-vos com o que ele fez na terra e no céu. Em nome de Jesus Cristo amen.

PS I only used Google translate for the last part hahaha!!! 

Yall have a good one and be safe! If you want to be in my Google photos I'll have the link here but you have to leave after you view the pictures.

Also if you have any emails of people that want to be on my list send them to my email. 

CTM Experience and First Week in the Field

Olá toda mundo since this is my first email I'm gonna talk shortly about the ctm then my first somewhat week of the field.

For the ctm it was a great experience meeting A LOT of people, and when I say lot I mean a lot. They are all awesome mainly Brazilians but a lot of Hispanics and some Americans. If you know me I'm out going, so that being said I would walk down the hall and walk into some random dudes rooms and just start saying ayyyyyy or sum cause they spoke either Spanish or Portuguese. My district was awesome. Had some great guys to room with, and there was never a bad time on the room always something going on. For classes yeah I payed attention but I was lost for most the time. I felt bad for my teachers (irmão paixão and irma mariolo) were great I just was lost all the time. I could understand them if they did gestures with what they were saying. The devotionals and workshops were great and would have been better if the translations were better haha. The connection would cut and I wouldn't hear what they were translating. The food was bearable some days but for the most part they didn't have flavor. Leaving the mtc was very hard and saying bye to everyone sucked. Especially saying bye to my district. I mainly said bye to Elder Bogle, sister Smith and sister Kaufusi because they were not going to manaus. For the other 3 Elder Carver, Elder Treese and Sister Ames they are in manaus with me so I'll see them sometime   . But still sucked saying bye in the field. 

The fist week of the field

The first day was crazy. We had a 5 hour flight to manaus where a bunch of missionaries and the president met us there. They were all awesome. The Americans helped us translate the whole day and answered a lot of questions we had. We got dropped off at the mission president's house(which was very very nice, it took up a whole floor of the building they are in) but they had a lot of food for us. It was soooo good. We went back to the church to figure out our companions and learn the rules. There are a lot of rules like no Facebook and other stuff. But the trainers all lined up and 1 at a time our name would pop up on the screen and we would say who we thought our comp is gonna be. Everyone was wrong except me and someone else. The reason I was right was cause I was the second to last to pick and it was a 50/50 shot   . But we had zone conference the next day so we left our bags and went to a missionaries house to stay the night. One of them was American so that was good to ask questions and learn about the mission. CRAZY THING HAPPENED, in the middle of the night I was woken up by a tickle on my head and I was half asleep so I just laid there. I finally woke woke up and flinched my head and it was a cockraoch the length of my middle finger it was huge. I stared at it as it ran away. 

Zone conference was good. I was sooooo tired tho haha I almost fell asleep like 4 times. I had a translater the whole time cause I don't understand people the talk fast fast. But we had a banging feast after. We had our interviews then left for itacoatiara(which is my area). But it was a 5 hour unibus ride(bus). But it was good I slept sooooo much. I also learned some more português while on the bus ride. We got in around 8 so we had time to settle in and shower. I live with 3 Brazilians so it's nice to hear them talk in português. My companion Elder moraes is awesome. He is pushing me to be fluent in one transfer( which is insane). But he is awesome.

First day was non stop going. It was fun tho, went to some contacts houses then had lunch at a members house. I got thrown into teaching with the first contact which was embarrassing but good. It was with some little kids so it was nicer and I didn't feel as embarrassed. But I have talked in every contact we have had. 

Everyday has been awesome and eventful whether it's playing soccer in the street or helping a guy cut his grass with a hoe. I met some kids while we were talking to his parents or tias and tio idk what they were but they were there. It was fun he had a gel blaster and we were shooting it. But one of the kids got baptized Sunday which I'll talk about in a second. We also met some people that were members and we didn't know. Every time we talk for the most part everyone seems interested which is fun. They all love Jesus and always want to hear a message. As I practice everyday teaching with my companion my português gets better. We also just talk in both inglês and português walking around. I ask a lot of questions tho. The thing I say the most is como se diz and que significa. 

THE important thing 

I had my first baptism Sunday to one of the kid we taught for 2 days. It was already kinda confirmed from the last people but I GOT TO BAPTIZE. I had to do it in português so I got someone to hold my phone that says it in português so I don't mess it up. But we had to clean it before and I will show pictures of the baptism and us cleaning. But it was awesome he is a great kid with a big smile all the time. They all prayed when we were giving them lessons it was cool. 

P-DAY 

Today was fun we slept in a Lil so that was very nice, and I'm bout to take a nap   . But the DL and his companion came from their areas and we went to the store and bought a bunch of meat to cook and hangout. We cleaned aaaaaa lotttttttt which was very nice after. We have just been chilling in the house which is verrrryyy nice.

For the other missionaries on my list I love reading calls emails and experiences. Can't wait to talk to yall in português kkkkk. 

Us cleaning the font

The family and my companion and the ZL's

Some banging pizza lasagna 





my first McDonald's in the airport it wasn't as good as I thought it was gonna be