Week 30💌

 Bom dia, pessoal! Completei mais uma semana aqui na missão. Bem-vindos à semana 30! 

Segunda: Amen, hallelujah for pday. I love having this day to rest and unwind. We were without WhatsApp until about 10:45 AM. I had permission from Presidente Tonini to download Messenger, but even that wasn't working. I tried to call my brother through Google chats for our scheduled 6 am chats, and he didn't answer. Thankfully, Deus é um Deus de milagres,  and we got a new WhatsApp number just in time (well, just in time for me. Because of the time difference,  no one is awake until 10. My comp was dying for 2 hours). I immediately called my brother and got in contact with him right before school. 

My little sister was sick, so she was home all day. My mom and I tried to teach her, in vain, of the virtues of the movie "The Princess Bride". She kept insisting that it is boring and she hates it. I think my sister is broken... because who can hate this work of art??

My dad had to work today (LAME), so I didn’t get to talk to him much. I talked to him while he was driving to work, and later in the day. He was shocked that I hadn't moved in those 4 hours. He kept asking what my pday plans were, and I told him "Exactly this! Do absolutely nothing for 10 hours except lay in bed and talk to family." I have 6 days where I have to walk in the hot sun. I ain't doing that on my one free day!

I ended my pday by calling my brother to say goodbye, and then my parents. We then had a mission devotional,  which was great as always. We realized that we had forgotten to film a video of our house (on the 1⁰ pday of the mês, we have to show that our house in clean, and everything works). Presidente said that he would be choosing from the list of those who didn't send to do a surprise vistoria in front of the entire mission. My comp and I were so cooked. Except... thankfully we weren't! The SECOND the devotional ended, we filmed and sent in the video.

We left the house, and then got home to prep for a divisão with our LTS. They arrived at about 9:15. Everyone was tired, so we were all in bed by 10pm. 

Terça: Today was our divisão with the LTS. I was assigned to work with Sister Moreira. Bela Vista was actually her first area, and she stayed here for 2 transfers. It was fun working with someone who knew the area. 

We all ate lunch with Alyne and Daniel. Alyne made a yummy lasagna. We had a brief meeting with Daniel, and then headed home to work on First Responders. I logged Sis Price into my account, and Sis Leite logged Sis Moreira into hers. We had 4 people trying to answer a million references. After about 2 hours, WhatsApp informed us that our account had been restricted for suspicious behavior.  

Oh. My. Gosh. Cmon! Thankfully restricted is different then blocked. We could still receive messages and text our contacts and make phone calls. We just couldn't start new conversations with strangers. 

Sister Moreira and I tried to visit two menos ativo members. They have been MAs since she was here. We didn't find them, but we found their daughter and niece. We invited them both to be baptized, and they said yes. They just need parent permission. 

We then tried to visit a youth who had a baptism date a year ago. We found his grandma instead. This led to just about the weirdest lesson. It was so weird that I was convinced that my Portuguese was broken. Nope, it wasn't.  It was just that bizarre. Grandma told us that Predro joined a facção (think more violent and dangerous than a gang), did drugs, stole drugs, robbed and beat his girlfriend.  And now he is in prison. Lovely young fellow. She asked us to pray for his immediate release.

She also told us that back when she was young and recently married, she loved to go to a bar, drink a little beer, dance, and find a guy to go home with. She told us that she didn't cheat on her husband for free, heavens no. Because that is wrong! But she didn't accept money because that is prostitution and THAT is also wrong. No, she just accepted really expensive presents. She brought us out some of her perfume to smell, perfume that was given to her in exchange for sleeping with people. 

After that, we visited a RC that has been menos ativo for a while. She was actually baptized by Sis Moreira. I thought she had moved because Sis Leite and I have never been able to get in contact with her. After visiting with her, we met with Merilene and then went home. It was a good divisão!

Quarta: We had conselho de distrito today. Our numbers for last week were atrocious. Without WhatsApp, we were unable to coordinate lições com membros, or text people throughout the week to remind them about church on domingo. I was dying while we reported our numbers.

We ate lunch at a restaurant because the member had to work. She paid for our lunch though, which was nice of her. I had the lightbulb moment after lunch that Amanda (a woman who was going to be baptized and had blocked us) had blocked our OLD number, not the new one. Muahahahah. 

After lunch, we tried to find an old referência de mídia. Instead, we found Ahelisson. He is a super nice guy. We gave him a pamphlet,  and he proceeded to yap for an hour and 20 minutes.  Which means that we were em pé for an hour and 20 minutes.  My feet were killing me, but it was worth it. We marked a novo! 

We visited Kauanny and then headed home to work on First Responders.  We got the notification after about an hour that our WhatsApp account was restricted. Then 5 minutes later, blocked. Dudeeee. We sent in a request and they said maybe in 24hours we could get our account back. Thankfully we had already confirmed almoço for amanhã! 

Funny story about today: when I got home, I was really craving suco. We had been given a 2L coke bottle filled with strawberry pulp. We had forgetten to put it in the freezer, but that's okay...right? I went to go make some strawberry juice! When I opened the lid, it made a hissing sound like carbonation. I decided it was just bc it was an old coke bottle. I put some in a blender with water,  and when I added sugar, it started to fizz. Still normal, right?? I then drank it. It tasted more or less okay. Maybe a little bitter, so I added some more sugar and some leite em pó. After 5 cups,  I decided that there had to be something wrong with it, because that slightly bitter taste wasn't going away. I handed a cup to my comp. She tasted it and started laughing her head off. She told me that the pulp is fermented and that I hadn't made strawberry juice, I had made strawberry liquor. And then dranken 5 cups. Good thing it was barely fermented!

Quinta: Today was another good day. We ate lunch with Maiana and her family.  We got to watch The Chosen, which is always fantastic. We worked in San Antonio 1 today, which is not my favorite place to work. It is located so far from the Igreja, and not many people there can afford a car or a motorcycle. That means that not many people there progress.

While we were walking there, we ran into irmã Rosangela. She invited us over for a snack. She made grilled cheese and suco de melancia. She also said that she could help with lessons. We showed her our schedule today which included some members that I didn't know. She said that one of the members is less active, and she said that she had messaged us and we hadn't responded to her. Apparently she had messaged us while our account was down. She said she wants our help though. She and her husband are basically inactive because they feel slighted by something that Bispo did. (I am beginning to see a theme here...). Irmã Rosangela said that she would visit Irmã Lara with us.

We went to make some other visits until it was time to pick up Irmã Rosangela and Papagaio. One member moved 5 years ago, don't know why she is still in our system. Another member wasn't home. We tried to find 2 RCs who are inactive, but our map was completely wrong. We found a nice lady who knows them, and she led us to their house. We never would've found it without her help, it is in the middle of NOWHERE. 

After visiting Maria Clara, we went to go pick up Irmã Rosangela and Papagaio. While we were all walking to Irmã Lara's house, this old guy saw us. Apparently he knows everyone, and said he'd walk us to Irmã Lara's. I asked Papagaio if he was drunk, and she said no. That's just how he is. He was shirtless and wearing biker shorts, inside out. Nice guy though!

We visited with Irmã Lara. She explained the problems that she and her husband are having with our Bispo. Listening to their story made my heart hurt. I can see their point of view, why they wouldn't want to go to church with him being there. However,  no one is perfect. We need to remember that our leaders are humans first, leaders second. They are going to make mistakes.  And anyways, this is the Church of JESUS CHRIST,  not the church of Bispo, or of Irmã so-and-so.

Sexta: Today was a normal day. We had lunch at the same restaurant as Quarta. I really love the suco de goiaba that they have there! While we were there, guess who I saw on the news? Thonny Black! For those of you who don't remember,  he is a news reporter that I taught in my last area. 

We worked First Responders today, and it was pretty frustrating. We have to be so careful to not lose our WhatsApp account, de novo. So that means responding to 2 or 3 referências and then waiting 5 minutes.  It was painfully slow. We also really wanted to participate in the Sexta-Festa! Around 6, we got a warning message from WhatsApp telling us that our behavior was suspicious- stop or be restricted. We left to go make visits. 

We visited a person that Sis Leite met during the divisão on Tuesday. We talked to him and his son. They both had so many questions about the life of a missionary. There were times when all four of us were talking at the exact same time. We were able to mark his son as a novo though, and win a point for timebatismo. I also saw a horse in the middle of the road!

Sabado: We had a confirmed appointment for 11 am today. At 10, I sent a message to double check, and he said he was home. When we got there, his step-dad said he had been called into work. However,  we ended up being in the right place at the right time. His next door neighbor is an old referência de mídia who is never home. Turns out, she works in a hospital and has crazy hours. We were able to visit her and listen to her problems. I gave her a Livro de Mórmon,  and she said she would like us to come back and meet her daughter.

We had lunch with Irmã Theresa. The food there is always incredible. She made lasagna and a lime mousse. She also made suco for me when I said that I don't drino coke anymore. She is so amazing. 

We tried to visit a referência de mídia, but his wife said he had left. We left the Livro de Mórmon with her, and said we would come back later. He sent us a text about 20 minutes later thanking us for the Livro and said he had been showering. So basically his wife hates missionaries...coolio. We then went to visit Domingas (the prostitute who isn't a prostitute). She cried and asked us to pray again for Predro to be released from prison, so we did. 

We then visited Emily, one of the girls we had marked a baptismal date with this week. She said she talked to her mom, and her mom said that she couldn't be baptized. We were able to talk to her stepmom who is an inactive member of thr church. Sweet lady. 

After that, we headed to go visit Ahelisson.  This time, he pulled up some chairs. And thank GOODNESS,  because we were there for 2 hours. The guy just doesn't stop talking! At 8:45, we told him we needed to head home. He said okay, and then continued to yap for another 30 minutes. He said he would love for us to pick him up and bring him to church tomorrow! He said he wants to go to church, as long as he doesn't need to visit his mom in the hospital.  He and his sister are taking shifts staying with their mom.

When we got home, we had an acompanhamento with our LTSs. While we were on the phone with them, our LD sent a message. We told him we were on the phone with our LTSs. He said to let him know when we finish. We finished at like 10:12, and so I told him we were done, but that it's a little too late to do an acompanhamento. (You snooze, you lose Elder!) He said that he'd call us tomorrow. 

Domingo: Happy Sunday everyone! I am not going to lie, today was frustrating. We left the house early to go pick up Ahelisson. He ended up not being home. His grandpa said he had left the house at like 6am to go to the hospital. We were hoping that there would still be people in church. We had texted all of our friends yesterday,  and they all promised to go. When we got there, not a single one of them was there. Not one! The excuses began to flood my phone. 

I was feeling pretty down. We had worked so hard this week, and no one came to church. We had increased some of our goals because we had already hit them by Wed. We had spent Saturday running around knocking on doors, and texted people all Sunday morning. We had prayed and we had tried so hard to get people to go to church, so to have 0 people for the 5th week in a row, really disappointing. 

After church, we headed home. Our lunch today wasn't feeling well, but they dropped off food for us. It was delicious. We then napped a little and did our weekly planning.  This week is the last week of the transfer! Holy crap, it has gone by so fast. We want to have the best week we can, so we planned accordingly. Keep us in your prayers!

I was bored today, so I added a cover to my English Preach My Gospel, and my tiny book of Mormon. We had a Devotional da Zona today. Our Zone had 6 baptisms this week! I am so proud of the missionaries in my zone. After that, I headed to go use the restroom. I was entering the bathroom, when our LTSs called. I told them to hang on. When I came back, they asked Sis Leite to share her screen. They were going to do a virtual vistoria on our cellphones bc they forgot on Terça. 

After that, we stayed up yapping. Sister Leite showed me her Livro de Mórmon. She was reading where Lehi is dying and blesses his kids, and calls them "The fruit of my loins" 20 times. She had circled everytime he said lombos (loins) and had written "Chato demais" (very upsetting). She hadn't known what loins were, she just thought it was annoying how he kept repeating it. I explained it, and she found it even MORE annoying.  I showed her my Book of Mormon from my senior year of high-school,  where I had underline that phrase everytime he said it, equally annoyed. 2 different countries united by a strong hatred for loin fruit!

Spiritual Thought: My spiritual thought for this week comes from an article in the February 2018 Liahona. President Eyring talks about the importance of the word "rememberance". He shared a teaching from President Kimball:

President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) was fond of teaching that the most important word in the dictionary could be remember. Because we have made covenants with God, he said, “our greatest need is to remember” them.

He then shared an invitation for us to remember three things when we take the sacrament:

1: Remember Jesus Christ

"...we can remember the great price He paid, out of His love for us, to remove the stain of our sins. As we remember Him, our desire to follow Him will grow."

2: Remember what you need to do better

"We don’t sacrifice animals anymore, but we can still give up our sins. The scriptures call this a sacrifice of “a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 9:20). Come to the sacrament with a repentant heart."

3: Remember the progress that you are making

"As you examine your life during the ordinance of the sacrament, I hope your thoughts center not only on things you have done wrong but also on things you have done right...If you do, I promise you will feel something. You will feel hope."

If you guys have a little more time, I would highly recommend reading the full article. It is so good! It isn't very long. 

(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2018/02/always-remember-him?lang=eng)

I would also like to invite you to remember these three things next week as you partake of the sacrament. I promise that as you do, you will feel the Spirit more strongly. Your Sundays will begin to have a little more meaning.

Anyways, that's all for this week! I hope that you are all having a great week. Remember how much I love and miss you!

Pictures: 

1. Look at the fun hill I got to climb!

2. Walking to San Antonio 2

3. I thought this was a fun way to do street signs

4. It tastes like a green apple!

5. Pretty cool, neigh?

6. Just another day walking down the streets and finding a bunch of rooster feet! (Not for the first time) ((sorry Taylor))

7. Live roosters!

8. Another fun hill 

9. It has a heart!!

10. I love churches with belltowers, how can we make that a thing at lds churches??

11. Happy Sunday!

12. My English PMG

13. Proof that loin fruit is universally hated