Week 65💌

 Trying something new this week…we're gonna do the Spiritual Thought FIRST that way it doesn't get lost in the rest of my yapping

Spiritual thought: In Portuguese, the word for faith is fé. My comp Jergy shared something in our lesson with Valdirceu on Terça that I really liked. She said fé has 2 letters, or 2 parts. F stands for fazer, or to do. We need to plunge ahead and act. If we believe there is a God, we should act like He is there. Even if we aren't totally sure. The second part is E, for esperar, which means to wait or to hope. Part of having faith is having patience. Not every promised blessing is going to be realized immediately. But we can hope that someday it will be, in accordance with God's timing. Faith is the base line for everything we do in the church. If you don't believe in God, you won't believe in Christ, or prophets or the Book of Mormon. We need that foundation of action and hope.

Quarta has a funny/very traumatic story if yall wanna skip to there, segunda was weird too tbh

Segunda: First pday in boston!! We woke up and went to our apartment gym for like 45 minutes. I did arms and chest, it was fun not gonna lie. I love having access to a gym! Afterwards we showered and went to a waffle breakfast at a members house! Apparently they do it every labor day and invite the whole ward, great start to the morning. We then swung by trader Joe's and I got their new fall salsa…so delicious! We then went to Walmart and I got me some earplugs, boutta be sleeping SO well! After that, we went to zone pday. This zone does it on the first and last pday of the month. Everyone brought a cereal and wore pj's. The elders played chair soccer for a bit and I yapped w my comps and Sis Bartholomew, who ALSO started in brasil. We then did a white elephant gift exchange and I got some paper mache whale sharks and a notebook! I'd wrapped up a single poker chip in a big box. After that I called my parents and took a 30 min nap and then called again. After pday ended, we called some of our friends before heading tracking. We had the most uncomfortable experience 5 minutes after we left our car. This guy with like an open wound on his hand came up and started talking to us and shook our hands. He was slurring his words and smelled like cigarettes. He said he didn't smoke or drink but was on anesthesia after a surgery and showed us some very healed scars that very much were not recent. He asked us for money and Jergy was in the middle of saying we can't give him any when this new guy walked up. He did not make any sense, he kept switching between a bunch of languages, some of which I don't think are real. He got all up in Jergy’s face and called her Princessa and then slapped his own hand and said shut up. He started ranting to himself before talking to her again. We got away as quickly as we could. Thankfully they were gone when we got back to our car. We got home and called some Grey dots and found some really promising people who are interested!! We set up appointments for later in the week. 

Terça: Our apartment is actually frigid. I'm walking around wrapped in a blanket. Thankfully, after fiddling with the thermostat, I figured out how to make it a little warmer. Still not great, but better. I did legs today at the gym, and then walked 12,000 steps. I had a Trader Joe's salad for lunch, it was really good! I then drove us to Framingham. On the way, we listened to a 35 minute voicemail from Jergy's ex boyfriend. She was dying, Petey and I were highly entertained. We had a 3 hour finding block and found 1 person. We walked main for a bit and went door to door. A lot of people just weren't home. It was also pretty hot. After our finding block, we went and did some stop bys. No one was home for those either, but we left calling cards. After that, we had dinner. We had a phone lesson with a RC, Hailton. He was baptized two Sundays ago. His wife apparently wanted nothing to do with the church or talking to missionaries. But yesterday when he answered the phone, he said that she wanted to say hi!! She said that she is trying to get work off for next Sunday to visit church. Once she left, he said he wanted her to get baptized too. After our lesson with him, we had an in person lesson with Valdirceu. It was a 2 HOUR lesson, but it was super awesome. He wanted to be baptized but was worried about not being perfect. We explained that churches aren't for perfect people, and he agreed to be baptized on the 20th! He's such a nice guy, he even got me a blanket from his car because I was shivering. It went from being so hot only a few hours before to me wishing I had a coat. We went home and got ready for bed. 

Quarta: What in the ever loving heck was today. So today started off so normal, so chill. We went to the gym and I did abs (barf) and back. We then had zone counseling and our stake president was there. He talked about how our stake has a population of almost a million people living in the boundaries, how can it be that 1% (≈1000 people) wouldn't want to be baptized? We then talked about some of our struggles w the work and got donuts. We went home for lunch and p study, the old testament is killing me yall. Then we left to go to Marlborough Main. Idk why but ALL THE CRAZIES ARE THERE. Sis Jergy was walking and inviting people just sitting parked in their cars to church. We went up to this one car, and the guy had a bottle of what looked like apple juice in his lap. IT WAS NOT APPLEJUICE. WE SAW HIS THINGY! AND BRO MADE EYE CONTACT AND SMILED AT US WHILE HE FILLED HIS BOTTLE. We got out of there SO fast. Scarred for life. The rest of the day was chill though. We headed into Framingham and got CAVA for dinner! It was so good but we all lowkey started feeling sick after. We had a really really good lesson with Balkiria. Idk what they feed the children here in Boston, but they are so respectful! We came in and the 12 and 14 year old boys turned off the TV and paid attention to the lesson!!! What?? After that, we found out our next appointment canceled because of rain so we did a phone appointment with another dude and then did stopbys and then went home and called some more people. We then got to tell our DL all about our traumatic experience and his reaction was priceless. Maybe he's not a completely evil situationship, just a slightly evil one. 

Quinta: Today was a chill day. We didn't find anyone, but we did try. We walked Framingham main/surrounding neighborhoods for 3 HOURS. After our giant finding block, we rewarded ourselves with açai!! It was actually so good, we got it from a Brazilian place. We then headed home for some dinner. After rthat, we tried to stop by some inactive members houses, but no one was home. We went to the church for English class, and no one showed up. Lovely! So we learned how a dishwasher works while we called some people. We were supposed to have a couple of phone lessons but they canceled on us. So we called some referrals and some Grey dots. We then went home and yapped. We were in the middle of a discussion about resurrection/cremation/glorified bodies/patriarchal blessings/second coming/the endowment (we have trouble staying on topic) when our DL called. He wouldn't admit it, but bro admitted with his eyes that he thinks we are super funny. Bc we answered the phone and Sis Jergy immediately says “I'm dying” bc we all decided she is going to die young (bc she said she thinks she'll be dead for the second coming and I say it's coming before I ever have to parent teenagers) ((so that gives her like 20 more years of life before she kicks the bucket)) and bros only response was “sorry to hear that, how was your day?” He thinks we're entertaining though. Oh! I scared Jergy, I was hiding outside the bathroom and jumped out at her right before bed. 10/10, I love doing that

Sexta: We had a mission devotional this morning. They do it every Sexta at 8h30, which was honestly a nice way to start the day. Today we tried some apartment finding. The first set of apartment complexes had some WEIRD vibes. We double checked the map, because someone had left a door emoji which usually means “Good place to knock!” But when we clicked the door it ACTUALLY said “Cuidado” (be careful). Oh, cool. So we left and went to a different complex. A couple of the people we were looking for had moved unfortunately. We stopped by a gas station to get diet coke, and the sweet worker gave us a pumpkin spice chocolate bar for free!! We then went and did some stop bys, which is where we drive to someone's house. If they aren't home, we leave a card. No one was home (or willing to answer the door, either one). We did that until dinner. After that, we went to our lesson with Val. When we knocked, no one answered. But on our way out, her youngest Miguel saw us and let us in. The lesson was pretty good! She wants to be baptized but wants to come to church before she picks a date. I'm so impressed by her faith and her family values. Her husband did come in halfway through with a pack of beer and poor guy felt SO bad. He offered to go buy us sodas. They all should be coming to church this week! After Val, we had the weirdest lesson with Miguel. I thought the phone lesson was bad bc it was online, but in person was weird too. We asked if he believed the First Vision, he said yes. We asked if he believed in the Livro de Mórmon, he said yes. We asked if bro believed in the Priesthood, yes again. We asked him to be baptized…he said he had already been baptized. We talked in circles for a little bit and then just asked him to pray. At the end of this lesson, a guy at the table next to us (we were in a bakery) pulled out a picture of Jergy on his phone from our WhatsApp (we haven't updated the picture yet). It got uncomfortable fast. We left and got home and called some people. We had a great lesson with Natanael and he said he wants to come to church on Sunday. Gilbert has started praying for our future husbands, which is so slay of him

Sabado: We did another cute walk around the boardwalk this morning for our exercise. The leaves are starting to turn!! We went and cleaned the church. The moving elders came by to drop off a new office chair for Petey and they were angels and took some of the crap that had been left in our apartment. Turns out we have a full on NOOK with a NEW WINDOW! They also brought us a gigantic mirror, so now we have one mirror per person. After they left, we went and got some yummy canes. The mission finally put my money on Jergys card bc my card was deactivated. After Canes, we went to Framingham to do some finding. We had a cool experience where we stopped this guy and invited him to church. He said he couldn't go because he'd already been invited to a church and was going there. We asked who and he said some girl and then proceeded to pull up Jergy's whatsapp profile picture. Bro didn't even clock it was the same girl, but that was so funny! Said he'll def be there. then did some stopbys on the way to the church activity. The church activity was AMAZING. It was a Dutch Oven potluck. I was in heaven. After the activity, we called the greenline. When we stop teaching someone, we add them to the greenline for the next two Saturdays and then 6 months in advance. That just means that they get called those nights to remind them about church. It took us like 3 hours ngl. It was painful. We then printed off a directory list and I printed off my patriarchal blessing. We went home and Petey and Jergy trimmed each other's hair while I watched. 

Domingo: Literally got the worst nights sleep, it was heinous. But we got ready for church and it was chill. No one showed up for English class so we just called our people. Nataenel said that his buddy had been picked up by ICE, so he wouldn't be at church because he was with his buddy's family. Well crap. But Val and her two youngest showed up, and a new girl that we haven't met yet. Her name is Adna and she was a media reference, and she brought her cute baby!! Her car is broken down so she ubered to church, and said she'll be coming back and that she loved it! After church, Hailton got ordained to the Priesthood, and then we had a short meeting with Will who just got called as the Portuguese group leader. He wants us to eventually be a branch an have our own sacrament meeting. After that, I tried to nap but it didn't work, but it was great getting to lay in bed. Then we had our Zoom ward coord meeting and then an acompanhamento with our STLs and then we went to dinner. The house was GORGEOUS. And the food was delicious, they made Navajo tacos. It was lowk a family party, there were like 20 people there. Hey Sis Basset, I met your Seminary teacher! I then ate some yummy rhubarb strawberry pie and then we went to visit with another member. We got home and did our planning and had call-ins w Gilbert and we did a stuffed animal tour. I showed off my pink dino, Jergy and Petey showed off their Lobsters and Gilbert showed off a turtle named tiny Tim and sang us a song. We then had a zone devo. It was a great day!

Picture Time:

1. Pday de Zona

2. Gilbert's face when we told him about the water bottle

3. Cavaaa

4. Acai

5. Boardwalk walk

6. Dutch oven activityyy

7. This is what the greenline looks like BTW

8. That's why I looked like this during the greenline

9. The elder's terrible parking job (They're the white car)