Well Family and Friends, e ei? Como estan voces? I´ll be honest in saying that this was one of the most interesting weeks so far. I believe it was week 21? or something. However, 5 months have been touched today! OPPPA!
We were trying to have a crazy week of teaching. That is actually what I wrote in my planner last week during weekly planning. We wanted to teach with members every day and really put a dent in the numbers for this area. However, everyday our members called us and said that they weren´t able to meet with so we were just a couple of Elders teaching as much as possible. I think I may have heard every possible excuse from a most of our ´´new´´ investigators regarding teaching. Someone even said that they were to busy with watching for their lottery numbers! Goodness! Brazilians :) You all know that feeling when your on a rollercoaster and your stomach drops well I had that feeling this week when I walked into district meeting. I walked in only to see Presidente Souza standing there. I think I was only nervous because I was caught off guard. Don´t get me wrong, he is super nice and has a lot of advice but it is just scary when your not expecting a visit from him. We had a lot of references this week which was truly a blessing. Including one that was way on that other side of area. Elder Birdsall and I walked about 45 minutes to find him not home. Boo! So we started the long journey back. Unfortunatley not everyone has phones so somtimes its difficult to know if someone is home or not.
On Tuesday we recieved a phone call from the Mission Office that Elder Birdsall would need to renew his visa this week so we would stay the night in Aldeota. Elder Birdsall was pretter excited to see a lot of Elders from his group and catch up with them. So Thursday, We packed our bags and took the bus around 8:00pm over to Aldeota. The mission ´´home´´ is really close to the office so the bus ride in all is about an hour. Of coarse like most places, Fortaleza is way different at night. Many Many random people walking to the street or standing holding their hands up (if you know what I mean) and it was a very interesting bus ride. Sometimes I think these bus drivers learned to drive a Honda Civic or some some car and then started driving buses. Anyways, when we walked into the apartment there was about 20 missionaries in total staying the night. Half brazilian half American. The funny thing is that apartment only had about 14 mattresses. Yes, if you do the math, 14 and 20 do not line up. In short, I ended up sleeping on the hard wood floor along with my companion and a few other Americans. It was one of those experiences in which you say ´´Only on the Mission´´ I´m pretty sure I only got about 45 minutes of sleep the entire night. Waking up every hour, turning over, wiping the sweat off my face and so on. It was an interesting night to say the least but when Elder Birdsall and I got home, a one hour nap was in order and then it was back to work. I was pretty beat all weekend. I did however enjoy a nice Double Whopper from BURGER KING for lunch! Holy COW! I never realized how delicious that can be. I talked with alot of missionaries that morning while Elder Birdsall went to the federal police. Two of them are returning home early because of a broken foot and the other with a sickness in his stomach. It was fun hearing all the stories of all the different areas.
On Saturday we particpated in the ´´Mâos que ajudam´´ which translated into Helping hands. Yes, we did get to wear the famous yellow vests. We had to go around to a lot of people around the neighborhood and talk about Dengue awarness. It was a good oppurtunity for us to recieve a lot of references and meet a lot more people. I also discovered the ward recieve a PIANO! this week. I was really excited and so was the ward when they discovered that I could play. I am pretty sure I have an unofficial calling of ´´Pianist´´ now. Last night we taught abunch of lessons trying to catch back up with our goals and had a really good experience with an investigator. He is 15 and has been going to church since Jan. He wanted to get baptized in Feb. but his dad wouldn´t let him. We wanted to meet with his dad and talk to him about letting his son get baptized. It was an interesting conversation as well as eventful. He yelled a little bit and there was some portugues words that I had never heard but it all turned out that Gabriel will be getting baptized this Saturday! YEAH! We came out of the house give eachother ´´knucks´´ :)
I discovered that many people say that they would ´´die for Christ´´ when ever we meet them. Many people have this idea. But I realized that we shouldn´t ´´die for him´´ but rather ´´Live for Him´´. He set the example and is the way. If you accept him then live like you know he would want you to live.
Love you all! Minimal sleep really affects the work but I feel well rested after today. Hope you all have a good week at Lake Shasta! Just remember that that Lake knows me a lot better than a lot of people :) I love you!
Tchau!
Elder N. Anderso
No comments:
Post a Comment