FAMILY!!
So let me start from when I got off the phone with you. We got on the plane and it was pretty empty. It was a 2-3-2 plane. I was sitting by some guy but then I moved to go sit by one of the other missionaries on the flight. We were in the middle 3 seats so we had room. It was just us two. I forgot his name but he is gong to São Paolo. He served in Detroit for 3 months though so he just told me about mission stuff. It was great.
I slept from like 11pm to 6am. It was nice. We landed and then got off the plane. We (7 missionaries) walked through to customs. It was such a breeze. Gave them my passport and they looked at it for second, stamped it and we were through. We got our luggage and then went out of security. We were met by a Brazilian couple from the church. They helped us check our bags and get on out next plane.
Our ticket was printed wrong. It said gate 15 but it was actually 17. So we almost got on the plane to Rio. There were 5 of us that traveled to MANAUS but for some reason they put us on 2 different planes. I was with Elder Redford and Sister Zuniger or something like that. I was on the isle so I didn't have a perfect view out the window but as we where coming down it was like a magazine. The rivers were all windy and so cool.
We landed and were met by the APs, the Secretaries and President Klein. I had no idea what he was saying but one of the Aps was American. So thankful for that. President Klein drove us to the temple. It was so beautiful but smaller than I thought it was going to be. All the new missionaries were there and we got a picture in front of the temple.
Then we were off to the mission home. We drove a long way. Brazil is so.... I don´t even know how to describe it. The city of Manaus is just crammed. Driving is crazy. If there is room for you to fit your car, you just go. So many motorcycles. They just weave in between the cars. So crazy. We got to the mission home...... which is not a home. It is a big super nice apartment complex. The mission ´´home´´ is on the 10th floor with a sweet view.
The view from the mission presidents house (10 stories up). All of this that you can see is my area basically. It is one of the richer areas. We have a bunch of super nice apartment buildings like President Klein´s. There are also some super nice gated communities.
We ate next. Ribs, chicken rice and fish. So good!! Then we all were told by president where we were going. I´m in an area called Adrinôpolis. The mission home is in my boundaries so I´m in Manaus. After that we all met our comps and went to our areas. It was 6:30 by this time but dark. So weird. The sun is up at 6 and goes down at six.
My companion is Elder M. He is from Ogden UT so he speaks English. He goes home in December so I´m his last companion. We took a taxi to our house. So to get to our house you have to go through this door on the street, then you walk down some stairs and into our house. It is a good house. Small and definitely nothing like you would find in Richland. It has a kitchen, another room where our fridge and table is, a bedroom and a bathroom. I´ll try to send pics.
 |
| Me & Elder M |
The shower is cold water. It is a mission rule to shower twice a day. Morning and night. At night it feels so nice because I´m so hot and sweaty and I just step into a cold shower, so nice. But in the morning it is not so good:) Our bedroom has a cooling device thing that gets our room to about 20 C. It is nice. But when you walk out into the rest of the house it is hot and humid.
So about my companion. He is fluent which I´m so thankful for. He is from Ogden. And he loves to talk. Just about anything. He is cool. He likes to sleep in till like 7 though. I did it a couple of times this week just because he didn´t wake up. I'm getting better though. I´m getting up at 6:30 from now on. He goes home in December and I can tell he is going to become trunky. Here are some examples. 1) last night after we studied (we studied from 3-7) we were just going to stay in the rest of the night and do... I don't even know what. I said, ´´We should probably go out and try and do some street contacts,´´ he agreed and we left. 2) this morning he slept in late. I think I will have to be pushing him a little but that will be hard because I don´t even know what I´m doing.
On Wednesday (my first day here) we went to the temple!. It was so sweet. The inside is a lot like our temple expect it is two stories. The sessions are about the same size as ours, small. So Adrinôpolis is one of the richer parts of Manaus.... or so I'm told. When we go out walking it is so weird. I don't know how to describe it. It´s just like roads and then the roads are lined with houses. But don´t think of houses like in America. everything is cement and crammed together. All the houses are touching. There are also a ton of alleys that people live in. They don´t live in them but the door to their house is on the ally. So crazy.
We haven´t eaten anything super crazy. Just rice beans and noodles usually with some kind of meat.. steak, chicken of fish. Nothing crazy yet but Elder M told one of the members to make us monkey head. We will see if that actually happens. Oh speaking of monkeys!!! I have seen... zero. Got your hopes up didn´t I :)
We live in a very densely populated area so there really isn´t any wildlife besides pigeons. How lame. I come all the way to Brazil and the only thing I´ve seen is pigeons... just joking I love it here.
On my first full day here we went out to go street contact people. It started to be windy and my comp said the rain was coming. We were close to the church building so we went inside. Sure enough it started to rain. When I say rain, don´t think of rain, think of a river coming from the sky. I´m not even kidding. There were some little kids (members) outside running and playing outside. Well they were like 12 but they look way younger than that here. Everyone here is fairly short and super dark. So we were just waiting in the church waiting for it to stop. It was lightening too. One cracked right over the church and it was so loud! It shook the glass on the doors to the church. So loud!!
I guess I will talk about yesterday now. So we had a man named M** on date to be baptized. He is super sick though. Not like the cold or flu but like super sick. The doctors here don´t know what is wrong with him. He just doesn´t have energy and has a hard time walking sometimes. They were expecting him to die but he is actually getting better. He is 23. So on Saturday night we went over to his house and told him we would be by at 7:45 to wake him up for church because his baptism was right after church.
So yesterday we went to wake him up. We were a little late. We told him we would be back with a car to pick him up at 8:20 . Church starts at 8:30. So we walked back to the church and waited for a member to show up with a car so they could go pick him up with us. No member with a car showed up. Elder M said we just needed to go get him so we did. And this is no short walk. Like probably close to a mile and we are booking it because church has already started.
We get there and tell him we don´t have a car but that we will walk really slow with him to church. He said he couldn´t come. Elder M talked to him for a while. He was looking really sick, coughing up a ton of flem. Eventually we got him to come so we walked slowly with him back to church. After sacrament meeting which is the last meeting, we baptized him.... And I got to do it!
It was so cool! The standard of excellence in this mission is 2 people a week to be baptized. My companion baptized 11 people one time at the same baptismal service.
I guess I will talk about yesterday now. So we had a man named M** on date to be baptized. He is super sick though. Not like the cold or flu but like super sick. The doctors here don´t know what is wrong with him. He just doesn´t have energy and has a hard time walking sometimes. They were expecting him to die but he is actually getting better. He is 23. So on Saturday night we went over to his house and told him we would be by at 7:45 to wake him up for church because his baptism was right after church.
So yesterday we went to wake him up. We were a little late. We told him we would be back with a car to pick him up at 8:20 . Church starts at 8:30. So we walked back to the church and waited for a member to show up with a car so they could go pick him up with us. No member with a car showed up. Elder M said we just needed to go get him so we did. And this is no short walk. Like probably close to a mile and we are booking it because church has already started.
We get there and tell him we don´t have a car but that we will walk really slow with him to church. He said he couldn´t come. Elder M talked to him for a while. He was looking really sick, coughing up a ton of flem. Eventually we got him to come so we walked slowly with him back to church. After sacrament meeting which is the last meeting, we baptized him.... And I got to do it!
It was so cool! The standard of excellence in this mission is 2 people a week to be baptized. My companion baptized 11 people one time at the same baptismal service.
So last night like I said we went out and street contacted at night. So the sun is down. Its 7:00, we walked around for like half an hour and tried to talk to people but everyone was drunk or in church. I didn´t take my little white hanky because I didn´t think I´d need it. Boy was I wrong. I sweated a ton. When we got back home my companion said to me, "you know, I don´t think I´ve ever seen you with a dry face." It´s true though!! I use that little white hanky to wipe my face. It is crazy how much I sweat.
The language is hard. I can´t really understand any one expect like the deacons. They speak super dirty Portuguese here so it is really hard to understand. I try to talk but I never know what to say because I have no idea what they are saying. That is why I´m so grateful for my companion! He saves me time after time! But it´s hard. It is also hard to study the language too. I don´t really know what to do. We also speak English a lot which we need to stop.
I don´t know about the sandals but I don´t think I would wear them. I got burnt this week. Everybody was telling me how red I was. I am wearing sunblock know so don´t worry MOM. I love all of you and miss you a ton. I´m trying to get lost in the work but it´s hard. My companion doesn´t like to talk to people on the street. I want to I just don´t know how. When we go street contacting we are passing people but we just don´t talk to them. And when we do talk to people we walk up and we just stand there awkwardly not saying anything. And then my companion says something, then afterwards he tells me that I was supposed to do that one and I had no idea! He didn´t tell me. So it is just frustrating sometimes. But it is all good. I love it here. It is so easy to sleep at night because we walk sooooo muuuuch and it is soooo hot!
Love you all sooooo much. I miss you all soooooo much!
No comments:
Post a Comment