Welcome back to another addition of my weekly emails with the very strange titles. I am so glad that you have suffered through this many examples of my strangeness. That says a lot about the patience that all of you have. Thank you for showing Christlike attributes.
...Anyways.
How was your week? Mine was great! Conference was incredibly inspired
and such an amazing experience even though I realized that I know a lot
less Portuguese than I thought I did. Or the Apostles know a lot more
words than I do in English. I think both are the case.
Monday (October 1, 2018)
Holy
October!! Welcome to the best sports month of the year. Go watch some
good old sporting events for me. Please, I meant to say. Its Monday,
which means P-Day! Elder Lira has now taught me how to play Pokemon and
Magic the Gathering (TM). Two experiences that I never thought I would
have. But it was really funny because I beat him 2 out of three times in
a Portuguese card game that I have never played before. I also tried to
get a haircut because my hair is about as long as the walk from here to
the chapel but the haircut place was closed. It was 5:30 and it said it
closes at 8:00 so unfortunately my hair still looks like a rats nest 87.4%
of the time because the wind literally never stops blowing here. An
incredible feat of nature.
Tuesday (October 2, 2018)
Today
all 6 references and contacts we had were not at home so that was cool.
But hey, we found times that dont work for them so that was good. Good
news of the week (so far) Zilda is still planning to be baptised. We
also got a lot of people to commit to coming to General Conference so
that was good too. I had rice with ramen for dinner and I called it, "How many carbs can I put on one plate?" The answer: Yes.
Wednesday (October 3, 2018)
Today
was a very normal day. Not great but not bad at all either. But, I did
get to throw a ninja star. We walked into a house and there are kids
throwing this ninja star at their wall. We were like, "What are you
doing???" Then we see the mom and she is doing it too. Well ok then.
They have a lot of holes in their wall at this point in time. Three of them
are my fault.
Thursday (October 4, 2018)
Today
we had a really good day. It was my first Zone Conference so the
Pelotas and Pelotas North zones met with Presidente Souza. I learned a
lot of great things. I learned more clearly that life is not a win/lose
situation. We can all win. We can all lift and help until we make it to
eternal life together. A great reminder. Also, because we had the
conference, 4 other elders from the southernmost part of our mission
stayed at our house last night and as we were walking to the conference
we looked like the FBI and I have never felt so cool in my life. After
the conference, we started an exchange with our Zone Leaders so me and
Elder Pedro stayed in our area. And I didnt get lost, so blessings.
Friday (October 5, 2018)
Today
was a day of the most miracles that I have seen thus far on my mission.
Normally, if the amount of investigators we teach is more than 6 it has
been a good day. We had 14. Usually the amount of Recent Converts is
around 2-3. Today it was 5. If we can get 1 person to accept a baptismal
date in a day it is a great day. We got 4 people to accepts dates. What
an amazing day. Elder Pedro is absolutely incredible. He loves people
so much and knows exactly what to say to them all the time. The Spirit
that he carries with him can fill a house instantly and you have no
choice but to listen to him. It also helps that he is well over 6 ft
tall. And the most incredible thing is that he is super funny too. He
isnt a super serious guy, he likes to have fun but he is a great
missionary. Elder Pedro is awesome, today was awesome and so many
blessings from the Lord were received.
Saturday (October 6, 2018)
Today
was like a hard slap in the face from reality. But we slapped it back.
We finished our exchange today and so Elder Lira and I got ready and
went to go to the chapel for Conference. It was completely closed. No
one had unlocked it, or set up anything, and no one was there. We had
been telling people all week to come to the chapel for Conference and no
one organized anything to get it ready. So me and Elder Lira and the
Sisters in our district got someone to give us a key and sat in the tiny
secretary office and watched conference. Also, not one of our
investigators showed up. Lit. But tomorrow will be better.
Sunday (October 7, 2018)
Today
we got up a little earlier and went to the church to get everything
ready. We called all of our investigators, got rides for everyone, made
sure the TV was working and even opened the chapel so people could come
in. We basically said, who needs help? And did it all ourselves. It was
awesome. We had 4 investigators at the first session and 4 at the
second, which doesnt sound like a ton but we were so happy with it. Pray
like everything depends on Heavenly Father, then work like everything
depends on you.
Random Thoughts:
- It turns out Elder Pedro does in fact have a weakness. It is cooking. He asked if I wanted ramen and I said sure because who can mess up ramen. Wow. It was an experience. He made it with egg yolks, cheese that he found somewhere, lots of salt and some herbs with I am still confused about because we have no herbs in our apartment. It was so nice of him to make everything but it was disgusting. But hey, I ate all of it because he was sitting there watching me eat it.
- I have always been told that hair burns and smells awful, so I wanted to test it. Dont worry, I only took like 3 strands of my hair and lit them on fire. Man, it smells exactly like peanut butter. I even tried it again just to make sure. And it definitely smells like peanut butter.
- Some guy that studied at the University of Kentucky tried to speak to me in English and I realized that I dont know how to say the word because in English anymore. Everytime I had to say the word because, I said porque (which is because in Portuguese). Rip me.
Love you all!! Hope conference was an amazing spiritual experience and Ill see ya soon!!
Elder Allen
