Ola!! Tudo bem?
Hey guys! How are you all doing? I
hope that everything is going great. It has been a pretty crazy week and
a half but I will explain why I seem to be breaking the rules in a
little bit.
Monday (February 25th, 2019)
My
first real P-Day here in Caçapava do Sul so what did we decide to do? I
know you all are very anxious to find out. So..we slept, Elder Jolley exercised, we bought food, then we went to a really old fort that has
been there since the 1600. I mean they call it a fort but it is kind of
just a pile of rocks with some nice grass in the middle. I made some
rice (Master Chef) and then some ramen (College student) and that was
pretty good. It was great!
Tuesday (February 26th, 2019)
Today
we found out that we would be heading up to Porto Alegre for a
Leadership Meeting with Presidente Souza. So we had 2 hours to work
before we caught a bus but in these two hours we found 2 new people to
teach which was honestly a miracle!! Then we caught the bus that usually
takes about 4 hours to Porto Alegre, but because of a truck that fell
over we were stuck there for 7 hours. We got there at about midnight and
to sleep at 1 in the morning in shirt and tie and everything then...
Wednesday (February 27th, 2019)
...we
woke up at 6:30. We got ready really quick and ran over to the meeting
that started at 8. The leadership meeting was great and we learned a lot
of really good things. I especially felt very strongly two things. One,
missionaries are literally representatives of Jesus Christ. I know we
have all heard that but I felt it stronger than ever during that
meeting. And the second thing that I felt was that, no matter how
difficult your situation seems, Stay calm, the Lord will be by your
side. I love the scripture that says, 'Be Still and know that I am God!'
Thursday (February 28th, 2019)
The
meeting was great but today was exhausting because we got home at
midnight again. And not only that but we had a whole weeks worth of work
to do in about 3 days. So we made a lot of really quick visits and we
got to know a few people too. We found two new great families. We also
had a meeting with the leaders of the branch trying to help them and see
what there vision is for the future. It was great. We, as missionaries
are going to start organizing and putting together activities every
single Friday to try and unify the ward and to integrate investigators,
it will be a ton of work but it will be so worth it!
Friday (March 1st, 2019)
Today
was pretty crazy too. We invited a bunch of people to church and we are
trying to figure out ways for them to come because our area is about an
hour away from the church so it is a little harder to get people to
come to church, but it is going great!
Saturday (March 2nd, 2019)
Today
we got a lot of people that said that they would go to church. I really
hope that they go. We also had a huge list of people to visit today and
because of time issues, or because they live so far away, or because
they werent home, we didnt get to visit as many people as we would have
liked to. But we helped a lot of people and we can always call. Just
getting ready for church tomorrow :)
Sunday (March 3rd, 2019)
Today
was Fast Sunday. I didnt really like Fast Sunday back home, but here I
am starting to love it because we always see a miracle when we fast. The
miracle today was how many people came to church. Usually when you have a
branch in Brasil there are about 25 -30 people who show up. Today at
church there were 62 people!!
Also, side note, I love
branches. Example: There were a bunch of youth waiting after Sacrament
Meeting and then they realized that neither of their teachers were
there. So I just got them all, put them in a room and taught a very
improvised lesson. It was great!!
Monday (March 4th, 2019)
Welcome
to Carnival. The four days during the year where there are no rules, no
laws and everyone stays up drinking until 7 am. It is really funny
trying to contact people in the road when they dont even know their own
name. We didnt really have P-Day today because everything is closed, I
will get to write on Wednesday because everything opens back up then.
But we literally woke up, I studied while Elder Jolley exercised for 4
hours and then we bought food and came back home. What a good day. ;)
Tuesday (March 5th, 2019)
Since
we did not have access to the internet, I did not know that President
said that today we should stay at home and prepare for the month, so we
went out and tried to work. It was incredible how many drunk people
stopped us asking for Jesus pictures. Hey, if it helps...
Random Thoughts:
- Everyone in this city tries to speak English with us. And no one can speak correctly. Its great.
- I ate pig ears. Very salty.
- We ate a dessert that literally translated is little blacks. It is like a chocolate ball.
- I have decided that Carnival is like the Purge. For four days you can do whatever the heck you want and no one gets punished.
- Our 2nd Counselor straight up told us that he will never go to a ward activity. Alright, thanks for the support :)
I love you all! Hope you are doing well! Go read Matthew 10!
Love,
Elder Allen
