(Elder Mackrory)
Bom dia meus amados amigos e familiares! Belezinha?
Essa semana foi louco, nem sei aonde começar. Mas tenho
certeza de uma coisa. Vimos, pela primeira vez desde Janeiro, mais do que 30
fuscas! Vimos 32, levando o total a ser 978. Eu acho que semana que vem vamos
chegar aos 1000 fuscas! Vamos que vamos!
Let's start at the beginning. Pday was great. In the morning
we got transfer news. Against my thoughts, I'm being transferred! My new area
is Conceição de Macabú. My new companion is Elder Mena. He's awesome. He's from
Ecuador, but he's been living for the past 12 years in the northeast of Brasil.
So that means he's the perfect companion for learning Spanish from Portuguese,
since he knows both languages very well. I spent the next hours packing my
bags. I don't like that it is often necessary to pack 2 times, once for
everything else, and twice for the things you need to you between the first
packing and leaving. So I packed 1 time. That night I slept in my dress pants
and shirt on a mattress without sheets or pillow. Wasn't as bad as I thought.
Of course I left out my essential toiletries, but those just went in my small
proselyting bag. That night we had a lesson with one of the Argentinian
families we're teaching. For the first time since starting to learn Spanish, I
led the lesson! In fact, I kinda dominated the conversation and didn't even
realize it. Elder Flores gave a testimony and we said the last prayer.
On Tuesday we moved district council up an hour to be able
to make our lunch appointment. We barely made lunch. But it was worth it
because the lunch was incredible and the company better. We lunched with the
other Argentinian family we're teaching. We then rushed from place to place,
teaching and visiting. At last, we passed by the bank to take out money.
Waiting for the van, some members passed by and gave us a ride home. Turns out
the reason there's no big apartment buildings in Búzios is because it's a law
that you can't build higher than the second floor. Weird. We than lied an Uber
with all my bags and headed to Cabo Frio for the night. We decided that we
wouldn't show up at the house, but at the chapel. There was a ward cake
competition, and I was determined to eat cake. We showed up 40 minutes and so
naturally just in time for the opening prayer. Good cake and hot dogs. The road
home was rough and I opted to carry the giant suitcase on my shoulder instead
of pushing it and breaking a wheel. I thought because I carried a sousaphone on
my shoulder for hours at a time that a suitcase for 15 minutes would be
nothing. But when the suitcase is 70 pounds it's a different story. The travel
took 20-25 minutes and I got home sweating buckets. Good times. Got a solid 4
hours of sleep and got up before the sun to catch the bus to Rio.
The bus ride was great, and I finished reading the Bible!
Such a great book. Highly recommend. And it means that I reached my goal to
read all the standard works before my 20th birthday. I also started reading the
teachings of Brigham Young. Super good! He teaching the gospel with such
beautiful simplicity. Upon arriving in the mission office, got to meet lots of
good friends and make some new ones. I had heard lots of things about my new
area. Some say it's the hole of the mission and nothing ever happens. Others
say it's the area with the most success. So basically it's an area that depends
heavily on the missionaries that are there and the effort they put forth. So
I'm excited that I'm going to an area with lots of success. My new area is in
the Macaé stake and when stake conference happens, I'll be able to see lots of
friends from the Cavaleiros ward. On the way there, Elder Humerez, Mena,
Robison and I talked about conference. I put forth my guess of 17 temples being
announced. The bus actually passed by a my old area and I was jaw to the floor
the entire time. We passed by the old Macaé house, the central terminal and the
1001 terminal. The bus made a quick stop there and I descended real quick and
got to chat for a second with Elder Patterson. Elder Mena and I stayed on the
bus and it took us beyond the end of the world to Macabú. We got home exhausted
and went straight to bed right after just a few unpacking things.
Thursday was up and doing things. We went to the store at
exactly 8am and got our things for until pday and ran another errand. Back home
I did more unpacking while my comp contacted our appointments for the day. We
studied a bit, cooked and ate lunch, and left for our activities. We met some
recent converts, members, investigators and basically I got a tour of the whole
city. During our walking I got to practice some more Spanish and my comp
practiced English as well. We got home exhausted.
Friday was basically the same thing except we had in person
lunch. We also taught our 9 year old recent convert about the pre-mortal life
and we did a practice where he taught us the doctrine. Kids learn really well
if you make them teach. It's also really useful to know what they really
retained.
Saturday was a spiritual banquet. Obviously we had
conference, which we watched at a members house during lunch. after the session
we had to zip back the chapel and teach a lesson to the friend of one of the
youth in the branch. The friend's baby was super cute and was super interested
in stealing my tag. The two of them ended up watching conference with us that
evening and I confess that I paid more attention on the baby that I should
have. It's ok, though. I can rewatch conference and the baby was really cute.
Sunday we had lunch early and then zipped back to the chapel
to open it up for members to watch. Guess how many members came? 1. And he was
only there to open up the locked closet where the TV is kept. After the
session, we went over to a new friends house and tried to give her a Book of
Mormon. She refused it and went inside without saying a word. Then she came
back out with a dusty Book of Mormon with the names of two Elders who served in
Macabú like 4 years ago. So we invited her to read and watch general
conference. We'll be over to her house tomorrow, we will see how things went.
Spiritual thought: Guys. general conference was so freaking
good. I felt rejuvenated and ready to face the evils of the day. Although it
was not simply because the messages were gratifying and peaceful, but because
each of them invited change. Moroni 7:13 reads, “...that which is of God
inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which
inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve Him, is
inspired of God.” Goodness and truth are not passive. They incite action on the
part of the listener. This conference, we sustain our prophets and leaders.
It's easy to lift up your arm in support, but the true way to sustain our
leaders is to follow their teachings. They teach nothing but that which has
been or is being revealed by God. Go and put into action all the precepts of
the speakers. Rewatch, relisten, and reread the discourses and think about how
it directly applies to you. Then go and do. That's it guys. It's so simple.
Tender mercy: These last few days have been quite breezy and
cool here in Macabu, which is contrary to the norm. It gave me the excitement
that I needed to hit the ground running and get to work.
Fotos:
1. This kind of fruit grows on the bark
2. My new area is so pretty
3. The River of January (its actually a bay)
4. Our investigator's Porsche
5. A conferência dá sono
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