Thought of calling ya, but you wont pick up

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa noite meus cria! De boa?

Essa semana eu vi 11 fuscas! Foi uma semana muito boa e estou muito esperançoso em relação ao futuro.

This week was full of things and finally I had pday. Last Saturday we went to a YSA activity and invited one of our investigators to participate, and she really liked it, so I’m really happy for her, especially since she got to know us from the English class I teach. In the afternoon we went to the temple and it was marvelous. Then, as we were finishing the session, the other elders (who had finished already and were waiting outside) got a call from a member of the bishopric asking for urgent help. So when we came up we called and uber super quick and rushed over their house. They had had a birthday party that afternoon and there was a lot of food leftover that didn’t fit in the fridge. So we helped out quite a bit.

On Sunday I translated for an Austrian (calm down, we spoke English) and two Canadians. It was funny translating the elders quorum, because it went off topic a few times and I was just kinda like “uhhhhhh”. Anyway, we had lunch with Rafael, who was baptized the week before, and he made the best pudding that I have ever eaten and the most aesthetic one I’ve ever seen.

On Monday we had transfer news, and… I’m being transferred to a new area! But I didn’t have time to think about that, because we had tons of things to do to prepare for the transfer. I called my replacement-to-be, and we arranged with him to arrive on Tuesday morning so that I could have some time to train him on a few things. It was super cool to do that and honestly a little relieving because when I arrived in the office it was trial by fire, except I didn’t know there was gonna be fire (thanks a lot Elder Kjar). Just kidding, kinda.

On Tuesday we trained our new friend, who is likely giving the ward a headache with his even harder name than mine. Good luck in Botafogo Elder Krummenacher. That night we had our last member meal in Botafogo with my favorite members. They make the best food. We had the best rice that I have ever had. I got thirds of just rice. It was incredible.

On Wednesday we had the actual transfers. It was kinda chaos, and I helped Elder Krummenacher get used to it. I got an uber with all my bags and headed to my area around rush hour. I had the genius idea to sleep the entire way there, woke up an hour later, and we were still on our way even though I thought it was close. There was just some really bad traffic. We got to the area, I undid my bags and we headed to the supermarket to get some necessities, and I forgot to buy laundry detergent. So ja era.

On Thursday we tried to plan, but the system took like an hour to let us in, and so we studied instead. When it finally let us in, we had 150 freaking referrals without any attempt of contact. So I took a deep breath and got to work. We have been working our butts off to get the number down.

On Friday we did some visits to some interested people and more phone calls. Saturday as well. Except on both days we helped with the move of an investigator that the other companionship in the ward is teaching. She’s super cool. On Saturday we didn’t go in missionary clothes since we would be doing some heavy lifting. As we entered the neighborhood, a dude with a walkie talkie asked us if we lived there. No, said we. But we told him we were helping with the move that was happening up the road, pointing to the big truck. He said oh ok and let us in. As we arrived at the truck two guys (one by one) passed by on dirtbikes slowly checking out the situation. They each had some nicely sized guns on their backs. Fun times here in Iraja!.

On Sunday we had a marvelous time. It was testimony meeting and since Elder Roca and I were new in the ward, they invited us to go first, which was good since there were lots of people lined up to go. One of our friends showed up and afterwards we were talking to him and said that he came to church with many questions about his life and how God works and that they were all answered through the testimonies of the members. Miracles guys, miracles. Afterwards, I played checkers with the ward crazy, who is super lit. That evening my comp had a knee hurting and wasn’t able to walk very well, so we just called referrals all day. We were able to get down to 56 uncontacted referrals. Stay tuned next week for cool news of our friend and our 56 friends to be.

In other news, we are having trouble going to bed on time because my companion is a Portuguese teacher and so we have really good conversations. I can finally use the grammar vocab I used. We find it funny to correct each other when we make mistakes. It’s also funny because he has the most hillbilly Brazilian accent. Just imagine a Texan with the thickest accent speaking without any grammatical errors. It is quite the combo.

Tender Mercy: Lots actually. The Lord is good and I’m seeing more of His hand in my life and I look for It. He has strengthened my testimony in ways that I didn’t think were possible. I have been praying for charity these days, and it’s incredible to see that God responds to our prayers. I feel a great love the members that I have barely gotten to know in my new area. They’re incredible.

Spiritual thought: Prayer has a huge impact on our how we view the world and how we view ourselves. When we speak with our Father in Heaven, we connect ourselves more and more with the Divine. We allow for ourselves many blessings that God desires us to have, but that are conditional on our asking for them. Please pray. Ask God for charity, virtue, faith, humility, diligence, obedience, integrity, knowledge, and patience, and watch your life take flight. Seek to do that which is required of you and your prayers will not have been in vain.