Christmas, New Years, and Zone Conference

 (Elder Putnam)

So I’m going to attempt to summarize 2 big weeks in one Email in 15 minutes.

Christmas was awesome. Inviting people to church was so fun, but so unfruitful. Despite that, there were still like 50 people who came to church. All time high.

We spent Christmas eve night with the Ščerbeņini family and the Bergesons. It was awesome!

We stayed inside on Christmas which made it go by a little boringly, but still got to talk to family all day. (We were counselled to stay inside by our Mission President).

The following week, people were a lot less open to talking with missionaries. No real surprise. But Markuss was baptized!!! Elder Beebe got to drive down and participate in the ordinance. It was really cool to see. We ended by driving up to Rīga to celebrate the New Year with other missionaries. Then we stayed up there for Zone Conference and visa work. Zone Conference was hype and we were all edified.

The amazing thing was that we came back to Liepāja and still were so effective. We had 3 new friends in 3 days. Doesn't sound like much, but its darn cold out here and that doubled our area book. Looking forward to a lesson every day with a friend next week (mind blown). We are also meeting with a Baptist preacher. The Baptist preacher who's church building is down the street from ours is either gonna bash the crap out of us or is gonna turn into the most amazing strength Liepāja has ever seen. Wow.

Anyways thats a decent summary of what has happened recently. Remember that you are all children of God. He loves you and He's got your back.

It was the night things changed

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia todos!

This week seriously flew by. It took quite a while to remember each of the days. People say that the mission goes the slowest in the first and last 6 months, and if so, I have no idea how I'm going to keep up. It's already flying by. They days are long, but the weeks are about as long as a day. It's wild. Yesterday was Wednesday. I'm pretty sure. And two days ago was the last pday. Time is not real.

Anyway, we'll kick this one off with the fusca count. Good news! It's at 393! This means that last week's slump was likely due to the increased number of people out of town. I bet you some areas who don't get many of them saw a few more. Perhaps I'll be in an area next Christmas that does not have many, and the Christmas week will see more, rather than less.

We started off the week (the year) on an exchange with Elder Humerez. It was a crazy day because we had to postpone our district council meeting 3 times because the sisters were stuck in post-holiday traffic all day, returning from starting their exchanges. We visited a lot of people and did a lot of productive organizing of our area book this way.

On Wednesday, we had lunch at my favorite restaurant. But they upped their prices. From 15 reals to 16 reals. Can you believe it? Outrageous. Anyway, that night, we had a family night with Kamilla and Douglas and Kaique. Os Brabos. They were playing a PS5 Harry Potter game that had the map all wrong. They put the quidditch pitch where the maze goes and Hagrids hut just outside of the botanical gardens. And the worst part was they put the Ravenclaw common room in the grand staircase! Everybody knows it is in the astronomy wing. Anyway, Kaique tried to make his avatar look like me, but it ended up looking like Iceman from top gun. I've forgotten the actors name. The message we shared was about having personal experiences with God. It was awesome, and I could tell most everyone was feeling the spirit. Afterward, we hung out a little bit, and I played a bunch of idle games with Kaique and talked about grammar (Portuguese and English). My main takeaway was that both languages are completely illogical, but English is more so.

On Thursday, we had lunch with a member of the stake presidency, and he helped me read a calculus book in Portuguese. It was pretty cool. Calculus is so cool. While I resent Sir Isaac Newton for inventing gravity, I'm glad he invented calculus. We lad a lesson with someone named Ilcinety, an older lady who liked to talk. It was difficult to get the message across because we also had to listen to her life story. But she agreed to meet with us the next day, so that's a win.

On Friday, we had our lesson with Ilcinety, and this time, she listened intently and made on topic comments. We have some appointments with her next week, and I'm excited to see her progress.

In district council, I suggested we have a “Noite Familiar da Casa” in order to bring the spirit back into our house. Friday night, we did this. We ordered pizza and just kinda hung out for a while, and afterwards, as it goes with a family night, we shared a message. I started out by sharing a scripture from the Book of Mormon. I also shared the experience that I had with the Book of Mormon through that scripture. I expected that I would share my testimony and that would finish the message and we'd all go to bed. But what happened instead was beyond that. All five of the other Elders present had something more to share on the subject. Each testimony was unique and brought the spirit. The presence of the holy ghost was once again in our home. Since then, the house has been quiet in the mornings, not in a noise level way, but in a peaceful way. The ethic to worth has been generally higher and morale (especially on my side) remedied.

Saturday, and up until this point, I have been on a split with Elder Levie again. That night, we played basketball with some of our investigators and the Elders in the adjacent area, Lagomar. I am not good at basketball, so any opportunity to not burden people with my lack of skill by sitting out, I took. Which ended up being really good, because one of our investigators who came was injured and couldn't play anyway, so I hung out with him. He speaks fluent English, but all his teachers were from England, and so he's got a Birmingham accent. It's pretty wack. I was not expecting it at all. It's like if you were to hear a cat bark. It's just not natural. But it was cool to talk to him because he's a mechanical engineer, so we got along naturally. We talked about a lot of things from the language, to working on oil rigs, to the trial of Jesus being completely illegal under Jewish law. It was awesome to talk in English about a subject I had recently studied.

Other weekly highlights:

Had raspberry chocolate ice cream and it was freaking amazing

Ran from a street dog

Ate pretty much all day Sunday

Literally half the ward got up to bear their testimonies on Sunday, I’m glad I got up there first

SummaRio:

Time isn’t even real, this week felt like 3 days

393 fuscas! Turns out last week’s slump was likely due to holiday travel

Tuesday we were very productive organizing our area book

Wednesday we had a super fun family night where I played on the PS5

We taught an old lady who likes to share her life story while the discussion is happening

The next day, we taught her again, and she listened intently and shared relevant comments.

We had a “family night” with just the elders of our district in which I shared a message, brought the spirit, but most importantly, helped those in my house recognize the previous lack of the spirit. Since then, it’s been great.

I had a split with Levie again and we played basketball with investigators and talked with a Brazilian who had an Birmingham accent. He learned from peaky blinders and British teachers.

Tender Mercy: When I went to the bank this week to withdraw my money, the dollar was down, and so I would have lost like R$60, so I decided to wait until it was up, but we haven’t had a chance to go back, so I just use my card. The bus doesn’t accept card, and so I had to use whatever I had left in cash. And I ran out on Wednesday. And yet I didn’t. My budget said I had run out, but each time I needed bus money, I was able to find some cash of mine. It definitely should not have worked out, but there was always money provided in a miraculous way.

Spiritual Thought:

A memorized scripture can be a friend in a time of difficulty, discomfort, or disorientation. One scripture I really like is from the writings of Moses, the words of God, “For behold, this is my work and my glory— to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”. I've had this scripture memorized for literally as long as I can remember. It helps me keep an eternal perspective. What is one sucky day when life is a blink in comparison to Eternal joy with my Heavenly Father and my family? I invite all of you to choose a scripture that brings you comfort or direction, and memorize it. This memorized scripture will pop into your head whenever you need comfort or direction. I promise you it works. Even if it's just a part of a scripture. Do it.

Not too many photos this week, sorry.

1. Cool graffiti. Note: saudades does not have a translation in English. It kinda describes feelings of missing someone or something. But that's not it really.

2. Lunch with Bishop

3. Interesting Christmas photo sent to us by a member

4. Shirtless Santa (what is my comp doingggg)

5. New year’s eve selfie

You knew you won, so what's the point of keeping score?

 (Elder Mackrory)

Good tarde beutifuls!

Feliz ano novo! This holiday is superfluous! Anyway, the greeting today is from a text that I got from an investigator that had me busting up for a full minute. Many things happened this week that made it a spiritually strengthening week. Through trials upon trials, I'm finding that the Lord is there for me and supports me in my efforts. When you truly seek the savior, he makes himself known to you, and the joy that he brings is unlike any.

We'll start, as always, with the fusca count. I have no idea what happened. But I missed the quota by quite a bit, bringing 365. Which is actually a cool number to hit on the 365th day of the year, but I would have preferred to hit 375 like I expected.

On Tuesday, we had our district council. They introduced a point system for doing good missionary things, such as 2 points for waking up on time, 2 points for doing exercise, 2 points for personal study, 5 points for a lesson, 2 points for a new person, and so forth. This is great for building good habits. I'm really glad they introduced it because, as I'll demonstrate later, those habits are lacking in our district. But for me, those habits are already built. I do all those things already. And so to participate would actually be bad for me. My motivation would change from doing good things because they're the right things to do, to doing them for points. I feel like Luke 20:25 and Matthew 6:2 explain my perspective well. The things I do are the things of God, and to do them in exchange for points would be to render them to Cæsar. Also, since the points are a competition, to seek the ice cream that awaits the winner would be my reward rather than more worthwhile blessings.

On Wednesday, we worked in a neighborhood called Mirante da Lagoa. It had been a while since we worked there, and so we actually had a lot of success knocking doors. We spent the day visiting old friends. Lots of them had moved, and so we found some new people who were the new residents. It's a lot easier to get people to talk to you when you have someone you're looking for rather than just saying “O de Casa” (who's home). We made several appointments for Thursday, and so we also worked there on Thursday. It was perfect actually because we had lunch with the stake president, which is close by. It does mean we take the scenic route through the jungle. We found a spider about the size of a golf ball. More new friends and old friends.

On Saturday, I had a split with Elder Levie. We taught the restoration to a mother and her daughter, which had me, my companion, and the two we were teaching in tears. The first vision has true power in testifying of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. For lunch, we went to the supermarket and got supplies to make burgers. They were amazing and tasted American. That night, we had a noite familiar and shared an object lesson I will never forget, and nor will the family that we shared it with. We shared a dance. And each dance move represented a principle in the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we had more time, we would have taught them the dance, but unfortunately, we didn't have the time.

 

Yesterday was kinda crazy. It started out with me traveling back from a far area (from splits) for church. After church, we were chatting with a member family and arranged a churrasco that night for New year’s. After that, we went home and organized the house a bit, and got in our mandated study time that we weren't able to get in due to the Sacrament. After study time, we left for the churrasco. I stayed in missionary attire, but the other elders in our group decided it was a “business casual” event, and they didn't need to wear a shirt and tie. So we left for the churrasco and had so much fun. I love food. And a surprise was seeing Elder Nascimento and his new companion who had traveled from their zone to be here with us. We had a good talk catching up and chatting with one of our investigators who we taught together way back when. Since it was new year’s eve, we were allowed by our mission president to stay out until 10:30 when usually it's 9:00. So anyway 11:00 rolls around and another Elder and I are trying to get everyone rolling, but they weren't even close to wanting to leave. So we hailed an uber home. What we failed to account for is the key situation. So instead of getting sleep, we had to wait for the rest of the year until they got back (haha I’m funny). But seriously those fubecas got back at 2am. So the time from 7-10am today when I usually write my email was spent sleeping. So that’s why the emails coming later than usual.

The trials and trials I spoke of earlier are this: there is a lack of the spirit in our home. After I exercise, eat, and shower, I do not leave my desk until it is time to walk out the door for lunch. My headphones in, I can listen to music that brings the spirit and blocks out normal music that I've lost a desire to listen to. My desk is a sanctuary of study that is the only place I know where the spirit resides. The conversations and music of the other Elders in my house does not allow for us to be edified, and so I am completely focused on my study of the Gospel and the language until we need to leave for lunch and the work of the day. I also feel a lack of influence with the Elders, and often go on splits with Elder Levie in our district who is motivated to be obedient. While I can perfectly say what I need to say to encourage obedience, because I am American and still have an accent, my words make no influence. I thought that that would go away once I left training and they would move on from seeing me as a greenie. Such is not the case. To a Brazilian, it seems I'll always be like a whiny child who can't speak right. But their respect is not something I'm seeking. I'm seeking favor with the Lord. And His favor is manifested when I can speak with love and authority to those I teach.

I love my companion. Although sometimes he is in the disobedient part, he is really just there to be friendly with the other missionaries. When it is just Him and I working together, he is motivated to do good. This week I will be trying to influence him in the mornings.

SummaRio:

Fusca count only grew roughly 20 this week. 365.

My district introduced a point system to encourage good habits. I was reminded of scriptures that were good for the situation

On Wednesday and Thursday we worked in an area we hadn’t worked in while and had lots of success.

On Saturday I had a split with Elder Levie, and we taught a lesson that had all of us in tears from the spiritual power of the first vision.

On Sunday we had a new year’s eve party where I had to wait 3 hours for the other elders to get back to apartment to let them in. They came back at 2am.

There has been a lack of the spirit in our house. I also feel like they don't see me as a legitimate person. But in my studies I am able to feel the spirit abundantly.

Tender Mercy: on my split with Levie, we stayed later than we planned at our lesson, and we were very anxious that we would be late to our family night. The timing definitely should not have worked out, but by a miracle, we were able to be there on time.

Spiritual thought: due to my recent extensive studies, I have many scriptures floating around in my head throughout the day. In a moment, one will stand out to me and I will know what next to do. Memorized scriptures guide, comfort, and protect me as I go throughout the day. An example is Luke 20:25 and Matthew 6:2 in the one of the above paragraphs. I encourage you to find a scripture you like, and memorize it, so that it can be a guide, comforter, and protector for you.

Photos:

- splits with Elder Levie

- burgers with Elder Levie

- burger at a nice restaurant

- sunset

- I love that all the houses are a different color here.

- giant spider

- noite familiar with the 1st counselor for the stake

- smaller, cuter jumping spider I named Charlotte (the best spider name)

But Something about it felt like home somehow (from the vault)

 (Elder Mackrory)

Some photos I wanted to include, but couldn’t fit in the email:

-Sunset from Tuesday

-another temple shot

-Renato e família

-Me with the kitten that has grown up very much

-district council at the beach

-some pretty trees

But Something About it Felt Like Home Somehow

 (Elder Mackrory)

Feliz Natal! Nasceu Jesus! Happy chrimas! Is Chrisman! Merry crisis! Merry Chrysler. If ykyk.

It's finally here! After almost two months of celebrating, we've come to the pinnacle of the season! But that's not even the highlight of the week!

On Saturday I went home! I got to talk to my father and hang with my siblings. Kind of. I went to the temple. And I did lots of praying to speak with my Heavenly Father, and I got to hang with the brothers and sisters of my ward and the next one over. When the temple is 6 hours away from where you live (it's in another mission), the ward makes the whole day out of it. We got up at 1 in the morning and took a bus from the chapel that left at 2. The bus trip is expensive, and since my companion went recently, he didn't want to make another expensive dip into his wallet. So I went with the Elders of Rio Das Ostras as a trio. I spent the bus ride there sleeping (obviously), and we arrived at about 7. It had been since the CTM that I visited The House of the Lord. During those visits, I understood near nothing of the teachings and presentations. During this visit, however, I found that just about everything made sense and was able to gain new insights, whereas in the CTM visits, I was just trying to stay afloat. Since we made the whole day of it, I was able to be a part of all the functions of the temple. It was such a special experience, and I felt truly at home. On the way home I got to call my family and I ate a whole cake. It was a perfect day other than getting up early and getting back late.

I was right about this transfer and the Fusca count. Typically, I'll catch about 25 every week. This week, I hit 40, bringing the total to 344. It really helped to see 7 fuscas in 1 lot. I almost lost it.

Last pday we just sat at the beach and hung out. It was a pretty chill pday. I saw some people playing ping pong with a soccer ball and using their feet instead of paddles. Brazilians will do anything to change a sport into soccer.

On Tuesday, we worked in the São Marcos neighborhood and found starfruit. It's pretty cool. We still have a few of them in the freezer that we picked, and I plan to make juice sometime. We also played some version of volleyball with some teenage girls in the park. We got their numbers, and we're working with the young women of our ward to get them to church activities and sacrament. São Marcos is difficult to work in because it's a rich neighborhood, and so nobody has time or desire to learn, but this gives us a big in to like 5 families. We also saw a beautiful sunset that perhaps some of you saw on my FB story. That night, we played games and shared a message with a part member family. It was pretty cool.

On Wednesday we went to Ice Cream and they had lemon sherbet. That combined with strawberry raspberry ice cream was literally unbeatable. We tracked in an area with a lot of old investigators and had quite a bit of success.

On Thursday, we went caroling as a district, visiting members and investigators and just spreading Christmas cheer because everyone knows that the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

On Friday there was zone conference. We had a great Christmas dinner, and each missionary got a panettone cake. It's a classic Brazilian Christmas tradição. It's really fluffy bread with chocolate chunks or fruit chunks throughout. The fruit one is not so good, so I'm glad my mission president and his wife chose the chocolate ones. Got to see Elder Roberts, Elder DeWitt, and Elder Robison. Missed Elder Smith and Elder Schmuhl, who were transferred. Can't wait to see them and the rest of my CTM district in future zone conferences. Amo vocês.

Saturday, we went to the temple, and yesterday was filled with going from members' house to members' house eating food and taking back leftovers. I don't think I'll need groceries this week. It's quite fortunate since pday is Christmas, and every store in the world is closed.

My dinner on Sunday night was with our friends Renato and Aline and their daughters Valentina and Elena. They are a part member family, but they have some of the strongest testimonies I've ever seen. As they passed presents around and exchanged hugs, the spirit in the room was so strong it brought tears to my eyes. Each of them understood that Christmas is not about gifts that you receive, but about the gifts you give and remembering the greatest gift that was ever given. When they presented a gift, the presenter would describe why they love the person who is receiving the gift. They even gifted me with chocolate, and you know how I am when I get free food. Seriously, it needs to be a 6th love language.

That's really it this week, I loved every moment. Hope every one of you enjoyed/is enjoying this Christmas season.

SummaRio:

I went to the temple on Saturday, and I felt truly at home. We got up really early and got home really late, but it was 100% worth it.

344 fuscas!!

Went to the beach for pday.

We played volleyball with some girls in the park, and now we basically have five new families of investigators.

We got amazing ice cream on Wednesday

We went caroling on Thursday

Zone conference on Friday!! I got a free cake!!

Sunday, we spent the day bouncing between members' houses who wanted to give us food.

The part member family whom we had dinner with understood the true meaning of Christmas in such a full way. Recommend you read that paragraph in full.

Tender Mercy:

We only have one set of keys for our apartment. For Christmas eve night, there were 6 Elders sleeping in our apartment (just for one night, it's ok) and so we gave the keys to the people who we thought were most likely to return earliest. Turns out they were out the latest. But when my comp and I returned, at that moment, a car pulled out of the garage and let us past the first door. Thanks to the calisthenics I've been doing, I was then able to jump up and grab the bottom of my balcony and pull myself up and inside the house, where I could let my comp in. When the second companionship arrived, another car pulled out of the complex, letting them past that door, and we could then let them in. People rarely use the parking space in our complex, so it was a tender mercy that people had to leave exactly when we needed to get in.

Spiritual Thought:

During the drive back after Christmas dinner, Renato was telling us about how he found the missionaries almost 6 years ago. The only thing he knew was that prayer works. He had recently gone through a divorce where he lost custody of his daughters. He said he prayed daily to be able to see his daughters. Soon later, he found the missionaries. His wife and daughters were found not too long afterward. Going to church and gaining a testimony of the gospel brought his family back together, and now they all live together in the most loving harmony. I testify of the power of prayer. It is real. Miracles happen through prayer and action. God is our loving Heavenly Father and he wants to bless us with everything, we just need to ask.

I'll see you all in the next one! Tchau

Fotos:

1. Christmas eve dinner

2. Some flowers

3. Temple

4. Temple with nativity

5. The ice cream picture my comp did not want me to use on this email

6. 7 fuscas in one shot

7. Starfruit

8. Fut Mesa

First couple days of training

 (Elder Putnam)

This week was a little all over the place.

We started with exchanges up in Rīgā. Elder Woods and I popped off. We went finding til our toes froze and then we shared the absolute worst bratwurst I’ve ever had. Not a play on words. The lady pulls it out of the bag in front of us and then grills in a panini press. I can’t believe I paid 2.50 for that.

Elder Leonard and I returned to Liepāja and then, not 18 hours later I was back on a bus with Elder Ivester to get trained on how to train a new missionary. While there, we also went finding a ton. I swear, Rīga is the promised land of finding. I mean wow. Also using the LightTheWorld method is crackeddd

We got our new missionaries. Elder Roberts and I hit it off from the start which is one of the reasons why I was not thrown off too much when we were assigned to be companions. We have hardly anything in common but that doesn’t seem to be an obstacle. We’re doing a challenge to bring us together as a companionship. We are gonna finish the Book of Mormon in 9 weeks reading together. I know that some of you are doing it in only 25 days, but I'm simply weaker.

First Sunday went by so well. Although there was hardly anyone at church, Gundega and Markuss showed up, Gundega with her husband and one of her sons. I spoke and so did Brother Ščerbeniņš. Elder Roberts introduced himself. Gundega and company felt the spirit. Afterward, we had a lesson with Jacky and Jāzeps joined. He is so great. Can't wait for him to serve a mission.

Pday went by so efficiently too. Like we got so much done. Were gonna make ham-beefburgurs this week and its gonna be so good. The sisters will get to Liepāja on Thursday which will be huge and Cammie opens her call tomorrow so pray she goes Baltic Mission Latvian or Russian speaking.

Anyways that’s all. I’m gonna sign off for now here’s some pictures.

And no I haven’t haized my greenie...

yet

You know I love a London boy

 (Elder Mackrory)

Fala ai pessoal!

It feels like an eternity since I last wrote an email, and yet this week was so fast! We will start with the usual. 304. And there's a story to go along with it, but we will get there when we get there. Also, SÓ UMA SEMANA ATÉ NATAL!!!!!!!

So, last week, I mentioned transfers. And how Elder Avelino got his visa. Literally, like an hour after I sent that email, my mission president, Presidente Dutson, calls to let us know that the travel plans have changed. And the new travel plans had him leaving Tuesday morning. The entire district was spinning. We had an emergency outing to a rodizio restaurant to celebrate and have a final confraternização do distrito. We did our secret Santa then (it's called secret friend here), and Elder Rojas got me some cologne, which definitely went way over budget, but that's ok. I got Sister Samogin, and I got her a new phone case. She said she needed one and that I got her favorite color. So that was a huge win.

I didn't have money for the rodizio because I spent it on protein powder. So I just sat and hung out with the district, which was totally fine because I had food at home. But then Elder Avelino got me a churrrrrroo. I almost cried for happiness. There needs to be a sixth love language with food. And you can't put it under gift giving because that is not one I'm particularly inclined towards.

That night, most of the district wanted to stay at the restaurant after nine. Since our president allows American missionaries to call home from 9-10 (because of the time difference), Elder Schmuhl and I decided to go back to the house. Upon arriving home, we realized that neither of us had a sim card. So we had to go back and get one. On the way, we met the district again. They decided to come home not long after us. They were relieved to see us because they were being followed by two people who looked very determined to rob us. When we arrived, the other two turned back. It was really cool how it worked out.

Tuesday morning, Elder Avelino left. I was put in a trio with Elder Borges and Elder Schmuhl. So technically, I had 3 trainers because Elder Avelino's travel counts as an emergency transfer.

Wednesday morning, we found out about transfers. I'm staying! But of course, I do get another companion. His name is Elder Falanchi. He was born and raised in the States, but both of his parents are from São Paulo, so he started his mission fluent in Portuguese and English. Most people are surprised to hear he's American because he looks Brazilian. He's got tons of energy and is really good at listening and making meaningful connections with people. He's also a hugger, which you don't find too many of those on the mission. He's pretty awesome.

I thought it would be funny to see if I could pull a British accent on this guy just for fun. So, to set up, I contacted Elder DeWitt, who lived in the same house as him before the transfer. Elder DeWitt was one of my roommates in the CTM; he's the goat. And he's now gonna be in my zone, which is a tender mercy because Elder Schmuhl and Elder Smith were transferred. Gonna miss them. Anyway, we got DeWitt on board, and the stage was set.

On Saturday, Elder Falanchi and I spent most of the day doing phone contacting. With how much Elder Avelino was sick, we weren't able to have many lessons or even get out of the house much. Elder Falanchi and I set up lessons and other appointments that should keep us pretty busy. We were able to get in contact with some investigators who haven't shown interest since my first transfer.

That night, we went to the ward Christmas party (part 2). I had a random thought to bring my melodica. It ended up being super cool because the missionaries gave an improvised musical number of Silent Night, so I was able to play the melodica while the others sang in 3 languages. It was way cool. I'm grateful for that simple yet inspired prompting to bring it.

Elder Falanchi thinks it's funny that I count Fuscas, and so he's helping me with it. On each the two days we've worked together, we got 6. A daily average is somewhere between 3 and 4. I expect that there will be bug jumps this transfer (Get it? BUG jumps???). Oh man I'm so funny. It's given me a stronger drive to count fuscas. And it makes it wheelly fun when working with a companion. I wonder if I'll ever get tired out. What even fuels these puns?

The accent is working well, and my comp and a few in the district are totally fooled. It's really fun. Although as I listen to myself, I find my “accent” is closer to New Zealand or South Africa than a London accent. It would be pretty cool to just keep this up for the next 19ish months and just come home with an accent. We'll see. Vamos ver.

The housing situation changed for the better. The Elders of Macaé 2 moved to the Lagomar house and so there's only 4 people in our house. It's really nice to have a clean house with walking space. I'm back on cooking and having space in the fridge. It also means I get my own fan and closet.

My Portuguese is doing quite well. I have no problem chatting with everyone, but it is sometimes difficult to participate in a dinner conversation because it takes me a second or two to process what was said and come up with what to say. And by that time someone else has added something more and the process begins again. I can teach all the lessons and make phone contacts. I think I've hit what's called “missionary fluent” where I can do all the things that missionaries typically do with ease, but vocabulary outside of those realms is very limited.

SummaRio:

304 beetles.

Elder Avelino got updated travel plans to go to Mozambique on Tuesday morning instead of Friday. We went out to eat that night to celebrate.

Since Elder Avelino was “emergency transferred”, I had 3 trainers by a technicality: Nascimento, Avelino, and Borges.

I'm staying in my area for the next transfer with my new comp Elder Falanchi. He's American but grew up speaking Portuguese, so that's cool.

I decided to start doing a British accent with Elder Falanchi. Thanks to Elder DeWitt for helping me set up the backstory!

We are focusing on reactivating old investigators and setting up lessons since a lot of investigators dropped interest last transfer.

Elder Falanchi helps me count fuscas, so I expect big jumps this transfer.

My “accent” as it turns out is closer to South African or New Zealander.

There are only four Elders in hours house right now, which is really comfortable.

I'm fluent in all things missionary, and I'm working on expanding my vocabulary and grammar to be truly fluent. I hope to feel fluent by the end of this transfer.

Tender Mercy: this week has been full of tender mercies, but for me this one stands out. On Wednesday afternoon, the Zone Leaders and one other Elder had to leave early for a leadership conference. The whole situation had everyone a little on edge, and the Zone Leaders accidentally left the house without leaving a sim card with one of us. That would mean for the next two days, we would not have any sort of WIFI or cellular connection. It would mean that we couldn't get tickets for Elder Schmuhl’s travel, or arrange rides for when the new zone members arrive. Since we realized pretty soon, we were able to chase after them and get it back. The tender mercy is that while we ran the mile to the bus station (in the hot sun and missionary clothes), every intersection was still as we crossed it. It was right about rush hour, and so that never happens. There was also a pleasant breeze keeping us cool as we ran. The whole run was headed by the Lord's angels. We probably crossed at least 5 intersections and never had to stop once for a car.

Spiritual thought: Being so close to Christmas, I'd like to share my thoughts. For me, Christmas is a remembrance of the great gift to the world the Savior Jesus Christ is. It means a renewal of that same spirit of giving in us. How is that spirit of giving in you this week and every day?

Photos:

- my new comp and I

- Elder Avelino abandoning me with a smile

- flavored ketchup

- Philly cheese steaks

- Mazda Mx-3 (I didn't know that existed)

- fake snow making me feel a lil homesick

- district except for Avelino (he was buying some milk)

- seeing Avelino off at the bus station