Late Zone Conference and Rip to Elder Khilabok

 (Elder Putnam)

Due to some complications in the mission we had Zone conference very late in the transfer. We spent like 3 days in our area this week because of that and visa work. Nonetheless, it was a very good week.

We have a potential 4 new friends, if we can stay in contact with them all.

One is a referral who has already finished 1st and 2nd Nephi (we haven’t even had a lesson with him). He's spent some time in the states where he learned about the church and has some friends who are members.

Next is someone who a member brought to church. The member has been teaching this friend themselves for a little bit. Its minorly frustrating, but she is very excited about coming to church. She will bring her family to game night on Tuesday too. It’ll be exciting.

A random dude just showed up to church yesterday, and while talking to him, we found out that Elder Beebe had invited him to church when he was available. So he came. That hardly happens. W

Then there’s Artis. He said he's down to meet again when he has time. We also have several contacts for people who have mild interest.

Overall though on the week, we had a great go. Zone conference was fun and uplifting. It was Elder Khilabok's last one. Es raudāšu. He is super cool and a great example to all the other missionaries. I fed him some cake (wedding style) and in response Matias did the same to me. Only he got in trouble from his mom. Directly after lunch (with cake still on my face) President asked me to be a zone leader. I thought he was gonna chastise me and tell me that I need to set a better example, but he didn’t. He just informed me about a little smudge I had on my forehead. What a guy.

In the finding activity I was with Elder Brady which was fun, but we didn’t find anyone unfortunately. Maja (president's 9 year old daughter) made me a bracelet out of rainbow loom.

I hurt my ankle but its better now. Thats the main news.

This next week Elder Leonard will finally get to Latvia so I’ll get to start training with him. Super excited. might prank him a bit.

building was looking spooky when we got back from Rīga.

With their Range Rovers and their Jaquars

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa noite gente!

We'll start by saying the beetle count is up to 117. I want to create a spreadsheet to see how things change when I go to my next area, or when other variables take effect.

Today I saw a Range Rover and a Jaguar in the same five minutes. It was crazy.

First off, last week I made a mistake. Today is the last pday of the transfer. I will find out if anything happens on Wednesday. I'll let you know.

On Pday we didn’t really do much, just kind of hung around. It was nice to be able to relax, but I like to be doing things.

This week seemed really fast. Not a whole lot out of the ordinary happened, and so this email I think will be small, but that's what I told myself last week.

It’s been cloudy, but steadily getting warmer. I it doesn’t get much hotter than this though, otherwise all my collars are going to be solid brown by Christmas.

On Tuesday we had a really cool lesson with a less active member and her friends, they loved the message and accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon. Afterwards, there was a Honda CBR in the parking garage. I don't know bikes as well as I know cars, but I know this is a nice bike, especially for Brasileiro standards. That night we had pizza with members.

In Brasil, the pizza is different. They put all sorts of stuff on pizza. Some things make me wonder why Americans argue about pineapples. For example, I had a slice that had cream of milk instead of tomato sauce. It also had hardboiled egg slices. It was actually one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten. A few tears later, I got it down without a scene. Then I watched the member smother their own piece in mayo. I have not witnessed a greater sin. Whether you like pineapple or not, let's unite against this abomination. Most of the pizza I’ve had here has been good, but this one stood out. Anyway, the night was saved. Brasileiro tradition for pizza night is a dessert pizza after the main course. I mentioned this in a previous email. This time, we had chocolate strawberry. It was freaking amazing. It reminded me of the description of Alma the Younger's repentance process in Mosiah 27, and Alma 36. The torment that came from a knowledge of his sins was truly bitter, but the joy of being forgiven was greater than the magnitude of his pain. Such was the joy of this pizza.

That night I also saw a cursed lightning McQueen toy car. It was labeled with the number 98, had awkwardly pursed lips, had no eyes, and said "racing car" instead of Rusteze. It was also just funny looking in general.

Here, fruit trees are everywhere. My comp and I pig out on Acerola, Pitanga, and another berry that I don't remember the name of. I have seen many coconut filled palm trees and banana trees. The banana bunches all have a downward facing purple flower at the bottom. When I asked about it, my comp explained if full, but what I got was: it has something to do with how bananas get water, and without it, the bananas die. It’s called the heart. You should probably do your own research on it; I’ve just seen it, and likely misunderstood what my comp said.

My ability to understand is a lot better. I’m getting about 60-70 percent of the words, but the tenses screw me up, so I’m only getting about 30-40% of the meaning. And sometimes I hear a word and think "I know that one!" And then I miss the rest of the sentence. In strictly gospel conversation, though, I pretty much get it all. My speaking is also much better, I can speak my mind on most things, and improvise a lesson. This week has been a huge boost in confidence and ability.

On Saturday I fed a horse. It was pretty funny because it was spooked by my comp. We also passed by an abandoned plaza. It looked like it just never finished construction. It had a place for an artificial river, skate park, jungle gym, and a few other cool bits.

Tender Mercy: We have an investigator family who is pretty close to baptism. They have a 7 year old boy who bore his testimony during the primary program. He said he wants to be baptized and said he knows the Book of Mormon is true. He didn't stutter, get nervous, and spoke like an experienced orator. His testimony, though short, was powerful. It touched me, and his father who was next to me had glossy eyes. It was awesome to see the spirit witness to everyone the truth of this strong boy's witness.

Spiritual Thought:

John 3:23-24

23 ¶ Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all things.

3 Nephi 19:35

35 And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying he came again to the disciples, and said unto them: So great faith have I never seen among all the Jews; wherefore I could not show unto them so great miracles, because of their unbelief

Christ established His church on faith. It is written that you receive no witness until after the trial of faith. The basis of His miracles was faith. The greater the faith, the greater the miracle. He understood that the people in Jerusalem based their belief in Him was based solely on physical witness, and not in faith. Therefore, he did not perform any miracles at that time. In the Americas, greater miracles were wrought because their faith was greater than that of the Jews. If you have faith, miracles will be wrought in your life. Exercise you faith in Christ, and He will show you why you have faith. How can you exercise faith this week?

SummaRio:

1. 117 Beetles

2. This week flew by

3. It’s getting warmer

4. I saw a super cool bike after a lesson

5. Pizza here is different; sometimes there are some atrocious sins committed to the name of pizza.

6. I saw a cursed Lightning McQueen

7. Fruit trees are everywhere and I so I eat all day long

8. I fed a horse and walked through an abandoned plaza

9. I'm understanding a lot better, but there’s still a ton to be learned.

Photos

1. Flowers

2. Harry Potter in Portuguese (Half-Blood Prince translates to "mystery of the prince")

3. The horse

4. Abandoned plaza

5. Cursed lightning McQueen

6. Strawberry chocolate pizza

7. Mountain sunset

8. More flowers

Note: there will be more pictures of me in the next one, I don't really like selfies so I'll work on that.

Valew!

Exchanges with Elder Khilabok

 (Elder Putnam)

This past week we had a lot going on.

For the record: I got transferred down to Liepaja about 4 weeks ago. I'm in a trio with Elder Beebe who was in the MTC with me, and Elder Ivester, who is being trained by Elder Beebe. We are waiting on Elder Leonard to get visa stuff, but he'll be here in 2 weeks to be my greenie. We've been running Liepāja for the past bit. The members like us, we have friends who we are teaching, and there’s a new family in the branch. Very good things.

Monday we met with Jacky. She’s married to a member and is preparing for baptism. We don’t have her teaching records just because of complications in the mission right now, but those will come through in a few weeks. She’s pretty shy, but she is accepting everything that we teach her.

On Tuesday we had a surprise lesson with a Latvian from Daugavpils. He's crazy. Like really interesting person. He goes off on so many tangents. Lai Dievs viņu svētī. yfm? Such an odd lesson. It didn’t help that it was through zoom.

On Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Argyle. Hes a vibe. we made pelmeņi feast, which is my favorite thing to do for dinner. super easy, super straight forward. very unifying. We also played Catan with them elders. Elder Ivester won.

On Thursday we had English club and it was good because people actually showed up! We did some service for Vincents, whose a super old, super spiritual dude. He gave us chocolate. But this week I decided to give up chocolate for health reasons (Elder Khilabok said I looked fat). That night, the aforementioned elder with his companion, Elder Maxwell arrived for exchanges. I was with Elder Khilabok and Elder Ivester. We kinda went crazy on finding the next day. It was so good. we almost got a member involved too. We found and invited 3 people to church. 2 of them came and are down to meet up again. We also met with a different friend who knew Elder Vehar. Sooo... we know what that means.

Exchanges ended well on Saturday morning. but then we moved into a different apartment. we spent the entire day moving and cleaning both apartments.

Because of our diligence this past week we were blessed with a wonderful Sunday. Sacrament meeting went by well and then Sunday School was slightly better. We are moving into this next week with solid momentum.

Small Spiritual/Language thought for this week:

Alma 27 talks about the people of Ammon who, fleeing from the attacking Lamanites, sought shelter with the Nephites. The Nephites gladly accept them giving them a land. In verse 27 we learn about their relations a little bit.

"27 And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the people who were of the church of God. And they were also distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end."

I had read this verse and other verses before but I had never before considered: What is zeal? So I did a little study on it. In the gospel library, it is linked to diligence and earnestness. But if we dive a little deeper, the Latvian translation is "dedzība." dedzīgs, is like fervent, or firey. "They were distinguished for their [fieriness] towards God and, and also towards men. I love that translation. firey. Let us all strive to be more firey towards God and towards men. If there is anything I want to be right now it’s a dedzīgs misionārs.

Been saying "yes" instead of "no"

 (Elder Mackrory)

Opa! Tudo Bem?

Everything here moves so fast. The speaking, the bikes, the days, the weeks, etc. It is hard to believe that this is the last Pday before transfers. I don't know if I'll get a new companion or not, I can see it going both ways. When I started this transfer I thought that I would definitely get a new companion after the first 6 weeks, because I thought that's how training works. A week ago, I heard that only happens if there's a problem with the companionship. Now, I've heard it can go both ways regardless of how the relationship is. I really don't know, and I'm excited to see what changes in our zone.

You guys have no idea how many times I've said "sim" (yes) when I have no idea what was just said to me. It's gotten better, and I can usually get enough out of what they said to give a closer answer, but sometimes they give me strange looks and I wonder if we will have police outside our house the next morning. I really hope I don't incriminate myself, I can't go back to jail.

This week was so cool! It actually snowed. Not a significant amount as to gather on the ground, and honestly not even enough to make the ground wet, but it snowed. I decided to wear my jacket that morning because I love to wear my jacket. When we went outside, I felt on my face rain, but there was no rain in sight. I took a closer look, and discovered the smallest snowflakes I've ever seen, they more looked like dust particles. But it snowed. I didn't think I'd see snow until late 2025. it was a good thing I wore my jacket, as it rained a little in the afternoon.

It has actually been really cool this week. like temperature-wise. It hasn't gotten above 24, and is usually 21-22. I wish I wore my jacket more because this coming week will be hotter.

I bought some variously flavored wafer snacks last week. I've been keeping them in my bag for when I need a snack and it has been amazing. I think my favorite flavor so far is strawberry. It makes it really easy to bear the last three hours of proselyting because I am not overcome with hunger. Speaking of hunger, Portuguese goes not have a word for hungry. they just say "with hunger", like "tô com fome".

I went on a divisão with Elder Schmuhl from the CTM. He is in my district now too, so I see him often, but it was cool to actually get to work with him. His area includes my house, so I wasn't too disoriented trying to navigate a new area. He and I are both American, and this is a huge talking point for Brazilians. Like America with Spanish, everybody here knows basic American words like "hello" "what's up" "thank you" "good bye". Many people will say to me in a very think Brazilian accent, "What's up, dude?" It's actually the funniest thing. But I can't laugh because they're not saying it ironically. Anyway, the divisão with Schmuhl was awesome. We made the plan for the day, including two lessons. We couldn't find the house, as the numbering system is almost nonexistent. We asked a guy who was loitering if he knew, and he laughed with us about the terrible numbering system. We were able to share a little bit about our missionary purpose with him, and he seemed very intrigued. we got his number. When we found the house (It was on a different street), the person who we planned to teach was not there, but another person was. They were at first resistant to listen because she was under the impression that our church teaches everything in a different way. We assured her that we believe many things the same, and gave her the example of faith. Elder Schmuhl explained faith really well, but it literally doesn't translate well. In Portuguese, Faith is Fé. He explained that just like fé has two letters, it has two parts. F stands for fazer (the verb "to make" or "to do"). He explained that we need to act in order for our faith to be real. É stands for esperança (hope). Because we can't know or see all things, we need to have hope that they are true, and that the God does see and know all. It was really cool to see her visibly realize the commonality we shared. Next we went to a different area and bought some popcorn. we were walking to find a place to sit and eat, when we were stopped by a man who spoke a lot of English. Like I said, being American is a big talking point. He mentioned he had been taught by the missionaries before, but didn't understand how the Book of Mormon fit into history and how he didn't understand the premise of the book. We were able to explain it perfectly to him, as the words we didn't know in Portuguese, he understood in English. He was really excited about it now, and wondered if there videos he could watch (I know, right?). We shared with him the Book of Mormon app, which has all the Book of Mormon Videos, the audiobook, and more. It's rare that a person we meet is interested in the gospel, and even less rare that they're excited. This was so cool and made we really excited for when I'm fluent and able to perfectly explain things to people who do not speak English, and motivated to work towards that. We later got another contact from a family who likewise approached us about our American looks. He and his family were interested and intrigued by the church's English classes every week. We had a family night a bit later, which is basically dinner and a message. They had a very young daughter around the age of 4 who was very hesitant towards us. She wouldn't even tell us her name. Just cutely cower behind her mother. As the night progressed, she warmed up to us. By the end, she asked if I could play with her. She gave me puppy eyes, so I couldn't say no. I really enjoyed playing with her. Not sure what we were doing, but she was having a good time, and that is what matters. I really love love live character development. Following Ice Cream and a spiritual thought, we left (to the toddlers dismay) and went to get Acai. It was a great ending to a great day. It is really cool to see that when you have faith in the lord's plan, he will bring people to you. Both of our lessons fell out, but the people we met during the time we would have been teaching showed us that the Lord's plan is always the best one.

Spiritual thought: I decided to write down a list of good attributes that I wanted to develop. I decided then to write how Christ exemplified each one. This has been really fun so far, since a lot of the attributes, while good, are not typically associated with Christ. It has been cool to see that He has exemplified everything Good. One that recently stumped me for a while was Faith. This should be easy right? But the time in Christ's live when he would have needed the most faith, the time that he was growing in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man, is summed up in less words than this sentence has. Then, while studying for a different attribute, it came to me. Immediately following His baptism, Christ fasted in the wilderness for 40 days. Fasting shows Heavenly Father that you are willing and ready to receive further light and knowledge because you have decided to go without food for a time. This is a very strong show of faith. Even Christ, a person who lived without sin, needed to have faith, and found the need to constantly exercise it. How much more then do we need to do so, seeing that we are imperfect beings? What is a way you can exercise faith this week?

Tender Mercy: on one family night this week, I was passing a rugby ball around with the father. Later, on the bus, I came to notice that my tag was missing from my jacket. This was really worrying to me, as we had to run to catch the bus. I thought that it had fallen off during this run. In this case, it would have likely been lost forever. But we got a message later that night from the member who found my tag in their yard. It must have been knocked off from rugby. Although it was never really lost, the message came at a time when I was most worried, and a bit scared. It is humbling to see how much an omniscient God cares so much for the little things.

SummaRio:

1. Transfers are coming up; I'm not sure if I get a new companion. I'm happy both ways

2. I say "sim" a lot and I probably shouldn't

3. It snowed. Not a lot. most people wouldn't consider it snow, but there were snowflakes in the air

4. It has not been very hot this week. A lot of overcast days and temperatures around 21-22 degrees centrigrade.

5. I went on a divisão with Elder Schmuhl from the CTM. It was really cool to see the day unfold the Lord's way, and not in our own way. You gotta go with the flow.

Photos:

1. Think Celestial

2. A Painting if Lehi and the tree of life by one of our investigators

3. Purple flowers

4. Real guava

5. Red flower

6. Neighborhood; oftentimes the address will have the color of the house with the number which makes things easier unless you're colorblind

7. Beautiful temple art at a member's house

8. Ocean view

Oh my goodness! I totally forgot the most important part of my emails! The beetle count is now up to 89. I saw a half beetle. This time it was the top half that was missing. I guess it makes sense that every beetle has the back bottom quarter, since that's where the engine is.

Tchau gente!

Elder Mackrory

Don't you think nineteen's too young

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia amigos e família!

The Beetle count is up to 60.5. I can’t wait to see another half of a beetle. Here, they call the VW Beetle the Fusca.

This week has been full of ups and down. Mostly ups, but a few notable downs. I was told by many people that the mission would be the hardest thing I had ever done. It's true. It's not so hard as to make me want to come home, but hard enough that I am learning so much. It's truly incredible what the Lord can do with a willing heart. If you are struggling to understand what you are being taught in school, if work has you bogged down, or any other situation, pray. Pray for help from your Heavenly Father. He wants to help you out. As you magnify your faith by praying for help and then putting in the work, the Lord will magnify your efforts.

This week started off amazing. It was P-day and we went to the beach. Not only were we at the beach, but it was also perfect weather. Overcast and 24 degrees. We didn't go in the water, but it was super fun to play with an American football and with the other missionaries. It was genuinely pure glee. It then started to rain. We all ran under cover and one elder forgot his socks in the sand. After it stopped coming down hard, I went back out to the beach to snap the coolest photo I've taken on the mission. Coolest Pday yet.

Tuesday I went on a divisão with Elder Zúñiga. He is from Chile, just north of Santiago. I don't remember the name of his city, but it's one of the ones that got a temple in the last conference. He's an amazing missionary and we had a blast. For lunch he taught a lesson about the atonement. As Zúñiga passed out dessert, he would ask if the person wanted dessert. Regardless of the answer, I had to do 10 pushups. Not everyone wanted dessert, but those that did could only have it if I completed the 10 pushups. I ended up doing 70 pushups in the span of about 3 minutes. We taught a lesson to a woman named Isabela who was really interested. She participated intently and the lesson became more of a discussion that we led. It was awesome. 

The next day was a lot of street contacting, I don’t remember much.

My birthday was pretty sick. After lunch we had cake, and although I don't like coconuts it was pretty good. Then for dinner we also had cake. This one was amazing. Photo attached. Also it was really cool because I noticed that I’m participating more in door to door things. We had a lesson yesterday with a person that I contacted without the help of my comp. It was so cool.

The next day was Zone conference. It was pretty sick. I got to see those in my zone as well as in the neighboring zone. It was awesome and it made me realize how blessed I am. Some elders had never even heard of churrasco. I have it about weekly. I'm going to one right now. I’m really grateful to be in a nice area so I can focus on the language entirely. One thing I’m particularly grateful for is having my own bathroom. That is practically unheard of in the mission.

I had a thought. I've heard it is estimated that a gorilla can bench somewhere in the zone of 4000 lbs. I assume that means the average gorilla. What if you trained it to bench? Gave him one for treat for each plate he loads one the bar. Make him work out daily. I would estimate that the average human can bench come where between 100 and 150 lbs. The world record is somewhere near 1000. By that math, I want to see a gorilla bench somewhere around 40,000 lbs. Is that possible or is there an asymptote that no muscle, bone, or ligament can withstand can cross? Would the graph follow an exponential decay or a logistic kinda thing or something entirely different?

Anyway, Those are the highlights of the week, hope yall are doing well, don’t hesitate to reach out. I love hearing from all of you.

Spiritual thought: in Portuguese, there are two words for the verb "to know": Conhecer and Saber. Conhencer is used for a familiarity or for relationships. Saber is used for information and facts. John 17:3 says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent". Here, "know" is translated at "conhecer". Eternal life is not to have memorized all the events of Christ's life, all His appearances in the Old Testament, Book of Mormon, and in other scriptures. It is understanding motive, understanding attributes, and understanding doctrine. And how do we understand the doctrine? See John 17:3 for that one. I urge you to not only read the scriptures, but to study them and I can promise you will be blessed.

Tender Mercy: Saturday was a crummy day. It was rainy and so no one wanted to talk. Both of our appointments fell through. It just sucked. But that day I was on a divisão with Elder Robison. I love my comp, he's genuinely so awesome, but this day was only bearable because I was able to have full conversations in English with Elder Robison. It was amazing that the day that would have sucked Anyway, that I was placed with someone who I could understand fully and confide in.

SummaRio:

1. Pday was freaking amazing; we went to the beach and it rained. Genuinely so fun.

2. On my birthday we had two cakes in one day.

3. Zone conference was fun because I got to see more people from the MTC (Heyy Elder Roberts and Owen)

4. I wonder how much a gorilla could bench with training and incentives

Photos: I've tried to get these in a correct order but they never follow what I want

1. Maçã grande?

2. Chocolate cake

3. The busses here have perelli tires, are built by Mercedes, and are painted suspiciously similar to Petronas.

4. Genuinely the sickest photo of my mission so far

5. Beach weather

6. The Ramen is funny here

7. Zone conference (I wasn't ready)

It'll leave you breathless, or with a nasty scar

 (Elder Mackrory)

Hey Yall!

Ok, this week was kinda crazy (mild gore warning) We'll start from the beginning. The SparkNotes (which I'm now calling the SummaRio (funny right? (You can't copy; its trademarked))) are at the bottom.

Last P-Day, we had a churrasco. Not sure if I’ve explained what this is in a previous newsletter, but it’s pretty simple so I’ll do it again. A Churrasco is a Brazilian barbeque with pretty much all you can eat steak and sausage. It's my favorite thing. You know you’re at a fancy churrasco if they serve chicken heart as well. There'll be soda (usually always Guaraná and coke), salad, rolls with compound butter, and some sort of vegetable salad that reminds me of Potato salad in its looks and consistency. The main thing is meat though. And it literally is all you can eat. It's my favorite thing. The only seasoning to the steaks is salt, which is cooked into the meat. After the meat is cooked, its cut into little slices for the sake of convenience. It's my favorite thing. Anyway, in the morning we went to the supermarcado with some members who bought the meat. With the little money I had left, I bought my groceries for the week. We took an uber to the member's house and started cooking. It was perfect weather. Opaquely overcast, no wind, and 24⁰. The meat was amazing, except the chicken heart was a little weird. The flavor was good, but it was really fatty and chewy. Not sure why Brasileiros like them so much. We cooked up co much meat it was overflowing out of the foot in diameter Tupperware we had for it. Did I mention it’s my favorite thing? And then. Oh my goodness. The desert. It was a whirl of chocolate/condensed milk pudding with chunks of milk chocolate and mousse filled chocolates. It was better than the meat. And I was already thinking that wasn't possible. I asked what it was called and the member said "Mousse de chocolate branco bombom", which being interpreted means, "white chocolate mousse candy". It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in English, but I’m sure if you looked up the Portuguese words you'd get a good result.

Last week, I made two mistakes. The bad bananas I tried are not Bananas na Terra, they're Bananas da terra. Plantains. My comp said there was a typo on the sign at the supermarcado. The other mistake I made was saying that I don't like the jeep liberty. I'm particularly fond of it, but I meant Jeep Renegade. They’re extremely common here and extremely ugly. Also I saw a few Kia Souls. Those are extremely ugly too.

Speaking of cars, I started counting classic VW Bugs. It’s a fun thing to do on the bus or when walking. This week I got 28.5. Yes, I saw a half beetle. It was made into a trailer for that super sick trimotorcycle. Or is it Motortrike? I feel like motorized tricycle doesn’t do given the coolness thereof.

Now for the fun part. On Wednesday morning for exercise, I had planned to hit chest, but my wrist hurt for some reason so I decided to hit legs. Big Mistake. I love working legs. I was a runner in high school. In the moment, I didn't think about all the hills we'd be walking that day. It was a really good leg day. But the rest of the day I hurt really bad. Today, I can still feel I’m the slightest bit sore, but most of the time I don't notice it. I will hit legs again tomorrow. I think it would be pretty cool to be the Quadfather. Then, that night, my comp and I were supposed to be part of an English class that the church hosts. The problem with that is that the Elder's quorum was having a churrasco that night and we were invited. We managed to get the elders from the other ward to stay at the class, and we left with the bishop for the churrasco. Definitely worth it. I’m already fluent in English. At the churrasco, I passed out. Not exactly sure what caused it, and it wasn't dehydration. I won't explain how I know it wasn't dehydration, but I'll just say it was CLEAR to me that it was something else. Anyway, on the way down I hit the right side of my head on the pool table, and then hit the left side on the floor. When I came to, I was in a chair with gauze being pressed against both sides of my face. I was extremely confused because I was not in pain. I looked around and everyone had stopped what they were doing and were just looking at me. I was mad that I ruined everybody's fun, but that soon passed as the food started to be brought out. I went into the bathroom to disinfect and patch up. It was funny to pull the wound open and closed and make it talk. Way more funny than it should have been. I was grateful for the help of one of the men there, Renato, who wants to be baptized, but has to stop smoking first. He's doing really well. We watched conference with him and his family. Anyway, my comp wanted to go to the hospital and get stitches but it wasn't bleeding a whole lot and I didn't think it was all that bad. I decided to stay because churrasco is better than a waiting room. Definitely the right decision. Did I mention churrasco is my favorite thing? We went home after being filled and I put a butterfly closure on it and went to bed. Apparently those kind of bandages don't exist in Brasil, so I’m glad my mom packed me some (hi mom, love you). Photos of my flesh wounds are attached. I'm super excited for the scars they'll make.

The next few days were packed with my legs hurting like heck, and every member we meet asking "O que aconteceu?" (What happened?). I got good at saying "Você deveria ter visto o outro cara". I'll let you guys decipher that one.

I also want to make one thing clear about the mission. It's not all sunshine and roses. Especially in the beginning. Don't get me wrong, I love the mission. It's freaking awesome and worth it. Most of the time, I’m able to stay positive, but sometimes it really sucks. I write my emails to be fun and exciting for you guys and for my future self, but it’s not always like that. There's always a day or two that suck. Staying positive isn't easy for all, and so my spiritual thought this week is about that. Saturday night really sucked for me. I really wanted to punch someone. That night I said a prayer of gratitude and studied my scriptures. This helped my dreary state. And Sunday brought the sacrament, and opportunities to testify of Jesus Christ. The sacrament brought me an opportunity to serve others. It was testimony meeting, and though I struggled for words, I was able to smile and convey love and belief. All these things brought me to a point of near whole Joy. My message this week is that if you're feeling down, or perhaps more than that, you can find joy and emotional stability in doing the things that strengthen your belief in Jesus Christ. And how do we strengthen our belief? Act in faith! Christ said prayers of gratitude, studied the scriptures, testified, and administered the sacrament. What's one way you can follow the example of Jesus to increase the Joy you feel?

Tender Mercy: We took the wrong bus. We ended up spending an extra 45 minutes getting to where we needed to go. But during that 45 minutes, I was able to plan out my entire day. Not just that day, but pretty much every day for the rest of the mission. When I need to decompress or relieve stress, I like to organize things or make something. Making this minute-by-minute calendar helped me to relieve stress. And since then, my study has been a lot more productive and insightful! Although the bus tour around the beach was not the right place for us to teach, it was the right place for me to be, in order to better understand myself and relieve stress.

SummaRio(TM):

1. On pday, we had a churrasco (that’s my favorite thing) and it was perfect weather.

2. They're called Bananas da Terra not Bananas na Terra, that’s my bad. Also there were a lot of VW Bugs.

3. We had another churrasco, and I split my head open, but elected to eat more food instead of going to the hospital because churrasco is my favorite thing.

4. Lots of people asked about my head

5. The mission sometimes sucks, but it taught me a lesson which is the spiritual thought. Please read it and the tender mercy in full.

Tchau Tchau Obrigado!

Elder Mackrory (formerly known as His Lordship)

Photos:

1. Half a beetle

2. Companion bonding with Açaí

3. My favorite kitten

4. My good side

5. The classics are everywhere

6. My other good side

7. Elder Handsome ready to feast on the word🤙

And maybe we got lost in translation

 (Elder Mackrory)

Oi família e amigos! Tudo bem?

There is so much I could write about today, but that would be a novel. I cannot write the hundredth part of the things that happened. SparkNotes at the bottom.

Brazil is so cool! Last week I had only been in the field for 3 days so I still had no idea what was going on. But now that I kinda know the area and the routine, I've started noticing all the cool things around me.

(If you’re not into cars, you may want to skip this paragraph) For one, the cars here are so different! I showed a bit last week with the ancient Fiat badge, but it’s crazy how different it really is. There's no big trucks (two exceptions I’ve seen); the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux are the big dawgs. Most trucks are sorta like the old El Camino, except shorter and less boxy. There's no Subaru, Mazda, dodge, Chrysler, Cadillac, Acura, scion, Pontiac, and a whole lot of others. I know there’s lots of other common ones I’ve forgotten. Here we have Chevy, ford, Toyota, fiat, Honda, Citroën, Peugeot, vw, Renault, Hyundai, jeep. Some out of the ordinary cars I’ve seen while here are a RAM 2500, ford f-450 (not really, it was just the front half with a small shipping container (U-Haul type)), and a sick BMW bike that my dad likes but I forgot the name. I thought I was done having to see jeep libertys, but no, they show their ugly faces here all the time. There are more classic vw bugs here than any other car. Seriously. Other than that, cars are pretty old here, lots of boxy shapes. Lots of motorbikes as well. Honda civics and Toyota corollas are considered nice cars. Which they are, but not fancy.

Food here is amazing. I get churrasco (pronounced "shoo-hahs-coh") at least once a week. It’s a full Brazilian BBQ, with pretty much all you can eat steak, sausage, pork, and chicken. Plus rice and beans and lettuce. So that’s freaking amazing. Also Estrogenofe. Thats also a common dish here. It’s similar to tika masala except it has corn and it isn’t at all spicy. It’s usually eaten with rice and these miniature french fry things. Rice and beans of course is also common. I bought cereal and yogurt at the store so that’s what I have for breakfast and then for dinner I’ll have a banana. I was very frugal with my money this time around because I wasn’t sure how far my mesada would go. This ended up being an inspired idea as you read later.

It rained for the first time ere yesterday. The drops were very small and it wasn’t heavy rain at all. It was more of a mist. But it was fun to have an excuse to wear a jacket and not get asked "aren't you hot?".

Instead of knocking on doors, what we do here is clap and yell "o de casa!" Which literally translates to "the of house" but it’s really means "anyone home?". Most people have doorbells with a voicebox so that’s what we usually use.

I still don’t really understand anyone, but I’ve heard that it will be like that for the first 3-4 weeks. I’m able to speak more clearly and express what I want to say better. But it still feels like half of my meaning gets lost in translation. Given that I like to get really into a lesson and talk and talk and talk, it feels weird to explain a whole idea in just a few sentences. But the gospel needs to be simple and clear for new people. I’ll get used to it.

My apartment is pretty nice; I’ve got my own bathroom and wardrobe. I just deep cleaned the kitchen, which was a pigsty. I cleaned dishes that looked like they had been dirty since before I left for the CTM. cleaning the muck and grime off the stovetop was really satisfying. I dusted and cleared trash away. I organized our under-the-sink stuff and sorted trash bags. It was so fun.

We taught some more lessons and talked to more people as usual. One lesson stood out though. We had the address for a less-active member and were going to check up on them. When we got to the house, it was the wrong person, but we ended up chatting about Jesus and all the things and he expressed his confusion about why the people in the Americas didn’t get to hear the message of the gospel until the middle ages (I know, right?). It was so cool to be able to then teach him the message of the restoration and give him a Book of Mormon, the record of God's dealings in the ancient Americas. It was so freaking cool. Definitely not an accident we had the wrong address.

General Conference was so good!! Most of what I watched was in Portuguese, so I didn't get much, but the parts I watched in English were amazing. When Conference is released on Gospel Library, please go back and watch it again. I loved Elder Ballard's simple and yet so powerful testimony. Elder Oaks' and Elder Christofferson's stalwart words on priesthood authority, and the opportunity to be exalted with God were so good. I loved President Nelson's invitation to "Think Celestial" (though grammatically speaking, it should be think celestially). Begin with the end in mind, as they say, and the dots will connect in front of you. And 20 new temples is amazing! I have lots of family in the Colorado springs area so I’m super excited for them! One Elder in our district is from Peru. His exact city is getting a temple. It was so cool to see how happy he is. He kept saying, "Minha cidade! Minha cidade!" He could not hold back a smile from ear to ear.

Quotes of the week:

"It’s refreshing to see someone dressed modestly. Oh wait never mind I can see her ankles"

"Not even condensed milk could save this" (referring to bananas na terra)

"Perhaps the only way to save it is compost" (also referring to bananas na Terra)

About Bananas na terra: I showed them last week, but I hadn’t tried them at that point. For some reason, you're supposed to boil them before you eat it. So I did. They were very bad. And my comp said that I cooked it right. So I tried dipping a slice in condensed milk to make it taste better. But like most things that have banana in them, it’s the dominant flavor. I could barely taste the condensed milk. I do not recommend.

Spiritual Thought: The phrase "Hear Him" appears twice in scripture that I know of. Once on the mount of transfiguration (mark 9; Luke 9) and once in the first vision (JSH 1:17). In Portuguese, this is translated as translated as "Ouve-O". When a pronoun (in this case "O") follows and verb and a hyphen, it implies a more formal tone. There's more to this grammar, but it’s not really relevant. The verb is also conjugated in present tense. Now, when translating this phrase, they could have used "Ouça-O" which is the form used when commandments are given. It would have still meant "Hear him", but it would have lost meaning. When God, the father of our spirits, says "hear him", it is not a mandate, nor a casual suggestion. It is a formal invitation to hear Jesus Christ. Nobody is going to force the gospel on you, it’s up to each individual to choose if he/she will "hear him". What is one way you can "hear him" in your life?

Terna Misericórdia: As I stated above, I was very frugal with my biweekly allotment. In the market, I was looking at all the new things I wanted to try. Different fruits and ice creams, different candies and snacks. But the thought came to mind to not splurge. The next thought told me to splurge; the next allotment was only 6 days away, what's the worst that could happen? I decided to be frugal and only buy what I needed for the week. And the worst did happen. When we went to the atm to withdraw the new mesada (allotment), the atm gave me a receipt that said the money had been withdrawn, but no money came out. We checked the balance and it said that all had been withdrawn. So we contacted the financial secretary about it and he’s going to help us today, but I might have to live without that money for the next few days. Because of the prompting of the holy ghost, when we go to the market, I’ll be able to afford what I need for the week again. It’s a huge tender mercy and a lesson of being frugal not living paycheck to paycheck that I’ll take home with me when that time comes.

Happy (late) birthday Grandma Putnam, Shane, Elder Schmell, and Dad! Parabens pra vocês!

SparkNotes:

1. Cars are very different here. There are brands that we don't have in the US, and there are brands we have in the US that they don't have here.

2. The food is amazing, and we have Brazilian BBQ's all the time. Rice is in pretty much every meal.

3. It rained

4. Instead of knocking, the custom here is to clap

5. I still don’t understand anyone, but I'm getting better at speaking.

6. I deep cleaned the kitchen, it was disgusting.

7. We taught a lesson to a guy who wondered about people in the Americas. He was very excited to hear about the book of Mormon.

8. Go watch General Conference! Think Celestial!

9. Bananas na terra suck

10. Again, read the spiritual thought and tender mercy in full.

Deus abençoe!

Tchau!

Elder Mackrory

1. Genuinely the sickest bike known to man

2. The front

3. We gettin big

4. Food

5. Sunset over the macaé lagoon

6. The biggest civilian vehicle I've seen

7. Bananas na terra (uncooked)

8. Bananas na terra (cooked)