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| Me, making my nightly phone calls. |
May 12, 2014 |
| This is the only type of watch I can wear because of a metal allergy! |
We
haven’t had any time in the last two p-days to write letters because we have
been practicing a musical number for when Elder Andersen comes to visit the
mission. He is going to give a
conference next week and it’s going to be so cool. I will get to play the accompaniment, which is nerve
wracking since I don’t get much practice time other than p-day.
We
did teach F., she is a super receptive lady who asks a lot of really good
questions and is fun to teach.
May 13, 2014
We
have a few serious investigators who are making progress in learning the
gospel. We had a perfect day of
teaching with lots of appointments and we worked super hard. My companion is a great companion and the only problem that I can find with him, to tell you the truth, is that he always thinks (or talks like) his opinion is the only thing that exists in the world. A little bit like Levi in that aspect, BUT I'm glad that I learned to work things out with Levi so I had some practice with that. The other is that he never uses a watch. Sadly, that means that we teach lessons that are on average an hour long. Other than that, he works hard, know the gospel, has a firm testimony, and doesn't have fear when it comes to inviting people to do stuff.
May 14, 2014 (Sister Colvin’s 22nd Birthday!)
Well
today as a riot! Our district
meeting was super good. We got to practice with Sister Jackson and Sister
Brasil. We practiced being
missionaries first, and our first time was good, but lacked showing a personal
interest in the investigators lives. So we practiced again and this time, well,
I could barely keep myself together because one of the Sisters pretended to cry
because of a personal crisis and I was trying so hard not to laugh. Seriously, I was laughing so hard that
I was crying too. I managed to
pull myself together and make it a good practice.
Last
night my comp got on another political rant. I was getting super frustrated until I realized that my
companion thinks in theory not in practice. It took me a long time to figure this out. I just don’t want to get into these
discussions with him anymore. They are not good missionary topics.
We
went to teach a lady tonight and as we were arriving at her house 5 cop cars
pull up in front of her house.
Someone threw a gun in her house as he was making his getaway. Anyways, we were going to teach her at
another members house, but she didn’t want to go because she thought I was
flirting with one of the members.
I am completely lost at times in understanding how these people think!
May 15, 2014
L.
is excited for his baptism! He
finally says that he feels ready. She still has to work out a day that his
family can come, but it’s finally going to happen. We went to teach C., but her
mom was going to send us away because she was busy building dog collars. We helped her out. After about a half
an hour of building dog collars, we gave a great lesson on faith and works and
invited everyone to church. Then
we had a meeting with our ward mission leader tat went well. (side note: C. ended up coming to
church and brought two of her friends!)
May 16, 2014
We had a frustrating day of teaching
people who don’t really want to change their lives or be helped. There where two exceptions though. One
is a woman who is a little intellectually delayed, but has a very sincere and
pure heart. She is 24 years old but thinks like a 12 year old. It was pretty cool to interview her and
see what she has learned about the gospel in the past 5 years that she has been
investigating the church. The time
finally arrived that she was prepared to be baptized and she was so excited.
We
also were able to teach Ev. He has worked so hard to prepare himself for
baptism. He got out of rehab a
little while ago where he spent 7 months cleaning up his life. He knew that he needed spiritual
strength to withstand temptation so he is highly motivated to change. He locked
himself in his house for 3 days and prayed fervently to God to help him find
out how to be stronger spiritually.
That’s when we knocked on his door (he was a referral from our Bishop)
and he said that it was an answer to his prayer. He is by far the most prepared person that I have met as a
missionary. He even cancelled other appointments on Sunday so that he could go
to church.
May 17, 2014
Well
today was mostly frustrating and discouraging. The only thing that went well was our interview with Ev., and
it was awesome. I have never had
the chance to interview someone so ready to be baptized! We talked and talked and really got to
know one another and I could actually see his conversion in my mind.
May 18, 2014
We
had 8 investigators at church today!
The coolest Sunday ever! We
have our conference with Elder Andersen tomorrow and I am looking forward to
it!
May 19, 2014
We went to the conference REALLY early
because all of the missionaries were excited to see each other and visit with
each other before the conference.
I saw Elder Gino, Nogueira, Curty, Zuniga, Freeman, Butuly, Cetraro, and
a bunch of others. It was great to
see so many familiar faces. Then
we spent a half hour organizing everyone into groups to get pictures with the
Apostle. Everything went really
well. Elder Andersen did a pretty
good job with his Portuguese. I
was pretty impressed. The musical
number went well. It was a great
conference and was more like a discussion than a conference. He focused on the
Atonement and how we can only help people to be converted to Christ when we are
converted ourselves. This requires a better understanding of the Atonement on
our part as missionaries. I wrote
more about what I leaned in my study journal. One of the cool things that I got to do was bear my
testimony about general conference directly to an apostle. It felt super weird,
but I could feel the spirit present as I spoke. It was once in a lifetime experience.
May 20, 2014
So
weekly planning went well, but our zone leaders called us and wanted the entire
zone to do a special fast. I
really don’t like fasting (it must be a Colvin thing), so this spur-of-the-moment
idea was kind of annoying for me at first. BUT, we went ahead and did it anyways.
We
visited a recent convert who has serious family issues including depression, and just
doesn’t even want to go to church anymore. We’ve been visiting her a lot to try to give her courage and
she literally complains and cries about the exact same thing every time we
visit her. I actually think that she uses the exact same words every time we
talk to her. I explained a few
principles of the gospel that would help her and she acted like she hadn’t
heard a word of what I said.
We
visited with Ev. and he was the shining star of our day. He is going to be baptized this
week. He is very excited to start
a new life and he has such a strong desire to improve himself. I really like helping him!
May 21, 2014
Today
was really a good day! For one, I
got my package today, which always makes for a good day! We had our district meeting and I gave
the training. I think that it went
well. For my training, I was super creative and I had interactive activities
and an object lesson and a practice. I started off explaining a little about
our purpose as missionaries and then I asked all f the zone to write on a slip
of paper what they thought their purpose was. To my surprise, it worked even better than I imagined. There were very few repeats and only
our zone leaders put down “to baptize”. (Actually it was anonymous but you
could tell that it was our Zone leaders who wrote it.) Then we talked about
what everyone wrote down and I summarize by finding the common thread, which
was change. Our purpose is to
change and help others to change and become better people. My object lesson
involved a container of dirt and water. I asked to look for the greatest change
and then I dropped rocks in each container. The rocks represented us as missionaries. Most of the
missionaries said that the container of water changed the most because the
water splashed, rippled, and rose when the rocks were dropped in. Not a whole lot happened to the container
of dirt when the rocks were dropped in.
Then I said, it is time for transfers, and I took the rocks out of the
containers. Again I asked which
container reflected the biggest change.
There was no visible difference in the water container because the
splashes and the ripples didn’t last, but with the dirt, the rocks left marks
in the sand - marks, or changes that left a lasting impression. That was the focus on my training, not
to just make a temporary wave or splash, but to leave a lasting impression,
make a real difference wherever you go. After the zone training, we broke our
fast together. I shared the
jellybeans that Mom sent in my package and they were a big hit. Most of the zone is made up
of American sister missionaries, so I was happy to give them a treat from home.
Everyone loved them!
May 22, 2014
We
taught the commandments to E. today and it went well. I really liked when
we taught him the Word of Wisdom. He understands addictions and how they have a
negative impact on the quality of life.
When we explained that coffee wasn’t something that is good for our
bodies and can be addictive, he immediately got rid of his coffee and said, “I
am going to find something else to drink tomorrow!” He is so open and willing to obey all of the commandments so
that he can have a better life.
My
camera broke today…uggh, something screwed up the focus mechanism. I guess that I will have to buy a new
camera.
We
had family night with some of the members and I made snickerdoodles for
everyone! It was great! I didn’t
eat too much though because I was feeling kind of sick.
May 23, 2014
Well
today I feel like crap. I hate
getting sick as a missionary because it makes work even harder. We taught some lessons and I had an
interview with some sister missionaries.
I had to go to Aguanano and then the interviews fell through so that was
a waste of an evening. I did have
the opportunity to buy a Brazilian shirt that is a special edition for the
world cup. It’s a cool shirt and
it only cost $12 so I was pretty excited. It was the highlight of my day.
May 24, 2014
We
had a de-roofing service project today.
I was still feeling like crap so it was hard for me. I worked until I had to leave to talk
with L. about his baptism. He
chose to move his baptism until June 22, almost a month from now. Anyways, I didn’t eat anything but a
banana for lunch because I was still not feeling well. We taught another lesson to a less
active family and then I took another trip to Aguanambi. This time the interview went well and
we were able to set up the meeting between the President and Ev. for his
baptism. Everything worked out
really well, even though I still felt terrible.
May 25, 2014
Ev.
was baptized today! It was a super
experience for everyone. He was
rally happy. I know that I will always remember him and that moment in time.
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