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| Elder Colvin forgets how to take a selfie. |
July 28, 2014
Man, I
sound like a crybaby…(referring to last week’s journal entry). I haven’t whined
like that since the MTC. I had a good
talk with all of my housemates about taking care of their own food needs. One of them is my DL, but he´s the one who
was commanding me to feed him. They are buying food a little bit smarter now.
It's mainly been a problem because the lunches have fallen through a lot in
this area and we don't have enough money to pay for lunch and dinner. Their
reasoning in taking advantage of me, is that the rich American will pay for
things because he has money. Usually they buy things that don't last a long
time, and don't really fill you. I've recently gotten into the habit of buying
spaghetti because it's SUPER cheap here (like, less than a dollar for a normal
package.) An added advantage is that
my housemates don't like spaghetti that much, so I have been
able to make it by without dipping into personal funds.
Everything's
going well here, and we've been baptizing every week! The other elders are
destroying their teaching pool because they're all getting baptized! We are
planning a baptism for L.’s granddaughter.
She has been to church with her grandmother since her grandma started
investigating. She is only 10 years old,
so we will be teaching her every day this week to make sure that she is
ready.
July 29, 2014
Well, one
of our investigators/recent converts fell in love with my companion. Haha, at least, we think so. But that is okay since because she is 90! She seems to be a lot happier and says that
she feels a lot closer to God. It seems
that her time on earth is coming to a close quickly. She literally says things like, “What do I
have to do in these last days of life to go back to God?”
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| It is very unusual to see storm clouds in Fortaleza |
So today in
our district meeting I learned very little, and what little I learned was shot
down by my companion. It was a
frustrating meeting, but I am learning how to control my pride and keep my
mouth shut.
We are
still working with V. towards baptism this weekend. She is doing well with living the Word of
Wisdom. Even the kids down here drink
coffee like it’s water so it is always a challenge for our investigators to
give it up. We are teaching a bunch of families which is harder to do than
teaching individual people because there are so many different people with
different needs and opinions. One of our
families wants to be baptized but they have to get married first.
July 31, 2014
We had our interviews with our new mission president
today. It went well, but he seems like a
new missionary in the field, kind of scripted and robotic but it was all
good. After our interviews we at ate
Burger King! Oh it was glorious. Sadly,
just about everything else in our day fell through. We taught some heavily medicated people, and
some old folks, and yeah… not a whole lot of success.
August 1, 2014
Well literally everything fell through today,
including lunch. In the past 2 weeks, we
have eaten in 2 members homes. It is
starting to become a hardship for us because we are not given the budget we
need to purchase an extra meal every day. It is also hard to take the time out
of our schedule to buy and prepare a noon meal.
Every single one of our appointments fell through today except for our
dedicated 10 year old who is prepared for her baptism! She saved the day from being a total
wash. She passed her interview and chose
my companion to baptize her. She is
super excited and I am just praying that L. will continue to help her
grandchildren come to church. They are depending
on her for sure.
August 2, 2014
Today we
basically ran all over our area confirming with our investigators church
attendance tomorrow. A bunch of people
said that they would come, but as my companion says, “I only believe by
seeing.” Sadly, it is true here.
Everyone gives their word, but no one keeps it.
We taught
English class today and it went well. For the most part, I taught them how to
say a prayer in English, some greetings, conversations, and the verb –to
be. I am trying to think of fun games
that we can play to make things more interesting. Next time it will be more fun I think.
(Lunch fell through again today, big
surprise.)
August 3, 2014
We had a
LUNCH appointment today!!!!! Yeah, it
was at the Bishop’s house. We were able
to talk with him for a while about all kinds of things including lunches, the
ward, the mission, etc. He likes us and
appreciates us. He told us all kinds of
mission stories that left me shocked! I
never would have thought that missionaries would do such things because my purpose
here is so ingrained in my head that those things never enter into my thoughts.
It kind of blew me away.
We held our
baptism today! The other elders also
baptized 2 men. I was the only one not
dressed in white! The baptismal meeting
was really good and we were able to feel the Spirit. Our first counselor in the bishopric gave a
really cool abject lesson for his message.
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