August 9, 2014
Well this week has flown by! I forgot to write because I have been so
tired. We have been working super hard,
and we are baptizing every week in this transfer so far. V. is going to be baptized tomorrow! We have
also found a bunch of couples to teach this week and some old investigators who
have finally decided to get married. The
work is going super super well.
Unfortunately, President Bonini is
not happy with us. We had our first
conference with him and I don’t even know what to say. Think about an army general and you will be
able to picture him. He doesn’t seem to
care too much about his missionaries. He
doesn’t show love for his missionaries.
But, he is still new to the mission field and I know that no matter
what, I will keep on working and keeping
the mission rules even if he starts making ridiculous ones. He basically told us that he is not too
bothered about sending missionaries home, meaning he will send missionaries
home with little remorse for he tiniest infractions.
I just keep telling myself that it
will all work out and I will just keep on getting better and better at
preaching the gospel independent of who my leader is. That is what I am here to
do. This week went a lot better for me.
I am learning to think about things before doing something stupid.
August 13, 2014
Where to
begin…So the owner’s of our apartment continued to fight with us last week. They
called us names, denounced the name of the church, and wanted to evict
Elder Moleiro and me because they said that we are too noisy. They have been complaining about the noise
the missionaries make for almost a year now with every single missionary who
has ever passed through. “A lot of
noise” is scraping a chair across the floor.
They were calling us fags and liars.
Anyway,
yesterday I got an emergency transfer.
Other than the landlords, I have no idea what the problem was. I have been working harder, being obedient,
being more diligent, and baptizing more.
Uggh. It is very
frustrating. On top of that I was
demoted and sent to Sigueira er Jatoba!
This is one of the most ghetto parts of the mission. I already served in Bom Jardim, and Jatoba is
the ghetto part of Bom Jardim. So it’s
basically the ghetto of the ghetto. This was the first area that Elder Moleiro
served it and he loved it! So I am going
to keep and open mind and try not to be too bummed about my situation.
August 14, 2014
My new
companion is Elder Benitez and he is from Virginia. He has been on his mission for 10 months, he
is the district leader and my senior companion.
Yup, that’s right. My new comp is
a really nice guy. He is very quiet, struggles with the language. He talks
really slowly and very softly and the language barrier is preventing him from
being able to follow through completely.
But he has a nice spirit about him and I like him. Today was kindof sad
because all but 1 visit fell through.
Thankfully, I have learned how to talk with everyone, so I ended up
contacting a ton of people all day long.
Afterwards, we finally taught a lesson at 8:00 pm to the dad of one of
our investigators. This particular
family is trying to overcome some serious addictions. It is such a great experience to work with
these people and see the changes that the gospel brings in their lives.
I finally
have time to write in my journal and that really makes me happy. Tomorrow I will go on divisions with Elder
D. My new apartment is actually super nice for a missionary apartment.
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| I have my own personal bathroom...which is I love because it is clean! |
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 Notice how there are no cupboards or storage anywhere in the house. |
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| Division. Elder Rodger on the right is a country boy from North Carolina! |
I have
never been on a crazier division in my mission.
I got to know Elder D. a little bit better. He is super weird but we got along just
great…probably because most people think that I am super weird. We knocked on this door from a contact that
he make a while back and out of nowhere this street dog starts guarding the
house and threatening to attack us. So
that ended that contact. Then we went to
this kid‘s house where the Elders have been teaching forever. Elder D. and the kid were mostly just messing
around and the kid kept burping in Elder D.’s face. Don’t ask me why…it was ridiculous. Well then Elder D. ended up vomiting because
of the smell. It was hilarious. Then after that successful lesson, we walked
around doing contacts. Elder D. decided to contact this man sitting on the
sidewalk. He told us that he held 5 different
top secret jobs…okay, weird. He invited
us into his home and we sat down to talk some more. He seemed really smart at first, but during
the conversation he asked us several times if we thought that he was weird…okay
that WAS weird, but of course we said, no.
Well it wasn’t much longer into the conversation that I got the
impression that this guy is a psychopath.
Fortunately, nothing happened and I am not planning on going back
there. So during the day I was bless to
not get bitten, thrown up on, or murdered. What an adventure. I did get to
climb a coconut tree and grab two coconuts.
That was fun.
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| Elder D. and I. |
My companion has been focusing a lot on reactivation and working with recent converts. It seems to be going really well but I am a little frustrated with being junior companion because I don’t know how to help him without offending him or stepping on his toes. I want to help him, but I am not sure how.
August 17, 2014
I had my
first sacrament meeting in Jatoba. It was actually pretty good. Everyone complains about this area, but so
far I am loving it! The members here are
great. They are super funny and always
feed us well. I have always known that
the people of Ceara are generous, but her in Jatoba it is almost ridiculous. I love it!
I am just going to keep working my hardest and try to not get
discouraged by the circumstances.
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