So this week I STILL
don't have my camera charger... Woohoo! This week was pretty
chill. We worked hard and we had two families in church on Sunday and we're
going to have a baptism this next week. As far as work goes, it was a good
week, and once you get the hang of things, it's not so hard. I think that
that's why time is FLYING by right now! Seriously, this week seemed like almost
nothing! Anyways, the highlights of the week:
September 9, 2014
Today was a really great p-day because I got to watch “How
to Train Your Dragon 2.” I know it
shouldn’t be some sort of big accomplishment, but it was a super big deal to us
missionaries. I didn’t understand all of
it because the audio was really bad and it was in Portuguese…BUT, it was still
very good. The rest of P-day went well
and we were able to get a lot accomplished, at least in the evening. One of our problems in this area is that
there are only women home in the afternoon and mission rules don’t allow us to
teach unless there are three of us. We
found two couples who were at home in the afternoon, so that will finally give
us someone to teach.
I saw that freaking cat that keeps pooping in our garage
again, only this time it was in our kitchen!
I almost had a heart attack because it ran out from under the table and
I almost kicked it!
September 10, 2014
Nothing super interesting happened today. One of our investigators broke up with his
girlfriend today and he was a little sad, but we were happy because now he said
that he will live the law of chastity and not work on Sundays anymore. He is
really getting ready for his baptism.
I had a division with
Elder Tamanho this week, and he has a little bit more experience than me as a
missionary, and we tore apart our area! We taught like bosses and made a ton of
contacts. I lot happened today with splits, getting locked out of our
house, having to sleep over at the other elders apartment, and lots of good
lessons. One of our investigators is
working on getting married so that they can be baptized. This is a super common problem in Brazil
especially for the poor because it is very expensive to get married here. We made several new contacts today. One of our members made us a cake to take
home and eat. We shared it with the
other Elders who let us stay in their apartment as a thank you. As far as feedback from my zone leader, welll.... He didn't say hardly
anything! That's a good thing, because he said that I teach well, I work well,
and that he didn't have anything to tell me. BUT I noticed that he contacts
people REALLY well, so I asked him how he does it and he helped me learn a
little bit about 'reading' people. I learned that there's a huge difference
between judging and reading people. Well... not a whole lot, but as we read
people, we can find things to talk about, conversation starters, etc. As we
talk with people, he also taught me how to guide them to where I want them to
be. I learned how to start talking about something that they want to talk about
and eventually get to a topic that I want to talk
about. Anyways, that was the biggest thing that I learned on the division. It was a fun and productive split and I
actually learned something useful.
September 14, 2014
Man, I was praying and praying that someone would show up at
church today, but it was 9:20 and none of our investigators were there…ugh! BUT, as an answer to prayer, two of the families that we have been teaching
showed up late. We also had a guy that
we have been trying to reactivate come to church. He is super interesting, smart, and
funny. He has a ton of reasons for being
inactive, but he also knows that he needs to change. When he was younger his dream was to serve a
mission. He was active in seminary and
institute and he even broke up with his girlfriend so that he could serve a
mission. But, his bishop told him that
his mission was “to marry” and he
crushed his dreams of serving a mission. Later he entered into a depression and
turned to drugs. Bu recently he has
shaped up his life and turned things around.
That bishop later ended up leaving the church and was responsible for
stunting the growth of a lot of youth in the church. Fortunately for this guy,
he is able to put the past in the past and move forward.
I don't worry about the
gossip anymore, it's basically stopped because there was no basis, and no one
even talks about those rumors anymore. I
got the help of one of the members of our ward who knows all of the missionary
secrets and he put a stop to it. Besides, there's a lot juicier stuff going on
that people are getting wrapped up in, and I'm trying hard to keep as far away as possible from it. Sometimes we have
to know what's happening so that we won't get fooled or have one pulled over on
us – like looking out for muddy spots so that you don’t fall in. Other times it is just better to mind your
own business. I'm not sure what's going on exactly but it is big. A lot of
missionaries are pretty pissed off right now and I don’t think that is good for
the mission. Yeah, I'm just going to keep on working and keeping to myself. Haha
that's what I've figured out is that I can get pissed off, depressed, and all
huffy and try to start a rebellion or I can be obedient, humble, and more like
Christ and work on what I need to do to better myself. It's a good thing that I am where I am,
because you can be basically forgotten here. There are no sisters because it is too dangerous for them here, and the only other elders live a LONG ways away in another city. I'm
lovin it so far and I'm not too worried. I've already learned a LOT about
myself while in the field, and I've surprised myself these days with my ability
to keep calm.
This Monday, we found out
that Elder Benitez and I will train the language for some Americans who have
been VISA waiters in the states. They are coming tomorrow from the Sau Paulo CTM's two-week refresher course
in Portuguese. Super exciting! It's
going to be hard and I'm going to love it! Elder Benitez and I are still going
to live in the same house, work in the same ward, and so it really won't be a
huge change. We still don't know their names, but we'll find out tomorrow
afternoon. We're going to work super hard and I'll make history in our area! ;)
haha It'll be an adventure, that's for sure.
Tchau! Love you!
Elder Colvin
PS. We went to the center of
the city this week and took out some money and had lunch in Subway. OH MY GOSH
I MISS THE SMELL OF SUBWAY!!!!!!! I almost had a heart attack!
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