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| My breakfast |
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| My companion's breakfast |
April
20, 2015
P-day was hard today. We didn’t have anything to do from 2 until
6:00 pm and I got sick of playing the guitar.
That is how bad it was. Elder S.
knew how to get into the other companionships house so we went over there and
messed with a couple of things in the front of their apartment. We also met up with the young men in the ward
while they were selling clothes to help with a fundraiser for a temple
trip. They already had made $100 when we
saw them, which is really good! Also,
our district leader had an emergency transfer today and he was really badly
shaken up about it. I could only support
him and encourage him to work as hard as he could where he is going so that he
finishes his mission strong. Lucky for
him, he is going to a good area, but he is going to be a junior comp. I told him that I knew how that felt and that
he just had to work hard and everything will work itself out in the end.
April
21, 2015
We found a good family a while back and
they continue to be interested in learning about the gospel. We talked about baptism today and they said
that they want to know for sure before they will be baptized, but that they
want to work towards that goal. The dad
might start working on Sunday mornings, but I am praying that he won’t have to
do that. Other than that, we did a lot of contacts today. Sadly, I have to be the “go-to” in the trio,
which means that I have to either, do all of the contacts myself, or I have to
send the other two elders to do them.
The new district leader seems super energetic so I hope that he can help
me out.
April
22, 2015
Okay, district meeting was rather
weird/fun. It was a really good
training, but it was weird because as the new DL was giving his training, he
kept looking at me seriously like staring at me while occasionally flitting his
gaze to other people. He has been out
only about 11 months and his companion is from Chile. Elder S. had a really hard time with our new
leader, but I think he is a good hard working elder.
After the meeting we taught a TON of
really good people. R. who came to
church last week and has a strong interest in learning what all the
commandments are. His wife is not all
that interested, but I think that is because of past trouble that she has had
with other churches. Then we taught F.,
who is a referral from other elders and he accepted a baptismal date on our
first lesson. He literally said, “I
think that I have not found the yet because I haven’t been to yours!” After his
lesson we taught the young men and S. , who also came to church on Sunday. We taught the restoration and the lesson went
very well. However, we need to get on a
more personal level with S. so that we can figure out what exactly he
needs. All of the youth are helping him,
which is good news!
On the bad side of things, one of my
companions is struggling with motivation.
I have been trying to help him, but then I thought I saw him flip me
off. So I asked him if he did, and he
proceeded to give me the finger right in my face….while we were walking along
the road. Great example huh? We also
didn’t do hardly any contact so that added to my stress.
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| My comp hanging out on my bed. |
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| What rain does to these big feet! |
April
23, 2015
So
we didn’t have a whole lot planned for today, so we (more like I) were
determined to contact a LOT of people. I
set a goal for us to contact 8 people each by the end of the day. In the end, we only had 12 contacts. When I told that to the DL, Elder S. corrected me and said, “No, WE didn’t have 12
contacts, but Elder Colvin had 12 contacts.”
Seriously, it is like they have just given up. It is really hard when you have one companion
who is just plain tired out, and the other who is so introverted that he can’t
talk to strangers.
Our new convert, M., is going
great! She is studying like crazy to
learn everything about the church that she can.
April
24, 2015
We had lunch today with the H. family
and they have a son who left on his mission a couple of months back, so they
(especially the mom) have very mixed feelings about missionaries. One moment they love us, and the other, they
can’t stand the sight of us because it reminds them of their son. Super funny thing: their son sent home a
sweaty p-day shirt so that his mom could SMELL his smell again. Yeah, that’s right. The culture here in Ceara is a little
different than what I am used to. For
example, I am pretty sure that my mom is very happy to have a 2-year break away
from my sweaty t-shirts! There is no
other state in Brazil (that I know of)
that does this, but I think it is kind of animal-like. I mean all animals have this thing about
sniffing each other, but I have never seen that before in humans, at least not
consciously.
We tried to go teaching again with the
young man who has received his mission call, but he said that he was too tired
from work to go out with us. He was the
one who set the appointment up in the first place. Yeah, he is going to have a hard time on his
mission.
April
25, 2015
Okay, I have had it. Today was one of
the WORST days of my entire mission, and I have had some pretty bad days so
that is saying something. We didn’t
teach anyone today. Not a single person.
I tried contacting people, but failed miserably. The first guy we tried to contact yelled at
us because he said that miracles are impossible and that Jesus was just an
ordinary man. Then the next people we
contacted were from the Universal Church and were very rude and closed
off. Then we met a Spiritist lady who
gave us the whole charity talk about how we shouldn’t judge others. I agreed with her and testified that we
follow Christ’s doctrine. As we were
almost out of earshot, she told the other people in her group that we were all
going to Hell….so much for being nonjudgmental.
What is really crazy is that Spiritist don’t even believe in Hell. We should have tried contacting more people,
but I gave up. I have no support from
the other two missionaries who don’t even try to contact people. It is an energy sucking experience.
There was only one bright side of the
day that happened just by chance as we were passing by the store owned by a
less active member, C. Earlier in the
week, I set an alarm on her phone to help her remember to pray. Ever since then, she has been reading the
Book of Mormon, praying, and she paid her tithing (which she has never done
before). We didn’t actually teach her a
lesson, but it sure brightened my awful day.
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| Feeling trunky |
April
26, 2015
I am WIPED OUT! We
had a bunch of people say that they would come to church and, SHOCKER, no one
came. We went looking for all of them,
some were working, others “weren’t home”,
and others just didn’t want to come.
I don’t know what happened to S.?
On the bright side, I had all 3 of my recent converts and 2 less active
families come to church today. I had one
of my comps passing notes to our recent young female convert which didn’t set
well with anyone. I had some members talk
to me about stopping that from happening again. That is always a fun
conversation to have with your companion who likes to flip you off. Another
interesting thing happened in church today when this brother got up to say the prayer
(he also served a mission). This is what he said, "We thank thee O God for a prophet, who guides
us in these latter days…” He said almost the entire first verse of the hymn as
his first part of the prayer. Funny, huh?
After church, once again with no help
from my companions, I talked to some more super disinterested Catholics. AND
THEN, it was ward council (remember the council that the stake presidency has
asked that each ward should hold weekly? Well, the missionaries and the ward
mission leader were the only ones who showed up. I felt like that was the moment that I just kicked
the bucket. It is one of the first times
on my mission that I felt like I was aimlessly walking. I am totally
drained. Thankfully it is p-day tomorrow
and I get to email with my family. I do
have a special conference coming up with Elder D. Todd Christofferson, which I
hope will help me finish this mission on a positive note.
April
27, 2015 (written in email early Monday morning)
Okay,
so I'm a lot better right now because my recent convert wrote me and email this
morning (Evaldo) and he thanked me for everything and gave me an update on how
he's been and it was exactly what I was needing right now to keep my head in
the right place.
I am looking forward to my skype call in just TWO WEEKS...!!!
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