November 8, 2014

This past week has been very interesting to say the least.  At the beginning of the week, I had to organize a collective marriage for the entire mission.  It is going to occur on the 29^th of November and the judge is going to marry about 30 couples for free (a really big deal here because people don’t have the money to pay for marriages.)  They will then have a large baptismal service afterwards.  At the last minute the mission president put me in charge of organizing everything and but I was never told any of the details.  Turns out that Monday night was the deadline, so I had to rush and travel all around the city to get legal documents from the missionaries.  After spending countless hours on Monday, I travelled to another area of the mission to deliver the documents on Tuesday.  I have never been so tired.

However, there were some neat experiences this week.  As I was running around the city to deliver the documents, I began talking with the taxi cab drivers.  I have found that this is one of my favorite things to do.  They are so nice and so willing to talk.  It is interesting because the topic of the church always comes up.  Elder Z* and I had the opportunity to talk with one of them about the church and it was a really great conversation.  We wrote down his address and the missionaries are now visiting him.

This morning we did a service project for a member of the ward who lives in our apartment building.  We decorated for Christmas.  She is the mother of Derek’s mission mom.  It was super fun decorating for Christmas.  It is funny - everyone decorates for Christmas here

during the first week of November. 

I hope you all have a great week!

November 15, 2014

This week has been of the craziest of my mission.  I am so tired.  It all started out with this marriage fiasco again.  Everything fell through with the court house and I had to reorganize everything.

We then had Zone Conference this week on Wednesday and Thursday but I wasn't able to attend.  I had to wake up at 5:00 AM to take six Elders, who are going home on Monday, to the Federal Police station.  I had to renew their visas in order that they can leave the country.  Since their documents were approved only last week it meant that I couldn't make an appointment at the station--we were on the standby list.  I spent all day there waiting to be attended.  Finally, in the late afternoon we were able to get their visas renewed.

November 22, 2014

Wow, this week has been very interesting.  I started by taking all of the missionaries (19) to

 the airport on Monday.  That was crazy.  But, after a lot of organization and hard work, we

were able to get it all worked out.  It is the largest group of missionaries that the mission has ever taken to the airport at one time.

This past week, I have been super tired.  However, we are getting a lot of work done.  I can’t believe how quickly the week flew by.  Elder Z* got transferred on Monday and is now in Canindé.  He is super excited.  I called him yesterday and he told me that he definitely has gone from one extreme to another.  He no longer has air conditioning, the water stinks, and it is incredibly hot.  I told him I knew exactly what he was going through.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving this week!

November 29, 2014

I hope all is well with you.  This past week has been a good week.  We have done a lot of work.  On Tuesday, I had a interesting experience.  We had worked all day in the office and went out to tract at night.  We went to Campo America (a “flavela,” or “ghetto”) in our area because we met an inactive member who lives there and wanted us to do a visit.  We found them on the street in the small alleyway.  (As a side note, the alleyways in the flavelas are small and the majority of the people spend all their time on the street in chairs drinking. The culture is very interesting in the flavelas and most of the time we teach on the street.)   We began to “bater papo” (converse) with them and they were really friendly.  We asked the inactive members about their history with the church and they explained that they fell away because they were embarrassed about addictions with The Word of Wisdom.  However, they still really enjoy the church and go occasionally.

I had the opportunity this week to give a training session on prayer.  The week was so rushed that I did not have any time to prepare the training.  Therefore, on Wednesday morning I woke up and opened the Ensign from last General Conference.  I decided that I would read President Uchtdorf’s discourse on revelation and prayer.  It is a fantastic talk and I ended up giving the training on it.  If you have an opportunity this week, I encourage you to read the talk.  I really enjoy a quote from the talk.  He says, “Your personal testimony of light and truth will not only bless you and your posterity here in mortality, but it will also accompany you throughout all eternity, among worlds without end.”  The testimonies that we gain here in mortality will remain with us as we pass through the phases of The Plan of Salvation.  I look forward to the day when our testimonies of the pre-mortal existence, mortality, and beyond will be combined to work collectively for our benefit.

The attached picture shows our Thanksgiving Dinner.  Sister E* suggested that since we couldn’t find anyone serving turkey, Americana would hit the spot.  It was great.