Into the Amazon

 Monday, October 7, 2024; Floresta Ward, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: This past week was pretty good! How was y'all's week? This week's weather was fun. It rained a few times, one of them being super-hard. The options were Rain, Sun and humidity, or clouds and smoke in the air. The rain was the best option.  One of the days that it rained we got soaked. So... I won't be using those shoes for a few days.  Sunday was like national Brazil voting day. So, we had a decent amount of rallies, car honking parades, and other campaigning happening this week. I guess someone thought that throwing small campaign cards on the ground will make people vote for their candidate... But it's required to vote here in Brazil. Even the Brazilian missionaries like my comp, Elder Santos, from other cities and states had to vote, though online. I'm still trying to figure out exactly who and what places were being voted on   but yeah. Definitely interesting to see the voting culture here. 

 Monday, September 30, 2024; Floresta Ward, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Olá a todos! Tudo bem? Minha semana foi boa! Como foi sua? Então tivemos Conferencia de zona, intrevistas com Presidente Taylor, pday de distrito, e mais! Bora lá! Hey guys, how are you all doing? This week was another fast one but had a few big things going on. We had zone conference! It was awesome to receive some guidance and help for our work here.  Then we had interviews with President Taylor! My interview was pretty short, but still awesome. Sounds like my mission will soon receive several more missionaries from Africa (French speakers), as well as one from Japan. While that isn't too big of a deal for most missions--there are missions and missionaries serving from and to each part of the world--my mission is typically made up of 1-Americans (USA), 2-Brazilians, and 3-Missionaries from other countries in Latin and South America. I personally know a few Brazilians who are serving in Japan. But I don't th

 Monday, September 23, 2024; Floresta Ward, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Eai gente, tudo bem? This week was pretty normal. Hot, smoky. My companion kept talking everyday this week about the actual temperature and what it felt like. Let's just say 37°c was the cooler side... This week one of the days we ate some fresh pineapple... so much sweeter here than in the states. Fruit is so much more a part of the diet here, and there's a lot more variety. One day a member gave us a dessert -kind of like a mix of pudding and ice-cream. It had a layer of maracujá, a layer lemon, and chocolate. It was super tasty!    There was a boy that came to church last week, so we passed by his house to teach him. He was playing soccer in the street so we started walking with him there. But that lesson ended quickly when his neighbor came outside and started smoking. It really ruined the mood.  Terere (grassdrink ) is so much better with juice then just with water. This week really struck me the influen