Cigarettes are bad....? Inbox

Monday, March 20, 2023; Coroado, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

First week in Manaus!

So much happened and was new that I know I forgot lots of things to add, but here are a bunch:

Tuesday morning all the missionaries leaving the CTM had to be ready by 4:30am. We then went to the airport and got on planes to go to our missions. There were 11 missionaries going to the Manaus mission. 10 Elders and one Sister. The flight was around 4 hours.

I had an awesome welcome! The first thing besides nature that I saw in Manaus was.... drum roll... 5 broken down, dirty and rusting planes. I don't know the story about them, but they were near the runway, and I saw them first while landing. Very comforting ;)

We were met by our Mission President, President Beck and his wife, along with 6 other missionaries. We were then taken to the Presidents house/apartment and fed lunch. It was super good-potatoes!, fruit, a rice dish, fish -I don't [yet] like fish, etc. The roads and driving are similar to São Paulo- Motorcyclists take the right of way, everyone drives aggressively, and I never actually see any accidents despite the bad driving.

We arrived at a church building which had the mission office behind it. We took a few photos with some other missionaries. Then we had a meeting that consisted of a devotional-President Beck and his wife spoke, some conversations of rules, and assignments. Every mission is split up missionaries into groups called zones, which contain smaller groups called districts, and in each district contains several areas- normally one set of missionaries is in every area.

In this meeting all 11 new missionaries attended along with all the missionaries who will be companions to the new missionaries, and then other missionaries with extra leadership responsibilities. For each new missionary, President Beck called up two other missionaries. He then had the new missionary guess who their companion would be. I guessed for all of them. I got 5 correct and 6 wrong. I failed to guess who my companion would be :(

Apparently about half of the mission would be considered to be city, and half is not in the big city. For my first transfer (6 weeks long, after which I will change companions and possibly the location) I am in the city of Manaus. I am not currently in the Amazon rainforest. Not yet at least. :)

My companion is Elder Paiva (pie-va, like the dessert). He is from São Paulo or close to it and is a native Brazilian. It's good so I only use Portuguese... except he has ok English and is trying to learn it...we trade off but I should speak more Portuguese ;) He actually basically extended his mission a transfer (6 weeks) so he has served for 2 years (24 months) as of this week, and after these 6 weeks he will end his full-time missionary service.

Elder Paiva and I live in a apartment on top of someone's house. It's decently big for an apartment. The appliances are fun. Not totally bad but... well for example we don't have a dryer. We aren't allowed to drink any tap water. But we have a hot shower! Or cold if we prefer.

The houses here are like mostly connected to the next building, and lots of the ground floors have little shops in them.

I found out Elder Paiva is an awesome singer. He knows tons of hymns and church youth music by memory in Portuguese. He also knows tons in English! The first day I told him my favorite church youth music song, from the 2022 album and he started singing it in English! Also, apparently before his mission he had a lot of followers on TikTok.

This week has been quite long and hot. Every day it rains. My first full day in Manaus Elder Paiva took a picture of us soaking wet after having walked somewhere. He took the picture as 'my first chuva(rain) in Manaus'. The first of many. The area we cover us decently small, so we don't have to walk too far.

We went shopping so I could get some food. It's weird because I want to convert to US dollars, but I just need to think of how much it costs in Brazilian money. The grocery store was decently similar to an American one.

Elder Paiva and I did some practice lessons-I teach him a lesson in Portuguese and then he gives feedback and then he shows how to really teach the lesson :)

He is a really good teacher. I guess he does have 2 years of experience. Plus, it's his native language.

We did a little bit of knocking doors. Many houses have gates you can knock on. Some others have fences that you can clap in front of.

I think the best story of this week is Elder Paiva had me start to teach about the Book of Mormon at someone's door. I asked the lady if she believed in God and Jesus Christ. She said yes. Then I asked if she believed in the Bible. And my copy of a Portuguese bible says sacred bible, biblia sagrado. So, i called it biblia sagrado. And the word for cigarettes in portuguese I guess is similar. So, she said no! I was so confused because most people are Christians around here. Then my companion jumped in and explained the mistake to both of us. Oops :)

The church building here is a full building, pretty nice. It is weird though because under the chapel is a little parking area. Most people walk to church, but a few people drive. The ward/congregation I am in has around 40-50 people attending. It was nice to see small things in church that are the same everywhere, that reminded me of home. For example, the young men being a little rowdy, or the congregation not following the speed of the chorister. Just the spirit of being in church was the same as it is in Raleigh, NC or Provo, UT.

The streets here often have lots of small pieces of trash. There are tons of stray dogs and cats around. They are often very cute though I don't know where they have been. That does mean though that they poop all over the ground, so I have to watch where I step.

The people here have a ton of energy. I have eaten some awesome food from different fruits, tasty meats, etc. It has also been very interesting to realize that the way I think with Portuguese. This is sometimes hard. The word(s) of the week are Vez and Tempo. In English, time and time. Tempo is time of day, minutes, etc. Vez is number of times, for example how many visits to the store. In English we just say time(s).

One of my favorite lessons this week was one Elder Paiva taught to me. He got a piece of paper and held it on its side. Then he taught me how we are on one side of the paper and God is on the other. We can talk to God over this wall, and He talks back, but we can't see him. But then we have prophets. Prophets like Moses and Abraham and others in the bible. Prophets like Joseph Smith and currently Russel M. Nelson. They sit on top of the wall. They talk to God and us, and they help us know what Gods will for us is. I know that Prophets are called of God and Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God. I know that as we follow their counsels, we can have protection and guidance from God.

I love you all! Eu Amo Vocês!

Elder D. Olson

Manaus Brazil, Coroado Ward/area

Pics-