Into the Amazon

 Monday, April 24, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Hey y'all! This week has been pretty good. :) At the beginning of the week, my companion got permission to use his last p-day before he goes home buying souvenirs. So, we went, and he bought a bunch of random hand-crafted things to remember Manaus with.  Then we went to McDonald's. It was just like any normal United States McDonalds. Don't quote me but prices equaled out to around normal fast-food prices in the US. A decent burger meal was about 45$REAIS, while normal lunch at a local restaurant here costs around 15$REAIS. Just a little bit more ;) This week my Stake here in Manaus put on a theatre play, called "Juntos Para Sempre" or in English "Together Forever. I had a single simple line in it, as well as participating in the choir for it. The idea of the play is families and people after this life need their temple work done, and the audience had their names and participated. It's a little difficult t...

 Monday, April 17, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Olá! This week was awesome! First off, someone we were teaching got baptized! Luiz has been taught since a little while before I arrived in this area. He was prepared and got baptized.  Funny story though... Luiz's brother João had his birthday the same day as the baptism. Because of this, my companion and I went with Luiz and João to get açaí (It was super good). We got açaí about two hours before the baptism. On the way Luiz asked me a question which I was not expecting. Elder Paiva had started teaching Luiz before I arrived here. It was also Elder Paiva's last week as a missionary. So, when Luiz asked if I knew that I would be baptizing him I was confused for a minute. I had assumed Luiz would choose Elder Paiva. But nope, he chose me. That gave me less than an hour to learn the baptismal prayer in Portuguese, iron my white clothes and some other things. But the baptism went super well! A bunch of ward members came, Elder P...

 Tuesday, April 11, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Oi all! This past week has been pretty good. For Preparation Day last Monday, April 3, all the missionaries in Manaus joined together and went to a museum of the Amazon. Basically, a large chunk of nature that had a few exhibits. We walked on trails through the forest for a little while until we reach a tall tower. We climbed the tower until we were above the tree line. The trees were around the height of normal trees in North Carolina. There was an awesome view and reminded me of being in NC hiking the Appalachian Mountains :) As we continued walking, we went through a few buildings with animals in them. I did not get pictures of these animals because the lighting was bad, and it would have been hard to see. One building had a dozen different snakes, including a big cage for a Boa Constrictor! My first ever seen. It was smaller than I expected. Then another building had spiders and scorpions. Some of the spiders were literally th...

 Tuesday, April 4, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Oi all! This week was ok. Overall, I just felt really tired and a little down, but I know that will come and go and I am ready for another week :) The end of the week was kind of hard and I had possibly my worst day, but I will get to that. One of the days I looked outside and saw a clear blue sky. I decided not to take my umbrella as we were only going to walk a short distance, and the sky is blue so there couldn't be rain, could there? Low and behold 2 minutes out the door the downpour started :) I haven't mentioned too much about what I have been doing in Manaus specific to teaching people, so here is a quick overview. Once or twice a week there is a youth soccer at our chapel, and along with that we have been teaching missionary lessons to a few of the youth that come. I have sent a few photos with Miguel and he has so much excitement for learning. He is always trying to read ahead in pamphlets that we use to teach so that ...