Into the Amazon

 Monday, August 28, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: As the title says... This week I made some brownies and of course I burned them. But that just made a nice little crunch.  I credit my making brownies to 3 things. One, I bought supplies for brownies a little while back but ended up not having eggs. And I finally bought eggs. Two, my companion and I hit 6 months on the mission during this transfer. And three.... well, that's where the bank comes in. Every few weeks we receive some money from the mission, which is just to buy food and the basic things we need. We are instructed to go to a specific bank and withdraw our money for that time period. But when my companion tried to this week, the atm took his money out of his account but didn't actually give it to him. We had a meeting, but when we returned to the bank, they said they said they would call us the next day. Of course, they didn't. So, then we went back again another day, and they finally gave us our money.  This...

 Tuesday, August 22, 2023: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Hello to all of you, This past week we had a short online conference with the Mission where our somewhat new Mission President gave a few new rules for us, some of which aren't new but were reiterated, focusing us back on our purpose and using our time wisely.  I found out that mango season starts around September. Occasionally we visit houses or areas that have baby mangos covering the ground. They remind me a little of some green nuts in Raleigh NC. There is a mango tree above my house here, so maybe I will get to eat fresh mango in the near future. One of the days last week our air conditioner had a problem and stopped working. So now we just have a single fan and a tiny bit of ventilation at night to sleep :(  There are other areas in this mission that only have fans too so I have just been spoiled ;) We returned home to our house one day to find someone fixing our air conditioner, but he knocked the power in our ho...

 Monday, August 14, 2023; Manuas, Amazonas, Brazil: This week was mostly normal. Tuesday, I had a district meeting. More training, talked about goals and how to better meet the needs people we teach. Several days we went to a local park and talked to a bunch of people there. We also had some lessons there. One of the days we had a young man in one of our wards, Icaro, accompanied us as we talked to people. He is 17 and preparing for a mission also.  We had the baptismal service for Nara and her daughter Jaqueline. We taught them all the missionary lessons. They are a super awesome family and had received a confirmation of their decision to make covenants with God through baptism!  Then... this Sunday was Brazil Father's Day. Unlike American (USA) Father's Day, I actually did remember/know about this one. So I sent my dad an email about some of the super awesome things he did for me and taught me :)  This week my companion and I shared The Plan of Salvation quite a fe...

Monday, August 7, 2023: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: This week has been long, but pretty simple. We had an in-person District meeting. There we set super high goals, but I think we can reach them.  And goals help us stretch right? This week I did a division with another American, Elder Bennett. He is from California, and has 1 year and 6 months on the mission, is super white (blonde), and looks like Draco Malfoy from  Harry Potter , along with the boy from  Home Alone . Pictures don't do him justice. During the division, it was super interesting to hear him talk to people. He is known in the mission for speaking really good Portuguese. That, along with his good abilities to talk to people were super cool to watch. I need to learn some of his skills.  As a side note, whenever he passed people in the street, he would say 'bom dia', 'boa tarde' or 'boa noite'. (Good: morning, afternoon, night). And he said it super-fast in a voice that reminded me of  Star Wars  ...