Into the Amazon

 Monday, October 30, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: This week has been exciting for me. I do however feel that it's all missionary things and thoughts, very little nature. But a few photos of river and scenery :) I have been living in a house of 4 missionaries (2 duplas). This past week we found out that one of the missionaries would be leaving the area, so my companion Elder Schmidt and I received ed a third companion. His name is Elder Gualip and he is from Guatemala.  We had an activity at the chapel this week that featured free physical body care things. For example, free massages, eye exam, and more.  Today I hit 9 months since I started my mission. Only 1 year and 3months more to go. I was reflecting on my time so far. A lot has been used learning Portuguese, basic missionary skills, and just becoming overall confident.  I was thinking on my life. I feel like high school prepared me to become 'adult aged' and to start college. But I also feel like whether it w...

 Monday, October 23, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Bom dia a todos. This week we had Zone Conference. All the missionaries currently in the city of Manaus came. About half of those have been here in Manaus for 3 months or less. Also, many of the new missionaries are from the United States and are still learning Portuguese.  This week, my companion Elder Schmidt and I helped mix cement to make someone's floor. It was cool to see. It will be cool if I get to see it when it's dried.  At someone's house this week I saw a pet money. Apparently however, it's illegal to have a pet monkey, so no names or photos. And then on Sunday night, we attended a youth world testimony meeting. Basically, a few church leaders made some videos of their testimonies. We watched those, and then all the youth as well as leaders in attendance who wanted, shared their testimonies. My companion and I also did.  Which leads me to testimony. Each of us has a testimony. Sometimes we feel ours isn...

 Monday, October 16, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: This week was quite different. For the first half I stayed with Elder Cruz. Then halfway through the week, I packed all my stuff up and we went to my new area. There we waited for my new companion, Elder Schmidt to arrive. He ended up being delayed several hours.  Elder Schmidt is from Arizona. He is 20 and has 11 months on the mission. He has been in another state of Brazil (Acre) for the past 6 months. But now he is back here in Manaus. Elder Schmidt and I both have decent Portuguese knowledge. His Portuguese is however a lot worse to what I am used to (as all but one of my past comps have been Brazilians, and the one non-Brazilian was Elder Cruz who has been here almost 2 years). But that just means it's a lot easier for me to talk more, as I don't have someone with me with way better Portuguese to defer to. My new area is a Ward in the South-East of Manaus. This time we are only assigned one ward. The only "problem...

 Monday, October 9, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Olá a todos, espero vocês está muito bem! This week had a few big changes. One is that the Mission had another temple trip. It is always awesome going to the temple. Literally it is a place full of love and peace. I was able to do baptisms, including baptize, be baptized, confirm and be confirmed for others. It was awesome.  Along with the temple trip, following the lead of all the missions in the USA and Brazil, each missionary received their own phone. In the past I have always shared a phone with my companion. But now we each have our own. Each area has its own sim card for contacts of that area.  Also, during the temple trip the mission leaders told us about our transfers the next week. It is always super exciting finding out about transfers. However, unlike everyone else, when I asked, they said president still wasn't sure where I would be put. If I would stay or not. That made me a little depressed, just in the sen...