Into the Amazon

 Monday, February 26, 2024; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: This week was pretty good.  We had a bunch of awesome lessons with some super awesome people. There is a lady named Jeysy we started teaching, who has a ton of Faith. She is super interested in learning more and improving herself and it's awesome to see. We had Zone Conference, which was awesome! It was full of the spirit and wisdom.  This week it rained a bunch. The rain really helped cool everything off.  I had to go to the Brazil Federal Police station (here in Manaus) to ask for them to send my documents [from the Mission Training Center in Sao Paulo] here to Manaus. We had a Ward missionary activity, and we were able to talk to a ton of people about the Gospel. One of the member families had a parrot, super bright-colored. My companion knows how to make super-tasty stroganoff, we had it several times a week. This week I was thinking a lot about confidence and doubts. Sometimes in life we rationalize, think, a...

 Monday, March 19, 2024; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: This week I was in a trio with two other missionaries for most of the week. Now I'm back living in a house with four of us missionaries. During the trio[time], my two companions convinced me to go running. I'm tall, and one of them is a head shorter than me. What could go wrong? I found out that my shorter companion used to run track. I got super tired trying to keep up with them. I guess walking around all day everyday does count as good exercise. The city of Manaus is so confusing because there are parts that seem undeveloped and are very un-city-like. And then there are buildings and roads that are very old and becoming covered in plants and trees. The clash of a city in the Amazon Forest, and the Amazon Forest in the city.  My new area is up north in Manaus and feels a lot more city-like than my other areas, with bigger roads and more traffic.  -Our chapel is a two-story building: that's always cool. -This week it rai...

 Monday, February 12, 2024; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: This week's letter will be short.  We had a ward barbecue-the food was awesome-and played games like Ping Pong and Uno. Because of the Lord's commandment, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don't drink coffee. But here in Brazil there is a drink kind of similar, but also different than coffee, called Cevada. The members here drink it. Personally, I don't like drinking hot drinks in a hot climate, but it's ok. But this week we were working with one of our friends on stopping his use of Coffee and took him some Cevada to try instead. One day this week we were walking near a store and saw an older woman who had a grocery cart full of heavy things. We helped her load them into her car, said goodbye and left. Then a few minutes later her car pulled up to us on the road and she asked if we wanted a ride. In the end she saved us around 30 minutes of walking and it was on her route. God works so m...

 Monday, February 5, 2024; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil: Bom dia, boa tarde, boa noite a todos. Bem vindos a mais uma carta cheio com Sol, Milagres e muito mais.  This week we had lots of awesome lessons. Only a few small complaints from my face as the sun shone and from my feet after walking for hours each day. After my email last week, we ordered pizza to celebrate my 1 year on the mission.  This coming week will be the start of Carnival which I guess is a big thing in Brazil. While I feel like my part of Manaus is secluded enough, it is true that anything similar to a holiday (even weekends!!) turns some streets into bars.  Today we had a Zone p-day with around 20 missionaries in my Zone. The activities included a version of dodgeball, frisbee , and tereré. We ordered lunch. It had, very surprisingly: Rice, Beans, spaghetti, chicken, and a little salad. On ordering, one of the other Elders (Brazilian ) compared the chicken to Chik-Fil-A. It wasn't quite that good. But...