Into the Amazon

 Monday, June 24, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: My week was pretty simple but still busy. I had transfers. That means a lot of packing, cleaning our house, etc.  Wednesday night I took an 8-hour bus from Porto Velho, Rondonia, to Rio Branco, Acre. The bus was super nice, actually easy to sleep on. I woke up briefly a few times during the night. At 2 a.m. I woke up, checked the time and took a look at Google maps. I was super close to the Bolivian border.  Here in Rio Branco the weather seems similar enough to Porto Velho, pretty hot, a tad bit humid.  The time zone here is currently an hour behind Manaus, which is also an hour behind North Carolina, (and an hour ahead of Utah).  My new companion is Elder Whipple, from Arizona, he's got 11 months on the mission. I am now covering two wards, and--sadly for us--they each have their own chapel [and meet at the same time on Sunday]. So, [for attending] things like church meetings and activities, we will have to rotate where we go and

 Monday, June 17, 2024; Porte Velho, Rondonia: This week started off pretty slow. I guess it started getting hot and dry enough that I started having allergy problems. We mostly stayed in house for a few days. Then on Saturday my ward here had its June festival, which amounts to a party combining Fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween themes. Lots of food, a live band... and more. To get ready for the above-mentioned festival Elder Pohm and I helped put up some of the decorations. The festival went well, had a lot of people, food, dancing, etc.  One day we had a full mission zoom call scheduled for 10 a.m. As we were getting ready, at 9:45 our Stake President [a local church leader over several congregations]-who we don't even know-called us up, asking where we were. He mentioned an interview... we were a little confused. Soooo..... let's go back a few weeks. One of the members in our ward talked to a news reporter about interviewing us. That reporter later talked to us. We had him

 Monday, June 10, 2024; Porte Velho, Rondonia, Brazil; This week was quite the rocket, flying fast. It seemed to be a week focused on Elder Pohm On Wednesday my companion Elder Pohm turned 21. We ended up getting cakes from several different people to celebrate We also got pizza. Funny story... the pizza was purchased by Elder Pohm but the missão was going to reimburse him for it, as a present for his birthday. We needed to send Presidente and Sister França a picture with the pizza, so we got ready. But the pizzas still had their lids on. The pizzas were on a table that's a little long and thin, so in going to take the lids off, two of the pizzas faceplanted onto the ground. Happy birthday to Elder Pohm indeed . And yes, we still ate them One day we were walking down the street, and an older lady in a garage called out to us "are you Mormons?" so we went to talk to her, and of course explain that the name of the church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. S

 Monday, June 3, 2024; Porte Velho, Rondonia, Brazil: This past week was pretty normal, had its highs and lows. I think I need to be more grateful, and that will help me be happier .  Just one month until my mission will divide in half! Elder Pohm and I walked a ton this week as usual. We also played that game, "How fast can we beat the Google maps time". Now that 'long 30-minute walk' is 'pretty close'. We had a Family Home Evening with an awesome family this week. I led the activity; one my family sometimes did for family night that I loved. You get a piece of paper, divide it in thirds top to bottom. Everyone designs a head of sorts on the top third, with a few lines going to the second section. Then you fold it over so the first part can't be seen. Then you pass it to the person on your right. That person has a few lines to connect to the head, and they draw a body, arms, etc. Then they fold that part so that only the last section is visible and pass i