Into the Amazon

 Monday, July 29, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Olá a todos! Como vocês estão? Estou muito feliz pra falar que a clima está  normal. Só calor. Eu ouvi que em São Paulo talvez está fazendo 9grau (48°f). Mas aqui está 24grau (75°f) no mínimo. Mas blz, os EUA está quente também.  This week has been super awesome! We had a divisão/exchange, I walked a ton and learned a lot.   I also found out I will be transferred, whitewashing for the 3rd transfer in a row (both I and my comp will be new to the area, not actually knowing anyone, members or friends). Should be cool. I will stay in the same city. My comp is a Brazilian, Elder S. Nascimento.  I have a little puzzle of God's plan for us, the Plan of Salvation. It's made out of wood, and I love it. But this week I decided to see if I could make a paper one too. So, I did. I then laminated each of the pieces, to keep them safe. Maybe I will give it someone... idk yet. Mortal life, to Earth life, to Resurrection, J...

 Monday, July 22, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: This week was awesome! Here I included a few of the highlights! It was a busy week, a lot happened.  First, one of my two Wards had their yearly Arrial, or July Festival. This was the fourth time one of my wards has had their festival, and it was for sure my favorite! As always, they had a lot of food cultural to another part of Brazil. It was fun seeing more of the culture, how this ward does their festival. But also, we met a lot of people and have started teaching a few of them.  There was a couple who were invited by their cousin to come. They spent a little while beforehand reading a little about the church as they have been searching where to find God. It was so awesome when they showed up to this event and asked us to help teach them! Super excited to see how our first lesson with them goes! I also know how much the messages help each of us know our role in life, and our potential! During one lunch at a member's hou...

Monday, July 15, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Olá a todos! Como vocês estão? Minha semana ficou um pouco frio. Gostei! Também o trabalho tá indo. A próxima semana eu vou ter uma conferência de zonas com o novo Presidente da Missão Brasil Manaus Sul, Presidente Taylor, então estou feliz pra conhecer ele melhor! Hellooo all of you! Tudo bem? How are y'all doing?  This past week again went pretty fast. To start it off, my companion was still sick, so we ended up going to the doctor's office. Best example I can use is think about going to the DMV. You sit in a chair for a while. They finally call you; you go. Then more sitting in a chair. Finally, they call you to see the person that can actually help you. Just a lot of waiting. In the end they gave my comp. some medicine through an IV. It worked, so that was good! A Brazilian asked me for $5 US dollars. He is moving to a city next to Bolivia and he needs $5 in physical American currency... This coming week I get to meet my new ...

 Monday, July 8, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Olá pessoal, tudo bem? Vocês estão tranquilo? Hey y'all, I hope you are all doing awesome! This week started out as a normal week, until Thursday when I got sick , and that basically summed up the second half of the week.  But anyways, a few things of note that happened this week: •A young man from one of our wards here left to serve his mission, he's going to Campinas, Brazil and he's gonna do awesome! (Elder Bezerra, whom I sent a photo of him with us a few weeks back). •4th of July happened. I kind of missed the fireworks, but at least the climate felt similar. Hot and miserable  (actually no, it was probably nicer here with a little less humidity than in Ral, NC) •We had a lesson marked [scheduled] in one of the chapels we cover that's around 1hour 20mins away (walking ). We don't yet have keys to that chapel, so we arranged for a member to meet us there and open the chapel for us. We arrived, waited for a while, ...

 Monday, July 1, 2024; Rio Bronco, Acre, Brazil: This week was pretty normal. At the same time, a lot has changed.  So, on Tuesday of this past week, my new Mission President and his Wife, Presidente and Sister Taylor, arrived here in the [new Brazil Manaus South] Mission. On Wednesday, we had a zoom meeting with them, my old Brazil Manaus Mission President, and all the missionaries in the Brazil Manaus South Mission. There are around 70 missionaries in my new mission (as opposed to the like, 160 in the old mission), so, a lot of missionaries I have made friendships with are no longer in my mission.  President and Sister Taylor are from the Iowa, USA. President Taylor served a Spanish-speaking mission in Uruguay, and Sister Taylor speaks little Portuguese. So.... they will be having fun learning and fine-tuning their language skills . It will be cool to see their leadership in action and learn from them. I can't wait till I actually meet them in person. This week was pret...