Into the Amazon

 Monday, August 26, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: This week again went by super-fast, and a lot happened. -It got cold for a day or two. -Lot of awesome lessons. -Awesome Ward Leadership activity. -The Stake has weekly buses going to the Temple in Manaus. -Terere. -Walked a ton this week. -When it wasn't cold, there was a bunch of fumes and smoke in the air. The biggest event of the week was Zone Conference on Wednesday with all the other missionaries in the state of Acre. It was awesome. My favorite part was a training about a Boy Scout principle. Leave it better than you found it. That we should leave our apartment, Ward, companion, teaching group, everything, better than we found it. Be a change for good, not for bad.  Then the next day we had interviews with President Taylor. My interview with him was great, but short. We were in the church building waiting for our interviews and bang! The power went out. Maybe just the chapel's power? Nope. So, then just the neighborhoo...

Monday, August 19, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Heyyyy everybody! How are you all doing?  This week my city turned even more so into a desert (despite being very forested). It got super-hot, and then the air became full of fumes and pollution.  -Lots of Awesome sunsets! -Kept thinking of Luke's planet from the movie   Star Wars , because the sun was so dulled out and just looked like a red or orange ball and we could stare directly at it. -A decent number of people here got sick with cold symptoms because of the smoke and fumes in the air. This week was super awesome. We had a ton of lessons, met a bunch of new people. I saw a ton of small miracles in our work, from people being home when they normally weren't, to being impressed to go visit people who were needing a visit... there are so many small stories I could tell but I won't. Just know that there were a ton! But the last big event of this week was that on Sunday, at church, instead of having 2-3 people assigned ...

 Monday, August 12, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Olaaaa tudo bem com vocês? Mais uma semana passou, e eu estou muito animado para trabalhar aqui na minha nova área! Vai ser muito Top! This week I got to my new area, another part of the same City, Rio Branco. However, part of my area here is roads and communities and buildings away from the city. There is more land. It includes several farms. My current home is an apartment in an (official) apartment building. We live on the top floor, being the 4th floor. From our apartment, out one window we can see open land, sometimes with horses and cows grazing. Out another window we can see the chapel for our ward. It's really close, like 3 minutes walking.  My new companion is Elder S. Nascimento. He is from João Pessoa, Brasil. He is trying to learn and better his English. So, I started praying in English again   and having him pray in English too.  This week we were getting to know people taught by the past missionaries h...

 Monday, August 5, 2024; Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Opa Bom dia, Boa tarde, Boa noite a todos vocês! Como estão? Minha semana passou bem rapida.  I started this week in one ward. My old comp's new comp arrived, but we didn't have enough beds for me to stay with them, so I went to another house of missionaries. I ended up staying here for a few days and then will pick up my new comp tomorrow. My old area had a few brick roads, some of them full of potholes, but a few were honestly pretty smooth and in good condition.  Each missionary area that we stay in has a phone number/chip just for the missionaries in that area. Here in Brazil, we just use WhatsApp to contact people. The wards each have a WhatsApp group to communicate.  Even though I haven't yet gotten to my new area yet, I did get the phone chip and WhatsApp from the other Elders. This week, my new Ward sent a bus full of people to the Manaus Temple. I think it takes somewhere around a day-long bus ride there, an...