Into the Amazon

 Monday, December 23, 2024; Iranduba Branch, Iranduba, Amazonas, Brazil: Olá como vai pessoal? Minha semana foi boa. Feliz Natal para todos vocês, espero que vocês estão bem! Hello one and all! This week has been pretty good, but a little frustrating.  -We helped someone build their house so they can move in before they get kicked out of their rental. -We had our Branch Christmas party; it went really well. There was a bunch of food, it was great. -We ate lunch at one of the Branch member's houses. It was nice that he gave us a ride because otherwise that would have literally been a 4-hour walk.  -We saw another Iguana this week. -I saw more vultures, and some other small cool black birds, along with another small green bird. -It rained a bunch this week too, and there are lots of dirt roads, so I have to constantly clean the bottom of my shoes. My companion, Elder Gale and I had a talk about some of the fruits and veggies that they have here that we are less familiar wit...

 Monday, December 16, 2024; Iranduba Branch, Iranduba, Amazonas, Brazil: This week was pretty packed full, with a little bit of everything. To start the week, we had Zone Conference. In my Mission, we are divide into 4 Zones. The states of Rondonia and Acre each have their own Zones for the missionaries serving there. The missionaries in the city of Manaus are another Zone. And the other missionaries serving in the state of the Amazon but outside of Manaus, like me, are in the last Zone.  My Zone in Portuguese is called Vulture River Zone (Zona Rio Urubu). I guess we do have a bunch of Urubu here.  . Normally all of the zones but mine have an in-person Zone Conference every transfer (6 weeks). But being that this Zone Conference was Christmas-themed, they decided to do an in-person conference for us as well, so we all got to travel to Manaus and had Zone Conference with the Manus Zone.  Zone Conference was awesome! We heard some inspiring messages and got to share with e...

 Monday, December 9, 2024; Iranduba Branch, Iranduba, Amazonas, Brazil: Ooooola a todos vocês! Como vocês estão? Tivemos transferência, então eu estou na minha nova área, nova cidade, Iranduba. A cidade fica bem perto de Manaus. Só 8 horas de pé.  Hey you all, how is everyone doing? This past week I took a plane from Rio Branco to Manaus. Then I went and got my new companion, and we took a taxi to my new area.  My new area is a city called Iranduba. It's maybe a 30-40 minute drive from Manaus. Just 8 hours walking.  .  While I am pretty to close to Manaus, this city is a lot more Amazon-like. Basically, there's a city part, and then from there everything branches out. There are lots of long winding roads lined with houses. There are a bunch of paved roads, but also many dirt roads.  This week it rained a ton. So think about it. Dirt roads in the middle of nowhere + rain.... yeah not sure if mud is worse or puddles.  Either way, my shoes were not able t...

 Monday, December 2, 2024; Floresta Ward, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil: Bem vindos a todos! Tudo bem com vocês?  Hey y'all, this email will be short.   But this past week has been pretty good, as always life has its ups and downs. We received our transfers' news, I will be leaving my current area, city, and state. I will be going to a city called Iranduba close to Manaus. But unlike all my past areas, my new area will not have tons of missionaries in the city. It will just be my companion and I! The city is on the river itself, so maybe I will see more of the Amazon River.  Last week I mentioned about my comp and me being humbled by him... that continued this week. I let him decide what we did for a day and thought it wouldn't go too well.... it was a pretty good day. It worked out in ways I hadn't calculated.  But this week was Thanksgiving. I didn't really celebrate it, as in no super big and Fancy meals, no Turkey, no mashed potatoes... but it was still pret...