Hello family and mother! I finally get to email you, ha. We have our P-Days on Mondays, and we usually go and do emails at 8 in the morning, our time. So that should help. Well, I am currently in Vilhena. It is somewhere in the wetlands (I kind of have no idea where) and it is HOT. According to the other companionship in our apartment (Elder Onken from Idaho and Elder Aquino from Somewhere, Brazil) this is one of the coolest areas, temperature wise. You are pretty much constantly sweating. They say it´s something that you adjust, too, so I´m just waiting for that, haha. The mornings are usually fine, but the afternoons get pretty hot. Outside is better than inside most of the people´s houses though. Most of them don´t even have fans (thank goodness we have a small one in our apartment room), so you just have to hope that a breeze comes in the windows or door. Other than that, Vilhena is actually a cool place. At first, it reminded me of Thatcher, because it kind of has that small town-feel, but it´s pretty big. I´m sure you can look it up.
Oh, and I didn´t tell you about the plane trip. We got off the plane at this tiny warehouse thing where we got our luggage, and it was like a slap in the face of hot. But we had the best lunch of my mission at President Oliveira´s house and a testimony meeting and such. Pres. Oliveira is really cool and I like him. He´s goofy like me and tall and skinny. Ha, so then we went to the office and had training and whatnot. Then, I got rushed to the bus station at like 7 that night, because I was going to miss my bus. We were running with my luggage and I got on at the last minute. Miracle! Anyways, I was all alone and kind of freaking out, because it was an all night bus ride. And there was a super drunk guy in the back of the bus that started smoking during the trip... weird. I got there in the morning (thankfully I got some sleep on the bus) and then got right into working.
And HOLY CRAP! I was so tired the first few days. We were literally walking the entire day, it was super hot, and I can´t speak Portuguese. So, I kind of felt like a bodyguard for my companion, Elder Magdo. He is a native and we talk, but I don´t understand too much, hahaha. This might be his last area, so he knows what he´s doing. I usually bear testimony and teach little parts in the lessons, but he´s got it all down. So yeah, he´s cool and obeys all the rules. However, kind of weird since communication is a slight problem.
I got two gigantic blisters on my feet after the 3rd day, so I stabbed them and it´s been a lot betters. The Elders say that it will get calloused soon, so that is good. And also, I´ll just adjust to the walking and heat. We eat lunch with a member every day, because lunch is their big meal in Brazil. Then, we kind of just don´t eat dinner. Hahaha. We eat stuff when we get home or if we visit a member at night, they like to feed us, but yeah. The people here are really cool too. I don´t really know what they´re saying, but you can walk up to anyone and ask if we can come by and teach them, and they say yes. It´s weird. But so far, we´ve only taught the first lesson to people during my 5 or 6 days in Vilhena. Also, they have two districts here and 2 branches. The Church is teeny small, but the people that come are awesome. Small in numbers, but they all love each other. Like we ate with a bunch of youth and older people at a part-member family´s house yesterday, and it was just really fun. They walked us home and it was cool. Also, the food has been good. A little weird at times (I had duck on Saturday), but good.
Oh, and there was a rat that we killed the other night. Somehow it got in my closet, and it was a group event. Thankfully we killed it but it peed and pooped on my clothes, so I washed them. Flippin rat. Apparently none of the other elders have had a problem with rats during their missions, til that night. Good...
Time flies on the mission! This past almost-week in Vilhena seemed like an eternity for the first few days, but now I kind of know the investigators and people and I´m not freaking out anymore. I was so lost for the first few days... All is well though! Thank goodness for prayer. Now I just need to learn how to teach people and speak Portuguese, ha. Elder Onken said that it just kind of came to him, once he stopped thinking about learning the language and focused on the work. So that is what I´m trying to do. Let me know of any other news! I don´t have time to comment on your announcements, but I love to hear them. I love you!
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