This week absolutely flew by! On Tuesday as had a district reunion which went so well! We missed out bus home, haha . So we woke up pretty early (5pm) got ready and literally had to run to not miss the first bus of the day haha. It was raining a ton so that’s great. It’s kinda strange but when I see clouds in the sky my heart is full of joy and I say today is going to be the best day ever! Because…. I won’t be fried in the sun like a squashed cockroach (a barata) haha. But anyway, we had our bus ride to chapeco, which is 2 ½-3 hours away. We got there and I led us through the gigantic city to the church because Abarca had never been there before. WE had pancakes for lunch (made by a fellow Americano). Then we taught some lessons. Me and Elder Abarca taught about why questions are important in conversion. T’was awesome. After that we ran to catch our bus but we were late. So we waited in the bus station for 6 hours while outside was flooded with rain water. We chilled with our district leader and his comp and two sisters (sisters were waiting for bus also. After waiting forever we got our bus and headed home. WE stopped for about 1 ½ hours because two cars ahead of us crashed and 2 people died. Definitely, we prayed for their families to be comforted. But we got home pretty late and were pretty tired.
On Wednesday we had a fairly normal day. We woke up, did our stuff and left for lunch with a member named Arthur He’s super cool! He’s super old and has a huge testimony and is always happy. After lunch we had some great lessons. We have some investigators super close to baptism so please pray for them! Their names are Ronei, Gabriel, and Elison. Anyway we bought cevada which is a barley drink, kind of like coffee but is not coffee for Gabriel because he had problems with the Word of Wisdom but he promised to never drink coffee again. We tried the cevada with him while eating some cookies and it was actually pretty good with the cookies, haha. Don’t worry, I’m not going to just start drinking coffee because of this, haha.
On Thursday we had some planajamento semenal which is here we plan for the next 10 days our lessons and how we can better help out investigators and ourselves. We do this to be more constructive with our time and to use the Spirit to guide us more. We plan lessons based on where our lunches are and where people live because it doesn’t make much sense to walk 5 kilometers to one hours and 5 back to another and 5 back to another than others. We try to have as much time as possible to teach as we can.
Anyway we also organized our area book because if you didn’t know sometimes 19 year olds can get a little disorganized. We made our own lunch, which consisted of french fries and these chicken nugget things. Foi bom! Wsa pretty good. I made a milkshake, which consisted of ice cream, Toddy (chocolate milk powder) leite (milk) and the peanut butter thing called Pacoca. It was sooooooo good! Ahhh.
Anyway, on Friday we had lunch with Leonel, a member who lives on top of a flippin mountain haha. We’ve had a ton of clouds in the sky lately so that’s been a huge blessing. We had noite integracao which was a disaster, ahah. All the kids were crazy. Fighting, yelling, and creating havoc. Me and Abarco decided not to have soccer anymore because it causes too much contention between the kids. We’ve also been having trouble with the ward because no one is helping us with contacts or references or anything. Really it’s just us working the whole city. We are definitely trying to get the ward more involved in the missionary work because everyone is an instrument in the hand of God. We aren’t just missionaries for 2 years. We are missionaries for the rest of our lives. Constantly striving to better ourselves to come closer to Christ to bring others unto Christ as well. We all need eternal life with our families.
On Saturday we had a really good lunch with a member named Monica. She gave Elder Abarca a cuha to drink chimarrao with a bombo or straw. He was sooo excited haha! Later that day I received a cup for terrere! Chimarrao is a hot drink while terrere is cold with juice depending on how you like it. I like sweet things so I like terrere haha.
On Sunday we had church like normal. We talked to the house of Elison but I think he was asleep. So we weren’t able to bring him the to church which sucks. But church was good. We had lunch with two members named Igor and Patricia. They are super cool! Igor works on cruise ships. He’s a waiter so he lives on the ships for about 6 months. He visits places all over the world. But anyway, we had a ton of good lessons after lunch. In one lesson we were teaching me or Elder Abarca was talking and I see some movement and I see this HUGE rat run across the ground. Abarca noticed also but we didn’t say anything haha. During the lesson we had to have seen over ten rats running around, fighting each other and making a ton of noise. The lesson actually went great thought.
Today it rained all day but it was a really good temperature all day so that was a blessing. Also, Elder Abarca was sick this week with a sore throat and a stuffy nose but he’s better now. We have our mission tour on Wednesday. I’m super excited. I’ve really only gotten to know a few other missionaries while I’ve been out in the field because of how far everyone is from each other. And we get to have a 13 hour bus ride so that's probably the most exciting thing, haha. NOT!
I’m excited though to received training also to be a better missionary and talk with Presidente Goncalves personally. We’ve heard some whisperings that we will receive smartphones pretty soon but I don’t know haha. I can only cross my fingers and hope. I get one while I’m on the mission because smartphones will help the work so much! There’s a lot of disorganization here and smartphones will help the members be more aware of our work. Because a lot of times we don’t have ways to contact people ot let them know our plans so we’ll definitely be better working with members and investigators. But anyways this was my week, pretty uneventful ha ha. Just a normal week in BRASIL!
There’s been shootings in Sao Paulo and New Zealand so please pray for the families there. This is definitely the time when Christ will appear again because of all the calamities that are happening so please pray and try to always help those around you. Because people in the world need to feel more love!
I am so thankful for the love you all show me and for all the things I have in this life. I’ve come to realize how blessed my life is how many things I have that some people here can’t imagine.
This Gospel is beautiful, and when we share it with others they hear the Spirit and feel Christ’s love. I know they do. There’s nothing better than seeing a light click on in someone’s eyes as they come to realize the truth, as they come to see how they can have eternal life. This gospel is literally perfect. The people in the Gospel make mistakes but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is literally perfect. Remember that.
I love you all and hope you all have amazing days full of fun and most important the Spirit!
-Elder Whelan
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