Bug Spray and a tennis racket....

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a fabulous week and General Conference!

General Conference

General Conference was crazy, I´m still trying to process all the changes that are going to be happening soon.  I feel like the church went from a nice Sunday walk to a full out sprint in the last two conferences.  I´m starting to get nervous for what the next one is going to be like, they've raised the bar.  I´m also going to download the sessions in English, maybe that will help me understand everything, haha.   

It´s always good to hear from the leaders of the church.  It kills me every time the prophet laughs when he announces new temples in Utah. It was special to know that my family was watching it at the same time that I was, even though we weren't together.

We had a couple investigators come and watch some of the sessions with us in the chapel, so that was really cool.

Word of the Week

The funniest word I learned this week is ´roncar´, which means to snore.  The reason it´s funny is that the ´r´ at the beginning is pronounced like an ´h´ so the word sounds like honker.

Of Papagaios and Cicadas

So, our days have suddenly gotten a lot noisier.  The cicadas are appearing, so during parts of the day it sounds like the trees are shrieking.  I personally think that the noise sounds like some sort of droning alarm, like there´s been a radiation leak, or the submarine is sinking.  It´s more cool to think of it like that, and it helps me keep from going crazy and trying to attack the trees with nothing but bug spray and a tennis racket.

We also have a couple pairs of papagaios that have appeared near our house and they like to chatter and squawk early in the morning.  I had the pleasure of waking up to Sister Mareski opening our window to yell at them one morning.  She was so annoyed, it was hilarious.

Whatsapp

Our ward mission leader is Irmão Jxxxxxi, an elderly guy who is actually returning to activity himself.  He was really inspired by a devotional we had last Sunday about how the members can help with missionary work, and he´s been using his social media account on Whatsapp to talk to the members about the work we are doing.  It´s really cute to see him figuring out technology, and he calls us every now and then for stuff that he can post on the ward´s group message.  

New Investigators

The investigator that I´m most excited about at the moment is Axxxxxxxa.  We found her in our area book as an old investigator, but it wasn't clear why the missionaries didn't continue teaching her.  We went to find her and she received us very well.  I admire her a lot, because she is dealing with depression, and her family has not been supportive in the health challenges she is going through, but she is always optimistic and wants to learn more about the gospel.  We invited her to be baptized, but she told us no, because she doesn't understand why her baptism in her past church isn't valid.  However, she told us that she wants to keep learning, and if she receives an answer she will be baptized again.  She told us during our next visit that if she didn't feel that we had been sent by God to teach her and help her, she wouldn't have let us in the first day we passed, or after our baptismal invitation the last time.  She came to one of the sessions of General Conference, and had a good experience.  We´re going to visit her again tonight, and I´m excited to teach her more.

That´s everything for this week.  Love you guys and hope you have a good week!

 

FOTOS FOR THE WEEK:1-2: We got caught in a downpour and didn't have umbrellas or anything.  We were completely soaked in a matter of minutes, and we ran through the streets that were ankle deep in water in places to get to a members house.  

3: Sister Mareski likes to take photos when she thinks I´m not looking, which is unfortunate because I´m usually not.

4: We watched General Conference at the chapel, and had a mini party after each one.  That´s Irmão Otavio, our old LMA and current second counselor to the bishop

5: Me, two hours into our weekly planning session and hating life.

6: We were super excited to hear that we have 12 new temples being built, especially the one in Salvador!