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| As close as I will ever come to Copacabana. |
October 6, 2014
Well, I got transferred!
I am now in Santa Cruz opening an area with Sister Viera. She is a tiny little beautiful missionary
from the Amazon area. She’s been out a little over a year, and is a very good
missionary. I feel grateful to finish my
mission with her. Also, I am so excited
to open this area, because unlike Rio das Ostras and Barra da Tijuca, this was
a sister’s area before….not just any sisters, but some of the very best,
cleanest, nicest, and hardworking sister missionaries this mission has ever
had. Sister Almeida just finished her mission, and Sister Kreling is headed to
open a new area. They have done
excellent work here, and all of the members are really excited and involved in
missionary work! It is such a nice change to be in an area where good work has
been done and where you don’t have to scrub Elder’s messes off the floor. This
area reminds me a lot of my first area, Santa Margarida – very poor, very
humble, very good people. I don’t think that I realized how different the Barra
mentality was until I started talking with these people. They are so warm and kind and wonderful. 
One thing that is not wonderful are the lan house (internet
cafes). Imagine5 ancient windows
monitors hooked up to a dinosaur-speed internet, broken keyboards, a mouse that
doubles or triple clicks when you only want to click once, and literally a dust
covered printer that shatters all dreams of printing off your parent’s
letters. Oh, and the computers don’t
even have Microsoft Word. Thank heavens
that the grad school applications are done already! Needless to say, I was VERY frustrated during
email time today.
What else? Well,
President Cabral literally moves the whole mission around with every
transfer. I am still STL, Elder Molina
took Elder Maciel’s place as AP, and Elder Mountain is my new DL.
October 7, 2014
Man, opening an area is hard work! The sisters left this area in really good
condition but it is still very challenging because we don’t know where anything
is! Our area is massive and it seems as
though I go from a big area, to a huge area, to a massive area. The sisters told me that they have a good
teaching group class to the church, but most of our members live far away. We had a district meeting in Itaguai today
–we have a really good, small district.
Elder Mountain (DL), Elder L. Quiezada (a greenie from Chile), Elder
Trujillo (ZL from Bolivia who has only been out 4 months!), and Elder Morais
(ZL from Brazil who has only been out for 9 months), and us two sisters. EM
prepared a really good training and everything was well organized. It has been a while since I have had a good
DL. Other than the meeting, we spent the whole day waiting for vans and busses,
or nearly getting killed by crazy bus drivers.
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| Views of our new apartment. |
October 8, 2014
I haven’t been so tired in a long long time. Man, I am completely wiped out. It turns out that the sisters really didn’t
have that ig of a teaching group, and we visited some people they left in the
area book and they want nothing to do with us.
We walked and worked all stinkin day long. We taught a TON, but also had
a lot of rejection and doors shut on us.
It’s been a long time since I ‘ve felt so much rejection in such a
condensed amount of time. On the up side, I am lovin my little companion. She is a spitfire! We’ve had some good laughs already. Also, we
found a nice man who has a lot of potential.
Yeah, one person was nice to us today!
Well, I am smelly, and my achy feet are swollen. Ants are biting my feet as I write. But, I am grateful to be here, and I am
grateful for my new companion.
October 9, 2014
Wow, I am tired and achy again tonight! We didn’t have a
single sit-down lesson today. I was so
tired that we went to a member’s house and stayed there for longer than we
should have….but I couldn’t help it. I
am so foot sore. Sister V is used to
walking and being on her feet all day, but I am coming from 4 months of really
not walking that much. In my opinion, if
you are walking all day, there is something wrong with your planning. Unfortunately, when you are opening an area,
you don’t really know how to make effective plans. But we are learning. My body will really be
ready to come home in 10 weeks time.
Between yesterday and today we taught 11 lessons, but none
of those lesson want us to come back.
People in Santa Cruz are in a much lower socioeconomic class that in
Barra and even Rio das Ostras. As a result, the ways that we are being rejected
are very rude and uneducated. We had one
last just plain slam the door on us yesterday, and today another lady ranted on
and on about what we believe (which of course had nothing to do with what we
believe.) We even had a pastor try to
Bible bash with us. We’re getting really
good about just smiling and being nice, even with the rudest people.
Positive note: our zone and district leadership is really
strong. Our ZLs are young and full of
energy and enthusiasm. They are helping
us remain positive about the situation.
October 10, 2014
Today was a little bit better than yesterday. I am feeling les physically wiped and we were
able to fins some new investigators. I
was marveling at our church’s missionary efforts today. Even though sister V and I are new
companions, we are well prepared and trained to have the same vision and goals
which makes working together simple. Even though we are very different, we are
united in our missionary purpose. I am
liking working with Sister V. She is
feisty and funny, and she is a good teacher.
Another thing that I noticed today is
that I get tired, sore, achy, and crooked easier now than I did in the
beginning of my mission. My toenails are
nasty, my face is all broken out, my posture is terrible, my back cracks every
time I bend over, and my feet constantly ache. I think that I even have a few
cavities in my teeth. Missions are hard on us physically and mentally – especially
in developing countries. I now
understand why they medical screening is so extensive before you come on a
mission. We have to be in good
condition. Imagine how it would be for someone in bad shape came here? Those who start out in good shape are
completely broken by the end.
Since I am on a rant…I am frustrated by the lack of
technology. We have no GPS, no smart
phone, no internet, nothing. We have a
paper map taped to the wall. We have no
texting, emailing, facebooking, etc. We have 99 minutes per month, and the
other sisters left us with 0 minutes. We
have an old cell phone that drops calls 75% of the time. The rest of the world is so easily connected
and we are so very disconnected.
Last but not least, it is SCORCHING here, and it is going to
get hotter!
October 11, 2014
Well, today was a great day! We worked hard, worked smart,
and we were able to teach some good lessons. One of the recent converts and his
wife took us on their referral, and after that they drove us around and showed
us some important parts of Santa Cruz (like Cesarao, which is a big time favela
where we can’t were red – rival color).
They were just so nice and we felt a lot happier after working with
them. Members make a huge difference in
our work.
Weird/funny/kind-of sad story: We went to visit another recent convert who
is inactive. She is a tiny, grumpy,
crazy old lady who quite obviously has problems remembering things. She complained
about her aches and pains, told us that all churches are true, and then on the
way out the door she asked us if we were from the Catholic church.
October 12, 2014
Our ward is fantastic!!!
I m in a ward where everyone does their calling, serves and works hard,
are united, and genuinely love each other and the gospel. Also, one of our new investigators came to
church today. He is legally married, has
3 older children, and was referred by a friend who is a member. He has already started reading the Book of
Mormon and wants to set up regular teaching appointments. He works and goes to school so the only time
he has for lessons is on Saturday and Sunday.
I am so impressed with his desire to learn.
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