Mission week 21 (02/26/24)
Bom semana everyone! I feel like i have been getting the hang of it. planning days and where to go and everything else. i felt a lot better about this week, in our plan i always put in wayy more people than we could possibly visit so that we would always, no matter what, have a place to go and always be working at every moment. It was great! super tiring physically and mentally doin Senior companion things not having a clue how haha but it was great! I have learned a lot and am trying to sort of self-train or learn to be the senior comp for the future to hopefully train and be prepared to do that. but anyways this week always having something in the plan so always in motion was great. didn't feel like a fubeca at all! my comp is pretty tired along side me though. we did have a few things in the week that set us back a little but they were necessary things so that our stove didn't blow up like a bomb and to fix our fridge lol.
One thing as a missionary, your body is always sore and tired. But, that is what you want, so it is a good thing and it tells you that when you feel sore you are doing good and doin good work. but one other thing that is not a good type of pain is when your toe begins to hurt and you learn you have an ingrown toenail... fun stuff... but i'm hoping it heals soon and doesn't bother me. it's just a little thing tho luckily so im gonna count that blessing. I can still work just as hard.
One huge thing happened! but it wasn't here.... back in Utah the Hunting expo was the last weekend about a week ago! that is one of the things that i always looked forward to every year so for everyone that got to go, HECK YAAAA!
Random stuff of the week.
I bought grip strength tools. They basically work out your hand to increase your grip strength. you squeeze them and they can get more difficult.
I bought a dope Mate cup!
Now our Apartment has a couple French and English Book of Mormons. this is due to a member working with foreign exchange students and most of them only speak french or english zero Portugues, and they are all super interested in the church. there are about 40 or more of them... so this could and will be interesting to see what happens here.
found a body builder hulk dog that looked terrifying and its forearms, or legs, were bigger than mine! It was pure muscle! i think it was a pitbull and it dwarfed the other pitbull that was right next to it! whatever stuff that dog is on i need to get that ASAP! he was HUGE! so of course i knocked on the scary dogs door and taught the guy gave a BOM and invited him to church.
one day got 30 contacts, and out of the 30 got 10 phone numbers! super good ratio!
Zone meeting with two zones so saw tons of people and including my old comp/trainer/dad which was dope!
Many people actually reversed the roles and they stopped us in the road asking us about the Church, which was cool!
Tons of cars passing honked and said hi to us missionaries, so it reminded me a lot of Utah.
I cut my hair... short short.
I tried this amazing drink called " Caldo Decana/Guarapa-abacaxi. It was fire!
saw tons of puppies, always a lighter brighter day with puppies.
For some reason there are a lot of people here in Brazil who just hate Americans, but there is lots of people who feel the opposite and love us. So you never know which you will find.
My Portuguese has been getting wayyyy better! or at least i feel better with it. tons of people are saying it too which feels good to hear. But I have been trying to improve my contacting to be more of a conversation with people and not just the few memorized phrases I know in portuguese. it has gone super well! i met tons of people who wanted absolutely nothing to do with the church or messages but I was able to keep going in a conversation and flip their mind completely around... kinda like i did in sales haha. but it was cool to see totally negative energy of not wanting anything to change to Gratitude and continually thanking us for helping them haha. it's like those mini sales dubs, they just feel good, and this time even more so because it is for a soul.
On the day we got our fridge fixed it kinda sucked cuz we had to stay at the house for them to fix it but it was necessary. Then two days later our stove ran out of gas, so we had another day to wait for that to be replaced. but the guy told us that our hookup tools for the stove and gas tank were super old and were actually leaking a ton so we could have gotten blown up! We opened all the windows and had to wait for a new guy to come to fix it. but now here is where the mini miracle comes in! The guy starts right off the bat curious about the church and asking questions. He kept asking more and more and it was perfect! We ended up teaching him the restoration, giving him a BOM and he fixed our stove! It was awesome! but he didn't live in our area so we sent the miracle reference to brighten another missionary's week with a new Bap.
One day while we were walking between house appointments I spotted what looked like a strange gate or fence to a house. I turned to my comp pointing and asked, "You think that's a house?" he paused looked at it for a sec and said, "ya, i think so." so i then responded with, "Then lets go! Lets go knock that door!" It turned out that a super kind old lady lived there and she loves Jesus and loved our message. I think she said we were angels at one point but she was super receptive to the message and somehow had already had received a BOM 12 or so years ago! we will be returning. but it was super cool how the Holy Ghost guided us there and to knock that one random house, and find a lady ready to receive us. Dope stuff!
Ok guys, there are always these druggie guys who hang out right outside the church everyday for their lunch break. normally we just say good afternoon and keep walking but today I felt a little different. I walked up, introduced ourselves, asking their names. (they were all high at this moment) they told me their names and after further conversation i told them we help people come closer to Christ! and that the church was literally on our side next to us as I pointed. Then I proceeded to tell them I have presents for all of them and gave them word of wisdom pamphlets and chastity too. hahahahaha it was awesome and i was trying to hold in my laughter until we got inside the chapel cuz it was absolutely awesome!
Ok i have never seen this before but it was pretty cool. My comp said it was an Africa fest and they basically had people dressed up in the street banging drums really loud and holding a banner up will moving side to side in sync dancing to the music. hard to describe but it was pretty interesting. we were blocked on the road so we waited for and opening when they passed and got through.
but not before one person came up to my comp, grabbed his hand and started trying to dance with him! hahahahaha he was resisting it and not doing anything but she still managed to make him spin and twirled him around once. Then we zipped though to escape.
we have some amazing investigators! this family was super excited to hear from us when we stopped by and loved the message. received it really well! They asked us about coffee so we taught the word of wisdom and it went super well! after they insisted on feeding us which was awesome! and then they gave us a full bottle of grape juice and another thing of yogurt. AND they offered and drove us to our next appointment, and it was bucketing rain!!! holy crap these people are amazing! they will be bapped ASAP!
Church was just awesome. more miracles and new people brought by members who already want to be baptized, tons of members offered us references and other people showed up wanting more messages and lessons! But.... one random guy showed up who looked homeless but he had a old suit on. he was loud during the meeting talking and was just a bit different so we knew something was off. during the classes he kept talking and saying random stuff not even about church and going on and on. The poor guy teaching the lesson was too nice and couldn't cut the guy off or shush him. but after we spoke to him and told him we would like to share messages with him this week or pass by his house. he goes on to say that he is a missionary too and all this other random stuff.
but. during the final hymn. it was a struggle. i was laughing soo hard i almost fell out of my chair! Everyone on the bench too could not hold it in because the guy went out to sit in the foyer and started attempting to sing the hymn.... his singing was just him moaning really loud not on tune or on beat. just moaning SUPER loud! we were dying of laughter! I promise I was trying to not to laugh, but it was nearly impossible! ahhh but eventually it ended. super interesting meeting.
One other miracle this week was a few weeks ago this lady on facebook messaged me because she saw my post and that I was a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ! she is from Alaska. She said she was unhappy with her church and wanted to change religions! i did all i could to direct her, send her contact to the missionaries there, find the church address near her, answer a few simple questions and invite her to go to church. she wasn't able to get in contact with the missionaries... Until yesterday! She was super nervous but went to church! i found the missionaries there and messaged them about her directly. She loved every bit of it! she welcomed outside the building with smiles greetings and handshakes. she loved classes too and everything and even was asking me how she can get baptized and how she wants to in the near future if possible! she is like one of those mini but HUGE miracles and the missionaries there get to see that too! i was super happy that ii was able to help and make that happen and help bring her to the church even all the way in Alaska! super cool! and she will definitely be getting baptized.
I have learned a lot of things this week. I feel I have grown a ton but I still have a ton to learn!
Remember yall keep your trust in God and everything will work out in the end!
Deus é Bom! Deus é Ótimo!!
Until next week,
-Elder Martin
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