Elder Jacob Mckee: A Little Brazilian

Week of October 3-9, 2016

(3) SEGUNDA (Monday): P-day, then we went to Santa Maria for the mission council tomorrow. Today was day 453 of my mission.

(4) TERCA (Tuesday): All day in meetings, or in a bus. Elder Nascimento is a cool guy and we are going to work a lot to resurrect this area. He’s part of the group that came into the mission with me. Today was day 454 of my mission.

(5) QUARTA (Wednesday): Today we walked a TON!! I showed a lot of the area to him. Honestly I am super tired and without much excitement to write. Today was day 455 of my mission.

(6) QUINTA (Thursday): Today we started a little church. We knocked on a door and an old man without teeth came out and told us to come in. So we go in and in the back there are 5 people, all sitting in the shade. We're talking to them, and in come 2 more. Ha-ha, so we start teaching them all. When we said the prayer, they all stood up, and stayed standing for the whole lesson. Ok, that’s fine. Then we grabbed the addresses off all we could. It was super funny. Today was day 456 of my mission.

(7) SEXTA (Friday): Today Thiago and Graciele got married. We went for a little bit. It was very rewarding to se them finally married. Then we had to go, and they LOADED a box with food and sent it with us. Pictures of that wedding included. Today was day 457 of my mission.
Giovanna, Graciele, Thiago, Jake

Elder Munns, Elder, Graciele, Thiago, Jake, Elder Nascimento

Pamela, Wesley, and Jake at the wedding.

Elder Nascimento, Wesley, and Jake

(8) SABADO (Saturday): Today Graciele was baptized! WOOT WOOT. And it was incredible to see her and Thiago in the water. I was super happy. I love the mission.

Jake, Thaigo, Graciele, Elder Nascimento

After the baptism

This is a bag that holds a termic of hot water and chimarrao, and the green stuff. Just picked it up for the picture.

We’re making a lot of progress in our area, getting a teaching group and planning a lot of activities with bishop for the ward. It’s going to be good. Today was day 458 of my mission.

(9) DOMINGO (Sunday): This week was a slow week for journal entries. But today we made some HUGE progress with Joca, an investigator who hated the missionaries because they would stay hours in his house when it was just his wife at home. Now he’s starting to open up again. Today, out of nowhere, he came to church! The wife and daughter of him are members. We’re excited for him. Today was day 459 of my mission.

Week of October 10-16, 2016

(10) SEGUNDA (Monday): P-Day! Some other elders came to sleep in our apartment for the conference tomorrow. Nothing really exciting today, aside from emailing family and friends.

(11) TERCA (Tuesday): Today was incredible. President Louza gave training on the atonement of Christ, and the spirit was so strong. There are also a lot of new Americans in the mission, and seriously, this is the conversation I had in English:

The new American: “Hey”

Me: “Hey, how’s it going?”

Him: “It’s going good, just a little hard to speak and understand.”

Me: “Yea, but that comes with time. Don’t worry about it.” (I don’t know if I was speaking with an accent.)

Him: “Are you Brazilian?”

Me: “A little.”

Him: “Wow, but you speak English very well. Congrats.”

HAHAHAHA!! I thought it was sooo funny. Today was day 461 of my mission.

Jake is in the middle row behind the sister in the white sweater.

Sis. Moss, Elder, Elder Nascimento, Jake

Sis. Moss, Elder, Jake

(12) QUARTA (Wednesday): Today was a good day. All rain and everything fell through. But it’s ok. I’m still happy. Today was day 462 of my mission.

(13) QUINTA (Thursday): In the last 2 weeks I’ve lost 6 pounds. Today was interesting. I’ll tell one thing that happened today.

So, we were walking in the street, after it had turned dark, and this guy come running, “Wait Friends” he yells. He comes up and says, “What do I need to do to enter your church?” Elder Nascimento and I are a little taken back, because this never happens. We say he just needs to come and he can enter. He says that for months now he’s been having dreams, and all of them say, “Go to the Mormon church.” He gave us his address and phone number and grabbed our number. So we’ll see what will happen. But it was super interesting. His name is Rapi. Today was day 463 of my mission.

(14) SEXTA (Friday): Today we did a big family home evening with the ward. It was the first one, and it went super well, lots of people. Everyone received a balloon and we showed them a paper that said, “DO NOT POP THE BALLOON!” Everyone understood, then I whispered something in my comps ear and he said, “No, we wont’ do this then. We’ll play follow the leader.” He offered a chocolate reward to who could follow I'm the best. We danced with the balloons, did all sorts of stuff. Then very quickly, he popped. ALL BUT 5 POPPED THE BALLOONS! I picked up the paper and showed it again, and everyone started yelling. Then we gave chocolate to those who didn’t pop the balloon. It was super good about keeping the commandments. Today was day 464 of my mission.

(15) SABADO (Saturday): Today we stayed in the church all day. The youth in this ward right now are super weak, so we did an activity. We planned it today and sent out the notice today, and in the rain, came 25 youth, almost all less actives. We played volleyball in the rain and made cookies and played foosball. They loved it. So we are going to start doing this more, and they’ll start bringing their friends, and we’ll start baptizing. Today was day 465 of my mission.

(16) DOMINGO (Sunday): Today was a lot of rain. But we got a lot of cake, and we had an awesome FHE.

One miracle that happened! Yesterday, we where close to our house because of our lunch, and we had a lesson planned WAY far away, about an hour and 20 minutes walking. My comp was all chaffed. So, being Sunday, we were wondering if it’s allowed to grab taxi, because it’s permitted to grab bus. It was 3, and our commitment was at 3. So, we´re walking to the taxi spot, and I’m feeling guilty, because I’m about to pay for a taxi on Sunday. So I say a prayer, asking God to give us a bus or something to get on. I finish the prayer, and the bishop’s car stops in front of us. That’s already weird, because he was working, and usually he just honks at us. But he stopped this time, and said “Elders!! I was just thinking about you guys! I was about to call and see how you were,” which also never happens. But he had been thinking about us, then he saw us so he decided to stop and talk. He asked us where we were going. We said to grab a bus to get to the house at the end of the city. He paused, looked around, and then said ´get in the back´ WHICH HE ISN’T EVEN ALLOWED TO DO DURING WORK HOURS!! He gave us a ride, and then we learned that he was going to a work appointment on the OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY. Maybe it seems small to all of you, but this really made me feel good.

Also, I gave a talk yesterday. When he told me Friday night I would give, it was three of the 4 missionaries to give talks that day. I was second. And the first was literally the same talk I had. The same scriptures and everything! Bishop hadn’t given us topics, just told us to pray to know that topic. So while Sister was talking, I sat thinking of a new talk. I wrote down three scriptures that I wanted to use. I talked about the importance of choices. I told some stories. It went super, super well. Everyone was laughing super hard at my stories (I told the one about my choice to watch Josh bungee jump from the bunk bed that one time and the bungee cord shot back into my forehead when it broke.) and after wards a bunch of people sought me out just to tell me they loved my talk and they learned a lot. :) It was super good.

This week was very slow as far as work goes, but we made a lot of progress. Today was day 466 of my mission.

I love you all, Elder McKee

Playing the guitar at Marcos, Simara, and Thaigo's house