SEGUNDA (Monday): Today was a
great day, because I got to talk to all you amazing people back at home! I love you guys. We also got a random call around
lunchtime. Probably the best call of my
life, except my mission call, because it went something like this:
“Oi Irmao Fort, Tudo Bem?” (Hi Brother Fort, Alright?)
“Tudo Bem, Elders. I
have a bunch of churrasco sitting here if you guys haven’t eaten yet”. Phone disconnects, we break down his
door. Ha-ha. No, just kidding, but we basically ran
there. Man, it’s good.
Then
finished P-day. My pride took a punch to
the face when I lost best of 3 in chess to Santos Melo. That puts the score at 1 for him about 12 for
me. In my defense, I was looking through
Liahonas for a new picture of Christ to draw.
I liked that. But it made him
happy, so it’s fine.
Then we did
splits and he went with Elder Pompeu to learn their area a little before he
leaves tomorrow and I went with Elder Muniz.
He was cool, but he’s also leader of the zone until tomorrow, so he was
in charge of cleaning the chapel for our zone conference in 2 days. (It’s HUGE!
Like…HUGE mesmo!!) So, we went to
clean for what we thought would be one hour at 6. It’s about 6 and we are almost there after
walking for 25 minutes, and we get a call saying to come at 7 instead. So, not thinking, we return to the house area
to teach a quick lesson and return. 25
minutes later, we get to our area and have 25 minutes to be to the church. Haha, so we turned around and walked
back. It’s fine. Then, 2 hours cleaning the very dirty
bathrooms, and chapel (they sweep the carpet…very ineffective), and mopping the
hallways. Then we returned to the house
at about 9:28. But it was good to have
something simple to do that required elbow grease. And Elder Muniz is of Sao Paulo, and he talks
very clear and more slow, and I could understand everything he said. So I liked talking with him. I’ve realized that everywhere in Brazil,
except where I’m at, pretty much speaks correct, clear, understandable
Portuguese. But when I’m fluent I’ll be
able to talk so flippen fast! Woot
Woot! Coisa Bom.
Irmao Fort
today also said, at lunch, that he is very impressed with how well I understand
and talk already, and he said that I must be very intelligent. Ha-ha.
That made me happy because I realized the other day that people here
honestly think I’m stupid because I speak weird and can’t keep up with
conversations nor speak what I want to sometimes. I’m being serious. It’s true.
I don’t like that they think that.
I PROMISE I’M NOT DUMB!! I’m
actually of average, if not slightly above average, intelligence! Anyways, that made me happy that someone
actually understand my barrier I have at the moment with language. But my language is getting so much better!
These past
few days I’ve just felt happy. For no
reason other than I’m breathing. I’m
walking the streets, and I can’t help but smile. It’s happiness like I’ve never felt before
except maybe laughing gas at the dentist!
I want everyone to feel like I feel, and I know it comes from the
spirit, a constant reminder to me that I’m doing what I’m suppose to, a
reminder of the blessings I have to know the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
TERCA (Tuesday):
Exactly 3 months as a missionary.
Tomorrow is 3 months away from home.
1/8. Ta Lovco Meus Amgios (That
is crazy, friends).
So today, FOI UM BOM DIA!
(IT WAS A GOOD DAY) First off,
during lunch I only spoke English with Elder Santos Melo. He really wants to learn. Elder Pompue left today, which means the
other bathroom is finally mine. No more
sharing with Santos Melo. And I’ll miss
Elder Pompue. He’s a good friend, and
I’m about 89% certain we’ll be companions one day during the mission.
Lesson with
Albertinha! We taught the word of
wisdom. We said there are 5 things we
shouldn’t use in our bodies, what do you think they are? The first thing she said was coffee! Ha-ha I was surprised, then smoking, then
alcohol, then drugs. Then we said
tea. Super easy to teach her because she
already agreed with everything. She said
that she used to smoke and drink coffee daily years ago, but she didn’t like
the way they made her body feel, so she quit both. THEN!
We filled out her information on the baptismal record papers! 10th of this month! And I think I’ll baptize her. Ha-ha.
She calls me her son because the first time she saw me she thought that
I looked like I could be her child. Then
her daughter Denise, also on track for baptism, just needs marriage, said that
she thought I could be one of her kids, too.
Ha-ha, so they both call me filho. (son)
They’re awesome investigators. 10th
of OCTOBER! YES! And we gave her a gospel principles book, and
she’s been studying it, the bible, the Book of Mormon, and the pamphlets
together every day. Talked about a
desire to come unto Christ.
We left her
house at about 4:30. The lesson went a
little long because it was going so good.
We had a commitment else where at 4, an older lady, less-active. But we had made it a week before so we
figured it would be fine. She called us
at 4:35, and asked us where we were. We
said we were on our way, and we got there and she let us in, and said wait
here. Then she disappeared in the house
for about 5 minutes, and then let us in, and she had a whole picnic set up for
us. It was so cute. She had made doughnut things that aren’t
doughnuts, but really good, had cups of milk with chocolate powder next to
them, bread, butter, lunch meat, jams, little plates. Then she said, “I bought this all for you
guys, so you need to eat it all. The doctor
said I couldn’t eat anything but granola with milk. “ ha-ha.
I had about a dozen doughnut things that aren’t doughnuts and 5 meat and
cutter sandwiches, and all of the milk she had.
I’d put chocolate in my cup of milk, mix it, drink half, and set it
down. Then she would pick up my cup, and
pour milk in to fill it, making weak chocolate milk. Ha-ha.
She talked about her family, looked at pictures of mine, showed me
pictures of hers, all the while never letting my cup of milk empty.
Another
really good experience today. Remember
Sandra and Carlinhos family with 11 kids?
Less active, good friends with Albertinha, and are slowly starting to
come back to church because we told them we needed their help with
Albertinha. WORKED! 2 birds with one stone, baby. Anyways, we stopped by their house, and
Carlinhos was the only one home. This
was a blessing because we could freely talk.
He has an 8-year-old daughter, 9 on the 17th, who isn’t
baptized. With our help and Bishops,
this past week he’s been preparing to baptize his daughter on her
birthday. Problem, he’s smoked for
years. But, he’s working on it now and
doing great. He told us today he hasn’t
smoked at all since we started the goal Saturday. Yes, it’s only 3 days, but we had a flippen
mini dance party. No joke. He said that he wants to quit, not only so he
can baptize her, but also to be an example to her and the rest of his family,
and he wants the Melchizedek Priesthood and to return to church. He asked me if
I had a tie he could buy. Ha-ha. I said I have several he can chose from for
free. Then he asked us for a passage of
scriptures about baptism he can read to help prepare him. 3 Nephi 11, it is so cool to see him finally
recognize that they need this gospel in his life, and to see him working to
provide it. Bishop said that for years
missionaries have worked with that family and now we got them to come to church
again, and quit smoking. But na verdade,
I don’t think it was us at all. They’ve
been being prepared slowly, here a little, there a litte, until they are now
ready for it all and understand it all.
Years of the spirit working through the missionaries and we just happen
to be the ones here when they were fully prepared. I really hope Calrinhos continues to stay
strong. I can’t even describe how happy
it made me to see their kids in the primary program on Sunday singing. Man, I love being a missionary. Its like front row seats to watch miracles
occur in people’s lives.
You know
that feeling you get on Christmas Eve, like that excitement that makes your
stomach and chest tight and you feel like yelling. I usually rub my hands
together really fast when I feel this way.
Well, na verdade, I feel this way EVERY NIGHT> don’t’ have any reason
in particular. I’m always excited for
the next day while at the same time exhausted from the day I just completed.
You know those nights when you have a ton of energy and just lay in your bed
tossing and turning, thinking about the really deep stuff about life? Yea, not a thing for me. My head hits the pillow and I am OUT! I tried praying laying down one time, and
woke up the next morning and finished my prayer. (Does that count as praying all night? Call
me Enos!) Yet, I also feel like I could
run for miles. WHOOO!! Today is day 84 of the mission.
QUARTA (Wednesday):
Here’s a good quote I want to share with you all. “Will my concern for his day not seem foolish
ten years hence?” Sometimes we get too
caught up in the worries of now that we forget that in the perspective of eternity,
or even just our life time, our worries are sometimes, most times, small,
insignificant, and of little value.
What’s the point in worrying over stuff out of your control, or
something that in a year, or even a week, will seem foolish and simple? If you’re in high school, think of the
worries you had in middle school.
College, think of high school.
Adult, think of college. OLD
adult, think of when you were a young adult.
Ha-ha. Let’s only worry and
stress over what is important, and in our control, and then do something about
it. Anyways today was a good day.
______________________
^^This part above the line I wrote this morning during my
personal studies. And right now I’m
struggling to stay positive about how today went. But I opened this journal and read what I had
written, and I think I was inspired to write that this morning, without even realizing
it, for myself. I also read that I had
already written and decided that today would be a good day. And now I realize it was. Here’s why.
Today I leaned the real reason they say missionary work is the hardest
thing you’ll ever do. It’s not all the
walking. It’s not learning a new
language. It’s not being with your
companion 24/7. It’s not even leaving
your home and friends, and family. It’s
so hard because you grow to truly love these people, your investigators, and
you get exited at every little improvement they make. You yell for joy when
they actually read and pray. You feel
true happiness for them when they say they’ve received an answer. You watch and
help them make sacrifices. Then, they
stop at the finish line, and say they want nothing more. 3 times today. 3 different investigators. Moneco refuses to try to understand. Paulo, an amazing investigator who has had
all the lessons, wanted baptism, and was waiting for marriage papers. We stopped by his house today and he wasn’t
home, but his wife told us he said he
doesn’t want to be baptized anymore, and she thinks he’s going to leave
her. Then Rodrigo, we stopped by his
house, but he wasn’t home from work yet, so we went to the neighbor’s house to
talk about something’s. Then Rodrigo
came home and motioned to Rafael not to tell us he was home. Paulo and Rodrigo have stated drinking
again. Moneco started smoking
again. This is what’s hard about
missionary work. Everything else I can
deal with, annoying companions, 6:30 every morning, no contact with my family
or friends. But this is hard to watch.
Let me go
through today, because it was different, due to the zone conference. Lots of missionaries from 10 in the morning
until 6 at night. But I got to talk to
the new missionaries, 2 of which are American.
One of which I met through instagram before them mission. Ha-ha. I asked her how she was feeling, and she
said, “HOLY CRAP MAN!” I totally
understand. One cool thing was while
President Parrela was talking, at one point I went to ask Elder Santos Melo if
he understood what President Parrela was saying. Then I realized he wasn’t speaking
English. That made me happy. I also included a picture of me and a bunch
of random Brazilians. That ‘s the
texting group message I was in before the mission. They all remembered me! Ha-ha
Also, good
news. We’re getting a new mini DVD
player in my house that has a pendrive spot!
That means I can watch the Mormon messages I have on my pendrive. Woot Woot!
Today I
decided that I will not allow people to cut me off anymore. If I am talking, and they start to say
something else, I will continue talking.
I won’t raise my voice to be louder then theirs, nor will I stop saying
what I believe to be true to hear them talk about something else. Lots of people do this, but I’m done with
it. If everyone stops listening to me,
I’ll continue talking because what I have to say is important. It happens often in lessons. I’ll be talking about a principle, or bearing
testimony, and the person will interrupt and talk about something totally
unrelated. In this situation I will not
stop bearing testimony and maybe the person will get the hint that really I
don’t care at all about what food they have in their fridge.
I feel
really frustrated about today. Today is
not a day I want to repeat. But I still
feel excited right now, because tomorrow is a new day!! Today is day 85 of my mission.
QUINTA (Thursday):
You know you had a good day when a little worm falls out of your hair in
the shower and you aren’t even mad. But
lets start form the beginning.
I woke up,
and for the first time in my mission didn’t want to get out of bed. That fact made me get out of bed all the
faster. I had a rough morning, still
feeling down from yesterday. But I
forced myself to smile, and I decided to eat one of my limited supplies of mangos. That helped.
Then during my personal studies, I really honestly was trying to forget
myself. I don’t’ study the scriptures
for myself anymore. I study for my
investigators and less actives. Is tat
each study with a prayer and then think of all the people we will talk to that
day, and their needs, then I read, watching for anything that could help any of
them. And I lean so much more studying
this way. President Parrela said that
after lunch, we could take another hour to do personal study on 2 Nephi 26, 3
Nephi 11, or 3 Nephi 27. Honestly, to me
that sounds like an hour lost for working with investigators. It’s not a rule
that we have to, but Santos Melo wanted to.
So we did. Then we went to
Everton. He’s a less active AND a recent
convert. He’s the reason I promised
myself to never baptize someone who doesn’t have a testimony. He’s a great guy, but I don’t think he was
ready for baptism. He was baptized in
January. In the lesson, I told him that
our testimonies are like muscles (this is an analogy that came to me on the
spot). The more we use it, then stronger
it becomes. If we just let it sit, it
weakens. Then I asked him what things we
can do to strengthen our testimonies.
Here’s the conversation:
“Everton,
what are some things we can do to strengthen our testimonies?”
Him:“Um, Pray.” “Me: “Yes!
Pray! (testimony and examples of
prayer) Irmao Everton, do you pray every day?”
Him: “No.” Me: “Hmmm, ok, what else can we do?” Him: “go to church.” Me: “yes!
(testimony and experience with going to church) Irmao Everton, do you go
to church every week?” Him: “…no.” Me:
“hmmm, ok. What else can we
do?” Him: “read our scriptures.” Me:
“yes! (testimony and examples
form my life” Irmao Everton, do you read the scriptures every day?” Him:
“….no.”
I think you
can see the pattern. But it was a really good lesson, and I felt the spirit,
and I think he’ll go to general conference this weekend! That’s good.
Next we
went up to Cicima. We found this old
lady, walking in the street. We talked
to her a little, and then asked when a good time to talk with her about Jesus
would be. She said, “Well, right now. My
house is right there with my husband sitting out in front. But if we walk up together, he’ll send you
two away. So, I’ll wait here under this
tree, you guys go talk to him and after he lets you in I’ll come by and we’ll
act like we never met.” So, that’s what
we did. Ha-ha. And had an awesome lesson. She cried about 5 times. But I can’t remember their complex Brazilian
names for the life of me.
We also had
a noite familiar with Albertinha , her family, the family of Sandra e
Carlinhos, Bishop and some others.
Bishop gave an excellent message, and everyone made excellent food. Afterwards when everyone was talking and laughing,
one of them gets in the middle of the group and was telling this story. Everyone listening intently. Me, eating my
sandwich, watching the bug on the desk to make sure it doesn’t get to close to
me, while trying to understand. Then,
everyone starts LAUGHING! I mean
laughing until you can’t breath. Bishop
is crying, Albertinha is crying. So I
start laughing, too. I'm sure whatever we were laughing at was really
funny. Afterwards, Santos Melo told me
again, and here’s the story, more of a joke:
“So I was on my way to my friends house, and in the apartment they have
an escalator. I was riding it up, when
about half way, it stopped, and the lights went out. Right then my friend called me, asking where
I was. I said I was standing on the
escalator waiting or it to turn back on. She said, “Well, when it’s stopped, isn’t
it like stairs?” I said yes it is. Then she
said, “Well then why don’t you sit down while you wait?” I
mean, yea, it’s a funny joke, but these people were crying and struggling to
breath. Haha. It was awesome.
After all
this, back in the house, I decided to make today really good, so I did 100
straight pushups. Feeling good, I get in
the shower, and a little worm thing falls out of my hair. Don’t’ even know what it was. But I wasn’t even mad.
Today
really was a genuinely good day, and I think it’s because I forced myself not
to think of anyone I knew before the mission.
I need to separate the Jake McKee form the Elder Mckee, and that’s when
I become effective and happy. It’s hard
to be happy in a lesson when I’m day dreaming about paninis or fishing with
dad. Separate Jake McKee from Elder
McKee. Working on that. I’m really trying hard to loose myself in the
work and today I feel like I’m starting to make progress on that.
Tomorrow we
venture into the unknown. New area, new
investigators, new pen, most likely, tembem.
This one is on its last straw.
Below is a list
of al the people I’ve taught lessons to that I can remember right now: Driana, Mirian, Eversesto, Marcos, Rodrigo,
Rafeal, Vanji, Romilda, Themires, Albertinha, Edi, Kevin, Talizme, Lunana,
Fran, Erao, Santiago, Denise, Teretinhes, Rena, Brune, Mareco, Bruno, Frank,
Paulo, Ailton, Partricio, Bri, Suele, Eliandro, Cluadio, Alex, Emmanuel,
Mateus, Marcio, Everton, Ronddo, Sandra, Florinda, Andride, Terecha, Carlinhos,
Learardo, Tatine, Luciano, Costro, Naeme, Cheber, Carlos, Cristko, Elton,
Carmen (Sorry, I’m sure I got some of
these wrong…I couldn’t make out all the letters)
I know I’m
missing some, but I remember these names and their stories and where they live
right now. I love this work. I’ve never been one to just talk to people,
but now I’m actually interested in what they have to say. Today is day 86 in my mission.
SEXTA (Friday): Well,
let me tell you about today. Today was a
good day. Really good. We had 9 lessons today. That is really good. I’ll tell you about just one that was my
favorites.
So, we are
walking down the street, in our new area, and there’s a guy just standing in
front of his house. These are my
favorite types of contacts, because they can’t lie about their address or say
they are in a hurry someplace. Anyways,
we talked with him and he was nice. He
seemed a little different because he never looked you in the eye, but I found
out later that 2 years ago he got toxins in his eyes, and now can only see with
one eye a little. Anyways, we introduced
ourselves, and learned that his name was Vablerer (yeah, I can’t pronounce it
either). He said “Yea, come on into my
house. Let’s talk about Jesus.” So we entered his house, which we then
learned doubled as a church where he was the pastor….haha, yep. Let’s just say this guy knew the Bible. Anyways, we taught the restoration. And this guy was the “GOLDEN”
investigator. Ha-ha, before we started
he said, “I have some questions for you guys.
Do you believe in God?” “Yes, we
do Senhor. And Jesus Christ, too.” “You believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of
God?” “Yes, Senhor” “Ok, you may continue…” ha-ha.
Then he asked me if I have a hard time with Portuguese. I said that now I can pretty much understand
what I need to, and I explained the gift of tongues and that I can only speak
and understand as well as I do because of the spirit helping me always. This is when he said, “Amen. So, why are there so many churches in the
world when there is only one God? Which
is the true church?” ha-ha…also worth
mentioning we were sitting in the middle of his chapel place. We taught the restoration. Every time we introduced a new principle he
would stop us and think about it, then nod his head, say amen, and tell us we
could continue. Here are the principles
or topics of the restoration that we teach in the lesson. 1) God is our loving Heavenly Father, 2)
Gospel blesses families, 3) God calls prophets to reveal his commandments, 4)
Jesus Christ established his church, 5) the great apostasy, 6) the restoration
through Joseph Smith, 7) Book of Mormon.
Keep these in mind as I write out how the lesson went with this guy.
I explained
God is our loving Heavenly Father, and that he gave us the gospel to bless our
families. He help up his hand to stop
me, thought about it, nodded and said that makes sense. Then asked, “How does he give his gospel to
us?” Santos Melo then explained
prophets, using the Bible as a reference.
He Held up his hand, thought, nodded, then asked a few questions about
our Bible, which is the same as his.
After that was settled, he then asked, “Do you guys believe Jesus called
apostles? And for you, what is an apostle?”
I then explained how Christ established his church, with 12 apostles,
which are followers of Christ, and how he gave them then priesthood, or power
of God to teach and baptize. Hand,
Think, Nod. Then “What happened when he was crucified? What happened to the church?” You couldn’t plan a lesson to go smoother
then this. Great Apostasy
explained. Hand, Think, Nod. Everything agreed with what he knew of the
Bible. Then, we shared the best part of
the lesson, the restoration through Joseph Smith. He didn’t stop us, he didn’t interrupt with
questions. He just sat as we told him
about Joseph Smith and shared the first vision with him. Then, we gave him a Book of Mormon to read
with his wife and pray about to know if it is true. He paused, and then said, I feel right now
that it is. HAHA!! YES!! Man, it’s good to have the spirit on your
side. He’s maybe going to go to general
conference tomorrow, which is awesome.
He told us he thinks that our dedication to the Lord, leaving our
families, studies, and lives for 2 years to serve Him is beautiful. I can’t even describe how happy I was after
teaching this man.
I also
can’t even describe how flippen excited I am for GENERAL CONFERENCE!! TOMORROW!
Yes! Ha-ha, so cool. So pumped.
3 new apostles. If I was the man
at the pulpit, here’s’ what I would do, just to give my friend a heart
attack. I’d say his name like this. “We have 3 new apostles. 1st, Elder_____, 2nd,
Elder_____, and 3rd, Elder Zac Baker.” Ha-ha, then pause for a second and say,
“Oh! Sorry, 3rd, Elder
_____. Ha-ha, ok maybe I wouldn’t do
that, but I think Zac would fall over and pass out. AHHH, I’m so excited!
So, Here’s
one thing I decided today I need to improve.
I need to get out of the habit of saying, “shoot”. Because the Brazilians try and mimic me, and
always say it wrong, and then everyone is swearing and that isn’t what I’m
about.
Today was a
very good day. Today is day 87 in my
mission!
SABADO (Saturday): I
don’t even need to say it, but I will to keep the streak going. Today, my friend was a good day. And not only because of general conference,
which is much harder to understand in Portuguese. So this morning, before lunch, we went to the
house of Sergio. He’s an investigator of
the other elders, and he is AWESOME! He
is working hard to quit smoking. The
others have been working with him, and slowly he’s been quitting, not all at
once. Today was the last day e smoked
his last cigarette. If he can stay
strong after tomorrow, he’ll be baptized on the 17th! Woot Woot!
In the lesson with him, we talked about the plan of salvation. When we talked about enduring to the end, he
said, “This is why I want to make sure I’m ready for baptism. I don’t’ want to start down this path, then
not endure to the end and go back to smoking and drinking.” He totally understands that baptism isn’t’
all that we have to do. He’s an awesome
guy. I think he’ll be baptized.
Then,
general conference. I thought it was
very interesting that with all the laws about gay marriage, the first session
had a lot about keeping the Sabbath day holy.
Interesting. Then the second
session talked about love in home. I’m
going to download it in English onto a pendrive on Monday and watch it
later. So excited! I wrote in my notebook 4 questions I wanted
answered. As I kept notes I wrote a
number 1-4, corresponding with the questions I had numbered, next to every note
I made as to which question it helped me with.
Muito Ben Legal. My Portuguese sure has come a long, long way. Remember how I said the people here talk
really fast? During general conference,
it was easier for me to understand the translators who spoke fast. Ha-ha, Interesting.
Really, the
only thing I would change about today is the fact I forgot to wear my fancy
shoes that are freshly shined. Today is
day 88 in the mission.
DOMINGO (Sunday):
Here’s why today was good. I
couldn’t understand General Conference, but I could understand enough to know
what they were talking about, and that was enough to make me think, and most of
the things I wrote weren’t even close to what the speaker said, just stuff that
came to my mind while listening to Portuguese.
But I’ll watch it again after tomorrow in English, so that’s good. Priesthood session too, because President
Parrela doesn’t let us watch it because it gets over at 11. I have a lot of stuff I want to download
tomorrow.
Today,
in-between the sessions, I did an assessment with the zone leader. I’ve done a division with him and he’s way
cool, from Sao Paulo. But I passed,
which was good. It’s really easy. Then, after I said the end prayer he said
that I have hardly any accent. He told
me that of all the Americans that came with me, I speak the best and he hasn’t
seen anyone that learns this fast.
Ha-ha. So, that made me feel
good, of course. I’m really working hard
on the language. I only really use
English on a normal day when I write in this book. I’m going to memorize all the seminary
scriptures masteries in Portuguese. I
found out at the Zone Conference that Sister Parrela has gifts for people who
memorize certain numbers, and if you get all 100, you get a scripture case. They leave in 8 months, so I got to
work. Zone conference was on Quarta, or
Wednesday. Today, right now, I can from
memory site the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction of the Livro De
Mormon. 2 Nephi 2:25, 2:27, 9:28-29, and
28:7-9. It’s a lot of work, but I really
want all 100 memorized. I want that
scripture case.
It was a
good week. This week should be even
better because we have Albertinha marked for baptism! Her interview should be on Quarta. YEA.
AHHH, I’m so excited and Laura will be baptized the next week,
hopefully, by her dad.
Ha-ha. One funny thing is my notes from General
Conference almost have as much Portuguese as English. Like often, half a sentence is English and
the other half is Portuguese. Speaking
with other Americans, usually we speak Portuguese, but sometimes we speak Portu-english. It just switches back and forth; usually we
don’t even notice it’s so much easier to talk fast in Portuguese! I love it.
Another thing the zone leader said is after one year, I’ll have
Portuguese down perfect and nobody will know I’m American. I want that so bad.
I’m really
working on staying positive. Not with
the mission. I absolutely love it
here. Not with homesickness. No offence, but I don’t’ feel homesick, nor a
desire to return home at all. Not with
members. They’re awesome. Not with investigators, even though they
sometimes make me wish missionaries could do
“enforced” agency. Not with the
language. I love the language and I can
see my improvement little by little.
There’s really only one thing I would change about the mission, and
hopefully it will change its self in 5 weeks.
I’m really, really trying hard and it’s getting better. Little by little.
Really
though I’m happier then I’ve ever been.
I love being a missionary, and being the “rich American” because I give
away cookies that are like 50 cents a pack for me, but $2.00 for them.
Expensive, if you just give them away.
Then, young men always go around selling stuff to earn money for their camps
and I always buy what their selling. I
think all the American missionaries are like that. That’s why we have the ‘Rich Rep.’
I love you
guys!! Ate Mais. Today is day 89.
Elder McKee
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