Elders Da Silva, Taylor and Hunt- the 3 Americans
Hey everyone!
I had a great, but wild week this
week! Love you guys! :)
Cool Street Art with a message
Monday- I had a great P-day, Elder
Taylor and I stayed an extra hour together to email and went and got donuts
after as a treat! We totally bonded and I’m happy we are becoming closer,
because I want top help him because he is American and I know exactly what he
is going through. After, I worked out more, wrote letters, listened to talks by
Grandpa and MOTAB music.
A less active teenager fixed our pen
drives and got rid of the virus! Yes! It was cold today, which was nice because
it’s been super hot lately! My personal goal for this week was to stop worrying
so much about home and really focus on enjoying my experience here in Brazil
and working as hard as possible with extreme focus. I’m extremely motivated
this week! Let’s go!!!
Tuesday- Zone Conference was good, I bought
more protein bars, Medina and I had lunch at an all- you- can eat place because
they gave us money for lunch. I loved it, tons of meat and veggies, and I also
discovered banana frites, fried bananas! Savory on the outside and
deliciously sweet on the inside! SO good!! Before, we walked through this
favela because it was quicker than going around and the same thing happened. We
entered and these guys with guns called up with walkie talkies to tell everyone
else we were there, but they respect us so nothing happened.
Edwarda
Elders Hunt and Medina with Edwarda and Augusto
We have been working on a teenage
girl and her little brother to be baptized. They finally want to be
baptized, but the girl’s mom flipped out on her about random stuff and even
said things as ridiculous as her daughter breaks the word of wisdom because she
doesn’t get 8 hours of sleep and the word of wisdom is a health code. Little
things keep getting in our way of tons of baptisms, honestly, it’s the parents
of the kids and teenagers we are working with that are getting in our way and
saying no. It’s just another challenge we are working
through.
These are the donuts Elder Hunt ate on P-day.
Today was the first day I was bitten
by a dog. There are TONS of stray random dogs here, EVERYWHERE. We have trouble
with them sometimes, but today was the first time I was bitten. It didn’t break
the skin, but the back of my calf is bruised and hurts a ton to walk.
Street Art featuring South Africa
Wednesday- It was cold and cloudy and
great today! We found a random lime cake mix and everyone in the house decided
that we should make it, but Elder Costa took the lead and poured the mix and a
whole liter of milk in the blender without reading the instructions...our
"cake" was over before it began. We then did everything we could to
try and save our precious cake. We added eggs, hot chocolate mix, coconut
flakes, butter, chocolate frosted flakes...and even protein powder, but nothing
did the job. Then the others decided that I should just make pancakes out of
it, so I did and they turned out all right.
Elder Hunt holding 'Pricilla,' the fat white rabbit
After, we went to lunch and I
discovered they had a pet rabbit! I decided I was going to catch it and take a
picture with it! It’s just a rabbit, I mean come on, how difficult could it be,
right? On the roof of this house I
tried to catch this fat, white rabbit named Pricilla for over a half
hour...Elder Taylor was with me and was the designated cameraman because he
didn’t want to touch the "dirty rabbit," and Medina and Costa were
downstairs, so I tried to catch this rabbit alone. It would run and hide and
I’d have to chase it and find it over and over and over. I was exhausted.
Elder Hunt likes rabbits. Ha ha.
Eventually the others
joined us and by then I was drenched in sweat. All together we caught the
rabbit, and Elder Costa victoriously snatched it up by the ears. I thought it
was really funny. In the end I got my picture and we went down to eat as
champions.
Rabbit: 0 Elders:1. We will meet again, rabbit.
Pricilla, the rabbit
Also, these drugged out kids threw
tons of fruit at us today, I didn’t like it, but luckily for us they missed
every time. Here, no one does anything to our faces, only when we are walking
away, no one has courage.
Elder Hunt eating a pastel
Thursday- In the feira, Elder Media
and I tasted a Brazilian classic, a pastel! A fried square tortilla type thing
filled with whatever you want, I got egg and meat! Later Elder Da
Silva and I went on a division and went off!!! Together we gave out 45 Books of
Mormon, taught 31 lessons, had 7 new investigators, and 88 contacts!!!! We went
off!! We gave out every Book of Mormon in the chapel and all of them he had in
his apartment. If we would have had more, we could have kept going! I love
being the "senior." I do so much better, learn much quicker, and grow
a TON!
Elder Hunt with a combat fighting knife
Elder Hunt and Elder Da Silva, who go on exchanges often together
But there was one experience...we
only had 2 books left, it was about 8:30pm. We saw a huge group of people
walking towards us a bit down the street. I told Elder Da Silva we would give
our last 2 Books Of Mormon out to these people, no matter what. We
walked to the group of people, introduced ourselves, and by the time we
realized, it was too late... At that moment, we were surrounded by 7 super gay
guys and a girl all whacked out on drugs...we were surrounded...this was the
beginning of the end... I started talking about the Book Of Mormon, but they
were all more interested in me and my biceps than the book! They were creepy
and weird! They kept trying to touch me and were asking me all these strange
gay questions. I explained about the book, they took our last 2 and then they
said they also practiced black magic...I kept my cool, but tried to hurry and
made an excuse to leave. As I said that, the group attacked me and a few of
them tried to hug and kiss me, so I pulled a ‘swim, spin, and rip’ move
from football (thank you Coach Yarno.) Elder Da Silva and I sprinted away!!! It was super scary,
they touched me, ewwwwwww. I was
super disturbed! What an experience, I will not forget that.
Friday-Today we fought so hard for 3
children and 2 different sets of parents stopped their kids from being
baptized. They parents refused to allow it, even
though the children want to. We tried so hard and we were honesty super
disappointed and sad after, but we kept our heads up and kept working.
Elevator selfie
We taught the boyfriend of recent
convert Daniella about the law of chastity, and he didn’t like it. He respects
us a ton and really wants to change his life, so we are trying to help them get
married, but before he could get baptized he needs to stop some issues he has.
Saturday-Through tons of drama I
BAPTIZED Edwarda today. We worked
so hard with Edwarda and her brother and their less active mother, but we
FINALLY baptized Edwarda and her brother. After the baptism we had 1 hour
left before curfew and we needed a miracle, so we sprinted to the house of
Felipe and told him he would be baptized tomorrow and he said he would think
about it, to our surprise!
Shoes hanging on the wires
Sunday- We awoke to a large section
of the road closed down somewhat close to where we live. It was the re-vote for
the presidency of Brasil on Sunday, and it’s a big deal, so we thought it
was for that. While picking up investigators for church, we discovered what had
happened. We stumbled upon the scene of the crime, a body in the street in a
body bag. The police have killed 2 people, there were literally bodies in the
streets. The bodies remained there for most of the day as well. It really shook
up the area, all the people, traffic, everything. It was very solemn. Brasil is crazy.
Maria Hellena, on her baptism day
Maria Hellena was baptized, (I
baptized her) but we had to get a ride far away to get her because she decided
she didn’t want to be baptized today...but we convinced her and she was so
happy afterwards. Felipe was not baptized, so we ended our week with only
3 baptisms.
Sunday Lunch- YUM
Elder Hunt's Key Lime Pie
Dorinha, who made Sunday lunch for the Elders
We had an amazing lunch at Dorinha’s; she made me key lime pie
again! :) I know she loves me for
making this pie. It rained a ton. We gave out a ton of Books Of Mormons to try
and win the zone vs. zone mission wide competition, but we ended up coming
in 2nd. Also, Dilma won the Presidency
of Brasil; she’s gay, doesn’t believe in God, doesn’t like the church and she semi
communist. There are rumors of civil war.
Dulce de Leche filled donuts Elder Hunt bought today
Pasoca, this is the closest thing to Peanut Butter than they have in Brasil. It is delicious and has a good mix of protein, fat and carbs.
In other news, I’m doing extremely well, I’m very happy and
focused, I love being here; I love serving!
Brasil is the best place to serve a
mission possible!
Elder Hunt
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