Well well, every day feels like a week, but every week feels
like a day. Weird, huh?
Last P-day, when we went out on the streets, I got a pretty
sweet deal on some Brazilian dress shoes. See, here in Brazil, you can barter
(or whatever it's called) over the price. And of course, even though I don't
speak much Portuguese, I'm still stubborn, so I got the shoes for $25 USD. I
don't know how durable they are, so they are my dress shoes for Sunday and
attending the Temple. So on days like today, when I wear them, I feel super
cool.
Our tiny three person district exploded this week, gaining 3
new elders and a new sister, and sister brown rejoined our district. So now
there are 8 of us. Elder Taylor got a new companion, Elder Crowther, Sister
Brown is with Sister Twichell, and Elder McEntire is with Elder Gustafson.
I learned of my secret weakness this week. I think I've
always known it, but now I'm more certain. I cannot, like really can't, turn
down an eating contest. I got two letters from home this week, and in the
second, my family told me of this awesome steakhouse they visited while on
vacation. It had some sort of eating challenge and I'm sure if I was there I
would have wanted to try.
But anyway, one day this week we had these fish fried
chicken burgers for dinner. Normally, we are served portioned amounts and
that's it, but on lucky days, we can take as much as we want. That was a lucky
day. I got two, and was heading to sit with my companions, when some Brazilian
elders started making a noise about some elder who was going to eat a lot. That
sparked my interest. And that is how I got involved in an eating contest with
Elder Orsorio. He showed me the 6 burgers he was planning on eating, and of
course (because I don't always think) I said "Eu posso" which means I
can. With those fighting words, I found myself sitting at the table across from
Elder Osorio.
There aren't very many missionaries here, like 150 or 200,
so I already knew the people, and I already knew that Elder Osorio was huge. He
proved it too. As we ate, I discovered that his district had nicknamed him tank….because
that's the size of this guy. He wasn't fat, just big. Anyway, he starts
smashing down burgers and I'm hurrying to keep up... and I wish I could say I
beat him, but I didn't. First off, the burgers didn’t very good taste, and
second they were super dry. But I know that's not a good excuse. He beat me by
a burger. He at 7 and I had 6.
Now if that was it, this story wouldn't be so funny, but
after dinner is when my district is assigned gym time. So I got to play
volleyball. Surprisingly, my stomach's been feeling great.
In any case, that's how I bonded with Elder Osorio.
Here are two more awesome things from this week:
The first happened on Sunday. Those of us who speak English
attend the English speaking 1st ward. This is the only English ward in the
entire city (which has 11 million residents) so if you ever go there on
vacation, you can go to church inside the CTM. Anyway, every week, each
missionary is asked to prepare a 5 minute talk, and then on Sunday, the branch
president announces which 3 people will be speaking. I hadn't written my talk
yet, and planned on writing it Sunday morning before church. When I woke up
Sunday morning, I had this awesome thought for a talk in my head. During my
personal study time, I wrote it out on paper, feeling the spirit the whole time
guiding my thoughts.
When I walked in to sacrament meeting, I knew that I had
written the talk through inspiration, and I equally knew that I was supposed to
give it. So it wasn't a surprise at all when I was called up to give my talk.
It was a really spiritual experience for me, and a really powerful talk about
the atonement.
Also, I kind of lucked out: see, the first 3 weeks that
we're here, our talk can be in English. But after that, we have to speak in
Portuguese. So this was my last chance to give a talk in English. And maybe
I'll be off the hook for the rest of my stay here.
So I thought I was pretty much set for spiritual guidance
for a week.
But then, on Tuesday we had our weekly devotional from the
CTM President. President Degn announced that the devotional this week would be
a testimony meeting. He asked for 16 elders and sisters to come up and sit on
the stand. People started going up and I felt really impressed that I should go
up. But I was nervous. The felling wouldn't go away, and there weren't 16 people
on the stand yet, so I went.
Sitting on the stand during that meeting, I felt the spirit
stronger than I can ever recall. The elder next to me was also American, and he
shared with me that he too had felt prompted to be up there. Anyway, I sat on
the stand waiting my turn to bear my testimony. The spirit was so strong. Did I
mention that spirit was strong? It was.
So I went up, shared my testimony, how I knew I was supposed
to be here because God had called me, and sat down. It was a good meeting.
After the meeting was over, however, two different non-English speaking elders
came up to me (at different times). They both told me that although they
couldn't speak English they could understand what I had said. This is both
testimony and confidence building because if God can help people understand my
English, he surely can help people understand my Portuguese.
I'm still pretty nervous for Friday, though. This Friday, we
are going proselyting…..in the streets. They're going to bus us out to a
business sector of the city, give each missionary two book of Mormons, and have
us give them away. I'm nervous because I still don't know a ton of Portuguese,
and native Brazilians talk really really fast. But I trust the lord will help
me. I'm pretty excited.
Love you all!
Elder Jasperson
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