minha história Missionária: December 15, 2014

This week started with a great Pday. We went to a city basketball court and we played basketball with some guys we're teaching and some young men from church (Ismael went). After playing a bunch of basketball, we played soccer and then we played ultimate Frisbee using a handbol ball because we don't have Frisbees. That we sweet.

That night it rained so much that the water didn't evaporate until two days later- which is rare, considering how hot it was!

Last Sunday night, I'd taught the Elders to play SCUM (that cool card game that some people call Capitalism). We played it as part of a Family Home Evening with some recent converts. So on the nights this week when we had a bit of time after planning, before sleeping we played scum. That's been really funny. We're thinking about learning new games, but we still haven't got tired of scum.

The work this week was really tiring. We taught a ton of lessons but we found few new investigators. Lots of the people we taught accepted everything - even baptism, until we talked about returning and then they declined to receive us again. That was annoying because without new investigators, our work doesn't progress. Surely this week things will pick up.

Anyway, in the ton of rejection we got this week, there were some funny excuses. One woman said she'd receive our message but when she came to open her gate, she said her husband had taken the key (because she couldn't find it in the house) with him and that she was locked in. So we told her that maybe we could come a different day, but while we were talking, her little toddler called out "Mommy! The key is on the table" and came running with the key. So then she had no choice but to hear our message! So the next day, the same thing happened again. The woman said that she'd listen but her kid had hidden the key and she didn't know where it was, so she couldn't let us in. Then she went off on this whole big acting thing, yelling at her kid for hiding the key and pretending to search her whole house for it while yelling out "nope, not under the sofa," "nope, not in my shoes," until we just left her there searching and went on to the next contact.

(To understand these stories, you have to understand that every Brazilian house has a large fence around it. They have spikes on top and usually are about 8 feet tall. It's not a solid fence, but it's made out of metal bars with 4" gaps between them. So you can talk with the people in the house, but you can't get in unless they open the gate.)

This old guy stopped us in the street this week, yelling "How are you?!!" (in English, with accent). We went over to talk with him (to see what he wanted) and found out that he can only yell. Yelling, he asked for our names and then he told us that he wanted to learn a word in English- Storm Chaser ("what do you call those people that chase tornados to film them," he asked). After telling him, he started yelling "Storm Chaser" really loud. That was funny because we were in front of a gas station and everyone was looking trying to figure out what was happening. They probably thought that the man was insulting us or something, but nope, he was just yelling Storm Chaser over and over!

We traveled to Montenegro this week to do a meeting with the missionaries. We'd marked the meeting at 9 o´clock, and guess who showed up late? Us! We slept on the bus (like always, it's a 1.5hr ride) but this time we didn't wake up like we usually do and we missed our stop. So we had to call a taxi to get us to the meeting quick!

On Friday, we were invited to do a presentation in an English School. We talked about US History and about our States. I represented Texas really well, yelling howdy and teaching everyone to say "y'all." I threw together some PowerPoint slides about Texas food, football, and rodeos. I also explained Texan history - six flags over Texas, the Alamo, etc. The other guys talked about their states- Missouri, Utah, and North Carolina. In the end, everyone voted on the best state and of course it was Texas! Yeah!

Saturday night, while sleeping, my bed fell. Elder Fullmer has been having bed problems, his bed falls apart during the night and his mattress falls on the floor. So we'd taken his bed out and he's been sleeping on the floor (on a mattress on the floor) with Elder Kinney and Elder Teela (we only have two beds). Anyway, my bed was a wobbly bunk bed that nobody dared to sleep in. Every night, I check to make sure that it hasn't broken and I carefully climb into it. I sleep on the second bunk because the first bunk breaks just like Elder Fullmer's bed. So Saturday night, I woke up falling! The bunk bed just fell apart! Good thing that I was on a mattress because it was a nice cushy fall. So now we're all sleeping on the floor!

And the highlight of this week was Sunday, because Ismael was baptized. That guy is cool! He's been reading the Book of Mormon every day and praying and everything. He spends his spare time watching Mormon Messages (especially He is the Gift) because he says he feels so good watching them. This guy is a Spiritual Giant! (He also pretty tall and plays basketball really well!)