Crazy insane story I probably cant tell because it's so religiously politically charged, An American who says frick a lot, and a great mystery ill probably never find the answer too, and a vigilante preacher.

 Mon, Nov 28, 2022

I was at a member's house and they were looking at pictures of my family desperately Searching for a latino, they asked me if my cousin Zeke was a Latino I said no then they gave up. I let my cousin decide what to think of that.

I made scotch bars successfully. It was pretty easy. All I needed was to use a new and improved, much more detailed recipe, and 200° less heat in the oven.

We had a zone conference this week and it was really fun. I did indeed sing and it went well other than the fact that my decision to sing in English a song they don't have in their portuguese hymn book as far as I'm aware (I need thee every hour) led to a lot of blank non understanding faces as I sang but the Americans loved it. At zone conference Elder Fish one of my mtc companions received 5 packages from his mom and they were really big packages and he was incredibly embarrassed to have received more packages from his mom than he had weeks in Brazil. 

One day when we were calling numbers in our area book this woman picked up and told us a little bit about her, she'd already been taught by the missionaries, and she even had a baptismal date. She had prepared for it and quit smoking and drinking coffee, but on the day of her baptism she had become incredibly depressed and decided to smoke and drink coffee that morning and therefore wasn't baptized. And that was all we found out. Normally the area book would have had most of this information for example that she had a baptism date but our area book had zero of this information, and we had no idea why the missionaries stopped teaching her, and didn't put anything in area book either, we don't even know what missionaries taught her. It's kind of like she wasn't baptized and the missionaries just dipped. We talked for a bit though and this woman seemed pretty interested and was very receptive of the scriptures and stuff in the phone call, but now we'll probably never learn the mystery because this week out of nowhere we found out she blocked us when we tried to call her again so that's a "major bumski" (Elder Fife, week 4 of the mtc) 

The world is crazy, it's so crazy. When Brazil plays missionary work is basically impossible because literally every business is closed and the streets are so incredibly empty and quiet it's honestly quite surreal, and nobody is answering the door or their phones when the game is on. And we don't use Facebook on this mission so we just kinda sit inside for a bit. In the spirit of the world cup and Brasil and futebol I've decided to try and learn and enjoy futebol more, and I bought a Brazil team shirt for 80 reais or $16 and I've been informed that I probably been marked for being an american but whatever $16 for a shirt sounds like a steal for me.

We "taught" a man this week who's name i'll leave be. Who when we showed up basically just told us his life story for an hour and a half. My non understanding portuguese brain was dying. Basically what I understood was he recounted his entire story on trying to find the correct religion from the year 1996 to 2022, the political state of Brazil for the last 20 years, and an advertisement and recount of the story of him starting this business of his for the last 20 years as well. I asked for a debriefing from my companion after, where I learned I wasn't totally off. Honestly it was a riveting story that's incredibly interesting but so politically and religiously charged I don't feel safe sharing it. But in two years I'll let you guys know. Basically just think of secret combinations things assuming that the things he told us are true 👍  he's also apparently been a massive part in starting very infamous Brasil protests in relation to his crazy story.

We called a guy named Gabriel this week who basically told us once we invited him to church and explained what the book of mormon was, that he wanted to get a book of mormon and read it, and he wanted to go to church. 

So that's awesome. And the best part is he actually did go to church. A lot of people in Brazil say they are interested and act Incredibly interested and give you their number and ask where and when church is but then just don't. The fake interest and lying is on a whole new level here,but that's only when you get to talk with them, otherwise you watch them cross the street to avoid you,  and walk inside their homes and lock the gate and door. But Gabriel is awesome. And he came to church and watched the primary program as well. And came to the elders quorum. and we gave him a book of mormon.

 Another man also came into church (queue wrestling introduction music) heeessss talllll heeesssss whitee heesss 6 foot three and said sup elders when he saw us heeeeessss an americaaaan.

It's funny when I looked at him before he even said a word as he walked down the hall my first thought was "woah that's an american" which sounds stupid given I've been in Brazil for a month and I'm an american too, but I bought the Brazil team shirt so I'm basically Brasileiro now, no, but it's weird me and my comp both had this same thought. And it really feels like he's the outsider not me when you see him. Me and my comp even just call him the american idk it's weird. His name is Mike and he's pretty funny. He's from Idaho and he came to Brazil to revisit his mission but mostly his old mtc teacher from 18 years ago and his teacher is in our ward, and our lunch yesterday was with both of them. Us and Mike talked for a bit after church, and then we walked the 30 minutes home, changed out of our suits, walked out the door and walked 30 minutes to their house. For lunch where the americano was staying. We arrived at 12 as planned and talked with Mike for an hour and a half before we actually ate, he told us his story of going to Brazil for his mission going to Idaho for his mission because of health problems then going to Brasil again after, then breaking his foot and then going to Florida for his mission (all in the first 3 months of his mission) man let me tell you I've only been gone for a month and we say Frick wayyy to much into Utah/Idaho I was cringing like it's crazy, not that I'm innocent I said it like crazy too. But it's completely left my vocabulary after 1 month here and I cant handle hearing hearing it it's so weird he said it so much. He also told us about how 4 people in Idaho were just murdered in their sleep so that was a bummer. Lunch was amazing. We got to cook these dry aged steak slices ourselves on a griddle in front of us and it was amazing, sausage and beans and rice, pineapple juice, and guarana soda. It was Heavenly i can't even describe how good it was. Also juices and fruits are just way better here in Brazil idk why.

We talked to a man who seemed really chill and nice and got his number, while texting  him we found out he studies theology and we all like the Bible. And he doesn't have a religion, We asked him if he knew what the book of mormon was, and he did, we asked if he read it, and he said he did, we asked what he thought, and he said it was heresy, we asked why, and he told us our beliefs that aren't our beliefs and why we are heretics. I think his book of Mormon reading was actually an anti-Mormon website because his problems with our beliefs were things we don't believe. We asked him why he's talking to us and he said it's because he talks to everyone to try and convert them, and to that I say convert to what religion? Because he doesn't have one. I've decided to give him the nickname vigilante preacher, or batman preacher. 

My second mission while I'm here is to turn peanut butter here into peanut butter like the United states. And any help would be greatly appreciated. Peanut butter here is just roasted ground peanuts. 

In the photo of the street really far into the  background you can see a red and blue building it's right above the roadsign almost I'm standing at one point of Mt mission and those two buildings are right by our church.my area is a triangle I'm standing  at the far point in the picture the church is at the other point and our house is at the other point