Week 40

June 19  

this was such a slow slow long long week

Tuesday was our final zone conference with our mission president, we showed up in campinas a day early, but i still showed up late, for the third time in a row, it was combined with three zones, lots of missionaries leave this transfer, and all of them bore their testimonies, including pres and sis saucedo, then we surprised them with a video of all the missionaries including those who had gone home saying thanks, then we all gave them little letters, and hugged them, then we had a musical tallent show, elder poyfairs district sang popcorn popping and elder poyfair played his weird keyboard you have to blow into to play for it, it was legendary, me and elder larsen sang i stand all amazed, i think it went pretty well, lots of people gave me a lot of compliments for my singing whitch was really cool, afterwards we went to the temple for lunch then did a session all together at the temple, the whole zone conf was super rushed and i didnt get to say good bye to most of my friends who are leaving, i lost my bountiful temple tie pin at the bus station so that sucks, what was really awesome was singing called to serve all together at the end, it was super powerful as it always is

wednesday, lunch was cancelled so i ate my grilled ham and cheese sandwiches just as every brazil missionary does, (and thats a fact confirm that with anyone) we got pizza that was cool, it was also cool enough her that its sweater weather, because you know its winter her in brazil not summer, so that means awesome sweater photos in the album, even christmas lights!! it was pretty rainy that day, me and elder larsen have been punching each other every time we see slugbugs here, ( there are tons in brazil) and i have much keener eyes than he, but when it was rainy we decided to sword fight with our umbrellas when we saw the slug bugs, basically fencing rules, whoever gets poked first loses, that is until my umbrella cut his knuckle then we stopped

thursday his knuckle is fine so we sword fought again anyways, (somente os que falam o traduzem o portuguese vão saber que eu cortei a língua dele com minha guarda chuva este dia quando vi a fusca então paramos de novo) it was again very rainy and even colder this day, a good lunch though, but not very much success knocking door or teaching people, 

Friday, no rain but it got cooooold that is for anyone who got used to brazil weather like me, i made a song parody in the photo album for this, that night it hit 42 degrees, whitch is super cold to me!! and rediculous for brazillians because it was a record cold for the citys 

saturday, also frippen cold, colder actually, we added the voltswaggon vans to our game with the slugbugs as well, more oportunities to punch elder larsen, for anyone whos worried for elder larsens well being, just know its fine hes the senior comp, plus grazi gives him way more crap than i do, i always tell him he hasnt yet suffered like that of Elder Garces, i assume its comforting like the words from god to joseph smith when he was in liberty jail, "ye havent yet suffed like that of job" (something like that) 

Sunday it was super super foggy, and i woke up at 5 am to go to the bathroom and i was absolutely freezing, because brazil houses dont have insulation or anything they are just painted concrete boxes with roofing, it was cold enough we could see our breath, the church had a line to get hot tea and soup before the meeting, everyone had coats, sweaters and gloves on, I was really cold too, i may not be good with cold weather anymore now that im accustomed to the weather here like i was before the mission, but my body is probably still better with the cold than the brazillians because every single one of them said my hand was super warm, when they shook my hand, so there is still hope i wont die from the cold in utah when i return from the mission,  i showed the pictures of my family to the members at lunch, and just like every time i show them they said my mom is super young and beautiful,

 It was this day i had like four hours of calls with the missionaries and the zone leaders in my district because each week the numbers are getting worse in our district and this week was especially bad, this week during dinner time ive been practicing piano and i made a song on the piano, i think its pretty good, ask my parents what they thought about it, ive gotten way way better at piano on the mission, (now i can play more than just we thank thee o god for a prophet repeatedly that drove my family nuts)  and i still havent played in sacrament meeting so thats good, it really has been frippen freezing cold at night, and in the morning, these days when apparently in quitman texas its 96 degrees but feels like 110, what a weird parallel reality i live in that my not even 50 degree weather feels like -6 to me and im dying from the winter cold in brazil during june, when for everyone reading this except maybe one person its super summer heat, 

the stupid street cat that always comes into our house oficially decided i was a friend for some reason, and didnt run away when i came close, but having pets is against the missionary standards as far as i'm aware, but it was kinda just laying down, and wasnt scared of me, so it wouldnt leave our house, id push it with my foot, and it wouldnt move, so i had to come up with a way to get it to leave, but i know cats are stupid bipolar and at one moment can be chill and in the next moment scratch you and bite, and i dont want rabies or some other disease from some stupid brazil cat, so i'm not gonna put my hands anywhere near its claws, but i dont wanna just kick it or throw something at it because that doesn't seem very Christ like, so i grabed a rope, made a bremner version of a lasso, and put it around its neck while it laid there, after all it didnt seem to care, until he got his foot in it, and then as i slowly tightened the rope, its foot pressed against its neck and then he realized something was wrong and started freaking out it got out of the rope, and realized the rope was the enemy, but it still wouldnt leave it just kept laying down, but when i touched it with the rope he would leave so i just hearded him out using the rope, until he left the house, however he just layed down outside the door, so then i had to make him cross the street with the rope he was scared of, 

everyone who lived in this house knows about this stupid cat who always comes into our house, but i think sunday was the first time its ever not immediately ran away when it sees us