Week 31....Mogi Gauco, Brazil

Wow, I don´t even know where to start this week. It was super tough, but I´m definantly learning a ton. I remember my last companion said that "I hope that your next companion is super tough and the area only gets tougher because then you will really learn(only in Portuguese)." Right now I´m not too happy with him because I think it´s coming true.

This week was really a week for reflection about why I´m serving a mission for me. I had one day that was particually tough. The day before my companion was doing and saying things that weren´t exactly right. He wasn´t being really bad, just little rules, but I know what those can lead up to, and I just kind of turned a blind eye to them. That night I was listening to a talk from Elder Holland and I felt really bad about that. I thought a lot about the goals that I had before my mission and if I thought what I was doing was right. The next day we had a good talk about the rules.

Other than that things are really moving in our area. Our numbers are definantly showing it right now too. We had 15 lessons with members present this week and because of this we will be having a baptism this week. We almost had the oppurtunity to have four people together this week but because of some things that happened we aren´t able to. I am super excited though about this. I think that our area is really moving forward and I know that when it really starts to take off that is when I´ll go to another area.

 

I am really happy that I have another American living with me. I am getting better at English and I can now switch between English and Portuguese alot faster. I think I was going a little crazy living with just Brazilians for 3 months. One of the Elders noticed too. He said, "when you talk in your sleep you now talk in English alot more." I also like that he knows alot of the things that I miss back home. It´s also really good to be able to teach Portuguese. I love teaching because when I´m teaching I´m not focusing on problems that I´m experiencing on the mission. Just don´t stress too much about me, just pray for me. I have confidence that things will be changing in a little bit with my companion. Also I think you guys will like how we practice basketball here. I also learned how to use my feet more and can almost play soccer as good as the 5 year olds here in Brazil. I think that they are literally born with soccer balls here because everyone can play. I love you guys tons.

Love,

Elder Zachary