What Did I Say?!

Monday, November 11, 2017

Hey Mom,

Just a reminder that next week (18th) we have transfers, and I won’t really know what is gonna happen in regards to a skype call for Christmas until that Day. So, if possible, please be available that day to discuss plans for Christmas. Also, today we have a Christmas Conference as a mission, I have some cards I am giving to an Elder going home on the 18th and the hope is that he will mail them in the US so they will get to you.  They´ll get to you guys after Christmas but I wanted to at least send SOMETHING. I really hope it all gets to you!

I received my Christmas package on Tuesday, it took more or less 20 days to get here, not too bad, honestly faster than some letters! Thank you for everything, I’m planning on taking Elder Kozlowski out to dinner tonight. You´re gonna have to remind me to object lessons with the Rubik’s cube though... I don’t remember :(

Here’s my week in review:

Food Experience:  We had Pizza Doce, Brazil style, and dang was it good. That’s my food of the week, haha.

Funny Experience: This week Elder Kozlowski approached a woman and another person of considerable age sitting beside her to make a contact. He introduced us and then asked how this woman, and her MOM, was doing. The contact got really awkward really fast when the woman explained that the person sitting beside her wasn’t her mom, but in fact, her husband..... Still confused on their relationship because this guy was ANCIENT - also confused why Elder Kozlowski thought he was a woman - but in his defense I certainly didn’t think they were married! To say the least, they didn’t accept our invitation to visit the church.

Missionary Experience:  I have an eternal blister on my pinky toes. I inherited dad’s weird squished pinky toes and they´re having it pretty rough out here! Still waiting for calluses to form, but every week the blisters pop and then just come back. 

We didn’t have any investigators at church this week, which was a bummer, but last week had 2 baptisms and their confirmations were this week. Icaro, a guy we are teaching, is still really struggling overcoming doubts about the restoration and also changing the beliefs of his childhood. We hope to baptize him next week but I have a feeling he’s going to be a long term investigator. 

Language Experience:  I had another dream, this time I was with the family speaking English during the dream but we came across a Brazilian family, they were speaking Portuguese... Again, I didn’t understand them, I was frantically trying to get their information so we could visit them to give them a lesson.... Here is the good news:  Even though I am not understanding, my brain is still trying! Also, after trying to explain the role of prophets to a really old guy this week, he asked if I was talking about sex... So not sure what I was saying, but whatever it was, it was NOT right. We watched the Christmas devotional yesterday and I didn’t understand anything, just picked out words. So that was a bummer.

Teaching Experience:  DAD - I TAUGHT A BRAZILIAN BEAR SALMON MOSQUITO! I taught it to one of our recent baptisms, Mateus. He and his family loved it.  It was cool to share a little piece of home with them. What was also cool and made things a lot easier is the game doesn’t really involve any speaking, haha. (Urso, peixe, mosquito)

Cultural Experience:  I learned that some people here think the Mormon church is a church of vampires. Also saw my first monkey here, they don’t normally have them in this area but while we were knocking doors (clapping outside gates) we noticed a monkey in a car with its window down. We talked with the owner and he had NO IDEA it was there or how long it had been there! Sadly, I didn’t have my camera with me :(

The word got out that I´ve got maple with me (thank you Tanner) and this stuff is like liquid gold down here. All the Brazilians now want me to come to their house to make ´´panquecas´´ so they can enjoy some of the maple - haha.

My Thought: Mosiah 4:6-8  This scripture explains a little bit about the importance of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I couldn’t find the scripture I specifically wanted, which names Jesus Christ as the only person in which we can find salvation, but this scripture has the same idea. During this time as we celebrate the birth of Christ, it is important to remember the purpose he came. One way we can show our appreciation for him during Natal, and during EVERY day of the year, is to use the atonement in our lives and honor the sacrifice that he was born into the world to make.

My emails are all over the place, I’m always just frantically trying to get stuff down - hopefully you´re able to use it to keep people informed about how things are going down here. If you´ve got any suggestions, let me know. I really like Elder Kozlowski, he has been an awesome companion. I am worried about getting paired with another Brazilian this upcoming transfer. Keep me in your prayers!  

Love you Mom, have a good week.