Todays word to start off our fun email is novo meaning new because this week has been full of a lot of new experiences.
Well, it was a pretty interesting week for sure. Last Monday we spent our Pday arranging our transfers. I said goodbye to Elder Marques, and recieved my new companion, Elder Fletcher. We arrived in our area, only had time to buy groceries, and immediately started our work for the evening. It went decently. Elder Fletcher and I have been together for a week now, so weve had a bit of time to get to know each other better. He´s a really nice guy, very polite, but also quite timid. Im used to working with Elder Marques, who is rather bold and daring. I inhereted a lot of things that he used to do, so Elder Fletcher and I are actually quite contrasted in the way we work. I like to walk right up to somebody, shake there hand, ask them how theyre doing, hows their day, and immediately testify that the church of Christ has been restored to the earth. Elder Fletcher takes things a bit slower and quieter (literally) and usually seems to just try to leave a card with them.
I dunno, I think Im just not used to working with someone in such a different way. Im not complaining, hes a great guy, we just do things differently. We get along just fine, hes actually a pretty funny guy.
So Ive been in this area since the beginning of my mission, about 3 months. I know it well, I know a lot of people in the street by name, streets, building numbers, addresses, cars and where they are always parked, shortcuts, and so on. Its pretty convenient being familiar with everything, but it can also be a hinderance. Elder Marques and I knocked nearly every single door in our area already, so this week, and the weeks to come, Elder Fletcher and I have been patching up the holes were we havent worked, and now we are re-knocking the same places to try and find new people.
Anyways they call it "leading the area". My companion doesnt know anything about this area, so I lead virtually all we do. I plan our days. I navigate. I make a lot of our phonecalls. Along with this, because Elder Fletcher is a bit timid, I lead the lessons and conversations we have with people. Its a great learning experience. Elder Marques, being a native speaker, used to do a lot of the inbetween-the-gaps talking, but know Ive filled that spot, Im learning to really just have lots of normal conversations with people, along with leading lessons. Im not trying to toot my own horn at all, or say anything bad about my companion, Im just realizing that Im actually capable of doing a lot, and I love the new challenges and space to fill.
This week we taught a number of people. Notably, we taught an African woman named Lua, meaning moon. She was pretty cool. She´s got a bit of a lazy personality, so getting her to really do what we invite her to do could be challenging, but we´ll see. I think she has potential, she seemed relatively receptive to what we taught her.
However we had a bit of "meh" days, in which we worked and searched and knocked but didnt get results. Sunday came around, and we had a lovely lunch with an African sister from our ward. I tried this crazy hot sauce/spread she made, and it was crazy good. She was very nice, and gave us some names and numbers of people to visit.
We then started working afterwards but found that we were seeing the same results, nobody interested in hearing us... Eventually, 9pm rolled around (in our mission we work until 9:30pm) and I was just out of ideas. We had been knocking doors for hours at this point. Elder Fletcher, a bit frustrated too, said "man, lets just get one name written down tonight. Lets knock this building". So we did. At the end, a very nice Brazilian couple with a daughter of 7 or so years opened the door. The woman, Clara, said "oh I saw you guys outside and was just talking to my husband about you, how you guys leave your families to do missions and stuff... you´re the mormons right? I remember seeing a lot of you in Brazil..." Anyways, we chatted with them about who we were, why we were there, and what we had for them. She asked out of the blue "wheres your guys´s church? we oughtta go there this sunday". Anyways, we entered and talked for just a bit, (it was late, we had a 30 min walk to return home, and they recently moved here so they didnt even have electricity, they insisted we save a lesson for another time). We plan to visit them this week and teach them. In all my mission (yup, my massive accumulated quantity of experience) Ive never seen people so nice and interested to learn. Im excited to teach them this week! (Ive heard stories like this before that fall through, so Im not getting my hopes up too dangerously high haha)
Anyways, yeah, what a great experience. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like serving in Brazil haha, I hear everyone is like that.
But yeah, it was really a treat, a blessing that the Lord gave us. I will try my best to be the best servant I can be to the Lord, to bring them the opportunity to accept the gospel in the correct manner.
In other news, I got sick again this week. Started on wednesday, and has hung around, but steadily decreased, until now. Some sinus-infection/head-cold/cough type thing, its annoying. I really didnt want to stay in our flat to rest. We left everyday this week to work, and Im glad we did.
Ive had problems with shoes here lately. Europe just doesnt really sell shoes in my size, I only found 1 pair here so far, and they arent the most "missionary-friendly", or that is, they hurt. I used them all last transfer, and destroyed them until I was walking on my socks, making a total of 3 pairs already destroyed in my mission.
I think I finally found a solution though. I took my 3 pairs to a "capateria" or shoemaker, and he was able to repair 2 pairs (pictures below. He couldnt repair 1 pair because they were destroyed too much and too big). He shined, polished, and literally made them like new. It was really cool, he just has a little itty bitty shop on a street corner with his tools and supplies, and he just fixes tons of shoes for a living! So, he told me when I dropped them off that each pair would be 20€. I thought "welp, its better than a €60-80 new pair that´ll die in 6 weeks". It was a good bargain. In 3 days, they repaired with new soles, like new, and he gave me a 5€ discount just because he thought we were nice guys, totalling for €35 for basically 2 pairs of hand-repaired brand-new shoes haha. Anyways, for now, Ive got no problems with shoes! Oh, and when I got there, he offered to let me switch my shoes immedieately. I did, and he shined the shoes I had on previously haha.
Weve already talked to him about the church once before, hes not interested. We mentioned it once more and he said "no, Im faithful to God, to the catholic church, and to my soccer team I support". Needless to say, he´s pretty funny and stubborn at the same time. Knowing that he knows a lot of people in town, I asked for references too, but got none unfortunately. He said that he´ll let us know if he finds somebody who wants to talk to us. Gotta take advantage of every opportunity!
Elder Marques always did the cooking when we served together, and he did it good. Now, the mantle rests a bit more on me! Elder Fletcher can cook, but lately Ive been preparing more meals. Its going pretty good, Im learning haha.
In all things, the Lord provides a way! Thats one thing I definitely thought about this week! I really enjoy what Im doing here, even though at times there are patterns or disappointments. Its so great to just try my best and see what the Lord provides for us. (The Church is true guys)
Take care everyone,
Elder Ward
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