First week in the field

This week was very long and crazy. On Wednesday almost everyone in my district woke up at 3 am to leave the MTC. We flew from the Campinas airport to Goiânia and met the mission president and his wife at the airport. They are awesome and Sister Hancock is hilarious. She told me and the 3 other missionaries from my district in Goiânia to go buy rings to wear for the next 2 years to keep all girls away and she also told us to tell them we are engaged.

The day we arrived was transfer day. Transfer days are super awesome here because more than half of the mission meets up at a chapel to have a devotional and spend time together before everyone gets shipped off with their new companion. This happens because President Hancock likes to change every companionship every transfer and move everyone to a new area every 2 transfers. Luckily my area wasn't too far away so we only had an hour-long taxi ride. My trainer's name is Elder Marvel and he is the district leader. He has only been out for 11 months, so I am the first person he gets to train. 

Our area is called Sector Garavelo. It is the southwest corner of Goiânia and it is the biggest area in the mission. We take Ubers and the bus a lot because it would take about 3 and a half hours to walk from the top to the bottom of our area. The first day in the field we had lunch with a member, and it was very good. We met with a lot of people that day, so I don't remember it super well, but we were working super hard. On Friday Elder Marvel was teaching me how to do references. For these we basically reach out to people who went on to the church's website and asked to meet with missionaries or get a Book of Mormon. We got through a couple and then we got blocked on WhatsApp so we couldn't contact anyone which is not great because we couldn't confirm anything, and Elder Marvel is supposed to contact all of the missionaries in our district every night. Luckily it was unblocked when we woke up the next morning. 

On Saturday I had my first Churrasco which is basically just Brazilian BBQ and it is so good. When we were walking to a different person's house that night we walked in front of a bar, and we saw this girl that was so drunk she couldn't even stand up without help and it wasn't even 6pm yet. 

On Sunday we had church and sadly none of the 10 people we invited to come were there. I did get to bear my testimony in Portuguese in front of the whole ward though. The bishop asked us the night before if I could do it so I had some time to write it out and practice my pronunciation. I think most people understood it or at least a little of it. My Portuguese is coming along very slowly though. My testimony was about the only thing I understood during church. We also tried to do some more references that night and after about 10 we got blocked again so hopefully it gets unblocked soon. 

My spiritual thought this week is from the talk they were discussing in Elder's Quorum this week. My companion helped me find it in English so I just read it during that time. It was President Oaks talk from last conference. In it he says, "Following Christ is not a casual or occasional practice. It is a continuous commitment and way of life that should guide us at all times and in all places. His teachings and His example define the path for every disciple of Jesus Christ. And all are invited to this path, for He invites all to come unto Him, “black and white, bond and free, male and female; … and all are alike unto God.” I love the part where he says all are invited to his path and I am so glad that I get to help the people of Brazil be invited and help them realize what it means to truly follow Christ. 

Thanks for reading this super long email. If you have any questions about Brazil or just want to talk you can email me at benson.plaster@missionary.org.
Tchau,
Elder Plaster 

My first Churrasco 

Goiânia from the airport runway

A great view

Me and my comp 

The daily rainstorm

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