Like Father, Like Son
This week felt like forever because the excitement of being in Brasil wore off and Portuguese is not getting any easier. I do have a few good stories though. To start off, Elder Marvel (my companion) and I found out that our dads served in the same mission (the Argentina Cordoba mission) about 24 years ago. They were even in the same district as each other at one point. (A missionary district is a group of 8-14 missionaries in the same area that meet about once a week to learn and train with each other.) This week was also the first time that I got to go to a district council meeting and all of the missionaries in my district were super nice and welcoming.
It rained a lot this week, but the worst of it was Tuesday afternoon. It was dumping rain and I got puddles in my shoes. Everyone keeps on saying to enjoy the rain while it lasts because after it's gone I'm going to have puddles of sweat in my shoes instead of water.
I also got to eat liver or at least that's what they told me and it wasn't that bad. The member who gave it to us though told my companion that it was toad and we think he was just trying to trick us, but we might have had toad liver. We honestly have no idea.
I did get to see some cool wildlife this week. We found some burrowing owls one day and a huge bat another. The bat had a least a foot wide wingspan and was swooping right above our heads as we tried to talk to someone. It was very hard not to flinch every time it went by. The worst thing that happened this week was kind of a blessing in disguise. We were walking down the street and a bug about the size of your average bee flew right into my eye. I tried to close my eye before it hit but I was too slow and it got stuck pinched in between my eyelids so I had to pull it out with my fingers as quickly as possible. I thought I was about to go blind in that eye or die because it hurt so badly. It actually helped us find the person we were looking for, because I had to sit on the ground and take a minute or two to recover. That led us to talking to someone who told us exactly where he lived. We only had the street he lived on so we would have been lost without that. The guy we were trying to find seems pretty interested in learning more about the church.
We also got to eat lunch with members who use to live in the US so I could talk with someone other than my companion for once. They also gave us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dessert, and it was so nice because there is no peanut butter here unless you get some from the US.
Sorry this was a super long email, but I will try to wrap in up with a spiritual thought real quick. I was feeling homesick this week and it was a little rough, but my companion made me share a message at one of the lunches we had, and I honestly think it helped me more than the people I shared it. The scripture was Philippians 4:13. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." I know that no matter what you are going through right now if you center yourself on Jesus Christ you will be able to overcome any challenge you face.
Thanks for reading this super long email. If you have any questions or just want to talk you can email me at benson.plaster@missionary.
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