Week 17

Elder Paulson, me, Elder Ruiz, and Elder Castillo

Hey Everyone!!! Boy has it been an interesting week... to say the least.  Unfortunately, last P-day I wasn't able to draft up a blog myself, and rather my mom had to give a short little update on all that was going on with me.  Basically at the start of this week we were quarantined to our house in Brazil, still able to walk about close to our home, and walk over to our chapel to play sports.  Honestly, the saving grace of our weekend in quarantine in Mooca was being able to go to our chapel.  One of our members, who is honestly the BEST, not only bought us a basketball (since Elder Vanderwerkin was dying to play b-ball), but he also brought us dinner one night, and breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day, during our quarantine.  Ismael is honestly just so amazing, and we were and are incredibly grateful for his charity and love for the missionaries. 

During the quarantine, they had to close the São Paulo MTC and thus, had to transit all the MTC missionaries home. So for the weekend we were also housing two Hispanic elders who only spoke Spanish. Lets just say it was interesting trying to communicate with them, but luckily, we had Elder Moreno (also Hispanic) to do a lot of the talking.  A couple of days over at the chapel we played basketball, just Elder Steere, Elder Vanderwerkin and I, but we also played 2 soccer matches, Americans vs. Hispanics... The first game we kind of got our butts kicked, just a little bit, but in the next game we barely won, and it was just so much fun.  We also played this game where one player stands in the goal and all the other players are trying to score, but they are all independent from each other, and once somebody gets to 3 points we switch out the goalie and reset our points.  It proved to be a ton of fun, and after winning 2 rounds in a row Elder Moreno starting calling me Elder Messi after the renowned soccer player due to my "fancy footwork".  We also had the chance to play ping pong again, and boy let me tell you, I have gotten a lot better at ping pong since the first P-day in Brazil that I played with Elder Steere.  But overall, the quarantine wasn't horrible due to these pleasantries that we had.  In fact, also during this time, one of our neighboring member families brought us an electric piano to help occupy our time, which was super nice.

On our last full day in quarantine, before we would have to go to the mission office to drive to the airport and fly home, all of us Elders did some shopping to buy some Brazilian treats and drinks to bring home to our families to try.  When we got home, our bishop also brought us dinner along with some açai ice cream, which is just about the best, unique to Brazil, treat they have, which I hadn't tried yet.  Along with the açai I was shown some things to add to the ice cream in order to optimize the taste.  Basically, you start by lining a cup with condensed milk, a little bit of powdered milk, throw a couple scoops of açai in, and then put more condensed milk and granola on top.  Let me just tell you, it was DELICIOUS, and I am so sad they don't really have açai ice cream in the states much at all.

On Wednesday at around 3:00 PM we were instructed to go to the mission office with all our luggage, to be shipped off to the airport.  When we arrived at the airport, there were hundreds of missionaries everywhere, and after waiting for a couple of hours, we discovered that none of the missionaries in our mission were on the list for flights that night.  Turns out, because so many missionaries were all flying out from Brazil at the same time, they only had a certain amount of charter planes each day to fly them out, and our mission wasn't listed till the next day.  So, along with a couple other missions, we all drove down to the nearby Marriott hotel to stay the night.  After an awesome meeting with our President and a delicious dinner, we all retired to bed, and it just so happened that I got roomed with my MTC companion, Elder Ruiz.  The next morning we pretty much had free roam around the hotel until 12:00 o'clock, and at around 8:00 we had yet another delicious meal for breakfast.  For the remainder of the morning Elder Ruiz and I pretty much just waited in our hotel room, and eventually we got a call from the staff to continue to wait in our room, and that they would call us some time between 12:00 and 2:00 to go downstairs and leave for the airport.  The reason they did this is because they didn't want hundreds of missionaries coming down at once, and all trying to leave at once as well. Well, once we finally were able to leave and arrive at the airport, we discovered that we wouldn't be flying out till 10:50 that night, so we just ended up waiting around for about 7-8 hours in the airport.  Don't get me wrong though, it was still fun!! I got to see Elder Castillo and Elder Paulson from our MTC district who were flying out the same night, and I also got to see Elder Blackwell again.  It was really crazy because tons of missionaries from all over Brazil were there at the airport that night, so many many missionaries who knew each other from before the mission, from their MTC district, or from other zones, all got to reunite and catch up on old times.

Right before our flight, Elder Ruiz pressured me into buying a Brazil soccer jersey, as I hadn't really bought any other forms of souvenirs, so I decided to buy a jersey for the team "Internacional", which is red and white.  Then, on the flight to Los Angeles we were given permission by our Mission President to watch Disney movies and other family friendly movies, which made the flight just that much more bearable. 

Upon arriving in Los Angeles and getting my bags, I was instructed that my flight would be United Airlines.  Almost all the missionaries had Delta flights, and only about 50-80 missionaries or so had United flights that day.  My flight also wasn't until 7:50 that night, and we had arrived in Los Angeles around 8:00 in the morning.  It was a long, long day of waiting by myself, but that night I safely arrived home, and was greeted by my loving parents. 

Since then, I have been quarantined to my room for about 3 days, 2 of which I have come down with an awful fever... Even now I still feel pretty awful, but I am thankful for my family who, even in my isolation, are loving and caring for me each and every day.  To be honest I'm not 100% sure what will happen next.  I have been informed up till now that I will spend 14 days in quarantine and then be reassigned to a new mission in the states, but we shall see exactly what happens in the next couple weeks.  Thank you all for your love and support, and just know that you are all in my prayers every night.  I pray that you all may feel your savior's love in these crazy and tough times, and I hope as well that we can all be prepared for a powerful General Conference like no other. I love you all!!!! Until next time!

-Elder Lightheart

Me with Elder Moreno, Elder Steere, and Elder Vanderwerkin (otherwise known as Nephi 😀).

Some views of Sãn Paulo from our hotel.