Week 48 (Week 2 Back in Brazil)

 

Walking to lunch.

And just like that I've completed my first full week in Brazil! Or rather I should say my 2nd, 1st full week in Brazil. Haha! It's been a really fun and crazy week! It's been a little long, but that's to be expected and it's been a great week nonetheless.

On Tuesday, we took an Uber early in the morning, down to the mission office for some further training for us new missionaries and our trainers as well. It was actually really nice to see the other American missionaries again and see how they were doing. We all admitted that our trainers had been working us super hard with studying the language, but that's not a bad thing at all. It was amazing to me how much we all improved in just a few days. One elder, Elder Gannon, who is super pale, showed up completely red. Yeah, he got very sun burnt. But we had a short meeting with our mission president, then all together with our trainers too, and then had pizza for lunch. 

Home-made pizza!

I also had my first meal in person, with members, in probably just under a year. Granted, I barely said a word, and had to concentrate really hard to understand the conversation going on, but it was still such a blessing. I ended up eating way too much food honestly, but it was just too good. I shared a spiritual thought with the family, and though I stumbled through the whole thing, I have faith that the spirit made up for my lacking. 

A family in our branch.

We really haven't walked a whole lot actually. We walked to one meal appointment, and got Uber's for the rest, or had our meals delivered to us. We also haven't had any lessons in person yet since we are reopening the area, and don't have any solid investigators yet. A lot of our work has just been contacting through text a bunch of our referrals we have received, but we have had quite a bit of success I would say, certainly more than we had in my last area in Michigan, haha. 

I didn't have a chance to practice the piano that much this week, and guess who was asked 15 minutes before church to play again? This guy! I'm not the most confident piano player ever, but I'm getting better! However, I'm a little rusty on my hymns, and it showed... I made it through the last song I played, but only after stumbling through the chorus. But it just gives me an excuse to take time during the week to practice! I worked it out with the member called to play, and we are going to take turns playing, or possibly both play a song or two each Sunday. 

One of my watches I received over a year ago broke when I first started my mission, or at least the glass screen broke. I've been wanting to get it fixed for a while, but never got around to looking for a place that can fix it. Well we found one that we were going to go to for P-day today. Someone told us they could fix it there, but it's a little bit far, so hopefully they actually can. 

Honestly, I've been a little discouraged here and there this week with the language. It's been so disheartening not being able to understand people most of the time, even my companion at times. I feel so bad when I have to have him repeat himself multiple times, but that's just a part of learning. I've been giving it my all and working super hard, and I know that effort hasn't been wasted! Honestly, I feel like I've learned so much this week, but I just have to remind myself that my understanding of the language will only come with time, and that's okay. I may be struggling now, but I know that someday soon, I'll be speaking Portuguese like nobody's business!!

Anyways, I pray that everyone back home is staying safe and enjoying life! I love you all!

~Elder Kasey Lightheart