Letter 3/12/12

Well I actually don't really believe how many crazy things we had to do this week.....we didn't have a ton of time doing "missionary work" per se, but everything we did was good and important. Let's start from the top....

we had some fun at a members house....she seriously lives in the bush!

On wednesday we had a comp exchange with the Elders in Igarassu, an area close to us. I stayed with Elder Mussoi (from Porto Alegre) in my area and Elder Bochio went with Elder Norberto to their area. It's a bit wierd leading someone, who has twice the amount of time on his mission, in my own area (which I've spent less than 2 weeks in, and am still getting to know). We had a good time though. It's a little bit difficult at times when you're thinking, "I just need to follow the spirit", and then feel like you don't have the slightest idea of what to do. It shouldn't be easy though, nor should it be obvious. Elder Mussoi and I taught a girl, Ingrid, who is 16. She is really amazing. She stopped the missionaries in another area and talked to them, and they passed her name to us. We taught her a great lesson (Elder Mussoi teaches very well), and she accepted a baptismal invitation and even promised us that she would "practice" praying. She even swore (she literally used the word "jurar" which means to make an oath) that she would invite and bring her friends to us to teach....talk about a good person to teach huh? However, as the adversary usually does, she was prevented from going to church this week. Her cousin died, and she went to her funeral. 

President and Sister Lanius came to see the new apartment we want to move to. They were hesitant at first, but we convinced them to see our current house. They had enough pity for us that they authorized the move!

Our zone meeting 3 weeks ago. All the zone plus the two assistants to the right of me

Early thursday morning, we met back up with our companions, and then went to Recife for my first Zone Leader Council. It's a meeting with the leaders of the 12 zones in the mission, the assistants, and President and Sister Lanius. It was an awesome meeting. I felt humbled with my language skills....all the Americans at that meeting spoke much, much better than I do, and I realize how much more I need to improve! Currently, I believe I'm the youngest Zone Leader on the Mission....it's weird, but I guess the Lord feels that I'm ready for it. We had a great meeting. President Lanius talked a lot about he is done having "fubecas" or bad missionaries in the mission....He was saying that it's our job to help these elders and sisters shape up and be obedient. He said he isn't going to hesitate to send bad missionaries home. It's an interesting topic, but having been on the difficult end of a bad companionship, I can understand. I chimed in a few times during the meeting....one thing I clarified was that we need to have study time every single day. A lot of the missionaries didn't think that it was necessary on Sundays, P-day, etc., but Pres Lanius wants it to be every day. When I confirmed this with President (It's already a rule in the missionary handbook, I just wanted to know if he had a different viewpoint), everyone looked dumbstruck....They're probably thinking, who is this Gringo here and who invited him into our meeting? Regardless, I've already stopped worrying what other missionaries think of me. I'm accountable to the Lord and to his servants, primarily the Mission president. Everything else is rather insignificant to me. 

On Friday, we went to Tijipiao, a city neither I nor Elder Bochio had ever visited. It's realllllly complicated, and I honestly don't understand most of it, but we had to go to there to get an original birth certificate of a couple that we are going to help get married and then baptized....It was seriously a miracle that we found the city we needed to be in, the "cartorio" or government office place, the bank we had to go to to pay the bill (Brazil pays bills weird....you go to the bank at an ATM to pay your water, power, and other bills), and found our way back to Abreu e Lima in time for President Lanius to arrive to inspect our new apartment....this is another story, which I think I'll tell and then I gotta go!

Xavier and Branca, a family that we need to marry and then baptize!

Friday morning, our water ran out in our apartment....I don't like to complain, but our apartment is horrible....it backs up to a federal highway (noisy), it's made of all concrete (hot as haiti), and the water runs out about 3x a week. Elder Bochio was passing though some digestive problems (if you know what I mean) and needed to use the bathroom....unfortunately, there was zero water to flush the toilet. I suggested that we go to the chapel (close to our house) to use the bathroom. He said that he thought if he stood up, he might "lose control"....yikes. We made it there, and on the return, we stumbled onto a sweet apartment that was for rent....We called President Lanius and asked him to come see it so we could move ASAP....he didn't have time at first until next week, but he called back the next day and said he would stop by in the afternoon! When he went to look at it, he had a problem that the apartment didn't have a drain for a washing machine., and didn't want to authorize the move...we convinced him to see our current apartment first....that was all we needed to soften his heart! He said he would feel guilty if he made us stay in that apartment, and that we were authorized to move ASAP! We are hoping to move Wednesday! 

Talk about a view huh?

Well this all touches about 5% of my week's happenings. We also had 1 more companion exchange  and a stake conference with a general authority! My life is crazy here, but it is also crazy good! The work goes on!

Until Next Time, 

Elder McKinley