Wk 15 - Ola

Parnaiba at Night

Bridge in Parnaiba

Elder Smoot contemplating life

Elder Smoot on P-Day

Near the River in Parnaiba

Area: Parnaiba
Companion: Elder Passarin

So ill just give the brief summary of the week and then on to other things.

Last monday night we were at a members hows (house) and problems started again with my companion. He started saying some stuff and i just mentioned to him that i didnt like it and he started complaining to the members about me. I asked him what was the problem and how i can change and he didnt know why he was mad, i just bug him, is what he said.. so it was a rough night, but as you can tell, i pulled through.

Tuesday our mission president was in town and had training that morning for all the leaders. So i went with Elder Logan and Elder Melo to my area to teach for a few hours. So just something kind of crazy that happened, but probably dont share this with his mom or anyone, but elder logan had a mix up with a motorcycle and got bumped. It was crazy! i watched the whole thing but he was dodging one and the other slammed on the breaks and just tapped him. It was pretty intense! But he was fine and landed on his feet, but the motorcycle went down. Anyway we had a couple of good lessons that night and found a new investigator named Lucas. He is 16 and is pretty smart and is religious. He thinks the stuff we teach is true, but still doesnt know. He said he would go to church on sunday, but didnt. Going to church is still the big problem right now and why we havent had a lot of success here.

Wednesday we had zone conference which was awesome. Our mission president knows a ton about the gospel. He really helps us a lot as missionaries. We had some really good food and some good lessons from president and sister Dias and then they left and we went to work. And by the way i did not receive my package. I think there is an issue because there is people in the office only two days a week, so they could be in the mail center in Teresina, im not really sure. anyway, I sent my bag with Pres and did hear from Andrew that he received it. (the president was going to Sobral (Elder Blackham´s area) after he had zone conference with us. So you should see that hopefully right before Christmas! And we found a place here selling Guarana Jesus so i had somemore on Wednesday and it was pretty good. Its like red cream soda, but with a kick! its pretty good.

Thursday i was really tired and was pretty rough. I was just tired of everything, walking all day, my companion, and it was just a hard day. But without hard days we wouldnt have good days right? so we did have a few good contacts but man it was a long day.

Friday i had a split with Elder Gessel this time. He seriously showed me how missionary work is done and then some! The trick to the mission is really to get lost in the work. Elder Gessel was a great teacher and we just went from appointment to appointment and man the day went by pretty fast. I seriously felt so much better and that i accomplished something big and it was just one day. It was so nice to have everyone following the rules and to be with someone who was right there with me.

Saturday i came out just talking to everyone after being with Elder Gessel. But when we got to lunch, my companion said that the split with the americans changed me and he didnt like it. So things went way downhill from there and he did not want to talk to me or want anything to do with me. It was a pretty hard day. You really just gotta keep going though and trust its for the best.

Sunday morning my comp was still mad from Saturday. All through church and everything he wouldnt look at me and just said to me in english, you can sit next to me, but dont talk to me. So that was a long day of church. He will talk to everyone like everything is fine and normal, except me. This transfer has taken a lot of patience, but i dont know if we are seperating still. So anyway at lunch we sat down for a little and they turned on the movie Charly. I seriously dont know what is with the rules anymore. Anyway after watching the movie my comp loved me again, because it is pretty sad, and anyway things got better. That night we were talking to a member and he said he noticed at church that something was wrong. Man this is not our purpose here! we need to be helping the members not them helping us! its so hard.... but i will pull through so dont worry!

Today Elder Magno left, and he was the best missionary in our house. His two years are up and so it was cool to see someone leaving. We have Elder melo, his comp, with us today because we havent heard anything about transfers still... hopefully we´ll hear tonight.

I havent had anymore problems with headaches this week. I think im getting used to the heat a little more and drinking more helps a ton!
So we do have quite a few investigators, but to be honest noone really sticks out to me right now. I feel like everyone we are teaching beleives that it is true, they are just too lazy to do anything about it. We walked about 1 mile to go pick up Lucas for church just to have his mom tell us he was sleeping. That was a long walk back in the heat! The others i think understand the message and beleive its true, but again, are too lazy to go to church and do anything about it!
As far as animals go, i havent seen too much. When i was at the other house for splits, there was a trantulla, however you spell that, there so that was exciting. I guess they get them quite a bit. I really just see lizards and ants and sometimes frogs here. And horses and donkeys that just kind of roam the streets.

So there is a ton of different fruit here. And everyday we get some different type of juice everyday at lunch. So most of the fruits i have tasted aren´t amazing, but im sure there are some out there that are better. The juices are really good. In the house i just eat apples and bananas to be honest. And the bananas are different here... i like the ones where we live better haha.

Well cant think of much else to say. I know you would like the heat about now! But to be honest it gets pretty dang old after having it everyday with no rain and no change in weather at all! so enjoy the snow! That was way cool to hear that jade made the team! keep up the good work my man! And i hear he´s still growing... Im growing too! just the wrong way :P Well good luck with life, with scouts, with sports, with high school and everything. Love you all!

Elder Smoot