Monday, June 13, 2011

Wk 45 - I Feel Old

Happy Birthday Tanner!
Brazilian tradition is to smash eggs
on your head when it's your birthday!
Elder Crittenden and Gessel got him!
(thanks for the pics from Crittendens)

Elder Bailey, Smoot & Crittenden

Maysa from the ward made A cake...
later, we brought a big peice back and put my candles on it and had a little party
with crittenden and gessel cause they werent there
Happy 20th Birthday Tanner!

"I think it was a little ant looking but called potó.
It releases a liquid that burns your skin.
Apparently I got pretty lucky though cause its usually worse..."

Area: Teresina-Satélite
Companion: Elder Bailey

Well I guess I'm not in the teens anymore.... but anyway this week was quite the week. We worked pretty hard and got a lot done. I still cant believe I'm already 20 though... I just got used to saying I'm 19! I'm getting old.

So tuesday i woke up with something irritating my eye... Im not really sure what it was. But throughout the week it got worse... (the pic with the thing across my eye). I think it was a little ant looking but called potó. It releases a liquid that burns your skin. Apparently i got pretty lucky though cause its usually worse... so that was exciting/annoying throughout the week. You can still see it a little, but its pretty much gone. Also i had to wash my clothes by hand all week because our machine is broken.... And its still not fixed so we´ll have to see how long im gonna be washing clothes like this. During the day we visited Dailane... who has an interesting situation. She thinks all the stuff is true, she just doesnt have a desire to be baptized yet. Also, she is married to a guy that she has caught cheating on her before... so we are trying to help her out, which will be interesting. Then we talked to Carla, who we baptized our first transfer, and she is still good and going to church. Also we talked to Manuel and Maria who are doing good and also talked to a new investigator named Murilo. He is a son of this member that is an old lady and is very sweet. She always gives us juice or food when we pass and gave my comp this pimenta sauce which is really hot. Anyway, he is a good guy and came to church last sunday. We are still teaching him, but he is gonna take some time i think. And we taught english to Paulão´s family again and that night we had all the zl´s in our house from sao luis, sobral, and imperatriz so our house was a little crowded.

Wednesday we had lunch at the bishops.... But this time it was a little different. The bishop had to go, so he gave us the keys and told us to lock up and give the keys to the neighbor when we were done... haha. It was actually very relaxing and a good lunch. Later we met Tiago and Erika... who are a decent couple, but arent legally married.... just like the majority of people here. Anyway, it was a pretty slow day.

Thursday we had lots of visits. We met with Bruna who is a good girl. She is 9 years old, but suprisingly smart. The only problem is that her mom wont let her be baptized because she said she is too young and doesnt know what she wants.... so it will be another battle... It is a battle for every baptism on the mission. Every single one has something impeding the baptism from happening.... but we work through it. We visited manuel and maria again and started to teach adão, who is the neighbor, and again met with maria das graças who is murilo´s mom, and met a few other people. I decided the mission is a hard job. We walk a ton. A lot of people waste our time with wanting to hear our visits, but they dont really want anything with their lives... and its just tough. But i will never regret the decision to be here. You learn a lot. and learn a lot of patience with yourself and with others. Im just glad to be here... and even more glad for a good comp.

Friday we went to Dailane, dielle, and danielle´s house. We were going there to pretty much cut them and stop visiting them because they werent progressing very well... but then we found a paper that dielle did, that was all of the studies in the back of the pamphlets we have.. It was insane! Ive never seen anyone actually do that.. and she´s like 13 or 14! So we are gonna keep visiting them. Then we had to walk from there to lunch with was pretty much on the other end of the area... actually it was in gessel and crittenden´s area... so it was not very close. Anyway that took a while, but we eventually got into our day and we met a new family. They have a son who is going to do an exchange in the united states as an exchange student so we started teaching them. Also i got some letters... and the rest of the birthday letters. I got one from the Jensen´s which was jeremy´s graduation announcement. Dang man! Everyone is getting old haha. that was cool to see. he had a nice tux by the way. Very blue.

Saturday we had lunch at an investigators house named Danielle. They had a great lunch and then we helped her a little with english. she is studying and doing pretty well. It is amazing to me how many people study english and spanish here.. A lot of people want to be multi-lingual... Not many are, but they all study it at one time or another. Then we were walking in the road and this drunk guy called us over. he wanted help with drinking... so he bought us two cans of coca-cola and asked us to sit and talk to him. It was actually very cool. haha but he was pretty funny. That is one thing i think is cool here. Ive had a few times where people call us over and buy us a can of soda or give us food or something. Its a fun thing. Also we had quite a few visits that afternoon and late that night we stopped to get food at a place and there was a couple that owned this little place and they are legally married! Pretty rare, and they accepted visits. so that will be cool.

Sunday i woke up... walked outside and just got owned by elder gessel and crittenden. They smashed a bunch of eggs on my head. It is a brasilian thing. On your birthday they think its fun to smash eggs on your head... haha it was kind of funny... more fun for the people doing it. But then church was good and everything. I ended up doing a split with paulinho and we visited Bruna and ywério (who was baptized last week and confirmed this sunday) and we started teaching his mom as well. then we had a misisonary work meeting and me and elder bailey went to visit cleiton and ana who are recent converts who are basically rebelling the church now. We showed up and they were outside drinking coffee.... but it was a good chat and hopefully we can help them out. Then we went to teach Lustosa who is a good friend of Helton and some other members. After the lesson they had some food for us and all... But it was like this. I had to use the bathroom and so i went in and when i came out, all the lights were off and they had made a cake and everything and sang happy birthday. Helton, Edna, and Maysa from the ward (all about the same age) made me a cake and planned the little suprise thing... pretty awesome of them.

So it was a very tiresome week and i am enjoying the day of a little more relaxing today. Thanks for the videos, the cards and the emails. I loved the pics! You guys are awesome. have a great week.

Elder Smoot


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