WEEK 12: Staying in Pedregal Another Transfer
OLA!
Kind of a bigger letter today but there's good stuff in it I promise.
TUESDAY
Last night we made "Cowboy Caviar", one of my favorite -and only- dishes I can make. It's pretty much glorified guacamole with a bunch of peppers and ingredients in it and its SO GOOD. But we forgot to buy chips and all the stores were closed for the night but we didn't want our creation to go to waste so we got inventive and ordered a pizza with nothing on it to use in place of chips... it was kinda nasty, kinda good, kinda made me feel like a college kid again.
I wrote home about something neat that happened last week but realized I forgot to include it in my main letter:
"We had to do divisions with our Zone Leaders so we were waiting at the bus stop for a bus to Occidental. It was like 11pm.
Then some members from the ward came up, a mom and her baby. Elder Rudger talked with her a bit in Portuguese as I played some Ukulele songs for the baby. Then (finally) a car came for Occidental and we all packed in. The lady then saw my face clearly and she was like "hey I know someone that looks just like you... his name was Elder... Elder Young" and I grinned and showed her my nametag and she immediately started crying. She began to tell me what an amazing person my brother is and how much he meant to her. She told us about things she was going through at the time and how Bryce helped her through all of it and he and his companion baptized her.
I couldn't translate/understand everything but it was obvious she really meant what she said. Now she's one of the strongest members in the ward and married to a great guy, they just had their first kid. The lady's name is Katiane.
Five years later and Bryce's service here is still impacting this ward. It was incredible to see how much Bryce meant to her and its so neat that I get to be here to witness the wake of Bryce's time in Novo Gama/Pedregal. The people here haven't forgotten. A lot of them recognize me when we go to eat lunch at their houses and tell me about him."
WEDNESDAY
I re-bought a harmonica cuz I lost that first one and I've probably been driving my companion crazy haha but I play it everywhere. It's super fun and by far the easiest instrument I've seen. If I can, I'll attach a vid of me playing it.
Last night we made "Cowboy Caviar", one of my favorite -and only- dishes I can make. It's pretty much glorified guacamole with a bunch of peppers and ingredients in it and its SO GOOD. But we forgot to buy chips and all the stores were closed for the night but we didn't want our creation to go to waste so we got inventive and ordered a pizza with nothing on it to use in place of chips... it was kinda nasty, kinda good, kinda made me feel like a college kid again.
THURSDAY
Today was great. I can see improvements in my teaching each day. Slowly but surely. Today we taught Ruy again, he's super cool and a real genuine guy. It's nice teaching a guy around my age, it's so easy to make lessons relatable. He loves learning so he's super excited to take us up on all the commitments we extend.
He's got a Siberian Husky that sheds SO MUCH and loves to rub up on everyone's legs while we teach, so I always leave Ruy's house with my pants covered in Husky fur.
We are juggling lessons with so many people right now. Transfers are coming up soon (where missionary companionships are moved around to different areas) so it's kinda unfortunate timing that we are teaching so many people before we (might) leave, but at least good things are happening.
FRIDAY
I noticed something kinda cool this week. The first week I was here in Pedregal, my companion & I hardly knew anyone even though it's a small town. We just shuffled past strangers in the street and I felt like a total foreigner.
Now, I still feel like a foreigner BUT we've been contacting and teaching so many people here that we are stopped about four times a day by different people we've met. They always drive by and say "Oi Irmaos!". It's pretty neat to see how we're actually kind of an integrated part of the community now.
Something cool recently:
A few weeks ago my comp & I were heading back home at night when we were stopped by two drunk guys. I guess they just wanted to talk. One of them was a huge shirtless guy holding a bike in one hand and he started saying stuff to me that I couldn't understand for the life of me so I just smiled and nodded haha. But my comp was talking to the other guy and we arranged a time to come and visit him another day.
So a few days later we visited him (Edinaldo) and taught him about the word of wisdom (The word of wisdom is prophetic counsel on what kinds of substances we should use or stay away from). We asked him to commit to stop drinking and he said he'd do it. When we stopped by a week later he was doing yard work with his nephews and he seemed really happy. He said he hadn't drank alcohol since that night and he felt great.
He left on a trip this past week to do some work somewhere so we hadn't seen him in a while, but the other day during a lesson he came home and his extended family came over to have some sort of a reunion haha. They all participated in our lesson and it was probably the biggest lesson yet. Some of them have started reading The Book of Mormon. I hope I get to stay here next transfer to keep working with that family.
I love how important family is in Latin America. I'm so grateful for mine.
SATURDAY
One thing that's funny about some people here is they always talk super low and quiet. Even when loud motorcycles and buses pass (which is every couple of seconds). They stay the same volume the entire time haha and don't seem to know they're completely inaudible. So hard to hear people here
SUNDAY
We got our transfer call and I'm staying in Pedregal! Thank goodness. There's still so much Elder Rudger and I have left to do here.
PICS:
I had to send two things with Google Drive because the files were too big. If they don't open sorry about it
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