Its been another great week with another really busy week coming up! Tomorrow, my companion gets the results from his knee exam. That means we have to take another bus ride to Porto Alegre which will probably end up taking the whole day. On Wednesday, our day is filled with appointments for new investigators. Hopefully it will be a great day and everything will go well. Also on Wednesday, I will return to the school and talk to the kids in their English class. Last time was great and they really loved it. On Thursday, we have a special meeting in Porto Alegre and we will get to hear from an Elder from the quorum of the 70. Im especially excited because it will include the Northern half of our mission (Porto Alegre SUl) and the southern half of the mission Porto Alegre North! Im excited to see other missionaries from a different area. I think that will be a great experience. On Friday, we have district meeting and an opportunity to have our interviews with the President of the Mission! Im excited for the time to talk to him one on one because it doesnt happen too often. That also will probably take up the whole day! This is going to be such a crazy and fun week! (also a really expensive week for bus tickets)
Today was a really cool P-Day. All the missionaries from our zone went to a members house in the middle of nowhere. There we had lots of fun playing games and eating churrasco (BBQ). All the missionaries here in the mission love to play the game Monopoly Deal. Its a really cool game, basically a transformed version of monopoly with just cards. Ive started to get really good at it too.. so that helps alot haha. We played a game called war, its a really fast version of Risk. Not to brag... but I won that game too:) It felt good to finally win! Whenever I played RISK with my family I never was able to win. Whenever I was close to winning, everyone would decide that its time to go home or my dad would make me go to bed... Its hard being the youngest of the family:) The mission president went to a meeting in Saô Paulo with all the presidents in Brazil. They made a new rule that we arent allowed to play physical sports on P-Day. That includes basketball and soccer!! AHH I almost died when I heard this rule. I cant play soccer in Brazil?? There are the some things on the mission that are tough to deal with, but its all worth it in the end!
On Thursday, my companion and I went to the local school to talk to kids in their English class. It went really really well. I talked in two classes. The first was really good because the kids were nice, interested, and asked good questions. The second wasnt as good because the kids were a bit immature... But it was definitely instructive! First I introduced myself and asked them to introduce themselves in English. They thought it was hilarious to try to speak English. After, I shared with them some things that are different in the United States. Then I shared with them a language plan that really helped me learn the language and encouraged them to work hard and set goals to accomplish the things they want. Lastly, they had some time to ask questions. I really had such a fun time talking to them. I cant wait to go back this week. Doing activities like this really helps the missionary work. It shows that missionaries are normal people.. not weird Americans that always walk around in white shirts. Throughout the week, I saw many of the kids from school in the road and they all were excited to come up and say hi!
This Sunday was the first Sunday in a long time where we had NO investigators at church. It was really annoying. I felt really bad because the success seemed to completely drop off a cliff in the last two weeks. Im not sure that we will even be able to have a baptism this transfer! The mission is alot slower when there is no success, but im sure it will improve soon. Just like all trials in life, if you keep your head up and keep working really hard, good times and miracles will show up alot faster.
When you leave for the mission, you pack alot of things that you never end up using! For example, i brought sunglasses and a travel iron that I have never ever touched! Luckily, I have a Brazilian companion that wants anything that looks cool, sounds cool, or even pretends to be cool. I traded him these two things and got 8 really really old pieces of Brazilian money. They are really cool and I thought that it turned out to be a great exchange. In the next few days I will have finished my first mission Journal! I was able to go back and read a few pages and its full of alot of great memories and stories! Its funny to think that 6 months ago I didnt understand a word of Portuguese and I was always wondering if I would ever be able to learn the language... now im doing great and speaking really good!
I dont know when thanksgiving is... but I know its soon. SO happy Thanksgiving! Im planning on introducing Egg Nog to Brazil this Christmas season. Ill let you know how it goes.... Just yesterday I was talking to my companion about how I cant believe its already November. I told him that its TOO HOT to be November!! Haha. I have already seen my first house with Christmas lights, have you?
Thanks for all your support and love. I cant wait to talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Horst
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