Sooooooooo hurricane???? What?? I haven't heard a thing at all, honestly, I actually don't even have a clue what the goings-on down here are. I'm actually a bit behind in news, about 2000 years, actually. I'm reading this awesome book that talks all about this righteousness stuff that happened in the Middle East way back, it's way sweet! It's got like, prophets, and fire from heaven, and all this sweet dissing on hypocrites business that's way sick! I love it! It's a bit dated, and it ain't no awesome current news like hurricanes on the East coast, but it's definitely way cool too! Y'all should check it out! But yeah, let me know how the hurricane turns out. Allllsoooo, how BYU football's doing please??? :)
And as far as those scriptures go...hm...think I left them in the upstairs room, Jacob's room, before I left.
So this week Elder Marques and I had another baptism! It was pretty cool, because we've already baptized the daughter of this lady, and it's just AWESOME to baptize families together! We were all pretty happy about it, and up to the moment of getting her to walk around to get to the baptismal font, we were pretty confident, too. That confidence was very quickly kicked out from unbderneath us though, as soon as the four of us missionaries realized that none of us had the key to open the door to the baptismal font, and that the key, in fact, was just chillin' on the key rack back at our house. So basically we had a moment or two of smiling stupidly at eachother like, "Aww man, well I feel dumb, I guess we kinda forgot something important, heh heh heh..." Literally, I'm pretty sure all of us were saying the same thing in our heads at the same time, but all of us felt to stupid to actually say anything. BUT LUCKILY the branch president was around, and happened to have a key of his OWN! So I can say with sincere honesty, that I'm glad I'm not the senior missionary in this situation with this sort of responsibility...or my stupidity would be approximately X100,000 or so, maybe roughly X100,000,000, or like when you accidentally eat a plate of nails and you realize, "Aw, oh dang... that's probably going to be terrible for my blood iron levels, and maybe even casue my acne to break out badly again, and maybe even turn my digestive tract into a living blender!" :( You know? Just one of those times you really feel dumb. But it turned out great, still! She got baptized, and she's pretty happy about it, and now she wants printed and digital copies of all the photos taken at the baptism, courtesy of Elder Reneer's gigantic pockets filled with american richness (the previous statement defintely carries a small dose of sarcasm)........ BUT I STILL LOVE HER! SO MUCH!
Also this week, Elder Marques and I headed to Itaporanga to have a meeting with the mission president, for all the companionships in training. So we got there, ate some breakfast, courtesy of President Gonzaga, and then sat down, in chairs that were grouped for a teaching role play. ANNND it was interesting to note, perhaps, that after we sat down, Elder Marques started praying that the President wouldn't sit with us. I still didn't know what was going on, exactly, so I was good with whatever. Then President Gonzaga plopped down with E. Marques and I, and said, "Alright Elders, go ahead and teach me now, I'm your investigator." So, maybe I should explain this situation a little bit better. You know, I really respect President Gonzaga, he's really cool. Really spiritual. Really righteous. Really rich. Really intelligent. Really focused. Really powerful. And I think he might have burned a few wicked people with holy fire, actually, maybe even a few training greenie missionaries that didn't role play wekll enough with him. So you might understand my meaning when I say, that it was a bit intense for me. I wasn't scared, though" I was just like, kinda contemplating if holy fire would devour my body instantly or if it would be a slow, drawn-out process. But no sweat! I actually managed, Elder Marques and I, to maneuver through the lesson pretty effectively, and the President said WE TAUGHT THE BEST OUT OF THE OTHER COMPANIONSHIPS! Woo-hoo, no holy fire today! Yeah!! So you can imagine, I felt pretty good after teaching him, a lot more confident. Of course, the senior missionaries that were at the meeting, after watching me teach again, spared no helpful commentary (more commonly known as criticism...blech) that quickly brought me back down to earth afterwards. Honestly, when it came down to it, I was just glad that I still had my life in my possession after that meeting.
As I've been out here, I've been realizing there are a few small things about Portuguese that realllllllllly irritate me, a bit more than they should. I'm not one to criticize though, because English is probably the single most butchered language in the world. Main thing that's come to my attenttion lately, is how you salute, or say hi essentially, to people on the street. It really shouldn't bug me but IT REALLY REALLY DOES! So, they have three different things you're supposed to say, depending on the time of day. They are, bom dia, boa tarde, and boa noite. Good day, good afternoon, and good night. Simple, right? NO. NO NO NO NO NOOO. NOT SIMPLE. Because back in the english-speaking days of my youth, all I worried about was just saying , "How ya doin! Great!" You know, one easy thing to remember, and you DON'T have to worry about what the time is. So, here's the break down: To say good day here, you say it from the morning until after you eat lunch. For good afternoon, you say it from lunch until exactly 6:00pm. For good night, any time after 6:00 until the morning is good! So there are literally RULES here to when you can say these things. And then, after about 1:00am or so til about 5am, if you say ANYTHING, people will call the police, and then they'll come beat you until you promise to be a better person and not practice common courtesy in the wee small hours of the morning. Which fortunately for me, isn't a problem because I'm sleeping, and not worrying about what I'm saying. Except that, sometimes at night, I wake up screaming and pounding my chest at the same time shouting, "BOOAAA NOITE!" because I'm constantly having nightmares about it. And so for a while after that, I have to keep real quiet, to make sure the police don't notice anything really suspicious around the neighborhood.
All in all, life's still pretty good out here! I'm really enjoying the time in the mornings I get to just study and read the scriptures, it's honestly the best thing EVER. I'm also getting more careful as to avoid studying in the hammock, otherwise I conk out instantly. I'm healthy, I'm happy, and I'm going bald, so thats two for three, so I've got a solid 66.7% going for me right now, so I can't complain.
I love you ALL. BYE!
Elder Reneer
- Billionaire, Genius, Philanthropist, Mormon
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