I had a great week this week! We have a lot of people to teach and are trying to follow-up with all of them. It’s really hard to know how much time to spend with everyone and when we should stop visiting someone. This area is great because lots of people accept visits, but that makes it a little hard because if we talk to everyone all the time and visit all the people who accept visits, we end up with too many investigators! It’s hard to know at first if someone is really interested or not, and what if they don’t seem interested but really they deserve a chance?
But those are good problems to have. We are also trying to get more of our investigators to church. It is sad when people say they will go and then don’t show up, because I know how important it is for them. It’s a special opportunity to show God you are trying to remember the Savior and His atonement, learn more about the gospel, and help the other people in the community. We can take the sacrament and have our sins forgiven! If we are really trying to improve and follow the commandments, we can be completely clean from all the mistakes we have made. I know it will be easier for me to prioritize going to church when I get back from my mission. I also know it seems easier to go to church from a missionary perspective than from everyone else’s! But it’s worth it.
Miracle from this week: We were worried that none of our investigators were receiving answers to their prayers about the Church. Literally none of them felt like they had received a response. [Then] we fasted for them and some of them received answers! The ones that didn’t mostly weren’t actually praying. You have to ask to get an answer! Some of the people who received answers were people who hadn’t been acting interested at all.
It has started raining more and more and I love it. It’s not rainy season yet but we’re getting there. I have always loved rain and it’s even better when the alternative is sun that wants to burn you to a crisp!
I also experimented using pants this week. Pants are great, especially if you are walking through lots of weeds and hills and mosquitoes. I might send pictures next week.
We bought a jackfruit!!! At first I wasn’t sure if I liked it but then I decided I do. The yellow parts are seed pockets. You rip them out, remove the seeds and eat them. I was very excited to finally eat jackfruit and now I really like it.
Fun fact about jackfruit — it makes your hands terribly sticky, and the stickiness does not come off with soap! But I did not know the word sticky in Portuguese and was having trouble communicating my problems. I finally managed to explain it and a member told me you can only get it off with oil. Those of you who have good access to the internet can figure out which chemical property of jackfruit juice makes it oil but not water soluble.
Headed to Recife 