Preparing to transfer

This week was different! Sister Nogueira and I spent a lot of time at night and before studies in the morning trying to leave lots of information for the new missionaries in Candeias.  We are not sure if they are sisters or elders, but they probably are not Sister Training Leaders.  We suspect they might be elders, but who knows when I will find out!  On Wednesday morning we spent more time trying to leave all the information well-organized for them, and then left to get a bus.  Just as I was leaving I picked up a box of trash.  It had containers of soy sauce that were not put inside a trash bag.  When I picked up the box to take it outside, just as we were leaving, it got soy sauce all over the floor. We tried to clean it up quickly, but I hope the new missionaries weren’t surprised by a strong soy sauce smell when they opened the door! 

We left the keys in the “aquatic club” across the street and  started lugging the suitcases to the bus stop.  It was a production, albeit much easier than when I lugged my suitcases to Candeias two transfers ago!  This time we went the short pavemented way! As we were almost to the bus stop we passed below a skyscraper where a recent convert, Camilla, lives.  She ran outside to help us lug the suitcases, which was nice of her.  Then we noticed that the doorman was calling us.  He had Sister Nogueira’s Book of Mormon! That was a shock.  Two days before she had lost her pocket Book of Mormon.  We looked everywhere, but couldn’t find it, which was sad.  Two minutes before getting to the bus stop he flagged us down and said that someone had left the Book of Mormon with him!  It was good that Camilla ran out to help us because 1. Three people makes the task easier 2. If not, the doorman might not have noticed us!  Definitely a miracle–we might have left a different way or the doorman could have been distracted when we were leaving.  It was literally the last ten minutes Sister Nogueira would be in that area for the rest of her mission!

Goiana is different than Candeias. It is a busy city but does not have skyscrapers, so it’s a pretty different atmosphere. Everyone travels to the beach for two months this time of year, so it is much more deserted than usual.  We split the city with another companionship of elders. We are also taking care of a few other cities, but the Sisters weren’t visiting them very often.  We’ll go to one of them next week, but we’ll see how it goes.  The branch here is going to turn into a ward in March.  I will probably be here; it will be cool to see!  Two of my companions were in Goiana before going to Candeias, and one of my other companions, Sister Arce, went to Goiana after we were companions.  Pretty funny!  

We have been working hard to find more investigators this week.  So far we have been having some difficulty finding investigators at home, but we marked a number of investigators for next week, so hopefully that helps!  It is a little bigger here than in Candeias, and quite a bit bigger if you include the other cities we take care of! One interesting thing about this area is that we have lunch with members two days a week, and the other days a week is money or pre-prepared lunches in styrofoam containers that one of the sisters in the ward makes.  That is a lot less lunch with members than in my other areas! 

This week we will go to mission council on Wednesday and do a transfer with the sisters from Igarassu.  Today I hope to see the outdoor market.  Goiana does not have big supermarkets like Casa Forte or Candeias but it does have an outdoor market open every day, so that is a plus!