Dallin's Michigan Mission Blog: Week 26

Caranval has started up now and it´s really difficult to find people home, or not partying at home. We try to make lots of contacts, but right now it´s very difficult. We just keep trying though. Carnaval is pretty chill here in São Domingos though. It´s pretty empty, but not so empty that we can´t even find people to talk to. It´s kind of helped seperate some tares and wheat; for carnaval, everyone goes to the beach to party, so that means anyone who stayed home is lazy, poor, OR people who aren´t interested in getting drunk, half-naked/all-naked people, etc. We hope to find some solid people during this time.

We saw some crazy stuff this week. One morning, we got a call from a member that wanted us to come over and help him out with a problem he had. He´d gotten into one of those spam emails from some guy in Kasakstahn that´s like ``I am a reliable person who has information on your dead cousin that is rich. His money is locked away in a bank in China and we need your information and some money to get it out for you. Can we split it 50/50?´´ Anyway, the guy doesn´t speak English, but all his emails were in English from Google Translate. This member had a little bit of doubt, but since he speaks no English, he could´t really pick out the really obvious grammar problems and weird words and such. At on part of the an email this guys was like ``I promise I am good person and trustworthy. I cross my heart with you.´´ Woah, it´s cool your an honest person, but it´s kinda weird you crossed your heart with me. Anyway, we told him it was totally a scam and he was thanked us for confirming his doubt, and we left. Okay, that´s not so crazy, but one afternoon as we were walking down the street like missionaries, we saw this car go driving past us pretty fast, then he slammed on his brakes, then reversed as fast as he could. In just a few seconds I saw him heading right for another car and said in my mind ``Woah! He´s gonna hit that lady driving behind him!´´ but then I noticed he had this really angry look on his face and my thought immediately changed to ``WOAH! He´s trying to hit that lady!´´ Then, as I predicted, he hit her pretty good on the front, and then sped off. The lady chased after him and I caught a glimpse of her 14-year-old daughter crying in the passenger seat. I had no idea what the motive was, but I was like ``Did that just happen...?´´

Thanks for the maple syrup recipe. I also can´t think of any other things I might need in a package any time soon.

Anyway, one last thing. If there´s anything good that´s happened this week, it´s this this: we met a lady in the supermarket and she asked us where the nearest church is. We gave her directions and the time of the meetings, then thought nothing of it. People ask us where our church is all the time, but no one ever goes to church. Anwyay, you guessed it: she went to church on her own accord. She just showed up and attend all 3 hours. We had a class on the Holy Ghost, talking about who He is, when Christ left Him with the Apostles, and how he helps us today. She ended up bearing her testimony in class that it was the Holy Ghost that told her to go to the store to buy something even though she didn´t need anything. She said she knows she was guided there to talk to us. We marked to teach her tomorrow. We´re excited out of our minds. It´s been almost 3 weeks since we´ve been able to enter anyone´s house an teach an actual lesson.

That´s all for now. Hope the holiday weekend is pretty enjoyable. This week looks pretty good for us, so I´ll let you know how it goes on Monday. It´s still really really hot though. I shower twice a day. I´ve never showered at night, then woken up sweaty and gross the next morning. I don´t use a blanket at night. Just a fan. I stay plenty warm. Anyway, until Monday.
--
-Elder Candland

Elder Davis thinking pensively before going to sleep.