Dallin's Michigan Mission Blog: Week 37

Oh man, the work has been so slow in my area this last week. The Elders in Vista Verde (who I´m staying with) don´t even live inside their own area. They live in Pirituba. The commute to my area can take up to 2 hours when traffic is awful. If traffic is good, it´s like 45 minutes. The problem is, we usually need to get into my area around the time everyone is going home for lunch (since lunch (almoço) is the big meal here. Coming home isn´t so bad since we don´t need to be home until 9:00. Anyway, I´m here with Elder Dattilo and Elder Messias.

Elder Messias is from the northeast of Brasil. Recife. Elder Dattilo is from Edgewood, WA. His mom works at CTR Clothing. Next time you´re there, ask about an Elder Dattilo.

Anyway, I´m chilling at the other missionaries house for the next 2 weeks while I wait to get a companion at the next transfer. Thank goodness this transfer just so happens to be the only 5-week-transfer of the year, so it´s less time. My old house is still running, just a little dormant. It feels like a Batcave to me. It´s a tiny little house hidden back behind a bunch of other houses, it´s full of all kinds of supplies and stuff, and there´s even a few snacks in the fridge. If we´re ever near, we swing by to use the bathroom and get some water.

It´s kind of cool being in a trio; it´s got it´s perks. If I ever need to go on... a division is how we call it in Portugûes when we swap companions for the day. Anyway, if I ever need to go on a division with my district, I just just go there with them both to see how they´re doing in their area. I get to watch how they work together rather than just one at a time. We tend to get a long pretty well. The only problem is Elder Dattilo and I start talking to much about Washington, but that isn´t so bad. We´ll see. I´ve only got 3 days with them.

Something sweet about their house even though it´s outside the area, is that their neighbor has a bunch of exercise equipment, so we go over there every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night to work out with him. He has a little routine that we follow. I was really sore after the first night. I should have taken it just a little easier. It made it difficult to concentrate in Church on Sunday. I worked out Friday.

As for Skype, I´m not sure anymore. I just talked with the other Elders, and it sounds like I´ll be able to talk from about 6-7 pm my time. That´s I think 2-3 pm in Washington. That should work out I hope.

Anyway, there´s this older lady we found that calls us angels. She really likes talking with the missionaries, and we love talking with her. She always talks about her church and how she loves her church, but there are a few things she doesn´t like. Everything she says makes me more and more convinced that she may have been a member a few years before, then had an accident and forgot. She basically teaches us when we go there. She ends up strenghtenig my faith with her stories. She´s not a fanatic or over the top when it comes to her faith. Her stories are all legitimate. She doesn´t say that she prayed one day, then she got what she needed the next day. She worked for it, but because she was praying while doing her part, she got all she needed and a little more. She´s really cool. Also, she ended up giving us a little food the other day. She actually gave us two ``beachbags´´ full of fruits and foods she cooked up for us. It had to have been about 50 lbs in total. I´m going to miss walking around the streets of Brasil, talking with everyone, and getting food from lots of random people.

Anyway, that´s my week. It´s been pretty slow going back and forth between areas, but hopefully this week will be better. I marked with the Elders quorum on Sunday to go on lots of splits with them. That should help out.

Anyway, I´ll talk to you guys on Sunday. Até lá. Tchau.

-Elder Candland

Elder Summerhays and I. The only picture I got before he was gone.