Dallin's Michigan Mission Blog: Week 45

It´s July, and it feels just like a normal July in Washington. Fairly hot, but I´m in black shoes, slacks, and a tie walking in the sun, and burning from the heat of the concrete. It´s supposed to be cold right now. I´m not very happy with the weather. I was promised winter, but all I´m getting is a mild summer.

Well, this week was just as rough as the last. Elder Arichichu seems to be getting discouraged. Being right out of the MTC, I´m sure he wants to be seeing people accept the Gospel. During Friday morning´s study he pretty much gave up studying and said he was tired and needed a break, so he went outside and paced back and forth for about 30 minutes. When he came in I asked him what was up, and he said he was just tired so I threw him the ``No. It´s not just that.´´ He expressed that he was feeling depressed about the work. I don´t know what happened, but it just got really difficult. The most difficult I´ve ever seen. We´re managing about 4 lessons per week. No one will commit to a specific time for us to pass by, and if they do, they usually bail out, so what we have been doing this week is trying to pass by as many of our investigators as possible so maybe catch them, while also trying to find, but very, very few people we have run into actually have the slightest interest in more appointments and responsiblities. They just don´t see what else they´d get through all of that.

We have transfers on Wednesday. I´m terrified to leave the area. I can´t leave, after being here for 8 months, when the work just took a divebomb to the worst I´ve ever seen. I´ve also put so much effort into this area, and I don´t feel comfortable leaving it in the hands of my companion just yet. Not after only his first transfer in the field. Not to mention my birthday on Sunday. That only makes it worse. If I leave just before my birthday, no one in the new ward will know it´s my birthday or even really think anything of it. The picture from dad was kind of funny the first time I read it, but after thinking about it a few seconds, it got funnier and funnier.

We ran into this one guy on the street a few days ago. He was excited to talk to an American so he could try some English. Something he seemed to like was his own personal joke. There´s this saying here ``É forte.´´ ``It´s strong´´ basically. But his translation was ``Is a very stronger´´ and he kept repeating it. Thank goodness it was intended to be funny, because I thought it was pretty funny. He just thought I was laughing for other reasons.

Not much new from Elder Arichichu. He still has a hard time waking up. When he is finally up and awake, he doesn´t really stop talking about soccer, how his dog eats lizards in one bite, more soccer, the Simpsons, even more soccer, and who knows about the other 70% of what he´s saying. I have a really hard time listening after 5 minutes. He talks so fast and his accent is really difficult to understand. I usually end up understanding more than the Brasilians too.

The other day, we were at a member´s house and he was showing me all his movies. I saw one and was like ``I saw lots of advertisement for this one on the street, but never got what it was about,´´ so he said ``Let´s watch some then.´´ I said ``No, that´s okay,´´ but he threw it in anyway. We were waiting for his wife to get home so we could talk with her, so we were stuck there. I grabbed the Liahona and tried to ignore the tv, but that lasted about 2 minutes. Thankfully his wife came home after about 3 more minutes and we were able to talk with them and leave. Just before we left, the asked if we wanted to stay and watch more, but I said no. When we were outside, Elder Arichichu seemed a little frustrated and told me I don´t have to be so rigid. I felt so guilty for just 5 minutes. It´s just a movie, but we were in a members home. They know it´s against the rules and they know we know it´s against the rules. Not to mention it´s just a waste of time when we need to be working. I´m worried about Elder Arichichu when he gets his next companion. I´m not super strict, but there are definitely fubecas (Brasil slang for disobedient slackers) out there.

Well that´s all. I have just a few photos this week. I´ll get those sent now too. Have fun in Utah. Maybe eat a cake for me. I don´t know if I´ll be seeing anything if I´m transferred.

Here´s a big bug I found.