#22 - A Dessert with 3 Names?! (10/16/23)

 Boa noite tudo mundo! Como vocês estão?

 

Sorry I am sending this so late. Elder Hogge and I went to go check on a member but got caught in a storm so now after a warm shower, I'm writing. I have officially completed my first week in Palmeira and I gotta admit, it is exactly how Elder Hogge says: "Palmeira is different". But a good different. Here is a recap of my week:

Me and Elder Hogge [pronounced like rogue]

Monday: Arrived in Palmeira after riding buses for like 4 hours and having a nice tourist view of the area (it actually looked like Nebraska ngl) met my new comp, Elder Hogge who is the district leader and kinda my trainer to help me be prepared to train next transfer. We then went to this restaurant called "The Secret of Chicken" where we met the owner who speaks really good english and the food was SUPER GOOD!

cooking

Tuesday: WE COOK FOR OURSELVES HERE! Because the church here is just a branch and still new, there arent many members. So we get the chance to cook ourselves! WOOHOO, College cooking days coming in handy! We all had some work done on one of the bathrooms and since we needed a companionship there, for my first day in the field we stayed at the house until 6pm. Then afterwards I was able to go meet some people and get to know the area. We ended up playing some dodgeball with some kids with some rules I didn't understand... It was still fun though!

early morning breakfast

Wednesday: We had our weekly mission devocional and the purpose of this week is Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel: Book of Mormon. (I highly recommend this chapter to learn more about the location of ideas and topics in the book of mormon). The Book of Mormon holds power as the most true of any book in the world and is a keystone with the sole purpose to testify of Christ. President Nelson has promised that daily study will help you make better decisions everyday and I have seen that already in my life! Elder Hogge also mentioned this women who lives here that swears at people if you say "hi" to them and without knowing I was saying "boa tarde" to her, she immediately began yelling at me! (Apparentlly everyone knows her around here) We also invited Angelina to be baptized, had the branchs first Institute class, and I taught a dog!

Teaching a DOG [fortunately it didn't bite]

Thursday: Got to get to know a lot more members and investigators today and also learned about this pastry in Brazil that has 3 differnt names: "Cats Ear", "Ripped pants", and "Backwards Underwear". (orelha de gato in portuguese for cats ear) It's like a cinnamon and sugar donut in the shape of a churro. 10 for 10!

 

Cats ear                                                    

Friday: A LITERAL FLOOD TODAY! There was so much water that Elder Hogge and I spent like 10 minutes just walking and playing in puddles! I'll send one of my favorite videos we took. We also had an interesting experience with the Holy Ghost today. We went to the house of our friend Renan to teach him but his mother said he was sleeping so we started to walk away. Immediately when we turned away, I started feeling really weak and sick. Elder Hogge than spoke to me, "Dude I need to sit down" and I agreed. We both felt sick and just sat on the street for about 20 minutes. Once we were about ready, Renan walked outside and found us! We then taught him and his family, giving them all books of mormon! Elder Hogge and I both agreed that it was the Spirit that made us sick so... new way the Spirit prompts us.. By getting SICK!

SURFING!

Saturday: Did a division today with the other Elder that arrived with me: Elder Loertscher! We both are new to the area so while our comps were going around with some members in a car to confirm people to church, we just looked at the preach my gospel app for people to had been to church once and relied on the Spirit for the rest! We ended up meeting a return Sister missionary who served in California so we got to talk a little English! We then found 3 other people we could teach also! Overall, good division (even though neither of us knew the area)

Institute

Sunday: Got to meet the branch today and help in a youth class! Also found out that they ask the missionaries to play piano so one day I will probably be playing piano for church! WOOHOO! I also tried cooking beans which none of the other missionaries had done and considering we didn't have a pressure pot, it was pretty good! Fun to experiment (but I miss not having a pressure cooker) Also had a lesson today with a lady that had us do the french cheek kisses and I looked to Elder Hogge like "uhhhh". I ended up just kissing the air next to her.

That's about all that happened this week and I don't want to make this any more longer so as always, here are some scriptures I recommend and some pictures. Remember that "The worth of souls is great in the sight of God" and that you are all doing better than you think. Heavenly Father loves you and He and His son, Jesus Christ, know you perfectly. Ate mais!

- Elder Fisher

Alma 38:5

3 Nephi 9:13-14 (blessed are those that come to Christ)