Emergencia (Emergency)

Well,

Everything changed this week. 

Last Monday we explored downtown Campos.  It is really neat.  Big buildings, churches, bustling marketplaces, plazas full of people and shops thriving with activity.  I took some neat pictures.  And downtown is right on the river.  They already have some Christmas decorations up in the city.  Which is strange because normally Christmas in my mind is connected to cold, not sun and sweat.  Elder Collins bought a memory card and started going crazy taking pictures.  Campos is actually bigger than Vitória alone.  Except, Vitória has a lot of gigantic suburb cities just as big as it is (Serra, Vila Velha, Cariacica, Viana).  It was a neat way to spend the day.  I wrote some letters to some investiagators and baptisms from Serra.

We taught a neat lesson to Rafael reviewing the Restoration.  He was on fire...except after that we have not been able to find him home.  And he didn´t go to church.  Not good.

The two Brazilian Elders who live with us are studying a lot of English.  Some of the funny phrases they have said since then are:

´´You are a feet!´´

´´Are you a door?´´

It is too funny with their strong accent and their complete innocence, not knowing or understanding what they just said.

Then everything changed on Thursday.  After lunch we were at Joçiara´s house we got a phone call from the mission office.  Elder Collins was emergency transferred.  We had to go to the other side of Campos, talk with the zone leaders, then go to the bus station and buy tickets for the bus from Campos to Vitória at 2:00 AM!!!  Elder Collins was devastated, and I was super stressed.  We went downtown for him to buy some souvenirs, and then ran all over the city getting ready for the trip.  He packed, barely said goodbye to anyone, and then we got a ride from a member to the bus station.  We sat there for almost three hours waiting for the 2am bus.  An annoying taxi driver kept pestering us and singing to us.  I think he is crazy.  He thought he spoke English.  I was just really tired and wanted him to go away.

We arrived in Vitória at 6am, took a taxi from the bus station there to the mission office and then waited there for over an hour and a half for President to arrive and tell us what was going on.  Results:

Elder Collins is going to TRAIN a new American missionary that just got his visa.  He will be working in Vila Velha.  I am going to ´´train´´ Elder Aranha.  Elder Aranha arrived here in the mission before I did, and he was in my very first district when I first arrived in Vitória.  However, he was struck with extreme depression and soon after went home early.  He served a short term mission in São Paulo (he is from there) and has been on medication.  He is here to give it another try.  He already has six months experience on the mission, but I have been designated his trainer.  More specifically, he is from São Vicente, São Paulo.  He is short, always laughing and telling jokes, and energetic.  He has a lot of energy. 

We took the 5pm bus back to Campos after hanging out with the secretaries in the office the rest of the day and helping them do their office errands.  We arrived just in time to sleep after the exhausting and very sudden change.

So, we left to work the next morning.  Things are going slowly, but are going.  We missed a lot of key appointments because of the emergency transfer.  However, Joçiara and her two youngest children went to church.  Her son Jorge Luis (8 years old) is going to be baptized next week.  He is hilarious.  Joçiara said that before we arrived and started reading and studying and helping them, he was a trouble-maker.  Now he is helping his mom a lot more and loves the church and the missionaries.  He said that he wants to choose me to baptize him.  Even though he can barely say my name.  It usually comes out of his mouth slowly...  Elder... ... ... uh...  Buuuu oooo dee leee.  Or if he doesn´t take time to think about it it seems more like Elder Blah-lee or Elder Bolly.

In other words, in one week, everything is different.  I like Elder Aranha, but I am pretty sad that Elder Collins left.  We will be companions for at least 12 weeks because the training of new missionaries and their trainers is a 12 week program.  For some perspective,

I stayed in

the MTC for                    9 weeks

Athens 2nd ward for        4 weeks

Paper Mill Portuguese      4 weeks

Vitória                            11 weeks

Serra-Sede                     18 weeks

Anchieta                         12 weeks.

I am glad though.  Elder Aranha has a lot of good ideas, teaches with mastery, and has the fire and excitement of a new missionary.

And Ala Aurora is excellent.  I really like it here.  I think we will have a lot of success.  It is neat to be a ´´trainer´´ even though my ´´new´´ missionary is not new.

People are starting to put up Christmas lights here.  In Vitória there was a huge 40 foot tall white plastic Christmas tree with awesome lighting and ornaments next to the bus station.  I will spend Christmas with Elder Aranha.  PS.  Aranha means ´´spider´´ in English.  Elder Spider.

I played the piano yesterday in church, but I didn´t know how to play two of the hymns very well, so I used the smart piano setting where it plays the hymn for you.  You just have to decide the beat by pressing whatever key you want to the beat of the music.  It did not turn out very pretty.  I had never used it before.  But it was still better than trying to play All Creatures of Our God and King on the fly.  What can you do?  The second one was better. ish.  I really confused the music leader because she barely knows how to lead the music when the music is normal.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Eat turkey for me!!!  And candied yams! 

Elder Bodily