Siri, can you tell me what time it is? I’m just joking you guys, we don’t get Siri out here. But it’s okay cause I already know the time, and it’s time for another Elder Hillstead Mission Email! A good ol’ E.H.M.E. So what’s new this week you say? Well this last week had a ton of great moments. I’m getting the hang of the missionary lifestyle more, speaking and listening a little better each and every day, and getting that testimiony crazy strong. The language learning process is long and tiring, but I’m taking President Nelson’s advice and doing 1% better each and every day. The Portuguese word of this week is “Sotake,” which means accent. This is the word this week because my Sotake absoutely stinks, and I didn’t realize how necessary accents were to understand others before but now I do. Sweet, combined with last week's email, you guys now know 2 Portuguese words! That’s about as much as I do. But see I’ve realized learning Portuguese is just a simple 4-step process: I just need to memorize every word in the Portuguese Dictionary, memorize every conjugation for every Verb past, present and future, gain the confidence to speak without thinking for 5 minutes prior, and get the Sotake so that people can actually understand me. Piece of cake, right?
This week I wanna introduce to you all some of the folks I’ve been reoccuringly meeting with. First is Halina, who was the woman we baptized last week. Everytime we go over to see her, she always has such a big contagious smile and it’s really easy to be happy around her. We’ve got Moisés (See photo 2) who is a super cool 18-year old dude who we hangout with and teach all the time. He roasts my Portuguese whenever I talk to him which is pretty devestating but he’s got such strong faith in the Book of Mormon and in the church which is so great! There’s this gentlemen named Adriano Branco, and he’s super nice too. Branco means white in Portuguese, and literally every single time I’ve seen him he has been wearing only white. Maybe it’s his nickname or maybe he’s a cartoon character, either way I love him. The last person I wanna share is Ariane, who has a great family whose always super friendly to us. A couple days ago Elder McLane was on the phone with her and her and her family were just eating pizza and talking about how good it was. It was so good, in fact, that she ordered some for us to have ourselves (See photo 6). Super awesome people here. Everyone is so nice, and even though I can’t understand every word they're saying, they're being really kind to me. A smile gets you a long ways here.
This week a big lesson to me has been that we gotta have bad days to really appreciate the good ones. This week, I’ve had a pretty even mix of days where I’m counting the minutes until the day is over, and days where I feel really great about things by the end of the day. Having so many moments where I can’t understand or speak very well makes all the moments where I DO have conversations and I DO process whats going on so much sweeter. It’s a good lesson to learn now too, cause I know that I’ve got way more difficult of days ahead of me but I’ve gotta remember that the bad days and the dark times of life just make the good times so much better. Can’t have as intense of joy without as intense of sadness, right? That’s my lesson for everyone this week, is that when life throws bad days your way, just remember it’ll only make the good days sweeter. It’s like the worse your dinner is, the better the desert tastes. I’ve also got this sweet scripture to share that’s been really inspiring to me as a missionary, and it’s Alma 60 of The Book of Mormon: verses 21-23. You’re a real homie if you take the time to look it up, it’s a real strong message.
Anyways you guys that’s gonna do it for this week. Thanks a bunch for reading up to this point, it means a lot cause this takes a second to write, but it’s all worth it. I’m gonna start a tradition where every P-Day at the end of every month, I’m going to make a fun drawing for just like a bumper so that time is kept track of. Basically 2 months in! Nuts you guys. Feels like I left literally yesterday. But I love you all, stay safe, and I’ll have more to report on next week!
1. 2/24
2. Homeboy Moisés
3. Tapanã
4. Comp caught me slumped in the park
5. Family night w/ some of the ward
6. Ham, egg and olive pizza
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