FREE AS A BIRD 🔗💥🕊

Welcome back folk. This week was nuttier than a walnut salad, to put it plainly. I got a LOTTA tales and a LOTTA flicks to share with you all from the week, so for this segment I decided to put two and two together and do some show-and-tell typa action... lets run it back 

1. FREE AS A BIRD 

We had ourselves some groundbreaking, EARTH-shattering changes to the mission this week folks. Turns out that after Elder Eddy pulled up to the Brazil Belem Mission, he talked with President Ferriera about all the extra rules set on the mission, and they decided that we should just stick to the ones established by the church. Or in other words... SPORTS ON P DAY AGAIN WOO HOOO!!! Since I stepped foot here in Brazil I haven't been able to step foot on any sort of field or court or anything, but now time's have changed. Actually... for us here in Canaa, not a tons changed, cause we can't even see each other in person. But still, craaazy big news! When the workshop started, I got my notebook out to write what President was gonna tell us, but I only ended up writing this down: 

For all the missionaries on the email list that have already gone to the other side, your sacrifices were not in vain. Now you can enjoy sports in the states and we can enjoy them here. So yeah, super big changes! Freedom at last! Monday night Elder Mortensen made cinnamon rolls to celebrate, so here's the flick of this tale

2. TERERÉ W/ IRMÃO JADER

So there's this member in our branch who loves this drink called tereré as much as life itself. It's basically just water or limeade with these mint leaves in it that make it clear up your nose and throat and stuff when you drink it, it's pretty cool. We've had the rule on our mission where we can't drink terere outside our house since I got here, but because the rule was lifted, the next time we were at his house we were able to tell him the good news. And you guys. I have never in all my days seen an old man light up with more sheer joy than I did irmão Jader the moment we shared the news with him. This man had probably been PRAYING for this to happen, he wanted to drink terere with the missionaries so bad it was crazy hahaha. It was so funny and we were all so happy that we got to drink terere with him, it was a good memory

3. BARBERSHOP BOYS 

One day this week we were talking in the streets of Southern maraba, looking for a reference but having no luck with the address. When suddenly, as we were searching, the door of this barbershop across the street opens and this dude of like 20 years flags us to come in. Obviously we heeded his call, and when we walked in I beheld the most legendary, styled out barbershop I have seen in all my days, as well as like 4 other 20 year old dudes all talking. When we walked in they were all super cool to us and there was one named Pablo cutting someone's hair. He explaind that it's his barbershop, that he gets everything custom styled and that he saw us looking lost outside the barbershop and told his friend to tell us to come in to drink water and take a break. A buncha super nice dudes, we got to talk to them about what we do and about the church and about futbol and it was a super great time that happened outta nowhere. We also took probably one of the toughest flicks I have to my name from the mission yet

4. GOD ONLY KNOWS 

a DIFFERENT day while we were strolling the streets, we were searching for yet another family the Branch Pres. reccomended for us to visit, but having no luck. It was getting late and we were ready to start heading back, but we had the idea to get ice cream before dipping seeing that there was a chiquinhos close to us, so we headed in that direction. Not even kidding you guys, as we're walking the road to get ice cream, this mom and her daughter pull up on bikes outta nowhere and flag us down. She introduces herself as daniella and tells us the missionaries visited her in the past and that she wanted us to stop by again. Turns out, this woman was the mom of the exact family we were looking for!! What are the odds of that?? Just by chance we decided to stay for a bit longer, and because of that decision we happened to find the exact people we couldn't find? That ain't no chance folks, that's a pure example that God knows his children, and that in some form he guided us and that family to find each other. We were able to meet her family and her kids, and they were all super cool! Her kids are already members, but because of some complications she hasn't joined the church yet. We got to talking, resolving, and she herself told us she wants to be baptized at the end of September. Gigantic miracle, and a good reminder that if we put ourself in the situations, God will make the miracles happen

5. SUNKEN SALMON 

On the same night we met that family, we invited the two boys, Rafael & Hyago to do some visits with us the next time we were in the area, to which they were super excited about! Later in the week when we pulled up, they were ready in their sunday best, water bottles and books of mormon in hand, ready to go missionary mode. It was super fun doing visits with these kids, they were baptized a little over a year ago and even though missionaries haven't visited them a ton they've been faithful in reading the book of mormon and going to church when they can. I felt once again super grateful that we got to find and meet this family, and that because of that we had this adventure with these 2 dawgs

Well yall I think this journey of ours is coming to a close. Hope it was marvelously enjoyable. Next week we have ourselves a big occasion where someone (not naming names) will be hitting one year on the mission () (Elder Emett) so you won't wanna miss it. Thanks for reading if you read, I love you all mightily and the gospel is true. Until next time