Also bro is gonna be the next ward pianist. Dude's never even seen the hymn book but because he's such a goated musician, sat down and started playing the songs perfectly. Un-shoutout to the bishop who walked in front of me when I went to take a pic. He's gotta be jealous of the talent hah. Anyways you guys That's gonna do it for the Buritizal Chronicles. Listen to the Tabernacle São Paulo event, music invites the spirit faster than like, anything else. Also, I hit 1 year and 6 months on the mish today!!! 3/4 of the way there, Senior year's starting up. We gonna keep moving up up up 📈working harder and harder every day. Elder Doman and I are gonna leave it all on the table this transfer. Peace out folks, dream sweet in sea 🌊🌑🌺 ELDER HILLSTEAD

So there we was... Elder Mortensen and Elder Hillstead, 8:50 at night on the street, the middle of the world, with nothing but a bunch of rain pouring down on us and a dream: find acai.

Usually acai stands are a breeze to find - there's typically 1 or 2 on every street, especially here in macapa. But because of the hour, all the stands were closed. We asked folks on the street where we could find an open stands, but every face just shook their head and told us to give up on acai for the night. "Elder Mortensen, we are not going home without acai in hand," said Elder Hillstead, and with Elder Mortensen agreeing, the two took off running into the night. Street by street, drenched, but with hope burning bright.  

The journey was difficult. Along the way, a couple of evil beasts got startled (dogs) because we were running in the street and started to chase after us. I looked over at Elder Mortensen's heels and the dog got this  close to biting him, but we made it out alive. Alive, but without acai... what's even the point? We both realized this task was more dangerous than we had figured, so being a goated missionary, Elder Mortensen suggested that we say a prayer and ask to resolve this sooner than later. We pulled off to the side of the road, and consulted the Lord in our mission, and without a minute to spare we took back off into the night. 

Side note: whenever acai stands are open, there's usually these red lantern/lights in the front to signal that they're open. The whole night we'd seen not one with the light turned on, but after a couple more minutes of searching, we saw at the END of the road, a single acai stand with the light turned on. HOPE.

We made it to the stand, the guy was still selling acai! I will not mention the price! The acai market has been a nightmare these days - whenever it starts to rain it doesn't grow as well, plus it's harder for the acai dudes to climb the trees to be able to get the berries, so because it's been raining almost daily the price has gone way up. But it didn't matter. The deed was done, and the mission was complete. Like solider's returning home from battle, we limped back to our house with the most victorious feeling in our chests. 

We walk in the door, and there sat Elder Moraes and Elder Fernandes waiting for us to come back home. "Why'd you guys take so long?" Elder Fernandes asked. We explained our quest - that it wasn't easy. The trials and tribulations. The beasts defeated along the way, and the faith grown. Then we showed them the acai in hand, declaring that we had been successful and our hope hadn't wavered.

Then Elder Fernandes explained that he had sent us a pin of that acai stand that was open, and if we had just looked at our phones we would have found it instantly.

Oh well! 

So yeah with the super long introducion and the best story from the week aside, we had our Multizone conference this last week! In case you couldn't tell, the boys at Zona Cidade Nova pulled up to Macapa, and Providence was staying with us. Dude it was so great to see these guys and kick it with E. Mortensen again, kid's such a dawg. Lemme share the rest of the flicks from the week to give you all a peek at what else went down 

Monday: after p-day ended, the whole zone walked over to a restaurant called "Pizza Prime" where we were about to eat a sickening amount of pizza with Cidade Nova, the goons at the staff & President and his wife. 

Shoutout to the fellas Elder Kellogg & Elder Aldridge, but un-shoutout to mac and beef chopp 

Tuesday: Multizone babyyyy, this was the crew! It was so much fun, and President and the others gave some great advice on the power of prayer and importance of consistency doing the small and simple things

This is a historical photo we've got here. We convinced the other boys that arrived here recently to buy more giant ties, and we all pitched in to buy one for Pres too  it was so funny. We all signed out names on the back and I wrote out "ZONA MACAPA" so that he never forgets about the legacy we've got here to look like cartoon characters. He was very happy to receive it! 

President and Sister Ferreira  goals you guys

The conference starting up (ft. Me and Elder Moraes with matching ties ) I don't remember who but someone said the design looks like something from SpongeBob 

Fighting to the death in the middle of the world  (ask Elder Mortensen he'll tell you I won) 

hose who know know 

The squadddd  (shoutout from left to right E. Mortensen, Lee, Fernandes, Moraes, Margoni, M. Martins, Almeida, and especially the kid on the left who pulled up to take the flick with us) 

GINORMOUS dog attacked E. Mortensen 

Alright Gmail ain't letting me add some other photos, but some other big W's from the week:

   - Saw THE kid Elder Klinger  dude's alive and well and has already got 3 months in the mission office! So good to catch up with him

   - Shoutout to Elder L. Oliveira for eating I think 20 pieces of pizza?? Holy cow kids a legend, and shoutout to Elder Rust for trying then failing 

   - Took a sweet polaroid w/ Elder Hilton that it won't let me include here  but shoutout Elder Hilton #hillbrotha4ever 

   - Took like 3-4 other polaroids with other folk at the conference, so we were flicking it up all day long 

   - Shoutout Maren for the polaroid camera, put that john to use this week  such a thoughtful gift! 

   - After the conference ended, the APs and an assistant slept over at our place and it was so chill, shoutout E. Viera  E. Goatazo  and E. Pimentel 

   - We were teaching our pal Gustavo this last week and he was going to have his baptism, then outta nowhere his mom took him on a trip to Afua on Saturday without telling anyone  next week though! Ill have more to say about his story 

   - Hit another chill division with Elder Lee this week, and dude has grown so much! Fat shoutout to AP Lee 

   - We went to buy some stuff later this week, and Elder Moraes' card declined  shoutout Elder Moraes for being a solider and using all his money for a baptismal interview in Santana hahahah

   - While I'm at it with all the shoutouts, shoutout to the Members of the Buritizal Ward, these guys are unreal. SO generous and SO friendly, it's been a massive priviledge to have been with these examples for 4 months til now. They ain't reading this but everyone oughtta know they're the best there are 

   - We had 1 friend at church this week, and when bro pulled up he gave Elder Moraes and I freshly picked roses  honestly not sure what to make of this one but it happened 

Aight this is already getting long but hey I wanted to share something super neat that President shared with me this week. 

In boxing, the fighter doesn't lose when he gets knocked down, he loses when he doesn't get up.

Perfection is something that we only achieve in the next life. Whatever the struggle is that you're going through right now - remember that God doesn't expect perfection, but he expects us to keep giving our all! We can't stay knocked down. He have to get back up after every blow, and return to the straight and narrow path of Christ, as difficult as it may be. Involve the savior in your difficulties, pray to him always, and you will find force in things where you otherwise never could. 

Thanks y'all for reading, talk to you next week!