Missionary Monday - Week 3 in Noronha
This week has been a rough one on the body.
On Tuesday I was on a division and a member just gave us money for lunch and when we were in the supermarket I found out that Brasil doesn't really have bacon. They sell square raw chunks of a pig and you cut your own bacon. I was pretty distubed by this at first, but then I made it and it was actually pretty awesome because you can make it as thick as you want.
This week the area authority toured our mission. It was Elder Mazzagardi, I think. We had to wake up at 4 a.m. to get there on time just so that we could stand on the stage for 30 minutes waiting to take a picture. I only understood about half of what he said, but when I had it reexplained to me afterwards it was pretty sweet. During the Q and A session he went into some pretty deep doctorine. That is my kind of thing.
The next day we had to wake up at 4 a.m.again to go to the federal police to be a registered resident of Brasil. It took forever. Then we we left and had been driving for about an hour when we realized we were missing two Elders. Ha ha.
Most nights when we are out doing our thing Renato (Renato is one of the boys he baptized last month) will follow us around and make visits with us. That is a good time. Some how we ended up beat boxing and he recognized Billy Jean and started singing along to it. It cracked me up. Then the rest of the night we sang american songs that he knew.
Thanksgiving was a little depressing. We got pizza to celebrate, but it wasn't much of a celebration, because we get pizza like three times a week anyway. I think I am going to be done with the pizza though. It would be one thing to have for lunch or something, but eating 4 chocolate filled pieces of pizza at 10 o clock at night is messing me up.
They drink soda with every meal too and that is killing me. I went like 3 three years drinking barely any. I am really starting to like it though. They have this kind that is unique to Brasil and it kind of tastes like cream soda and I didn't like it at first, but now I drink way more than I should. I am worried about my teeth.
I get quite a bit of insight on the mission being with the zone leaders and I know I have only been here 3 weeks, but I'm not sure if I like the attitude of the mission. Statistically, our mission is the 2nd highest baptizing in Brasil and 1st in obedience. That looks really good on paper, but the missionaries aren't really happy. The expectations are so high and everyone is pretty much under a magnifying glass. You report your numbers everyday and have to give a play by play of everyone with a date. Not a whole lot of charity going on.
I'll deal with that when I am senior companion though. Right now I am just enjoying not being accountable. The reason I mention all this is because I would tell you more about who we are teaching but we don't really have relationships with anyone because they come and go so fast. They are just statistics.
If you have anything that will help me from getting cavities that would be nice. We eat lunch at 1 and then don't get home till 9:30.
Have a good week.
Elder Beck
Pic - We came home one night to find this guy chillin over our sink. I didn't handle it very manly.
