Te Amo

Sunset on a Boat

Yeah so, we just kinda were working this week. You know that message about happiness and all we kinda just, told people about it, and talked about the baptism of this perfect man named Jesus. It was AMAZING! No one really wanted a change in their life this week so we were really just planting a lot of seeds. We have been talking to anyone and everyone, really just shifting people like chaff. We have been blessed by the people here in Barcarena they are truly amazing! 

Elder Belo - TRAINER at Subway

Tuesday we saw some interesting things. Spiders the size of my hand. Dead Bullfrogs bigger than my head. Pretty cool! I can´t understand any of the names here so I really let my companion write them down and I repeat the names after him. Its intense! A little about my companion. Lived in Belem his whole life. Convert of 4 years, went to school in the Oregon as a transfer student, and knows the Shaws in Eden. He lives in Belo Horizonte and speaks okay english. Its a blessing for me so that I can understand lessons in depth. 

Wednesday had District meeting with the Zone. Our district is awesome, cause its me and Elder Belo with some great sisters. 

ZONE MEETING

Thursday and Friday we headed to Belem for the Mission meeting. President taught that better baptisms doesn't mean less baptisms, it just means we aren't teaching as well as we can be, which i think is true. Had some subway, which was just a little piece of america in my day. Any piece of america at anytime is truly amazing! Mom, tell Andrew Weenig i had the Jesus Guarana and it was AMAZING!

Saturday we had a lot of lessons planned, but only taught a couple and made more and more contacts. Its good because we really are just planting seeds. I had a little bit of an idiotic new missionary moment. We have this pull up bar, yep you know where this is going, and an elder asked if I could flip around. What a great idea! This only holds 200 lbs, add my force, and WHAP! landed flat on my back. Couldnt breath for 10 seconds and for the rest of the day, I felt like I was carrying 20 pounds on my hips from the pain.

Flooded street after rain

Sunday, oh get ready, woke up and forgot I had a talk for 20 minutes in sacrament meeting. So I spent the morning stressing and really just praying for guidance. Put in a little bit of scripture magic and BANG! Gift of tongues. It was amazing letting the spirit absolutely flow. I could feel my tongue loosened and the words came easy! It was great! But not the craziest thing! We got time for CTM or training the youth for missionary work and in the middle of the training, a bunch of people started running around screaming and yelling. Turns out a kid was having a heart attack. It was interesting watching the process of these members in the blessing. First lathering his hair with oil and then blessing him by casting out a devil. Its amazing to see, though the concept is a little off, the lord gives us blessings based off of understanding. These people understand bad health as a cause of a demon and because they are faithful, the boy was able to breath normally. It was really an eye opening experience! The priesthood is the power of god. We are truly blessed by his love and authority!

Te Amo e Boa Semana!

Elder Della-Piana 

Bacarena

Oi Meus Amigos! Tudo Bem! Desculps por os duas semanas! A LOT has happened since last week! So grateful for the opportunity to serve here! A little about this area, we actually have two duplas (companionships) serving here in Barcarena. As you may have guessed they are poor. But like not just poor but, wood house poor. It´s pretty sad! We have about 30 members in our branch and another 30 in the other branch! We have a solid group of youth that really have helped us a lot with missionary work! I LOVE this area because, it´s all about love and helping people out of a state of ignorance. I´ll talk about that later, I gotta go through the week.

FIRST ZONE CONFERENCE

Apartment in BACARENA

So first day we are flying to Belém on a Tuesday! and I sit down next to a man that is really just talkative. And I was sitting listening to whatever the heck he was saying in the language they call Portuguese and having the other Brazilians repeat it for me. After his 30 minute rant about families, we talked about the Book of Mormon and families and he talked about how he was going to visit his mother. i testified of how through this great church and through the ordinances of temples we can be with our families forever, then gave him a pass along card to learn more. It was dope! K arrived in Belém and I was going to call home. I had an English companion with me and he said as soon as the plane landed he was running to call home. I said I´d follow. As soon as we land, he books it off and I´m stuck in the back of the plane where all you can eat is a frozen fish head. Luckily came with a turnip and a spork. He takes off and we don´t know where he is until he returns saying he had to borrow a phone from one of the only English speaking people there. it was crazy. We had some rice and chicken for lunch talked about mission rules and then had pizza with ACTUAL TOMATO SAUCE! It was pretty louco! 

Bacarena

Next day wake up and head around town in this little taxi for the passport certification which was fantastic. Then we got on a little boat, almost a ferry boat but not quite and rolled on down the river with some CCR rolling through my head! There was a storm so the waves were just bouncing the boat and by bouncing I mean like a little skip. I felt like I was balancing on a medicine ball on top of a pole. Crazy! Arrived and went to lunch which was chicken and rice. Then went around to lessons and half the time didn´t know what they were talking about. it was good

The 3 of March was when we went to zone conference! We hopped on a bus and rolled out! its awesome bouncing around on an uneven street with a bus driver you can´t tell is drunk or not. It was like with the boat captain, every driver or sailor´s names got to be Captain Morgan. I started seeing dogs everywhere and every time you gotta look twice to see if they´re breathing! really sad... Zone meeting was dope, i got a pic for y'all! On the way back, we had to walk, but we were trying to hitch hike and this one guy lets us hop into the back of his truck! It was sooooo sick! Taught some good lessons and other stuff!The 4th just felt good! Guess what we had for lunch? chicken and rice. I´m amazed i havent had fish yet! And also i think every chicken is a free range chicken here, cause they are freaking EVERYWHERE! you can step outside without stepping on a chicken. We call that chicken leg. HAHA punny punny! 😄 Had a baptism and invited an investigator Mr C and he is amazing! Loves everything and follows through on everything! the thing about the people here is that they are all lazy and if they got a church, well uh better move on down the line! But we are really stressing Christ and the organization of churches and eternal families because a lot of people don't live together. This day we got drenched! It rains every day during the winter and we were soaked! INSANE! 

Then Sunday! We rested from all of our labors and just felt the peace! I was really suprised at how calm it was I loved it! Lunch🐔. We only had a handful of investigators come to church. But we are really hoping we got gold here in Barcarena. You just gotta do a little sifting! 

The youth here are cool! They party at the chapel every night, its cool! We are playing basketball today so im pumped! We get to play every monday at the chapel! Music is BLASTED EVERYWHERE! it is so loud and obnoxious and i don´t know the lyrics. Churches have drum sets and the hardest part is i cant go and play. Yesterday, during weekly planning we heard this noise sounded like a bird but outside our door! went to check it out, a little little kitten just meowing. SOOOO adorable! We had to shew it away but it is still around the corner just meowing away! 

My companion is Elder Belo and he just serves me. He is everything I could ask for and more! Incredibly patient and diligent! He will forcefully and physically remove me from ironing my clothes because he wants to do it!

Read about Mormon, read about how the choices in our alives truly affect us. He has some great words and is one of the prophets didn´t suffer personally but, suffered in the stiffneckedness of others. It´s like the mission. I got the truth, but you wont find out if its true. But its okay. If it were easy, everyone would join!

Muito Amor