Monkey
Hola, this week I figured I’d try something different: a voice recording. I’ve seen missionaries do it before, and I thought it was pretty cool, but I just never did it, so I figured I’d try it this time. I’m kind of lazy right now, I gotta admit, which is sort of why I didn’t write last week. But for this week, yeah, the past two weeks have been pretty good. Starting a new transfer, getting to know the new district—they’re all really cool. It’s gonna be a good last transfer.
Last week was pretty good. One day, we actually went bowling, so we all got together and went to the mall. The elders just kind of walked around or sat around while the sisters bought about 20 new outfits, so that was kind of fun. Afterwards, we went bowling together. The bowling alley was probably the most rundown one I’ve ever been to. In the lanes, there were patch marks on the floor that looked like a driving range at a golf course. It was just horrible, and all the bowling balls were about 30 years old. Despite all that, I scored 141, which I think is pretty good, especially considering the condition of the lanes. I just got over a sore throat, so my voice isn’t great right now, but that was still pretty fun.
This past week, we also had zone conference. Our mission is actually splitting in about two weeks, so as of the first of July, it’ll be official. Our mission president had two big conferences. We have six or seven zones in the mission, and usually, it’s two zones in our area, Port and Port North, but this time we had Queen with us, which is the zone south of us. So it was three zones total, and we all got together. It was a pretty good conference; we learned a lot. We also had the opportunity to have Nathan Pacheco perform for us. For those who don’t know, he’s a very good singer and speaks Portuguese very well. His Brazilian accent is actually really impressive, especially after about 20 years of not being on the mission. We were all impressed.
Lots of the other missionaries haven’t seen us in a while, which was pretty funny. For the past two transfers, we’ve been in a new house in Spain. We opened up a new area, so we have a new apartment. Our stove is induction, so it uses magnets to heat up the pan. The pan has to be a certain type, or else it won’t work. Our stainless steel works, as long as it’s flat. We have a super small pan that works, but it doesn’t really fit much, so it’s kind of a hassle to try and cook a lot of things. Last transfer, I asked for a big pan. I thought "pan" in Portuguese was "ella," but it turns out it’s not. So I asked for a massive "ella," and they did their job—we got a massive pot. It’s about 56 gallons! So this transfer, I asked for a big "frigideira," which is Portuguese for pan. I got the Portuguese right this time, and we did get a massive pan, but this one doesn’t work with the stove. So hopefully, next transfer, we’ll get the right one. It’s been a funny situation, and we’ve been joking about it a lot as a district.
Another adventure during conference: Elder and I have some friends that live about five miles out from Espinho, and there’s no transport out there, so we decided to set aside a whole day to go visit them. They’re five friends, and we wanted to give them copies of the Book of Mormon. We set out after lunch, met with one friend, gave them the Book of Mormon, and shared a little spiritual message. Then we ran into a member and were able to give a pretty good spiritual thought. He shared his testimony and told us all about his conversion story, which was really cool. We talked about how everyone receives revelation and answers to prayers in different ways. It could be instantly, or it could take hours, days, weeks, or even years—but the answers will come. I’m not sure what we said that really touched him, but he really liked it. It was a spiritual experience.
This week, we’re going to Burger King, so that’s awesome! After meeting a few more friends and giving them copies of the Book of Mormon, we made the long walk back—about a two-hour walk. I think we walked for five or six hours total that day. Lots of walking, but it was super fun. The Portuguese countryside is really beautiful. I’m really soaking in these last moments.
I don’t want to make this recording too long, so I’ll wrap it up here in about a minute. Today was pretty cool. It was a bit rainy, but we went to the zoo. There’s a zoo up north of Porto, so we were able to see a bunch of monkeys, a few alpacas, tigers, and a big reptile room with lots of pythons and boas. It’s a small zoo, but it was pretty good. There were bears and other animals. The parrots were really friendly; some came up to the cage and started talking to us, which was pretty fun.
Maybe I’ll do another one of these next week. I’m not sure, but I’ll try to write a few things too. We’re about to go play Skull King and eat dinner, so it might be a little difficult to write something after playing a game, but here you go. Hope you guys have a great week, and I’ll talk to you soon. See you!
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