Monday, September 1, 2014

Week 8 - September 1, 2014

Hey There!

Well...this week went by painfully slow! A lot of stuff happened, but this week did not go very fast.

First of all I would like to give my own mother a shout out. I didn't realize how much she (and dad) did for me. I really took both of them for granted. I didn't really realize it until now but...I feel like I am the maid of the apartamento! And it is hard. From laundry, dishes, sweeping, dishes... There is a lot of cleaning to do here! Thank you mom and dad for cleaning up my messes and dealing with me for 18 years. I now feel a little bit of your pain!

So on PDAY last week our district did some jungle exploring! Literally we hiked through a tropical rain forest on Monday. The whole time I felt like I was suffocating, but it was definitely different! Would I want to go again? Probably not. Did I learn something new? Yes! That South America is not a place I would want to live...the spiders are really scary! But I loved reading all of the emails from today and last week, they were so great!

On Wednesday I came to the realization that I am actually making a little more progress in the language. I discussed this matter (the best I could in broken Portuguese) with my companion and he said something that really boosted my self-esteem haha. He said that when I talk in Portuguese, I don't have a North American, American Portuguese accent. AT ALL. He said I have a Pãolista accent. Weird huh?! He said the only real giveaway was that I talk really really slow and mix up my words at times haha. But that’s not the point! I speak with the tongue of a real life Brazilian...figuratively speaking. I’m not sure if my companion is being sympathetic or what, but he sounded pretty serious! I thing at last I'm beginning to see the fruits of my labor! Cool beans.

Next, Thursday we had a district meeting in which two other elders from our same district joined us. After our meeting that morning, we had lunch planned with a member from the ward who was planning on feeding 4 elders, not 6. So my companion and the other senior companion from the other companionship split and bought lunch for themselves while the other 3 elders and I went to the lunch appointment that we had planned. When we finished eating and returned back to our house, we found that my companion and the other companion decided to take naps. Cool, no big deal...it's whatever. They were asleep in my and Elder Magalhães room. Alrighty? Elder Magalhães on his bed, awesome. And Elder Calani on my bed...QUE DROGA. Using my pillow and my blanket. (The Lords pillow and blanket.) I guess what I learned from this experience is that nothing is really ours. Everything belongs to the Lord. Anyway...that night I got Skylar, Nick, and Mom's letter which made me feel better haha. Sky, I am super sad that Robin Williams is dead.

Nothing really happened for the rest of the week, but this one story, which I thought, was pretty cool. When Elder Magalhães and I were knocking doors earlier this week, we came up to this one house and my companion turns to me and says, "Sua vez" (your turn). He clapped his hands and a man pokes his head out a window and I proceed to say, "Boa tarde, tudo bem Senhor? Somos missionários da igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Satos dos Ultimos Dias!" He came out of his house and asked what the deal was and I proceeded to tell him just a little about why we were at his house and stuff, then Elder Magalhães took over when I didn't know what else to say. At the end of our little conversation we asked the man if we could come back to teach him a little more about our church. He said, "Look I´m Catholic, but because of your sincere effort to try to talk in Portuguese, you two can come back on Tuesday of next week." Sick. The Holy Ghost is a real thing! Kinda funny, but whatever gets us into their house I guess...

That is it for this week; I love every single one of you and have y'all in my prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Elder Buck

It was a good day!

My Companion - Elder Magelhães

My favorite guy

Our jungle hike

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