Bom Dia familia!
Monday/Tuesday 01/11
I met an Elder at the airport, Elder Giles. We talked a bit and I mentioned I was in the
army and whatta ya know he’s in the navy!
We talked a lot and it was nice to have a buddy to talk about the
military with, a little piece of home. He
works in intel with special operations so we got along well. He and I talked
mostly but we met all the other new missionaries about 12 of them. The flight was ok. When we arrived at the CTM (MTC) we were
oriented and got our companions and rooms.
My companion's name is Elder Franklin from Layton, Utah. Elder Giles is in our room too with his
companion, he’s from American Fork and his companion is from Texas. I’m so mad because we have bars on our
windows that let the air in but we can’t see out because there’s a clothing
optional swimming pool next door, everyone else has sweet views of the
city. We had a bunch of orientation
classes and a devotional that night that was pretty good. All I can say about the food here is that it’s
a gamble. Its super weird and it can be
either good or bad. Every single dessert
is some form of gelatin. The best part
is the endless guarana on tap. I drink
it every day for lunch and dinner. They
also have fresh juices and yoghurt drinks like kefir but better. There´s some really cute sisters here! like my
dad used to say if he actually said it was that when you go on a mission the
markets not closed, your just window shopping.
Wednesday 02/11
Today I woke up at 6 instead of 6:30 to work out with elder Giles. We ran some laps and did pull ups and pushups. I thought it was sea level here but I can
feel it in my lungs that it’s not. Also Don Winter said I should do squats every day but I won’t need to at the CTM
because we live on the 6th (really 7th) floor and we can’t use the
elevator. Every day for breakfast we
have paninis which are just a roll with cheese and ham. It’ll get old quick. We had a class and we took pictures with the
CTM president, Presidente Grahl. Then it
was just orientation classes all day and introduction to Portuguese. That night we had interviews with our branch
presidency for district leader who´ll lead about 12 other missionaries. When my turn came I tried to speak as much Portuguese
as possible which actually turned out pretty well. When he came up to us after everyone was done
he said the person he chose was chosen by the Spirit and wasn’t his
choice. In broken English he said Elder
Holdaway will be your first district leader.
I had to double check to make sure he said the right name :) As excited as I am to take on this responsibility,
I just hope I can lead my district to success, progression, and
righteousness. They serve us a snack
every night at 9 which is pretty cool, like a juice box and chocolate. We got two new Brazilian roommates today; one
can speak pretty good English and the other not a lick. Hopefully they can help us learn quickly.
Thursday 03/11
Language class all day.
Imagine taking a language class in high school but you don’t learn the
basic grammar or words on you first day, they just talk to you in Portuguese
and hope you catch on. Like a big game of charades. And instead of one hour its 6, my mind is
muita cansada. We also had to prepare a
lesson to an "investigator" in Portuguese. Batismo de fogo. We taught him about baptism which went ok but
we forgot to actually ask him to be baptized.
Oh well.
Friday 04/11
Today we were in class all day. The lesson with our investigator went pretty
well and I was able to teach him things in Portuguese from memory without it
being written down. Our Brazilian
roommate shared an amazing thing with us that night. He said that he knew all of us before, and I
was like yeah the premortal life, but he said he had a dream that he was at the
CTM and he recognized us all from the dream and that’s how he knew to serve a
mission. He said that growing up he was
always in trouble like street fights and stuff (he’s a mui tai fighter) and he
always felt the dark spirits around him all the time. But now he feels the
Spirit of God all the time. He also said
that his sister can see angels since she was a kid, which used to freak him out
but now he gets it, He said like if she
saw you in a room she can see the angels that surround you. Elder Lira is going to be the prophet someday,
mark my words.
Saturday 05/11
Another long day of studying. We get an hour for exercise every day for
like volley ball or basketball. We
prepared a pretty good lesson for our investigator about baptism by authority
(because he was baptized catholic) but when we were teaching him I pulled out
the restoration pamphlet and didn’t realize it was the English one until I
started reading it. I tried translating
it on the spot but only said "john baptism apostle priesthood authority
joseph smith" it was embarrassing. Despite
that I committed him to baptism and church!
My companion’s not doing so well.
the other day he was really down about the language so I talked to him
during companion study and shared with him D+C 58 3+4. I decided to do a
district fast for fast Sunday.
Sunday 06/11
Conferences and meetings.
My companion is not feeling well, so I gave him a blessing before dinner to comfort him. I’ll
try to be there for him.
Sorry my grammar's so bad I have limited time to write.
I love you all and it is hard here but I try and strengthen
those who need it more than me. Until next time!
Love,
Elder Holdaway
