Buckle
up for this one.
Monday 13/3 -
Today, I didn´t really do much except that night I met up with
some other elders to get burgers. Everyone was talking about transfers
and one elder told me that he knew the transfers and that I would stay and
Elder Prado would be transferred. Another elder, an American, told me
that he felt that I would be transferred to Caicó and when he said that I felt
it too. Despite what the other elder said and the other rumors I heard saying
that I would stay, I somewhat knew that I was going to be transferred to Caicó
specifically.
Tuesday 14/3 -
Today, the news about the transfer came later than usual, about 11:00.
The ZL said "Elder Holdaway will be transferred to Currais Novos, Zona
Caicó, and his new companion will be the DL, Elder Cassiano." Except
for the news about my new companion, I wasn´t surprised at all. Elder
Cassiano is from Ribeiro Preto and was in my zone in my first transfer; Elder
Nhantole was my DL and Cassiano was the other DL. The zone Caicó is about
4-5 hours inland from the state capital, Natal, and is actually spread across a
few cities. Where my old area was a borough of the city, Natal. Currais
Novos is its own city and is actually two hours away from Caicó and the
ZLs. My new area has 4 missionaries; Elder Cassiano, Me, Sister Newman
(an American), and Sister Noble (a Brazilian). I´ll talk more about my
area later. I spent the rest of the day packing, and I visited some
people including Nathanael; the boy I baptized Sunday and his family,
and Ismael, my Ward Mission Leader, who is awesome - he served in Ribeiro Preto
and was called as Branch President in his FIRST AREA!!! I can't imagine doing
that. He served in various leadership roles on his mission and when he
was an AP, Elder Oaks visited the mission and spent the day with Ismael doing
divisions. He taught me a lot in these 13 weeks and he cried a little
when I said goodbye. Then we went to the Costa's for dinner.
Brother Costa and I talked a lot about our time in the military and I showed
him a little pin I have of the Special Forces unit patch with airborne wings.
He was a Brazilian commando which is kinda like the Navy Seals. He did a
lot of underwater demolition and he also parachuted; static and freefall.
He said that the military here has the upmost respect for the US SF unit patch
and anyone wearing it. He said he did a lot of work/training with
them. Dinner was great and it was hard saying goodbye to them, the best
and kindest family I’ve met yet here.
Wednesday 15/3 -
Today at 7:30 I said my last goodbyes to my
"birthplace" and we headed for the rodoviário which is a big bus/taxi
station where all the missionaries met up to travel and exchange
companions. I enjoyed talking to the other missionaries before my bus
left at 10:30. It was a small A/C-less bus as opposed to the nicer
buses that others got. We stopped at a pretty nice restaurant for lunch
and continued our long journey. The countryside here is beautiful and
green with small mountains jutting out across the land. It looks like a
greener version of Arizona. We got to Caicó and met up with our comps and
ZL's. We went to the ZL's house and chilled. We went to go out and
eat dinner, and walking around I saw THOUSANDS of stink beetles and the whole city
smelled like beetle. My shoes still smell like all the beetles I
massacred with my feet. The ZL's said it's not normal for them to be here
and they arrived whe
n we came. We at dinner (I had tapica recheado, which literally means stuffed tapioca. It's meat, eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, etc., stuffed in a crepe or tortilla made of tapioca – Its pretty dang good) and crashed. I didn't sleep that well because it was hot and those stupid beetles kept jumping and crawling on me. The next day we had zone meeting and afterwards we played Mafia which was fun. Then we ate lunch at a member’s house from the ZL's ward which was an hour away in the hot, hot sun. The members are bakers and they make little cakes, or scones and biscuits for a living and they sell to markets. It was interesting to see how they work. Then we went home to grab my things and went to the rodoviário to go to our area. Another boring trip. After being here for a few days (it's Sunday right now) I'll explain more about the area. Currais Novos, translated, means New Corral. With that you can guess that there’s plenty of ranches here. But, actually, this city, or town, is an old mining town. The city is in the middle of nowhere with one road in and one road out. The nearest city is at least an hour away. I love it here, and one reason why is because the landscape and climate here is like northern California or northern Arizona. There are shrubs, cacti, and rocky hills everywhere. The nights are a cool 70 degrees. The culture here is like that of the American Northwest as well. There is a local motorcycle club here and, at the moment, a motofest in the town square. I love it here and if given the choice, would never leave. That night we ate dinner with the sisters at an outside churrascaria.
Friday 17/3 -
We slept in to get needed rest after 2 long days of travelling
(and 2 weeks of sleeplessness for me) and went to get lunch at a restaurant
that a member works at and he paid for our meal. Then Elder Cassiano
showed me the area and we met a couple members. I went to the local supermarket
to get groceries.
Saturday 18/3 -
After lunch, we went to the chapel to visit with the branch
president, who wasn't there. We went to go to his house but met him on the way
and talked. He wants us to speak on Sunday. Then we went to
take açaí and then checked out the Motofest which was awesome. Hundreds
of bikers from different clubs were walking around with their cuts on, like the
Brazilian version of Sturgis. Luckily, I didn't see any
"one-percenters." I bought a pin of the state flag, Rio Grande
Do Norte, and a pin of an eagle with the words "motociclista" written
beneath it. Then we ate dinner at a snack shack that the branch president
owns and chatted with him.
Sunday 19/3 -
Today, we picked up some members and went to church. My
comp and I had to give talks, and I prepared what I thought was a pretty dang
good talk on how we can grow our testimony of the BoM, that would fill the 10
minutes allotted. I was first and wasn't too nervous to talk in front of
25 people. A little more than halfway in and right before the good part,
the 1st counselor nudged my leg and gave me the thumbs up like that was
enough. So, I quickly wrapped it up and closed. I don't think I
talked all that long or even went past the 10 minutes. He apologized
after I sat down and said something but I didn’t understand him, I still don’t
know what happened, but I hope it means they won’t ask me again.
That’s all folks, until next week. More
pictures in the blog.
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