Serving in the Amazon!: Week Two in Manaus......

Earlier today, Elder Olivier emailed me a few short emails back and forth and then it abruptly ended! I was so sad, wondering what happened! Then hours later....we got the awesome email below! We found out the power had gone out in the city of Manaus! What a blessing that the power came back on for so many reasons! He got fans that came on and we got an awesome email!!

OI EVERYBODY!!!!

This week has been crazy. Elder Galván and I have been working super hard and walking a ton and sweating a ton. It is so hot here. Today the power went out for a few hours and it was torture. Normally everyone has fans everywhere in their houses, but today they wouldn´t work. But it is okay, we are still alive.

Elder Olivier with his companion, Elder Galvan...must be in front of the Amazon River.

Everyone drinks tons of soda here. I think some people drink soda more than water. There is this soda called Baré (it is a type of Guaraná) that they only have here. I´ve never had this much soda in my life. Plus my companheiro is pretty much addicted to coca cola. He drinks at least 2 liters per day.

Confession: I made spaghetti with spam today. I know Dad, I´ve been making fun of spam all these years, but not until now did I realize what a useful ingredient(?) it is when you are super poor and don´t have much time to cook. I still don´t know what kind of meat(?) it is.

This week we taught a lot. I love teaching, partly because 90% of the portuguese vocabulary I know has to do with teaching the lessons, and partly because it is awesome. The people here are so awesome. One of the other elders that has been here longer than me said that the people in this area are the most friendly out of all of the other areas of the mission. Everyone is so willing to learn about the gospel.

Baptism

Another Baptism

We had three baptisms this weekend. It was so awesome. We had one on Saturday and two on Sunday. We had them in between sessions of general conference, which was sweet. General conference was so good too, as usual.

Manaus is so crazy. It is a lot different from how I expected it to be. The culture is way different from the culture in the states. We pretty much walk into peoples´ houses and everyone gives us water and/or food. Everyone is super friendly, especially at church. And plus there are tons of members. Most people are outside a lot, so we always see members when we are walking around. It is amazing to me how productive I feel I can be even when I have to tell every. single. person. to speak more slowly. I notice more and more how many things happen that seem really "lucky" (we run into someone on the street that we are looking for, or a member gives us a random referral, or a random person asks us about the church and we give a lesson on the spot). I know that we are being guided in this work. I don´t know how to explain it, but somehow things keep happening and things keep perfectly falling into place. I know that when Jesus Christ was on the earth, he organized a church. And I know that this church is the same church that He organized, restored once again on the earth. Every day I can understand more and more portuguese, and at the same time every day I know more and more that this church is Christ´s church.