(3/27/20)

Our messages from Benny this morning:

Area conference

Hey
Hello
y'alls there?
It's ya son.
And guess where he's at.
The CTM.
I'm not coming home today.
I got to sleep in a bed, so that was cool. A few missions didn't get on the plane and messed everything up and about 120 of us are here at the CTM again. But they are getting everything figured out. They are going to buy tickets again.
Brazil declared a national emergency, and now everything is going crazy, and a bunch of planes were canceled and delayed, so I think that's why the first plane was basically empty. And now they have to buy more planes, but we're going to be at the airport tonight at 9.
Presidente had to charter an entire plane for us just to get us to Sao Paulo. The CTM is actually closed, so we're the only ones here. Kinda cool actually. But I now understand why you (Beck) were always stressed when we flew haha. I have a lot of sympathy and empathy for you now haha.
Presidente chartered a plane for us from Goiania to Sao Paulo. We were at the airport from 2 or 3 pm until 1 or 2 am. Then the assistant to Presidente left on the plane for Los Angeles with a bunch of missionaries and our bags, but only one of our bags, so half the missionaries are in America, at home maybe. So one of Presidente's assistants was an American. He was helping everyone do everything. He was a designated leader by the police and the Church for us. He got on a plane for LAX; all of the planes the church bought were for LAX. Also some people's names didn't come up in the system; mine was one of them. It said I wasn't registered and didn't have a ticket. The planes for LAX were for all the missionaries, but because the first plane left half empty because an entire mission didn't get on, we don't have a plane because we're the last mission.
There was also every single American, Hispanic, and all other missionaries at the airport.
Then the airport closed because they don't have any more flights until the night, so they got us here (CTM) at like 3 or 4 am. We got to sleep, got some food, had a nice little meeting. I really love the Church: they tell us what has happened, what will happen, and then put some spiritual stuff in there. It really was awesome. And now we're here, and I am here to advise you that I'm not on a plane right now and hopefully I will be on a plane at like 10 at night for Atlanta and then Salt Lake.
They are on the phone with Delta right now.
Also I'm coming home with a beard because I don't have my razor haha.

Departure

(3/16/20)

Benny didn't have time to write a group email this week. Here are a few of his responses to family emails:

I wish I could go to the temple more, but I don't have a temple in my mission. I'll just have to go after! Dad talked a lot about food. I love food. I was sick again this week. Two nights ago on Saturday, we had a baptism. I didn't baptize because she wanted her husband to baptize. We got salgados after. They are little deep fried bread things--the equivalent of a cheese dog, but little and one by one. I have no idea how to explain, but that night I was barfing my guts out. I think it was because of the oil.

I saw 1 dirt bike this past week also, the first dirt bike I've seen here. Reminded me of riding. Got a lil homesick but promptly forgot about it because I was very sick that day. It was yesterday actually haha.

The humor is different here. A lot of people make jokes about marrying me to get to America. "Jokes." Ha. Ha. Not. I don't much like it when that happens.

We tried bringing people to other people's homes for church, but it didn't work real well. This week was really really really bad for numbers, and the zone leaders were NOT happy, hehe. Presidente sent us a text--we can send texts now with our flip phone. He wants to talk to us about something. I think it's the Coronavirus. It's kinda weird. Everyone is either freaked out and losing their minds or they say that Dengue is more dangerous. Pres Nelson is right when he said he wants to have more home-centered things. Here it is!

Love yalls, stay safe.

The Brazilian flag made from cupcakes. We went to a friend's
"non-farewell" last Sunday. She's going to Brazil.

We sent these pictures to Benny. He said,"I LOVE THE CUPCAKES!!"

Another Gun haha (3/9/20)

Red is his new area; starred is his new city.

Vamos la--here we go. I'm in Uberlandia, right now, in an area called Luizote. It's pretty cool. Our house isn't in our area; it's in the area of the sisters haha. Our apartment is pretty cool. Kinda a little old, but it's cool. This week was rather interesting, way better. My companion is Elder Periera. He trained my companion in the MTC. It's really hilarious to see all the pictures and hear the stories of Elder Havenar, haha.

Monday, I wanted to go home and pack my bags after the lan house, but my comp was like no. So we visited a few people. It was pretty great. He then said I can go to be late because I'm packing my bags. Then at 10:30 he was like Elder we need to go to bed right now. Why. Anyway, I finished at like 2 am, and he was not happy at all. Went to bed, and got up at 5 to go to the bus station and traveled to Uberlandia alone. The bus was,

Tuesday, the bus was kinda really old and the transmission was kinda really broken, so that was interesting. I got to Uberlandia, and all the missionaries were there, and that was way cool. My zone is way cool. I met most of them, and then we went and drove around with Presidente Santos. He's way cool. The members here are way cool. The area here is so cool. I'm not sure what else happened today. I'm kinda trying to get out of the rut of this is a long split.

Wednesday, dunno if it was today so I'll write it today. We were out making contacts and we talked with this way cool guy, and I was like can I use your bathroom and he was way hesitant and then I used the bathroom and he's got a gun and I was like pffttt put that lil pea shooter away. What does he think 2 19-year-olds will do with white shirts and ties? Oh well. Everyone thinks we're Jehovah Witnesses. Maybe he doesn't like them. Hmmm.

Thursday, planejhamento was good. We talked a lot. My comp is trying to learn English, and we didn't do much planning. We're both rather new, and we are learning everything the hardest way possible, through experience. I'm learning that we can talk later, haha.

Friday, we've got some people we're preparing for baptism next week, and we always visit at night, and they always have juice--mango juice, orange juice, all that good stuff, so good. It'll be the first baptisms I see in Brazil.

Saturday, we realized we spend a lot of time in people's houses and we need to not, so we helped somebody move for 4 hours, the exact opposite of what we needed to do. We need less than 1 hour in a house, not more that 4. Haha. It's all good though. They are so cool. Our mission president actually asked them to baptism, so that was way cool.

Sunday, I love church, honestly, and our chapel is way pretty and way new. A lil bit about Uberlandia--we have more missionaries here than any other city in our mission, and we could do a stake split or something but that's confusing and a lot of time and confusing. It reminded me of Arizona for some reason, but it was so nice to have a chapel. I never thought I would miss a chapel.

At the top: Goiânia is where the mission home is.
At the bottom: Uberaba is his old area.

No Time (3/2/20)

Pulling out a pre-mission picture.
Wish we had a current one.

I have no time. I'm a little annoyed, but not really.
Last week was Carnival, and this week Uberaba turns 200, well, today. Last week I had no time to write much, and this week I have even less time. Today we went to the market. I had the thought to call the lan house. My comp was like no. I asked 3 times. He said no 3 times. After the store, we went to the bank. Then the lan house was closed. Then the other was closed. Then we called a 3rd about an hour and a half away. They are open. Nice.
I'm getting transferred at 6 am tomorrow. I'm going to Uberlandia. I don't really know where, but I'm traveling alone which kinda sucks. It's only 2 hours, so that's not too bad.
I'll spare the details from this last week because this last week was rather hard. Not in the sense that the work was hard, but the sense that I just did stupid things. I know a few things, but for some things you have to bash your head into the wall to find out (or in my case, reassure myself) that the wall is hard. A drunk lady furiously screamed at us. Not a problem at all. The problem is that she is the mom of somebody we're teaching, and the whole street saw and heard about half of what happened, and now all the kids think we are bad people, and the adults too. This is very sad. In 3 Nephi 11 verse 21, it basically says the spirit of contention is of the devil. I need not say more. Also to add to that, my comp had to use the bathroom. He was rather annoyed that I didn't just walk away mid her screaming at us. We're on good terms again. But it seems to be that the day or the day after things are good again, things change. Oh well.
The rest of the week wasn't super eventful. We had lunch in our house Monday-Saturday. Tuesday they didn't give us money for lunch, and Thursday the other family didn't also. It's a good thing spaghetti is cheap. But when you eat spaghetti 5 days in a row for lunch and dinner, you will have diarrhea. Just a lil tip.
We have come across many drunk people. Some drunk people have literally nothing in their head when they drink, and they just drool and ask if Jesus is in your head and heart while touching your head and chest. Kinda weird. Then the other drunk people have knowledge, but when they make sentences everything contradicts. They say one thing and then contradict themselves, then contradict themselves again. Not many good things come from alcohol.
Okay, I'm being 100% serious right now: this is stupid how no computer here has a usb port that works. I'm an hour and a half away from our other lan houses, and these computers don't work too? Whatever. In 2 years, come to Brazil with me, and I'll show you the things that I tried taking pictures of.