This Week (8/3/20)

Elder Jones who left

We had transfer calls this last week, and transfers are on Wednesday. I'm staying here, and my comp is leaving. He's going farther south in the mission, and he's going to be a zone leader. I'm going to be with another reassigned missionary. We actually came to the mission at the same time. He's super cool. FSU also starts at the end of the month, and I have never been in a YSA ward or on a college campus. Well, I did a campus tour once and did baseball camp. But I don't think that really counts. I wasn't talking to people my age about a church they maybe have heard of and think is weird but in reality 99% of everything they have heard about is wrong. We don't have a Mormon Bible (it's the Book of Mormon), we don't have horns, we aren't Brigham Young's sons, we don't worship the devil, we don't worship Joseph Smith, we don't want to replace the Bible, we don't have dozens of wives, blah blah blah etc etc etc. (Not everyone thinks that way, but we have heard and seen some crazy stuff here in the this old Florida.) It'll probably be a little weird talking to people my same age. Probably. I dunno. We will see. This last week has been a good week. Real bueno if it were up to me to decide. 

Last Tuesday, we had a great district council. It was the last one in the transfer, and two people in our district are finishing their missions and going home. :/ Oh well. After district council, we had our classic after-district-council lunch. I went on trade off, and we went around and filmed a little video that turned out nothing like I had first wanted. But that's life sometimes: you have this great plan, and then you go out and do it, and literally nothing from your plan happens, and it still turns out good, but you're like meh okay could have been 10 times worse. Our institute class ended, and that is a big sad face because that class was so much fun. We were getting into some real good stuff in the Pearl of Great Price. We helped move some people this morning, and they were way cool. They gave us donuts.

After-service sweat

Wednesday was supa fun. We went to a member's house for dinner, and had a bunch of pizza, and then played this game that I have never heard of, and I ended up winning!!! By only 1 point but still, I won!!! We played 3 rounds, and the first round I got 0 points, 2nd 19 points, 3rd 15, and I ended up getting 1 point more than 2nd place. There's a first for everything, and that first is me winning at a game. We got home, and I ate 2 pieces of pizza right before bed, and I guess I never learned anything from my parents because we never got snacks right before bed, and now I know why. I also had to brush my teeth again, but that's beside the point. I went to bed, and my stomach was like "Mmmmm actually, nah we don't want this." I'm just laying there like but why don't you want this pizza??? Just digest it or something. That's literally your only job. My tummer eventually accepted its fate and ate the pizza into my intestines. And that's how the body works. No need to take a class because that's the gist of it. I was messing around with some film editing software, and after like 2 hours of nothing I used a different one that was not as good but actually worked. So that was nice. We also had interviews with President. Always good.

Thursday was wonderful. I finally got my video uploaded, and it was meh, good enough. Could have been much worse I think. But we drove up to the sisters in Thomasville to give them a baptism form because they didn't have one. We always wondered why a certain road was called Thomasville Road. Well, we quickly found out why when Google maps told us to go to Thomasville Road and stay on it for 47 miles or whatever it was. Thomasville Road takes you to Thomasville. I guess that never crossed our minds. I called a member back in Brazil for my language study, and it was good. The zone leaders came over and played with the golf club, and they accidentally threw it over the house trying to hit a practice ball to the moon. HAHAHAHAHA. There was a huge swing, and then we were like where's the club? Ran to the front of the house; right there on the lawn. He accidentally threw the club over the whole house. Nice. The Spanish sisters came over, and I scared them (not on purpose), and they were about to kill me. When somebody goes into a boxing stance, when a sister in your district you just scared goes into boxing stance, you actually run. At the gas station, we talked to a guy who thought Portuguese was cool! This guy was way cool.

The broken sledge hammer

Friday was quite the day. One of the elders went home today, and we did some more service in "the backyard." I felt kinda stupid because I broke a sledge hammer. For like 12 seconds I was like yes big muscles! then after that I was like nah, that was stupid. I hit it on concrete wrong, right on the neck, and the wood snapped. We went home with some taco stuff and a diet Sunkist or something. I dunno if I can do diet stuff because it's just kinda really gross. Like diet Dr Pepper. Had it once and was like mmm nah. Same with diet Mountain Dew. But diet Sunkist? Nope. Wouldn't really recommend. 

Saturday was pretty bueno, for many reasons. Realized that I have a year in the mission next month, we got transfer calls, and I got to call in over Zoom to my brotha's funeral. I didn't see him physically, but that's okay; his presence was there. The memories shared to honor his life were wonderful. It brought many memories back to my mind too. It was a wonderful service, and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of his life and he was able to be a part of mine and for the memories we made and the fun times we had. I love him. Take some time right now to tell somebody you love them. Thank God for the safety and health you have also. It is a wonderful blessing to be here. But on a different note, my companion is leaving to be a zone leader. I'm staying here. A few people in my district got transferred out, and one of the sisters went home too. We also went out and bought ant traps. We had like 12 ants in the house next to the sink. Quick fix? Wash the ants down the drain and get rid of the food crumbs. Long fix that will cost money? Go to the store and walk around the whole store and find some ant traps and then wait in line with literally half of Tally to check out and then go home and put 1 little box-looking thing next to the food on the sink. Hmm. I wanted to do the first option, but here we are with some ant traps. Oh well. 

Sunday was pretty nice. We went to church and took the sacrament to some people. I accidentally squished a little bug in my journal which is disgusting but what do you do? Somebody in the YSA got up to give a talk--some people are just naturally hilarious; he is one of them. I have only seen people on Zoom calls, and then when we see somebody in person we realize many things. Like how strong somebody is, or how tall somebody is, or how small somebody is. I dunno. I kinda expect just their face, then I see the whole body and I'm like I didn't think you would be 6 foot 3. We went to a member's house for dinner and had breakfast for dinner and a ton of desert. Homemade ice cream sandwich cookie things are super good. Just saying. 

And finally we have today, Monday. We bought like 4 things: water, juice, and something else, and razors for my comp. We went and signed "transfer journals." They are basically a yearbook, but it's just a book other people write in. Had some cake and ice cream because it was an elder's birthday. Nobody knew haha. That's what happens when you don't tell anybody. Now it's now, and we haven't done much since. We shipped a package for my comp. Shipping stuff is expensive I found out. 

Is this enough corn to make top ramen healthy?