A Blur of a Week (8/2/21)

We had a nice week over here in Trindade. We had a zone conference, did some more of My Plan, had a nice fast Sunday, a few soccer games may have been watched, we bought and ate a lot of chocolate, went to a youth activity, and I am attempting to learn the piano again. 

Our zone conference was a good one--my last one in the mission--and I am grateful. I have always enjoyed zone conferences, but I dunno. I'm kinda in the get-me-outta-here and I-don't-want-to-leave limbo tug of war. This has been my life for 2 years now, and I don't really know how to do much else. Being a missionary is seriously great. You have to worry about like 3 things, and that's it. You get to go to a new place that you may or may not have ever heard about and meet new people and bring a special light to the lives of others. It is a fun life, a rewarding life, yet a difficult one at times. 

In My Plan, I thought I had bamboozled the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. It was about Institute, and I was like yeah yeah I'll do that after my mission, clicked on the link, and then promptly went back to the program and clicked next only to find out they bamboozled me. I had to put in a specific Institute class, what the address was, when it started, etc. So I went back and actually looked at the classes and such. It turned out well because I remembered the Institute classes I took in Tallahassee as a missionary, and they were super fun. Long story short: the Brethren are serious about you taking Institute and continuing your learning after your mission. They don't want your mission to be the peak of your life. 

This too is my last fast Sunday in the mission, and I got up there and said like 3 things about love, not related to each other, probably really confusing, then sat down and did the classic, what did I say and did anyone understand me? Oh well. At least I have the excuse that this isn't my mother tongue.

There's a store here called Lojas Americanas. It's basically American stores. I'm serious when I say Brazil has everything America has but just a little different. I bought an obscene amount of chocolate that I do not plan on eating. I thought it would be nice to give some to my comps also; then we got home, and they opened up bags of chocolate too. So much for that idea haha. It's fun though--so far my favorite is a dark chocolate with little bits of orange and another with cranberry. Some good choices. I'm basically a chocolate connoisseur. 

The youth activity was actually awesome. I haven't been to a youth activity for a while, and we definitely stood out like a sore thumb--3 people wearing white shirts and ties in a really big park--but that's kinda the point of being a missionary, right? That's kinda the reason why we wear what we wear. We built a tower for King Benjamin out of spaghetti noodles and gummy things. My team ended up winning, and I was pretty proud of that. I started to enter a stage that prophets have warned us about, which is being lifted up in the pride of my heart. You ever heard of the Lamanites, or the Nephites at the end and kinda in the middle? Yeah, that was me (not really). I was then promptly humbled when we did our 2nd activity of taking pictures of plants and insects. It's a little hard to do that when you don't have a phone hahaha. But we managed to take 5 pictures: 3 trees, a moth, and an ant. Come to find out, other people took like 30 something pictures so I definitely lost that one. God was just helping out my pride and humbling me (I hope the sarcasm is coming through on this).

I have picked up trying to learn the piano again. I think this is the 3rd or 4th time on my mission I have tried this. I just love the sound of the piano. My comps in Florida thought I was weird because I wanted to listen to Rachmaninov or Chopin. It is a little weird, but I like it, I like other music, too; don't worry. But with this song I have managed to choose one of the absolute hardest songs ever for me to try to learn. I think this song is hard for people who actually know the piano haha. I manage to do that a lot. I see something and I want it and it turns out to be $76,000 or impossible for me to learn haha. But, where there is a will there's a way. I was having a really hard time reading the notes and so I said a nice lil prayer and then I managed to make it through the first page and a little bit into the 2nd page. We have a merciful God, people; I love Him, and you should too. 

But in short, I have learned that God will never stop teaching us and loving us. I dunno why I thought He would stop teaching me things at the end of my mission, but I believe we'll be learning from Him until we are long gone from this earth. Spirit world, 100% sure He will keep teaching us. The millennium, 100% He's going to be teaching us. Jesus too. That'll be fun. Imagine teaching an Institute class with Him there, or having Him physically present in a missionary lesson. I'm rambling, but I hope you can see and learn the lessons God is trying to teach you this week. I'll see y'all soon. Stay safe and have fun!