Yo whats up gang!
So this week I actually have lots of cool stories!
So first off I am officially the oldest elder in the mission which is way freaking weird!
Elder Garlick went home which was also way weird but this last week went out with a bang
First off Elder Garlick and I had our birthdays this week. We had to go to Pitanga to do some interviews which was interesting because of some huge strike going on right now. We got there at night and had to leave at like 7 am to avoid all the angry truckers. When we got home I walked in the house and Elder Moreno and Elder Oliveira decorated the house and bought a cake and a bunch of elders were there for a little surprise party before all of us had to go to Curitiba for the mission tour. Elder Holland came on my birthday which was absolutely incredible but it was quite the struggle to get from Guarapuava to Curitiba because the entire country is on strike right now because of gas prices here so all of the semi truckers stopped working and blocked off all the highways. that also means that nothing is getting transported so all of the gas stations don't have gas in the country and there are no cars in the street anymore. On the highway leaving Guarapuava they blocked off the roads for nobody to get in or out unless it was a chill reason to leave so we got our van who luckily had enough gas in his van to get us to Curitiba and back. We got to the border and all the truckers stopped us and asked why we wanted to leave and we were like yo we are just missionaries plz let us by and they did which was a blessing. Then we got to Curitiba. the meeting with Elder Holland was incredible but it was cut a little short because the airport had limited fuel for the planes so he almost wasn't able to leave and had to get a different plane to get out of Brazil.
He said and taught some incredible things and his testimony is so incredible that it's impossible to hear him talk and not know that this is Christs church.
There were two things he said that really stuck with me. The first was that he said "the church of Christ will always be progressing there will never be any U-turns or wrong directions but will always be based on eternal progress. make sure that is always true in your own life"
and the second was "The mission should affect every single day of your entire life. If that's not true for you, shame on you and if I cant help you guys understand why that is true, shame on me"
Also last Holland quote was "you cant have a million dollar experience putting in 20 cents of effort"
Basically Holland just motivated me to finish strong and be the best person ever cause he is truly a beast. Basically the best birthday present I ever could have received!
When we were in the van on the bus home the whole zone started singing happy birthday and the sisters had made two cakes so we stopped at some random bus stop and all ate cake together so needless to say it was a pretty lit birthday.
Earlier in the week we were at one of the families we are teachings house. The dad travels for work and is only home on the weekends. but one day while we were there he called saying he was working when this random drunk guy walked up to his back and stabbed him like 7 times. So he came home and he was all cut up but nothing to serious happened luckily. The guy that stabbed him went to jail. A couple days later we went and got the kids of the family to bring them to a soccer night at the chapel and when we brought them home after, the mom was crying in the front of the house saying the guy had gotten out of prison and came to their house to find the dad and was all crazy trying to hurt the family so the whole family ran away and it was pretty nuts. The police couldn't even get there because they don't have gas cause of the strike so its been pretty crazy these days!!
The stores don't have meat, milk, bread, or fruits and vegetables anymore so hopefully this strike ends soon so we can keep working normally cause it has been crazy!
Anyways this week was awesome! i love you all!
pics: the district
birthday
the big 2 0
