Shout at the world because the world doesn't love you

May 17, 2010

I hit eight months on the mission yesterday! Hooray! Does it feel like it's going fast for you guys? It does for me (sometimes)!

This week went by pretty quickly, and I think it's because we had a few days where we didn't get much work done.

On Wednesday I went to the eye doctor. I've noticed that my vision has gotten worse since I came to Brazil, and it has been bugging me for a while. I'm not blind or anything, but it has been difficult to see things clearly at a distance. So we scheduled an appointment with a doctor for Wednesday and headed downtown after lunch. The visit was pretty routine; the doctor pointed flashlights into my eyes and made me look through weird machines. He had me read letters on the wall and I did well until he screwed everything up and made the letters really small. I didn't do so well then. He told me that I'm not the kind of person who would depend on glasses to be able to see, but that I could use them to help me out. He gave me a prescription. My companion and I spent the next few hours walking through the city and stopping at various glasses stores to see if we could find a good pair for me. I almost bought a really huge pair of black plastic ones, but I wimped out at the last minute. The rest were either too ugly or too expensive, so we're going to go back down there today to try to find some chic specs for me.

On Thursday we walked all over our area to try to visit people, but it was one of those days where no one was home.

On Friday I did a division with the other American elder in our district. We had lunch at the stake patriarch's house. The food was great -- she even made us french fries -- but my comp couldn't stomach it. While the patriarch's wife was talking on the phone in the other room, he sprinted to the bathroom and puked his brains out. I figured he wouldn't want to work too much because he was feeling so gross, but we actually got a lot done that day. We made a ton of contacts and made a visit to the lady I baptized, where we gave her photos from her baptism.

We are once again in that stage where we're finding new people to teach. We taught the first lesson to a few new people this week, but only one of them went to church, and he was only partially sober. He kept interrupting during the Gospel Principles class with awkward comments. Between the second and third hours, everyone was mingling in the hallway. A recently returned missionary was talking to me about his mission and stuff, and when he heard that I was from California he mentioned that the San Diego temple is beautiful. Our investigator, João, commented that people say that the light is there. When asked to elaborate, he said that the light that the founder of the Church saw is there. That's what people say, anyway. He doesn't even know what a temple is. He was pretty wasted.

We actually saw him as we were walking to lunch yesterday; he was drinking and reading the paper at a bar. I guess he went straight to the bar after church. I guess the lesson about repentance didn't really register.

I'm having a lot of trouble doing this in English -- can you tell? Sometimes I write things in here or in my journal and become completely lost in the middle of a sentence. Sorry if none of this makes sense.

So that was my week. Not a lot going on lately. We're just trying to find new people. I'm still liking my area and my companion a lot. He told me the other day that he's been feeling pretty trunky, which complicates things. He only has six months left on his mission, so I can't really blame him. We're still working hard, though, which is what matters.

I love you guys and hope all is well back home. The Church is true! Tchau!

luv

booga