Week 4 - Ponta Grossa, 31 de Marco - First week in the mission field

 

WAIT…I was told it would be cold!

 

Well, it's officially the first P-day of my mission. It's been a great week honestly, but let's start from the beginning. 

 

We left the MTC at 4am to get over to the Sao Paulo airport. Our plane took off later than expected, I was so tired that I fell asleep on the flight. When I awoke all I saw were thick dark clouds as we descended down. Once we broke through the thick layer of clouds there I beheld the large rainy city of Curitiba. When we landed it was lightly raining and then it stopped. We met our mission president and his wife.  Shortly after we were shoved into a van a taken to the temple. We didn't go inside, but we were there for what felt like 40 minutes to maybe an hour, I'm not entirely sure. We then went to the mission home where we ate, had a quick interview with the president, then Elder Cutler, Elder Abreu, Elder Chagas, and I were rushed to a bus station.  We had been chosen to be sent two hours away to a smaller city called Ponta Grossa. So, we were rushed into a hot and humid bus for 2 hours to arrive in the city of Ponta Grossa where we met our new mission companions. My new companion is Elder Blackburn from Idaho and let me tell you he's pretty great. After we met our new companions, we were ubered to our apartments to drop off our stuff and then we went straight to work. I wasn’t half prepared for all the walking we were about to do.

 

To make this long story short the past week has been full of foot pains and smiles. It's strange clapping at the gates and doors instead of knocking on doors. Also, it is definitely different interacting only in Portuguese. It's been an amazing experience though. All the members are great and welcoming and so helpful. Let me tell you some of the more interesting stuff.

 

My area is called 31 de Março; it's not a massive area, but it sometimes it feels that way when you are walking for 30 minutes non-stop trying to find someone’s house. There is an area called “The Invasion” where we have put in a lot of work. It is called an invasion due to all the people invading government property, building houses, getting free water and electricity. The houses are ruggishly build out of multi-colored wood. There are also a just a ton of random wild horses walking around not just the Invasion but throughout the actual city as well. It feels almost like a old western town at times. 

 

Anyway, I've gotten to play futebol with a few kids already and actually had a pretty cool experience with three. Matheus, Ariene, and Yan are three kids who live in the Invasão and were playing futebol as Elder Blackburn and I were walking to visit some families, he had gotten a call and while he spoke on the phone, I joined the kids in playing futebol. We all got a long nicely, I invited them to church and said we could have a member give them a ride if needed. The kids said they'd have to talk to their parents, and what do you know they all came to church with us. They are great kids and they seem to really like the church and us. 

 

There are a lot of Venezuelans here and so I've tried my first Venezuelan food, it was good. I also had their version of pumpkin pie and oh it was great as well.

 

My face is sunburned. I was told it would be cloudy and kind of cold in this part of Brasil, but nope! It's chilly with the wind but the sun beats down on you and really burns the nose, so yeah, now I have a red peeling nose.

 

Anyway, we have 4 baptisms set up already so it's kind of exciting. I'm starting to be able to teach in Portugues. We just went shopping for food today, so we are stocked and ready to rock.

 

Dogs are the worst, very annoying here.

I really didn't like chimarrao, a brasilian tree leaf drink, when my dad would have me try it.  Well, I have started to drink it and have acquired the taste for it.  It's not that bad.  Most everybody here in the south of Brasil drinks chimarrao. I even bought a cuia, handmade cup for drinking chimarrao.

 

Anyway, I don't have many pictures this time because I honestly have forgotten to take pictures. It's been such a busy week, but I'll try my best to take more pictures. Anyway, that's all for this week!

 

Elder Hyatt

President and Sister Bikman

Mission President

Arrival day in Curitiba with my MTC district

Drinking Chimarrao, talking with mom on P-day