Last tuesday i flew into manaus with all the other missionaries and honestly it wasn~t that bad when i got off the plane, rather nice to be honest weather wise. it was humid but still... so i met the mission president and he~s really cool and i~m excited to work with him. we went to his house for lunch which is on the 10th floor of a building and i think it is the whole floor or at least half of it, and it was really shieky (as we say here in brasil for cool). Then we had interviews with him and he had a board with all the areas zones and missionaries faces on it and he told me to find my face, and so i did. My companions name is elder adhans and i would be serving in manauas in the east zone and in the acariquara ward, (which is in the ouro verde neighborhood if you want to see on google maps). Elder adhans has been out for five months and is from sao paulo. I went into my apartment and then it hit me, i]m here in brasil for the next two years...
wednesday
woke up and took a cold shower because we dont have hot water and got to work. Throughout the whole day we walked, and walked and walked. Most of our appointments fell through but we were able to give a message to one of our investigators and teach the plan of salvation to another. It really isnt that hot here right now and when i say that i mean its not about 40 degrees celcius since i had it confirmed to me that it does get that high. Apparently i came in at the begining of the colder rainy season so you wont hear me complaining about the heat for a while. It drizzled a little today but not too much. when i woke up and looked out of our balcony i saw the forest and its a really cool thing to see everymorning because even though i]m in the middle of a city of 2 + million people they still have bits of the rain forest in here.
thursday
Our lessons fell through again today but we were able to teach four boys that we found eating mangos and committed them to read the book of mormon. We visited a less active family before we came in and the father was telling us about how he saw a 3 meter long snake on the road by his house (he lives near the forest) and also a caiman. We had a nice rm give us 20 reais as we were walking and we used it to buy açaí which is different than i expected when its not cold. We also recieved 20 more from a lunch appointment that fell through which we used another day to buy a pizza.
friday
I had my first real storm here today. I was studying the book of mormon in portuguese underneath a tree when i felt a couple drops and so i pulled out my umbrella and elder adhans went back to studying under the tree then it started picking up and within 15 minutes me and elder adhans were stranded under a phone booth with my umbrella because he forgot his and there were rivers in the streets and most of it had at least 1/4 inch of water. we stayed there for 15 more minutes and then went and fought our way through the rain to our lunch appointment and then changed into dry clothes after lunch. We worked really hard today because our lessons kept falling through and did 20 contacts and set up appointments for us to go and teach. Near the end of the day we were walking and i felt guided by the spirit to go a certain way and that there was someone that we were supposed to meet. We kept walking and then visisted with a less active family and when we went out from the house a young man stopped us and said that he had had all of the missionary lessons and that we had a baptismal date but lost it because he relapsed with smoking and drinking and wanted to meet with us again. His name was jones and so we wrote down his address and will teach him tomorrow. It was amazing to be able to be guided to finding him and having a chance to talk with him. Also a man who is going to resole my companions shoes asked for a book of mormon and we will teach him soon
saturday
taught with a member for most of the day and got alot accomplished. Jones was home when we went to visit him but he didn~t want to talk with us and told the little kids who were at his house to say he was gone. It was very sad.
sunday: went to church with saulo and leilani two of our investigators who are awesome and then worked for the rest of the day.
monday: played futebol with the brasilians in our stake and they were all really good and i wasnt. Its rather intimidating especially since everyone plays. teenagers to old men and they~re all good too. We ate lunch with ayeton and his wife and saulo and leilani (all of which are investigators) ayeton and his wife jsut got married and will be baptized the 20th of november and saulo and leilani are going to get married and will be baptized the same day (they just commited) saulo and ayeton are brothers.
I could say that this week has been easy but i don~t want to lie. It has been tough, like really really tough, many appointments fell through i~m in a different culture and for the first time since i entered into the mtc i~m really homesick, and the only way that i combat this is through work. The language doesnt bother me since i know that itll all come through time and even though i dont always understand people i know that i will and this doesnt really worry me. For the first time two years really dawned on me for how long i]ll be gone for and i miss you all. letters would be nice and i~m not sure how often i recieve them i know at least once every three months but i really dont know. But i know that the lord has been helping me and that through him i]ll be able to do this. As it says in matthew the lord purges those branches that bear fruit so that they can bring forth more.
I love you all and your prayers really do help me.
love
Elder Eric Alan Olsen
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