So going into this week I was pretty nervous about my new comp, finding my way around the area, speaking Portuguese especially, etc. But, I'm here to say that i'm alive and well, and everything is going good! The craziest thing happened starting Monday when I got my new companion. Out of nowhere, i could understand Portuguese, Obviously not everything, but much better than I could 2 or 3 days before. Its the craziest thing, the second i got my new companion, its like a switch flipped and I started understanding him and other people way better! Also, my ability to speak improved. I started speaking a bit more smoothly and I think my accent is improving too. Its crazy, I almost cant believe it still. People talk and I just understand what they're saying without much thought! Not to say that I'm fluent or anything because I'm still not super good at Portuguese and have sooo much left to learn but I made a ton of improvement in a few days and its fun to see. But I'm here to say that the gift of tongues is real. Thinking about it, its pretty crazy that I can have full conversations with my companion in a language I started to learn 4 months ago. I'm beyond grateful for the help I've received and continue to receive from Heavenly Father. I re-learned once again that patience is key. I've been trying my very hardest since day one to be patient in waiting for the blessings that have been promised to me, especially with regards to the language. Sometimes not getting frustrated is hard, but I try my best to stay calm and hopeful through everything I experience. I keep thinking about Alma 26:27, we have to be patient first, and then after we show our patience the Lord will give us success. Super cool promise! So because the language is going better for me, this week was automatically better.
So about my companion. His name is Elder Mascena, and hes from the city of João Pessoa in the northeast of Brazil. Hes been out a little bit over a year on the mission and is awesome. Hes a great missionary, and is great at teaching as well. He actually grew up in the church and his dad is a bishop right now. hes 24 years old. The reason he served so late is because he served 4 years in the brazilian marines, which is funny because he is only about 5'5" and pretty skinny, so he definitely doesn't seem like the military type! He also speaks a decent amount of English. But i'm glad I got him, hes a really nice guy and we get along great.
Our troubles this week have been with finding and teaching people, but its nothing super new. We had about 7 or 8 solid investigators that Elder ONeill and I found for me this transfer before he left, but this week 6 of them told us they aren't interested anymore or that they don't have time for the gospel right now and we should come back toward the end of January once the holidays are over. So we've been trying to make contacts and find new investigators but haven't been too successful yet. But like I talked about we just need to be patient!
So as far as normal missionary work goes, I don't have that much to talk about right now because the work a bit slow! But we do have at least a few investigators, but we aren't sure if they'll progress or not so we will see.
So yeah, that's pretty much it though. I don't have any cool investigators right now or anything, we pretty much make contacts and try to get our appointments to work out. But its all good, we will find people to teach sooner or later. So have a good week! Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Love, Spence
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