37. Madureira, Rio de Janeiro

23 March 2014

Wow. I've been here in Madureira for more than half my mission now. It's scary how well I know this place now. I know all of the roads, and I can go anywhere and orient myself home now. 

Anyways. As you know, I'm training this transfer. On Monday we headed over to Andaraí for a trainers meeting. We received the usual training from the APs and from President Lima about how to be good trainers, good examples, and the impact a first companion has on a new missionary. The first missionary you have in the field really is important, and helps the new missionary accustom to the life of a good missionary. My first companion surely had a great impact on me and really taught me all that I needed to know to have success on my mission. I still think about and apply the things I learned from him in my daily work.

We headed down to Botafogo on Tuesday to pick up our new companions. I picked up my new elder. Elder S. from Natal, Brazil. He is 23 years old and applied for the mission 7 times until the 8th attempt finally worked out for him. He had a series of medical problems that kept him home beforehand. He is a convert to the church and was baptized at the age of 16. He is a great elder and has a lot of desire to serve and to be exactly obidient. The only things that holds him back is that hes deathly afraid to do contacts and to talk to random people on the street. Naturally that became our focus this week. We got him to do 35 contacts or so, and slowly well make our way up to the standard of excellence, 105. I had to show and teach him how to do very simple contacts and then he would imitate.  He also doesnt like getting rejected in any form, but I think that will get better with time and after a lot of rejections. :D

Anyways, this week we walked a TON. Probably more than other week in my mission. We are in the beginning phrases of really rebuilding  this area and our teaching pool. We visited all of our investigators that havent been visited since the Carnaval disaster and we hope to get back on track with them. 

Another task we had to accomplish this week was a list of 20 unknown names our Bishop, and the rest of the wards in the stake received to contact by Satuday. We walked all over our area to get to these people and the majority of them moved away or passed away. Along the way though, we had some great contacts that we will be visiting in the future and hopefully teaching. We are working really hard to get all the records straightened up and updated for the ward. My new missionary expressed how he doesn't feel like he doing anything, but this work is important to the ward, bishop and the Lord. It may not be teaching, but it's aiding the ward in which we serve. 

So just another week for me. It's been raining for days straight now.  We've gotten drenched on some occasions, but its better than the sun. We had a lot of appointments fall through, we have been exhausted, and we watched a car accident. Just another week in the mission!

Add "Custard Apple" to my foreign fruit list. You eat the insides, which is like a super mushy banana and spit out all the black seeds. Unique in taste. 

Looking forward to new investigators and people to teach. Stay in tune!

Elder Siebers