But first, let me catch y'all up on my last week in the CTM.
Last week in the CTM was fantastic. I played the piano for the whole CTM. I played an arrangement of "I know that my Redeemer Lives" which I brought from home. I was also chosen to give a talk in church--my first talk in Portuguese. I spoke on "Measuring up to Jesus Christ" and that we need to "stop checking the box." I saw that y'all got the picture I had with Br. and Sister Barretos (see below). They came to talk to me after my talk. Grandpa called him as a stake president many years ago. Also, during an activity in the CTM--we were to knock on a door and talk to a member/instructor and share a spiritual thought (as practice for when we get in the field). Well, the person behind the door was Elder Viera! He had returned from his mission in The Atlanta North Mission. He was one of the missionaries that brought five investigators to our house for dinner from Portugal, so it was awesome to talk to him again--small world!
So about the heat. Oh I mean Teresina. haha!! I always used to complain about how I have a trait for sweating, but now I know why God gave me that gift. It helps a lot. Haha! It's awesome though.
Teresina is fantastic. My companheiro is Elder Moody from Utah. His grandparents are the Browns--they served as mission presidents in Portugal. He is fantastic, very fluent and we are working so hard. Apparently, it's really rare to have two Americans together but we are on fire--not just from the sun! But we had three people baptized this week. The first one happened on my first day in the field, and then two other people were baptized! I'll have to tell you all about them later.
My area is Ciadade Leste. We live in the Vale de Gaviao. We have a small apartment--I Love it! I have grown and learned so much in one week. We encounter miracles every day. I love the people here in Teresina, they are so nice and open. For example, we were getting haircuts earlier today and the barber invited us to go to his house for lunch. We are constantly handed food and all sorts of stuff. There are fruit trees like no other. On my first day, Elder Moody was pointing out as we were walking on one street: That's a banana tree, and that one is a mango tree, that one over there has oranges, and the other one has passion fruit and so many other fruits that I don't know the name in English.
The members here are awesome!! We have a lunch with them every day. It's like Thanksgiving every day. We basically fast breakfast and dinner. Every day it's, "Eat more, Elder" and I'm thinking "Noooooo, don't make me eat more.!" Lol. I guess I will just be accepting the "Dad Bod," you know. But, we are constantly sweating and are walking more than you can imagine, So, I think it evens out or I hope it does--Time will tell. One time we took our shoes off before entering the house for lunch. And when we came back they looked brand new. So awesome!! Oh and we had stake Conference this Sunday. How it works is the church rents out buses to pick everybody up to go to stake conference.
Don't have the time but I want to tell you all about how I'm living and all the cool sketchy things. Yall know I love those crazy things. Like washings clothes, getting water, the roads, sand, teaching in the coolest kind of houses, like made out of mud and sticks, literally.
Teresina is the coolest place ever. Every day I see something that's out of this world!!! So, because of the heat, everybody sits outside their house. Which is perfect for us. Whenever we come to a house we pull u chairs and sit outside the house in the shade. And all of the neighbors join in. Like a lot of neighbors. We will see all kinds of crazy stuff --whether it's like 50 random goats walking up the street, a bunch of 6-8 year-olds in a cart being pulled by a donkey just driving it themselves, I probably see about a hundred wild cats and dogs everywhere, and so much more. We came to an investigators house and walked in on a huge birthday party!! "Ohh Elder Hillam, Elder Moody come come! Share a message about families before we start eating. Come eat with us."
I want to tell yall about all the miracles we experience and about all of our investigators, but don't have time. But its amazing though!!!! Really amazing!
The mission is fantastic. Nothing's easy but it's fantastic.
Love. Elder Hillam!
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