Welcome back to the regularly scheduled off schedule email. Unfortunately the media team had some unfortunate circumstances and had to reschedule the usual program.
Prophecy Fulfilled
One of the strangest occurrences I’ve had on the mission was a fulfilled prophecy from a random lady on the street. We had started teaching a woman named Rosana. This woman was very diligent, more than usual in her adoration and worship, she read her Bible every day, prayed for an hour after lunch every day and fasted once a week. I could feel that she was truly dedicated to the Lord.
We became good friends with her and during one of our lessons she interrupted us and gave us the following prophecy. “You guys will have a woman dressed in a flower patterned dress approach you telling you about her sick kid who’s at home, she is going to ask you guys to pray for her kid, and invite you to her house to do so.” (That’s my best translation) we were a little taken back but we didn’t think too much about it and finished our lesson and left.
The day ended without this event, then two days then three days, then 5 days passed, then randomly on the 6th day while talking to someone on the side of the road a woman in a flowery dress approached and interrupted. I immediately knew it was her. Having someone approach mid conversation and interrupt was strange in itself but having someone approach and ask for a prayer for their sick kid had never happened to me. What happened after was very strange, I already knew every word she was going to say before she even said it and I turned to my companion still talking to the other person, and said “its her”, my companion turned and instantly knew what I was talking about. She gave us her information left as quickly as she appeared.
The story of finding the lady’s house was just as eventful as finding the prophesied woman. She had given us a street the number of her house and the color of said house. To give a little information, house numbers here are a free for all, whatever number you bought, painted, or etched is your house number. This means on the same road there could be that same house in color and number as many times as the number of houses, and unfortunately people tend to like to copy the number of their neighbors. On the particular road this lady lived on there existed about 20 of the house she described, and as we worked our way done the road we were preparing mentally for anything.
The road strangely took a turn to an area I’d never seen or been to, and it stared descending as the road evolved into a trench, literally a trench, it mirrored WW1 trenches it even had little cutouts and benches. As we walked we looked for any blue house with the number 18. Blue 18 after blue 18 we worked our way down the trench. After about a mile we almost lost hope, but we persevered, every person in the trench glaring at us as we passed, the ratos (gang members) were spaced out along the trench guarding it from cops, and us too apparently, as we approached each one they would disappear and relay the message to the people further down the trench that strangers were coming. Fortunately because of this we didn’t see the drugs.
If love to say the end of the story was as uncommon as the start and we definitely were expecting to get to the house and cast out a demon or something but at the very end of the street that happened to be the end of the city we knocked on the last blue 18 and what happened was just a normal interaction. The girl who was “sick” was just a little sick, like stuffy nose sick, basically she we fine. But we give them a message and prayer for her and left. As we left we were thinking about how weird a situation was when I basically hit a wall, and I felt like I need to get out of the trench as quick as possible, as I looked ahead I saw the ratos all scrambling in the distance, my companion who was still talking about what happened didn’t seem to be aware so I grabbed him and we turned around and ran the other way and scrambled out the trench. I’m not sure what went down or what happened because I made my quick exit from the trench and unfortunately from that area due to some other events.
I Died… Twice
Unfortunately I contracted an infection… in my face… in the root/bone area of my front teeth because of an accident… 8 years ago… and I had no idea… and it grew… for 8 years… until it ruptured… then I got it fixed… after 3 days… of suffering… a lot… Then it happened again… and I suffered… a lot… I’m OK.
Because of that I left my area quick, but it happened to be a transfer, and I was getting transferred anyway. Luckily I got transferred to a trio so I could leave to the mission office and the house of the senior couple where they made me cookies and dinners, and took care of me along with the secretary’s. I’m alright and im doing good so don’t worry.
My 70yo Comp
Not much of a story but my companion for the last week has been a mix of the secretaries and the senior couple. A 70yo white guy and a 20yo black guy definitely draw some looks.
Craziest Uber Ride Of My Life
This uber ride started off normal, but as we started driving we starting hitting every single pothole, usually the road never felt this bumpy, and thats because the road wasn’t the normal road we usually take, this road happened to be the road that takes you past every Motel, which are not the same as the US motels here are something else… (yeah) anyway as I started looking around inside the car I see my Uber driver has a movie playing on the center console, (nice) but I see his phone is on and he’s got his airpods in so I get curious and look at the video he’s watching, its “How to stop cheating” (nice). He then drives through the market and starts swerving as people just start running across the street as we are still hitting the bumps and at the same time bros clutch is destroyed so as he’s shifting it’s jotting like crazy. As we leave the market I see a empty lot and two guys walking out with one guy, the guy is shirtless and covered in blood but he seemed uninjured so I’m not sure where it came from but it was definitely interesting. Super sus.🤨 and the icing on the cake our driver switched his video to “how to stop being a narcissist” (at least he’s self aware).
Art Of The Month
Falling Mangos
After long day I was in the garden of the temple, the garden has probably a hundred mango trees, each of these has lots of mangos, in season, ripe, and ready to eat the only problem is the garden is kept spotless and any mango that fell was swept up and put away, at this point in time I wanted a mango really bad and as I looked up at the ripe mangos out of reach I stuck out my hand waiting for one to fall miraculously into my hands, unfortunately it didn’t and as I stood underneath the tree in the parking lot I tried my hardest to will the mango to fall. As I gave up in defeat I began to walk forward and as I walked about 20 feet in front of me 2 mangos fell into a flower bush and rolled out in perfect condition to me. If the mangos had fallen any other spot they would have been squashed from the fall, and even if they had fallen when I wanted, if I had dropped it, it would have gotten squashed on the pavement. The point of the story isn’t that the mango fell it’s about the fact that when I wanted in the exact moment it didn’t fall but when and where they were right they fell in the only spot that preserved them and broke there fall without damaging. This pattern is what I call the “mark of the masters hand”. sometimes I think I know the path thats right and I have a way thought out of how I want my life to go but really the savior knows what I need and the better path to give his blessing to us. All the lessons I’ve learned from life were always about learning how to let go of my own will and let the lord show me the better path, because maybe just maybe the mangos he has for me are better than the one I’d drop.
Notable Events
-I ate so many cookies this week
-My comps showed up to the office for leadership council so I got to see them
-I’m currently at the pirate restaurant again
-If you look closely in two of the photos you’ll find a Easter egg.
-Finally got some good photos again.
-My English is getting better, I was only speaking English for the last week. 🤙
If you guys would also like me to have cookies you can send them here:
R. João Fernandes Viêira, 80 – Boa Vista, Recife – PE, 50050-200