Week 2 Bonfim

Had another fairly normal week. My companion passed the year mark this week and I will be passing the 10 month mark on friday. We were working really hard this week making new investigators because we didn't make many last week and its interesting to see the difference in the acceptance of people because in Serrinha I thought it was fairly easy to make new investigators because people were willing to give us an appointment whereas here we went almost 2hrs without luck. It was actually kind of funny the other day because I knocked on a door and a voice in reply from within the house said "don't have anyone home!" I left laughing after that, most poeple have excuses but its all good, we are still having good success. We met a crazy man in the street and he said he is from São Paulo but his mother is chinese and that he know how to fight. He wrote his name on my hand in english and chinese (it looked legit but how would I know😅) and then insisted that I write my name on his hand (I think its a chinese thing...) I took a picture after the day ended. I also took a picture after of the destroyed shower ceiling. In the church building the branch made a replica of the closest temple (Recife) that they will go 7-12hrs by van to get to [time depending on the origin]. For P-day there isn't much to do as a missionary, but there are some mountians closeby so we're planning to go and climb one next week.

I always have a lack of things to say when I come to write, I'm sure it will come to me once I leave. 

But as always, have a great week, and if you need anything translated to portuguese just let me know. Love for all! 😋🍹

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new pictures

They made cake. These are pictures from Serrinha.

Senhor Do Bomfim

I arrived in Senhor Do Bomfim the next day after I sent my last email, they confused 6pm with 6am so I stayed the night in the house of the zone leader and left early the next morning for the bus station. It was a 7hr bus ride because there was a protest on one of the highways so we took a 2hr detour. The fact is a lot happened and there are lots of new tings but mission is the same, the details are different but its basically the same, so I don't want to write about every little thing, however I will write some of the things that are notable. for example, the 40 min walk to our new house from the bus station with 2 big/heavy bags. I sat in stunned silence as I was thinking what to do other than walking, and then asked a taxi driver how much it would be to get a ride and then decided it was worth it (it wasnt that expensive) and it was fun because we were already a little stressed because of the delay of the buses and we were going to miss lunch and we were very hungry, so I decided it would be best. The house is a little destroyed, there is a hole in one of the bathrooms ceiling and the toilet in the bathroom above is leaking sewage water through the hole onto the shower, I know, smells horrible. We called the mission office and they said they would take care of it, but lets see how much time it will take. And there are also "worms" in the sitting water in that same shower and under the kitchen sink, I was so discusted to see little inch long worms wiggeling around in the water, and I went to get a bucket to clean and the bucket already had water in it with, you guessed it, more worms sitting and festering. We are cleaning the house today but we need to buy some supplise to get it done right. But its nothing to stress, all is well, we have people here prepared for baptism! The branch is reforming the baptism font so we have to wait until next week for the baptisms. I really like the branch president here he is very direct; he was called branch president within a few months of getting back from his mission, un-married. but married after we was already serving as president, he is very young he has been president for 6 years, which is when he got back from his mission so he is very determined to help the missionaries, he even bought us pizza friday night :)  But other than the "big stuff" this week was alright, I'm still getting to know the city and the people, but next week I'm sure to have even more to say.

Fun fact: most missionaries here look at how much I write and say I write a lot more then they do or the other missionaries that they know.

Oh my companoin, Elder Cueto, I already knew him from my first district when I arrived in the feild, so we are already good friends. He will have 1 year in the mission this week. He is from Boliva and so he is learning portuguese aswell. We get along really well and are already joking with each other. We also went to our district meeting in Jacobina which is a little more than 2 and a half hours by bus. Our district is so spread out, and we will have to travel again for zone conference this week.

Love you people

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Elder Benjamin Barton