More pictures from Bonfim

Birthday surprise package

September 25

I had a great week! :) Tuesday we worked normal but had to leave at 11pm by bus to Salvador to renew ny visa, normally during the day its a 7hr bus ride but because not many people drive at night we got there in 5hrs, normally its a good thing to get there early but not for us because we got to the bus station at 4:30 in the morning. And there was nobody out because it was so early, we didn't get hardly any sleep; so we walked to the mission office and got there about 5am and we waited until the missionary secrateries got there at 9am, 4 hrs of lying on the floor outside the door sucked. But they arrived and let us in. We talked about our house and how it needs to be fixed with the sewage problem, so hopfully they will do something soon. I was also suprised with a unknown package addressed to me, and it was an awesome suprise becaue I didn't know it was coming and it arrived and I was able to pick it up before my birthday. I opened it in the office and shared some of the fruit snacks and dried apircots with the missionaries there and they said they liked them. (Ha! Brazil has many fruits but apircots are not one of them) I resealed the box and brought it back to our area. I renewed my visa at the federal police and did divisions with the secrateries until our return bus at 11:55pm, equally terrible sleep. But Saturday rolled around and we worked during the morning, had lunch, and then had a little party at the home of a recent convert were we made cake with frosting from the mix I got in the box. It was fun. The mission presidents wife called and wished me a happy birthday and even sung with a few other sisters the song in english, it was sweet. Mom sent cute napkins and plates to use but when the people saw them they said they wouldn't use them because they were too special and didn't want to dirty them because here they don't have anything like them, and if they do they are expensive. We used the plates because I had already put cake on them but they washed the paper/plastic plates after to use again, No one used the napkin but me... But I loved it and it was fun, also the only oreo flavors here are chocolate and regular so birthday cake seemed super strange for my companion and the last time when I got mint my companion had never even heard of other flavors and when he tried it he thought it tasted like toothpaste. Its just interesting about the differences. I'm also excited to make the cookies I got in mixes. As far as birthday stuff, thats all that happened, but I still have all the food to eat during the week. And a thank you to all who wrote birthday notes for me, I read them all and enjoyed them. ALSO, hahaha, my companion sat in his cake!!! It was so hilarious, he forgot where he put it and sat in it. 😂

This week we've been working with this one 12yr old boy and he decided for himself that he wanted to be baptized but his mom didn't let him because he needs to "learn more", he was so sad when he had to move his date for later, but he has been a huge help in the missionary work because he introduced us to all of his friends and we talked with them and they said that they all want to be baptized if their parent will let them. Normally the problem for all investigators is going to church, but with this determined kid and with our help we passed by all of their houses early and brought them to church! They all liked it and are excited to go next week, I almost couldn't believe it. I'm super excited to work with them and to see what becomes of it. The feild is white, all ready to harvest.

This is all I have time for; but, it was a good week. Love you people at home!

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Elder Benjamin Barton

Pictures of Petrolina

Some pics of Petrolina (the city we went to for zone conference) and me :)

General Conference Weekend

I don't remeber if I said this last week but we had a zone conference in Petrolina, which is the only city outside of the state that takes part of our mission. We had some training and talks given by leaders and the mission president and his wife. One talk that I liked from this conference was the 1% differences that seem insignificant actually add up in the end. It went along with the "line upon line, precept upon precept" where the small changes will help us. It was given in context of health and the small changes to our habits that will increase out health overall but the principal can be applied to anything we do. For example, If I'm not doing excercises and I decide just to do 10 pushups everyday it seems like nothing, but if executed it makes a difference because you are actually doing something other than sitting around thinking I don't want to do a big workout routine, but 10 pushups I can do; setting 1% goals will help us to start big changes. And during the zone conferences they always announce birthdays and from my zone I was the only person with a birthday, so everyone sang to only me...😂I also got M&Ms. As far as general conference, I got to watch saturday afternoon and both of the sunday sessions, I didn't get to watch preisthood because, just as all sessions, they are broadcasted live and in this time zone would start the conference at 9pm and go until 11pm, so it didn't work out with the missionary schedule, but I was informed that some did go to the session. president didn't give any counsel to this subject. We also had interviews with president but because my area is far and is a branch still president travelled to us to do the interview and to converse with president of the branch. It went well, he also went visited our apartment to see how it is and he saw the big hole in the ceiling with sweage dripping down into the shower so now I think something will happen to terms to reforming the house a little. President also talked about the upcoming tansfer and said that our companionship will probably stay the way it is.

Inways of news, thats most of it. I was way suprised how well I understood general conference in portuguese in ways of progress from the last conference when I understood almost nothing but I was happy to see the improvement.

Tchau, Love you

Photos of general conference and the kids we went with, one of them will be baptized tomorrow!

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___________________

Elder Benjamin Barton

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