Elder Tolen's Adventures in Campinas, Brazil: Week 18: I Never Freeze!

Chapter 1: "I Never Freeze": One day, as we were making contacts, we sat down at a bus terminal on the side of the freeway. Eventually, I got the courage to talk to the lady next to us. "Do you know if the bus for Barao Geraldo will pass here, or on the other side of the freeway?" I said, gesturing to the bus stop on the other side of the freeway. Keep in mind, I already knew the answer to the question I asked her. I was just trying to find an excuse to talk to her. I felt like it was a good idea at the time. My companion started asking questions about the bus as well. Afterwards, I was like, "Thanks so much! Have you ever talked to missionaries like us before?" Also, keep in mind that after we were done talking to her about the bus, my companion started walking away, and the whole time I was trying to make the contact, he just stood there with his back turned towards us. I asked her if we could write down her address to talk to her more on another day (before this I had told her that missionaries like to share messages with people about God, Jesus Christ, our purpose on Earth, and things like that). She told me she lives in a different area, which can sometimes be a way that people say they aren't interested. I turned to my companion and said "Do we have missionaries in that area?" I was honestly a little disappointed when he just said, "I don´t know." Then, I froze. For like 10 seconds, I was literally just like "Uhhhh..... ok.... ok.... ummm..." Finally I was like "Ok, we will go wait for the bus for Barao Geraldo over on the other side. Bye bye!" I wasn't really angry at my companion, but I felt embarrassed. I also thought it was kind of funny. I felt okay, because I knew I was working, and I was trying.
Chapter 2: A Squeegee in One Hand; A Dog in the Other: One day this week, when we arrived at the member's house who was scheduled to give us lunch, she was cleaning her front entrance area. She had soapy water, a broom to sweep and scrub, and a squeegee to push the excess water out the front gate. We helped her, and the whole time I was trying to squeegee, the family dog (a little dog named Thor, a chihuahua I think) kept playing with, chasing, biting, and grabbing onto the squeegee. It was very difficult to work with him doing this, so finally, I just picked him up in one arm, and squeegeed with the other.

Chapter 3: English Class (Part 3): This week, the English class went really well. I'm really happy to see myself improving in confidence, in Portuguese, in my testimony, and in other aspects as well. At one point in the class, I think I asked the class members what they were doing during the week to practice English, and multiple people said they've been listening to a lot of classic rock. I think they all mentioned Queen and they were like, "Queen is great!" I guess I´m also converting people to Queen.

Chapter 4: The Book of Mormon Can Help: The day after the English class, we taught Celson, who attends the English class, until he told us on Sunday that he´s going to attend a different, more advanced class, because he already speaks English pretty well. He isn't a member of the church, and we taught him at the church building because his wife doesn't really like/support other churches. He talked to us about these kinds of problems with his wife. It's a problem because he is interested in the church. I gave him a Book of Mormon, and told him that it can help with all of the problems he has. I marked 3. Nephi:11 for him to read. I told him to read with his wife, too. On Sunday he told us that he hasn't shown his wife yet, but that he has started reading it and doesn't have any doubts or concerns.

Chapter 5: Service Project: One day this week, we had a service project in another area at a school. It involved a lot of building and taking apart scaffolding and painting. The scaffolding was to paint higher. I didn't end up painting higher, but I wanted to climb. So, I sometimes would climb a little bit to hand the other missionaries things and stuff like that. At one point during the service project, one of the elders was using one of the poles that you attach a paint roller to the end, but he was using it as a golf club and was hitting a plastic cup. At one point he swung it a little too hard and the pole extended, split, and one of the halves flew over the wall. It was really funny.

These are just a few stories from this week! There were too many things to write about all of them, but these are some highlights! Keep praying and keep believing! I know that if you have faith, Heavenly Father will hear your prayers, and He will help you!

-Elder Tolen