6 Months Through the 24 Month Side Quest
Hey friends! Remember when I said I hope that I get to send a more exciting email this week… yeah that is not going to happen. However, I hit 6 months this week!! On that day we got 3 pizzas to celebrate but besides that it has been a very normal week soI don't have too much to talk about. I also waited to write this email until today (p-day morning) so it's going to be short. I'm sorry.
Speaking of Side Quests
On Friday I did a divisão with Elder McCoy. He is from Colorado so we spoke English all day. It was so weird but I did learn a lot. When he got here on Friday morning he had a Spanish Class he had to watch so we played card games while he watched. It was fun. When his class was over we went to lunch. He is going to BYU next semester so during lunch I was helping him figure all that out while trying not to go insane that it is 18 months until I will be back there. After a quick lunch we set out on our trek across the area to work.
We spent a good 2 hours walking to the farthest corner of our area to work since we had a lesson there that evening. After 4 hours of walking, some lessons, and some more talking we arrived at the door of our lesson. We were about to knock when we got a text saying she wasn't home and needed to cancel. Yep. So nice isn't it. We made a few more visits and then we had to start our return journey because we had dinner with a member. About a third of the way into our journey I realized we were gonna get to dinner late, way late. I looked at McCoy and asked if he wanted to take the path that I knew we'd get there but we would arrive late or if he wanted to side quest it and try a “path” through the forest. Logically, we chose the side quest.
We arrived at the first path; private land with a lady staring us down. She asked what we were doing and told us we needed to return the way we came… the issue is that if we did that we would be over an hour late to dinner so, when she turned around I looked at McCoy and said “run” and we ran towards our back up option. We get there and it's not a road, it's a police compound. Lovely. We have two more options. We keep going to the next option; more private land. At this point it's just a hail mary that my next plan worked. We walked through this really sketchy bamboo forest in the dark, saw some fireflies, ran away from a guy on a motorcycle, got on the path and… walked into an active construction site. At this point there was no turning back so we walked straight through and prayed no one saw us. After some brief rerouting we ended up making it to dinner 2 minutes early and not an hour late. Oh my goodness, dinner was so good. Okay, that's the end of my story!
Random
Played UNO No Mercy starting with 14 cards and a limit of 50… let me just say that game took a while.
Hit a new record high for miles walked in a day. 14.2 miles.
Started playing the Interstellar Theme on piano.
Took some pretty landscape and sunset pictures.
It did not rain this week.
Quotes
“I came to the interior and it was the first time I had seen a tree in six months” [Elder McCoy, 2/20/2026]
God's Hand
A member picked us up on the side of the road making a 1.5 hour walk into 10 minutes
A very hard hitting response to a prayer
Ability to focus on my studies
Baptism in Vista Verde 2 happened
Sunsets!
Spiritual Thoughts
“Just Keep Going—with Faith” (Elder Carl B. Cook, April 2023). In times of trials or afflictions, doubts or questions, we may struggle to keep going. We may wonder why we were hit with this illness or that problem. We may think that we are being forgotten by our Father in Heaven when he doesn't immediately answer our prayers. That is not the case. He loves you. He loves you more than you can imagine. An excerpt from Ether 12, verses 6 and 12, reads, “faith is things which are hoped for and not seen… if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.” He wants to help you, “He eagerly desires to reveal Himself to us” (Spiritually Defining Memories — Elder Neil L. Andersen, April 2020). To do that he needs our faith, we need to persevere. As we do so we will receive a witness that He is there, that He performs miracles, that He is our loving Heavenly Father. I know this to be true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Okay, another week, another month, 25% down. 18 more months to go… basically a sister mission. Until the next one! Email me, I love the updates! I hope you all have a great week. Love ya!
Muito amor,
Elder Urbano
