Elder, Don’t Go to Sleep
Hey friends! 36 hours: 2 airport trips, 33 Ubers, 6 vans, 14 pizzas, 12 liters of soda, 22 Americans, 8 trainings, and no sleep. That’s transfer and novinhos day for ya. If we were to do whole stats for the whole week it would be another 10 Ubers, 6 more pizzas, 6 more trainings, and a little sleep.
The 36 Hours
The most hectic 36 hours of my mission started Tuesday morning, just 8 hours after I sent out my weekly email. It was transfer day! The day started at 6am with all the missionaries that were going home getting ready to go to the temple with the APs. They got out of there and we got some studies in and then headed over to the office. It was transfer day! With the APs at the temple I monitored transfers, making sure no one was traveling alone and that everyone got to their assigned areas. That ended at around 1pm and everything went smoothly. We got into some regular office work, we sent off all the missionaries going home, and we also got some prep done to get the new missionaries in. After all that I go home and get ready for bed. It’s 10:10pm and I get a text from Presidente that says “Urbano.” A few seconds later I get a call and he goes “Elder, don’t go to sleep yet. There was a problem with a Sister’s ticket. I got all my clothes ready in case I needed to change and sure enough at around 10:40pm I got another phone call, “Elder, come to the airport.” I changed quickly, called an Uber and we were off. We got to the airport at around 11:20pm.
Presidente told us that we need to stay with the Sister that was having travel issues because she would only be able to check in after midnight. Ok easy enough, I think. He told us we could get something to eat so we got some food and just chatted. At midnight we went up to get her checked in and everything went wrong. They told us that her flight was delayed and she would probably miss her Peru to Mexico connection, if they were lying I couldn’t tell you but now we had a choice. She gets on her 4am flight to Peru or she waits until 8am and flies directly to Mexico. I told her it was her choice and that I didn’t know which one would be better. Something was pulling me towards the Mexico option but I left it up to her. She didn’t know which she wanted so I bowed my head and said a quick prayer. I was pretty confident in the Mexico option so I looked at my comp and said Mexico and as the words left my mouth I knew that was how she would most safely get home. The only issue was that she would not be able to check in until 4am and I needed to be at the airport at 5am but my comp was too exhausted to stay the night. It was 12:30am, I let Presidente know about the change and we stayed with her until about 2am when my comp crashed so we headed back home. We got home just before 3am and we both changed and laid down. After about 45 minutes of shut eye I woke up to take another Elder to the airport and pick up the new missionaries. I got the Elder checked in while talking to the Sister who had not made it through security yet. After all that I made my way over to Terminal 3 to meet up with our senior couple and welcome the new missionaries.
All the new missionaries got there without a problem but our vans to take us back did not. The new missionaries did 3 or 4 contacts in the airport which was pretty dope. We found one of our two vans and got it loaded to go to the office. The other van would go straight to Presidente’s house. I got in the one going to the office and did the same drive I did when I got to Brazil a year ago. I remember that drive being so disorientating a year ago but this time I knew exactly where I was. That was interesting. Got back to the office and unloaded everything and sent them off to Presidente’s house. Finally a second to breathe. I went to lay down on the couch and not even 10 minutes later two vans showed up with the missionaries from the Brazil MTC. I ran over and poked my head in the van and told them that they would actually go to Presidente’s house. Out of nowhere they go, “Oh my gosh he speaks English.” I couldn’t help but laugh. I proceeded to go crash on the couch for about an hour to get some sleep in. I woke up, walked around and then went right back to the couch. At around 10am I got up, walked over to the house, ironed my shirt and went to the office to get to work. 1pm hit and the missionaries started arriving in the office (after I called all their Ubers). Presidente got out of the car and gave me a hug, asking if I slept. Funny Presidente. He then told me he wanted to take them to the temple grounds the next day. Yeah ok.
After welcome backs we went right into trainings for the next 4.5 hours. By the end of the day I had forgotten how to speak both languages. Every sentence had at least 6 Portuguese words and 3 English words. It was wild. I started talking to the Americans in Portuguese, my comp in English, myself in who knows what language… but the pizza arrived and everyone ate. I sat and chatted with some of the new missionaries and then my APs quite literally dragged me out of the office so that I would go to sleep. If you know me you know that I like to see things through to the end so I was not very happy. I ended up falling asleep asleep, for the first time in 36 hours, in my suit in our hammock. Impressive if you ask me. That was that. Then I had a whole other day of trainings ahead of me. But that story is for another time.
The Wildest Sunday
It was probably the strangest Sunday I have ever been a part of. First off we had 7 people confirmed for church and no one came. On top of that there were kids fighting the whole time. Then one of the APs friends went to the wrong church and we went to go find him. When it came to class time no one was prepared and everyone was super unsettled. It was interesting. You might think that is all but nooo. That evening we went to the visitors center on the temple grounds with a Spanish speaking family. Fantastic they have spanish speakers. Who gave the tour? An American that has been in the field for 5 weeks and is learning Portuguese. Our friends were sooooo lost. On top of that the fire alarms went off not one, not two, but three times and we had to evacuate. The devil was working really hard on Sunday. It was crazy. But at the end of it, in the freezing cold, we took them on to the temple grounds and invited them to be baptized! They accepted!! Please pray for them.
Other Hecticness
We ended up making it to the temple grounds on Thursday morning. It was actually super cool. We took a van ride around the perimeter with yours truly narrating. Then we got out and walked on the grounds while Presidente was living a message (with yours truly translating).
I love my trio. Elder Lima is fantastic. He is so funny. He is just going to be here for a little bit but he helped out a lot during this hectic week.
I became the official translator for MSPL. Let me tell you… translating is hard. I translated for Presidente, the APs, Presidente’s wife, the Presidente again. By the end of it I became a professional translator (except for when Sister Andrade forgot to let me translate and talked for minutes without stopping). Presidente made fun of me for forgetting English every now and then. I loved translating though it was fun.
Went on another random grocery shopping trip to buy 80 pieces of bread.
Friday I got to the office excited for a day of rest and walked in to a million missed messages from the area… whoops
Até a lot of pizza this week
I am on my 4th transfer in the office already, that’s insane
Nicoletti (our mission handyman) came into the office and was chatting with us and then he goes “oh my gosh I forgot the beds.” Apparently he set up bunk beds in a house but forgot the bed part. It was so funny.
We got dumped on and then went to paint a house...
God's Hand
Our friends have baptism dates!
Everyone got home safely! Even if it was hours after they were supposed to.
After hours of not sleeping I somehow was still competent
I was able to translate all of the trainings without struggling
The laughs and conversations that we have over the hectic week that brought a lot of joy to our week.
When I was saying a prayer on the temple grounds everything went silent. Not normal for the middle of São Paulo.
Seeing some of my really good friends during transfer week.
The members dried our clothes while we painted their house!
See spiritual thought!
Spiritual Thoughts
Ok with how hectic Sunday was I had a moment of reflection. There were so many noises and things going on around me and I was very distracted. I felt a prompting but I didn’t really recognize it. I felt the same way a few minutes later and really tried to focus on what it was. It was at that moment that everything became background noise and I was at peace. The Spirit was trying to tell me that when we really look for it we will find it at any moment. We have to train ourselves to recognize the Spirit even in the most hectic moments. When we do that the Lord can guide us through any situation. It also showed me that the Spirit is truly a “still, small voice” that whispers to us and we must choose and make an effort to hear it.
“Yea, thus saith the still small voice, which whispereth through and pierceth all things, and often times it maketh my bones to quake while it maketh manifest, saying:” (D&C 85:6)
Okay, that is all for this week. Miss you all! Have a great week! Say your prayers. nRemember your Savior loves you.
Até mais,
Elder Urbano
