Foreshadowing
Hey friends! Did everyone ever consider that on your mission you might be doing a 1 hour service project of bathing dogs? Yeah, me neither but hey it happens.
I am back, yet again, just this time with 8 months under my belt. 33% of the way with an unknown return date… pretty exhilarating, I know. This week was super weird, lowkey weirder than the last (which I didn't know was possible). The week consisted of 11 hours of interviews with President, 2 family home evenings, a visit from the senior couple, two member dinners (not normal), bathing dogs (very not normal), and lots and lots of walking (normal). Not a single true, true workday (don't worry we did all we possibly could), not ideal but hey, now it's a new week
But President…
On Wednesday we had interviews with the President… well for me it was actually him just “foreshadowing” the heck out of my mission. My interview was scheduled for 9:30am… I left the chapel at 7:30pm.
Wednesday at 8am we headed to the Stake Center for our interviews. We got there at 8:30. Pretty chill except the chapel door was broken and we could not get in so, us four Elders had to walk over to the Sister's house and steal the keys. We got back to the chapel right as President got there and this time we had the correct keys to open the gate. Elder Bingham (my best friend) and his comp were the first to go. Let me preface this by saying interviews happen in “15 minute” slots. As you might guess they are never actually just 15 minutes. Bingham's comp was first up and took 40 minutes, not bad. I know Bingham always makes his interview as long as possible, I set an over/under of 1 hour 15 minutes, taking the over of course. Let's just say I won that bet by a healthy 15 minutes.
For those of you keeping track it is now 11:20ish. All good, I am up next. Right President? Wrong. After 16 other missionaries it was finally my turn, at 6pm. I ended up being the second to last interview of the day. That being said, the day was super cool. We hit up hours of “comp” study with the APs, studying some deep doctrine and lore dropping about our APs life and the upcoming transfers with the mission splitting. The whole zone also got milkshakes, that was super lit.
In terms of my interview I can't tell you a whole lot, for my sanity and yours, but President asked me some pretty telling questions and gave me a book to study and summarize for him. He proceeded to tell me that if I can understand the book correctly I will be… and I will stop that sentence right there. We talked about some doctrine stuff and prayer. I left that interview with my mind opened to a whole new perspective. When we usually have interviews with President I am at my lowest and just break but this time was different. This time President and I were laughing and joking the whole time. It got to the point that he spit out his water. That was gold. I love President.
One Wrong Move
Welcome to my little story about someone we were teaching this week. Let's call him Bill. Bill came to Church last Sunday and that is where we met him. We taught him about the Church and scheduled to meet with him again on Tuesday. On Tuesday we went to his house and he had so many questions for us. Like so many. We answered and taught about the Restoration, going smoothly. Bill complained a little bit about the other Elders in our ward being rowdy and not letting him listen. He also noticed little things about us that I didn't even notice. Interesting. From that moment I knew we had to be careful because one wrong move would send the whole thing crashing down. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he studied it. Like really studied it. Unreal. Bill sent us a text saying he had a desire to be baptized. We visited him that day and he had many, many more questions. I even bathed his dogs because he was hurt. He made us a nice little snack and confirmed that he would come to Church! Literally a dream come true.
And then Sunday came. He came to Church and when Church ended he couldn't leave fast enough. I sent him a text to see if everything was good and then he responded. Responded with a long paragraph summed up to “You guys think I am going to rob you?” and “I don't want to talk to you guys again.” And that is the end of a story of a guy named Bill. We do not understand what happened but something went very wrong.
Random
I suck at ping pong
There is a senior missionary couple in our mission who is responsible for the cleanliness and maintenance of houses. Saturday evening I was an hour and a half away from home when I got a call that they would be at our house in 20 minutes. I frantically called the other Elders and told them to run home and start cleaning. The house was actually pretty clean and the couple was chill. They actually showed up 2 hours after they said they would. It was funny.
Talked to the mission doctor (not for me) and he is super funny. We got side tracked talking about golfing while he was supposed to be prescribing my comp medicine.
A family in the Ward made cake for us on Sunday night.
Got a 45 minute haircut. The longest haircut of my life.
Pizza night with a member
Had a nice little water fight for pday
Took out the 3 month old collection of pizza boxes.
Quotes
“Eu sou uma estrategista de guerra de água.” [Elder Souza, 4/20/2026]
God's Hand
The daughter of an inactive member getting released from the hospital
A beautiful sunset
A funny conversation with President
The members that helped us out with meals
Spiritual Thought
Savior. Redeemer. Emmanuel. Prince of Peace. Creator. Messiah. Holy One of Israel. King of Kings. Beloved. Only Begotten. The Lord. Wonderful. The Anointed One. Shepherd. Prophet. Pastor. Almighty. Brother. Jesus Christ.
It is impossible to encapsulate all that Christ did in one word. Impossible. His love, His calling, His purpose, is greater than we can ever imagine. I love my Savior. He loves you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Okie dokie. That's all for today. Sorry it’s late again. I got distracted by our water fight. I probably forgot something but I love you all! Write me! Next week I will have transfer news for you (it's gonna be big!)
Muito amor,
Elder Urbano
