February 17, 2013 A week of training and learning

What was in the package.

My birthday package from the Wests

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was one of the weeks that went by the quickest. Tuesday we had a very spiritual zone meeting as we reflected on our experiences when we opened our calls to serve in the Brasil, Curitiba Mission. I learned that I need to serve each day like it is my last day on the mission because the time on the mission truly does pass by like a dream. Because I am short on time I will include a funny story that happened yesterday.

Yesterday morning, Sunday, Elder Kakuschke and I woke up at 6:30 am, like normal, got ready, ate breakfast and left our house at 8:05 am for our 8:30 am church. However, as we were a little under halfway to the church, I realized I left our cell phone in the house, which we needed to call investigators and members before church. As it was 8:15 am at that time we sped walked back to our house, grabbed the phone then walked as fast as we could to not be late, as we received the reference of Sheila from President Cordon who received the reference from one of the 70´s of the church, Carlos Casalicchio, who lives in São Paulo. To say the least it was important to arrive on time to greet Sheila because of who referred her, and because President Cordon said he wanted us to personally follow up with him to lety him know how she liked us, as missionaries, and the church. However, when we arrived at the church at exactly 8:30 am all the gates around the church were locked, the doors were closed and there were no cars in the road. We then opened up the gates and doors and began thinking outloud why no one was there as it was 8:30 am. We thought maybe it´s district conference...maybe they cancelled church for some odd reason and didn´t tell us...or maybe today is a Brasilian holiday we didn´t know about where everyone sleeps in. After setting up some rooms inside the church, at about 8:40 am I remembered that one of the senior missionaries on tuesday told us, as we were leaving our zone meeting, that it was daylight savings time on Sunday and to fall back an hour, to gain an hour of sleep. So rather than it being 8:40 it was really 7:40, we woke up at 5:30 am and felt a little ridiculous for not remembering. I guess you know you´re a missionary when you forget daylight savings time and wake up and go to church an hour early.

By the way transfers were today and it looks like I will complete almost 6 months here at the end of March, because I will stay at least five more weeks with Elder Kakuschke in this beautiful area of downtown Guarapuava.

Thanks for the love, support and birthday wishes...until next week!

Amo,