Elder Alex Evans has been called to the Brazil Rio de Janeiro Mission. He reports on July 10th, 2013, and will serve for a period of two years.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

MTC Week Two
July 23, 2013

 

 Week Dois "Bears, Beets, Bed Bugs" what......​


Oi Familia! Tudo bem? Tudo bem.
This last week has been long and jam-packed full of adventure and thrills. I'll explain the subject title later on the email, just to scare mom and add some suspense ;). So starting on last Tuesday I forgot to mention that I have been doing the choir, and plan to do it the whole time I'm here. It's a lot of fun and it's a really nice break to normal missionary life. On Wednesday and Thursday we taught our last two lessons to our first fake investigator, Aquilino, which is a sweet name, and they went well! Then the guy who played Aquilino walked in on Friday during our second class period of the day and he is our second teacher for the rest of our stay here, and something else crazy. I recognized him! He is the older brother of one of the kids in my ward at BYU! He is a super cool guy and he is hilarious. He's also a really good teacher. Him and our other teacher both agree that there are 2 types of missionaries for our church: those who serve in Brazil, and those who wish they could serve in Brazil. :) I am totally beginning to agree with them. Brazil is so awesome and so is Portuguese! I cannot wait to be in Rio de Janeiro!
So then on Thursday and Friday and Saturday I was feeling pretty sick. I'm not sure exactly what I had, but it made me nauseous and congested and exhausted. So on Friday I was so out of it, and at about 4:45 on Friday night I fell asleep, and I didn't wake up until 9:30 Saturday morning. It was glorious! I was so much better after that. But I was itchy. Particularly on my knee. So I itched it a little. And noticed that it was all bumpy. So as my anxiety grew, I also realized that I was itchy all over. I jumped out of bed and ran to the shower and sure enough I had small patches of bumpy bug bites all over my body. (Not completely "all over" but there were bites on about every part of me). I realized that it must have been bed bugs and I was super angry. I was sick and I had bed bugs. Stupid. I went to the front desk on Saturday night and got the form from them that tells me what to do, and they were supposed to make calls and other things, but they didn't do anything but give me new bedding. So for the next two nights I slept in the room next door with my other district members on an empty mattress that they had. On Sunday morning I went and tried to figure it out with the front desk people again, and this time it was two men. Here is our conversation.
Me "Hey can you help me with this form and everything? I had bed bugs and came by here late last night but they just handed me this list of things to do and get, but didn't tell me how to do or get these things." (most of the form is just check lists telling me that I need to wash all of my clothes and dry clean my suit, and spray every single one of my possessions with Permethrin and do all these other things along those lines)
the stupid secretary man "Well did you do everything on this list?"
"Not yet, I'm here to figure out how I'm supposed to get all this done"
"Well I would just do the things on this list."
"Ok I will, but how?"
"Well did you wash or dry clean all of your clothes?"
"No I haven't yet, can I even do that today?"
"Not on Sundays no, the laundry room is closed from Saturday night through Sunday, but yeah I would do everything on this list."
"How am I supposed to do that, or have had that done if the laundry room has been closed since last night?"
"I don't know."
Then I walked away. But don't worry! I solved the crisis on my own and I am bed bug free.
To answer a few questions- my responsibilities as a Zone Leader. The biggest one is welcoming and orientating new missionaries in our zone every wednesday. And guess who is going to be in one of our two new districts?? Marcus Phipps! So I'll get to orient him and be his ZL for the next 4 weeks! Also there's a kid from the Olathe Stake in that same district. I know a lot of people here at the MTC, basically half of my ward at BYU is here and a bunch of other people as well.
Our other responsibilities are to choose people for prayers and other things in Sacrament Meetings and Priesthood meetings on Sundays, and participate in all of the branch councils, and hold weekly interviews with the district leaders about the welfare of all the missionaries. It's pretty chill.
Days go by fast here! It seems like yesterday I was the overwhelmed newbie getting orientated here, and now I'm the overwhelmed newbie orientating others, but it's all good :) I will be sure to include some pictures, I don't have much more time so this will be all for this week. Love you all and take care!
Oh ps. tell me about the Lexus you got landon! and the sd card thing was because the computers here don't recognized when you plug in a camera with a cord like that, also some last minute requests. If you find my retainers ever, please send. Also my adidas soccer pants would be nice. And look up chemicals or sprays for bed bugs and send me some stuff. I don't want them to come back, or get them in Rio.

Thanks!




 

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