Ola! This week was pretty tough. But on Sunday, we had three baptisms! We were planning on five but two fell through and hopefully will happen next week. It was really cool though! Elder Costa got sick this week from something in the food he ate so this week didn’t go as well as we hoped. I gave him a blessing, and he’s better now, but let’s hope I don’t get sick next haha. When he was sick I went out with a RM that arrived just this week so we could still teach some lessons. He’s freshly back so he still had all the good missionary skills. And he actually reminded me of Leif Dayberry a little haha. Except for the fact that he spoke Portuguese of course.

So something funny happened this week. While we were getting ready to leave to a lesson, a bat flew inside our house! Haha We tried to get it out but it was pointless. It was just flying around like crazy. It’s funny because we never saw it fly out but we can’t find it anywhere in there, so we have no idea if it’s dead in a corner there or something haha. I guess we’ll find out soon. Also, every Thursday we have a district meeting. And since we’re really far away from everything, there is only one other companionship in our district, and we have to take a bus for about an hour and a half to meet up with them in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. I have a feeling I might get a little sick of that after a while haha. The ward here loves us I can tell. We do a lot of activities with them and really try to get them involved. We had 20 lessons last week and 17 were with members! Also, I think we’re planning on starting a little activity once a week for them to learn some English. That should be fun because that’s one thing I can actually really help with haha.

Here in Oriximiná, I hear that your clothes get ruined extra fast haha. And I already ruined like 2 shirts and a tie! Haha I need to be more careful. Oh and about the bugs here... yeah there are tons. Our house is full of ants and bugs. I hate it, and we try to get rid of them but they always find a way in. There are tons. I’m not a fan haha. And we always seem to find a surprise for us when we arrive back home at the end of the day. Yipee...haha.

So about the language, it’s really hard. It’s really overwhelming at times, especially this week. Some days I feel like I can understand a lot, then others I feel like I can’t say or understand anything. It’s pretty frustrating, not gonna lie, because I want to talk and converse with these people so badly. I want to help and be involved more, but there is still this huge language barrier. I study and pray everyday, and I know that the Lord helps me. I know you, Mom, served in Colombia and had to speak Spanish. It would be greatly appreciated if you had some advice for me or something J because the Portuguese seems to be my primary concern right now.

Besides that, I’m loving it here. Serving the Lord is great. I’m really being pushed to my limits here, but I’m so grateful to know the Lord trusts me. The people are great, even though they do laugh at me because of my horrible accent and my inability to speak haha. I gave a thought about baptism at the service on Sunday, and while I was talking everyone was smiling and smirking because “the American” was speaking. Haha But I still love them. Love you all, and thanks for all of your support!

Com Amor do Amazonas,

Elder Andrus