TRANSFERRED! Ha.
Now where to begin??? So this last week was a rush and a half it seems like. Now I am so lost as to what all happened this last week I am sure I will forget something, but I will do my best. First of all, we found some really cool people to teach this week but unfortunately, none of them progress. Almost everyone in Palmas will let you in and let you teach them, but they are horrible when it comes to commitments. ´´one of these days I will visit the church´´ ´´if its God will I will go to church (blasphemy)´´ ´´If its not raining I will go to church (and they don´t go when its not)´´ ´´yeah, I´ll read the book of mormon. tomorrow...´´ Oh my, I could go on with things people say here but I won´t waste to much time with that. But we were able to teach a lady we helped carry her groceries home one day and she said ´´I am going to be waiting for you boys to come back!´´ And we went back this last week and she was pretty emotional saying how she knew we were truly men of God and that we are just good people. I felt so happy to have helped her. We taught her and her husband and invited them to baptism, they accepted but didn´t go to church (go figure). But it was a pretty great experience this week.
This week we also had a bible bash with a dude that thinks he knows the scriptures. He belongs to one of these churches that are just full of apostasy here and he´s been going to his church for some 30 years. He tore out the old testament of his bibles saying it was useless and saying how Christ´s grace has already saved us and the only commandments we have are to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as well... Oh my, the thing is as a missionary we get this a lot. People teaching and believing in lies from the ´cunning one´ but this week it just happened a lot. Elder Alarcon and myself talked about it yesterday and we both testified one to each other that the Holy Ghost was always with us confirming to us what we know and what we preach is true. Look, I know that the world is all sorts of confused family and we all don´t hear about all these churches back home, but I know without a doubt that we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ. I know it with all my heart. I know we are in the last days and am thankful for the truth that we have.
So cool story. Saturday I went with Elder Barker to Miracema to do a baptismal interview. I interviewed a little girl of 11 years of age and she passed. Just a sweet, cute little girl. But while we were there we ate lunch with the sisters because we would have returned late to our own area. So we went to a house that I immediately recognized as a house I had eaten at before almost 1 year and 3 months ago my first transfer on the mission. The family remembered me and I them. It was even more cool because the girl that lives there just received her mission call to the Salt Lake Temple Square mission! She is leaving in april and we just talked a bunch about utah and what it is like. I even promised her mom that I was going to buy her and her companion lunch one day to repay her for the lunches she so graciously made for us. It was a very touching encounter with them.
While I was in Miracema I received the transfer calls. And the first name he said that was going to Brasilia was me! I almost didn´t believe it because I was completely expecting to stay another transfer there. So we made it back to our area and I started packing my bags. And let much just tell you, I am sick of packing bags... I think that might be the worst part of the mission is packing bags... Like seriously, mom and lauren sent me with all my stuff in those airtight/space bags, but no one ever thought that brasil wouldn´t have vacumns! So it makes it complicated getting everything in those bags... But with a few prayers and a few miracles the zipper always shuts!!! woohoo! So, yep. I was transferred.
So Sunday night I said goodbye to everyone and loaded all the missionaries into the bus. It is super weird to think that I was the leader of all of them that went down to brasilia because I am the oldest in the mission out of all of them and that was the 9th time I have taken the bus ride. I can say it was a bittersweet moment because now, there is little to no chance that I go back to palmas on the mission. But we all got here this morning and headed to Asa Sul Chapel where they give us the transfers. I got transferred back to the zone I was before I went to Palmas! ha. Valparaíso is the name of the zone. My area is called Ocidental and I am zone leader still with Elder Benedetti. He is brasilian and he is known to be one of the missionaries that baptizes the most. So I am super excited to be here with him and I actually was with him when I was in Luziana (the same ward, but not the same area) so we are good buds already. I am like 20 minutes from Luziana and will be able to go back there on trades and to do interviews! So most likely I will see old friends and faces. Something else that is really interesting is that I am known on the mission as the elder that was called to serve in the brasil BRASILIA mission but has never served there. I have never actually served in brasilia and its crazy! I am in the state of Goias again and love it. I don´t know much about my area besides its super big and full of people that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don´t know what the Lord has in store for me but I can say I am more than excited to discover what He wants of me and what He wants me to become here while I am in His sacred service. I love you all so much and hope you all are reading your scriptures everyday and saying your prayers often. The church is true!
com amor, Elder Patterson
The st. George boys. I had to say goodbye to them... sad day.
and my last day in palmas, hence the peace out sign. (blue building on the left was my apartment)
the view from my new apartment. hashtag hardcore swag. haha
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