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Am I Russian?

 May 1, 2023

Okay, to explain the title this week as we were walking around, Elder Sellers  and I were asked by two different groups of people, "Hey are you guys Russian?" We're like, "No, we're missionaries," haha. Up to this point, I've been classified as Brazilian, American, Russian, and English. 

Anyway, back to the news of the week. On Tuesday, Elder Sellers and I got up and saw the fog, so we're like, BEACH time!! Because, man, first, it would be sick to take pictures, and second, there's bound to be people there, right? Well.... there were prime photo ops, but not so many teaching ops, so we took our pictures and left. From there we walked and talked and walked and talked. Eventually, we met Candela and Jesús. They were dope. Candela was more open than Jesús, we still grabbed their number, so we will see what happens. So far, they haven't texted us back.

On Wednesday, we ended up not finding many people, but we did have some insane member lessons, so that was freaking cool. We also were able to teach one of our friends named Dina, but let's just say we're not going over ever again after what happened in our lesson, haha. Wanna hear about it? To start off, Dina has lots of dogs, most of them aren't fed well, or they're diseased, so they smell really bad, and they're just ugly. So we are in this lesson, and this dog that has patchy fur won't leave me alone. Eventually, he does but then Dina's son (I think) comes out and he's all like, "Ayy, Americans, what's up?" We tell him who we are and he's like "Ojo, you can't use the word Bobo o tonto because they're insults," which has nothing to do with the lesson, but we go on. Soon he interrupts again and is like "Ay are you guys from Boca or River??" (These are soccer teams, and it's super important to people to know what side you're on. Personally, I'm from Boca because it's better, haha) I say "River," because he looked like he was gonna hit me if I didn't, so my comp and I are both like "River, duh!" and he's like, "Ayy, let's go!" and proceeds to give me and my comp hugs, haha. After that, we just tried to get out as fast as we could because the dude is getting weirder and weirder. He takes the thing his mom is wearing around her neck and like playfully pulls it tight and then releases, so it wouldn't hurt her, and then he comes over to me because at this time I'm reading a scripture and he tells me, "Slowly, Master," and he guides me with his finger through the verse. We wrapped things up quickly after that. He was creepy. After that, we went to this park and saw about 20 13-15-year-olds smoking like it's normal. So, that was Wednesday. 

Thursday and Friday were full of district leader stuff, so I didn't get much time working in my area, but I was able to help an old lady get ready for her baptism because I did her interview. That was super cool because her testimony was really sweet. I asked her to pray and she was like, "Umm, you know, it's a process, right, so I've only got a little, but here it goes," and then gave the cutest old person prayer ever, haha. We were also able to have a reunion with our new ward mission leader, so the work in our wards is about to go crazy because this guy wants us to have people to teach, and for that to happen we need, 1) members in lessons, and 2) references. He's excited to help get some of that work going.

I love you all so much and miss you tons. 

Elder Mergy out











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