Day 133

Officially finished training on the "First 12 Weeks", though it's already been more than 12. Only had a few days of contact with the zone leaders so passing items off is at times a bit difficult.

In summary, there's a series of demonstrations of ability to teach various topics, use a series of teaching strategies, etc. Also is a list of passages/scriptures/procedures that need to be memorized.

Steps of daily and weekly planning, Doctrine and Covenants chapter 4, lesson topics, the last 2 paragraphs of the Book of Mormon introduction, and several other items.

There's a feeling of relief of having it all down, but also surprise at how well everything sticks. I'm generally not very good at memorizing anything, let alone more than a dozen blocks of information in Portuguese.

So the way I did it was probably hundreds of repetitions of various items, a many of them silently while walking (there's a lot of walking, and so also a lot of time for this).

My companion (second companion so far) has a real desire to learn English. Some Brasilians, rather rarely, take private courses in English. Elder Marcone, who's been on his mission for almost a year, just started 4 months ago but is already more advanced than most of the others I've personally met. Elder Marcone asked me to only speak English while in the apartment. Deal!

We recently received the Conference issue a few days ago, which we both think is amazing. On the day of Conference itself a few months ago I watched but technically missed the first session of Saturday. Then, I didn't know enough Portuguese to really get anything out of it. Just words and phrases.

I did manage to watch the second Saturday session, and all of Sunday, in English. Joabel, the branch president, set up a tv in another room running in English; I sat there and watched, alone!

In general, it's nice not to be totally lost in terms of language. I noticed that even now, talking on the telephone is a bit more difficult. Being physically present helps to communicate for various reasons (body language, lip reading, etc.)

It's a good thing that I only received a new companion so recently. Any earlier and we both would have been hopelessly lost in Itaqui. I bought a map several weeks ago and started marking everything important. The problem is that, a lot that exists in person doesn't on the map. A few points are also incorrect. It's all part of the learning process.

Still, good luck to whoever inherits the area from us. Elder Marcone is fairly sure this is my last transfer in Itaqui. 6 months is the maximum for a first area.

Until next week,

Elder Hopkinson