Day 196

I think we all got to the MTC like kids! We learned more than we could have imagined, but what missionary work actually is can only be understood through doing. At the training center, we have a very distilled atmosphere, and only so much can go wrong.

My MTC companion Elder Kyle put it well: "sometimes it feels like you're at EFY for 6 weeks and then you don't go home for 2 years." Still makes me laugh, because it *does* make sense.

Real world, it's two people, the city, and hopefully a map . When I first got here, I was surprised at the amount of trust given to missionaries. It's a small city in an unheard corner of the world, even to Brasilians living in other states. If you wanted, you could just sleep all day and blame any lack of progress on external conditions.

Also was pleasantly surprised that the missionaries here have the motivation not to take advantage of this separation from regular contact with anything outside of the city. We're making real progress "at the end of Brasil".

Late Saturday night, we got a call from the branch leadership asking for the missionaries each to give a ten minute talk. Prepared rapidly in the morning. I gave a talk on the Plan of Salvation.

In the city we get a variety of responses, ranging from disinterest to curiosity to Twilight Zone.

One day we stopped to talk with someone who was seated on the front porch playing a guitar. We asked him if he'd already talked to missionaries before and he replied no, so we began sharing the Plan of Salvation with him. Turns out he's one of the world's most convinced 15-year-old atheists in the world. When we were discussing the plan presented to us that includes free agency, and the other presented by Lucifer, which would mean that in the absence of this agency, all would be saved.

He then informed us about how the "10 Commandments of Satanism" are actually just common sense rules that help the earth, instead of the 10 Commandments of “Moses” which are focused on protecting people. I honestly haven't studied atheistic satanism like he has, but I do know that it's more interested in being against norms, and playing on taboos that anything of substance.

At that point, we just have to politely move on. But it's memorable encounters like those that make each day interesting.

I'll send plenty of pictures next week, including requested items (I didn't forget, Mom, promise!)

Até mais,

Elder Hopkinson

Putting nutella and peanut butter to work:

                                    The Argentinian town port on the other side of the river.

Brasilian-Argentinian problem solving. It's a floating bridge pushed or pulled by a tug boat.

Carries passengers and freight trucks.