So after I had left the Lanhouse in 7 de Abril, Elder Keller and I went to the chapel were President Lisonbee was waiting to interview our zone. I was a little nervous not really knowing what to expect but having a general idea of what we´d talk about. It was good and he just asked how things were going, how Elder Marim is, how my health is and what not and we got to talking about the progress of the work here in Barreiras. Like I´ve said in past letters, whenever there´s interviews, it always leaves me with feelings of having to talk with your manager or something and even when you didn´t do something wrong, it always leaves you feeling nervous hahaha. But I enjoyed our talk. It felt a lot like talking to a concerned parent who wants to know how you´re doing.
The leadership meeting was great and even when there isn´t ever anything truly noteworthy or mindblowing, it always leaves me thinking of ways that I can improve as a missionary and overall I just feel better. It was also cool because a lot of the great missionaries that I´ve already listed millions of times are also district leaders so I got to see Elder Ramírez, Elder Santana, Elder Adams, Elder Cerna and several others. One of the changes on the mission that saddened me is that President Lisonbee went to a meeting of some kind with Elder Oakes back home and apparently all missions won´t be having transfer meetings anymore and that we will be just going straight to our areas if we ever get transfered. We used to know Saturday nights, which gave us time to pack our bags and say goodbye to members/investigators but now it appears that we won´t be knowing until monday morning, with little time to do our bags and say goodbye to people. I was extremely sad because that means I won´t be able to say goodbye to Elder Cerna when he goes home in February or Elder Costa e Silva when he goes home in March. They´ll be the last companions that I´ve had that will go home before I will and I love those guys so much that it makes me sad not to be able to see them anymore.
That monday when I was in Salvador, we had a companionship exchange and I was able to work with Elder Costa e Silva in Pernambués, his old area, which was awesome to be able to catch up and talk about our lives, family and such. Elder Costa e Silva´s a great guy and I was thrilled to be able to work with him for a few hours.
Kind of random but yeah, before I heard the announcement about the leadership meeting, I had bought ingredients to make some homemade cheesecake and once I got home, I ended up making it and it turned out great. I´m going to be cooking like a beast when I get back, prepare yourselves.
We got to talking about a funny story that happened several weeks ago when Elder Trindade was here. So there´s some twin girls in our branch that every once in a while make lunch for us and they have a small dog named Jeep probably almost twice the size of Lu-Lu that I don´t really know what breed it is but it looks like a weiner dog. Anyway, the dog gets super angry super easy and if you annoy him just a little bit, he will charge you and try to bite you. Elder Trindade thought it was super funny and at the end of our lunch with us leaving, him, Elder Marim and Elder Bacca started getting on his nerves but I kept telling them to leave the dog alone. I was already outside when all 3 of them come running out of the house with Jeep right behind them with me just standing there in front of the doorwar talking with one of the twins and apparently he must´ve seen that I was also in a white shirt and tie and decided to bit my ankle. Luckily, he didn´t bite too hard and all he managed to do was yank at my sock, but the other guys thought it was funny. He must´ve realized that I wasn´t trying to egg him on so he let me go almost immediately and chased after them. When his attempts to attack the others failed, he decided to have another go at me and when he got close, I lifted up my Book of Mormon as if to hit him with it and he booked it in the other direction. So yeah, I can now say that I got bit by a dog on my mission (kind of, not really).
As far as work goes, things have been normal. Elder Marim and I haven´t been getting anyone to go to church and our teaching pool is basically nothing so we´ve been stepping up our game and talking with lots of people and teaching pretty much everyone as always. Sometimes it gets hard because I have a habit of trying to convince people instead of bearing my testimony and so at times, our messages aren´t super spirtual. After spending a year and so in Brazil though and hearing so many people trying to debate with us, my knowledge of the Bible has improved so I suppose that´s good but trying to convince people never works out in the end. Our zone is going to do a fast tomorrow that we may have success in finding people because our zone is the lowest in getting people to come to church. Hope all goes well.
I love you all as always and thanks for reading!
-Elder Skinner
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