Good NIGHTS

Weeky letter:

So I hope I hadn´t scared anyone with regards to the little bug that I had caught about a week ago. As of now, I feel as though I´ve completely recovered and we´re back on our feet again :) I talked with Sister Lisonbee on the phone and after talking a little, she told me that no missionary has gotten Zika but has gotten little sicknesses here and there that have ressembled it. Some little cars from the government with men with gas masks have been passing by some neighborhoods where we´ve been working and have basically been gassing the streets. A LOT of people have been getting these same symptoms I´ve gotten here in Jacobina but it looks like they´re determined to fight it. All I really needed was just a day or two of rest and water and I got better. We had a little scare with Elder Gomes though. Last week as we left the lanhouse, he started to report some strange feelings of pain in the sides of his legs and later that night, we didn´t end up leaving to work at night because his situation just started getting worse and he had a strong fever and chest pains for almost the whole week. He´s better now and we had a few good days to end our week. He just slept almost every day which left me time to do some miscellaneous things, such as study, prepare a district meeting, laundy and all sorts of little things. Our branch president and his wife were so sweet to us and stopped by every once in a while to drop off lunch and to check up on Elder Gomes. They´re really special and Elder Gomes and I are going to have to do something special for them. After two days or so like this, I started getting bored. When you spend all day working, it doesn´t give you any time at all to think about home or anything like that so after a while of sitting in our apartment, I started feeling a little sad but luckily Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were able to get on our feet and work so it helped me to forget about it.

Today, we went to the top of a ´´peak´´ called ´´Jaraguá ´´, which had a pretty view that put the Cruzeiro to shame. We went with Caio and Parley from the Teachers´ Quorum of the branch and had a blast. It was pretty lightweight with no risks but the view was remarkable. Afterwards, we had lunch at Caio´s house that Parley had made and it looks like we´re going to have a family home evening with his family because his mom and sister are also investigating the church and I promised them that I would make mexican food. Unfortunately, I gobbled down the Matta´s hot sauce that you guys had sent me the first two lunches that President Francisco had left with us so I won´t be having any real mexican food tonight. We might even make a homemade pizza because it´s a little easier and cheaper. Not sure but I´m excited to have a family home evening with them.


We´ve been continuing teaching Sueli, the mom of a less-active girl, and her husband Erivelton. We were happy to see them go to church yesterday because they live in ´´Caixa d´Agua´´, which is a neighborhood that lives a little far from the church and, even worse, it´s almost all uphill. I was most happy for Erivelton because he´s had problems with alcohol and normally drinks with friends on Saturday/Sunday so we were elated to see him at church and he even remarked on a follow-up visit that it had been a long time since he felt happiness on a sunday. It made me really happy to hear that and I fear that he will be bothered with more temptations now that he has a baptismal date and I hope he´ll be strong like he was on Sunday because he had some friends invite him to drink with them and he said no. I have a testimony that Satan is really good at that. He would have us think that the momentary pleasure in sin is greater than the small but meaningful feelings of peace for resisting a temptation and that it´s worth it when it´s not. We´re going to do our best to help them this week and Sueli has a baptismal date for this Saturday. We pray that all will go well.

We´ve started up english classes Saturday night after we invited all investigators we could to come to church. I enjoy teaching English and find it enjoyable. I think that speaking another language is so neat like I think I´ve said in past letters and I hope to learn another language or two in life because I think it´s really cool the culture and art of languages. I´m a little nervous of starting it up though because next Monday, we´ll be once again receiving the results of the transfer and I´ve learned that President Lisonbee sometimes has some surprises for us and who knows if I´ll only be here 1 transfer. Like I´ve said last week, I love the members here and I will be glad if I have to stay. What I really want is another companionship to come here to Jacobina but not too sure if that will happen. Stay tuned though :)

A funny little story I forgot to tell. In the beginning of the transfer, we got around to talking to a guy that stopped us in the middle of the road that was a little wacked up on probably some funky substances that seemed like a chill guy. We realized that our conversations weren´t going to get us anywhere so we said goodbye to him after 5 minutes or so and then he says probably one of the greatest things I had heard for a while,

´´Good night to you guys. Well, actually Good NIGHTS because we aren´t going to see each other for a lot of nights so I want to wish you all some good nights´´.

It´s a lot funnier in Portuguese the way he said it and Elder Gomes and I still crack up about it every once in a while because he seemed so relaxed about life. From now on, whenever I pass someone, I too will wish them many good nights.

Anyway, I love you all as always and hope you have a great week (e muitas boas noites, sabe ;-)  )

Love,

Elder Skinner