Catch-up Post--Three Weeks in One!

July 13

Hey Mom & Dad,

Elder Shakespaere got transferred today; he left this morning. I´m a little sad about that--I was hoping he´d be my last companion. I had a lot of fun with him. 

Last picture of me and Shakespaere

But my new companion is pretty cool, too.  His name is Elder Mesa. He´s from Argentina and has a year on the mission. 

Me with Elder Mesa

I don´t know why, but there´s always a missionary in every mission that is a kind of ``grim reaper.´´ He gets paired up with departing missionaries almost every transfer on his mission. Elder Mesa is one of those. He has already ``killed off´´ three of his companions, making me his upcoming number four. [In missionary slang, they refer to missionaries going home as “dying.”  So Elder Mesa would have been paired mostly with guys on their last transfer before going home and therefore the label “grim reaper.”]

With Elder Mesa sealing off my list of companions, I´ll get to say that I never once had a Brazilian companion for my entire mission!

Glad you´re all having fun in Germany!   I like the pics. Hope you slept on the plane; that´s really the only thing to do for jet lag.

Still haven´t gotten packages, no. I´ll probably go to Floripa next week though.

Give Jon and Hillary a hug for me! Let me know what else you´ve done by next week.

Love you, Mom. Thanks for all you do.

Talk to you next week,

Elder Duffin

July 20

Hey Mom & Dad,

Looks like you guys are having a lot of fun. I like the pictures; I´m wishing I could be there with you.

Our apartment complex in Serraria

Cool Bug

I went to Floripa today and bought some neat stuff. I´m not sure if I´ll mail it home or if I´ll just bring it all back home with me in August.

I also got one of your packages!  Haven´t opened it yet.

I´m really sorry to hear about Cousin Pat.   Hope Dan and Pete and Phyllis will be okay. They´ll be in my prayers. [One of my favorite cousins passed away while we were in Europe.]

Rainbows in Serraria

Hearing about the fire near Sky Island is scary! Glad they got it put out. Guess they weren´t wrong about the fireworks this year.

Yeah, you´re right, that castle does look like the one from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Ha ha!

Neuschwanstein in Germany

I had to get used to typing on Portuguese keybords too; I´ll probably type weird when I get home.

A good view of Serraria

I went to Floripa today and bought souvenirs. Found some neat stuff.

Have fun and take lots of pictures. I´m not quite on my fourth memory card yet, but I think I have roughly five or six thousand pictures taken on my mission. I think it´s great how easily we can record history nowadays; no other time on earth has had the recording capabilities that we have.

Love you Dad!  I´m glad you´re having a good time; stay safe and give everyone hugs for me and keep taking pictures!

I´ll talk to you next week,

Elder Duffin

July 27

Hey Mom & Dad,

Sounds like last week was fun for you--looks like you did some interesting things. I like the pictures. Germany looks like a really cool place--lots of history. Though I would prefer that you not write to me about the concentration camp you visited; save that till I come home. I need to be happy for the rest of the mission.

I´m glad to hear that Julia´s group won first place at the World Jump Rope Championship! Tell her congrats for me. 

Yes, I got a package last week, the one with the peanut butter and pickled beans. I´ve been enjoying that. Never realized just how much I liked peanut butter until I came to Brazil.

Not much new going on here; just trying to get less actives and investigators to church. Elder Mesa and I are getting along great; I really lucked out on companions my whole mission. He is my 13th. We also had a conference with a member of the 70; that was cool.

Restaurant we ate at during conference

I sent you a bunch of pictures; hope you got them! 

This is from the Christmas conference white elephant gift exchange. I bought this thing not knowing it was an ash tray. President was the one who ended up getting it and he thought it was pretty funny.

Me with an Elder in our Zone

 

Have a great last few days of your trip! Give Jon and Hillary hugs for me. Wishing you all safe travels home!

Love you! Talk to you next week.

Elder Duffin

Thoughts on Patience, Companions, and the Heat

Hey Mom,

Sorry you couldn´t have fireworks on Independence day.   Obviously, there was no celebration here; though we did attend the birthday dinner party of a member and taught their friends a bit. We ate pizza.

Eating corn at last week's Festa Junina

You were talking about people with poor social skills. Elder Shakespaere told me horror stories about his very socially challenged companion in the MTC; made me reflect on all the companions I´ve had. I´ve really lucked out on companions for my whole mission. I´m really hoping I get to stay comps with Shakespaere till I come home.

Shakespaere also shared with me a quote from his trainer: ``Never pray for patience; you´ll get a bad companion.´´ Ha ha!

Me with Elder Gonzales

I don´t think I´ll be fazed by the hot weather at home at all. I went into early stages of heatstroke fairly regularly while I was in Houston; it was abominably hot there. And it was in the 90´s almost every day for most of my time in Xanxerê. The temperature in Grants Pass sounds ridiculous though. [I told him it has been 107 where his grandparents live in Oregon.] 

Some of the scenery in my area

The cookies Catriel sent were kind of stale by the time they got here, but they were still good!

I like the pics you sent, Dad. It looks like everyone had a good time at the 4th of July picnic. I also saw your avalanche video; that was cool.

More local scenery

Hope everything goes well with your prep for the trip. Hope you´ll all be safe traveling too. Looking forward to seeing your pics of Germany.

I love you Dad; thanks for all your love and support.  Love you too, Mom. Keep me in your prayers; you´re in mine.

Talk to you later,

Elder Duffin

Festa Junina Pictures!

Hey Mom,

Yes,  we went to Floripa on Monday. I found some cool souvenir things to send home. One of the packages you sent came in; the one with cereal and cookies and stuff. Thanks! :) I´m going to go to Floripa again this coming Monday to buy more stuff, so maybe the other packages will have arrived by then.

I´ll be interested to read my mission blog once I´m home. I´ve written journal entries for almost every single day during my mission. I´m almost on to my 4th journal now.

On my mission I´ve come to learn that when one is disposed to do good, the Spirit will guide them to do and say things without them even realizing that the Spirit is guiding them. I´ve had a lot of experiences where I just decided to do something and afterwards it turned out to have been something the Spirit was prompting me to do, without me even noticing it.

The second year of the mission has gone by pretty fast. If the extension wasn´t happening, next week would be my last full week on the mission. Can´t believe I´m already at that point now.

Sorry to hear about all the people in the hospital; I´ll keep them in my prayers. 

It´s been pretty hot and sunny here, too. A Brazilian winter is just like our summer in the Pacific NW.  I think it´s crazy that I´ve been living in hot summer weather for literally over a year. I´m really glad I´m not in Houston right now; I´ve been looking at photos of Elder Carter and me from one year ago and remembering just how awful the summer weather was there. 

Everyone down here is very surprised when I tell them that I grew up next to a volcano, ha ha!   I usually show people pictures of Mt Ranier and you guys. One church member lady did not believe that I was related to Catriel because she has blue eyes and mine are brownish. It was very funny; she didn´t believe me at all.

Ben-Daniel with his blue-eyed siblings

I'm looking forward to sharing stories from the mission when I get home; I´ve got a lot of them now.

Shakespaere and I are doing great. Our teaching pool is increasing, which is good.

Oh yeah, on Saturday we had Festa Junina, the weird holiday. It was even weirder once I experienced it, ha ha. I took lots of pictures, so I´ll send you those now.

The stuff in the pot is a traditional drink for this holiday, called Quentão (translation: really hot). It´s hot grape juice with ginger and cinnamon in it. It´s pretty good.

It looks like I´m holding a cork in my hand, but it is a piece of peanut candy. They eat peanuts at this holiday. 

Me eating pine seeds

 

I learned that moths apparently do not eat the same things as butterflies; the moth we rescued died. :( so we gave him a Viking funeral in our sink.

 

 This is a picture of our apartment complex.

Love you, Mom. Hope you have a great week!

Elder Duffin