Uno Abducted! and try not to stress out as a missionary

There were hot air balloons, haha, random

June 2, 2014

To start the story: first off, our shower head was being really bad. It would be really hot, almost to the point of burning, and then switch to freezing cold after one minute and stay that way. So we called Sister Parrela and arranged that we would get a new shower head. Other than that in our house we had Uno and Phase 10 that we played on P-Days which was super fun and I started to teach the other elders Mau, haha and a good way to just relax for an hour (one hour in the week!). But as always someone has got to ruin the fun and as it turns out a lot of missionaries are playing card games like Magic and are going home earlier to play games so that just ruined it for everyone and President Parrela was on the alert. So this past Tuesday we had our district meeting and we knew that President Parrela was going to pass by some time during the morning to drop off our new shower head. So our entire district after the meeting at the chapel and lunch at Irma Iara's (8 missionaries is a bit crazy there) we went back to our house so that everyone could use the bathroom and be on their way. And seeing as we only have one bathroom it was taking a while and what do the other 7 missionaries have to do?, talk and joke around of course. And it was getting a little bit late 2:00 in the afternoon we were still in the house talking we hear someone clap at our gate. So Elder Usieda went to go see who it was "Nossa é Presidente Parrela!" we entirely forgot that he was coming and it was just a bit embarrassing because we were all just chilling and laughing. And Sister Parrela was with him too and she is the iron fist behind the rules with cleaning our houses and stuff and so she walked into our house and thank heavens we had cleaned the day before so she was happy with that (but not with the packages of cookies in the pantry) and then she said "... alright where are the games" and with vergonha nas caras (ver-go-nya nas cadas) (shame on our faces) we gave up our games and hence Uno was abducted... sadness but now its official in the rules for our mission not to play games yay...

Other than that this week I've been learning a lot about how not to stress out as a missionary. Pretty much just worry about yourself! It's a lot easier that way and for me easier said than done, haha. And another thing hard for me to accept is that all the missionaries everywhere that I talk to say the same thing and that is to be happy on the mission you just have to accept that your going to break a few rules every once in a while. That really bugs me but every week I come to see how that is kind of true, still working on that...

Anyway love you all and have fun up there in the hot summer! 

Elder Pierce

Elders Dos Santos Gama and Usieda "roubando bergamota" stealing tangerines, haha