Week 5! Traveling at the Speed of Light

    It feels like just yesterday this whole journey was beginning and already the first part is almost over. The online Missionary Training for "simple" languages lasts just six weeks so I only have one more week of training. It is still mind-blowing seeing the end in just over a week. The software, we use for classes has a calendar showing all of the classes you have and after this next week, there is nothing. That aside I have mixed feelings about things almost being over. On one hand, I know I am not even close to ready to speak Portuguese in a foreign country where there won't be any sort of lifelines. On the other, I am tired of sitting in classes all day. But that's kinda how things go.

    Elder Adams and I also had a TRC this week and to put it simply it was quite rough. It only lasted 15 minutes and probably 1/3 of it was in silence. We joined the meeting asked some solid get-to-know-you questions and were moving into the next step which is beginning the lesson. The trouble is we had no idea what to say, we didn't have a planned lesson because we didn't know anything about the "investigator." The trouble is, that the entire lesson is all in Portuguese and we don't know what to say. So we sat there in silence. Occasionally we would find the words for a question or a brief thought, but it was a quiet meeting. In the end, Elder Adams and I did squeeze a simple gospel principle and our testimonies but it was a rough lesson. This last week we will try to do three lessons total (two are in English) so it should be pretty busy. Hopefully, things will go smoother.

    The last notable update this week is travel. I still don't have any news but it looks like I actually might go straight to Mozambique, which is a little surprising for foreign missions because visas take a long time to process and any roadblocks in the process can delay things. Nothing is definite yet and it is still quite likely I will be temporarily reassigned to the states. Just this last day Elder Adams (my companion) who is also going to Mozambique was reassigned and Elder Hutala who is going to Portugal was also reassigned. Everyone else in my district is going to the same country for their mission. Elder Ross is in Canada and Sister Hanson and Hiatt are in the states (both going to Boston). At first, it seemed like I too was going to be reassigned but I have an email saying they are sending me a Covid-19 test kit. A negative test for Covid is one of the requirements for entering Mozambique and sending one wouldn't make any sense if I was going to be reassigned to the United States. What does it all mean? I don't know but I have to continue waiting to see where things end up.

    All in all the end is fast approaching and I can tell I am getting a little bit of tunnel vision. I am trying to get all my loose ends tied up while having six-hour classes every weekday. This tunnel vision led me to think of an interesting property of traveling at the speed of light which is that you can't see anything because you are going at the same speed as the particles (light isn't quite a particle though) that let you see. In these moments when things seem fast approaching and intimidating, I know it is very important to just slow down and not lose sight of what is important. And likewise, when you slow down from the speed of light, everything will eventually return back normal and the universe in all of its greatness will be visible again.

And finally pictures! The next few are my entire district (the group of other missionaries I learn with) with one of our teachers.