Hey! I'm back from my mission and I want to ressurrect my blog! Hopefully Portuguese hasn't messed up my English all that bad, and people actually read it and comment! :)
Here's a brief summary of my life since I last wrote:
I flew to Brazil, spent an amazing 2 months in the MTC in Sao Paulo, and went up to Maceio. For the next 12 months I was in the field, with 8 companions (all Brazilian) and 6 areas (so I never stayed anywhere too long). I had a way hard time adjusting in the beginning, but by the end I didn't want to leave. I love Brazilian culture more than American culture. I also enjoy talking to random people, building relationships, teaching the gospel, and seeing people's lives change. However, my mission was cut short at 14 months due to a potentially cancerous tumor, that miraculously disappeared upon my arrival in the United States. So now that I'm here, I gotta figure out something meaningful to do with my life. Since I only planned on being back for Fall semester, I've improvised some things to do until then. I'm registered with a temp agency (that gave me half a day's work so far), I observe teachers at my old elementary school and talk to them to get ideas, I'm trying to learn piano, I'm being my dad's apprentice for fixing things around the house, yard, and cars, and most recently I've become involved in learning how to be a clown (i.e. face paint and balloon twisting). In 3 weeks I'll go to summer term at BYU and take classes just for fun.
Yet even though that may seem like a bunch of stuff, and even though it's all good stuff, I still sometimes struggle with the fact that I'm not on my mission anymore. Even though being a missionary was the hardest thing I've ever done, it was more fulfilling because I dealt with things of eternal significance everyday. And now my life seems....very temporal. And me-centered. And that feels a bit empty. I try to keep real busy, but I gotta admit that when p-day comes around and I get e-mails from my mission buddies, I get a bit misty-eyed.
But that's enough about my life. This isn't supposed to be a journal. The next posts will have ideas. :)
