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| Overlooking Itapipoca |
Another week of very hard work here in Itapipoca. At this point, I feel pretty well accustomed to the city. This morning we visited the MUPHI museum here in town (Museu Pre-Historia de Itapipoca). It is basically a ton of fossil replicas inside a small house that someone turned into a museum. It is free as long as you sign a paper at the end saying you enjoyed your experience. They took a picture of me and Elder Damo at the end because they wanted a picture of their “international visitor” from the United States. Who knows, it might show up on their social media page.
One thing that is pretty awesome here, is this super huge "Camelodemo" that sits on one of the main roads. It is basically a giant, really cramped market of people selling stolen/fake clothing, electronics, watches, appliances, shoes, you name it. Just to give you a small taste, you'll find brands such as Adidas that we all know and love with 3 stripes, "Didas" that has just 2 stripes, "Adibas" with the signature 4 stripes, and on the other that I don't remember the name of with 5 stripes. All fake knock offs of Adidas. Pretty cool stuff.
Fortunately for me, it has been raining pretty hard here in Itapipoca these past few days, so I really haven't been melting as usual in the heat. Although, once the clouds pass and the sun starts cooking up all the collected water underneath, you're in for a whole new level of heat. Even though I feel like I'm adapting pretty well, it kills me every time.
This week, Elder Damo and I got to take a 2 and a half hour bus ride into Fortaleza for our interviews with the mission president. Because Itapipoca only has one pair of missionaries, I was pretty happy to see other missionaries for a change. Elder Damo and I slept in the apartment of some of the missionaries close to the stake building, which happened to be with Elder Pantoja, one of the missionaries I was living with in the other area. We finally got to see our district too which was nice. Then another 2 hour bus ride sent us back to the city that we know and love.
Now that I am here part of a branch instead of a ward, there seems to be a lot more responsibility placed upon the missionaries. We attended and led a discussion at the branch Family Home Evening on Friday. I organized and taught an English class to 20 branch members on Saturday. And on Sunday I played the piano and gave a 15-minute talk in Sacrament Meeting. It is a little stressful sometimes, but really I am happy that we have these opportunities here to serve. I really have been seeing the blessings that come from serving.
For a brief spiritual message, I'd like to share a bit about what I shared in my Sacrament Meeting talk. I talked a little about the mission, and how as missionaries and members of this great church, we need to constantly improve our missionary abilities to help support the most important work this world has ever known. In order to do that we must align our desires with those of God. When we have a deep and true desire to do what is right and a desire for the salvation of souls, missionary work becomes more rewarding, and we are able to understand the importance of the work. When our desires are lined with Christ's, we get to work.
Love you all, I love this work, and I am forever grateful for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Elder Perry
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| Elder Perry at MUPHI |
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| Elder Perry with a branch member |
