January 18, 2016- week 72- Flood, wasps, and a new companion in Capivari, Brazil!

Hey Family and friends!

This past week for me was a little slower than the rest. It included transfers for me. On Monday I found out that my companion Elder Lloyd would be transferred to Piracicaba and I would stay here in Capivari and get another companion. An American named Elder Harbison. I was happy that it was going to be an American, but a little sad because I loved Elder Lloyd. He's one of my favorite companions on the mission. I think my top favorites are Elder Stone, Elder Maxwell, and Elder Lloyd. On Tuesday, we woke up early to get over to the rodoviaria (bus station) at Piracicaba. Elder Harbison, my new comp, was already there, but the bus didn't leave until like 4 hours later, so I hung out at the rodoviaria talking with all the Elders and Sisters missionaries I knew. There were a fair amount this time- like 50.

Anyways, we got back to Capivari, and during the week I showed Elder Harbison around the area. We went and taught some families, but we also had quite the stressful situation to deal with. A woman that we've been teaching (it was her daughter that we baptized) has depression and so she tried to kill herself this past week. We went to her house and tried to help her. Then she tried to OD and had to go to the hospital. We're probably gonna go back there today or tomorrow. I feel kinda bad for her, because her life really is filled with bad things, but instead of her trying to move forward, she's dwelling on the past and doesn't want to do anything. I'll be praying real hard for her.

Also, it's been raining so darn much here in Capivari! I can't remember if I told you or not, but we live really close to a river, and because of the many days of rain, the river has flooded over and is creeping up our street. It's already flooded the first 3 houses and is about to get the next two on our street. The families of these houses have already evacuated and the river keeps getting closer and closer to our house. I don't think it'll reach our house because we've still got like 15 feet before it reaches us. It hasn't been raining these past two days, but the problem is that the water is coming from a different city where it IS raining, and it just fills up our river here. Oh well.

This week we will be in Piracicaba a lot. We have District meeting, Multizona, and also a world wide transmission for all of the missionaries. This week should be fun for us.

Well, thanks for all the emails!

Love,
Elder Collins

P.S. Something funny happened this week...Well, we have a wasp's nest in our backyard, and it's super huge, so we tried to get rid of it. We made lots of smoke to smoke them out and then my companion took a big stick and knocked the nest to the ground. When it hit the ground, lots of wasps started to swarm so we ran back as fast as we could to inside our house then closed all the windows and locked the doors. So basically we were stuck inside of our houses for a while waiting for the wasps to go away.

Pictures

My new comp Elder Harbison.

That's the river.