Week One: Arrival in the CTM

Olá meus amigos! The first week of MTC life is in the books and it has been going great! The folks in my district are excellent, especially the Elders. We played a bit of companionship musical chairs since two members of our Home MTC district were unable to make it here to Brazil, which resulted in me basically having been (or thinking I was) companions with each of the other Elders at one point. 

All that to say I’ve been getting to know them all a lot better especially now that we are in person. Good mix of spiritual strength, energy, wit, and of course, wholesome recreational activity.

Meal time is great, they are definitely trying to get us on the rice and beans diet but no complaints here. However, it was Saturday that I realized the water in my waterbottle was still from the airport, Tuesday night. Which means I think for a couple of days I was running purely on Guarana (it's a juice/soda that is sooo good). Did I see any side effects? Of course not. Will there be problems if I continue? Maybe. Will my behavior change? Only time will tell. (For protection against the wrath of my mother, I started drinking water as well).

A highlight from the week was probably getting to meet my instructors in person. We could tell from zoom that they were going to be good, and the initial hypothesis was correct. They are both funny and lively but also have such pure testimonies. Shout out to Irmão Thiago and Borges. ❤️

Little spiritual moment, this week Elder Bohman and I got to teach the Plan of Salvation as practice and it was the bomb. We're both pretty experienced in the gospel so we already knew the flow of the lesson and so I was more worried about our chemistry since we were like two days into our companionship (because of the musical chairs), but we ended up moving and teaching in sync. When we testified of the atonement the spirit was so strong and I could tell that I knew what I was saying was true, and my companion knew it too.

Muito Amor,

Elder Pinkney