Olá family and friends!
It’s exciting to see our email family growing every week! Mostly because I accidentally forgot to add some people week 1 BUT we’re all here now I hope, so it’s all good!
This week seemed to fly by! It was not very eventful, but there was a lot of progress made on the Portuguese front. My comp and I started our weekly lessons with an “investigator” in only Portuguese. My unfortunate Portuguese mistake of the week was saying “Falou” (rough translation to ”talk to you later”) to our investigator - who is a woman which is an important part of this little story. That same afternoon, I was told by my instructor that this phrase is usually only exchanged between guys… and with this new information plus my instructor’s reaction to me telling him I used it to say goodbye, I think there’s a good chance that I slightly offended the person we are suppose to be teaching for the next three weeks I guess we’ll find next week! I heard from my Florida Mission President (President Pingree) this week! I found out that there is a Portuguese branch in the mission which is exciting. Hopefully that means I get the chance to continue improving my Portuguese once I leave the MTC. Also, since I know some of you will get a kick out of this, the Florida mission is a biking mission which means you all better be ready for the pictures that are coming! Speaking of my new Mission President, a few things happened this week that made me realize that coincidences are just another way of saying God is at work. Out of all of the Mission President’s that I could have been called to, President Pingree is a retired Head & Neck surgeon who graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine! What are the chances?! Zero! On top of other things, this “coincidence” really testified to me that our Heavenly Father is waiting, ready, and more than willing to help us succeed in this life! I, of course, do not count this as my ticket into medical school, but I know for a fact this will benefit my pursuit of medicine. My Pday was pretty jam-packed which I have yet to figure out if that’s a good or bad thing. I was able to get in a round of golf, hang out with my sister who came home for the weekend, shop a little for the mission, and get an assignment from my Stake President for our Stake Conference next weekend! Monday marks the start of Portuguese only class! You either sink or learn to swim :) I’m looking forward to reporting on how everything goes this next week. I think there is going to be a boatload of learning moments, but I’m feeling good knowing the promises said in 1 Nephi 3:7 I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday tomorrow and a week full of joy! Love you all, Elder Maruska
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