Quarantine Week 13

Hey guys. It was a productive week for me personally, not so good as far as missionary work goes though. Our one investigator had family in town all week and couldn't meet. But we did get a new mission leader and got to talk to him a little bit. This upcoming week we have a few member lessons plus a lesson scheduled with Barbara now that her family returned home. So it should be a good week. 

This week I spent tons of time in our yard. We have a house with an overgrown yard because I don't think missionaries in the past had time or cared enough to take care of it. But I borrowed a bunch of tools and went to town this week cleaning it up. I mowed, edged, pruned, weeded, and cleaned the driveway and back patio off. It's been a fun project. 

I also helped some other missionaries film and edit videos for our Facebook page. I've been really enjoying that too. 

On a more serious note though, things aren't all great. It's super tough being a missionary during this. It's hard finding motivation to do video calls and talking to people over Facebook when we're so used to doing things the old way. It's hard being stuck inside all day feeling like there's so much to be done outside talking to people. But I've been blessed with good mental health and I'm doing fine and trying to improve and adjust. But there are tons of missionaries struggling right now with different mental illnesses, either brought about by quarantine or intensified by it. There are lots that aren't fine. So please keep the missionaries in your prayers and be understanding with people that are struggling around you. 

Sorry that was a pretty big tone shift, but I was thinking about that all week because of some things happening over here and wanted to say something. I know quarantine won't last forever and I'm still hoping for things to return to normal soon. But for now we have to endure and make the most of the situation. 

Elder Leary

I took this picture from our backyard. We had a really bright sunset. 

Also we are now allowed to wear blue or white shirts with or without a tie. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the no tie though. 

June 1 and June 8 Missionary Emails

June 1
Productive Week

We actually had a lot to do this week! We finally got in contact with Barbara again, we started making a Facebook video series, we filmed a cool video for our zone Facebook page, and we had some lessons with members. 

The big thing this week was we were able to get in contact with Barbara. She was going to get baptized when I got here, but then she started ghosting us and we had no contact for over a month. This last week we decided to stop by and leave a note at her house with an origami flower on it. She texted as soon as she got it and said how it brought her to tears and that she wants to meet again. We were so excited. We had a good call with her and are going to have a lesson this week. 

My companion, Elder Duarte, is starting a video series on The Book of Mormon this week. He is letting me be the producer and he'll be the star. I'm excited. We already made the intro and outro for all the videos, now we just need to make the actual content. I'll probably be sharing them on my Facebook if you want to check them out. They'll be in Portuguese, but we'll have subtitles. 

We also saw some manatees at a state park this week. That was super cool because they were just out in the wild. We made a video about them for our zone Facebook page. It will be going up in the next few days. Basically we did a lot of video making this week which was super fun for me. 

So yeah, we made some progress this week. We have good things happening. Elder Duarte and I are having a good time together and also getting a lot done. 

June 8
I Survived Quarantine Week 12

Hey yall! We had a lesson this week with Barbara! It went super well for the first hour, and then we listened to her rant for 2 hours straight after that. But it was good! She wants to start meeting twice a week and get back on track so she can get baptized. So that's exciting. 

We also filmed a cool video this week for our zone Facebook page. I think it turned out pretty good. If you want to check it out and support our page that would be great. I'll put the link at the bottom. 

That's really all the news for this week. Nothing too crazy that I can remember. Other than the weather being wild. Sorry this was a short one, or maybe that's a good thing. 
https://www.facebook.com/DisciplesinDeland/videos/692795427938985/