Man, this sunday was rad. We've been having a pretty tough time here
in this area finding people to teach, and on saturday we just slammed
our knees down and started asking our Heavenly Father what more we
could possibly be doing. I remember just being like, "Just tell me and
I will do it. I don't understand what else you are wanting us to do to
find these people. Please, help us. Just tell me something." And I
just felt a general comfort and stopped complaining and went to sleep,
but not knowing what to expect for sunday.

So then on sunday we go to church and people that no one in the ward,
much less us, had ever seen before. Basically God brought them to
church. For instance, one lady hadn't been to church in like 15-20
years and she said saturday night she had this dream and woke up
knowing she had to go to church that day. there were like 5 or 6
people like that who we didn't even invite or talk to who just showed
up.

So long story short, our Father hooked us up and showed us who to
teach. Missions are the coolest.

I don't even tell people how long I've been here anymore. At lunch I
just tell people that I have been here a bit more than a year, because
if not the people go crazy and start asking me all these questions
that I don't even know the answers to. "Elder, who are you going to
marry!? Elder, what are you going to study!? Elder, blah blah blah!?"
All I have to say is I have no idea. So it is better to just play as
if it is a ways off.

Just throw me in a 6 man apartment with tons of people that I don't
know. That will be funnier. Because I remember that I liked more than
half of the kids I met in the dorms, and they were all your average
mormons, so I am sure in a 6 man apartment I will like at least 2 of
them. And the people that I didn't like that much freshman year were
at least funny.

I think I am going to buy like a little toyota pick-up when I get home
and use that for a car. That have these things here that we call "egg
cars" that are made by this company called "asia" and is the model
"towner." If I can find one of those I think that would be
perfect.....................

love you all.

SEE YOU LATER

Pride

Welp, I prayed for some help to overcome my pride this week... and I am considering not doing that ever again. I got a bajillion opportunities to see a situation where I could be way proud and then recognize it before hand, but it is still way tough and really annoying sometimes. BECAREFULWHATYOUWISHFOR.

Congrats for everyone at home. Snow, College, money, jobs, etc. Highscore.

I am still way happy. Obviously like anything else it has it's peaks and valleys, but the valleys are still pretty high up there so I am not complaining.

In this area that I am in one thing that we are doing that is something way basic that everyone does all over the world is just work with the members. That has been pretty rewarding because the local leadership hated us when we got here and now they just look at me and burst out laughing (that freaks me out) and help us out a ton (that makes me happy). Every single person we are teaching either lives with or is best friends of members of the church, so that helps. We are going to baptize a lady and her son where the husband/father is a returned missionary. Probably the easiest thing I have ever done.

Also I asked the members to help me update the ward member list and find out who moved and who is living here and who has died already and they got it mostly done in 1 day. about 66% of the members on the list don't live here anymore. Big surprise considering there are 400 on the list and 70 going to church. And now we have a lot of families who expressed desire to be helped in various ways who we can help and we are going to be way busy until I go home. So that is good. Now I just have to let myself work with these people and not think about anything else, which will be way easier now that I know who they are.

So yeah the members are cool. I am buddies with this dude named renato who is like this little hilarious black dude right out of the 70's who has the SICKEST ties I have ever seen. He got them all in thrift shops and they are legit. I am going to see if I can't buy some of them. He just sits around playing video games all day too so he has plenty of time to help us. Good times.

M. Russel Ballard will talk to our mission tommorrow. That should be cool.

Welp. I am out of ideas.

LLLLLLLLOve ya'lllls

more of the same‏

Well. One more week flies by. We are killing ourselves out here in this area and it is so funny because the whole week goes terrible and nothing goes right and we get exhausted and yelled at and rained on all week and then we go to church on sunday, and even though nothing we did did any good, there are like a million people there who haven't been in like a million years or who have never been. So in the end things just work out. Even when they don't.

I am mailing email in a lan house that is in a gym that teaches body pump and stuff. Feels like home...? weird.

Well. I am happy. I just kind of giggle to myself about everything because it kind of tickles from the inside of my chest/belly to be happy like I am. Sometimes when we are studying and I am just chilling there with a big dumb smile on my face my comp gets a little annoyed because he still doesn't get it, but I don't know what I can do to make it stop. I have absoloutly no idea why I even feel good. I feel a super profound happiness pretty regularly, and I am just about to the point where I am getting used to to the fact that I don't get it I think. It is pretty weird and kind of freaked me out at the beginning of the mission to just feel a lasting happiness and sense of gratitude so strongly for what seems like no reason at all, because it is something that isn't normal, and I would try to find out what I was supposed to do when I feel like that. Now I don't really care about the fact that I still don't get why I feel like that. I am sure there is an explanation, but I am just going to forget about it and go with the flow for the rest of my mission. I kind of know how to get the feeling to start and how to cultivate it, so I'll just roll with it instead of worrying about it.

ANYWAYS....

welp... that is it.

Love you all. See you soonish.

P-Day

well another P-Day. We had an activity today that was pretty funny. We went to a member's house and ate lunch there with 14 missionaries. That is fun to do down here because the members love it. She was crying at the end as she thanked us for eating her food. I was crying as well because the food was SOOO GOOOD. A big ol' pot of ribs and tons of cuscuz and gallons of fresh guava juice. I drank like all the guava juice by myself. And we played uno while she was making the food and the last one to run out of cards got a bucket of water thrown on them. Good times. I stayed dry luckily, because I am technically not even old enough to play uno yet.




This week was good. One dude that wasn't sure he wanted to even get married to his wife or not, but needed to in order to get baptised, got up in testimony meeting and declared that he knew that Christ is the one who makes us happy and that he knew that this is his church and that he is going to get married and baptized because the Holy Ghost helped him feel that this was the right thing to do. I was pretty happy. Also I took one of our investigators down in the baptismal font between classes to show him what it is like. He's getting baptised on the 21st. Just a good sunday for me.



My companions legs are thrashed. I feel bad for the kid, but we have places to be and so he needs to keep toughing it out or let me carry him on my back (I AM THAT MANLY/he won't let me).



I think I am going to grow out a crazy mustache right when I get home.



Welllllp...



time flies, huh? I found my mission call and stuff in my suit case and remembered what it was like when I was getting here. There is considerably less time remaining on my mission, than the time that I had between getting my call and going out. and life goes on. I just realized that as much as we focus on big landmark events, most of our life is built up of day to day thoughts that lead to day to day actions that create our habits and in the end create our circumstance. Like, before my mission I would always think, "man, after my mission I am going to be this and that and blah blah blah" and I realized that the mission isn't some kind of magic pass that just makes everything go afterwords.



So I started studying about habits that will lead my life to a constant state of happiness, and I came up with this idea based on scripture and whatnot. Then I realized it wasn't a new thing and that God has wanted people to realize this for a while. It goes like this.



If you want to be happy in any walk of life:

1) your thoughts must be remembering and centered on Christ

2) your actions must be centered on being his disciple and copying him (taking his name upon you)

3) your habit must be centered in keeping all of his commandments and can't lead you away from any them.



So that isn't a new thing because that is the baptismal covenant. Cool, huh? So if you want to be happy, just spend your week getting ready to take the sacrament at church in a meaningful way.



That is something that I really enjoy about the gospel. You don't have to be a genious. The greatest of all minds has set up a concrete plan that takes you straight to happiness through obedience. You just have to do what he says. Easy to understand, but you need to put your whole heart in it to do it. I feel like I have trouble with that sometimes. But even having trouble it is pretty enjoyable stuff.



So yeah, moral of the story, sacrament is a pretty big blessing.



But i'd better go. I have a nap to take.



Love ya lots. lllllaaaaaaaatttttteeeeeeerrrrrrr

The last area‏

welllllllllll, I am in what is almost certainly my last area. Maybe not, but probably I will train my companion for 12 weeks and then get one more for 6 more weeks to finish it out.



The area seems cool. It is out in the woods which is a pretty nice releif. They have this horrible kind of music here called funk and you can't here it hardly ever out in the trees. It is nice. I am in a neighboorhood called "cidade ipava" and we have a few more neighboorhoods in our area called "parque do lago" "jardim aracati" "chácara florida" "Miami paulista" etc. see if you can find out more or less where it is on google maps or something. You'll see that we are right next to a huge man made lake. On the other side of the lake there is this park from the messianic religion where they believe that people are reincarnated into these carp and animals and stuff. Also it is pretty close to the formula 1 track at interlagos, so maybe I will get a train over there or something and check it out on a P-Day. or not....



My new companion is way cool. He is a convert of 1 year and 3 months and is about 20 years old from Natal, Rio Grande Do Norte. That looks like a beautiful place based on the pics that he's got. He is way funny and easy going too. So it basically the best deal ever. He is new in the church and just wants to learn, so I can pass everything that I have learned in my whole mission so far to him and he actually listens. Plus he is way easy going but works hard. Plus he's been making me some awesome cuscuz. So that is nice.



We are just going to try and tear it up here and help the biggest number of people that we can before we leave.



That is about it. man... I turn 22 this year...



Love you all... have a great week! Pray for me not to get trunky because it is getting tough already.