meow meow meow‏

Man this last week was one of the hardest weeks that I have ever had on my whole mission. Everything went wrong. My companion and I got sick, we had like no time to work, the bishop in our ward decided to work against us for a little bit, etc. But the cool thing is, is that I am really happy. I have just been pulling more energy from the fact that I can see the end instead of letting that kill me. We'll see if I can make that happen until the end, but for now I amped and happy about having a few more weeks to be a missionary.

Some dude in our ward challenged everyone to think of a few deep personal life questions that they would like answered so that they can take good advantage of general conference and pull what they need to learn out of the talks. I can say that right now there are a couple of questions in my heart (example: what the heck am I going to do in 4 weeks?!) so we'll see if any answers come that I am able to understand. But I just feel way calm about everything so I don't think it is a big deal.

I got a cool leather cover with my name on it and whatnot for my portuguese bible. I'll show you guys later.

Uhhh...

so yeah. Not much else to talk about. Just working hard and trying to teach the other missionaries that under my control how to be a bit more successful. No one really listens to me. Haha. They act like they are listening, but little progress is made. I'm sure Heavenly Father can relate with that.

So I don't know when you'll make the work schedule for the end of april, but feel free to throw me in at the front desk or whatever starting that thursday that I get home. I am afraid of going crazy from having nothing to do. Just remember about the trip at the beginning of may.

I love you all and I am excited to finish the right way and reap the benefits of the service that I have been a part of. I am sure it will be a way good feeling to know that I gave everything that I had all the way to the end. I just need to do that now so that I can be sure that I'll feel that feeling later.

FINISH TILL YUR DONE.

moms update

because we we out of town the posts got mixed up. so read the March 19th post first and the post just previous second so that it will make sense....

So you guys are moving this week, and I might have to move next week. Haha. Just when you think that it is your last area... you start to realize that that may not be the case. But we'll see next p-day because I'll get the call letting me know on sunday.

In any case, I wanted to know if you have any preference with what I do with all my clothes? I was just going to give everything away being that it is all way old. I was thinking about coming home with just my suits and the clothes on my back... but let me know what you want me to do because I am open to suggestions.

I went to go try and buy shoes this week, but no luck (I am out in the middle of no where and they don't sell dress shoes in my area). So because of laziness I am going to put a ton of duct tape in the inside of my shoe and just ride out the last 6 weeks on frankestein boots. the last pair have officially bitten the dust.

So in other news, we had a cool week. Maria (super funny old lady) decided to get baptised. That was a good time. She was a super strong catholic and prayed and got a pretty direct response through the Holy Ghost that she needed to be baptized in our church. So, this week I was kind of thinking about why it is so important to the Lord for people to be in one specific church, because there are tons of good people in all churches who are really bettering their lives and who are sincerely growing close to the savior through study and prayer and application of doctrine. I figured out that at least one of the reasons is the fact that the callings that we receive in our church have a fundamental role in shaping us and providing us with the specific challenges that we need to develope new attributes in our quest for perfection (romans 12:1-8). If your calling isn't by God, it won't take you to perfection. So long story short it is a good idea to do what God tells you to do (including join his church and accept a calling).

Other than that Not much is going on. We had a meeting with Elder Godoy, who is a 70 that serves in the area presidency here. He is way cool. He isn't one of the general authorities that comes and tries to wow you by telling you he had a crazy revelation with Jesus Christ or something like that. He is just wayyyyyyy humble and fun and spiritual. He reminds me a lot of pres. jackson that already went home (my ex. pres.). If I want to be like some GA it is him.

But anyway, we are going to deep clean our house. It has been kind of windy and now I'm sneezing a lot because there is dust everywhere. Do you know how to clean a tile floor really good with just a broken squeegie, a tupperware, pinesol and a rag? Brasilians do. something that I'll never be able to apply again in my life because cleaning is a peice of cake in the US. Just like washing clothes by hand. meh. But at least it makes my life a bit more comfortable for now.

Wellllp

So I stayed in the same area. Phwew. we've got 5 people who are pretty ready to be baptized this month, and we are going to just look for people for the next missionaries to baptize for free to make them happy. Yay for selfless service

We had a 70 come through our mission (I am pretty sure I already talked about him) and he was like, "If you expect to have some amount of success or improvement in your life after the mission, then you need to finish accelerating. If you start going downhill right at the end, that trend will probably continue for months or even years."

So I decided to go crazy. It is better than getting tired, and it will help me hit the ground running when I get home rather than expect some kind of break from work. So far so good. I got put in as a leader again too so that gives me something to do. I'm still with my same companion too. The poor kid will go 3 transfers with his trainer. That would have driven me nuts. But he is doing good and says that it is all good with him, so whatever.

Luckily I am being blessed with a mental block that is helping me out. I can't really imagine what it would be like to be home, and when members try to get me to get on facebook and stuff I don't even have any desire to think about home or get letters or anything. There are some elders that go crazy at the end, but I honestly couldn't even care less about going home. At least for now...? So hopefully that continues untill the day before I go home so that I can work hard and then enjoy the ride home.

I weighed myself and I am 205 pounds, so that is only like 25 pounds less than I was when I left. So that isn't that bad, right?

But yeah....

welp we're in a hurry and there isn't that much to say.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

See you in a few weeks.

blargh‏

Welp, things are going really well here. Like we've still got our
normal difficulties and such, but it is being reallllllly easy to get
everything done these last few days. Experience tells me that that
means that a ton of crap is about to hit some hidden fan. But until
that happens I'll just enjoy the ride. My comp was able to get his
second baptism in yesterday, so this saturday I'll give him a rest and
do it for him. This saturday will be the baptism of this lady called
maria. She is epic. She's like 65 years old and says some hilarious
stuff. But was also this roman catholic rock (I'm not sure that means
the same thing in english), and was always telling us she'd only be
baptized on the condition that God revealed to her that she should. I
was cool with that so we just kind of let her pray and fast and then
this last week she was like, "I got my answer yesterday morning. I
know. I am prepared to make a life-long covenant" and I jumped up from
the couch and did an air punch like an anime cartoon. Just that the
whole freeze frame thing didn't work so it looked wayyyy lame.

But one thing that made me feel good was that another missionary went
there on a split and tried to force her to be baptized with logic and
she was like "no way. not till I get an answer" and proceded to tell
him that she feels that the way that I teach makes her feel closer to
Christ. Clearly that isn't because of me, but at least that means I've
got the spirit of my captain with me. So I'm doing at least something
right. Yay for not being a total failure.

Another interesting thing thing was that I was reading the scriptures
and I came across Ether 12:37 and felt that if I just continue doing
what I am doing and repenting of my poopy parts than the whole purpose
of these two years will have been realized. And I am down with that,
so I imagine I'll get a pretty good feeling when I am done as long as
I don't randomly go crazy. We'll see.

I think I lost like 10 pounds when I was sick. Not that I had a lot of
weight to lose, but whatever, right?

SHOUT OUT TO GMA JOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! happy birthday. Here in like 2
months I'll give you a kiss for my present, so hang in there.

I've been learning tongue twisters in portuguese with my comp...?

Somebody please look up when I need to register for classes so that I
don't miss out on that just to make sure that I can do it after I get
home.

I love you all, not much else to say.

Stay classy