2 short weeks‏

Well I am sitting here in a lan house and these crazy 10 year old kid that likes to make fun of us came in and started dancing and saying "ai iches may katchup, o may goge" (that is supposed to be english) over and over again and air humping, and I commited him to go to church with his parents and get baptized. Prrrrrrrrretty sure that won't ever happen again after the mission. Fun times. Who knows if he'll get his parents to go with him and something will actually happen. You can always hope, right? (the odds are low)

So I think I am going to go buy a tiny banjo that you play like a ukulele today. I am going to use the money from all of those 5 dollar bills that I have recieved from you guys over the last 2 years. I've been saving them up. We'll see how that goes.

My shoe size is like 11 there if I remember right. I have no idea.

Easter resulted in a chocolate overload that is still going on. Here, instead of real eggs that you paint and hide, they make giant chocolate eggs and give them as presents (no hiding uncluded). I think it is retarded and no fun because no kids get to go easter egg hunting. But we got like 4 eggs and that results in like a pound and a half of pure chocolate. It has been a tough couple of days.

I got my flight info. meh.

So, yep. Missions. I have mixed feelings about this whole "your done" thing. I got a letter today thanking me for my service and telling me how the last 2 days will work. I was kind of mad and was thinking "what the heck, I'm not done yet. stop sending me this junk." I think it is a little early to send me that stuff, but whatever they know what they are doing.

Everyone is asking me if I plan on coming back and marrying someone and I just bust out laughing every time. Just for the record, brazilians are not as beautiful as everyone makes them out to be. At least not in all the places that I passed through.

uhhhhhhh. we have a pretty firm baptism marked for the 21st. That is a blessing and a half.

Welp, I love you all lots. See you in 2 weeks.

Welppp‏

So there is just a few weeks left for me to be a full time missionary. I think I am running into right now what president Eyring described in his talk saturday morning when he said that he in faith asked for a taller mountain to climb. This "mountain" is one that I can't even really see the top of being that it the toughest situation that I've seen my whole mission, and that leaves you a little uneasy when you've got such little time, but I am sure it will be a good experience for me if I just roll up my sleeves and do what he suggested that we do in such situations.

So you already put me on the talk list huh? When do I get to know what the subject will be?

Everyone keeps asking me if I am excited to be headed home, and I don't tell anyone this, but to be totally honest I feel kind of sick when I think about that. I feel an uneasy feeling that is like someone telling me, "don't even think about it buddy, you aren't even close to being done yet." These last 2 weeks have honestly been by far the toughest of my whole mission. Everything in our area totally fell apart, plus my companion really was not very excited about staying with me for one more transfer. And who can blame him, right? I mean, for someone that always was an only child and lived by himself doing whatever he wants, having to stay with some other dude 24 hours a day for 4 straight months with no breaks wouldn't be such a fun idea. Especially when that other dude is from another culture and makes you get out of bed every day at 6:30 and works you hard all day until 10:30 at night. So he's been having a tough time, and has been lashing out pretty regularly. It's cool though, I just think back to what mom and dad used to do when I would freak out and that helps me quite a bit. I can't say it has just been a blast, but I also can't really complain. We pretty much resolved all of the problems and it was a pretty big learning experience being that it revealed a ton of faults that I have to me. So the mountain is being a valuable thing just like it should be.

In other news I think that they should be sending my flight plan home sooner or later if you haven't already gotten it.

If I don't have any shoes at home, do me a favor and pick me up some before I get there. Just get something comfortable and preferably slip on. Lick some vans or some penny loafers. My shoes have a 50 piece sized whole in bottom that is temporarily being held shut with duct tape.

but that is all. I love you all and am excited to see you guys as soon as I finish my work out here. It is this month. PREPARE YOURSELVES.

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

Welp. Time flies. And apparently accelerates expodentially.

Lets see. I got pretty sick these last couple days. But that is pretty normal. It is actually so normal that when people here say "stomach ache" they actually mean "diarrhea". I know it is gross to say, but I can't let this one go: I had eaten, among other things, a ton of eggplant that is like florescent purple, and that resulted in seeing every color of the rainbow (except for blue) in the toilet over the course of 48 hours. Fun times. But I am mostly better now. My intestines are just tired.

uhhh, yesterday I saw something pretty cool. It was a blind couple that was on a date and trying to get on a city bus. They were having a blast even though they were having tons of difficulties and what not. It just made me realize that life is what you make it. They were having way more fun than me at the moment when I saw them and I technically have more reasons to smile than they do, but I was choosing not to smile and think about my "stomach ache" and they were choosing to smile. So they win. LESSON LEARNED.

what else... I really appreciate everyone who writes me. Especially grandma velma. She is a boss. I was thinking the other day how I want to be a grandparent like her when I get older. I think I have like 100 million letters from her in my suitcase, and they are all way personal and come with cool stickers and 5 dollar bills. It makes me feel really special. so I just thought I should give her a thank-you. THANK-YOU GRANDMA!!! YOU ARE THE COOLEST!!! I LOVE YOU!!! hopefully I yelled that loud enough for her to hear. (joke: I am using email, I don't have to yell)

yep. Everyone (including my belt) keeps telling me I am getting way skinny. That tells me it is time to take some anti-worm medication. I'll see what I can do...

We had a baptism yesterday. It was that lady that I was talking about that turned her whole life around. Way special. I was happy and a half. Plus it was the first time ever that my companion got to actually baptize somebody. So that is cool. Hopefully we'll have one this week too. for now it seems like everything is all set and ready to go, but you never know. We are getting way blessed here so thanks for all of your prayers.

less than 2 months now. I hope I don't waste one second. Getting sick was super frustrating because I had to go home and try to sleep it off last night. Luckily that worked and now I can crank out a super good week. A member of the church sent us a text this morning at 6:35 saying that she met a person who wants our visits. So hopefully that works out.

But that is it. I love you all and I'll see you all soon.

meowmeowmeow

Well, once again I've hit an interesting landmark time wise on the mission: I have been with my current companion for more time than I have left. Weird. Somehow going home seems like it is getting farther and farther away now. Hopefully that is a good thing...?

In this area we have had the opportunity to teach some pretty cool people. I think the changes that these people are making in their lives is a bit bigger than a lot of the people that I have already taught. We are finishing up the teaching of this lady that is probably one of the people that is most dedicated to really learn what we teach that I have ever taught. When we found her her life was sucking pretty hard core, and by developing and applying faith to the things that she does it is all changing. 3 weeks ago she had no job, had just been evicted from her home, had a 12 year old kid, was studying in college, was living off of food that her friends were giving her, and had been thinking suicide for a while. Now the only thing she doesn't really have is time. Like things are still tough for her but it is definitely all looking up a lot. She's got 2 jobs now and for the first time invited us to eat dinner with her which was food she bought with her own money. She just needs to finish quitting the whole coffee thing and we'll finish up with her. It is crazy how fast God can change every aspect of someone's life when they let him.

So things like that are cool. You can't really take any credit for what happens in people's lives, so you just end up feeling pretty thankful.

I have also been seeing that very few people want to hear the truth about things. There is this member that has had pretty much every calling in the church you can imagine, and we were inviting him to come back to church and start doing what he already knows he should be doing as far as covenants go, and he was like, "no way broseph. I'm not going to go to church." So whatever talked with him a bit more, and when we were about to leave he was like, "oh, and I want you to cure my vision" because he is kind of blind. And I was like, "okay, well, you need to understand that if you don't trust Christ enough to even try and follow his commandments then your faith probably isn't enough to be healed, but if you want we'll do our part and you can give it your best shot." and the dude got super mad. He refused the blessing and we just kind of left. It was way awkward. But so I read this part of the old testament today that explains that pretty much everybody is like that about at least somethings. It said that we treat god and his servants like our favortite bands. We listen to them for fun and love to see them and we might even memorize what they say, but then we never apply anything to our lives. So i realized that that is totally true for me a lot of the time and that I am in the same boat as that dude. Lameeeeeee

I eat like 4 or 5 times a night now because everyone thinks we starve all the time. Every house we go to of people we are already teaching has a ton of food. TRANSLATION: I will go home chubby.

We are teaching this awesome cat lady who is super cool. She is like a little grandma that says the coolest stuff. here are some good quotes so far:

Us: "well the book of mormon is kind of like a cake. If you wanna know whether or not it is tasty you just need to eat a peice or two."

Her: "And when you eat the whole thing then you get diarrhea, right?"

crap, I ran out of time. I'll send more of her quotes next time.

LOVE YOU ALLSASKJHF

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Grace?

So over the weeks and months (and years...?) I have been realizing that if I go crazy in the work and do everything I can, but with the sad but true knowledge that my work alone won't amount to much, and then get on my knees at night and plead with the lord to just make what we both want to happen happen, everything works out incredibly well.

And on the other hand, I can work equally hard, but if I don't ask him for help, even the most basic of things go horribly wrong. This happens to the extent that it is almost funny, if it weren't so frustrating.

So today I found the word to put on that. It is called grace. I knew there had to be a word for that. It is by grace that everything happens after all we can do. I have success only because I let Christ do his thing. If I didn't nothing would happen. Cool.

I have to pee, so this will be short.

I love you all and can't wait to see you

Love elder christensen

meow

well, 2 more transfers. Things are going a lot better. We have 6 way good investigators that are loving building a relationship with Christ. Heck, I'm liking too. It is like that part in D&C 50 that says when you teach by the spirit and the people you teach let the spirit teach them, everyone rejoices.

 

In great contrast to those people we had this lady freak out on us and say mean things to us for like an hour and a half. I still don't understand why, but I think she was just tired or something. We just decided that arguing with her wouldn't help her or us feel any better, so we just took it silently. I don't know if you guys can imagine me being quite while someone just goes on and on saying agressive stuff (becuase I know I can't) but I totally did. Then we just asked her husband to say a prayer, I told her that when she wants our help that she doesn't have to feel ebarassed about asking for it because we forgive her, and we left. It was weird and I didn't like it, but at least we didn't freak out or anything. A few months ago I would have punched her in the face or something, but I think I am too tired to move my arms now. HA.

 

I don't know if you guys remember or not, but I have said a million times that I don't remember really who I am or what I like and I feel like I have no personal desires. Well last night the veil thinned quite a bit and I can remember for the first time in over a year what I like. It feels awesome because I remember what I like to do if I were to have free time, but now te whole mission/gospel thing is definitely in first place. I think our father in heaven just like made me forget so I could learn some stuff and he decided that I am ready to remember now. So if I were to describe myself from the perspective I got last night it would be like this:

 

I really enjoy being rebelious in the sense of breaking the mold of trends and such (fat albert sweatshirt?) and I like tons of weird stuff like ferret documentaries and weird indy films, and I really enjoy stuff where I can get out and feel way free (dirtbiking/snowboarding) but I have zero desire to do anything against God's will. I have no desire to do anything bad like breaking commandments or anything. I just like weird stuff. But now on top of that I like being organized and responsible and trying to better myself and draw closer and closer to God and all that jazz.

 

It is an amazingly relieving feeling to know that I have normal desires to do something besides read the scriptures, and that all of those desires are totally in control and fit into a good lifestyle that a disciple would have. I was getting terrified of going home and throwing out everything I had learned on the mission, or going home and having zero friends. It is good to know that I am not going to do either of those things (maybe the zero friends thing...?).

 

But yeah. that is what I realized this week. We are working hard. It is weird because the baptisms we are marking and prepping right now are for march. Like we've already got one for the end of march of this couple, then comes april, then home...

 

I love you all. See you soon.

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.

I AM FREE!!!

I got transfered again. While it should be annoying, I feel good about it. I had 8 people firm to get baptised in january already and a kid we were going to baptise this week, but whatever. Me and my comp got transfered. That happened in 3 areas here close. BUT WHATEVS. I AM FREE!!!

I started thinking about it, and this transfer means a few things:

1) It is almost certainly my last time that I will get transfered.
2) I probably will only have 2 more companions
3) I am not a leader of other missionaries anymore, so if somebody doesn't know what they are doing or they need help, I have nothing that I can do about it. I can just relax and not worry about anything besides feeling and following the holy spirit. YES. THAT IS THE BEST PART!!! No more worrying about some kid who wasn't prepped or is super immature or who wants to kill their companion. It isn't my problem anymore.

I feel like I have been preparing for this part of my mission my whole life. I know what I am doing finally and I feel like my relationship with our father in heaven is as good as it has ever been, and I can just ask him to use me as a tool everyday and go hunt spiritual expereinces and get lost in the work with the people. No more wasting time with cat fights between missionaries or anything like that. I can just wake up and feast on simple cool little experiences every day until I go home now. WHAT A RELIEF. I was getting sooooooo tired. I just can't explain how happy I am to finally just be a normal missionary again.

And the cool part is, is this feeling of "job well done" that rests in my heart. I have been killing myself lately to get stuff done and not complain and just try to be as good as I could. I was totally ready and willing to just finish my mission working my booty off and waking up more and more exhausted every day, BUT I DON'T HAVE TO. WHAT A RELEIF!!! It is a good feeling. This is like the greatest christmas present ever.

The people in this ward are pretty sad that we are leaving. I am trying to just leave without saying good-bye to anyone because they are all going to cry. A few people found out and they are pretty mad. They said that we are the coolest missionary companionship that has ever passed in their ward, and the ward attendance has gone up like 80 people in these 3 months. I don't even know how because we've only baptized like 5 people. Oh well, they'll get over it. One missionary goes out, another one comes in. Life goes on.

Funny story from lunch. I tried to help and wash dishes, but the lady was just sitting there tapping her foot watching me and then out of no where she was like "GET OUT OF HERE! YOU ARE EMBARASSING ME! I HAVE NEVER SEEN SOMEONE WASH DISHES SO SLOW IN MY WHOOOOLE LIFEEEE!!!" and so I was like "whatevs" and just went to eat some dessert. So then she comes in and asked my to cut some dessert, and I did, and she lost it. She just went crazy laughing like mom does. No one really knows why, but she was getting hysterical and just saying, "I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO GET MARRIED ELDER!!! IT WILL BE SOOOO FUNNNYYYY!!!"

long story short, I haven't changed that much as far as moving really slow goes. If anything I got worse apparently.

I might get a companion from moçambique (african country). That would be fun. but who knows what will happen. This transfer will be strange.

BUT, I will call sometime. I don't know when, because I still don't know where I am going or with whom. I know that I am opening up the area from scratch because I am getting transfered and my next comp will be a newbie. So I will try to make friends with a computer and a webcam until sunday. I am not really worried about it. The companion I get will decide when I call you guys. I will see if I can't send Rachael a message before sunday with the president's permission.

It is super hot here. So when you see me I will be skinnier, more sunburned and dirtier than you have probably ever seen me. That is... if I call with skype... dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnn


Bye, I love you all

hey‏

So, we had a pretty decent week. We had a baptism DURING our ward Christmas party on saturday. It was way cool because the whole ward was there. Fun times and a lot of food. Plus there was this kid there that is 9 years old who is an active member of the church but his mom is inactive, and then after watching the baptism he convinced his mom to come back to church and also decided to get baptized. Being that he is 9 years old it ends up being technically someone that we have to teach in order for him to get baptized, so we are just going to teach his mom. She said she will for sure come back to church and is excited. It is always nice to see inactive people coming back to church.

Speaking of which, there is this family in our ward that was super inactive but loves missionary work and we were working with them to find people to teach, and they randomly decided to practice what they preach and came back to church and are doing temple preparation. That is a good feeling to see a family being united in that way.

We can't really take any credit for that because we did literally nothing, but then again we can't really take credit for any of the work we do. The more time that passes the more I realize that a super effective missionary ends up doing very little other than just attempting to follow the spirit and rolling with the situations that come from your prayers. For instance, we made a goal of baptizing every week, and it was looking like this week we weren't going to have anyone to help despite our best efforts and trying pretty hard, but then we did a fast and then that 9 year old kid just walked up and asked us to baptize him this Saturday. And actually, pretty much everything we do ends up being like that. We always make up the master plans that we think are so cool and effective, and then nothing ends up coming from it because we are lame and the Lord just picks up our slack and makes things happen.

Things like that make me realize the true value of things like Duty to God and Personal Progress, because instead of focusing on a superficial knowledge of gospel topics, those church programs focus on helping you create a legit relationship with God and learn how to trust him in a real way and follow the spirit. I feel like that is the only really important part of preparation for a mission, or for life.

Before the mish, I thought I would study the scriptures and be able to prove stuff to myself or other people through logic, or somehow accomplish things in the mission field through my own talents... but sadly for me it doesn't work like that. You can be a total idiot that grew up in a cave and knows nothing about nothing, but if you really sincerely love God in a real heartfelt way and follow the spirit for reals you'll be ultra-successful in anything that is important (i.e. missionary work and/or real life), because in the end he does all the heavy lifting and you are just supposed to follow him. Like there is this missionary in our zone who is awkward and knows very little scripture wise and has no social skills and is super shy and he baptizes like crazy. And they are all simply people that do everything themselves and he doesn't even really work that hard. He just asks them to stop smoking and they do. And the difference comes from the fact that God prepared the people he teaches. He just asks God where he should go and what he should say when he gets there, and if he gets in a situation where he doesn't know what to do he seeks inspiration from prayer and everything he does works out perfectly.

So long story short, everyone really should consider doing Duty to God or Personal Progress, but not just to do them. Like really look for the spirit and try to learn to recognize it and build their trust in it, because I feel like my confidence in my own talents really hindered me for the first year and a half of my mission and those programs are designed to help people not do that. That is what I get for not listening to anyone and not doing my Duty to God. LESSON LEARNED. Now if only I had a time machine....

As this transfer winds down I notice two things.

1) the last 3 transfers went by really fast

2) I only have 3 transfers left. That is bad news.

I feel like I am just starting to learn. I wish so bad that I could just go back and restart. I wasted so much time on my mission because of my arrogance and my pride, and if I just would have followed the church programs and done what the prophets asked of me I would of been way more prepared. I feel like I have a heavy debt to pay off in the next 4 months. Luckily for me the Lord forgives us for our stupid mistakes when we really repent. We'll see how much I have repented when I get home and start being normal again, but however it ends up working out I am really grateful for my mission. The Lord basically took the time to sit me down and show me how useless it is to trust in yourself. Even if against other people you are comparatively successful, your satisfaction ends up being very little compared to what it could be if you would just accept your own nothingness.

Life's greatest satisfaction comes from fulfilling our divine purpose. Our divine purpose is to follow the example of our savior, qualifying for and learning how to follow the Holy Ghost and then consecrating everything that we have and are. Only through this will we receive a fullness of joy at judgement day, and I am 100% convinced that nothing else will give us peace on earth like following Him will. I have tried out both sides and I am convinced.

I love you all and I thank you all for supporting me enough to let me go and have this experience. I hope that I never am the same after this. I guess only time will let us see what happens. I'll probably just go back to being an idiot or something. We'll see.

later

send me what will be the best time to talk to you on skype.

blairs‏

So I thought the Christmas card that Rachael and Brandon made was pretty funny. I liked the subtle use of laser cats. Our family has really good taste. I haven't made my Christmas card yet, but we're trying to get it made sometime. Or at least we think about it time to time.

 

So this week I got the opportunity to help out at church on sunday with administering the sacrament. That was a pretty decent experience, but I couldn't really figure out why I felt so good/grateful to be something that I have done a million times and I have never really thought about that much. Then people were going up and bearing testimony of what they know/feel/believe during the meeting and that lady that came back to church last week went up and bore testimony for the first time in her life even though she was baptised 3 years ago. And it was simple/awesome. She was just like, "I, for the first time, feel like I can really say that I know the church is true and that God loves me" and then said some other stuff. But me and my companion were talking about it later, and really we didn't do anything other than feel some small feelings and walk to her house. We just basically did what the Lord asked us to do, and that was pretty much nothing. But even so, it had a pretty big influence in her life. That makes me see why service can be so rewarding. Not because you can take credit for pretty much anything, but because you can see the Lord starting to trust you with essential parts of important things. Like, it was and is obviously him that is changing this lady's life and making her feel happy and loved, but he trusted us enough to incorperate us into his plan for her. That is when I realized why I felt so grateful for being able to pass the sacrament. It is the same thing. Him letting us try to show our love for him through simple service.

 

It is like Elder Uchtdorf's talk from last conference about how we are important to God. He just taught that when we love the savior and focus our hearts on him, we'll feel happy and loved in any circumstance. It is also like the translation of this chirldren's him in portuguese that goes more or less like this: "The love of the savior I feel in every part. I feel it's warmth wherever I go. He knows that I'll follow him, I'll give my life to him, because I love the savior and I know that he loves me."

 

Like, obviously we'll never be perfect at following him or giving him everything we've got, or even loving him sadly because we're all pretty lame sometimes, but when you have little moments where things just click and you do do those things it is a pretty good feeling. Significantly better and more fulfilling than anything else that I have ever felt.

 

But other than that not much is going on. The members here found out that I have been out on my mission for a while and they are trying to make me feel trunky by going on my facebook and looking at pictures of my friends and trying to print them off and make me look at them. The sad thing is that they really do get to me sometimes, so help me out and pray for me to have amnesia or something and not remember that one day I'll have a normal life again. Whenever I think about that I feel this terrible clenching feeling in my stomach and it makes it hard for me to focus on anything worthwhile.

 

But I love you all. I really don't have much to say anymore. It is all the same wonderful stuff. All I can say is that the best thing that can happen to anyone is for them to realize how lame they are and start asking God for help. It has been good for me the few times that I have started doing that and way good for the people we teach.

 

So on that note, later.