Mission Week 8

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y'ALL! Wow it has been a week, felt like a month haha. We have done soo many different things and talked to hundreds of different people. 

Now I have been in my Official area for a week in Ala 2. First day here i met this super cool dude, He is a member and his name is Thiago. I am convinced that he is one of the 3 Nephites. This man is awesome. He speaks perfect english and even has lived in Utah a little bit. He has recently become super involved and pretty much always trying to do everything he can do to help the missionaries and participate in the work. He regrets not going on a mission so he is basicaly serving unofficialy alongside us working as a member. He will always show up in neihborhoods we usually walk through and ask where we are so he he can help. He even took it a step further and rented a car for 2 days and took us to the far corners of our area to try to talk to people there becuase it is an hour or so walking time. But ya he is great and thats a quick summery about him cuz he has had a huge impact on helping teach.

I freaking love Brazil! But it might just be the food... JK haha but the point is, the food here is amazing!! And i LOVE food! Most places we have gone to eat have been Buffets and that is just how it is here most of the time. The bishop here is the best! He speaks perfect english and lived in the United States for a bit. He took us to dinner to some restourant that had American and brazilian food which was super cool. He got me ribs. I do not have words to describe how much i enjoyed those ribs! ahhh super good.

I got to play basketball and ping pong on the first day here! and Futebol is huge so we contacted one time by plying with some Brazilians which was dope! By far prolly one of my favorite methods to contect haha. I have gotten a routine of working out everyday going running at a park and using the pull up bars, doing dips and pushups so hopefully i can stay somewhat in shape.

One of the days me and my comp were Prepping for a lesson we needed a scripture to relate to the topic but we could not think of one! I told him about my scriptures i have marked and highlighted tons of powerful verses but they were at the house. We had a little extra time on lunch so we ran home and immedietly i showed my Comp the scriptures becuase they are awesoome how they are marked and can almost turn anywhere and find powerful scriptures. I told him to watch so i could show him an example of how cool it is and opened to a random page and showed him the scripture that was highlighted on that page. I thought it was cool and was about to search for a specific scripture to match but my comp looked at me wide eyes and said, "Thats it Elder! We can use that!" I looked back at it and realized how perfect it was! Truly there are no accidents with God. Super cool and we shared it in the lesson and i shared my thoughts and testimony in portugues about it. It was perfect, super powerful and felt the spirit very strong.

There was a man who was a close friend of our bishop. His family are all members and have been for many years but he never felt like lstening or participating in the church. A few days ago he had a stroke! He quickly was ruched to the hospital and they helped him become stable and now is healing. We visited with the bishop and got to leave our mission bounderies for this. We spoke with him and the man spoke about how he feels like God has basically struck him down but given him a second chance. Now with this second chance he feels and knows he needs to Repent and come closer to Christ and be baptized so he wants to learn and receive the lessons from the missionaries now. He really wanted a Livro De Mormon as well. We shared a short message and talked about the book of mormon and gave one to him to read. We later heard about how he has dove right into it and read a ton! Super cool expeirience and i am glad i got to participate.

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We have been teaching this guy named Pastor. He is unreal. Like a gem in a dirt cave. You simply just don't find people like him everyday. He is soo willing to do everything we ask and do everything to be baptized. He is the deffinition of being prepared by the Lord to be found by us. He has been searching for a church for years! Trying many many different churches but every time he went he just felt empty and hallow inside and never good. Other churches pray by shouting and yelling which is a bit strange to me but Pastor felt the same way like it was not right. I said the Prayer before our lesson and it was a simple prayer but gunuine. He later said that that during that prayer he felt the spirtit super strong and felt peacefuul. He loves how our prayes are reverent and respectful. later in the lesson he was asking about why people didnt know much about Jesus Christ here in the Americas before colinizers came. So basicaly asking about the apostasy. Crazy thing was in my personal study that morning i had read 4 Nephi and it is exactly about that and i never would have been able to share that with him if i hadn't read it. It was soo cool and it made sense to him. It is a very cool feeling to sense, feel, see and know that the spirit is working dirrectly through me every single day. This has hapened in many other instances shareing scriptures that just pop in my head that i didnt kknow or not knowing what the heck is even going on in a portugues lesson and shariing a scripture and thought that is right along with the topic and perfect. Just putting my trust in God and it is all working out. 

Here is a very important story listen up. It is called: "The Undead Fly", A fly was carelessly flying through the apartment and my Comp SMACKED DOWN this fly straight to the ground. It was dead on the ground. We threw it in the toilet and drownd it more, then we flushed it and It sprung to life Fighting for its life buzzing around the bowl! Be kept trying to flush it 8 times but it refused to give up and go down without a fight. It managed to fly out of the bowl and right at us! Which by the way is very discusting flys are already gross but this one just came out of the toilet. We both dodge out of the way and it flies around the room in victory and rests on a wall. I got my sandel,(or chancla) jumped up and SMACKED it dead on. And it stood there... UNFAZED! One more SMACK and down it went. Its final attempt. Finished. Then we flushed it down for the last time and sent it away. This was a truly pointles story but it was a funny story nonetheless.

OK back to the real stuff now. It is wild how many Brazilians in the city speak english! I was able to teach multiple lessons about the restoration in english! Although i did some in portugues too haha but with those lessons people responded really well! The crazy thiing was i have personally given 10 Livro De Mormons to people and all of them were super excited and enthusiastic about it after i taught about it. 

We had the oppurtunity to do a service project and paint a house white which was actually super fun! Another thing i have not mentioned is that soda and juice are HUGE here in Brazil. so we drink a lot of it.

Church Here was awesome. It was a little funny becuase my Companion Elder Eyring was treated like a rockstar becuase of his Grandpa. one lady went up and was soo excited to speak with him she was in tears. It is pretty cool but for him he just feels like he is a normal grandpa haha. We tease him about being a rockstar all the time. The same lady spoke with me for a bit and she said "You are going far in life and going to be very successful. You have many talents." It was nice to hear but funny cuz she barley knew me haha. Later she said she has two beuatiful daughters and was bummed cuz they are older and wouldnt work for us. Ahahaaa i was dying of laughter becuase we are missionaries we dont even worry about none of that! But it was funny.

One cool unique detail of the week was it was someones birthday, so we gave them the best present you can have! A Livro De Mormon! It was kinda funny but good too we shared a bit about it and she was actually pretty happy about it. 

God is good yall he is soo good. I love being a Missionary.

Deus é bom! Deus é Ótimo!