Mission Week 12 (CHRISTMAS BABBYYYYY!)

Feliz Natal!! Feliz Navidad!! Merry Chritsmas!! I hope yall all have an awesome Christmas! Here in Brazil, the people celebrate for 2 days! they start on Christmas Eve and go to the next day, so 24-25! They prepare a huge feast and wait to eat at midnight. 

It's been a W week. from Ballin up on the court to stealin deals in the Nike Store! we have been ballin with this new member who is dope and he loves Lebron and NBA basketball. beleive it or not, NBA is huge here! everyone loves the American cultures and basketball, but they dont have proffetional teams here. But in the Nike store, we were buying sick T-shirts for like 13 bucks! and... The Brazil Team Jerseys!! they are dopeee! these Jesrseys are the ones that were used last year in the World Cup, so it is huge. The Yellow Jersey of Brazil. 

Divisions with the APs. So you already know it was bouta be lit! I worked with Elder Child, and we packed 6 Book Of Mormons each, so we had a total of 12. we came back at the end of the day with only one each. so we gave out 10 Book Of Mormons and made 75 contacts. Combined that day, we got 125 contacts. we set 2 new Baptismal dates and one was for this saturday! Super cool because this was the man that found us on the side of the road on his motercycle, and now he got to baptise his own daughter! super special moment for him. i had a cool moment where i spoke with a guy while my comp was on the phone and i actually conversed in portugeus completly and the guy was super hyped to learn from me, i explained the Book Of Mormon and got his contact, He lives outside of our mission but it was cool to actually feel like i am speaking portugues and him understanding but me as well! Dom De Linguas Babbyyyyy! 

some Shirtless homless dude walked upt to us while we were mid lesson with a lady that we were inviting to baptism (which she accepted super eexcitedly) but he only was wearing Shorts and a belt with a Freaking Huge Knife! like a machete! but he walked up to the lady, gave her a flower, and told her she was the most beautiful girl in town. hahaha kinda awkward for us sitting there, but it was nice. then he proceeded to go down to the other end of the park and hack at a wood post with the knife.

Me and my comp decided to try a little advendure... we had received these bus passes and had no idea how to use them, and both of us dont even speak or understand portugeus that well yet. but we just went for it. turned out the buss pas did not work, so we used cash (we will figure out the pass later), and we hopped on the bus! I had no clue for sure where it was gonna go, but it was facing the general direction we needed to go, haha. we ended up bus hopping and got decently close to the destination! a miracle lol cuz we had no idea how the buses worked.

OK, here is a whole lotta randomly copmbined pieces of the week and the mission that i have found good or interesting...:The pidgens here... there are too many, and one day, they dive bombed us. so now everytime i get close, i can only see them as american footballs. fr tho! they are the perfect shape and propped up at an angle to just boot that thing into next week!

People get murdered here a lot apperently it is common, especially in the Favela we work in. usually just with fights, tho, it happened right outside one of our investigators' doors! he was new to this area, too! Crazy stuff, it ain't good.

Drug dealers are everywhere, and they have lookout guys on the edge of every street to look for cops.

All the homless guys know us somehow and always call out hello to the Elders or Mormons.

Some Budist lady prayed for us and opened some old book and began chanting some weird prayer like some weird stuff you can't make up, haha.

dogs are everywhere, and some are crazy trying to eat you. Some luckily were behind fences, but they were spewing saliva, others you just had to fend off.

Now, after working with the APs, i love giving out the Chastity pamphlets, haha. especially giving them to the strippers that are everywhere here. just wip out the Chastity pamphlet and turn to the picture of jesus or smiling family pictures and say, " This talks about eternal families and how happy they are!" hahahaha, it just brightens my day sometimes to give that out just, BOOM! CHASTITY! hahahaha.

we were teaching another lady, and a homless guy walked by and yelled out, "Mormons! their church is true!" Haha, so W wingman, but the lady was weird. i shook her hand, and then she tried to kiss it, but i jumped back, haha. narrow escape.

lots of Venezuelans, and Cubans move here to escape their countries, and they only speak Spanish, so I'll be learning more spanish.

At the baptism this Saturday, we were not sure if the people brought extra underwere... we were not sure if they were gonna go Cammando mode or not, uhh ya, we were stressed, but they luckily had it. LOL

We met this super dope new member, and he used to play Proffetional American football on a team here in Brazil! i did not even know that they had that, but this guy played for 21 Years! and he was the quarterback, which is dope! he won the championships too and got this dope ring for it. he showed us, and i got a pic. freakin cool! His name is Dafines, so yall could look him up more. i couldn't hear his team name. but he fired up his Chuhasco and grilled us burgers! American style, with cheese and bacon, pickles ketchup, and mayo. i had like 3, super dope dude and family! he speaks some english too! there was a football game playing in the back, too, which was dope, kinda a rare moment to see a football game on the mish, haha.

On Christmas Eve, sunday we started off at Church Obviously, and then luch with a member. they gave us this gift bag with treats and presents for us! it was perfect, cuz... we were visiting lots of people that day and now we could give little gifts, haha. we visited lots of members and shared a message about christmas and to remember the true reason for Christmas. to remember Jesus Christs birth. and all the members told us that this was the first time ever that missionaries had just visited their home! becuase they were strong members but we just visited them and gave presents and made christmas more special for them. it was super cool to be able to light up their day and share the light, spirit, and joy of Christmas. and they would walk us out and thank us personally because of how much it meant for them. i love helping brighten peoples lives, so it was awesome! and sometimes we would give a gift to someone and they would give one back... so it was the gift that kept on giving! the present would go to the next member we visited! It's super cool. one member showed us theur Vespa/Motercycle. motercycles are huge here and super common. i was planning on getting one before, but now.. 110% getting one, haha. A super cool guy that we visited showed me all his guns, which was dope he had a 357 revolver, and it was shiny. it looked like it had never been used! he also had spearguns and fishing rods. this guy was super nice and gave me the unique cup and straw thing that goes with the drink of Brazil! The drink is called Maté. It's super cool, tho cuz i have wanted to get one for a long time now! 

i played my guitar for some people, which was super fun!

and we all sang chrismas songs at a members house after dinner! It's a special, cool moment. Happy jolly energy of christmas, haha! 

Remember this Christmas, the real reason we Celabrate for. here are some scriptures to help:

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-And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 

-For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

(Luke 2:10-12)

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-When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 

-And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

(Matthew 2:10-11)

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-For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

(John 3:16-17)

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Celebrate this Christmas with joy! For a Savior was born! Remember him this Christmas, see his light, and share it with others!

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I love you all and hope you have the best Christmas! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

God is good yall! God is soo Great!

Deus é Bom! Deus é Ótimo!

Tchau

-Elder Martin