Mission week 32 05/13/2024

Hey Guys!!! Happy Mothers day to all the mothers out there!! To my mom and to all the mothers of my friends!! i love you all and thanks for dealing with and putting up with you sons or daughters attitude and teaching them well to be a light in my life and in the lives of many others! and special shoutout to Jana Ingles and Angie Oliphant yall are awesome and yall are like 2nd moms cuz i was always at your houses eating your food so thanks for being awesome! Love yall! And for my mom, thanks for being cool too;) and thanks for putting up with me and loving me even when I am being a punk haha. U R pretty Great! I am lm and blessed to have you:) love ya! Alright y'all this week has been a lot more chill than last week haha. The Transfers came and I'm staying put with my comp, but the van of new people bringing them to Ponta Grossa has Elder Batista! my old comp! I was super happy to see him and hear about my last area! our friend Everson had apparently requested for me to personally baptize him! which was super cool to hear that he requested that, even though i couldn't cuz i am 2 hours away. I heard that our friend "Marcello (Disculpe)" was the nickname I gave him cuz he always had an excuse, actually went to church 4 times!! He had never gone with me before so it was a miracle that he went! Random stuff of the week. -A Sister Missionary went home named Sister Christensen and she gave me her guitar case to better protect my guitar! and... it had a folder inside full of music already printed out!! i was soo hyped!! I have been playing a lot more this week so that was a dope blessing! I gotta learn to play better cuz my goal is to play for other people and at baptisms and stuff. -We went fishing and it was litt getting to use bamboo sticks to fish and stuff and the river was decently large so I think there could be big fish in there... I'm coming more prepared this next time to try and snag them. I have been soo hyped about fishing and hope to do it most p-days now. My buddy Elder Ingles in the Texas Mission is grabbin those massive bass, i am a little jealous but I'll find some Brazilian fish here. -I trusted my comp to choose my haircut and he chose the low zero fade, i was a little worried that I was not gonna have hair but it was actually a fire cut. I'd definitely do it again. -My dad beat me already. i was tellin him about my goals to buy a motorcycle, even before the mission i was talking about it! Now in Brazil I just see more of them and want one more! but ya i am planning to get one after the mish and my dad already beat me to it, but i'll have a riding buddy when i get back! -I went on a division with Elder Scott and found a few new people! right now we have been lacking in the finding category cuz we have tons of recent converts we have been visiting them and the few progressing people, so it was good to throw a few more in the progress pool! We got this one guy named Kelvyn who is missing a leg but is a dope dude who loves to talk and makes knives, swords and motorcycles. He said confidently that he was gonna read the BOM in two days! lol the next day he was already midway through Alma, but he said it will probably take more than 2 days haha cuz it is long. when we first met the guy tho he did not want anything and said he was not interested and wanted us to go away, but we kept talking cuz he put his reference in on facebook he just had forgotten, and at one point said the word Mormon. he paused and looked at us "Mormon? ahh well come right on in!" it was funny cuz normally i get the opposite reaction to that word haha. -There are some missionaries somewhere in the world I don't know where but through my friends and connections I got ahold of this music that they made about the mission and all that and it is actually litt! The album is called "Before The Fire" . They took popular songs and flipped the words for mission purpose and scriptures. - I learned a little cultural thing here is crazy or funny socks. Apparently I need more, cuz everyone loves them. -One little burst of joy was that The MNO is back again! the nickname of our friend group, and group chats. they had a google photos album that was restored and i got it this week with many old pics from highschool and is was awesome! -I passed a possessed lady on the side of the road by the weird building that people do weird ceremonies in robes and use candles, so I think they do black magic stuff. so they are talking to spirits and demons. so that was a little unnerving. She said something in a language that I did not understand and neither did my comp so it was not english or portuguese. creepy. -I got a massive blister on the bottom of my foot that busted open so that was fun. -Everyone here is family so the lunches get huge. The whole ward almost is family and everyone we teach is connected in some way or another as family. -Finally!!!! First time!!! a Brazilian youth here didn't believe that i wasn't Brazilian and i am american! He said that I sounded like a Brazilian and my Portugues was super good! This was after talking with him for a little while and then telling him where I was from he was shocked. I was hyped cuz I felt a super courage boost in the language! In reality my Portuguese is just kinda alright and I can get by, and understand most everything but not all. it is not amazing but it felt really good to hear that! -Saw a crazy dog fight. Normally you see dogs fighting all the time, but this time the owners had to literally grab the dogs and unlatch the dogs' jaws from each other they were locked on! they were yanking on the dogs whacking them but they would not let go! then they did but the angry dog bit the guy a few times and he almost lost his finger, it was ugly. Anyhow, that's a lot of random stuff haha but interesting stuff. For me this week it's been better than last week haha, the downs this week are a lot smaller than the ups! I just am hard on myself and always want to be better, and i am always hungry but that's normal haha. Other than that! We have had lots of people progressing! lots of investigators came to church! and one guy that was unexpected said he really liked it and needs more. W! So we are just gonna keep at it here, today imma try to catch some fish and relax and this week we bouta bap and mark some more babbyyy!!! lets gooo! hope yall had a great week and have another great one this week! and guys, do a few extra dishes for your moms this week. a few scriptures for mothers day i found are here for ya give em a read. ●20 Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Mosiah 13:20) ●19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. (Colossians 3:19-20) Summary for this, Obey, Respect, and Love your parents, especially your mothers this week! Love yall see ya next week! Tchau! -Elder Martin PS... Had an extra thought I wanted to add. sorry it might be a little long. I wanted to relate things in life including the mission to a race that I liked to run and was super difficult in track and field in High school. If any of you have ran races you will know what i mean, especially if you ran the 400 Meter. I ran the 400 meter race many times, and I have come to realize that many things about this race relate to life. When I ran this race it was hard. It was always hard and felt pretty brutal at times but I liked it because when you do hard things it makes you better and stronger, physically and mentally. but the thing i want to focus on is when you run the 400 Meter there are 4 modes. It describes the effort, grit and force of will power to run faster. ●Mode 1: run just to get it done, but not really trying. ●Mode 2: running at a maintained decent quick pace, but not pushing it, just maintain. ●Mode 3: Running fast, pushing and maintaining a fast pace, pushing hard at the last 100 meters ●Mode 4: Run, sprint, pushing all the limits and beyond to the breaking point giving all and everything you have and more, sort of killing yourself When you run the race you know exactly which mode or which gear you are in. You get to choose. Sometimes you are tired and choose a lower mode, sometimes you feel good and choose higher! But your coach is always cheering you on, hoping that you will choose the higher gear. This past week I feel like I was in gear 2 and 3. I feel like I need to give soo much more. At times my comp likes to talk to people for a while, but I want to visit or find more people! Sometimes I am not pushing right into the grindstone. I want to. I talk to my comp saying i want to do more, we are doing good work but i want to do greater work. Push it harder. I want to be between a 3 and 4. It is possible. And I will get it. Maybe i am being had on myself, maybe not, maybe i need to. But i want to give more nonetheless, because i have more to give even if it's just a little more every day. It adds up. Always strive to be better, always strive for those two numbers "3 and 4" because those numbers have a keyword. Push. Press forward. Push the limits. It is possible, so lets get it. And only you and the Lord will know. Check the missionary music album: "BEFORE THE FIRE" https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T8PIyptDnQn_Mb-l2ETBHCcSjOtjqcy_ Check the pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZYjR28Ehi9siAcjK9