Mission week 34 (5/26/2024)

It's been a good week, but a cold week. I am pretty sure winter is starting here and it is a little chilly. We have been hangin around 8-13 degrees Celsius lately. We had a solid Division with the AP's this week, it has been a fat minute since i have done one with them and now the new AP's here are Elder Lizana and Elder Rodríguez. During our Divisions I learned some cool stuff that helped me a lot! but first they pulled up to our house the night before, ordered pizza and it was a litt sleepover at our place. Some comforting words that they told me were, "You are doing your best and giving your best. You are a good missionary Elder Martin." It felt really good to hear that, very sincerely too. All God asks of me is my best. I am always hard on myself about wanting to be better and better at doing everything. But I just need to do my best, because that's enough for God. To do my best and trust God to do the rest. I learned and kinda came to a realization that i have a lot of fears. i'll list a few of them and talk about them. i have: -Fear of Failing -Fear of making errors or doing things wrong -Fear of disappointing -Fear of not being good enough -Fear of not being smart enough -Fear of not doing enough -Fear of letting people down -Fear of not succeeding And many others... But i need to just cast it all to the side and do my best, to do my best for God, and it will be good enough for him, and he will help me with the rest, i just have to put my trust in him. I like this Journey. The mission really is like a journey, Normal life is too! I may be a little hard on myself at times but I am learning and Growing! Line upon line, precept upon precept. And the ultimate goal is to become more "like'' our Savior Jesus Christ. not to become him literally but to strive and to do our best to become "like" him! one more thought, Jesus gave us his example for us to follow in his footsteps. not to step on his feet or make footprints but to follow him. we will not fit his shoe size and won't step perfectly or directly in his footprints. we might step on the lines or miss entirely but as long as we are striving to follow them the best we can it will be enough for God, and he will help us with the rest. We can do our personal best to strive, give our all and trust that our best actually is enough for God. trust God. If we do our best God will do the rest. Another note is that our best today will not be the same as our best yesterday, tomorrow or the day after, just focus on giving your best today, and striving to be 1% better every day. Guys, I am gonna have a problem when I return home in 2 years.... I am gonna return home with a constant want of soda, cake or other foods... Cuz I eat soo much of that here on the mish lol and on the mish i can see my diet is not helping me... i am shrinking in muscle and growing in small increments of fat. random stuff of the week - people have been complimenting my Portugues a ton so I am doin alright, but I want to focus more still and master the Portuguese and grow in knowledge of the Doctrine as well. 2 goals. - Bro all my missionary buddies are going fishing now too joining the club! its hype! and now i actually found a store... just for fishing called, "Fishing, Os Pia Do Tiba" . It's a litt store with a dope owner and he even showed us his fishing spots and invited to take us fishing and go together! i love fishing! - I ate Cow Liver - I ate chicken butt. Don't ask questions, i didn't know - I ate the heart of a Bull - I ate the meat off of the backbone of a pig. breaking the vertebrae apart with my teeth cleaning all the meat off the bones. bit strange but was super good. - found a guy we thought was dead, Edson. but turns out he just blocked our number lol. but i played dumb and made the numbers work and he unblocked us. - Only one day out of the entire week was actually bad. but it was really bad. i won't write all of my journal of how i described it, but i said "today was the most BS, piece of crap, Worst, and terrible day i have had yet!" looking back and reading the details of that day is pretty funny but literally everything went wrong that day, lunch and dinner both fell through, people were not home, other things didn't work out, didn't have much of any lessons or contacts cuz it was cold and people dont answer, people were annoying, and a lot more. but at the end of the day, my parents still love me and God still loves me so its all good. - People have been telling me i am gonna need more than just one blanket, cuz it is getting cold. They say that they like to use like 4 or more! I guess I'll see lol Great stuff here In Brasil! A question that I was asked that stuck out to me this week was the AP asking me, "why do you want to stay on the mission?" Normally people ask why I left home to go and start a mission so I had not really thought about it. but it really stuck out to me. Why do I want to stay... i already knew my answer, i didn't really even have to think about it. it is all about Joy. the Truer, Higher, Pure, Eternal Joy of Jesus Christ. I am here because I have felt it and experienced it. It has Changed my life. I have felt this Great Joy and I am here because I can't be selfish and just keep it to myself. I have to share it with anyone and everyone that I can find. The Pure Joy of Christ that comes through his Gospel and his Church. i want to help people feel this Joy, this Hope and Light in their lives. because it is soo huge and has a huge impact on me, i want them to have that too. I want to stay here, and I have to stay here because I have to share this Joy of the Gospel with everyone. I will have it no other way. Only God's way. and only now I have the Opportunity, Privilege, and Calling to focus, serve, and do literally only this. Nothing else. Other answer was well… follow the prophet, and commandment that every worthy and able bodied young man should serve a full time mission. So I gotta ya know follow what the prophet said, cuz those are his words, but also God's… so I gotta follow God. Haha God is Good! God is Great! And his Joy is Greater! Until next week... Tchau! -Elder Martin https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZYjR28Ehi9siAcjK9