Brazil!

Wow! Brazil is very different from anything i´ve every seen. i´ve definitely had many elder calhoon moments since i got. I left the MTC at about 8:00am and i was a house in brazil teaching a lesson at 7:00pm the next day. i didn´t sleep at all between that time but god gave me the strength to do what i needed to do. when i heard the people talk in that lesson i was shocked. Whatever they were saying was very different from the language in the mtc. luckily as i have started teaching and talking to more people in brazil, i realized that the people we taught in that first lesson talk faster then anyone else in brazil i´ve talked to. the people in brazil are very kind. there don´t seem to be very many laws or cops here, but the brazilians are very kind with each other so they don´t seem to need cops. i have only seen 1 cop so far and no violence. i have seen a lot of batuki though. since i got here i recognize that this mission was called of god and there are people here waiting for me to teach them. being here has motivated me to learn the language more. i´m excited to get going and serve the lord. 

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Time is your most valuable resource.

    My companion and I are continuing to work hard in learning our purpose as missionaries and Portuguese. We're teaching many practice investigators and I'm really enjoying it. We even got to teach a member in Brazil over skype for about 30 minutes. Every since I've been out on the mission I've felt an added measure of strength that I haven't felt before. I know that God is helping me. The highlights of this week were going to a devotional by Quentin L. Cook last tuesday and talking to a native brasilian who only speaks Portuguese. My companion and I met a missionary from Brazil who's serving in Indiana. It's kind of funny that he's learning English to come up to the united states and that we're going Portuguese to go down to Brazil. As I've been at the MTC I've felt that Porto Alegre North, Brazil is where I need to be and I've gained a stronger testimony of the divinity of a missionary's call. I've been praying that I would get my visa so I could go straight to Brazil. Anyway, we talked with this missionary from Brazil and it was a very spiritually uplifting experience. It was incredible to see how much my companion and I could understand of what he was saying. Even when there were some words we couldn't understand, we could feel of the spirit of this person. He says the people in brazil have very strong testimonies and are willing to work hard to help the missionaries. I'm excited to go to Brazil and preach the gospel. I also learned there might be a civil war in Brazil because 49% of the people voted against their new president. That will be interesting to see how that turns out. I also got my flight plans yesterday. I'm leaving for brazil a week from tomorrow at 6:00am. That means the travel office has my visa! Que Maravilha!

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teach people not lessons.

this last week has been the best week of my mission. yesterday i just barely finished all of the tasks our branch president asked us to complete before we leave the mtc. i have memorized james 1:5, the first vision, the missionary purpose, seven habits of a diligent missionary, and D+C 4, all in portuguese. i also just finished reading the book of mormon yesterday. it was a great feeling to finish all of that and i have seen many blessings come from it. we are currently teaching 5 investigators. the investigators are just actors but feel very real and it's great practice. this week we get to skype with church members from brazil and teach them. portuguese is a lot of fun. i love the way it sounds and it isn't too hard. last thursday me and my companion had a 24 hour fast from english. it was a great experience. it was cool to see what we did and didn't know in portuguese. we could actually carry some pretty decent conversations. one of my favorite parts in the book of mormon is when the sons of mosiah are on their way back from their missionary work with the lamanites and they see alma the younger on the way back. as they told alma about their mission trip and were brought into remembarance of it ammon fell to the earth because he had such exceedingly great joy. i look forward to experiencing that joy as a missionary.

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Humility and Diligence

 Being at the MTC has continued to be a wonderful experience! I am on my 3rd week now I have learned a large amount! I've become pretty adjusted to the MTC/ missionary life and I love it. I have a great companion and it has gotten even better as I have learned more about him. He's really interest in epic board games, so that gives us something fun to talk about whenever we're together, which is all the time. It was a little hard a first to understand the rules here, but I've begun to see great blessings from following them. My mind is continually becoming clearer and clearer. I'm becoming more focused on the other people and serving God. It's a wonderful experience to take a break from the many distractions of the world.

   Another principle I have learned in the past week is the value of memorizing. I challenge anyone who's reading this to go read about some new information that's helpful, like the scriptures, memorize your favorite part, and then teach someone else about what you learned. It's a wonderful experience. It will help you to socialize with others and learn faster. It also works great with learning music. Remeber God and the many blessings he's given. I would write more but my time is limited. At least I dont have write on gold plates. 

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