Trying not to get trunky

      Mission life really is great. It´s also kind of confusing. I don´t know how everything seems to go wrong and right at the same time. I´m always completely exhuasted but full of energy. I get sad but am always happy. I miss music and movies, but I don´t really want them. The greatest joy for me is to see the difference the gospel does in the life of another person. God has been preparing so many people for us to teach. Yesterday one of our investigators received the Holy Ghost. He was baptized the sunday before. I met him one day when I was on the road with a young man from our ward and this guy stopped in a car right next to us with loud rap music and tons of red bull cans. He asked if he could give us a ride. I accepted, but the young man was kind of scared. He took us to where we were going to do some visits and invited us go to his house and teach him because he´s wanting to change his life. We went to his house a few days later and had a great lesson with him. He accepted the date. After about a week of teaching him he had to go to the hospital because of a bipolar breakdown he had. He stayed in the hospital for a couple weeks and then we went back to visit him. He was super happy to get baptized.

       Friday we had a visit from Elder Anderson. I got confused a lot because I don´t remember having an Elder Anderson in our mission. When people say the name with a brazilian accent it just doesn´t sound the same. But no, it was THAT Elder Anderson. It was pretty good. I shook his hand. I told us that we baptize a lot but we need to have better retention and help reactivate members of the church. There´s a very popular phrase on our mission which is (Só Batiza!) which means (Just Baptize!) But I thought his training was really good. We´re going to work better to have more quality baptisms and reactivate less actives. I really have seen the it isn´t worth it if a person a baptized and afterwards doesn´t keep the convenant. It´s actually worse. The person needs to be willing to keep the commandments to be able to accept this serious convenant with God. Elder Anderson said we need to baptize more and especially young men because at the rate we´re going it´s going to take a long time to baptize Brazil. But with God´s help I think we can do it. I bet if we put all of the missionaries in the world in Brazil we might be able to baptize every citizen here in about 10 years. The people here have great faith and a sincere desire to do good. 

        So I have only 4 months on my mission. But the nice thing about missionary work is that it really doesn´t let you think about anything else. I´m addicted. I live and breath this stuff. If someone started using this stuff it would probably take 2 years to have a full recovery and get off the addiction. If you´re not sure about serving a mission, SERVE a mission. It´s the best thing you could ever do in your life. I have never gotten so cold, hot, tired, sad, frustrated, uncomftorable, and stressed, BUT, it´s all totally worth it because I´ve also never been so happy or felt the spirit so much, or learned so much. God gave me a brick of gold covered in mud. I shouldn´t complain just because it has mud on it. Anyway see you all later. Tchau.