Everything Is Still Awesome!

Hey! Tudo bem!

So everything is still awesome. Vocal Point came and sang for a Devotional. They sang a bunch of hymns, and they had us sing with them. They were super good.

Oh, and yeah, I am writing this at 5:32am. We do our laundry at 5:00am on P-day. It’s really competitive to get computers, so we do it early in the morning. I did get a picture of Elder W and myself pointing to the map, but my companion now is Elder D, so I’ll probably get another with him. Yeah, Elder D, the one I met at BYU Idaho. It’s kind of hard for him right now because he isn’t sleeping good at night, so he is really tired all day. I don’t get a lot of sleep either haha. I see Elder Frizzell like all the time. He is leaving pretty soon! He said he’s been here nine weeks. I’m glad I’m only here for six haha. 

Oh, and the only thing I need is the contacts. Thank you for the cinnamon rolls!! I haven’t eaten them yet. I was saving them for today for P-day. I only got them last night, so they will be good.

Anyways, so we have a lot of funny times here. I realized that I love laughing, and that it is so easy to laugh here haha. I’m not sure why. I think it is because the only entertainment we have is each other…yes that’s it! It’s pretty entertaining, and I love it! It’s like amazing. I literally laugh till I cry, pretty much, like two times a day at least. And I also know that it relieves a lot of stress. Like on this lesson we taught, Elder D hardly said anything because he couldn’t remember any Portuguese. And so, I was struggling, just like talking the whole time, and we felt like we did horrible. And so, we both felt pretty bad, and when we walked back into class everyone was already in a joking mood, so I just went with it haha. I told them everything that happened, and how funny it was because we were expecting our investigator to have questions about the Church, because that’s what his referral sheet said, but when we asked him he said uhhh…no? So then, I was thinking, well the paper said you did hahaha.

But the lessons are getting better. I realized they were very easy on us the first time. We hardly did anything haha. But I realized for the lessons that it is important to just teach the people according to their needs, and I always knew that, and that was like the first thing I learned. So we thought it was good to just try and figure out what they need with prayer, and teach them that lesson. But it is more than that as well. I realized that when you are just talking to someone, and telling them doctrine and truths, they kind of get bored because they feel like it has nothing to do with them. So, it made me realize how important it is to ask good questions. When you ask a good question, then they have to ponder about it, and the Spirit can teach them. Also, you have to figure out how the lesson can help them in their life, and then they can really feel like you care about them, because you do.

I’m so excited to go to Brazil! There are Brazilians here and we talk to them all the time. This Elder from Brazil told us that Recife is super hot, and we don’t know what we are getting into haha. He said it is the best mission though, because it’s in the north, and I guess the work is good up there. He also said that they speak a lot faster there than what they teach us here hahaha. He said it’s going to be really different, but he knows we can do it.

I also talk to the Samoans. The Elders I play volleyball with are Samoan, and one is Tongan, but they taught me the word for brother haha…ooso…is how it is pronounced. So we just say that to each other whenever we see each other.

We also had Sheri Dew come and speak to us! I thought of Sheri Sheri Dew, where are you? hahahahaha But she gave us a really good talk about the Atonement, and how it helped her overcome her heartache. It was a great talk. And she told us that if we aren’t sure what it is like to get a prompting from the Spirit, we can just ask the Lord to tutor us, and ask to know what it is like for us.

We also heard a talk from Gerald Lund. It was all about receiving revelation. He said rarely is revelation revealed in a dream, it is most often a feeling or a thought in the mind or in the heart. I learned some very interesting things that I had never known before. I expound more in the handwritten letter haha. 

The language is going well still, challenging like it should be, but we are coming along. I love and miss all of you! Thank you for your prayers and the Dearelder Letters! I love getting them!

I love you all!