Hey all my family!
How great it was to see my inbox filled up with letters from loved ones this P-day. Although I love getting emails from my immediate family, I especially loved the messages from my Grandma, Grandpa and Judith, my Aunt Karen, my best friend (and cousin) Nick, and a bunch of friends on FaceBook. What a great present for my birthday! Thanks guys. So here’s a shout out to all of you good friends and family.
I also loved my sweet birthday party and all the beautiful people who were able attend. Was fun guys. I can almost taste the chocolate cake.... Mmmmm... Hehehe. Really cool that I had a party on my birthday.
I know at least my Mom hás been waiting to know how my birthday went, and all the cool stuff I did to celebrate. So all I can say is that maybe in the perspective of the world, my birthday was much better celebrated way over in Califórnia than it was here. I was doing a division with another Elder, Elder Thieme, a Brazilian from Curitiba, and so I had the opportunity to be sênior for a while. I really liked it! We managed to teach six lessons and find a new investigator family in one day! I felt really successful after that. We were strapped for cash and actually (more importantly) pretty much dead-tired when we returned to the apartment, so I fried the rest of our eggs and cooked some rice, and along with some leftover chicken, hot sauce, and a big cold bottle of coke, I had a nice little birthday dinner, and hit the hay right after. Yeah!
Cool news is that we should have a baptism this next Sunday! Sabino is a good friend, and hás a testimony and the desire to be baptized. I’m excited because it’s not everyday that the mission baptizes a middle aged man, who will be able to get the priesthood soon and maybe become a leader in the church here. Also, he is the head of a family of five, and there’s good potential that the rest will follow suit. However, I’m sure that we’re not out of the fire yet, for no other reason than that little voice in the back of my head. I don’t know, I guess it would have to be that his wife, Geva, is a really strict catholic, and we recently discovered that Sabino was planning to keep his baptism kind of a secret from his wife. So we invited him to spill the beans to her and tell her how much baptism meant to him, but.... man, I kind of feel like we’re treading on dangerous ground here. But how great it will be when everything works out right! I’m very excited.
I am also excited to be teaching Cassellano, a 9 year old “guri” (boy) of an inactive family we’re getting reactivated. He’s awesome, super smart, knows everything. He pretty much explained every step of the plan of salvation to us when we started to teach him. I have a photo of him I’ll send. Unfortunately we had to push his baptism back, but his baptism will probably be in a couple weeks. But I’m looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, for a couple of days this week it wasn’t going so well. Elder Silva and I had a few days where we were not getting along, we had a disagreement and stopped talking. It really sucked. So I prayed more and after two days, I apologized, and now we’re friends again! Great! So there’s the truth. I kind of hide these things because I don’t want to worry you guys, and also because the actual act of writing everything out kind of makes me realize how bad it actually is. But seriously, don’t worry about anything. I’m just going to keep trying to be my personal best.
Anyway, on to more happy things. I finished the book of Alma in Portuguese! I use pretty much all of my spare time to read the Book of Mórmon out loud in Portuguese. Wow it helps. Seriously, if I don’t read the Book of Mórmon in my study time, I don’t understand things throughout the day. I’ve been feeling more and more confident in the language every day. I’m coming to the point where maybe every ten minutes I’ll hear a word I don’t know, but because of the context and the rest of the conversation, I’m usually able to figure it out. We have English classes on Saturdays and it really takes all my effort to switch back to language. But it comes back. Just need to warm up a bit. But anyway, I’m excited to finish the Book of Mórmon so I can move on to reading the Bible in Portuguese too. I want to finish all the standard works before the end of the mish! That will be an acccomplishment.
So glad to hear about the good news in the family! What blessings we’ve been given! It lifts my spirits to know that we just continue to be taken care of.
Brendon, I loved the game idea. You painted an image in my head. Now I’ll have something to daydream about in the mornings. Hmmm... maybe I’ll make some sketches. By the way, while I am happy you had an awesome party, I’m super jealous! Freaking Fortaleza. At least we do have hot water heaters here... heh heh heh. :) It looked really awesome. You ready to turn sênior next transfer? Have anything different you want to try/do when you finally get put in the pilot seat? I can’t believe you’re going to finish your journal. Seriosly, I think I write in mine at least twice a week now but I’m now where near to the end! I really need to get going on a daily habit of diary entries. I love you so much buddy!
Lyns and Kait! Love you my sweet sisters! I loved the vídeos and the awesome pôster you guys made! Kait, was my party fun? Did you like playing with those kids? Kaitlin, I want to see your awesome quilt you made! Lyns, I saw the jeep in the photo you sent and totally got the feeling that I just want to drive my jeep! You’re lucky. Enjoy it! I hope all is going well with finals. Love you my sweet girls. Have a good week!
My Mom! I’m so excited to get my package that you sent! For surely that day will be my real birthday. I love you Mom. Thank you for the sweet party. Hope you’re enjoying Lost and all the shows still. It won’t be long until we get to talk to you on the phone again! How time flies, seriously. I have heard about missionaries being held up, but it’s not very common in this mission. And no one hás gotten injured or anything before. Don’t you worry. ;) Also, everything is fine here materially, but I will be sure to let you know if there’s anything I’m really needed. Be happy Mom, enjoy every moment! I hope you have a good week!
Hey Daddio! I loved the news from the family, and am so glad that everything hás seemed to be falling into place. If we continue to be grateful for our blessings, our family will continue to be blessed. I don’t have my scriptures with me right now, but I was reading about the wars in the book of Alma this morning, and it made me think of our family. It seemed that after Captain Moroni managed to win every battle, the people remained in peace for a little while, but for surely something else even more grave happened. And it seemed like this pattern happened quickly in just a couple of years. But the battle I just read about was after Moroni won against the Lamanites through building up defenses in all the cities, making walls, towers, training the people, and staying alert to attack. But after the Lamanites were defeated, there was peace in the land. But what did Moroni do after this victory? He continued to fortify all of the other cities in the land, even going so far to create even more cities in the wilderness and establishing military presences and defenses there. Why did he continue to work so hard when the largest enemy presence had been destroyed? It doesn’t say exactly why in the scriptures, but I imagine that he had realized that, for surely, if they stayed idle and slacked off, his people would soon be attacked by the next wave of Lamanites. Because of this, the people had four years of peace, which is the longest period of peace I had noticed in the time of the wars of Alma. So even though we can (and should) enjoy the time of relative relief and peace, we need to keep going, keep stretching the limits, show our Father in heaven that our faithfulness to him doesn’t just depend on our need for him, but that even in the good times, we will continue to push ourselves to be better, just because our love for him and our faith that we have gained because of our troubles. So let’s all just be like Moroni... :)
Love you so much my Dad. Marau is one of the few cities here in the south that hás a lot of Motocross, lots of trails and shops and parks to grind some dust. :) Maybe after the mission we can come out here and rent some bikes?...! That would be sweet.
Here is a quick video for the week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux_lAAaCkP4
Love (x3) you guys! Be strong!
Elder Con
P.S. Nicko, thanks for the letter buddy. Planning on writing you very soon. :)
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