November 18, 2013: Two Months and Happy 19th Birthday!

This week was really good for me. I learned a lot of what I need to be doing!  Birthday was rough, but I did receive the cards with the talk from Elder Christofferson! Thank you! I'll let you know when I receive the other stuff. On my birthday, I got sick with the runs and food poisoning so I was in a bad mood because I was stuck home not doing anything.  Later that night, we received a call from our ward mission leader that his family made a cake for me and they wanted to celebrate with me.  So we went over there and celebrated. It was really nice because I kind of felt like I was back home.

I've seen the importance of getting up on time and studying the language and scriptures every time before leaving. It's just like in sports, the time you put in before the real thing will determine your success.   Baptisms might happen this week. I pray that it all works out.  This week was really good because I went on an exchange with an AP that's American and seriously acts the exact same as me.  Blonde, blue eyed, athlete.  He had some great advice for me; he said that the only reason why we have trials is so we can learn and grow from them.

Some cool stories that I had this week:  we went to a less active members home and she hadn't been to church in a couple months.  We didn't know about her - just that she was a member.  We found out that she was super sick and almost died because of it. When she saw the missionaries had come to visit her, she began to cry.  It was a heart touching experience.  The best part was that she asked for a blessing and because I was on a exchange with an AP, he wanted the American who didn't speak Portuguese to give it.  I don't remember a word I said besides, "Em Nome de Jesus Cristo Amen."  After we left, the AP looked at me and hugged me.  It was really cool because I had been struggling to feel like I was helping the work, but he gave me the opportunity to serve and said that the spirit was so strong, he was grateful he chose to go on an exchange with me.

Still no baptisms but I'm working on accepting people rejecting the message, because I can only control what I do. 

The only thing that is different is that I think I will have red headed kids because my facial hair is red when I forget to shave.  I pray for you guys every single night that you guys will be blessed and kept safe.   Love you with all meu coração!!

Your missionary,

Elder Chase THurgood