January 20, 2014 - New Area

January 20, 2014

I’m so sorry to hear about Grandma, but she definitely is in a better place.  Because you told me that grandma wasn´t doing very well this week, I studied a lot about the Plan of Salvation with physical and spiritual death.  While studying I came across a phrase that was super profound to me and I think fits for any situation when we lose someone we love.  It goes like this..The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.  I know it isn’t a lot, but the reason it´s so difficult is because we loved them so much.  That’s what I got most out of my studies this week.  

Other thing this week: I was reading in True to the Faith about keeping the Sabbath day holy.  It says that, "Abstaining from work and recreation is not enough. In fact, if we merely lounge about doing nothing on the Sabbath, we fail to keep the day holy."  When I read this, I was like shoot they are really chastising the people here. I think making this a focus could really help the family feel more of the spirit.  I read a conference talk this week that I cried while I was reading it.  It was so powerful for me with the spirit. I think you guys should read it for family home evening tonight or some other night because it was that good. You might have already read it but it’s called The Character of Christ by David A. Bednar.  This is definitely my new favorite talk!  

The area is super good. Its completely opposite in every sense of the word.  It’s not super safe and it’s a lot easier to find people to teach.  President Cabral has put 3 companionships of missionaries in this ward and he is expecting big things from us for sure.  I really like it so far. We are teaching a family that I think all of the little girls think I’m cute because when I ask questions they just smile and hide their faces behind their mom, but when my companion asks anything they are fine.  We have three American missionaries just in this ward so we are going to be starting an English class here and we are hoping that it goes really well!

Cool story: you know the conference talk that talks about Vany Parrela that was baptized in Santos? Well, she moved away to a different part of the nation, but she has a grandson who is serving in the Santos mission and he is one of my really good friends on the mission.  So if you want to brag that I know her grandson, go for it hahah.

Your questions:

I did not talk to anyone about the Hep A shot. I’ll ask Sister Cabral about it this week.

Yes, I still have the same companion, Elder Barbosa.

What's an Emergency transfer: My president called me and my companion and said you guys are transferred to a different area when its not the normal time to get transferred and it’s called an emergency transfer.

I’m still about 40 minutes from the mission home, not too far. I’m closer to Sao Vicente.  It’s the city next to Santos.

We are going to start sport night in the ward to play basketball and other sports and so that’s when i till get my chance to play.

I did get your Christmas card. I liked what you did with the picture, it was really cool.  It made me get a little emotional, though, to be honest haha.

Portuguese is coming along good.  From what everyone is telling me, Portuguese is one of the hardest languages to learn, so I’m happy. Some things still i have no idea about, it all just depends on the accent of the person.

Exercise is iffy. I do my push-ups and sit-ups, but our house doesn’t allow for anything else which is frustrating.

What can you do for me? Pray for me please.