Woah (4/5/21)

My companion tried to explain the difference between Disney and Pixar to me, talking about 3D and 2D and flat screen LED program stuff and animation and the math behind it and how that's 2D and 3D is completely different and all that stuff. I was so confused. 

I caught a little lizard when
we went in the chapel.

So I wrote that first paragraph still in America and boy howdy do we do different things in America hahaha. I am currently writing to you from Brazil, more specifically a place called Goiânia 2. It's good to be back. I was a little nervous if this was really in God's best interests for me and if I was supposed to leave to go back to this mission. Heh. It is indeed in His great plan of His for me, and I know that He has a great plan for you too. Just let Him in and let Him work His magic on you and in your life. Seriously. It's a lot better than anything you can come up with. 

I have completely forgotten what I did the last few days I was in America, but I know on Monday we played basketball, eh, Tuesday we went to Karen's farm and helped out a bit more, Wednesday we shipped off some boxes home of random things I have acquired in the states like jackets and stuff (never thought Florida would get cold), and had a good district council. I don't have my phone anymore so y'all probably won't get any pictures, sorry haha. I should have thought in advance. But on Wednesday I finished packing and didn't get much sleep but got a few hours of stress and anxiety in. Just kidding. I got a blessing, and it was nice. If y'all are thinking about getting a blessing, just humble yourself even a little bit and ask for one. Seriously. It's not hard, and even if you don't super love the person you get a blessing from or the person you want a blessing from isn't there, it'll still be a great blessing because it's not their priesthood, it's God's. They are speaking God's words. What a blessing to have the priesthood. After the blessing, all was well. Got up at 6am and drove to Jacksonville. So crazy.

The flight adventures were crazy, but I won't go into detail because looking back it's kinda boring haha. So many random things like people taking pictures of me, staring at me, showing me on video calls--just a bunch of random stuff haha. But I went from Jacksonville to Charlotte. It was weird there; I don't like it there. Then to Ft Lauderdale. It was so amazingly nice to see missionaries again. I went around 10 hours without a companion or seeing a missionary. I felt like Alma when he bumped into the sons of Mosiah. I was out of energy, then I was full of energy; I was full of questions and doubts, then I was full of the spirit, not questioning anything. What a wonderful experience. God is great, people. [On April 1, he drove from Gainesville to Jacksonville, flew to Charlotte NC, flew back to Ft Lauderdale where his flight was delayed and didn't leave until almost 2 am early April 2, flew to Sao Paulo, then finally to Goiânia.] 

Flying to Brazil was good but rather long. There was a weird vibe of fear on the plane, oddly enough. Then there was Elder Bowen and I, sitting next to each other, not a care or fear to be found in us. It's amazing what a knowledge of Jesus Christ will do for a person, especially the knowledge we have. That's why I'm here, so people need not fear. This life is meant to be full of joy and happiness. If yours isn't, I invite you to ponder on what you can do differently to let Christ into your life so you can be happy, then go and do it. Seek the proper help and have no fear because "perfect love casteth out all fear" (Moroni 8:16). Don't have motivation? Suck it up and go and do it because motivation and desire will follow action. I can promise that. I can also promise that you will feel better, be happier, and people will notice a difference in you, a greater light and life and love in you. Try it out, and try to tell me it wasn't nice because it will be. Anywho, we landed and boy howdy was God's hand in my travels. So many angels and tender mercies. From the baggage to the people we bumped into to the workers and everything in between. God is great, people. 

We were warmly welcomed by Brazil's heat and the glad hearts of our mission president and his wife. So wonderful to see them again. There were a few hiccups with some elders' luggage, but hopefully that's all good soon. God is seriously helping my tongue and my ears so that I can speak and hear the wonderful language of Portuguese. I am surprised and grateful for how much I understand and can speak. God is great, people.

Got to my new area and seriously hit the ground running. I am very used to spending hours on the couch and visiting a few people then it being 9pm. That's not missionary work. We moved in and opened the apartment again. It was closed because of Covid. We dedicated it because it just wasn't a good vibe. Never experienced that, and I really did not like it. All is well now. The priesthood is amazing, people. God is amazing. Between sessions of Conference, we were calling people, and we actually taught the Restoration real quick to somebody. It's amazing what came back and what didn't. All my scripture knowledge is in English, but I gave the First Vision without any mistakes. Interesting how that is. I don't even know it in English haha. 

We also had a baptism on Sunday. Super cool. We watched the priesthood session, had the baptism, broke our fast, then watched more Conference. We were busy haha. It has been really hard but extremely rewarding, like 10 fold rewarding, even 100 fold. We invited a few people who answered our calls to watch Conference and sent them a link for it. We set up some lessons for tonight yesterday. It has seriously been a wild ride. 

Anywho, I guess I had a lot on my mind haha. It's been a great time here. I invite you to let God into your life more fully. Let Jesus heal you. Permit Them to help you, love you, and bless you. You will never regret this. It has been amazing for me, and it will be for you too.

Part of his letter to us:

I enjoyed Conference too. We watched all except the Sunday afternoon session in Portuguese. It was a little tricky. My Portuguese is ok; it's a lil tricky to understand when people speak quickly, but God is seriously helping me out hahaha, like I am seriously so impressed with how much I understand and how much people can understand me. But back to Conference: I thought I got a lot out of it until I heard the last session in English, then I realized I got just about nothing from the other sessions and got rather discouraged. Haha. There's something about your mother tongue that just.... hahaha.

It's been quite the last few days. Talk about baptism by fire, hitting the ground running, and jumping in on the deep end. It has been really hard but extremely rewarding. Hard in the sense that "the wicked take the truth to be hard" and to be completely honest, I was a little wicked (for lack of a better word, maybe fubeca) in the States. I'm back to in bed before 10:30, up at 6:30, shower quick. Rules are meant to be followed and not bent, pushed, or broken. We don't scroll through Facebook or Facebook watch aimlessly for hours. It has seriously been a wild ride. 

On Saturday I didn't even know what day it was. I was so dependent on my phone that when somebody asked me for the time and date, I said I didn't know. (I could have told them the time because I had a watch on, completely forgot!)

I really like my companion. His name is Elser Barroso (if I remember correctly). He's Brazilian, from São Paulo, and is super cool. He was in the mission office before this and this was the area he was serving in, but now we live in the area and are closer to members (sadly we still cannot eat in members' houses, and most wards are not in person for Sacrament yet). The area is called Jardim Pompéia. It's a little north of Goiânia by like 10 or 15 minutes. I think it's in a place called Goiânia 2. Not 100% sure. I don't really have a phone to look anything up haha. Speaking of the phone, we have 1 phone per companionship. It's an A10 or something. Nice phone. Has a fingerprint thing. We are both signed in on our email, Facebook, and Messenger. They don't really use Hangouts here. They use WhatsApp for everything; when in the States we kinda used Messenger for everything (for teaching and communicating, like video calls and texting, etc). I'm not really sure how p-day works yet, but we will find out. 

I have gotten random spurts of giddiness. It's been fun. We were walking down the street, and I just wanted to jump around because I was so excited and happy to be here again. The sun rises and is crazy bright before 6:30am haha. It is rather warm heh, and our chapel is super far from us. But no matter because it's a great time here. On the contrary, I've had random spurts of "Why am I here? I could be sitting on that comfortable couch in Gainesville right now with some nice A/C watching Conference, I could be snacking on food, I would have food" hahahaha (we have some cheese, ham, bread, ketchup, and like 3 hot dogs, that's it, for now). Long story short, I feel like I picked up where I left off for Brazil, but the devil is putting in some work on me in this confusing time. I have packed everything I own, moved to a different country, been thrown into a different culture, different people, different language, different climate, different lifestyle, and different everything. The only thing that is the same is Jesus and His church. It's nice to be able to go to the church, to have seen our bishop, to have seen some members and a new member be baptized. It is a different vibe here, a different life here. Talk about being uprooted and thrown far from the comfort zone haha. (I have discovered you don't do a whole lot of growing when you're sitting comfy on your behind. You grow the most and the fastest by doing things and by using your agency wisely.) But no matter because this is Jesus' work, so I'll have His help. It's nice. 

I hope all is well back home; all is becoming well here as I adjust. I just need to be a tad bit more patient haha. I've been here for what, 4 days now, 5? And I'm expecting to know everything hahaha. Hope y'all had a great week and continue to have fun. Love y'all!

Ice/Woah (3/22/21 and 3/29/21)

March 22

When making lemonade ice cubes, make sure the ice cubes are a little sweeter so that when they melt you don't have to keep putting sugar in. Just a little tip I learned this last week when I was making only one of the best drinks ever--lemonade. I decided to freeze the lemonade, but it wasn't super sweet. So, when it melts, it just progressively makes the lemonade more and more tart. Oh well.

Well, this has been a good week. We did 2 tradeoffs 2 days in a row, and it was actually kinda fun. Went to Chiefland for a day then went back home, and it was a good time. I feel like tradeoffs are solely for talking for hours and hours to another missionary you don't know super well and then having a great time teaching people you'll never see again. Good times.

We got a call right before we started our first tradeoff, and it was from our mission president. He called and said my companion (who also served in Brazil) will finish his mission here as his permanent reassignment and that Salt Lake said I am going back to the land of my first inheritance, Goiania. It was quite the call; I'm a little shocked, but it's all good. It'll be a good time. 

I tried reheating the frozen mac and cheese in our fridge. I guess if it's on the top shelf, it'll freeze. It was disgusting. No amount of salt and pepper I put on it made it taste any better. I even put more cheese in it, and that didn't work. Oh well. We bought a key lime pie, though, because I have wanted one for the last 2 months. I have wanted just a nice pie in general. It all started in Tallahassee with a peach pie and lemon meringue pie. My comp wasn't down for those, or for a triple dark chocolate fudge diabetes pie either. Dang. Next time.

I should put something spiritual in here but these last few days just haven't really been as spiritual as they could have been; I'll be the first to admit that. It has been because of my studies. I have learned that it really is up to us to learn and to grow.

March 29

Anywho, we're getting a 2-weeks-in-one email action going again. Hope all is well with y'all, but all is amazing here I tell you what. It all set in yesterday that I'm leaving in 3 days hahaha. So I've been packing boxes of random stuff I'm not taking to Brazil. Jacket? HA, no. English scriptures? Nope. Old journals? Nope. Jeans? Nope. Just random stuff that you acquire after a while. But this last week was amazing, so here's what happened.

"Daylight Savings changes time.
Jesus changes lives."

Probably the most notable thing that happened was that we had 4 devotionals in 4 days haha. Three of which were by Elder Matthew Holland. Seriously amazing. Being a missionary is one of the greatest opportunities to grow and learn and live and love and everything, but you also get to meet and talk to and learn from some amazing people. Elder Holland (the younger) was who we learned from last week. In the past it has been Elder Bednar and also Elder Christofferson and so many others. But Elder Holland talked a ton about the Book of Mormon. This wasn't his planned topic, but he was seriously listening to the Spirit. No doubt. I learned so many things. Here's a few:

The Lord works in patterns.

Sequence and wording are so important.

There is a Moroni challenge (Moroni 10:3-5), but there is also a Jeremiah challenge (Jeremiah 20:7-9).

The spirit will also teach and testify through your feelings and short sentences and phrases and also by bringing things back to your memory.

We need to bring the scriptures to life, they are for us, they are interesting and intriguing, they are amazing.

He also told us to read a talk called "The Book of Mormon, The Keystone of our Religion." It's by Ezra Taft Benson, and it is amazing. The spirit made a lot of connections in my mind, and it was seriously amazing. Y'all should go read it tonight or in your morning study. 

This is all from 1 day. I could go on and on about those 3 days. One Brother Donaldson joined us too. He is amazing. Seriously amazing. But something close to the end hit me so hard. There was 1 question asked and there were 7 people who were asked to answer, and it was amazing and powerful to hear their answers. The question was this: "Why do you love the Savior?" Talk about that question in your families and with your friends. Answer yourself and dig deep, find out why, ponder, pray, and engrave that into your testimony. Let it be a part of who you are. Try to bring it to a simple and powerful few sentences. Why do you love the Savior?

We had another devotional to end our 65 day Book of Mormon reading challenge. This was given by one Brother Christensen. He had some amazing insights, and there was profound learning and discussion that took place. He too asked a thought-provoking question: "If the gold plates were on display in downtown Salt Lake City, would conversion increase?" Very interesting question. And another one that I want you to discuss with your family and friends. Take it in consideration with what Alma said about faith in Alma 32:17-18, 21; and John 20:29, Matthew 16:15-17 (17 specifically), and D&C 5:7. Ok, now I'm done haha. 

One more experience before we depart ways. We finished up a dinner at a member's house, and as we were leaving a tree just legit fell over. It wasn't slow and it wasn't all in one piece. It broke off in 3 sections, and it was loud (I'm pretty sure it was some angels). Because of that tree we got to talk to his less active neighbor, his other neighbors that had missionaries over in the past, and another neighbor that had a lot of really good questions and shared some thoughts he had and we ended up having a great conversation with him. All because a tree just up and fell. So cool. 

God is real. He lives. He has a perfected body of flesh and bone. He is in every detail. Jesus is our Christ. I love you and He loves you. God does everything out of love for us, His children. I am with Moroni on this invitation when he invites us to "...come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ." Part of coming to Christ is listening to His prophet, President Nelson. I invite you to follow along with the Easter initiative and the holy week. It will better prepare you for conference, and it will better prepare you for after conference too.