Hey yall :)
Life is good here.
Really good.
I love these people so much.
I just love this gospel and everything about my life.
The difficulties are NOTHING compared to the happiness the gospel brings. I am so lucky to be here. I can´t even tell you. I don´t get it, because I´m out here trying to help other people and what not and my family is thousands of miles away, but i feel like the MOST blessed person in the entire planet. I´m here serving the greatest people in the world. I´m learning the language. I´m beginning to understand what they´re saying to me. I don´t think I have half of the conveniences that I had in Florida or California, but I´m still happier and happier as my mission continues. I´ve felt God´s love for me and for these people stronger than I´ve felt in my whole life. I KNOW he wants these people to follow him. I KNOW he´s there picking them up when they fall, because I felt it when I arrived here. I feel it when I talk to our investigators or when we talk to people in the street. He loves them all SO MUCH. It´s incredible.
I´ve learned so much this week. I was thinking about the advice from Gordon B Hinckley´s father when President Hinckley arrived to his mission. He was having the hardest time and didn´t feel like it was worth it, but his father sent him a letter with the message ´´FORGET YOURSELF AND GET TO WORK``. I thought about that and also recieved an email from a friend who had essentially the same message for me haha... forget about Sac for now. I´ll get back there. Right now I´m in Brasil. I have a lot to do right NOW. People need me and here and I need them. This week i tried to forget myself. My mission isn´t for me. It´s to invite OTHERS to come unto Christ. I know that the happiness I´ve found is because I quit turning inward and I started looking outward. (If ya´ll have read or heard Character of Christ by Elder Bednar.. ya know)
Anyways that´s the basis of everything that happened this week. My companion is rockin. We´re finding lots of people to teach. The people we´re finding are legitimately interested and excited about it haha, NOT like California.
People are super pumped to talk to americans. They´re curious. They like differences. They love different cultures. They all love trying to speak inglês with me.... I love it too baha.
On Wednesday we were talking to people in the centro of our area. Sister Novoa tried to contact some lady and give her an invite to church and she just was NOT having it. We were all awkwardly walking the same direction and I decided not to let it go that easily.. I turn to her and ask ´´have you ever spoken to an american before?´´ and suddenly BOOM conversation and she told us about her experience with an american and asked what we´re doing and talked about the gospel in stuff....... ´MURICAH.
OKAY I GOTTA TELL YOU THIS ONE. Lost in translation. Needless to say I still don´t understand everything the Brasilians say but I´m trying to speak more and what not.. We were visiting this less active family. They´re hilarious. I think I´ve told ya about em before.. super fun. The dad calls me brasileirinha and nega (?)... he thinks I act/look more black and/or brasilian than they do.. (Russ, ya get me thurr). He´s a bit crazy but he cracks me up. ANYWAYS. He was talking about the color of people´s skin for whatever reason, and out of the blue he asks me if I had a boyfriend before the mission.... WELLLL being the gringo I am... didn´t catch the topic of conversation, and I thought he asked if I´ve always been so white or if I was tan pre-mish or something along those lines, so I proceeded to talk about going to the beach a lot and I don´t even remember what I said.. but what they UNDERSTOOD in português is ´´yeah... I´d go to the beach and get a new boy almost every day´´ or something along those lines.... i dunno. And everyone is just kind of awkwardly smiling at me wondering if I´m serious or not or if I´m that american.... and Sister Novoa just exclaims ´´UHHH I DON´T THINK SHE UNDERSTOOD YOUR QUESTION..´
The feelings in that room were about equal with the ´´I DONT DO HUGS´´ moment with the Walsh family (and brotha Gosney).
No comments:
Post a Comment