We Can Always Return to the Lord

Hey guys!

I hope everyone is doing well! The first week has been pretty great. I was a little nervous when I found out that I would have to teach a pesquisador in Portuguese on my second day. It went pretty good though! We teach a lesson to a guy named Bruno (who is actually Irmao Martins, our teacher for the next 5 weeks). It gets better every day. I can honestly say that for the most part, I still have no idea what people are saying, but I'm learning a lot faster than I thought I would!

I just have to say, Brazilians are hilarious! They are incredibly nice and super funny. Haha,  I guess Michael Jackson is pretty popular down here because whenever Brazilian Missionaries see my name, they start talking about Michael Jackson and sometimes do the moonwalk. Baha! A few people started to sing Jackson 5 songs.

Oh yeah! The plane ride was pretty good! Like I said last week though, everyone around me was Brazilian. I wasn't able to hand out that Book of Mormon because I had no idea what they were saying, much less how to talk to them. I figured I'd save it for someone that would actually be able to read it too (since it's in English), so I still have it. I'll give it out soon enough though. There was that family that was super nice on the plane though. I spoke with them in my broken down Spanish and I ended up giving them a pass along card. So that's good!

The food is pretty good. It's definitely different, but it's better than I thought it would be. My companion, Elder G, is a pretty nice guy. We actually have a companionship of 3 right now. Elder M is with us. He's a super funny guy! His companion is coming in today though from Provo. Once he comes we'll have 4 people in our district. Yeah it's pretty small, but it's all good because we get more one on one with the teacher.

We just got back from the temple, that was a cool experience! The temple is really beautiful in Sao Paulo. It's not really secluded in any way. It's kind of on the side of a really bus street.

Sao Paulo Temple

So yeah! The temple was great! After this we get to go outside the MTC and go shopping and stuff. Missionaries are telling me about some cool places to go, so I'm super excited.

Hey Matt that's awesome that you dressed out for varsity dude! But hey! I don't see any BYU Basketball scores on my email! Haha, Jk Bro. Love you! But seriously I better get those next week. haha!

Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you have a great day!

Hey guys I would love to hear how you're doing, even if it's just a short email. I hope you're all doing awesome back in the United States! Love you guys.

We had a fireside yesterday and I was really able to feel the Spirit, (mostly because it was in English, haha!) They talked about the Atonement and how there is no "point of no return" in life. No matter how low or lost we get we can always return to the Lord. It was a great message!

Spiritual thought for today. If the Lord tells you to do something, do it! In personal study I was reading about Abinadi. Even though no one would listen to him when he told them to repent, he came back and kept preaching. He did this because the Lord told him to. Even though he knew they would kill him after he preached to King Noah and his priests, he still did it. As a result, Alma the Elder was converted and look at all the he and his son, Alma the Younger (after he was converted), did to benefit the Nephites. All because Abinadi chose to obey the Lord and not give up.

Love you guys! Let me know how things are going! (especially if you got a mission call!)

Tchau!