November 24, 2014-Faith!

Hey everyone! I had my first zone meeting this week, for one night there were 10 missionaries in one apartment, some of us had to share beds, needless to say i felt much closer to Elder Matheus than i have before haha. Its been raining alot still but its such a blessing because the church farm workers couldnt start planting crops until there was enough rain and there finally was! THis week at church we had a lot more people come than usual, the school building was full! And our district leader (we are technically a group right now, it goes like this; group, branch,ward,stake) announced that we are going to have 3 meeting every sunday now! We couldnt before because to have priesthood meeting there has to be at least 15 men attending church and we finaly have enough! Haha its great to see the church in a different aspect like this. Even though there arent many members the faith is strong! Also yesterday we went to a pesquisadores house for lunch and they were having a party because the grandpa of Julio had his birthday yesterday! It was great, everyone was asking me about America and what its like, we realized that things in America like shoes cars houses and anything electronic, are so much cheaper in the states its ridiculous! Later that day we went and picked mangoes and gave them to a member and ate some ourselvs they were so good. 

    Sadly, Lucas the boy who wanted to be baptized told us that his step dad and mom were fighting about his baptism and he told us he wasnt going to be baptized anymore but he wouold still come to church and receive lesons. It was pretty heart wrenching, especially because it was because of his parents, he is so ready to be baptized too! But later that day we talked with another family and one of the daughtres wants to be baptized so that lifted our spirits. THis family is so funny, the mom is 24 with 4 little brazilian kids who have so much energy and their house is tiny and they dont have much but they still enjoy life all the same. WE were teaching the restoration to them and they were all squirming around on the dirt floor playing and they when we shared the first vision they all got quiet and listened it was really cool the spirit was there helping us for sure. 

THe other elders had a baptism on saturday and it was in a lake! It started pouring raing after too and it reminded me of the primary song I Like to Look for Rainbows because it says I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain, so it was just reallly cool to see that connection. THis week i also realized how much prononciation matters in Portuguese, for example, avô and avó. THe first is grandpa and the second is grandma, its so hard to distinguish the two! Also depending where the stress goes on words changes the meaning, saí is I left, sai is YOU LEAVE! Haha so ive been trying to be careful with my pronunciation so as to not offend anybody. Its funny, in portuguese there are verbs that mean to fatten and to skinny, so i hear that i need to fatten alot haha and my companion says he is trying to skinny right now. THe food is so good here i think im going to gain like 10 kilos by the time i come home! I havent gained any yet haha

THis week i think i learned most about faith, in the book of Ether, Moroni gives a great summary of faith and the miracles that are brought by it in the Book of Mormon, also in 3rd nephi, Christ tells the nephites how he does not reveal everything at once because it is to test our faith and if we are faithful he will make more marvilous things known to us. It really helped when finding out that Lucas couldnt be baptized, i am grateful for the scriptures so much more now! THanks for all the writing and such i love reading them i hope everyone has a great week!