Another White Week! -- March 17, 2014

Oi Familia! I hope all is well in America and that this letter finds you safe and happy!

What a week!  Things are still going quite well here.  I still love the area, Ponta Grossa, and I really love the other missionaries I live with.  They're kind to help me with my Portuguese!

Holy cow.  I really love Brazil!  Everyday, I can feel Heavenly Father help me understand what people are saying, and help me remember the words I study.  It is going to be SO MARVELOUS when I can speak Portuguese.  Literally, it will be so FUN once I don't have this handicap.

Super news!  We had a baptism this weekend!  The super elect family that we found about 2 weeks ago has been coming to church and having us over a lot. They are SO faithful, and love the Book of Mormon.  They aren't legally married yet (a major problem here in Brazil - everyone lives together because getting married by law costs a lot), but they are working towards a date to be married, and then be  baptized.  Nathali, their 10 year old daughter, was baptized yesterday!  She is super cool, and super smart.  It has been so fun working with this family and seeing their faith in Christ grow, and their desire to adopt the Gospel increase.  It keeps blowing my mind how here in Brazil, everyone (mostly everyone) is SO accepting.  For example, the first week this family came to church, they got there 30 minutes early, Sacrament meeting started 20 minutes late, and Priesthood "lesson" was an argument over how to give a blessing.... The whole time, I was just thinking, "Noooooooo.... we are going to lose them!"  Then, when we went to visit them the following Tuesday and asked how they liked church, they both said they loved it!  They said it was exactly what they have been searching for.  WHAT?!  It was such a testimony to me that the truly humble and elect of Heavenly Father will only see the good; that they'll be able to know through the Holy Ghost what is right, and won't notice what appears amiss to us.  M-i-r-a-c-l-e.

The faith people have here goes both ways though.  They are VERY believing, so when we commit someone to come to church, and a family member or friend or pastor tells them that they shouldn't, they won't!  We had a few of those happen this week, but we know Heavenly Father will help us find the elect, like Nathali and her family, if we keep trying!

Haha it's so fun here, because you can stop and talk to ANYone, and they'll almost always talk with you!  I've point- blank just asked people on the street if they'd like to be baptized, and it starts a good conversation (that I have to turn over to my companion ;)).  Haha like yesterday before church started, we went out and street contacted people, inviting them to come to church with us RIGHT THEN!  It was so fun!  No one said yes... but still, I don't think you could do that in America.

Because we teach almost solely out of the  Bible here (totally opposite of my mission in the States), I've been trying to read a lot!  It has been such a wonderful experience re-discovering the life of Christ in the New Testament.  It is so beautiful and plain.  I am so thankful for a loving Savior who came to Earth to set the perfect example for us, to die for us, and then  to rise again so that we too might one day return to live with our Father in Heaven and families for eternity.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE.  I love it!

Have a SUPER week!  The Church is TRUE!  Heavenly Father loves you!

Love forever,

Jason