God Bless America

Hello people.

Let me start off by telling you all how much I love my country. Seriously. No... SERIOUSLY. It rocks. If you don´t believe me, come to Brasil for a while. Just kidding I love Brasil too. But its not America. Happy Birthday America, and me! Im 20 now...

I had an incredible week. I literally am witnessing the hand of the lord bless this region and the members here. I can feel this place being on the verge of explosion, and it feels so good to have to work we´re doing be recongnized. There is so much area here and people that haven´t heard the gospel. The only thing that lacks is the huge distance to the chapel, about 30-40 minutes by bus depending on the day. But we are trying to fix that by creating a branch there. Basically it was summed up by my favorite comment of the week by my favorite guy Caio "You´ll come back here in 5-10 years and see this a ward, with maybe 2 or three duplas of missionaries, knowing that you started it all" That right there is the essence of why I´m here. And I love it.

We have a baptism this week! Its going to be such a load of my shoulders i´ve felt really pressured by the ward and people and its been a while. His name is Carlos, and he is legit. We also were able to mark a marriage/baptismal date for José and Jussára. And while they still fight like two mice over a piece of cheese they are excited. The last couple we are working with is Eduardo and Silvana. Eduardo is an ex-active member that has drinking and abusive habits with his "wife" that desperately wants to be a member of Christ´s church and have an eternal family. We are trying to do damage control and get them married too.

This week we found a lot of great people that i have a lot of hope for. Its too early to tell you about them because Satan always finds a way to screw up my investigators that i think will be golden. It REALLY sucks to return for a second visit to find them there waiting with the Book of Mormon to return. Someone is not playing nice with us... Lots of Anti Mormon crap here. But im stoked and i think we will have success with some of these people.

I love this church. I love my family. Im praying for Wayne. Im convinced that this is the only true source of happiness. As i commented to my comp yesterday we literally talk to people all day that tell us how crappy life is, and how many bad things have happened. I remarked that I don´t really remember anything REALLY bad happening in my life... its not cause im American or cause im Rich or lucky, its because we have the gospel, and we make correct choices that bring happiness, not sadness.

Im so grateful for that. I love you all.
--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil