Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas people.. Don´t be sad, Ill be there NEXT YEAR!! wahoooo!!!

It was a good week. It was so hot... I miss snow, but it was good. Christmas here is a lot different. They dont do anything on the actual day.. its all on xmas eve. They stay up till 12 and make a lot of meat (thats what i want, to stuff myself full of salt before i sleep) and then shoot guns and rockets off and scream and play loud funk music until about 5 in the morning. Yeah, its SUPER reverent. They LOVE respecting Christ´s birth. I heard next year they are inviting Ossy Osborne to sing the annual "Silent Night."

 We had transfers and i stayed here. My new companion is Elder Carrol from Cary, North Carolina. He´s the man, i like him a lot. He´s getting here in a firestorm of change in the ward, with everyone kind of recovering from the recent shenanigans. Our new bishop made a churrasco for us though on Christmas Eve and we had a great chat about what we can do to start the new year right to help this ward. Pride is dangerous, avoid it.

Yesterday was a good day for us. We were able to catch up a bit and contact some good references. At night we went to my boy Jacson and his soon to be wife Danielle. Im not sure if I´ve told you about them but they give me a lot of grey hairs. Its a family of members that never had testimonies. We go there to teach Jacson who is getting married and baptized on the 21st of January, but we very rarely are able to teach much. His mother n law is a member that hates the church. And all she ever wants to do is ATTACK us with faithless questions. She is one of those classic people that somehow manages to blame the church and its members for everything bad that has ever happened in her life. Instead of trying to prove the church is true she looks for anything she can find to prove it is false. Last night after calmly listening to them argue about whether tattoos were sins, whether it was possible to engrave 500 pages on gold plates, and WHY Adam and Eve couldnt have children in the garden of Eden, we had had about enough, people that cant walk (read the book of mormon) dont need to worry about running (exaltation)  We explained to them that we are here to prepare people to be baptized. We explained that we will not answer their profound questions any more, and that we will not move on to the next lesson until ALL of the commitments are kept. We promised them that if the people took the committments we leave seriously, there would never be an unprepared baptismal candidate. Members or missionaries to not drive people away from the church. People drive themselves away. THEY do not decide when they are ready to be baptized, WE do. 

Point to the story: Read Moroni 4:5. Yes the sacrament prayer. Think about what we promise to do each time we take that bread and think about what the Lord promises. We promise to keep his commandments, remember him, and take his name upon us, or to pattern our life after his. He promises us his spirit. When we do not take the sacrament we do not have that promise. We do NOT have the spirit, and thus we do NOT have the capability to rationalize, and see things the way he does. We will lose ourselves, and we will do it fast. We will have doubts, and there will not be answers. We will become pessimistic, faithless, and frankly pathetic. I made myself a promise last night that I will never allow myself to be in a position where i cannot take the sacrament. Its the greatest gift the Lord offers us. But when we dont take it, we have no guarantee, and its a slippery slope as my father likes to say. Take the sacrament every week, and you will never cease to find answers to your doubts. 

Im so grateful for the invaluable learning i have gained on the mission. I told my companion yesterday its not so much the my core desires have changes drastically (they have a little..) but that the way i view things and my perspetive of God´s plan on earth is 100 percent different. Love you all, Happy New Year. 

Stay Classy.

I don't remember what happened this week

I am excited for Christmas. It doesnt feel like Christmas here... Its freakishly hot and no one has christmas trees..

This week was a blur.. it passed so fast. I know we went to Capão da Canoa (the beach) and did our division with the district leader there. Then the next day we went to Torres (right on the border of the next state) to have our district meeting, and made the long trek home para casa. Friday and Saturday we worked our butts off to make up for the time we lost, and we made some good progress. We were super stressed with where our 2 baptisms were going to come from this month, (president is breathing down the necks of the LZ´s to get their 2) but now we have some good options. I think I´ve talked about that elect Lutheran lady that doesn´t know she is elect? She finally came to church this week with her daughter! Too bad right after we found out her husband was searching mormons on the internet and came across some FILTHY anti mormon stuff.. That is gonna be a super interesting/awkward visit tomorrow night at 8. 

Yesterday we had our Christmas Conference in Porto Alegre. It was super fun. For our apresentation we did the Birth of Jesus Christ: Gaúcho version. Beyond my belief our no-nonsense president agreed to be our narrator. For anyone that understands Brasil, everyone outside of the Rio Grande do Sul hates gaúchos and their accent. So you can imgaine how funny is was to have a Paulista (someone from São Paulo) trying to immitate a Gaúcho with all types of crazy slang. It was super funny, Ill have to send the video home. But I also learned a lot. Sister gave an INCREDIBLE training on the meaning of the word "messias." She helped us understand way better how the prophecies in the bible truly were fulfilled, and how Jesus really is the Christ. She is amazing. So knowledable, I always call her when i get into doctrinal arguments with my companions, and she clears things up. 

I cant believe we are aproaching the end of another transfer. Every one seems to pass faster and faster. Stranger that two of my best friends on the misison, Elder Melo and Elder Lynn are leaving! Im going to the temple with them today. Next week is transfers, so my p day will be on Monday. I´m about 90 percent sure that I will be staying here, but we´ll see. 

I love you, Enjoy the spirit of natal. Stay classy. 

Oh yeah, and Im a hunter now. Tell everybody. The last picture is from the crazy tornado we had last week.