17 Oct 2011 - Jardim América Area (Dad)

I'm sending some legit pictures...one of our chapel yeah it's big, another one of my ballin and dunking, drinking açaí from a pitcher! and squeezing oranges to make juice the cool muscle-man way.

This week was a good week. The zone had made a promise to reach the mission goal of news for the week. We worked hard and taught lots of people. We pulled out all the stops and searched and found a lot of good people. We also found some not so great people :) After all was said and done...we didn't reach the goal of new investigators. So that was lame, but we had a baptism this week. That was one of the reason why we weren't able to reach our goal. We spent all of Saturday trying to resolve the problems. Okay all day after lunch, because that's an important step, it's necessary. One of the biggest problems here in Brazil is lack of water when we want to baptize somebody. That is what happened on Saturday. So while the lady was getting interviewed I was calling everyone, trying to find a chapel close that we could use. We found one, and had to go there and clean the font and then let it fill up with water. While we waited for it to fill up we played with some snails we found in the garden and drew on the chalk board. Normal waiting things. People were wondering why we didn't just do it Sunday or next week. Sometimes it just seemed a lot easier to do it Sunday, but then she couldn't be confirmed. Satan was trying his hardest to stop the baptism. The bishop could barely open the door to the chapel. It was just intense, and there were only 5 people at her baptism: the bishop, his wife, me, Elder Howland, and the Ward Mission Leader. It was a good baptism though.

After it all, I was explaining to the Ward Mission Leader, who never served a mission, that baptisms are sometimes the hardest things on the mission. Satan tries his hardest to mess up baptismal services. I looked back and saw all the things that went wrong. I know that the Lord will ALWAYS prepare a way. It is ALWAYS possible to follow His path. He will ALWAYS be on the other side waiting. We just have to bust through to meet Him. We can't walk around the obstacles because we will leave the path. We just go straight through them. No matter what Satan tells you, The Lord our Saviour is ALWAYS waiting for you. It is impossible for us to overcome a trial or obstacle and have nobody waiting for us on the other side. Imagine the sadness that we would feel, the betrayal. Now imagine how the Lord feels when we don't make it through the obstacle, when we just give up because we don't believe He is there. He is calling for us over and over, begging for us to make it, assuring that He is there. Unfortunately, we don't hear or heed that call.

Therefore, do it. Never give up. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is there. He has always been there for me. I have learned that better than ever here on the mission. I know that He lives and that He can help us overcome anything in this world. I was studying in Moses this week and I know that the Lord has promised us free agency. We have power over anyone that doesn't have a body. We have power over any urge or addiction in this life. I know that God promises eternal life for anyone who heeds His call to come and follow. Why do we hesitate? Why doesn't eternal life inexplicably compel us to be perfect. It should, for it is the greatest gift to mankind.

That just came out of me. Read it, and do it.