(Elder Mackrory)
Bom dia galera! Como vai?
Essa semana foi muito boa. Vi 9 fuscas, levando o total aos
1246.
Just a warning, this email is super long. Feel free to use
Gmail’s new AI, Gemini, to summarize it if you don’t have much time, but I do
recommend that you read it in full.
Last pday, we went to the temple. It was amazing. I am so
grateful to live so close to it. But we didn’t just go to the temple. We went
there with some the young single adults from our ward (of which two are from
our teaching group). Our friends got to see the temple, the distribution center
and the chapel that shares the lot, and they loved it. In the distribution
center, Marcel bought the book of teachings of John Taylor, which I loved. I’m
super happy for him. In the temple, while we were helping in the confirmation
room, we were the only priesthood holders other than the recorder. Problem was
that they needed someone to baptize in the baptistry. Since my companion was
just sitting there, they asked if we have to stay together even in the temple.
Our desire to help out everyone was put up against our desire to keep the
standards. We were in the temple, so nothing would have happened, but we
decided to be obedient and trust that the Lord would provide a way for us to be
obedient and for the work to continue. And we did not place our trust in vain.
About 30 seconds later, a brother from our ward walked in and was available to
confirm, thus freeing us to baptize and record in the baptistry. That night as
we were contacting referrals and inviting everyone to church, Elder Vieira set
up a time for me to talk to our recent convert who spoke so rudely to me the
night before. We were both able to express fully our thoughts, and I felt a lot
of peace in doing so, knowing that my sincere thoughts and renewed energy to
show love to her were what the Lord wanted from me, even though she was not
convinced of my sincerity and stormed out again. It complicated, but I’ve
learned that even when we do everything in our power to earn the love of those
we love, it may not work out.
Sunday was a day full of miracles. We had an old friend show
up to church that hasn’t been taught in ages. She is excited to meet with us
again. Next, I got to renew my covenants with Heavenly Father taking the
sacrament. Next, we had an amazing lunch. During said lunch, we had another
friend call us telling us how she felt bad about not coming to church and that
she wants to meet with us later. So after church we went to visit with her and
set some good goals. If she progresses with these goals, we’ll set a special
goal for her to be baptized. Next, As we went to deliver a Book of Mormon, we
had some confusion. The person wasn’t home, but her daughter was (definitely
not interested) and so we gave her the book and asked her to give her mom the
book. A man seated near us then called us over and asked us about this book. He
was super humble and was so excited to know more that he suggested that we meet
again before we could. Next, as we left the building we stopped to record what
had happened, and a recent convert (of 3 years) was on his bike passing by and
stopped to say hello. From there, we had a super edifying conversation about
the sabbath day and obedience. He was super excited about the idea of taking a
day off being a commandment, and is excited to start coming back to church.
Next, we arrived home safely during a dark and scary hour. Next, my personal
study was chef’s kiss. I read about obedience and then 1 Nephi 4-6. Really nice
study in the air conditioning. Next, as I was ironing my shirts, listening to A
Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, I was thinking about the atonement. Oftentimes
when we think about the atonement we think about the pain He experienced. We
think about how much it hurt to take upon Him our sins. But there was a more
prevalent feeling that night in Gethsemane and in all the moments of His mortal
life from them on: Love. Greater than the greatest pain that was ever felt was
the greatest love that was ever shown. Not a love that was created then, but a
love that existed since before the creation of the world, and strengthened by
those moments of suffering.
On Monday we had our first round table meeting of the
transfer, and then off to lunch. It was crazy hot out, glad we made it back to
the air conditioned office. I did some referrals and helped train Elder
Coutinho a little. That night we had an awesome lesson with Marcel and our
awesome ward clerk Breno.
On Tuesday, we were super busy, In the morning we had
district council and got to meet the new elders, which was cool. Last district
council our DL left a banana in the freezer and forgot about it. So this time
around I slipped it back into his bag without him noticing. That afternoon I
had to prepare the content that the media sisters would share in zone
conference. At 4ish we left for a lesson with Vera, who had called us Sunday
afternoon. She was super excited to talk to us and we invited the relief society
president to participate through a video call. We were able to mark a baptism
date with our friend. It’s set for her birthday that is coming up, but we’ll
see if her family plans something. She’s practically ready, and so if it
doesn’t work out we will just move up the date, but she really wanted it to be
on her birthday. We then went straight to dinner with the Elder’s quorum
president and his wife. She made the best pudim (poo-JING) I've ever had by
far. She used the good brand of condensed milk.
On Wednesday we had zone conference. That morning the zone
leaders asked me if I could be the pianist. I said sure and then they sent me
two hymns that I didn’t know how to play. Oh boy. Anyway, we headed to the
office for me to grab some phones and screen protectors that people had asked
for and then we hitched an Uber to the stake center. There, I went straight to
practicing, except that Elder Schmuhl stopped me on the way and talked my ears
off about spreadsheets (just kidding Elder Schmuhl I love you). The hymns went
alright, the media sisters did a killer job and the zone leaders were fantastic
as always, although I have to hand it to Elder Schmuhl and Elder de Los Angeles
for their mastery in using scriptures to teach.
On Thursday we got stuff ready for the last zone conference
in the mission. And I finally got to zero out the referrals that do not have an
área. After some more work done, we did like a million online contacts. Pretty
chill day.
On Friday we were finally free of zone conference tasks and
were able to officially organize Elder Coutinho’s responsibilities. But there
was some confusion and now we have to do it over again. We had a phone lesson
with Vinicius in which he lost connection, but somehow the phone call was not
interrupted at all. The lesson was clearly spoken and he testified of how the
Lord allowed him to hear our call. That night we went to visit our other recent
convert, Tia Vera, and read with her from a church magazine she got from who
knows where.
Well, that’s it for this week, it was super fast. This
Saturday pday thing is making the weeks go by super fast. I started my mission
559 days ago. It’s actually insane to think about how much time has passed in
such a short time.
Tender Mercy: In the temple, I met a guy who just got off
his mission in Londrina. We chatted for a bit about an Elder that I knew who
went there. I decided it would be funny to try to put a little bit more
emphasis on the carioca “s” which often sounds like “sh”. What happened is that
the guy didn't think I was messing around and complimented my carioca accent.
I've been trying to get out of an embarrassment cycle where I tell myself that
I can't try to make a carioca accent because people will make fun of me, but
through this I lost my embarrassment and things have been going well. It was
just what I needed to better emulate 1 Corinthians 9:20
Spiritual Thought: (this one comes from my mission
president, but as I read about it this week, it really touched me) When I read
1 Nephi 11, I stopped to think about the manner in which the angel taught Nephi
about the meaning of the tree. Nephi understood its meaning after learning
about the birth of the Savior. The Love of God is that He sent His Son to save
us from where we cannot save ourselves. Ok, now that's the tree. What then, do
the fruits mean? Well, what does Christ offer to those who hold tight to the
Word of God? Repentance and the remission of sins, and the companionship of the
Holy Ghost. The sweetest things there are. So it's not too early to celebrate
Christmas, for to celebrate Christmas is to celebrate Christ. This I will do
all year round and I invite you guys to do the same.
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