Mr "Leaves me all alone"

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa tarde Pessoal!

Thanks for granting me a little space in your inbox. There wasn't a whole lot of new this week, but vamo lá. I did see 15 fuscas though, bringing the grand total 615.

We stayed in the house for pday, just talking with family and such. On Tuesday we had a family night at the bishop's house. A member of the bishopric spoke about the true purpose of the gospel. It really touched me, so I'll put that at the end. On Wednesday we had sports night, and someone brought a volleyball net. We set it up, realized nobody really wanted to play and took it down again. But we got some açaí so that was nice.

Thursday nobody showed up to English class, so we went home early and made calls. I wish people would show up, but it's nice sometimes to be able to go home early.

Friday was cool. I woke up feeling pretty down, physically exhausted and feeling out of tune with the spirit. I continued with my studies, planning, and we left the house on time, but nothing was getting me going. Just going through the motions without any sort of emotion. I was praying that I could be able to see the Lord's hand in my life, because in those moments, something was blocking my spiritual eyes. On the way to the chapel, a white pigeon or dove showed up in front of us. We laughed a bit and started saying “follow the holy ghost” and chasing the bird around. It was fun. Then, in a completely different neighborhood, another dove showed up out of nowhere and we started to do the same thing. This time, the bird flew and landed on top of house and we decided to knock that door and we found a person who's interested! The Lord works in mysterious ways and I'm grateful that I was able to make part of it. There's your tender mercy for the week

on Saturday we marked a baptism date for Araci again. We marked it for after her moving date, though. She said she was gonna move like two months ago but had to delay it like 5 times, so we marked this baptism date For there or here, wherever she is. Regardless she'll be baptized on that day.

Sunday was awesome. We had both Sheila and Camila show up and they were making friends with everyone in the Relief Society. Camila even showed interest in being on our lunch calendar (she cooks for a living 👀). Other than that, a bird flew into our window and sat on a chair to resuscitate. Odd. I assume he's alive still but maybe he flew away to die. A womp into a door at full speed is not ideal.

This week was great, lessons and walking and more lessons and more walking. Nothing terrible special on every day, always spiritual moments. Elder Tacuche is new on the mission and with Portuguese, and so for the first half of the week I was teaching every word of the lessons. It's kinda nice, not gonna lie, but it's better with two people teaching.

SummaRio:

15 fuscas, 615 total

Had a cool family night, açaí and not-volleyball.

No one showed up to English class

I was feeling pretty down on Friday, but a cool and fun experience helped me to see the Lord's hand in my life.

Marked a baptism date that might happen hundreds of miles from here.

Our favorite people showed up to church and made Friends

I'm teaching at least 80% of the lessons since my comp is fresh out of the MTC

Spiritual Thought:

Ponder for a second: what is the purpose of the gospel?

There are many correct answers, but none of them say that we won't have any difficulties. Life is tough, and it needs to be. The gospel gives us the direction and help we need to progress and overcome these difficulties. When the Lamanites put the people of Alma in bondage, how did the Lord answer them? He said “And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.” It was not the Lord's will at this time to free the people entirely, but to help them grow in faith in and love for the Lord. The people held their burdens as if it was nothing, with all joy and ease. Surely it was difficult for them still, but they had the Lord working with them. “The gospel is not a way to avoid challenges and problems but a solution to increase our faith and learn how to deal with them”

Tchau gente, até o próximo

1. Sunflower growing in a pile of sand

2. Cactus

3. "Somos missionários de A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias!" "Ah, conheço, a Igreja do Sétimo Dia" "não"

4. A cool view

5. Night time in our area has me worried about selfies

6. Local soccer game

7. 3d printed Rio Temple

8. Almoção

9. Our bird friend

There's only so far new money goes

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia meus queridos!

Hey y'all, lots of changes this week. Some sad, some good. Let's get into it. We saw 11 fuscas this week, bringing us to a nice clean 600.

On pday we went to the mall and I got a sick Brazil jersey. We also got rodízio. Normally I don't like pizza here in Brazil, but they had a white chocolate and strawberry pizza that was amazing.

On Tuesday we had a family night with our friend Araci. Except up until this point we had been calling her Iraci. She just never told us we had been saying it wrong. Oh well.

On Wednesday transfers were announced, aaaaand… I'm staying! Elder Kjar is leaving and my new companion is a Greenie! From the meeting, I only got to see a blurry picture and half of his name, so I could only tell that he wasn't American.

On Thursday was English class, so we made sure to call up all of Elder Kjar's favorite people and say we're getting burgers after class. So naturally no one showed up until we were leaving to go get burgers. It was fun though.

Friday was transfers. We packed up bags and headed to the office. We called Uber comfort so that we could fit all the bags, and the car that showed up was definitely just a regular uber. Whatever. We hung out at the office, said goodbye to Elders Borges and Nascimento, my trainers, who were going home. Saw a bunch of old friends, and met my companion! His name is Elder Tacuche and he's fresh out of Peru. With him being Hispanic, he does speak a little bit of portuñol, but that's chill because I studied a bit of Spanish and want to learn more. He speaks way better Portuguese than a majority of the Hispanic elders did when they started. We called uber comfort again and this time comfort came. Holy crap I got to ride in a Honda Civic! It was so spacious. It was what we needed to get every bag back to the place, but it was really expensive. That night we went to the supermarket and I accidentally spent the rest of my money. I'll get reimbursed for my travels, so it's just a cash flow problem. Long story short I’m broke. While I don't have money now, I'll have extra next week. I have plenty of food so I'll be fine, but its kinda funny how it worked out.

On Saturday we went to the bank to get Elder Tacuche’s card activated. We then went to the supermarket and got his things. The long travel to the bank didn't leave much time for work, but we did have a great lesson with Camila and I had a cool thought about the Sabbath day.

On Sunday it was fast Sunday since we had stake conference last week. I got to play the piano for the ward and sight-read pretty well! Sometimes it pays off to not practice all week and then have to pretend that you practiced. I should have practiced, but it makes it so I don't have to worry if I know the hymn. Just open the book and play. Camila wasn't able to make it because she was sick, so we offered to give her a priesthood blessing. We explained the blessing and how it works, and you could see in her face afterwards that she didn't have the same dark, congested, groggy look. She came alive sharing her testimony with us saying, “I've found the church I've searched for, and I'm not going back”. We had to re-mark her baptism date for the 5th of next month but she's excited to have one more week to prepare.

That's pretty much it this week. Don't worry, my Sabbath day thought is below. Tenham uma ótima semana!

SummarRio:

11 fuscas, 600 total

Went to the mall on pday and bought a Brazil jersey

Found out we have been calling our friend the wrong name! She didn't even tell us!

Wednesday we figured out Elder Kjar is being transferred out to Niterói

Thursday we got burgers with Juarez and Kauan

Friday I met my new companion Elder Tacuche from Peru. He's fresh out of the MTC

Taught some lessons with Elder Tacuche

Had an awesome experience teaching and giving a blessing to Camila after church.

Tender mercy: Elder Patterson left a jersey that didn't fit him, and I was able to give it to Elder Tacuche when he arrived. He was feeling pretty isolated and getting the shirt just lit him up. Even though it wasn't something that helped me directly, it was cool to see events fall into place where the Lord worked through other people.

Sabbath thought:

 All Jewish ordinances and observances were a way of awaiting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

 It is also interesting to note that their Sabbath day was the seventh day of the week. They had the whole week to await the Sabbath.

 In our day, all our ordinances and observances are a way to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

 It is also interesting to note that our Sabbath day is on the first day of the week. So we have all week to remember the Sabbath.

Everything we do is because of the atonement that Christ made. It should be the focus of every study, prayer, meeting, and thought. I know that the way that Christ prepared is the only way that leads to eternal life.

Fotos:

1. Family night

2. My new ID??

3. When I found out I'm training again

4. Twinszies!!!

5. Wednesday night coke

6. Thursday night burgers

7. Robertha and Ivanete

8. I don't like sin

I've been spending the last eight months

 (Elder Mackrory)

Opa pessoal, como vai?

It's crazy that I've been out here on a mission for 8 months now. That means I'm more than a third of the way done. Just like that. Insane. I probably could have used a better title given the things that happened this week, but there's only one week that I can use this title. Anyway it's been a good week, we saw 15 fuscas, bringing our total to 589.

There have been some crazy things happening this week. We'll start with last pday. We went to the Waterfalls of Piabetá as a zone. It was sick. I brought myself some sandwiches and accidently brought and ate all my deli meat and cheese. That turned out to be a minor inconvenience later in the week but its fine now. We decided to take a hike up the top of the waterfall this time. Looking back, that hike probably succeeded the level of difficulty allowed in the missionary standards. What happens at zone pday stays at zone pday.

On Tuesday I had a division. I was with Elder Sano, who I knew in Macaé. Perhaps you remember when we made Philly cheese steaks with him and Elder Schmuhl. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from the experience. Kudos to my boy Elder DeWitt for training Elder Sano right. We had smoothies for dinner and cake for breakfast. Lots of good times.

On Wednesday morning, when Elder Kjar came to pick me up from the division, we had a phone call lesson with our friend Camila. More on her later. She said she had been watching General Conference and had questions. The first one she asked was “what is a covenant?”. Good question, right? So we explained that it is a sacred two-way promise between you and God, made into effect by a sacred act, such as baptism. We explained how when we promise to follow the commandments with this sacred ordinance of baptism, we allow ourselves to receive more of God's love and His spirit in our lives for guidance, protection, and comfort as part of God's return promise. When baptisms are performed by someone with proper authority, the covenant takes effect. We then invited her to be baptized on the 28th of this month and she said yes! She was so happy to make this commitment and so were we.

On Thursday morning, on our daily phone lessons with Camila (as requested by her), we talked more about covenants and such. Then she asked another very good question. She had been watching more conference, and noticed a lot about temples. She asked “What happens in your guy's temples? How can I go?”. Good question, right? So we gave her the brief rundown that temples are sacred places dedicated as The House of The Lord. Inside, we perform sacred ordinances for us and for our ancestors and those who never had the opportunity to receive such ordinances in mortality. Since we had another appointment soon, we explained that we love to talk more with her about temple ordinances on Friday morning. In the meantime, we sent her the goated YouTube video of Elder Soares and his wife giving a tour and explanation of the Rio de Janeiro temple. She watched it immediately after our lesson and sent this message, “I watched the video, I am very impacted, I want to go to the temple so much to be a part of this family”. So yeah.

Thursday afternoon, (yes this day gets even better), we visited our friend Sheila. She works weird hours and so it is difficult to mark appointments with her. But when we do have appointments, they are incredible. We got to her house and started our usual catch up conversations. This time I asked what she does for work. She works with survivors of domestic and sexual violence, helping them receive comfort, medical, legal, and financial help, and just overall making things right. You guys wanna guess what my own mother does for work? this exact thing. I commended her for her courage and dedication to such a difficult and essential work. Eventually, we got into the message. We taught her about the 5 principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost: and fifth, Enduring to the End. We then invited her to be baptized, emphasizing the blessings of having the Gift of the Holy Ghost. After the lesson, I felt inspired to text my mom (don't tell mission president) and ask her for some thoughts about how The gift of the Holy Ghost is a blessing for her work. Incredible work mom. After shoving her answer in Google translate (because I'm lazy) and fixing all the errors that Google translate makes, I sent it along to Sheila, who is now very excited to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost at her baptism.

On Friday, we had a lesson with Iraci. She's freaking awesome. She had a baptism date but it fell through. She's moving to central Brazil to be closer to her family, especially her mother, who is growing old. She is determined to be baptized, she just wants to do it there so that her family can be there. That's fine. So we made sure she's in contact with the missionaries there. Everything will work out. She is progressing very well and recognizes the presence of the Spirit when we are there. We then rushed over to two more lessons with our friends Ivanete and Maria. Why are 90% of our teaching group women?

Saturday, we had our first in-person lesson with Camila. she always has awesome questions as you know, so we asked. She said “let me go grab my notebook”. Guys she has like 10-15 pages of notes from conference. We answered her questions and got on with our message. We shared the restoration with Joseph Smith, the first vision, and the Book of Mormon. It was great. She mentioned she has a son with 8 years of age (that's foreshadowing). After that, we went into a new neighborhood that we've never visited before for a lesson. It's all gang territory, as expected. Anyway, we ended up spending like 2 hours in that lesson because Marcio and his mom had so many good questions and insights. Missionaries, do not underestimate the importance of the great apostasy. It is your foundation for introducing the Book of Mormon. We had sandwiches and coke and he sang to us with his guitar. Good day.

Yesterday was stake conference. Sheila was working unfortunately, but we had Iraci, Camila, and Miguel (Camila's kid) all there. When we met Miguel, Camila introduced us and we explained about Camila's baptism and how he could get baptized too. He just hugged his moms leg being shy. Oh well. We will get there. Anyway, there was a baptism after church for another set of missionaries. Camila and Miguel stayed to watch. While Elder Kjar and I set up chairs, she was explaining to everyone how she will be baptized. Life's great. Until Miguel expressed some serious fear of baptism waters. As we waited for the service to start, I was coloring with Miguel. So at least he doesn't fear me now. We're boys. When the baptism happened, Miguel sat on the ground right in front to see. After it happened, he ran up to his mom saying Só isso? Eu também quero!” “That's it! I want too!” So we marked his baptism date on the same day as his mom. Good day.

Then at lunch I tried shrimp for the first time. It's ok, not something I would eat unless I forgot what it tasted like. I'd rather the chicken tenders. Then after lunch us four got called over by a guy. This is normal, lots of people are confused why white gringos are walking around in suits. So we go over and his sitting at a table full of literal crack (act natural). We explain our purpose and all, while he sells some guy some crack. All the while going “uh huh” and “yeah" to us. Then we walked away. That's It.

So yeah that's all that happened this week. In conclusion, if there are any missionaries out there wondering if a perfect investigator exists, she does and her name is Camila and she lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

SummaRio:

I hit 8 months on the mission, 15 fuscas, 589

Went to a waterfall hike for zone pday

Went on a division with Elder Sano

Marked a baptism date with Camila

On Thursday committed Camila to go to the temple

Also marked a baptism date with Sheila

Why do women make up 90% of our teaching group?

Saturday we had a great lesson with Camila and later with Márcio and Elizabeth

At stake conference we marked a baptism with Camila's dope kid Miguel

Tried shrimp for the first time and talked to a guy as he actively sold crack

Tender mercy: there was a baptism after stake conference! If it wasn't for that, it might have been more difficult to mark Miguel's baptism. Simple, yet powerful.

Little heads up: this week is transfers so we will see how that goes

Spiritual thought: While meeting with Camila she talked about an indescribable joy that she has from studying and living the gospel. Iraci described it as “a victory”. For others, peace, comfort, and tranquility have been used. For everyone, the joy of the gospel comes individually according to our needs and personalities. For me, this joy can be described as “clarity”. How do you feel the joy of the Gospel?

1. Camila, Miguel and the gang

2. Super scary itsy bitsy spider

3. People here think that if you make giant artwork of mosquitoes that dengue goes away

4. Bird

5. Spices galore

6. Márcio and Elizabeth

7. Zone pday

8. Me in the jungle (I def thought my mission was gonna be like that)

9. Waterfall

10. Cute jumping spider (pictured here not jumping)

Wherever you stray, I follow

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia pessoal!

Hey y'all, it's been a quick week. It was a really good week. Is there another way to start an email other than “its been good and fast”? I'm open to suggestions because this is getting old. There are only so many ways to reword that.

Anyways, we saw 10 VW bugs this week bringing the total to 574.

Not a whole lot happened each day, so I'll give you the non-chronological order of events:

Basically all our lessons ended with the invitation to watch conference, so planning was really easy.

We finished up a lesson and started to leave when their dog started to follow us. I didn't think much of it because really it's a neighborhood dog, but she continued to follow us out of the neighborhood and sat with us in our lessons. At the end of the day we happened to have a few more minutes so we went back to deliver the dog. Our friend thought it was the most hilarious thing. It was pretty funny.

The next day the same thing happened.

General Conference happened! It was amazing to hear the words of the prophet, the apostles, and other general authorities. Here, we watched each session in a different place. It was really cool. The first lesson we watched at a members house right after lunch, and then next session at an investigators house with hot dogs (pronounced hotchy doggies). At night we watched at home. Sunday Afternoon we watched at the chapel and in the evening we watched at a members house. Lots of travel but so worth It. I was especially impressed this conference at the number of references to President Nelson's words. It shows just how important the prophet's words are, and just how applicable they are now, even if the citation is old. The prophet is shown a grander perspective that we can view.

Other than that, we basically did our usual rounds. No incredible breakthroughs, nothing terribly sad, just same old same old. But it's awesome. I've recently picked up my scripture study and it's incredible to see the difference spiritually. But not just that. I've been flying through the old Testament recently. And I've been able to use the stories in my teaching to demonstrate a principle. Sometimes, I've found, it's better to use a scripture story than a verse to teach.

 

Tender mercy: We were walking to our next appointment, and I saw a man sitting in his yard just doing nothing, and I felt prompted to go talk to him. We were very late and so I pushed the thought out of my mind. But it kept returning. Again and again until I just told Elder Kjar we had to go back. so we went back and talked to this Guy who was really nice and accepted a Book of Mormon and is excited to read. We'll see how it goes. But it was nice to see the results of following a prompting of the spirit.

Scripture Thought:

Mosiah 2:41

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

True, lasting joy comes only through living the commandments of God. He knows all. He has given us His commandments for this purpose. They are not given to restrict us. The kite's string was never designed to hold back the kite. In truth, the kite could not get off the ground without the string.

Fotos:

1. Classic gang graffiti that I love but can't take a picture because someone will kill me so I drew it up at the church

2. Conference with Juarez and Hot dogs

3. Caldo de Cana (sugar cane juice)

4. Natureza

5. HOMENS TRABALHANDO

6. Knock off jeep

7. One year ago today

He is Risen! Viņš ir Augšāmcēlies!

 (Elder Putnam)

Easter is one of my favorite Holidays now.

I was reminded this season of a Russian orthodox Easter tradition. On the morning of Easter, the first time you great everyone, you say "He is risen." to which the person being addressed says, "Truly He is Risen." Latvians don't seem to like it that much but its something that I want to take home. So next Easter, greet everyone on Easter morning by saying "He is Risen."

Elder Putnam

Honey I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa tarde a todos! Feliz Páscoa! Ele vive!

This week wasn't even real. It was really successful and efficiently spent, which unfortunately means I don't remember anything. Perhaps I'll keep it short.

Weekly Highlights:

-we watched “The Other Side of Heaven 2” and it was pretty good. Well actually we watched “O Outro Lado do Céu 2”.

-it's holy week so our favorite bakery was closed most of the time

-it’s been really cold here. Like it gets down to 70°F at night. It's been wonderful to use a jacket and sleep with a blanket.

-we upgraded our fan. It's really powerful, but German engineering is really complicated and maintenance is really expensive.

-I saw 15 fuscas! Brings the total to 564. Good week.

-we had zone conference this week and it turns out that my name has been spreading through the sisters as “The Elder who likes Taylor Swift” so that's great. It'd be nice if I was “The Elder who works really hard”, though.

-It took us an hour and a half to call an Uber from zone conference.

-we got a panini press and it's a game changer. I complained about the gross panini sandwiches at the CTM, but these are amazing sandwiches. Perhaps my tongue has lowered its standard. Not mad about it.

-our lunch appointment fell through, so we made corn dogs from scratch.

-I got a bucket of water dumped on my head because of a challenge that the zone made. If you marked a baptism date, you could choose someone in the zone to get a bucket of water dumped on their head. I got chosen.

-Brick happened

-On Sunday I was allowed to talk to my family briefly, so I made sure to call right after church got out so I could say hi to friends too. I got to share with them my testimony and it was really cool. Shout-out to Koko, Drew, Brener, and Preston.

-got mistaken for Jahovah's Witness more than usual

-Got called “Ken” for the 4th time

-a gang member took a photo of us, so next time we go into that neighborhood, we will either be shot dead or we'll basically be in the gang. We'll see. We have lunch there this week.

I would really like to share my experience that I had this year with Easter. In Brasil, the Easter celebration is extended real to be the entire Holy Week because of the catholic tradition. It's wonderful. Full of chocolate and happy faces. But it gave me the opportunity to have more time to ponder on the event leading up the resurrection of our Lord. Especially His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and at Golgotha.

About a month ago, I found a talk given by Elder Jeffery R. Holland. It's called “None Were with Him” from the April 2009 general conference. It's now become my favorite discourse. It taught me many things about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I felt His love for me. I felt that what He did, He did out of love. There is no greater truth than “God loves you”. But there is no truth of greater significance than “Jesus Christ lives”. Because He lives, we will all live again. We can be comforted in all moments, no matter how much it feels like no one understands. He understands. We will never be left without aid. “Because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so.” I testify with all my heart, might, mind, and strength that Jesus Christ lives. He knows each and every one of you because he experienced every sorrow, sickness, and suffering. He was the firstfruits of them that slept, and we will all eventually do the same. Search for the truth, pray to know of it, and apply its invitations, and by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved in the Kingdom of God.

Little Tender mercy to leave you guys with: In a lunch appointment, I shared my testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and my testimony of this aspect of the gospel grew to beyond my capacity to express. Testifying of the truth brings the truth to all, not just to those who are taught.

Tchau Tchau, vai com Deus,

Elder Mackrory

Fotos:

1. Volkswagen ventilador

2. Road work ahead? Uh yeah! I sure hope it does!

3. Sunset

4. Balde de água

5. Favorite Easter quote

The whole school is rolling fake dice

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa tarde a todos! Como vai?

Pday finally arrived! This week actually felt long. Since last week we switched pday to Friday, it was 10 days straight of doing work. I love the work, but 10 days is a lot.

On Monday we did work. It was hot, but we did it. For those of you who don't know, Brasil just went through A record heat, hitting Rio very hard. Last Sunday it got up to 144 degrees. Very hot.

Tuesday was the beginning of the rain. We were just doing our rounds, visiting people and teaching them. Then it started to rain. So we started to speed walk to the chapel for some shelter. Then the rain let up on the way and we decided to visit another friend instead of go to the chapel. It ended up being a really powerful lesson on the Book of Mormon and they committed to reading together. during the lesson, it started to pour. When we ended the lesson, they offered to let us stay and wait out the rain. We kindly declined saying the chapel was close. Big mistake. We started running from pavilion to pavilion trying to be less soaked. Under one pavilion, a car pulls up and opens the back door for us. We thought “great! Someone's giving us a ride!” It happens more often than you would think. Random people. So we get in, and he goes, “Fernanda?”. Nope. We just got in Fernanda's Uber. So we quickly got out and started running again. Within seconds we arrive in eyeshot of a very drunk/high/whatever lady. She's got a big bottle of liquor in on hand and she's trying to stop us with her other hand. Waving her finger and stumbling around trying to block the entire road. So we just keep running. We run past her and she starts after us. Pretty fast. So we pick up the pace, Elder Kjar almost eats pavement, and we arrive at the chapel looking like we just came from a swim. We chilled at the chapel drying off and when the rain stopped and the road drained, we went to go get açaí. Pretty good day.

Wednesday was pretty normal, a little rainy.

Thursday was pretty cool. We met Bernardo a few days ago while he was on a run. He was not moving remotely fast, and so I felt kind bad passing him walking. But then he picked up the speed a but later and passed us again and stopped to talk. In English. He's got a Colombian accent, but pretty good English. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Hindi. He asked about what we do and all and it was pretty cool. We said by and that was it. Then on Wednesday he stopped us again, this time in his car, and invited us over to teach his family. We asked him if he had any gospel questions so that we could choose principles to teach and make it meaningful to him. He said “teach the creation for the kids”. We thought, oh that's cool he has young kids. So we prepare. When we show up, it's a school. And we're teaching 40 kids. It was pretty cool. But definitely not what I was expecting. They asked questions about America and our missions and all that, but they paid attention during the lesson. Bernardo's wife was there and did a formal “thank you”. She said “Elder Mackrory, thank you so much for this, you have only been here 7 months and already understand how to speak, and we can understand you. Elder Kjar, thank you so much as well, you are trying”. It was pretty funny for the two of us. Elder Kjar speaks well, people just get inside their own heads because of his blonde hair and such. Afterwards we had cake and coke and I got to talk to Bernardo's actual kids, who are 17 and 21. They were raised in India, and have English as their first language. They sound like Americans. It was pretty cool. Can't wait to teach them in English.

On Friday the rain made it pretty impossible to work, so we ended up having to stay at lunch for 4 hours. We watched a movie that I really liked. It taught that belief comes before seeing, and that seeing is not believing. pretty cool.

On Saturday, we had a pretty cool lesson with Igor. We taught him the plan of salvation. It was a telephone lesson, and so I couldn't draw it out like I like to. So later, after the lesson, I drew up a design and sent it to him. He loved it. But the design was not very esthetic. So I decided to redo it.

On Sunday, the rain kept us inside again, and so I had time to draw up a really nice plan of salvation. Ill attach it below.

We saw 12 fuscas this week, bringing us to 549.

SummarRio:

It been a long week

It was very hot.

Then it was very rainy and we got in someone else's uber and escaped from a drunk lady while the streets became rivers.

On Thursday we taught about 40 kids at a school. We were under the impression that we would be teaching a family.

We taught the plan of salvation over the phone and I drew up a design to send to our friend

I redrew it on Sunday to make it really nice.

Spiritual thought:

Matthew 13

45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

Jesus Christ taught that the kingdom of heaven is worth more than everything we have. Obtaining it is our whole objective here on earth. But how do we obtain such a pearl of great price? The answer is simple. Follow Christ's example and teachings. Faith, repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Be kind, serviceable, and humble. In these things, we not only have the promise that the next life will be in eternal Joy, but also that this life here can be full of that same eternal joy. Christ wants you as part of His sheep. He cares for you and pleads for your well-being with The Father.

Tender mercy: on Tuesday, we were cold and wet after returning To the chapel. While there, we met with the building maintenance guy, who said that he bought pizza and coke for us and it was in the fridge. Warm pizza and fresh coke was just the thing to raise our wet spirits. The Lord surely sends angels Here on earth, even to deliver pizza.

Tchau Tchau! Boa semana pra vocês! (I promise I'll get back to all of your emails soon)

Fotos:

O Plano de Salvação

Random Door (leads to nowhere)

Not the Washington monument

Gym view

Spider