I am a child of Christ

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey Howdy y'all!

These last four days since my last email and P-day have been absolutely FANTASTIC!

The one bad thing is that Australia lied to us! It started getting really hot and sunny and we thought summer was coming. But it was a lie. On Saturday, it got SO cold and SO rainy and Sister Yochim and I were not prepared and spent the whole day soaked and shivering. But the work must go on and so we did too!

I don't know if I already told y'all this but I have a violin right now! Isn't that insane!! It's amazing! And yesterday I got to play it with one of my favorite people on this Earth (shout out to Tilly! I love you!) and I felt the spirit SO strong. It was just so healing and amazing! Definitely a miracle moment for me!

Now to the spiritual stuff

Moroni 7:19 says,

"Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ"

One question came to mind as I read this verse and that was, "what's the distinction between being a child of God and a 'child of Christ?'"

So, I asked my fellow missionary, Sister Walters (she's absolutely amazing by the way!), what she thought and this is what she said,

Well, everyone is a child of God. We just are. And it's special. But it's 300× more special when we come to know God's Son, our brother, Jesus Christ. When we develop a personal relationship with Him and let Him become our everything, that's when we become children of Christ, and that's beautiful.

Isn't that amazing! And now this is what Elder Ginn said,

Our Father gave us the chance to choose a relationship with Him, and that happens through Christ. When we commit to a relationship with Jesus, He becomes the Father of our spirit, changed by His grace! (Mosiah 5:7)

And Sister Forrey (the COOLest sister) wanted to give her input too! Here's what she said,

One of the greatest things about being a child of God is that we have Agency. We came to earth to choose to come back to Him. And just like Elder Ginn said, that can only be done through Christ. I really like 2 Nephi 2:27. It says, "...men are free according to the flesh... and they are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great Mediator of all men..." It all comes down to our choosing Christ so that we can fulfill our eternal destiny as children of God.

AMEN. Aren't they just AMAZING! I'm so grateful to be serving around such beautiful missionaries with such beautiful testimonies.

Anyways, I don't have anything to add to that!

I love y'all! Have an AMAZING day! And let me know if there any songs y'all would like me to play on the violin!

- Sister Cummings

Question of the week: How do you know that God knows you personally and loves you?

Closing Remarks

 (Elder Putnam)

Dear Friends and family,

This past week has been outstanding. It was my last full week of missionary work and I no longer have a regular day. On Tuesday I will have district counsel, interviews with president and dinner at his house. On Wednesday, I will fly out in the morning and be released in the evening from missionary service. Something sister Ceimere said really kinda shocked me. She said that when you are released, you feel the support of the blessing of your calling kinda disperse. It kind of concerned me and I'm not really looking forward to it. If you have any advice regarding that please let me know. I'd love to hear it.

On Monday, we visited Sigulda and took a cultural day in order to do so. We checked out the castles and the gardens. It was very pretty.

On Tuesday we had district counsel and a lot of lessons. Elder Williams choked on a tomato and was trying to get it up for the entire duration of the devotional. Sister Smart also came back and visited with her family so we got to talk with her.

On Wednesday we struggled with our lessons, but the highlight was definitely visiting Gatis and Gunita. Marta is also high key a legend. (Although she wasn’t happy at church on Sunday.) We had a really good conversation about how we can be tools in God's hands. It was super cool to hear how Gatis was able to put together a meeting between the archbishop of the Rīga Lutheran church and Elder Renland when he came. Pretty cool. Gunita shared about how she used her musical talents and learned English from her mission to translate the hymnbook into Latvian. They made us delicious pesto and not so delicious tomato and avocado salad. But the gift of tongues works in mysterious ways.

On Thursday we had online MLC and a bunch of lessons. We also went to dinner with the Halls at a dark ages themed restaurant. It was delicious. We got to celebrate our missions together and encourage the missionaries that still aren’t going home. Gatis also joined a call lesson and that made it so much better. Like he just knew exactly what to talk about to help this duds feel the spirit, especially cause he was kinda bashy. I love Gatis.

On Friday was Edžus' baptism. For a good portion of the day we were preparing for that. We has a goodbye lesson with Arta and then Edžus' baptism was a spiritual high. Roger, one of our friends whose just starting to learn with missionaries was fascinated with the baptism and then talked with Lauris Sapožnikovs for like 30 minutes after it. So many people showed up to support Edžus and the Spirit was very sweet.

On Saturday we took a bus out to Nākotne (translation: the future) which is a small town in the countryside. We helped the Sapožnikovi clean up their land after the big storm we has recently. Marija kept coming up and throwing water balloons at the missionaries, predominately me. She also helped us with some of the smaller branches. On the way back after she helped us she was walking behind me and I put my hand out to give her a high five. Instead of hitting my hand she took it and started walking with it. That melted my heart. She's like 5-6 years old and reminds me of my little cousin. Super sweet experience. We got back in Rīga for my last basketball night in Latvia. Elder Beebe and I were battling it out. Honestly he has turned into a really good defender especially against me. Gotta respect him. We go at it pretty competitively and make some good plays on each other. We'll have to recruit him down from Utah state for the intramural team. He's just gotta marry someone at BYU to qualify.

Sunday topped all other days, even though we did have a baptism. Edžus received the gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting which set a wonderful start to the meeting. He also bore a short testimony and did some incredible member work welcoming in a first time church comer. A+ for him. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Elder Beebe, Bastow, and I all gave our farewell talks. It was a great experience, since a few members from Liepāja were travelling back from the temple and I was able to say goodbye to them in person. After second hour, I had the opportunity to sit with a member and open the scriptures. I felt like President Mahslakti-Tolstosheev in my interviews with him. This member expressed some concerns and we read together about the stripling warriors. For privacy reasons I won't get into what we talked about but it was a very uplifting experience for both of us. Afterwards Elder Beebe, Elder Bastow, and I visited the Frīdbergi for dinner. They are just such a celestial family. I don't know how they do it, but Harolds is gonna be a deacon next year and I'm super excited for him. On Sunday I also had a really good sacrament experience.

Today, P-day, we played basketball and Baltic ball. My joints ache. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As for spiritual things, my favorite talk that I listened to this past week was Elder Renland's The Powerful and Virtuous Cycle of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. I especially like how he mentions at the end that we will fall off the Kayak. It doesn't feel good to spiritually fall off the Kayak, but by constantly moving forward, taking the steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and applying His atonement, we work up to it. Getting back on the spiritual kayak requires effort, not just subconscious passive movement. And we will fall off the kayak more than once. Its comforting and motivating to know that.

Here are a few pictures from this past week.

I will be giving somewhat of a farewell talk on this Wednesday evening. If you're interested in watching, send me a message and I'll get you the zoom link. It'll be like 5:45 Mountain Daylight time. (I’m not gonna be able to speak in sacrament meeting so it’ll be more like a welcome home party and testimony.)

All I can say is, it was enchanting to meet you

 (Elder Mackrory)

E aí? Belezinha?

How are yall? This week was insane and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to write about it. This week we saw 19 fuscas, for a total of 839.

On pday we chilled at home. Nothing special, but I did find a way to finally motivate myself to respond to the emails I get each week. Hopefully I can get onto a schedule with reasonable response time.

On Tuesday we had a division with the Elders of Cabo Frio. I spent the day with Elder Donato, and Elder Erekson went with Elder Flores. I had a great time in Cabo Frio, teaching and finding people. Cabo Frio has a lot of fuscas. While I was gone, however, Elder Erekson and Flores managed to mark baptism dates with the Argentina family we're teaching. Brabos.

On Wednesday, after we traveled for 3 hours to finished the division, we had English class. This time there were like 10 people there and somehow I was able to get through every practice and help people. It was incredible and I have so much respect for all the teachers. I have adults to teach who are quiet and listen. And there's only ten of them. We have just a few vocab words to go over and like 3 practices. I don't understand how real teachers do it.

On Thursday we had a family night. And willing Investigators. This was complicated. You see, we had to get up at 3am the next morning to make the bus as 4am in Cabo Frio an hour and a half away (by bus). The thing is, the buses don't run in the middle of the night. So we had to plan to show up and sleep in Cabo Frio the night before. Problem with that is we need to be able to be in Cabo Frio before 9:30 in order to not bother the Cabo Frio Elders sleeping. Complicated. But there was a huge tender mercy that happened. Mariano, the goated soon-to-be-greenie from our branch offered to drive us to Cabo Frio, thus cutting more than an hour off of the travel time. We were able to be there and lead the family night, help the Investigators to feel welcome and be in Cabo Frio by 9:30.

On Friday we had the coolest thing ever happen. We got up at 3am, caught the charter bus at 4, tried to sleep some more, got too excited when friends got on the bus too, didn't sleep and chatted instead, showed up at the mission office, practiced the special musical number, met the Rio de Janeiro south mission, and got one of the coolest pictures of my life taken.

Elder Ulisses Soares, apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, came to Rio to give the missionaries a visit with some inspired guidance. He arranged to arrive early and shake everyone's hand. It was such a cool experience to be able to wish Elder Soares good morning face to face and to shake his hand.

 

After everyone was seated again, we had the great opportunity to hear words from another general authority, Elder Eddy. He had visited the CTM when I was there, and it was cool to he able to understand him this time. He spoke of the power the Book of Mormon has in converting souls unto Christ. The Book of Mormon itself has examples of this working. Of the thousands of Lamanites converted to the Lord by His servant Ammon, none of them fell away. In Alma 18:36-40, it says that Ammon used the writings of Lehi and their other ancestors.

It testifies of the same in Alma 23:5-6. I was really impressed that even these prophets who lived in those times and made those stories, also used them and taught from them.

We then had the opportunity to sing a special musical number, hymn 167 “Aonde Mandares Irei”. Síster Manu played the piano wonderfully and Elder Kjar was also there (just kidding Elder Kjar, you did amazingly on the violin, te amo). It was truly a special experience and went really well from a musical standpoint. It felt really good to be part of a choir again.

Spiritual Thought: Elder Soares then got up and testified of the words of Elder Eddy and invited us, whether we had already gained a witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon or not, to seek a spiritual confirmation of its veracity. He spoke briefly on the need to sustain our leaders and follow their inspired guidance. The main topic of his discourse was joy. He recounted many stories from his mission (here in Rio!) And how each of them brought joy to and excitement for the work. But not every story was a good story. Sometimes he arrived in an area not even knowing where he was going to live. One time he lost all his teaching materials because they were being chased by an angry dog the size of a small horse. But did he give up? Did he get discouraged? No. Not at all. He felt more joy still. He was yet more excited to work and bring others to Christ. How was he able to center his life on joy, despite such experiences? His answer was simple. Centering your life on joy is centering your life on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Joy. Through always repenting of our sins, trying to be better and asking God for help in doing so, we center our lives on joy. We center our lives on joy when we read the scriptures and pray to know that they are true. We center our lives on joy when we truly understand our purpose as disciples of the Savior. To have heard this prophetic council was music to my ears and I hope I can feel the same joy I felt listening to Elder Soares in all my life. There's a difference between ser happy and estar happy. Through Jesus Christ, we can ser happy even when we estamos happy. English can't express this idea perfectly, but basically we can be happy people even when we aren't happy. And its only possible through the Savior.

Well, that's all folks. See y'all in the next one. Tchau!

Fotos:

1. Sunday lunch is always the best

2. She just learned how to make hand hearts

3. 6 Hispanics, 1 gringo

4. 2 missions, 1 apostle

5. Arrived at the office

6. Driving the bus

7. Yo y mis hijos

8. Oldest fuscas I've seen yet

9. Someone's yard burned to crisp (I called the fire department all by myself)

10. Chocolate orangeeeeee

11. New type of selfie I invented

Sorry this is so short!

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey y'all!

Sorry this isn't going to be much of an email! Thus P-day has been incredible! But busy and I don't have much time!

We got to go to the temple! That's why our P-day was delayed until Thursday since the Adelaide Australia isn't open on Mondays!

But, let me tell ya, the temple was AMAZING!

My spiritual stuff is just an invitation which entails four words: go to the temple.

Okay, love y'all!

Sister Cummings

Edzus is Getting Baptized!

 (Elder Putnam)

Dear friends and family,

This week was crazy busy and it felt like we were always moving. I'll get right into it.

On Monday, we went and visited the Duessalt family in Jurmala. They invited a work associate as well as another member who babysits their kids. We shared a short spiritual message having to do with Simon says and showing a good example.

Tuesday we were able to meet with a lot of our friends. We had the opportunity to invite Gvido Senkāns to one of the lessons. He shared a very powerful testimony with one of our friends about God's love for us. Afterwards our friend started talking very fervently about how he was feeling. We explained that it was the Holy Ghost. It was probably one of the better lessons that we have had.

Wednesday was pretty cool since while we were weekly planning we got news that Edžus is gonna be baptized. Unfortunately when we called him he didn’t have reception so we didn’t end up telling him until Friday but it got us pretty hyped. We were also able to visit a couple. They recently got married. She is a member of the church, but he is still getting used to the church. We expected to be at their house for only one hour, but our discussion lasted a bit longer and we were late for branch missionary correlation 😝. Then we started exchanges.

Exchanges were awesome. Elder Beebe and I reunited with Elder Bastow for one last hoorahh. We set a goal to talk to over a thousand people on the day, and in order to reach that goal we skipped language study and pushed dinner to after nine, but we did end up reaching the goal. Proved the doubters wrong. Outside of that we had some good discussions that reminded me of conversations we had in the MTC and midway through the mission. It seemed to put a nail in the coffin which made the rest of the week a bit tougher.

On Friday we got back together with Elder Woods, had some lessons and that just about sums up that day. (We did end up telling Edžus that he got permission to get baptized. He was also pretty excited.)

Saturday was wild. There was a youth activity that ended and so I got to see some good friends from Liepāja. We also made a broadcast on the Latvian Come Unto Christ page about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really good time. Afterwards was of course basketball. It was Johnson's last time. Unfortunately he is going Canada to start school. But in his honor, we will take care of his brother John. In addition to that we had another lesson with a super elect person. It's been kind of cool to see how our efforts are being blessed in ways that we don't really contribute to. It shows just how involved The Lord is in missionary work. Its not at all anything that we do that brings about conversion or success, its almost like God putting on a little show for us and we just get to have our testimonies strengthened.

Sunday was the culmination of another great week. We saw probably 100 people at church. Given that some 3 families are at the temple right now, that was an incredible miracle. We again met with that same dude Kristiāns from last week. We talked further about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He finds it all very fascinating and he's taking initiative to read the Book of Mormon and seek an answer. Lastly, on Sunday the Kitchen's invited us over for dinner. Its always uplifting to be around them.

Personal studies didn't really hit as hard this week, but I was moved by Leviticus 17:11 which I ran across doing a natural man deep dive. It reminded me that Christ put down His perfect mortality, in order to raise our imperfect mortality to immortality and perfection. Kinda powerful, right?

My favorite talks from this past week were Elder Rasband's The Things of My Soul and Elder Holland's the Greatest Possession

Similarly to what I just mentioned in paragraphs above, this really is God's work and not our own. I've heard other people say it a ton but this week was a little bit of a testament to me personally. We've been blessed to see people find the church completely outside of our own efforts.

This next week will be intense. It will be my final week. I look forward to reporting on it. On Friday Edžus will get baptized and up until then we will essentially live at the church since we will have so many lessons that are planned. In addition to that, I will give my final talk in Latvia as a missionary on Sunday. There's a lot of things going on in my mind right now so I hope to be able to focus up and lift some heavy circles (metaphorically speaking). Have a wonderful week!

Picture:

Johnson's last basketball night

some pictures from Sigulda (look at those traps though lol)

Feeling so gatsby for that whole year

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia galera!

How yall doing? This week was pretty cool. Hope it was for you guys too. 14 fuscas were seen, bring the total to 820. On other news: on Tuesday I hit 365 days as a missionary! Since this year is leap year, the 1 year mark actually happened on Wednesday.

On pday last week we visited my area with the district. The touristy part of my area isn't very good for working, but it makes for some good pdays. We did our usual buggy ride around the city and ate at the restaurant. Got some good pictures and a smoothie. At night we taught the Argentina part member family we always visit. This was the first time I didn't feel nervous speaking Spanish. Everything came out smoothly and (I hope) minimal errors. I'm practicing Spanish every day and it's getting much better. That night when we got home, we ran out of gas for the stove. Gas here isn’t like it is in the states. We have a propane tank attached to the stove and you have to call a guy to replace it.

On Tuesday we were supposed to have a division, but the ZL's canceled again. It's supposed to happen tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. Anyway, after district council we went over to the other Elders house to cook since we hadn't ordered our new gas tank. We made a really delicious Cuscuz with tomato, onion, bell pepper and calabresa. So freaking good. I'm going to make it again today actually.

On Wednesday we had marked a lesson at 3:30 with Mayara and Marcelo. So we showed up on time and they let us in and we're doing small talk and such to get things going. They say that they were busy and it would be better if we came back at like 5:30. Awkward. But then they said that we can just hang around until that time. Ok, fine, we had online work to do anyway. So that's what we did. Then their cook came out and sent us to a bakery nearby to buy ourselves some snacks. Ok, it's only like 500m, well just walk. “Nope, here take these bikes.” Ok, let's go. So we got to ride bikes. Then we got back and taught our lesson. Marcelo was still doing his online work, so unfortunately he couldn't participate. But the lesson was fire. She was asking about the purpose of life and all, and then we were like plan of salvation and all there were tears. Then we literally ran to English class because we were almost late.

On Thursday we had a family night and found out that our branch mission leader is moving to Idaho next month to start BYU. If anyone is there now, look out for my guy André Bastos. He's a stud.

On Friday we did a lot of walking. Like 3-4 hours almost straight. But we had a miracle happen. We were visiting some people on the way to catch public transportation and we visited one we found in his store. But at that moment he was helping a customer. So while we waited for him, we started talking to his colleague. Turns out he's an inactive member for 14 years. He was baptized in 2010 in São Paulo. He is willing to return to the church as soon as he can arrange his working hours. He also said he would help our friend read the Book of Mormon. So that's sick. He's also from Haiti and speaks Haitian creole and French.

On Saturday we tried to visit someone who lived in a gated community. We talked to the gatekeeper and he told us “nobody lives here”. Right then the gate opens and a car rolls out. After the car passes, we return to awkward eye contact with the gatekeeper. “Are you sure that no one lives here?” I asked. “Uhhhhh… yeah” he responded. So we just said ok and left. I thought it was pretty funny.

Yesterday we walked a lot as well. Only about 2 and a half hours this time though. We taught our good friend Alex and later the best Argentinian family of all time. turns out we didn't have the whole story, because the mother, as it turns out, is not a member. But that's no problem, they're coming to church and doing everything right, soon enough they will be.

That's it this week, hope next week is just as good.

SummaRio:

14 this week, 820 total

Hit one year on the mission

Toured my area with the district

Bomb cuscuz (pronounced “cuixcuij” if you're from Rio)

Rode a bike and taught a bomb lesson

Ward mission leader is starting BYUI this semester in Idaho

Walked a lot, found a soon-to-be-active member

Someone tried to gaslight me. It was really funny.

Sunday was awesome as usual

Tender mercy:

Saturday was really rainy and windy. Early in the morning I had the thought to pull my suitcase inside So it wouldn't get wet. At that point it had only been sprayed but when we got home at night the balcony where it was really wet, like after hours of pouring despite the cover. So I would have had some things ruined if I hadn't been prompted to bring it in.

Spiritual thought: yesterday was Brazilian fathers day, so I'll include a quote from a talk I really like about fathers.

“Perhaps the most essential of a father’s work is to turn the hearts of his children to their Heavenly Father. If by his example as well as his words a father can demonstrate what fidelity to God looks like in day-to-day living, that father will have given his children the key to peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. A father who reads scripture to and with his children acquaints them with the voice of the Lord.” Elder D. Todd Christofferson, April 2016 General Conference.

I'm grateful to have a father who has raised me in the truth. I'm grateful for the fathers who raised my parents and to all those who are righteous fathers or father figures. The role of the father is irreplaceable and essential. I do not mean to demean the equally irreplaceable and essential role of the mother, but to emphasize the good the father can do. It is rare that a child raised on the truth will depart from it. (Prov. 22:6). Thanks to all the fathers out there! You guys are incredible!

1. Font selfie on a rainy day

2. Hike

3. Workout space

4. Spiritual workout space

5. Baiques

6. ZL in the water

7. District pday!!

8. My teaching area being so beautiful

Even if it's just in your wildest dreams, ah-ah, ha

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia galera! Tudo certo??

This week was full of lessons, miracles, interesting experiences, and more. It was not full of fuscas. We only saw 10 this week. Total: 806.

On pday we were supposed to go do a hike in Arraial do Cabo, but the Sísters were sick and the Elders were broke. So pday was canceled. Bummer. Guess we'll just stay home. Nope. We get a text out of nowhere that a returned missionary who served in this area. His name was Elder Samson, but we just called him Joseph. He invited us to lunch with him and his mom. We took us to this really fancy beachfront restaurant, and we had rumpsteak. Super good. He ended up giving us a few references and a shortcut through the woods to get to some of our really far lunches that will come in handy later. Something cool about Joseph: He's my mission grandpa, meaning he trained my trainer, Elder Nascimento. Another cool thing about him is that he also served in Cavaleiros. He baptized the family with whom I had Christmas dinner.

On Tuesday, we had district council! Last week, I promised breakfast if we met the goal for lessons with members. Well, we met it, so I made chocolate pancakes for everyone. Took a bit longer than I expected, and so we had a 90-minute breakfast and a 30-minute council. Whoops. It's ok. Everyone loved the breakfast. But anyways after the breakfast club meeting, we started a division with the Elderes of Arraial (pronounced ah-hi-Ow). I went to Arraial, and Elder Albernaz came to Búzios. It was a fun division. We lost power in the neighborhood we were working in, making it pitch black and giving everyone a new excuse to not open the door. It's ok, we still managed to teach and get burgers. It rained too, which may have caused the outage. Then it was really cold (60°), so we slept well.

On Wednesday we had a really good lesson with Mayara and she's says she feels a lot less anxiety and a lot more happiness.

On Thursday, we visited our awesome Argentina Family. They're reading the Book of Mormon now and it turns out that the mother is a less active member, so that's how last week she knew that you need to pray about the Book of Mormon. They gave us some mate cocido straight from Argentina. It's really good. Highly recommend for my friends Elder Beck and (soon-to-be-elder) Jones.

On Friday we spent a good half hour searching for Maria. Turns out streets here are not limited to streets. There's all sorts of streets that aren't on Google maps. Maria lives on one of these streets. It was like discovering a secret passageway.

On Saturday we had a day truly inspired. We had like 6 lessons pretty much back to back, almost never with the people we planned to meet, but always with the people the Lord planned us to meet. We came home exhausted but full of joy.

On Sunday we had great time, full of miracles too. (1) The Father of the Argentina Family came to church even though he said he wouldn't. (2) we skipping the closing hymn because of time (I 100% did not know how to play it). (3) we originally did not have lunch scheduled for lunch, then Irmã Lyra came up to us and said “show up at 1, I'll feed ya”. (4) A sister gave me a really cool ring (don't worry, it's the grandma in the ward who takes it upon herself to be the grandma for everyone. (5) the ring fits so well it doesn't come off now. Oh well. (6) lunch was bomb. (7, the big one) We decided to take the shortcut home. It was our first time taking this route and so we were a little unsure. we had barely started on the trail, and a guy stopped us and said “hey do you remember me?” We did not, but turns out he was taught by missionaries well over a year ago, and his records would be automatically deleted this next month if we hadn't found him. He and his wife are super interested and are now with the goal of baptism.

Other highlight: this week I've started dreaming in 3 languages. Portuguese primarily, second Spanish, and third English. Last night I actually dreamed in Portuguese with an Hispanic accent. Its so wild.

SummaRio:

10 fuscas, 806 total

On pday we kicked it back with Elder Samson at a fancy steakhouse and got lots of tips for this area, in which he served.

Made breakfast and rushed through district council

tearful Lesson with Mayara

Mate cocido With Argentinaians

Google Maps has a good 70% of roads in Brasil mapped. But the problem is that 70% of the population lives in the 30% of roads that are not on Google maps. At least here in Búzios

Exhausting and inspired Day

7 big miracles on Sunday

Tender Mercy: I had skittles for the first time in forever. They're so good. Appreciate what you have in the states, viu?

Spiritual thought: I finished the Book of Mormon this week for the umpteenth time. Every time I read Moroni 10, I am inspired by the exhortation and the invitation to act Moroni makes. But this time, I was wondering about exactly that. Is Moroni 10 one of the few chapters that invites actions? Or is it just famous for it? This time, starting the Book of Mormon, I am going to be looking for the invitation to act that I believe is in EVERY chapter. The word of God has the most powerful influence to do good on the hearts of men than any other thing. But do let it have this influence? Are we seeking this influence?

1. Oh my gosh iPhone resolution is sooo good

2. Lunch with Joey and Elisabeth

3. Me like every day (meme)

4. How to gird up your loins

5. Sweet bike again (I'm addicted to taking photos of her)

6. Mate cocido

7. Beach

8. A spoonful of saffron makes your rice sooo good

9. Another sweet bike (have I already taking one of her?)

10. Hike shortcut

11. Churrasco kabobs