(Sister Cummings)

Hey Howdy y'all!!

Sooo, it's definitely been a very long time since I last sent an email so that's completely my bad. But, I have a lot to share with y'all!

These past weeks have been amazing and so much has happened!

- Sister Bastedo and I found 10 friends in one week!

- Got bashed for an hour about Joseph Smith from a weirdly nice, but also not nice, ex-member

- Performed in another music devotional!

- Saw my first Huntsman spider that was as big as my hand!

- Saw at least 10 MASSIVE red-back spiders in the time-span of about 30 minutes

- Have started getting slightly good at volleyball (mega emphasis on slightly)

- Started a 90 day Book of Mormon challenge with the whole mission!

- I've done about 5 service projects every week! My tan lines are POPPIN!

- Learned that Australians think you're rude if you knock on their door in 100+ weather

- I'm still definitely lactose-intolerant (if you were wondering)

- Hit halfway on the mish!!

- Our friend Dylan got BAPTISED YAYYY COVENANTS

- Started my peanut butter addiction pt2

- My bestfriend finally asked out the dude she's been crushing on for FOREVER. Everyone pray that things go well 🙏

- We put our friend Forest on date for baptism for this month! This one is going to be miraculous so please please pray for her!!

- I've gotten to drive so much and I love it heaps!

- I got transferred to Noarlunga after only one transfer in Modbury! It was crazy but I love it!

- my new companion, Sister Randall, and I are literally best friend's and absolute goons together!

- We go on daily morning walks on the beach and it's beautiful!

- I've met some pretty sketch people here but it's been so fun!

- someone hit our car and didn't leave a note or anything! #satan

- I went on an exchange with Sister Woodbury (my trainer) and we had HEAPS of fun. It's so cool to see how much we've both changed in only like 6 months! I love her!!!

- we have a new member here named Jill and she is the SWEETEST person I've ever met and she's going to the temple for the first time this week. So be excited for her!!!

- We had yet ANOTHER music devotional and this one was based on the Restoration and SO MANY people came! I had a solo on my violin and that was scary but whatevs. I didn't faint or pee my pants (or skirt) or anything so we're good!

- We went to the temple last week and it was majestical of course!

- I LOVE MY MISSION

- Sister Randall and I are trying to do no sugar this week so pray for us!

Anyways, a lot has happened and I'll try to keep writing y'all more consistently but to bring y'all a bit of Jesus, I just thought I'd share this poem that I came across the other day by the poet C. C. Ummings. I don't know if I got that name right.

The reflection of the moon on the sea,

reveals a path bringing thee to Me.

A trail sought only by clasped hand and bent knee,

Bowed down in complete solemnity.

Look up and behold My beloved Son.

He is the Light, the Way, the One.

Amid the path doth He belong,

atop the sea He beckons thee on.

Follow the steps He makes on each wave,

with swirls and folds are His tracks repaved.

So, come earnest, with faith, the sea doth behave.

As distance is covered, the soul is saved.

So yeah, I thought that poem was cool. Tell me what you think.

I just can ABSOLUTELY testify that Jesus Christ is real and he heals and he provide relief ALWAYS. I can also testify that God loves you endlessly and that sharing the gospel brings joy so please reach out to your nearby missionaries and ask how you can help them share the gospel this week!

I love y'all!! I miss y'all. Please respond to this email with a bit of a life update! I want to know what's going on with you!

Have a good one!!

- Sister Cummings

If you want to see some pics and vids!

I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia a todos! Espero que estejam bem! Essa semana vi 3 fuscas, trazendo o total aos 1258.

This week was hectic, but really good. It started out pretty lousily though. Vamoix lá. On pday we planned to stay inside the whole day except for going to the supermarket, due to Carnaval. We thought that going early would spare us from the insanity that usually ensues. We thought. The ground and I developed quite the friendship. So, amidst drinkers in the store, I bought tons of fruits to make fruit smoothies. Cosechas em casa, alguém? Anyway, then we went home. I learned the words “naked” and “vile temptress”. On the other side of things, my mom is the goat, and secured an apartment with a childhood friend from when I lived in Ohio. The apartment is about a two minute walk from the Creamery, so that’s a big plus. That night we had our mission zoom meeting, and watched some fun videos that missionaries made while staying inside.

On Sunday we went to church, and we had ALL of our recent converts there! I arranged a song for you guys, but the syllables are all wrong, so don’t hold me to that. On the 2 day of march, the Lord gave to me, 12 minutes of uber to arrive at bishops house, 11 minutes of uber to go home, 10 referrals contacted, 9 hours of bus riding for two investigators who, wanting to escape carnaval, went to church in São Paulo, 8 hours at home, 7 off-topic comments in Sunday school, 6 recent converts in church, 5 boxes shipped to desperate missionaries, 4 investigators at church, 3 temple recommends for recent converts, 2 testimonies given by recent converts, and 1 calling for a recent convert. Good day.

On Monday it was pretty chill. Carnaval wasn’t so bad because people who partied too hard on Sunday were sleeping our hungover or both. We had pretty normal things happen at the office, nothing out of the ordinary. Same thing with Tuesday, except carnaval hit its peak. I didn’t know this, but apparently 4 strips of duct tape can be used instead of a bra and shirt. On Tuesday night however, I made doughnuts for my roommates to eat while we watched everyone’s videos.

Wednesday was the last day of carnaval (it lasts until noon), at which time lent starts. We had an awesome lunch with Elder and Sister Butters. I had some feijoada with a huge chunk of meat that didn’t have a smoke line because it was all that delicious smoky pink. He then got us ice cream cones and we went back to work. Salt Lake informed us that the area of Brasil was authorized to allow missionaries to take their phone home at the end of their missions, which means everyone. Before, it was just the Brazilian, but I think that they worked out some things and now it's open to everyone. We had a sick lesson with Marcel and Rafael with Breno (ward secretary) helping us out. Later that night we gave a training on the Book of Mormon for the mission meeting. We had our recent convert bear his testimony of the Book of Mormon and how the missionaries helped him to get to know the truth.

On Thursday we headed out with a member for a lesson, but the lesson fell through, so we visited interested people nearby, and none of them were available, but we made friends with this member so that's good. I also watched a really good talk called “Finishers Wanted” for anyone (else) who's a little trunky (I'm not trunky guys it's just that when you know who your college roommates are gonna be and you have less days left than sections in the Doctrine and Covenants, things get real).

On Friday we had a super day. In the morning I was crazy productive and got two media posts sorted out, and a while bunch of registry stuff. In the afternoon we met Geise in person for the first time. She's super nice and super dedicated to learning more. Hope she comes to church, or we will have to remark her baptism date. Then we went out to teach the person who canceled on us Thursday. We brought a different member this time, our recent convert Vinicius. He gave a powerful testimony and in the end we remarked Vera's baptism for this Sunday (tomorrow) So I'm writing this as we full up the font. That night we had a family night with a family who has American connections. They were hosting a family who made real pancakes and had American syrup. It was so good. Probably ate like 10 of them.

Welp, that's it. Hope you liked it.

Tender Mercy: During lunch on Friday I watched some renovation videos on church news. I felt a renewing dedication to the temple and a gratitude for the sacrifices that the early saints had made to be able to have a temple. And now there are more than 200 functioning temples in the world, with almost that many more on the way. The work of the Lord is being hastened, and I feel so excited to be able to keep up.

Spiritual thought: “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God” Doctrine & Covenants 88:119

I really like the phrase “organize yourselves” because it makes me think of goals. This week marked the start of march, which means my numbers and goal results for February came out. Turns out I did better on all my goals except one! This made me very happy and super excited for march. There's been a high bar set by February, but I know with the Lord's help that I can do it. Making and striving towards goals is a way to show God that you care about the gifts that He has given you. I feel blessed as I fill out a spreadsheet, because it helps me to apply the Savior’s atonement.

Now I seem to be scared to go outside

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa tarde meus amigos e familiares! como vão?

Esta semana vi 4 fuscas, trazendo o total aos 1255.

Last pday was super fun, the zone leaders nailed it, and everyone pitched in, Elder Vieira more than most. we decided to do a churrasco and play some random sports. It was super fun and super chill. Elder Vieira knows how to cook meat. I helped out cutting the garlic, preparing the salsa and tasting the meat. Since we switched our pday for Monday, and president was busy with interviews on the other days, we had to do our meeting on that day. So Elder Ribeiro and I took advantage of the situation and did our proselyting time in the morning and left the night for talking with family or responding to emails, of which I was able to respond to all, finally. At night we went to the store, which had like no fruit, so I wasn’t able to buy much and we will be forced to go back during the week. We didn’t spend much time in the store as a result, but the checkout lines were insane. We spent more than half of the time in the line.

On Tuesday we had district council and I tried Pão de Mel (honey bread) for the first time and I can say that I am in love. It was also super cheap, so my wallet might also be a fan of it. We then had interviews with president, which was super good and I got to bear my testimony with him and we talked some more and I got some really good guidance. I started editing a video about President Nelson, but didn’t finish it. It’s one of the most complicated videos to edit that I have made. A few weeks ago we gave Sister Lopes a SIM card to contact some referrals for us, but for some reason she hasn’t been able to get into the WhatsApp, rendering the SIM card basically useless in Brasil. But she sent a message that by some miracle she was able to get in, and so she will be helping us out a ton with the 1500 media referrals we get a week.

On Wednesday we went earlier than normal to the office and we taught English to the missionaries. I think that this one went better than last week. We then got lunch real quick and headed to the airport to legalize a missionary. I brought my big ol’ grammar book and had a wonderful study of the gerund and reduced phrases. Afterwards we went back to the office and I finished up editing a video for the mission Facebook page. It turned out really good and pretty much all the missionaries posted it. We had a lesson with Marcel and a lesson with Geise. With Geise we marked a baptism date for later next month. Prayers that it works out. We then went really quick to visit Tia Vera and give her her own copy of my plan of salvation drawing, since she asked for one.

On Thursday we got ready for Carnaval. We looked up the itineraries for all the cities of all the places and times that Carnaval will be the most dangerous. All of the cities I looked up were all advocating for a Carnaval without sexual harassment. I laughed because everybody knows you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Anyway, there was actually one city that did not advocate for this. They thought a higher priority for them was a Carnaval without dengue. That made me laugh even harder because at least they accept the terrible nature of Carnaval. We had both of our lessons fall through, but marked about 6 more, so it wasn’t a completely unproductive day.

On Friday Carnaval officially started, and so our day went quite differently, in order to prepare. Usually, we do personal study from 9-10 and then head to the office, where we do office work until 6pm with a two hour interval for lunch and two half hour intervals for comp study and language study. then at night we leave the office and do “real missionary work” until 10. For Carnaval, however, our local church leaders advised us not even to leave the house. However, since that is not an option, we left for the office at 9am, lunch at 12h30, and home at 4. Afterwards we did our studies and online work until 8pm, at which time we had our mission-wide zoom Carnaval devotional. We had a great training given by Elders Owen and Hayes, a spiritual thought about the two great commandments, although the audio didn’t really work very well. Then a few dope video presentations. It was pretty cool, and I started writing a song for me to perform. it’ll be pretty cool.

Tender Mercy: I don’t know why, but for whatever reason on Friday, we didn’t see any Carnaval. I don’t know if its because our neighborhood doesn’t have any events, or because Carnaval starts in the night, or whatever, but the Lord really protected us as we walked to and from the office.

Spiritual thought:

During my interview I shared with president something that I have been and am still learning. In various stages of my life, I have sought to know more about the atonement of Jesus Christ. It is the single most important event in the history of humankind, after all. In such stages, I studied and asked questions and sought to put in order the events of, the background to, the preparation for, and the effects of His atonement. In doing such, studying with faith and seeking spiritual knowledge, I always felt a strong peace and happiness as I discovered more about the atonement. But I always felt something was lacking. I always started these studies with faith that the Lord would show me what I had missed the last time and that everything would click this time. Well, although I always learned more and came to understand more, I felt like there was still an essential part to the puzzle missing. This essential part was something that I have found with more clarity on the mission. The atonement was not done so that we could study it alone. It was not done solely as a show of love or submission. It was done to have effect in our lives. It was done so that we could become better. As I have created goals, strive to achieve them, and reflect on my progress, I have looked back to see how far I have come. In doing this, I showed the Lord that I was ready to receive more understanding. I felt that the Spirit of the Lord was with me at more times than ever before, guiding my every move. I have felt that the doctrine has never been clearer. As I apply the atonement, I understand the events of, the background to, the preparation for, and the effects of the atonement. Knowledge does nothing unless placed into practice.

Would you believe I didn't take any pictures?

It was all by design, 'cause I'm a mastermind

 (Elder Mackrory)

E aí Mac! Tem um a34 aí que ta dando sopa?

I get a variation of this message above at least twice a week. It usually comes from the same three or four elders telling me their phone is too slow and they need an upgrade. It gets really old since a good portion of them don’t actually have a problem, they just want a better phone. I usually respond with “I’m good thanks, and how are you?” since they never ask me how I am, and then stall to break the news that we don’t have any upgrade to give. Anyway let’s get rolling. I saw 4 fuscas this week, bringing the total to 1251.

On pday last, I spent a good two hours cleaning the house, which was fun. We switched our teaching hours to the afternoon to teach Vera (not to be confused with our recent convert Tia Vera) about the plan of salvation in a public park. During the lesson a goose showed up out of nowhere and stared directly at Elder Ribeiro for a good minute looking very docile and dangerous at the same time. It then turned around, pooped, walked away, and the lesson continued. Since we worked during the afternoon, we bought groceries in the night.

Sunday was again a day of miracles. Perhaps I didn’t notice as many this time, but there were some crazy miracles. In the morning, we left to go pick up a friend of ours, Roberto, and on the way we made some last minute calls to invite people to church or remind them that they accepted our last invite. Roberto took us in his car as we went to church. At church, we chatted a bit and sat down. As people started to arrive, we greeted them, and I started to record who was there. When we sat down, a member of the bishopric asked me to translate for an American family who arrived in the back. This time, translating was pretty easy for me, and I got pretty much every word. It was especially fun to translate Vinicius’ talk on repentance, which was super good. One of the reasons he always like to talk with us before his baptism is because we share the same perspective that repentance is joyful. Very few, he said, have this perspective. His talk showed that he really understood the concept. He didn’t say he knows repentance is joy because the scriptures say so or because the missionaries said so, but because he lives repentance. He bore powerful testimony of the atonement and the power of repentance. After sacrament I looked around real quick to finish counting those of our friends who came. They totaled nine. That’s a new record for me. Thing is, that would be super stressful sometimes, but this ward is awesome and all of our friends went to go sit with the members. After church, the other Elderes had a baptism of their friend Erick, who’s awesome. After church, we had lunch with like two or three member families and another friend who decided she wanted to eat with us. She was excited to tell us that she is ready for baptism and is preparing. She lives in the other Elders’ area, so her progress will be accompanied by them. After church we went to visit Colmar from last Sunday’s miracle and were able to give him a book of Mormon and invite him to church. That night the young single adults did a devotional with fried pastries. Our two friends went and they had a good time.

On Monday we had our normal meeting with president and everybody, and then we had tapiocas. Pretty uneventful day, but in the night we went to teach Tia Vera about the plan of salvation. I brought my little drawing that I made like a year ago to help her visualize, and she asked if we could print out a copy for her.

So on Tuesday morning I got right to work on that and supersized the font and made everything a bit easier to see. We had district council and did not sing “Love one another”, which broke our streak of singing that song for the last like nine weeks as far as I know. We then went to lunch (walking) with 110° and 80% humidity which made it feel like 140°. Not the most enjoyable half hour of my life, nor the driest.

On Wednesday morning we taught Vinicius about the plan of salvation and the importance of enduring to the end. We had lunch at a member’s house who is and old friend of Vera, who we taught on Saturday. She had just gotten back from a trip in Europe, and so she gave us some really nice chocolate. That night we had a lesson with Marcel in which we found out that the fast we did from Saturday to Sunday worked. He has made a huge step to being ready for baptism, and one that I was beginning to think wasn’t possible. But the Lord had other plans in mind.

On Thursday we went to the airport to re-legalize Elder Smith who was robbed like a year ago and got his ID card taken. There, while we waited for them to show up, we taught Isaque about the plan of salvation. After the airport, I stopped by a candy shop and got some peculiar shaped gum and gummies. That night, I had a great personal study, reading Jacob 5 and eating some grapes. I thought it was so neat that I was eating grapes AND reading Jacob 5, until it dawned on me that Jacob 5 is about olive trees and not grape trees. Then I felt pretty dumb. But the grapes were good.

On Friday we had our long awaited hamburger night with Dani, which had been postponed like 5 times. Burgers were super good, and the Coke was super cold. We then re-taught her the plan of salvation.

On Saturday, we did not have pday. That’s why you didn’t get an email from me. We switched it because today is zone pday and we’re having churrasco. I’ll let you know how it went this Saturday. We invited tons of people to stake conference since we would need to invite more to get the same number of people at church given the farther distance of the chapel. We taught Jose and Maria (not that Jose and Maria) about the restoration and they loved it.

On Sunday morning it was a rush to organize rides for everyone who was going. Marcel and Rafael got rides together, and we went in a taxi with Colmar, who we taught last Sunday. Vera got a ride with the goated Relief Society president. It was such a good conference with some amazing talks, and Vinicius gave the opening prayer. Afterwards we went home and I made myself some pancakes and we then left for the farthest neighborhood in our area, to visit someone. We were just gonna give her a book of Mormon and invite her to read and to come to church, but then she asked, “So how to I get baptized?” And so we explained it all and marked her baptism date. We then went home amidst a premature carnival celebration (here, carnival means “sin”. I’m not sure if that’s the definition, but its how it is usually understood). Lots of root free root beer and outfits that are not even swimming pool appropriate. Lots of glitter. My companion and I commented about the quality of the ground the entire way home. 

Tender Mercy: At stake conference, Vera came up to us just exploding with joy. I love seeing people happy, so it made me really happy. That's it😁

Spiritual thought: you may have noticed that I taught the plan of salvation quite a bit this week. I noticed that too. So I decided to write a little about my favorite part: the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Because of the Fall of man, all people are subject to sin and death. We cannot overcome these things alone. Knowing this, Heavenly Father prepared a way for us to overcome them. His plan centered on this part. For all, Jesus lived a perfect without sin, suffered the pain of all sin, pain, affliction, and sickness. On the cross He finished the suffering, paying the ultimate price which is death. He did this not only to give us the opportunity to become better, but so that he could comfort his people. On the third day, he gave all mankind, not only the repentant, but all, the greatest gift that has ever been given. For having risen from the dead, He made it possible for ALL to be resurrected. All of God's children who have stepped on the earth will receive a perfect body at the resurrection day. Now, all that said and done, what are you going to do to show that you're grateful? What does He ask us to do?

Remember how I said I'd die for you?

 (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.

I threw my phone across the room at you

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa tarde galera! como vai?

Essa semana vi 6 fuscas, trazendo o total aos 1237 fuscas.

Last pday, we took it a little bit slower, spending some time at home. We did however randomly meet up with some members from Montana, who pulled their taxi over to say hi to us. Not much else happened, but in the night we contacted some referrals and cleaned and filled the baptism font.

Sunday morning we got trolled. We had arranged with Tia Vera to meet up with us so that we could walk together to church. When we arrived at the arranged place, she wasn’t there. Then we got a message from one of the bishopric saying that she was already at church like an hour early. Apparently she was the first one there. Anyway, we had tons of tourists come visit our ward and it was pretty cool. I chatted with some of them in the beginning, but my conversation was cut short because we had so many friends show up that I couldn’t talk with members. Good problem to have. Sacrament meeting ended and we chatted some more with people. One of the tourist couples asked me to translate for them. I think it went pretty well, but I sure missed a bunch. I learned That Urim means Lights and Thumim means Perfection. I thought that that was pretty cool. In talking with them after church, I found out that they were part of the Tabernacle Choir. After Sunday school, it was a rush to make final preparations for the baptism. We started the meeting and Tia Vera could not stop smiling and giggling. We had her baptism and I was so happy to see how well the members just loved her. It was a great experience all around. Afterwards we had lunch at bishops house and his 5 year old daughter kept showing me all her pokemon. It was the cutest thing. I made a terrible dad joke, Elder Ribeiro shared a message and we left. We then had a few hours of work, finding three people who have lots of potential. We almost marked a baptism date with one of them. That night we had a super cool family night with the young single adults. The whole goal was to integrate Rafael with the rest of them and it worked really well. 

On Monday the transfer news came out. At 8am we all got on the zoom, president explained for the umpteenth time that leadership in the church isn’t like a ladder, and then we watched people climb up the ladder. Just kidding. But I became a great grandfather and gained one more grandson and my oldest is a zone leader. So proud. I’m staying in my area with Elder Ribeiro, and now the work gets crazy busy. We arranged all the logistics for travel and Elder Ribeiro got on buying bus tickets. Just that about 40% through the purchases, the site stopped working. So we were praying pretty hard for this to be fixed so that people can be transferred. At night we arranged a lesson with a friend of ours, that he canceled literally at the last minute because he wanted to go to church. So we asked if we could meet him there. So I went in the Assembléia de Deus. Lot of yelling going on there, but their hymns are pretty cool. Then we walked home at a pretty unsafe hour and got home safely.

On Tuesday we left early to the office early so that Elder Ribeiro could buy the rest of the tickets. And, by a miracle, it worked! In the meantime I did some referrals and some other tasks. Afterwords we had district council and more work to get the transfer ready. After we got lunch we finished up the arrangements and we left for a lesson. It looked like a 20 minute walk, so we started off, but when I went to check the route, it said it would take 45 minutes and walking straight to the top of a mountain. So we called an Uber. Arriving at the house number, we were expecting a house, as one does. Nope, turns out the number we got was to the biggest base of the baddest branch of the Rio police. Their logo is a skull with a knife driven through it and cross way pistols behind. Its pretty sick. So we sent the guy a message, like “Uhhhh, are you sure this is your house?” And he said “Oh, no this is my work, come on in”. So we start to enter this military base that has the sign “Do not make suspicious movements”. The dude meets us there and we had a great conversation about the Book of Mormon and he is excited to read it. Then he asked if we had anywhere else to go, and when we explained the next lesson and where it was, he said “Oh that will take you forever, there’s a shortcut through the base. Come with me.” So we went, and let me tell you I’ve never seen so many guns in my life. It was chill. Then we left the base on the other side, had a great lesson and went to the pizza night. Rodrigo from the bishopric hosts a family night with the missionaries right before the transfer to say goodbye to any missionary that is leaving. Cool conversations.

On Wednesday we had transfers. So we went early to the office again to fix some things. I tried without success to transfer some photos from a broken phone to a micro SD card, but it didn’t work, so that will be a priority. I got back almost all the stuff I was supposed to, except the phone of one elder who claimed his phone was “lost” or “stolen” when it came time at the airport to give it back to president. Oh well. Everyone arrived for transfers, got to see a whole bunch of people and see Elder Flores get his first trainee, my first grandson. In talking with the current Elders from Saracuruna, Sheila is a crazy active member that you can’t tell is a recent convert. She’s helping the missionaries a ton. That made me so happy to hear. Afterwards, everybody left, we cleaned the chapel and did some more logistics as we finalized the transfer. 

On Thursday morning, we again left home early, this time to president's house for the mission leadership council. We had a super good group again this time, and so there were lots of good ideas going around on how we can better lead the mission. I got to see Elder Kjar again, which was cool, and it was fun to dink around with Elder Patterson at lunch. Good times. We took some good photos, including one of the most broken phone screen I've ever seen. Apparently, it fell. On Wednesday night I had received a fully functioning A25, and so my obligation was that this lucky elder got it. So now we're back to just A13's. After getting back to the office, I reorganized everything and put my filing cabinet next to my desk because I'm sick of having to walk a full 20 feet in air conditioning to go get something. Lots of people are having whatsapp problems, so I spent most of my time helping them.

On Friday, we kinda had a big mess. It was super hot out, and we went to deliver some copies of the Book of Mormon with some friends, and then to lunch. Lunch was super good, some of the best beef I’ve ever had. After lunch we headed back to the office. Lots of good work done. At 6ish pm we had a pizza family night with a recent convert who we haven’t been able to successfully teach for a while. So, we play some uno and eat some pizza, and then after the second game we start to deal cards again and she kinda just starts going off. Rude comments, straight up insults and that everything that’s going wrong in her life is because of me. Anyway after an hour of this, she grabbed her purse and stormed out. Then we went home. Super mentally draining, especially since the entire hour was “It’s not you guys, it’s him”. But, today is pday, and we’re going to the temple, so it’s gonna be alright. Hate to leave my weekly summary on a sour note, but its how my week ended.

Tender mercy, after pday, we were preparing some things for the baptism, and I realized that ALL of the information that we needed for Tia Vera’s baptism form was missing. We had gotten all the information we needed, and then it just disappeared. This information we got in one night where she told us the information. When the information was lost, I got really stressed. I had no idea where the information went, and there was no apparent way to get it back. So I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and went in to try to see what I could remember. I was able to remember every single detail. Not a single bit of what Tia Vera told us was unclear. This information was shown to me one time for like 5 seconds as I typed it in. This was not me. This was the Holy Spirit helping me remember all that was necessary.

Spiritual thought: This morning for my personal study, I read some chapters from the teachings of Joseph F. Smith. I read about having no malice to anyone and yielding to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. But those chapters are not what I wanted to focus on. It’s the very fact that these chapters exist. I didn’t choose to study these chapters by need, I’m following a goal to read all the “Teachings of Presidents of the Church”. I’ve been studying them at a pretty regular rate. It just so happened (it was definitely the will of the Lord) that these chapters were next chapters in the list by coincidence (tender mercy). The Lord provides for our needs if we are looking for His help. We must also be open to do what is necessary. I was very worried about Friday nights’ situation, and looking for guidance. What I read what exactly what I needed. And the guidance you are seeking is right there. God wants to give it to you. You just have to look for it and accept it.

High above the whole scene, loves me like Im brand new

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia galera! fala a boa!

Vi apenas 4 fuscas, totalizando 1231. This week was started to speed up in terms of work load as we prepare for the transfer. On Monday the mission will find out the news. I already know that I’ll stay with Elder Ribeiro.

Last pday was pretty cool. At 8:30 we left the house for Lage Park. It’s a super pretty forest park where the trees give complete shade, and the branches are at least 50 feet up. It’s at the base of the Tijuca National Forest. But we weren’t there to sit on a bench and enjoy the nature, though I would like to. We started the second most intense hike of my life. It the same difficulty as the most intense one, but this time I didn’t have 50 lbs on my back nor was I at high altitude. But anyway, we started up and it was super beautiful. Tall trees, short trees, big spiders, waterfalls, tadpoles, foreigners, and some other cool exotic things. After an hour and 50 minutes of straight speedwalking, we arrived at the destination of destinations here in Rio. Christ the Redeemer. A statue of the most important man to ever step forth on Earth that stands over 125 feet tall. Only downside is that they doubled the price since the last time one of us went. For anyone wanting to go by trail, its no longer 30 reais. But anyway, after a painful beep of a credit card, we went in. It was super packed, so it wasn’t quite as enjoyable as I was hoping, but this statue is colossal. Nothing could impede my view nor that of anyone else’s. We spent about 15 minutes up there, took some pictures, and went down. It was a super clear day, and because of that, Christ was super photogenic. Problem with that is that we were less photogenic because we could barely open our eyes for the camera. It was super bright out. We took the trail down again, this time running a good part of the way. As we were running one time, a 3 foot green snake fell on top of Elder Vieira, who’s more afraid of snakes than Indiana Jones. He let out a shriek, but by that time the snake had already fell to the ground and I, being behind him, hopped over it. As we reached the bottom, we saw some people stopped on the trail looking into the woods. We stopped to see what it was, and there were three or four beautiful toucans perched super close. After taking some pictures, we finished the hike and explored the paved trails in the Lage park. I would spend an entire pday there just sitting in the nature. Super pretty.

On Sunday we had church and had so many people come. It was awesome. We had Vinicius passing the sacrament as well. Normally, we like to sit with our friends to help explain how things normally work, but this time all the members just invited them to sit with them. After sacrament meeting, we hardly got to participate in Elders Quorum because we needed to print something for the primary and give a blessing to a sister in the ward. But, from what I hear the comments went on numberless tangents, so that’s ok. Afterwards we contacted all of our referrals and visited some.

On Monday we had our normal office meeting, and we left for lunch. Instead of getting our usual tapioca, we had lunch with a member! She met us at a really nice restaurant and we had some fun conversations. After lunch, we had a good talk with president about the next secretary. Elder Mayer officially handed all of his responsibilities over to Brother Butters, so he’s kinda just helping around with general things. Since he is likely getting transferred to another area, we need to organize some official responsibilities for the new secretary since he won’t be the financial guy anymore. What we’re thinking is that he will take a few responsibilities from each secretary and that way we can work one more hour in our areas and one less hour in the office. It will be interesting to see who it ends up.

On Tuesday we did divisions. We also had a guy trying to make himself the “Boss of EnglishConnect in the Rio de Janeiro North mission”. We also had miracles. I could write a whole email about this day. In the morning I got ready fast to go to district council. When the assistants got there, they asked me if I knew a certain dude. I said yeah, he helps with the English classes in [insert ward name]. Then they showed me some of the messages he was sending. He claimed to be the Boss of EnglishConnect for the mission. He asked to be put as admin in the whatsapp group of the English class there, and asked for a bunch of missionaries contacts. Thankfully the assistants resisted his requests. This guy had entered in contact with me before, asking for contacts of missionaries to help with English classes, and I, under presidents guidance, told him to hang on until we have our English classes more regulated. So now that I know that he was getting contacts of missionaries (the assistants) and was trying to put himself in charge of everything, I sent a message to all the missionaries to avoid contact with him and advise that he is not in any way in authority. From responses to the mass message, I come to find that he had been bothering tons of missionaries. So I sent a strongly worded message to him. I don’t think I was rude, but he did not give me any resistance. I told him that ideas he has can be worked out in his ward, and the missionaries can inform me about the success of his ideas. So that was kinda crazy. Anyway. Part two of this day. I’m in a division with Elder Fredrick, my district leader. This time, he came to our area and was a secretary for a day. Pretty fun, he’s a dawg. He did find ways to make himself useful and help around a lot, despite not knowing much of secretary work. Part three. We left for area work about 6pm to interview Tia Vera for baptism. But when we there to where hangs out, she wasn’t there! No! I was really worried because the baptism wouldn’t happen without the interview. But we decided to keep working and visit some interested people. We went to visit this one guy. But we took a wrong turn without realizing it and got kinda lost (I’m still learning the area guys). But we decided to visit the interested person who lived where we got lost. By miracle, we found a super interested person who has been looking for the truth but said he didn’t know where to find it (familiar?). So we had a great lesson on the restoration and he’s super excited to read the Book of Mormon and find the truth for himself. Afterwards, it was time to go home, but we decided to take a small detour to walk by Tia Vera’s corner. By another miracle, she was there! She had actually just arrived. We were able to do the interview and she’s all cleared for baptism this Sunday. Afterwards we got some overpriced Açaí, and went home. Que. dia.

On Wednesday I woke up to a missed call at midnight from some Elders. I called them back and asked what happened. Turns out their carbon monoxide sensor went off and they had to leave the house. They called the fire department, who said “If the alarm goes off again, call us back.” and then hung up in their face. Nothing ended up happening, thankfully, and in joking with the elders afterward, they send me an audio which sent my flying. So freaking funny. I’ll attach it below we went early to the chapel to finish the division. Afterwards it was just work work work. Fun work but work nonetheless. I standardized the method of contacting referrals in the mission. The method has not launched yet because it isn’t perfect and we will have the media sisters give training on it at zone conferences. It’s the method I’ve used for about 800 referrals that I’ve contacted, and the method that only blocked me from WhatsApp once. So if anyone out there would like to try it out, I can send it to you.

On Thursday we went to the airport again to resolve some legal questions for some foreign missionaries. There we had lunch at a slightly overpriced restaurant, but its ok because it will be reimbursed. There I got to see Elder Hernandez again since he had to resolve some immigration stuff. I also got to meet Elder Vivas, a fellow pedant (a word for a person who knows what pedantic means). We had a super cool conversation about grammar. In the afternoon It was just normal work, and in the night we had a sick lesson with Vinicius on how to use gospel library.

On Friday we woke up super surprised that it was Friday. Also woke up to a photo of the most destroyed phone I’ve seen. So during the night one of the sisters in the mission stepped on her phone and absolutely destroyed the screen. So I had to resolve that. It’ll be fine. We had lunch with a sister in the ward from Venezuela, and, as promised, I gave the lunch message in Spanish. It was pretty cool. More office work and in the night we contacted referrals. Some good potential in a lot of them, we will see how it goes this next week.

Tender Mercy:

Today marks the first full month of using my new goal spreadsheet. This means my monthly summary is complete. I was surprised at how far I was from reaching some goals, and how well I achieved others. Although I achieved just a few of them, I felt really amazing as I made plans for this next month. It was a moment where I was able to feel the power of the atonement working in my life in a way that is personal to me. This next month of February will be amazing.

Spiritual Thought: I thought I’d share the lunch message that I shared yesterday. I decided it would be a cool idea too write a new verse too a well known song. I chose “I Feel my Savior’s Love”. I wrote the new verse about covenants:

Yo siento Su amor,

un convenio yo he hecho.

Él nunca me dejará.

Ni a Él le dejaré yo

The Love that God has for us is eternal and everlasting. But His love is much more special for his covenant people. Those who have made a covenant with Him have access to His love. I invite you to read this article that President Nelson wrote about this love.

The Everlasting Covenant

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/10/04-the-everlasting-covenant?lang=eng

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