I Feel Like A Celebrity

What's up everyone! This week may have been the hardest week of my life! Literally. Very tough physically, very tough emotionally. We walked on average 10 miles a day, and so many of our appointments got canceled. It's so hard when you want to do so much good and bless people but they show no interest. And it's even harder when you walk 45 minutes to their door, and they don't even answer.


There aren't too many highlights this week because it was just work, work, work but I got a few for you guys. Including the story about the title of this email hahaha.


Highlights 


- Like I said last week, we ate one meal a day. This week I put my foot down and bought some groceries for our house. By groceries I mean two loafs of bread, some cereal, and some oatmeal. So now for breakfast I'll have cereal. But the only problem is the cereal here is extremely stale. It's like bitting into pebbles with every bite. And for dinner I'll have two pieces of plane white bread. Quite the range of options. 


- Speaking of food, some food that I had this week was a bunch more pig knee cap, a literal chicken rib cage (with no real chicken), and a pig snout. Not the best selection of food but when the people offer you food, you have to eat it. We also got some açaí the other day which really brighten my week! Fun fact: açaí was invented in Brazil! Açaí here is insane! 


- We helped build a house on Saturday! There was a single story, broken down house of one of the members in our church. We had the task of building the second floor. We got there and there was a fat pile of bricks across the street. We would take two bricks in each hand and take a million trips back and forth from the pile of bricks and the upstairs of the house. After four hours of doing this, I found a wheelbarrow in a random garage and decided to give it a try. Worked like a charm! Only dropped all of the bricks one time!


- Today is national kids day here in Brazil so the kids were circling the streets all week  We were walking in the street the other day and a group of about 10 kids runs up to me shouting "Estados Unidos!!" (United States). They started touching my hair, my clothes, my five dollars Bill. They would practice their English with me and point out a bunch of random objects and ask for the English translation. It honestly helped out with my Portuguese a ton hahaha and was probably the most adorable thing I'm ever seen! That is until they started yelling out English cuss words that they knew. That was our cue to leave haha.


- We are teaching a mother named Larissa. Her father died and her mother left them. She is only 26 but has an 8 year old boy and takes care of her 3 brothers. Very humble! Yesterday we were teaching her about the plan of salvation. This is God's plan for us and enables us to live with God and live with our families in heaven! She started crying think about her father and thinking about the burden of taking care of everyone. I testified of the plan of salvation and of Jesus Christ (in very broken portuguese) and told her the story about my brother's passing. She felt so much joy! I am so thankful for the plan of salvation and Jesus Christ!


- Yesterday we had splits. This is where two missionaries will swap with another. I got paired up with a Brazilian missionary who knew zero English, had only been out for 1 month, and wanted to sleep all day. And don't to mention, he came to my area, meaning that I was in charge of scheduling the lessons, following up, transportation, and making sure we got the work done. I was lost, clueless, nervous, and honestly had to help. All of our our appointments for the morning got canceled, but we walked FOREVER. But we never gave up! We got back to our apartment in the middle of the day to plan. He immediately crashed in his bed. With no directions, 3% on my phone, and no one responding, I got on my knees and prayed! By the power of God Iwas able to plan the lesson that I talked about above. I called a member to help us teach too. On our way back home after the lesson, it started down pouring on us so we walked 30 minutes in the rain! It was honestly such a blessing for God. After a hard, hot day full challenges, the rain felt amazing! It's always important to find the good even in the bad!


Spiritual Thought


This week was fast Sunday so I bore my testimony in church. I kinda felt like I had to because I was new but it was still a cool experience!


I bore my testimony about baring our afflictions with patience (which I definitely need to work on) and about trusting in Jesus Christ. One of my favorite Scriptures in Alma (the Book of Mormon) talks about this. And I'm sure many of you already know this scripture but...


Alma 26: 27 --> "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."


This scripture is so relevant to my life! The Lord delivers thus message to Ammon after his message is rejected by the people. As a missionary, like ammon, my message is constantly being rejected! But it's important to trust in God. Trust in his timing. When you put your life in God's hands, we will make things happen! He will make weak things become strong! 


Please ask yourself: Am I putting enough trust in God? Am I giving my life to him? When you out your trust in God, you don't need to worry about anything else. The people we teach literally have nothing. But they have faith. They have a knowledge and a love for Jesus Christ and there is nothing else that you need.


I love all of you! Continue to keep me updated on your lives! Your emails are literally my only forms of entertainment haha. My email is Joshua.ware@missionary.org. God loves you! Have a good week!


Photos
1) pizza night
2) after the rainstorm last night 
3) with some friends
4,5,7) the type of area and the train tracks that we walk on everyday.
6) some fire that we saw in the middle of the road.
7) the wheelbarrow that saved our lives 
8) soccer squad today
9) absolutely beauty of a goal by yours truly 








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