Thanksgiving, World Cup, And Boat Rides

Good morning, or afternoon, or night or whatever time it is where you are! It's 7am here and a hope every one of you is having a great day! And maybe if you're not, this can help in some way! 

I'm start off by saying HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! I'm so thankful for all of you and thankful for the emails that I recieve! I seriously appreciate them so much and they really get me going throughout the week. Thanksgiving is a little different here, but I'll get into that later. 

Let's start off with a spiritual thought to get my brain awake and my thoughts running. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

I don't know if I've talked about this or not in another email, but my Mission President gave all of the new missionaries a challenge about a month and a half ago. He challenged us to pick up a Book of Mormon, and in 6 weeks, read it from cover to cover. But there's a little twist: Mark every single thing about Jesus Christ in a red colored pencil. That includes the life of Jesus Christ, his atoning sacrifice, his gospel, and just pretty much anything that points or refers to our Savior. And if you did the math right, I finished this challange last night, and let me just tell you, it's a game changer!

Quick summary of this book: The Book of Mormon --> Another Testament of Jesus Christ. (And sorry, I'm not used to explaining this in english. But this book is very similar to the Bible. It's a volume of sacred scripture which talks about Christ and how we can be saved. But there are to major differences... (summary of the Book of Mormon and its history, in my own words if anyone was interested in reading it)

 First being that this sacred record wasn't passed down from gereration to generation like the Bible. The Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets who lived on the Earth a little before Jesus and little after Jesus. Then one phophet, Mormon is his name, took all of these prophets' records, journal entries, and scribings, I compiled them together (around 420 a.d.) and his son Moroni buried them under the ground. This was done so they wouldn't get into the wrong hands and be changed (like some speculate happened to the Bible). It was also done so that they can be revealed to the world when the people are ready (on God's timing). Well, one September 21, 1823, the same Moroni (then glorified and ressurected, in the form of an angel) appeared to a young boy named Joseph Smith, and showed him to the buried records, which were hidden in a hill, Hill Cumorah, in New York. Then by the gift and power of God, Joseph Smith translated the compiled records from an anciet egyptian language that no one knew, into English for the world to read. Knowing this, we can say with assurance that the Book of Mormon contains the purest doctrine of Jesus Christ on the Earth today. 

Second difference: The Book of Mormon talks about the people in the Americas! While the Bible is a record of the people in the Middle-Eastern region, particularly Jerusalem and Israel, the Book of Mormon shares a story of a family leaving Jerusalem before its destruction in 600 BC, and traveling by boat and the guidance of our Heavenly Father to what they called The Promised Land, or what we like to call America! (Still no one knows if it was North, South, or Latin America but that's besides the point). This book tells us of the people in the Americas before, during, and after the life of our Savior. Jesus Christ even appears to this civilization shortly after his death! With the Book of Mormon and the Bible together, we get the history of the entire world during this sacred time!

But anyways... I've spent the last 6 weeks reading and studying this book everyday, and let me just tell you, this is a spiritual book. Literally talks about our Savior, Jesus Christ, on every single page! It's crazy how much influence that he has on own lives, when sometimes we don't even know He's there!

The Book of Mormon has brought me so much closer to Jesus Christ and I want all of you guys to experience and have this same opportunity. So I challenge you: find a Book of Mormon (I'll include a link, but send my an email if you want a physical copy), read it in 6 weeks, and search for Jesus Christ and his role in your life. And I promise that you'll find it! But seriously, I know that this book was translated by Joseph Smith by the power of God and anyone who picks this book of and reads it will come closer to their Savior, who is Christ. And even if you aren't religious, or don't care about learning more about the man who died for you, The Book of Mormon is honestly just a good read in general and contains cool stories, battles, and good life lessons! IT'S TRUE, I PROMISE!!

HIGHLIGHTS

Okay this week was an eventful week so lets get into it.

- Happy Thanksgiving... again. Literally isn't a holiday in Brazil (I wonder why) but we had the opportunities, as we have an apartment of three americans, to celebrate it. We also have a member who lived in the United States for 32 years and cooked us up some thanksgiving dinner! I was insane! Chicken (substitute for turkey), mashed potatoes, corn, mac n cheese, and some other dish that was pretty good! Also, this lady's house is like a little piece of America in Brazil. She had everything imported from America, ranging from her furniture, to her alexa, to her Bath and Body Works hand soap. It honestlly felt like home! Also... to get to this lady's house, we had to take a boat across a river, so that was pretty fun!

- The World Cup is live and Brazil is playing well!! Every single day, we see families gathered outside of their houses watching the world cup games. But let me tell you, when Brazil is playing, it's just different. Cities shut down (including trains, so we got stuck for a couple hours), fires are burning in the streets, fireworks are constantly going off, and horns are honking. As missionaries, we can't watch, but it's pretty easy to know when Brazil scores because it's a mini earthquake everytime. The only downside about this whole world cup this is it makes the work really hard. This was probably the slowest week that I've had on the mission because everyone is either traveling for the start of winter (their summer), or watching the games.

- I had an exchange with one of the american elders that I live with, Elder Garcia, and it was honestly one of the best days on the mission. I learned some much about being a missionary and ate super well. Something about Elder Garcia is that he doesn't take no for an answer. Got kinda awkard at moments, but he was able to convince a couple to get married, and another lady to get baptized (someone who we've been working with for weeks). It was kind of impressive and defininetly taught me a lot about being bold, simple, and straightfoward. 

- Handed out boxes of Book of Mormons this week.

- late night domino nights are super fun!

- picked some fresh mangos and they are fire. 

- made 42 piece of French toast last night for the apartment! So good and pictures included.

- did 100 burpees the other day and completed our monthly exercise challenge. Am definitly currently feeling the effects on my body. 

- Had a pretty cool spiritual experience: on Monday, we met a woman and started teaching her about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of His church. I felt prompted during the lesson to stop, invite, and promise the Holy Spirit and its presence during the  rest of our lesson. Then as the lesson continued, I could literally feel the holy spirit radiating off of this woman. Then we the lesson ended, my companion asked me if I could offer the closing prayer. Instead of praying, I took out my Book of Mormon, read a verse in Alma 7, recognized the Spirit, and invited her to be baptized. She agreed and I'm so happy that I listened to those promptings of the Spirit!!

Sorry this email was so long, but now I'll include some pictures to make up for it!