Ware, Josh P

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Hope you guys are all having an amazing holiday break! This is always the best time of the year. The two weeks between two semesters so you have absolutely nothing to worry about. And the stocking isn't empty yet so you still got candy for days! I hope you guys were able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas for at least a little bit this week!  Not gonna lie, being in Brazil during the holidays was not nearly as depressing as I thought it would be, but at the same time it wasn't as "special" and "magical" as some other missionaries make it out to be. At least not here. For us, it was kinda just a normal day of church. Got up early, walked a couple miles, clapped in front of a million doors, no one woke up, went to church, went to lunch, taught a couple lessons, had dinner, and went to bed. And to make things worse, we would wish everyone a "feliz natal" (merry christmas) while walking in the streets...

What's up y'all! It's another week here on the mission and I think that completes like 18 weeks or something? Who knows, these weeks are just starting to blend together at this point.  But what I do know is this Sunday is Christmas!! Merry Christmas everyone!! Feliz Natal!! Or if you speak another language just pretend that I said it in your language too! This will be my first Christmas away from home, sad. But I know there is no better place I could be right now!  And I wish I could say that Christmas is remotely similar here, but it just isn't. First off, it's one million degrees and humid (a white Christmas literally doesn't exist here). Second off, these people totally forget about Christ and their families on Christmas lol. Here Christmas time is a time to travel with your friends, party, and literally just go crazy! Yesterday we literally saw a pickup truck at the store filled to the brim with beer cans. No joke. They had to use ratchets and bungee cords t...

Bom dia!! Another week has passed here in Brazil and I hope that it was an absolute fire week for all of you guys! Had a couple of fun things happen this week, including transfers. Tchau, tchau Cabedelo! I'll miss you! But let's get right into this. SPIRITUAL THOUGHT This won't be a crazy long spiritual thought like I usually like to do, but I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week and came across a couple verses that a thought were super interesting!  2 Nephi 10: 3-4: 3. Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ -- for in the last night the angel spake unto me that this should be his name -- should come among the Jews, among those who are the more wicked part of the world; and they shall crucify him -- for thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God. 4. For should the mighty miracles be wrought among other nations they would repent, and know that he be their God. I don't know why, but ...

Bom dia, tudo bem com vocês? I hope you guys had the best week and I hope this email can be a light to you in some way. I don't really know how to start these emails anymore, but this was a solid week for me with many fun, memorable experiences and a couple cool teaching moments! I'm going to try to keep this one shorter though, my time on my p-days is precious, and yes I love you guys, but I'd rather be using this time somewhere else. Hope you understand! SPIRITUAL THOUGHT Yesterday we were in a lesson, and we were reading out of the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 7. This is a really cool chapter by the way which talks about the birth, life, and suffering of Jesus Christ. I explained to this lady that because Jesus Christ died for us, he prepared a path for us to be saved. And in order to follow this path, we need to be baptized and be clean of all of our sins.  This woman responded saying, "Why do I need to be baptized if Christ already took upon himself all of our s...