It Was Christmas? -> Week 19

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 and these people literally didn't even remember it's Christmas! And yes, I promise that they celebrate christmas here!

Sorry if that sounded like a rant, I really do love it here and I wouldn't have wanted to spend this Christmas anywhere else or doing anything else than what the Savior did while he was on the earth!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

Do you guys remember the first gift that you've ever received? 

John 3: 16 reads...

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life

Yes. The first gift that we all received was our Savior, Jesus Christ. We received his love, his light, his spirit, his guidance, and literally a perfect example!

Here are a couple quotes that I like...

"Because He came to earth, we have a perfect example to follow. As we strive to become more like Him, we will have joy and happiness in our lives and peace each day of the year. It is His example which, if followed, stirs within us more kindness and love, more respect and concern for others."

"Because He came, there is meaning to our mortal existence." 

"Because He came, we know how to reach out to those in trouble or distress, wherever they may be." 

"Because He came, death has lost its sting, the grave its victory. We will live again because He came." 

"Because He came and paid for our sins, we have the opportunity to gain eternal life."

We already received the best gift that we could possibily receive. So now I invite you guys to first accept this gift. And second find out how you can give back. Show your thanks and gratitude to God for this wonderful gift and find a way to gift back this holiday season! And if you don't know how, send me an email, I got you.

HIGHLIGHTS

- The hardest thing about being a missionary during this time of year is not missing the family, or the gifts, or the nice Christmas dinner. No, it's that literally all of our appointments and lessons fall through. Like seriously, everyone in this town seems to be traveling right now and it makes this work ten times harder!

- We had a church white elephant gift exchange last week and it was the funniest thing ever! We took two of our friends that we are teaching and the one ended up with a hand towel and the other got half a used bar of soap and some sort of medicine lol. I got this treat called a rapadura. Literally the grossest thing on planet earth. It's a bar, it's harder than a brick, and tastes like a really sweet version of licorish (and not the twizlers that you're thinking of).

- My companion and I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies for a couple of our friends to give back this Christmas! Well, turns out like a lot of these ingredients and different in Brazil, so the flavoring and portioning was way off! The first batched turned into some cookie brittle, and the other two batches also burned pretty bad. And yes, I know how to make cookies. But we still handed them out anyways, and our friends absolutely loved them hahaha I was so suprised! Turns out that no one in Brazil has tried a chocolate chip cookie before so they didn't really know what it was suppose to taste like!

- One of our friends who we are helping to stop drinking officially dumped out all of his alcohol stash right in front of us! Very powerful moment. 

- One of our friends who is progressing so well couldn't make it to church last week and it was so sad :( Turns out that he had borrowed some money from someone about a year ago, doesn't have the money now, and is currently being hunted down! He was too nervous to leave his apartment on Sunday to come to church. But this isn't stopping us from teaching him, but low-key gotta watch out because these mafia-men are serious down here about their money.

- My companion has been throwing up all week so that's fun.

- We meet this dude the other day who says he hates all forms of religion, churches, and politics and will never join a church in his life. Well, after one lesson with him, we put him on baptismal date.

- Let's talk about my english real quick. It's bad. On Christmas Eve, one of our members asked me to say the prayer in english to bless the food. I'm so glad that she doesn't actually know english because it was the most awkward prayer of my life. I had a conversation with the sweetest girl that has autism! She seriously has such a gift because with very little practice and only her high school class, she is fluent in English, Spanish, and of course Portuguese. Had a conversation with her in English and not gonna lie, her english was better than mine. And lastly, yesterday, this family wanted me to share my spiritual thought in English. Again, no one knows english so I don't know why they ask for this stuff. Told the simpliest story in english about Nephi in the Book of Mormon and they just sat there nodding their heads like they knew what was happening. I couldn't help but laugh through my entire lesson haha.

That's it for this week! Hope y'all have the best New Years! Set some goals for the year and stick to them! Send me email too, I love hearing from you guys! Love you, talk to you next week!

Elder Ware

(i'm so bad at taking pictures sorry)