Merry Christmas E Feliz Natal
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 to tie down everything in the bed, and the interior was also packed. I wish I took a picture!
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT
This week and honestly this mission has been kinda busy, so I didn't have time to come up with a fun Christmas spiritual thought, but I promise next year for Christmas I'll have a fire spiritual thought! Someone hold me to that please.
This week, I was reading in Mosiah (The Book of Mormon) and I found something that caught my attention.
Quick background. Abinadi is a prophet. He is preaching to a wicked king, King Noah, and his wicked followers. He tries to convince them to repent. They don't care or listen. They put him to death by fire. But right before they take him and burn him, he gives this quick sermon about the atonement of Jesus Christ. He describes the suffering and death of Christ and the effects that it has on our salvation.
In Mosiah 15: 10 it reads:
10 And now I say unto you, who shall declare his generation? Behold, I say unto you, that when his soul has been made an offering for sin he shall see his seed. And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed?
I literally find this so cool! While Christ was performing the atonement, literally suffering for all of our sins, he saw His seed!! But who is His seed?
Mosiah 15: 11, 14:
11 Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.
14 And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!
Christ's seed are all those who believe in Him! All those who believe that He truly died for us and He truly performed the Atonement. But like I said in last weeks email, faith needs action. So... in order to be Christ's seed we need to have faith in Him and act on that faith.
So I invite everything reading this to find a way to act on your faith this Christmas season. Look for ways to be a publisher of peace. Because really that's what this season is all about! Look for ways to serve others in your family, school, or community. Have faith in Christ and do something about it!
Christ knows you! He loves you! He saw your face while He was dying for you! Find one way this week to show your gratitude for that precious gift that He gave. Because He truly gave His life for you.
This is a link to the chapter that I was reading. It's not too long and it explains the suffering and death of Christ so well! Please give it a read in you have time!
HIGHLIGHTS
Okay time for highlights. Hopefully this is your second favorite part of these emails. And I'm going to be honest, this area is not as wack as the last area. And by that I mean that there are as many crazy weird experiences, foods, or people. But let's get right into it.
- We taught two drunk dudes and invited them to come to church with us the next morning. It then turned into two drunk dudes arguing who would go to church. Just imagine, two old men, stuggling to stand up, slurring all of their words, saying to each other, "You're not going to go to church, I am". "No I'm definitely going to church, but I know that you won't go!" I stepped in and told them that I think that they'll both go together! But to my suprise, neither of them showed up Sunday morning.
- We made cuz cuz, eggs and calibressa pretty much every night this week! Pretty much the equivilent of eating ramen in America for every meal. I guess we're Brazilian college kids now.
- Had a lesson this week with a hardcore Evangelist and Catholic. They were both Grandmas and they were just Bible bashing each other the entire time. It was honestly super funny to watch, but it kinda got old after the 50th time they interrupted our lesson.
- I'm pretty sure I hit 4 months as a missionary this week! Super hype! Only 20 more to go!
- Please pray for Marina! We are trying to help her overcome her addictions and get her baptized but it's a whole project. She smokes 20 cigs a day, drinks a liter of coffee, and isn't married on paper yet. But she has faith and determination!
- PLEASE READ: I had a really cool spiritual experience this week and I'll share some of it with you guys. We got a call Friday night from a random number saying that her nephew was on the verge of taking his life. We immediatley cancelled all of our lessons that night and our family night and rushed over to his house. We got there and it was just him, his sister, and his aunt. They were all crying and we were trying to find the right words to say to him. I testified to him about the value to a life and we talked with him for a bit. I got a really strong impression that he needed a Book of Mormon and that this book would save his life. Unfortunately, we had made a ton of contacts that they and handed out all of our Book of Mormons. I again got the super strong impression that he needed that book TONIGHT. I remembered that I always keep my personal book of mormon in my bag. It's all marked up with scriptures that I like to share with people. I knew that I had to give him my personal book in that moment not knowing if I would ever see it again. In an act of faith, I gave him my Book of Mormon and testified of it's power. I promised him that if he read this book tonight, he would feel so much peace and happiness. Well... his aunt sent us a picture the next morning of him absolutely slumped on the living room floor with the book opened, right beside him. We visited him the next day, and he was literally a new man!! He told us that he read so much of this book and he felt so much happier! Since then, we've had lessons with him and his sister every night and marked them to be baptized! God is a God of miracles!
That's all for today y'all. I have some other stuff but this email is already pretty long and I'm backed up on all my other emails so I'm sorry! But I love y'all and can't wait to hear about your Christmas!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Please hug your family and tell them you love them!
Elder Ware
also have all the pictures from last week like I promised. but literally forgot to take pics this week.
Comments
Post a Comment