5/1-8/23 "long week but ill try and keep it shhort" was the original title before i forgot to click send last week so here is last weeks email

 May 15

 monday was sick already talked about it epic ward activity, with bbq, afterwards for dinner me and garces went to get pizza i probably gained weight

tuesday 

we just worked it was kinda boring, Elder Garces really wanted to see how much he weighed so we went to the pharmacy and he weighs 102 kilos and i weight 106 now, so looks like i gained weight from that activity i've gained 2 kilos back from what i lost, guess i gotta work on that, but it's not fair we get pizza juice and other food for free in this area every week, 

wednesday was dope it was zone conference, this time a special zone conference where we basically had a musical talent show because sister saucedo really likes seeing her missionaries do musical stuff and for no other reason, so me and Elder Garces prepared for me to sing come follow me in portuguese while he plays the piano, it went well,  we also sang a song as a district and as a zone, that also went well, then Elder Romero my old comp who became one of the secretaries, asked me if i could sing in his musical number with him and elder cluff out of nowhere, classic romero, i accepted, and without any practice or knowing if i would be able to sing one of the verses for him because i didn't know if it would be to high for me to sing, i did sing with them, it was really awesome, because Elder cluff is also a really good singer, he is a great tenor, and i am a bass and sang the song an octave lower, it went awesome,

after a bunch of other musical numbers we ended by having all of us sing called to serve (in portuguese obviously) and its always epic, the best part for i'm guessing no one else than my mom is they recorded all the peoples songs sang or played, so i have the videos 

the real let down about showing up to that zone conference was that me and Elder Garces showed up late, and with all my walking experience on the mission we made the 21 minute walk a 9 minute walk, so we walked into the building when everyone else had already started, and there were two people waiting at the door for us to give us some flu shots, i hate shots, i don't like them any better when its a complete surprise, it was rather unpleasant

however i had a cool surprise of peanut butter from my parents so that was dope,

thursday was just us applying all the trainings from zone conference, and in doing so we started teaching again a person that old missionaries in the past stopped teaching so that was really cool, out of nowhere i decided to call her and we taught her, and taught her how to pray, and marked for the next day to teach again, 

friday, well thursday night i was feeling a little discouraged with the work, and said a prayer that we would be able to be guided to the people we need to find, ideally by telling us to what directions to take in the street, 

friday morning i also prayed to be guided to the people we needed to teach because of feeling discouraged, then we got to friday night, we taught maria the person from thursday, we had planned the lesson in the morning and Elder Garces thought to share a certain scripture, 

well we asked if we could start with a prayer ( we did) then if we could share the message, and she said yes but asked if she could share a story first, we said yes, (it was an incredible story) she told us that 8 months ago she had been praying to be able to get a certain job, and that she had to take a certain test to get said job, and that she still hasn't gotten it, she said that yesterday night (thursday night) after we had taught her to pray, and she said the closing prayer, she prayed for another chance to take that test, and that today (friday) the job called her and said she would start working next week, she said this started to help her see a new perspective of god's hand in her life, and that now she is starting to see god's hand in her relationship that had previously gone very bad, but is going really well now, and that with this new perspective she noticed something else too, 

she said that recently her and her husband have been praying to be able to find a church to be able to better follow the path of god, and to get their son baptised in, saying that she was raised catholic, and that a week ago she was passing by the temple in campinas, that she had been to an open house for years and years ago with her aunt who is a member, and that on her drive she always passes by our churches and wondered if that was the answer to her prayer, she then said that we called her a week later, (thursday night) as she was passing through jagauriuna, and we taught her how to pray, and thats how the story began, we bore our testimonies that god sent us his messengers to her to bring her to that path, and to his church so that she and her family will be able to follow that path that they are looking for, and that god responded to her prayers and it wasnt a coincedence, the spirit was incredibly strong in this lesson , and she began to cry, and she knew it was true too as it was why she told us, we then asked if we could share the message we prepared, and well i hadn't read the verse we would share yet but when i did, it was just one more confirmation god was leading us and her that thursday and friday night, the verse Elder Garces thought to share was Enos 1:15 

it says '' Wherefore, i knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, i cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me; Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it.

well when i read that i was like well isn't that verse true, i prayed this morning and last night and god showed me that we already are being guided, and that he already brought us to her, and her to us, and she answered her prayers by sending us to her, and by giving her work, 

one thing that i thought was really interesting was what she said about the prayer, she said to close the lesson, and i remember the prayer, she asked for another chance with the test, and then she ended the prayer for first time ever as she told us in the name of Jesus Christ, and the next day after 8 months of praying she got the job, even more than she had asked for, personally i know she already had faith enough to receive what she asked for, but i believe one of the differences was that she for the first time did her prayer in the name of christ as the scripture says, i'm not saying god doesn't listen or god doesn't respond to prayers when they aren't in the name of christ because he does, but obviously there is an importance to it as its in many scriptures jesus telling us to everything in his name, 

i also know that part of the reason god gave her the job was to help her see a new perspective in her life about how god is in her life, as after that experience she told us that it helped her see that he sent us to her, 

in the end it sure was an amazing story that is for sure, 

another highlight of friday was after many days of following a combination of some of your guy's advice of letting my avocados sit in the darkest bag (it was dark!!) as sealed as possible (air wasnt gonna get out unless i scweesed it)  and as best as i could make it I pulled out my avocados and to my absolute surprise!!!!!!! they were still green and unripe and uneatable, so I went to the store, bought some ripe avocados they finally had!!! And I threw my old ones in the trash, and made some legendary Guac it was amazing thanks for the recipes! It made my week! I think two weeks of suffering over stupid avocados having no other food in the fridge made it taste better

I gotta shout out fridays lunch with members we ate a fire meal that was cheesy bacony mashed potatoes and rice, she decided to make a meal that no one could dislike to make sure the missionaries would be happy, i couldn't agree more, she also made an delicious dessert, i know i've spent many words in emails talking about fire dessert and food at every meal but i realized my first área was super rich, however even in my other areas the food is just as top tier, still amazing best food in the world i feel bad for your guys not being here on my missions, its just that dessert is now much rarer, and it was a new desert id never tried, called banoff? Bananoff? Idk know, but it was an amazing banana dessert. I ate half the pan she made then when I stopped her husband said the words eat more, she responded with you guys don't have to if you don't want to. But her husband must have caught me looking because he said i think Elder Bremner wants to, and well i did i ate 4 more servings, they then said they had just bought a thing for making bbq and said they have a non member friend, and asked if he wanted to come over tomorrow too and eat churrasco (bbq) and teach their friend, i definitely did not decline,

Yeah saturday back at their house eating amazing amazing Brazilian bbq, and she made a different dessert, again its also fire I wish i ate more, then we taught their friend after the meal, he was not interested we explained the book of Mormon a the story and about prayer, and i said if he wants to know if the book is true he can pray in which he responded saying he thinks all religions lead to god which didn't have anything to do with what was said. But more of a way to say he wasn't interested in ours, but the members liked the message enough to bear their testimonies about in the sacrament the next day so that's good!

In the streets on saturday we found a man drinking on the side walk I said good afternoon as we passed but it made him want to talk to us, as im walking away he yells in tears did you know my brother died? We said no, and he asked but does god? And we said yes and that he is with gods angels now, he then started to cry more and more, but more cries of pain, he was in a lot of anguish at the loss of his brother and was just telling us hoe much it hurts that he wouldnt be able to touch his skin again, and that before his brother died his brother knew he was going to die but told everyone he was fine, but really he wasnt, it was difficilt to see this man in that much anguish, it was hard to confort him, or tell him where his brother is, but we got the message across that the resurrection will happen and that through gods plan familys can be together eternally, it seemed to help a little, and then he asked us, if we  had something from god for him to read I tried to give him a BOM with Alma 7 : 10-11 open for him to read but he wouldnt accept it because he said he would lose it and hr wouldnt let me read it because he said he didnt have time to hear it, but asked if we had a pamflet, unfortunately neither i nor elder Garces had a plan of salvation planflet so we gave him a Restauration planflet, i hope it helped him, 

It was an interesting experience to see how much of a help it is in our lives to have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and how families can be eternal, and how much just this knowledge helps us endure our trials

Sunday, we talked with vando and grazi we talked about how fun the monday activity was playing soccer and then grazi called Elder Garces-Diaz fat by calling him the ball, he cannot find a break last week the roasts from grazi were brutal enough  about him being fat i didnt even include it in my email, she and many other Brazilians are creating a villain,