Week 66 getting one year ago photos on Google photos for your bday on the mission are weird

 Mon, Dec 18, 2023 

Pretty whack that tomorrow I'm gonna be two decades old that's nuts but let's get into it

last Monday idk if i said what happened but during pday we went on a hike and it was awesome because it had been forever since i hiked, we went up to whale rock, and it had an amazing view and a super awesome drop, speaking of super awesome drop, i was sitting on the rock and my phone decided its time had come and jumped out of my pocket and took an awesome 30ft drop bounced off a rock at the bottom screen down and went flying another 8 feet down the hill, when i got it my phone was still chillin, just the screen protector had a gashing whole in it but the inner screen was only barely damaged, just wanted to pass that story in case i havent already,

that night i did a baptism interview and that was really cool Jennifer was baptized the next day

Tuesday for the first time in the mission a member took us and ate a restaurant with us, it was cool, and he brought two friends for us to teach too

that night we taught luis and maria do socorro, those two lessons were really good, we taught maria about prayer and how to pray, and we taught her to whom we pray, we taught her about the nature of god and jesus and the holy ghost, which was interesting because it was actually the first time in my mission ive really had to teach those things to anyone, because in Brazil despite much sin, still all believe god exists and they pray to him, ive found that here its more that people just dont know other things, such as why they are here on earth, or what they need to do on earth,

Wednesday was pretty cool, the whole day was still kinda rough, but we ended the night with a fun family night with sirlei and maria, oh yeah 

we also had a lesson that day with cause it was pretty awesome we finished talking about gods plan of happiness, and like every time we had taught caue up till that point he honestly just had a knowledge of these things already like he already agreed with them, and we couldnt really find his nessecities or how to help him, at the start we asked him why he asked to meet with the missionaries, he told us he just likes learning and searching about other religions, and wanted to see what was actually true about our church, and whether it was of god and had gods teachings or some mans teachings, and that he does that and if the beleifs go well with him hed join said church, when we finished our message about gods plan of happiness, he asked us the question about faith vs works, and what it is that really saves us whether its our works or whether it was believing in Jesus and being baptized, and it was a really interesting experience because many and in my experience most of the time, the spirit seems to bring thoughts to my mind and as i speak i feel the spirit strongly testifying of the truth, and im usually already waiting and anticipating this feeling right before i speak and then i feel it, but this time i simply answered his question, that no amount of good works will save us, jesus is our only savior if he didnt die for us we couldn't be saved, and if we don't follow his gospel neither than can we be saved even with all the good deeds in the world, and the spirit was imeansly strong like the whole room, it was feelable as i spoke cut able with a knife, it was so immensely powerful it was as real like a temperature change or a new unfelt pressure was around us, and even a bit unexpected, but the second we answered the question that was the spirit and the feeling, and I could just tell that we had answered a really big question for him and the spirit testified of the answer to his heart, he had almost no reaction, but the spirit in the room was what told us, he then asked like if someone in the street asked us for help with something, if we would stop and help or like is our mission to do visita and share the gospel more important, we told him that Christ is the perfect example we follow and always served and in that same we we would also choose to serve, although good works aren't what save us, Jesus still did many good works só we follow his example the spirit acted in the same form, it was cool that we got to help him in his nessecities

Saturday was cool because we taught one guy, jacinto who was a catholic priest for 10 years and then stopped and got married and now he's going back into the ministry. We taught him about the book of Mormon and how Christ visited the America's, and he was very interested and asked if he could buy a book of Mormon, he lives in a different area so now the other elders are helping him out

We taught another woman Irene, she was also interested and she told us about how she never was able to have a house and some things in her life and we read a verse in ether 12 4 about hoping for a better world, and then my book of Mormon blew over a few pages and I saw a verse talking about how god is preparing mansions in heaven for us, and I read her that verse too and she really liked it, we both ended up staying in the same park after we parted ways and she stayed reading the book of Mormon for that whole hour. She's awesome

That night we had an awesome visit with maria who has lots of trouble comprehending but a very open heart, we taught her that she can know what way she needs to go and what to in her life by praying and asking God, and challenged her to do so. 

Sunday was cool because both luis and maria went to church it was a really cool meeting too. At the end of Sunday school a. Member asked if us the elders cool call over bishop so I did so, bishop told me to wait a second and so we did in his room during a bishopric meeting for a minute, and then the same member went to get us and bishop so we went back to the room and when i entered they were all singing called to serve, and I look behind me and bishop wasn't there, they then gave us a Christmas present of a basket full of candy, that's super nice

Sunday night we taught sirlei and really helped her to see what the gospel can do to bless her life and her grandson she takes care of life and it helped her a lot

It was an overall good week, I killed a total of 24 cockroaches Sunday night after 9 I'm becoming a menace.