Life Is Good

  Family!!!

I´m gonna answer some of your questions that I remember. First, the language. It is awesome! I have such a solid testimony of the gifts of the Spirit. I studied them a lot this week. It´s super cool how much you can learn from the scriptures and how real it all is. I would recommend a deep and honest study of the gifts of the Spirit. They are literal blessings and power that we can receive from God when we keep all His commandments (D&C 46:8 I think.) I didn´t realize how important it was to be perfect until I got out here. I always kinda liked to do what´s right but now it´s different. If I sin it´s like I gotta repent right away. So I´m doing everything I can to be perfect. It´s hard though.

Anyway, with the language - yes I can speak it. I feel like I need to become fluent for the role the Lord has for me here, like the work I´m meant to do. I don´t like to waste the Lord´s time. It´s really frustrating to be helpless and not able to speak. I´m not fluent yet but I´m hoping by the end of my next transfer. . But, the Lord definitely helps missionaries communicate with people. My companion and I are actually learning sign language in Portuguese to help a deaf girl. She´s 11 and the only thing really stopping here from being baptized is that her mom wants her to understand our messages better. The mom´s been translating but she doesn´t know all the words we use, like, ´Holy Ghost´, so we went a learned from this other deaf girl that God put in our path. It really is cool all the miracles that happen out here. God wants people to join His church and he´ll give them the opportunity, they just have to accept.


OK so super cool news. The temple ground here is gonna be broken in two weeks and guess who´s coming? Elder Bednar! WHoo I´m sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stoked! I love Elder Bednar. He´s gonna do a mission conference thing e tudo. We just got the talks we´re supposed to study, today. It looks like it´s going to be on faith. Ah, we get to meet him afterwards too and probably do a question and answer session. I cannot wait. Two weeks from today and I´m gonna meet an apostle.

We, had our first rain shower here. It´s nuts. It´s kinda funny though because there´s a system to the rain. It´s starts raining in the morning and always stops whenever we need to leave. Then when we´re inside it rains and when we leave it´s sunny. God loves missionaries. I think we´re getting into the hottest month of the year. I´m pretty stoked but my companion definitely  isn´t. He´s from Idaho and likes snow and stuff, gross. I love this sun. It´s so hot and feels so good. I wish I could go run and go to the beach and stuff sometimes. Temptation stinks.

Well, even things are exciting and fantastic and wonderful... they´re super hard too. Some days everything goes wrong and all our lessons fall. This week we found out one of our investigators, who we were super excited to talk too, died. Everyone else here is stubbornly Catholic or Evangelical. Sometimes it´s hard to teach them. But, despite all of the difficulties and failures, I love everyday. I know that this is where God wants me to be. I know that I´m talking to the people I´m supposed to talk to. Everyone needs an opportunity to change their life. Everyone needs an opportunity to break free from the chains of sin that are holding them back from walking on the path that leads to Eternal Life. I think some of the saddest moments in my life are when I see people who don´t want to accept the gospel into their lives our change. Everyone here professes to believe in Christ but they won´t do anything for Him. We just taught some people for the last time this past week who we were super excited about. They got an answer about Joseph Smith being a prophet. They prayed and asked God if the Book of Mormon was true and they got an answer. They straight up said that they knew the church is true, that is really is the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth again, but they won´t change. They won´t come to church. They won´t stop drinking coffee. It´s so sad. But I´ve realized that we really do get to make whatever we want out of ourselves. We choose to follow Christ our take another path. 2 Nephi 2:27 is straight up true.

And so, even though we get a lot of rejection, it´s awesome to know that I´m doing what God wants me to do. To follow the Spirit and feel it testify of our words so powerfully that they know our message is true. They just have to choose if they want it. It´s good to be a missionary. A literal messenger of Jesus Christ. He´s with us everyday.

Love

Elder Hodson