December 9, 2013

This week was one of the best weeks of my mission so far. Elder Luz and I focused on being positive and energetic. And it worked. We were happy and really blessed. Here is a cool motivational poster that I like. It says that we need to work, because the reward will come (eventually). As you can see in the picture, that well requires a lot of work. Elder Luz and I relate to this because the past couple weeks were pretty difficult and this week was the wonderful reward.

There's one scripture I'd like to share with y'all this week - James 5:19-20. This is James talking about how we should help inactives. I also really liked 2 Nephi 1:15.

This week I had a new challenge I hadn't faced yet on the mission. I made a contact in English. I made regular contact with a guy in the street, and it turned out he spoke English. And I tell you - I've never had so much trouble making a contact in my life! It was really hard, almost impossible to talk to that poor guy in English. And I've only been here for 5 months! So that was funny. Elder Luz laughed and laughed.

In my study of the Language, I'm focusing on verbs. This week I learned some cool ones. Bochechar means "to wash out your mouth with liquid" and calar means "to hold your tongue." So for all you parents out there, "bocheche!" is how you would command your child to wash their mouth.

I learned a cool lesson this week about cornbread. This week I made the best cornbread I've made in my life. The secret is this- I preheated the oven. I've been too lazy to preheat the oven and never did it. But this week I did and the cornbread was delicious and fluffy. This made me think of the gospel. How we have to keep all of the rules and follow all of the steps to get the best result - (celestial kingdom) if we follow only some of the steps, we'll get something of lesser value (a lower kingdom)

Also, since I'm talking about food, here's a bit for you mom - I'm choosing to eat vegetables, for the first time in my life! I'm actually enjoying having a bit of color on my plate. Also, I'm turning into a milkshake lover. Fruit is really cheap here and we have a blender :)

One day this week we found a cute little fuzzy caterpillar on our wall. Good thing that Elder Luz is Brazilian, and recognized the little guy. Because he is deathly. You touch him and your finger doesn't stop hurting for a day or two. (Don't ask how we know that). So we scooped him up and threw him out. The next day, he was on the wall again. This time we left him. He climbed all the way up to the top and made a cocoon there. We thought that was pretty cool until today, when the cocoon was gone... D:

This week was our Stake Conference, and it was really excellent. During the adult session, one of the speakers called up volunteers and did live practices of how to share the gospel up in front. I'd never seen that done before, but it was pretty good. He had a powerful message. There was also a Stake Christmas activity this week. Everyone was told to bring a friend and we took our investigators. At the end of the program (this is brilliant) they asked all of the people there that weren't members to stand up. Little primary kids walked around with "presents" for each of them. It was super cute, and a great way to get everyone to accept a book of Mormon and an Ensign (of Conference) (they were wrapped up all cute in little boxes).

We ended the week with an awesome Sunday. We are teaching Catia, Carlos and their kids. They really have a ton of will to follow the gospel. On Sunday, Carlos took a bus to go to Stake Conference, leaving Catia with the kids (there was a problem with tickets for the bus). We were inspired to pass by their house with a member to give them a ride (even though they'd said they'd all go by bus). So we gave Catia and the kids a ride to Stake Conference. Carlos got lost and ended up not finding the chapel. So, having a huge desire to feel the spirit and keep the Sabbath day holy, he returned to our zone of Porto Alegre and sat in front of our chapel there. He said he prayed and sat there until mid-day, when he returned home. We invited the whole family to be baptized and will baptize the boys next week, because Catia wants them to be baptized as soon as possible. Carlos and Catia have some things they'll have to work out before their baptisms.

After the powerful lesson with that family, when we invited them to be baptized, we passed by Regina´s house. Honestly, I had been doubting that she still had interest, but she started off our lessons by saying "I think I received an answer to my prayer!" We are really excited for her. Her problem is that she works on Sundays. So we're hoping and praying that she can figure out what she'll do.

Lastly, we baptized Valério, Jane and David this week. They got married last week, and this week were baptized. It was an awesome service.

To end, I want to thank my awesome friends and relatives who sent me cards because I don't think there is anything better in the world then hearing from our friends that live far away.

setting up a Christmas tree we found under Elder Luz' bed

Christmas Gig 'Em!

Love you all. Merry Christmas!

Elder Jasperson