January 27, 2014

So I think the sun took a break this week. I guess it had the right to do it, after all, it works pretty much 24/7, and it's got a pretty high-stress job. Imagine if you were responsible to give life to everything on earth! But I'm not complaining or anything. Actually, I'm thinking about starting a support group or something for the sun so he can take more breaks. On Friday, the weather dropped down to a perfect temperature. After frying for the past weeks, (see the attached pictures of a standard missionary tan line) the sky was completely covered in those nice thick grey clouds. I even had to sleep with a blanket! That was pretty much the best thing ever. But last night the wind picked up and all the clouds blew away. The sun's returned from his vacation and checked in to work this morning. But I have hope that maybe he'll retire someday.

Missionary Tan

standard missionary tan lines!

Something cool I've learned this week is that God is fair. He doesn't make people do anything. You can really do whatever you want. I read a bit in 2 Nephi 26:23-28. Christ will never deny forgiveness or salvation for someone. But he'll never make someone go to church or pray or keep the commandments. I use 2 Nephi 10:23 a lot. If we want to be a part of God's plan, we just have to choose it. The thing is, we have to go there and get it too. It's like a free mini fridge in Michigan. Everyone wants a free mini fridge. But not everyone wants to get up and drive to Michigan to pick it up. It's something so simple that we tell people all the time. If you want to be happy, if you want to have an eternal family, if you want your marriage to last, if you want more peace, get up and follow the gospel! Go to church, keep the commandments, be baptized and become more like Christ.

So this week we had a crazy time. We went to the temple on Tuesday, but sadly couldn't go in. The Air Conditioning broke, and since nobody has air conditioners, there aren't any air conditioner repairmen that live around here. The Temple doesn't have any open doors or windows, so it got super, super hot inside. Sadly, they shut it. As far as I know, it's still closed, but they're hoping it'll open soon! Me too. It's been a while since I last entered in the House of the Lord.

But enjoy the pictures we took, at least.

Moroni atop the temple

with Elder Soares

temple stretch

welcome to the temple

Anyway, this week was full of walking from one side of our area to the other. Way on one side, we have 3 girls who were baptized on Sunday. We visited them every day this week to help them be prepared and stuff. Rafaela, Manuela and Gabriela are pretty cool. Rafa and Manu are sisters, and they are cousins of Gabi. They're excited to be part of the church. Rafaela is really, really shy. She is the oldest and the tallest. Gabriela is a jokester. The hardest part of teaching them is keeping her attention and not laughing all the time. She was really embarrassed to be baptized though, and asked that nobody watched. So we baptized her afterward with only a few people there. Manuela is the youngest and the smallest, but she has a large testimony. She's more serious, and more thoughtful too. I made cookies for their baptism, which was cool since cookies don't exist in Brazil. Nobody knew what they were, but everyone liked them!

Rafaela, Manuela, and Gabriela baptism day

homemade cookies from elder jasperson

Way on the other side of the area, we have 3 boys who were baptized on Saturday. We also visited them every day this week to help them be prepared and stuff. Diego, Gabriel and Vinicius are awesome. Diego and Vinicius are brothers, and they are cousins of Gabriel. These kids are great. They've been going to church with Brother Loí, who has a big van (kind of like the van that my family uses). He picks up the boys with all of their friends and takes them to church every Sunday. Diego reminds me of my brother Ashton. He's the smallest, but he's super funny. He's really smart too. He learns quickly and is always asking a million questions. Gabriel reminds me a lot of my brother Truman. He's a good listener and has a great smile. He's always helping out with everything, like with the little kids at church. Vinicius is mostly blind and a lot of the kids that live by him pick on him. He's lucky to have his family who help him out. Brother Rafael bought 5 liters of ice cream for the baptism. Brother Loí had brought a ton of kids there, so they made short work of it! (Brother Loí is in the picture with the boys)

E. Jasperson, Gabriel, Vinicius, Brother Loi,
Diego, and E. Soares on baptism day

So we spent most of the week running back and forth helping out all those kids! On Thursday, we were so tired that we could barely walk, and we decided to take a city bus since we were really late for our appointment. We accidently picked the bus going in the wrong direction and ended up far away from our area. We had to pick another bus and ended up being even later!

This week is the last week of the transfer. I've had such a good time working with Elder Soares and we're hoping to stay together. Who knows?

Have a great week everyone. Don't freeze! And next time you think about being cold, think of me and wish some of that nice weather down here.

Elder Jasperson