December 8, 2014

3 Nephi 18:12-13, compare with the last verses of Matthew 7 -- We are to edify ourselves on the Rock of Christ…..also think about Hymn number 258.

So last P-day was a blast because we played basketball. The young men in this ward actually know how to play it and they like it more than soccer. This is the first time on my mission that I played basketball. The chapels here don't have a gym like chapels in the US. We went to a school and used their court. So we had a great game. Vinícius (a young man here) invited Ishmael (is- my- el) to play with us. He is almost taller than me and plays well! (More on Ishmael later). So it was fun.

Anyway, we get back from playing basketball and find something strange in our house. Something had changed. There was bird poop on Elder Fullmer's bed. Well we were pretty confused about that, so I went up to the loft to see if the window was open. There's this little window up there and yep, it was open. And guess what was standing on the shelf beside the window? This bird! I threw a fork at it, thinking that I'd scare it out the window. But nope, that bird attacked me. I swerved and it hit Elder Teela who was behind me on the loft stares. He started running down with the bird clawing his back. So he got the grate from the front of our fan and I grabbed a cardboard box. Elder Kinney threw coins at the bird until it hid behind the chair. Then we cornered it and scooped it into the box. So that was funny and Elder Fullmer complained all day because he'd cleaned his sheets that morning.

So the next day we get up and go to study and guess what? Yeah, that bird had pooped all over his desk. We just hadn't noticed it before. So now Elder Fullmer hates birds.

the bird we trapped in the house

We kind of decorated our house for Christmas by hanging up our socks above the door. Then we went to the Mission’s Christmas conference. That was cool because I found Elder Hortêncio who gave me a bunch of good news about Rio Pardo. We four in Sapucaia got together with matching ties. Yes! Everybody wants to have cool red skinny ties like us!

our matching ties

A member called Max went out with us this week to teach. It was one of those crazy, crazy hot days (like today) where we studied laying down on the ground with the fan right next to us, wetting our scriptures with our sweat. But he went walking in the street with us without a complaint. Yeah he was sweating like crazy too (I sweated through my bag, through two pamphlets and onto the Book of Mormon) but he was happy to be able to teach with the missionaries. We taught some good lessons and then it started to pour rain. And we got even more soaked. But he still didn't complain and he stayed happy and cheerful. He stayed another hour with us and then we went home. I like his example. Lots of people don't ever go out to teach with us, and lots of them complain that they'd have to walk in the street or sweat with us. But not Max. He understands the importance of missionary work and was happy to have the privilege to take part.

So here's the cool part about Ishmael- we started teaching him on Thursday. And he loved our message! He's 21 and feels a bit without purpose. So he's happy to find that purpose with us. I gave him one of my white shirts and a tie, and he came to church yesterday all dressed up. We read 3Nephi 11 with him after church and invited him to be baptized next Sunday. He accepted! He's super cool. When we taught him the Book of Mormon on Saturday, he showed us that he'd searched about the church on the internet and had already found the Book of Mormon. He had started reading it and he had posted 1 Nephi 9:6 on Facebook. This was before he even visited church! What a great investigator!

Have a great week!
Elder Jasperson