I have no idea what is happening in this fire pic but I wanted to post it because I loved the big smile on his face and the two thumbs up. He has been beaming with joy every time I get to talk to him. He loves the Brazilian people and is finding the adventure in every difficulty. Missionaries there don’t have bikes or cars, they walk everywhere in 95 degree heat. The Arizona sun must have prepared him for that because he seems fine. He says it’s pretty much about 90 -95 degrees every day of the year in Cuiaba. Their church building is an hour walk from where they live but he doesn’t complain about anything. He just loves being there and serving and teaching the people.
Here’s a letter from today…
Ola familia! This week was absolutelù epic, yet again! We’ve got some new people were teaching, some people fell off the face of the earth, Halloween came and went, we didn’t even notice, they barely celebrate it here. Happy birthday to KIRRRAA!!! Love you and miss you so much lil sis! So, I ́ll cut right to the highlights of this week:
We have Gustavo on date for baptism!!! He~s this 18 year old kid who lives pretty close to us, and we usually just teach him while he’s working his family’s store during the slow hours of the day. He also trains and teaches Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and we got permission to go watch his big fight on the 9th, so that’s pretty epic. But he is just soooo humble, and so willing to recognize the influence of the spirit. He’s actually been reading the Book of Mormon, which we can almost NEVER get people to do, and, ANNNDDD he was taking NOTES! AND UNDERLINING! We didn~t even tell him to! He is just so awesome, I cannot wait to keep watching him progress. Also, this was my first time actually inviting someone to baptism and it was pretty epic.
The other super awesome thing this week was Lea, the one who was just baptized. She has also been reading the Book of Mormon super well, and just seriously feels like a full blown member. She is just visibly happier every single time we see her, and it’s awesome. So, on Saturday we were teaching her about sharing the gospel, and she was being very shy about it, cause she’s just kinda a shy person. But then, my comp goes, ́ ́here let’s do a practice. I ́ll beeee…. Michelle ́ ́. And Lea just is absolutely baffled. And apparently, she has a friend named Michelle, who she actually thinks could use the gospel in her life. So we explained that that was very clearly a sign, and she committed to invite her to share something about the gospel with Michelle.
And this is why being a missionary is just the absolute best. We literally just get to see miracles like, alllll theeee tiiiimmme, in the lives of these people that we love so much, and it is just amazing to be along for the ride.
Love yall,
Elder Abplanalp
