Yet another beautiful week has passed, I can hardly believe it!
Overview:
To sum up this week in a few words they'd be oddly good. Simple as that. This week wass just so different from a normal week that it just made my head spin a week bit, but in a good way! The first half of the week was normal, and the work was going strong, and then Thursday. All of the new missionaries had to go to the federal police station to do some paperwork stuff to be legal here in Brasil. So, because there's another new missionary in my area, he and I just went to the station and our comps stayed back so they could work. It was pretty fun to be out with another new missionary, but so weird to be missing the work and then it was also Thanksgiving (happy late Thanksgiving yall!) so we also able to talk to our families. It definitely felt like an extra P-day. And then Saturday was also my birthday (yay, first birthday on the mission!) and so I got to call my family agaiinnn, it was awesome. And the other Elders got me a cake, they're definitely my family away from home. We did end up not having a baptism last Sunday, but that's okay, the other Elders here had one Saturday and it was wonderful to see how excited Pietro was to be baptized. And then after lunch on Sunday we, all four elders in my area, took a short little ride with two members back towards the city, because otherwise it's about an hour and a half walk. Buuuut, it was a small car, and four elders are not small. So when we disembarked, it was like clowns piling out of a clown cars.
People:
We're constantly finding new people to teach, which is just wonderful to see people be excited or thankful to learn more of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. One thing I absolutely love about the people of Brasil is that most of them are open to receive messages about Christ and everything, more or less. We have some people that we've been teaching, and it is just such a blessing to see how much the gospel changes people's lives. The gospel literally changes everyone's lives, it's the whole purpose we have here in life, to learn and grow our faith and choose right. (See more in bonus spiritual thought.)
Menu:
If you didn't guess from the title, here it is, we had chicken feet for lunch, three days in a row. And ya know what, it wasnt that bad. I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to eat them, but I obviously wouldn't turn them away. And again, lots of mangoes. We have about 8 right now, and had about double that a few days ago. (They went to a worthy cause, us). Homemade mango juice is fire, too. Although there isn't Thanksgiving here, we still celebrated by getting cheeseburgers and fries, and boy were they pretty good.
Spiritual thought:
One thing I've been thinking about a lot since I've been in Brasil, is that a lot of people here don't have a lot, or what they have isn't super nice, and they're okay with it. They're just livin, L.I.V.I.N. ya know? That's one thing I just absolutely love about the Brasilian people, they're just content with what they have. When I compare that with a lot of people I know from back home, whose lives are 10x better in comparison, but they're 10x more miserable and rather unappreciative of what they have in life. They just think they need more to be happy, or need better, or have to been prettier, or have more money, or whatever it may be. It's much harder for them to just be content. I'm not trying to say oh those people are awful, or any one place is like that, there's people like that no matter where you go. What I am trying to say is this: "the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." (President Russel M. Nelson Joy and Spiritual Survival October 2016). We can be happy despite difficult circumstances in our lives. It's a literal promise from a prophet of God Russel M. Nelson. As we focus on Christ this happens naturally. It's up to us to choose Christ, the rest will follow. Certainly we still have to focus on our life, and the things we need/need to do, that's part of the challenge of life. As we make Christ the center of our lives, things still may not be easy, but it will always be possible.
Bonus spiritual thought:
We were teaching this one lady who is just mad at God. Mad about everything that has happened in her life, and everything that hasn't happened. It's been rather sad to see just how discouraged she is about life and everything that's happened, but as we taught, I could see her whole mindset change. I could see God touch her heart. It reminded me of this quote from Jeffery R. Holland: "surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it." (Elder Jeffery R. Holland The Laborers in the Vineyard April 2012.) It is in God's nature to forgive us, to love us, and to wholeheartedly accept us again once we choose to repent and return back to Him. He wants to because He is our Perfect Father in Heaven, and because He is perfect His love is perfect. Because His Son is perfect, His Son's mercy for us is perfect. No matter what we've done, there is nothing we can do that can drive us away from the infinite love of God because it truly is Infinte. Of course our actions aren't with consequences, but the mercy of Christ always, always overcomes justice. All will be well because of Christ and because God truly wants to forgive us and be merciful to us. Because He loves us. And I love you guys too! Have yet another great week!!
From Brasil with much love,
-Elder Hyatt
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