1/14/11 When I said, "Follow me", it was forever.

Friday Jan 14, 2011
7:17 am
i'm going to be getting on later to email at about 5:15-5:30 just so you know. but, for now, what year was grandpa measles born and how old was he when he passed? i need to know for my plan of salvation thing. i'm gonna have a little tribute to him on it. anyway i'll write more later. talk to ya. tchau

4:52 pm
What is your favorite thing about the MTC?Just being focused on gospel things all the time and the language. i love portuguese! its so tight! haha and i feel like i'm getting closer to Christ everyday :)

Is the temple open again? yeah. we have gone the last two weeks. i love it. i think i want to do initiatories next week though i havent since i did my own ha

Have you REALLY gained 10 lbs?? no not 10. its more like 5. and one of my new years resolutions was to not stuff myself at every meal and i hardly eat their desserts anymore because i have so much junk in my room haha so i think i've got it under control
tell us about the Brasilaian missionareis that you were talking about last week.. and are lthey leaving to go to Brasil or stateside? the americans here that are called to go to brasil haha and no they are getting reassigned. two left today to sacramento and the rest leave tuesday to alabama

When did you feel the Spirit the strongest this week? thats a tought one because this week was soooo goood! First of all i had a cool experience with the scriptures on sunday just studying about John the baptist and how he got the authority to baptize because i was a little confused about that. didnt realize apostasy only referred to the m. prieshood being taken. so now it all makes sense haha i love the scriptures!
then we had a really good lesson by the sisters in district meeting about Christ and i felt so close to him it was soo cool. I realized how much He loves me and how much I love him. and thats why im here. i mean i knew that but it was just a good reminder.
Then! the best part! guess who came to speak to us!? Elder Holland!!! it was so tight! puxa vida! haha He spoke to us about how and why preach my gospel was born. Because so many elders were going inactive after their missions. so it is to convert us missionaries so we can then convert others. I love how passionate he is about his mission. i hope im like that 50 years from now haha. He always says in like very missionary direcctd talk how much his mission shaped his life and even will shape our lives beyond this world. and he talked a little about what the average missionary needs to improve on: studying, planning, and teaching to committment. but the best part of the talk was when he talked bout Peter and the Apostles after Christs death. They didnt lknow what to do so Peter was like Im gonna go fishing and they all went and then he came after a whole night of no fish and told them to cast the net on the other side anyway you know the story....john21...but he just made them feel so real it was crazy. Like i was laguhing at peter because he went fisshing haha idk it was funny. but then the point of it was that we have to continue in our calls throughout our lives. he said "If you love me feed my sheep. when i said follow me it was forever. when i said leave your nets and boats it was forver. when i called you to be an apostle it was forever. when i called you to be a missionary it was forever. you cant go back! feed my sheep! you know how passionate he gets its hard to say it like he does. anyway it was really good

Did you teach in Portuguese this week? and how did it go? yes. we have taught 4 lessons so far in only portuguese. one to the sisters in our district as a practice and one at the trc to a random. the other two are to our new "investigator" (irmao brough THIS IS ONE OF HIS TEACHERS, THEY PRETEND TO BE INVESTIGATERS), Cristian. We taught him the restauracao and then a follow up visit to see how his reading and praying went and talked with him about prayer and feeling the spirit. he loves the fact that he can pray from his heart and doesnt have to recite like a memorized prayer. Also we baptised our other investigator (PRETEND, IT IS A TEACHER) on wednesday, Roberto. Then irmao brough brought pictures and showed us the real people that he was pretending to be from his mission it was cool

Explain a little about classes and when you teach, etc... classes we have about 12 hours a day and teachers are there for about 7 probably other than that its personal, comp and language study.

Are you still playing basketball during PE time? yeah, and i run a little sometimes and play 4square a little sometimes when there a b ball game i can get in.
tell blake happy birthaday and diana too! i love you all! yeah send me ricky and mikes letters!