Opa, bão?

After the longest day of travel, I made it down here to Goiânia! When we got here, we had dinner at the mission President's house, and got our area assignments! I am going to Rio Verde with Elder Bowen to open an area. Elder Bowen has one less transfer than me and was reassigned, serving in New Jersey. It's going to be interesting because we are both trying to remember our Portuguese haha.

Right now, we are staying with the assistants until Tuesday after zone conference. We watched General Conference at the church on our phone. But, it was really good. There were so many good talks, I can't wait to go back and listen to them all again. 

It is so hot. 

Sadly, due to federal law, we have to wear masks while walking in the street. It makes the heat awful. But, I am so happy to be here. There is a lot of work for us to do, so it is exciting.

Spiritual thought: My favorite session of conference this time was the priesthood session. One thing that stood out to me was when Elder Gifford Nielson talked about how the courageous decisions we make now will affect eternity. We need to have the courage to do what is right. We need to have the courage to serve the Lord, even when it is hard. I invite you all to pray to have that courage.

If any of you have things from conference that you liked, I'd love it if you wrote me an email to share with me!

Photos:

1. Our conference setup (we put the phone next to the microphone for surround sound)

2. Me and my new companion, Elder Bowen

3. A Bakery called "the holy supper" which here means sacrament

4-5. Saying goodbye to the Maryland Baltimore mission 😪

Weekly Sacrament Meeting!!!

 Hi there!

This week we had an exciting thing happen, we found out we can go to church every week, and that there can be 100 people at church! It will be super nice because then we can invite people to church every week, and meet more of the members.

Tatiana was supposed to be at church, but she was feeling sick so she had to watch it from home. We were able to have a couple lessons this week, which was good. Our friend Debbie watched 30 minutes of conference, and she told us what she learned is that she probably should be baptized! It's crazy because when we originally called her she was like "I'll never convert, but you can share messages with me". She is unsure about baptism still and wants a confirmation that that is what she needs. Please pray that she can receive that. Debra, who we taught last week, canceled on us so no progress there.

Spiritual thought: In conference, I noticed many people talked about Joseph Smith being in Liberty Jail. In his darkest moment, when he thinks God has forsaken him, God speaks to him saying "my son, peace be unto they soul". Many people are going through hard times, but Elder Godoy talked about how we can be an angel to someone else, an answer to their cry to God. We can be ready so that when God needs to tell one of his children "peace be unto thy soul" we can be his mouthpiece. I invite you all to pray for the opportunity to be an angel in someone else's life.

Things I hate: Sharing a car with the Elders that live 15 minutes away. But...

Things I like: We got our own car!!! It's a brand new equinox that had less than 100 miles on it. It's pretty nice.

Photos! 

1. We walked down to the river this week

2. The old railroad and Catholic church

Conference Weekend

 E aí bom?

This week was great! We were able to stay pretty busy, which is always a good thing. For service, we went to the food pantry and helped seal cracks in their basement walls. It was my first time working with cement so that was interesting. Also, we were able to find a new person this week, which is definitely a miracle. Her name is Debra, and she is actually in California right now, but she lives here. We told her about the Book of Mormon, and she was super excited to hear more! We also were able to get her to watch conference! She seems very interested, so pray for us that all goes well.

Another cool thing that happened this week was we started a zoom Book of Mormon class for our ward. We only had 3 members this first class, but we are working on getting it to grow. It was really fun and I'm excited to keep doing it. The best part of the week though was definitely general conference.

Spiritual thought: There were so many great talks this conference about loving everyone, and making ourselves better every day. I especially loved President Nelson's talk about Israel, and how it means let God prevail. He asked us to pray to find those who will let God prevail. I invite you all to do this with me so that missionary work can continue forward through you and me.

Things I hate: It's funny, every time I type "things I hate", "mosquitos" pops up on my recommended words to use. It is true, they are the worst. Nothing really bad this week though so that's good.

Things I like: Conference. Also, we found some cool places on our walks in between conference. The weather has been great this week.

Photos!

Quick story, Elder Brady gave us a potato like 2 months ago that some other Elders gave him at transfers. We named it Elder Brady and kept it in the fridge until he finished his mission and went home, then we shipped it to him haha. So that's what that photo is.

The others are photos from our walk around Harper's Ferry between sessions on Saturday. There was a cool foundation of an old Civil War era grain mill and a historic farm with cool trails all the way down to the Potomac. 

Also, I forgot to tell you that we get to meet in-person for Church every week now with up to 100 people in the meeting (which shouldn't be a problem for our ward). I am so glad we get to start going to church again. Maybe it will remind the members that we missionaries are here and need there help in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (And a dinner or two brought over wouldn't be bad either)

Elder Brady received his potato back home