Email - 4/6/10

Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 7:05 AM


Well, big news, huh?

I was NOT transferred, haha! I´m entering into my 5th transfer in Anapolis, which means I´ll have more or less 7 months at the end of this transfer. The bad news is that Elder Lalli WAS transferred, and that it´ll probably be a good while before I see him again. Which sucks, since in the single week we were together, we got to be really good friends. Elder Carlos was transferred to Balneario, in Goiania (it´s the ward on the other side of Jardim Curitiba, where I served.) and Elder Dutra is going home. He sends many thank yous for the aftershave, as it proved to be of a higher quality than what you can buy around here.

My new companion´s name is Elder Vitorino, I´ll see him a bit later today. Probably I´ll send you an e-mail later today, since I have to log on again to send one to Pres. Tobias (I forgot my numbers at home, haha.) Elder Vitorino is my 17th companion in the mission. President doesn´t seem to like to leave me with anyone for much time, haha. I´ve only had 2 companions in the whole mission stay more than 6 weeks with me!

I did, indeed, get my package. Thank you so much for the photos! It´s so weird to see pictures from home. The whole world has gone on in one direction, while I went on in another. I´ve been getting letters from my friends too, and, well, it´s weird, really. Katie´s married. Megan and Colin in college, Jessica´s a farm girl, and she says she´s lost some 20 pounds (how will I recognize her?) Or, for that matter, how will I recognize Dad? Don´t tell him, but his mustache is whiter. Sharelle finally got a job, Kelsey and Josh are doing who knows what.

And here I am, like always, off in my own dream world, which is so utterly different, yet so utterly similar. It´ll be hard to leave Brazil, as this place, I don´t know how to describe it, but it´s become a part of me. Portuguese comes far more naturally to my mind than English, rice and beans are necessary at lunch time, and I honestly can´t say I really remember things like Sacrament Prayers and Scripture Mastery in English anymore. All the knowledge I acquired in 12 years of schooling doesn´t compare, even in the slightest, to what I´ve gained on the Mission. I honestly doubt that, any one, knowing what a Mission really brings to your life, would never choose anything over it.
This Sunday, at 3 in the afternoon, so around 9 o´clock back home, we had the baptismal services for Eliana. It was really one of the most spiritual baptisms I´ve ever been to. Her boyfriend said the opening prayer, her best friend in the church said the closing.Her cousin was there to watch. During the interval after the baptism but before the close, we watched a brief musical video about Jesus Christ, and at the end, all the Elders who were present in the Chapel at the Conference sang "Nearer My God to Thee (Mais Perto Quero Estar)". This is the first time I baptize someone during General Conference, and it was absolutely worth the work and wait. This weekend was definitely one of the best in my life.


A new family in the ward, huh? That´s awesome! Here in Brazil we´re working really, really hard to find families to baptize, so that the Church, which is rapidly growing in membership, can also rapidly expand in Priesthood power and authority. I felt touched by the talk offered at conference about honoring fathers. It was interesting for us to reflect that, though Elder Nelson of the Twelve will be visiting this month, there is no missionary in the city who far, far sooner, would love to see his own father.


But if you didn´t watch Saturday afternoon, you missed Elder Holland´s talk! Elder Holland´s talk, like always, was AWESOME. But you can always just read Jacob 2 and it´ll be the same thing. We didn´t get to see the Priesthood Session because it wasn´t going to be in our chapel, only downtown, and there was no way we could get there, get to lunch, and then to the Sunday Session on time if we tried. So we stayed home.

It was excellent for us to be able to see Conference in English. I really believe in what was said in Conference this year. In William Tynsdale´s day, and even as far back as in Mormon´s day, men and women were tortured and killed and slaughtered to have Scriptures in their hands, that they could read and touch. People were scripturally illiterate then because the scriptures were withheld. Today we have so many, many scriptures, and all of them easily accessible in our own languages, and yet people are still scripturally illiterate, not because they can´t read the scriptures, but because they won´t!

I love General Conference. It´s truly a marvelous thing. It´s one of the things that most shows the truth of this church. That the Prophets and Apostles and other anointed of the Lord call all the Church in all the world together, and teach them that which God would that they know.

I´ve got to split for now, but I hope your Easter was excellent. Mine surely was.

Love,

Bryan