January 2, 2018

Hey family!!! Sorry  I didnt email yesterday haha mainly because our pday is today! But I am doing super great! My toes are still the same and the doctor told me that they wont heal until I can walk without shoes and socks haha so basically when i finish the mission. We have water and my companion is doing great. Sometimes it is hard with him because he has the same time as me but he doesnt know what to do exactly and i am still learning too ha. But It is good and our investigators are super good too, we are working with them super hard and we are working to strengthen the members, the number of people who attend church here is about 20, so it is difficult, but i have faith that we can help!! I love pirapora already even if it is a million degrees here!! But I am glad all is well at home, I loved to skype you all and talk to you all about what is going on here and there. It is just the two of us living here and all of the other elders in our district live two or three hours away haha. But thats ok! He loved everything that you sent and he said thank you! He didnt understand the jokes inside the crackers ha, mainly because it is in english. I loved all of the cards and everything, it was way cool! A lot of the other elders were super surprised about all the cards I got. But I didnt find the Epsom salt ha, mainly because it doesnt exist in Pirapora. 

This week was super good and super busy for us. We had to travel to Montes Claros and we also had to do a lot of things here in Pirapora. We worked with some of the members on a Service Project for almost four hours hahaha it was super tiring and was hard on my toes but it was super cool. I am used to missionary work so when we had this giant service project it was weird. But I know it helped strengthen our members and others. The other day we were able to teach Emerson and Betania, the couple who are going to marry then get baptized, about the word of wisdom. Because they were still drinking beer and coffee. It was so amazing when we taught that lesson. The spirit was so strong and i bore testimony of how keeping the word of wisdom gives us strength and blessings. I was able to play soccer so well because I lived the word of wisdom! It was so amazing and they accepted our invite. They are super awesome and a family that will help our church a lot. Even though this week was a little bit hard for us because two of our baptisms fell through, it was cool to see the lords hand in another aspect of missionary work. I was also able to give a talk sunday, my first talk in portugues, about sacrifice. And how it is necessary for each of us to make sacrifices in this church, and for this church. Jesus Christ made the biggest sacrifice of all time for all of us and he sacrificed himself for us. It was super cool to bare testimony of how sacrifice is so important. Joseph Smith taught us that a religion without sacrifice doesnt have what it takes to gain eternal life. We literally need to be willing to sacrifice it all for this church and for our savior Jesus Christ. I love the sacrifice of missionary work and the blessings of missionary work. I know that even when times are tough that the lord will be with us, ready to help us no matter what.

 I hope all of you have a great week!! It is crazy how it is already 2018. I cant believe how fast time passes, But I love this work and I am ready for whatever challenge heavenly father gives me! I am going to eat lunch soon and then I can email some more after but I love you so much!!! Thank you for all that you do for me and for your example. I cant ever thank you and dad enough, and the family, for all that you guys do for me. And for all of my friends and family who always support me. Love you all. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!