So first things first. YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! glad I got that out. That is for Louie and Shelby going to Brazil! (I can´t really say im suprised though) Ha funny is that I thought about Louie TODAY and wondered about where he would serve and when he would be getting his call. At this point it is pretty much a guess as to where in Brasil they will be heading to. I am trying to think of where his mission would be from where it was described. It Could be Vitoria or Salvador, maybe something else though. Let me know which mission por favor next weak, I would really like to know. Either way that are going to one of the best missions in the whole world. I am so stoaked to be speaking portuguese with my best buds when we are all back someday.
So our new transfer of six weeks starts tomorrow. We were all anxiously awaiting our phone call today from the Zone Leaders about transfers. Pretty much everybody was already saying goodbye to me and I was ready to start packing my backs. Ha our bishops wife told me it was a pleasure to know me yesterday. Turns out that everybody here in Simões Lopos is stuck with me for at least another month and a half because I and everybody else in our apartment/district will be staying this transfer. YES! From all the New missionaires who assigned here in Pelotas the same time as me, I am the last of them to be staying in Pelotas, everybody else has been transferred, including some of the guys who got here after me. For the record, this transfer, FLEW by. I can´t actually believe that it is already transfers again. (I can´t believe the competition is finally here) We all worked really hard and time just shot past.
We taught a lot this week and we have been finding more people to teach, the other companionship (forgot that word in english for a moment) baptized this last week too. A teenager named Felipe, who is a stud and a half. Love him, we found his brother Ivan forever ago who was baptized 12 years ago and long since stopped going, he has been coming back to church and they started teaching his whole family and are really accepting and have a lot of faith, plus they are just great people and a lot of fun to be with.
By the way, I had a realization this week about why so many men within the church are bald. It is because they served missions. You spend every moment working and sweating and worrying about someone you are teaching, how you can help and what they need. It is exaughsting, but so great! So I will be returning in two years with white hair and a receeding(however you spell that) hairline.
But I did have another actually spiritual revelation about hope and faith. I always had trouble figuring out which comes first. It is hope, but hope is also the biproduct of faith, but it is a different kind of hope, let me explain:
With hope there is hope that has a hint of uncertainty within it, as in I hope it doesn´t rain today, or I hope lunch is good. BUT there is also that hope that comes from knowledge, a ray of light in the darkness, it is a quite assurance, a knowing that everything will turn out right. SO!
Our hope(type 1) that there is something more, something better, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and restored His church through living prophets causes us to ´experiment upon the word´(see Alma 32) the moment we begin to do this our hope becomes faith, and our faith it WILL grow if we continue to exercise it and come to know The Savior. So, when we have faith in the Savior and REALLY know him, we have hope(type 2) a quiet (or not so quiet in my case) assurance that everything will turn out alright, that he really did overcome death and sin and that through him, we can be saved and hope for a better life with peace and happiness in THIS life as well.
It makes more sense in Portuguese and with the SWEET diagram I made, but I hope you get it. I have been struggling over that one for a while now and I got WAY exciting when it finally clicked. I also have a sweet anology with being a missionary and knowing if lunch is going to be good or not that REALLY is a good comparison, but I won´t get into that.
WOW I just looked at how much time I used up, it passes so fast, DON´T WASTE IT.
I really like Taylors insights on Patience and Tolerance, thank you for sending me his letters, please continue to do so, they actually really inspire me to be better and have helped me a lot as a missionary this transfer, I hope he is doing well. Can I get his email so that I can write to hime please?
So this week was a LITTLE rough, but it isnt the worst that there could be. Elder Palandi just got a little down because we worked SO hard this transfer and we really don´t have much to show for it in what we call (results) but I know i grew immensly and I have never felt happy happier as a missionary than when I have this transfer. I feel that The Lord is also trying us, to see if even when we are not blessed the way we think we should (which happens a lot by the way, but He knows a lot better than we do what we need) He wants to see if we will keep going, keep pushing, just because, it´s the right thing to do and we love Him.
I have a lot more to write, but I will stop now. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers on my behalf.
Com Grande Amor, Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo.
Elder David F Morgan
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