Birthday Week

óla!
Yup, I´m twenty. Really, birthday was a pretty average day, we got home and planning took FOREVER, so I didn´t even do anything special that night, but I had a quiet present opening session and was thrilled over the stuffed monkey to now cuddle with on a nightly basis. I am wearing one of my new ties today too, it works to replace a few of the silk ones that have gotten wrecked in the freak thunder storms we have been having, I am always grateful for the rain that cools us down though, even though it is a pretty mild summer so far. I got lots of happy birthdays´ from members and the people we taught that day, so I felt special, and I enjoyed all the little email notes too, thank you all very much. I felt surprisingly at peace with the passing into the next decade of my life, and then very frightened when I realized I only have to live twice as long as I currently have and I will be forty...
  Elder Almeida´s birthday was yesterday. I wanted to make a cake for him, but again, oven is busted. I felt really sick all that day too, didn´t sleep well at all the night before because of it, but I tried to stay positive not to ruin his day ha. Again, things like presents etc. not really traditions he has from his family, so all my attempts to celebrate his birthday were a little awkwardly received haha, I would like to meet his family someday. We were also going to make tacos at our lunch appointment, I even made special Morgan ´yellow stuff´ and then it did´n´t work out. Oh well, maybe another time. It was a good day though, and we started teaching a really great new family, they even asked us if they could visit church, but unfortunately they will be traveling for two weeks and we won´t be meeting with them for awhile. Sadly the father had to leave suddenly over a work situation during the beginning of the lesson and came back right for the end, so we left the pamphlet with him and invited him to read it to learn more, read The Book of Mormon, and to pray about our message.
  Also! I bought myself a birthday present. When getting my last hair cut, and then watching E. Almeida get his, The man was just passing a machine over our heads and I thought, ´I could do that´ so, when I found out how cheaply I could by a pair of clippers here, I bought a pair and gave myself a haircut. I am actually SUPER excited about it, and it turned out way good; even in the back haha.
  Also, we had an investigator at church yesterday, a man (who was clearly not COMPLETELY in his right mind) stopped us on the street last week, started talking to us about The Book of Mormon. He had found it in the trash and started to read it, found it interesting and asked us to come by and explain more. Ha, I am pretty sure part of his youth was passed with using quite powerful drugs, so having a conversation with him is quite interesting ha, but he understands well and is very creative too, when we were giving a lesson to the members on Sunday about how they can share The Gospel with their friends he gave a lot of good insights too. Also, when he told us how to find his house that has no address, he told us just to ask people were John of the Big Knife lives. or John Machete. I am looking forward to knowing how he got that nickname.
  The work, honestly is still the same, I hope the lesson we gave to the members will help them have missionary experiences and have a desire to share The Gospel, THAT is going to be what makes the difference in this area.
  We just started a new program in the mission called ´operação Salvação´ (operation salvation if you couldn´t tell) Ha, it´s basically just something to help us get fired up and creative, but is the standard council for missionaries too, and trying to focus on working all of us together in our districts and zones.
 We made what is becoming our bi-weekly trip to Pelotas for leadership training. Us junior companions went to another room with Sister Swenson and we talked about training for new missionaries for a few new Elders and Sisters who showed up. Then I realized afterwards that the whole thing was in Portuguese and so they probably didn´t understand too much, ha oh well, it was fun.
 That´s about it for the week, Lot´s of love. I started thinking a lot about Humility and Gratitude, and prayer this week. I will refrain from giving the same thoughts that I feel sure I have already given.
I love you all, take care. Do something selfless and kind today, even if it seems awkward to make the extra effort, I promise it will be worth it.
Elder David F. Morgan