CHANGE

  Fala a gente! How are the friends and family doing this November 18th? At the moment, me and that old orange cat Garfield have some beef because he hates Mondays and I love them, because I get to talk to all of you! But this week was a real solid one, lotsa highs and lotsa lows. I've been having a lot of talks with people in Portuguese each day, and I've also been having a lot of talks with the man in the mirror. As my good friend Michael put it, "If you wanna make the World a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change," which segways into my theme for this email. The Portuguese word of this week is "Mudar," which means 'To Change.' I feel like I'm changing a lot these days, but this week especially I read something that I think very likely will change the future of my Mission, and my behavior each day.

    This week I stumbled across the talk/essay, "The Fourth Missionary," by Lawrence Cobridge, which I'd heard was a really good talk for missionaries (Shoutout to Bridger Thomas from the wanderwood ward for recommending it). Well I read it this week, and it undoubtedly inspired me to make a change. The essay is basically about four different types of missionaries, all with different bevaviors, work ethics, desires, and consequences from their missions. The first 2 types are basically just disobedient and get nothing from their mission besides wasted time, but the 3rd and 4th missionary are where you have to pay attention. 

     The 3rd missionary does basically everything right. He gives up everything he has at home, works hard every day of the mission, serves his full time, but he does it because it is what is expected of him. He will give everything up and work hard because it's his duty, but inside his heart his desire still lies at home every day on the mission. He changes his behavior but his character stays the same. The difference between him and the fourth missionary, is that the fourth missionary lets go of what he wants to do entirely. His dominant desire is to do what the lord wants him to do. He sets aside his desires of recognition, the things that he left behind, and his own concerns. He lets go and then he is free to think of others. Both the third and the fouth missionaries have the exact same experience on the outside, but on the inside one is changed exponentially more than the other. 

     So this had me thinking: Well I definitely want to make the most of my mission, but how the heck do I just flip a switch and not think about my own concerns? Well it kinda is just that. To me, it's a decision where your desires are, and this week after I read this, I promised God as well as myself that I would strive to let go of the things that I want, and seek only to do his will. Will there be a lot of sacrifices? Def. Am I suddeny perfectly selfless and a saint? Def not, 100% no. I was real good on this the day I read it, and then the next day I had several moments of wanting my own desires, so I am definitely not perfect. But the goal isn't to measure how perfect I'm being on this goal, cause if I'm measuring then I'm thinking about myself. It's just a solemn promise that from now on, as often as God makes known his will known to me, I will do it before my own. I want be the type of missionary who loses himself in the work. And that doesn't mean that once the work is done I go back to being my regular self, it means I lose myself in the work, and through the work I am made better. I know that by making the change of shifting my will to his, he will make more out of me than I ever could myself. To reference a past email, he'll make me into the metaphorical Jake Cake, and the man that I need to become. 

The other highlights of the week:

-We had another baptism this week! H*ck yes! It was the daughter of Irma Halina, who was the woman that got baptized the very first week I was here. We've been working with her daughter a lot this week, put in a lot of time but no time is too much to help someone build their testimony in Jesus Christ. It was incredible to have seen a mother and her daughter be baptized since I've gotten here, and I feel super blessed to have been able to be a part of the process to get them here. Blessings in store for them for sure. 

-There is this guy who lives in our neighborhood and I'm not kidding you his name is John Lennon. I thought I was hearing my companion wrong when he said it but nope. He resembles absolutely nothing of the real John Lennon, but every time I've seen him so far he has been insurmountably high on who knows what, and has even offered some to us. If we could only get this guy in Liverpool I'm sure he could make some magic happen.

-This week had a lot of meals with members, which I'm really grateful for! One of the lunches we got to try tubarão e arraia, or shark and stingray. We had to take these 2 big spoonfuls of medicine each before eating them for safety, but they were actually pretty dang good! Would recommend. My stomach however, is not enjoying all of this culinary change going on and has been being a real pain this week. He'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Anyways you guys I think that just about covers this week. 'Brigadão for reading this much, and for listening to my rant about my life. I hope everything made sense, if not email me and I can clarify. Even if everything DID make sense, email me anyway, I'd love to hear from anyone that is reading these words. But thank you everyone again, and if you want a secret PS message, scroll down below the photos, but otherwise, I'll be right back here same time next week. Stay safe everybody, love you all. 

1. Bombastic wall of Mario art

2. He's right behind me isn't he

3. Cintia's baptism!!

4. The Sunday squad 

5. The ol' zone (I love these people)

6. It's preach o'clock