"If you want me to, I will"

WHAT A WEEK

      Holy cow you guys, I feel like I just got done running a marathon and here I'm finally catching my breath. This week was straight up nutso, so much stuff went down but it all ended well. You guys remember that whole "miracle marriage" thing that went down at the beginning of month? So this week was the follow up appointment, legal signing of the marriage document, and the agended baptism of both Pedro and Amanda. We knew this week was gonna have a tonna stuff, so we started Tuesday running, and didn't stop til yesterday night. Let's toss the introduction into the fire already and get to the REAL story.

      Alright alright so first part of the week is that we decided to meet with Pedro and Amanda EVERY day this week, to chat about how they were feeling, and generally accompany the two of them. Wednesday night we pull up, start chatting, and out of nowhere Amanda drops a dreaded combination of words. She explained to us that she wanted to CANCEL THE MARRIAGE and asked if we could ask the notary office to cancel the appointment we had. What the tar. Amanda what the heck happened?? We talked to them about it and they said that some sort of something went down and they didn't wanna get married anymore. Elder Johnson and I were like alright we aint gonna force you guys to do nothing but that first time we went to the notrary office was one fo the most miracle-filled moments of our lives, and we know God was supporting and pushing us through that. They were kinda just reflective and so we invited them to fast about it, and said we'd come back the next day. We also decided to fast along with them to help them recieve a response about whether this was the right thing to do or not. 

      So that was Wednesday. THURSDAY morning I had myself another appointment with ms. medic to anti-encravar my unha, same problem that I've been having for months now. Before the appointment, I was horrabilizing in my mind about the idea of what if this never gets better and I've just gotta keep returning and repeating the painful procedure for the rest of my mission. I remember praying and asking God to lift this repeating pain from me, to make it so I don't have to keep spending so much gosh dang money to fix my toes and to do this that or the other. Mid prayer, I had the thought come to mind of "what am I doing right now? Giving a grocery list of all the blessigs I want and the way I want to recieve it?" No, I'm not gonna do it that way. I changed the way I was thinking and the tone of my prayer, and so said that I would follow God's will for me. He knows me better than I know myself, and if he wants me to endure dumb toe pain for the rest of my mission, I will. It changed my attitude, and helped me have a better outlook about the situation, even if I still did have to get cut on again. But anyways, tudo bem. Once that was over, we broke our fast and the rest of the day went great. That night we pulled up to Pedro and Amanda's house, straight up crossing our fingers they'd talked stuff out. We started talking with them, and holy cow dude they said they'd worked things out, and that they wanted to continue with the marriage and the baptism! As if the initial day wasn't enough, now there's not a doubt in my mind God has been helping us so much during this whole entire process. Friday they got interviewed, they both passed, and we were GOOD TO GO! We had the follow up Notary office appointment Saturday, and the baptism on Sunday, and all was looking sweet as silk. 

        Friday night we get a call from this homeboy member saying he's doing some major construction on his house and needs some hands to help lift weight, and asked if we could come by and help out first thing on Saturday morning. Now we had the appointment at the office booked for 11:30 in the morning, and so adding something else to the morning schedule was risky business. But much like Mr Incredible at the beginning of The Incredibles, Elder Johnson and I took a look at the clock and said "yeah, we've got time." So boom yeah first thing in the morning bright and early us boys are creating and lifting cement up stairs, that oughta wake you up. We help him out, it was a lit time, then we head home to wash the cement out of our hair and get ready for the office. 

      We head over there right on time (things def going much smoother than the last time we were there) with Elder Almeida and Elder Reboucas to sign the marriage document as testimonies. Pedro and Amanda were already chilling inside once we got there, and as soon as we pulled up we got the process started. They invited us all into this nice room that was all fancy and had violin covers of popular music playing, and Pedro and Amanda exchanged their rings, exchanged their vows and promisses, and signed the document at a point. Holy cow you guys, you don't even know how happy I was. Pretty sure I was smiling like a dork the whole ceremony but I don't even care, galll it was such a sweet moment. The next day we had their baptism! It also happened to be testimony meeting, and during the meeting Pedro leaned over to me and was like "hey, am I allowed to go up and say something?" and I was like "dude yes of course" and so Pedro went up to the front and gave this SUPER sweet testimony saying how we was happy to be a part of the ward and about his process to arrive there, it was super special. After the meetings and the classes, we hosted their baptism and we had tons of people there from the ward there to support and to welcome. Genuinely one of, if not the happiest moment of my mission yet.

      So dang, what a week! Had a bit of everything in there. Happiness, exhaustion, pain, laughter, and I'm thrilled to be a part of the ride for all of it. I think the experience is a spitiual thought in it of itself, but I want to say that all of the success I've had on my mission is because of Jesus Christ. Any time something is going well or we're changing peoples outlook on life, it's always Jesus Christ just working through us. The way I think about my role here as a missionary is like a member of stage crew during a production. It's their job to do all the behind the scene work and make sure everything's running smoothly, but the spotlight always should be staying on Jesus Christ. I know that through him, the impossible becomes possible, I have seen that first hand here on the mission and especially these last weeks. I know he is the worker of all miracles, and I feel immensely priviledged to be a behind the scenes worker during his great latter-day work. 

Love you all a freakin ton, say this all the time but listen for REAL this time. Reach out to me alright, I wanna hear about stuff from you guys too. Peace out friends, until next time. 

Email Title is from The Beatles' "I Will," from their album "The Beatles"

1. 8/24

2-3. THE CASAMENTO 

3-4. THE BATISMO 

5-8. Temple shenanigans this week 

9-10. Service project (feat. Rando dog that Elder Rebouças befriended) 

11. Bussin it down the lane