Now I don~´t have very much time, so this might be a little shorter than all of us would like, but here goes: As I think I mentioned, I was called to be the district leader here for my district, which instead of being an overbearing responsibility has been a tremendous blessing. I get to interview people and see how they´re doing, which gives me a chance to feel of their spirit. I also committed myself to praying for each member of my district, my family, and friends each night, which has been immensely rewarding. It´s so nice to know that Heavenly Father has time to listen to all of us for however long we need to talk, about whatever is on our minds.
Brazil is sooo cool. It´s like a different country here! Seriously, even if everyone was white and it was all in English you would know you weren´t in America, and I love it even more specifically because not everyone is white and rich. There are lots of really humble people here who come from really humble circumstances, and it gives me such great motivation to teach them about the Gospel. Today being Pday, we got to walk around and see some more of the city, explore a bit. It´s so cool and slightly weird to see a small Asian-looking girl spouting rapid Português.
I got my first haircut today from probably the coolest Brazilian I´ve met so far. He was singing opera and asking me questions in Português (most of which I could actually understand), and that was great. The whole haircut took about 5 minutes, which was impressive. Plus now, according to my companion, I look like a Nazi. Woohoo. I got to accompany the choir yesterday, which sang A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. When I first started to play the music I was actually very frustrated and embarrassed because I wasn´t playing it as well as I thought I should be able to. After a while of feeling sorry for myself, I said a small prayer to be able to convey the Spirit through the song, not just make myself sound good at the piano. I noticed an instant improvement, and the performance went very well. Just another instance where the Spirit has been comforting according to my specific needs.
Today we get chocolate banana pizza! It is the best food. Period.
Also I got a bag for about 20 bucks that is like a small packpack just for your scriptures and other small stuff; it ahs my name and a symbol of Curitiba on it (two missionaries harvesting wheat, like D&C 4).
The CTM has been so dang good. The only difficult part about it is the language now, and even that is going well, though we dont´t exactly feel like we´re so great all the time - quite the contrary. We had the opportunity to teach Brazilians the first lesson yesterday and it was extremely humbling - I felt like I didn´t know any Português and it took forever, but we did it and it´ll help us in the long run. We´re all working really hard to learn the language, and it feels like we´re drinking from a firehose or swimming with flippers made of brick - tough to stay above water.
We´re surviving, though, and taking it one step at a time. I think that´s the only way to do it, honestly - one day at a time. Otherwise you´ll go crazy, with all the work we do. I also keep getting the feeling that I could be working harder, but looking back I know that I´m working as hard as I can; I will, however, keep improving so as to raise the bar higher, as it were. I´m pretty tired today, but I´ve actually had no problems getting up on time and helping the others get up on time and get to bed on time - again with the District Leader stuff. It´s been so nice to have that responsibility because of the trust and the extra spirit that it brings between our Heavenly Father and I. It´s been such a wonderful blessing, and though I won´t focus on leadership and the things which really don´t matter, I find myself yearning to do even more. I´ll just take it as it comes, I suppose.
Eu sei que Jesus Cristo é um Profeta de Deus. Eu sei que Joseph Smith foi chamou ser um profeta por disse dispensação. Eu sei que O Livro de Mormon é verdadeiro.
All my love,
Elder Brown
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