Week 5!

Oi todas as pessoas,

Everything is going especially well here for several reasons: I just got to eat at a meat buffet where they carried around huge spits of meat and asked you if you would like more (of course, I politely declined them all; I ate some chicken hearts, warthog, and other stuff. Very tasty!); I also directed the choir last night (Nearer My God to Thee) and got very good feedback; I also get to direct when Elder Scott (yeah, the apostle) comes on Friday!!! Woo! Pray for me please. Also, Português is coming very well; every day is less worse than the day before. I´m able to read o Livro de Mormon and understand almost all of it, which is cool.

We went proseyting last Friday!!! We were given three LM´s to place and placed them all; we had such a good taste of the missionary spirit. It was amazing: even our first contact, ever, went well. We just walked right up to this man sitting on a bench and started talking to him about the gospel. It turns out he had a LM already (which stinks...most people already had LM´s but didn´t read, so we just had to challenge them to read it and maybe give them the nearest church address), so we just talked to him and then said bye. We probably talked to around 20 people (which might sound low, but we were doing pretty well) and, again, placed all three books. The people are so faithful and kind here! Even if they were busy or didn´t really care about our message, they would listen to it. The people we placed LMs to were very faithful and loving - one lady basically comitted to coming to church and maybe getting baptized if she felt the Holy Ghost. My favorite exp. that day was talking to a man who had already received a LM and was actually reading it with his family (amazing man). Elder Lott was a little tired so it was basically my turn, and I felt I performed admirably. I think people should get ticketed for talking too fast - he was definitely over the speed limit. It was amazing, though - it´s been what, a little over a month - and I´m nearly conversational in Português. It took me almost 6 years in German to do the same thing. Just goes to show you how the Spirit will take over and help us to do those things which might seem difficult at the time. Anyway, I talked to him, opened Moroni 10:4-5, and testified of the power of Moroni´s promise. He committed to praying that night with his family - I think he´ll be baptized! That was such a good feeling after watching his face light up as we talked about everything - polygamy, the Trinity, Lehi´s vision of the Tree of Life - and I´m ready to do it again. We do it again next week - in downtown São Paulo. That´ll be interesting, but it´ll be amazing, I know.

I feel like I had a strong testimony before I left, and I believe I did; now, however, I feel like a magnifying glass has been placed over it. I know now more than ever that this is what we´re supposed to be doing. I also found out that the meeting I had about me not being a good district leader was basically made up (why, I´m not sure), and that I´m doing well. We started a tradition in our district to compliment the person who says the closing prayer, one per person. Yesterday was my turn, and I basically was blown away with how kind and observant people were about me. They pointed out things that I had neglected to see in myself, and I know, I KNOW that I´m serving my very best, and will continue to do so.

Eu sei que a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos de Últimas Dias é a somente igreja verdadeira na essa terra. Eu sei que Joseph Smith foi chamado para ser uma profeta moderna, e que ele traduziu o Livro de Mormon atraves do poder de Deus. Eu sei que Jesus Cristo é o Cristo. Eu sei que Ele vivo e ama nós muito. Eu amo vocés muito tambem.

All my love,
Elder Brown

I will be sending letters to our house