Oi gente

Oi gente, todo bom? Bem.

This week has been nuts. Yesterday we taught 9 lessons (to clarify, 5 is the standard of excellence for every day) and had the fire in the bones and on the necks, being so toasty warm here. We literally felt the effect of what hard work and excitement can do for your attitude about the mission - our contacts were better and more effective, lessons were smoother, had more of the Spirit, and everything else s falling into place.

As many may know, for a good part of my life I was very interested in getting numbers and getting recognition - I was almost more worried about myself doing well than for instance the team or the class. This is wrong, and as I have been here I have been trying diligently to fix this aspect of my personality and make it a strength. One thing I have learned about numbers is this: they will come if you work and don´t think about them. That´s the funny thing; the people who really want high numbers and just think about it won´t generally earn them, and those who really are earning them through good, honest, diligent work will get them, and they won´t give it too much thought, just keep on going.

If all goes well, and it should, we should have 6 BAPTISMS on Sunday!!!! This is nuts as well. We are being rewarded for our work and it feels great and empowering. Even when we´re walking in Boa Vista on a very hot day (in January hehe. Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere.) and climbing and descending thousands of vertical feet, we still feel the blood pumping to do our very best.

I´ve learned a lot about prayer here. When you say a prayer, you need to be specific. If you want something, you need to ask for it specifically, make a covenant with your HF to do something for it, and then go and earn it. If you do these things, He will ALWAYS bless you with WHATEVER you might need, big or small. It might not always be in the way we think, but it will happen. For example, last week stank. It stank! There was no one on the street to contact, everyone was at the beach and not home, and if they were home they didn´t want anything to do with the Mormons. I got a little down because we wanted to work, but it seemed like we weren´t being allowed. THis week: yes. We´re working like mad dogs, teaching tons of lessons and getting lots of people excited about the Gospel. WHY? Because we prayed specifically for people to be home. THEN, we went and found them. Even if they were waaaay over there down the valley over the river and through the Jungle, we found them and taught them. Like Dad said, miracles really do happen, Daily.

I have also learned something about trusting and loving the other Elders. For my first transfer, one of the other Elders who lived in our house drove me crazy. I wanted to accidentally drop him off a cliff and yell ´good riddance to bad wubbish´. Obviously, that´s against the rules, but I noticed that some of the time when I could´ve been thinking about wholesome and spiritually uplifting things I was thinking about how I needed this Elder to be destroyed. This isn´t what Jesus would do, and I knew it. He was recently transferred and it´s now much better in our house, but I will make a better effort to love the Elders, even if they really do deserve to be pile drived into the ground.

I really love this area! There are so many to be baptized and the ward is really getting excited because of the success we´re having. I know that Missionary Work is ordained of God, and that we bless the lives of generations through our hard work and dedication. I will send pictures as soon as I get my parcel from the USA. Love you all, and um abraço com fogo nos ossos!

Elder Brown
Santa Felicidade, Curitiba Iguaçu, Curitiba, Brazil, South America, Southern Hemisphere, Earth, etc.