LIke the subject says, my mind is literally going nuts. Can´t believe it´s going by so fast.
One of the excellent things about the mission is the consistency. I was thinking about something that someone said about going home and it really kind of bothered me - you´ll miss doing contacts more than you miss doing homework and studying for tests. That is so true. It is also interest how true the phrase Ask and ye shall receive is. In my interview with Presidente Araújo last month we were talking about what I needed to do to have a more successful mission. One of the things we focused on was humility; I can personally testify that the last month I have basically only received more chances to be humble and to get kicked in the pants on occasion to force the rapid change. For example: I have been directing/singing in the mission choir and we finally are performing after many months of practicing and perfecting our songs. THis last week I got really sick -- not sick enough to make me stop working (that won´t happen), but sick enough to be without any kind of voice, and with singing out of the question. To paint a picture, I sang a low A flat when I woke up on Thursday. I tried everything - praying, fasting, etc., and nothing worked. we arrived at the time to sing for everyone and basically I had to sing like most rock stars do nowadays - bad and with my throat. It stank, and I have never wanted to crawl inside my shell so badly. I cried. I don´t cry like that!! It was miserable. BUT (and there is a but), I am doing very well. I had another interview with Presidente yesterday and he congratulated my on my progress. Obviously there is a long race to run yet but the progress is comforting. Our next target: patience! One thing I have been focusing on is baptisms, being the target and the scale in which success is measured. It is not that way, as I have been learning. It´s been almost a month since the Lord´s last baptism here in Autódromo, but I have been giving it everything I have, and I´m not ashamed. We can only keep going, and do a little better than we have been doing.
I have been starting to enjoy soccer (futebol), mostly because there is nothing, NOTHING else to play or do on Pday when we don´t have choir. We need to introduce these crazies to real Football. Right? Right.
We have a baptism scheduled for Saturday! Ziza! She´s almost a million years old and she has a bigger beard than me! She´s really cool and a lot of other Elders tried to baptize her, but they couldn´t get her to church...we did.
She wasn´t baptized... but she will be this next week.
Wednesday, 12/5/10
This is now the next week, as my last letter didn´t send. Here´s the big stuff this week.
Wé´ve continued struggling on trying to find the elects here in our area, and it´s been a trial. WE´ve been teaching a lot and finding a lot, but it seems to be more and more of the same people that don´t want to do anything, just listen to the message and sleep. It´s been a trial, but I know that our efforts will not be wasted and that we will find the people that are being prepared for us. I have been focusing my studies entirely on faith, and I´ve learned a lot from the scriptures and Preach My Gospel. They really are inspired books, written by God´s prophets.
We had another round of the Musical Presentation, O Cristo Vivo. I´m pleased to announce that I did have a voice this time and it was amazing - one of the better singing experiences of my life. We packed that chapel in the middle of CUritiba with about 1,000 people, and it felt really good and cleansing. The Spirit was very strong, and we´ve already heard of people who have baptismal dates marked because of the presentation. Also, we got to hear an excellent soprano, Phoenix Luz, who is from here and lives in the US. She is awesome! It was a really great experience and we all enjoyed the SPirit there.
Other than that, it´s been a lot of the same thing - work, work, work, eat a little (actually a lot; they feed us until exploding here), work, sleep, etc. It´s been good this transfer because my companion is humble and a very hard worker, and though there are always little things that are weird, the work is what´s bringing us together. Elder Sousa is great!
Really tired...we had an activity with our district today and we played a little futebol. I´m better than I was, but it stinks to be terrible at a sport. More of the humility factor - yes!
We also had - phone call home! It was awesome to talk with the family and I hope they know I love them and hope it was an awesome Mother´s Day.
Love you all! THanks so much for your concern, prayers and love - they are felt by the missionaries. Fogo nos ossos!
Elder Brown
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