Oi gente,

Oi gente. Como estão? Yeah? Great! Me too!
Sounds like life is trucking along over there. Here too. Its been a good week though. Full of ups and downs as missionary life always does, but thankfully much less emotional. Yesterday was interesting, my zone leader and my district leader worked with Sis. Ferreira and I all day. It was weird to have FOUR of us, but it was REALLY good. I learned a LOT. Most importantly I realized I don´t speak nearly as often as I should. I´m very insecure about my portuguese, but Im working through it. We met a lot of cool people yesterday, and made lots of good contacts. Which is good because almost all of our "progressing investigators" in one way or another fell to NOT progressing. :( triste de MAIS! But we´re praying hard and working to do all that we can.
I had an intesting epiphony the other day. Newfound knowledge is to be used. Now, that sounds like a no brainer, but I´ve recognized a lot of things in my life that I KNOW, but don´t act on. Being a missionary and sharing new knowledge and expecting CHANGE from each person has opened my eyes to how priceless a trait it is to ACT on knowledge gained. Here is a simple- and no brainer example, but to further my thought, humor me and apply it to daily life:
I floss (yes michael, I floss daily) my teeth. Because modern day knowledge has given me the information that to properly care for my OWN teeth, that I USE and NEED daily- I need to floss. Ive known this my whole life. But I haven´t acted on it. Its weird how easy it is to DECIDE which things in life are optional, when told they are mandatory. My mission president is a dentist, so one day in a zone conference he compared missionary work to being a dentist. It was really quite interesting. Because it made it so clear! There is only so much we can do- reminders, the tools to take care of themselves, sharing the knowledge of why, and how- and even cleaning their "teeth" (BAPTISM! Woo!) But its not worth anything if they chew gum and lollipops all day long, never floss and brush, and then don´t change things when they feel the pain of "cavities" sabe? And more than that, think about this: As a dentist, theyre calling YOU for appointments, and paying YOU to do this work, but then not doing anything to stand on their own!

Now Im not saying everyone is like this- definitely not, Im just saying that those that actually act on and use knowledge are so much happier and so much wiser. So Ive been trying to make this a habit of mine. Its HARD. I never realized how LAZY I am. But thats the beauty of the mission- recognizing flaws, and CHANGING them!

Oh mom, random coincidence: My zone leader Elder Kent is friends with Stephen Turnbow. They went to school together and know each other really well. Crazy huh? He knows Katrina, and Katie too. Random. How is stephen doing anyway? I never did write him. sad.

Anyway, Things are going well here! Im happy and have found a new drive to work harder.
Oh, the other day in scripture study I was reading D&C 25
;12 and realized that we get blessed EVERY time we sing a hymn!!! AWESOME HUH?! Yeah, I was excited.