Week 11

At Carl's baptism. What a special experience this was!

Hello all!!! Long time no see! For those of you who weren't aware my P-day this week got moved from Monday to Friday, so that's why I haven't uploaded a blog email yet. These past 2 weeks since last Monday have been jam packed full of lots of fun memories, spiritual experiences, as well as humbling moments.

Earlier last week we had a day on Wednesday that was planned to the max, with several lessons, but one by one they all fell through. Although it was a little disheartening, it gave us time to plan for the week and for our friend Carl's baptism. Then, that night it opened up our dinner plans, so we went to Bonefish Grill, a somewhat fancy restaurant that we had been given gift cards to. We decided to bring the other elders in our household as well, and figured, if we bought the cheapest entrees, that we could all just pitch in a few dollars each, along with the gift cards, and get a solid meal. Well, I decided to be lame and just get a burger, but from our 3 options of entrees that were the cheapest, there were two types of seafood tacos and a burger. Well, Elder Williams decided to get the "Bang Bang Shrimp Taco", and after eating 2 he was like, "Elders, you have to try this!" So he let us both have a bite (Elder Hansen and I) and it was DIVINE! Seriously, I wish I would have gotten those tacos instead because they were just that good. But all week we have been joking about going back to buy a whole plate of Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos.

I hope to go back here for their
Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos! Yum!

This week I was also able to meet with Cynthia, our Brazilian friend, a couple of times, and one night she made us some Brazilian Stroganoff that is apparently very common in São Paulo. Then, another day we went over to help her staple up some screen fabric stuff for her back patio that had fallen down, and she made us Philly cheese-steak sandwiches, which would have been great, if we didn't already have dinner plans in half-an-hour after that... yeah, we went over to dinner with our Bishop, Bishop Sorto, and I swear the pizzas would not stop coming. Like, don't get me wrong, they were delicious, but man, I was so stuffed by the end of the night!

These past couple weeks as well we have made some amazing progress with our friends. Marco, who had previously not been able to come to church because of his current work schedule, just recently got a new job, which will allow him to have weekends off and this Sunday come to church. Thus, we are super excited to see him this Sunday! Our friend Joey as well, is hopefully coming to church again this Sunday, after a powerful lesson we had with him. Basically, Joey believes the Book of Mormon is the word of God, but he still wants to go to his own church that he has grown up with his whole life. We read a few scriptures with him in the Bible and Book of Mormon about what Christ's church must have to be true, and then we asked him to pray about our church, bearing our testimony that it is indeed the same church Jesus Christ established during his ministry, restored in latter days. We could tell he felt something, that he felt the Spirit, and we are hoping he will act on those feelings and promptings from here on out.

On Saturday the 15th, we had our baptism for Corlette Graham, or Carl as he goes by. It was an amazing service that almost didn't happen... you see a few days before the baptism, Carl had an emergency surgery, in which he had to get a blood clot fixed up. This meant that the incision in Carl's arm couldn't touch any water for a whole week. At first, we thought we would have to push the baptism off for a week, but instead it worked out that he could wear a waterproof bandage over the incision. On the night of the baptism, Elder Hansen and I performed a song called "The Miracle", in which Elder Hansen played the piano and I sang. We also had some spiritually profound talks that were given, and then, of course, during Carl's actual baptism the Spirit was strong. The next day, on Sunday, I had the privilege to confirm Carl a member of the church and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was such a special experience, most certainly for Carl, but even so for me. I'm so thankful that I was able to work with Carl, as he is just such an amazing and elect man, and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to do his confirmation, as the words that came out of my mouth were not mine, but were truly from the Lord.

This week as well, Elder Hansen and I decided we wanted to improve our finding-and-knocking skills, as we felt they were getting a little too routine. We came up with 5 ways to improve that applied to us, including my favorite one, which is to "Swing", meaning to open our mouths for everyone and trust that the Lord will provide us with the words we need for the people (to not worry about how we are swinging our golf club, but to swing swing swing!). It actually worked out really well, and we found that finding was SO much more enjoyable and effective, as we changed our attitudes and focus. We ended up finding 3 new friends in just a couple of days, and I learned a valuable lesson: that our joy "has little to do with our circumstances and everything to do with our focus". I would invite anyone reading this to remember that in hard times, what is most important is your focus, and if you focus on Christ, you will find lasting and fulfilling joy.

A couple of other fun things that happened these couple weeks included the following. Elder Hansen needed to go pick up his suit from a dry cleaning place, but we were on bikes and the other elders that we house with couldn't help us out at all. So just like that, Elder Hansen was joking with his suit draped over his back shoulder, riding with one hand. I, also yesterday, on exchanges with another Elder, Elder Zemp, was able to meet with a Brazilian guy who was the boyfriend of a member from the area, and I got to practice my Portuguese! He was so kind, and both he and his girlfriend were very impressed by my Portuguese for only learning for 6 weeks. But yeah, it made me all the more excited to go to Brazil, as speaking another language is just sooooo cool and special. Ellifon is his name, and he is so so elect. I'm honestly not sure why he is not a member of the church yet, but I have faith that he will be very, very soon

Anyway, that's gonna about do it for my blog this week!! On Monday night, I will be flying out to São Paulo, Brazil, and I will arrive in the morning on Tuesday. I'm not really sure when I will next be able to email, but if I am allowed on that Tuesday, I will try my best to update you all! Thank you for all your love and support! Brazil, here I come!