Week 56 (Week 10 Back in Brazil!)

 

P-day at last at the chapel.

Wow! I still can't believe how fast these weeks go by. I hope you are all doing well!

Earlier this week Elder Souza and I went over to the chapel, and luckily our Bishop was there so that we could use the computers. We basically just needed to make a few lists of some investigators and members both in our area, and in the mission branch we are now covering. Elder Souza was checking his Facebook at one point, and then suddenly it kicked him out. He tried to log back in, but his password didn't work. Turns out in just a couple of minutes someone had gotten access to his Facebook, changed the email and password, and then deleted any trace of it. Yes we checked with my Facebook to see if it was still there, but it wasn't. It was just gone. I felt so bad for Elder Souza, but we are just waiting in Facebook to try and get it restored using his ID. It was just crazy that it happened right under our noses, when he was using Facebook even. 

We also had a mission leadership meeting earlier this week in which we had to attend since Elder Souza is the zone leader. Well early on, President addressed us, and called both Elder Souza and I zone leaders of the Itaqua zone. At first I thought maybe he misspoke since he hadn't spoken to me at all about being a zone leader. Well, after the meeting we checked our area book, and sure enough in the system I was labeled a zone leader. I thought it was pretty funny that President didn't even interview me or ask me to be a zone leader, but I'm happy to serve, certainly. Elder Souza is still the senior leader, but it means I can bare some of the responsibilities too!

Things have also been getting better with COVID here! If all goes well, we should be back to how things were when I first got here in a week or two. Already, we plan to have in-person church in 2 weeks, and hopefully will have in-person zone conference as well. I'm honestly so excited. Nothing is set in stone yet, but cases are steadily improving, so I have high hopes!

This week I started reading a small history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints called "Our Heritage". It always amazes me reading about the miraculous events of the early church, and the great faith the saints had. I found particularly interesting an experience of a man named Newel K. Whitney and his wife who had been praying for guidance, and received an answer, which was, "prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming". Shortly after a few missionaries arrived, followed by the prophet Joseph Smith. When Joseph arrived he knocked on Newel's door, and when it opened he simply said "Newel K. Whitney! Thou art the man! I am Joseph the prophet. You've prayed me here; now what do you want of me?". Joseph had never met Newel, nor Newel Joseph, but Joseph had been inspired to visit this man, having seen him in a vision previously. And I can certainly testify that prayers are in fact answered. Perhaps not always in this same way, where the Prophet shows up on your door step, but they are answered!

~Elder Kasey Lightheart
Elder Souza's snack


My snack (yes, I hope you are all proud)

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