Letter # 8: Once There Was A Way.... To Get Back Homeward...

Dearest family! I love you all so much.

To save on time, I´m going to write my whole email here and not divide it. You can put it on the blog. That was just an FYI. I want to say thanks to Lauren, Alex, and Heidi, Nanie (2 letters!) Erica, Audrey and Katie! A wonderful week! Thank you all for the letters. The encouragement is great!

I had a few crazy wonderful experiences! Last p-day, after I emailed, (If you remember we got on extra early, well, more early than usual) it was weird because we weren´t planning on emailing, but for some reason, we did. Well afterward, we went shopping and I had to stop by the bank. We were at the ATM and I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I looked over and the security guard was standing right next to us. He asked "What church do you go to?" We said, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are representatives of Jesus Christ." He asked, "Don´t you have your own Bible?" We said, "No, we believe in the bible. We also believe in The Book of Mormon." He said, "I want one, can you go get me one? WE SPRINTED DOWN THE STREET. We ran into the guy that makes scripture cases and  he asked us why we were in a hurry. we said, someone wants a Book of Mormon. He pulls one out and says GO GO GO! SO we walked back to the bank and gave it to him. He asked us to write our feelings down about the Book of Mormon for him, So we did. What a tender mercy of the Lord. It was a very cool experience.

This Friday we went proselyting in downtown São Paulo. It was a wonderful experience. We passed out 7 Livro De Mórmons; (Leev-row Gee More-mons) It was awesome. We even gave one to a guy smoking weed. (In all fairness, we thought it was just a cigarette until we walked up) And we ran into a group of ladies on break at work (They reminded me of mom and her friends at work) We asked them if they had heard of our church. One said yes, the four others said no. The lady who said yes had a Book of Mormon and the others didn´t. We gave them each a book and told them about it. We realized that we were one short. The lady who didn´t receive one asked, Where is mine!? I want one. WE RAN TO ELDER BRAZELL AND ELDER OLSON (Other missionaries in our district whom I love. They are like my best friends) They came with us and we gave them the last Book of Mormon. One of the ladies (Not knowing the importance of the book) set it on top of the trash can. As we were leaving, I turned around and bore my testimony to her of the importance of the book. I told her I have grown closer to Christ through the Book of Mormon and that my family and I have become so much more happier because of it. She looked at me in the eyes and I could tell my testimony touched her. She picked it up off the trash can and started reading it. It has been a wonderful week.

Don´t worry about me here in Brazil. I am more than fine. I love you all. The Book of Mormon is true. I know it! And this work is true. I don´t know if I´ll be able to email next week due to traveling to Curitiba, but please pray more me and my district. We are going to our Missions this week. I love you all. Don´t You DARE Stop Believing.