Jesus wants us to succeed

Família!!!!

What a crazy week it has been.  I´m not going to lie. I had no idea what was going on when I was reading that email.... does anybody sign their name these days?! kakaka Jefferson!!! Your paps and in.... and you know where my guess is...... BRASIL!!!! vamos falar português.   Os irmãos que falam espanhol acham que podem falar português mas de verdade eles não podem!   Brasil!  Eu adivinho brasil!!  Claro, ná?! Estou aqui agora....!  But I´m really excited to see where you get called.  And that sounds pretty awesome with the tramp ball gopro fun.. Man I remember when I was a senior and graduating... those were some good times.. soak it up Jefferson. It only happens once.  Amanda I love you and I pray for you every night and morning.  You can do it!!!  Ok hold up.. I just looked and BYU is in a play - in game against ole miss... what is the world coming tooo!?  But on with the week....

This week I learned a lot about trust in the Lord.   And about Hope.  Monday night was super crazy.   We went and got pizza after I emailed, but I was able to finish my training and everything and then we went home.  Our house was packed with missionaries that came from outside of Manaus for the leadership council. I got a call at about 11 from Elder M saying that there was a missionary missing... He left in the morning with Elder M´s comp and hadn´t come back. Elder M was with the missing missionary´s comp.  The missing missionary was Elder F.  Elder M said that he was probably at the secretaries house.  So we called some of the missionaries that were there. They said that he wasn´t there…..  We kept asking them if they knew where he was.  I felt that they knew were he was they just weren´t telling.  They are all in the same "friend group" here on the mission.  They accused us of not trusting them.  It was Bad.  Elder ** chewed me out too.  I just wanted to cease to exist in that moment………... Eventually we found out that "he was at the hospital"....... After it was all over I remember that I just fell to my knees and started praying. Praying for real.  I wanted to feel God with me. I wanted to feel the comfort that His Holy Spirit brings.

The leadership council was tranquilo.  I think I did pretty good on the training. Everything went pretty smoothly. I talked about how to mark baptism dates and then keep those dates firm.  Then on Wed- Fri we had zone conference.  3 zones every day with a total of 10 zones.  (on Wednesday there were 4 zones.) 

Elder Thompson was not feeling good so we just went to the mission home so he could sleep and we could plan.  So we did. We got there and there were two sisters there, one was sick....me and one of the sisters and Presidente Castro made Galinhada e sopa.  I will have to make that when I get home!  It is amazing!!!!!!! It is just chicken and rice but with so much flavor....! after we made and ate dinner we planned out the transfer. Elder Thompson was sleeping this whole time... he was not doing so great.   We were able to get done before midnight.  Then I took a shower...... but not any shower.......I took a shower with a fire hose of a shower head with water from old faithful... all of this while BAREFOOT!!!! It was amazing!  We got up the next morning early and went to the next conference.  The other two conferences were tranquilo... nothing crazy happened at them. 

That was pretty much the whole week, just conferences.  Me and Elder Thompson gave our trainings on Courage... we started off with that clip from the Joseph Smith Film where they are tied up and the bad guys are talking bad about how they kill mormons and then Joseph stands up and rebuked them all.... It was pretty sweet:)

So every Sunday night we get the numbers from the Zone leaders.... well only a few numbers.  Usually it takes for ever because there are 16 Zones in the mission.  We are usually up till at least 11:30 or 12 doing it.  But last night we got done at 10:40! and we were in bed at 10:50!! That is a world record I swear!! It was great. 

On Saturday night we went with the secrataries to get pizza.  They invited me and Elder Thompson.  So that is us at MR. Pizzo.  That is a fried banana cinnamon pizza!! That is what I call variety.

One other big thing happening in Brasil.  So Like in most of the world right now the government is corrupt.  There was a big manifestation yesterday.  Over 1 million people  particiapted in são paulo alone.  In Manaus it was 30 thousand.  They were just protesting the government.  They want to impeach the presidente.  Her and her party have been robbing money since 2002 but for some reason they keep voting her back in........  so it was just a big manifestation but I didn´t see anything.  It was just in the center.

I´m trying to strengthen my Testimony of the Savior and of the Spirit.  I´m not a fancy righter nor do I know how to spell "writer" but I know one thing: I know that my Savior lives.  I know that because of Him, because of His death and resurrection we can have a hope for a better future.  Anything that is unfair will be made right through the Expiação de Jesus Cristo.  Jesus wants us to succeed.  He wants to help us. We have to show that we want His help by obeying his commandments.

I have learned very quickly with Presidente Castro that Jesus Cristo is leading this church, and especially a Missão Brasil Manaus.  Presidente Castro Always tell us why he does the things he does... it is because the spirit tells him to do those things.  He has told Elder Thompson and I some pretty sacred things that have happened in his life. He has taught me the importance of Prayed... not just pray but praying with fervor.  One thing that I´m striving for is to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost with me to tell me what to do just like Presidente Castro.  I love me mission and I can´t even believe that I´m over 3/4 of the way done.  This is the most important work that we can be doing right now.  I love you guys a ton!  You are my eternal family!  Now lets go out and help some other families be eternal families too!

Elder Ostler