04/29/09 Email

Entao...
As for me here in bRaSiL. Everything is good. We had Stake conference this last week and I didn't understand most of it, lol. My heads starting to hurt because its being filled with words I've never heard before and so I usually find myself spacing out when my companion is just chatting. But I can hold a conversation with people as well. Kind of crazy how things work out. These last couple of days I have been talking to 20 people per day about the church and its been good. My companion and I had an exchange with the Zone Leaders yesterday and that went well. Had some training about planning and some paperwork stuff. And also yesterday we had interviews with the president and that went well as well. Just gotta keep talking in Portuguese and striving to continue to learn and not be scared to mess up. How many times did we fall when we learning to walk? Many times. So when things get hard, just keep on trucking on yeah??
I have had the opportunity to share a message for lunch with the members and I have been talking about the story of Zacharias(John the Baptist's father) and how he had no faith that his wife could have a kid and then his voice was removed because of his doubts. We must have faith and know that with our Heavenly Father all things are possible.
As for other things we visited the slums here and wow have I been humbled. As much as I thought I didn't judge people I really did. At the beginning of yesterday I wasn't talking to anyone and by the end of the day I was talking with all of them and cared about all of these people. Most of these people were born into this circumstance or something came up where they got put in this situation and we kind of take for granted the things our parents went through to make sure we didnt get into that same circumstance. They work really hard everyday to try to make money for their families to get food on the table. Hauling carts 10 miles a day full of garbage and trying so hard but sometimes it doesn't work out.
But things are great here. I am learning so much and growing everyday. I have pictures for you all. I got a little bit of America. YEAH SUBWAY! it was an awesome day. Take care everyone. Love you mom and I love everyone. Thanks for keeping up with me.

Elder Mitchell