Week 7: 1st week, 1st baptism

Pancakes for my last day in the CTM!

Monday- I am very very grateful to learn from the spirit.

Tuesday-I am grateful for tender mercies;miracles.

Wednesday-I am grateful for organizing and recognizing when we need the spirit more.

Thursday-I am grateful for happy endings.

Friday-I am grateful for the missionaries in my district.

Saturday-I am grateful to recognize what I have been taught.

Sunday-I am grateful for the sacrament and learning about the missionary song ^How Can I Be^.

All the new missionaries with President and Sister Marsh.

Turns out saying goodbye to your first district is very hard and sad and leaving the MTC is sad, but it's ok because now I have the real stuff.

My comp is Elder Rosa from somewhere in Brazil, I forgot where and he is pretty great and speaks good English.

President and Sister Marsh.

Elder Rosa

On the first day in the field so much happened. There was 1 miracle and we taught 2 lessons.

So apparently there has just always been this giant rat that lives in the oven and my companion will never touch it, I didn't believe it at first and was just kind of like whatever but now I believe and am going to kill it, when I told him that I wanted to kill it he was like no, it will kill you. The number of lives that should be in our house is 2, me and my companion but nopeeee we have many many lives in our house, Lizards, a massive rat and countless cockroaches, we kill multiple cockroaches everyday.

Well never mind a president came by and my comp told him about the massive rat that lived in the oven, and he took one look at it and said this is trash, Throw it out and I'll get you a new one. So sadly I never got to really get rid of the rat.

Oven with the rat.

Leaving my mark in Brazil. Literally

Someone spelled my name wrong.

Really short door

How short is this ceiling?

My 1st baptism!!

I baptized a girl named Gleice, she is 22 years old and is married to a guy who has never been to church, so hopefully we can teach him and get him baptized. She really seemed ready for the Gospel. It was a pure miracle that I got through all the words for the baptism. I am very grateful for the opportunity. She had already been taking the lessons from my comp and I was just lucky enough to come in at the right time to have a baptism in my first week!! It is interesting how people are just like yeah baptism isn't for me but it's for my brother or my wife or my best friend, like well actually baptism is for everyone Ç) We walk past a Jehovah~s Witness church on the way to ours and we sort of compete for the same people. We see them out ^proselyting^all the time. They just stand on the side of a street with flyers sort of thing, its wack. Anyways we have a baptismal date for Alemma who's daughter got baptized the week before I got here. 

A interesting thing here is that people have nice phones and nice tv's and nice cars, BUT really bad living conditions, it is so weird. Also we were walking in the street and we see this dude like dance walking or something but he was jamming out to whatever he was listening too. After we passed him, we looked back and he was full on like salsa dancing with himself in the middle of the street, oh Brazil, what a place.

Gleice!

Jennifer, Elder Rosa, me and Gleice

Gorgeous sunsets!

Sunday was good and I thought that I would have to give a talk but luckily because it's a special sacrament meeting I am giving one next week. All the members brought food for after the sacrament meeting and it was amazinggg, so much food and it was so good.

I have felt so cut off from home and the real world because I don't have access to the internet;computers like I did in the MTC, and we don't have phones... so that transition has been difficult but I have been strengthened as I focus on serving others, In fact I was in a members house and they were drying dishes so I grabbed a rag and started helping and they told me to stop but I said that I am here to serve, I like this and all they said was true and then they let me help and gave me a better rag hahaha.

Also good news I am pretty darn sure that we will be getting smart phones in the coming months so I'm hoping that it is sooner than later! Every single person has a smartphone here, like even the hobos so hopefully the missionaries are next in line.

I learn so much everyday it is crazy and my Portuguese continues to progress even though sometimes I feel like I know NADA!

FELIZ NATAL- I hope you have a very good Christmas full of good time spent with Family and the cold haha. love y'all. Focus on Christ and everything is always good.

My first week has lasted a lifetime but that's alright.

It's the thought that counts.

PS I am playing soccer with some Brazilian kids in a few hours, wish me luck

Love,

Elder Morrison.