Moved to Sao Sebatiao

Hello fam!

I have to be kind of quick, I don´t have a lot of time today. This week 
has been very busy. We ended up moving to Sao Sebatiao. I´m now living 
with 5 elders in a big living space. It´s tons bigger than our former 
apartment and it´s fun living with other elders. It´s also a big help 
with learning the language. They´re all Brazilian, so all I have to do 
is listen to learn. We spent the last 3-4 days moving the other elders´ 
stuff and our stuff into our new house. (they moved as well). This week 
we didn´t have a lot of time to teach because of all the logistical 
stuff we had to finish, BUT! I did get to spend some time teaching in a 
different area with another missionary, Elder Dos Santos. I met him and 
roomed with him in the MTC, so it was a lot of fun teaching with him 
(he´s also living with us now). We taught 7 lessons there in the time 
it would take us to teach 2 in Lago Sul. (because of the distance 
between condominiums). I learned a lot just in that small amount of 
time. I´m continually amazed at the receptivity these people have.

Today our district went to the chapel/institute building and ate food 
and played sports for P-day. It was nice to have a chance to play 
basketball and fooseball. I miss those things, haha.

Things are just as great as ever. I still learn tons from every person 
I meet and all the people we get to teach. I´m hoping we will be able 
to teach Maria again.

Ah! One thing that happened Sunday! A guy named Eduardo just showed up 
at church yesterday. We had never contacted him and he hasn´t ever been 
to our church, but he said he passed by the day before, saw the 
visitors´ welcome sign, and felt that he should go there for church the 
next day. E. Parada and I were so surprised because it´s already 
difficult to get people to church, and Eduardo just showed up. He´s 
married and has two kids, 10, and 14 yrs old. We have plans to teach 
him this week and I´m excited to get to know him.

Oh and I´ve decided, to help my Portuguese develop, to set a goal of 2 
jokes in Portuguese per day. So far I´ve done pretty well. To count it 
as a joke, at least 2 Brazilians have to laugh and I have to be able to 
sense that they don´t feel obligated to laugh. Wish me luck! (and no, 
I´m not dreaming in Portuguese yet, but I don´t think I have time for 
dreams anyway. My sleep feels like 2 minutes every night)

Love!

Oi from Lago Sul !

Hey guys! I´m sure everyone is super busy at home because of school starting. It´s so weird not to be going back to school in August.

 

    We´re getting more and more used to our area, Lago Sul. It´s definitely different than all the other Brasilia areas. This week E. Parada and I were able to bring two people, Juvialdo and his wife Sandra to church with us. It makes you so happy to have people come to church with you after looking for people to teach for a whole week. After church we were able to visit with Maralene, who we met near the bus stop. She is such a happy person. I really like how open the Brazilian families are that we visit. Having two visitors over to your house you´ve never seen and inviting them to eat with you is no strange thing in her house, haha. We were able to discuss the restoration with her and she is very interested. Also, João´s mom, Maria, (the one who loves to make sure I have eaten) is very open about her beliefs and interested in ours. This week we talked to her for awhile about the concept of religion, what Christ established during his ministry on the earth, and the founding principles of His gospel. I love hearing other people´s beliefs here. It´s a great example to me--the way that the people we´ve encountered are living their lives. Speaking of such, João never ceases to teach me new things by his vision of life. His imagination is unlimited in the potential of the gospel. The more I´m able to actually converse in Portuguese, the more I can discuss things with him and learn from him. Because he has a fresh perspective on the church (being a recent-convert) he is an instrument in re-igniting the enthusiasm of the people around him about the gospel. There´s so much to learn, and there´s so much we can do to better ourselves and the world--and he´s grasped that. Sometimes my grip on my zeal for what I know is true is too loose, and he helps me tighten that grip. He and his Mom are very warm, affable people. Their natural disposition to love gives them an inherent ability to share ideas in a way that sparks interest and makes people feel good. These are things I´ve learned just from watching the people we come in contact with.  

    Alma 32:23 says that little children have words given unto them which confound the wise and the learned. I´ve always appreciated this scripture, because I have observed its truth in my family. The same principle applies to people who are new to things that are old to you. Over time, after you encounter something new and wonderful, you inevitable lose a sense of its novelty. People who still have a sense of that novelty can shed light on that which you have forgotten. I´ve realized more and more that God blesses me through the lives of others.

 

Something you might find interesting/fun/cool/whateverandstuff is that this week I got to talk with Hudson, the guy who studied computer science. In addition to an awesome collection of old books and currency, he has/had tons of computers in his basement. E. Parada and I helped him move everything out. I was privileged to see all his old computers. He had about 30. One was a Commadore 128. 512K memory. So awesome. Remember when Bill Gates was convinced the world wouldn´t need more than a few MBs of memory? We had to test some of the computers before we took them out so I replaced some RAM and stuff. It made me feel at home, haha.

 

The relief society gave us a ton of candy! I´ll attach a picture. I´m super excited to eat it.

 

Don´t be too busy starting school! Have some fun! Love you guys!

 

- Bryce

Brasilian Architecture

The Itamarati Palace or Brasilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Brasília-DF Palácio do Planalto

Bryce's Apartment and Desk
(guess which desk is Bryce's)

Oi!

Finally it´s Monday. I don´t think anyone but missionaries say that. Haha. I´m glad I have a little time to rest today. And it´s always great to hear news and be able to talk/type in English. Time is going by a little faster now, because a lot of things are becoming routine.

 I´m finding new things I love about being here every week.

    This week I felt a little more at home during dinner because one of the members gave us a bunch of little frozen pizzas. I have always lived on frozen microwavable pizza, so I was very happy to eat them. I also now know that dessert doesn´t mean dessert--it means fruit. And all the new food I´ve tried and all the things I said I would eat one day I am eating now, haha. And (ahem) Mom, I do like it. Maybe my taste buds have changed but I like all the fruit people throw at me and all the meat I´m given. ( I don´t ask what it is ) It´s great.

    Talking to people on the street has become less unnerving and more exciting. Of course it´s weird and surprising to be approached by two guys dressed all nicely wanting to talk about Jesus Christ. But the people we meet who have a real interest and are looking for something more in their life really respond well. Everything difficult we do is made worth it by meeting these people. I had a cool and funny experience this week concerning this type of experience. Elder Parada and I were walking on the sidewalk and a married couple were walking the opposite direction--and walking pretty fast. I started to talk to the husband and he didn´t stop, he just kept walking. So I thought, okay, I´ll walk with you! He was totally fine with it. It´ was actually pretty funny. So we walked swiftly with him and his wife the other way down the sidewalk for about 10 minutes. He was very interested in what we believed and had a lot of questions. So we discussed what the Book of Mormon is, our purpose, and the importance of a living prophet while we walked (keep in mind we were practically speed walking) down the sidewalk. We scheduled a visit to talk more with him and his wife but haven´t been able to find him at home yet.

We probably will move apartments this week because the owner drove up the price to more than double what we pay already. We are having trouble finding a place in our area that is affordable with the funds the mission of Brasilia has. We either will move to a big house that actually costs less than our apartment, or move to an area close by Lago Sul (Sao Sebastiao) and commute each day. We´ll find out this week.

While we were looking for apartments, we ran into a Mom and her son in the park. Elis and Lucas. Elis was very nice and was curious about what we do. Because we had time, and she was interested, we were able to teach her about the Restoration of the Gospel, about Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. She committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was cool to be able to actually input constructive teaching into the lesson in Portuguese and I´m excited to visit with her and her family again soon.

Those are a few of the great experiences I´ve had since last week. I´m continually able to learn so much from the people around me, the people I encounter. It´s so cool to see João, a recent convert, immerse himself in learning more and more about the gospel. There´s always more to learn, and I love that. His diligence and charisma for what he knows is true is inspiring.

I hope all is well at home! I hear snippets of things about the Olympics here. It´s fun to hear people talk about the United States.

Love,

Bryce

Living In Lago Sul

Another week has certainly gone by. It´s hard to think of everything we did. It´s definitely a day by day experience. I haven´t thought about the stream of events in the measurement of a week yet. We are still getting to know the ward, visiting less actives, trying to find new investigators, and visiting recent converts. I learn something new everyday. As everyone knows, goal setting is crucial everyday. I´ve learned a lot about planning and about doing all I can and then asking for the Lord´s help. When I set goals and accomplish them, I look back and see how I was blessed in my effort. For example yesterday I had a goal of talking to 15 people in the spare time we had. I had 2 more but it was time to go back home. On the way home I spotted 2 people and had a mental battle for a second. It turns out they live in the same bulding we do. One of them, Lucia, has had the missionaries in the home of her parents before. She knew about what we do and said she enjoyed the missionaries´ company in her home as a kid. When we asked if she´d like to learn more she said emphatically -- com certeza! -- (with certainty!). (I like the small emphatic phrases people use here). If I had neglected the opportunity to fulfill my goal, Lucia wouldn´t have had the opportunity to accept our invitation to learn more about the gospel. These experiences I relate may seem like coincidences on the surface. But I can tell you, when you pray for these kinds of experiences, and you feel prompted to act in opportunities placed before you, you won´t have a doubt that these things happen for a reason. I´m glad to have had the opportunity to learn in this circumstance. Even in the midst of my own hesitancy to act, I was given an opportunity to learn and grow and influence someone else´s life.

When you are in the service of your neighbor you are in the service of your God. That experience and one more manifested this truth to me very clearly--

This week we did two service projects. One was for a member who is renovating the land around their house. The other required the work of 6 missionaries (they came from areas outside ours) to do. I don´t know what we did is called (I only heard it in Portuguese) but we mixed materials to make cement, shoveled it into buckets, passed it up to the top of the house, and layered the cement on the roof. I don´t know anything about construction and I won´t pretend to, ha ha. I can tell you though, that it was hard work. I bet Dad is laughing right now because he has probably done something similar.  It was tough. I couldn´t count how many buckets we filled and lifted up to the top of the house. Each bucket was about 35lbs. I was mainly in charge of lifting them up from the ground to a platform above me because I´m tall. Anyway, that description was not necessary. What I want to say is I learned something through this project. My back has always hurt a lot ever since marching band (carrying tenor drums). After the first service project I thought I wouldn´t be able to get out of bed. When I learned we would be doing this for 4 hours, I knew for sure my back wouldnt hold up. As I started doing this, I thought I´d have to stop after 5 buckets. It hurt. I decided I was going to do it until I absolutely had to stop. Before I knew it I had already lifted 10+ buckets and didn´t feel any pain. I kept going and going and still didn´t feel anything. I continued lifting these buckets full of cement for more than an hour. It was hard, and I was sore, but my back didn´t hurt. Never have I done anything like this (something so straining on the back) and been able to muscle through it. Somehow I continued until the work was done. I knew something was different. Something didn´t feel the same. I don´t know how it didn´t hurt and Im still amazed. When we are in the service of our neighbor we´re in the service of our God. When we act as an instrument for serving others, the Lord will help us. I can´t deny that I was being helped physically that day.

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting in the ward. It is very nice and relaxing to sit in sacrament meeting after a week of business. Many of the youth went on their first temple trip on Saturday. Many of them shared their testimony of temple work (particularly baptisms as a proxy for those who have died) and the reality of the importance of the temple. They have to travel a long way (to Recife) to go to the temple. It´s often cheaper to fly there. It was great to hear the testimonies of the youth and it reminded me of our temple trips. After church Elder Parada and I had a delicious meal at a member´s house. I ate tons of ice cream and drank a lot of soda (he had root bear and cream soda -- not common in brazil). I wouldn´t have, but they encouraged it, haha. I´m loving Brazil. The people really are really nice here. I´m doing well.

 

I love you all!

 

- Bryce

 

Photo's From Brasilia

Now that Bryce is settled into his first area, Brasilia (actually Loga Sol), he sent a few photos from his camera on his preparation day.

Sister Degn, Elder Young, and Presidente Degn of the Mission Training Center

Elder Young and Elder Rocha 

(who also played music and accompaniment with Bryce in missionary meetings)

Elder Young and Elder Cervantes

Elder Young and one of his MTC Instructors

Elder Moody with Elder Young

I'm Here!

I´ll try to include the best stuff. So much has happened in this first week. I can´t remember it all. And I can´t fix the spell checker on here either so get ready for some mistakes. I arrived at the airport in Brasilia and was taken to the mission home where I met the pres. and his wife. They fed us an ambrosial meal and told us about the mission, things we would need, and gave us pillows. I then went to the chapel and met some new missionaries, heard more about the mission life, and then got assigned to a companion, Elder Parada .  He can understand English and speaks a little. We are able to communicate most things in Portuguese. He´s a great trainer and I´ve already learned a lot. This area is a very difficult area in terms of baptisms. In the last 2 years they´ve had 9. Houses have fences around them and are in closed off areas so it´s almost impossible to access people by knocking on their doors. To do missionary work here you have to work a lot with the members to get references. The missionaries that were here before us baptized João. He´s been a member for a few weeks so we still get to teach him. He´s so cool. You have no idea. He´s the typical warm friendly Brazilian but x10. He´s very nice and loves to talk. He knows a little English so he helps me out when I don´t understand. Elder Parada and I visited him in his (really nice) house just to talk and familiarize ourselves with him and the area. The next day we watched Mountain of the Lord (I think that´s it in English) and taught about temples. His mother is so so nice. She´s not a member but she asks lots of questions about the church. She makes me eat a lot of food and is very friendly. It´s so great to teach João and to get to know his mother. This week we also met Edson, who was preparing for baptism when we came. His baptism was yesterday. I gave the talk about the significance of baptism and such before the event. It was funny. Most of the audience was American, but I spoke in Portuguese (as well as I could) and someone translated to English. I wonder if it even made sense to the Americans, considering my Portuguese. 

I met many American families in the ward and had lunch/dinner with them. One person I met practices music therapy. (there you go, mom, your dream for me) I was so happy to talk to her about it and she told me a lot about what it was (all in English of course). She went to BYU too. Their whole family is American. One of the members in the ward who has fed us twice works in Computer Science. So I got to talk about Ubuntu with him. This place is just full of blessings for me. He told some really cool stories about his mission over dinner to Elder Parada and me in Portuguese. It´s fun to learn Portuguese by listening this way. 

This area (Lago Sul) is very spread out, so making contacts and getting places takes time. The buses we have to take don´t come as often as we would like so we spend a lot of time either walking or waiting for a bus. Typical missionary complaint, I know, I´m just laying out the details for you guys. Haha. I got to see the center of Brasilia on the way to my area. It´s so different. I love it. The architecture is very modern and unlike anything I´ve seen. There are hardly any stoplights and traffic runs very smoothly. 

Once I get some pictures I will send them.

A few things I need. I actually need that mission bag you were considering getting me, Mom. A backpack is too big. I just need a small bag like the one you sent a picture of. That´s what I need the most. The only other thing I need is sprees and mike and ikes.

I love hearing the news as always! I have about an hour for email every Monday, but the time goes very quickly.

I might send more emails before my time is up

Much love!

Elder Young

Elder Young Leaves MTC to Serve in Brasilia

We didn’t hear from Bryce on his preparation day last week.  We’re sure he was packing or traveling from the Sao Paulo Missionary Training Center to begin serving within his mission boundaries in Brasilia.

We hope to hear from him soon.

To send him off in style, he had a pizza “party” with his MTC District!

Here are a couple of pictures Bryce recently sent home...

Bryce and his MTC District attending the Sao Paulo Brazil Temple!

MTC companion Elder Bell, MTC Teacher, and Bryce.

Hurrah for Israel!

So this is my last P-day! I leave next Tuesday for Brasilia. I anticipate the plane ride is around 1.5 hours or so...I'm not sure. So don't worry, everyone, I don't have to take a boat through the amazon and swat mosquitos away as I battle wild tigers.

The past few weeks, EFY rock stars such as Chad Neth have been the talk of the MTC. (huge over-exaggeration) Haha, he is an artist that has a few songs on the youth.lds.org website and that's really all the music we have. So naturally, I've adjusted my music tastes a bit to compensate. Music is a nice comfort from the quotidian tasks of the MTC, though. This week it rained a little bit. And it so happened that it rained the day we went out to talk to people on the street. Many of the people around the MTC are accustomed to missionaries walking around, but Sao Paulo is big enough that often you get people who know nothing about the church. Even though it was raining (this was on Monday), we talked to quite a few people and many were interested enough to want a Book of Mormon. Elder Bell and I talked to a nice old lady about the gospel and more particularly about the Book of Mormon for about 15 minutes. She was very kind and curious. She spoke slower than most people we found, so we could understand pretty much everything she said. She liked the news of the restauation (Portuguese has already messed up my english spelling) of the gospel and agreed the world is in need of guidance. We were also stopped by a man who was pulling some kind of trailer in the street. This was interesting. Before we had anything to say he just started asking questions. He had a very heavy accent and didn't really finish his words. We couldn't understand anything he said. He had known about the gospel and has two Books of Mormon but he was insistent that I draw the "heart of the world" for him. Haha. He wasn't really interested in what we had to say, but we listened to him for quite a while. After 20 minutes of utter miscommunication, we ran out of time and had to leave. I loved these interesting experiences. We ran into some other guys (20yrs or so) who were both interested in the Book of Mormon--or at least appeared to be. I'm sure one of them was sincere. He asked where the church was and wanted to learn more. It was so great to be outside talking to people about what we believe. It was a great experience. We get to do it again next Monday too.

I don't have enough time to explain my love for this chapter, but 2 Corinthians 4 taught me a lot this week. When you consider that the glory of god (vs 17 "weight of glory") as intelligence or light, a great opportunity for analogy appears. Cross-referencing has been a great instrument for learning for me recently.

Gotta go!

Love,

Bryce

Greetings from Bdahzeeoo (that's basically how it's pronounced)

Greetings from Bdahzeeoo (that's basically how it's pronounced)

 

I wish I could send more pictures, but other than my district, there's not much to take pictures of. We aren't allowed to take our cameras out of the MTC because if all missionaries did that, they'd all look like tourists. I'll try to send more though. In two weeks you'll get a lot more, I'm sure.

 

Everything is very routine now and my thoughts are shifting more and more to how things will change in two weeks when I leave for Brasilia. I'm very anxious to be there already. Because business is fairly static here, there isn't much that's new...so I'll share a few scriptural/spiritual thoughts from this week.

 

First, yes, I did find another scripture I found funny. It's Mosiah 7:14. The more you read the same books the more you get acquanited with the characters' mindsets/situations. So in this chapter, Ammon goes to the land of Lehi-Nephi. He talks to King Limhi, assuring him that he means no harm and that he is a descendant of Zarahemla. (Too much background for this lame joke, I know) Limhi rejoices and says "now I will rejoice; and on the morrow I will cause that my people shall rejoice" When I think of this situation in my head I just picture him saying to his servant or the like, "hey, uhh, could you maybe schedule a get together for the people tomorrow?" "like....a party?" "Yes, a party. Could we maybe...?" The more I am confined in the same few rooms the more I go crazy, I know, but I found that funny in the moment. And I already typed it so I'm not going to erase it, haha.

 

One of my new favorite chapters as of this week is Mosiah 25. I love the reunion described. Mosiah is reading the records of Zeniff and Alma to the people in the land after they return from their journeys/adventures. First of all, it's amazing that the people that followed Alma and the people following Limhi and Ammon all were delivered from their burdens and grasps of the Lamanites to return to Zarahemla. I love this chapter because you can see how 3 individual acts of faith (Abinadi, Alma, and Ammon) led to such a gathering and reuniting. Because they were willing to walk in faith to deliver the gospel, they were brought back to Zarahemla by the hand of the Lord. There's no doubt that a main purpose of this reuniting was to share their stories written in their records--the new scriptures. The people, after King Mosiah read the records, were ":struck with wonder and amazement" because they were all delivered from bondage. Many were baptized and converted and churches were established in the land. This chapter illustrates perfectly how God is rearranging the puzzle pieces that are our lives, experiences and adventures to fit together. All the things that happened leading up to this gathering were anticipated by the Lord, yet he still let everyone exercise their agency. All it took for this wonderful puzzle to be put together was faith of a few individuals (which compounded on each other). If we could have faith such as these men, just imagine what the Lord could do with us and for us.

 

My time is up!

 

I love you all,

Elder Young

4th of July in Brazil

Heloooooo fammilyy!

Today has been a fantastic P-day so far. After getting back from the temple, we were surprised to see an fancifully decorated cafeteria. There were streamers and balloons everywhere. We had HAMBURGERS. American food! And ICE CREAM with copious amounts of delectable toppings and POPCORN. Delicious. I'm completely stuffed. They cafeteria crew went all out to celebrate the fourth of July. And it sounds like I get to have real pizza today for dinner! Great day. Yesterday we got to sing all 3 verses of the Star Spangled Banner. I've never been so happy to sing that song as I was last night.

Things I came across this week that I really liked:

"We Lived with God" - It's a Mormon message on lds.org under Media Library - Our Heavenly Father's Plan

"You are what you repeatedly do; your excellence is not a feat, but a habit"

I wish I could share all the scriptures that stood out to me during my scripture study. I wrote them all down but it would take quite a while to type them all. I absolutely love having time (as I've said before, I'm sure) to read as much as I want.

A few scriptures:

-DC 130: 18-19  -- We will have "so much the advantage" if we gain more knowledge and intelligence in this life through diligence and obedience than another.

-In weights and measures in the Bible Dictionary, it says a talent = 75.6 pounds. So all we really have to do is gain wait to get more talents.

-1 Peter 4:9 - This is the scripture I should have used when Mom said I couldn't have a friend over to spend the night (sorry if this scripture gets used on you now, Mom....I had to do it)

I'm out of time. It sounds like everything is great at home and that you guys are having fun summer experiences.

How's that cardboard cut out of me doing? Is he still refusing to eat his food?

Much love,

Bryce

New pictures from Bryce !!!

 
            This is a picture of the BEAUTIFUL sunset taken from Bryce's window in the Brazil MTC!

Elder Jacob,Elder Reese, Elder Bell and Elder Young

They lived in the Hall across from Bryce at BYU and they didn't even know each other!  Bryce says they are great Elders and they have a lot of fun!

Another fast week in the MTC

Dear fambam,

Another fast week (I measure weeks from Wednesday to Wednesday) has gone by. All those who told me a day is a week and a week is a day were spot on. The actual events that take place every day do not change often, but the things I learn day by day make very dynamic changes in me. We have excellent devotionals twice a week. I learn something to work on or a new insight every single time.

Since Sunday I've thought a lot about 2 Timothy 3. Paul describes the apostasy and lists characteristics of the last days. Many of the things he lists are already around us everwhere we look. Verse 7 is interesting. We live in a time of an increasing wealth of knowledge and capability, but the simple knowledge, or truth, that is most important to seek is drowned out and forgotten about. The knowledge we should seek as our highest priority is in the scriptures. "continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; That the man of God may be perfect, That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furninshed unto all good works." (2 Tim 3: 14-17)

the Anti-Nephi Lehis were applying Paul's counsel when they buried their weapons knowing they would be killed by the Lamanites. They "were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin" (Alma 24:19) They didn't doubt the eternatl truth of the word of God--which is "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb 4:12) In the same way the Anti-Nephi Lehis buried their weapons (focusing on eternal rather than temporal life, so can we bury our earthly prizes and earthly concerns for more eternal concerns.

Being here has given me a much stronger eternal perspective, and I can already see how it will change my life.

  

Talks I read this week and loved:

The Profile of a Prophet - Hugh B Brown

Flooding the Earth With the Book of Mormon - Ezra Taft Benson

Funny scripture of the week:

1 Timothy 3:4 "having his children in subjection with all gravity" (I picture our family floating up to the ceiling like in Mary Poppins--Dad, make sure you keep them in subjection with all gravity)

Thank you for all the news and the prayers! I wish I could respond to all the emails I get from people, but alas, I cannot. I do read them, and thank you.

Much love,

Bryce

Elder Young's 4th week in the Sao Paulo Mission Training Center

Hello family!

 

The past two weeks have gone by very quickly. I'm counting weeks instead of days now. I spend a lot of time in the same room, so I lose track of what day it is sometimes. I'm glad I have time to read. It's great. I plan on finishing the Old Testament and D&C before I leave for Brasilia. It's great to have a continual stream of biblical, book of mormonical narrative to accompany specific doctrinal study. Language study is immersed with doctrinal study because of the way I have been preparing lessons for "investigators." I'm able to understand more and more what Brazilians are saying, but I still have to rely quite a bit on body language. (That's all that really matters anyway, right?) I came across 1 Cor. 14:2 and when I read until the semicolon, I stopped and laughed to myself because that's pretty much how I feel at this point. That's the funny scripture for the week. I can't help but pull out funny verses that really apply to my situation and my quirky humor.

 

This week I studied the Light of Christ for my personal study. As I read many scriptures concerning the topic, I developed a new interpretation for it.

DC 88:6-13 - Light is in all things. Things that we can see, as we all know, are things that reflect light.

Alma 30:44 - All things denote there is a God. Just look around you.

DC 88:6-7 - If you have an eye single to the glory of God, you can be consumed or filled with the light of Christ. When the light comes into you, you reflect the Light of Christ, and then you can be an instrument for the Lord in denoting that there is a God because you are filled with His light.

 

This almost literal interpretation of the Light of Christ has convinced me of the great importance of having an eye single to the glory of God. I'm so glad I have the opportunity to only think about one thing, sharing the Light of Christ.

In 2 Ne 31:20 I subsituted the word "light" for "light." We can not only have eternal life, but also eternal light.

 

This week we sang the EFY Medley in Portuguese! I know all my brothers like this song. They would have loved to hear it. It was a great experience. I remember meeting the composer of that song and hearing the story of how the medley was created. The songs that consitute the medley were in the same time signature and just fit together perfectly. I don't think it's a coincidence how powerful it is.

 

Thank you for the news and letters from home! I love you all very much.

 

Love,

Bryce

Elder Young's 3rd week in the Sao Paulo MTC

I forgot to tell you guys how the plane ride went! Or did I? I don't know. Anyway, I sat by a Brazilian and had a good discussion with him. I also got to read all the family history stories. They're so great! I love reading them. They're really good examples of faith, and simple examples I could potentially use with investigators.

We got to watch the dedication of the Manaus temple via video. We got to watch the celebration as well. It was really really cool. Pres. Uch. spoke about the long journeys people made in Manauas to go to the Sau Paulo temple. They would take 3 or 4 day journeys by car, boat, and bus to get to the temple. Now they finally have a temple where they live.

I love the letters you have been sending, especially the word puzzles (thanks braxton!). My missionary friends are all jealous. I can take pictures of emails and then reply in letters now, so if I have time, I'll be sending a letter back next week when I can.

Dad, my instructor has a skype username and offered to skype our families if we want him too. He's extremely nice. His user name is justin.alexander.leo and you can add him and send him a message. Or you can give me your skype name and I'll relay it to him. I don't know what he'll say, but he was eager to do it. He's italian and knows italian portuguese and he's pretty good at english.

Every night for the past week our hall/district has had prayers before bed. All the Brazilians are very warm and inviting. I don't even know most of them but they all give hugs to everyone after the prayers. It's pretty cool. I was told by my Brazilian roommate that I had no accent when I talked to him in Portuguese. I was surprised and excited. It sounds cooler than english, by the way.

Love,

Bryce