Bambuhbam

Hello. I´m a bit startled at the fact that I´m in this computer cafe place again already. Of course the weeks will get faster and faster as they go, but I didn´t anticipate this speed. I It´s hard to re-cap such a fast moving week. I´ll just start re-capping wherever my mind chooses.

Living in a house with other missionaries is great. It´s relaxing and nice to have people to talk to. Today was the first transfer since I´ve been here. My companion and I are staying in our area. We got a new missionary to live in our house now that got transferred to São Sebastião. I got to see a lot of the people that were in my district in the MTC today. It´s crazy how much you grow to miss your friends at the MTC after only 1.4 months. 

This week we visited Maria Rita and Felipe again. We also met her husband. They´re such a warm family. We talked more about the Book of Mormon and explained how we can receive personal revelation for our own lives. Felipe is such a cool kid. He read all the parts we asked him to read out of the Book of Mormon and he is always willing to pray. I know Maria feels the spirit that Felipe brings when he prays and I hope she can realize how happy she can be by reading the counsel of the Christ in the Book of Mormon. I´m always reminded of the attention Christ pays to children when I observe the families I get to visit. The more I open my eyes, the clearer the genuinity of children becomes. It´s wonderful, the synergy that this missionary work creates. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read that when the spirit is present in our interactions, the teacher and learner are edified. How true that is. Sure, being a missionary involves teaching, but the teaching is not done by the missionary. The missionary is only the instrument for relating the message of the gospel. I feel much more like a learner than a teacher. I continually learn from the people around me. I know that will be the theme of this time I have in Brazil.

We visited Eduardo this week. It was so refreshing to meet with him. He lives with such a bright curiosity. He has studied the beliefs and doctrines of many churches and he is self-driven to learn. I love finding people like him because people that want to learn more (Eduardo) naturally gravitate toward founts of knowledge like the scriptures. We spent a good amount of time just discussing the nature of God and of the scriptures. He goes to church by his own volition and wants to know that what we say is true is true. He wonders how people can just say (quotation marks) I know that this church is true (quotation marks). I like that he has this question because it enlightens the difference in mindset between members of the church and investigators of the church. How strange it must be for someone that is just becoming acquainted with the church to hear over and over that the members (quotation) know (quotation) something is true but struggle to find an explanation for how they know. It´s important that we, as members, explain how we gained a testimony, and why we know what we know is true. The wonderful thing about the communication of the Holy Spirit is that the feelings it brings--like love, peace, joy, long-suffering, kindness, pure intelligence-- are as undeniably real as something we can touch physically. Upon acting in faith, we can come to know without a doubt that something is true. Alma talks a lot about how we can develop this faith in Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon. 

I hope life is great at home!

Love,
Bryce