Week 14: STOLEN BAPTISM!!

MONDAY- it was a pretty relaxed p-day. we had lunch with one of our investigators, Dilson. It is really rare to have lunch with an investigator, so that was special and fun. Afterwards we went to the LAN house and emailed for a while, then planned for the week.
TUESDAY- We went to Yasmin´s house and made a big list of all the people she knew that we could share our message with.  we got 25 references from her and then she joined us to visit a few people. Afterwards we did street contacting and made 4 new investigators. One woman i contacted ended up already being a member, but she has been inactive for a long time. she was baptized with 14 years and now she is 28.  Her name was Anna and she accepted our invitation to attend church if she could convince her husband to. her husband doesn't believe in god , but she will try. She was so smiley and laughing and it was a good visit. After we visited with Rodolfo and talked about setting a date to get baptized the coming Saturday.
WEDNESDAY- Today Emilly and Daniel accompanied us for a part of the day. We taught Cristina the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went well having Emilly and Daniel (two youth) with us. Its ALWAYS better teaching with members present. later that night we visited with Rodolfo.
THURSDAY- We went to the Centro to get our money from an ATM and while we were there we visited this HUMUNGUS catholic cathedral and took some fun pictures around the area. then we returned and had an awesome lunch with Joaquim. Then we went to the church to clean and prepare for a big mission meeting the next day with a bunch of other zones from other cities, and president bangerter, and a member of the 70. At night. Elder High and Elder Brown and their companions stayed at our house. So there were 6 missionaries in our tiny house. Since E. High and E. Brown are Americans we ended up talking for a really long time. We sat out on the balcony and talked about everything from what phones we had before the mission and crazy/awkward experiences /stories we have had so far. I got to know them pretty well and they are hilarious. E. High is from Dallas, texas and went to LDS business college for a year before his mission. Elder brown is from Farmington, Utah. he had a girlfriend and worked at a cemetery before his mission. His literally dug graves for a job! hahaha but he is really cool and funny. Us 3 talked for hours, and every minute was worth it speaking English! i loved it!
FRIDAY- more elders showed up in the morning and used our house to get ready for the day and for the meeting of zones. we went out to a buffet place for lunch and that was awesome. At the meeting, there were tons of missionaries from other zones in other cities, President Bangerter, and a member of the 70. I saw some old friends and made lots of new ones. Without notice, i was asked to play the hymns on the piano for the meeting.  i was a little nervous because one of the hymns i had never played before and i was playing in front of a bunch of important people. I turned out playing the hymns very well, considering i had no practice before hand and had to sight-read a bit. the whole meeting was very spiritual and uplifting. Sis. Bangerter spoke first, then Siter Dia, then President Bangerter, then we had a break with food, etc. then Elder Dia (from the 70) spoke. he was great. it was a little harder to understand him for me since he is a Brazilian and didn't have the american accent that made it easy to understand pres. bangerter, but i understood a lot and learned a lot. One thing that i liked was his analogy of the Air-France 447 that crashed into the ocean flying from Rio to Paris.  he compared that to our lives as missionaries and our faith. it was a great discussion! that night we visited Rodolfo and he had his baptismal interview and he passed and we established that i would baptize him. I was sooo excited!
SATURDAY- Practically all day we prepared for the baptism of Rodolfo. i was soo pumped to have my first baptism. i studied and memorized the baptism prayer, etc. I tidied up the bathrooms, scrubbed down the baptismal font, and swept floors. Then we filled the font and went to buy a cake. When we returned a group of guys, Rodolfo, and Elder J. sousa started talking and i stood by and listened.. they were discussing who was going to baptize Rodolfo! They kept looking over at me and said how i had already brought all my stuff, and prepared, etc They discussed it more and convinced Rodolfo to have someone else baptize him. I was a little frustrated because we had established that i was going to baptize him. And  that he was now going to baptize him didn't have any baptismal clothes and it was 6:45 and the baptism was at 7:00. And so what does he do. he asks if he can use my clothing.  I was a little frustrated because this guy practically, ´´stole´´ my baptism, but i gave him my clothes that i brought, because i remembered this isnt for me. He ended up having to baptize Rodolfo twice because he said the prayer wrong, but Rodolfo was baptized and was happy!  After the baptism everyone went upstairs and we played a fun game where we answered trivia questions and if you are wrong your opponent gets to rub a pie in your face! then we had  sandwiches, food, and soda after. it was a fun little party/celebration.
SUNDAY- Today in church Rodolfo was confirmed a member of the church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.. I was in the Priesthood circle so that was special. We had family night at Joaquim´s house at 7:00 and that was a good time.

Sorry for no pictures. i sent 2 weeks worth on Sunday, but none went through. (its just a suspense factor! haha) hopefully they get sent!. thanks for all your support and prayers everyone! i love you!!

- Elder Hilton

Our apartment

 inside

My side is the clean side :) pretty brown sheets

Lots of hills to walk

Their cemetaries

If you look you can see my shadow right in the middle of the splash!

I love the Ocean!!!!

Pretty boats

I just love God's creations!

We are so blessed

Mckay didn't say what this brown dish was...But I think I see rib cages??? Zoom in and take a look!

Zone conference

I got a package from home!!!!!

here i feel like cinderella. the broom and i are best friends! haha. im the only one who cleans and even sometimes birds even fly into our house and hang out.   and i also inherited Harry Potter flying magic broomstick ´´NINBUS 200´´ or whatever hahaha.

I AM ELDER CINDERELLA!!!

banner in the background is for fathers day here. dias do pais!!

HUMUNGUS catholic cathedral

eating and drinking fresh coconut!

the ties Gloria made for us!!!

Week 13: my purpose as a missionary

MONDAY- First P-day in Iheus! after emailing and lunch we headed to the Chapel and stayed there for 2 hours, i practiced the piano and loved every minute of it. Around 4 we left to do visit some beaches and cool spots around our area and i took loootss of pictures. Emile was our ´´tour guide´´. She took us to some really beautiful places and after we walked to the centro ( a pretty long walk, but pretty too). I bought a pull-up bar and some other supplies for the house, then we took an ônibus home and planned for the next day. i also weighed myself in the centro and i was 78 kilos. Idk what the conversion for that is in pounds. somebody do the math and let me know! :)
TUESDAY-Nothing special happened today. We did a few verifications and we taught the beginning of the restoration to some old feller. i forgot his name. The family that we were supposed to have lunch with couldnt so they gave us money to buy lunch. we went to this ´´all you can eat´´ place. we barely had enough money, but it worked out and it was great!  Today we made 5 new investigators. one of them was a man that i started talking to while we were in line to the ATM. At this point in my mission, i am understanding a lot more than i can speak. It´s a little frustrating because i want to be able to speak with ease, but im learning everyday.
WEDNESDAY- today our lunch fell through, but my companion called Joaquim and he agreed to have us over for lunch at 2:00 pm. We continued our studies until then, but when we arrived lunched wasnt ready and we waited until 5:00 pm . We waited at his house for a little over 4 hours. while we were waiting we helped him clean a big paint spill in one of the rooms in his house. we used a pressure washer and knives to scrape the paint off the floor! because of this we had a pretty unproductive day. Funny story, when i took a shower the power went out again and we didnt get to use our fans because there was no power so it was a hot night!
THURSDAY- Today was a great zone meeting. this was only my second zone meeting and it was a lot better than my first. I understood a lot more of what was being said and i got a package and a small bubble wrap envelope! Today i talked a lot with the other missionaries, but i talked more with Sister Scowcroft and Elder Fernandes. Sister Scowcroft is from New York City. She has a younger brother that has already returned from his mission in Japan and she has another brother in the São Paulo CTM right now. It was nice talking English with her but at the same time it felt odd.. Elder Fernandes is from Capo Verde, Africa! He is cool and i sensed that he is a powerful missionary. Another Funny story: throughout the meeting my box with my name on it was sitting on a table next the the chalkboard, right in my vision. It was screaming my name the whole time. When the meeting was over, we were already late for lunch, so we quickly took pictures as a zone and headed out for the ônibus. I grabbed my box and when we were walking down the road from the church to catch the ônibus Elder Fernandes came running out with my other little bubble wrap package. I didnt even realize that i had another package. I saw both, but i was so excited i got a box from my family that i forgot to even look at whose package the other one belonged too! A classic McKay. I carried my packages on the ônibus and all the way to lunch, which was messed up again. the family forgot they were feeding us today so they gave us a little money for lunch. We found a cheap restaurant where we could affort a meal after lots of searching.
I opened my box and i was so happy!  it consisted of Doritos, Kit-kats, pringles, and 2 jars of PEANUT BUTTER!! YESS! the other smaller package had some medicine and a letter from my mom and Raimie.
FRIDAY: Today we taught the mother of Rodolfo the Plan of Salvation. She said she liked it and felt good about it. This time around i felt like i did a better job teaching the parts that i taught, even though it was far from perfect. She gave us cake afterwards so it was an extra-awesome lesson. Also today, all of our verifications were unsuccessful. Everybody on our list didnt live in the same address anymore.
SATURDAY: Today we started our fast for a mission activity with President Bangerter. Once again our lunch fell through. After visiting with Dilson we were walking back home when the bishop drove past us  and he stopped to give us a ride. And apparently the ride came at a cost, because he asked Elder J. Sousa and I to give 10 minute talks in church tomorrow. We had so little time to prepare and at first i was a little shocked and stressed because of the short-notice. And of course my talk was to be given in Portuguese. So with the hour and 1/2  of time i had at night, i prepared a talk about two Christlike attributes. Other than recieving an assignment to talk in Sacrament meeting 3 other good things happened today. We taught the Restoration to Cristina and Alessandro. Cristina is an elderly women who is living in some difficult circumstances. She lives in a tiny house with very little resources. She is constantly worried about her safety because her neighbors use and sell drugs. We told her she is safe because she is with us and she calmed down. We continued to teach and she agreed and shouted amen a few times throughout the lesson. Every now and then she would inform us us some difficulties that she is facing and we did our best to address them. At one point in the lesson she began to cry. We explained the ´´fruits of the Spirit´´ and told her that she was feeling the Spirit. We said she felt ´´good and happy´´ inside. We set a date for her to enter into the straight and narrow path and she accepted to preparer herself. Afterwards we taught Alessandro (the man i contacted in line to the ATM) the Restoration. We didnt quite get through all of it and he had some doubts, but other than that he accepted it pretty well.
SUNDAY- My talk in church went well. I fell short of 10 minutes, but i felt like i did my best for the little time i had to prepare. and i turned out fine because Elder J. Sousa ended up going for 15 minutes, making up for my short talk :). After breaking our fast and eating a delicious meal a Nazilda´s house we went out to work. Here´s the bad news... literally all of our plans fell through. No one was home that we had planned to visit. Even our family night with Joaquim got cancelled. Sundays tend to be a difficult day to find people. they are usually sleeping or not home. and if we want to do contacting on the street, there i hardly anyone walking around, because everyone  is either at a bar, partying, or at the beach, or in their churches. So we stopped at Gloria´s house and ate cake, then passed by Rodolfo´s house and visited with him for a while, then headed home. We think Rodolfo will get baptized this coming Saturday! He just needs to quit drinking coffee and have his interview. he is a really smart dude and he knows that what he has been taught is true. he also consistently attends church so he is really ready! Shout out to Rodolfo!
I want to talk about my purpose of being a missionary. the purpose of a missionary is to invite everyone to come unto Christ be helping them recieve the restored Gospel  through repentence, paptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Lots of people think that missionaries are only here to baptize. I am serving as a missionary principally to bring people to the knowlege of Christ´s atonement. Many people dont truly know about this and dont understand the word ´´atonement´´. what ive learned about the Atonement of Christ is that we need to become ´´at one´´ with Christ. this means understanding the four parts of the Atonement: 1. that he sacrificed for us, 2. that his blood was shed for us, 3. that he died for us, then 4. that he was resurrected. These are the fours parts of the Atonement. Many people dont realize that without being baptized by the proper power and authority, they cant fully enjoy all the blessing of the Atonement. Through Christ´s atonement we will all be resurrected. that is one blessing that every single person that ever existed on this earth will have reguardless of how they lived. We will all regain a perfect body and be immortal. But if we are baptized with the proper authority, like Christ was, and live in accordance with His pure gospel, we have the access to true repentence through partaking of the sacrament- renewing our baptismal convenents and recieve forgiveness. This knowledge that this is possible is so great. the fact that we can live with our families forever in Heaven and enjoy all the blessings that our Father in Heaven (God) has in absolutely incredible. And what is even more amazing is that THIS IS REAL. Jesus Christ is REAL, his miracles were  REAL, his sacrifice and atonement for us is REAL, his ressurrection was REAL, and his plan for us is REAL. I know without doubt that this is what God has in store for us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For these reasons i am in a foreign land, struggling and learning how to love the people and Portuguese here, so i can share this wonderful message with them. I know that this is true and that the true gospel of Christ is for everyone. It can help and heal anyone who is hurting or needs peace and truth in their lives. I know this because ive seen its healing power in my own life. i invite all people who read this email who havent learned all they would like about the blessings that are in store for them, to ask. Ask one of your Mormon friends, and more importantly ask God if these things are true. I know they are true and thats why i am spending 2 years of my life sharing this with others, when i could be studying and going to college, etc. I love this work and i hope everyone gets a chance to learn more about this Gospel. I love you all!

-Elder Hilton

some other questions that ive answered today:

1. Are the people way less dressed because they are on the coast? answer- more or less, it isnt as bad as i thought. its mosty just short shorts. i havent seen many bikinis or stuff like that.
2.  Are the people more humble?- i dont really know.  but i like the people here better than my other area.
3.  Is the city bigger or smaller?- the centro is way bigger and better, and my area has actually roads, like cobble stone and others are normal like cement. this is good for my asthma, in conquista it was pretty much all dirt roads so it was really dusty and hard on my breathing.  so i still use my inhaler here, but not as much as in Conquista, and my shoes stay a lot cleaner here.
4.  How's the food?- exactly the same as Conquista, delicious!
5.  Does anyone speak English?- not really. people study it a bit and they just know really reallllyy simple phrases, but not much. it is always really funny when they randomly start trying to speak a phrase in english. one announcer old dude, shouted at us through his microphone, ´´hey! mormons! you americans!! ´´ i walked over to him and he ended up being reeally nice and only wanted to know if i was american and then he spoke a little english that he knew. it was funny!
6. What are you going to do for pday today?- probably nothing. elder sousa wants to sleep. i cant believe the things he wants to do on P- day when we have the beautiful creations of God for us to go visit and take pictures of! hahaha its a little odd

Week 12: Goodbye Conquista, Hello ILHEUS!!

 When i found out i was being transferred to Ilheus, i was instantly filled with joy. i had only heard good things about this area, besides that it rains a lot and there are mesquitos. My area is Nelson Costa and we work in lots of other bairros ( a community or region within a city), and it is beautiful! My new companion is E. J. Sousa. Elder Brito trained him. im ready to work hard and have fun and grow.
    WEDNESDAY:   Even though i only got 3 hours of sleep the night before i left, i didnt sleep at all on the 6 hours bus ride. it was too beautiful!  it was one of the best 6 hour rides i've ever had. despite how tired  i was i couldn't keep my eyes shut. Looking outside was too interesting. I felt like i was on  a safari.. I saw green mountains and hills, jungles/rainforests, waterfalls, rivers, animals, strange people, and a georgeous sunrise. On the way, the bus passed through a bunch of cities ( Itapetinga, Itabuna, and others) I loved how green it was; a big change from Vitoria da Conquista. when i arrived i was greeted by a friendly group of missionaries, including my new companion. we packed my luggage up into a taxi and headed out to my area. When the taxi crossed a bridge over a big river that opened up into the ocean i was literally freaking out and scrambled for my camera. It is so beautiful and  a little ugly because of the poverty in some areas, but i love all of it!  After lunch, we visited a more elderly couple, Ivo and Gloria. Ivo looks old and smells like smoke, but he is hilarious. he tells jokes and he loves the missionaries. he isn't a member, but is wife, Gloria, is. She is diabetic and she isn't capable of giving herself her diabetic shots she needs so sometimes she has us do it and i ended up giving her a shot. i DO NOT like needles and it was hard poking the needle into her. i really didn't want to do it, but she insisted haha. Another funny thing is that she legitimately believes that she was abducted by aliens and stayed with them for 16 years. She claims she saw two little men with antennas, and she also saw many colors floating around, in her words. She says no one believes her, but she knows this happened. pretty crazy, huh. i don't know what to think about it hahaha. She is really nice though and she is knitting me a pretty tie. After that we taught the Restoration to two women in their home.
   THURSDAY: Lunch today was amazing. it was a long walk and the members house was located ontop of a big hill in the top floor of a big building/apartment complex. when we entered i was blown away with the view. you could see the ocean and everything. after lunch we went to visit José. I dont know why its always the shirtless men with huge bellies that are missing parts of their bodies. José doesnt have 2/3 of his pointer finger and he is missing the 1st joint of his thumb. After teaching him a lesson he tried to get us to eat some of his fish he had sitting out on a table. i didnt take up the offer, i only took some pictures :)
    FRIDAY: It turned out there were some type of conflicts so we didnt have district meeting today. We went to visit a bunch of people and tryed to do verifications, but no one was home!! so we didn't visit anyone except gloria and Ivo again.
   SATURDAY: E. Neves and E. bittencourt showed up around 9:00 pm. We woke up at 4:00 am to walk to the airport to drop off E. Neves. He flew to Salvador. I didn't like waking up that early, but it was totally worth it to see the sunrise over the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful and i got some awesome pics. We planned to work harder today because yesterday was bad. E. Bitencourt was with us for the day until E. Neves returned. E. J . Sousa was a fubeca (rule breaker) today! we walked to that silly card game place and he wasted an hour playing a silly game called ´´Magic``. its like Yu-Gi-Oh / Pokemon, but different. I wasn't too happy he was doing this,and i just sat and waited for him but after we invited the group he was playing with to church and one actually came on sunday so that was good!
   SUNDAY: I was warmly welcomed into the ward. i made lots of new friends, and a lot of youth were excited to be my friend. They actually had 6 investigators show up to sacrament! that was really exciting. Members here like americans. they think i am a lot less smart than i really am. at this point in my mission, i am understanding a lot more than i can speak, and on many occasions i hear my companion talking with other members and the member asks my companion how i am, what my name is, etc. Its kinda annoying because i am standing right there with my companion and i understand them and can answer their questions. one time a member was talking about me to my companion and asked my companion if i understand hardly anything. ´´i responded before my companion saying, yes i actually understand a lot. i understood everything you just said about me´´ hahaha. he laughed and started talking to me more hahaha. at 7 pm we had Family night in the house of a member. we picked up Paulo, one of our investigators, and he came to family night with us. He was engaged the whole time in the lessons, games, etc and it was awesome seeing him making new friends with members. He is always open to learning and seems like a real nice humble guy. Before family night we did some verifications that the bishop asked us to do ( the bishop here is soo young! he is only 29 years old!) We walked sooo much! There were a few houses that were at the top of a huge steep hill and when we were at the top we could see the whole world; the city, the forests, and the ocean. It was awesome! i played double dutch jump rope with three little girls when we got to the top, while my companion was catching his breath. They were so smiley and it reminded me of Raimie. Playing jump rope with them on top of a huge hill and seeing the spectacular view of the city and the ocean and their cute big grins made my day. It made all the walking and sweating worth it.
    MONDAY: Today we are going to go to the church and E. J. Sousa is going to play that Magic card game with some people he set up with and im going to play the piano in the chapel. then after we are going to the centro to buy a few things and to visit some tourism spots. it should be lots of fun.

I am so grateful to be here doing the lord´s work, helping His people. It isn't always easy but it is always worth it. When you serve others you come closer to Christ and develop a better relationship with those two people who are the most important in your life ; Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know it is important to pray. it can be easy to get lazy and ´´forget´´ to pray at times, but we need to develop a consistent pattern of prayer and always remember Him in our lives. One thing that helps me to pray is to remember that He can't talk to us if WE don't talk to Him. I'm grateful to be serving where i am in Ilheus and i look forward to seeing miracles happen amongst the people i serve. I love the Lord and i love this work!
Have a great week everyone!!

-Elder Hilton

SAYING GOODBYE TO EVERYONE IN CONQUISTA

A FEW PICTURES FROM MY BUS RIDE

JOSE

NO I DIDN'T EAT THESE, BUT HE WANTED ME TO

GLORIA, THE DIABETIC I HAD TO GIVE A SHOT TO!

I LOVE PLAYING THE PIANO!  IT'S JUST LIKE ONE WE USED TO HAVE AT HOME

ILHEUS!!!

A TOILET BOWL ON THE BEACH?

BUG BITES AFTER SLEEPING THE FIRST NIGHT, OUCH!

MY NEW COMPANION ELDER SOUSA

I LOVE THIS VIEW!

Week 11: A letter for you and dad

some background: i wrote most of this on Friday when i was a little depressed at night after we returned from a long day.  the last few paragraphs i wrote sunday evening.

Mom and Dad,

     I love emailing,  but at the same time it is really hard because i just want to hear your voices and talk to you. i miss always having your council whenever i feel like talking to you. there are so many things that i love about being on a mission, and there are a lot of things that are difficult. there are so many things that are new and foreign to me that i am experiencing. there is a book that i am reading that i got from the CTM called, ´´adjusting to missionary life´´. it has everything in it that addresses problems, demands, and solutions/ suggestions  for physical demands, emotional demands, spiritual demands, emotions, depression, social demands, language, stress management, etc ( a lot of which i have already learned from you and dad and counciling). So i know that with all the tools ive been given, along  with prayer, scriptures, and guidance from the Lord, and most importantly faith, to persevere/endure, i can accomplish what i need to out here and overcome any spiritual, emotional, or physical obstacle i may encounter. But i just wanted to let you know that it has been really hard, despite all the happiness i have experienced in the little time ive been here; only a few months. its been hard not having my family to talk to and to see every day. i want to share experiences that ive had, etc, but mostly i want someone to talk to; in english! i have done my best to like the scriptures say, ´´bear my afflictions with patience´´, but today i felt extra discouraged and its hard to cry by myself at night and not have someone i can talk to in english to be able to express myself. its been hard to leave everything i ever knew behind, and to be here where everything and everybody is different, including the language. I know that i am not alone , but sometimes i feel like i am.

    I dont want you to worry about me feeling like i have just explained. i dont feel like this a lot, and when i do, i am good about combating it and pressing forward. like i said before, i have everything i need to succeed. But i just want to write this to calm myself down today and use this opportunity to write as if i were talking face to face with you to help me get through this short rough patch.
 
    I love you mom and dad and i think of you everyday. i also tak the council of zachary in his letter when he said: ´´ dont think too much of us, because then you might get homesick. just know that we are thinking of you.´´  Honestly i get worried about my siblings and you as my parents. in my prayers i pray that the blessings of my service will be  consecrated to the benefit of you guys. I pray for Zach to do well in high school, and for ramie to adjust and shine in middleschool, and for roz to continue to be a good sister for raimie and be there for her, and for haley to adjust to life back in the ´´not full-time missionary´´ life and that she will do well in college. i honestly have no doubt that haley will succeed in college in Provo. I also pray for you two: mom, that you will know how to help your children and that you will be blessed for your efforts, and dad that you will succeed in your many responsiblities as a father, husband, bishop, and a leader in you professional work.

   Mom and Dad i never realized how much i owe to you. you really are amazing parents, Being here i have really realized how lucky i am to have you as parents. I feel sad when i remember the times i was prideful and treated you wrongly. i wish i would´ve had more knowledge  of how much you do for me and then tried to be more humble. i want to apologize for the times in the past that i hurt you or caused you pain, or disrespected you. i now know that you deserved more respect than what i gave you during those times when i was prideful and unkind.

  I also look back at all the good times we´ve had together and how far we´ve come in terms of our relationship and trust in each other. I feel like i grown closer to you guys and developed more respect for you during my senior year in highschool, the process of preparing for a mission,  and my time thus far in the field. I´ll never be able to describe  what i mean in full, but i think you understand. One thing i told president Bangerter when i met with him in the mission home 6 weeks ago when he asked, ´´what do you want to accomplish on your mission´´, was that besides baptize, serve, and work my hardest, i want ot be happy.
 
  Mom and Dad, I want to be happy here, because if im not happy and not feeling the Spirit, its not worth being here. Anytime i feel down i remember my purpose here is to invite people to hear our message and come unto Christ. This brings me comfort because i know that helping and serving others will make me happy and bring blessings to those i serve and my family. And when i feel inadequate or anxious, i try to envision success and i remember when Thomas S. Monson said. ´´whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies´´ . there is also a scripture that says the Lord chooses the weak and inexperienced/ unlearned to work for Him. Just like the Lord called Joseph Smith to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ ( a pretty darn HUGE task), he called me to serve a mission. If Joseph Smith, as young and unlearned as he was, accomplished his task, i know that i can do what im called to do. it also gives me comfort to know that my dad served in Norway. Even though i know very little about how it was you, dad, i can only imagine how difficult it was to learn Norwegian and serve in Norway.
 
    I still have a language barrier that is getting smaller bit by bit, and its frustrating at times when i cant communicate like i want to or remember certain important words or verbs. I feel like all my thoughts and things i want to say are trapped in my head and they keep multiplying the longer i´m out here. I know i will understand and speak more with time, patience, faith, and study. I try not to let it overwhelm me and i just continue to be curious, humble, faithful, and i continue to ask lots of questions. i remember when Mr. Hauge used to always say, ´´If you´re not frustrated, you arent learning hahaha.. i guess if theres one thing that stuck with me from his class was that little saying.

okay! here is some good news, the highlight of my week: today i found out i got transferred to Iheus! my area is Nelson Costa, right next to the ocean and it is beautiful. I leave early wednesday morning!  my current trainer(elder brito) served there in the beginning of his mission and absolutely loved it so i am super excited, plus my new companion i will have was trained by elder Brito!  i cant wait to work hard there.

    I am really excited to work in Iheus. There are new adventures and challenges awaiting me there and im ready to take them on and learn and grow and teach and serve.

one night i quickly did a light painting in my free time. 

 and more photos of crazy elder brito! i love him haha

we see so many dead dogs here! is is disgusting. it smelled so bad! one dog was more´´freshly´´ dead. it was a little doggie and he was laying there dead with a rope tied around his neck and i had a feeling like someone purposly killed him. it was sad.