On a Mountain

 Hey y'all what's good?

Another couple weeks down as a missionary here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Unfortunately not too much has been happening here in the last two weeks. Because me and my comp are new to the area, we wanted to get to know all the members so they could trust us teach their friends and its been working! We got a whole bunch of referrals and found 17 new people this week and almost all them have a connection to the church (neighbor, friend, or family member that is a member). Pretty huge stuff. 

As I've said in prior emails this area is pretty different than any other I've passed through because of the natural disasters that happened a year ago. In our last district council we invited the stake president to participate and teach us how we can better work with the members and support our wards. It was super awesome and he's got huge hope for the missionaries and big plans for the stake so it was dope to see the vision he's got. But one thing he shared about my ward is that 95% of the ward was affected by the landslides but not a single active member was killed. I've heard some crazy stories of people escaping through the rooves of their houses and people being led by the Spirit out of harm's way. It's incredible to see the faith these people have. Instead of using this tragedy to doubt God's existence it has strengthened their faith that God exists and will protect His people.

Another crazy thing about this ward, Douglas MacDillen. There could be books written about this dude he is so insane. Basically in short, his dad is Scottish and his mom is Brazilian-Jewish. So he speaks Portuguese English and Hebrew (he claims to speak 7 languages but I haven't confirmed that yet). But he was raised as an orthodox Jew and actually served in the Israeli army for like 20 years but then in 2000 he got baptized in the Church and he's super firm and wants to help a ton in missionary work. So we went out all day yesterday with him and he's got an insane testimony and it was dope. I never would have imagined that I would go proselyting with a Jew but here I am. He prefers speaking English than Portuguese because he was raised in the US so that was fun that we spent the whole day speaking in english with him.

In other news I'm on the top of a mountain right now with a dope view of the city Rio de Janeiro. I'll send some pics but they just don't do it justice it's insane. 

In more insane news I made cinnamon rolls last p day and last night and they were even prettier than the view. I will also attach photos haha.

Alma 38:9

9 And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness

I'm loving getting to know all of the different people here in Brazil and despite all the differences between seeing how faith in Jesus Christ unites us all. He is the light and life of the world and it's only through faith on His name and obedience to the laws and ordinances of His gospel that we can be saved!