Bom dia! Tudo bem!?
This week was a pretty great week! Some of it is always the same, but there also many experiences that are new!
To
start off, a quick update on my portuguese. I feel like it is really
starting to take off, but obviously I still have a looong way to go
before I am flying. Having a comp that doesn't speak a lot of english
really helps, because now I have to communicate in Portuguese. I have no
option, and I have honestly been surprised at how much I am able to
communicate with him! And like I said, I still make a LOT of mistakes
but it is very rewarding to see the progress. Also, something I have
learned about Belém is that people here speak really fast, and relax
pronunciation, which makes it more diffuclut to understand. I think its
kinda funny, I will talk to a missionary from São Paulo or Curitiba and
talk with them for like 10 minutes and understand everything. And then I
turn around and speak to a native of Belém and it is a whole different
ball game haha, but I love the extra challenge and can't wait to be able
to understand more of what they say.
So
on Tuesday night I dropped off Elder Ossovski in another part of Belém,
Arsenal, and picked up Elder Sant'Anna. He is from Northeast Brasil and
has a cool accent that I hope I pick up on. They just pronounce words a
little different. It is a little closer to how people in Belém speak so
that has really helped!
Elder
Sant'Anna and I worked hard and found some people and have had a lot of
foods from the members! I love the people here in Brasil! They are
awesome! A quick story: yesterday was mothers day and we had lunch with a
member. So we arrive and there is just one man there and he just big
chills in the kitchen for probably 20 minutes. And then his wife and 2
grandkids arrive with food and they started cooking. And at this point I
am thinking this is pretty good crowd and I am excited to eat. And then
about 30 minutes later some of their kids show up. And then more people
start showing up. And pretty soon it turned into a party/feast of
Brasilians for Mothers Day! I think there were 5 mothers there, so you
know it was a party. They fed us a lot of rice, a salad with shrimp,
beef stroganoff, lasagna, little bit of beans, and crab! It was soooo
good! And for desert we had ice cream, sobremesa (I think is the name 
) and cake! And then we rolled to the chapel for church. The people here are quite a party and I love them so much!
This
week I studied pres Nelson's talk from General Conference, and learned
so much! He gave 5 things we can go and do to increase our faith and I
invite you to go read that talk yourself to find those 5 things and do
them to increase your faith! But I learned something important this week
about true faith. True faith in Jesus Christ includes being positive.
We are going to have challenges. Times will be tough, but we can make
every dirty, worthless piece of coal in our lives a diamond. Earlier
this week I was having a hard day with the language. I mean every day
has its difficulties but this day was especially rough. The right words
weren't coming to my mind or the right conjugations. And I started to do
the natural thing, complain. I was disappointed, why me? Wasn't I
exercising enough faith to speak properly? I had enough faith yesterday,
why not today? And then I remembered Pres Nelson's talk, and the 5
tips. And I shifted my thinking and recognized that we can still be
exercing mighty faith and encounter mountains that take patience and
practice to move. I decided to be more positive in all of my trials and I
believe that has made the biggest difference this week!
Sorry for the long email, and thank you if you read this far, I applaud you 
but now it is time for pictures!
1. Elder Sant'Anna and I
3. A oicture of me eating crab yesterday. I know its blurry but its the best we have 🤷♂️
5.
I really enjoy waking up and seeing the sunrise. It always happens and
is done in the first 5 minutes of the morning, so it is usually hard to
catch a good photo. Cause I am sleepy.
This
is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have
any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week!
Com muito amor,
Elder Sant
Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.
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