August 27th

( Last week James mentioned that Elder Holland was coming to speak at the MTC.)

Elder Holland's talk was really good!

 

He began saying "bom dia... Todo bom?.... muito bom...... maracuja (a fruit)..... guarana (a brazilian soda).... Don't tell me i don't know how to speak Portuguese" He didn't even speak on his original talk, but just "went where the spirit told him to go" as he said. He talked a lot about how we need to put everything we have into our missions and they will be sacred. We need to give so much to the lord and the people that we are "leaving our missions on a stretcher with tears in our eyes that we have to leave." he also talked about how this is the country for our spiritual birth and how we will forever look back on our missions for the rest of our lives. He talked about how every single one of his blessings in his life right now can be linked back to his willingness to serve a mission.

He even asked "In our purpose as missionaries, what does it mean when it says "invite others?" Of course I raised my hand and i said that it is for everyone. He said "yes!!" very loudly and then went on like a 20 minute tangent about how the story of Jesus teaching the woman at the well and the story of Jesus Christ teaching the Jewish priest (or someone else of high importance) are right beside each other in the bible. Overall, it was a good and typical elder Holland talk with a lot of crying, some jokes, and a lot of screaming, yelling, telling us (very loudly) that this is as close to real life as we get.

 

YEP! I am so excited to leave on Tuesday and actually go out into the field. A lot of people who have to fly again to different parts of Brazil are waking up at like 2 and 3 in the morning, but  my mission home is like a 3 hour bus ride from the MTC. 

I don't know what time I will be waking up, but it will be much later than that. My roommate is awesome. He's really quiet, but he's not stuck up at all. He laughs when we laugh and he has fun. He is fluent because he already spoke Spanish, which helps a lot. 

 

I don't know if i will get a p day next week because in the mission field,  p days are on Monday and I will be leaving on Tuesday. But the next time that I email i will try and attach photos and i will give you my new address!!

 

Love, Elder Moss