General Conference week in Brazil!

April 7, 2014 from Lauren

This week was soooo busy! I love it when we have a ton of stuff to do. I feel like I´m being a very effective missionary and I love that feeling. 

Anyway, our district was struggling to find people to teach. So, we decided that everyone would work in one area each day for three days. The first area and day was in our area and the Elders helped us out a ton. All together, we found 21 people to teach. Yay! I am so excited to get to work! For the rest of the three days we worked in the Elders’ areas, knocking doors and talking to people in the street. We found a ton of people and I loved the practice of making so many contacts. It´s super challenging to try and condense the message of the Restauração or the Plano de Salvação into 2-3 minute lessons. It was a lot of fun, even if the contact didn´t work out. 

Also, this week was great because I finally ate Feijoada. Uncle Andy, your feijoada is pretty good, but holy cow is it amazing in Brasil! Also, I didn´t see any meat with hair still on it, so that was pretty great. 

The best part of the week was conference. Wow. I have never loved conference as much as I loved this past session. We really do have a living Prophet of God and 12 apostles. What a blessing! 

My favorite talk was Elder Bednar´s. Probably because I´ve learned a lot about "loads" in the mission. It´s so true that that difficulty or trial can help us get "unstuck" so we can return to our family. I also loved his testimony of the Savior and His atonement. I have gained such a great appreciation and love for my Savior and what He did for me. How wonderful it is that we have someone that loves us that much. Wow. 

I want to share my testimony that I know that this is the Savior´s church. That He lives and that He loves us. We DO have a living Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and he holds the sacred keys of the priesthood. I know that this church is true and I know that because of my Savior´s love for me, I can return and live with Him and my Heavenly Father. I love you all and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Thank you so much! I love you so much.

 I thought about you guys a ton during conference. I don´t get homesick anymore. It´s kind of weird to describe.  I’ve been away for so long that everything has probably changed. I don´t know why, but this thought actually helps me to focus more on my mission. I still get excited when another month passes, but I´m starting to get sad that I only have 11 months left. 

Also, I am so happy that things are going well at home. I can´t tell what a powerful force this is for me in my mission. Thank you so much :)

 

                                      We made tapioca. It´s actually more like a crep more than a pudding. It was so good.

 

 

We climbed the Christos again. It was good, again.