Dear friends,
I write to you all from Brazil for the first time in seven months! I decided I would alleviate (how awesome that I still remember fancy words like this) my mother the burden of ALL friend-and-family-informing by emailing short messages aimed at a wider audience.
For a brief summary, in these first seven months, I have made my way through the Brasil Centro de Treinamento Missionário, São Jerônimo, and now am currently serving in Viamão (a smaller suburb east of Porto Alegre). I have only had two companions out of the CTM (MTC Brazilian style) and in this respect am still rather young in the mission. My current companion keeps telling me that this next transfer I will become Senior companion. I'm not too sure about that. All I know is that when responsibility comes, we are never really ready. But if we are worthy, the Lord DOES qualify us.
The CTM was an incredible learning experience where I made life long friendships and learned and incredible amount. My first transfer with my 'Dad' was incredible. I was trained by a small, moreno (brown) from Amazonas. He was a hard worker with a quiet and powerful testimony. He wasn't shy or timid. He taught with power! But when he gave his farewell testimony, it was along the lines of: "I love my Savior. I know that the church is true and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the Lord. I am grateful for having been a missionary and love the mission." And as he sat down, he had tears in his eyes and the entire Stake Center chapel was filled with a sweet, sweet spirit.
I am currently serving with another missionary this is soon heading home. He is a very funny short moreno from Bahia. And here I am today.
I have never seen so much rain in my life as I have seen here. Neither have I seen so many dogs. And I could never have imagined so much poverty as there exists here. The way that Brazil socially developed devastated economic equality and created a HUGE lower class. This lower class lives in home-made houses and always in the muddy river bottoms (very unlike the River Bottoms of Provo).
In these places it can be very difficult to find pesquisadores (investigators) with much capacity to progress. They have just never learned what it means to commit to something. But when we strike gold, we find a little miracle. One such poor woman was Renata. She was pregnant with triplets when I met her, living in a two room patio which actually was part of her parents house. This house was so humble that the wall hanging, separating her house from her parents half was an old bed blanket! She had already been learning from the missionaries for quite sometime and when I heard her testify, I had no doubt that this is the restored church of Christ. But because I have a loving Father in Heaven he gave me yet another special testimony as I took one of her small triplet baby girls in my arms to give her a name and a blessing. As I took hold of the pure child and opened my mouth Heavenly Father opened up the small amount of my authorized priesthood and used me to channel an incredible amount of pure heavenly love to which extent I could not begin to describe. But any Elder that reads this, already having given a baby blessing will know exactly how I felt. (Tyler, I felt like a Sa'angreal!)
Anyway, the mission is just a huge learning experience with a small catch that along the way we are able to help our brothers and sisters find Christ. I know that it is by the basic principles of the Gospel that the testimony of truth finds its way into the heart of man. I know that humility and obedience have an infinitely larger weight on God's balance than does intellectual formation or economic standing.
Every week that I am able to write a message to my blog I will try to post one special thing that I learned. This week it was definitely patience. When others falter or say a hurtful thing, a small testimony and the presence of the Holy Ghost have more value than pure gold. The simple question of "What would Jesus do" has led me to higher trails. When we hike to higher trails our calves are gonna burn and we may end up short of breath, but the view becomes clearer and ever more beautiful. If we hold in our hearts the Holy Ghost as our guide, we WILL end up on higher ground.
And I know that when I get super deep and make silly analogies that I should soon stop talking, haha. So for now, I love you and have a testimony. I hope that soon I will be able to accomplish the Lord's will here among my friends.
Tchau,
Jason
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