Thursday, April 24, 2014

Celebrating Easter Sunday, watching General Conference


Week 49 - 4/14/2014
The gospel is a way of life, not just something we do on Sundays
Dear family
Thank you for your letter and Happy Easter to you too!!! That's cool that you had a "Mozambican" dinner. But if you really want a Mozambican dinner, you need chima. Look it up on google. They always eat chicken with either rice or chima. You’re right, I will have to remember to bring piri piri sauce when I come home. If I leave most of my old and worn out clothes behind, I'll have room to bring whole suitcase full! -just kidding. It's pretty much like tabasco sauce, I like it. Speaking of it, when I go to the grocery store today, I'm going to buy some cooked piri piri chicken to take home and eat.
I downloaded all the general conference talks on my flash drive, and haven't finished listening to them, so I'll listen to them today at home. I really liked the General Conference this year. It's good every year, of course, but there were a lot of talks that spoke to me.
Easter at church was celebrated this year by watching the conference on the chapel projector and it was pretty cool. I understood almost all of it in Portuguese, except when the translator talks really fast or uses uncommon words. Some of the general authorities talk in more complicated language, so it was also hard to understand in Portuguese. But I enjoyed it. 
Thank you for your concern for me and also for your thoughts about patience and following the spirit. Following the spirit is something that I'm still learning to do. But I know that as I trust in the promptings and read the scriptures, I'll learn to recognize it better. 
Just wanted to mention that, I kind of got a little sick this week, I had a cold, it was mostly cough and stuffy nose. Thankfully all the medicine I brought with me from home has helped. It was the first time I've had to use any of those medicines since I got here. But today I'm feeling a lot better. It wasn't a bad cold; it was just something that passed around in our house. I think it has to do with the change in the weather that's been happening too. But it's all good. I hope you guys are staying healthy as well; I know the Lord is always watching over you guys, like He is watching over me.

Today was transfers! And guess what? I get to stay here for 6 more weeks! And I'll be staying with Elder Alfredo, who is still waiting for his visa to Angola. I'm so excited and relieved that I get to stay here! I already had a feeling that I would, and I'm glad I wasn't wrong. In the rest of the mission there were a lot of changes and moving around, but in my district, only one elder got moved. That means I will still be here when I talk to you guys next month. That's cool you're going to Elder Heaton's homecoming talk. It's so weird, he's going home today. Another elder, Elder Williams is also going home this week, to Pleasant Grove. He's in the Mount Mahogany stake, I think. But yeah, it’s crazy how the time flies by on the mission, there's always missionaries coming and going. 
This past week was pretty good. We had good success in our lessons and doing contacts. The weather has been nice and cool lately, probably in the upper 70's. They think it’s cold here, but it's really nice. Yesterday was pretty hot though. I had two divisions this week. On Tuesday I walked with Elder Dustin in my area. On Friday I was with Elder Barroso in his area. The divisions were pretty good. It's nice to get to know other missionary's areas and have others come to my area also. The investigators are doing well. Not much changed with any of them this week. We found a couple new families this week and we'll probably be teaching more new ones this next week. 

It sounds like you guys had a good Easter. I think that many people don't understand that remembering Christ is not just going to church on Easter. It's something we have to do, every day. It doesn't work just to be 'religious' only on Easter and Christmas and do whatever you want the rest of the year. The gospel is a way of life, not just something we do on Sundays. I'm really grateful for how the gospel teaches us to always remember Christ's atonement and follow his commandments and repent so that we can use the power of the atonement to bring joy to our lives.
Well, that's about it. Sorry I didn't write that much today. The computers here are having problems today, and I don't have that much time to do the other things I need to do. But I hope you have a good week and I look forward to hearing from you next week!!
Love,

Josh

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