Ainda bem!

SMOOTHIES!!! TOMA!

Sopa de Cozido com Chourizo

PEACOCK!

Hey everybody!

1st: The package.

Don’t worry about the medicines. I’ll just find some here. If I can get antibiotics without a prescription, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Also, I am without a CD player. Being without a CD player, I am without music. Without music, I start singing crazy songs. As I sing crazy songs, I wish I could have a CD player to get better songs stuck in my head.

Dad: Obrigado pela informação do banco. Agora consigo comprar coisinhas sem pensar que estou a cavar para o outro lado do mundo. Obrigado!

Not a whole lot happened this week (as in events) but I learned a lot.

Last P-Day, we went to Colombo. I got a Benfica jersey, so it’s official. I am a Benfiqusita. Just putting that out there. Even though Sporting just won the national game. Ainda bem.

I had a division with Elder Xidis, a zone leader in Massamá/Barcarena/Tercena. It was pretty cool. In our companion studies, we talked about sacrifice from Leviticus 1. All the symbolism and everything. I thought it was really cool to think about how we make sacrifices in our lives. For me at least, I’m kinda indecisive. BUT, it still applies: When we are wandering through a flock looking for the best sheep, we don’t just start looking and then pick up a good one. If the flock were so big that we could never look through all of them in our lifetime, I’m pretty sure I would keep walking and picking up a better sheep when I saw one. But Whoa, that is pretty much what we should be doing in life anyway. We will never be able to make a perfect sacrifice on our own, but we can show that we did our best. What does our best mean? It means hanging onto the best that we know how to do until we see a better way. When we see a better way, we drop our old ways and pick up the new ones.

Oh, and in Massamá, we did contacts with the stake president. It was like walking around with a cannon. Every single person he talked to stopped and talked. They said they weren’t interested, but kept talking to us anyway. They even asked questions!!! It’s really amazing that when we overcome prejudice (against white shirts/ties, gringos, etc) people actually want to know things, even if they’re not “interested.” Moral of the story: Get to know your missionaries and work with them in any way you can.

Then I had a division with Elder Hibler – from Beaver Creek, OR. He did construction before he left and worked in TANASBOURNE and knows the crib. Yeah. It was pretty cool.

Sunday:

Sunday was a big learning day for me. Sidenote: I’ve been on a quest for a Moleskine (little book that I can write things in during the day), and to prove the need for this moleskine, I have been taking notes during the day in my planner, and every day gets FULL. Ideas here, ideas there, quotes (like “Com Deus, nada é insuflável!”), vocab words, goals, comparisons, happenings, headlines of the day, etc. It’s just too much for a little box.

One idea I have been realizing started with the realization that everything in this world is imperfect. We are still human and everything gets filtered through that. We perceive a very limited amount of all the true things around us. (This started when I actually ) Anyway, from there, I realizedLfound an error in my dictionary that when we correct or try to overcome that, we can’t do it by pointing out what’s wrong or being negative. We have to do it by service - altruism, more or less. Anyway, on Sunday, Irmão Torrão talked about provações – trials – and the examples of how people in the scriptures handled them and what their purposes were. (He did all this while making an analogy to “A Pesca de carranguejo Rei” (that tv show about crab fishing).) Anyway, he said “Temos que cuidar.” Which literally means “we have to care.” I think in English it’s used more as a transitive verb, but using it as an intransitive verb really shows that our purpose is to be transitive in an intransitive way. Be a light unto the world not by setting yourself as a light unto the world, but by being good and not being ashamed of it. That kind of thing.

Anyway, I’m working on another one right now: being open. It’s a big subject, and I’m learning a lot. When I have my Moleskine, I will be able to really give it justice with all the random ideas that come during the day.

Openness and honesty. SO UNDERRATED.

Gotta go!

I love you all and THANKS FOR THE SWEET POSTCARD!

ELDER LOBO