Tis Blasphemy!!!!

Well, where to start?

This week was a pretty normal week in most respects.  It was just another seven days in Tabuleiro, there were however, a few interesting things that did happen.

There was this rather irritating fellow that I met the other day.  We knocked on this door and this guy came out.  Let's just say he wasn't the most impressive fellow in the world, starting off with the fact that he left half of his lunch on his beard, probably trying to save it for later.  We tried to contact the guy, but he wasn't going to have any of that.  He tried to convince us that the name of god was Adonnai.  He then told us that Mary's name wasn't in fact Mary, but Madelena. He then denied the Christ right before my eyes and told me that Jesus wasn't a savior and that he basically didn't do anything for our salvation.  Pretty rough words against the Savior if I do say so myself.  Such blasphemous speech will not be tolerated in these parts.  He really wasn't interested so we went on our way.

This sister in the ward gave us sandwiches for lunch the other day, which is a very blasphemous thing to do down here. Here, it's beans and rice everyday, not because they have no other choice, but because they absolutely love it.  Don't get me wrong, I love a nice plate of beans and rice, but after a while you need a break.  She decided that since half of us were Americans, she'd give us sandwich making material.  She dropped liked 75 Reais, and gave us a ton of food, it was glorious and patriotic.

So one of our investigators got his hands on an Anti-Mormon magazine the other day that some church published.  It was actually really pathetic.  They said we didn't believe in Christ as our Savior, that we worship other gods, and of course, my personal favorite: that we believe that Jesus was a polygamist and that he married both Martha and Mary, and really wanted to get married to Mary Magdalene but that it didn't really work out.  It also said that we hate black people.  Our investigator knew that it was just trash because he lives right across the street from the bishop, who just happens to be black.

Fast and Testimony meeting was intense this week; and in case if you were all wondering, fast and testimony meeting can indeed, be intense.  One of the young men in our ward has yet to be baptized because his mom is kind of against the church, she just happened to come to church today, and he bore testimony on how the church has helped him and about the importance of family.  She has since changed her mind about the whole baptismal issue.  There's this one guy who has been coming to church for about a year and he brought his parents with him.  He got up front and started talking about the importance of family and forgiveness.  It was all very touching and he made his parents cry.  I was very pleased with the results of this Sunday.

So it just goes to show you that you never know what the power of a testimony can do.  Your own personal testimony can change the lives of people.

I feel that since I've gone on the mission, I'm starting to see the world different.  I don't really know how to explain it.  It seems that just my priorities have changed in life and I'm starting to see what's really important and what it really means to live a successful life.  I'm grateful for this opportunity and I'm loving every minute of my time down here.  Love you all and have a great week.

-Élder Johnson