Mountains To Climb

Hey everybody!!!!

This week was really great.  We had our "Mission Tour" with Elder Marcos A. Aidukaitis of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  "Mission Tour" is something that happens once a year where a member of the Seventy comes and holds a meeting with all of the missionaries.  He will talk about what we need to do better and how to improve and what not. Mission Tour was pretty cool.  Elder Aidukaitis is super funny and was just cracking jokes the whole time.  He did call us to repent of our sins and disobedient behavior and stuff.  It was pretty cool.  I learned a whole lot and we put into practice the stuff he had taught and it sure helped out a lot.

Mission Tour with Elder Marcos A. Aidukaitis

So we had a miracle yesterday.  Somebody came to church, alone, in the rain.  Ladies and Gentlemen this right here is a true miracle!!!  I've never seen that happen before in 20 months of serving a mission.  Miracles are real people!!!!

There's this one member here.  He's either absolutely crazy, or he might be a genius.  I'm not quite sure yet....

Last P Day we got permission to leave our area and walk on the road that runs along the beach.  It was pretty cool.  The beach here is absolutely beautiful.  Apparently the beaches here in the state of Alagoas were voted to be the most beautiful beaches in all of Brazil. 

It's a shame I'll never get to actually go to the beach or touch the sand, as a matter of fact.  Anywho, it was all really cool.  We walked for a bit, took some pictures, drank coconut water out of the coconut, and just enjoyed life.

So here's a pretty interesting experience.  This week we were called to give a blessing to a woman not of our faith who was very sick.  We went to go give her a blessing and oh boy was she sick.  Here is a list of her ailments:

Dengue

Swollen Heart

Kidney Problems

Bad Circulation

And at least another four that she mentioned but I just can't recall right now.

Obviously not the healthiest person in the world.  I'm pretty sure a combination of all of this stuff is almost lethal.  She said, however, that the worst problem of all was that she was a little over weight.  When she told us that she just started sobbing.  She told us about how she wants to be thinner and look better.  We gave her a blessing and afterwards she went outside the house and started to talk to her mom and she just started crying again saying how much she doesn't like herself.

Imagine that.  She had so many health problems and the worst thing was, was that she couldn't love herself.  Talk about damage to the soul.

I also talked with a member down here who has some pretty severe social problems.  He has problems interacting with people and getting along with others.  When I spoke with him he just told me how everything was his fault and how nobody loves him.  I felt bad for those two people.  I mean it's one thing to be sick or have something else bad happen to you, but if you can't love yourself or have other psychological problems, that must be real pain.

There's this one Mormon message I really like called "Mountains to Climb" which was based on a talk by Henry B. Eyring. He talks about our afflictions and how the atonement heals us.  That through the atonement we may become acquainted with "A man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3).  Life is rough, but with the Savior it is possible as He said in DC 61:36:

“And now, verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you;”

Truly the Lord has not forsaken us so be of good cheer!

Well that's it for now.  I love you all.  Hope everything is well back home.  Until next week!!!

-Elder Johnson

Chimarrão a member shared with us. 

We drank chimarrão and talked deep doctrine.