February 24, 2009

Dear Family,

Our entire ward went to a ward campout to keep away from Carnaval... the great big worldly party that happened in Brazil this weekend. They have huge parades and lots of dancing and drinking and drugging and fighting and I don't know what else all night for 4 nights in a row... So we had almost as many investigators as members at church on Sunday!

Luiz gave his first talk in sacrament meeting (and it was awesome, of course). He spoke about how we need to enter in communion with all the members of the Godhead... and that the church is true because we have access to God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost because of the priesthood and baptism and the sacrament. And a lot of other stuff. Really profound, awesome talk. And I had to give a last minute talk because the person that was supposed to talk had not been informed of that fact. But, despite the lack of warm bodies in the chapel, it was really an incredible Sunday. I know I should have learned about the importance of the sacrament a long time ago, but every Sunday it's turning into a more sacred, meaningful experience. I love to go to church!

And Fabiano and Claudia are awesome! They finally went to church as a family on Sunday and liked it a lot. Claudia said she was starting to feel that answer that we keep telling her she's going to get. Fabiano is extremely logical, so we're going to work on helping him feel the spirit.

My companion is still having a tough time. I think all the stress of everything is getting to her, and every once in a while she just has an attack of complete depression. So we're working on that, too.

But I love the mission and I have to go...

And I loved Ethan's goal of Complete Self Mastery. I'm going to do that, too. Thanks for writing, Ethan! I'll write more later. i'd just like to say: CONGRATULATIONS!

Whitney