God Loves Us

October 24-30, 2016

(24) SEGUNDA (Monday):  So, we’re making a shirt for our zone.  I drew a cartoon of everyone in the zone participating in some sort of a scripture story.  It came out pretty dang good.  It’s super funny, and everyone is excited for the shirt.  So, today while I was talking with the family, I was also reviving some lost Photoshop skills to organize everything into one picture, and then we went to the shirt place.

            We also had a family home evening with a family that I love.  Their neighbors were supposed to come as well, but they didn’t. I think it’s because it was raining so hard.  That was when I realized why missionaries are a little odd.  My comp and I walked for 50 minutes in the POURING rain, to get to the FHE with 4 people, knowing that we would walk another 50 minutes in WORSE rain to get back.  But I’m happy.  Today was day 474 of my mission.

(25) TERCA (Tuesday):  We did a mini division with 2 young men from the ward today.  I met one old man who was interesting.  He said neither he believes in God, but not in Jesus Christ nor that we will resurrect.  He kept saying, “When you’ve died, you’re dead.”  He said Christ would not return.  After a little, I said, “What a sad life you must have.  You believe in a God who doesn’t love his children.  A God who just put us here to end our existence.  For you there is nothing more.  We’re all just waiting for the end.”  Then, I bore my testimony to him, but he didn’t even pay attention.  That’s one thing that ends my patience is when I try to say something and they don’t even pay attention, or worse, they just talk over me.  So, we just said the prayer and left. 

            I also learned a few Portuguese tongue twisters.  Today was day 472 of my mission.

(26) QUARTA (Wednesday):  A majority of the day spent in the church, using the computer to print and type letters for an activity we are going to do with the ward.  It’s super cool.  For the whole month of November, the ward will be split into 4 teams.  There will be 4 activities during the month, where they will compete for points.  During the other days, they gain points through home teaching visits, splits with the missionaries, referrals, youth at church, seminary.  It’s going to be SUPER fun.  So, we were in the church writing out the instructions and dividing the teams.  It should turn out good.  Today was day 473 of my mission.

(27) QUINTA (Thursday):  Division!  I went with my Argentinian friend to his area.  It was super good.  We walked a lot, talked with a lot of people, taught a bunch as well.  Today was day 474 of my mission.

(28) SEXTA (Friday):  Today, nothing happened.  Seriously, nothing.  Today was day 475 of my mission.

(29) SABADO (Saturday):  We did an activity with the youth. They played around with my football, but a majority played volleyball.  Then, a meeting with bishop.  He’s excited about the activity.  Today was day 476 of my mission. 

(30) DOMINGO (Sunday):  At church today, everybody was going crazy trying to figure out who was on whose team.  We put the papers up with the teams, and everyone was going nuts.  It was pretty funny.  I’m excited to see how it turns out.  Today was day 477 of my mission.

A couple extra stories:

So, in our house there are 2 showers, just that if you use them both at the same time it uses too much electricity and flips the breaker for the whole house. And to turn it back on you have to grab the key and go down to the street and open the box and turn it back on and everything. It’s a pain, usually we´re pretty good about it. Well, at the end of one hard day, I was super tired and not wanting to talk to anyone. I just wanted to take my shower and relax. So, I’m in my hot shower, all is going well, and I hear Elder Rapuzzi turn on the other shower. The lights flicker, then everything goes black and my water turns ICE COLD. I don’t know why, because I don’t ever really get mad, but I got furious and I left the water running and left the shower, tore the bathroom door open, went marching to his bathroom, ripped that door open, and he was mad too. So, here we both are, completely naked and dripping wet, arguing over whose fault it was, and who has to go turn it back on. I’m yelling, he´s yelling, then comes Rapuzzi´s comp, sees us both, covers his eyes and yells, “both of you! Stop! Look down!” We both stop, look down at him, then look back at each other, then look down and realize that we about 12 inches from each other and very unclothed, then we start laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life I think. Until my stomach hurt. Then some more. Then after some minutes, Rapuzzi´s comp says, ”will you both please put some clothes on while I go turn the lights back on?” :)

Another is my studies that I did today. So, this week, and really the last few weeks, I’ve been feeling very, very tired. Not like I need to sleep, but just like mentally spent. Then came feelings that I’m not up to my calling. And, that I can’t do it. And yea, this week was pretty hard. Today, for my studies, I listened to J. Dean Cornish´s conference talk. He says to pray and ask God what he thinks of you. The rest of the talk seemed like it was written to me. Go listen to it, everyone. Listening to and studying it I found HUGE comfort in his words that God loves us and WANTS us to make it. He WANTS us to enter his kingdom. We just have to try our best. He really, really wants us to be in the Celestial Kingdom with him. I then remembered a line from my patriarchal blessing that says ´if you ever have feelings of weakness, insecurities, or feel that you are incapable of accomplishing that which you were called to do, recognize that these are only thoughts placed there by the adversary and that you are truly a son of God with a great mission to perform.´ You can put that on the blog because I believe that it applies to every one of us. We are all here with a great mission to perform, and God wants us to succeed. He loves us. At the end, I did what J. Dean Cornish said, and I asked God what he really thought of me. Immediately I felt this overwhelming warmth in my chest, a feel of love so strong like I’d never felt. I knew he was aware of my struggles and hearing my prayer. I testify that He truly loves us. He wants to see our success. We are important to Him, important enough that He paid the price of our salvation with His son´s blood. We were bought with the blood of a God. Just think about that.

I love you guys, Elder McKee

Elder Bispo dos Santos, Elder Nascimento, Jake, and Elder Ruppuzi

Elders in house