Faith

So yes. This letter has come early. Do you wanna know why? Do ya? I´m not sure if you really want to know so I´ll save this one... for... later...

This week has been awesome. Ok, so that is a bit of a overstatement. For me it has been awesome but for our area it was a so-so week. So-so because our investigators have been mole (look it up, in Português.) We would invite people to church and we had no investigators come. It was really sad to see these people forget. But what made our week really good is we got 2 less actives to church. One was a baptism of my trainer and she kinda fell but she came last week and LOVED it. Then the other person we got to come to church was a man who has been out of the church for 6 years. He´s pretty old, maybe 60 or 70. He was drinking and smoking but we kept trying to help him. He hasn´t drunk for 2-ish weeks now and he wants to stop smoking and he came to church last Sunday. Man!!! It was awesome to see him there. He loved it and when we went to his house later he looked so much better than the first time we met him.

I bet you still want to know why this is on Monday.

Então... Alma 29:9 probably is one scripture that really hit me this week. Look it up. It´s really good.

So I have a question...I´ve been hearing rumors... well... I don´t know exactly so I´ll ask straight up... I heard they changed the age that young men can go on missions to 18... is this true in the USA? Cause my companion said our bishop said that young men now can go when they are 18. I´m wondering if this is only Brasil or the whole world...

Story time. This week I got bit by a dog. Yes... not bad and not bleeding. We went to an investigator's house to talk to him. His door was closed and so we were knocking. Well, outside his door there was a dog. This dog was barking up a storm at us. (Yes a storm.) so I knocked once and we waited while this dog 'storm' barked at us. This 'lightning' dog was probably mad because we were on "his" property. So we waited... Bark bark bark... man, it was pretty annoying. So we still waited. Then I decided to knock again. That´s when thunder bark here made his move. He basically jumped at my leg... it felt so weird. I wasn´t expecting this so it was a surprise. Both my legs went numb for 3 seconds... just weird. But there was no wound. And there goes thurder bark... barking away... again. We finally just left lightning there to his pride. But that is the story of my first dog attack. That´s when I learn that most dogs here are all bark... not bite. The End.

The best experiences I´ve had happen when I study the Book of Mormon. I love this book so much and you should see my scriptures. Holy cow... the Book of Mormon is pure gold and full of such amazing words of wisdom. Man. If I could say anything to everyone it is to get a new Book of Mormon from a distibution center, a really cheap one. Then pick a word to look for while you study. Right now I look for the word faith or faithful or faithfulness. Everytime I come across this word I mark it in green. I like the green because faith is like a seed. So it´s in green. Then of course I have a red pencil and mark the other things I like in that color. My understanding and comprehension of the Book of Mormon has sky rocketed. I know it´s hard to always study everyday but I know it will bless your life. No one is too busy to study. You can study for at least 15 mins a day. I probably do 30 mins a day or more depending on the day. But it is so worth the time.

Ok, so this letter is on a Monday because tomorrow we have a general authority coming to our mission. Elder David A. Bednar is coming to our mission. I´m so excited. Way excited. Excited because we have gotten talks from him to read before he comes and they are about faith. And just by happen chance that is what my Book of Mormon study has been about, faith. It´s so cool to mix both of them together and learn more.

So that´s it for my week.

Endure to the End
Signing Out
Elder Barry