Fam bam,

Me and my companion are doing great. We get some pretty funny comments in the street sometimes. We got one this last week were someone said "Irmãozão e Irmãozinho" Which isn't as funny when you translate it but they said "Big Brother and Little Brother". We got a kick out of that. The membros laugh about it and everything. It's pretty funny.

Hey, I don't know if I can have a word in on the Family Reunion but I would love to go to the temple (if possible) with everyone.

Also a singing session would be awesome.

Sr. Andrade couldn't go to work this week and doesn't feel ready for baptism but I'm not worrying about that because he isn't ready... yet. We are thinking of changing the date this week for next week so that he can go to church one more time before baptism.

We also marked a date with a woman named Cleide and her daughter Daniella. Cleide is the mother of two really strong young women in the ward. Her daughters have been baptized for about 10 years ish and she wants to get baptized but is scared that she won’t make it to the end. Endure to the end is hard for her. But we are trying so many different things to help her. We watch the video about "John Tanner" (If you haven't seen it, it's worth it). It's a movie from the D&C DVD for (i think) seminary. It was amazing and it helped her out a whole bunch. Her date is for the 15th. We hope that all will go well.

This week will be the Ward Conference and we think there will be a change of bishops. Our bishop has been there for 8 years and it's time for it to change. It's going to be strange.

Well I love you,

Endure to the End

Signing Out

Elder Barry

This is Matt's companion, Elder Araujo.  Yes they are both standing! 

Last transfer!

Hello Fam,

I'm here again, Sending an email to you. It feels like an hour since I was last doing this.

So Transfers happened but I stayed in Ceilandia 1b. But you're going to get a kick out of who my companion is. My companions name is Elder Araújo. The funny part is that he is the shortest missionary on the mission and I was the tallest (now I'm the 2nd tallest). So you can probably imagine that funny comments we are going to get and the jokes that are going to fly. He comes up to about my chest. I give his head a hug... not him. I can tell you that this is going to be really funny.

This week we didn't have church because there was a Brazil wide transmission of the dedication of the Temple in Manaus, Brasil. I must say that it was the highlight of my week. I learned some very important things.

1. Why didn't i go to the temple that often before the mission. I lived 20 minutes (or less) by car to a temple. It would of been so easy to go every week. If i would of planned, I could of gone more often. One thing they said in the dedication was 'It seems as the temples get closer to the members, the members start to think 'I will go to the temple tomorrow' and then the next day they say 'I will go to the temple tomorrow' and then after 3 years the members will say, 'I will go to the temple tomorrow'. There are member that are in the church for more than 40 years and they are doing this. I seems that some members lose the significance and importance of the temple' This is something that I was thinking about. I want to go to the temple. After about 2 years of not going, I really am starting to understand what I had and what I could of done better. Here in the part of Brazil that I'm in, People take off work for a week to go to the temple. They need to travel for 14 hours by bus to get there. What is 20ish minutes compared to 14 hours.

2. They talked a lot about the two greatest commandments. Love your neighbor and love God. I understood a lot about action. Love is an action word. Without the action, the words are lost. If I love my neighbor I will help them in anything I can without being asked. If I love God, I will do what he wants without being asked and compelled to do it.

These are two thoughts that came into my mind during the dedication that I wanted to share.

I love you

Endure to the End

Signing Out
Elder Barry