Hello my family and friends,
OK, to start things off, last week, almost immediately after we were done with e-mails, my companion and I were called and told that we would be transferred to São Jose. We were both very surprised. We quickly went around to each of our investigators and told them that we would be transfered and took pictures with them. I wasn´t even in the area for a month, so I was not completely sad about being transferred, but my companion had been there for five months so it was harder for him to leave and it is still hard for him today to be in this area. He was very sad to leave the other area.
Because of the transfer, I got to go to my second Zone meeting on my mission. During that meeting they said some things that I didn´t understand. Afterwards, they gave us all a DVD player so that we can watch a copy of the District meeting too with our companions and learn how to be a better missionary. I am a little on the iffy side about giving the missionaries DVD players, but it was what the mission president said, so I guess that it is OK.
The house that we live in is much smaller than the one that we had in the previous area because it is made for two people and four people are living in it, but I don´t mind it too much. my companion and I sleep on air mattresses which I don´t think is awful at all. Air mattresses are better than some of the regular bed mattresses we get as missionaries so I can´t complain really.
This weekend I decided to work on the attributes of Christ which is in the 6th chapter of Preach My Gospel (i suggest you all do the same). Every Sunday, I fill out the little activity in the back and see how I am improving each week. When I filled it out recently, I discovered that one of my biggest weakness is patience. So that is what I am working on this week and so far, I have found some blessings from trying to improve. I hope that I continue throughout this week because yesterday I lost my patience with my companion. It feels like whenever I ask “why” about something he always, and only, says, "Porque sim" or, "Porque não" and that annoys me just a bit. So I snapped and stopped walking next to him and that really upset him and he started telling me that I wasn´t a good missionary, which didn´t guilt trip me at all it only made me feel less guilty if anything, and then he soon threatened to call the president, and that´s when I thankfully held my tongue because I almost said, "Do it!" So, not a good moment of the day yesterday. This is why I am working on patience.
This area is a little more difficult than Criciuma because it is extremely hard to make appointments with people. We have to kind of make contacts with people in the streets, which I guess my companion doesn´t like too much. And when we do contact people, it is very hard to find them at their homes to teach them a lesson. So this area will teach me a lot of patience and diligence and faith that if we trust in the Lord and hope for good things to come, we will be blessed with the things that he has promised us in His own time. I think that I will learn many Christ-like attributes while I am in this area.
Hey, have a great time in Disneyland and California Adventures, just wait until I come back and then we can all go to Knotts Berry Farm because I remember going their when I was very little and I want to go again. So just as long as you guys don´t go there while I am on my mission, I will be fine. I will be patient and I will work for the Lord right now and focus on what he wants me to do, rather than what I want to do.
I keep forgetting to shave every day so it´s kind of every 2 or 3 days that I actually shave, but I am writing in my journal every day now and I find that to be a little more important. I am making goals and, as it says in the Preach My Gospel, changing to be a Christlike person is a gradual process and it cannot happen all at once. So eventually I will be shaving everyday; but for now, being patient is what is important for me.
I know that The Book of Mormon is true, and I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet in this dispensation. I am truly grateful for Jesus Christ and his atonement and that I can repent of all my sins no matter what they are, and that I can continue to repent, unless of course I deny the Holy Ghost. I am grateful that I made the decision to go on a mission, and I know that if I put my trust in the Lord and do what I can to follow his example, I will have a successful mission.
I love all of you guys and you guys have been a great example to me. Oh I forgot to tell you that we gave a blessing to someone that was ill. That was awesome.
Elder Kevin Brady
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