October 3, 2011

About the pictures.....
1. Sunburn. Ha.

2. Lego Creations

3. Elder Lopez and I on Division

4. Package! Sweetness! Yay! Chic Demais!

Talk about a great week. It was amazing. Mostly because of General Conference and our Mission Conference with all 5 zones in Sorocaba. It was Òtimo!  As for the strike, its still going, so things still might take a while sadly. I received your Package Mom and Dad, thanks so much, it was awesome. I also got some letters too. So keep sending them to the mission address. I really do like the spae and feel of Sorocaba. I'm not a huge fan of big cities really. The ward seems great here so far, Im enjoying it, they are nice. As for sunscreen, I opened it just the other day, and because I know how bad it hurts to get burned (due to Mt St Helen's), I started using it. Ha. We are covering the Julio De Mesquita Ward and its a group of some bairros (neighborhoods) and it has just me and my companion. There are rare chances you cover more than one ward, but its rare I think, and rare to have more than just one companionship too. And I don't really know the areas you mentioned, and my companion doesn't either. Ha. About bikes, I hear that they aren't allowed in any Brazil Mission, I don't know, but not our mission for sure. Thats super awesome about Brady, say hi to him from me. So the mission conference was amazing training. Then General Conference, which was absolutely amazing. I loved it. There were so many great Talks. I especially liked Elder Hollands talk in Priesthood session. It was so powerful. I'm so grateful to be out serving a mission. There was so much good information in General Conference, and sadly it ended so fast, though this conference seemed to be here super fast. Crazy time thing again. Ha. Besides General conference being awesome, my companion and I are teaching a young man about the gospel, and he really likes all we have to say. He said he wants to walk around like us in a white shirt and tie, and so I challenged him to Baptism, and he accepted, and we are working on a goal for the 28th of October. He is really cool, and his cousin was less active, and we are working with him to start getting active again. Also, I went on a division with Elder Lopez that has the same time in the mission as me. He is from Argentina, and is really animated and crazy. That was fun, we were able to teach some lessons, and we "clapped" a bunch of houses which was cool. Sometimes people think its inconvenient to share the gospel, but really, what we have is worth so much more than any inconvenience. We hold the key to Salvation. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the same church that Christ established when he was on the earth. The scripture that I want to choose this week is Alma 18: 12 ( I think, someone please check this before you put it out) where Ammon is so willing to help and do anything the King desires as long as it is righteous. We all should strive to have this love for other people. It is so important. Christ loves us so much, and we should strive to share that love, because love truly doesn't divide, it only multiplies. And once we share our love, we help each other to grow in friendship and in spirit. We may be just "men," but we are all Children of God, and all of us have the Light of Christ. I love you all and wish you the best.

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman