12 December 2011

So, hey there all you happy people!

Well life is good, but it hurts too! Saturday we "bateu laje" which is so complicated to translate that I'll leave in for the PWoL. We spent more than six hours in the sun mixing cement and toting it up to the roof. It was awful. Even with my sunscreen I burned the back of my neck pretty badly and my body STILL aches. It was fun and it gave us an opportunity to talk with several non-members. I won't be repeating THAT particular project soon. Anyway life has been good here, I've just realized that I am working and doing what the Lord wants (I'm still not perfect, I'm not saying that I am). With or without baptisms I can see the value of my work. I have learned a lot from reading the Liahona (they don't have the Ensign here). Pay attention the next time that you read an issue. Most of the stories about baptism are about the author's baptism and the missionary stories often don't mention if the person was baptized or not. They just tell experiences in which they felt the spirit and I've been feeling His influence a lot lately. I've learned that the drive to do missionary work comes from inside of me and not from results. I am so excited for Christmas and the chance to talk to you all. This year has been difficult for me but I can testify that when we seek Christ he really does come "with healing in His wings". I never really understood that phrase before; what do wings have to do with healing? Now I get it; he comes as fast as he can when we call in righteousness. What mode of transport is faster than flight? What better image to show that he is willing to descend from heaven and give us the 'balm of Gilead"? I have felt the Savior's love and it just makes me want to spread these feelings to all others. I love this place. It's hard to really describe why: there's garbage everywhere, it stinks, no one speaks my native tongue, and often the people call me a Satan-worshipper. Somehow none of this makes it hard to love Recife! I want to take so many people home with me, but I'll have to settle for internet and letters. I guess I've got it better than a lot of returned missionaries. Well, this letter is starting to ramble and get weird, so I guess I'll end it here.

I love you all and I'm excited/horrified that I'll be home in little more than six months.

Elder Page

5 December 2011

Well, I hope that all is merry and jolly there. Here, I find it so odd that their Christmas cards and decorations have snow when almost no one here has ever seen snow and it's THE MIDDLE OF THE RIDICULOUSLY HOT SUMMER! I guess some things are world-wide, but it's weird to see drawings of snowmen painted on buildings (almost so hot that the paint just melts off!) when they don't even have any idea of how much work it takes to make one. The descriptions of what they think walking in the snow is like is actually quite funny; they describe it like walking through knee-high dust! Even my companions from the south (WAY south) have said that the most that they've ever seen is frost...not the same thing (although it is IS pretty Oregonian).

So yesterday we sang in a missionary choir "Quando o Anjo Proclamo" (The First Noel) at a choral fireside in Recife. Because of this I got a good chunk of time to talk to Elder Apeland (we took the same bus coming back). He's doing well. I think that he would be a cool companion because he has a desire to do what's right and he already speaks Portuguese well for an American who got stuck in the states. His area is also the only chapel that I've heard of that has couches (it's a pretty rich area...), so he got pretty surprised when I explained about how several wards don't even have chapels. He's a pretty cool guy. I'm certain that we met on some committee, but neither one of us remembers.

Anyway, I love you all!

Elder Page