June 23, 2014

June 23, 2014

Good morning:

By the picture you sent [of snow on the mountains last Tuesday], it looks like we are both enjoying a rather wintery week, although thankfully, this morning wasn’t too cold.

Well, after the week before last’s porcaria, this week turned out rather well. After a month without baptizing, Elder R. and I were finally able to bring down two batismos Sunday afternoon. A couple of weeks back, T. and M. (cousins) contacted us on the street and asked us about the soccer games that the ward always has at the chapel. We invited them to come play, and they did. Last Sunday we took them to church and this week their parents (who progress slowly because of their work schedules) signed their baptism form so they could be baptized. So, after a very unsuccessful period of a few weeks, Elder R. and I baptized two people and got the week of excellence. Que coisa boa. It was like a breath of fresh air, and today I can rest satisfied.

So, yeah, I’m feeling much better now.

I’m totally jelly about the concert. I love America [the band], and I really want to see them again too. I still can’t believe that I will miss Boston by six weeks. I'm counting on that concert you promised me.

I liked the quote you sent me from Matthew Holland [below]. It is totally true, and many times on my mission I have felt those same pains, but with only three months left to go, it gets easier. After all, I’m about to leave that tunnel. I can already see the light.

So, yeah, the World Cup is going strong down here, and because of that we have to say in our house sometimes. It gets dangerous, apparently. In fact, today we will have the whole day as P-day because there is a game tonight. Que bênção.

Anyway, I love you!

Elder Morris

Matthew Holland quote:

"If now, or in some future day, you look around and see that some peers seem to be progressing more rapidly than you are with the language and discussions; if you ever feel passed over for leadership positions; if visa issues send you north when you were called south; if well-meaning actions somehow lead to disaster with companions, ward members, and mission leaders; if, after months of emotional and devoted teaching, a golden investigator leaves a copy of the Book of Mormon on the porch and refuses to answer the door; if an unexpected illness holds you back from service far longer than you anticipated; if news from home brings word of financial setback and mortal mishaps you can do nothing about; or if, day after day, you simply feel like a bland and beaten background player in a mission drama made for the happiness of others, just know this: many such things were the lot of one of the greatest of the Lord’s prophets at the very moment he was being led to the stage of the single most triumphant thing to happen on this earth since the events of Golgotha and the Garden Tomb nearly 2,000 years earlier."