PS

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/waiting-upon-the-lord-thy-will-be-done?lang=eng

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Missão Brasil Londrina
Av. Higienópolis 1100 sala 61
Londrina, PR
CEP:86020-911

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He was a good man, he lived a good life, and he had a nice collection of russian nesting dolls....

I sent the email before I was even finished. Que friggin chato.

 

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Howdy
 
That feels good to say. I cant say that anymore because nobody understands it. It´ll feel weird to say that again I think.
 
This week was quite trying. And, from the emails that I´ve recieved, the same thing for everyone. It seems like Heavenly Father wants us all to learn something. I personally have been praying for patience and humility to accept God´s will. It has not been easy. I have had to bite my tongue. I have had to just deal with stuff. That´s one of the hardest things for me, is to just have patience with the situations that I cannot change. Presidente Uchtdorf "learned that patience was far more than simply waiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn't appear instantly or without effort."
 
I like that. Patience isnt sitting by. That is called just wasting the precious time that we have. We have to keep going. Keep plodding forward. One foot, in front of the other. That is why we need hope. The word nowadays seems to connotate doubt. But, in the scriptures Hope has a different meaning. We find that in the language of the gospel the word hope is sure, unwavering, and active. Prophets speak of having a "firm hope" (Alma 34:41) and a "lively hope" (1 Peter 1:3). The prophet Moroni taught, "Whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God" (Ether 12:4).

 

We have to make sure that we are doing the basics. In the day to day life we can very easily forget the promises or the blessings that come from the Gospel. We can forget about the simple things. I have learned personally, that the simple things are truly what will save us. Alma teaches us that God will bring to pass the salvation of MANY souls through the small and simple things (Alma 37:7). Do NOT forget to read your sciptures, say your prayers, or go to church. Do NOT forget to keep the commandments.

 

We read in Doctrine and Covenants -

 20 There is a ^alaw, irrevocably decreed in ^bheaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all ^cblessings are predicated—

 21 And when we obtain any ^ablessing from God, it is by ^bobedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

If you keep the commandments, then you WILL recieve the blessings. Do we not believe in God? Do we not have trust, or faith in Him? I too need to be reminded sometimes that God will bless me. I have been recieving answers to questions that I´ve had since the MTC! Does that mean that my prayer finally made it pass Kolob and into the ears of the Almighty? No, He heard it immediately. But, like Robet D Hales taught in the recent General Conferance - "In my life I have learned that sometimes I do not receive an answer to a prayer because the Lord knows I am not ready. When He does answer, it is often "here a little and there a little"³³ because that is all that I can bear or all I am willing to do."

We need not question God, but instead, we should do as Brother Brigham once said -  "God, give me the patience to wait until I can understand it for myself." 

My time is gone, I have to go. I love you all, and I hope that you have a better week this time around than last week. Make sure you are doing everything that you can to recieve the blessings of the Lord.

Elder Standard
--
Missão Brasil Londrina
Av. Higienópolis 1100 sala 61
Londrina, PR
CEP:86020-911

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

He was a good man, he lived a good life, and had a nice collection of russian nesting dolls

Howdy

 

That feels good to say. I cant say that anymore because nobody understands it. It´ll feel weird to say that again I think.

 

This week was quite trying. And, from the emails that I´ve recieved, the same thing for everyone. It seems like Heavenly Father wants us all to learn something. I personally have been praying for patience and humility to accept God´s will. It has not been easy. I have had to bite my tongue. I have had to just deal with stuff. That´s one of the hardest things for me, is to just have patience with the situations that I cannot change. Presidente Uchtdorf "learned that patience was far more than simply waiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn't appear instantly or without effort."

 

I like that. Patience isnt sitting by. That is called just wasting the precious time that we have. We have to keep going. Keep plodding forward. One foot, in front of the other.
--
Missão Brasil Londrina
Av. Higienópolis 1100 sala 61
Londrina, PR
CEP:86020-911

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Grab my arm.....other arm....my other arm

Transfers!!!

 

But we stayed!

 

I wanted to stay at least one more transfer here with Elder Buttars. He is by far my favorite companion here on the mission. He´s new here in this mission, but he already served in the states for 4 months, so he already knew ALOT before he even got here. We´ve been baptizing a storm here in this area, more than I´ve ever baptized with anyone, in any area. I really wanted to stay here because we´re doing so good, and why fix it if it´s not broke right?

 

But, I always found it funny when you´re trying to explain to someone how to hold on to your arm when your about to baptize them. This gets even more complicated in portuguese, but we manage.

 

I just wanted to say a few things to everyone just to let people know what´s going on. It´s been awhile since I´ve written an email to the blog, and I should probably do better at that. I know that everyone is JUST dying to see what I write every week.

 

I love you all, and I´m really happy here. I´m doing better than ever. I´m optomistic for the future, even though I dont really know what´s going to happen after I get home. I´ve got a few plans, but execution is something a little different. But, seeing as how I´ve gotten everything else that I´ve wanted (Alma 29:4) I figure why wouldnt God bless me again? I know that He hears me. I know that He responds. I´ve only got 1 transfer left after this one, and then I´ll be home. At the beginning I didnt want to come home, because I was scared about what would happen. But, like President Monson said, "the future is as bright as your faith". I plan to work and do my part, and I know that the Lord will bless me acording to my efforts.

 

Tchau, até mais!

Elder Standard

--
Missão Brasil Londrina
Av. Higienópolis 1100 sala 61
Londrina, PR
CEP:86020-911

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pic

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Missão Brasil Londrina
Av. Higienópolis 1100 sala 61
Londrina, PR
CEP:86020-911

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Come on in, the water´s fine

Hey, yesterday was Bauru´s stupid b-day, and so being Brasil, everything shuts down. What´s the point of a holiday if everything you want to do is closed? There´s some things about this country that I cant stand, and other things that I love.

 

I´ve been having a crazy week for dreams. I´ve killed flying bat people with my pen, I´ve come home. I´ve drank Dr. Pepper. Ive done everything. The one dream that I had though about coming home scared me. I didnt want to. I was standing there in the shooting range with a rifle in my hands. And I remember thinking "Well, this is cool, but it´s not as cool as the mission." I woke up and realized that this thing will end, but I didnt want it to, ya know? I´m torn. One part of me wants to stay out here forever, and the other part wants to come home and get going with my life. Oh well, there´s a time and place for it all.

 

We baptised this week also. We found 2 people on friday, and baptized them on Sunday. At first the parents didnt want them to be baptized. So, they didnt let them go to church that Sunday. WHen we found out that they werent going to come, we grabbed a member and zoomed over to their house. We get there and say a quick but fervent prayer and then went in. I had a huge headache, but the Spirit was strong there, and the parents didnt have a problem. Now, the parents want to be baptized, and everyhting[s going great with the family. It was a miracle, and I havent stopped saying thanks since that day. We´ve got a TON of people lined up for baptism for the next week also, and the week after that. We´re going to try to just keep going and see what happens. Funny thing about the baptism - Elder Buttars fell down the stairs and got all wet. And then when he went to pull the plug, it didnt come out and he cut his finger on the wire. So - all of his baptismal clothing has these little red bloodstains, and it does NOT come out. If you dont get it out immediately, then you´re toast.

 

But this week was amazing. The Assistantes came and did a division with us for a few days, and I got to see one of my really good friends Elder Thiago. I love this kid to death. It was cool getting to see how he had progessed and everything since I last saw him a year ago.

 

It´s already August. That´s nuts. I´m not a fan of this whole "time-flying-faster-than-I-can-count" stuff.

 

I love you all. Sorry if I keep missing your emails or not responding. Everything is a blur now. It seems like I come to the internet place almost everyday to write you.

 

One more thing - I finished the Book of Mormon again. I love this book. It truly is a miracle. It´s just so simple, and there´s no way that anyone could chalk it up to Joseph Smith. He wasnt that smart. This book is true simply because everytime I read it, I feel the Spirit. How could God testify of a false book?

 

I love you all, and invite all of you to read from the scriptures daily. You will gain power to resist temptation, and you will find that everything flows better in your life. I can attest to this as I do the same thing and recieve the same blessings.

Elder Standard

--
Missão Brasil Londrina
Av. Higienópolis 1100 sala 61
Londrina, PR
CEP:86020-911

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One more week...

This week flew by. It was the fastest week in my life. I dont remember a thing, and I couldnt tell you anything about it. There was soooo much stuff that happened. On monday I talked to Miles, which was awesome. I´m so proud of him and cant wait to see him after the mish. Then on tuesday and wednesday there was a conferance which was awesome. I was with President and I recieved so many revelations for my area it´s amazing. So many good things are starting to happen in my area and I´m glad to be here. My comp is getting a little annoying, but I just try to understand that he´s new and hasnt had time to really learn a whole lot yet. Here in a couple of weeks there´s going to be transfers, and anything could happen. The zone leaders told me that I could be transfered, but Elder Machado has been here since he started, almost 6 months here in a couple of days. So, we´ll just wait and see. The coolest thing that happened this week is that we gave a blessing to a man who we´ve been teaching since I´ve been here. He has a problem with smoking and drinking and couldnt stop by himself. So, we gave him a blessing and yesterday when we took him to church he looked over at me and said "Hey, Standard, I dont have the desire to smoke anymore." I just sat there staring at him and and finally said "parabens cara!" Which translated would be "congratulations dude!". I knew that if we gave him that blessing he would be healed, but I knew it also depended on him. But, lo and behold it worked. We´re working on his whole family now, since that was the only thing holding them back.
 
We´re seeing a whole bunch of miracles happening here in this area, and the members are starting to take part in the work, which is REALLY going to help. 1 out of 1,000 that we find alone will be baptized, but 600 out of 1000 will be baptized if the members help us so we´re pumping up the members to help us alot here. I snagged a whole bunch of ideas from that conferance, and we´re already putting them into practice here and seeing results. My mindset has completely changed, and the only thing I think about now is the work. Literally every single moment is spent thinking about what I can do to conquer this area and help the Lord here.
 
Talking with Miles was awesome, and one of the first things he told me was that I talked with an accent and a little faster than normal, so that made me happy. I´m glad he´s doing good, and he´s only going to do better from now on.
 
I´m not worried about home anymore, or what´s gunna happen after the mission. I know that everything will work out for my good, and that the knowledge that I´ve gained out here will help me out in the "world". I´ve become at peace with everything, and some of the things that really used to bother me dont anymore. There´s been some huge changes in my life lately, and I know the Lord is here with me. He´s answered all of my prayers, and I´ve learned that He will continue to do that for me for as long as I live. I know that He lives, and that He knows me and loves me. There´s not any doubt anymore. Í know that He´s as much for ya´ll as He is for me, and I just want ya´ll to know that.

I love you all, and know that I´m praying for you all. Please do the right thing. Always. There´s so much happiness that can be had, and the only kind of peace that matters comes from God. Strive for these things and pray to the Lord God that He blesses you with these things.

 

Tchau,

Elder Standard

--
Missão Brasil Londrina
Av. Higienópolis 1100 sala 61
Londrina, PR
CEP:86020-911

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And lest Elder Standard should be exalted on high....

Hey folks, I´m sorry I havent written in a while. I´ve been super busy with everything, especially this week. We´ve had zone conferance, we´ve been doing a ton of divisions because of a WIA Missionary, and then I went to the hospital myself on Saturday. But, I´m back on top of the world, and the work is coming along great. Transfers are tomorrow, and my comp and I are staying. Elder Machado is an awesome Elder, and I´m glad to be working with him. He already knows soooooo much more than I did when I first started, so I dont have to worry too much, which is nice. But, the other two Elders in our house are leaving. Their area is closing and they´ll be moving to different areas. I´m glad and not. Glad, because now our house will stay cleaner and it wont have to be a battle to get a shower. But, on the other hand I love living with four missionarys. It´s alot of fun and I´ve done it just about my entire mission. During zone conferance I got to see my very first companion here on the mission, Elder Olsen. We were comps in the MTC, and then he got his visa and we havent seen each other since. So, a year later, we finally get to see each other. Plus, Elder Munk was with him, who is my brother from another mother. Literally, all of us had to have been really good friends before this life, because I literally feel joy just being around those cats. I got to see Elder Bower, my all time favorite companion, one more time because he´s assistant now and everytime I go to Londrina for something we always hang out.

 

This week was kinda hard, work wise. With everything going on and being sick and all that crap, but we´re chuggin along, and we´ve got some peeps lined up for baptism here soon. I´ll keep you updated.

 

One thing that I wanted to add is something I´ve been applying to myself alot recently. In the Book of Mormon we learn from Nephi that we should apply all scriptures to us, personally. So, I´ve been doing this alot lately, and it´s really been helping me out. One of the scriptures that really made a differance was II corinthians 12:7-10. I challenge all of you to do the same thing. It truly changes everything.

 

Angela, I´ve gotten your letters. I promise I will respond! I´m horrible with emails, and I´m even worse with hand written letters.

Ashley, I finally made that cake you sent. I ate most of it for breakfast.....That´s how we do it here in Brasil.

For all of you in Tomball, I got the Christmas letters. I appreciate it alot!

 

And for the rest of you -

 

I love you all. This work is true!!! I cant say it enough. The Book of Mormon is the word of God! This is the only true church on the face of the earth! That´s a pretty big thing to say, but I know it´s true because the Holy Ghost made it manifest to me. No power on earth can take this testimony away from me.

 

Elder Standard

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