Dear Family,
Parabéns for Bryan and Holly!!!! I´m so happy for them and I´m excited to meet my new nephew! When I see him, he´ll probably already be walking, which is crazy to think, since Holly wasn´t even preghant when I left on the mish. Way cool.
I got a letter this week that contained a wonderful little picture book that you guys made for me. I received it from my zone leaders during stake conference, and all of the elders and members next to me had a look at it too. I loved it and was happy to see all of the wildist adventures you´ve all been doing since last fall. An american elder from my group, Elder Seibers, saw the picture of Bryan with Bill Nye and just about lost it. We then proceeded to sing the Bill Nye theme song and it was a blast.
This week was surely full of... surprises. My new companion is Elder Inácio, a Brazillian Elder from São Paulo. He´s 18 years old, super animated and excited, and has already been a great help here in Maricá. We now have 2 companionships in Maricá, but the other two Elders hadto stay in Rio for a week until we got new beds. We also had a stake conference yesterday which included a broadcast taught by Richard G. Scott (Did you know he speaks Portuguese fluently?) and M. Russel Ballard (Did you know that he is like an awesome apostle?). It was great and they taught a lot about being personally converted in all things and resisting the temptations of Satan in all aspects of your life.
On Wednesday.... ohhhhh Wednesday. What an unforgettable day of my misiion/life. It was Elder Inácios second day in the mission, and we were walking to na appointment we had in a very undeveloped neighborhood in our área. We were a little late, and because I´m dumb, I thought it would be a good idea to take a shortcut. According to the map we have, all was fine taking the road we decided to take, but because it was a little dark and we had rain all of last week, it didn´t work out as planned. We started walking through some tall grass, the road started to dissapear, and what appeared to be a trail of fine grained dirt, was actually a RIVER with sediment on top (At night, I swear, it looked like a trail). So I fell in a river with water that went up to my shoulders. It was not a clean river, may I add. Luckily Elder Inácio stopped before he fell in the river. Needless to say, we weren´t able to make it to our appointment, but our branch pres was able to get us and bring us home. I´m really grateful for that. I had to buy some expensive soap and alcohol to dissinfect my body for two days, since canals and rivers here usually have tons of bactéria and diseases. I haven´t had any side affects, and I´ve still been able to work, so I´ve been blessed in that way. But I did end up torching our cell phone and my brand new watch that I bought that morning. Luckily, my scriptures and other importante materials like my câmera survived as well.
Now that we have two companionships, we have lots of plans to visit every member on our branch list. Our branch pres will visit many of them with us, and we´re working to receive references from EVERYONE. We´re hoping than by doing this, we´ll be able to spread the gospel to everyone in a way that will streaghten the less active members here as well.
We´ve been able to teach many new people this week, and I´ve loved being able to help this wondeful people recognize the fulness of the gospel for the first tme in their life. I´m trying to put myself in their shoes and see for my self how diferente it would be to here for the first time in your life that the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored on this Earth. and what significance that should have in my life, that way I can help others apply the restored principles and ordenances of the gospel in theirs.
I love my Family soooo much! I wish you all the very best this week. The world cup starts this thursday, and I hope you enjoy following the worlds best football teams compete against eachother. Here in Maricá, it´ll be completely madness, and all missionaries in our mission will stay at home all day on the days that Brasil plays, and when there is a game in Rio in the Maracanã stadium.
Lots of Love,
Elder Braun
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