Friday, April 8, 2011

It is Elder Sands, sorry you haven't heard from me in a little while, but because of General Conference we did not get a P-day last week. This past week and a half has been wonderful. I got here and really couldn't believe I am here at the Missionary training center. I meet my district and almost all of them are going to Campinas. The days are made with studying, class time, and more studying, which isn't so bad because you have the spirit of learning that is very hard to get with all of the distractions in the outside world.

The language is going great, the first day our teacher Irmao (brother) Slater only spoke in Portuguese, it was difficult at first, but because we have been trying our best to speak the language all the time the lord is blessing us for our efforts with the gift of tongues. General Conference was wonderful, I loved Sister Stevans talk about how we need to be more like children found in Mosiah 3:19, I made it a goal to be more humble, patient, full of love, and willing to submit my will to the lords.

My companion Elder Peterson is wonderful, he is an elder with few words, but I am learning mountains from him, it humility, brotherly love, and patience. I need to tell you what is going on with us. He has been recovering from an ACL tear for 4 mouths and unfortunately he re torn it on the second day hear. After spending hours in the doctor’s office he has torn his ACL, MCL and his meniscus. He is leaving tomorrow to get surgery on it, and hopefully in 3 mouths he will be here again. I am very sad but will pull through.

Five elders in my district have their visas but not me and they leave Tuesday. I will be praying for it and hope it will come soon. I have been able to talk with Elder Lee a bit and he also got his visa and is leaving Tuesday. So I will have to see what will happen.

I am learning much and doing much; on our first TRC contacting in Portuguese it was rough the first time but got better by the third time. And we taught with the spirit and testified of the truthfulness of this gospel and we looked into their eyes and watched how the spirit was working on them, even though they were just volunteers.

It is great to hear from you and thank you for the letters, for right now just dear elder me because we only have 30 minutes and it is not that much time.

Thank you much I love you and will be out here for two years in service to the Lord.

Love,
Elder Sands