I am in the city of Téofilo Otoni, Minas Gerais. And here there are a
bunch of different neighborhoods. Some are super nice and ritzy like the
house I was in when I skyped. We live in this neighborhood. And we have a really
nice apartment, but you would never ever know because there have been
countless years of elders living there. But it's liveable. And there
aren't so many cockroaches now.
The neighborhoods in our area are super duper poor. Like two room houses
with a whole family, dirt floors, dirty everything. Kids wear the same
clothes ever day etc. But these people are so happy! This city is famous
for precious stones, people from all over the world come to buy the
stones that are mined here. Minas is famous for cheese. Soccer is as
popular here as it is in Vitoria just that people root for different
teams. I am still trying to find my inner team--it is a toss up between Flamengos and Cruzeiros.
But this week:
Estefani - he is progressing super well,
and is the investigator of gold. He was a reference from someone in the church and he and his family and constantly support Estefani and helping
him integrate in the church and supporting him. This is how missionary
work should be with the members. He is really searching and studying to
know if this is right. He accepted the word of wisdom without hesitation
and was asking about what music he should listen to. He also asked if he
should play soccer on Sunday and we said no and explained why and he
gave it up--which is HUGE for these Brazilians. Soccer and Sunday go
together like Frosting and cake. He just needs a really strong
spiritual experience and testimony builder. He has a date set for May 26
Random thing of the week We always see these kites
in the sky and they are little homemade kites from grocery bags. We were
walking by a bunch of street boys flying these kites and we stopped to
talk to them. All of the sudden they stopped talking to us and they
started frantically pulling in the line and everyone was looking at the
kites. Its a game they play here. They have kites with string with
little miniscule pieces of glass they use to cute the other kites string
and so with proper maneuvering the battle of the kites begins. Their fingers get little cuts and bleed
because of the string.
Also this week - spiritual thought. I was reading more about the
church in the New Testament and 1 Cor 12 talks a lot about how the church
is a body with Christ at the head. Paul goes on to talk about how the
members make up the parts of the body, he talks about apostles and prophets, etc. At this point the reader is thinking - Oh I am just a
member - I might be a part of the body, but definitely not something
vital. To respond to this doubt Paul says in verse 12 that all the
feeble parts are necessary. Thus I concluded I may just be a pinky toe
in the body of the church, but everybody needs a pinky toe and I am
going to be the best pinky toe this church has ever seen!
We are all important in the eyes of God. and we all have our own
gifts and talents that are necessary in the building up of the kingdom!
Love you so much!
ky
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