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| Pickin' up the moon |
How are you all? I love you!
I’m glad y’all were able to get work done
before you left to the old west there in the Utahs to see Syd. I do have saudades
of the Utahs. Saudades is a word which here means reminiscences or
something. It’s a Portuguese word that doesn’t translate in English. It’s like
if “scrapbook” were a feeling.
I’m glad, too, that you ate at La Dolce and
Macaroni Grill. Did you eat french toast at Kneaders? We will do that many
times when I get back, and I will be happy.
The week was good here. We saw more successes
in the area especially, which was good. We have more and more church member
help now which is great, because that’s a really integral part of the work.
Without it, it seems like very less progress is made. We had some good success
with a young man who planned an activity with his friends to play basketball
and learn about the restoration of the gospel. He brought about 9 friends to
the activity and several of them have good interest in talking with us and
learning more. Go Dimitri! We´re getting more comfortable in our Zone callings
and the companionship is good.
We´ve seen lots of tender mercies this week
where small things happen which liven our spirits or when we´ve been able to
help a fellow missionary or member.
Human foosball (in Napa) sounds like an AWESOME
activity!! That would be a dangerous thing here in Brasil I think, since
everyone is studly at soccer. I’m improving my skills as we play on P-days but
I’m still not on par with the Brazilians. I still move like a football player
at times and want to tackle haha.
Thinking about Mosiah 29:26—the importance of
the voice of the people—that verse is one we studied in PoliSci at BYU along
with 2 Nephi 2:14—which talks about the ability to act and to be acted upon.
Agency is a wild thing that makes my brain hurt at times when I think about it.
But we talked a lot about those two verses when discussing the inspired
organization within the Church. We talked about the same in Econ, and a lot of
what makes everything work is motive: in the Church, we’re motivated by a love
of God and covenants, and it’s not about who we think would be better serving
at a position than the other person. Spiritual motives help us use agency with
much more wisdom. I’m for sure gonna go back over those verses this week.
One of the biggest things I´ve realized on my
mission is that God is mindful of every one of His children and He perfectly
knows each situation and each difficulty, and every triumph and victory as
well. I read a quote this week that said that the mission is a time for the
missionary to repent. That is a very true statement. The mission helps us
realign ourselves to Christ and “awake unto God” each day. And that is a tender
mercy!
I also really like the Isaiah verse and quote
from Elder Holland*. It’s one of my favorite verses; I don’t think I’ve ever
heard that quote before. Thanks for sending it my way! We try to use the words
of living prophets in our lessons too, so I’ll be using that one!
Please pray for rain here.
Love you! Have a great week! :)
Elder Hughes
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Isaiah 49:16. “I have graven thee
upon the palms of my hands”
*Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:
“Even though
the power of the Resurrection could have—and undoubtedly one day will have—completely
restored and made new the wounds from the crucifixion, nevertheless Christ
chose to retain those wounds for a purpose, including for his appearance in the
last days when he will show those marks and reveal that he was wounded ‘in the
house of [his] friends’ [Zechariah 13:6; see also D&C 45:52].
“The wounds
in his hands, feet, and side are signs that in mortality painful things happen
even to the pure and the perfect, signs that tribulation is not evidence that
God does not love us. It is a significant and hopeful fact that it is the
wounded Christ who comes to our rescue. He who bears the scars of sacrifice,
the lesions of love, the emblems of humility and forgiveness is the Captain of
our Soul. That evidence of pain in mortality is undoubtedly intended to give
courage to others who are also hurt and wounded by life, perhaps even in the
house of their friends” (Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of
the Book of Mormon [1997], 258–59).
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