What's up, guys! Today we had Zone Conference out in the main city of Porto Alegre, which is why this email is going out on a Tuesday. This was the first week with my new comp and he's awesome. He's full of energy and is always bouncing around, which makes things fun!
This week I spoke almost no English lol. Living with three other Brazilians is definitely an adjustment, but it gives me no choice but to speak Português. The language is really starting to come along and has almost become second nature. Living with these guys pushes me to lock in on the language and my hard work is paying off. Because I have the most experience here in this area, I have taken a lot of responsibility in working with the people and making sure we continue to help those that need it. If I don't stay focused on every conversation or thing that is being said, I will fall behind, but I showed myself this week I'm fully capable of interacting and taking lead of conversations when I trust myself. I think it's easy for us to fall into complacency and to only work in a state of comfortability. However, if we never do things that push us out of our comfort zone, we limit ourselves to what is possible. I've noticed that when we put our faith in the Lord and do our part in putting in the work, he will bless us.
This week, we continued to teach the family of Altair and their three kids. They are still progressing, but the kids aren't quite ready to commit. It's hard when you have done everything you can and have no control over the decisions of others. Conversion is a personal decision and it's only possible when people take the time to see for themselves. We also have a new member referral, Gessy, and began teaching her this week. She is also having trouble with committing to baptism, but she joined us at church this week and commented a lot on how reading the Book of Mormon brings peace into her life.
This week we had day of the Gaucho which is huge out here. A Gaucho is basically a Brazilian cowboy and to celebrate, our branch had an activity full of dances and music. It was nothing like I had ever seen before, but I was all about it lol.
While working in the field this week, there was something I realized that made a big impact. A lot of time I think we get caught up chasing things that bring us immediate joy or temporary happiness. These things in the moment seem a lot different than when you look at the big picture. As people, the one thing that everyone wants is to be accepted and to have people around us that care for us and love us. True happiness is having people in our lives that are by our side at all times and want the best for us. This can sometimes be hard to find depending on where we are living or the current situation we are in, but the one thing that will always be definite in our lives is the presence of God. He has a plan for us, and he has prepared a way for us to return to the presence of him. In every lesson we teach, it always comes back to this promised blessing that no matter what happens to us on earth, we have the opportunity to have eternal life with the people we love most. However, it won't just be given to us. Each and every day, we have to make the decision to follow the example of Christ. That means sacrificing temporary joy here on earth for eternal happiness. It's important we don't get caught up chasing things that will only distract us from what is really important.
Thank you all for the e-mails!
Elder Copeland❤️
