Ok gente,

How's it going? This week went pretty well for me but it also felt suuper long. So, imma just tell you about one thing each day.

Monday - I spent about 2 hours learning Blackbird on my companion's guitar which was quite entertaining and got a blister on my finger which was not.

Tuesday - A good, spirit-filled day and one in which we gave someone a Book of Mormon and our normal invitation to pray about it to someone but with an additional space left on the front page for them to write how they felt after they prayed. And this guy filled the whole dang box with descriptions of the peace he felt. Só milages!

Wednesday - We went to the temple today, for the last time in a few months because the Brasilia temple will close for renovations soon, and I came in with the question of how I can be a better instrument in the Lord's hands, and I received an answer before we even got there with the devotional "The Character of Christ" that Elder David A. Bednar once gave at the MTC. You should listen to it if you want your life to change.

I know I said just one thing each day, but on the way back, we traveled with another companionship, Elders Theodosis and Chamberlain. At the bus station, the three of us -- me, my companion, and Elder Theodosis -- got on a bus, which then left five seconds later, without Elder Chamberlain. After a few very hard moments of being separated from his companion, Elder Theodosis was very luckily united with him after we walked from the first stop back to the bus station.

Thursday - Had a division with the lovely Elder Naylor who plays the guitar super well so we rocked it out on the ukelele and guitar.

Friday - We taught Oscar, the same guy we gave a Book of Mormon to on Tuesday, and after just briefly mentioning that he enjoys singing hymns, he started singing song about faith that wrote while playing a beat with his hand and chest. It was actually super impressive.

Saturday - Only miracles in our lessons today, basically everyone answered the door, and we locked in our friend Aline to feel ready to be baptized next week. My companion acted out an example of taking (literally) blind steps that rely on our faith in the ground (or God) to carry us as we move forward, and the next step for her is baptism, and final step was my companion slamming shut the fridge door on the other end of the room that they had accidentally left open earlier. They got a good laugh out of it.

Sunday - Apenas milagrãos today. A bunch of people came to church today, seven that we brought. Except, one of them convinced our friend Marcos, who has a baptism date for next week, to leave after the first hour to get a coffee with him, so they both left...

Favorite Hymn -- This week, I read Alma 5 in the Book of Mormon and marked it up a bunch. Then read it again and marked it up some more! It's a very good chapter about repentance and Christ's atoning sacrifice, and I would like to do study into all of the many questions Alma poses in the chapter, but that may have to be saved for a later email.

For now, God Our Father, Hear Us Pray is the hymn for this week, one I always enjoy hearing. I can see why we sing a sacrament hymn, because by now, when I hear one of the handful of these hymn, I'm reminded of all the times I felt the Spirit during the sacrament.

The sacrament is the most important part of the church meeting, and we take it for two primary reasons.

In Alma 5, the first question Alma asks the people is if they remember:

6 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?

He starts with asking if they remember the Lord saving His people, then he asks if they remember that He also saved them from hell, from sin. He saved us through His sacrifice, and we remember this sacrifice through the bread and water of the sacrament.

Then, Alma asks another question:

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

This mighty change of heart he describes is repentance. Repentance is simply becoming more like Christ. It means acknowledging what we did wrong in the past and having faith that with Christ, we can be made better.

But without baptism, this repentance is not complete, even after already having been baptized. So for this, we take the sacrament, to be made clean yet again, every week, after our repentance and through the blood of Christ.

As we drink the water clear,

Let thy Spirit linger near.

Pardon faults, O Lord, we pray;

Bless our efforts day by day.

That's it for this week!

Till next time,

Elder Haroldsen

Images

I geniunely don't know how they found time to stage this photo
+ Elder Naylor

Week 40: passa rapido ne