September 5, 2012

Okay, finally ready for some info!?!  So I am in Juazeiro do Norte. Apparently it is the crib of leader and great missionaries and a real privilege. The church is very new here, I think it was like 10 years ago they opened it. So it is real work here. The best way I can describe it is that it is the Mos Eisley, Tattooine of Planet Earth. Reaally HOT, always sweating inside or outside. In the middle of a desert, kinda don’t even know what it is doing here. Not a lot of big buildings but everything is made up of real compacted houses and markets. Everybody just chills out in the streets, so the streets are always full of people.  There are speeder bikes always zooming by (motorcycles) full of interesting characters and sometimes I feel like I am in a whole new world because of the language =P pretty cool. I guess President either thought I was a good leader or a “small town" boy.

So yeah, I am in the Field! I love it! It has been real good. It didn´t take long for me to learn to love the people. The members are exceptionally nice, having lunch with them everyday really fills me up. They really have a love for the missionaries because pretty much all of them are converts. This last Sunday was testimony meeting. I understood everything and there is a young lady who has helped us a lot in our lessons. She has been very helpful and I feel like I have really helped her out as well with her struggles with her non-member family and the love for missionary work. She bore her testimony and said something that hit me so hard. She said "Cada Élder é um anjo" or "Each Elder is an Angel" =) =) But it I´ve been reading a lot about angels in the Joseph Smith story and in the book of Moses. And I am honored to be considered one. The descriptions are just... glorious, ha. In Moses 5, in like the second to last verse it says that angels have preached the gospel since the beginning of time. So yeah, Heavenly sent messengers, what an honor. It has been easy to love the investigators as well.

Okay my companion. E. Galves. He is a cool kid. President says he is full of enthusiasm. He is a great kid, and a suuuuper great missionary. We both started out from scratch here and he has done an excellent job at getting us started. He is really direct with the investigators with commitments, which helps them get along a lot easier. I have helped him a ton with English, he is going to be fluent by the time our time is over ;)

The experience over all is great! I am learning a lot and the work is getting done. I promise in the next 2 weeks I will have a baptism.. or 2. It is so great. I love learning and applying the gospel. I love the people, the food, and my friends. So Yeah... ya have any questions.. let me know!

LOVE YA LOTS

-Elder Cetraro