Sunshine From Brazil

April 1, 2013

Happy Spring Break!!

Ha, we celebrate holidays down here but as a missionary breaks don’t exist. For us General Conference will be our break. It’s fun to hear about y’all playin’ around up there. I definitely was thinking yesterday, Hmmm… I wonder what my family is doing right now.  I sent you pictures of how we celebrated down here.

Our crazy mission Mom, Marli (the lady who taught us how to cook) made a bunny cake. It was funny because we were supposed to eat lunch at somebody else’s house, and so she just invited them over so we could eat lunch at her house! The tradition here is to eat fish and grape juice on Easter. And instead of our fun traditions, people just buy a GIANT (hollow and expensive) chocolate egg for everyone.

And then we also had a family night with a very dear member family. Just about every Sunday night they invite us over to have a "sucinho" (little juice) and she always has a dinner and some desert and a ton of juice. It’s fun because the other Elders in our district come too. So we decided to pay them back with sharing our lil’ Easter tradition of painting eggs. It was funny because at first they kinda questioned why this tradition was so cool, but it was funny because after the first egg they went wild and LOVED it!! Ha, they were very hesitant to eat the eggs or even share them with us. It was a hit and it was very fun.

Also for this week... we had interviews with President. HA!! It was very funny because he wanted to see our study journals. It was hilarious though because I brought like my 3-4 different study journal thingy’s that I have that were all full and what not, but what he adored was my brand new Study Journal that you sent me. He barely even looked at my others but he couldn’t put my new journal down. He LOVED it!  So maybe once I receive my other journals I can give him one. Besides that he told me that he notices how me and my comp have two different speeds; and that my next comp will probably be a Brazilian and that I need to wait patiently to be a Leader even though he thinks I’m ready. I think it is because the mission is so huge at the moment everyone needs to take their turn.

Also something really cool, I went to a freaking PLAY this week! HA, it was sooooo weeeirrrd. It was taking place inside a Mall, which are freaking huge and gigantic here. It was weird to have... entertainment. I felt almost like my old fun loving self but I had to calm down. President allowed us to go watch the Jesus the Christ play. It was very interesting. Had some good music. But I don’t think I have ever seen media of our Savior LIVE you know? I liked it. There were two things that really touched me. One, was this play was a musical. And just about most of the people that sung were the people that were cured from Christ. This really made me think about how we should be when we are cured from the gospel, and how it is really the sick, lost, and humble that rejoice the most from the

miracles of Christ. The other was we watched Christ die on the cross, but then I saw a part that we usually forget about. The 3 days when he was actually dead. It was really sad to see someone take Christ’s dead body off the cross and carrying it away. It makes me think of the reality that death is the end that a lot of people believe. For us we love to talk about the death of Christ because we know what happens! The Resurrection!

The work was actually really slow this week.  I’m getting really thirsty for a baptism. It was cool though because we started working with Liaz’s inactive family, that awesome RM chick, which led us also to our Bishop’s Mom. It’s really cool because we got Laiz’s Mom and the Bishop’s Mom to enter into the church this Sunday. For YEARS they have been trying to get those two in there but everything lined up perfectly and they went. I felt really good because it was blessing two of our most diligent members in our ward, and I’m sure it has been in their prayers for years to get them progressing towards this. Basically we are basing everything on General Conference this weekend to reactivate Laiz’s Mom and to baptize Bishop’s Mom. So please Mom, pray for these Mom’s! It’s Lucia and Lindalva. Pray that they can receive answers to their prayers this week in Conference.

Speaking of which, the other morning I started singing an old Primary song that really touched my heart (almost to tears every time).

“I see my mother kneeling, with our family each day, I hear the words she whispers as she bows her head to pray. Her plea to the Father, quiets all my fears, and I am thankful, Love is spoken here.”

Just know Mom that your son sings this with a heart greatly filled with gratitude. I am so thankful that I was raised in a home where I can say "Love is spoken here" I know I have a wonderful Mother that loves me dearly, that she loves the Gospel and our Heavenly Father, and that everyday I have a Mother that prays for me. This honestly quiets all my fears, and gives me great courage to be a missionary for you.

And for you, Dad, “Mine is a home, where every hour, is blessed by the strength of priesthood power, with Father and Mother leading the way, teaching me how to trust and obey, and the things they teach are crystal clear, for Love is spoken here.” I’d just like to thank you for making this song a reality in my life. I would like to thank you for be a very loving Father to me and for being a shining example of a worthy priesthood holder in our home. Having the priesthood is an honor because it means that God trusts us in our actions. Even more I would like to thank you for preparing ME to be a Priesthood holder. Lately I have had the opportunity to give many blessings to people. Giving blessings to people who DON’T have the priesthood in their household. It is also a sweet blessing to watch the power of God manifest itself with these blessings. I’m so thankful for you leading me in my life in the gospel and that because of your love and teaching, life and this world is much more clearer to me.

Love you so much Mom and Dad!

-Elder Cetraro