lol. Shoutout to the absolute best mother in the world. I know that you are all probably dying to hear my end of the story of the surprise package I got. So let me tell you about it. So Gabi called last week inviting us to eat lunch with them after the conference and I of course was super excited and we accepted because her lunches are the best. Her lunch is my favorite out of all the lunches I have eaten on the mission. So we were all sitting there and I was finishing eating my icecream when she brought out a big blue bag. I was thinking, why does she have a big blue bag? and then she handed it to me and I turned it and saw the St. George marathon logo. I got real confused real fast wondering how in the world she had a bag from St. George. Then she told me Santa already stopped by and I knew mother had pulled something off. I opened it and knew right away that it was all the stuff I asked for to give to people this Christmas. I was in shock the whole time and I kept looking around the corner to see if mom was going to pop out! haha. I kept asking how in the world she had a giant bag of stuff from all of you guys! I thought maybe you sent a package but the bag was much to big and heavy to send in a package. I was in awe! haha. But then they told me how a guy from palmas went to utah and you all managed to get a package into his hands. I was amazed. Mother, put yourself down for an ´´atta boy´´ and dad as well and everyone that helped. It was truly magical! And I went through all the stuff after and it is great! I am so excited to give these wonderful people some gifts for Christmas. I will for sure give Gabi the calendar and a few other things. :) So amazing!
But yeah, speaking of these wonderful brasilians and this wonderful place I call Palmas, I´d like to talk about them some more. We had stake conference yesterday and it was one of the most special times ever. They reorganized the stake and the bishop from Palmas 3 became the new stake president! Him and I are such good buds and he gave me the biggest hug after the conference. Elder Costa was there as well (he is on the prophet page in the ensign). He gave an amazing talk and I loved it. The best part was after the conference all the people from all my areas where there! Taquaralto, Palmas 3, Porto Nacional, and Palmas 2. I was soooo busy talking to everyone. Everyone and there dog came running after me to talk to me and give me hugs (men) and big handshakes (women). I have such a great love for these people and I wish you all could meet them. They love me so much and have shown me such Christlike love, I just hope I have given them a portion of what they have given me. I also got to see Mario! one of my very first baptisms from last year! He was there and he has grown sooo much! It was so great to see him and so great to see him firm in the faith. I was also able to see some other converts of mine there and it was just golden. Just a joy undescribable.
Now I am lost and don´t know what else I was wanting to right this week. lol. So this week I did a baptismal interview of this lady named Débora! ha. I thought of you mother :) She passed. It was a special experience. I love doing baptismal interviews and it always is a humbling experience. We also had the priviledge to do the baptismal interview of Tamiris. We visited her mom a few more times this week and she finally agreed to let her daughter be baptized after 8 months of going to church! It was something we prayed for and fasted a lot for. But she finally said yes and Tamiris of course passed the interview. So we are going to do her baptism this week. We know it will still be a battle and we´ll have to pray a lot still for her mom to stay in agreement (because when she drinks, she is awnry...). So pray for her this week that everything will go perfectly :) If you can believe this is also the last week of the transfer and Elder Medina will probably be transferred because he has 6 months here. Him and I would both love if he stayed but it doesn´t look like it will happen. So Maybe next week I will be with a different companion! Who knows. But all I know it will be great and I am looking forward to whatever the Lord has in store for me.
Oh! almost forgot about thanksgiving. Yeah, we celebrated wednesday night because thursday we had an activity planned in the church. But we about about 10 lbs of meat and had a bbq. We also made brownies and bought icecream. Just a typical brasilian bbq that I love so much. We even had leftovers for the next day and that never happens with missionaries. That just goes to show that we ate and ate and ate. Now turkeyday is over, Christmas is officially coming and I am super excited to talk with all yáll again :)
So just a spiritual thought to end with is something I studied this week, something Elder Dias of the seventy spoke about, and something I gave a trainning on to our ward leaders this week is faith. Faith is something that I will always study and learn something new. This week I studied in Ether 12. Ether 12:12 says that God cannot make miracles among men unless they have faith. Faith is the first principle of the gospel and something we all need or God will not be able to work miracles in our lives. We learned that faith brings about miracles. What kind of miracles? For a missionary it may be baptisms. For a couple it may be a successful marraige. For a student studying, it may be passing tests. For someone sick/afflicted, it may be a miraculous healing. For all of us, it may be the miracle of staying firm in the faith and in the gospel in this wicked world we live in. Whatever miracle we may receive or see in our lives, it comes because of our faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. In James 2 it speaks a lot about faith, and how faith without works is dead. Something I have learned is that we need to do our part in order to receive blessings and miracles from God. I know that the principle of faith is very powerful and know that God lives and works miracles among his children here on earth. I have seen miracles happen here. But it all starts with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope that you all find something this week to do that will increase your faith in our Savior. I know He lives. I thank you all for everything you do for me. Have an amazing week and an amazing first week of December!
com amor, Elder Patterson
brasil is so dan
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