Churrasco and soccer in the rain. march 7 2016

I am sorry that I say every p-day I don´t have much time... It´s just that we have been doing lots of fun things on p-days lately that it hasn´t allowed much time for us to write! So today I am in a place called Guará somewhere in Brasilia. We went to Asa Sul today and played soccer with all the zone leaders and it started to rain and it was just a blast. We play on cement courts (indoor soccer kinda) and we were all just loving it. And after we had an old fashioned brasilian bbq. CHURRASCO. Good fun. We even cooked some chicken hearts just because it´s good. And it was awesome because Elder Medina brought me a present he asked his parents to send him from Paraguay for Christmas. It is a leather worked water jug with a cup to drink Tererè. So great :) I doubt any of you will like it, but it´s become a tradition for us here on the mission :) ha.

Working this week with Elder Ribeiro has been a blast. He is one of the funniest guys I have met. We just have a great time all the time and we work incredibly well together as zone leaders. This week was one of the best weeks yet of the zone. Just good stuff and lots of blessings from Heavenly Father. As we started from 0 this week we were able to find some new investigators and mark more baptismal dates. One of the highlight lessons would be with this young man we found (16years). We taught him and set a baptismal date. We went back to visit him and his mom and her friend were their that are both pastors from a church that exists here (full of apostasy). We sat there and they began to ask us questions about our church and beliefs. We just hammered them with doctrine :) Not that we bible bashed, but we taught with authority. They even asked us about the book of mormon at the end of the lesson and we taught them and they were ´´dying´´ to have it. So we marked a visit with them this week. 

We also received a few references of families this week! Families that are married for reals. Such a blessing. So now we have a few families we are working with and I put lots of faith in them that they can progress and be strong members in the church one day. 

I just want to end with a thought. This week I studied Enos as a part of my Book of Mormon reading. Usually we look to him and remember his example of how he went to hunt animals and prayed receiving forgiveness of his sins. But as I studied the rest of his testimony, the last verse really stuck out to me. 

27 And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoicein the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen.

What really stood out to me is that he had such a certainty that he would stand before Christ and see His face with pleasure. He even knew that he would enter into the Kingdom of God because the life he lived. I applied this to myself and asked myself if I would have these same feelings entering into God´s presence. For sure I am not perfect and that gave me some good time to reflect on the things that I still need to improve in my life. But how great it is to have the atonement of Christ that we can one day stand in His presence and see his face with pleasure. I love you all annd hope this week is spectacular for each of you :) have a great week!

com amor de brasil, Elder Patterson

ps check out my outfit... 

playing in the rain.

Medina and I