Man in the Mirror‏ (Week 40)

Hiyah!

It is always a blessing to write you guys email - I love and miss you all so very much. Tudo bem aqui (all good here). It´s still beautiful here by the way and the sky is awesome.

Last night, we had a really great fireside with the 1st counselor of the mission, Pres. Monteiro. We had a turnout of 120 and 16 pesquisadores! I think the branch and everyone will be more animated to share the gospel because of what happened last night. It was a really great blessing of the Lord.

Two young men in the ward, Caio and Gustavo were called to be ward missionaries yesterday. Today we are going to have a meeting to decide how we are going to work with them in this area. They are such examples to me - they teach and work with us almost everyday and are a great asset to this area. I am very impressed with them and it is an honor to work with them.

Elder Sipião is a great companion who continues to teach me a lot. We read the Book of Mormon together to practice the language - I read in Portuguese and he reads in English and we both laugh at each others accents. It´s a good trade off. We´re going to be good friends and I feel like I will be here in Três Corações for a good while which I am happy about. We´ve got to really get to work this week - it´s been two weeks since a baptism and we´ve got a lot of good people to teach and help this week.

That is super exciting about how many new missions they are making! We got the call on Thursday that they will create 7 new missions in Brazil, but they dont know/didn´t tell us where they will make them. They said they will create them in July of this year. The mission Brazil Belo Horizonte was divided a few years ago so it is very possible that they will divide the mission again. We´ll just have to see what the Lord wants. But one things for sure - it is very great to be serving at this time.

To close, I´ll share a small thought that I had during personal study today. Alma 29:2 says, Ì would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and ocme unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.` I read this scripture and wondered, `Why does repentance and the plan of redemption mean no more sorrow?` The answer is simple and true. All men everywhere can change. You can change. I can change. But we can´t do it alone - we need the Savior and His Sacrifice. We need His Grace but the blessed news is that He made the sacrifice, He paid the price and we can be free from our sins and weaknesses! Isn´t that wonderful? Through Christ, we can change. Elder Holland said, ´After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before.` and Pres. Packer said, `To me, perhaps th most beautiful phrase in all scripture is when the Lord said, ´Behold, he who has repented of His sins, the same is forgiven and I the Lord remember them no more.` That is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement: to take anyone who comes, anyone who will join, and put them through an experience so that at the end of their life, they can go through the veil having repented of their sins and having been washed clean through the blood of Christ.` (end quote.) The Atonement is why we do missionary work. As the song `These are the Days` says, We Believe the World Can Change! Because we have been changed through repentance and the Atonement of Christ, we feel the desire to help others. I really am so grateful to be here serving a mission. I know that Christ lives and He has all power. Have faith that you and other will change. Christ will bless us as we diligently seek Him.

Elder Jacob