Holy freak you guys had an awesome week! Tell Joe that I said congrats! That´s really awesome! I don´t talk about the military here, and never about what dad and Joe do, but I leaned over to the other American that is with me and told him in English so nobody around us would understand haha. That really is awesome that the blessings of the Lord are being realized in the life of the family! This week I definitely felt the love of my Heavenly Father over and over again. It´s freaking hard down here. I still don´t speak much of the language because I can´t understand what others say. It´s pretty hard to hold a conversation with someone when you don´t know what they´re saying haha. It´s been especially hard not to get down on myself or just give up. The adversary is pretty tricky like that. He takes your thoughts and uses them against you. Thoughts like, ´´why are you even trying´´, ´´you´ll never get this´´, ´´look at what you used to be able to do in Utah and now you can barely even pray´´ it´s pretty scary sometimes. But every time that I´ve had one of those thoughts (which is usually several times a day) I have always found a reason to lift my chin up, square my shoulders, and journey on. It´s been amazing to see what enduring to the end really means =) life is hard, it´s even harder when you can´t communicate with the world around you, you feel isolated and alone, but then your obedience to Heavenly Father´s commandments pays off and you feel the blessings pour in and angels lift you up. Does that mean all of a sudden I´m fluent for 5 minutes, no. But it does mean that I can find a reason to smile with a genuine smile and put my shoulder to the wheel! I´ll learn this language because it´s what God said I can do. I´ll learn this language because I have the determination to do so. I´ll learn this language because I know how many people are cheering for my back home =) When you talk to anybody about my mission, please tell them that I really do appreciate all of their love and support. It´s what gives me the motivation to keep on going! Something I forgot that is pretty cool about all the blessings we´ve been seeing! I went to the temple for the first time in Manaus last week and it was freaking awesome! Way hard in Portuguese, but still awesome! I put everyone´s names on the prayer role (Our family, dad, randi, jarrett, paisley, and sarah) all on the prayer role and it´s been cool to hear about your weeks! Dad said he and Sierra had a good talk and he was really happy about that, Joe made Senior and realized that maybe these blessings are real things, you were inspired about prayers, I felt Heavenly Father´s arms around me a lot, and who knows what more that we didn´t even notice! Pretty crazy that I might not be going back to DC when I come home, that´s a very interesting thought indeed!
Love you guys! I´ll send pics this week!
Elder Sanderson
The elders he lives with
The rain
My boy! I LOVE this picture!! It makes me miss him so much!! He looks so great though!!
Wet!
Wet pants. This does not seem fun.
Pouring rain
The temple in Manaus. It is Beautiful!!
I love this picture and am going to frame it for the house.
It is a brand new temple just dedicated in 2012.
His new zone. Look at all the sisters!
The World Cup stadium In Manaus. Four World Cup games will be held here. How exciting for my soccer loving boy!
A road they walk down in Manaus.
His district from the missionary training center in São Paulo
President and Sister Swenten from the São Paulo MTC. It was President Swenton who first approached the first presidency about changing the mission age. How cool is that??
Goofs :)
São Paulo at night.
**** he is doing so great!!!***** I am a happy missionary mom!!
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