Feliz Páscoa!

In other words, Happy Easter everyone!!! I had a pretty good week here in Brazil, although Holidays are more of a pain than a joy for missionaries haha. But we made do and had a great week. So here in Brazil, Easter basically starts Friday. They call it Semana Santa (Holy week) and for some reason they don´t eat any meat, just fish. I guess they associate fish with Jesus Christ, but hey, it was nice to eat some fish for a change. It starts Friday with celebration of the crucificion and everything was closed that day. Then everything opened again on Saturday and closed Sunday. And, like I said before, Brazilians love their holidays, so their Easter extends to today. So everything was closded again today which makes life hard when you need to find a cyber, but we found this one! It´s a little tiny one with pretty sketchy computers so I´m too scared to upload pictures right now. I´ve heard multiple horror stories of missionaries losing all their pictures to viruses, so you´ll have to wait until next week. Sorry! Anyway, my Easter was great. Of course, I didn´t have the chocolate or family or the food or the easter egg painting but it helped me focus more on the true meaning of Easter. I´m so greatful for my Savior. I´m so grateful for the knowledge I have of his Atonement. It wasn´t until I took a book of mormon class at BYU that I realized how much we know about Christ and his Atonment because of the restoration of the gospel. If you just read the bible, it´s clear that Jesus died for us, but the details are all so unclear. The Book of Mormon and D&C provides so many insights which help us to understand and appreciate the Atonment. I know that Jesus Christ suffered and died for ME. He didn´t just generically suffer, but suffered for me personally. And he suffered personally for you as well. I know sometimes life gets hard, but "all that is unfair about life can be made right through the atonement of christ." (Somewhere in preach my gospel.) Again, I am grateful for all that he did for me so that I can repent and become a better person. If any of you have doubts, turn to the scriptures, especially the BOM, and prayer and you will find answers, I promise!!! And shoot me an email if you have any questions or doubts as well, I would love to help!

Well, Easter spiritual rant over now. Sadly, our baptism fell through again. His great grandmother, who he lives with, wouldn´t sign the form because she said she is not responsible for him (makes sense, right?) His mom has been sick in the hospital but will return this week so we´ll talk to her this week and hopefully baptize him Saturday. Pray for him! We had a great activity for the ward Saturday, Hot Dog Night! We did a talent show, a tour of the church and a dance afterward. There´s a less active in our ward who plays gaucho (brazilian cowboy) music and he played in the show. We also found this other less active who is a lyrical singer with an amazing voice. I played piano and sang a little bit with him, it was pretty cool. I´ll share the videos with you some other day! We had a lot of people at the activity, with quite a few investigators. I think they enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun.

I´ve got to get going, so I´ll end with one of the funnier stories of my mission. So this entire week, I was complaining to my companion this would be the first year I didn´t paint easter eggs. We were going to buy some eggs and paint but we never had time. Easter arrived and we just had one egg. My companion thought it would be nice to at least make a hard boiled egg for me. So he sticks an egg with some water in a cup and throws it in the microwave hahahahahaha. I was in the other room and all the sudden I hear a huge pop noise. I run into the kitchen and the microwave door is completely open and there is egg everwhere. I just start laughing and he starts laughing and we couldn´t stop laughing. It was hilarious. So, sadly, this was the first easter I didn´t paint eggs, nor eat eggs. But it´ll be an easter I remember for the rest of my life haha. Oh yeah, I didn´t tell you! My companion Elder Gomes and I will stay together here in Ipiranga for a third transfer! Woo! He´s a great guy and we get along most of the time :) There´s also another Elder Gomez living with us from Colombia and he will train an American who was in the states for a while but now is in the Brazilian MTC. I guess people who stay in the US now get to take a 2 week refresher course in the Brazil MTC. Of course, I missed that boat. Lame, right? Ah well.

I love you all so much and really missed you this Easter! But hey, this will be the only easter I miss on my mission, because I was home for easter last year, pretty cool right?! And Mothers day is less than 3 weeks away, I´m getting pretty excited!!!!! I´ll let you know more details in the weeks to come. Have a great week and choose the right! 

Love,

Elder Weight