Copa copa copa copa copa copa copa.

If you didn’t know, copa means cup. As in, WORLD CUP!!!! It has finally arrived and it’s looking like it’ll be just as exciting as I imagined. The streets are being painted, everyone is wearing Brazil jerseys and hats and all, the only thing that passes on TV is updates of the team, and there’s just a buzz of excitement in the air! Even though I won’t be able to really watch, just being here will be a pretty cool experience. It’s probably going to make my life as a missionary a little bit tougher, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Elder Christensen and I are going to cheer our hardest for the good ol USA, but things aren’t looking to hot for them. We always joke with the Brazilians and say things like "what are you going to do when the US beats Brazil in the finals?" And then we all just laugh at the impossibility of this haha. I’m hoping that the US at least gets revenge with Ghana for what happened in the last cup. 

Anyway, this week was pretty good. Not anything too exciting. We got some referrals this week who were set and ready to come to church, but didn’t come. So that was a bummer. Our golden family wasn’t home basically all week, and the father was in Porto Alegre everyday but Tuesday and had some family over so we weren’t able to teach them. But he gets back this week, hopefully for good. But other than that, there’s not too much news on the investigator work. It’s been so hard for me to find people here, and i don’t know why! There’s really just not much interest in the church around here, especially because they church is so far away from our area. People don’t understand why they need to walk 40 minutes in the rain when they have a church one block from their hours. It’s frustrating, but we have good people and I know we’ll find more!

We had the mission tour this week with a seventy, Elder Soares. It was really good and I learned a lot from him. He told a lot of cool stories and said a lot of interesting things. He showed a video of this ship on the sea trying to save a man floating in the water. I guess there was an explosion on another ship and this man had been floating for more than 48 hours. The ship passes by and they throw a buoy to the man but he’s so tired he can’t grab on. The boat continues to pass by and they throw the buoy once more without success. The boat just continued on, and didn’t try anything else. The man ended up dying. Elder Soares then asked us if we are doing everything we can to save our investigators. Do we just throw a buoy and hope they catch on, or do we do everything possible to save a soul? It was a powerful moment for me, because I do work hard, but I don’t do everything possible. My studies could be better, I could pray more fervently, I could plan better to be more efficient, I could do a lot of things. I decided to focus on one thing each week I could improve on, and really try better to throw more than one buoy. I think this can apply to each one of us as well! Are we throwing more than just one buoy to save souls (including our own)? I think everyone would answer no at this point, and that’s not a bad thing! Just recognize what you can improve, improve it and keep your head high! I love you all so much and hope all is well. I think about and pray for each one of you every week. God’s love is real, and his church has been restored. I KNOW it! 

Love y'all!!!! And don’t forget...GO BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Weight