On Wednesday, we had Zone conference. During it, we found out something great, that goes hand in hand with what I was ranting about in my last email haha. Our standard of excellence had been changed!! Basically doubled!! I'm not sure why, but it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
Friday was super cool! 4th of July!! And, since Brasil was playing in the world cup that day, we couldnt leave the house. Soooo as any good American would do, we celebrated the 4th! It seriously felt like I was bck in the states. We BBQ'd, took pictures, annnd had fireworks all day long (thanks to all the Brazilians watching the game haha)!
On Sunday, I went on splits with members for the first time. Fortunately, I was with a returned missionary. Unfortunately, in his mission, he didn't have the rule of teaching all lessons in 15 minutes or less. It's crazy to see the difference between people when you teach short and simple and when you teach long and complicated. I haven't been turned down / rejected once in Pacajus (and only like 3 times in my mission), until Sunday.. Basically every time we taught a lesson for over 20 minutes, the people didn't want us to return. This makes perfect sense to me. How did Jesus teach? Long and complicated? I dont think so. Every single one of his teachings were extremely simple (while at the same time being extremely deep). To have success in our lives, we need to gain atributes of Jesus. Only when we do this will we find success.
Elder Hamstead
p.s. I almost forgot!! I got to fill The baptismal font with a fire hose last week!!
p.p.s We didn't have P-day yesterday because we have a game today. President Fusco is letting us have P-day (allowed to leave the house) until 11AM (my time)
