Merry CHRISTmas!!

Hey Yall!!

Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year! Happy time to not be at school! I hope that you all are doing great and wonderful festive things like looking at the snow with a blanket and hot chocolate. I am also doing great festive things such as getting burned on a 20 minute walk even when I put on sunscreen. One member said I looked like hot sauce. Thank you Stefani. 

Monday (December 24th, 2018)

Merry Christmas Eve!! Man, today was the day that I have been waiting for ever since I left exactly five months ago on July 24th. I got to Skype with my family. I was so good. So good to see their faces, hear their voices, and really talk to them for the first time in a long time. This also means, that I only have 3 more Skypes until I go home. Crazy. After the Skype call we went to a members house and had an awesome Christmas Eve dinner. Here in Brazil, they celebrate more on Christmas Eve than Christmas Day. It was really fun to have a party. Wow, its been a long time since I had a party. But Merry Christmas!!

Tuesday (December 25th, 2018)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Today was awesome. It was weird because it looks like everyone is lying and that it is only Christmas because everyone else is saying that it is Christmas. It is 85 degrees with 95% humidity. Noice. But it was great today because we gave each other presents, I got a new Brasil jersey from Elder Newman (shoutout to him) and my family sent a couple of small things. Then after that we had a Brasilian barbeque which was delicious. We then tried to go into a park and sing Christmas songs for people. I have never been so rejected in my life. Apparently 8 missionaries trying to sing Silent Night in Portuguese and completely off tune is not attractive. Who knew? But we got at least one person to film us. The rest just looked the other way. I call that a success. But I really could feel a difference on Christmas because it is the one day that everyone got together and said, alright, if we are not going to remember Jesus Christ any other day, lets remember Him today. Merry CHRISTmas!

Wednesday (December 26th, 2018)

Today we got back to work, the only rough part was that everyone was still partying or recovering from said parties. So, we took today to talk to a lot of people that have recently been baptized and that was really good because at least they let us in haha. We also are working a lot with Suelen to help her receive an answer that she should be baptized. I am so excited for her to get this answer and take that first step on the Covenant Path.

Thursday (December 27th, 2018)

Today I received a testimony that the Lord really does put people that have been prepared in our path. We talked to a man named Danny and he started talking about how he used to do a bunch of bad things that we wont explain in detail, but how he now knows that he was saved by God for a greater purpose and he wants to be a part of the right church because he doesnt want to throw this second chance away. When we explained the story of Joseph Smith, he said, wow, he had the exact same question that I have. Elder Newman and I walked away from that house shocked that the Lord could be so kind as to put someone so hungry for the truth in our path. 

Friday (December 28th, 2018)

Today we had a goal to teach the maximum number of people possible. So we literally walked down the streets and talked with anyone that was outside their house. It was amazing. Of course some people rejected us, in fact, a lot rejected us. But there were also a lot of people who had never even seen the missionaries before. I realized that we can work so much harder and do so much more to help the Lords work progress. Oh, and we reached our goal of talking to a lot of people. :) We talked to more than 3 ;)

Saturday (December 29th, 2018)

Today was a really slow day to be honest because Elder Inacio and Elder Rico had a baptism and we were trying to help them with that as much as possible. We didnt get to talk to a lot of people but, we did help Ana Vitoria accept the covenant of baptism so I count today as a win!

Sunday (December 30th, 2018)

Today was the last Sunday of the year. Also it was the last Sunday that church will start at 8:30am. From now on it will start at 10am which will be such a blessing. I think that we will be able to make it to all of church now instead of running around, trying to find investigators until right before Sacrament Meeting! But it was also hard because 6 people said that they would 100% be there at church today and only 1 showed up. But thats the way it goes, and that just means that either we need to work harder, or the Lord is planning something for us. Probably both. :)

Random Thoughts:

• Ive discovered that I am incredibly good at the card game ERS (Egyptian Rat Screw) I have only lost once this week.
• When you wear a Santa hat in the middle of the city, all of the homeless people ask you for money.
• Ton Carfi is a really good Brasilian singer.
• The missionaries of Areal called and said, what are you guys doing Saturday night? It was to invite us to a missionary dinner but do you know how long it has been since someone has asked me that question, and how much I miss it? Haha
• The last name of 64.38% of the population here is either Santos, Silva or Souza.
• Fireworks and bombs sound very similar.

I love you all!! Happy holidays and especially Happy New Year!! Make some nice goals that you are going to forget about in 13 days!

Love,

Elder Allen