Missionary Monday - Week 3 in BNH

Don't get your hopes up for this letter. This week might have been the fastest week of my mission, with no real reason in particular.

Fun fact: "Beck" is a slang for marijuana here. I keep forgetting to tell you that. One of my first weeks in Noronha a twelve year old asked me what my name is and then he said, "Elder Beck? Can I smoke you?". 

The football pictures have been a pretty big hit. I guess I don't really look like a football player anymore so those give me some credibility. One of our investigators is pretty smirky and he tells me that I look like marbles was my sport. He also calls me Tom Cruise though, so I wasn't too hurt by the marbles comment.

Our apartment is infested with little ants. If any of you have a good ant remody it would be appreciated. They don't really hurt anything, but they are EVERYWHERE.

There is a good CES Devotional I recommend you look up. It's called In The Strength Of the Lord, by Elder Bednar. He explains pretty well one of the biggest lessons that I've learned on my mission so far. He talks about how there are bad people, good people, and saints. If you didn't recognize from the name of our church, we should be saints, not just good people. He also talks about how we all know how the atonement works with forgiveness of sins and helping change a person from bad to good, but then he explains that we should also use the atonement to empower us and help us go from good people to saints. I liked that part. I had had that question for a while.

And it looks like I have time so I might as well tell you about Mari. I keep forgetting to take a picture with her, but she was baptized the other week. The previous elders found her and we just finished her, but she is pretty cool. She is a great cook too. I think I've already said it, but I am being fed very well here. There isn't a whole lot of variety in Brazilian food, but it is awesome. Anyways, now we are working with her 22 year old daughter named Pricila. She works and is going to college for psychology so we can only talk to her on the weekends, but she comes to church and keeps all the commitments. She is just waiting for God to "touch her heart" to be baptized. 

And we have an 18 year old kid named Gabriel that is progressing well if you are itchin to pray for someone.

I think that's it. Thanks for everything.

Elder Beck