Conferência General

Ola Minha Familia,

Well, this weekend was pretty awesome. I hope one and all soaked up the joy that is and was general conference. I hope you noticed the theme as I did and that was about families. Families are one the most important things in this life. I have a testimony that the family is indeed ordained of God. I am glad for the temple sealing which unites families on both sides of the veil. The hours for the sessions here are 1 to 3 and 5 to 7 and priesthood at 830 Sunday morning. They record priesthood and reshow it. The first session they did not have English set up for us so I had to watch it in Portuguese. It is not the same without the voices. I did not get all that I wanted from the first session probably because I had a bad attitude for listening to it in Portuguese. The second session was my favorite, especially Elder Holland. He is my favorite. Priesthood we had to watch in Portuguese but a truly miraculous thing occurred, I understood without much thinking. It was amazing, one special prompting when all the members of the first presidency spoke I could feel the spirit bear testimony to me that they are called of God. I know they are.

I hope everyone had a good Easter. We really did not do much for Easter. It’s funny here even though people are members of the church they still carry some catholic traditions such as only fish and chicken on Friday and on Friday being quiet from 3 to 6. My testimony is this of the risen lord. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the holy one is real, that he leads this his church the only true church on the earth. This is a bold but true statement, the only true church on the earth. I know without doubt in my mind.

Last p-day me and Elder Ekstrom went and played golf here in Brazil…crazy right? I played golf before I played soccer. We took a bus about an hour away. The owner of the course was not there when we were there so we had to wait. They did not accept credit cards luckily we had enough cash to save us. Green fees were 60 reais each, clubs for rent which we shared 20 and 10 balls another 20, so between us it cost 160…haha. It’s more comforting in you think about it in dollars. It was fun. Ekstrom lost like 4 balls on the first 2 holes. We were running out of ball by like hole 3, but through prayer and miracles we found some balls and got through to play all 9 holes. I will send some pictures. First time I had played in 3 years. I was pretty bad, but it was fun. It was a party for Ekstrom’s birthday.

I did divisions with Elder Johnson this week, him and Elder Carvalho work on the other side of the ward. It was good to be on that side, we did a lot of walking that day. It was good. I will send pictures from the division.

The theme for this transfer was charity Moroni 7:47. Transfers are tomorrow. I think Ekstrom might be going and Johnson. I have a feeling it will be me and 3 Brazilians in the apartment…whoa. The theme for this transfer is D&C 103:36.

I received 5 letters on Monday because an elder in our district went to the mission office and grabbed them..3 from mom on missionties.com,1 from a kid in my district in the MTC, and the other from Michelle. Thanks keep them coming. They really help and I enjoy them lots.

All for now pray for me and I for you

Elder Athans

Shall we not go in so great a cause forward not backward avante avante pra Vitoria.--Joseph Smith