Tudo Bem minha familia e meus amigos

Wow, I love being on a mission. There is nothing better, and the best part about it is that I am still in the MTC...the field is gonna be amazing. Well, we got 8 visas this week.....all to the younger kids.

We became a mega distict this week. What this means is that we don't have a teacher and we decide what we do with our time here in the MTC. Some of the older mega districters gave us the advice to treat it as if you actually were in the field. To be honest, I have done just that and it has made all the difference. Elder McQuivey and I set our goals on what number of lessons we want to teach, how many referalls and etc. We teach our investigators on skype or other companionships. We treat them as real investigators by...praying for them, studying for them, filling out the area book. It is one of the coolest feelings ever.

So I had the scariest experience of my entire mission this week. So, the branch that I am in here at the MTC is all portuguese, and each week they have all the missionaries prepare a talk on a christ-like attribute from chapter 6 of PMG. Then they call 2 elders at random during sacrament to give the talk. One of the counslers who I know pretty well...and I guess knows me conducted. The first person called was a kid named Elder Swanson...he is a few weeks younger than me and is also going to Vitoria, and then I was called up. I was so nervous, and you know me, I never get nervous about talking...but in portuguese...wow talk about scary. I am gratefrul for that opportunity; it was a chance to grow and learn.

This week they had a training for new MTC presidents and director of vistor centers...so we had a lot of general authoirites here. We had L. Tom Perry speak to us again. It was good. He taught the first lesson very simply for us so that was pretty legit.

Well I am still here in Provo and still learning a lot. One of my teachers, Brother Smith brought in mission pics and shared stories from his mission in Brazil. That made me very excited. He is the one that grew up in Holladay.

Well, Sister Swope will leave before me.....haha.

So thats about it. The gospel is still true...I will get to Brazil but until then the Lord has a purpose for me here in Provo.


The church is true

Te Amo

Elder Athans