Eliza's Mission Adventures in Fortaleza Brazil: Week 6: 8/16/24

Olá! Bom dia!! After today, I only have 4 days left at the CTM which is crazy!! It feels like I've been here forever and also for no time at all!! It's honestly pretty scary to think that I'll be out there in the field next week (I leave Wednesday) trying to talk to people and teach them in my very very limited portuguese, but I am also so so excited to do real missionary work!!

This week went by so fast it's hard to really remember much, but yesterday we got to go to the temple for our last time altogether! It was really nice and peaceful, so I'm super glad we got to go.

The night before we were up a little late because a girl on our floor got the cotton tip of a q-tip lodged in her ear drum and ended up needing to go to the hospital to get it out so we got to help figure that out which made our lives a little more interesting. Luckily it was a pretty quick fix.

It has also been pretty cold here! It's hard to remember that it's winter because usually the weather is super nice, but yesterday was the first real warm day we've had since almost Wednesday of last week I think, so I got probably my last bit of cold weather for the next year and a half.

Other than that, this week has been pretty much same as usual filled with going to meals, going to class, studying, and trying to learn Portuguese, although this week Sister Wudel and Sister Bulleigh, our American friends on our floor, left to the field! It was sad for us because they kept us entertained but exciting for them! Now we get to try and practice our Portuguese with the girls in our hall, which one of them is our instructor's younger sister so she is super sweet but doesn't speak English, so yeah our conversations are definitely interesting haha.

One super cool thing from this week though was on Wednsday night for our devotional, it was a broadcast to all the MTCs from Elder Bednar, an apostle, who was speaking in the Provo MTC. It was SO GOOD and also so nice because it was in English. He talked about the Book of Mormon and he just gets so fired up and energetic talking about it that it just made me love the Book of Mormon even more and helped me to feel that same energy for it. Reading the Book of Mormon as a missionary is so cool for me because I am reading it with a whole new lense and seeing so many more things in it. But one thing that continues to stick out to me again and again is how much it testifies of Jesus Christ and of His Atoning Sacrifice and love for us. In the Book of Mormon, it promises in Moroni 10:4 "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if hese things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of t unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." Elder Bednar invited us to test this promise if we have not already and to continue to do it every time we read the Book of Mormon, that we can know the truth of it and the truth of all that it teaches about our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior. I know that I have received an answer as I have done this and I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true! If you haven't prayed about it, do it! The Spirit will testify to you in your heart that it is true! I love the Book of Mormon and all that I have learned from reading its pages and I am so excited to share it with the people of Fortaleza! Love you all so much! I love hearing from you, so never hesitate to reach out!!

Tchau, tchau,

Sister Howard