Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Week 2 Sept 2, 2014

Oi Family
It has been an good second week in the MTC but it has flown by.  The past week felt about as long as the first 2 days.  I am learning a lot, it is hard but it is happening.  I recognize that I am incapable of learning a language at this point so I know that without the help from the Lord Deus and o Espirtio Santo it isn't going to happen.  So I am very glad that we get their help in getting that done and remembering what we have already learned. We have a new teacher now his name is Irmao Staples and he seems to be a good teacher even though we have only been with him once.  We are having to deal with progressively more difficult teacher investigators and more of them so that will be a challenge but it is awesome when they ask you a question that you can kind of answer in a broken sentence.  It makes you feel really good because it is not that common for me at least.  

Sunday I spotted Elder Schenk twice.  I saw him walking once in the morning and was able to pay him back the 5 dollars that I owed him and have been carrying around all week.  I then spotted him standing up looking around for me before the Sunday night devotional and was able to go talk to him for a little bit and say goodbye as he leaves to day at 4 to enter the field.  I was glad that I got to do that.  He seemed humble and ready to go so I am sure that he will do great out there. 

It is not easy trying to stay in shape and healthy.  But from my district and zone there are several guys that after we are done playing soccer minus all the stupid rules that make it more civilized and less like real football we come back and do abs and push ups and pull ups which helps but those are getting old really fast and there is never enough time to get the exercise that I want and need.  Also spending just about all my day shaded from the sun, I no longer look like a river guide I am not very tan, I got a haircut today which was fun.  The barbershop was nice had a great view out over the trees at 8 so with the morning light on the mountains it was very pleasant.  Plus their was classical music playing and the barber I found out has been there since 92 so he knew what he was doing and was nice to talk to.  Plus I was the only one in there so it was just great.  But all of my blonde hair is gone and it looked weird to see myself with dark not curly hair for the first time in months.  I do miss the sun.  Especially since even when you are walking in between buildings the paths are covered so you still don't get the sun that you need.  I think that might have been part of the reason that I along with most everyone in our district has been a little sick.  I am over it now so that is good. because it is really difficult to try to catch up on sleep here without feeling guilty for missing study time.

As I mentioned to Mom earlier we shipped our 3rd member of the trio off the the MTC in Sao Paulo this morning at 6 am and so it is back down to Elder Beeton and I.  We are the more mellow of the three of us so that should mean we get more time that we are focused which is one of the biggest challenges here since you just want to talk to everyone and get to know as many people as possible.  We will miss Elder Burgquist though because he is a character. 

So one night this week my District leader Elder Wilkes had a bunch of Elders in our residence write letters to his girlfriend that he thinks he is going to marry when he gets home.  (she is 16 and going into her Junior year of high school so I think it is retarded, there is a lot more of that then I was expecting around here.  Them Utards all want to get married.)  So i went with the approach of trying to make sure she realizes that how important it is she doesn't mess up eternity on a goofball like Elder Wilkes. There were some really funny letters from the other Elders.

This week I have read a lot in the scriptures and have been able to do it while staying awake for the most part which is awesome.  When I get to just read the Good old English Book of Mormon is usually one of my favorite parts of the day because it is relaxing you don't have to fight past the language to get the spiritual stuff, it is just sitting there for you.  But I have also started reading the Bible in Portuguese with Elder Sutton from my district where we go through and try to figure out what every word means before looking at it in English.  Which seemed to be very educational and helpful.  Also the Bible that we have is the King James version minus the footnotes and JSTs because the Church doesn't have that for the Portuguese Bible which I found surprising.  It took us over an hour to get though the first 2 chapters in Genesis so it is pretty slow going.

On Sunday we watched a talk by Elder Bednar that he gave at the MTC a couple years ago called the Characteristics of Christ.  It was quite possibly the best talk that I have ever listened to and I definitely suggest that you all take the time to watch it.

I better go take a nap now so I don't fall asleep at the temple.  I hope you all have a great week.  I will continue to work hard and strive to not waste any of the time that I have dedicated to the Lord.  You will all be in my prayers. I love all of you and that love grows more and more each day. Until next week.

Love,

Elder Hobson

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