FELIZ NATAL!!!!!

OI!!!!

Well MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!! Funny thing is, it doesn´t feel like christmas is here at all....lol maybe for yall but here it is hot and humid and just not that feeling lol but I wouldn´t want to be anywhere else! This mission might just be the death of me....lol nah but it is pretty tough. I thought I was in shape.....man I have never sweated or walked more than this in my entire life and the hills here are mountains...I am being serious I will send a picture next week if I remember too! So the language is pretty difficult. I am still at the point where I feel that I will never learn it but I have to say for 3 weeks I feel that I am doing pretty well. For the most part I can carry on conversations with people but sometimes I just say Sim and nod my head like I understand because I have no idea what they are saying. I need to be careful though because sometimes they are asking if I want to have something to eat and I have eaten somethings I don´t like at all. The people here are absolutely amazing and I have realized that as I have gotten the language down a little better so hopefully with time it will only get better! I wish I could tell you all about what has been going on but like I said last week it is just hard because I am not sure exactly what is all going on just yet. At times it is really frustrating because I feel like a puppy dog everyday just following my companion around because I don´t like our area that well and the language either so I just need to really focus on learning the language and know that everything will work out in the end. So last week was the hardest week of my life but this week got a little better. I feel better about being here in Manaus and I feel that I am getting a little more comfortable here. This past week we had our conferencia de natal and it was sweet! We got to go to a zoo military place and see a jaguar, monkeys, birds, and a whole list of animals! Snakes too which was insane! I will attach some pictures so y'all can see them! This week I also hit my first big milestone in the mission! 6 MONTHS!!!!! It is crazy to think that I am already 6 months in and a quarter of the way done because I feel that I have just started. Just goes to show that you can´t let time slip away that we need to serve our best every moment that we get! I live with another set of elders and one of the elders entered the MTC with me but in Sao Paulo so it was both of our 6 months so we celebrated in the photo attached! That is pretty much the update on me but I want to let y'all know that I know this gospel is true. You know growing up I always just went with the flow. I went to church because my parents went to church and man I thought I had it hard. Since I have been here I never knew this gospel could mean so much to people. People don´t have the luxury here to just jump in the car and go to church. Some of them do but most of them walk a good 30 to 40 minutes in the humidity and heat to get to church and they are all sweating and happy. I have never talked to a member of the church here who isn´t smiling and happy in a good mood and I know that the gospel is the reason for that! Don´t take this gospel for granted. Don´t look at going to church as a burden but rather look at going to church as a blessing that we can go and partake of the sacrament each week! I know that because Jesus Christ died for us that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven and that we can be with our families forever! I love y'all and wish the best wishes this holiday season! FELIZ NATAL!!!!! Love, Elder Brock

                                                                                     

Manaus--Campo Dourado

Oi Familia e Amigos! (Hi Family and Friends!)

I thought that serving in Salt Lake was a trial, but I had no idea of course--it is difficult. I could go on and on about things that are happening here but it would take years to just write it all but I will do my best to answer everyone´s questions. Sorry for typos too this keyboard is a little strange well everything is strange to me here right now lol. 

So the flights were actually really great! Of course I sat in a seat and there was the biggest guy ever that sat next to me on the 10 hour flight--all muscle. To make my travel a little more stressful I lost my satchel that had my credit card so that really stressed me out at first but luckily that is all it had in it so I am doing okay now. Sorry about that mom and dad--that is one thing that hasn´t changed :) lol So we got here and had lunch and did some training and then went to our areas. It´s hot and humid. Not as bad as I thought but the thing is, it never cools down even at night. So imagine NC during the summer after it rains and that is how it is all of the time. So I pretty much sweat all of the time. So I have defiantly realized how spoiled we are in the US because everything here is nasty. Trash is all over the streets and homes are not very nice... but it has defiantly humbled me. At night I sleep with 2 fans on me and I still sweat all night so we take showers at night and in the morning and even sometimes in the middle of the day. Exercise......HA it is near impossible. It is hard to find motivation to exercise in the morning because your tired but try exercising when your tired and it is muggy and hot so we get our exercise by walking and sweating every single day. We walk everywhere so I like that because it is a good workout. Our showers aren´t heated. They are just like idk how to explain kind of cold but it isn´t that bad because it is so hot all of the time but when you get out of the shower you are already sweating again so it is just one big cycle. I miss home more than ever right now....I miss having A/C because we don´t have that in our room. Now for the language. HA well it is going better than the first day. I feel that I can hold little conversations with everyone so that is going so great! Give me a little more time and I should have it down in no time! My companion is Elder S´Xavier and he is a native Brazilian so we communicate in Portuguese so our conversations are pretty basic but I feel that we know each other pretty well! Now for the food. Rice....Beans....Spaghetti noodles just the noodles, and either beef or chicken or fish for every lunch is what we have. We don´t eat dinner rather we just eat a snack when we get back. We work through dinner and just eat lunch with the members. The people here are amazing. But on the weekends there is just a lot of drinking and people sitting around watching soccer. The church in my area is actually really nice! It has A/C :) ha ha We are suppose to drink only the filtered water and I have been doing that so that has been good but I still get stomach problems every now and then but not a huge deal. Grocery stores are so different here and milk is not refrigerated, so I don't  like that so, I put mine in the fridge lol. For laundry we have a washer but we hang them up to dry. I am in a richer part of Brazil right now so I don´t know if that will change a lot in the upcoming transfers in different areas. I am currently serving in Campo Dourado, which is in the city of Manaus, which is huge!  It is defiantly and different and humbling experience here. I am not the kind of person to be taking a shower and see a cockroach just chilling over in the corner bigger than any cockroach I have ever seen. But I just trust in the Lord that everything will be alright. At times this is the hardest thing I have ever done and I just want come home. At times I absolutely love it. I am not here for myself....I am here for the Lord. I am here to help people come unto our Savior Jesus Christ and be able to have the happiness that this gospel brings to my family and I. I know for a fact that I am not doing this on my own....if I was, I would already be home. The Lord is helping me, I know it.  And he is helping each and every one of us every single day we just need to learn to recognize it. You know that poem Footprints in the Sand where it asks "where were you?" when there was only one set of footprints and that  is when He carries us. That is exactly how I feel right now. Everyday is so hard to keep going, but he is helping and I know that he is there for each and every one of you! Stay strong back there and know that I love y'all so much. Know that I am doing all that I can to serve the Lord is these last 18 months that I have left. Trust in the Lord and do all that you can to serve him and you will receive so many blessings that you won´t have room to receive them! CPR! Go to Church, Pray Daily, and Read daily....that is the key to strengthening your testimonies and having the spirit with you at all times! Te Amo!!!  Amor Elder Brock