Two Americans Walking Around Brazil

 Hey all!

Another week over just like that! This week literally flew by. I have now spent a whole month in Brazil and it's crazy to think that transfers are already near. 

I started off this week with a new missionary training at the mission offices. It was awesome to see some of the other new missionaries and hear some of their stories. And it's always amazing to learn from President and Sister Crane and the other amazing missionaries here. On the way back from that we ran into a guy who has lived here in Brazil for a long time but is from New York. He says he doesn't speak much Portuguese but enough to get around. We talked to him for a little and he had some crazy stories from his life. 

This week I had two more exchanges. And both of them were with other Americans! The first was with Elder Lizon who has been here for like 5 months now. So he could lead the lessons and talk to people. But the other one was with Elder Fleming who showed up at the same time as me. So for a day, there were two Americans walking around Brazil with no idea how to speak Portuguese haha. But it went pretty well. We talked (or tried to at least) a lot of people in the streets and taught a simple lesson to one person who is getting ready to be baptized. It was actually a lot of fun after we got over the fear of not knowing how to talk to people. I'm sure no one understood us, but it was fun to at least try.

Another day this week, we set up a table outside of the train station and loaded it full of Books of Mormon and pamphlets and tried to talk to as many people as possible. We actually have a lot of new people to teach this week after that day and talking to lots of people everywhere we go.

The hardest part of helping people be baptized right now is helping people to come to church. Everyone always says that they'll come, but it's super hard to actually get them to come. Were working on coming up with some ideas to work on that problem this week.

Another random story, today while walking around we saw this lady who was just carrying around a snake, so that was interesting.

This week was really great. I am learning so much and I love the chance that I have every day to come closer to my Savior. One moment this week that was really amazing was when I had a few extra minutes while we were in the chapel one day. I sat down at the piano and just played a couple of hymns the best I could. It wasn't anything special, but as I played and thought of the words of those songs, the Spirit was so strong. 

I know that our Savior Jesus Christ lives. I know that he knows us, he cares about us, he understands us, and he loves us. We can always turn to him in our t ok messages of need, and in our times of joy. This week in our weekly newsletter, President Crane asked "what are you doing to make Christ your best friend?" I love that question and I hope that we can all do something this week to make sure that Christ is our best friend and that we are doing the things we need to to keep him close. 

I hope you all are doing well and I'll send another update next week!

Elder Hill

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