Letter dated 10/22

Jake says thanks to the Adairs for the card from the reunion.

Olá Família,
Como que está coisas ai? Aqui está boa...How are things there? Here is good. So it´s been a couple of weeks but I got a strange letter. It was quite large. I just want to thank everyone that went to the family reunion and wrote me little messages on the large paper. It made my day. So things here are good not alot has changed. I have to get going but I will write more about how my past couple of weeks have been.
Tchau,
Elder Levingston

Oi família,
So how are things going? Here they are good. I have learned alot these past couple of weeks. For one I have found out how bad missionaries slack off. First This last sunday was "Dias das crianças" or day of the kids. Well my companions parents happened to just show up to sacrament. I was pretty annoyed because he got to see his parents and it just made me miss mine more. Right now your probably thinking "hey wait isn´t that against the rules?" and ya thats exactly right, it is against the rules. It is just one of those things that I´m not going to let it effect me. It´s something that he will have to deal with.
The one thing that I have come to realize is that Bazilians are very charitable. For the most part anyway. We can´t go into a house without being offered something to drink or to eat. It´s quite nice. We were contacting people on the streets and we started talking to a teenage boy. Well he had some cookies and offered some to us. It threw me off because I am just not used to people being so open and giving.
As I was studying the scriptures I came across a scripture in 1 Corinthians 1:17 that says "for christ sent me not to baptise but to preach the gospel." I like it because when people ask how many baptisms we´ve had or act like they are better because they have baptized more I just quote this scripture to them. Another scripture that I like is from the book of mormon. Mosiah 2:22-24, It teaches that each one of us will always be in the debt of our Lord. No matter how good we are here or how much good we do here on the earth, It is only through the grace and mercy of the Lord that we can be saved and return to the presence of our heavenly father.
There is one person that we are teaching right now that seems pretty promising. A 12 or 13 year old boy named Kaique. We are teaching him and his mom. Well we just taught the ten commandments to them and while we were teaching we also taught about the word of wisdom. Well Kaique said he doesn´t like coffee and doesn´t have any problems with anything we taught. The only thing he needs is to go to church to see how it is and if he likes it. His mom on the other hand has a smoking problem that we explained the harms of smoking and the promise that the Lord gives if we abstain from these substances. She has ablot of questions and is very interested.
There was one more person that we taught today as we were coming back from playing soccer. We stopped by a catholic church to use their bathroom. Well when we entered they were holding a mass. It was really weird to me the way that they worship. They worship and pray to a statue of Mary. When the mass was over everyone left and there were a few people in the church that were praying. well me and my companion just walked around a little bit to see the paintings on the wall and to see what their church was like. Well I stopped in the isle and saw a girl. I got a feeling to talk to her. So I went over and just started talking to her. (We were in our regular P-day cloths not our church cloths.) well I started by asking her if everything was ok because I felt that she had somethiung that was bothering her. She then said that she had alot of problems and came to pray for answers. We started by teaching a little bit about what our church believes and then how in our church we have answers to all the questions that people have. My companion wasn´t very happy with me because I was breaking a law that I didn´t know they had here in Brazil. You can´t go into other churches or any public meeting places and teach about your church. Well as we talked a little more I found out that she lived close to a church of ours and we just told her to go and see what its like. I started to bear my testimony of how I know this church is true. I came all the way from the United States to help people come to the truth. I wouldn´t come all this way to tell a lie. She started to cry as I told her to pray to God and he will answer her prayers. I was saying things that I had never said before and I really felt the spirit working through me to talk to her. I know that she felt the spirit. It´s too bad that the area we were in wasn´t our area but I still think that she will go and talk to missionaries in that area. It felt so good and strengthened my testimony of this church and this gospel that I know it is true with out a doubt.
Well I need to get going. These are a few of the things that I have experienced and how I am out here helping others to change their lives by inviting them to come unto christ. I love you all.
Tchau,
Elder Levingston