Email 09/11/17

My week has been fine comparatively, but there is something I haven´t sufficiently mentioned in the past. During my time here in Brazil and at other times before the mission I have been seeing many red harvest moons. I saw one this last Saturday that was nearly full and especially red. Concerning the hurricanes, I have heard of only Texas and Florida. I heard nothing of the fires and earthquakes, but I was shown pictures of the Texas hurricane. I just read an 8.1 earthquake is the one you were talking about that hit Mexico. Wow. Wildfires, and I saw that there were various other earthquakes in other places. These are all fulfilling Matthew 24, right now.

I had a case of muscle pain due to sleep in a bad position, I had to have something called GELO rubbed and massaged on it. I feel better now. João-Victor was happy enough to massage it for me. I will put the photos I need to put in into drive. Thank you for the information. I hope that Dad will be alright. How is the rest of the family holding up? From what the family of João-Victor have shown me on Facebook they appear to be doing fine.

I do have one question to ask. Just a thought. Have you read all of the Joseph Smith Translations within the appendix of the Bible? I have been reading many of them and I have learned much. I would suggest if you haven´t read all of them yet, that you would. Some of it will even help you with understanding my patriarchal blessing. I love the ones that are not in the appendix and are scattered throughout the Bible itself. In the Portuguese version they have the translations in the appendix of the Triple combination and in the appendix of the Bible. They are very helpful for me personally and for giving to my companions. They have helped me much in the past and are still helping me.

I have been struggling a bit in mind lately. I remember when I was in São Paulo, just before my whole district left for their several missions, we decided to give each other priesthood blessings. I enjoyed the experience and I found it interesting when I gave one to my friend Elder Barnes. I didn´t understand most of what I said and I was a bit surprised when he got up and shook my hand immediately after the blessing. He was a great guy. In my blessing I received a very important message. The Spirit said through the Elder something along the lines of this: "It is going to be hard, but know that you will be able to do miracles. The lord has had me help many a people in receiving the Gospel and I have given a number of blessings in the which the recipients have been healed, but I am getting a little concerned that I have not as yet done others. I am very grateful for the ones I have had the opportunity to perform, but I was hoping that they would be greater than they have hitherto been. I will keep waiting on the Lord for this. Maybe he plans to have me do them later on. One of the reasons why it was hard in Rondonopolis was because the Lord needed to have me suffer in order to prepare me for the future. If you reread the Joseph Smith Translation in Hebrews 11, you will understand at least one of the reasons why I had to suffer in Rondonopolis. Just know that I know that the Lord was pleased with my endurance. I wish to keep going and overcome my problems I have. I don´t know exactly how hard this past time has been for you and the Family, but I do now know why it has been happening. The kind that I am having now are not too great for me to handle at this present time. The Mission is struggling at the moment, but I hope that we will do better in the future. I am greatly happy to know that you and the family are being blessed. I will keep trying to keep my spirit up.

 Thank you for the E-mails. They were very helpful. If you have any questions just ask.