Chapter 42 - Mudanças

This week in a flash:

• We had zone conference. We learned a lot about ellimenating distractions ( I can not spell in English anymore, and this computer can´t, either)
• Because we´re on a bunch of islands, we got to ride a plane to the conference! There are only three groups that use planes: Presidente, the APs, and the missionaries in the Açores!
• This is the last week of Presidente Tavares! Our new Presidente will be getting here em breve, and then the two missions in Portugal will become one mission. We´re going to have like 260 missionaries in our mission!
• Sunday was also good...for some reason (my secrets are my own).

Well, that was this week. I finished reading the Book of Mormon and New testament in Portuguese, and I restarted the Book of Mormon, but this time I´m going slow. Really slow. Today is Day four, and I´m in 1 Nephi 1:5. This was the first time that I actually stopped to think about things, and I´m learning a ton. That little paragraph intro that  Nephi put at the beggining is full of good stuff!

"An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah, and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi." This is the first line in this ancient, sacred record. What do we learn? It´s a book about people. Who are people? We are! It´s a book about us! The next two words are, "The Lord." So it´s about The Lord, too. It´s a book about us and the Lord! And what happens? The Lord invites the people to leave where they are. That´s what He does for us, too! We have to leave the world, our current lives, and our distractions and follow His voice. We may end up in the wilderness for eight years, but that´s part of the plan! We also learn in this little intro about three grand dificulties we may face. "They come to the large waters. Nephi’s brethren rebel against him." We might face tasks that we cannot overcome by our own force (large waters) or we may face people that mock us, resist us, or try to knock us off course (sometimes people that ought to be our brothers, or supporters). What must we do?  "He confoundeth them, and buildeth a ship." We have to stay firm, defend our faith, and then work and do everything we can to solve the problems! Those are the first two dangers the next one is a little more hidden.  "They call the name of the place Bountiful. They cross the large waters into the promised land " They were in a good place at this point. They had made it through the desert to Bountiful. That sounds like a nice place to be. Probably full of food, honey, life, and other nice things. But they had to leave. Sometimes, we look at our life and think, "Wow, I´m really happy where I am. I don´t feel like I need anything more." Lots of people say this to us. This is false humilty, and false gratitude. When the Lord calls us to leave good places, we don´t stay because of humility or gratitude, but because we are comfortable, happy, and unwilling to sacrifice that comfort. But Bountiful is not the Promised Land. We have to leave the good, comfortable life, and face the storms of the great waters. But in the end, we will be in a better place, the Promised Land, where God wants us to be. And we learned all that, just in the little intro that sometimes I skip when I read 1 Nephi! If we slow down and think about the scriptures, we´ll find a lot more spiritual treasures.

Well, I´ll just give a shout out to my friend Jenna (she knows why Sunday was good) and wish you all a great week!

I love you all!