DA TERRA DOS GAUCHOS

Olá gente! How are ya'll? So my first week here in Alegrete was pretty darn great. Winter is ending and it's getting hot again. Yipee! (said the sweaty american, sarcasticly). Not much happened this week, considering that we're opening an area. This is the 4th area that I've opened on the mission, and the first weeks are always slowest. But we got some work done. 

When we got here, the elders that were here before us used up all the credit on the cell phone, so now, we can't call anyone until the end of the month, which is not super cool. But hey, who needs a cell phone anyway? The other elders also left a list of the people that they were working with, so we went to visit all of them this week. We met Eliane and Guilherme, and they are super cool. Eliane was already to be baptized, and when she went to the baptismal interview, she didn't pass because she had been smoking. When we visited her again, she expressed a lot of desire to be baptized, so we started to make some goals with her. Sunday, she could smoke 20. and today she can smoke 19, and so forth. My companion is making a fake cigarette case for her, and making fake cigarettes. On each cigarette, he wrote a scripture that she can look up when she has the desire to smoke. We're gonna give it to her this week, and I hope it all works out.

 We went to contact a address that was left with us, and when we got there we were confused. We ended up in a veterinary store. We went in and started talking to someone, and it turns out that the other elders had passed by and talked with him. My question is why were the other elders in a veterinary store. Anyways, we started to teach him and his wife, and we invited them to be baptized. They started thinking and then they expressed a lot of desire and accepted, so I hope all goes well with them, too. We're gonna stop by there house this week so I'll have more news next week. 

This week, I was studying about Jesus's ministry here in the Americas. It really made me feel like I knew my Savior a lot better. Christ was such an amazing teacher! He was gentle, kind, loving, used the scriptures, spoke simply but powerfully. Wow. Go and read 3 Nephi. One part that hit me is when Jesus was talking about loving our enemies. He said that we need to love them and pray for them and serve them. But why? "For [God] maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good."

It's true. Both the good and the bad have the priveledge to feel the sun. And both the good and bad have the priveledge to feel the Love of Christ. So we need to let our "light" shine on others so that they can feel the perfect love of our Savior. We have the light of the Gospel to share, so let's let our "sun" shine on both the good and bad. I love the scriptures. They are such a source of spiritual strength and awesomeness. READ THEM!

I really know that this church is true! It really is the true church of Christ. And we all the oportunity to feel the love of Christ! (Romans 8:38-39)

I love you all so much!

I hope your week is awesomer than Spider-man eating Nutella on the moon.

-Elder Hintze