Tenho saudade de gravatas borboletas

Hey there, people. This week was sweeter than chocolate covered lollipops. 

I had to kick a dent in this guy's car

On Monday night until Wednesday morning, I was on exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders. It was pretty great. I learned a lot of things and it was a cool experience. Their area is super big, so we walked a whole bunch, golly goodness. But it's all good, because I like to walk. The coolest part was when Elder Nascimento, one of the Zone Leaders, made banana pancakes for breakfast. They don't have pancakes here in Brazil, so I sort of ate all of them with a chocolate spread, and it was an amazingly flavorful experience of awesomeness. 

Incredibly large tree system

When I got back to my area on Wednesday, my companion told me that Eliane had stopped smoking completely! WOOHOO! It was so awesome to see that she had made that change in her life! So what happened is that she was smoking 15-16 cigarettes a day and then on this exchange she told Elder Mamani that she hadn't smoked a single cigarette that day. Then we went back the next day, and she had smoked 2. So we asked her what time she finds it hardest to avoid smoking. She told us that it was normally in the morning when she woke up and was alone. So we woke up at 5:30 AM the next day to go visit her and study the scriptures together so that she wouldn't have the desire to smoke. We got there, and she started crying and told us that she didn't think we would come and visit her, but she was so grateful that we had come and hadn't given up on her. So we just chatted, studied the scriptures, and drank chimarrão. 

At the church with some fine people

Friday, we had a super cool experience. We had plans for 7 PM, and so we met up with Anderson (A 16 year old from the ward) to go visit someone. When we got there, she couldn't talk to us, so we went to visit plan B. She was sleeping. And Plan C also couldn't talk with us. So we were without anything to do and any ideas. We decided to go to the church and say a prayer to know where to go. We went into a quiet room, and all 3 of us got on our knees. I wanted Anderson to say the prayer so that he could have a cool experience with receiving answers to prayers, but he was a little scared to. Then I suggested that we all say a prayer out loud, one after another. I said a prayer, and then Anderson, and then Elder Mamani. During the prayer, the face of a sister in the ward who's husband is inactive appeared in my head. After the prayer, I said "I know where we're going". I said that I felt like we should visit Rosemere, and Anderson looked at me in shock and said "That was exactly the feeling that I had!" We went to visit her and her family. It was a great spiritual lesson, and then we played a quick game to get them laughing, and then we left. It was nothing out of the normal, but who knows why the Lord sent us there. Maybe Rosemere was struggling. Maybe they just needed to hear the message we left. Maybe Anderson just needed to have a cool missionary experience. I don't know why, but I trust that the Lord sent us there for a reason, and that whatever was done, was what the Lord wanted to be done. 

One of my favorite families. I'm on exchange with one of the Zone Leaders

I am so grateful to be a member of this church! This is the one and only true church, the same church that Jesus Christ established when he was here on the earth. Only through the ordinances and principles of the Gospel can we really return to our Heavenly Father to live with our families in eternal happiness.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK!

ELDER HINTZE