Yeah, that's not a quote from anyone, unless you want it to be my quote. I just thought it'd look better with quotation marks around it. This week was super cool though! Lots of fun stuff happened. First off was the mouse hunt we did. I was walking downstairs from my house to a different one when one of the Assistants to the President starts yelling, "Venha, venha! Come here!!" I ran into their house to see them rummaging around. "Get a broom!" They yelled. Our houses are being infested by mice from the neighbors and one had gotten inside the Assistants' house and was hiding behind the door in their room. We shut all the windows and grabbed brooms and the mouse ran out super fast! Elder Carney started yelling and jumped up on the bed because he was caught so off guard from the mouse's flee. It went under the bed until we got it out and led it into the shower. We closed the shower door and it just started climbing up! We knocked it down from outside and got ready to go in. We knew we couldn't keep him around, so we put it out quickly. No, I didn't break that dust pan, it was already broken.
The next day, we all went to the temple! It was super great to go and feel of the Spirit there. We got to spend quite a while there just soaking in the good feelings that exist there. It's such an awesome place to be! I love going there, and may get another chance this week as well! We took a picture together as an office staff in the front. From left to right there's Elder Decker, who President decided a couple weeks ago that I would train as the new Records and Referrals Secretary and who used to be our Supplementary Secretary, Elder G. Ferreira, who is my companion and the Housing Secretary, Elder Farias, who is an Assistant, Elder McArthur, who is the Financial Secretary, myself, Elder Curtis, the current Mission Secretary, Elder Carney, my friend from Itapetininga who used to be the Financial Secretary and is now the other Assistant, and Elder J. Silva, who is the Mission Secretary in training.
Other Elders had told us a rumor about a bakery close by the temple that sells American soda and candy, including Dr. Pepper, so we went on a hunt for it. We managed to find it! Rough part was that the Dr. Pepper shipment hadn't come in yet, however, my A&W Rootbeer was still great! I think it tastes even better after about a year and a half without drinking it. Nevermind that it was about 3x the price of a normal soda! I'll have to see if I can get back there soon for a Dr. Pepper.
We had a bunch of cool teaching experiences as well this week. One family who we are teaching practically forced us to have dinner with us and afterwards we explained the entire Restoration message. The look on the mother's face was the coolest when we told her how Joseph Smith went out to pray and then Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came down and called him to be a prophet. Her jaw just about hit the floor. She kept looking over to her husband like, "Are you getting this??" Super great! Then,Thursday we had a blitz session here. We've been doing them in one area every week where we get together as a zone and all work in one place to help that area. We had one here and a pair of Sisters found this super great guy. We went and visited him yesterday and it was awesome! The guy used to be a rocker. He used to play in a band and was atheist. One day though, he wasn't satisfied with life and decided to just ask God if He really existed and about his path in life. He did! And he said he felt this awesome feeling around him just urging him to change. This guy, Leonardo, started going home to see his family more often and started taking better care for his son, who is now 8. Crazy, imperceptible miracles started happening, like how he broke his finger the day before a concert. The guy is covered in tattoos, still has gauges, and his hair is pretty funky, but he wants to follow Christ. You can see the love he has for everyone, especially his son and his parents. He goes to different churches, searching what is right, and prays every single day with his son thanking God for all the blessings he has. It's super awesome! He'll be coming to church and he's already reading the Book of Mormon and loving it. We're excited for him! Moral of the story, real, pure desire can work miracles. God answers our prayers when we ask with a real intent, as Moroni says in Moroni 10:4. It's all true! Search for yourself if you don't already know.
I hope that everyone has a great week! Sending my love over there to everyone!
Elder Ashford
"Greatness is best measured by how well an individual responds to the happenings in life that appear totally unfair, unreasonable, and undeserved. Sometimes we are incluned to put up with a situation rather than endure. To endure is to bear upunder, to stand firm against, to suffer without yielding, to continue to be, or to exhibit the state or power of lasting."
-Elder Marvin J. Ashton
