February 20th 2012

This week was pretty good. The only bad thing is that our three baptisms for this month all fell through. But we were able to save them all and they will be baptized on the 2nd of March! I ask for your faith and prayers, because we really want to help them out. There are two young women and one young guy. They are awesome and will make great members of the church!

The mission president was traveling all last week for the other zone conferences, and one of the other secretaries went with him, so I was basically taking care of everything here in the office. Man, mission life is crazy! I can't imagine how much stress the mission president must have, having to take care of 150+ young men and women. I was already stressed out after five days.

I am doing good. I have a cold and a stuffed up nose. Which I think is the weirdest feeling to have in a tropical country. But it is alright. We saw a monkey walking in the middle of the road yesterday. Completely normal for here in Brazil. This country is awesome!

I am doing great. I love this gospel and I love my mission. Im grateful that I have kept a journal for this whole time that I have been here so that I can always remember it.

I love you guys and I thank you for your faith and prayers!

Love, Spencer

Mosiah 2:41

February 13th 2013

The months are going by fast, I cant believe it is already the middle of February? (Why is there an 'R' in February?). English makes a lot more sense now that I know Portuguese, but it has also made me realize that English is a VERY hard language to learn and that there are some pretty stupid rules in that language.

Well, it is still hot and still humid here. That is never going to change. This week it didn't rain as much. And yesterday we had a zone conference. When we walked out of the chapel, it was one of the hottest afternoons that I have ever experienced! My ears got ROASTED the minute the sun hit them. At least they aren't peeling....yet....

Yesterday was Carnaval, which is the biggest holiday in Brazil. EVERYTHING is closed on this day. And no one was on the roads. goiânia is a pretty "calm" city. There were only like 10 people killed, compared to a hundred and fifty or so in Rio de Janeiro. That is normal though. Hahaha. There was a parade and lots of people dancing in cool and colorful costumes. Besides the park full of naked dancing people, it was just a normal day. In the evening we went to a member's house and had a big brazilian "churrasco" (barbecue). De-lish!

We are teaching a young woman who suffered an accident and is unable to walk because she broke her leg. She was so excited when we invited her to church. During the week, she arranged everything so that she could go with us! She got a stabilizer for her leg, crutches, and a bunch of other stuff. Then on Sunday morning, she was waiting for us to come get her! She went to Church and loved it! She is going to get baptized on the 23rd!

Another investigator has been having trouble believing in the book of mormon. So we challenged her to read and pray about it every morning and night. She did so. Sunday night, after gettting home from church, she knelt down (something she had never done before to pray), and asked the Lord to "touch her heart" if the things she had learned were really true. Right when she finished her prayer, her heart started beating rapidly, and she felt like it would come out of her chest! She said that that has happened every time she has prayed after that. What a miracle! She will get baptized on the 23rd too. I hope! 

We are praying and fasting a lot to have another miracle of 4 baptisms this month, which will be a record for the missionaries that work in the office.

Well, that was my week! Hope you all had a good one!

Love you!

-Elder Spencer D. Eastwood

february 6th 2013

Well this week was an okay one. We are still having trouble finding people to teach, but we did mark a baptismal date with an investigator for the 23rd. I hope that everything goes well. We could use some success. I feel like we deserve it!

We have been encouraging ward members here to help us in the missionary work as well as to travel to the temple. The ward and stake goals are different here in brazil, because of the distance of temples.

Daily Goals: Prayer (Personal and Family), Scripture Study

Weekly Goals: Attend Church and take the Sacrament

Monthly Goals: Fulfill a Fast and Pay Tithing

Yearly Goals: Attend the Temple at least one time

It is a bit different than back home. Im grateful that my family lives in Utah and we are so close to so many temples. They really are the greatest blessing in our lives. I can't wait to get back and be able to go serve at the temple again! I miss it a lot.

Well, I don't know why I am so HAPPY! I'm, like, tired all the time. But I'm still so happy! I love being able to serve the people here and I will be sad when I leave them. 

I have been studying the Doctrine and Covenants a lot lately and I really like Section 138 that talks about the Spirit World. It is interesting to think about what will happen when we die. We taught a lesson about this this past week. A family who has their grandmother in the hospital told us that she was scared to die. But really, we don't need to be - and we shouldn't be - scared to die. It is just another step in the journey of our lives. And after death, in the spirit world, everything is going to be so much better than it is here! We aren't going to have to worry about the problems we have here on earth. And we won't have to worry about our bodies - if we are too short, too tall, too fat, too skinny. It is such a blessing we have to be here on earth right now, but it will be a great blessing to be able to return to our father in Heaven again!

Last night we had a family home evening where we made this soup called "Tacacá"...it is this weird Indian soup from the northern part of Brazil. It has this weird gummy stuff (that looks like boogers) and shrimp and this leaf called "jambu" that makes your mouth fall asleep. I included the pictures in the attachment!

And below is a pic of me when I went to Burger King with Elder Reis last week!

Love you guys! -Spencer.