Cat Called??

January 29th

Hello! Another pday is already here!

This week has been raining a lot. It's been pretty nice to have some change in the weather. Usually it rains and stops raining so fast that the only thing that changes is the ground gets wet. But this week has had some solid downpours. But it's funny- even though it's raining, it is still very hot most of the time. So whether or not i'm using an umbrella, i'm going to be wet. Either with sweat, or with water. But it isn't as hot as it normally is with all this rain. 2 nights ago was the first night I slept on the mission without a fan or the ac turned on. Thought that was pretty neat. The downside of the "cold" weather is that there were only about 20 people at church on Sunday. I guess people here can't handle a little breeze. Funny how everyone gets used to the temp of the place they live. When it changes, they don't adapt very well.

Another... interesting... experience, was with being cat called. Cat calling isn't something new here on the mish, but this week I was cat called by a dude. I forgot to tell you about the other times, but this is the 3rd time that this has happened. Usually they say something like "Oi" and laugh but this time some guy said "coisa lindo, coisa desejável". Not too excited about that. But my companion is very happy that this happened to me. In fact, he reminds me almost every day. Oh Canindé....

We also had an integration night this week. It's basically just a night for all the members to get to know each other a bit better. There was games, food, and I got the oppportunity to give a talk. It was the first of 2 talks that I gave this week. I gave another talk on Sunday. Luckily, because we study a lot here on the mish, it isn't too hard to give talks with no time to prepare. I've been studying the talks of general conference from the liahona's a lot recently. Like i've said before, conference is something that I took for granted for sure. The mission changes your perspective on a lot of things. Almost always in a more positive way.

One thing in particular that I have come to understand more this week is the Plan of Salvation. It really is a perfect plan, and it is probably my favorite lesson to teach. When we teach this lesson, we get to answer questions that some people have had their entire life (where did I come from, why am I here, where will I go). When people really are interested in our message, it gives them a whole new perspective on life. This additional study that I have given to the Plan of Salvation recently has helped me with this perspective. This eternal perspective. When you have an eternal perspective, it becomes much easier to deal with all of the challenges that we face in this life. Because I know that I have an eternal life ahead of me, I know that all of my problems are only temporary. Even if we have some sort of life-long problem, it is still only temporary. This plan also helps me to know why we have our problems in the first place. Without them, we couldn't grow. I think almost every important thing I have learned while on the mission has come from some sort of challenge. For this, I am grateful for the challenges I have overcome, and for the challenges I am still facing.

But that's pretty much everything exciting that happened this week. Love you all, keep on keepin on.

Elder Odom