As per your question, my favorite scripture is John 21:15. Speaking of scriptures, someone showed me this scripture in the Book of Mormon- Alma 43:19. I love to picture Mormon there carving away at the gold plates, and he looks back at what he's written and just sighs... "aw, man..." Too bad there's no backspace on gold plates.
It took me 20 minutes to remember the word "inconvenience" today. I heard that the apostles get very upset with missionaries who come back from foreign lands having forgotten their native tongue. I do not want to be one of those people, but it's difficult living in a house with 3 Brazilians. All I have is James E Talmage. And I don't talk back to him.
i'm excited about the baby. Yep. So just 7 more days, eh? I'm excited.
This Sunday I gave my first talk in a Brazilian church. I talked about Temples and Eternal Families, because there's going to be a caravan going to the temple in São Paulo this Wednesday-Saturday (did you know all the temples in Brazil have hotel-type things on the grounds because there are only 6 temples [4 dedicated as of April] and so people have to travel such long distances to go there it's a few days worth of travel).
Today was our Zone P-Day and so the whole zone was here (26 people. Biggest zone in the mission. I love Sete Lagoas.). We had a Soccer Tournament- Every district was a team. My district got destroyed. But later, our team was reformed and I ended up going to the championship... but then we lost, 3-0. Disappointing. But people said I was the best American- not that that's saying much, but I'll take what I can get. I owe it to all my gym class days in Paraguay. And probably some to Pop's days of coaching when I was like, 9.
After that, we went to a Churrasco (if you'll remember, that would be Asado in Spanish, or... Barbecue in English, only not really, way better). They have every kind of meat you could ever imagine, and it's all cooked amazingly and it's that kind of melt-in-your-mouth meat. So good. All you can eat, and it was only like, $6.
Conference was awesome. I only saw the last talk on Saturday morning, and half of Saturday night. And then Sunday morning (because of the time difference), Priesthood was in Portuguese (they didn't have a special English room like all the other sessions). I understood, but not well enough to keep my attention. Both Sunday sessions, though: Awesome. I missed Jeffery R. Holland's talk. I walked in during his testimony. The other elders said it was the talk of the century. I guess I'll have to wait for the Ensign. Everything was good though. It's fun to feel that great confirming spirit there. There's no way you can go to general conference and not know that these men are truly inspired of God. That they stand as witnesses to the world that Jesus is the Christ and he stands at the head of the church. Even in Portuguese, the Spirit is super strong.
Yesterday I was walking down the street and this guy passed by me with a small tin can in his hand and offered me cocaine. I declined, but extended an invitation to hear our message in his house. He declined.
I can't think of anything else that's interesting. Next week I'll probably send photos.
Love you all. I'm praying for you, of course. Thanks for your prayers- keep 'em coming.
-Elder Sisco