⚡Storms are Starting⚡

 Monday, November 13, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

Olá all of y'all, 

One of the days this week I woke up to lightning and rain. I went to get a cup of water, and, as I hopped off the top bunk of my bunk bed... splash. My feet hit water. Still half asleep, I checked the time. 5:30am. I walked into the kitchen to find water covering all the floors. I woke up my companions. We discovered the only dry floor in our house was... the shower. :|  We then spent the next 1.5 hours cleaning up the water.

We have a problem where the water enters under our front door. The worst part was my companions' suitcases were on the ground and got soaked with water.

This week I had the chance to go to the Manaus Temple, as we do every transfer.  I was able to participate in an Endowment Session. It was super awesome. I was able to think and make some good goals as well as reinforce other past goals. I felt so many waves of the Holy Spirit and peace. The temple is definitely the place to be!!!

Well, I have been serving and working with two other missionaries as my companions, but the newest one finally got a new companion. So now I am back just in a dupla (twosome). 

As it's getting closer to Natal (Christmas), I have started seeing a few Christmas decorations up. A few Christmas trees, lights. One of the rich neighborhoods in another part of Manaus had huge decorations set up, bigger than life-sized nutcrackers, fake snow blankets...

Today we did a deep clean of our house.

This week I was thinking about a few chapters of the Book of Mormon, in Ether. How they apply to my life. Some of the things were big, that people always talk about. Some small. If you don't know, the events in Ether happened a long time before the New Testament and talks about this:

A man and his brother ask God to not confound their language [at the time of the Tower of Babel], and to help them and their families and friends. They leave their city, and journey to an ocean. There, with help from God, they build boats. Then one of the men makes and takes stones into a mountain. There he asks God to touch the stones and make them hold light, to be lights in the boats as they travel. God then shows himself to this man. The stones are lit, they go across the ocean, and arrive at a chosen land.

Three details in this story that I thought a ton about:

 

1. When God said He wouldn't confound their language or that of their families, they asked if God wanted them to leave their city. He did. But they had probably studied history and the scriptures before then and knew how God works. They wanted to know His will so that they could follow it.

2. As they got ready to leave the city, it says they prepared. They probably didn't just stick stuff in their cars (Carts? If even?). No. They were methodical. They got seeds and plants and animals. They were prepared to not return. To start anew following the will of God.

3. One of these men made rocks, and this plan, for God to light them. He didn't know for sure if it would be totally possible. He didn't know that it would all work out. All his work and effort could have been for nothing. But he was prepared.

Preparation isn't a passive action. Preparation includes understanding your purpose or role, and then preparing for it. Your situation. 

Preparation is active. It's working, putting in effort. Doing what needs to be done. Preparation isn't about the time and resources put in before, but the outcome after the fact. Just like any goal is about your overall objective.

I invite all of you to put in the work to prepare. Do the small things. Put Christ in the center of your life! You will be blessed!!

That's it for me, hope y'all have a blessed week!

Elder David Olson

MANAUS

FOTOS

-Temple, Zone picture

-Temple with my companion Elder Schmidt 

-Division with Elder Vilk, with Açaí frozen (way better than açai 'pure')