Transfers, Good week

- January 14, 2024

Tuesday, January 9, 2024; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

This past week has been pretty good. First week of 2024! (Had to resist the urge to type 2023) We were able to make a lot of lessons and appointments, and while some fell through, most were awesome.

I forgot to mention it, but recently a member family had us eat a fish, that grows two small rocks in its head. The fish tasted ok, but the rocks were pretty cool.

We walked a bunch. It's so funny that here is like the land of trees and rainforest, yet everywhere is city, pavement, trucks, cars and busses.

There are some small canals going through the city. They are often very trashed, full of everything from plastic bottles to old furniture. But this week we saw some city workers cleaning the water out, so that was cool. They have a LONG job to go. But a little is better than nothing.

Today are transfers, I will be getting a new companion and staying in the same area, though actually getting a second ward [congregation] added. My new comp is a Brazilian. Should be fun.

The church announced the name of the new Brazil Manaus South Mission President who will start in July, and he is an American, so maybe I could have a American Mission President? It just depends which mission I will end up in.

We have been teaching a young Man, Valberny, and we are preparing him for Baptism. He is super awesome. He is decently young, but He really understand lots of practical things. We taught him the Word of Wisdom, which is a commandment that talks a lot about our physical health. It has things to do, like eat healthy and exercise, as well as things not to do, like substance abuse and more. I love how he, (and often younger kids and teens!) Understand that things like alcohol and drugs are bad. Smoking, coffee and other substances that cause strong addictions are honestly not good for you.

And that's what I want to end with. Sometimes, in life, at work, school, downtime, and with God, we do this thing. We pick a rule or task and try to justify doing or not doing it. Bad habits, mean words, unkind acts... we say, "it's not that bad". There is a line between bad and good. While some acts are better than others, it's not just about how big or small something is. A 'lit bit' of bad, is worse than any amount of Good. The good things we do, rules we follow, all of that doesn't erase the dirt of the bad.

With Valberny, we talked about how we must treat our body with respect. Give it good things, avoid the bad. Substance abuse and addiction of any kind remove our freedom! It isn't freedom choosing to use bad substances that will affect your future choices.

That is how God is. He wants us to have our choices. He doesn't want to stop us from making our own choices, he just wants to encourage the good choices and make us happy.

So, I invite all of you - evaluate your decisions, especially with what you put into your body. Does it help you have freedom of future choices, or does it bring you down? Are you walking into a trap? "It's just one drink" are some famous last words. Don't let that be you. Choose real freedom

That's it, hope y'all have a good week! Love you all!

Elder David Olson

Missão Brasil Manaus

Fé + Obras = Poder

Faith + Works = Power

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