Not Really Carnaval Week

 Oi boa tarde friends and family!!  

And by the time I would have said this, eight people passed by in Copacabana....I'll explain a little bit later.  

So this week is back to P-day on Wednesday so I have about nine days to catch up on.  

This last week has been the five days of Carnaval which is typically super crazy and unsafe for missionaries but because of Covid it was mostly canceled.  It's still a holiday though so everyone was at the beach and it was really slow to contact on the street.  

Last week on Wednesday we had Zone Conference!  It was the first Zone Conference that I led! It went so well and President de Oliveira gave an amazing training on the Atonement (or sacrifice) of Jesus Christ!  I loved how he pointed out the word atonement looks like 

"At-one-ment" 

because Jesus Christ sacrificed his life over the course of three days for EVERYTHING AND EVERY SIN THAT HAS BEEN, IS, OR WILL BE COMMITED.  And because of that he also knows everything hard thing or feeling you are going through so don't be afraid to turn to him!!  He knows everything.  Perfectly.  

He is our Savior.  He saved us because of his perfect love.  

1 Nephi 17: " And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things"

After the Conference I went to Rio de Janeiro and Copacabana with one of the Assistants, Elder Arsenault! He actually is from South Jordan and graduated from Herriman!  So cool connection there! 

Downtown Rio/Copacabana is a lot different from São Gonçalo.  First off the favelas are crazy.  Like small tunnels, sketchy staircases, drug tables, and all the things you see in the movies.  But I always felt safe there, that's straight up the power of God! 

The hard thing about Copacabana is the street contacting.  Because people are so hurried in a rush and no one really just hangs out on the street, so that was a really big challenge.  I got down on myself when we walked for two hours and only got like four contacts down.  But it was something I continually got accustomed to.  

Elder Arsenault is an amazing missionary and he really has a great way of teaching and asking questions.  I learned a lot about how when we ask good questions, we can really learn a lot more about the people we are teaching!  

I was on the exchange until Saturday when all the leadership met in Rio to have a meeting with President Parrella, the area president of the country Brasil! No pressure.  

Anyway!  President Parrella was so fun and he only talked about the temple that will be having an open house starting March 26.  Its gonna be crazy, we have like eight buses that are running all day every day and just taking people for free to the temple.  And all this marketing and celebrity endorsements and all this crazy stuff!  But it was super powerful when he asked us in the name of Jesus Christ to fill the buses and bring everyone we could.  So powerful!  I loved loved it!  I got to play the piano for the meeting so such a cool experience!  

 

The last thing this week was actually really sad.  Sunday was our day for the baptism of Elias, someone who has been taught for like three months and he has been in contact with missionaries for two years.  He is ready, has learned everything and we filled up the font for Sunday after church.  He was sitting in church and left about 15 minutes before the baptism and we learned it's because his wife walked to the chapel and discouraged him from being baptized.  He left and said he wants desperately to be baptized but he needs it to be a day of happiness and satisfaction and he couldn't find that happiness.  So he is ready and we are praying that the circumstances can come and he can be happy.  Please keep Elias in your prayers as well! He's ready!  

Other than that!  I hope you are are doing well and I am grateful for all your love and support!  Love you all! 

Elder Moss 

RJ, Brasil