Feliz 2016!!!!!!!

Beautiful City of Goiania, Brazil

Alright, so this is officially (did I spell that right?) wierd.  I just can´t understand where on earth the time has gone!  Someone needs to slow down the clock!  I heard a talk recently where Elder Maxwell said that he didn´t resent the passing of time, I hope that someday I get to the point where I can say the same thing!

   My new companion is Elder O., a guatemalan Elder who´s awesome!  He´s really funny, excited, and helps me to be a bit better each day.  That´s what you need in a good companion!  This week was pretty rough in terms of the work, our teaching pool´s pretty dry.  This week we´ve planned to use almost all of our in-field working hours on Tuesday and Wednesday to contact new people and mark appointments for later in the week.  I´m actually really excited, I want to talk to at least 250 people about the gospel before Wednesday ends!  That will be a ton of fun, contacting people and getting to know them is energizing and fuels my excitement for the rest of the week!  We´re also trying to improve our relationship with the members here.  On Saturday Elder O. and I helped an elderly lady in our ward wash the doors on her house.  That was a fun project!  We talked a lot about family history, her children, the church, just about a bit of everything.  After we finished, she pulled out a pan of sweet rice pudding that she made for us that was absolutely divine!  She put a little bit of coconut on top with some cloves, and then sprinkled cinammon over all of that.  It was great!

   This month I´ve set a goal for myself to work on developing a bit further the Christlike attributes of Virtue and Patience.  I´m not exactly sure how, but I´m working on that.  One thing that I´m going to try to do for virtue is memorize a new scripture each day this month.  That will occupy my mind with thoughts directed to the Lord, and give me a defense to fall back on when my thoughts get distracted by anything that isn´t relevant to my work as a missionary.  Patience is tougher.  It takes a long to time to develop patience, and  I´m in a hurry to get to the celestial kingdom!  Just kidding!    It´s interesting how sometimes we´re in such a hurry to improve that we forget that patience is one of the prerequisites if God is to mold us how he wants.  He´s not in a hurry, he´s in it for the long run and I suppose he hopes that we are too!

   Anyhow, have a wonderful New Year, everyone!  Let me know your thoughts on 2016 and some of the things that you all hope to accomplish!

Love,

Elder Sweet