Put Off The Flesh, Become Machine

Whattup glorious machines,

The Purity of the Machine
Apparently I hit 6 months on the mission! And to celebrate, my mortal flesh has betrayed me, and I have been ravaged by all courses of disease, weakness, and affliction. Or, in other words: I've had a cough ever since I arrived in my new area. But it was a really bad cough guys I promise-

No but actually my body has been going kinda crazy. I did have a pretty bad cough until I unlocked this technique of hacking up all the gunk that was in my throat, but I also have had some other fun conditions like:
-Being super hot for no reason
-Headache
-Nausea
-Back pain
-Unable to think(?)

So it's been awesome. About halfway through the week, I read the following scripture in Mosiah 27, 5: "Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labor with their own hands for their support, in all cases save it were in sickness, or in much want; and doing these things, they did abound in the grace of God."

And for a moment I thought, "I could probably justify staying in because of sickness." So I sighed, stood up from my chair... 

And PUNCHED that thought IN THE FACE (metaphorically).

That scripture is talking not EMPLOYED, PAID work, not MISSIONARY work you cheeseglubber. If I can WALK I can PREACH! You think Satan's happy or sad when a missionary stays home? I think he LAUGHS and heaven knows I'm not gonna let that happen. 

Woah. That was a little intense. But anyhow, in my obstinate stubbornness, I chose to become a machine and persisted. This week's miracle is that literally anything happened in our area at all lol because 80% of the time we walked out of our house I was braindead. But we still managed to get some stuff done.

And, for those of you who might be worried- "sleeping by the mold on the wall isn't healthy" or "don't spread disease by being stubborn"- I do confess that the back pain and motion sickness induced by the São Paulo public transit system on Sunday got to me. We got back to our house to study and I was finally like, "You know what? I cannot stand up, sit down, or walk without feeling like a flock of miniature piranhas is swimming down the river of my spinal fluid. Maybe I should lay down." And then I had like probably top 1 spiritual experiences of my life. But that's a spiritual thought story, hold your horses.

So yeah. As I lay in the dark (our power went out because of a storm) writing this email, I feel better. My back is no longer in as much pain, and I've regurgitated all of the mucus in my entire body onto the Church soccer court. So we should be chilling.

Halo 3 ODST
It has been raining non stop for 3 days. That's super awesome minus the part where I walk in it all the time, and also minus the part where I have to dry laundry. Our clothesline is uncovered and there is also no covered space to put our laundry racks, so our house is just crammed with our still-wet laundry. It has also been freezing cold, which is probably not something you would expect to hear about Brazil. Of course, being from the best state in the U.S, the cold's barely comparable- -but maybe if I wasn't a beer-cheese-blooded Wisconsinite I would feel something. 

That's like beer-cheese as in the singular type of cheese, not beer and cheese. Just to be clear.

Definitely not a surprise commitment
So despite all the bravado and Wisconsinry, I have to say that this week was a little bit of a decaying/trunky arc. I formally have no clue what I'm doing, and waking up every day feeling like a nest of wasps has not made the normal stresses of learning this area and helping my companion any easier. I spent the whole week praying that the Lord could make... anything out of this week cuz frankly the whole thing felt a little bit like a garbage pile. And you know what? We're seeing some little miracles that might just roll themselves into a snowball. So on the work end, we are chilling.

But yesterday on the tail end of this somewhat-disappointing week I had one of the best experiences of my life. Now I feel super revitalized. I'm sure you're anxious to know: what was this experience? 

>:)

But how did I achieve such a great experience? Well not only am I going to tell you, but you are going to learn it first hand because SURPRISE! YOU HAVE ONCE AGAIN FALLEN FOR THE SURPRISE WEEKLY COMMITMENT!

You have unwittingly committed to do the following:
Step 1: Watch ALL the "Hear Him!" videos from the quorum of the 12 and the first presidency:
Step 2: Apply them in your life

And there you have it. Go forth and be blessed. I'm expecting at least a 3 page follow up report by September 3, 2023, 11:59 PM.

Power Off
Well that's it for this week. I'm excited to start really cracking down on this area and see if we can juice anything out of here. The machine marches on, undeterred.

God is Good,
Elder Ebbert



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