FREEEEDOM
Whattup Sons and Daughters of Liberty,
1 Nephi 13:14-19
2 Nephi 10:10-16
Ether 2:10
D&C 101:77-80
Well this was a pretty cool two weeks. We have some people who are finally coming to church, and also I got kicked out of somebody's house for the second time. Weirdly, both of those times have been in this area. I'm really boutta dust off my shoes in front of some people's houses soon.
Anyways, here's the news:
Pastor Bash
So the sisters in Embu sent us the contact of this guy named Noé. We try sending him a message, he doesn't respond. So we get the IRS to track him down and then show up at his house out of nowhere.
Turns out he's actually legit and wants to come to church with us. So we sit down and we're teaching him about the book of Mormon when all of a sudden this old guy comes in. Now I knew something was wrong when he was really weirdly aggressive with us but he left so I was just like "ok whatever". But after 10ish minutes this guy comes back in and is like "you know what you all have to leave." Turns out it's Noé's father in law and he's a pastor for the church next door
So we strike up a little conversation with him that goes something like this:
"Noé has already been preached to, he doesn't need the word anymore."
"Are you saying that he doesn't need to learn anything else about Jesus christ??? Isn't that lo Key weird??"
"No, you guys are here 'mixing the fields'" (that Brazilian pastor speak for steal people from my church into yours. Which, fair enough actually.)
"No, we're here to -quotes the entire missionary purpose to him.-"
"YOU'RE SERVANTS OF SATAN!! LEAVE THIS PLACE!!!!"
"NO, YOU'RE THE SERVANT OF THE DEVIL! AND I'LL PROVE IT TO YOU USING THE BIBLE!"
Then me and Elder Bawden taught him the restoration using the Bible, and the witness of the spirit showed him the error of his ways and he fell to the ground begging for forgiveness from god. So we took him out back to a canal and baptized him, and he started speaking in tongues. Then President Rollins drifted in, walked out of his mustang wearing aviators, congratulated me and Elder Bawden, and called us to be the next APs by giving us matching sunglasses.
...
Ok so maybe that last part is a little exaggerated. It was more like we just got kicked out of his house and then left. I do regret not calling him a servant of the devil though.
Sleep paralysis and cookies
Last Sunday night I just, couldn't go to sleep for some reason. I literally laid in my bed until like 2 am thinking. Was not fun, do not recommend.
But anyways the following P-Day we ditched our district because they were going to travel and do something expensive (Elder Bawden was poor because the office elders take 2 years to reimburse our gas purchase) and instead we went to the chapel and I baked Chew cookies for everyone.
Now I thought I had planned this out really well but uh here's just a couple of the things that happened:
-the sisters were supposed to bring baking soda but they showed up with this thing called "fermento" I don't know what that is but it's a little white powder and they said it's even better than baking soda. So I trusted them
-also we did not have chocolate chips so we just hulk smashed a bunch of chocolate bars
-elder Eaton was supposed to bring butter but he brought margarine. This is going to come up later
-yes I'm calling you out elder Eaton love you though
-anyways we also don't have a Bosch or anything so I initially tried to make the cookie dough in a blender. Spoilers: that is not a great idea. Ended up hand mixing the second batch.
-the oven in the church kitchen is positioned next to a plug that doesn't work and we didn't have matches, so I had to play a guitar solo to it in order to get enough fire to start the oven
-ok just kidding but we did have to deadlift the oven onto the kitchen top and stretch the gas tube to its maximum in order to get it working
-annnd then once we got the dough made it turns out margarine is not butter so it was crazy sticky and liquidy, I had to dump like half the flour in just to turn it into workable dough
So that was a very fun experience and in the end, everybody loved to the cookies so it was whatever. 8/10, would make again but only with real butter
Rip Elder Bawden
Transfer news! I'm staying here and Elder Nielson is coming to be my comp. Elder Nielson was in the ctm with me (not my district but at the same time) and he's super lit so I'm excited to be his comp. But in honor of Elder Bawden, here's a couple of quotes I wrote down from our last week together. I'll let you guess what I said and what he said.
"I saved you bro!"
"From what? My own personal desires?"
"The burden of responsibility is a joy."
"Will you take the responsibility if our house burns down?"
"Sure."
"Well, as long as I don't have to suffer the consequences of my actions, I'm OK doing anything!"
"Actually, I can't say that, never mind."
"You were going to talk about maid cafes, weren't you?"
Elder Bawden is a goober I'm gonna miss him.
Surprise ! Spiritual thought segment is back. And this week I'mma talk about Independence day because... I miss America. I love Brazil but like... the highest compliment I can give about living in the flavela is that it helps you have gratitude for the states.
Just a side note, I wrote this spiritual thought on Independence day and so trump hadn't gotten shot yet, so that adds like two layers of funny to my semi-ironic nationalism.
But anyways we didn't do anything really special for independence day besides watch this video of a guy playing the national anthem on electric guitar, so I wanted to talk about the doctrine of freedom itself: moral agency.
"And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you. "
Heleman 14:30-31
You are free to choose! We are not bound by our circumstances, former identities, or anything else. And the most powerful thing you can do to experience the power of agency is accept 100% responsibility for you own actions. 100% liberty also comes with 100% responsibility; by divine principle, it is impossible to separate them. We usually only want responsibility for the good things that happen in our life, and we avoid responsibility for the bad things like the plague. But repentance and power are both free through the Atonement!! (pun intended.) Accepting our part in producing the outcomes in our life, both bad and good, is what truly frees us and gives us strength to overcome weakness and reach our greatest potential.
Here's a whole BYU speech about it :)
So, even if American Liberty lets you down, Godly Liberty never will. In the words of the OG American, Captain Moroni:
"The Spirit of God... is also the spirit of freedom."
Till we meet again
Broke my streak of procrastinating emails this week, maybe I'll keep being productive. Who knows.
But anywho, love you all and wish you an awesome week!
God is Good,
Elder Ebbert
...
P. S. I don't ever send photos on here so if you want to see them you have to join my Google photos which I also send the link to once in a blue moon.
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