Ebbert, Lawson

Whattup coppers, This week was pretty aight. The beginning of the week was fire and I was walking out of the house every day, wind in my hair style, angels at the rearguard, the whole shmorgus. But oof it is hard to maintain that much energy and enthusiasm especially when I still can't freaking talk to people normally and also holy cow the Plan of Salvation is so hard to teach in portuguese?? Past, present, and future conjugation up the wazoo. BUT I am finishing this email later in the day and I can officially say that my 'core is refilled' so to speak. We went to a huge park as a zone today and I got to see some of my CTM brothers and talk to my family and it was honestly just a joy. So I'm feeling ready to keep working this thing through and keep advancing. Channeling my Shawn Spencer, I can tell that y'all are currently thinking: "Lawson, why is this week's email so inferior to last weeks? Where's the prologue, the epilogue, the bolded sections, the ...

(Editor's note: this email was originally going to be titled "Far From Home" in reference to the Spiderman film of the same name. The title has since been updated to account for recent events.) Hoooooooooooooooooo boy folks. Buckle up.  Prologue In the beginning of the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" book, there is a stress chart with the colors green, yellow, orange, and red, green being "I can appropriately handle the stresses of missionary life and feel the spirit" and red being "God has abandoned me". If I were to track my day to day using that chart, it would probably look like an impressionistic painting. Or a synesthete's interpretation of Mars by Gustav Holst. If you got that joke, you're a nerd. But seriously, it has been a struggle. I probably cried more in the first two days of my being out in the mission field than I cried in the past like year. My MTC district was 100% carrying my mental for the last month. But we're c...

Dear Family of Elder Ebbert,   We joyfully received Elder Ebbert today in the São Paulo Interlagos Mission.  We are grateful for his desire to serve our Savior Jesus Christ.  He will bless many lives and grow and become a more dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ through his experiences.  We are grateful for your faith in Jesus Christ to send your son.  We love him.   With Gratitude, Síster Morrin Brazil São Paulo Interlagos Mission

Olá dente! I schedule sent my last email at like midnight brazil time, but I should have waited because that day we played a ton of pickleball and it rained and we had an awesome movie moment playing in the rain. It was a blast.  My bit this week was rats. They're called ratos em português. I like to fancy myself as King of the Rats, like in the nutcracker. I'm pretty sure that theres a rat king in nutcracker but I mostly just remember a barbie version of the nutcracker I think? Maybe I'm just crazy. Some elders from new zealand and england gave me a haircut this week. It was lo key clean and also I loved their accents. My sister is getting back from her mission this week! Maybe today(?) I'm very excited for her and can't wait to see her in 2 years >:) My thoughts are all jumbled so I don't really have a spiritual thought this week. Conference was fire. Easter is the best. The Book of Mormon is dope. This is my last week in training and next week I go into th...

This week, I ate a double dogged brazlian hot dog, and it was pretty much the best experience of my life. For those unaware, the brazilian hot dog (or at least the one I had) has mashed potatoes, lettuce, the dogs, and a packet of mayo, ketchup, and mustard slathered on. Of course, for two dogs, I had to use twice as much of every other ingredient. I'm pretty sure that meal catalysed a reaction in my body which created a new kind of neurochemical. Anyways, I also accidentally started a mosh pit at the Missionary Training Center. And by mosh pit, I mean tie trading frenzy. I had heard about trading ties but I went out into the halls with a bunch of ties and went around saying "trocar" (portuguese for to trade) and literally the entire hall flooded out and was stuffed with people negotiating tie trades in english, spanish, and portuguese. It was epic. I know everybody was looking forward to my spiritual thought/pop culture conection this week but I honestly don't really...

MTC is so weird. I should say CTM because that's what its actually called. But it's like insanely difficult and super edifying at the same time. And by difficult I mean exhausting. I'm so tired. But I love working! I feel like I have some good spiritual thoughts to share sometimes but a solid 80% of them are about the Cradle series. I can't talk about Cradle all the time for the sake of all those poor souls out there who haven't read it so I'll try to generalize it.  Basically, God does not choose "strong" or "great" men and women to become strong and great. The parallel to Cradle here is that, early on, a character with a critical deficiency is chosen by a Divine being to advance beyond his weakness; in fact, it is the desire to overcome his flaws which drives this character to be greater than he was. It's the exact same way with us: God chose Joseph Smith, an insignificant farmboy, to become one of the greatest Prophets of any dispensat...

I have a class in like 10 minutes so its definitely not P-day. P-day was the same day I traveled for 24 hours which I think is a little bit of a scam. But Its tudo bem to send my weekly email today anyways so we're chilling. The only thing that flies faster than my fingers typing this email is time! I'm having the time of my life. I assume that I will run out of energy at some point but for now I'm just so voracious for learning and feeling the spirit. I'm like the Wei Shei Lindon of learning portuguese, and Eithan speaks to me in a still small voice. For those of you who havent read Cradle by Will Wight, you should, and I apologize because that sentence probably didnt make any sense. Ok I have class now with Gandolfe Cinzenta so bom dia to you all and I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN ITS AWESOME YOU GUYS Deus é bom, Elder Ebbert