Elder Gurksnis Goes to Brazil

This week all the lasts have started. I went to my last zone conference where I was able to bear my testimony to all the missionaries. It was a really good experience. I felt so good as I was able to talk about the experiences I've had here and the work I've been able to do. I thought I was gonna cry like a baby, but I dont think its really hit me yet, so I guess that part will wait lol.  This week the best part was continuing working with Claudia and Manoela! They are progressing super well. Manoela went to church for the first time this week and really liked it. She said she felt really welcomed and that truly she learned a lot more about her Savior. This week I'm gonna invite them to be baptized on my last sunday and I really hope it all works out. They are super special and were just proof of another miracle in our work.  I also confirmed this week my allergy to fish lol. We found this new seriously amazing restaurant right next to the office. I would eat there ...

Today we decided to climb Pico de Jaraguá (Jaraguá Peak) here with a couple guys from the office. It was super fun and full of laughs. When we were on the trail we saw two monkeys. I forgot bananas this time, but i got these chocolate crackers out of my backpack and one of them immediately started approaching me hahahah. I was trying to give him just one, but somewhere in the middle of this process he jumped on me and grabbed the whole bag and went back up in the tree where he was...  bruh these monkeys always get the best of me. But it was good to go back to this mountain one more time. I´ll put all the pics down below.  So in relation to the work this week...we may have had one of the BIGGEST MIRACLES OF MY MISSION YESTERDAY! So for the past year this man named Luis has been investigating the church in our ward. Me and him have been able to enjoy a great relationship as good friends in the time I've been here. I love him and his family. His son was baptized a year ago an...

This week São Paulo had record lows and got down to like 34 degrees. I know, i know thats not that cold, but remember I'm in Brazil...theres no such thing as heaters or a/c. So you could compare it to camping in 34 degree weather because the house is basically the same temp as outside. So I've been sleeping with pretty much all the clothes i have haha. But its been fun and a nice change of environment. I'll be welcomed by the Texas August heat sooner than I know... This week has been a fast one. I dont have too much to report on. But after Thiffane's baptism last week we were pretty happy. She expressed to us how she knows she made the right decision and she is already looking forward to enter into the temple to help her brother receive the ordinance of baptism (he passed away about a year ago, at just 21 years old). We continued working with Claudia, Manoela, and Marcos. This week we are even trying to take them to the visitors center by the temple. We are grinding...

Grayson forgot to send this out and asked me to send it. This week I read this scripture in 1 John 2:6 that says "He that saith He abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." I have thought a lot about this over the time on my mission. If I truly want to know my Lord and Savior I must too also pass through a fraction of what he went through. One time Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the 12 apostles, said, "But I do believe that there is something in this walk of salvation, this quest, that says we have to pay something for salvation. So I think when we´ve come to know the Savior, its when we´ve been out somewhere, at least in the borderlands of Gethsemane. The road to salvation always goes through Gethsemane, and it will always require a journey to the summit of Calvary." During this time on my mission, I have tried intensely each day to walk as He walked. I know that I will never be what He was. But I have strived to become more like Him. And I...