"A dead largatixa in my shower"

I don't have a lot of exciting stuff to share this week but here goes nothin!

Overall, the work slowed down a little bit this week. A lot of our investigators weren't doing so well with appointments and commitments this week but I'm still really hopeful about our teaching pool. 

Andreia/Alexandro and their 4 kids (the extremely elect fam that I've been talking about) are progressing great. Andreia found a job this week thanks to some friends she made at church. Also, we gave them two extra mattresses that were laying around in our house. The kids were sleeping on the floor, but now they have beds! In other news, Alexandro said he is 'addicted' to reading the Book of Mormon. This is like music to a missionary's ears. 

The problem with them is that they are still not married on paper. They have 4 kids and have lived together for 12 years, but can't afford to get married (apparently marriage is really expensive in Brazil, even if it's just a civil marriage without reception and all that fancy stuff).

I just hope I can be here when they get married, and hopefully be there for their baptisms afterward!

I was forced to eat some of the weirdest and grossest fruits ever. 

The majority of active members in the branch here were gone all week. They went to the Campinas temple for the week. Campinas is the closest temple and it's a 36 hour bus ride. It's really cool to see the sacrifices the members made to go for the week. My fam's new house back home is pretty much in the temple's 'front yard' so this was a good reminder to not take that for granted.

I listened to the Thomas S. Monson talk 'Finding Joy in the Journey' this week. A GOAT talk. I love Monson's talks and the stories and quotes he uses. I want to share a quote from the talk:

"If you pile up enough 'tomorrows,' you'll find that you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays" 

This quote really hit me. Throughout my life I've always had an attitude like this:

 "I'll be happier when summer break comes" 

"I'll be happy when basketball season starts"

"I'll be happy when I get transferred to a new area or get a new companion"

But in reality, when the time arrives, I don't experience the satisfaction I desire, and I continue to invest my hope on some future event that I think will make me "happy." Obviously, I'm not the only person that does this.

I think a lot of people have this problem of daydreaming and focusing on the future instead of just enjoying the many blessings they have in their everyday life. Having a happy life is simply a choice we have to make.

Have a good week!

<3 Elder MacLay