"So What's The Kidnapping And Hostage Rate Down There?" -Tom

Oi pessoal,

Feliz novembro!

This past week was a full, quick, one. A lot different than last week.

In starting this update, and in sharing one of this week's highlights, I'd like to testify of the power and reality of personal revelation. 

This past Tuesday, I was doing my personal study in the working when I got the impression to reach out to my MTC companion, Elder Lucas, and ask him a quick question about the visa process for Brazil.

After doing all on my initial paperwork in June and notifying them of its completion, the travel office in Salt Lake City had told me to not ask for updates and wait to be contacted by them for the actual visa application. 

On Tuesday I had a prompting to contact Elder Lucas, who had recently submitted his application and paperwork, to see if there's anything he had done to get to that point. He said he was glad I reached out and told me I ought to contact the travel office anyway, as that is how he was able to get his go-ahead.

I sent a quick email to the travel office and got a response within three minutes saying I had to send in all of my paperwork immediately and that much of it would have had to have been redone if I had waited much longer as it would have expired. We went down to the mission office, got everything printed off, and went over to a FedEx to get it shipped over to Salt Lake City.

I just fell through the cracks, and if I hadn't ever reached out, it could have been months and months until I would have been able to go to Brazil. Now, it will probably be a matter of a month or two. 

What a true blessing that was. Even though I am loving my time down here and happy to serve wherever the Lord needs me, I now know that that "wherever" is going to be Brazil very soon.

We were also able to attend the baptism of Yasmin yesterday! She is 16 years old and her parents were recently converted to the Gospel. Her father, Igor, was able to do the baptism, and it was such a cool experience to be a part of that!

Besides that, Elder Romero and I have been working hard and continuing to learn the language. This Sunday, compared to last Sunday, it was so much easier to understand the Portuguese being spoken and so much less draining by the time the end of the day rolled around.

"Listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. …You’ll have a prompting to say something or to do something in relationship to those that you serve with or in your neighborhood or so forth. Do it! Trust the Lord."

-M. Russell Ballard

Love you all lots! Hope you all have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you all!

Com amor,
Elder Lindsay

Images: Just a random cool Thai restaurant built inside an old house. Don't have others for ya this time around.

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