To The Coast

Boa tarde everybody, 

This email is being written as I ride on a bus from "KM 17" (a bus stop about half an hour outside of Codó) to São Luís de Maranhão. As Elder Azevedo and I missed our own zone conference about a month ago, we are fortunate enough to have this opportunity to travel to São Luis for a different zone's conference. It will be my first one down here in Brazil, so I am very much looking forward to it. 

The highlight of this week was getting to baptize Levi. The rest of his family was baptized a few years ago, but he had not yet turned 8. As his parents split up and his father was no longer in the picture, we were able to step in and help him make this huge blessing a reality!

I was also able to give a discurso (talk) during sacrament meeting on Sunday that I'm sure hoping went well. We are so busy during the week that my preparation really only consisted of what I was able to jot down the night before and the morning of. As I was speaking, there were people missing their heads and looking like they were getting something out of what I said, so I was pretty happy about that.

This week I also learned about mingau, a popular lanche (snack food) down here in Brazil. It's basically just a warm pudding made out corn starch, but I thought I'd share it with you all because I honestly think it's pretty solid:

1 cup (ish) milk
2 spoonfuls (ish) corn starch
2 spoonfuls (ish) white sugar
1 pinch (don't need to put "ish" for this one) salt
Cinnamon (optional)

Directions :
Mix everything but the cinnamon in a bowl, pop it in the microwave for a minute at a time, and stir until the consistency resembles pudding. Sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy!

I've been making this, French toast, and pancakes all week and just eat pineapple, mangos, or papaya with them instead of syrup. Not sure if it's the healthiest diet, but it sure is cheap and tasty!

"And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them"

1 Nephi 17:3

I have been reading the Book of Mórmon out loud in Portuguese recently and loved this verse. As I serve here in Brazil, whether it be walking around an unfamiliar city, traveling around by bus, taxi, or Uber with little-to-no idea of what the next 24 hours will look like, or speaking a language that I am still very new with, I know that as long as I'm doing my best and sticking to what I know is right, the Lord will bless me. He will "strengthen" me and "provide means by which" I can do what he has asked of me.

I know this promise holds true today for each and every one of us. As long as we're holding true to the things we know are right, the commandments we have been given, we can rest assured knowing that everything will be alright. This doesn't necessarily mean everything will go according to plan - that definitely hasn't been the case for me - but we can be comforted in the fact that Christ is with us and will always have our back.

Love you all! Love your emails! Hope life's treating you well and you've been able to recognize some ways in which God's strengthened you recently.

Até mais, 
Élder Lindsay

P.S. I'll try to send some cool pictures from São Luis next week. Take care, y'all! 




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