we've got spirit, yes we do...

HI FAM.

so have you heard about the world cup? Given the noise generated from
Brasil alone, i dont think its possible for anyone not to literally
hear the world cup craze. Everyone here is asks me if I'm rooting for
Brazil or the USA. i'm going with brazil. :) I have watch with the
brazilian flag, and earrings in the shape of the country with the flag
too. haha and on the days that brazil plays, i wear yellow/green/blue.
But you guys have to see the way Brazilians get pumped up for these
soccer games to believe it. it is unreal. it puts every other "sports
fanatic" to SHAME.

for the past 4 weeks people have been going crazy for the world soccer
cup. the apartment buildings put up HUGE flags, or HUGE banners of
yellow and green. And everyone gets string and puts up pieces of
yellow and green plastic and makes these decorations in the street
that go from the electrical wires all the way down the street. And the
people paint the curbs in all the sidewalks in the city alternating in
yellow and green. and they paint huge banners or logos or flags in
the street. or ginormous murals on random city walls to cheer for
brazil to win the world cup. and everyone has those flags that hook up
to the car window. or people get big flags and put them on the hood of
the car. and every single store you walk into sells brazilian flags,
t-shirts, key chains, paraphernalia, everything you can imagine, and
more. its sweet. I thought that BYU vs the U of U was a good example
of an excited group of people. but no.

Brazil has spirit.

Aside from the world cup soccer fans, we've got some good spirit on
the mission too. I'll just tell you real quick about the incredible
spirit of the restoration of the gospel. It kicks trash. This week we
taught the restoration with a recent convert named Bruna from aguas
claras. she has a friend in our area and she came out to Gama to teach
her friend, Raissa, with us. The cool part about the lesson was how
Bruna was so stoked to be there with us to help her friend have the
same spirit of the restoration. I was telling about joseph smith to
raissa, and as I was saying the first vision, out of the corner of my
eye i saw Bruna reciting it with me. with a glow in her eyes. she has
been a member for a month, and she had it memorized and recited it
with love. it was so cute. anyways, raissa accepted a date to get
baptized. we're working on it.

another example of the spirit of the restoration was a street contact
we made, and it turns out the guy had been baptized like 25 years ago.
he only stayed active in the church for 2 years, because his wife is
semi-crazy and doesn't let him go to church. but while we were talking
to him, he got all teary and looked at us and said, "i know that the
church is true." then out of no where he started humming "How firm a
foundation" and then switched to singing, "oh how lovely was the
morning..." and started full on crying in the street, just from the
spirit of the music of the restoration. we were like, poor thing, just
come to church again - dont you realize what you've been missing for
23 years?

another one was teaching Emerson and Rosali and our family of GOLD. we
went and watched the film of the Restoration with them and the kids.
usually its a struggle to teach with 6 kids under the age of 12 and to
keep everyone paying attention, but during the movie no one moved, no
one talked, no one wiggled, no one giggled. the only words were when
God and Christ appeared and the choir is singing, and Emerson said,
"whoa i just got goosebumps." At the very end, the son who is 11 years
old said, "that's it? sister wardle, dont you have another movie
that's like 2 hours about Joseph Smith? i want to watch more." We had
a sweet lesson that explained more about the restoration, and
blessings for their family, etc. at the end Rosali was pretty
emotional and she said the closing prayer, kneeling with her whole
family together. she's been having a real struggle to quit smoking in
preparation for the baptism. But ever since the night we re taught the
restoration, she hasn't smoked a single cigarette. its because the
spirit of the restoration, and the spirit of the truthfulness and
fullness of the gospel is SO TRUE.

No one and nothing beats the Spirit of the gospel. not even brazil
during the world cup.

I LOVE IT.

have a wonderful week,
Sister Wardle