A True Brazilian

This week I recieved the biggest compliment anyone has ever given me on the mission.  (besides that one time a drunk guy told me I looked like the princess Kate Middleton).  And the compliment giver was my very own President Del Guerso.  

He told me that I had become a true Brazilian. 

Not because I have mastered the Portuguese language.  Not because I have adapted exceptionally to the culture.  

But because I got assaulted... again.

And President, in his good humor, declared me an official native.  I feel honored.  I will spare the details and simply say that we are okay, and the bandits must have been sorely dissapointed when they opened my bag to find nothing but a Bible and a Book of Mormon.  Maybe they will have a change of heart. ;)

I have learned that when difficulties come, it does no good to ask "why did this happen?"  But rather to ask, "What does God want me to learn from this?"

And when we ask God and ourselves this question, we can learn and grow a great deal.  As the men drove off, I was left once again on a street in São Paulo with nothing to my name, but a few pass along cards in my hand.  And what came to my mind in that moment was a scripture.

 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)   

I felt completely calm, knowing that things and stuff and possessions don't last very long and don't mean a whole lot.  What is important cannot be taken away from us.  

And this week our friend Carol laid up for herself a treasure in heaven.  She followed Christ's very example and was baptized.  There is nothing happier!

com amor,

Sister Burch