The Weekly Epistle: From Juazeiro do Norte

Hello again, everyone!

This week was pretty crazy and busy, but it was a good one!

After months of renovation, the capela (``chapel´´, or church
building) had a public visitation (I´m not sure why they don´t call
them open houses any more, but they aren´t using that phrase in the
Church here any more). We were there to give a little part of the tour
on Thursday night, which was the first night. However, we actually
just ended up running around getting things ready for visitors, and
didn´t really teach any of the nonmembers who came through. There were
few people who came the first night to begin with, but I think that´s
a little bit to be expected.

Anyway, on Friday the other Elders were there at the capela for the
visitations, and Saturday morning we were there to have interviews
with President Souza, which we have once every other transfer, and
again that night for the dedication. Then, on Sunday, we were there
for church. AND we were there at the capela today for P-Day to play a
little bit of basketball and to watch a movie (``Glory Road´´ in
Portuguese. I was happy because, towards the end, I realized that I
had been focusing on the movie and the story of the movie with
thinking about the fact that it was in Portuguese. I didn´t understand
everything still, but I understood enough to get sucked into the
movie). In our mission, you can watch one Disney film that is
``livre´´ (Brazilian rating system, it´s basically G-rated movies) per
P-Day. Until today, we didn´t have the capability to do that, so it
was the first time for me to watch a Disney movie on P-Day.

Anyway, we spent A LOT of time in the capela this past week. I am so
grateful for the blessing it is to have a such a beautiful and special
place to gather together and worship. It truly is a blessing, and I
hope that we can all see how blessed we are, and that we can be
grateful for the things that we have taken for granted in our lives.

Anyway,``the time is far spent´´ (that´s actually a hymn title, and
I´ve been hearing a lot about it the past few days from Elder Call,
and also from a conference talk that I read), and I need to go, but I
love you all, and wish you the very best! Keep moving forward, put
your shoulder to the wheel, and remember that you truly are a child of
God. He is mindful of us. And He loves us so very much:)

And, I love you all too! Don´t forget that either:)

Love always,

Elder Reid Powell Empey