That’s A Lot Of Guns

February 23, 2026

Bom dia fam and friends, welcome back. Buckle up and enjoy the email.

Yoooo Chilllll Broooo

The fastest week of the mission just flew by my heads still spinning trying to catch up. Catching the tail end of carnival this week was a lot more chill. Fortunately for me we ran into plenty of carnivalers, this basically meant I would just stop and try on all their costumes… it only happened twice but let’s just say I got a kick out of it. Not much more to say but enjoy the pics

They call SpongeBob Bobby Sponge, not going to lie it had me dying to hear them all yelling BOBBY SPONGE.

Don’t Shoot!

I’m not sure what I was expecting but, here in recife I’ve yet to see a person with a gun, other than the police… Here guns are illegal and they don’t come out unless some work needs to be done, if you get what im saying. Luckily I’ve never been anywhere where thats happened… While teaching a lesson outside with our new friend Juliana I saw a motorcycle start to pass and stop behind a car in front of us, (normal). As my brief loss of attention was almost pulled back to the lesson, I saw barely through the the tint of the car, his hands shoot up in the classical dont shoot pose. My attention immediately left the lesson as I starting looking around for the guys with the guns. It didn’t take more than 2 seconds until 5 motorcycle 2 cops on each with Uzis pulled up guns draw ready to shoot bro.

As me and my comps and the member we were with look at each other frantically in the classic what do we do look, I braced for the shoot out as I heard more motorcycles approaching from the opposite direction as the cops. Somehow my Brazilian comp, is still talking to the lady and finalizing her baptism date but his eyes are glued to the scene I can see hes thinking the same thing as me. (One shot and we are hitting the deck behing this car). As one guy pulls up on his motorcycle he gives up Immediately and throws his hands up, as the cops surrounded him. We said our quick goodbyes and ran out of there. I never did hear any shots so I think they made it out alive.✌️

Mission Reset…

The past couple weeks have been pretty crazy, new area, health problems, new comps, new responsibilities, new expectations, and just trying to learn how to be articulate in a different language. This led to what I can only call a fall off in my overall “joy” of the missionary work. After abouts three weeks of unanswered prayers, I continued doing the motions but I felt stuck overall. I hadn’t been seeing much progress, my language skills seemed to plummet and I rarely spoke, and anytime I did I was met with laughs about how bad it was. I didnt feel like I was helping anyone, just wasting my time, we had been bringing 0 people to church, and nothing had been going well.

Last monday after our p-day, we had a family night with the only family we were teaching, they had been really wishy washy and had been seeming less and less interested. That night as I sat in that house, sweating my butt off, getting water dripped on me from the leaky roof, as the mosquitoes ate me alive, I thought about why I was here, every experience that led me up to this point and every moment that would follow, I thought of the Savior and his moment on the Cross and Getsemani, and the spirit filled the house as my companion began to testify at the end of our family night. As he shared Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

As he finished he began to cry as he bore his testimony, and as I begin to bear my testimony, it all clicked again and I too begin to cry as I saw this family with the love and compassion of christ, this family had suffered lots of afflictions and, as I bore my testimony I refound my purpose here.

I’ve only got one thing I can think to share to close this out, and it’s to truly seek Christ, and Don’t Quit. You will never face a trial, that you don’t have the power to overcome with Christ. I’ll leave you with the challenge to, level up your spirituality, don’t be satisfied with the progress you’ve made or the hard sins to give up, there’s always one more level, one more thing to understand better, and one more person who’s life you’ll touch.