Rain storms...

1-25-12

How is everyone doing today? Thank you to the Howard's for those drawings and letter. Those pictures are awesome. Once I leave here, I'm hanging them up in my room.

Mom, I would like it if you could send me a copy of that CD, also music from "Vocal point" or "Inside out Capella" is allowed, so if you have songs from them that you could send that would be awesome. I wish I had a bigger music collection on my ipod.

I don't really have much to write about, all the weeks here are almost exactly the same. One thing that I’ve been meaning to share for a while now is that for the past three weeks it has been rain and lightning storms here. But the storms can come and go so fast. One moment you will be studying in the sun then seriously, five minutes later, rain is pouring everywhere, sometimes these only last about 10 minutes but it’s crazy how heavy the rain is every time. But my absolute favorite part about these storms is the lightning. The lightning here is the most powerful lightning I have ever seen and heard, and it’s so close, it literally rattles all the windows of the MTC. One time during devotional a group of ten guys and ten girls were singing the EFY medley and a lightning storm was brewing up just as they started singing. By the time it got to the men's part, the loudness of the thunder was at its peak. And for the choir to be heard, they had to lift up their hearts and their voices to try to drown out the distracting noises of the sounds like a battle raging outside. But it sounded so good and powerful, to hear all the young men sing with all their souls. And that's exactly what missionaries are going to have to face every day. We will be fighting with Satan every day trying to bring people to the rod. He will try to distract us with all his might, but if we will lift up our hearts and lift up our voices and rejoice in the gospel, we can withstand anything that is thrown at us. And that goes for everybody.

I also heard that Brazil is just simply having a lot more rain than usual right now, and Belo Horizonte is experiencing floods. Hearing this actually made me excited to go there because even though I don’t know the language, service is a universal language, and that is something I can do.

Later today I will be listening to Elder Anderson and Elder Ballard; hopefully I will get the opportunity to shake their hands too. That would be pretty cool. I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Smidt X