Just got back from the temple, and I'm glad to get the chance to hear what's going on back home.  Is it true 20 states are signing petitions to secede from the union?  That's the rumor that's going around.  Anywho, it is really cool that you are able to go back and see all of your funny moments.  I should have kept a journal from the start.  Instead, I just told the funny stories I had to people to try to keep them alive.  Oh well, I'm keeping my journal now.  My companions and I saw a full time elder pull up at the temple with his companion.  He was from Oregon and was out for seven months.  He couldn't speak a word of English!  I hope to have the same problem a few months into the field. 

This past Tuesday night, the entire MTC had a devotional and we sang in Coral the EFY Medley in Portuguese.  (To bring the world his truth and As Sisters in Zion)  The spirit was so strong as we sang that there wasn't a single dry eye on the stand and President Degn stood at the pulpit for a solid minute before he could speak.  There is an undeniable presence that you feel here at the CTM...I'm going to miss it for sure.  But I'm so stoked to get out in the field!

One of my instructors Irmao Armazam really impresses me.  He is 22-just off his own mission- and each day he says something that makes me really appreciate the gospel.  He placed himself as a pesquisador and asked me to tell him what the Book of Mormon is.  In Portugese I started to tell him-it's another testament of Jesus Christ.... and all that which you are trained to say.  He stopped me, and said "no, not what is it.  What is it to you. When you open those pages and poor your soul over the pages, what is that book to you."  You know what?  The Book of Mormon is so much more.  Each day, I'm more and more grateful for it.  You know how it seemed so huge when you were 8?  How you could never make it through?  Yah, right now, I'm really wishing there was more. 

I was just reading in Mosiah about Abinadi.  How King Noah ordered that he was to be killed.  He stood there with such a firm faith knowing that he was on the Lord's errand and that while he was needed to deliver that message, he could not be touched.  I was writing about that in my journal and gun shots rang out in the neighborhood, but you know what I felt?  Peace.  I know I'm hear on the Lord's errand and that I will be protected. 

Well, there are a whole host of stories that I could tell, but I'm nearly out of time.  I guess I can tell those through snail mail.  Let it suffice to know that I, Elder Stinnett, caught an awesome tiger striped mariposa (butterfly) and named him Pedro (peter).  No big deal.  

Eu te amo, o Evangelho de Jesus Cristo é verdadeira, O Livro de Mormon é o melhor livro em todo mundo, e Jesus Cristo é meu Salvador e Redentor.  Eu vou falar mais proxima semana.   Até mais.
Elder Stinnett