Cat for dinner (3 months in Brazil)

November 25, 2013

We walked a lot this week.  We keep receiving strange referrals from the church headquarters asking for Books of Mormons and other videos.  Referrals are awesome but everyone we´ve contacted doesn’t remember asking for a visit and thinks it’s strange that we have their name and address haha.  Who knows, it’s weird but we´re trying to contact them all, and they live in the randomest places, so we´ve been busy. 

One of the contacts led us to a beco not too far away.  A beco is just a really small street.  The contact wasn’t home so we tried to teach their neighbor, Antonio, instead.  We talked about his religious background and we asked him, "Why is God important to you?"  His response was awesome.  He said:

One day I was working construction on a house nearby, and my wife brought me beans, rice, and salad for lunch. My co-worker asked me if I wanted him to heat up my lunch and I said yes of course.  But when he gave me my plate back, there was some sort of meat on it. I asked him,

"What kind of meat is this?"

"Eat it and maybe you'll find out." 

I was scared to eat this mystery meat, so I prayed to God and asked him to help me know what it was.  After, I had a vision of a giant black cat.  God had given me an answer.  I told my co-worker, 

"I know what this meat is! It's cat!"

"How'd you find out?!"

"God told me!"

Then I ate it anyways.  But now I know that God cares about me. 

I was laughing so hard that it was hard to keep talking about the lesson after that.  It was good though.  Experiences like that help you to be happy and excited about the work.  Some days are super hard.  Sometimes we plan well, work really hard, and then...no one's home that day.  It’s a bummer, but it’s super important to stay excited because no one wants to hear how to be more happy from two sad looking missionaries haha. 

Sorry this email was so short. 

Elder Marsh