Elder LeSueur: nate’s birthday, jessica and jasmine to church and lots of service (11-25-13)

Dear Family,

Thanks for the birthday wishes….and the boxes!!! I opened the first one today and I'll open the Christmas one on Christmas Day, which will be a crazy day because we will get to talk to you all and see your beautiful faces and that is also our zone's day to go to the temple! I'll get to go to the temple on Christmas!! How cool is that? Also a shout out to Tessa who I love so dearly, and who will be 9 years old tomorrow...how crazy!!! Did you know I was exactly Tessa's age when Breck was on his mission? He also missed my baptism and I was 9 when he got home, crazy stuff.

It's great to hear that Dane Flaherty and Marcus Leopard got home safely and that Marcus has an accent. I can't see him with a Mexican accent. He and Morgan will make a nice couple when Morgan gets back home. Korean and Mexican…great combination!

For my birthday I received the box from the family which was super awesome, but other than you guys, know one really knows, just my comp and today (fortunately my birthday landed on a p-day) we'll go to a place called Olinda where there's a lot of cool stuff. It's up on a big hill and overlooks the beaches of Recife. I'm stoked! I'm way excited too to make the pumpkin bars, put the candles in them, and sing happy birthday to myself (haha).

This last week seemed like a super awesome week. We found a bunch of awesome people that all said they were going to church. We even had planned for the bishop to pick them up in his Volkswagon van. BUT, in the end we only had one that went to church which was Jessica (Anderson´s wife). She brought her daughter Jasmine with her. This next Sunday I'll take a picture of the three of them. They are a super beautiful family. All is ready for them to be married but they will wait till the middle of December to get married for various reasons. Either way its all set in stone and their wedding and baptisms will be one of the best things that will have happened in my life! Oh how great will be my joy! Especially when lately things have seemed a little dark.

We did a bunch of service this last week and one was a move. We were the only ones who showed up to the move and did it all. Not even the family we moved helped. They sat and watched us and took pictures of us carrying the fridge down the second floor. We had the opportunity to move her into a new house. I have never had a sore back on the mission until this last week. But all is well, soon enough Dad will be giving me adjustments and I'll be in Heaven. My comp also has had these last few weeks a sore spine and knees. I was able to give him a blessing and all seems to be better.

Even with the lack of baptisms here, it is great to see that God continues to bless us in so many ways.

We had a couple other crazy days where we tried to contact a few references and find a few less actives and ended up walking around the whole city. Our area is huge and transportation is by foot.

This week will be great! We are excited to end this transfer and start a new one here this next week. It will be my last transfer and an awesome one. The bishop called the president last week to tell him to keep us both here for at least another transfer, so I'm pretty sure I'll still be here until the end on January 7th.

Love you all! Stay safe and stay happy! One thing I learned this week is that when things get hard the best medicine it to humble ourselves, forget about ourselves and finish the job. Jesus Christ suffered so much more than us all. Why should we not have to suffer a little? Are we greater than He? (D&C 122)

Elder LeSueur