First Area and Completely Immersed in a language that I can barely understand

Dear Dad, Mom, Liz, Kirstie, Ashlynn, McKay, Family and Friends,

 

The past two weeks have been nothing short of being crazily busy and humble. I arrived in Curitiba Tuesday morning and by 4 pm I was paired with my new companion and trainer, Elder  Taylor Evans from Wilsonville Oregon. Elder Evans is an amazing missionary and I´m learning to be humble and patient while going out every day. My first area that I have been assingned to labor in is on the coast in the city Paranaguá. I am officially assigned to the ward Guarani, which is just outside the center of the city. After moving into our house on Wednesday morning, Wednesday night I committed a lady to follow the examaple of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood of God. She is scheduled to be baptized this Sunday but we have yet to meet with her again, so we will see what happens. The community here is very great, it is a lot different than America, the people speak a langauge that I feel like I was not taught in the training center, but I am learning a great lesson to trust in the Lord and be humble, so he can perform miracles in my life and the people I teach. On Saturday night, I had the amazing and humbling experince to meet with a man named Raimundo, he is a 50 year old dark Brazilian that has been taught a couple times by other missionaries. As we met with him in his home, which consisted of a small room with a bed and a small bathroom connected to it, Elder Evans, our ward´s bishop and I talked to him about how the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth once more and that baptism by proper autority is necessary to return to live with God in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom. Although I didn´t say much during the lesson because I was listening closely to try to understand what was being said, I committed him to be baptized this Sunday and he accepted. Being in the field is a truly humbling experience and I think I have spoken the least this past week than I have in my entire life because the language is so different here than it was in the CTM and I´m forced to speak Portuguese and the only English I speak are a few phrases with my comapnion to understand the meaning of phrases and words that people used. I can already feel the Lord tearing me down, to get rid of my weaknesses, so that he can make a man of God out of me that will obey with exactness and fully rely on God in all that I do.

 

I love you all and thank you for your support, this work I am involved in is great!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hokanson

 

My mailing address is the mission home in Curitiba, because they don´t want any mail to get lost being sent to our residence. Here is the address:

 

Elder Jonathan Hokanson

Praça Joseph Smith, 15 Portão

Curitiba PR 80613-991

Brasil