last from alvorado!?‏

Well i don't know where that week or that transfer went! i can't believe, that once again, monday will be a day in my life that things change and i will know what the future has in store for me! I can't believe it's come! It's been a great week. Actually it´s been the best week that i've had on the mission! theres been a lot of great things that have happened that i've never done before in my life and also many just great little lessons learned!

this week, we have a new ward mission leader that has been really good to work with. he's a return missionary from Curitiba, Brasil. and he is about 30 years old now. it's interesting, you can tell that he was a great missionary still to this day. funny how things like that stick! but on friday we got to do a division with him and it was great. just to see another way to work and how to find new people to teach. the good old knocking doors is fun and all but after about 100 in a day it gets old. so it's been nice to learn a new way to do things!

Saturday was a crazy day!! not gonna lie one bit, it was crazy! i guess the story really starts out on friday night when after i went to sleep, it would appear my comp. took a double dose of his super super strong medicine. well that was not smart. saturday morning rolls around and i wake up, get ready and study and wait and wait and wait and finally about 10:30 rolls around and elder maia has moved positions but has yet to wake up. so i go in and talk to him. a good saturday morning conversation ya know...hey man what's up? what can i do to help you get out of bed? you know just the typical saturday morning conversation... well, he loses it. he admits about double dosing his meds and he just loses it. by the way, i have his permission to say this. but ya loses it. he starts ripping his clothes and taking them off and talking about demons and people being in our house and just tons of crazy stuff. so i'm just scared out of my mind, almost peeing my pants, when i have the thought to just pull a joseph smith from the movie about him and put my arm up and say some words under the power of the priesthood. well 20 seconds later after words that i don't remember, elder maia returned to himself. so ya, that was a pretty good start to a saturday morning. beat saturday cartoons anyway. after a good call to president to talk with elder maia, we were off and working like a normal day. by the way, i need to say i just love president parrella! he is the man! he is awesome! i have so much respect for him and i am so happy to have had the opportunity to know him. he's amazing!

sunday was cool....kinda. our investigators bailed and we sat through church with no one again. i hate that feeling! we also had a lesson about eternal families. can't say that one was my favorite given the distance between me and my eternal family! but it's all good.

sunday night we taught a woman that is the wife of an active member. she's awesome but...(ya the but is never good) she just won't follow the church. she goes, she pays tithing, she has a testimony. she knows it's true but she has a fear of completing challenges like getting baptized. we had an incredible lesson with her and the spirit was so strong but she still just wouldn't budge into the "yes, please baptize me" zone. it's all good. lesson learned that everyone still has their agency. i can't take away gifts of god from people regardless of how awesome it would be!

like i said tho this week i have learned many lessons. i think i have had more personal revelations this week than in my lifetime! most, if not all of them, are very very simple but revelations none the less. the first is the true purpose of life and why we are here. it's like the scriptures say...to prepare to meet god. but what does that mean. i have learned through investigators and the spirit that repentance is really the only true way back to god. the worlds view of repentance is funny. i think our natural instinct is to think...wow he is a sinner. what did he do? but then i look at it from the view of heavenly father..what a difference! i just can't help but imagine heavenly father and christ cracking open a bottle of guaraná with the angels of heaven and just having a party. they have got to just be absolutely thrilled with someone repenting. someone willing to convert themselves regardless of what the world may think! how awesome! anyway just a sweet thought.

also i have been thinking alot lately of mosiah 4:27. "and see that these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." so all things have to be done in order. i think a lot of times in life we get ourselves into stuff way too fast and we get in way too deep. if that is the case what do we do? we go back to the beginning and start over and we do it right. we take the baby steps necessary and we do so diligently. when all this is done in order we win the prize. we just have to win the race for today, in order.

also i have been thinking of d&c section 6:33-37. i won't copy this one cause i would be here all day. but read it! it's awesome! we must do good! whatever we do here we receive the reward in heaven. we are the flock of christ. he is watching us. he suffered for us. when we build on his rock, not even the world can take us down. nothing is stronger than that rock. and the best part. look unto christ, doubt not. fear not. how awesome a promise. we look, we do not doubt and we do not fear if we follow him. christ knows we are not perfect but he still loves us. in my mind he loves the sinners more. he came to serve the world...or the sinners. it may be hard to follow him but regardless the difficulties and what the world may throw, with him we conquer our natural man. he loves us.

above all, the one lesson i have learned on the mission is that our families love us. no matter what, they love us. our true friends as well. like proverbs says in chapter 17 verse 17: a friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. i know i love my family but above all, i know they love me regardless of my faults. they are always at my side. as well as my friends.

i know this work is real. missionary work is amazing. lately i have been thinking about how i have changed. i used to think that i miss movies and music and my family and all this but i think about not being a missionary and all i would want is to be a missionary. i will do anything and everything to serve with honor. to "return with honor". i will complete the mission because i only have a little time...i have to make it count now.

i know the work is inspired. we are led by the lord in our lives. he knows us. he does work in mysterious ways but i know without a shadow of a doubt that he is watching us. the first word said to this modern world from the mouth of god was a name. he knows us. i love the lord and i will do anything to follow him better and live with him again regardless of the embarrassment i may have, or the world's view of who i am. they do not matter to me. christ is my savior and god is my father. i will walk with them all my life....and into eternities.

i love you all and i hope you have a great week. enjoy conference! prophets are on the earth! enjoy it! god be with you til we meet again!

Elder Excell

P.S. another lesson learned: read this again on like...sunday and see if you get anything different out of it. i always think it is interesting to see what we get the second time around!
P.P.S. "I believe in christ, so come what may."
P.P.S.S. 2 John verse 12