This was a week of learning. Not necessarily because of experiences, but more because of my attitude. This week, I spent a lot of time in self-evaluation. Let me tell you, if you want to be more humble, just spend a good hour or two REALLY evaluating yourself. But before I get to the good, sentimental stuff, just a couple of updates and events.

First off, this week we changed things up, and divided the city so that the two sets of missionaries could work more effectively. For me and Elder Oliveira, that means no more Cidade Alta! How I will miss that hour long hike... But with the new boudaries of our arieas, we now have 6 recent converts to teach, 4 less-active families, and a load of progressing investigators that have accepted to prepare to be baptized. That means that Elder Oliveira and I can pretty much kiss goodbye to knocking doors for a little bit. We have our hands full just following up with everyone that we're teaching. It'll be a lot of work, but we're super excited to get to it!

However, this week, I realized that I was getting cought up in the ritual of missionary life. Get up, get dressed, study, eat, teach, testify, invite, pray, sleep. Bam bam bam, a pattern that works well. It's effective. You get good stuff done, BUT, you miss out on a part of this work that is absolutaly critical, the "by the spirit" part of Preach my Gospel. 

As I talked with and taught people this week, I realized that I need to be more than a "missionary". That's to say I need to me more than just a teacher, or hard-worker, I need to be a friend, an example, a leader. To simplify it all, I need to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ in thought, word, and action. Our brothers and sisters in this world need more than someone to just preach at them. They need someone who listens, cares, and most importantly, feels! 

Placing Christ as an example is tough, because you'll always fall short. But, I'm determined to really try and be more Christlike, and more receptive to the spirit in everything we do.

Pictures are gleened from the Cuiaba Mission blog page.