It is hard to believe that another week has passed already! I have now been here for a month, which seems crazy. This week was a good one, even though it zoomed by.
One thing that I have been meaning to write about but keep forgetting is the Brazil situation here. They are not giving any missionaries visas to Brazil, or at least only like 2 a month. So, they are sending all the missionaries that were supposed to go to the Brazil MTC here instead. This means that instead of about 7-10 people every three weeks, or zone receives 20-30 people a week. This has led to insane growth of our zone, and craziness for doing laundry, gym time, going to the temple, and other zone activities. So this Sunday, to mitigate the problem, they split our zone/branch into two to make it more manageable (we now only have around 80 people in our zone). While it was sad to see districts going away, something had to be done! But I still am in the same zone and branch, for which I am grateful. Without the Brazilians, there would only be about 12 of us intead of 150 plus. It's interesting how this one issue has such a large impact on the MTC experience.
This week for devotional, Ronald Rasband from the Quorum of the 70 and his wife came and spoke. I know their son from econ at BYU, so it was kind of cool to have a semi-personal connection to them. Brother Rasband talked a lot about being bolder in our missionary work. I know that that is true and that it is something that I need to work on. I know that this gospel is true and that it is the only way that we can truly be happy. I need to be bolder and more persistent in sharing my knowledge with others so that they can feel the blessings of the gospel as well.
Since I have been in the MTC for over 4 weeks now, we have begun the "sempre Portugues" phase, which means that in my classes we will only be speaking Portugues. It's a little challenging, but I think it is actually really fun and it will be really beneficial for picking up the language faster.

That's about it! I hope everything is going well for all of you! I have been studying the atonement a lot this week, and I know that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can freed from our sins, strengthened to endure trials, and perfected to be able to live with God. I am so thankful for my redeemer and my Savior! I know that it is upon Him that we must all rely, and that the only means of Salvation is through His name.