A few days ago after class we had the incredible opportunity to go to the Recife Temple. It was by far the best experience I have had since I have been here. The temple is breathtakingly beautiful. It is in the middle of the city, and is certainly a beacon for all to see its beauty. The session was incredible as well. It was the first time I have participated in a session in Portuguese, which was something I really enjoyed. I truly do feel the spirit strongly in the language of Portuguese, the language that I preached the true and everlasting Gospel in for two years.
Nick and I in front of the temple.
Postin' up behind the temple sign. It's a beautiful thing!
A couple of breath-taking photographs of the temple taken by yours truly.
Blending in like a chameleon.
Those trees in the background in front of the temple are mango trees. I had a companion on the mission, Elder Eduardo, who is from Recife who said that during mango season he studies his scriptures under these trees and from time to time gets a pleasant surprise of a mango in his lap during his studies.
Nick and I with the temple President Fredrick G. Williams. He is the great-great-grandson of the 1st Counselor of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
One of my companions from the mission, Elder Eduardo, who was my second to last companion, is from Recife. We were really great friends and had a lot of fun and success together as companions. I have been trying to get a hold of him but I wasn't able to. I emailed him with the email address I had for him but I didn't get a response. So I posted as my Facebook status a question asking if anyone from the mission knew his contact information, and yesterday a member from one of the areas that I served in that he served in after me responded and gave me his phone number. I called him yesterday, and got a hold of him! When I told him it was me he was super surprised, especially because I was calling from a local number. It was really great to talk to him. We met tonight at the temple here after he got off work (he works close by to the temple). I can’t describe how great it was to see him; it was like reuniting with a brother that I hadn’t seen in a long time. We spoke for a while, and then did a session in the temple together. It was so great to do a session with him. It was great to see him, we are going to try and hang out one more time before I leave, and I’m excited to see him again. I feel really blessed to have had the companions that I did on the mission. I can say that I became good friends with all of them; some of them I feel are brothers to me (like Elders Vaz, Barker, Pimentel, Burge, Fredline, and Eduardo). None of them were lazy either, which was probably the biggest blessing that the Lord could have given me.
Eduardo and I before we went in for our session.
After the session in front of the temple.
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