Mais uma!!

Hello, hello :)

So what a week! We are really starting to see the work pick up here...this week we had 13 people with baptismal dates marked! Wahoo!!! Only problem...we just got to get them to church and you know, keep progressing :) The Lord is really blessing us here.

Tender mercy of the week: GB got baptized!!! She's a young woman of our ward that I didn't even know wasn't a member until last month. She's been waiting to get baptized for 3 years because her parents never let her. So she turned 18 this month and voila! baptized and confirmed this weekend. Oh my, it was such a special and beautiful experience. She is one tough cookie with and amazing testimony. We were so blessed to be such a small part of it.

Other great happenings of the week. For my sixth month mark, I made myself some to die for banana pancakes! (and thanks to Sister Ps mom, complete with maple syrup and everything). It's sure been six months to celebrate. So much has happened in this short time, and I'm loving watching people's faith grow (and mine too) and making so many friendships and memories working in the Lord's vineyard! Sister Brenchley and I are really looking forward to one more transfer together here in DC. We're just starting to get a handle on things here and I know this next month with be a month to remember. I love Sister B so much, she helps me learn and grow and laugh everyday. I don't know what I'd do without her...enjoying everyday I have here. This week we had NOVA FORÇA with all the trainers and newbies and it was amazing. All of the new missionaries are so amazing, I think they have us train to get trained.

I'm so humbled to be here on the mission. I have so much to learn and improve. It's such a blessing to be spending everyday working for the salvation of souls. If only everyone else could realized how important it is too! But we'll get there, it's taken me years to get here and we are seeing such great progress with some of our investigators. During lessons I am learning things from them. We taught a lesson about the 10 commandments to G and G, and as we were talking about taking the Lord's name in vain, G talked about how we really need to be careful in our moments of suffering and avoid complaining because the Savior suffered more than us all and not one word of complaint or frustration or cuss escaped His lips. In this moment I learned a valuable lesson from G, that I really needed to be reminded of. No matter what we are going through, the Savior has been through more. And He bore all pain and suffering with patience and love. I think we all can work a little harder on following our Savior's example and take every moment in stride. Restist the urge to complain and always respond with love!

Just working on the road to salvation here, and Sister B and I are working on a new tactic: baptismal invites in the road! It's really fun and motivating to invite people to get baptized from the first time we meet them and help them realize the importance of our message and how we really are representatives of Jesus Christ, not just two interesting american girls trying to make some friends :)Last night was New Beginnings for the moças, and it was so special. Sister Brenchley and I sang and we watched all the young women bear testimony. Germana participated too! I love seeing the young women grow and progress, it brings be back a few years. The organization of the Church is so amazing that all of the programs help each individual grow closer to our Savior and follow in His footsteps. Wherever you are in the world, whatever your situation, the Savior and His restored gospel can help :)

I know the Church is true and the Book of Mormon is God's word. We are so blessed to have the truth and help of our loving Heavenly Father. Stay true to what you know and you'll never go wrong!

Muito amor