Only through much prayer and fasting

Hellow!!!

Well I learned that when we want to be blessed fr0m the Lord, we must sacrifice. And when we fast, miracles happen! We were blessed to witness two of Heavenly Father's precious children enter into the way to eternal life. M and V were baptized!

And we found so many new investigators this week! And I am being transferred to the Baixada (which I have felt I would finish my mission there since I got on the mission). Wahoo! Adventures here we come, souls to save, hearts to lift, lessons to learn, memories to make! It's a brand new year!

Nothing brings the Spirit like Christmas music!

Olá!
Tudo bem? Estou muito feliz...adoro Natal! Alright, So week was quite the different week. Yesterday we went around with our ward choir to sing to many nonmembers and part-member families. We all wore santa hats and sang Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, and the Nativity. It was really something special to see, in a world where Natal is only presents and parties, that hearts can be touched, tears are shed, and spirits warmed, just with them memory of the true meaning of Christmas. One of the stops was the Bishop's condominium--there was over 100 people there to listen. There was a ton of pass along cards passed out :) Now we're just praying that they will all call!

Other news of the week, we're hoping to have two baptisms this sunday. A's aunt, M, passed the interview and is very excited. She openly thanked Sister S and I during relief society and told all of the irmãs that she wished us a very special wedding. Ha ha! Everyone laughed. She's quite the character, I hope the ward members will embrace her well. She has such a pure love for the Lord and is so grateful for the Gospel. We also went to teach L and C one night and when we showed up, her other 15 year old daughter is visiting for a few months and well she wants to get baptized too! It's going to be a white christmas--even here in Brazil :)

We had a really fun ward activity on Saturday (thanks Mom, for the Minute to Win It ideas--they were a hit!). 

I know that Heavenly Father loves and knows all of His children, His Gospel is for everyone. It heals the broken hearted, lifts the burdened down, and brings us all closer to Him. May we all be super conscious of this, not only during this Christmas season, but always!

Prayers are answered, dreams do come true, I visited the Jardim Botanico....hope you can too!

Alright! So Heavenly Father sure provides a way...I thought that I wouldn't have the chance to go the Jardim Botannico because it's not open on Mondays, so you ahve to go on Tuesday after the temple, but this last temple trip just didn't work...but just a week later, us sisters had a wonderful surprise! Oh and was it so beautiful!

 So that was pretty much the highlight of my week...the Special Sister's Traning was just AMAZING. We had wonderful trainings on the doctrine of the body and the importance of really loving and caring about others. We all left super excited and happy!
Other happenings of the week. I made a contact in english, we were knocking door and the man didn't speak portugues--just english, spanish, and french. So I tried to make a contact with him in english, but it was super hard! The words would hardly come out at all and all I could think was portuguese! People are thinking that I'm latin american these days ha ha. By the time I get home, I'll be brazillian!
So my companion is great, she helps me a ton. We're preparing to baptize A's aunt this week and we've got lots of husbands to teach! Here we go!
One thing we are seeing here is the importance to really care about people and notice them and serve them and LOVE them and integrate them. IT"S SO IMPORTANT! As President Utchdorf said, 

"Isn’t it true that we often get so busy? And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was an accomplishment or sign of a superior life. Is it?

I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished.  I can’t see it.  Instead I see the compassionate and caring Son of God purposefully living each day. When He interacted with those around Him, they felt important and loved. He knew the infinite value of the people He met. He blessed them, ministered to them. He lifted them up, healed them. He gave them the precious gift of His time."

May we all strive to be more like the savior and love and serve all of those around us

Sometime we make decisions that we regret...but that's why we can repent!

Well hello there, to start off the week with a some powerful word of God:

 26 And it came to pass that the work of the Lord did prosper unto the baptizing and uniting to the church of God, many souls, yea, even tens of thousands.

 27 Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name.

 28 Yea, thus we see that the ^agate of heaven is open unto ^ball, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. (Helaman 3:26-28)

How beautiful it is when the Lord hears and answers our prayers and His children repent and are baptized into His church! Really I know that all success comes from the Lord and is absolutely dependent on our prayers of faith. And Sister S has faith! A was all ready for baptism and everything, until Saturday, when we had marked to visit her and watch the Restoration DVD with her and her family. We called all day and passed by there even and every time they said she wasn't home, but we had seen her twice at her house when we walked by, so we were pretty worried about it and that she seemed to be avoiding us. Also, to add to it, we had both made the poor decision to forget our umbrella's at home (it's becoming the time of year that you can never forget your umbrella, but I just can't quite get that into my head) and needless to say, we were soaked. We went to A's house, and she had lost her umbrella, so she couldn't even lend us one and she said that she was pretty worried about Angelica because she was sad the night before that her family wasn't being to accepting of her decision to be baptized. So we made the adventurous trek in the rain to her house, and no one let us in. So we started knocking on doors. Still no one let us in--I don't blame them, we looked pretty scary ha ha. And anyway, I felt pretty worried and a little discouraged. But we said a million prayers, really we were praying constantly, and fasting. And like this scripture says, the Lord has mercy on us! She came to church the next day and was baptized and happy and the Spirit was so strong!
What a marvelous work!