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!

Hellow there!

So the every exciting transfers news...I'm a step mom! My new companion is Sister S and I'll be finishing off her training...what a switch from an old companion to a new one! But we are getting along really well. She is a sweetheart from M who is always serving me and smiling and bearing a powerful testimony.  I'm  loving it already! 

This transfer is just proof that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. The week before the transfer, Sister T and I both felt that I would be training, but there weren't any new sisters coming in. So we shrugged off that thought. But I was really hoping for a Brazilian companion, and even prayed for one. Well come to find out, President felt that he should put Sister S with me to finish her training and she was told that she was going to be transferred. But then he changed his mind and called her back and said that she wasn't. Then he really felt the Spirit tell him that we should be together, so she got told last minute Tuesday morning and here we are! I'm not really sure why, but I'm sure there is much in store for us! 

We are just working like crazy here! Seriously Sister S and I are just collapsing in our beds at night. We've faced a lot of rejection this week, but we're holding strong! We also found a great new investigator. She asked us to visit her and she told us a lot of life experiences and cried a lot. When we went to teach her we asked her if she had ever heard about the Book of Mormon, and then she asked us if we were Mormons, when I said yes, she jumped up and hugged and kissed us she was so happy--that was a first! We taught her the plan of salvation She was really upset because her mom had committed suicide and she felt like it was all her fault and I could really relate to her. We've loved visiting her, she's super energetic and happy and excited. Loves the church and really wants to get baptized! A will also be getting baptized this week. The Spirit really is guiding us this week. One night we went to go visit A at 8:00 and we waited until 8:20 and she never showed up. We decided to start the walk home and stopped for ice cream on the way, paid and everything, but then I felt like we should stop by A (A's member friend) first and then come back for the ice cream. Well what do you know, who's at A's house? A! So we taught her  and she started off telling us about how the night before she really prayed to know if the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith was true. She said that she just cried and cried and then after felt the strongest feeling of peace that she's ever felt before. She received her answer! She's super excited to get baptized this week! Pray that all goes well! We didn't even have time to go back and get our ice cream that we paid for...tudo bem.

Well hello hellow!
As always, what a week! I must say that Sister T is going out with a bang...if I have anything to do with it. We managed our contact goal for the last 3 weeks of her mission and it's been great. One of our investigators is throwing her a surprise party tonight...shhh don't tell :) 
The biggest news of the week was the opportunity that we had to arrange a trip for the recent converts to go to the temple to do baptisms and President let us go too! Oh how wonderful it was! -quite the group! A just ate it all up, she wants to go back every week! She was so happy and so was I :) Oh what joy it is to see the progress of those you helped come to know the restored gospel--she's on the way to eternal life and she's staying strong! She's bringing others up with her.  What a special, sweet experience to be there with her for the first time. I love that girl so much. Everyone had a great time--A was especially thrilled and said that she felt a surety that those she was baptized in behalf of accepted. V described his feelings and great, warm, spiritual. A was so happy to be back there after all those years after his mission. He even wore the U of U tie :) All of it was priceless. Oh how wonderful! I couldn't have been happier. We watched the sunset reflect on the temple, there was so many parrots in the palm trees and on the temple, at night it was just magical. A day to never forget. One of the strongest times I've felt the Spirit in my whole life. What a merciful loving Heavenly Father we have, that He would provide a way for ALL of His children to make it back to His presence. And we can have a part in that! Afterwards the whole ward went to Habib's and Bishop rented out a party room for all of us.
Let's see, we've been working hard this week. We have two investigators REALLY close to baptism, but they are both scared for some reason even though they love the church and believe it's true...we're hoping that they will be able to exchange that fear for faith and take that step. 
As for funny stories of the week. Last monday was just not my day. We went all around São Paulo and then all our appointments fell through. We were asked to bring something to the district meeting so we decided to make bread and cake when we got home. Well we put the cake in the oven first and then made the bread, and then when it came time to take out the cake, we discovered that our propane tank had ran out--ah! So we put it all in the fridge, but I really wanted cake for breakfast. So in the morning, i took the cake out of the fridge and then put it in a tupperware and put it in the microwave...to your likely surprise, it turned out! And we took the bread to the church and baked it there...yum. 

Faith + Action = Happiness!

Hello there!

So this week I've just really felt the Lord helping me strive my hardest to do His work. Sometimes it's tough. Sometimes it feels like the little things we do each day don't really matter. And sometimes we feel overwhelmed, weary, and stressed. But I know that I have the power to change my thoughts and attitudes! I have the power to choose to have faith and be happy, daily. I have the power to make a difference. Our ward mission leader pulled us aside this week and helped me have a brighter perspective. He shared this scripture with us (just verse 17, but I also like verse 16).

D&C 123: 16-17

16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is ^abenefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.

17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us ^acheerfully ^bdo all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the ^csalvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

 

Small and simple things really do make a difference! Our thoughts have the power to change everything! We must always strive to keep our thoughts on the high road. Think and do things that invite the Spirit. I've really learned that this last transfer. Thoughts of home only drive away the spirit. But as I serve with joy and energy, I am full of the Spirit! I've only got 4 short months to serve with all I've got, I can make a difference! So let us all strive to do all things with JOY and then we can have faith and hope that it will all work out.

We had zone conference this week, always a great boost! We also found some great new families! Alice was called to be a ward missionary! And we're going to take our recent converts to the temple to do baptisms this week :) Funny story, we found out one of our investigators didn't understand when we taught her the word of wisdom...she thought that she couldn't eat breakfast, or  "café da manhã" (direct translation "morning coffee" but it's what Brazilians call all breakfast). Poor thing. We threw A a surprise party for her 19th birthday. We exceeded our contact goal, once again! I ran into a fire hydrant today and it really hurt.  
Let's keep putting that faith in ACTION!