22 August 2016

This week was a little crazy. First of all my companion is being transferred and my new companion will be Sister Saavedra, I believe she is from Peru! Also, the mission really prepares you for all parts of life including apartment hunting and moving! This week we had to find a new place to live and we will probably move this week. 

The work here is going really well. Angelita plans on being baptized on the 3rd of september and we found a couple named Atanajar and arminda that came to church yesterday and really loved it! They accepted to eb baptized on the 9th of September. We will work with them to help them be prepared and continue workignw ith our many other great investigators that we are finding! We ahve been seeing lots of miracles.

i hope you have a good time in philidelphia this week and at the temple, sounds like fun! have a great week everyone!

a thought for this week is one of my new fvorite scriptures i think it is 2 corinthians 12:9, look it up if you have a chance :)

15 August 2016

it was great to skype with mom and dad yesterday and i hope the rest of the family is doing well. I had a good week. we were able to find a lot of elect investigators in the moment that they needed help this week which was great. we could see how the spirit guided us to those in need. Also one of our new investigators came to church yesterday, which was a miracle, and ended up already knowing some of the members and having friendships with them which is great and really imortant. Things are good with my companion, I am learning a lot with her. Sorry that it is so hot there, it is also starting to heat up here and it apparently will get very very very hot here in the summer so i am a little nervous for that...

A thought for the week from Alma 26 is that even when things are hard, we always have reason to rejoice, be grateful, and be happy and that is because we have a merciful, loving, and all-powerful God.

Amo vocês!!

8 August 2016

My companion says ``Oi´´ to you all! 

I am sorry but I do not know the exact time that we will video chat next sunday.... I wish i had the details. I just know that it will be the afternoon so hopefully you all will be available.... sorry about that!

Happy birthday Daniel!!

Matthew, thanks for sending the pictures of spain it looks like you are ahving an awesome time! It also looks like you visited the Cristo Redentor similar to the one in Rio de Janeiro. 

I am glad the opening cermonies of the olympics was good.I hear a bit of conversation about the olympics and also about the elections in the united states, but i don´t know much about what is going on. 

The pictures are of a district lunch that we had.

This transfer is going by very fast. Yesterday President Louza visited our branch and our house here in São Gabriel. He was able to give us good coucself or the area and the work.

This week was good and I learned a lot. Mariahelena is still very interested and is working on quitting smoking, Unfortunately Tania decided to put off her baptism again, but i was able to learn a lesson about agency. We can´t force anyone to be baptized or believe or we would not be any better than Satan.  But we will continue working hard and doing our part!

Also a thought about agency is that the only thing that God doesn´t have is our agency and our test on earth is to choose to give our agency to God.

Have a great week I love you all!

25 July 2016

Oi familia! First of all, remember how I said that fathers day is in august here? Well we are allowed to skype fome for 3 minutes on fathers day! It is on August 14 so be prepared :) Secon, Happy 4th Birhtday Madelyn!! Also, i am so glad Mom and Dad´s trip to utah was fun, I loved all of the pictures that I saw and am glad you got to visit with a lot of family. 

Also, my new mailing address here is:

Caixa postal 40

Centro - São Gabriel - RS

97300-000

The work here is going well and I am continuing to learn a lot. We have a large group of investigators with a lot of interest. We are working a lot with an older couple named MariaHelena and Valdir who are  really awesome. Also a lady named Elisangela has a llot of potential. Saturday was really awesome, we found 7 new investigotors in 1 day that all agreed to be baptized whent ehy recieve an answer to their prayer! 

A scripture for the week is Mormon 9:21

Have a great week I love you all :)

18 July 2016

Oi familia! I had a great week. I love my new companion, she is really nice and fun and she is from Riberão Preto in São Paulo (the state) I also love it here in São Gabriel. It is a nice city, about the same size as Santa Rosa, only it doesn´t ahve the crazy hills that Santa Rosa had which I m loving, and it si a bit more spread out with lots of trees and horses. We live with 2 other sisters too. This week ws really cold and windy. The work here has a lot of potenital. There is a lady named Tania that wants to eb baptized, she just has to pray about a date. I also attended my first wedding this week! (picture included) It was in the chapel and felt just like the movies haha. It was one of the elders´investigators that got married and baptized this weekend. I am looking forward to this week adn the progress I hope we will have here. I love you all have a good week! :)

11 July 2016

Oi familia! I will be transfered tomorrow to São Gabriel. It is a smaller city on the opposite end of the mission, down south by the fronteir. From what I have heard, the area has a few branches and is working to become a stake. It would be different there, smaller town/area and a bit colder. I am sad to leave Santa Rosa because I love it here, but I am really excited tog et to know a new place and new people. My companion will be Sster De Olveira, who has been companions with both of my past companions too. 

We met the new mission President and his wife and they are great I love them! They have way differetn personalities than President and Sister Parrela. theya re very calm and sweet, but have a strong spirit. I was also able tosee my companion rom the CTM and another sister from our group, sister Christensen. She will come replace me here in Santa Rosa and continue working with Sister Soares Da Silva.

Unfortuantely, Sandor and Renir don´t want to continue investigating, along with many other investigators. But we are always looking for new people to teach and I hope our current investigators will be able to continue with open hearts and one day, if not now, want to accept the gospel and be baptized.

Something that I learned this week, that was also a point of one of the past conference talks, is that one way to remember the savior is by seeing Him through other people. When we recongize with gratitude the good in other people and see how they have helped us and made us feel good, we can rememebr Him.

4 July 2016

Bom dia!

Happy Fourth of July! That´s crazy that it is the fourth of july, it sure does not feel like it here, being winter and Brasil and all..... What are all of you doing to celebrte this year? fireworks, barbeques? 

This week was great and I completed 5 months yesterday! We worked hard and were able to see some improvement and success. A cool experience with fast sunday yesterday was that we have some new investigators (Sandro and Renir) that lost a family member recently and we started teaching them. They said no to baptism, but said they would visit the church. Then the day before they said they could only go until 11:00  (which is when sacrament meeting starts) because they would have visitors at their house, but we fasted that they would stay until the end of sacrament. Then the time came for sacrament and they went and sat down and stayed and listened to the whole meeting without even any sign that they had to leave and Renir even seemed to ahve cried during testimony meeting. We will see where this goes but it was cool to be able to see this miracle and I was able to better understand the importance and power of the fast. I know that fasting can be a very powerful thing and that miracles really happen.

President and Sister Louza arrived this week and we will travel to cruz alta to meet them on Thursday! I am excited, they already seem to be great. We will also find out about transfers this week and I will probably be transfered from Santa Rosa.

I hope you all are doing well, have a great week, amo vocês!! :)