Week 75 - Três lourinhas gringas perdidas

Oi Pessoal!! 

This week was great! We traveled to João Pessoa for a leadership conference where I got to see my old companion Sister Gonzalez, we made empada doce for valentines day, we had Marta join one of our lessons and she bore an amazing testimony, and Sister Jenkins and I went on exchanges with our MTC companion Sister Adams!! It was super fun. Sister Lima was concerned about leaving us three Americans alone, and she had reason to because we almost got run over by cars like 5 times. God was definitely protecting us haha. It must have been obvious that we weren't from there because we got lots of stares and some comments from people on the street like "You are americans, right?" It's amazing to me how God calls the weak and simple to do his work. People like me, young adults from another country who barely speak the language. This church must really be true! 

I guess I don't have much to say, other than I just love it here! I'm sad that my time in Brazil is coming to a close. I hope that when I get home that I'll always remember the things I've learned and experienced here on my mission, because I've realized it's surprisingly easy for people to forget. The world is very distracting. As a missionary it's easy to have the bigger picture, but with school, friends, work, and important things to do, it's hard to make time for those things that are most important. When we get wrapped up in the world, it's hard to leave much space for God. That's why it's so important to always do those small and simple things, like prayer and scripture study! We have to be super strict in prioritizing those things, because if we aren't consciously and consistently making time for Him, we will eventually fall away. It's by small and simple things that testimonies are built, hearts change, and miracles happen. But it's also by small and simple things that people fall away and forget. 

So please please do all you can to remember! Remember that God is there and He loves you, and remember all the things he has done for you. 

Amo vocês!! Até mais 

- Sister Wride

 

Week 74 - Short email

Oi Pessoal! Tudo joia?

Not too much happened this week. It's been hard to stay busy lately because there aren't that many people who want to talk to us. We're basically starting from square one in our area, so we're going to focus more on working with the members and re-activating recent converts! It'll be good. 

The other night we woke up to loud music playing. Some dude on drugs got a hold of some speakers and decided to blast them for the entire city to hear. At 4am! Like - who does that? It was loud for us, I can only imagine how much his ears hurt the next morning after he came to himself. It was going on for quite a while and we couldn't sleep, so I said a prayer to ask Heavenly Father if he could stop the music. And right away, the music stopped! It was amazing!!! Then I couldn't fall asleep because I was smiling so big - it was so cool. The dude tried to start up the music a few more times, but it didn't work because it kept stopping after a few seconds. Anyways moral of the story, God is real and He answers prayers! 

But yeah, things are good here. I love Brazilians and I love my companions, and I love you guys!! If you want to say a prayer for our area, that would be nice. 

Tchau tchau!

- Sister Wride

Week 73 - Hello again

Oi Pessoal! 

Sorry I've been kind of bad at writing. Time is going by so fast! But basically I love it here. I love my companions and I love the people. I feel like I could just stay here forever haha. 

God answers prayers

Our internet this week has been really slow this week, which is too bad because we're in charge of the facebook pages here and have a lot of online work to do. But it's been really cool to see how God answers even simple prayers. Every time the internet cuts out, we say a prayer that it will work, and every time, it works! It's just like magic! We were in a lesson with Marta and we wanted to show her the first vision video but it wasn't loading so I said "let's say a prayer real quick" and right when I started to pray, it loaded and we were able to watch the whole video without any problems! It's like I have the ability to call down the powers of heaven, it's pretty sweet! It goes to show how closely involved God is in our lives. 

Joaquim

We had another lesson with Joaquim this week, the guy who doesn't believe in Jesus. Sister Lima was kinda reluctant, but he's cool and I have high hopes for him. He has been reading the Book of Mormon regularly and he's almost finished the book of Alma, which is crazy! We asked him what he's been learning and he was like "The stories are cool. Their mode of speaking is interesting." 

"Well, what did you learn about Christ?"

"It says he died on the cross..."

Like, that's all he has to say? I'm just thinking about all the great chapters he's already read through, like the chapter on faith in Alma 32, the great explanation on the atonement in 2 Nephi 9, the story of Ammon and the conversion of King Lamoni, all these stories that leave me amazed and inspired, but he's just not seeing it. I'm realizing that I can't give my testimony to anyone. We could meet with Joaquim every day and hold his hand and teach everything clearly, but if you're not looking for truth, you're not going to find it. We had a guy come to church for the first time this Sunday, and they taught a great lesson on ministering to others, but he was on his phone the whole time! He listened a little bit but got bored and then tried selling some perfume to us. I would think that anyone who comes to church would be able to feel the spirit, but that's not always the case. As missionaries we try to show people how amazing and life changing this gospel is, but there's only so much we can do. In the end, it's all up to them. 

We've been getting a lot of rejection lately, but it's ok because I feel so happy when I see the impact this gospel makes for the few people we teach. Our friend José who was baptized in December has started passing the sacrament, and it literally makes me so happy!! I feel like a proud mother hehe :') His first Sunday here he only had his street clothes, but over the past few weeks he's collected suit pants, then a white shirt, dress shoes, and how he has a tie. We only invited him to come to church once, and how he comes to church every week without fail. He's amazing. 

Marta too is loving everything about the gospel. In relief society she bore her testimony to the other irmãs about her baptism and how much more hopeful and happy her life is since being baptized, and she talked about how grateful she is for us missionaries for finding her and listening to her when she was going through so much. She told us how she's been to many different churches before, but she never wanted to be baptized until she visited this church. 

Bruna

We've been teaching a lady named Bruna, who has a super cute baby girl. Bruna is a great person to teach because she listens carefully and she always has questions. We invited her to be baptized this week, but she was a little hesitant because she doesn't feel prepared. One of her concerns was that she doesn't think she can serve a mission haha. We told her that she doesn't have to, which made her feel better. But she smokes a lot and has other problems that seem impossible to overcome. We testified to her that although some things seem impossible, when we have the desire to change, Christ will always give us the power to overcome things that we can't do on our own. He doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he expects us to try. We made some goals for her to help her prepare for baptism, like praying and reading the Book of Mormon every day. We promised her that if she does these small and simple things, that she will be able to overcome her problems and be ready for baptism. She teared up a little bit. And she said she would do it! 

Also it was cool - Bruna said that she used to have a problem with drinking, but ever since she's been meeting with us, she's stopped! She said "I don't even know how, because I've been drinking for years." She also said "I wanted to ask - how did you guys know that I was needing help? A few weeks ago I was going through a lot of problems and I was crying in my room, and right after, I got your message. The timing was just perfect! Did you have a dream or something?" It's all God's doing, not us.

The gospel is so true!! Also God loves you <3 Feel free to email me if you want 

Amo vocês muito!! 

 

- Sister Wride

Week 71 - Missão Campina Grande Centro

Oi Pessoal! Here's a quick update from me: 

- Marta was baptized on Sunday! 

- We got transfer news and I'm staying in Campina Grande! I've been here my whole time in Brazil, so now it seems more appropriate to call my mission "Missão Campina Grande" instead of "Missão João Pessoa" because I've never actually served in João Pessoa. 

- I'm still companions with Sister Lima but now we're in a trio! And my new companion is... My MTC companion Sister Jenkins!!! 

- We moved into a new apartment and it's super chique! It has giant windows and built-in toilet seats so it's an upgrade.

- I took lots of pictures of flowers so enjoy!! 

Scripture for this week:

15 ¶ Beware of ^afalse prophets, which come to you in ^bsheep’s clothing, but ^cinwardly they are ravening ^dwolves.

16 Ye shall ^aknow them by their ^bfruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth ^agood ^bfruit; but a ^ccorrupt tree bringeth forth ^devil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good ^afruit is ^bhewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their ^afruits ye shall know them.

There are a lot of different opinions out there and sometimes it's hard to know who is right and who is wrong. But we can know them by their fruits, the things that come from them! One of the biggest testimonies to me that this church is true, is that there are so many good things that come from it! Happy families, peace, protection, health, service, stronger communities, etc. All things that are good come from God! 

Amo vocês!!

- Sister Wride

 

Week 70 - Flying cockroach

Oi Pessoal! Tudo bom? 

Nossa Senhora, this week went by super fast. Here's an update from me if you're interested, but it's kinda long so I won't feel bad if you don't read it 

Marta

Guess what!?! Marta is on date for baptism!! 

Ok so basically Marta is the most elect lady ever. She moved here a few months ago on account of her son Fabio, who was going through some problems and had to leave her city. And shortly after coming here she got into a really abusive relationship with this punk named Fabricio, who is super controlling. He doesn't let her work or go anywhere alone, he snoops around on her phone, and he steals her money to buy drugs. When we met her back in October, she was just broken, and right away she opened up to us and told us everything she's been going through, despite that we didn't even know each other. When we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, her face lit up and she immediately wanted to know more. When Marta came to church for the first time, she absolutely loved it, and afterwards told us that she wants to prepare for baptism! 

We're pretty much the only people she has to turn to, so for the past few months we've been trying to help her in what little ways we can, but it's been hard with her boyfriend getting in the way. He let her come to church a few more times, but more recently he's tightened his grip and we haven't been able to reach her at all. So we've been feeling pretty much hopeless, until last Wednesday when Marta called us and said that she's finally done with Fabricio and all his crap, and she kicked him out!!!! 

She told us that for weeks she's been trying to figure out what she should do, and she's been desperately looking for the apartment key that he's been hiding. Then she remembered how in our church we pray addressing God as "Heavenly Father" and so she got on her knees and asked her Heavenly Father to help her get her out of this situation, and to help her find the apartment key. Then later that day (in a spot where she's looked many times before) she found the apartment key, and mustered up the courage to tell Fabricio to leave her house or she would call the police. And I don't know how she did it, but Fabricio left!!!!! 

After telling us all this she was like "Alright, so now what do I have to do to be baptized?? What do I have to read?" So since then we've been meeting with her every day teaching her all the lessons, and she loves it and is SO receptive to it all! She even takes notes :) When we told her that she can't drink coffee, she was like "Really?¹? That's going to be really hard to give up! But no problem, if it's a commandment then ok, I won't drink it anymore." She's just amazing! Her baptism will be this Saturday, so look out for next weeks weekly ;) 

The tragedy of the apartment no Centro

Ever since I got here I've wanted to move out of this apartment. It's gross, and it's full of ants, and the windows are tiny. It's like a prison cell. When I arrived in Brazil, Sister Gonzalez and I had to stay here with Sister Leal and Sister Carter while we looked for a house. The whole process took 3 weeks, and by the end of it I was so happy to move out! Then I got transferred back here with Sister Leal, but she assured me saying "Don't worry, they're already wanting us to move into a better apartment, we've already got one picked out. We'll move out in the next two weeks or so." Well, 6 weeks later we still hadn't moved out, and 6 weeks after that the mission office finally started to get the new apartment approved. Then they realized that the new one they picked out was really old, so we had to go pick out another one. Ugh. When Sister Lima got here she immediately wanted to move out too, and so we found an apartment on the same street as the church. There were cupboards, and counter space in the kitchen, bathroom mirrors, ventilation, and big windows. It was just perfect! So we sent the mission office all the photos and information they needed. As we've been waiting, the apartment conditions here have worsened and termites have settled in, so we've been getting desperate. 6 weeks later, they finally got the apartment approved. So we excitedly told the owner that we'll take it, but he said that he already sold it!! I almost cried. 

So we found yet another apartment, and it's actually way nicer than the other one we found, so we've been pretty excited. We got all the information ASAP and things were looking good, until the São Paulo office closed for the winter break, and now it looks like we won't be able to move until next transfer, and I'll probably be gone by then. 

I've spent almost my entire time here in Brazil in this gross apartment. But it's ok, I've learned how to be happy in whatever circumstance! The termites don't even bug me anymore. And yesterday a giant cockroach flew inside and freaked us out super bad, but now it's just super funny. We still haven't found him yet, hopefully he left.. But anyways, I just love it here! I'm super sad that my time here is running out. 

Spiritual thought

One thing I've been learning is that the best things in life take work: Having a family, relationships, missionary work, gardening, hobbies, sports, etc. It's the work that makes it that much more rewarding! For example, you can always go buy cookies at the store, but it's always more special when you make it yourself. When hiking, it's the work that was put into climbing up the mountain that makes the view that much more amazing. It's the sacrifice of something that makes it precious! The test of life is to see if we are willing to put in the effort to receive God's greatest blessings. God has already given us so much, but to give us all that He has, we need to put in a little effort. That's why Salvation isn't an easy process! If we want to become as perfect as God is, we have to want it and strive for it. If good things come too easily, we won't fully appreciate them or enjoy them. So when life gets hard, just know that it's all for your eternal Joy! Literally everything God does is for you to be happy forever!! We get to choose if we want to receive more, or if we're content where we're at. So trust God and do what He asks, because it's all for your eternal benefit. Honestly, how can we be anything but grateful? 

I don't know if this email made any sense, I'm kind of forgetting english. But anyways, I love you all!! 

- Sister "Hydegie"