It's In Every One Of Us

Its in every one of us

To be wise

Find your heart

Open up both your eyes

We can all know everything

Without ever knowing why

Its in every one of us

By and by

Hello familia e amigos :) Ive been on a muppets kick,the closer it gets to christmas. by far my favorite muppet song other than the rainbow connection!!! ahhh kermy!!!! :) 

Well this week had its ups and downs as per usual. The biggest obstacle in me & Sis C's path this week was the bishopric in our ward.... lets just say, him & his wife has caused us multiple headaches and thousands of tears of frustration. I for one am immensley (forgot how to spell it sorry) grateful that Ive had nothing but amazing experiences with bishops & bishoprics. All through out college & my time in utah Ive had amazing bishops. If theres one thing Ive learned here in Londrina is to be grateful for the bishops Ive had.... 

Its a long story full of the gruesome details only appropriate for my journal, but lets just leave it at this:

I have an incredibly strong testimony of this gospel. I know the Book of Mormon is true, I know that God lives and I know my Savior died and lives for me. I know without a shadow of a doubt that this gospel is true. That the doctrines within it are pure and unadulterated and that this is the same church that was organized when Christ was on the earth.

I, however, do not have a testimony of the members. And I think thats the difference between some of the less actives we've encountered here. About a bakers dozen worth of people have left the ward here because of the things this bishop has said or done. Although it doesnt excuse the bishop in any way shape or form, its made me wonder...

Are our testimonies based on the church or the Gospel?

Because believe me theres a difference. And when I say the "church" I mean its members. I cant help but remember Jeffrey R Hollands talk "Lord I Believe" where he says: Apart from His only Begotten Son, imperfect people has been all God has to work with. It must be terribly frustrating for Him but He deals with it. And so too should we. when the infinite fulness is poured forth, it is not the oil’s fault if there is some loss because finite vessels can’t quite contain it all.¹⁰ Those finite vessels include you and me, so be patient and kind and forgiving."

If our conversion is based on what other church members or bishops or stake presidents do/say, then we will surely apostate some day in the future. If the foundation of our testimonies are rooted in our RS president or our home teachers, then we will surely have an experience that tries our faith at some point.

The point is to make sure that we differentiate between the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ and the CHURCH of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is perfect. The Gospel is pure. Its members are not.

And to leave you with a little thought I was thinking of, dear family & friends:

When I feel overwhelmed, heavy with obligations & burdened with the weight of responsibility I look at your pictures and your letters, your smiling faces and it gives me the strength to carry on. Knowing Im here for you. Because I know there is no greater gift I could give you than to give of myself for 18 months to the Lord. There is no greater blessing I could receive than to know that  through my trials and service in Brazil, you all will be blessed one hundred fold. 

I love you all so very much! 

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY H & C!!!!! :) LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!!! and even though i cant celebrate it with you i celebrated it here in cray cray brazil-ay :)

 

 

Love Notes

From an email dated 18 November 2013:

No its not what you think! haha oiiii familia e amigos!

In Centro Civico for another transfer finishing my training with Sis C & I couldnt be happier! not gonna lie, 2 weeks ago was pretty rough but this past week was A LOT better.

But I'll get to that later.

First off, Id like to start off this email/blog post with a bit of fun. Ive decided that Brazil has the worst drivers of any country EVER. But I mean that in the nicest possible way. 

K, so to steal a scene from a popular 90s movie, if Brazil were a student driver & asking her/his instructor how they did, Id imagine this response:

"Howd you do? Well... lets see shall we?!

You cant park

You cant switch lanes

You damaged private property 

& you almost killed someone

Offhand? Id say you failed."

Mas.... tudo bem haha. 

Now to the slightly more spiritual stuff. This week was amazing because this past sunday C (who was confirmed last week & my first real baptism) recieved the Aaronic Priesthood :) 

Well needless to say, me & Sis C were thrilled! We also found out he went to Mutual by himself. Seriously, a kid thats among the elect. So happy we found him. One day hes gonna be a powerful missionary & I hope Im here when he gets his mission call! :) 

This same sunday, Irmao B, Irmao M & Irma O worked a miracle for us. They collected 37 references for me & Sis C. Were lucky to get 10 on a good day....

seriously MILAGRES!

& as a small, tender mercy, the adorable brasilera meninas (little girls) gave me 2 notes during church which reminded me of my neices & nephews. 

Well, other than that not much has happened. Trying super hard to help O realize that gospel is true. Hes seriously the sweetest man ever! And cries every time we talk about eternal families & temples because of his wife. 

Ughh! Pray SUPER hard this week family! I want so much for him to be baptized & go through the temple. Me & Sis C have felt that his wife is being prepared on the other side of the veil to get her work done. 

Also, Im preparing a lil special something to send to yall for Christmas :) but you cant open it till Christmas Eve!!! got it?? good!

Anyway, love yall so much. Remember to not get caught up in the tinsel & shiny wrapped commericalism of Christmas. Obviously, have fun, but remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Our Savior has never fogotten us & we should make sure to never EVER forget him.

Love yall so much!!! 

xoxo

by the way, this lil pic Im sending Id like to call the "neopolatin effect"

note the different colors? top of my feet id like to call vanilla, middle rasberry, and the lower chocolate.... ahhhh brazil. you make my feet beautiful.... hahahaha

 

 

Oi everyone!

From an email on Monday, November 11, 2013:

Oi everyone!

This week was as per usual, a mixture of intensely spiritual moments and moments where I felt consumed & overwhelmed. 

Lets only focus on the good though :) 

So, this past week we taught 2 nonmembers P & Ia & 1 less active A with a member, L. With me so far? 

Anyway, taught the 1st lesson on the Restoration & Sis C invited Ia to pray. She declined a bit bashfully, so  Sis C turned to P & asked him to pray. He did so a bit hesitantly. As he started a humble simple prayer, the Spirit entered the room with so much force it was almost tangible. Halfway through the prayer P couldnt speak. His emotions were too strong & he began to cry. Ia then, continued the prayer, & started becoming emotional as well.

At the end of the prayer, we asked them how they felt. P responded that he felt like he was being hugged; Ia responded that she felt relief. Both their prayers left us all in tears & very overcome with the emotion & power of the sweet Spirit that could only be from Heaven. 

Another tender experience was with an older investigator who came to church yesterday: O. He's a widower, in his late 70s, and lost his wife 13 years ago this past week. As I sat next to him  in sacrament meeting, I asked him about a photograph on his keychain. It was a black & white photo of a beautiful girl I only assumed was his wife. It was.

A few minutes later, I saw him wipe the tears from his eyes as he said to me that when I sat next to him, he felt his long departed wife close to him. I reminded him of her & he said he felt so close to her during sacrament meeting. I looked into his old, tired eyes, with tears in my own, & bore my testimony in broken Portuguese.

 

"O, I know through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will see your wife again. Its possible. Families are eternal & this is only a temporary separation. Death cannot separate you two from each other."

He began to weep & my heart broke into a thousand pieces. 

This week was pretty rough, wont sugar coat it, but if theres one thing that this mission has taught me is that the Lord is ever aware of each & every one of us. Each & every one of his children anywhere in the world. And in our darkest hours, when we are drowing in grief & anguish that seems impossible to bear, He is ever closer to us. Ever attentive. Ever aware. 

I love you all so much. Sorry if this email seems sanguine haha. I really am happy. Just pensive. And want so much for each of you to know that whatever issues, problems, trials, sufferings, no matter how grand or inconsequential, the Lord not only knows... Hes with you. So close to you. Sometimes the pavilion that covers us from our Savior is our own.

xoxo

Sister VerHoef

True Colors

From an email dated 4 November, 2013:

*when this world makes you crazy and you take in all you can bear*
*just call me up*
*because you know I'll be there*
*and I see your true colors shining through*

Okay, I know I know... no faz isso, but lets be honest Phil Collins makes
EVERYTHING better. Pretty sure he could salvage a justin bieber song if
necessary, but lets hope it *never *comes to that! haha

anyways,
this week has had its ups and downs as per use, buuuuut I think as time
goes by it'll get better. Not easier, but better. Really the only stumbling
block for me right now is the language, but like I said, it takes time
right?

Had another baptism this week! A young *rapaz *Chezekiyah.... yeah I know,
but if you met his dad youd understand.... haha he grew up in a religious
community and left about 3 months ago. We seriously taught him 3 lessons &
he went to church once & wanted to be baptized! We were like.... OKAY! haha
so he got baptized yesterday :) It was great! And whats even better is we
asked another young man in the ward, Marcello, to baptize Chezekiyah.
Marcello is about the same age as Zekah, but all the elders like asking the
son of the Mission Prez to baptize investigators, or do it themselves.
Marcello was absolutely over them mooooon when we asked him! And in his
closing prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for being chosen to baptize Zekah
;) so we helped not one but 2 young men realize their worth & see their
divine potential.

Which leads me to my next spiritual segment of my emails :)

Lately Ive been thinking *a lot *about our eternal, divine naturel.

In 2 Peter 1: 4 it talks more about this:

*Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by
these ye might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust*

Wow. If theres one thing this mission has shown me is that scriptures Ive
read before have been opened up to me in ways unlike ever before. This
scripture hit me so hard the other day when
I read it.

We all, *all *of us are literal children of a divine Being. Which means we
all have inherited divine attributes from Him. I loved thinking about this
deeper today as I looked at a quote Id taped up on my wall.

"You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a single
drop"--Rumi

So many MANY layers of interpretation in this quote, but Id like to just
say this:
We are limitless beings only limited by the limits of mortality.

Wow, haha look whos been Wordsworth-ing it up right?? haha but seriously!
Our spirits are eternal, limitless, unhindered, & divinely powerful. We
have an *ocean* worth of potential within ourselves that have yet to be
tapped into.

*You are the entire ocean in a single drop*

You are *eternity *in a single body. (Aristotle didnt say that I did. what
up!)

Its impossible to fathom and comprehend the idea of eternity & forever
because of our mortal minds, but I know its true. I know it so deeply.

And bearing this in mind it is incredibly essential for us to NEVER EVER
forget our divine nature. Our divine heritage. I think thats the best part
of being a missionary is seeing people like Chezekiyah see at least a part
of his divine potential and live up to it;.

Our Father in Heaven doesnt see us by our sins or our scars, our past or
our present, our decisions or our doubts.

He sees us in terms of forever.

Never EVER forget your divine worth. But more importantly LIVE your divine
worth.


To end this email I'll share a few things Ive learned while being in Brazil:

1.) The bus drivers here are NUTS
2.) they have ants here that look like the butt of a scorpion. they call em
"formigas" but I like to call em "ants from the innermost circle of Satans
un-airconditioned basement" hate em!!!!
3.) everyone writes in cursive. and unlegibly. EVERYONE. including guys.
4.) every animal here hates me. seriously. EVERYONE owns a dog & not a
single person takes care of em. Ive only met 1 dog out of about 300 who
hasnt wanted to gnaw my head off
5.) every house has an electric voltage thing that runs across the top of
their fence. it looks like the shawshank redemption
6.) if youre not careful you could end up eating 4 meals in a single
sitting depending on how fast you eat
7.) they have the best bread & cheese ive ever tasted
8.) their napkins are made out of paper.... seriously

9.) & if you buy tampons, youre considered a prostitute... SERIOUSLY

anyway, love yall so much!!!! cant wait till christmas to skype yall!!! :)
:)