I'll See You in White

Okay... GAH! Oh my gosh this week was seriously the most spiritual & special week of my ENTIRE mission. To start off with, we had a baptism of a mother, Joelma, & her son, Junior, whos 9 years old. 

SO much has happened I hardly know where to start! I'll start with Junior. Seriously this kid is an elect! Definitely hand picked & saved to come to earth at this time, especially for his family. Took Jr & Joelma to church last week for the first time. I look over and Jr is buried in the arm of Joelma, bashfully not wanted to say something. I lean in closer & asks me when he can be baptized, after 1 hr of church & 2 days of knowing us! Without even teaching anything!

Joelma & Jr already knew the chruch was true after the 1st lesson & wanted to be baptized! Only prob was Joelma smoked 3 packs of cigarettes PER DAY.

However, Tuesday we gave a lesson on miracles, especially the miracle of the woman with the issue of blood & how she was healed from that moment on. We called the ZL's to come to her house & they gave her a priesthood blessing & she was COMPLETELY CURED. She told us after the blessing that she felt "light" & from that moment on she hasnt smoked a single cigarette! 

Joelma & Jr were baptized yesterday. Marcello baptized Jr & Elder C (ZL) baptized Joelma. Marcello is an 18 yr old in the ward preparing to go on a mission. His family & him are amazing! Jr asked Marcello to baptize him. 

As I watched Marcello & Jr enter the baptismal font, I started to tear up & then when I watched Marcello secure jr's little hand & lowering Jr into the water, Jr's little feet floating, and Marcello lifting Jr out of the water again, Jr had the BIGGEST goofiest, lil boy grin on his face. Even with the water being freezing cold & him being soaked through, Jr had the warmest smile on his face- his eyes were clear & bright with light.

He hugged Marcello so tight & Marcello lifted him out of the water & into the arms of Elder C. 

I seriously lost it! Cried SO MUCH. 

After the baptism, I gave Jr a For Strength of Youth CD that an Irma in the ward gave to me as a baptismal present for Jr. He gave me the biggest hug & whispered to me "I love you Sister." 

Well that just melted my heart all over again! Never been so happy in my life! Joelma & Jr are seriously incredible. If I go my entire mission never teaching or baptizing anyone, Id still be blissfully happy. That little boy is worth 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 baptisms to me. 

Anyway, that was my week! I could seriously write more, but I'll save it for next week :) 

for the pics, here are the names of the first pic from left to right:

Marcello, me, Jr, Joelma, Sis S, Elder C

2nd pic from left to right:

Marcello, Gabriella (sister to marcello). me, Jr, Joelma, Sis S, Eliane (mom of Marcello & Gabriella) Elder C

last pic from left to right:

me, sis s, jr, joelma, larissa (sister of junior), mateus (son of larissa) jose (husband of larissa)

6 Month Anniversary!

of me in brazil yall!!!

Wow... yeah its true! Ive been out here for 6 months baby.

Time flies when youre talkin portuguese. Worddddd.

Anyways, I wanted to do something a bit different this blog post & relate just a few things that Ive learned this 6 months here in Brazil. Ahem. 

10 Random Things in 6 months of the brazilian heat:

1.) almoço or lunch is the biggest meal of the day

2.) their napkins are made out of paper

3.) there are cars that drive with HUGE speakers on the roof of the car driving up & down neighborhoods advertising a bunch of crap that NO ONE cars about at all HOURS of the day and night...... 

4.) best suco or juice you will EVER have in your life!

5.) Every brazilian, and I mean every brazilian has at least 3 dogs and they NEVER teach them to stop barking no matter what hr of the day or madrugada early morning 

6.) Theyre super open when it comes to religion

7.) Its not surprising to see a brand new honda accord or VW followed by a horse drawn bugee....

8.) there are 2 words I will never tell the difference. avó which is grandmother and avô which is grandfather.... in spanish its abuelo and abuela, in dutch its oma and opa.... in portuguese its... stupid hard!!! haha

9.) there are more ants, mosquitos, bugs of all kinds here. things I didnt even know EXISTED! 

10.) probably the easiest people to love in the entire world are the brazilians. 

And to end on a spiritual note we found a wonderfullll family! Joelma, Junior & Narissa. They came to stake conference yesterday. Joelma is the mom, Junior & Narissa are the kids. Narissa is 20 and Junior is 9. Were pretty sure he has a crush on us :) such a stinkin cute kid! he turned all red yesterday and said the cutest thing youd ever hear! He asked us when he could be baptized :) 

Awwww!!! Were teaching them tonight & were SO excited! Pray for them! theyre seriously a family of gold here! 

oh and heres prolly my fav pic of my mish so far & for good reason :) lets just say I may have squeeled;;....

different shades of faith

Hello familia & amigos!!!

well this past week was transfers & Im still in Centro Civico with Sis S!!!! :) This will be my 4th transfer & 6th month here. Kinda long actually for Brazil mission standards from what Ive heard. Everyone EVERYONE even Pres G thought Id be transfered but the Lord knows better! :) 

Ive felt very strongly that this ward still needs me & sister s & that my work in this area isnt done yet. The ward members here are wonderful but theres alot of problems here that Im trying to fix. Lots of less actives (the list we have of less actives is so big we could seriously start 2 stakes here & Im not exaggerating! its AWFUL) theres also a lot of half active families, a LOT of mothers that are active and fathers who are inactive & of course, tons of poverty & need. About 15% of the members here dont have cars and live in all different manners of living conditions. But even more so, Ive been feeling like my work here has been preparing the hearts of the members here to be excited about missionary work. And principalmente, strengthening their faith. 

This week Ive been thinking a lot about faith! There are two stories about faith in the same book of Mark in the New Testament that shows two different shades of faith. At times our faith is like the woman with the issue of blood: 

And a certain woman, which had an ^aissue of blood twelve years,

 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his ^agarment.

 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that ^avirtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy ^afaith hath made thee whole; go in ^bpeace, and be whole of thy plague.

this womans faith was so powerful & so strong that she felt she just needed the touch of the masters clothes to be healed of her defect. Other times our faith is like the father of a child with a crippling disability or "unclean spirit":

 21 And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.

 22 And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have^acompassion on us, and help us.

 23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are^apossible to him that ^bbelieveth.

 24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine ^aunbelief.

 25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he^arebuked the ^bfoul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

 26 And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.

 27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and ^alifted him up; and he arose.

this father only had enough as to desire to believe. Help thou mine unbelief. 

Many times in our lives our faith swings like a pendulum between these two people, the woman with the issue of blood & the desperate father of a  paralytic son. The importance of these two stories, for me at least, is that we always always remember the depth or size of our faith is not what matters. What matters is our action we take on our faith we do have like Elder Holland said so many times. 

We dont have to have perfect faith! We just need to make sure our imperfections dont allow us to discredit or weaken our faith we do have! 

Love yall so much! miss yall! 

Heres a pic of my new district! :)

string of pearls

Okay, so today was pretty stressful until now. Today is transfers and Ive been in Centro Civico for 3 transfers so far....in my interview with President G, he made it sound to start packing my bags for a new area & literally I had a huge pit in my stomach while he told me this. Ive felt so strongly like I just need 1 more transfer here with Sis S & with this ward! 

Miracles have been happening here & the greatest is that the members here, who used to be completely indifferent and almost cold when it comes to missionary work, are finally opening up! Me & Sis S have been trying to pick one member family per day to serve and its been shocking the results! The amount of outpouring love that weve felt recently.

Not like we ever went hungry or ignored, but the feeling has changed completely in the ward. Theyre happier! And because theyre happier we're happier. 

Its seriously a miracle! We may not have had any baptisms, but weve felt that maybe our mission in this area is to prepare the hearts of the members for future baptisms. And were completely fine with this! 

So much has happened that I cant include in this email, but I'll just share a lil story that Sis S shared while we were teaching R (the 18 yr old were teaching)

There was once a little girl who had a string of costume jewelry, fake pearls. She LOVED these pearls. She would wear them everywhere. In the bath, outside, even to sleep! There was absolutely nothing she loved more than wearing these pearls.

One night, the little girls father came in to her room to tuck her in. He asked her smiling, "Darling, do you love me?"

The little girl giggled and said, "Of course I love you daddy!"

He then asked, "Will you give me your pearls?"

The little girl was beside herself and said "Oh no daddy! You can have my stuffed unicorn, my nightlight, ANYTHING but my pearls...."

The father smiled and kissed her forehead saying "Okay honey, I love you, goodnight."

The next night, the same thing happened again, the father came into the little girls room and asked the same question,

"Sweetie, do you love me? Will you give me your pearls?"

"Oh no daddy!" the little responded hurriedly, "You can have my puppy, my favorite dress, my new book, ANYTHING else but my pearls."

The father smiled, kissed her forehead and said,"Okay, honey, I love you goodnight."

The next night, when the father came in to kiss her goodnight, he found her crying on her bed. The father became worried and asked, "Whats wrong honey? Why are you crying?"

Without saying a word, the little girl reached up her little hand to reveal her string of pearls and said with tears rolling down her cheeks, "Here you go daddy. You can have my pearls."

The father kissed her forehead,wiped her tears and took the pearls from her hand saying, "Thank you sweetie."

Then, taking his other hand from his pocket, he held out a box that revealed a string of real, genuine peals. 

The father said, "Ive been waiting for weeks to give these real pearls to you, but I could only give them to you if you gave me your fake ones first."

So many times we are like the little girl with the fake string of pearls. We love something we think is the best, prettiest, finest thing in the world. Feeling like nothing else could possibly take its place, never wanting to give it up for anything, and even willing to sacrifice other things in its place. It may be a job or career, it may be a habit, a sin or even a little insignificant thing we have a hard time letting go of, a relationship or comforts. 

If only we knew that our Father in Heaven has in his possession, a string of real pearls. Real blessings that bring us real happiness. But before he can give us our real pearls, we must first give him our fake ones. Sacrifice the thing we think we love most, and trust in Him that He will provide us with the real pearls that we are worthy of wearing, that we are worthy of having. 

Love yall so much! Thank yall so much for you prayers & your emails and letters! Keep the pics & the prayers & letters coming!!!

For yalls enjoyment, there are roads here named after countries, and I found Rua Holanda :) Served in dads mission for a few hours yesterday! :)