Tupa

Well.. first & foremost.... IM IN SAO PAULO!!!!!!!!!!!! In a little city called Tupã just outside of the exterior of Sao Paulo, and I have a new comp Sister B!!! So much has happened and Ive kind of spent pretty much all of my internet time since I found out that AJ IS PREGNANT!!!!!

Cant freakin believe it!!! And unfortunately, this stupid computer is not letting me add pics :( but next pday I'll be sure to upload some. This week has been crazyyyyy traveling, exchanging companeiras etc etc. But theres one thing I just wanna say before I sign off.

Heavenly Father loves us. With an unfathomable love. A love we cant even imagine. 

I got an email from Pres G & he basically explained that I was transfered because I wasnt super happy in Antares which was mostly true. I had fallen into a bit of a depression because I felt like the work wasnt progressing, I wanted to baptize, and more importantly, I wanted to feel like I was making a difference. President G is seriously amazing! (to tell you the truth I bought him a fathers day card I'll be sending out here in the next little bit because fathers day is in august here in brazil.)

Anyways, gotta run! We're gonna go to a museum & Ive got letters to write and naps to take! :)

But watch this video, that I found today. I loved it! 

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng

xoxo

Sister VerHoef

If ye love me...

SEND ME AMERICAN FOOD!!!!!!

okay... but seriously. I have a list here for anyone who is willing/has kindness in their hearts/got a bonus/ wants blessings in serving a poor sister missionary suffering from food-home-sickness in Brazil

from most wanted/missed, in order:

peanut butter

MAPLE SYRUP

fruit snacks

kraft mac & chz

hersheys cocoa

maple brown sugar LIFE cereal or maple brown sugar frosted mini wheats

pop tarts

ghiradelli chocolate w/caramel and sea salt

lays salt & vinegar

cheese its parmesan

pepperidge farm soft baked cookies

sour punch straws

pop rocks

your service is greatly appreciated. if you wanna through in other things like packaged whatevers, nutella, & other things yall remember me buying a lot of when I was in the states, its also appreciated. the sad thing is I cant remember half the stuff I liked because its almost been a year since Ive been in the US!!!

anyways, now that thats out of the way, we can move on :) this week was better. weve been teaching a young mother named J and her daughter G, and theyve been going though a bit of a rough patch. First off, her husband, is superrrr closed off & when i first met him he was drinking on the street and being a little toooo friendly with us if you know what I mean. We started teaching his wife, and he just wanted nothing to do with us. Anyway, last night she mentioned the fact that even though he got a job and started on wednesday, they were a little tight on money till the paychecks come in & could use a bit of milk. 

We went over to our elders quorum president & his wifes house and it was like clockwork! he called all the members in the ward here in antares & not only got them 2 weeks worth of milk but cookies & crackers & snacky stuff for G! 

Me & Sis J were astonished at how freely they gave of their food to this family who only came to church once! Then when we got there to give her everything they had recieved, Irmao E (the elders quorum prez) offered to give G a blessing because she had been sick for a week. B & J accepted & B held her while E gave her the blessing. A very tender spririt entered the room & I felt as if this was exactly what this husband needed to accept the gospel. 

The Lord is so merciful & mindful of us! He works in mysterious ways at times, but its all for a purpose.

I know this gospel is true. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know He is the Head of this church. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints is the only church that has the priesthood power to give blessings of comfort and counsel, and blessings to heal & cure. 

love yall! have a wonderful week!!!

xoxo

SEND ME FOODDDDDDD!!!! :) 

sou uma brasileira

soooooo, the first week after the copa do mundo! And brasil is pretty.... well, pretty crazy right now. its been a lil harder to find people in the street as well as people in the street who are sober, that right there is the key. But its been good. One of the rules that we have to keep right now during the world cup is we cant wear ANY team shirts for whatever country, brasil, US, argentina etc. inside or outside the house. yeah, its pretty serious!

anyway, in other news! This week we had another lil miracle at church this sunday. her name is J and shes amazing! Weve only taught her a little bit once but shes definitely looking for the gospel in her life right now. She has an adorable little girl named G who has a head full of golden curls. I havent figured out how to translate Goldilocks into portuguese yet but when I do I'll let yall know ;)

J is struggling a little because of her husband. What happened actually is that he was the one who asked for the lessons from us but when we got there he became super closed off and kind of rude to us but J was the one who was super receptive and let us in and wants to be baptized! She told us a lil bit about her situation and apparently he smokes and drinks and picks fights with her a lot over the stupidest things. she doesnt like to fight, she says all she wants is peace and she tries to be a peacemaker, but its hard when youre the only one fighting for peace when the other party is constantly provoking you into war. 

But, we'll continue trying to work with him and shes gonna come to a noite familiar hoje! Pray that the Spirit will continue to touch her. I know for a fact that this gospel is a gospel of peace. Its amazing to feel at peace in the midst of the craziness here in brazil. Pretty much every night theres horns and firecrackers and fireworks for this next month, and Im learning little by little to find peace and be at peace in the midst of the confusion and tumult. There is peace from the light and love and purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Eu sei que esta igreja é a igreja de Cristo aqui na terra. Eu sei que Jesus Cristo, Ele vive. Eu sei que Ele dirige esta igreja. Ele é a cabeça desta igreja e que tudo que Ele faz é por meio do um profeta vivo e verdadeiro. 

I know this church is true. I know Christ lives. I know he directs this church through a living and true prophet of God. 

also, this is how we showed our brasilian side at our district meeting this past week. the theme for brasil for the copa do mundo is this song:

"sou uma brasileira mando um beijo pra voce!"

:) 

love yall!!!!! happy week!!!! VIVA BRASIL! and also, lets hope that Holland kicks brasils trash... just saying.. hahahahaha. They won 5-1 over spain! can you believe that??? YAHH!!! hahahahaha

I have fought a good fight.

Hello dear friends and family!

So... Im so sorry that last weeks email was kind of a downer, but I promise this week is a lot better. Actually I have 2 stories for yall! One of em is crazier than you could possibly imagine the other is a more spiritual one that happened yesterday. 

First off, this week is the starting games of the World Cup or Copa do Mundo! Brazil plays this Thursday & weve already recieved instructions as missionaries on what to do. After almoço (lunch) we have to be in our houses by 3:00 in the afternoon and we CANT LEAVE the rest of the day. What I think is even more crazy is that these instructions were discussed by 2 of the 12 apostles and a lot of the general authorities of the 70 of brasil! So this is pretty intense... 

So yeah, for anyone wondering about if were gonna be able to watch part of the world cup... no.... hahaha at least por enquanto, eu acho que nao. Mas talvez tudo vai mudar, quem sabe? :) put that in your google translate suckerrrrsss!!! bahaha! 

anyway, onto my stories. the first one happened to me & sister j this week that freaked us out juuuuust a little bit. We were talking to 2 young guys at the ponto de ônibus (bus stop) when we saw these two kids freak out & put their hands clear up in the air. Me & Sister J turn around and face 6 brazilian police officers on motorcycles with their guns pointing at US! Well actually, they were pointed at the two kids but we were IN BETWEEN them, hence WE were in their line of sight! I was the one making the initial contact with these kids and Im not gonna lie, all of my portuguese went out the window as me & sister j looked at these brazilian police officers make the move with their guns to get out of the way and move along... So quietly and slowly we walked AROUND them onto the other side of the street and as we were walking saw these 2 kids get searched against the wall. It took us about 4 blocks until we felt comfortable to freak out for a bit. Now we just laugh about it, but at that particular moment I thought for sure that Pres G would recieve an anonymous call that 2 of his american sister missionaries are in prison for meshing with drug traffickers!!! (Which, there are a LOT here) anyway, now we laugh about it and it definitely made an interesting day. Yeah... definitely the craziest thats happened to me since Ive been here! Poor sister j... I had to explain that this wasnt an everyday here in Brazil.... but, whatevs. Were fine! Were totally fine! PROMISE! hahaha

Now for the spiritual story. Okay, so this entire me & Sister J have been working so hard this week to the point that the bottoms of our feet are raw. The only thing I wanted this sunday was just one investigator at church this sunday. Just one. So all of our prayers, fasts and desires was just for this one investigator to make it to church. All of the people we had lined up fell through or gave us a wrong cell phone number when Sister J had the idea to go visit a kid we invited to church last week but wasnt home at the time. We went by there and he came! His name is G. Not only did he come but he loved church! That was miracle #1, miracle #2 was B, our young recent convert of 16 years recieving the priesthood as well!! So happy! Such a happy end of a crazy week. 

But its made me think a lot about a scripture in 2nd Timothy I think that Dad loved so much. 

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" 

Many of us view this scripture as a scripture to describe a person at the end of his or her life. But Im applying it to my mission. Im not planning on coming home until I feel like I have finished my course, fought a good fight and kept my faith. 

Nothing, not the world cup, not brazilian cops, not even the adversary can stop me. There are people here who need the testimony that I have, and Im not coming home until I find them. 

Love you all so much! Promise Im healthy, and happy and well taken care of. Miss you all! Have a marvelous week! 

Promise there will be pics next week :) 

Our Savior's Love

So have I mentioned that Our Saviors Love is my favorite church song right now? Just listen to the motab sing it. Do it. Right now. I promise you wont be disappointed. :) 

Anyway, hello dear friends & family! Today is transfers & me & sister j will be staying in Antares for yet another 6 weeks.... 

So much has happened this week, good spiritual experiences, and feelings of inadequacy and failure in regards to numbers of baptisms and people at church. This has been Sunday number 3 with not a single investigator at church, even when we worked our freaking butts off this week. So much so, that from my back to the bottoms of my toes were sore and stinging from walking constantly for 7 hours 6 days in a row. 

Well, you can imagine how I felt during church sitting next to Sister J in fast & testimony, and none of our beloved investigators was sitting next to us. It was is if the despair and failure hit me like a 40 foot wave. I have been struggling with feelings of failure & inadequacy with my leaders especially. I dont care what other missionaries think of me, I really dont. But I know my District Leader talks to my Zone Leaders who talk to the Assistants who talk to President G.... There are only 2 people in this mission I want to please, and that is 

1.) The Lord

2.) President G

And I have just been really fighting these thoughts that Im a terrible missionary for not having any body at church, and thereby having no one to baptize the following semana (week). 

Im learning how to kneel every night in prayer and how all of my fasts that Ive been doing is asking Heavenly Father for a confirmation that I'm doing my absolute best and that He is proud of me and my work, and that Im being the missionary that He wants me to be. 

But in listening to Our Saviors Love today, some of the lyrics hit me pretty hard:

Our Savior's love

Shines like the sun with perfect light,

As from above

It breaks thru clouds of strife.

Lighting our way,

It leads us back into his sight,

Where we may stay

To share eternal life.

The Spirit, voice

Of goodness, whispers to our hearts

A better choice

Than evil's anguished cries.

Loud may the sound

Of hope ring till all doubt departs,

And we are bound

To him by loving ties.

Our Saviors love is absolutely perfect even when we are not. I know He lives. I know that the greatest miracles come after our greatest trials. And I know that He will never give us anything that we cant handle. Sister J told me that the Lord gives us trials because He trusts us. Apparently, Im a pretty trustworthy person. :) Love yall so much! I promise Im okay, but just continue to keep me in your prayers! 

xoxo

Sister VerHoef