Having Faith and Staying Positive are One and the Same :)

 

Castro

When we taught Castro last Monday, he was really concerned about baptism

and he said that once he is baptized his life is going to be so much

harder and he will have to follow all the commandments. I explained to

him that his life will be sooooo much easier and so much happier. I

told him that commandments are a blessing from God and that they

protect us and God gives us commandments because he wants us to be

happy. I felt the spirit so strong. I felt the spirit testify to me as

I was saying this that it was true. Haha I love Castro he is so funny.

He is such a nice guy and he is always so funny and laughs at the most

random times.

 

He had a problem with drinking wine. He said that his doctor said that

its okay to have a tiny bit of wine each day. I then asked him Who

knows more your doctor or God? After the lesson he said that he would

quit the day before his baptism and have a huge drinking party before.

He bought 150 E worth of wine before we taught him about the word of

wisdom. But we finally convinced him not to drink it and to give it

away. He said that he would throw it away. The night after we taught

him he said that he saw a tv show by a doctor that said that if you

drink wine you will go crazy. He said he it is very hard to stop but that he

wants to.

 

But then we called him the next day and he didnt answer... Then we

waited for him at the church for our lesson and he didnt show up. I

called him probably 1,000 times. It was so anoying hahah. But if he

didnt come that meant that he couldnt be baptized this week. He didnt

come and he didnt answer his phone... :(. I WAS SOOOO SAD!!!! I was so

worried and had no idea what happened. So after that we went to our

others lessons and they all fell through. So that meant that for the

rest of the day we would just do street contacting and door knocking. No

one would talk to us. Then we called a reference we recieved and it was

to this crazy lady that talked to my companion for an hour. Then she

wouldn't stop calling.  This had been hard day and then it got worse.....Yup.. a bird

pooped on my hand... yup. I felt something wet on my hand and then I

looked down and was like what is that??!! Looked up... yup tons of

birds...! I almost started crying haha I thought can this day get any

worse... but then I decided to laugh... hahah :) me and my companion

were dying...:) Also right after I thought about how many

blessing I have and I was so much happier.. I have a body and I am

healthy, I have the gospel, I have a brain, I have a wonderful family

and I am a missionary and I have a great comp.. ect.. I am sooooooo

BLESSED!

 

 

 

 

Ilton

Ilton is great. We marked him for baptism. Its not this week but the

next. He reminds me kinda of Johnny. He is so smart!!!! He wants to be

an engineer. He doesnt let anything go by him and asks the hardest

questions!!  He is so good too, he has no problems with the word of

wisdom or the law of chastity and he is just a great guy :)! He has

doubts about our prophet and he said that he still doesnt feel like he

has recieved an answer. But we had a great lesson with him and Daneil

our ward mission leader and we watched a talk from President Monson

and it was great!!! Also I love reading General conference talks..

they are so good. You guys should read one everyday :) thats what I am

doing! :)

 

Also we are probably going to drop some of our investigators this week

because they are not progressing. They call it the DO IT OR DIE

lesson.

 

Also we have a girl that helps us so much. Her name is Tereza and she

is so cute and wants to serve a mission.

 

 

In the End Things Work Out

Sunday was GREAT!!!! CASTRO finally answered his phone and came to

church. He said that he didnt feel prepared to be baptized and but that he

wants to this week. He said he wants to be prepared because this will

change his life. He is great and I think its better that we will have

the baptism this week. Also Ilton came. Also this investigator named

Paulo walked all the way with us on his crutches, came :). Also Joa

came and then left because he didnt feel like he had nice enough

clothes on! But it is a miracle that he even came because he is so

busy.

 

 

 

 

A Fantastic Week

 

More Baptisms             

It has been another great week! We have a baptism this Sat. His name is

Castro!! Haha he is funny and just great. He was one of the guys that we taught when that really crazy drunk guy took off his shirt.

It is amazing to see the change in people. He already participates in church!  He had a problem with drinking, but he said he would quit.  He is really excited to be baptized.   We taught him the 3rd lesson and I felt the spirit so strong as we taught him.  It was such a cool experience.

We have a investigator who is getting baptized, the only problem is that he fell down the stairs and broke his finger and has a huge cast…..we need to figure out how we are going to baptize him. J  (this was in a different letter—I assume it is Castro she is talking about.)

The Progress of Other Investigators

Ilton is great! He is very smart. He will read everything we give him and comes back understanding all of it and then reads more than what we gave him. He wanted to know more about Joseph Smith and so we watched the Restoration Film with him. I felt the spirit strongly and my heart was pounding in my chest. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith. I hope that he felt the spirit in that lesson.  He does have doubts about modern day prophets. We are working with him on knowing this to be true.  He didn’t come to church this week! I was so sad! But he is going to come next week! We are teaching him today.

Also Neilson and Anna are not really progressing.  Neither of them came to church. It is very frustrating and disappointing. I am NOT going to give up on them yet though.

Also Aisha is off to France she has a house there and will not return until next week. She said that she is bringing us something from France…haha. She also said that if I ever wanted to visit that I could go stay with her. It is hard to leave her house because she likes our company so much

Also we have other investigators that we are working with that seem interested in the gospel.  Hah we also found a gypsy this week.

Awesome Companion

I love my companion! She is so nice. I like the way she teaches and we have only spoken in Portuguese. Last night was the first time that we spoke in English and one other time.  I was missing English and I wanted to get to know her better. She is really good at the language. She said that in this area she feels like she is in Africa, but  the people are a lot nicer.  

The Restaurant Game

This week in English class we taught how to order in a restaurant and families names. Then I had the idea to play restaurant… that we would be the student’s waitresses and we took all their orders. It was good practice for them and everyone had fun.

The needy

This week we have taught a lot of people how to pray. It is so crazy to me that I am helping these people pray for the first time in their lives. I am constantly reminded how blessed I am to have grown up with a knowledge of the gospel. I am so grateful, I love praying.

We meet many poor people.  We talked to a lady that only drank sugar and water for a month, because that is all she could afford to buy.

 

 

 

Physical and Spiritual Cleaning

Cleaning

This week was great!! :) Most of the week we spent cleaning our old

house in Alamada... Oh it was so gross!!! Hahah but now it is

sparkling clean after having 6 people spend 10 to 16 hours cleaning it.. :)

But it was really nice of our recent convert Anna to help us out. :)

Oh she is amazing!!

Zone Conference

Also we had zone conference this week. It was great. I love zone

conferences/meetings. This time we learned why it is important that we

plan our lessons. I WAS SO HAPPY!! haha because I love planning and my

companion refuses. I really think that our lessons will run so much

smother now!! :)

Aisha

Also this week we taught Aisha and my companion asked her for a glass

of juice and then Aisha started to cry. She said that she didnt have

any and it is this long complicated story but she doesnt have money.

She caters and this lady she catered for didnt pay her so she doesnt

have any money until the 15th. She said that she felt so bad that she

couldnt even give my companion juice. She said she had nothing.

I love Aisha. I felt so sad. I was praying for her. But we visited her

the next day and she said that her friend gave her money and she said

that she would go to church next sunday!! This is a huge step for

her!!! Also this just reminds me of how blessed I am... I AM SO

BLESSED!!!!

Ilton

Also Ilton we are still working with him. He didnt come to church and

wont answer his phone right now. But I know that he will be baptized.

He is amazing.

Neilson

Also Neilson still is smoking and I dont think he has a huge desire to

stop smoking and his wife doesnt want to get married... We are working

with them!! But they came to church. Oh I just want them to gain a

testimony and use the atonement and change there lifes. I know this

will bless their family. I read a general conference talk today that

talked about the priestood and how it blesses families. I know that

having a father with the priestood has blessed my life. I am so

grateful for you dads :) I am so grateful for wonderful parents that

fufill their roles. I love you mom and dads!!!!!!! I know that this

gospel blesses families.

New Companion

Also this week I have a new Companion!! Sister Carrol. She has been out

the Same time as me. She is from Ceder City. She was Jacies roommate.

(such a small world) She has long bueatiful mermaid blonde hair and big blue eyes. She played soccer, but she doesnt like to run. She seems really nice. She is really good at the language!! I am excited to learn from her.

Its different having a new companion hahah but I am excited to learn

new things from her. She is great. I think she misses her other area

because it was so much prettier than this area.