Wedding of Elizângela and Róges; Sílvia "God putting angels in people´s path"

Oí Gee família!
How are you all doing?
Life is great here in Rio Pardo....but the weather is getting cooooolder every day. Sister Grant and I are really learning the techniques of layering when it comes to the winter clothes....and yes, even she is starting to admit that chimarrão is a good thing early in the icy mornings :) Don´t worry though! The members are keeping us healthy....haha, yesterday we went with Elizângela to buy medicine in the hospital pharmacy and Eliza, a member who is a nurse there and is ALWAYS taking care of us, saw us in the hallway and before we could say a word she grabbed our arms and rushed us into a room to make sure we had our flu shots for the year. :) She is so nice and motherly and amazing..... And I don´t think that there has been a single day this week now that it is getting cold that a member hasn´t invited us over to quickly fill us up with herbal tea or with hot soup before entering back into the chilly night. It´s great!

Saturday was Elizângela and Róges´ wedding! The wedding was held on the same day as the ward´s Festa Junina party so there were sooo many people and so much food. Festa Junina is a Brazilian holiday in the end of June that is probably quickly becoming one of my favorite of all holidays. Everyone dresses up "caipira" (redneck) and drinks quentão, a hot spicy drink made from grape juice and cinnamon and cloves, and eats popcorn, corn bread, peanut brittle and other amazing winter foods. Oh, and the best part...there is always a HUGE bonfire that is built to burn through the entire night. It´s wonderful and a perfect holiday for the cold weather :) I think that this holiday originated from the Catholic church as a day to honor São João (João Batista)...Erialdo told me that Mary´s cousin Elisabeth lit a bonfire to announce to her whole family the birth of her son, John. All I know is that I liked it a lot and it made the wedding party super fun :)

Elizângela looked amazingly pretty and very happy...I played the piano again for the bride´s entrance so I let Jhuly, her 11 year old daughter and one of my best amiguinhas here use my camera to be the wedding photographer. They aren´t the most professional pictures, but Jhuly was very very happy :) Elizângela and Róges are going to be baptized on July 9th. They are a very special family and I am very excited for them and for the changes that I´ve seen in there home these last few months since they have accepted the gospel. I would really love to see their baptism...but transfers are on July 5th, just a few days before, and I have no idea what to expect this time...so we´ll just have to wait and see!

Transfers already...can you believe that it has already been that long???! It really seems like yesterday that Sister Grant arrived here in Rio Pardo. I swear that each transfer gets shorter and shorter!! I would love to say in Rio Pardo again...I think it´s probable because it´s nice to be at least 2 transfers with your trainer, but at the same time it would be the most time that I have ever stayed in one city without being transfered out. Not that I would complain! This is a good place to be a missionary :)
Not that I´m saying life is always perfect... There are definitely some hard days and sometimes people that say or do things that really hurt or make me feel discouraged. But the joy that I feel on the nights where we come back to our apartments knowing that the Holy Ghost touched someone through something we said or taught makes all of the hard times worth it! It´s so wonderful to feel Heavenly Father´s love and feel His powers and realize that He is working miracles here daily! And it´s the amazing friends that I´ve met here and the incredible lessons that I learn from their faith and their selfless love that I will always remember. I love love love being a missionary!!

Oh...and my favorite story of the week. You remember Erialdo and Sílvia, right? The ones that Sister Grant and I found last week that were super excited about the Book of Mormon? Well, they´ve been pretty hard to teach this week because they are both very busy with work and have had family visiting this week for the holidays. But we´ve been trying to stop by regularly to talk to them and to see if they´ve had questions about what they´ve been reading. Well, last night we stopped by on our way home just to quickly say hi and ask how they were doing. Sílvia was waiting for us and ushered us inside her warm house were she had hot chicken soup already waiting on the table (Did I tell you that these people are amazing??) While we were eating I told her how grateful we were for all the kind things they always do for us and for always treating us like we were family. Sílvia just smiled and starting telling us about a song that she had heard as a child and has always loved- a song about God putting angels in people´s path to guide them and to be His messengers. She told us that recently she had been praying that God would help her focus her life more around Him and feel His influence and guidance more strongly in her life. Sílvia told us that it makes her happy to help us because she believes that we are the answers to that prayer. She said that the moments that we have helped them sit down together and pray as a family and talk about God have brought a spirit of peace into her home and she thanked us for helping them feel His presence more strongly in her home. What an amazing and loving person!!! I know that Heavenly Father brought us to her home so she will find the joy and the love that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings! He is anxious to give this gift to every one of His children that will receive it...and he is always leading us to them :)

Well family, I love you all! Thank you for being the best family ever!!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee

The Spirit is so strong ... everyone in the room is feeling it

Hello my amazing family! What a great week in Brazil!
On Thursday June 16th Sister Grant and I celebrated my one year mark as a missionary! Can you believe it has already been that long? Well, actually we celebrated on Wednesday night...we made the mistake of buying the ice cream and brownie ingredients a day early and then decided to make the brownies before sleeping so we could eat them first thing in the morning....and really, who can resist warm brownies fresh from the oven with ice cream for the first time in over a year?? Oh well, we felt justified when I remembered that it was actually June 15 at 7 at night when I was set apart as a missionary haha...:)
The next day...the best day of the year, June 16th...was, as it always is, a fabulous fabulous wonderful day. Sister Grant and I went to Santa Cruz for district meeting and I gave the training on scripture study and learning by the spirit. We ate lunch in Sant Cruz with the other elders and sisters and then hurried back to Rio Pardo for a day full of lessons and wonderful visits. My favorite part of the day was our last visit when we ended the day with a combined family night with Rejane & Leandro and Antônia & Elias and their families. They are both families that we are teaching that have baptism dates marked for next month...and they live on the same street so we were hoping that they´ll build a friendship and help keep each other strong in the church.
It was an amazing family night...one of the lessons where the spirit is so strong and you know that everyone inthe room is feeling it. The lesson was about charity and the love that Jesus Christ has for each of us...and how we need to have that same kind of love for each other. Elias especially liked the lesson and even bore his testimony about how Jesus Christ´s love has transformed him. It made me so happy to hear...it was hard to convince him to come to the family night because he is kind of timid and feels more comfortable with his old group of friends(that are NOT a good influence for him...)...but I know that he was feeling and liking the peace and the love in the room that night! Hopefully he makes the decision to work to have that same feeling in his life and his home too!
I love being a missionary! Some days are discouraging ...especially when it seems like these people that I really really love and care about are not accepting what we are offering them. Especially because I know that what we are offering means everything in the world and will bring them the greatest joy and peace...and it´s hard to understand why sometimes they don´t realize that... It makes me think about the sadness that our Heavenly Father must feel when He wants to offer us so many blessings and miracles, but we aren´t willing to just open our hands and receive them. But the days when I can feel the Holy Ghost so powerfully in the room and know that He is touching their hearts too, I feel complete peace and confidence in the Lord and in His timing and I know that He is changing them....the joy I feel in these moments is soooo real and makes everything so worth it!!



Oh, guess what else we got to do this week? On Friday Sister Grant and I got to go to Porto Alegre for a Leadership Training Meeting with President Pavan and all district and zone leaders and trainers!!! It was super fun! It was also crazy to remember the last time I traveled to Porto Alegre for one of those meetings...when I had just 1 week into the mission with Sister Gibson as my trainer. That seems like it was just yesterday! When I went with Sister Gibson, I stayed in Gravatai with the sisters while Sister Gibson went to the meeting with the other trainers...but this transfer I am the only sister that is training, so Sister Grant got to come with me to the whole meeting! It was very fun and I learned a lot...I am so excited for these last 6 months in Brazil! I know I still have a lot of experiences and miracles to see and lessons to learn from the Lord and from the amazing people, companions, leaders and friends that I am meeting each day!

Well family! I love you so much!!! Thanks for everything you do for me!
Do good and be happy!
Love Always, Sister Jamie Gee

Baptism of Marion; Teaching with the Spirit

Aló!
Hello family!! How are you all doing? Thank you for the emails!!! I love reading them and it makes me happy to hear that you are all doing great! Sounds like it´s going to be a fun summer for you all!!

Márion was baptized this Saturday! It was a wonderful baptism...it made me happy to see how excited Márion was about his decision to be baptized. His family was super happy too..especially his dad, Carlos. Last night they invited us to their family night that they are now holding weekly...the feeling in their home was so wonderful! What an amazing family!!
I´m still super happy to be here in Rio Pardo...I go to bed every night and wake up every day with a huge smile on my face. :) I love being a missionary!! There is no better feeling than walking home at night and thinking about all the wonderful people that you met and talked to about our loving Heavenly Father and his perfect love and plan....and knowing that the Holy Ghost testified to them through your words. I have no doubt that this is His work!

One of those moments happened on Sunday night. I´ve told you about Paulo, right? Last week we invited him to be baptized on Saturday with Márion...but he wanted more time to really feel prepared. He has been going to church every week for the last 6 months and is making huge sacrifices and changes in his life so that he can follow the counsel of the prophet. He is an amazing example to me and to the whole ward. But anyways, that night as his house, we met his Aunt Sílvia who is amazingly nice and fun and invited us over to her house on Sunday. I could tell that when we got to her house on Sunday that her excitement about our visit was not shared by her husband, Erialdo...he didn´t even come into the room when we first entered. After talking to Sílvia for a while we asked her to invite her husband in to hear the message that we were going to share. Erialdo came in, but he was very skeptical and sarcastic and made it very obvious that he wasn´t interested.... But the spirit in the room completely changed as we started with a prayer and started to teach. What an amazing lesson! I have never felt the spirit helping so much with the lesson testifying so strongly as we were teaching, especially when we were explaining the First Vision. Erialdo asked great questions and was so interested in everything we had to say. As we talked about the church that Jesus Christ established when He was on the earth and the great apostasy he kept saying..."that makes sense...that makes sense..." And then when we talked about the Book of Mormon he said that it seemed right that God would have another witness to clarify the Bible in these last days when so many churches taught different doctrine. He almost jumped out of his chair to grab the Book of Mormon when we told them it was a gift for them....and he was already reading before we even left the door. !!! Haha...Sister Grant and I were hugging each other and jumping up and down as soon as we were on the streets....what an amazing amazing family!! And what an amazing feeling to feel the the Spirit so strongly as we teach about the restoration of the gospel...I know that Erialdo felt it too. I think it is the greatest feeling in the world! I know I say it a lot...but I love the gospel and I love being a missionary!!!!!!

Well family...I´ve got to run again! I hope you´re all doing wonderfully and are happy! Remember that we are so blessed to be members of the church and to know the amazing love that Heavenly Father has for us. He sent Jesus Christ so that we can have true and eternal joy! He called a prophet so that we know what to do to have happiness with our families forever!

I love you all soooo much! Thanks for being the greatest family ever!

Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Sister Grant from Yakima; Member missionaries in Rio Pardo

Aló querida família!!!
Hello from Rio Pardo!!
What a wonderful and fun week here in Rio Pardo!! Last Monday night Sister Corrêa and I made cookies to celebrate her last night in Rio Pardo, and then we left for Santa Cruz early Tuesday morning. I stayed in Santa Cruz all day Tuesday with the sisters there and with Sister Hughes who was also waiting for her new companion. It was their P-day, so they took us to a beautiful park in Santa Cruz, O Parque da Gruta, where the early indians used to live. The park is full of trees, plants, waterfalls and caves to explore....and my favorite part....monkeys!!! :) There were dozens of monkeys in all of the trees...just swinging and jumping around us! haha...it was great.
Sister Grant is amazing!! She is from Yakima, Washington (she says she knows some Stahls from Yakima!) and she is super fun and sweet. She speaks Portuguese really well too and isn´t afraid to teach and bear her testimony...even when she isn´t absolutely sure if she knows how to say it. It´s a great example to me. Sister Grant is so full of great ideas and excitement from the MTC....it´s very contagious and wonderful. I can tell that this transfer is going to be amazing!!
The members are sooo amazing here too! I know I´ve said it a million times...but it´s very true... Yesterday we got a call from the assistents (that always makes me nervous! haha...) When I answered they just said, "Sister Gee...we just wanted to call and congratulate you and Sister Grant on the work last week in Rio Pardo....and to ask you a question.....what do you do to get so many investigators to go to church on Sunday???" Haha... it made me laugh. But really, what we do is very very little! It is the branch here that is on fire with missionary work and they just bring their family and friends with them! Every week! I think that the greatest hint to missionary work that I have learned here in Rio Pardo...use the members! They are the ones that make the work happen.
My favorite story of the week was when we met Juliana´s sister, Daiane. She is 19 years old and works in Santa Cruz, so we had never met her before, but Juliana had told her about our visits and showed her the Book of Mormon that we gave her. Daiane starting reading a few weeks ago and yesterday, when we met her for the first time, she told us that it is her favorite book and that she has already read over half of it. She told us that she didn´t have very much faith in God before, but now when she is reading the Book of Mormon, she can feel that He is near and that He is talking just to her. :) Daiane is so amazing!! We told her that it was the Holy Ghost that she was feeling, telling her that the book is true and invited her to be baptized so that she can have that feeling. Daiane has so much faith...its amazing how humble she is and how quick she is to recognize the spirit.
And do you remember Márion?? Kátia and Carlos´ oldest son...he´s 21 and has been going to church with his family ever since they were baptized and he´s preparing for his own baptism right now. He loves elders quorum and is reading with his Dad every night from True to the Faith ...I´m thinking future missionary :) :) :) We are going to invite Paulo, another young man who has been coming to church for the last few months, to be baptized on the same day as Márion. Paulo is so amazing! He has a strong testimony of the church and has wanted to be baptized a few months ago, but because he owns a tatoo salon and he knows that tattoos go against the prophet´s counsel he decided that he wanted to find a new job before becoming a member of the church. Last week he told us that he found another job and that he is going to give up his tattoo salon. He said that his friends think that he´s crazy...but that he knows that he´s doing what is right. Paulo has so much faith! I have met so many people this last year that have so much faith and desire to do what is right that they are willing to make so many sacrifices and changes in their lives, just trusting in the Lord that He will bless them and that everything will work out. When we have this kind of faith and move forward with confidance in the Lord He can bless us so much! I love being a missionary and having this year and a half to teach the message of the gospel to so many people that I love....but it seems like in the end, I am the one that always ends up learning from all of them! :)
Well, I´m happy to hear that you are all happy and having fun! That´s crazy that it´s still so cold in June! It´s getting cooooold here too. Really really cold....I didn´t even know that it got this cold in Brazil. But I guess I shouldn´t complain because it sounds like you´ve all been living with this for the last 6 months! At least I had a nice hot Christmas :) But don´t worry...Sister Grant and I are staying warm with a lot of coats and blankets (I sleep with 4!) and drinking a lot of chimarrão. That´s the drink you saw in the picture Dad...it´s made out of herbs "mate" and hot water and it´s amaaaazing. I´ll bring lots home for you to try next Christmas :)
I love you alll!!!
Thanks for everything!!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee