This truly is the Lord´s work and He is at our side! Elisângela and Róges´ baptism

Alô wonderful family!!!!
Happy Pioneer Day. Sister Grant and I made an all-american breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup (thank you Sister Baird! she left some mapeline in our apartment :D) to celebrate...haha, it was great.

This week was an incredible week in Rio Pardo! Filled with wonderful lessons and new investigators and amazing people that I love!!

Zone Conference was amazing! We had Elder Itinose (pronounced "Itchy nose"...serious!) Last Tuesday night, after writing emails and quickly cleaning the apartment, Sister Grant and I left to spend the night with the sisters in Santa Cruz. The sisters from Venâncio Aires where there too! Sister Inhuma, Sister Lira, Sister Dangerfield (she´s from Cedar City and goes to BYU and knows all my friends! :D) Sister Ferreira, Sister Grant and me. We got a huuuuge brazilian pizza and ate chocolate chip cookies (from the 3 americans) and cuscuz (from the 3 brazilians..all from Recife!!) It was super fun. The next morning at 6:30 am the van full of elders arrived to take us all to Porto Alegre for the Zone Conference....

What an amazing training!! Elder Itinose spent the entire hour before lunch and the almost 3 hours after lunch giving us training and practices and examples of how to improve our teaching and our invitations. It was great and I learned so much. I love those conferences...one because it´s great to see all the other missionaries again (Sister Oliveira was there!! Probably the last time I will see her on the mission because she is going home in September!! It was soooo much fun to see her again :D) and I always leave them with "fogo nos ossos!" and super motivated to become a better missionary! One thing that I really liked that he told us was to always be sure to invite people using the Savior´s name. It´s a lot more powerful to tell them "The Savior Jesus Christ is inviting you and your family to His church this Sunday" then just inviting them ourselves. And we should do that! Because we are His missionaries and this is His church and His work! It gives me so much joy to really know that and to have my testimony strengthened of that every day....there are so many times during the day when miracles happen one after another - people receiving answers to their prayers, the Spirit touching people´s hearts, feeling our words guided to say just what is needed, doors being opened that I never imagined would be - and Sister Grant and I just look at each other and smile, silently and gratefully acknowledging that this truly is the Lord´s work and He is at our side! It is wonderful to know that!

When we got back to Rio Pardo on Thursday I was grateful to have had the...because it was a hard day. It was a super cold and rainy day, a few families told us they weren't interested in coming to church anymore, and Fábio, one of our most progressing pesquisadores, seemed distant and discouraged. The worst was when we got to Antônia´s home. It was super late at night and the streets were covered with deep slippery clay that made it almost impossible to get anywhere. We were ready to head for home, but really wanted to stop and see Antônia and see how her goal of stopping smoking was going, so we slipped and stumbled our way down to her home. We planned just to go in and ask how see was doing and say a prayer together...but the minute I walked in I could tell something was very very wrong. Her eyes were cold and hard and distant and her voice was slurred and I could tell that she had been heavily drinking. Antônia told us that God had given up on her and her family and that she didn´t beliveve that she could ever be happy again. She yelled at us for almost 10 minutes....and I felt so sad and heart broken to see her that way. I know that that wasn´t the Antônia that I know and love...but it still made me cry to see someone so broken and so low. Finally I had the thought to start singing hymns...and started with "Eu Sei que Vive Meu Senhor". The first verse my voice and hands were still shaky and Antônia was still upset...but by the second verse the spirit started filling the room. I felt calm and full of the peace and love of Jesus Christ...I know that He loves and knows me and each one of us...and I know that Antônia was feeling it too. I finished that hymn and kept singing "Onde Encontrar A Paz?" and "È Tarde, A Noite Logo Vem" and Antônia completely calmed down and sat listening, leaning on Sister Grant. Afterwards, we said a prayer and she went to her bed and we quickly ran home. It was amazing to me to see the power of the spirit that hymns bring!

But the sun always shines brightly after a storm! The rest of the week was wonderful....we found an AMAZING new family! Eunice and her son Murilo are great!!! Eunice read 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon in between our first two visits and retold us the entire story about Lehi´s vision of the tree of life! They are great and are very strong 7th day Adventists. They´re Full of questions and want us to prove everything we teach from scriptures from the Bible. It´s a challenge, but it´s fun! I´m excited to see someone so excited about reading and learing about what we are teaching!
When we went back to Antônia´s we found her sad, but determined to change and to keep trying. She told us that she knows that she let her discouragement and sadness turn her away from God and that she is Determined to get back to where she knows He wants her to be. She told us "I fell, but I´m up again and I won´t fall again." I love Antônia so much...and her strength amazes me!
Fábio is still trying to stop smoking...he stopped for 3 whole days when Sister Grant made him the whole "We´ll stop eating chocolate if you stop smoking!" haha...did I tell you how that hard that was by the way??? :) haha, just kidding. Today we went over when he was at work to decorate the walls of his home with no-smoking signs. "Não Fume!" "Cigarro Mata!" "Vícios: Não Seja um escravo!" "Porque a sua vida importa!".....haha, it was very fun and looked great!
Oh and Sílvia!! She has been very sick for the last few weeks so we haven´t seen her much, but when we went to her home yesterday she told us that she has been reading from the Book of Mormon every night and wants us to take her to church with us next Sunday! It made me so happy to hear that...

Tomorrow is going to be Elisângela and Róges´ baptism!! I´m very excited...the best thing about this baptism is that it is going to complete a family because their two young daughters, Jhuly and Bruna are already members. Now the whole family will be baptized in the church! Family baptisms are my very favorite ones they always bring an extra special and happy spirit... I really love this family a lot and it´s going to be great to see them baptized, especially since they have been excited and waiting for a long time for this day. It´s going to be great!

Well family, it´s late and another P-day is ending! Thanks for being the most wonderful family ever!! I love you all so very much!
And congratulations to Robert and his mission call!!!
LOVE YOU!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Bursting with joy happy!

Hello Gee family that I love!

This was another great week in Rio Pardo! The days and weeks are flying by and we are meeting and teaching wonderful people every day!
Guess what? Roque´s family all came to church on Sunday...even Darlã and Tatiane, Beka´s two youngest children. Darlã is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy because we told him we would give him one in english as soon as he finished in portuguese. :) Haha..he is awesome and is already telling us that he´s going to serve a mission. His excitement for the church is really having a huge influence on his family too...especially on Beka. She went from not really having much interest in the church to begin reading the Book of Mormon with her family every night and to wanting to bring her whole family with her to church each Sunday. I really love this family...they can all just sit and talk and laugh for hours! It reminds me of home :)

Antônia . The church leaders here are helping us so much with her and her family. Sérgio, the 2nd counselor came with us last Friday to teach a lesson. He said that had been addicted to cigarettes since he was 15 years old and that he had tried to stop many many times before he found the church, but never suceeded. Sérgio told Antônia how he had made the decision to stop and prayed to Heavenly Father for strength...and 9 days later was able to be baptized and never felt the desire to smoke again. It was a great lesson and Antônia seemed really motivated to try again. On Saturday Sister Grant and I dropped off a jar that we had decorated and filled with hard candies for her to suck on and scriptures for her to read that talked about faith and trust in the Lord. I was super anxious to see how she was doing so we stopped by quickly yesterday in between visits. Antônia wasn´t at home but her 16 year old daughter Tatiane told us that she has been reading the Book of Mormon constantly and hasn´t smoked a single cigarette since the lesson with Sérgio!!! I was so so happy...like bursting with joy happy! it´s amazing to see how the Lord always helps us when we turn to Him and trust in Him.

Presidente Rogério has been talking about using the church´s program to hold a course here in Rio Pardo for people that want help to overcome addictions. I think it´s a great idea...we are teaching many people right now that I know would be interested and that it could really help. One in particular is Fábio....one of my favorite pesquisadores here! Fábio is such a good guy with a good heart and a lot of desire to have a better life...but he is caught up in so many addictions. Before he didn´t seem to have any interest in the church and we would just see him occasionally when we would visit his mom, Suzete. But a few weeks ago he came to us asking for help and telling us that he would do anything to have more peace in his life and to have God in his life. I was so excited to see his humble and sincere desire...I know that he is ready to receive the gospel and that he is going to find the joy that he is looking for! We have been teaching him a lot these weeks...and he even is reading the Book of Mormon, came to church and accepted a baptism date. When we are there with him he is determined and excited to change and the prayers that he says are sincere and full of faith...but then when we leave he seems to go right back to the things that are pulling him down. But I know that slowly he is feeling and wanting the difference that he has felt through the gospel. The gospel changes everyone! This friday night we´re going to have a family night/movie night with some of the the other families in the ward to watch the Testaments and he is going to come! It will be perfect to help him make more friends in the ward...and good to keep him away from the friday night bars and parties :)

On Saturday Larissa and Camila. I went with Larissa to Sílvia and Erialdo´s (she is dating their nephew, Paulo, so they´re already good friends) , Alessandra´s (it was great for her to make a friendship with Larissa...another moça in the ward!!) and Elizângela´s. It was a super fun day and the investigators really liked Larissa....haha, it was funny though, I thought we were walking sooooo slow and Larissa kept asking me if we could slow down! I guess I´ve just gotten used to the missionary stride :) I love having branch missionaries!! It was awesome to get twice the normal Saturday visits done!! We all met back at the bus stop so Larissa and Camila could head back to Ramiz Galvão and then Sister Grant and I hurried to our last appointment with a new couple that we are teaching. Gisele and Giovanni...they are so amazing! They are a young couple with a lot of enthusiasm and they already seem like our best friends! Gisele is 4 months pregnant with their first baby and super excited. Giovanni works in Santa Cruz and A LOT...he drives a moving van all over Brazil! But he and Gisele seem really interested in the church and want to come next week. Giovanni said he´d even be sure to leave his schedule open next Sunday...which is hard for him to do!

Oh, and do you remember Vanessa? I met her on the bus from Santa Cruz the very first week I was in Rio Pardo and right away knew that she was AMAZING! But she lives in Pântano Grande (a small city 20 minutes away from Rio Pardo that doesn´t have a chapel) so we weren´t able to visit her or teach her the lessons. I gave her a Book of Mormon though and she seemed really excited to read it. Well, anyway, we were almost done with our visits on Wednesday night and getting ready to head back to the chapel for a meeting with Presidente Rogério when I got this text: "Olá sister, como vc está? Tenho muita vontade de ver você. Tenho saudades. Eu estou em rio pardo hoje e gostaria de te ver. Não vá embora de rio pardo sem me avisar. Quero marcar com vc uma data para mim ir na sua igreja. Q Deus esteja com vocês!" It made me so happy to hear from her! We ran over to Ana´s house to see her really quickly, but she was already heading back to Pântano. She told us that she has read almost all of the Book of Mormon and that she really loves it! She´s coming to stay the night at Ana´s next week so she came come with us to church on Sunday! She is such an amazing person....

Well! I don´t have a lot of time today because it´s going to be an extra short P-day! We´ve got to get home and pack because tonight we´re spending the night in Santa Cruz with the sisters from Campus Norte and from Venâncio Aires so we can be up and ready early tomorrow morning for the bus to Porto Alegre! I love Zone Conference! It´s going to be super fun...and guess what, it´s Sister Inhuma last one! She´s going home on August 16th! Crazy....

I love you alll!! Soooo much! Keep having fun and remember that you´re always in my prayers!
Love,
Sister Jamie Gee

Freezing on the Fourth; missionaries knock doors, but it´s the members that open them

Alô querida família!
Wow! You all still know how to party! That sounds like an incredible 4th of July!!! Barbeque and 5K races and marching band and family and fireworks and camping and David Archuleta...sounds like it was great! Don´t worry...Sister Grant and I did stop for a few minutes to remember the 4th of July. We even sang the Star Spangled Banner for the members at lunch!...but you know, it´s super hard to be patriotic when wearing 6 layers of think wool sweaters and still feeling like your fingers are freezing!! haha, it was hard for me to imagine all of you back at home enjoying the beautiful Utah summer! haha, though the muddy camping trip sounds like it could have gone a little better :) Fun though!

This week has been a lot warmer though! Sister Grant and I are loving it! ....haha, okay Sister Grant is making me write here that one night last week I woke her up at 2 am, throwing off all my freezing sheets and blankets and remaking my bed in the middle of the night in an effort to get warmer, pulling all the covers suuuper tight and tucked the edges under the mattress... And now she keeps laughing at me about it :)

So anyway, this week...what a great week full of lessons and wonderful people and the Spirit! On Thursday night we had an amazing family night with Fernanda and Rogério (my absolute favorite family here!) and their friends Paulo César and Lúcia. It was great...we watched the Restoration movie and talked about Joseph Smith, Fernanda and Rogério bore powerful testimony about the gospel and then we finished the night eating Fernanda´s amazing galinhada (chicken and rice....sooooo good!) It was definitely a success and they´re excited to come to church with us next Sunday! I love it when the members work their magic...it reminds me of a quote that President Hinckley said, "missionaries knock doors, but it´s the members that open them!" And the members here in Rio Pardo are always always opening doors and hearts for us!

Speaking of family night...we have another one marked this night with Presidente Rogério and Elaine and their friends, Marcírio and Meri. Marcírio is such a great guy...and super super smart! We met him last week when we brought him a Book of Mormon that Presidente Rogério had dedicated for him and I was amazed by how much he already knew about the church. We just taught about the Book of Mormon and the lesson was still over an hour long because of all the questions that he asked. It was awesome! I love it when we find people to teach that really think and ponder about what we are teaching...they are the ones that really begin to see the importance and truth of it all! Marcírio had already researched a lot about the church and had a lot of questions about the pioneers and about the early church. He asked a lot of questions about polygamy too...not something we have to deal with very much in Brazil. I think it was the first time for me and I´ve been here a year! But we just testified about the Prophet Joseph Smith and how we knew that he was a true prophet of God and doing exactly what was revealed to him as the true will of God. Sometimes we don´t comprehend everything that God comprehends, but we can know that when we´re following the counsel of the prophet we never have to worry or doubt that we´re doing exactly what God wants us to do. We are so blessed to have a living prophet!

Oh, and do you remember how I told you about the new ward missionaries that were called here? On Saturday afternoon one of them, Camila, came with us the entire afternoon! It was great...she is such a sweet and loving girl and knows a lot of people here, so it really helped to have her on the visits. The best was with Antônia...we have been visiting with her for a while and I know that she knows the church is true, but it was nice for her to hear Camila´s conversion and baptism story. It has been really hard for Antônia to stop smoking, but she is very determined right now and really wants to be ready to be baptized this Saturday. I´m excited for her and we´re praying that she´ll be able to stay strong and overcome her addiction...I know that Heavenly Father is going to see her desire and her faith and effort and will bless her! I´m sad that Elias still isn´t ready to make the same kind of commitment...but hopefully seeing Antônia´s baptism will help give him the same desire.

Well, I´m happy to hear you´re all doing well at home! Next summer I´ll be home to celebrate it with you all :) But for now, I´m loving every minute that I have in Brazil as a missionary. It´s wonderful!
Oh and guess what, next week we´re going to Porto Alegre again! Zone Conference on July 20th!! Yay!
I love you soooo much!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Staying in Rio Pardo; Proven wrong by Erialdo; Simone and Danilo

Hey!!!!!
Guess what???!! I´m guessing you already know by all of the exclamation points..but I´ll say it anyway...I´M STAYING IN RIO PARDO!!!!! :) And Sister Grant too :D
That´s pretty much the most exciting news of the week!!! Actually it is pretty crazy, but my entire district is going to be staying! This will be the transfer on my mission where there hasn´t been a single change in my district! I guess our little filhinhos need to stay in Sunbeams with their mamães and papais a little longer. haha....just kidding. :) But I´m very happy! I love our district and I´m super excited to be staying here in Rio Pardo for another 6 weeks. We are teaching a lot of amazing people right now and we are seeing miracles daily!
This week we started visiting a young couple, Simone and Danilo. They both were baptized into the church as children and I know that they have testimonies of the gospel still. Danilo even got his mission call when he was 19 years old and made it all they way to the airport with his bags packed....but at the last minute decided not to go. It made me sad to hear the regret in his voice when he was talking to us. I felt like I could understand him completely....the worry and the doubt and the fear... It has been over 10 years that he hasn´t gone to church, but I can feel how much he and his wife desire to return.. We talked about the tree of life and how the prophets and the scriptures are always trying to guide us towards the most priceless and pure blessings and joy that we can have. The blessings of the temple! Sometimes the "clouds of darkness" make the path there look complicated or scary and we get discouraged by how far away it seems. But we just have to remember that they are just clouds. It is only Satan that fills our minds with those thought and those doubts...because we have the promise that the path is actually perfectly straight and sure. We just need to grab on and "press forward continually" and anyone can make it with the help of the Lord. He is always reaching for us with his arms open...waiting for us to just grab hold. There was a very wonderful spirit in the room and I felt that I learned a lot myself and felt my testimony grow about the perfect love and plan and kindness that the Lord has for us.

Erialdo is still reading the Book of Mormon...actually I think "devouring it" would be more accurate!!! :) He is so so so so smart and is super excited about the gospel!
It was funny, last night we were at his home to teach Sílvia and Erialdo about the plan of salvation, but their relatives, Geraldo and Mara, were over visiting and had a lot of questions, so we decided to teach them about the church and about our work . Erialdo kept interrupting us and pratically teaching them the entire first lesson! He told them about prophets and about the great apostasy and then how our loving and always kind Heavenly Father called a prophet again to restore the church. I couldn´t have said it any better myself...it was perfect! Oh, and at then Erialdo started telling him about the Book of Mormon and how Joseph Smith´s son had translated it into English. I stopped him and said "No, it was Joseph Smith that translated them, not his son" and he told me "No, Sister Gee, the introduction said it was Joseph Smith Jr. so that means it was Joseph Smith´s son." haha!! It´s true. Wow it feels good to be proven wrong by an investigator :)

It makes me so happy to hear how excited he is and how he really is searching and feasting on the Book of Mormon and the messages we have been sharing with him. The only problem is that even though it is making perfect sense in his head, I´m not sure if he´s felt the importance and truthfulness of our message in his heart. He says "I know it is true...it makes perfect sense. But I am a catholic and I will never be baptized into another church" ....I think one of the hardest things for him to give up will be the catholic saints that he prays to. Nossa Senhora Aparecida is the patron saint of Brazil and the catholics here really love her and pray to her a lot. ....Sister Grant and I are planning on bringing Presidente Rogério along when we teach him about that. Presidente Rogério also was a very strong catholic before he was baptized 4 years ago and I know that his testimony will really help open Erialdo´s eyes and heart. I´m so grateful for members here that love helping with missionary work...it really is the members, their love and friendships and testimonies and examples, that make the missionary work happen!

Oh and guess what else?? Last Sunday two moças in our ward were called to be ward missionaries! Camila Daudt and Larissa Oliveira are both young woman that are super amazing and they´re already very excited to start working. This Saturday I think we´re going to get together to do divisions with them....it will be awesome to be able to get twice the normal amount of visits done on Saturday afternoon!
This has definitely been the best year of my life....I love being a missionary and I love the gospel and I LOVE BRAZIL!!!

And I love love love all of you :)
Love,
Sister Jamie Gee