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