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
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