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
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