OÍ FAMÍLIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How are you all?? Life is fabulous and I´m doing great! And guess what else.....we´re in another trio here in Santa Cruz do Sul!!! :D Yay! This seems to be the area of trios...which is kind of funny because of all the apartments that I have seen I´m pretty sure this one is the smallest. But I LOVE being in a trio...so it´s worth it. Sister Paige Hughes from North Carolina came to join Sister Fernandes and me last Tuesday...and we´ve been having lots of fun ever since :)
This week has been crazy busy, but so good! Everyone here is busy getting ready for the chapel open house and dedication. I told you before that the branch president planned to deliver invitations to every house in Santa Cruz in Vera Cruz, right? Well...I thought it was a wonderful idea, I just didn´t realize how much work it would be! We have been delivering invitations with the elders from the other branch here in Santa Cruz and all of the youth from both branches ever since early Saturday morning...just stopping for lunch breaks at the chapel (provided by the Relief Society)....all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And we still have a lot of houses to visit! But I´m pretty sure that tonight we are going to finish up the rest of the invitations... I hope so anyways, because tomorrow is going to be the first night of the open house! Finally, it´s here! :D And everyone is excited!
Tomorrow night is going to be the Noite dos Autoridades, for just the personally invitated city officials and business leaders, and then the chapel will be open to the public all day Thursday and Friday. Members from each organization (young men´s and woman´s, primary, helping hands, relief society, family history...etc...) are going to wait in different class rooms for the people who come to tour the new chapel. We´re going to explain about baptism in the room with the baptismal font with the sisters from Rio Pardo and the elders from the Ramo Santa Cruz. At the end of the tour a pair of missionaries will also be waiting at the door to invite the guests to learn more about the gospel and to write down names and addresses. It´s going to be great!
What an amazing missionary opportunity this is going to be...the entire city is having the chance to hear about the gospel! I was kind of disappointed this week by how much time the inviations took from our time with our investigators....but I know that in the end it´s going to be worth it and all this effort is going to result in a lot of golden references! And we still had some great teaching experiences this week....my favorite was with Geny. She is super happy and still has that "new convert fire". We had a lesson with her about missionary work and invited her to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help her think of a friend that she could share the gospel with. We left her with a Book of Mormon to dedicate and a few days later we went with Geny to deliver the book to her friend, Marlita.
What an amazing lesson! Marlita has known about the church for years...her daughter and brother were even baptized years ago...but she had always refused to receive the missionaries in her own home or to visit the church herself. She is a member of the Igreja Assembleia de Deus and even worked as an "obreira" for years (the ones who peform the blessings of healing) and always heard terrible lies about the "Mormon Church" and the Book of Mormon from her church leaders....so she never opened her heart to learn more. But lately, Marlita has been having difficulties and struggling with depression that left her softened and humble...so when Geny told her about her recent baptism and the new joy and peace that she had found in the gospel and asked if she could bring us to meet her, Marlita accepted.
I loved the lesson with Marlita! Geny gave her the Book of Mormon that she had dedicated and bore her testimony. It was powerful! We shared a message about the Book of Mormon and promised her the peace that reading this testament of Jesus Christ brings to our lives...and Marlita seemed to really believe us and to desire that peace. It reminded me of Jacob 2: 8 "And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul." Marlita was full of questions...we could barely answer one and she was already asking another! Why did there have to be another book besides the Bible? Why were we the only church that had this "other testament" from God? Who were these prophets that had written the Book of Mormon and where had they come from? Why had the pastors from her church always warned against the "mormon church" and it´s teachings? A million questions! But I could tell that she was asking, not to doubt or argue, but really desiring to understand and to know more. The Spirit was very strong and when Marlita promised to read and pray it was obvious that her heart was humble and she was sincere. It was perfect! And Geny was great...she bore powerful testimony in the perfect moments. I love new converts!!!
So...as you can see, life is great here in Santa Cruz do Sul and I am very very happy! And I´ve got to go! Lots more work to do! Today is a national holiday in Brazil...A Dia da Proclamação da República....so it´s going to be a perfect day to find people at home.
Thanks for everything you do! I love you all!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee
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