Bom dia Gee Family!
How are all of you doing? How was your Halloween? I want to see pictures of everyone's costumes! I almost completely forgot that yesterday was Halloween...but late at night we had a few trick-or-treaters come to our apartment. Cool, huh? I didn´t even know that kids went trick-or-treating here in Brazil! "Doces ou travessuras!" is what they say here :) It made me think of all of you back at home! I hope your Halloween was fun!
This week was wonderful as always...but it started out with a sad and unexpected surprise. On Thursday afternoon we got a call from an unknown number, and when I answered it was Presidente Vick from the Mission Brazil Salvador Sul....asking to talk to Sister Ferreira. He asked her about her health and if she was feeling any more pain from the surgery. And when she told him that she had been able to work without any problems or pain these last 6 weeks in Santa Cruz do Sul he told her to pack her suitcases because she´d be going back to her mission in the Bahia on Saturday!! I thought that she would be staying until the end of the transfer next week! :( I guess I should be used to these surprises and these goodbyes....but I´m not! I really loved being companions with Sister Ferreira and I already miss her a lot. I wasn´t sure how it was going to be to be in a trio, but she made it so easy and so much fun!!!
So now it´s just me and Sister Fernandes....and our apartment is feeling HUGE! :) I really like Sister Fernandes...she is hilarious and is an amazing teacher. And she likes to run! Perfect, right? This morning we decided to take advantage of this last week we have of the transfer together with just us as companions by starting out the day with an amazing morning run! It was great!! The first time for me in over a year!!! And it was hard.....
The rest of the week was wonderful. We started teaching Elisângela this week...she is amazing! We met Elisângela last week at church when she showed up with her boyfriend, Germano, who is an inactive member. Germano has been a member for years, I think he even served a mission when he was younger, but it has been a long time since he has been to church. I thought that it was awesome that he had decided to come back to church and that he had brought his girlfriend with him. I really liked talking to Elisângela and she seemed really interested in knowing more about the church and quickly agreed when I asked her if we could visit her to teach her more. Elisângela studies pharmaceutics all day at the UNISC (Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul), so we decided to teach her on campus during one of her class breaks. It was such a fun lesson! We sat outside on the grass underneath some trees...it was beautiful and the perfect setting to teach about Joseph Smith and the first vision. During the lesson Elisângela told us that she was the one that had convinced Germano to go to church on Sunday. She said that she had never had a religion or knowledge about God and that she had always wanted to know more. When she found out that Germano was a member of the church she asked him tons of questions about what he believed and what the church taught. She said that she had been begging Germano for weeks to take her to his church and kept being persistent even when he was reluctant until he finally agreed! Wow...she´s amazing! I was impressed by how quick she was to believe the story of Jospeh Smith and how eager she seemed to learn more. When we invited her to be baptized, she accepted and told us that this is what has always been lacking in her life and that she has always been searching for...wtihout even knowing it. Elizângela reminds me about the scripture that talks about the people who "hunger and thirst after righteousness". It is so wonderful to be a missionary and to be able to share the joy of the gospel with others! We are so blessed to be members of the church and to know what we know...sometimes we forget how blessed we are to have the truth in our lives. It just seems so "normal" for us that i think sometimes we take it for granted. But when I meet people like Elisângela and see how excited and happy they are to hear the gospel, it reminds me of how blessed we really are! I love being a missionary!!
and I love you all....so much!!
Love,
Sister Jamie Gee
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