Olá querida família!
What a crazy busy exciting and wonderful week! I am loving being here in Montenegro and can´t believe how quickly the time is flying by... Today is Dia das Crianças here in Brazil....which means no one had school/work all weekend long! Everyone is enjoying the last day of vacation today.....you can smell churrasco in every back yard :) I love Brazil. It´s been a very relaxing P-day...churrasco with the Primary this morning and we spent the afternoon with Rita and Alex.....which is good, because we needed a calm day after this week!!
Quinta-feira (Thursday) both Sister Gibson and I woke up feeling veeeery queasy. We think it was some left-over "bolinhas de chuva" that Leoni had given us the day before (they´re like scones....but with sugar :D) It wasn´t too terrible...but we also had an hour bus ride to Novo Hamburgo for district meeting that was not very enjoyable with a queasy stomach. We made it to the chapel, greeted all the other missionaries, and had just started the meeting when Sister Gibson grabbed my arm and ran with me to the bathroom....She definitely had food poisioning and threw up over and over. We spent the rest of the district meeting there in the bathroom :) Poor Sister Gibson...
The next day Sister Gibson was feeling much better and we were excited and ready for a very busy day with a lot of work....and then 15 minutes after leaving our apartment I got bit by a dog! The first appointment we had was a reference from the sisters in the center, in a poorer neighborhood with loooots of dogs....everywhere! Sister Gibson knocked at the first house (here in Brazil you stand in the street in front of the house and clap your hands...very fun :) and I think the noise frightened the dogs and they all went crazy! One ran up to me and clamped down on my ankle... It didn´t hurt very bad and there wasn´t very much blood....but because it was a street dog Sister Pavan wanted me to get the rabies vacine. We had to leave our area to go to the health center and then spent All day waiting to get the vacine....and I have to go back 4 more times! haha...funny and frustrating. :)
So after 2 days of not getting very much accomplished, we were Very anxious and excited to get to back to work on Saturday. We had a goal to get our investigators to church this Sunday, something that has been difficult in the past, so we made that our focus all Saturday....but because it was a holiday weekend, we didn´t have much success. Everyone was going out of town, or expecting company.....it didn´t seem like we would have a single investigator in church this Sunday. But Sunday came and we were surprised and super happy to have 2 new investigators that we´ve never even taught before show up to church! One already asking to be baptized! Haha...it´s great how when you try so hard and work and work and see very little results, the Lord steps in and blesses you so much :)
Sílvio is 38 years old and showed up in the chapel wanting to know when he could be baptized. :) He was taught by the sisters before, but wasn´t ready to accept the gospel then. But I think some things happened in his life that humbled him and made him turn more to Jesus Christ. Sílvio has so much faith...we gave him another copy of the Book of Mormon and he has already read all of 1st and 2nd Nephi! He seemed nervous to stay for all 3 meetings at first, I think he felt a little out of place with all of the other members in suits and dresses.....but the members were so great and loving and made him feel very comfortable. I´m very excited for him!
Andrews was the other investigator that showed up on Sunday. He is so awesome! :) Andrews is 15 years old and we contacted him on the street a few weeks ago...but he didn´t seem very interested so we just gave him the address of the church....and didn´t see him again until yesterday :) Andrews knew a lot of the young men and young women in the ward, and I think he really liked the meetings. He didn´t want us to visit him at home because he said there was a lot of contention there with his parents...so we taught him the 1st lesson with Sílvio....haha, and then the rest of the day he went with me and Sister Gibson on all of our visits! He told us that he liked being with us more than he liked being at home... I think he´s going to be baptized and serve a mission someday...he´s already practicing being a missionary! :)
This Sunday was also testimony meeting! Sister Gibson´s last testimony meeting here in Brazil.....the members here love her a lot and everyone was crying when she bore her testimony for the last time here in Timbaúva. I´m going to miss her a lot...she is a great companion and friend. :)
We found many great investigators this week....I am most excited about Ana Carla! She is amazing. Right now she and her husband are building a new home, so we´re hoping to get the elder´s quorum to come and help them some day this week. Ana Carla has so much faith and confidence in Jesus Christ... She is reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and I know that she has a sincere desire to know if it is true. She told us that she still hasn´t received an answer, but that she knows that she will if she continues to read and to ask. Wow...a very faithful and humble answer...I know that Heavenly Father will answer her prayer!
Heavenly Father is so good and kind. I know that He is constantly blessing and guiding us. Thank you for your love and your emails and your prayers family....I miss each one of you!
I love you all!
Love,
Sister Jamie Gee
No comments:
Post a Comment