The Spirit is so strong ... everyone in the room is feeling it

Hello my amazing family! What a great week in Brazil!
On Thursday June 16th Sister Grant and I celebrated my one year mark as a missionary! Can you believe it has already been that long? Well, actually we celebrated on Wednesday night...we made the mistake of buying the ice cream and brownie ingredients a day early and then decided to make the brownies before sleeping so we could eat them first thing in the morning....and really, who can resist warm brownies fresh from the oven with ice cream for the first time in over a year?? Oh well, we felt justified when I remembered that it was actually June 15 at 7 at night when I was set apart as a missionary haha...:)
The next day...the best day of the year, June 16th...was, as it always is, a fabulous fabulous wonderful day. Sister Grant and I went to Santa Cruz for district meeting and I gave the training on scripture study and learning by the spirit. We ate lunch in Sant Cruz with the other elders and sisters and then hurried back to Rio Pardo for a day full of lessons and wonderful visits. My favorite part of the day was our last visit when we ended the day with a combined family night with Rejane & Leandro and Antônia & Elias and their families. They are both families that we are teaching that have baptism dates marked for next month...and they live on the same street so we were hoping that they´ll build a friendship and help keep each other strong in the church.
It was an amazing family night...one of the lessons where the spirit is so strong and you know that everyone inthe room is feeling it. The lesson was about charity and the love that Jesus Christ has for each of us...and how we need to have that same kind of love for each other. Elias especially liked the lesson and even bore his testimony about how Jesus Christ´s love has transformed him. It made me so happy to hear...it was hard to convince him to come to the family night because he is kind of timid and feels more comfortable with his old group of friends(that are NOT a good influence for him...)...but I know that he was feeling and liking the peace and the love in the room that night! Hopefully he makes the decision to work to have that same feeling in his life and his home too!
I love being a missionary! Some days are discouraging ...especially when it seems like these people that I really really love and care about are not accepting what we are offering them. Especially because I know that what we are offering means everything in the world and will bring them the greatest joy and peace...and it´s hard to understand why sometimes they don´t realize that... It makes me think about the sadness that our Heavenly Father must feel when He wants to offer us so many blessings and miracles, but we aren´t willing to just open our hands and receive them. But the days when I can feel the Holy Ghost so powerfully in the room and know that He is touching their hearts too, I feel complete peace and confidence in the Lord and in His timing and I know that He is changing them....the joy I feel in these moments is soooo real and makes everything so worth it!!



Oh, guess what else we got to do this week? On Friday Sister Grant and I got to go to Porto Alegre for a Leadership Training Meeting with President Pavan and all district and zone leaders and trainers!!! It was super fun! It was also crazy to remember the last time I traveled to Porto Alegre for one of those meetings...when I had just 1 week into the mission with Sister Gibson as my trainer. That seems like it was just yesterday! When I went with Sister Gibson, I stayed in Gravatai with the sisters while Sister Gibson went to the meeting with the other trainers...but this transfer I am the only sister that is training, so Sister Grant got to come with me to the whole meeting! It was very fun and I learned a lot...I am so excited for these last 6 months in Brazil! I know I still have a lot of experiences and miracles to see and lessons to learn from the Lord and from the amazing people, companions, leaders and friends that I am meeting each day!

Well family! I love you so much!!! Thanks for everything you do for me!
Do good and be happy!
Love Always, Sister Jamie Gee