Valentines Day; Maiara baptism;

Dear Family, Happy Valentine´s Day!!!

I just wanted to let you all know that I love you all very much! Dad, Mom, Ryan, Celecta, Melissa, Jared, Kyle, Megan, Justin and Rawley...you are the most wonderful family in the world and my very best friends :) I think about each one of you every single day!.....yes, even you Rawley :) Your Valentine´s cards made me sooooo happy....you are the greatest!!!

Valentine´s Day was super fun here in Novo Hamburgo! Sister Oliveira and I made chocolate oatmeal heart-shaped cookies with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles to take to our lunch with Deise and her family.....so I had plenty of friends and family and love and chocolate it really feel like Valentine´s Day :) It was great. And Alana (14) and Robson (13) looooved the pop rocks that you sent, Mom! haha...they had never seen anything like it before! The cinnamon lips were a favorite too...though I think that I was the one that loved them the most because they made me think of you, Mom! :) I love you!

This computer is very difficult to type with, so this will be a short letter...

But wow!!! What a wonderful wonderful week!!!! Maiara was baptized on Sunday after Sacrament Meeting and it was a very beautiful and wonderful to watch. She is a very special young woman and has an amazing testimony...wow, it really amazes me how much faith and strength the youth that are being sent to the world right now have...they are definitely prepared by the Lord! Carol is another young woman that we are teaching who is the same! ...She´s 13 years old too and she is more hesitant about the church than Maiara was, mostly because she has been going to another church, Deus No Brasil, for many years and is even a leader there. But she is reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and wants to visit the church this Sunday and really has a desire to know if it is true. Both these young woman are amazing examples to me...they are full of faith and light and I love them both.....they remind me a lot of you, Megan! :)

Sister Oliveira and I have just 2 more weeks together (most likely...) and we´re working hard to enjoy every moment and to work really hard to make them amazing!! It feels like I just arrived here yesterday...it´s crazy how quickly wonderful moments fly by! We´ve been finding lots of amazing families this week...super prepared to hear the gospel!! We met Sônia and her 3 daughters Debora, Danúbia and Daniele on Friday, taught them about the restoration, and then invited them to visit the church on Sunday. And do you know what Sônia´s response was? She asked us what she had to do to prepare herself and her daughters to be baptized!! Wow...that is the first time that something like that has happened on my mission! It is very true that there are so many people prepared and ready to accept the gospel!!! I know that Heavenly Father is blessing us a lot and helping us find them :D

Another favorite experience of the week...We met Andriele and her 5 younger sisters in the sorverteria (ice cream shop!....haha, see?? The Lord even blesses us when we stop eat ice cream! I love being a missionary :D) and they invited us to their home to meet their great-grandmother, Rufina. What an amazing lady!! She grabbed us into a huge hug the minute that we walked into the door and thanked us over and over for the visit. Rufina is 92 years old and has 21 children!!! And she is the most happy and loving and energetic and kindest lady that I have every met! She loves the Lord and has a lot of faith in Him...haha, she told us that last week in her church the pastor had asked "Who here has faith? Raise your hand if you have sufficient faith!" and when she had raised her hand he told her "Because you weren´t ashamed to show your faith, the Lord will send a victory to your home this week!"

She told us that she had been waiting patiently all week long for the victory to arrive...and that the minute we walked in the door she knew we were sent from the Lord. "You two are the victory that the Lord promised me!!" she told us happily over and over again! :D hahahaha.... I loved it! I´m super excited to teach her again!

I know that Heavenly Father loves us and that He has a perfect plan. We never have to doubt or feel inadequate or afraid...if we are willing to work with faith, we can have confidence that He will work at our side! I know this is true and I´m seeing proof of it every single day!

I love you all!!!! Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Beautiful rainy Tuesday in Novo Hamburgo; Great to be alive and to know that God loves us!

Dear Gee family that I loooooove!

Hello again! It´s a beautiful rainy Tuesday here in Novo Hamburgo and I am smiling! What a wonderful life we are living! It´s great to be alive and to know that God loves us! :D

This week was great!!! I know I say that every week....but this week I really really mean it! Last Wednesday was Zone Conference in Canoas...and I love love love Zone Conference. I heard that, before I arrived here, zone conference was once a transfer! !!! That would be incredible.... Ours are usually once every 3-4 months, but they are so incredible and inspiring and fun and motivating that I definitely wouldn´t mind having them more often! It is suuuuuper fun to see all of the other missionaries and hear all of their stories and update.....it was especially great to see Sister Inhuma!!!! It sounds like she is doing an amazing work in Timbaúva and is super happy. And I loved being able to hear about everyone there...she brought me a stack of cards and photos and letters from all the people that I looove! Oh how I would love to be able to return to Timbaúva someday!!!!

The training that President Pavan gave was amazing and perfect for me. Exactly what I needed to hear! He talked about lapidation and how we are all rough stones that need to let Heavenly Father polish and perfect us to be what He needs us to be. It was a really great talk....it´s funny how sometimes we let the silliest and smallest things keep us from letting the Holy Ghost enter our hearts and purify us. We just need to remember who we are and who we always have been.....and then act like it :) I really liked President Pavan´s talk and I learned a lot...

The rest of the week was fabulous!!! I think Sister Oliveira and I left Zone Conference still burning with the spirit....because I don´t think we´ve had a better week together! It was wonderful :) We found an amazing family! Do you remeber Carol? One of the girls that we taught that day in the middle of her street? Well...her family is huge and wonderful and amazing. Grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles and lots of cousins and grandchildren....I think there were 20 people in the room! We taught them this week about the Book of Mormon it was one of the most powerful lessons that I have ever been in! The Spirit was very strong and they were very excited to read....I´m excited to go back!

Oh....and on Wednesday afternoon we found out that Maiara´s mom had decided that it was too early for Maiara to be baptized and that she wanted her to wait for a few more years before making a decision like that... Maiara was almost in tears when she told us, she really has a strong desire to be baptized and knows that the gospel is true! Sister Oliveira and I talked to her about faith and read 2 Nephi 27:23. Heavenly Father really is a god of miracles!! Anything is possible if we have faith and trust in Him...and then are willing to work to do our part. We told her that, if we had faith, Heavenly Father would touch her mother´s heart and she would let her be baptized this week. We told her to wait for a moment when she and her mother were alone and to read with her from 3 Nephi 11 and then to explain to her what she had felt the morning that she had prayed and had received an answer.

And guess what.... We found out yesterday that Maiara´s mom is going to let her be baptized......this week!! :) I think the baptism will be on Thursday morning so that Deise can be there too...haha, which means it will be right before district meeting with all 18 missionaries. I´ve never seen a baptism like that before! I am very excited....and very grateful to know that Heavenly Father really is a God of miracles. I know that He loves and us will always always help us....we just need to have the faith to ask :)

I love you all dear family!!! Stay happy and safe and remember that I love you! Thanks for your prayers and letters!

Love, Sister Jamie Gee

PS.....Oh!!!! I almost forgot to thank you!!!! This week I received 2 packages....one, a Valentines Day package with candy and chocolate and hearts!! It made me feel so loved!! And it got here super early!! Thanks so much! :)

And two, an amaaaaazing CD with all of your wonderful voices!! Wow...it made me so happy. I was smiling and laughing and even crying a little as I listened....I think I´ve already listened to it 10 times! Thank you so much! You are all so so so wonderful and I miss you a lot! :D And the Christmas songs are beautiful! And Rawley howling is perfect!! :D Thank you thank you thank you, Nate!

Maiara;

Querida Família,

Happy 1st day of February! How are you all doing?

This week was wonderful as always! Sister Oliveira and I are happy and busy with many many families to teach!! This Sunday in church we gave a special training during the combined Relief Society and Elder´s Quorum Meeting about how the members can be more involved with the missionary work. It was great...and I can tell that it worked too because we´ve already had many members call, excited and ready to help! :) Yesterday we got a lot of new references and we had many members come with us to teach lessons and meet the people we´re teaching...it makes a huuuge difference when we teach people that already have a friend in the ward. It is wonderful and I know that it´s going to help us have a lot of success during the rest of this transfer!

The greatest night of the week was Sunday night when we had a Noite Familiar with Deise and her family. Deise just returned from her mission in Rio de Janeiro this Wednesday...and it is easy to see that she was a great missionary! She is filled with light and love and excitement to continue doing missionary work. Haha...so much that I´m pretty sure that this month, before Deise starts school, we´ll be working in a trio! Haha, it´s hard for me to call her Deise because in my mind she is still Sister Wolf!

On Sunday night we decided to have a Family Night at her home with her family (she is the only active member in her family) and her 13 yr old friend Maiara. As we walked with her to meet Maiara, Deise told Sister Oliveira and I that she wanted to work with us to prepare Maiara to be baptized this next Sunday.....!!!! I was very surprised and I could tell that Sister Oliveira was too...but she was bursting with contagious enthusiasm and excitement, and of course we agreed!

After meeting Maiara I began to understand why Deise was so confident. Nossa!! I have never met a young woman so sweet and kind and beautiful and prepared by the Lord! She had gone to church with Deise a few times before she left for Rio de Janeiro, and had loved it. We taught her the 1st lesson about the restoration of the gospel and I was amazed at her questions and comments...she is super smart and understood everything so quickly. It was a powerful lesson too....with the 4 of us missionaries (Sister Oliveira and I, Deise and her boyfriend Jonas, who just got home from his mission too) taking turns teaching. I especially liked when Jonas told about the First Vision...he taught in such a personal loving way and there was a very strong and peaceful spirit. Haha...even Alana, Deise´s 14 yr old sister, had tears in her eyes and said that she was feeling so good that she wanted to be baptized again! :) It was wonderful... Afterwards we invited her to read and pray that night before going to sleep and invited her to be baptized the next Sunday after church. And she accepted!!

Then the next day Maiara told us how she had read and prayed about the 3 Nephi 11...the chapter we gave her to read. She told us how she had prayed and then read and then prayed again. And when she didn´t feel an anwer she reread the chapter, slowly and pondering every verse so that she could understand the hard portuguese. She said that she did this 3 times, praying very very strongly...and on the 3rd time the answer came. :) Maiara said she was filled with a feeling of joy and felt like this day was going to be the start of a life of wonderful and happy days! She was so happy and is so excited to be baptized!!

Wow...I learned a lot from that lesson. First, I learned once again that Heavenly Father loves every one of His children and will always speak to us if we´re willing and ready to listen. I also learned a lot from the way that Deise and Jonas taught....very lovingly and powerfully...it brought the spirit very quickly. And, of course, it was a wonderful wonderful lesson for me of faith and boldness! We should expect and seek for miracles like these...every day of our lives! I know that Heavenly Father is very willing to bless us with more miracles than we can imagine...I think that many times He is more willing to bless us with miracles than we are to receive them! The only thing that we need to do is have faith and perfect confidence in Him, and then act with boldness and with courage!

I am very happy to be a missionary and very excited for the next 11 months that I have here in Brazil. I know that they are going to pass quickly...even more quickly than these first 7 have flown by...but I know that they are going to be full of wonderful days and people to love and lessons to be learned and miracles to see!

I am glad to hear that you are all happy and well at home! Thanks so much for the emails...you make me feel loved! Remember to always be grateful for the many many blessings that we have. There is nothing like a grateful heart that will bring more happiness and joy and peace to your life! I am so thankful to have you all as my brothers and sisters and mom and dad...you´re the greatest! I love you!!! :)

Love Always,

Sister Jamie Gee

PS....guess what Sister Oliveira and I are doing tonight....going to Alcoholics Anonymous!! It should be fun :) I´ll tell you more next week!

Nova transferência!

A Minha Querida Família Gee,

Olá família! Tudo bem? I am doing wonderfully here in Novo Hamburgo annnnnnd....yes! Sister Oliveira and I will be staying for another transfer together! I am super happy...this is a wonderful city with a wonderful ward full of wonderful wonderful people. I am very grateful and very excited for another month here with Sister Oliveira. This transfer was a strange one....very few new missionaries arrived, not a single american, and most of the new brazilians are just "curto-prazo" (temporary) missionaries...youth from wards here in Porto Alegre. President Pavan has been asking for a lot of help from the youth because we are so short on missionaries in our mission. A lot of areas have had to close because there aren´t enough missionaries to fill them! I guess that the problems with the visas of the have gotten even worse lately. Sister Robson is still in California! She´s been waiting for over 7 months now! We are praying and fasting as a mission this month that the visas start arriving....and soon!

But anyways...onto the new news! This week was a great one!! It started last Monday night at 9:30 pm with a "zone conference" conference call...the first time Presidente Pavan has ever done something like that the entire time that I´ve been here. It was pretty cool...15 duplas of missionaries and the President all on the same call. The zone leaders gave a few thoughts and a few missionaries shared their testimonies and then Presidente Pavan gave an amazing training.....all over the phone! President Pavan talked about the sacredness of our calling and how we should expect to see miracles. It was very inspiring and powerful and left Sister Oliveira and I feeling very motivated for the rest of the week! We talked about the investigators we´re teaching and made some plans to find new people to add to our "grupo de ensino" (teaching group)....and then we got to work. And we had huge success.....our planners are filled with amazing new people and families to start teaching this transfer! Another reason why I´m super happy that I get to stay :)

My very favorite day was Wednesday afternoon... Sister Oliveira and I had met Tainá, a 16 year old girl, on the street earlier this week and planned to meet with her in her home that day. But when we arrived she was already sitting outside her home with Ana, her 21 year old friend who lives on the same street, so we sat down and starting talking with them both. We sang a hymn before starting and Ana´s mother heard us singing and came out of the home to listen. The street where they live is always full of people talking and playing in the street, and as we started the lesson another girl, Tais, and her little sister Bruna came over and sat down....and then Caroline and her friend Morgan...and then Victória, and then Ana Lúcia.... and before we knew it there was a group of 8 young women sitting around our feet and listening to the story about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. There was a very beautiful and peaceful Spirit in the air...and as I looked around at the young girls, I looked into each of their faces as Sister Oliveira told them about the First Vision, and I felt a very strong feeling of joy! The same feeling of joy that I often have felt here on the mission....A feeling of overwhelming happiness to be a missionary, a feeling of gratitude knowing that the gospel is true, and a strong feeling of love. I felt very strongly that Heavenly Father knew and loved each one of those young women gathered around our feet. I know that Joseph Smith really saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and talked with them...and what other story shows more plainly the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us? He called Joseph Smith as a prophet to guide us. He answers every prayer. He knows each of us by name! He loves us more than we can imagine....each one of us! I think it was one of the most beautiful and happy experiences that I have had on my mission...

Oh! And guess what else happened this Sunday?? I was talking with a sister in our ward when I someone tapped me on the shoulder....and when I turned around guess who I saw!! Alex!! :D I was suuuuper surprised....he had moved to Santa Maria (6 hours away) 3 weeks before I left Montenegro and I hadn´t talked to him since then. He told me that he had gone to Montenegro for Michele´s baptism yesterday (her baptism was yesterday!! I got to talk to her on the phone for a few minutes and she sounded sooo happy! Send pictures if she posts them on facebook, Dad) and that afterwards he had decided to see if he could find me in Novo Hamburgo before heading back home. It was a huge and happy surprise for me! :) He told me that the branch is small in Santa Maria, but that he is and busy talking to all his friends and family about the gospel! It made me so happy to hear his testimony and see that his excitement and love for the gospel are strong! There is so much joy in being a missionary.....it really is a marvelous work! :)

Well family, another P-day is ending and another transfer is starting and I know it´s going to be a great one!!! I am excited and happy and healthy and loving being a missionary! I am glad that you are all doing well! I think that´s great that you´re studying the New Testament as a family this year! Tell me about the things that you learn! I love hearing from you! You´re always in my prayers and in my thought!!

Love you!! Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Another wonderful week in Novo Hamburgo!!

Dear family,

Hello again after another wonderful week in Novo Hamburgo!! This week was a very very fast one....I can´t believe that it´s already P-day again! The weeks are getting shorter and shorter! I really am loving being a missionary. Each morning when I wake up I feel like my heart is bursting with joy. Even when the days are long or hard or hot....there is no happier feeling than being a missionary!

Sister Oliveira and I are teaching some amazing people right now. My favorite investigators right now are Ênio and Dina...a very sweet and loving couple. Sister Oliveira started teaching them with Sister Mota a week before I arrived here in Novo Hamburgo...and in the short time that we've known them they have already become very very dear friends. Ênio and Dina come to church every week and to all of the ward activities...and they already help us with our other investigators too! Giving references and car rides and talking to all their friends about the church...haha, it´s wondeful! I´ve never met people so loving and giving...they are always eager to serve us and others....in any way that they can! It´s an amazing example to me.. They are practically already members and I know that they love the church...but because they aren´t legally married they haven´t been able to be baptized. Dina´s first husband died 10 years ago and she receives "widow´s pension" that she will lose if she gets married again to Ênio....kind of complicated. Dina told us that if they lose it they would not have enough money to live off of.... But I know that their testimonies of the gospel are getting stronger each day and that one day they will be baptized!!

Saturday night was "Cachorro Quente" (hot dogs!!) night with the ward. Hot dogs here are soooo yummy....with tomatoes and onions and lettuce and corn and peas and cheese.... and then topped with a sweet tomato sauce and French fries. mmmm... It was a great ward activity! The members here are so much fun and very very helpful. We had lots of investigators come and they really enjoyed it and got to know a lot of the members. Any, a member in the ward, also brought one of her friends from work, Cleuse and her 17 year old daughter Melissa, who both seemed really excited to hear more about the church. I´m excited to visit them this week!

This is going to be a great week...Sister Oliveira and I have a lot of new plans and goals for the week o find new investigators that are going to keep us busy and happily working :) She really is a wonderful companion and friend and I´m loving working with her. I don´t think I told you before, but Sister Gibson was her trainer too.....3 months before me. So we´re sisters on the mission!! :D No wonder I love her so much!!!

And no Dad, I didn´t forget..........HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope your 51st birthday is wonderful and fun! I was remembering the other day when I called you last year from Ecuador on your birthday....I can´t believe it´s already been a whole year! I wish I could call you again to tell you that I love you, but know that I will be thinking about you!! mmmm... Maybe I´ll even eat Brazilian churrasco with grilled chicken hearts and pineapple to celebrate for you.....hahaha!

Well family, I love you and hope that you are all happy and doing well!! I love the pictures....ice skating sounds like it was super fun! I guess that I knew that I would miss out on a few things when I decided to leave home for a year and a half. It´s a good thing that being a missionary is so wonderful....it makes it all worth it!

I know that this gospel is perfect. Heavenly Father loves us with a perfect love and He has a perfect plan for each one of us. We just need to trust in Him and let Him teach us and lead us....day by day. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that because of Him and His love we can change and become exactly who we need to be. I know because of Him our family will live together forever....and I´m so happy to know that :) I love you all sooooo much and I think about you all every day!

Love you!!!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Baptism of Manoel; And a day of BAD luck!

This week was wonderful as always! I cannot believe that I´ve already been here in Novo Hamburgo for a month....this transfer gone by so quickly! Sister Oliveira and I planned together that we were going to make sure that President Pavan knew just how much we love this area, in hopes that he´ll leave us together for another transfer :) Haha....I think I must have told him 15 times during the interview that I love love love the area and I love SIster Oliveira even more!! haha...we´ll see if it works! After the interviews we had an amazing training by our district leader about New Years Resolutions and setting goals. We talked about how goals are nothing without a good and detailed plan to accomplish the goal. He quoted President Eyring and taught us that once you make a goal, it should become sacred for you and for Heavenly Father, and we need to do Everything in our power to make sure we accomplish what we decided to do. It was really inspiring and I´m feeling really excited for this new year here in Brazil. I know I am going to see and learn wonderful things and meet many more amazing friends!!! I love being a missionary.

The best day of the week was Sunday. I got to speak in sacrament meeting and it went really well. I spoke about Joseph Smith´s First Vision and how we should follow his example and set aside time every day to go to our own "sacred grove" and really converse with our Heavenly Father and receive revelation from him. And the best part of Sunday....we had a baptism!! Manoel´s baptism was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but he decided to postpone it until Sunday because Daniel and Gisele Rocha (the family that introduced him to the church) had a last minute emergency. So we scheduled the baptism for 11:30...right after the sacrament meeting. It turned out to be a wonderful decision because almost everyone in the ward stayed to participate...including 4 of our investigators that were at church! There is nothing better than having an investigator feel the powerful and peaceful spirit that accompanies every baptism! :)

It was such a wonderful baptism! We had a problem with the water in the building and were only able to fill the tank halfway...but luckily Manoel is short. :) He was so happy! He had a huge smile on his face and a light in his eyes.... Sister Oliveira and I sang "O Senhor Meu Pastor È" ("The Lord is My Shepherd") and I felt so strongly the love and happiness that Heavenly Father has for Manoel and for each one of us! It was a wonderful wonderful day!

Haha...funny story of the week.... President Pavan called late Sunday night us to tell us he would be visiting our apartment early Monday morning, and in the hurry to clean our already clean apartment our beautiful big mirror feel off the shelf and shattered into a million pieces. We swept the glass into a box and laughing, I told Sister Oliveira to be ready for a day of bad luck that always follows breaking a mirror. I didn´t realize at that moment how true that statement was..... As I walked with Sister Oliveira to the trash room on the other side of the hallway of our apartment, we heard our door slam shut and we realized together that we had forgotten the keys!! It was 10:00 at night, we were already in pajamas and ready to sleep, no shoes, no cell phone, and without any phone numbers....and we were locked out!! Haha...luckily our neighbors are really nice and they helped us as we tried for almost an hour to unlock the door. Finally we called a "chaveiro" who came with his toolbox and opened the door in 2 seconds.....and then charged us 80 reiais!! Beleza....it could be a lot worse right? Well, the next day (yesterday) from the moment we woke up to the moment we went to sleep Everything went wrong!! Sister Oliveira´s money got swallowed by the ATM machine, our lunch appointment fell through, we went to Habib´s (an amazing Arabic fast food restaurant) and lost our receipt, a huge gust of wind broke Sister Oliveira´s umbrella, when she went to buy a new umbrella the umbrella broke in half in her hands (the lady in the shop wasn´t too happy), and finally an investigator gave us a huge bunch of yummy juicy grapes´....and mine was rotten and full of larva! Sigh....it was a very good feeling to enter our apartment last night knowing that our day of bad luck was over :)

But the blessings always follow the trials right? Haha...I´m ready for a wonderful new week here in Novo Hamburgo! I know it´s going to be a great one! I hope that you all are happy and doing well! I love you and you are always in my thoughts and in my prayers. Thanks for being a wonderful family and for always loving me and inspiring me to be better!

Love you!

Love, Sister Jamie Gee

New Year's celebration (or lack thereof) in Novo Hamburgo

Minha querida família,
Happy New Years!!! Are you all excited and ready for a wonderful new year? I am! I already know that 2011 is going to be an amazing year....especially since I´ll be a missionary for almost all of it! :D haha...all except for about 10 days...

Sister Oliveira and I started off the new year watching the fireworks from the balcony of our 8th floor apartment.....well, I guess I should say "waiting" for the fireworks from the balcony of our 8th floor apartment. We had to be in our apartment at 9:30, so we dragged our matress and blankets onto the balcony (we have a BEAUTIFUL view of the center of the city!) and spent the 3 hours waiting and listening to EFY music and laughing like crazy. It was fun. But sadly, at midnight there wasn´t much to see. I was content with just screaming and singing "Feliz Ano Novooooo!!" but I think that Sister Oliveira, from São Paulo, was a little disappointed. She said the fireworks in São Paulo are amazing!!!!!!!
It was a very fun night though...especially since we had churrasco with grilled pineapple with a family in the ward!!! Mmmmm....

This week was very wonderful here in Novo Hamburgo. It was a little difficult to find people at home, because almost everyone travels to the beach to celebrate the New Years.....so this week was kind of more walking and knocking than teaching :)

We are teaching so many wonderful people right now....
Nilza and Ivan are a young couple that have been taught by the missionaries for years and years, but they´ve never been very serious about being baptized. Well, Nilza has always wanted to be baptized, but Ivan never had any interest and had even less interest in getting married first. It seemed like every time we visited them they would just argue and fight and complain about the other one to us.... But I knew that our visits were making a difference because lately I have felt a huge difference in their home...a lot more love and peace and unity. And this week when we were teaching them a lesson about eternal families, Ivan surprised us all when he told us that he has decided that he wants to marry Nilza and then be baptized!!! I think that Nilza was the most surprised (and happy!) of all of us! It´s amazing how Heavenly Father can soften and prepare the hearts of anyone who lets him....it really is a miracle! And we, as missionaries and family members, just need to have patience with them, continue to love them, and trust in Heavenly Father and the power He has to change their hearts.

Alice is another amazing investigator that we´re teaching right now. Her daughter, Deise, met and was taught and baptized by the missionaries when she was 15 years old. And now, 8 years later, she is finishing her mission in Rio de Janeiro and coming home at the end of the month! It´s obvious that her mom, Alice, has a lot of love and admiration for her daughter...she always reads every letter and email that Deise (Sister Wolf) writes and she is soooo excited for her to come home! I feel like I she´s already a dear friend from all the things I´ve heard about her....haha, it will be fun to meet her when she comes home! Alice has been starting to come to church and to bring her other 2 children with her. It´s really wonderful to see how much of a difference one person can be for her entire family!!!

Annnnnd.......The very most exciting news of the week came on Friday afternoon when I received a call from Sister Inhuma in Timbaúva. I was thinking that she was probably just calling to wish me an early Happy New Years...but the excitement in her voice when I answered the phone told me that it was something even more wonderful. "Sister Gee!!! I had to call you because I wanted you to be the first one to know....Michele is going to be baptized!!" :D I am so so happy!!! I love Michele and I am so happy that I got to know her! I know that Heavenly Father leads us to His children that are ready to receive the gospel. I have met so many people here in Brazil that have been amazing examples to me...of faith and love and trust in Heavenly Father.

I love being a missionary and I´m very happy that I still have a whole year to be here in Brazil and to be serving the Lord! 2011 is going to be wonderful!!!!
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!!! I hope you have a wonderful 15th birthday on Saturday!!!! Guess what....your birthday is going to be the day of Manoel´s baptism!!! It´s going to be a happy day! I´ll be thinking about you! Have a fun one :D I love you, Kyle!
I love you all!!!!
Love,
Sister Jamie Gee