Bursting with joy happy!

Hello Gee family that I love!

This was another great week in Rio Pardo! The days and weeks are flying by and we are meeting and teaching wonderful people every day!
Guess what? Roque´s family all came to church on Sunday...even Darlã and Tatiane, Beka´s two youngest children. Darlã is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy because we told him we would give him one in english as soon as he finished in portuguese. :) Haha..he is awesome and is already telling us that he´s going to serve a mission. His excitement for the church is really having a huge influence on his family too...especially on Beka. She went from not really having much interest in the church to begin reading the Book of Mormon with her family every night and to wanting to bring her whole family with her to church each Sunday. I really love this family...they can all just sit and talk and laugh for hours! It reminds me of home :)

Antônia . The church leaders here are helping us so much with her and her family. Sérgio, the 2nd counselor came with us last Friday to teach a lesson. He said that had been addicted to cigarettes since he was 15 years old and that he had tried to stop many many times before he found the church, but never suceeded. Sérgio told Antônia how he had made the decision to stop and prayed to Heavenly Father for strength...and 9 days later was able to be baptized and never felt the desire to smoke again. It was a great lesson and Antônia seemed really motivated to try again. On Saturday Sister Grant and I dropped off a jar that we had decorated and filled with hard candies for her to suck on and scriptures for her to read that talked about faith and trust in the Lord. I was super anxious to see how she was doing so we stopped by quickly yesterday in between visits. Antônia wasn´t at home but her 16 year old daughter Tatiane told us that she has been reading the Book of Mormon constantly and hasn´t smoked a single cigarette since the lesson with Sérgio!!! I was so so happy...like bursting with joy happy! it´s amazing to see how the Lord always helps us when we turn to Him and trust in Him.

Presidente Rogério has been talking about using the church´s program to hold a course here in Rio Pardo for people that want help to overcome addictions. I think it´s a great idea...we are teaching many people right now that I know would be interested and that it could really help. One in particular is Fábio....one of my favorite pesquisadores here! Fábio is such a good guy with a good heart and a lot of desire to have a better life...but he is caught up in so many addictions. Before he didn´t seem to have any interest in the church and we would just see him occasionally when we would visit his mom, Suzete. But a few weeks ago he came to us asking for help and telling us that he would do anything to have more peace in his life and to have God in his life. I was so excited to see his humble and sincere desire...I know that he is ready to receive the gospel and that he is going to find the joy that he is looking for! We have been teaching him a lot these weeks...and he even is reading the Book of Mormon, came to church and accepted a baptism date. When we are there with him he is determined and excited to change and the prayers that he says are sincere and full of faith...but then when we leave he seems to go right back to the things that are pulling him down. But I know that slowly he is feeling and wanting the difference that he has felt through the gospel. The gospel changes everyone! This friday night we´re going to have a family night/movie night with some of the the other families in the ward to watch the Testaments and he is going to come! It will be perfect to help him make more friends in the ward...and good to keep him away from the friday night bars and parties :)

On Saturday Larissa and Camila. I went with Larissa to Sílvia and Erialdo´s (she is dating their nephew, Paulo, so they´re already good friends) , Alessandra´s (it was great for her to make a friendship with Larissa...another moça in the ward!!) and Elizângela´s. It was a super fun day and the investigators really liked Larissa....haha, it was funny though, I thought we were walking sooooo slow and Larissa kept asking me if we could slow down! I guess I´ve just gotten used to the missionary stride :) I love having branch missionaries!! It was awesome to get twice the normal Saturday visits done!! We all met back at the bus stop so Larissa and Camila could head back to Ramiz Galvão and then Sister Grant and I hurried to our last appointment with a new couple that we are teaching. Gisele and Giovanni...they are so amazing! They are a young couple with a lot of enthusiasm and they already seem like our best friends! Gisele is 4 months pregnant with their first baby and super excited. Giovanni works in Santa Cruz and A LOT...he drives a moving van all over Brazil! But he and Gisele seem really interested in the church and want to come next week. Giovanni said he´d even be sure to leave his schedule open next Sunday...which is hard for him to do!

Oh, and do you remember Vanessa? I met her on the bus from Santa Cruz the very first week I was in Rio Pardo and right away knew that she was AMAZING! But she lives in Pântano Grande (a small city 20 minutes away from Rio Pardo that doesn´t have a chapel) so we weren´t able to visit her or teach her the lessons. I gave her a Book of Mormon though and she seemed really excited to read it. Well, anyway, we were almost done with our visits on Wednesday night and getting ready to head back to the chapel for a meeting with Presidente Rogério when I got this text: "Olá sister, como vc está? Tenho muita vontade de ver você. Tenho saudades. Eu estou em rio pardo hoje e gostaria de te ver. Não vá embora de rio pardo sem me avisar. Quero marcar com vc uma data para mim ir na sua igreja. Q Deus esteja com vocês!" It made me so happy to hear from her! We ran over to Ana´s house to see her really quickly, but she was already heading back to Pântano. She told us that she has read almost all of the Book of Mormon and that she really loves it! She´s coming to stay the night at Ana´s next week so she came come with us to church on Sunday! She is such an amazing person....

Well! I don´t have a lot of time today because it´s going to be an extra short P-day! We´ve got to get home and pack because tonight we´re spending the night in Santa Cruz with the sisters from Campus Norte and from Venâncio Aires so we can be up and ready early tomorrow morning for the bus to Porto Alegre! I love Zone Conference! It´s going to be super fun...and guess what, it´s Sister Inhuma last one! She´s going home on August 16th! Crazy....

I love you alll!! Soooo much! Keep having fun and remember that you´re always in my prayers!
Love,
Sister Jamie Gee

Freezing on the Fourth; missionaries knock doors, but it´s the members that open them

Alô querida família!
Wow! You all still know how to party! That sounds like an incredible 4th of July!!! Barbeque and 5K races and marching band and family and fireworks and camping and David Archuleta...sounds like it was great! Don´t worry...Sister Grant and I did stop for a few minutes to remember the 4th of July. We even sang the Star Spangled Banner for the members at lunch!...but you know, it´s super hard to be patriotic when wearing 6 layers of think wool sweaters and still feeling like your fingers are freezing!! haha, it was hard for me to imagine all of you back at home enjoying the beautiful Utah summer! haha, though the muddy camping trip sounds like it could have gone a little better :) Fun though!

This week has been a lot warmer though! Sister Grant and I are loving it! ....haha, okay Sister Grant is making me write here that one night last week I woke her up at 2 am, throwing off all my freezing sheets and blankets and remaking my bed in the middle of the night in an effort to get warmer, pulling all the covers suuuper tight and tucked the edges under the mattress... And now she keeps laughing at me about it :)

So anyway, this week...what a great week full of lessons and wonderful people and the Spirit! On Thursday night we had an amazing family night with Fernanda and Rogério (my absolute favorite family here!) and their friends Paulo César and Lúcia. It was great...we watched the Restoration movie and talked about Joseph Smith, Fernanda and Rogério bore powerful testimony about the gospel and then we finished the night eating Fernanda´s amazing galinhada (chicken and rice....sooooo good!) It was definitely a success and they´re excited to come to church with us next Sunday! I love it when the members work their magic...it reminds me of a quote that President Hinckley said, "missionaries knock doors, but it´s the members that open them!" And the members here in Rio Pardo are always always opening doors and hearts for us!

Speaking of family night...we have another one marked this night with Presidente Rogério and Elaine and their friends, Marcírio and Meri. Marcírio is such a great guy...and super super smart! We met him last week when we brought him a Book of Mormon that Presidente Rogério had dedicated for him and I was amazed by how much he already knew about the church. We just taught about the Book of Mormon and the lesson was still over an hour long because of all the questions that he asked. It was awesome! I love it when we find people to teach that really think and ponder about what we are teaching...they are the ones that really begin to see the importance and truth of it all! Marcírio had already researched a lot about the church and had a lot of questions about the pioneers and about the early church. He asked a lot of questions about polygamy too...not something we have to deal with very much in Brazil. I think it was the first time for me and I´ve been here a year! But we just testified about the Prophet Joseph Smith and how we knew that he was a true prophet of God and doing exactly what was revealed to him as the true will of God. Sometimes we don´t comprehend everything that God comprehends, but we can know that when we´re following the counsel of the prophet we never have to worry or doubt that we´re doing exactly what God wants us to do. We are so blessed to have a living prophet!

Oh, and do you remember how I told you about the new ward missionaries that were called here? On Saturday afternoon one of them, Camila, came with us the entire afternoon! It was great...she is such a sweet and loving girl and knows a lot of people here, so it really helped to have her on the visits. The best was with Antônia...we have been visiting with her for a while and I know that she knows the church is true, but it was nice for her to hear Camila´s conversion and baptism story. It has been really hard for Antônia to stop smoking, but she is very determined right now and really wants to be ready to be baptized this Saturday. I´m excited for her and we´re praying that she´ll be able to stay strong and overcome her addiction...I know that Heavenly Father is going to see her desire and her faith and effort and will bless her! I´m sad that Elias still isn´t ready to make the same kind of commitment...but hopefully seeing Antônia´s baptism will help give him the same desire.

Well, I´m happy to hear you´re all doing well at home! Next summer I´ll be home to celebrate it with you all :) But for now, I´m loving every minute that I have in Brazil as a missionary. It´s wonderful!
Oh and guess what, next week we´re going to Porto Alegre again! Zone Conference on July 20th!! Yay!
I love you soooo much!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Staying in Rio Pardo; Proven wrong by Erialdo; Simone and Danilo

Hey!!!!!
Guess what???!! I´m guessing you already know by all of the exclamation points..but I´ll say it anyway...I´M STAYING IN RIO PARDO!!!!! :) And Sister Grant too :D
That´s pretty much the most exciting news of the week!!! Actually it is pretty crazy, but my entire district is going to be staying! This will be the transfer on my mission where there hasn´t been a single change in my district! I guess our little filhinhos need to stay in Sunbeams with their mamães and papais a little longer. haha....just kidding. :) But I´m very happy! I love our district and I´m super excited to be staying here in Rio Pardo for another 6 weeks. We are teaching a lot of amazing people right now and we are seeing miracles daily!
This week we started visiting a young couple, Simone and Danilo. They both were baptized into the church as children and I know that they have testimonies of the gospel still. Danilo even got his mission call when he was 19 years old and made it all they way to the airport with his bags packed....but at the last minute decided not to go. It made me sad to hear the regret in his voice when he was talking to us. I felt like I could understand him completely....the worry and the doubt and the fear... It has been over 10 years that he hasn´t gone to church, but I can feel how much he and his wife desire to return.. We talked about the tree of life and how the prophets and the scriptures are always trying to guide us towards the most priceless and pure blessings and joy that we can have. The blessings of the temple! Sometimes the "clouds of darkness" make the path there look complicated or scary and we get discouraged by how far away it seems. But we just have to remember that they are just clouds. It is only Satan that fills our minds with those thought and those doubts...because we have the promise that the path is actually perfectly straight and sure. We just need to grab on and "press forward continually" and anyone can make it with the help of the Lord. He is always reaching for us with his arms open...waiting for us to just grab hold. There was a very wonderful spirit in the room and I felt that I learned a lot myself and felt my testimony grow about the perfect love and plan and kindness that the Lord has for us.

Erialdo is still reading the Book of Mormon...actually I think "devouring it" would be more accurate!!! :) He is so so so so smart and is super excited about the gospel!
It was funny, last night we were at his home to teach Sílvia and Erialdo about the plan of salvation, but their relatives, Geraldo and Mara, were over visiting and had a lot of questions, so we decided to teach them about the church and about our work . Erialdo kept interrupting us and pratically teaching them the entire first lesson! He told them about prophets and about the great apostasy and then how our loving and always kind Heavenly Father called a prophet again to restore the church. I couldn´t have said it any better myself...it was perfect! Oh, and at then Erialdo started telling him about the Book of Mormon and how Joseph Smith´s son had translated it into English. I stopped him and said "No, it was Joseph Smith that translated them, not his son" and he told me "No, Sister Gee, the introduction said it was Joseph Smith Jr. so that means it was Joseph Smith´s son." haha!! It´s true. Wow it feels good to be proven wrong by an investigator :)

It makes me so happy to hear how excited he is and how he really is searching and feasting on the Book of Mormon and the messages we have been sharing with him. The only problem is that even though it is making perfect sense in his head, I´m not sure if he´s felt the importance and truthfulness of our message in his heart. He says "I know it is true...it makes perfect sense. But I am a catholic and I will never be baptized into another church" ....I think one of the hardest things for him to give up will be the catholic saints that he prays to. Nossa Senhora Aparecida is the patron saint of Brazil and the catholics here really love her and pray to her a lot. ....Sister Grant and I are planning on bringing Presidente Rogério along when we teach him about that. Presidente Rogério also was a very strong catholic before he was baptized 4 years ago and I know that his testimony will really help open Erialdo´s eyes and heart. I´m so grateful for members here that love helping with missionary work...it really is the members, their love and friendships and testimonies and examples, that make the missionary work happen!

Oh and guess what else?? Last Sunday two moças in our ward were called to be ward missionaries! Camila Daudt and Larissa Oliveira are both young woman that are super amazing and they´re already very excited to start working. This Saturday I think we´re going to get together to do divisions with them....it will be awesome to be able to get twice the normal amount of visits done on Saturday afternoon!
This has definitely been the best year of my life....I love being a missionary and I love the gospel and I LOVE BRAZIL!!!

And I love love love all of you :)
Love,
Sister Jamie Gee

Wedding of Elizângela and Róges; Sílvia "God putting angels in people´s path"

Oí Gee família!
How are you all doing?
Life is great here in Rio Pardo....but the weather is getting cooooolder every day. Sister Grant and I are really learning the techniques of layering when it comes to the winter clothes....and yes, even she is starting to admit that chimarrão is a good thing early in the icy mornings :) Don´t worry though! The members are keeping us healthy....haha, yesterday we went with Elizângela to buy medicine in the hospital pharmacy and Eliza, a member who is a nurse there and is ALWAYS taking care of us, saw us in the hallway and before we could say a word she grabbed our arms and rushed us into a room to make sure we had our flu shots for the year. :) She is so nice and motherly and amazing..... And I don´t think that there has been a single day this week now that it is getting cold that a member hasn´t invited us over to quickly fill us up with herbal tea or with hot soup before entering back into the chilly night. It´s great!

Saturday was Elizângela and Róges´ wedding! The wedding was held on the same day as the ward´s Festa Junina party so there were sooo many people and so much food. Festa Junina is a Brazilian holiday in the end of June that is probably quickly becoming one of my favorite of all holidays. Everyone dresses up "caipira" (redneck) and drinks quentão, a hot spicy drink made from grape juice and cinnamon and cloves, and eats popcorn, corn bread, peanut brittle and other amazing winter foods. Oh, and the best part...there is always a HUGE bonfire that is built to burn through the entire night. It´s wonderful and a perfect holiday for the cold weather :) I think that this holiday originated from the Catholic church as a day to honor São João (João Batista)...Erialdo told me that Mary´s cousin Elisabeth lit a bonfire to announce to her whole family the birth of her son, John. All I know is that I liked it a lot and it made the wedding party super fun :)

Elizângela looked amazingly pretty and very happy...I played the piano again for the bride´s entrance so I let Jhuly, her 11 year old daughter and one of my best amiguinhas here use my camera to be the wedding photographer. They aren´t the most professional pictures, but Jhuly was very very happy :) Elizângela and Róges are going to be baptized on July 9th. They are a very special family and I am very excited for them and for the changes that I´ve seen in there home these last few months since they have accepted the gospel. I would really love to see their baptism...but transfers are on July 5th, just a few days before, and I have no idea what to expect this time...so we´ll just have to wait and see!

Transfers already...can you believe that it has already been that long???! It really seems like yesterday that Sister Grant arrived here in Rio Pardo. I swear that each transfer gets shorter and shorter!! I would love to say in Rio Pardo again...I think it´s probable because it´s nice to be at least 2 transfers with your trainer, but at the same time it would be the most time that I have ever stayed in one city without being transfered out. Not that I would complain! This is a good place to be a missionary :)
Not that I´m saying life is always perfect... There are definitely some hard days and sometimes people that say or do things that really hurt or make me feel discouraged. But the joy that I feel on the nights where we come back to our apartments knowing that the Holy Ghost touched someone through something we said or taught makes all of the hard times worth it! It´s so wonderful to feel Heavenly Father´s love and feel His powers and realize that He is working miracles here daily! And it´s the amazing friends that I´ve met here and the incredible lessons that I learn from their faith and their selfless love that I will always remember. I love love love being a missionary!!

Oh...and my favorite story of the week. You remember Erialdo and Sílvia, right? The ones that Sister Grant and I found last week that were super excited about the Book of Mormon? Well, they´ve been pretty hard to teach this week because they are both very busy with work and have had family visiting this week for the holidays. But we´ve been trying to stop by regularly to talk to them and to see if they´ve had questions about what they´ve been reading. Well, last night we stopped by on our way home just to quickly say hi and ask how they were doing. Sílvia was waiting for us and ushered us inside her warm house were she had hot chicken soup already waiting on the table (Did I tell you that these people are amazing??) While we were eating I told her how grateful we were for all the kind things they always do for us and for always treating us like we were family. Sílvia just smiled and starting telling us about a song that she had heard as a child and has always loved- a song about God putting angels in people´s path to guide them and to be His messengers. She told us that recently she had been praying that God would help her focus her life more around Him and feel His influence and guidance more strongly in her life. Sílvia told us that it makes her happy to help us because she believes that we are the answers to that prayer. She said that the moments that we have helped them sit down together and pray as a family and talk about God have brought a spirit of peace into her home and she thanked us for helping them feel His presence more strongly in her home. What an amazing and loving person!!! I know that Heavenly Father brought us to her home so she will find the joy and the love that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings! He is anxious to give this gift to every one of His children that will receive it...and he is always leading us to them :)

Well family, I love you all! Thank you for being the best family ever!!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee

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

Baptism of Marion; Teaching with the Spirit

Aló!
Hello family!! How are you all doing? Thank you for the emails!!! I love reading them and it makes me happy to hear that you are all doing great! Sounds like it´s going to be a fun summer for you all!!

Márion was baptized this Saturday! It was a wonderful baptism...it made me happy to see how excited Márion was about his decision to be baptized. His family was super happy too..especially his dad, Carlos. Last night they invited us to their family night that they are now holding weekly...the feeling in their home was so wonderful! What an amazing family!!
I´m still super happy to be here in Rio Pardo...I go to bed every night and wake up every day with a huge smile on my face. :) I love being a missionary!! There is no better feeling than walking home at night and thinking about all the wonderful people that you met and talked to about our loving Heavenly Father and his perfect love and plan....and knowing that the Holy Ghost testified to them through your words. I have no doubt that this is His work!

One of those moments happened on Sunday night. I´ve told you about Paulo, right? Last week we invited him to be baptized on Saturday with Márion...but he wanted more time to really feel prepared. He has been going to church every week for the last 6 months and is making huge sacrifices and changes in his life so that he can follow the counsel of the prophet. He is an amazing example to me and to the whole ward. But anyways, that night as his house, we met his Aunt Sílvia who is amazingly nice and fun and invited us over to her house on Sunday. I could tell that when we got to her house on Sunday that her excitement about our visit was not shared by her husband, Erialdo...he didn´t even come into the room when we first entered. After talking to Sílvia for a while we asked her to invite her husband in to hear the message that we were going to share. Erialdo came in, but he was very skeptical and sarcastic and made it very obvious that he wasn´t interested.... But the spirit in the room completely changed as we started with a prayer and started to teach. What an amazing lesson! I have never felt the spirit helping so much with the lesson testifying so strongly as we were teaching, especially when we were explaining the First Vision. Erialdo asked great questions and was so interested in everything we had to say. As we talked about the church that Jesus Christ established when He was on the earth and the great apostasy he kept saying..."that makes sense...that makes sense..." And then when we talked about the Book of Mormon he said that it seemed right that God would have another witness to clarify the Bible in these last days when so many churches taught different doctrine. He almost jumped out of his chair to grab the Book of Mormon when we told them it was a gift for them....and he was already reading before we even left the door. !!! Haha...Sister Grant and I were hugging each other and jumping up and down as soon as we were on the streets....what an amazing amazing family!! And what an amazing feeling to feel the the Spirit so strongly as we teach about the restoration of the gospel...I know that Erialdo felt it too. I think it is the greatest feeling in the world! I know I say it a lot...but I love the gospel and I love being a missionary!!!!!!

Well family...I´ve got to run again! I hope you´re all doing wonderfully and are happy! Remember that we are so blessed to be members of the church and to know the amazing love that Heavenly Father has for us. He sent Jesus Christ so that we can have true and eternal joy! He called a prophet so that we know what to do to have happiness with our families forever!

I love you all soooo much! Thanks for being the greatest family ever!

Love, Sister Jamie Gee

Sister Grant from Yakima; Member missionaries in Rio Pardo

Aló querida família!!!
Hello from Rio Pardo!!
What a wonderful and fun week here in Rio Pardo!! Last Monday night Sister Corrêa and I made cookies to celebrate her last night in Rio Pardo, and then we left for Santa Cruz early Tuesday morning. I stayed in Santa Cruz all day Tuesday with the sisters there and with Sister Hughes who was also waiting for her new companion. It was their P-day, so they took us to a beautiful park in Santa Cruz, O Parque da Gruta, where the early indians used to live. The park is full of trees, plants, waterfalls and caves to explore....and my favorite part....monkeys!!! :) There were dozens of monkeys in all of the trees...just swinging and jumping around us! haha...it was great.
Sister Grant is amazing!! She is from Yakima, Washington (she says she knows some Stahls from Yakima!) and she is super fun and sweet. She speaks Portuguese really well too and isn´t afraid to teach and bear her testimony...even when she isn´t absolutely sure if she knows how to say it. It´s a great example to me. Sister Grant is so full of great ideas and excitement from the MTC....it´s very contagious and wonderful. I can tell that this transfer is going to be amazing!!
The members are sooo amazing here too! I know I´ve said it a million times...but it´s very true... Yesterday we got a call from the assistents (that always makes me nervous! haha...) When I answered they just said, "Sister Gee...we just wanted to call and congratulate you and Sister Grant on the work last week in Rio Pardo....and to ask you a question.....what do you do to get so many investigators to go to church on Sunday???" Haha... it made me laugh. But really, what we do is very very little! It is the branch here that is on fire with missionary work and they just bring their family and friends with them! Every week! I think that the greatest hint to missionary work that I have learned here in Rio Pardo...use the members! They are the ones that make the work happen.
My favorite story of the week was when we met Juliana´s sister, Daiane. She is 19 years old and works in Santa Cruz, so we had never met her before, but Juliana had told her about our visits and showed her the Book of Mormon that we gave her. Daiane starting reading a few weeks ago and yesterday, when we met her for the first time, she told us that it is her favorite book and that she has already read over half of it. She told us that she didn´t have very much faith in God before, but now when she is reading the Book of Mormon, she can feel that He is near and that He is talking just to her. :) Daiane is so amazing!! We told her that it was the Holy Ghost that she was feeling, telling her that the book is true and invited her to be baptized so that she can have that feeling. Daiane has so much faith...its amazing how humble she is and how quick she is to recognize the spirit.
And do you remember Márion?? Kátia and Carlos´ oldest son...he´s 21 and has been going to church with his family ever since they were baptized and he´s preparing for his own baptism right now. He loves elders quorum and is reading with his Dad every night from True to the Faith ...I´m thinking future missionary :) :) :) We are going to invite Paulo, another young man who has been coming to church for the last few months, to be baptized on the same day as Márion. Paulo is so amazing! He has a strong testimony of the church and has wanted to be baptized a few months ago, but because he owns a tatoo salon and he knows that tattoos go against the prophet´s counsel he decided that he wanted to find a new job before becoming a member of the church. Last week he told us that he found another job and that he is going to give up his tattoo salon. He said that his friends think that he´s crazy...but that he knows that he´s doing what is right. Paulo has so much faith! I have met so many people this last year that have so much faith and desire to do what is right that they are willing to make so many sacrifices and changes in their lives, just trusting in the Lord that He will bless them and that everything will work out. When we have this kind of faith and move forward with confidance in the Lord He can bless us so much! I love being a missionary and having this year and a half to teach the message of the gospel to so many people that I love....but it seems like in the end, I am the one that always ends up learning from all of them! :)
Well, I´m happy to hear that you are all happy and having fun! That´s crazy that it´s still so cold in June! It´s getting cooooold here too. Really really cold....I didn´t even know that it got this cold in Brazil. But I guess I shouldn´t complain because it sounds like you´ve all been living with this for the last 6 months! At least I had a nice hot Christmas :) But don´t worry...Sister Grant and I are staying warm with a lot of coats and blankets (I sleep with 4!) and drinking a lot of chimarrão. That´s the drink you saw in the picture Dad...it´s made out of herbs "mate" and hot water and it´s amaaaazing. I´ll bring lots home for you to try next Christmas :)
I love you alll!!!
Thanks for everything!!
Love, Sister Jamie Gee