Tchauzinho

Well, today is Sister Rojas' last day with me! And its not even a full day. She's leaving at 1:30 for São Paulo. Right after lunch. To conserve time, we are emailing at a different location today and unfortunately I cannot email pictures this week because this computer won't work with my camera... So I forwarded some that Sister Laura forwarded to me last week!

Also, we have new rules for P-Day so from now on I will probably be emailing around this time or earlier. Our P-Days will now start at 9 in the morning right after personal studies and end at 5, and we will have district meetings at 5 on P-Days now. Just a heads up :)

The District

Oh, and we got transfer calls today. Surprise, I'm staying in Utinga! And so is Sister Carazas. Her companion is going to be one of the Sister Training Leaders here. We don't know who the other one is yet. I dont know who my new companion will be but I am sure she will be awesome! I won't be training this transfer, so it will be someone already out here. I've been pestering Sister Rojas ever since we got the call to find out who my new comp could be haha

Here goes the rundown!

Monday: We taught Fabiana and her family again, and they were so sweet and made us dinner! I was pretty happy. They were sad that Sister Rojas is leaving.
And miracle of miracles! We have a new mission standard to stop at least ten people a day, personally. Twenty people as a companionship. For some reason, this is really difficult for me. Sister Rojas can stop 17 people all by herself, no problem. But, this week, I decided I would try harder to reach this goal. And Monday, even though it was P-day, I stopped ten people!! Woot woot! Hey, it may not seem like a lot of people, but it is. Trust me.

Tuesday: We taught cute Vitor! And then basically everything else fell through. But, we were able to teach Kailaine and Vitoria! Kailaine and Vitoria are so cute and prepared. I just love them so much! Kailaine even made us some delicious cake. During our lesson, we talked to them about the Atonement a lot, and they finally started to understand it. It was a really neat moment. "Wait, wait, wait! You mean Jesus suffered that much for EVERYBODY?! I mean, just for me, thats a lot!" It was really sweet.
Oh, and I stopped 10 people again! Woohoo!

Wednesday: Guess what? Everything fell through again. But! We were able to visit Marcelo. He really is pretty sick. He was feeling pretty down, and kind of hopeless. He opened up to us, and we had to change the lesson plan. We were going to teach the Restoration, but the Spirit prompted otherwise because he needed something else. While Sister Rojas was testifying and sharing about trials to him, I flipped open to D&C 121. This is where Joseph Smith is in jail, and prays to Heavenly Father. Joseph was super discouraged and going through a lot, and the response he got is just amazing. I read some verses with him, we discussed them, and then I read them to him again but I put his name in there. It meant a lot to him. The Spirit was so strong as we both testified.
Heavenly Father is here for each one of us. He understands us completely. Turn to Him.

Thursday: Well, I was on exchanges with Sister Carazas. And we spent the whole day at the hospital. Not for me, don't worry, for her. She's okay, but ever since she got here to Brasil, she wakes up with so much pain in her stomach and major headaches. So we finally went to see what they could do for her. Nothing turned up in all the tests they did, but they did perscribe some good medication for her.
And, I still stopped 10 people! Making 40 from Monday to Wednesday. Woot woot!

Friday: We taught cute Vitor again, with Irmã Andrea. And he made us pão de queixo! For Sister Rojas. He is so sweet and amazing. He told us that he can really feel our love for him, and that we feelmore like children to him than his own children at times. It was a really tender moment, and I know that love that he can feel from us is really the love of Christ.
That night, we had our Festa Caipira! My first festa here in Brasil! That was pretty fun. Tons of food, tons of games, and tons of people. I will for sure send pictures next week :)
I stopped 9 people, which is still pretty good for me people!

Saturday: I was super tired and out of it because Friday I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling pretty sick. I couldn't sleep for about two hours.

I didn't feel tired all day, but I wasn't completely all there. So I only managed to stop 4 people by myself :/ But I talked to many more with Sister Rojas!
We had a lesson with a woman who hasn't been to church in a really long time named Silvania. She even made us cake! Of corn! Which, by the way, is delicious.
Then, that night, I was with Sister Carazas again so Sister Rojas and Sister Laura could visit some of their converts from their missions. Sister Carazas and I taught a good lesson for a girl who is starting to come back to church.

Sunday: Literally everything fell through. I told Sister Rojas that Heavenly Father doesn't want her to feel too sad about leaving, so He gave her a rough day so she would want to leave. Haha :)
But! We did have a lesson with Andrea, the sister of Fabio, and Natara was there. And Natara made us some cake that was sooooo good its ridiculous. And then she let us take some home. Seriously, I am going to get fat here.

Sister Rojas and Sister Laura packed a lot last night, and Sister Rojas was really sad. But I told her what I will tell y'all.
Goodbyes here aren't really the end. We really will see each other again. So for me, this goodbye isn't so sad. Because its not really "tchau" its"tchauzinho." We will see each other again.

This church is true. And if you don't know that for yourself, ask Heavenly Father. He will tell you, just like He told me and just like He has told millions of other people.


com amor,
Sister Shell