14 Months, Y'all!

Can you believe that time can pass by so quickly?? I can't. I just can't. So I just won't. Ha there!!!

Tuesday: Well, lots of stuff fell through like usual. But! All is well! We had a really good lesson with João, cousin to Irmão João. We taught him the Restoration, and goodness. He is prepared. He told us that he is always searching, and never seems to find what he is looking for. We testified that he has found what he is looking for, and invited him to baptism. He accepted, but didn't accept a date because he wants to come to church first. Unfortunately he wasn't able to come this week because his daughter was robbed at gunpoint towards the end of the week, and he basically spent the rest of the week helping her out.
That night, we went over to Irmã Carmens! That was fun!! She pulled out her phone and who did she call? Sister Rojas!! Oops. I mean Divina. Sister Barraza was the first sister that she trained, so Divina got to talk to her first and last "daughters" in the mission. It was so weird but so good to talk to her.

Wednesday: We taught a guy named Marcos. Well, we listened for the majority of the time. He was so grateful that we took time to try and help him, and was immensely grateful for the present we gave him- the Book of Mormon. It was a spiritually filled lesson, and when we finally got out we were shocked to see that 2 hours went by!
Then, we went to visit Fabiana. Only her parents were there, so we taught them the Plan of Salvation. They loved it! They still aren't sure about baptism, but they told us that they would pray about it.
Then, we had a Noite Familiar with Fabio and Natara. That was so fun! We discussed faith, and had them do the faith part of the Developing Christlike Attributes section of PMG. Fabio seems pretty animated, and told us he would study the parts we marked in True to the Faith.
We also got to see Irmã Dirci. We got to teach her, and her husband who isn't a member! It was awesome. And, she made us tapeoka. I don't know how to explain it, but its delicious and I had two.

hn Thursday: I was on exchanges with Sister Barraza! Naturally, everything fell through. But! We did get to teach Vitor! He is just so cute. I think he understands more and more each time we teach him, and he reassured us that he is still thinking and praying about baptism.
That night, we went to Marcelo. It was especially hard for him because soon it will be Father's Day here in Brasil, and his father passed away within this last year. We listened to him, and were able to testify to him. Sister Barraza has an amazing voice, so we sang Onde Encontrar a Paz? for him. The Spirit was so strong, and the moment was beautiful.
On our way back, we passed the dollhouses that Hamilton builds. I was pointing them out to Sister Barraza when suddenly, I almost died. Okay, a little dramatic. I'm not sure what happened, but I rolled my ankle pretty bad.

Thankfully we were only 15 minutes away from our house, so we got home fine. It was kind of crazy to see how swollen it was when we finally got to the house. I put it up and iced it for planning, and then went to sleep.

Friday: When I woke up, my ankle hurt like crazy. It was so stiff! I limped around getting ready for Zone Conference and took some Ibuprofen. Thankfully there were lots of open seats on the Knight Bus so I didn't have to stand!
Zone Conference was amazing!!!

Presidente Broadbent is truly an inspired servant of the Lord. I left more motivated than ever to prepare my investigators to be "born again" and not just baptized.
While there, I asked our Zone Leaders Elders Anfuso (de Argentina) and Lago (de Manaus) to give me a blessing of health for my ankle. Before we left, we put some natural oil on my ankle that Sister Duncan had in her purse. It smelled weird. When we got back to our house to put the materials away, it was about 6:30 at night. My ankle was hurting a lot, so I asked Sister Duncan if we could stay inside so I could take care of my ankle, and not lose any more proselyting time during ther rest of the week. We called our District Leader and got permission, and so ice it was! I even went to bed early.

Saturday: Woke up and my ankle wasn't nearly as swollen or stiff! I was worried when we left for lunch, but I didn't feel any pain in my ankle. The power of Priesthood is real. The only times during the day when I felt any pain in my ankle were when I was sitting down at members houses. And even then, it wasn't that much. Crazy huh? Miracles are real.
We taught Vitor, and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!!! He promised to pray with us in the next lesson! He has never prayed in front of us before, so I am pretty stoked!!! :D He is also going to make pão de queijo for us this Saturday! Woot woot!
We also were finally able to teach Santa again. We sang for her and read a little in the Book of Mormon with her, and marked another appointment for this week.
Then, we went to see if Fabio was fasting like he said he would but found him playing pool at the bar in the street... He wasn't drinking, just playing the game, but it made us nervous and a little... okay, a lot sad.
We had a good lesson after with Dirci and her son Diogo, who is also a member, and then went to the activity! We played the game Gato e Rato. I will play that with y'all when I get home eventually.

Sunday: Fast Sunday! It was amazing! We were finally able to teach Maria Helia again! Halleluyer! And then we were able to mark an appointment with Marco and Alessandra.
Then, that night, we had a really good spiritual discussion with Natara, her mom, and Fabio's sister Andrea. It was awesome. Plus, they fed us some of their leftover churrasco.

Update on Portuguese: At the Zone Conference, I talked to Sister Broadbent in English, and man! That was difficult! For about 20 seconds, I couldn't remember the word "always" in English and repeated "sempre" about 12 times in Portugese before I remembered it. SUCCESS!

I love you all! The church is true! Pray for missionary opportunities, and then use every chance you get to share your testimonies!

com amor,
Sister Shell