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| Sister Shell and one of Hamiliton's Dollhouses |
Monday: Good P-Day, and after our district meeting, we had a Family Night with Fabio and Natara!! It was pretty good. Fabio is still struggling with smoking, but I have faith that he will be able to stop completely, soon, and be baptized!
Tuesday: We ate lunch with Irmã Alice, and shared a spiritual thought with her and her son, who hasn't been to church in a while and usually doesn't listen to our spiritual thought. So that was cool!
Our appointment after lunch didn't work out, and Sister Duncan wasn't feeling too well. So we decided to go back to our house for a minute, grab some more copies of the Book of Mormon to give to a member who wanted them, and then head back out.
This is not what happened.
What happened is that Sister Duncan basically ran up stairs and threw up a lot. We stayed in our house until that night, when Irmã Carmen wanted us to come over so she could give Sister Duncan that doesn't have gluten. Because Sister Duncan has a gluten allergy.
But! Sister Green was in our area for the day and it was our 14 month mark! So we basically had a party together.
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| A cute puppy Sister Shell got to play with on her 14th month mark! |
Then, we went to teach Vitor. If you remember from last week, he promised that in our next visit, he would pray. Well, after we finished teaching, we asked if he would pray. He started talking about how he likes listening, and feels more comfortable listening, but we reminded him that he promised and asked again. And he just looked at us and I thought "Man, he's not gonna do it..."
AND THEN.
Then he said, "Well, I'll try."
AND HE PRAYED!!!!! It was so cute and sincere. And I was smiling like an idiot through it all, and when we all said "amen" I looked up and shed a tear or two because I was just so darn happy! Seriously, it was one of my favorite moments here in Brasil so far.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Then, everything else fell through that day. But I didn't even care because I was just so happy about Vitor. Plus, we saw more than half the moon at 3:45 and it was super bright. What the heck??
Thursday: We were finally able to teach Maria again- the grandmother of Irmão João. We read in the Book of Mormon with her. She still isn't sure about everything, but she liked what we read and felt the Spirit.
Then, after literally everything was falling through and it was kind of a miserable day, we decided to try James and Patricia for the millionth time, and see if they were home. Well guess what!!! They were! And we had a really good discussion with them. We taught them about Joseph Smith and how the gospel is restored. They seemed to understand everything and accepted baptism!
Never give up! Never surrendur! (I am still not sure if thats how you spell it... I stared at that word for a good thirty seconds. Is it surrendur or surrender? Someone please tell me... this computer speaks and writes Portuguese so it highlights everything in red...)
Friday: Sexta festa! We went by to thank Jani for the beautiful scarves that she gave us (see the picture of us with Vitor) and had a really good lesson with her. It was all about prayer and the Resurrection. She doesn't believe that families can actually be together forever, and believes that we will forget our families after this life. That just makes me so sad, and so grateful for the knowledge and testimony I have that my family really is eternal.
Then, we taught Andrea again! This time it was the Plan of Salvation. She paid so much attention and loved it all. You could tell that everything really hit home for her. It was incredible.
Then, we did a quick follow up with Fabio and headed off to a bunch of other people who weren't home. Until we stopped by Hamilton's house!! His whole family was coming over, so we had a quick lesson with his daughter.
We tried to include Hamilton in the lesson and the prayer, but as he put it, "Sou ateu, graças a Deus! I'm an atheist, thanks to God!" Yupp. But we testified that God loved him and that he is God's son and he couldn't argue with that. I mean, when you tell people that someone loves them, what can they do? Its not a bad thing. I mean, God loves everyone. So I just kept telling him that, and that his family only talks to him about God because they love him too. Love, love, love! That really is what its all about.
Saturday: We finally were able to contact Lucas! He was a referral from the other sisters in our ward. He looks kind of like a Brazilian Spock. Live long and prosper, my friends. And goodness, is he prepared!!! We taught part of the Restoration on the doorstep, gave him a pamphlet and the Book of Mormon and invited him to church the next day. He told us he would come, which is what everyone says. We marked an appointment with him for this Wednesday and then as we were leaving, said, "Tchau! Até quarta!" And he corrected us and said "Até a manha!" Oh snap! That was pretty cool.
After we visited Janaina, and taught the Plan of Salvation. She is coming back to church and it was such a good lesson. She remembered tons of things and she is just adorable. I love her so much!
Then, we went to have pão de queijo with Vitor!!! He even gave us the recipe. We are going to try and do it ourselves today. I'll tell you how that goes! I wanna make it for y'all when I get back. Perhaps for Thanksgiving for everybody. Because it is just so good. Then, after our lesson with him, we asked if he would pray. He explained again that he would rather listen and that he prayed the other day. But then!! Our superhero members jumped in and helped...
AND VITOR PRAYED AGAIN!!!! I was so happy, I grinned like an idiot again, and I nearly cried again. SO much happiness. I just can't explain it.
Then, we had our auction!! For the past while, we've had a missionary competition in the ward. For everything the members in our ward to to help us our with missionary work, they gain "ontis" the money that the Nephites use in the Book of Mormon. At the auction, we all got together and they bought things with their ontis. Irmã Deborah was pretty hilarious. "Marido! Cumpre, por favor! POR FAVOR!! MARIDO!!!" Because they had 50 ontis, the mosst anyone had, and she wanted lots of things. So she would grab him, or his shirt, and yank him and yell out "5 ontis! 5! Ah! 7! 7 ontis!"
It was pretty funny. And the celebrations were hilarious too.
Sunday: Lo and behold, Brasil Spock- aka Lucas- showed up at church!! We got there a few minutes late and peeked into Priesthood through the window but didn't see anyone. But then! Irmã Deborah said that he was here and that two brothers of the ward were helping him out. Woot woot!
When we got to Gospel Principles, my happiness level nearly exploded. He brought his Bible, he brought the Book of Mormon, he brought the pamphlet, and he took notes! I about died. MILAGRES!
During sacrament, he asked a few really good questions that I was able to help answer, and he continued to take notes. He really liked church and is excited for us to teach him this week. Woot-woot! #livelongandprosper
Are hashtags even a thing anymore??
Then, we stopped by to wish Vitor a feliz dia dos pais- because it was Father's Day here, happy Father's day to everyone again!- and met his whole family. That was fun.
Then, we had a really good lesson with Carolina and Paulo. And their little girl saw that I looked like Anna from Frozen, went and put on her "Anna" dress and put on music from Frozen and started singing right along- in English.
I'm not trunky, I promise, but I am pretty stoked to see what all the hype is about.
Ah! No time left!! I love you all!! Thank you for everything!!!
com amor,
Sister Shell
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