And the Miracles Continue!

Well, I am excited to hear how Brayden's first days in the field have gone!!! I am seriously so proud of my little brother.

Monday: We made pão de queijo successfully!!! It was a pretty awesome experience. Also, you have to use your hands to mix the dough. So it was kind of messy. But we were pretty proud of ourselves. Plus, everyone in our zone was super impressed. Nobody else in our zone knows how to make pão de queijo from scratch. Not even the Brasileiros. BOOYAH.

Tuesday: We taught Maria again, the grandma of Irmão João. We planned to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but ended up just talking about faith and reading Alma 14 with her. All in all, the Spirit was there and leading us the whole time. Sister Duncan and I were so in sync. When Maria asked questions, we both flipped to the same passages of scripture to help her find the answers she wanted. Time and time again, we opened up to the same thing without planning and without mentioning it to each other. Thats how I know that the Spirit was leading us the whole time.
We also taught Irmã Dirci the rest of the Plan of Salvation. That went pretty well, and she showed us the rest of her house. Nossa, their house is fancy! She also made us tapioca again. And we all know that I love tapioca.

Wednesday: We taught Lucas finally!! Oh my goodness, is he prepared! He was a street contact from the other sisters in our ward. We got in touch with him not this Saturday but the one before, and set up a visit for this past Wednesday. Last Sunday he came to church, all by himself, and was taking notes and stuff!!! Needless to say, we were super stoked to teach him.
Our lesson with Lucas went super well, and the Spirit was so strong. And he felt that what we were saying was true. He wasn't sure, but he wanted to believe. His faith is so strong! We invited him to be baptized on August 24th. AKA THIS SUNDAY THAT IS COMING UP! He accepted, but said he isn't sure about the date and that he will pray about it. Then, he gave us some chocolate thing he made for us, and we set up to come back on Saturday.
Also, it was raining that day. I got an umbrella that was six reais that broke immediately after during all the whirlwinds and downpour. So I got another one much nicer that still hasn't broken yet. Halleluyer! The whole thing was so ironic, classic and hilarious that I was just cheerful and laughing the whole day. All the people we talked to walked away smiling. Win!
We were supposed to have a meeting with our ward mission leader, but it didn't work out. We waited at his house for a while, and when he finally got home from work with pizza, it was basically time for us to leave. We talked about a few things while scarfing down pizza.

Thursday: We taught Vitor about enduring to the end! Which is funny because he has 87 years. Ha ha. Ha.
Then we taught Fabiana's family again. They are so nice, and they always give us way too much food. Thats one thing I love about Brasil. Basically every house you go to, they are like "Oh, you must be hungry because you walk a lot! Here, in ten loaves of bread, some chocolate cake, how about some juice? Oh! We have some leftover rice and beans from lunch if you want? How about some chicken?"
Its great. I love people.
Then, we taught James and Patricia. And thats where I learned that being "dumped" in Porutuguese is the same as getting dumped in English. So that was sad. But we did all we could to help them, and everyone has their choice.
Oh goodness, I almost spelled choice c-h-o-i-s-e. What is the world coming to?

Friday: Everything fell through! Yay!
But! We had a really good lesson with Fabio. Everybody participated and helped out. And laughed. Which is good, because I like to laugh. I really hope he will be able to kick the cigarettes soon and get baptized.
We also were finally able to visit Natanael! He was baptized not too many months ago, and has since stopped coming to church. We talked about the Restoration of the gospel, and he remembered a lot. At the end, we told him that at baptism, he made a COVENANT with Heavenly Father, with God, to keep the commandments and to be at church every single Sunday and that he is breaking that covenant. It was what the Spirit told us to say.
He told us he would come to church.

Saturday: We taught Lucas the Plan of Salvation. He loved it! He felt the Spirit throughout the lesson, understood everything, told us he has been reading and praying. I wanted to die of happiness. I can't even explain how awesome the lesson was. It just was amazing. The Spirit was there the whole time. He is so prepared.
We visited Vitor again, and we talked about Missionary Work, which he is already doing by the way. He talks about us and the church with everybody. Its awesome. We also talked about how he will, one day, see his wife again, and how she is waiting for him to enter the temple and promise to be with her forever. The Spirit was very strong in that moment.
We had rescheduled our meeting with our WML for that night, but again it got cancelled. The Bishop decided to have a meeting with us since our WML couldn't, and it was super helpful on both sides.

Sunday: MIRACLES!! We had Ward Counsel, and then oh boy. We had 5 investigators at church and Natanael came as well! Cida came, Bryan came, Vitor came, FABIO came, and Lucas came as well! Man, I was super happy.
Then, of course, everything fell through. But I didn't even care because I was just so happy with all the people who came to church!
That night, we had a lesson with Paulo and Carolina. They are Espiritas, and all I will say is Espiritismo doesn't make any sense to me. When we got home, we both just felt kind of frustrated and sad.
But! All is well! They still like learning and I know the Spirit will touch their hearts.

I love you all a ton!! Can you believe that this transfer only has 2 weeks left?? Eep!!
Here's a scripture for you all:
"Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
Jude 1:21

com amor,
Sister Shell