Well, its almost my BIRTHDAY MONTH!! Thats right, folks, I'll be 21!! Super old, right?
Oh, and this week, I'll hit 16 months on the mission. How in the world does time go by so fast??
Oh, and this is week 5 of the transfer.
Don't worry, I am totally NOT PANICKING.
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| Sister Shell showing how mature she has become!! :) |
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| Yummy Treats!! |
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| The District! |
Tuesday: We had a lesson with Lia, which went really well. She's about 60 years old, and for some reason, at the beginning of our lesson, she started talking about a very neat experience that she had when she was younger. At the end, she just said, "I don't even know why I'm telling y'all this." We knew why. We testified to her about temples, because she had been talking about her mother who passed away before she ever really got to know her. I've never felt so strongly the Spirit of Elijah in a lesson. The whole time I was just thinking "No, she HAS to get baptized!! Her mom is right here waiting for her!" The lesson was completely led by the Spirit, and while she didn't agree to baptism, she did say that she would pray about it.
We also taught Ana Cristina that night! Thats always hilarious. It was a good lesson. Its been hard for her the past couple of weeks to come to church, with how much she works and how tired she is, and the fact that her husband is the pastor of another church. But we love her and she just loves the gospel!
Wednesday: We had a lesson with cute little Janete! We planned, for some unkown reason, to teach her about templos. When we got there, she too started talking about her mom and parents, and how much she misses them and her other relatives that have passed away. It was another lesson where the Spirit of Elijah was just so strong. The Spirit was once again tangible, and she promised to pray about baptism.
Then, Denise (the wife of Bispo) to a lesson we had planned with Larissa e Lysa, but Lysa wasn't home yet. Denise asked where else we wanted to go, and we got the impression to go visit Oscar. We stopped him in the street a little while ago, nine days after his wife passed away, and hadn't been able to contact him since. We got there, and he didn't have much time, but we left a scripture and the Spirit was there. He told us to come back, so we definitely will!
That night we had an atividade at the church to start off our Ontis competition, just like the one that we were doing back in Utinga. For every thing that the members do to help the work, they get little "ontis" the money in the Book of Mormon. After a month, we're going to have an auction where they can buy cake, cookies, etc. with their ontis. I'm super excited to get this thing started!!
Thursday: We had weekly planning and then Zone Conference, which was amazing!! I almost don't remember anything because I GOT A PACKAGE AND I WAS SO HAPPY!!!! :D Thanks mom :)
It was a really good Zone Conference. I escaped bearing what is nicknamed a "dying testimony" because Presidente said that he wants everybody to do that at the P-Day for the whole mission. Maybe I'll escape that one too and there will be another smaller zone conference or something.
Eep!
Anyways. Zone Conference was all about working more with members, and capturing the true "vision" of this mission. As they were talking I had a thought- our vision is not doing 500764 contatos every day, or baptizing everyone so we can boost our numbers, or even having 70 Noite Familiares every week. The true vision, really, is the Savior, kneeling in that garden, paying for every single one of us. The vision is to get everyone to feel and accept that sacrifice, and to change because of it. THAT is the vision.
Friday: We taught Dea about the Restoration of the Gospel at 10 in the morning. We'd already marked with her, but we ended up waking her and Ana up because they forgot haha. But it was good, the Spirit was there, and they are just so cute :) I love them!!
We were also finally able to have a lesson with Larissa and Lysa about the importance of reading scriptures, because Lysa has been struggling a bit with reading every day. Hey, its tough when you are 11!
We went and visited Rita and found out that she is moving. Like to another part of the country. I'm so sad. Ramily is staying here, but I don't think she will be living in our area. It was sad :( I love them so much!
Then, we were super excited to have an appointment with Viviane, a woman we stopped to talk to in the street the other day. She's a mom with 3 kids, and we were super excited when she told us to come by at 8 o'clock on Friday night. We just really want to teach a family! So we got there, rang the doorbell 4 times, called her name until we were hoarse. Nothing. I was pretty sad about that one. But, we prayed to know what else to do and we were like "Well, we still need some contatos for today." So we walked off to do contatos. Randomly, Sister Rice decides to call this less active named Cicero that they met in the street forever ago, who is rarely ever in Jardim Climax. He answered! And told us he was in Climax!! We met up with him at this little park.
Y'all. He is the Brasileiro, older version of Frank!!! Its hilarious. It just makes me so happy.
Anyways.
That lesson was totally led by the Spirit. He tells us he doesn't want to come back, but then he asks us for scriptures and for talks to read. And he does everything we ask him to do. The Spirit was so strong. I might have seen a few tears leave his eyes. We kept inviting him, and testifying to him, and I knew he was feeling the Spirit because he kept saying "No, stop, please, don't..." But we told him we wouldn't stop. This is our job, and its important. At one point, I told him to stop denying the fact that Heavenly Father is calling him back, and to stop denying the Spirit. He acknowledged that thats exactly what he is doing, and told us he doesn't want to come back. I told him that its not about what he wants, its about what the Lord wants. He ended up thanking us, still telling us that he didn't want to come back, but promising to read all the scriptures and talks.
It was such a miracle. Thats why our lesson fell through.
Saturday:Lots of things fell through, but! We had a meeting with our LMA that was really productive. That night, as I was doing a contact at an onibus and Sister Rice was trying to help even though her voice is totally gone (for the first time EVER in her life) who would get off the onibus other than Cicero! He didn't see us. I finished talking to the guy (who's name also happened to be Cicero) and we called Cicero. Sister Rice tried to talk to him first but he had no idea what was going on, so she shoved the phone at me. I said hello, and the first thing he said was, "WHO was that? That was horrible!" It was so funny. We told him we saw him get off the onibus, and he was like "WHAT???" So he came back and we had another little lesson with him.
The Lord is really trying to pull him back. Its amazing how much Heavenly Father loves each of his children.
Sunday: We were super excited because Pamela said she would go get Dea and Ana again for church. We sat through all of Relief Society looking through the door and wondering where they were. Towards the end, Pamela's head pops up in the door window, and she motioned for us to come out. She explained that she went, woke them up, and was waiting for them to get ready. Then, Dea's mom showed up and told Pamela that Dea and Ana would go to HER church instead, and talked and talked to Dea and told her she had to come. Pamela pleaded, like a true returned missionary, with Dea, telling her that she could visit the next week at her mom's church, that she needed to go. But, Dea's mom must have really put on the pressure because Dea finally told Pamela to go ahead and go to church, that they would go to her mom's church, and that they would come the next week.
It was so sad.
And Ana Cristina didn't come. But! Lysa and Larissa were there, and so was a less active we met and talked to and invited once on the street! So that was good.
We ate lunch with alllll of the Primary kids because it was the Day of the Children here. It was so fun.
Then, our lessons fell through. We walked to the Women's Conference, and I did 34 contatos. I felt pretty good about that :)
The Women's Conference was amazing. As soon as the first musical number started, the Spirit overwhelmed me, and I almost started crying. It was incredible. I got this feeling during it that Heavenly Father is very happy with me. It was a good feeling. It was fun to hear in Portuguese, but I also can't wait to read it in English haha.
I am so excited for General Conference!!! Every single person who reads this needs to watch it.
I love you all!!!!!
com amor,
Sister Shell
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