11-25-13

this week was proly one of the most diverse weeks I’ve had in a long time!! let me just list off what had happened.....

1. IWENTTOTHEBEACH!!!!!

1.5 we did divisions in abrantes and camaçari 2

2. Valda prayed and got a clear answer

3. A lady from another church was baggin on her answer

4. vil and andrea were all ready to go to church before we got there!

5. zélia went to church without us grabbin her, and she brought her son and daughter!

5.5 made friends with a deaf mute :)

6. We went to visit another church!

7. Made lunch with our investigators!

8. vivaldo stopped smoking cold turkey and they LOVE cevada!!!!

9...our roof fell in!

 

ok so ima try to explain all this! 

1. I went and touched my lil tosies in the sand for the FIRST time!!!! omylanta mama the beach was sooooo beautiful! I cried a lil bit it was so pretty!

 

1.5 did divisions with the sisters and while we were doing a divison with one, the other area called and asked if we could go help them out at that moment because there was a kid with a demon and she wanted to go help him(we ended up not going to this kid!) phew!

 

2. were teaching FAMILIES mama!!! its so...unnatural for an entire family to be interested. Were teaching the family of valda, and the family of Zélia and Vivaldo! so..we challenged valda and her family to pray to know that this church is true and they need to be baptized in this chruch. We went back the other day and valda said she prayed and felt sooo good! she felt the spirit and felt something so good and peaceful! its amazing that she prayed and recognized the answer!

 

3. Sunday we went to grab them for church, and a lady from another church was telling her that her answer was a lie and she cant cheat on her church and that she needed to stay in her church. Valda doesn’t even go to that church anymore, but valda got a lil confused and didnt go to church Sunday. But were guna work with her!!!!

 

4. Her 2 girls, andrea and vil were ALL ready and excited to go to church. We didnt even have to really wait for them to get ready or convince them to go to church! They loved it too!!!! vil even made comments at church :) the only thing, she needs to get married :/

 

5.  zélia + vivaldo + família =love :) LOVE this family with all my heart!!! zélia went to church, brought one of her daughters and sons,  we didnt even need to go grab em! we ate lunch with them again, I just love them so much! theyr guna get baptized this week! lastnite I was thinking about that and the thought came in my head...vivaldo´s gunna have the priesthood one day! I got soooo stoked mama I almost cried! 

 

5.5 Their nephew was visiting, Jadson, and hes a deaf mute! hes so cool!!! I spent forever talking with him and jokin with him! I really don’t know how we communicated, but I love it! I was interested in languages before, but on the mission I think my interest to communicate in other languages grew so much!!!

 

6. That pastor, marcelo...well we went to visit his church the other day! actualy mama, I liked it. I felt I was at a youth conference or something, because everyone was singing super loud and it was upbeat and everything haha but actually it was a really interesting experience for me. Marcelo was diff. b/c he didnt yell like the others, and he quoted me there too! I felt the spirit SO strong when he spoke. I want to help him so bad. He didnt go to church these past 2 weeks, but I’ve been thinking bout him alot. I was reading a scripture about how there is NO other way to be saved than thru the baptismal covenant. My mind went straight to him. I think it was the first time in my life I became truly worried about someones salvation! 

 

7. lunch...already said that!!! 

 

8. vivaldo stopped smoking cold turkey! after we took his smokes and challenged him to stop, he only smoked 1 more time and then just stopped! We brought cevada for them Saturday and she made it and vivaldo(who drinks like 25 cups a day) didnt even notice a difference hahahaha 

 

9. yep, our roof fell in this morning!!! I was downstairs cleaning n makin breakfast when I heard a huge crash upstairs, I called for Sis Stewart...you alive!..nothing. so I ran upstairs and it was FILLED with dust. yep our roof fell in! hahaha only in brasil I swear!!! broke my only nametag and got dust on everything! 

 

oman. This week was super intersting. The only thing missing was a baptism :( but i realy feel like we are doing so much work here. We are working our tails off to help out the area, and we really feel like we are! I feel like this week were gunna have a lota baptisms. Were finding golden families! My heart is so filled with love for these people. I really feel like I’ve goten the grasp of the whole, Christlike love for these people! I want to help them all out SO bad!!! I’m constantly thinking about them and what I can do to help them. I have been praying to really love this area, and even today I woke up just filled with love for this area and this work, yes its hard, yes I cry, but I am so grateful!!!

 

sorry this is such a long letter, I think you are the only one thats gunna read it :)

love you so much mama!!!!

 

sis b

I just wanted to send you a lil note telln you how much I love this gospel! I had an experience this week that really I feel  like changed my life and love for this people! We went to visit the church of a pastor who is interested in this church. Well while we were there I developed this deep love for this pastor and how much I wanted to help him out. The next day, still thinking about that experience and my feelings, I read a scripture( forget where!) but it said that there is NO other way to obtain salvation than thru the baptismal covenant and taking upon us the name of Christ.Tthe first thing I thought of was this pastor and for the first time in my life I felt worried about someones salvation. My heart ached for him. I was imagining his life and what it´ll be like if he doesnt ever get baptized. I remember thinking, how weird I’m worried about his salvation. But its so true! I was literally worried! I feel like this time on the mission im starting to understand what this work is all about, what we are here to do! I am so grateful to be a missionary and so grateful that the Lord answers our prayers. I feel like I grew alot this last week thru all the lil experiences I had!!!

 

11-18-13

 

 

Hi, so this typewriters really nice so if i have misspelling..its cuz im not used to a good typewriter haha

 

This week was another super good week! We decided to work in another part of the city because where we were going was giving us nothing. We had SO much success! We brought a mom and her lil daughter to church Sunday and a lady from another church! oh so I gotta tell you, We did a contact with a kid about 2 months ago but haven’t been able to find him at home. We ended up becoming friends with his mom that goes to another church! Well Sunday we decided to pass by and take him to church. It was a miracle that he was at home! He ended up going and his dad ended up going. This week his mom ended up going and we had a barbq after church :) bbqs here are SO much better! It’s not burgers and root beer, its real meat with rice and these realy good beans an a lil salad!!! SO GOOD!!! tell Thad he can be jealous and tell Chris that no its not like porto alegre hahaha

 

We still haven’t had a baptism, and I’m really not sure why. We have people that go to church, we found people that are progressing, they just dont wana get baptised for some reason or another. It’s so confusing to Sis Stewart and I. But I know the Lord has a plan for us and I feel like were doing it. We’re slowly winning the hearts of santo estevao!!!

 

oman mama u gota play the turkey bowl for me! They dont celebrate thanksgiving here, I’m so sad!!!! and its crazy to think I’ll be home for thanksgiving next year lol

 

 We’re going to do divisions this week in an area close to the beach. so we decided to wear jeans...oman I feel SUPER weird/normal in jeans!!! I’m not used to it! We woke up at 4am, left at 5am and was traveling until noon!! We took 4 busses and hit transito twice!! omylanta I’m so not guna miss that!!!

 

but anyways, I love you so much! I’m so grateful for yáll!!!

 

oh mama I met Sis Mckenzie! She already knew me from before, and I’m sure her moms guna read this hahahah shes so cute :) 

but anyways, this work is true, I’m so grateful to be a missionary.

 

love you

sis b

11-11-13

Hi,

  This week was a really good, interesting week! this week FLEW by!

1st off, I decided ima worry after about school lol I got enough to worry about

2. we tried to baptise the son of a recent convert, but hes scared to get baptised...he LOVEs soccer and they always play on Sunday, so were tryn help him

3 we found a whole lota people to teach this week! we are finding new people and they look really promising!!

4. Sunday we had the most people at church that weve ever had here, 23 people!!! yaaaaayyyy!!! (thats huge for us!) AND, we had a pastor come to our church. idk if I told you about marcelo, but we ran into him lookin for another marcelo and welp, hes a pastor but doesnt believe his religion, idk mama everything is just too concidencial to be a coincidence! he is lovin the bom and is readin and really evaluatin his life! we had 4 investiators at church and its funny cuz every one of the investigators knew this pastor bc they went to his church hahah it was really funny.

5 I have been noticing a lot more the influence of the spirit in this work. the other day i was studying the scriptures, and i always pray to read or learn something that will help our investigators...well i have NO idea why, but my study lead me to 1 samuel 3. i think i was looking up a reference in that chapter....idk! but anywho i started reading the first part about how samuel was sleeping and heard a voice call his name. he thought it was his dad but it wasnt. it was the Lord calling Samuel. well mama, Sunday pastor marcelo was teling us what had happened Sunday morning. He said he didnt sleep at all that night and when it was time for him to wake up he heard someone calling his name, he thought it was his wife, but it wasnt. he heard this voice caling his name a few more times. it was the same time that he needed to wake up!!! mama i gave him 1 samuel 3 to read!!! its incredible how the Lord answers our prayers!!!

6. also we gave suprise talks Sunday. bishop told us right before sac mt! haha but mine was on honesty and i prayed and prayed that i would be able to say something that our investigators would remember and needed to hear. afterwards, marcelo was talkin to us and referenced about 3-4 times somehting i had said!!!

7. i am so grateful to be here! i love this work so much!!! the Lord truly does try our faith!!! whats that scripture..its after the trial of our faith we work miracles...something like that!!! our faith truly has been tried these past few months!

8. oh did i mention an area70 is coming to visit us..and ima sing :) im super nervous but super stoked!!!!

9 i love love love love love yal so much!!! its crazy how fast time is flying by!!! i wana  come home but i dont wana leave here!!! i have learned so much here! i was thinkin that today, that i am so grateful for every experience that ive had in my life, all the bad ones, the sad ones, the happy ones, they have al been growing experiences for me!!! i love this gospel so much!!!

10. oyah one more thing. this mornin i grabbed the conference ensign of 2011 and was really wanting to read a talk about temples( can ya tell im desperate to go again!) and i started reading one about elijah!!! mama im so glad yall go to the temple! please emphasize the importance of the temples. yall are so spoiled to have a temple so close! i see the sacrifice that people here make just to go to the temple.its incredible!

i love you

sis benedict

 

ps did i mention that i finally used the pocketknife that daddy gave me haha we were doin a division in salvador and the sisters had to put together their beds. wel we dont have screwdrivers or anythin, but then i remembered that i had the pocketknife in my bag, haha so i totally whipped it out and was able to put the beds toether!!! thanks dad!

i totally felt like a boyscout :)

 

11-4-13

This week we were working in an area that doesn’t even have a church or many members is rough! so were trying to work more with the members! and Sunday we had a mtg with the bishop and if we get 10 more baptisms/members by December, I think we’ll be able to open a branch there!!! so were focused on that.

 

did I mention I’m obsessed with Capt. Moroni now!!! those war chapters are soooooo interesting!! holy crap!

 

I love you and can’t wait to talk to yall next month!!! give everyone my love

sister benedict

ps...I LOVE the sacrament. I really feel so strongly the spirit when I take the sacrament an think about the atonement of Christ!!!

sorry I didn’t write a whole lot...my brain can’t even think!!!

love ya