2-17-14

 

 

SO..........weddings are STRESSFUL!!!!!!! omylanta! we had a wedding on Thursday and their party on Saturday. They got married in the fórum. All was set for them to get married on Saturday, well Friday night, Almir said he doesnt wana get married and that its too early bla bla bla...mama my heart broke! cuz Nil said she wouldnt get baptized without him. We had EVERYTHING ready for them with their baptizm and surprise party. It was a rough night for Sis Enrique and I. BUT all in all they still went to Jaciras house and we had like a lil fhe and then after Nil decided that she was still guna get baptized!!! 

 

There is SO much that happened, from stealing her wedding dress to finding roses in the trash haha but I’m sure I’ll tell you all this when I get home!

 

Just know that prayer really works! The Lord is mindful of ALL his children and I am so grateful for this. I know that Almir is going to get baptized, but his "friends" are putting a lot of doubt in his heart...grrr friends!!!

 

ummmm......today is pday and I think were guna be able to relax today and not travel...YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! (super stoked about that!) 

 

I love you so much!!! Sorry I don’t have much to say but this week was stressful, stressful, and stressful!!! and ended up with a miracle baptism!!!! 

 

OH! they surprised me with a cake at the reception! I had no idea. aie todo mundo cant......er everyone sang to me and surprised me!!! hahaha it was cute!!!

 

 

I love this work so much mama!!!!!

I love youuuuuuu

is benedict

 

 

 

Sister Benedcits return date

Sister Benedict will return home with honor on March 7,2014 at 6:08 pm at the Boise airport!!!!

2-10-14

We spent almost the ENTIRE week out of our area, and it showed. We had only 26 people at church and didnt have a baptism. My comp was having some health issues too, so it was a lil bit of everything mixed in one. But we did go to the zoo with pres and sis Hart. I think I took more pics of the plants than I did the animals(didnt hardly even have animals!) Were getting ready for a wedding this week!!! and I am SOSUPERLYSTOKED!!!!! wedding and baptism are on the list for this week!!! really not much happened.

We had council meeting, it was good. I love being with pres and sis Hart!

We have been sacrificing a lot more these past few weeks, and well until now, havent seen much progress haha BUT I know that the blessings will come. The same thing happened at the end of sis Stewarts mission, it was tears after tears after tears, but we had so many miracles at the end!!!! so I just wana focus on that, the end result!

I am so grateful to be here and to have learned the things I’ve learned!! maybe I will be able to share it all with you when I get home!!!

I love you so much!
sis b

2-3-14

This week was a ROLLER COASTER!!! I felt like every single day something happened.  Something that would happen with our investigator, or we found golden FAMILIES! it was a super emotional week.

Sunday was our FIRST testimony mtg in our area. Usually we go to feira to have testimony mtg, but the bishopric said we could stay. It was really a tender day for me because I hvae seen this area go from 6 members meeting every other week, to having meetings every single week there with the lil house FILLED with people!!! I love this area! AND some of my recent converts got up to bear their testimonies,I cried and cried! one of them, binho,  has a testimony so strong, he doesnt even realize. He has been blessing the sacrament these past few weeks and every time I watch him bless the sacrament, tears come to my eyes. he really is a special kid, heck they all are!!!

My testimony has really grown about the atonement, I think that could be one of the things I learned here. I think here I am UNDERSTANDING in a teeny tiny lil way  what the atonement means! read the talk, "the root of the christian doctrine", its a talk from the ensign 2007. This talk changed my life. Changed my whole perspective of the sacrament!!!!

sorry I dont have much to report, some dissapointments with investigators and baptisms, but we are also finding more people who are willing and ready!!!

I love you and love this gospel

love sis b

 

1-27-14

This keyboard has extra keys so its hard to backspace haha anywho. yah this week was a good one. we didnt have baptism, so that was a lil sad. we have people here who are truly ready for baptism, but are just not quite there yet!! so i know that this week we wil have some for sure!! president and sis hart went to our meeting on sunday!! it was soo nice to see them at church! they talked and sis enrique and i sang be still my soul in english and portuguese. idk why but i think my stage fright has gotten way worse since ive been on the mission haha idk why! 

 

this week i would like to share just a few things. some things that have realy been on my mind. well 

the 1st one..that satan is real. he really exists. its incredible to see it how i do. sunday we went to grab one of our "baptisms" and i felt like in 3minutes everything fell. she didnt wake up, her daughter(whos a member) said that shes not guna get baptised and didnt even call to wake her up, this guy that we combined with to pick her up came by and said there wasnt time. mama, i felt satan saying that. it made me very sad. satan has been working so much with us here. this area really is growing and he is NOT happy!!!! 

 

 

ok another thing, my testimony of the Atonement has grown so much! we were talking with another investigator and he already knows everything about the church. hes the brother of a recent convert and weve been goin to their house weekly since i got here. well he said he doesnt wana get baptized then fall away or do something wrong. its a good thing i was studying the atonement these days because i was able to explain to him my understanding of the atonement and not just saying that he paid the price for our sins, but that He truly suffered and felt the agony of sinning. every tear, every pain, every sin, He felt. and He suffers with us when we suffer. Christ really loves us. theres no way that He cant! I am so grateful that He has this perfect love for us to want to suffer not only with us but FOR us! my testimony has really grown this week!!!

 

 

but anyways, i love you all so much! thank you for everything!!!!!!!!

i cant wait to go to the temple!

love sis b

 

 

1-20-14

Transfers are today and I’m so stoked that I’m staying here! its my last transfer and oh man...its weird to think that. I grabbed my last planner to do our weekly planning for the new transfer and it was a strange feeling to know that I wont have one after this haha but I wont even talk about that!

This week was a good one. We always have a "weekly theme" and this week was the week of numbers. our DL called a lil bit after and said this is going to be a double week so double all of your numbers haha we had already planned that so it was neat to be on the same page!! We worked our lil talis off this week and well it didnt result in a baptism, but it resulted in miracles!!! we, nossa! it was a really good week!!!

I LOVE manga! omylanta its sooo delicious! i gota eat it all now cuz there doesnt have it! sunday was a lil weak as far as people at church, but we had investigators and 2 confirmations so it still was a good week! we went to the house of a boy/guy that were trying to baptize now for a couple weeks. his name is Liro. and yesterday we went there and he said he wasnt ready and we shared the plan of salvation with him. mama this lesson went perfect. the things I was saying and the things my comp was saying was not our words! we felt the spirit SO strong talking to him and at the end we asked him to pray. He said the most sinceire prayer that I’ve heard in a while. he ended up crying and i almost cried during the prayer. we didnt push the baptism because i know hes going to be baptized this week. mama i love this area!

I am so grateful that I know what I know! theres so many people that dont believe that God has a body or that anybody has seen Him. Even the scriptures say that prophets have seen God face to face and they dont believe it, but they are firm "bible followers"! it just doesnt make sense to me. We were teaching a lady the other day and she said that being blind doesnt mean not being able to see, but being blind is to know the truth, or to "see" and to not believe! theres a lot of "blind" people here! BUT I love you more than you know!!!!

see you soon ;) heheh

sis benedict

1-13-14

 

 

I made the mistake of reading your letter before writing haha my mind is in 25 diff places! buuut this week was a good one!! we spent 1 more day out of our area than usual (3days) and we managed to baptize this week!!! it was so beautiful the baptism! we cleaned the pool on Saturday with one of our investigators! hes so cool juraci! and we baptized the lil boy of a couple thats waiting to get married to get baptized!! I LOVE SANTO ESTEVÃO!!!! can I just say that! I cant believe time is almost up for me. Its something super weird for me to go back to the U.S!

 

mama the area is growing here sooooo much! when I got to santo estevão there were about 17 people going to church! these past few weeks we've had 30 or more! the Lord really is blessing us!!!

 

Something I’ve learned here on the mission, the Lord answers prayers! These past few days I’ve been praying (I don't know why!) but I’ve been praying to know what I needed to work on before I went home and that I would recognize what I needed to change...rapaz...the Lord has been putting in my front everything!!! every little thing I’ve been like oman I STILL have a problem with this! so I prayed last night that I’d start seeing the things that I did good haha I'm not liking seeing ALL of my flaws!!! but anywho, I am so grateful to be here. 

 

I have SUCH a strong testimony of the book of mormon and well here on the mission. I gained a testimony of the bible too. I didn't have hardly any testimony of the bible before I got here and here on the mission and especially now I’ve learned so much about the bible and my companion always uses the bible!!! 

 

The Lord really looks out for us! Just today in about 15 min we had about 6 little things happen that for me just told me that the Lord is listening. 

 

I love you all

sister benedict

1-6-14

oh mama!!!! i dont even know where to start about our week!!

 

 

but this week.. well new years we spent sleeping!! traveling so much really wears ya out! so we went to  bed at like 10 and at midnight there were bombs going off in front of our house( it felt like bombs it was so loud!) we woke up startled..mumbled happy new year to my companion and rolled over trying to go back to sleep haha the holidays just dont get any better than that here hahahaa

 

we went to one of my old areas to do divisions(serrinha!) and it was so good to see everyone again! mama its guna be so hard to leave. i feel like I’ve spent a year basically in the same area(which is true! 1yr in the same stake you get to know people haha) 

 

i LOVE santo estevão! omylanta mama. i really feel like i was sent here on my mission for this area! ima change my call to the missão brasil santo estevão mission in the kalilandia stake haha because thats been my mission! i have never seen so many people prepared like these people. i am learning what it is to have this true faith and putting ALL of your trust in the Lord. its truly been such a blessing for me to be here and to serve with these people! i have been working harder than ever to help out this lil town. 

 

sister mckenzie, one of the sisters here(if her mom is reading this i just LOVE sister mckenzie!) but she told me that im on the sunset of my mission and that the sunset is the most beautiful part of the day. and that i am finishing up my mission! i really liked that analogy because for me its so true! i feel like im working harder and really getting lost in the work! i have such a deep love for this area and these people. they are always surprising me!!!

 

we had a baptism!!! another miracle! we have been workin workin with this family to baptize them! and so she is one of the girls that got baptized and her sister wants to get baptized so bad, but she has to get married!!!

 

mama,i am so grateful for all of the experiences ive had here! im finishing up with the book of mormon and moronis testimony is so strong about the bom. wow i feel the spirit SO strong these last books of the mormon!(really good english i know!!!)

 

and we have been teaching the plan of salvation left and right for people here. thats one thing i wanted on the mission, to be able to understand and teach the plan of salvation, and these past weeks i feel like thats all we’ve talked about! i am so grateful that the Lord loved us enough to send his Son to complete the plan of salvation, because without Him, we would never, ever enter into the rest of the Lord. i think the first thing i wana do when i see Him is give Him a big huge hug, because words cant express my love and appreciation for Him.

 

thanks for everything mom! tell the family i love them.

 

beijos

sister benedict