I has been a long time since the last letter! At least it feels that way. My Pdays were Friday at the MTC, and because of traveling I havent been able to email until now, monday (new PDay).
So last Tuesday, we traveled to Porto Alegre, met the mission president, and met our trainers. My companion is named Sister Mileib and she is from Brasilia. She is great and is teaching me a lot. My area is in Rio Grande and is called Jardim do Sol (Garden of Sun or Sun Garden). It is a great area! PArts of it remind me of the old west. There are horses and buggys in the streets (also cars- most people use cars) and some houses look super cowboyish with benches and a wheel in front, all that stuff. It is basically the southernmost part of Brazil. There are only one or two areas more south than us. Crazy! We are practically in Uruguay.
Something they do here in the south is drink Chimarrão. Basically every lunch they pass around the chimarrão and talk while the food is being prepare. I had it at Irmã Carmen´s, Jerson and Vera´s, and Irmão João Artur´s. The people are really humble here and they don´t have a lot but they give it all. When we go eat at a member´s house, they always have a feast prepared. Always with arroz e feijão.
There was a beautiful sunset and amazing clouds when we drove in to Rio Grande from Porto Alegre (5 hour bus ride!). Also there are dogs everywhere! Sometimes they like to follow us. But they are all nice don´t worry.
The missionary house here is really nice. Most areas have apartments but we have a house with hot water, big rooms, our own kitchen, etc. It is great. Today I am going to attempt to fix the shower so wish me luck!
The ward here is great and everyone is so nice to us missionaries. One of our investigators, Sumar, is in a wheelchair so a member, André, came and helped him get to church. It was super hard to get him there, but it was amazing the sacrifices that everyone made. We have an investigator, Vitor, who is in his early teens and wants to get baptized but his mom won´t give him permission because she thinks he is just doing it because of his friends, so remember him in your prayers.
Our power went out the other day and we needed to plan, so we huddled around a candle to plan. I lost my flashlight and was worried about getting ready for bed and stuff. When Sister Mileib said the opening prayer to plan, she prayed that the power would come back and immediately after finishing the prayer, the lights came on! It was a great answer to a prayer.
I can´t remember if I wrote about Elder Steven E. Snow and Elder Claudio R.M. Costa coming to the CTM, but that was amazing! THis week, elder Mazzagardi came to our area and gave a conference. He spoke about the importance of personal worthiness and of using Preach my Gospel in our daily study. He talked about the process of sanctification that comes through obedience.
Also, in the CTM President Degn gave a great lesson about the fiery darts of the adversary. He used a blow dart thing like the one Gavin has (Gavin- your dart gun is longer and more intense don´t worry) and demonstrated how fast and accurate the darts are. It was a very clear demonstration of how quick the fiery darts are and how careful we need to be. HE talked about how tribes used to use the guns and targeted youth and children to take them back and enslave them, which is kind of terrifying to think about, but really that is what the adversary is trying to do today. We have to remain vigilant (Mosiah4:30) and humble and repent daily and do all the things we know we need to do.
I love you all!
Love,
Sister Smith
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