9 June 2014

Kieren sounds like she is doing so well!  Thank you to all of you that write her and keep up with her mission.

Dearest Family and Friends

Monday Night is family night, and we had an awesome FHE last week at Irmã Izabel´s! It was a Lehi´s vision themed night and we read the vision of the tree of life, discussed it a bit, and then everyone drew pictures of their interpretation of the vision. Mine turned out pretty well, even though my great and spacious buildings unfortunately always end up looking like the BYU Jerusalem center. Also at the family night was Renata, one of our new investigators and Izabel´s daughter. Missionaries have been vititing Irmã Izabel for quite some time, and Renata sometimes participated in the messages, sometimes not. However, one of these days last week, we decided to invite her specifically to participate and then asked her if she would be interested in taking the discussions and preparing to be baptized.... and she said yes! She later said that something had changed inside, or that something had touched her and that she felt desire to be baptized that she hadn´t before. But we would not have known this if we didn´t invite!

I was cool when we taught about the first vision then asked her to pray about it because she said, "Okay, sure I guess, but I don´t really need to. We just get this feeling, you know?" Yes, Renata, we know.

We also went to the temple this week!! Woohoo! That is always a highlight. It was also an adventure getting there because I had asked the secretaries for directions, and then everyone assumed I knew how to get there since I had directions (which were basically get on bus T6 and go up a main road and the temple is on such and such road. Got it. Great. AKA I have no idea how to get there still since it is not even part of our mission.) So on the bus I asked the guy in front of me for more directions, but he didn´t know so he asked the guy in front of him for directions, so he GPS´d it (which we will be able to personally do when we become an iPhone mission in...2075). Meanwhile, the Elders were asking another person for directions to "our church"--so basically half the bus was involved in helping the lost mormon missionaries who don´t even know where their church is. But, as always, the Lord provides a way and the lady the Elders asked turns out is a member! And the GPS guy found it! And the guy collecting bus fare also figured it out! So we got there.

Also ladies and gentlemen, you can stop being excited about Márcio. Unfortunately we had to cut him (stop visiting) because if you remember, he was that great investigator that always called to confirm appointments in the Plaza or called if he had to cancel. We were so excited to find someone proactive. But I am thinking we misjudged his enthusiasm because after a week where he was unable to come to the plaza because of rain, he send us a text message "muito saudades de vocês, um abraço e muitos beijos"

We were comforted to know that at least he was in love with both of us, and not just one. Yay for companionships! 

Also, today we made juice. However, this was not your usual juice-making kitchen adventure. We used bergamoda-limões (orange lemons) because they are in season and at least 3 people this week gave us a bunch. Because they are in season and people love giving the missionaries things here. Anyway, I was thinking since these lemons are orange, they are probably less potent. So I put about 8 in our little blender and added a bit of water and some sugar. They are not less potent. The little batch ended up wielding probably 6 liters or so. So we are doing well on the juice factor.

Saturday we had a Mãos que Ajudam (Mormon Helping Hands) project--a recycling/save the earth project that had booths about how to make toys from recycled items, your own hanging gardens out of recycled bottles, food storage in recycled bottles (it´s really cool how they do it here-google "armazenamento de arroz SUD") and of course a missionary booth (us)! We also went out on the street and invited people to come and see.

It was a super great week and lots of happy fun things. 2 Ne 2:25! This week find things that make you happy, choose to be happy, and spread the joy!

Love you guys!

Sister Smith