12 May 2014

Woohoo! So Mother´s Day was yesterday (obv) so I got to talk to the family!!! It was wonderful. We talked at Lilian and Rogério´s house and, true to gaúcho tradition, of course had to have a churrasco afterward with what I think was giant roasted ox ribs. The whole piece of meat was enormous.

This week was super awesome. During Ward Council Tuesday night, Irmão Ricardo was recounting how the quorum helped integrate Geovane during his visit to church, and then he told us a story that Geovane had shared that he had not shared with us. Ricardo said that Geovane was very communicative during the lesson and that he shared an experience of how he was recently dealing with some legal difficulties where he was completely innocent but there were many complications and things just weren´t going right. One day, two sister missionaries (us) came knocking at his door and asked to share a message. He said that since that day, the whole situation took a 180 degree turn and everything seemed to fall into place. He took that as a sign that he should come to church and maybe listen to our message. That was so cool to hear. 

Also, for the first time ever, I walked into my bedroom one morning and saw a salamander on the wall! I had seen some on outside walls before but never inside a house. It was pretty awesome. I wanted to capture him and release him outside, but before I knew it my companion had killed him. Poor little guy.

PAUSE- just got the news that I am being transferred....to the other side of the ward!!! My new companion is Sister Foutz and I just love her and I still get to be in the same ward as Sister Melo and we are going to do great things and I am so happy!!! Okay back to the letter. 

Also, this week we needed someone to help us out and Nina, a young woman in the ward and daughter of our mission president, offered to get out with us. It was a great day! First, we weren´t finding anyone at home, but we finally found a less active member at home and then we were going to visit Cleisé, but as we approached her apartment, we saw a woman sitting on the stairs a couple doors over. We went and talked to her and it turns out that she was locked out of her house and said, yes, certainly she has time to hear our message! Sometimes I think Heavenly Father is really clever. Her name is Izabel and she was very receptive to the message. Afterward, we asked her if she knew anyone who needed a message and she thought for a minute and then said that she knew a man, Nilton, who lost his wife a couple months ago and perhaps a message would help. However, she did not know the address. She told us to go up those stairs on the other side of the park and it´s an apartment on the ground floor. That was helpful, but upon arrival at the top of the ancient stone stairs, we faced a view of a bunch of apartment buildings, with quite a few of them on the ground floor. Being two story buildings, just about half of them fit that description. Nevertheless, we went forth and while Sister Melo knocked on a second-story door, Nina and I rang the doorbell of an apartment with an open window. An elderly man answered the door, and I don´t know why but after saying hi, the first thing I asked was "Are you Nilton?" which would be pretty awkward if he wasnt, but he said yes! We explained how we had just talked to Izabel and would like to share a message with him. He was about to leave to pick up his granddaughter but wanted us to come back another day!

We had some other great experiences and lessons, and to finish off a great day we happened to pass in front of my favorite laundry places. We do laundry at home, but I like this laundry place because it is run by 5 friends and they are hilarious. One day we were talking to a couple of them about the church and gave them pass-along cards. About a week later 

(this week) Pablo, a very excited man from Uruguay, called us over as we passed by and said, come look! We entered the laundry place and he showed us his desk where he had placed the pass-along card with a picture of Mary and Jesus on the wall. Then he showed us his industrial washing machine where he had placed another of the same picture. I think he took one of his friend´s pass-along cards, but it was great to see that he was so excited about the cards. 

We seriously had an awesome time with Nina. When we work with members, there is a different energy. Thanks for all you guys do to help the missionaries in your area. I came up with my new motto:

"It´s always better with a member."

Although at first, no one was home that day and it didn´t look so great, we ended up continuing and had one of my most memorable days on the mission. 

May we always remember to stand a little taller and be a little better. I love the quote from Elder Eyring´s talk "Act in All Diligence." I think I have quoted that talk before. I just like the talk. Anyway, he says "When I find myself drawn away from my...duties by other interests and when my body begs for rest, I give to myself this rallying cry: "Remember Him." The Lord is our perfect example of diligence in priesthood service. He is our captain. He called us. He goes before use. He chose us to follow Him and to bring others with us." Whenever it gets hard, or even when it is easy, Remember Him. He is our brother and friend and Savior. 

Love,

Sister Smith

Me at Guaíba, where we have meetings every other week

Sister Melo and me during our last few days as companions. She is really talking to heart Pres. Hinkley´s suggestion to stand a little taller. 

Also, I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies but it didn´t go so well the first time. No, they are not chocolate-chocolate chip. Just chocolate chip. They should be a nice golden brown. The second time worked out a little better. Yes, these are chocolate-chocolate chip cookies so the darker color is natural, don´t worry. 

5 May 2014

So, this week started out with good luck. As we were leaving a buffet on pday with some of the missionaries from our zone, a bird pooped right on my foot. I don´t know how it managed to land on my foot and not my head (not complaining, just wondering) but Elder Villena assured me that in Peru, that is a sign of good luck, so I knew that this would be a great week. 

On Tuesday, we had the first annual Sister´s conference! It was absolutely amazing and great to see my old companions again- Sister Cummings from the MTC, Sister Mileib and Sister Hodnik. Presidente Castro gave us a training using two of the Mormon Messages videos- Recuperado (Reclaimed-Its the one about the dump that was made into a park and an airport) and the one about the ugly duckling by President Uchtdorf. He assured us of the power of Christ´s atonement and then also told us to never let anyone make us feel like we are the ugly duckling. As I was relating what we learned later in the week to our zone leader, I realized that it was definitely a conference meant for sisters. I imagined Presidente Castro telling all the elders not to feel like ugly ducklings. Sister Castro also gave us little mirrors to carry in our bags and told us to make sure that our countenance always reflects the light of Christ. 

So I thought that it was funny that the twin daughter´s of our Ward Mission Leader are named Helen and Helena (still can´t remember which is which. I think I may ask this week if I can call one of them Susan), but this week I heard of another set of twin names that made me smile. The first twin is named Maxwell. The other is named Swellmax. I think I have just found another addition to my list of possible children´s names. 

I got to play the violin in church this sunday! It was super fun and the ward got excited and had me play in the primary as well. I had forgotten how much fun primary was. One of the primary boys, Samuca,  gave a wonderful talk about Noah´s Ark. He stood up and in a very official tone, spoke of how he would address a very important topic today. Summarizing/translating his talk, it was something like this "This is Noah´s ark (pulled out a plastic ark from under the pulpit). Well, its not literally his ark, it is actually a Fisher Price model. It should also be noted that the model is not of actual size. It was much bigger to fit all those animals. Anyway, Noah warned all the people but only a few listened, eight to be exact. The people included not just his immediate family but a few others as well. Anyway, they got in the ark and then came a super hyper mega flood and destroyed everyone else. I think it would really stink not to have been on the ark. I don´t think I would have been able to make it in that water. Anyway, the lesson we can learn from this story is that it is always better to be obedient." Primary kids know how to make things simple. 

So this week was really great as far as good lessons, etc, and we had a bunch of people that said they would be able to come to church, so we were super excited for Sunday...and then Sunday morning we started getting phone calls one by one saying that they wouldn´t be able to come. It was a little dissappointing, but at least they called (optimism)! So we were at the church running through the musical number, when a miracle happened- we looked to the chapel door and saw Geovane standing there in his jazzy windbreaker! We practically ran to him, shook his hand, and introduced him to Olimpio (WML). The ward member who was going to accompany him to church was not able to get ahold of him, so we thought he was going to bail. He had never been to church before and we didn´t even know he knew where it was!  Geovane said that he rembered that one time we mentioned it was in front of the Instituto de Coração, so he just got in his car and started driving. He is a bus driver, so he knows the city pretty well, and he said after he got to the IC, it was super easy to find the church. Heavenly Father was truly guiding him and it made our day yesterday that he came. 

On Saturday, we met a new investigator- Cleisé -who the elders actually found during distrito amigo. She struggles with depression and various difficulties, and was really receptive to our message. Her house is being reformed so she asked if we could go to the park in front of her house. It was a really nice setting and a highlight of the week because the spirit testified strongly of the truthfulness of the first vision and the Book of Mormon. 

Make new friends this week! Visit people and make them feel loved!

Love,

Sister Smith 

Pics-

 Deborah and baby Alice-This week we had lunch with Deborah and Jefferson, a couple in our ward who just had their first baby!

Sister Cummings and Sister Holden (and me)

Sister Rosario, Sister Hodnik, Sister Biddulph (and me)

28 April 2014

So this week was lovely! I feel like we are seeing some great progress in the area.

In addition to the violin lessons we are holding, we started offering guitar and piano at the same time! All four of us sisters in this ward play some sort of instrument or sing and its been great to serve the members and community. Sandra (mom of a young man, Vitor, who joined the church in the last couple of years) is learning the guitar with Sister Melo. There really is a timing for everything. For quite a while, Vitor has been going to church alone or with his younger sister, but now his mom is starting to show interest. This week we had two activities at the activity house- a clothing exchange and an integration activity with a film and snack. Sandra came to both and at the first activity, everyone was introducing themselves, and when Sandra got up she talked about how at first she came to church just to support Vitor but now she is going because her own free will because she feels good. We had a family night with her and Vitor and the other sisters and watched Finding Faith in Christ. Afterward, Vitor said he wanted to share a scripture and we read together and afterward he shared his testimony and we all shared our testimonies. The Spirit was so strong there and I know she felt it. This is the time the Lord has prepared for her to progress and Vitor is really excited and is being blessed for his patience. Unfortunately, Sandra lives in the area of the other sisters so we don´t get to visit her often, but we see her at church and activities and she is just wonderful!

Also, our lives are just so filled with blessings if we stop to think about it. Today (Pday) Sister Melo was buying a new outfit for the Sister´s Conference and I was looking at the cheetah print section of the store (animal print is something that I think will never be hard to find here) and I thought back to two transfers ago when I came so close to buying a floor length cheetah print dress with lace pockets. It was a beauty but I feel really grateful that I felt impressed not to buy it even though my companion thought it would be stunning on me. It would have been stunning, yes, but it was very expensive and I don´t need it and probably would not use it a whole bunch and I just felt grateful for that today.

Also, Barbara and Hellen came to church again yesterday!! They are so adorable and were trying to learn how to cunduct music during sacrament meeting. We keep trying to find a time when their dad is home because we have only been able to talk to him on the phone and we need to talk to him in person to get permission for their baptisms, but whenever we go he is either working/sleeping or hiding from us. The latter is my personal opinion. So please pray for them because they are so wonderful and read the Book of Mormon together and mark it and pray and I just love them.

Oh, and we also had another investigator, Shirley, come to the clothing exchange. She is a spunky 75-year-old who just thought it was the best thing ever. Before the activity, we met up with her on a corner in front of a giant church and walked arm in arm, the three of us, to the activity, with Shirley in the middle. We got to the edge of a curb that dropped off and I said jokingly, "let´s jump!" and to my surprise she leaped up in the air and pulled us along with her. When I laughed she was like "what? You said to jump!"

During the get to know you part of the activity (the same one where Sandra shared her experience) one of the ladies in the ward (Inês) was talking about how Relief Society has helped her and has made her a better daughter, sister, mom and wife, and then she said, ´well, not exactly wife because right now I am in need of a good man' and Shirley, who was seated by my side, called out "É isso aí!" which is basically like (liberal translation) "Amen, sister, that makes two of us!" She is super funny and I just love her.

I have been thinking a lot this week about perspective. I think it was Bishop Munhoz who told the story of how Sherlock and Watson were out camping and woke up in the middle of the night. Sherlock asked Watson "what do you see?" He responded, I see a beautiful starry sky, trees blowing in the wind, and a lake in the distance." After a minute, Watson returned the question. Sherlock responded "I see someone stole our tent." Its amazing how two people can be in the exact same place or circumstance but look at it so differently.
Our differences are what makes the world interesting, but despite are differences, when we are focused on the Lord, we can become one, like the people of Zion in Moses 7:18. In English is talks about "one heart and one mind", but the translation in portuguese is "um coração e uma vontade" which means one heart and one will. I thought that difference was enlightening because the people that make up Zion are not robots who always have the same opinion but rather people who have the same purpose and are one in that way. And the "one will" that they have is the will of God. When a group of people are all focused on bringing about the will of God, they become unified, become one. That is how a church of over 15 million different people with 15 million opinions and life experiences can work as one great whole to bring about the salvation of makind.

An eternal perspective is the best perspective. Christ lived for us, died for us, and now He lives again. Life does not end with death. Because of the love of God for each one of us, we can live again with Him.

Love,

Sister Smith

21 April 2014

Happy Easter!!!

This week was very unique. Meaning uneventful, which on a mission is unique. Sister Kirk was super sick so almost every day either me or Sister Melo stayed with her and the other went on splits with Sister Foutz so could work in both areas. AKA not a lot happened this week but I had a LOT of study time, which is a good thing. Also this keyboard is almost impossible so sorry this is going to be a shorter email. 

This week Sister Foutz shared an inspiration thought that one of her friends who isservingin Spain shared with her. As he was taking the train to his first area, the train derailed and he had to be sent home, hospitalized to recover (he is now back serving in his original mission). I am sure this allowed him alot of thinking time.He talked about how he had been pondering the difference between faith and  hope because  a lot of times we don't fully understand the difference. He said that he perceived the following:

Faith is belief that leads to ACTION

Hope is belief that leads to ATTITUDE

I really liked his definition because it made those two related principles make more sense. I think sometimes weare really faithful,but forget to have hope, AKA realize that everything is going to be okay and thatwe should be happy because Christ lives,and he has promised to help us when our own is not enough. 

Love,

Sister Smith

Flat Stanley :) 

Lunch at the Cheiro Verde during transfers

14 April 2014

Dear Family,

It´s been another awesome week! 

Early in the week, we were going to visit Teresinha, a less active member, but caught her just as she was leaving her house to go to the doctor. She was pale and looked like she had a fever and looked super tired. We walked and talked with her for a bit before she caught the bus. I was really surprised when the next day, we saw her again at Cátia and Sergio´s, the member´s house we were going to for lunch. She works as kind of a nanny for them, helping around the house and sometimes cooking. She said she was still not feeling really well. Cátia told her to rest and I sat by her on the couch. We got talking and she said she wasn´t able to watch conference. I decided to read with her Elder Holland´s talk from last conference, about physical and emotional struggles. As we read and talked about parts of the talk, she said, "That is exactly how I feel." The doctor had told her that she needed to watch her stress levels and control her emotions because it was affecting her blook pressure and health. We were able to discuss how she can use both medical and spiritual help to become whole. She is so sweet and I just love Teresinha! 

We finally were able to teach Barbara and Helém (10 and 11 years old) who live on our street. They are so adorable and love the Book of Mormon. They read it together and pass along the scriptures we read with them to their friend Paola, who studies in the afternoon so isn´t always there for the lessons. Barbara is really spiritually in tune and she says she can pray and ask whatever she needs and God will answer and usually answers her in a dream. She says that she prayed about a different church that uses white chairs and God told her that the church with white chairs is not true. She said that He also answered when she asked about the Book of Mormon and said that all of it is true. Her and Helém came with us to church yesterday! It was fast and testimony meeting and Sister Melo went up with a girl from the ward, and we were all really surprised when  Barbara, who was sitting next to me, stood up and walked up to join them. After they gave their testimonies she spoke one of the sweetest testimonies I have ever heard. She said "I believe in the church and in the Book of Mormon and in Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen"

When she said "I believe" It reminded me of Elder Holland´s talk from April 2013 where he tells of meeting a boy who also believes. He says "A 14-yearold boy recentlysaid to me a little hesitantly, “Brother Holland, I can’t say yet that I knowthe Church is true, but I believe it is.” I hugged that boy until his eyes bulged out. I told him with all the fervor of my soul that belief is aprecious word, an even more precious act, and he need never apologize for “only believing.” I told him that Christ Himself said, “Be not afraid, onlybelieve,”¹² a phrase which, by the way, carried young Gordon B. Hinckleyinto the mission field.¹³ I told this boy that belief was always the first step toward conviction and that the definitive articles of our collective faith forcefully reiterate the phrase “We believe.”¹⁴ And I told him how very proud I was of him for the honesty of his quest.

It made me also think about what I know and believe. There are some things in the gospel that I know, and others that I believe to be true, but I know that when we lead with faith, all of our doubts can be transformed into belief and then knowledge and we can have a strong conviction of truth. 

I testify that Jesus Christ is our Savior and through the atonement of Christ, we can become who we want to become and return to live happily in the presence of God, our loving Heavenly Father. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and the Book of Mormon is the word of God for us in these days. I bear witness that this is the Lord´s work and that He will support us and carry us in our hardest moments if we let Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Love,

Sister Smith

Pic 1: Me with Izabel waiting for the bus after General Conference :D 

Pic 2: Sharing the Book of Mormon with a famous guy´s bronze statue

Pic 3: With another famous guy in his museum. Looking back, I really should have written down their names. 

7 April 2014

Hello!

News for this week:

We spent all of Tuesday in two different hospitals (just for an exam for Sister Melo don´t worry) and helped the elders out in their area and had General Conference, 

Wasn´t General Conference awesome?!?

I loved Elder Gary E. Stevenson´s talk and his analogy to the Olympics. I am not sure I exactly understood all the specific termonilogy in Portuguese, but this is what I got from it: In Alma 34:32 we learn that "this life is the time to prepare to meet God." We are all in some sort of phase of life. Perhaps it is being a student, being a missionary, being a parent, grandparent, preparing for the next life marker. Whatever it be, our time in this phase is too short to be wasted or simply survived. We must enjoy and use to the fullest the opportunities we have. For me, my mission is like the 4 minute qualifying run in the Olympics. For us all, this life is our preparatory run. Qualify. The good news is, it is not luck , it is choice. It is not chance, it is skill developed through constant diligence. Our time is so short, but we will qualify with certainty if we follow the path that we know well through gospel study.

After yesterday morning´s session, a group of us missionaries grabbed a bunch of pass-along cards and started distributing them to people outside the chapel at the traffic light. We gave them to people walking along the sidewalk, and we also went up to people´s cars and gave them through the windows while the light was red. Here, doing stuff like that is part of the culture, but for me it was super daunting at first. But as soon as we got going, it was hard to stop. It was actually really fun! I talked to this one lady in her car and started talking and she interrupted and said "I don´t have any money" and I was like, "No worries! What we are offering is free!" Her face immediately changed from glaring to a happy smile and she kissed the picture of Jesus and then drove away. People here really love Jesus. Another lady got really excited when I showed the picture of Jesus on the front and motioned me to go to the other side of the car for her to roll down the window. She said, "That´s my friend!" And I told her He was my friend too! It was a great moment for friendship. When you have a friend like Christ in common it makes things so much better. 

Boa Semana!

Sister Smith

31 March 2014

Hello Fantastic People,

This week began with a birthday celebration! Maria de Lurdes, a less active member who is blind, wanted us to be part of her birthday celebration at a fancy pizzaria. We accepted. It was really fun and she was so happy the whole time and introduced us to all her family and friends. Her son, Dante, was a great example of Christlike service. He got up and served her salad from the salad bar and made sure she had everything she needed, and when she opened her presents, he would describe what they were like, for example she got a nice purple hand towel with lace and he was decribing the colors and the details. It was a lovely evening. 

This week we also taught Giovane, an older man that we found batendo palma. He likes to talk. A LOT. But he is super receptive and when he prayed at the end of the lessons he thanked God for sending us to teach him and help him feel how he already like to feel. He is very in tune with the things of God and he is funny because he will always say, I have always thought...(some gospel concept).... and then he will be like "I know I´m a little crazy" and we will say "No! We believe that too!" He is super prepared and super great to teach, the challenge is getting a word in when we are there and also he works most sundays. But he is seriously so nice. We were going to our appointment with him one morning, and we saw him leaving his house and heading up the road. We called out and asked him if he forgot and would like to reschedule, and he said no and that he would be right back. I was thinking ´what could he need to do that can´t wait just a few minutes but whatever, not a big deal´

He came back and we started conversing, and then he got up and grabbed three glasses and pulled out of the fridge some pop that he had just bought and gave it to us to drink. Before we came, he did not have anything to serve us, so he had literally gone to the store and back just to have something to give us while we were there. I was touched. 

Side note- I have always thought smoking was super dumb and find the warning labels very interesting and at times entertaining. There was a giant stand of cigarettes in one of the stores we went to and on the side there was a giant poster that said (translated) SUFFERING! (Then showed a picture of a man in a hospital bed with a crying child by the side) The ministry of health warns that the use of cigarettes results in suffering, pain and death. It´s pretty clear yet people still use them, If you think about it, we have clear warnings from the prophets about everything that will cause us physical and spiritual suffering, such as pornography, substance abuse and simply refraining from doing what we need to like reading the scriptures and praying daily. It is up to us to heed the warnings or not, but we cannot say we have not been warned. 

Oh! Also yesterday (Sunday) was on of the awesomest Sundays I have had yet on my mission. The first hour was combined with training by the Bishop. He decided to speak on misisonary work. We were in full support. He showed the video of the branch that wanted to have a new building and decided to have the faith to find more people and invite them to join with them so they would be able to fill the new building. He talked about how we are receiving a new building (actually the old one being reformed-it has been under construction for a couple of years and is just about ready) and how it is our duty as a ward to fill it. He then invited us four ward missionaries (two companionships of sisters) to talk about Missionary April! We decided to try a program where for every day in April one family signs up to hold a Family Home evening and bring investigators. We bore our testimonies and the Spirit was definitely there testifying of the importance of members and missionaries working together. We were about to go sit down, thinking that hopefully some people would sign up after church, but Bishop Munhoz said "hold on, stay up here a little longer." He then talked directly to the ward members. He said that this tuesday was the first day of April. He then asked " who can hold a Family Home Evening this Tuesday?" There was silence for about 15 seconds and then a hand went up. I was suprised to see that it belonged to President Soller, the Stake President and one of the busiest people I know. But apparently not to busy to set an example of leadership and faith. Bishop then asked who could take Wednesday and another hand went up. Pretty soon people were calling out dates and we almost filled the entire month! We are super excited and know that we will see many blessings in this ward because of their willingness to work with the missionaries. 

Then! In a brief ward council meeting, Bishop started talking about the need for rescue and retention, and started talking about specific families about which he is concerned and what needs to be done to help these individuals. He had tears in his eyes as he discussed the needs of the people and I couldn´t help but think of him as a good shepherd, truly concerned about his sheep. 

It is so nice to receive the help of the ward and the members. It makes us as missionaries feel happier and less alone. I would encourage all of you to continue praying for and helping the missionaries. All of your efforts are appreciated!

Love,

Sister Smith

P.S. I am a little slow with photos. These are from last transfer back in Jardim do Sol with Sister Hodnick and with Ana.