23 June 2014

Wow! So this week was super packed.

Tuesday we had yet another world cup game, so that kind of killed the day, but Wednesday was awesome! We had interviews with the mission president in Guaíba, which is an Islandish place and a 1 hour bus ride away, BUT since President Castro lives in our area, he gave us a ride! Win! And afterward took us out for lunch before giving us a ride home. President and Sister Castro are amazing and they really love us.

Also, this week we received a quest. There is a homeless man that lives nearby our house and right by the bus stop, but I think homeless is not a good description. In portuguese, he is a "morador da rua" or one who lives on the street, which is a more accurate description. He has A LOT of stuff. And he keeps it all organized together under tarps and stuff. He even has an outdor living room with a yellow plaid Ottoman and various stools. He is an artist from Argentina. He spends the day painting, playing his homemade bongo drums, creating art out of old cans and bottles (like a scorpion-spider he made out of bug killer. Clever), and talking with everyone. We chat with him sometimes and when we passed by this week, he told us in his heavy Argentinian-spanish portuguese accent that he is looking for a 1960 bible, translation Cassiodora da Rainha, translator Siphrano de Valera in Large print. I think he thinks that we have some sort of underground Bible network or something. We told him we would keep our eyes out.

Nataly and Yasmim (recent converts of 11 and 8 years) sat behind us during Sacrament Meeting and viarious times during they meeting they would tap on my shoulder and ask a question. Usually it is "may I go to the bathroom?" but this time Yasmim asked "why are there only boys up there at the sacrament table?" I think I gave the shortest explanation I have yet of the purpose of the priesthood and the roles of both genders in propelling forth the Lord´s work when I said "to bless the sacrament, they use the priesthood. Boys have the priesthood and girls have babies." She seemed satisfied with the answer, and I realized really how simple it is. The power to bring about Salvation, which consists of living in sealed families, depends on the power to bring families to earth and to bind them with priesthood power.

We are also having difficulty finding service projects because we always ask and offer, but I think it is cultural but people have a hard time accepting. So, when we saw Yasmim and Nataly raking leaves off to the street, we ran over and helped. Kids have a lot easier time accepting. It reminded me of raking leaves in the autumn. Except we used brooms not rakes. And it was a cobblestone front patio, not a lawn. But it was fun. I am still holding out hope for my dream of painting someone´s house. We had two people accept our offer, but one still hasn´t bought the paint and the other went to the beach this whole week. So yeah. But I still have hope.

We went on splits this week and during lunch I made some new friends, Mariane, Icarus, and Yuri. I don´t get this alot, but during lunch they were talking and looking at me funny and trying to figure out who I looked like and then they were like "Oh! I figured it out. You totally remind me like our cousin!" And I asked "Is that good?" And they were like "Uhh... yeah, you remind us a lot of her. Except you are normal." I am not sure exactly what that means, but at least I can rest at night knowing I am normal.

Yesterday was amazing! The Lord blessed us so much. We barely had time to breathe during the meetings because we were running in and out because people kept calling us and saying they were arriving so we went out to the front to meet them. I consider that a good problem. First, we had Alexandre, a less active member who is coming back to church (!) bring a friend, Bruno! It was cool because the missionary that taught Alexandre in a different state in Brasil, is in our ward, and they sat together because they both moved here! What a small world. And Bruno, his friend, is really interested in the church and getting baptized! Yes!

Also, Renata came! She is amazing. Since she has started working with her new job (that she got after she started taking the lessons and that lets her not work on Sunday! Win!) it has been harder to find her at home, but she is still going strong and preparing for her baptism. We love Renata. She also brought Carol, who lives on the first floor of her apartment!

Also, when we called Dirceu in the morning, he said he was traveling to Viamão to visit his sister-in-law. BUT, he came all the way back to come to sacrament meeting. AKA MIRACLE!!!!!

Seriously yesterday was crazy good. I don´t know what we did to receive all these blessings but I am very grateful.

Also, this week we were discussing Lehi´s dream, and found it really interesting the different reactions of the people and one thing Sister Kirk noted was that when people taste of the fruit but then are ashamed and fall away, it doesn´t just mean that people completely stop going to church and stuff, but it can also mean when we are unwilling to open our mouths and share the gospel. Remember, the first thing Lehi did when he tasted of the fruit was look around to find his family and share it with them! Share the fruit! It is delicious!

Also, this scripture Pres. Castro shared with me during our interview.
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? ....in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Romans 8:31,37

This is so true. We have the most powerful being in existence on our side. We have angels round about us to lift us up. Alone, we are weak but with God, we are capable of miracles. I know He has worked miracles with our beloved investigators this week and I know He can work miracles with you and your friends and loved ones. 

Pics:

1) Picnic with Yasmim and Nataly (Recent Converts) and Nataly´s brother, Pablo

2) 9 Months! Was on splits with Sister Mileib, who I was with when she made 9 months!

3) With the secretaries. Those guys are awesome

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16 June 2014

The cup has begun! You may wonder what it is like to be in the midst of the excitement. Well, I am near the excitement but not really in the midst. Not much is different, but some kind of cool stuff happened.

Yesterday was the first game here in Porto Alegre- France vs. Nigeria, I think. Our source of all World Cup information is Carlos, the taxi driver so if I get it wrong, send complaints to Carlos. It´s cool because I am serving here in the city, and while the stadium is not in my area, it is in the neighboring area and a bunch of stuff is close by, like the center of town so we pass by booths and fanatics and stuff but we aren´t in the super crazy part of town. So that is good. We met a cute French family the other day as they were wandering through a super sketchy part of town looking for their Hotel. They asked us for directions, which always makes me happy because that means that we look a)trustworthy and b)competent. Win! (And luckily Sister Kirk speaks a little bit of French.) I proudly said "Je ne parle pas français!" The only phrase I know in French besides "Je suis un croissant." Not helpful. 

Also having the world cup makes street contacting a little....challenging? Funny? I am not sure what to call it when everyone thinks you are a tourist because of your accent and gets super excited to help you find the soccer stadium but then finds out you just want to change their lives and get super busy all of a sudden and have an appointment. But its fun.

As for the world cup, that´s about it. We only have to stay home during days when Brazil plays, so things are pretty much normal. But yeah, when Brazil plays it gets kind of crazy. They won the last game, so that´s an excuse to party. Whenever they made a goal, whether you are watching or not, you know. Noisemakers, clapping, and millions of people yelling goooool!!!!! 

This area is a big challenge in getting people to church. And to make it even harder, the church building here is in reform so we have to meet really far away from the area. But we still invite everyone! And this Sunday we passed by the apartment of Dirceu, one of our new investigators. He is a recently widowed man who is super...grumpy isn´t the right word, hmmm, I think you could describe him as having a super dry humor, but really nice. He always has some sort of healthy/natural snack that he shares- baked sweet potato, pinhão (google it-it´s weird), or roasted peanuts. Anyway, so we pushed his apartment button and he came out on his balcony. We called up "Hey Dirceu! Wan´t to come to church with us?" And he responded "I just got here and I want to take a nap." He is an honest man. We added "Okay, you can take a nap but you should come to sacrament meeting at 4:15" And he said he would. And he came!!!!!! We didn´t see him until we were leaving, but we found him sitting with Irmão Todeschini (the member we brought to meet him last week- member missionary work win!). It turns out he knows a few people from the ward already and we introduced him to basically everyone else. He kept trying to sneak out, but we got the better of him. I think he finds us amusing. 

To quote a wise writer "You showed me dreams come to life, I don´t need wings to make me fly, Miracles happen once in a while, when you believe." Name that movie 10 points. 

But seriously, we have seen so many miracles here these past few weeks. I have to admit this is a challenging area. There are dangerous parts, there are parts that are just apartments with buttons with nobody home and nobody on the streets, but there are also people here, hungry for the truth, and although they sometimes hide, or run to the other side of the street, they are children of God. This week we even had someone we button contacted say we could come back for a visit! Win! 

One of the sweetest experiences we had this week was teaching Yasmím´s dad, Sandro. Yasmím is an 11 year old who got baptized near the beginning of the year. Her dad finally accepted to learn a little about the church, and when we taught him and he accepted what we were saying, she looked so happy. We taught him about how the gospel blesses families and we could tell that made an impact on him because he takes such good care of Yasmím and it is apparent that he loves her and wants to protect here. She asked me when the next ward activity would be and then pointed to her dad excitedly as if she were saying "Invite him!" We will definitely be inviting him to not just the ward activities, but to begin making plans to have an eternal family. There is no joy greater than that.

Theme for the week: Matthew 11:29-30. It´s true!

Love,

Sister Smith

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

2 June 2014

helpful by knowing English, but also means that during all of the games where Brasil plays, we have to stay at home for 1 hour before and 1 hour after. I think that is for the best. At least the finals aren´t here in Porto Alegre. 

So a couple that we are teaching, Zuleica (less active member) and João decided they want to get married! So this week we are going to help them. We probably will get to be witnesses! I have never gotten married nor accompanied anyone to get married and they have no idea what to do either so this could be fun. But anyway, we had a great Relief Society activity this week about cooking with a pressure cooker and how to have good lessons and give entertaining talks. We visited Zuleica and invited her to come, and she said yes! But only if João comes..... and we re-explained that is was a Relief Society activity, where there will be just women and no men, and she listened and nodded her head and then asked, so can João come? Uhhh.... sure... He can just kind of sit in the back in a corner or something. So he did. I hope he liked it too. 

This week we ordered Domino´s pizza! It was delicious. Thinly sliced pepperoni is not common here so we appreciated the delicacy. We also passed by the supermarket this week and bought a huge loaf of warm french bread. We were very excited to eat it, but when Sister Kirk went to cut it, she gashed her finger open and went to wash it. I decided to be nice and finish cutting the bread, but then I, too, cut open my finger and it started bleeding like crazy. I don´t know what was up with that bread or that knife but public service warning--don´t get too excited about food and don´t cut hastily. But it is almost healed so that is good :)

 So we were heading to visit Karen and Ângelo, and we passed an apartment building and almost walked past, but felt like we should stop. It is not fun or effective to try to contact using the interphone so we usually use other methods but we decided to give it a try and started pressing buttons. Honestly, for people who like pressing buttons this could be a favorite missionary pastime because there is a lot of button-pressing and little response at the other end (its hard to find someone at home or who attends the interphone) but when we pressed Apt#24 someone attended! But unfortunately it was basically impossible to hear what she was saying and she was not understanding us. She had an old little frail voice and by some miracle I was able to understand her say "go to the window." We thought she would poke her head through a window on the ground floor because that would make sense that it would be easier to communicate, but no, way up on the top floor of the building (there were only 3 but still, it was high) we see a little head with white hair leaning out the window. So we tried again, calling up "WE´RE MISSIONARIES OF THE CHURCH OF...." and she interrupted and said hold on! I can´t hear you, come to the other window, so we rounded the building and went to the slightly less busy street and yelled up to her side window "WE´RE MISSIONARIES OF....." but again she said, hold up I´m still not understanding, go to the other window. So we returned to the first window, but no one was there. After a minute or two, she reappeared with a bunch of string wrapped around a toilet paper tube and let down a paperclip and told us to write down our phone number. We were like, okay... sure. So we sent up a pass-along card and our phone number and she disappeared. We though to ourselves, mission accomplished, now she knows where to find us, not expecting much to come of it, but literally as we turned to walk away from the building, our phone rang. It was her! Her name is Dora and she couldn´t attend us at the moment but said we could try to come back some afternoon next week. Not the most ideal contact, but yeah. No effort is too much to invite others to come to Christ. 

Karen came to an integration activity we had that was amazing! Irmão Bastos gave a presentation that was kind of leaning toward the hippy side but was really great. For example, he put up the lyrics to a song called "como uma onda do mar" (like a wave of the sea) or something like that and asked everyone to sing along and wave their hands in the air. But the overall message was great- service and repentance. Karen said it was exactly what she needed. She also came to all three hours of church this week! She is doing great keeping to her goals in diminishing her cigarette use. We are very proud of her. This week it was cool because usually when we come she is sad and down and by the time we leave she has cheered up a bit, but this week she was still beaming and happy from the activity when we showed up a day after and when we saw her Sunday as well! 

Irmã Eliane gave a great testimony this week about how she was walking to a ward activity and a woman stopped her and asked for help. There are a lot of beggars in the city, but this woman was very well dressed and didn´t have the appearance of a beggar. But when the woman explained what she needed, it was not money or food, but she asked Irmã Eliane if she knew where she could find God. Someone had told her that Eliane was a lady that she could ask to help her find God. She was desperate, near tears, and looking for anything that could help her fill her emptiness. Irmã Eliane gave her some comforting words and took down her name and address to send the missionaries in her area there. It made me think about how selfish we sometimes are. We know where to find God, but sometimes we wait until people come up to us, desperate, pleading, at the end of their hope to share what we have. We have an unlimited banquet but are we willing to share? Or are we waiting until people are nearly starved to death to offer a morsel of food. How much better it would be to feed the hungry soul before it reaches desperation. We are here to help the suffering soul, but also to prevent this starvation before it happens. Matthew 25:40

Share the gospel! Serve others! Smile!

Love,

Sister Smith

26 May 2014

It´s cold outside! Finally! I am now using scarves, which are basically my favorite. And gloves from grandma and grandpa :)

It was a good week- we are still working with Karen trying to help her quit smoking. We gave her hard candies to use instead and she has been really progressing in using less! She says she is gaining a lot of weight because all she wants do do is eat now, but she is happy with that so we are happy too! 

Saturday morning this week we were street contacting and talked to this guy named Carlos. We asked if we could share a message another day with him and he was like, why not right now? So he offered to buy us coffee and we said no thanks so he got his cup and we went to a nearby park. So apparently his family is super rich but live a couple states away and he doesn´t have much contact with them. He used to suffer with ansiety and in order to overcome his fears of the dangers of the city, he decided to go live among the homeless and beggars. So he did. And now he is friends with the homeless community and no longer afraid. Now he lives a normal life with a job and stuff. One thing he said struck me. He said living among them, he discovered that these people--the homeless, the thiefs, etc--have fears just like us. And then he said that if he just saw us in passing a while back he would have thought we were stuck up and uppity but he can see that we aren´t now that he got to know us. I think innately we all know deep down that we are all human, subject to fears and insecurities, but sometimes we just judge people before truly getting to know them.  

1 Samuel 16:7 tells us the criteria that God uses to judge us. I think we would do well to try and look more into people´s hearts and assume the best. When we try our best, God will help us see others as He sees them and fill us with His love. 

Love,

Sister Smith

19 May 2014

Clarification: my new companion is Sister Kirk and she is wonderful! And I am now in Ala 1 Leste (as opposed to Ala 1 Oeste) and if you want to see where it is or what it is like, go to googe maps and put in Moinhos de Vento, Porto Alegre, Brasil to see the rich part and put in Avenida Farrapos, Porto Alegre, Brasil to see the scary part. It´s a great area. (I think in all the confusion last email I messed up some of the information)

So this week we basically started from scratch. Sister Kirk had been sick for the entirety of last transfer so we had to start from 0 finding investigators and keeping up with ones that had been left and basically it was an adventure. The good part is I already know a lot about the area since is is the same ward as before and with only a few misadventures we were able to find everything well and have a good week. 

Karen is one of our investigators who is set to get baptized at the end of the month and she came to church, but has been struggling to quit smoking for many years and has been wanting to get baptised for a while. We have been setting goals with her and she has really diminished her usage! When she didn´t come to the first hours of church, we got kind of worried, but she showed up for sacrament meeting and said that before church she had been fighting with the urge to smoke but had kept within the goal and thought to herself "I just have to get out of here and get to church" and she and her husband Ângelo (less active) came! It was a great testimony to us that our constant prayers for her are helping. The other day as we were leaving their apartment after a lesson, she looked us in the eyes and said "Thank you for not giving up hope on me." I know she is capable, with God´s help, to quit smoking and we were so happy this week to see her looking healthier and happier. 

This week, as a natural result of our situation, we have gotten to know our map a little better. We discovered that in our ward we have a road named "coelho neto" and one named "salgado filho." Translated, those roads become "bunny grandson" and "salty son." The people who named these streets had interesting aspirations for their posterity. 

We also met a bunch of cool people this week because we were trying hard to talk to everyone. We were walking in a park and passed a man sitting on a bench with his back to us. We decided to turn and talk to him and he was actually really cool! His name is Márcio and he is one of those people that when you talk to him, everything is exciting. I don´t know if that makes sense, but we all know people like that. Anyway, we marked a visit with him for Friday, and when we went to visit him, we found the address he gave us, but there was a gate with a patio and then apartments in the back. And there was only one doorbell. We rang the doorbell. An old man on the patio who was painting something red turn and looked at us but went back to his painting. We called out to him, asking if he knew Márcio and that he marked a visit with us. He kind of glared at us and then said it wasn´t his responsibility to keep track of all the people in the building. We didn´t know what to do because the gate was locked and there wasn´t anyone else around. I said a prayer and then we decided to wait for a bit. We tried communicating again with the grumpy man, but...nothing. Suddenly, a smiling, happy figure came bounding out from behind the apartments. It was Márcio! I don´t know how he knew to come out (because after he said he had forgotton our appointment) but it was definitely a tender mercy of the Lord. He asked us if we could meet in the park and we went and had a wonderful lesson. TIME OUT..... people. The phone just rang (like right now) and guess who it was.... Márcio! Do you know how rare that is? He actually called. He apologized for not being able to make it to church and we marked a visit for this week. So yeah, that´s Márcio, the miracle of the week. 

Anyway, D&C 46:30 says "He that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh." If you have asked for something from Heavenly Father and you aren´t quite sure if He gave you what you wanted, maybe look again. Perhaps he has answered your prayer in a way you didn´t think of, but truly gave you what you wanted/needed. We think we know best, but usually we don´t. God always knows best. 

Love you!

Sister Smith

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.