15 September 2014

My dear ones,

This was one of the best weeks ever! It was crazy because basically nothing went as planned. It all went better. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

So at the end of the week we were a little short of meeting our goals, but we were determined to do it. It was Sunday night (the last day of our week) and we needed two new investigators. We started knocking on doors and miracle! someone let us in! It was a nice old lady, Magdalena, who listened to a message but when we asked if we could mark a day to come back, she was like no, it was super crazy that you found me at home because I am never at home. It will be a miracle if you find me again. Good thing we believe in miracles. But anyway she didn´t really express interest so we were still in the search!

We visited Álvaro, who got baptized three weeks ago, and met his father-in-law! He was super cool- a little set in his ways (spent 10-15 minutes straight explaining his moral philosophy that he has developed his whole life) but agreed to listen and to read and pray. As we were leaving, we asked Álvaro if he had anyone he could present us to. He said yes! And brought us to meet his neighbor, Carlos, who readily accepted the message and our invitations to read and pray. He said he want´s to see a lot of changes in his life as a result of the gospel. Álvaro was great, explaining everything and bearing his testimony about how his life was changed. He even wrote down the steps of prayer so Carlos would be able to remember. So basically the Lord put people into our path. He´s amazing like that.

Highlight of the week- Eliza´s baptism! She is amazing!!!!! So this week she got struck with a terrible cold and unexpected pains and lots of crazy stuff- had to go to the hospital for exams, etc. Friday night she was worse than ever but said that she still wanted to go through with it. She had prayed and said that she received her answer, that she truly felt that this is what she wants and what God wants for her and her family. Saturday night, still with a crazy cold and even though the water was cold (the gas ran out at the chapel! ahh!!!) she came through and was baptized! Carina, her daughter (purple shirt in the photo) wants to get baptized too and even though she works most Sundays she has already committed to come every Sunday she has off and try to find another job that lets her get Sundays off. Eliza wore a new skirt that she bought to church on Sunday and it was great to see her and Waltair together at church!! I just love that family! 

Letícia, a member of the ward, is Eliza´s niece. She is the first member of her family to be baptized and she shared her testimony at the baptism and through tears expressed her happiness to see the first member of her family, other than herself, be baptized. It was a beautiful moment for everyone. Families! Ahh!!!

Other miracle of the week was Marco. I was on a division with Sister Seely and we talked to a couple in the street. We marked to go back, and yesterday we visited with Marco on his front patio. The Lord is truly preparing people. When we got there, he said that his work friend, Bispo Teixeira (from another stake) had already introduced him a while ago to a lot of stuff, given him a huge stack of Liahona´s and stuff. AND! That  he had already researched the church on mormon.org AND that he had already downloaded the Book of Mormon in PDF and liked what he had read so far. He said he is a big fan of the church but has never had the opportunity to receive missionaries before. We are the lucky firsts! He is super smart and already knows about a whole bunch of stuff. He knew about President Hinckley, and we were pleased to inform him that it´s now President Monson that came after him and basically, it was just a delight to teach him.

 Theme of the week, Alma 13:24 "For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for thepurpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory."

I testify that that is true.
And not just here! The Lord and His angels work everywhere, preparing people to receive the restored gospel and to receive hope and light in their lives. It´s funny because, like with Carlos, it is usualy the last door, the last idea, the last hope, that comes through. It is usually after much rejection that comes reception. The Lord has prepared successes, but first we pass through tribulations and tests of our faith. But the gospel is true and we have everey reason to rejoice! Woohoo!!

Love you guys,

Sister Smith

8 September 2014

Happy Brazilian Independence Day Yesterday!

No one celebrated. Not even a firework. The other sisters in our apartment remembered today and sang the Brazilian National Anthem during companionship study.

Yesterday we approached the house of Renato, who got baptized Saturday. His parents are members, but they wanted us to teach him before he got baptized. When we got near, he ran out to the front gate and yelled "Sisters! Sisters! Did you like my baptism yesterday!?" We said yes,  yes we did. And then he said "the water was so cold! I got goosebumps. But inside my heart I felt super warm."

Eliza came to church again! And this time Waltair came! I just love that family. Waltair talked to one of the members afterward and said that he felt so great at church and that he feels the same thing when we teach him at his house. Yay!

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to study the scriptures. I have been working on improving my study and mastery of the scriptures. Pres. Castro says that to master a scripture, you have to 

1. Know the reference

2. Know the content (principles, doctrines, memorization)

3. Be living the principles contained. 

Our mission has been making goals to master the scriptures in Preach my Gospel. It has really helped our lessons. When we teach with scriptures, we teach with power and authority and it adds spirituality to the lessons..

II Tim 3:16-17 says it all. 

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
Study your scriptures, love you scriptures!!!

Love,
Sister Smith

24 August 2014

So August basically came and went without me realizing it. Wow. 

Weather update: everyone said "get ready, winter is coming...." for two or three months. It never came. Now spring is here but feels like summer. But it is raining today! Which is a blessing because I left my sunscreen at my old apartment and I already am sunburnt. 

So, update on my life- it´s been a while since I wrote details and I can´t remember what I have already said. So....

I am here in Alameda with Sister Silva, but we live in an apartment with four sisters (for the first time in my mission!!), Sister A. Oliveira (new on the mission) and Sister Melo (one of my old companions :D ). Life in four is an adventure. There is never a dull moment. 

So these past couple weeks I got to know area Alameda. If I could choose one word to describe it, it would be...hills. Or the complete oppossite of the area where I was serving for the last four transfers. But I love it here too!!!

There are no straight roads here and the map looks like someone dropped ramen noodles on the ground, but there are some of the most beautiful views from the tops of the hills!

Last week we met the most amazing family. One of the members from our ward gave a reference of her aunt and we have been getting to know her and her family. Her name is Eliza and she is one of the most kindhearted people I have met. She came to church with us yesterday and at the end of Relief Society, the RS president announced that the Sisters needed someone to give lunch on Saturday and next Sunday, and an Irmã volunteered for Saturday, and guess who volunteered for Sunday? Eliza! I was so touched that she is so willing to give everything she has. We have known her for so short a time, but she made certain that we always feel welcome in her home. She loved church and is so willing to learn about what changes she can make in her life to prepare to enter the church. Her daughter, Carina, is also taking interest in the church and says she wants to make changes and learn how to better help her young family (she has two beautiful kids who came to church with Eliza). Her kids are super adorable- they did not act out even once during church, and in the first lesson with them, they sat quietly and paid attention the whole time!! 

There is a giant prison in the middle of our area- Central Prison, and it is basically used as a reference point for everything. "I live on prison street......I live on the road behind the prison......I live three streets east of the prison......etc" and we walk past it basically every day. So naturally I have had time to reflect on what it truly means to be bound or to be free. We were teaching Renato, an 8 year old in the ward preparing to get baptized, and we shared about agency in 2 Ne 2:27. We discussed the two simple choices we have- liberty and eternal life through Christ, or captivity and death, being subject to the devil. He asked about what captivity means, and we explained that it means being bound by something, like being in prison. There is a definition of being captive that I found really interesting. Being captive is to be "held under control of another but having the appearance of independence......  being such involuntarily because of a situation that makes free choice or departure difficult " (merriam webster)

It made me think of the traps Satan uses to captivate us. With the appearance of freedom, he traps us. With the promise of being able to do 'whatever I want' he captivates us. 

The Savior does the complete opposite. He explains clearly the requirements of the law, asking complete obedience and explaining that it will not be easy, but true, eternal freedom is our reward. 

Exact obedience truly brings the greatest freedom. When we are obedient, we are happier and more confident. 

Obey the Lord! Be happy!

Sister Smith

7 August 2014

It´s Wednesday! (I forgot to mention that we get to go to the temple today so Pday switched)

Yay for going to the temple!!!! I am super pumped!!!!

So, yesterday we were walking along and trying to find people and visiting some addresses we had and nothing was going right! I was stressed out. We have been coming across a lot of rejection recently, which I can deal with, I think I was more worried about how we were going to find people teach because there are only so many houses at which we can knock (like 20) and the rest are apartments, which is significantly more difficult. But anyway, these were all my faithless thoughts and I couldn´t think of any way to be more effective in talking to the people and I was in this state of what can I think of what can I do? I don´t know how to make this all work.

I was right. I don´t know how to make this all work, but God does. Our district leader counseled us to say a prayer, and ask for guidance in what to do. We stopped, said a prayer under a lovely tree, and I really asked, out of the sincerity of my heart, to know who to talk to and what to do. I realized that I was depending completely on me. And I´m smart and capable, but not that smart and capable. And in missionary work, no one is smart and capable without God´s help.

The results were incredible. We started going again and I saw a young lady walking our way. I approached her with a  new hope. Miracle! She was really nice and friendly and was headed to work, but said we could visit and she is available weekends. She seemed really interested and was very nice. People! It has been a while since one of these happened! And the first person after the prayer. I think God was trying to say, this is what happens when you trust me. Next, we found a door to knock at! (I think we literally knocked at every house we passed- there is normally a bunch of apartment buildings and every once and a while a house stuck in the middle) and the young man who attended said he lives with his grandma and we can call to see when she will be home so we can visit! Things continued uphill and we were able to teach some lessons finally. It´s amazing how the Lord can turn a situation around. This is truly his work.

It´s good to pray when you have no idea what to do or are at the end of your rope. It is better to pray before that happens, counseling with the Lord so that he can direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6, Alma 37:37) And it is best to always have a prayer in our hearts, and always have our thoughts turned to the Lord, because we know who doesn´t want us to pray.... (2 Ne 32:8-9)

Say your prayers! Not just morning and night, but afternoon as well. And always. And be sincere and trust in the Lord. He knows exactly what he is doing.

Love you!!!

Sister Smith

Also, Nara was traveling the week to Rio and she brought us back the cutest souvenirs! A wall decoration with a princess and our names burned into the wood. Basically she is amazing. Oh and also, her phone got ruined when the tide rose and got her backpack wet, but we didn´t know that so I was super worried because we werent able to get ahold of her for various days, and her doorman said he didn´t see her get back from vacation, and it was already past the day when she was going to get back. BUT! Later that lovely day after the prayer, we got a phone call from an unknown number. It was her! She had gotten a new phone and walked all the way to the mission office (!!!) to get our phone number. And then she called us. She is amazing. 

Random pics from Zone conference:

1. Most of our zone

2. Sister Pikula!!

3. Lunch @ Grelhatos w/ the ladies from our district

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21 July 2014

Oi!

This week we fasted. Ladies and Gentlemen, fasting is a miraculous tool that the Lord uses. So in a lesson with Nara we noticed a change. We answered her questions as usual (she always has great questions) and when we touched again on the subject of faith, she said that she thinks her faith is greater than she had thought before. And we showed her all the requirements for baptism and all that she would need to do and learn and she said, "I already know 99% of this stuff!" She also asked us why everyone is so happy in the church and if they are always like that? Yes. Yes they are. We explained that the church is full of imperfect people but people that are striving to do and be the best they can and when a life or a family is centered on Christ, we can find joy even during the hard moments. It has been a miracle to see the changes taking place in her.

She also told me that she thinks I have the personality of a mãezona, which is like a super mom that just wants to hug everyone and scatters sunshine. I was like what? me? The quiet, serious, helpless missionary? I accepted the compliment but it shocked me a little. But looking back, I realized that I am not the missionary that I was just a few months ago. I have really changed since the beginning of my mission. Not that I was super anti-social or anything, but I have really learned how to smile, how to be myself, how to love and more importantly show my love, because as Shakesepeare writes "They do not love that do not show their love." This change in me, that in truth is still in progress, is all due to the atonement of Christ. It is the atonement that makes change possible. It is the atonement that allows us to become people that we never imagined we could become.

Elder Bednar mentioned this enabling power of the atonement.

“I frankly do not think many of us ‘get it’ concerning [the] enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenlybelieve we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, andwith our obviously limited capacities.”² 

“The enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and to serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity.”

In the strength of the Lord we can do all things. (See Alma 20:4).

I testify that this is true. With the Lord´s help, we can become infinitely more that we can alone. I am so grateful for what the Lord has done and is doing for me and for our investigators. It is truly He that works the miracles.

Also this week was kind of exciting because at nearly midnight on saturday we recieved a call from the assistants, which always means something exciting. So the sisters from a neighboring city had their microwave explode and their house catch on fire. They escaped and are fine but the apartment is completely destroyed. So they are our houseguests! Just for a day or two because they already have another apartment getting set up. It was truly incredible how the Lord protected them. One of the sisters has been sick with Dengue and she woke up with pain, and woke up her companion. It was only then that they percieved the smell of smoke and were able to evacuate. The Lord truly uses means to prepare and protect his children. (Alma 37:6-7). Sometimes being sick is a blessing!

Anyway, it was a normal (AKA great!) week other than that. 

Love,

Sister Smith

14 July 2014

So Big news of the week: Bruno got Baptized!!! So I don´t know how many of you have watched The Best Two Years, but our experience with Bruno this week reminded me of a quote that the new elder (Calhoun?) says before he talks to the investigator guy the first time. He asks his trainer about a bunch of stuff and then asks, "but what if he gets so excited...he just want´s to be baptized!?" The trainer tells him then to take down his number and his measurements and tell him we will call. That´s what we did with Bruno. He just got so excited during the lesson and said that he didn´t want to wait to be baptized. We told him the earliest it could be was after church on Sunday. So bishop found him a baptismal suit and we got everything set up and ready. He has been studying at home loves the Book of Mormon and before his baptismal interview he said he has already set aside his tithing!

Bruno is an evidence that the Lord is truly going before our face and preparing the hearts of His children to receive the word. He was truly someone who was “kept from the truth [only] because they know not where to find it”(D&C 123:12). I have never met anyone so truly willing to act and to change. Mateus, a young man from our ward, helped us to teach him and took him to Institute on Saturday and church on Sunday. Mateus leaves for his mission in Boston today! and was so happy to be able to have played a part in helping Bruno get baptized. Bruno got rid of the coffee in his apartment right after we taught about the Word of Wisdom and we are going with him this week to the Center of Autosufficiency (is that what it is called?) of the church to help him find a job where he doesn´t have to work Sundays.We feel so blessed to have the opportunity to teach Bruno. The Lord truly placed Him in our path. Bruno thought it was funny that we were so shocked that he wanted to get baptized so soon. I think pleasantly surprised was a better word.

The baptism was lovely and President Castro was there with his family and confirmed him with a beautiful blessing, with great promises and encouragement for him to stay strong in the church for the rest of his life. This is the first time President Castro and Sister Castro have actually come to the ward (they live in this ward) since March when I came (they travel and visit other wards basically every Sunday) so that was a special treat. I love that family. Nina, their daughter, is so wonderful and she helped us teach a few lessons this week, with Dirceu and another with Glessi, a lady that was so pleased to have us in her home because she said that no pastor, cleric, etc has ever actually visited her even after asking. 

Nara came to church again and stayed for the Baptism. She found it all very interesting and lovely and even though she says she is still having difficulty feeling faith, she is keeping all her committments and is opening up to the idea of her very own baptism! It was funny because last week we had given her a talk and when we asked her what she learned she was like "It fit just like a glove! You did that on purpose!" And we were like yes, Nara, yes we did. And in the middle of the lesson we assigned her to read Alma 32 (without mentioning the contents), and then we talked a bit more and after discussing a bit about why there is suffering on earth and answering her question about how will God be able to fit so many resurrected people here on earth (he has prepared three kingdoms of glory). We asked her about her faith and she said it was still small, but she feels like a little seed has been planted, and then we said, great! That is exactly what the chapter we assigned talks about, in those very words! And she was a little taken aback and again said "How did you know! You did that on purpose!" Yes, yes we did. But only with the help of the Spirit. It is fun to teach her because she has great questions and somehow the questions she asks lead exactly to the next point in the lesson!

Dirceu came to church again. He gave us and Nara a ride and on the way there, he said he didn´t know if he would be able to stay until the end because he had to hang his clothes out to dry. We told him that the clothes will still be there when he gets back. He stayed. He is funny because he always talks like he is not going to do anything, but he always does. And, true to form, he gave us oranges and bergamotas (clementines I think?).

And! With the help of the Relief Society, we furnished some clothes for Yasmim´s dad, Sandro, and he finally came to church. He said he won´t promise anything about baptism, but he wan´t to be more active in supporting Yasmim. Yay for families!!!!!

The Lord truly works miracles. None of the blessings of this week could have happened without him.

Love you guys!

30 June 2014

Dearest Friends,

This was a great week. Renata got baptized!!!!!! Woohoo!!!! It was a beautiful day. She is one chic lady. She got new highlights this week and to accompany the simple white baptismal suit she wore peach stilettos up until the moment of the baptism, a nice touch I thought. I got to play the violin and give a spiritual thought. Izabel, her less active mom, came and loved it! She even gave the opening prayer. I just love those two.

Rewind to the beginning of the week. Renata basically disappeared. She started working at her new job-the one that she doesn´t have to work Sundays! But that means she basically works every single other day late until the night and we just weren´t catching her at home or being able to get ahold of her on the phone. We passed by literally every day, usually multiple times and Thursday night we were about to give up. We needed to still teach her some things and finalize plans and it seemed like she just wasn´t on board.  We called and called and...nothing. We decided it was too late that night to call and cancel the interview and tell the ward it was off, so we went to bed sad and worried. But! Miracle! Izabel called first thing in the morning, we set up a time to teach her, the interview went smoothly on Friday and she was super happy and excited! She had had a crazy week but we were so happy that she was still really wanting to get baptized. She has been reading the scriptures daily and everything. She is an amazing lady. 

Other than that the week was pretty smooth. Dirceu´s new favorite hobby is to give us food. We ran into him on the street today and he gave us peanuts. Also Ana Grahl made us a cake and waffles and burritos because she knew transfers were today. Oh! Transfers! I will stay here in Ala 1 (yes!)  and I will be training. Pray for me. I am nervous. But the good kind. The anxious excited kind.

We had a Fest Junina (festival based on Catholic St. John but now is basically a hilbilly party with wassail made of grape juice. And lots of corn cakes. And square dancing of which I was tempted but did not participate. Tbt 4th grade square dancing in the Elementary School gym).

Well, thats about it for this week. Stay strong and never give up. When we are least expecting it, Heavenly Father will always surprise us with a miracle. When we are diligent, the miracles happen in ways that we least expect. The Bible dictionary defines diligence as "Consistent, valiant effort, especially in serving the Lord and obeying His word" Ergo, like Rome diligence isn´t built in a day. But with diligence, coupled with obedience, we will truly be able to "win the prize" (Mosiah 4:27) which prize is better than the World Cup (speaking of which, two Brasil games this week with U.S. and Brasil still in the tournament. I will have to choose loyalty soon...), better than a free handful of peanuts, and even better than cake or waffles. It is a prize that never ends. Eternal life. That´s what we are aiming for people.

Love you!

Sister Smith