"Parent Trap III"

This week’s letter is going to be short. We spent all day in João Pessoa being interviewed by the president and receiving a training about lots of mission related stuff. Anyway I wasn’t so happy about spending our pday at the mission office, but such is life. Today is also my companion’s birthday. After emailing fast we are going to eat pizza with the other sisters we live with. This week was pretty good. Our spirits were high and we worked hard. Last Monday night we received word that a man we baptized was shot accidently by his friend. Luckily it was just in the arm. He was in the hospital for a couple days, but now he is back in his house recovering. Yesterday he took off the bandages and we got to see the wound. It was awesome!!! The bullet passed completely through his arm leaving an entrance and exit wound. The good thing about this is that he now has a stronger disposition to go to church regularly. Sister Nascimento and I live in a house with 2 other sisters--Sister Burton and Sister de Oliveira, and it is just the most fun thing ever. Seriously every night is just crazy because Sisters Burton and Nascimento are going home next week. We have already had a water balloon fight in the house and a water fight with buckets. Last night Sisters Burton and de Oliveira surprise attacked us with mousse in the face. Luckily they made a huge bucket of it and we had an all out war. Goodness the aftermath was horrible though because the mousse had egg whites in it and it hardened in our hair and clothes and on the floor of our house and everywhere....but it was soooo fun! Unfortunately we didn’t realize that out house was without water ( which happens a lot here) and we had to take a bath on the side of our house with buckets. We just about died laughing as we helped each other wash the mousse out of our hair. This morning, when we woke up and opened the back door a big mouse ran in and hid in the room that holds our suitcases are. After fighting for a few minutes about who would take care of the mouse...Sister de Oliveira and I finally volunteered and entered the room. We closed the door and Sister de Oliveira scared the mouse out from under the dresser and I started whacking away at the mouse...but I’m a horrible shot. (luckily Sister Burton filmed this all from the window) I kept hitting thin air or the floor next to the mouse...and every time I swung the broom stick for some reason we screamed. Honestly we were very much ´´girls´´ screaming and jumping on top of anything that was close and let us escape the mouse. Finally I killed it and afterwards we buried it in the backyard. The funeral was very sweet, few people attended, but tears were shed. Hopefully the mice will avoid our house in the future! So this past week Sister Nascimento and I were walking in the street at night and when we turned the corner a girl yelled ´´Sisters!!!´´. We didn’t recognize her, but started talking to her and she said she was a returned missionary who was inactive. She returned home 2 years ago and because of lack of friends in the church and other wrong choices she left the church. As she talked to us she started to relate all the problems that had happened to her since she left the church. She also said she was fervently praying for help in her life while walking in the street and we all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere. We talked to her for a long time and she has a lot of doubts about returning to the church. She really wants to return to the church, but thinks everyone will judge her and she is also very ashamed of how her life has turned out. She talked about how things were hard for her when she was going to church, but said it was the only time in her life that she was actually happy. She talked about since she left, that she only feels an emptiness that won’t go away. She tried to find happiness in many things--drugs, alcohol, men, etc, but she said her life is nothing but loneliness and unhappiness because of her decisions. We talked to her a lot about repentance and committed her to go to church this next week. She promised she would. Talking to her was really an awesome experience. While we were talking I felt very strongly the love and concern that God has for her. As we said our goodbyes and started walking home Sister Nascimento and I just started tearing up because of the testimony we gained about the love of God for his lost sheep. The scripture in Alma came clearly to my mind: “Now my beloved brethren we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in, yea he numbereth his people and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth.” I have a very strong testimony of this scripture. Every day we meet people who are ´lost´ spiritually and it is just the most humbling experience ever to meet these people and talk to them. Gotta go. Time is up! Love you, Ariel