Visited by an apostle and a parasite!

So this week was pretty good. Sister G and I have been teaching like crazy and having a lot of success. We worked pretty hard this week and a few days ago I started getting dizzy spells. I thought it was because of the heat, but after talking with a few people I think it is because I have a parasite. We´ve been drinking tap water recently just because it is free, but it turned out to not be such a great thing.... The temperature has been getting pretty hot recently and it has definitely been a lot harder to walk in the streets with the hot sun baking our skin. Unfortunately the weather will just continue to get hotter until the end of the year. So yesterday in our meeting with the bishop I receive some great news....four of my recent converts are signed up to go to the temple this next month. Isn't that just the coolest thing? Also we had several investigators who went to a fireside that Elder Bednar held. They ended up enjoying it quite a bit and we are going to mark their baptisms for this week hopefully. Well I can't believe I´m going to stay another transfer in Tibiri, but at least all the ward members are happy. Several members are wanting to make us dinner in celebration of me staying and the bishop´s wife just wants me to move here after I finish my mission. So today we got to listen to Elder Bednar and his wonderful wife. It was a great experience. He pretty much talked the entire time about how we can become good teachers. He opened the meeting up to comments and questions and I was able to make a comment about a talk he gave a few years ago--Ask in Faith. After the meeting was over President and Sister Hall took the Bednars to the airport. When they returned they told me that Elder Bednar had really enjoyed the comment I made...which of course made me happy. It was so nice to be in the presence of an apostle and to learn from him. With out a doubt he is an apostle of the Lord and a special witness of our Savior. The Spirit was extremely strong in our meeting and I continue to feel it until now. He talked a lot about the importance of acting and not being acted upon. Many people wait for things to happen in their lives, but this is the opposite of faith. When I person has true faith he always acts. We show our faith by acting and not by being acted upon. This is a principle that I am trying to apply in my life during the mission and afterwards as well. After Elder Bednar left all the missionaries ate lunch and chatted. The entire mission was there for the conference which has not happened since last Christmas. It was wonderful to see everyone again. I really have made so many wonderful, lifelong friends on this mission. Sister H and Sister De Oliveira have made such an impact in my life and their friendship has been one of the biggest tender mercies I´ve received on the mission. When all three of us got together we just started talking a million miles a minute and giving hugs. I think I must have given Sister De Oliveira at least 100 hugs today alone. I just hope you guys get to meet these wonderful girls sometday! Well you guys know how I love to talk and today I was on full `´mouth of the south`` mode. I talked and chatted and laughed and cried until our motorist picked us up to go home. I´m so grateful for the missionaries in this mission! They are all so great! After the conference our motorist took us to get Açai (AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING) and took the road home that goes by the beach. IT was wonderful to see the rolling waves and beautiful palm trees. Honestly my mission is so pretty! Well I have to go now. You guys should totally read the priesthood session talks. I put them on my ipod last week and have listened to Pres. Utchdorfs and Pres. Monsons talks about 4 or 5 times and still haven't gotten sick of them. Honestly conference is the best thing since sliced bread. Well I love you guys. Have a great Week!

Still here, still faithful...

So just to put your minds at ease, I didn't die last week and I wasn't transferred. I´m staying here in Tibiri until Dec 2nd! Waahooo! I´m so happy I stayed and luckily the members are as well. 8 months in one area!!! Crazy huh? But luckily I´m super happy. I´m going to stay with Sister G and Sister H and another new sister, Sister Arruda who Sister H is training. She seems so cool and I´m ready for another transfer full of hard work and fun! These past weeks have been pretty great. Tons of crazy things happened, but I think it is best that I save these stories until after the mission. Things are going great though. Lindenberg will most likely start his mission papers in 2 months and I´m thinking that it will be so crazy to have someone I baptized on a mission! Elizabeth was confirmed and bore her testimony the same day. It was a simple but amazing testimony and it was so awesome to hear. It is amazing the change that can happen and the testimony a person can gain in a matter of a few weeks. She talked with the bishop this last week to receive her temple recommend to do baptisms so she´ll be headed to the Recife temple in 3 weeks. Sweet huh??! As I was sitting in church this Sunday I was very satisfied with my work here in Tibiri. My baptisms are passing the sacrament, giving prayers, bearing testimonies, baptizing others, being ushers, teaching classes, doing visiting teaching, preparing for missions, etc. I´m very happy to have been able to see all the progress during these 8 months. It definitely is a blessing! As I´ve said a thousand times, the mission is the best decision I´ve ever made. I´m glad I´ve been able to be an instrument in the Lords hands to help change some peoples lives. It is a good feeling. I can't believe I´ll be home in 5 months...so weird. It will be so weird to go to a house that doesn't have a concrete wall around it, it will be so weird to see grass yards, it will be so weird to knock on a door instead of clap, and it will be so weird to eat something besides beans and rice....but I´ll get used to it. THe U.S. will be a huge shock to me, but it will be good to return home in April! I´m doing great though. Happy and ready to work harder than ever this transfer! Elder Bednar will visit our mission this next Monday, so that will be cool. I´m really excited to see an apostle close up. I took their visits for granted when I was at BYU. I´m sure Elder Bednar will whip us into shape and inspire us to be better than we are! I´ll be sure to write you guys all about it next week. I love you all and hope you guys are doing well. Always remember the importance of scripture study and prayer!

Well wasn't conference just the best?!!!! When President Monson got up to say the closing remarks I couldn't believe that conference was already over! It flew by and was just what I´ve been needing to give me more incentive to be my best! We got to see the Relief Society session in Portuguese and I LOVED President Monson´s talk. Honestly, as women, judging is one of our biggest faults! I love that President Monson spoke very directly and sternly, but with love. After the Relief Society session was over a man in the stake came up and asked us if we wanted to watch the rest of the sessions in English. Sister Garrett and I about died of happiness. It is still a little hard for her to understand everything in Portuguese and I definitely jumped at the chance to hear a little of my native tongue. So it was a tender mercy really when we watch the other four sessions in English. I honestly started to cry when I saw temple square and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and heard the talks in English. I got a little homesick, but I got over it quickly. After all the inspiring words of conference, I´m ready to refocus on my mission and give everything I have to these last 6 months. Don't be surprised if I arrive barely breathing and extremely sunburned and mosquito bitten when I get home..after a few months I´ll recover! Life will be so different when I return...so different than my life here. I was thinking about it the other day when I woke up with mosquitos buzzing around my head and fresh blood on my sheets from the constant battle with the mosquitos. I think I´ll just leave everything here when I come home. All my sheets are covered with blood from the mosquitos, my clothes are slowly gathering permanent mold, my shoes are cover with dirt that will take several days and a scrub brush to clean, but I´m happy....extremely happy. I know the Lord will provide for me after my mission. This week turned out to be pretty great. We had a double baptism with the other sisters and it went really well. We sang `´ Eu Sei Que Vive Meu Senhor`´ ( I Know That My Redeemer Lives) and it turned out to be so beautiful! Elizabeth was SO excited to be baptized and was just beaming the entire night. So I´ve officially decided that I was sent to the perfect mission for me. In the intermission of conference they had a few shots of Brazil and everyone was dancing and carrying on....that´s definitely BRazil! I think the Lord knew I needed a mission with people like me-- people who like to have fun and who really know how to enjoy life. I love this place! I´m going to ask President Hall to let me stay in Tibiri one more transfer (that would be 8 months here!)....I hope he lets me. The people here are like my familiy and I just don't want to say goodbye yet! Anyway more about conference....Wasn't it just the greatest ever?? That talk by Elder Holland made me feel sooo guilty and I definitely made of a lot of goals to change my ways. President Utchdorf´s talk was.....wow...and Elder Christoffersons talk....LOVE iT. President Monson´s talk about gratitude made me really rethink how I need to better my prayers and my life....anyway conference was amazing, amazing, amazing, and answered every question I had. I hope all you guys got to see at least a couple sessions of it! Well the weather is heating up A LOT down here....and we are still just in the spring. dang it. pretty soon it will be like a literal frying pan. I´m really happy I have a sunny mission though. It would be difficult to get up at 6:30 in the morning if it was cold! So I´ve been trying to work on my language skills and recently started reading `´Le Livre de Mormon´´ and `´Das Buch Mormon`´...(French and German). I´m was getting close to reading 2 Nefi in French a few weeks ago and decided since I was understanding a lot of it I would begin reading in German. Well today I began the German and it will be a long, hard, bumpy road until I finish it. German is way harder for me to learn than French, Spanish, or Italian. I read a few verses in an Italian Bible the other day and understood 90%! It is great how all the romance languages are so interlinked. Don't worry though I´´m not going crazy with languages....just trying to see what other languages I would like to learn. A guy in the CTM (who also works in the U.S. embassy in Brazil)knew 7 languages and said it is best to learn several languages at the same time....not to focus on one and perfect it before moving on to another. Anyway in the little spare time I have, I~m trying to expand my language abilities. Well I hope you guys are all doing great! I pray for you guys always and know that the Lord is taking care of you all! I would give you all the same counsel that President Monson gave....when the conference talks are available,,, read them, and reread them....set goals and do everything you can to reach them. I love you all!! Até próximo semana!

September 27, 2010

Well this is going to be REALLY fast because there is a new internet guy who is really mean and is kicking me off! My week was really good though. I ate chicken intestines and cow tongue for lunch...i didnt really like it, but whatever. Elizabete wasn't baptized yesterday because 1/2 the city was without water....That whole lack of water problem happens a lot here in the northeast. BUT elizabete will be baptized tomorrow. que gloria! Welll I´m officially being kicked off. I´m doing well though and love you all! Thanks for the emails and enjoy conference this weekend!