This week flew by! The weeks are passing by faster and faster! We taught a lot of great people this week and I´m really loving Guarabira. It started to rain this week and kept on raining. Since Guarabira is all hills, except for the downtown, all the water goes to the same place--the center of the city. The downtown turned into a river and I just could not believe that people are used to this type of flooding. Honestly, we were walking and I couldn´t see the sidewalk or street...it was just all completely covered in water. A member told me that last year it got to be about 3-4 feet deep in the downtown. CRAZY! Anyway it was fun running around in the rain trying to teach people. I got completely soaked and felt cold for the 2nd time in Brazil. Rain or shine though when it hits the weekend the people down here party it up. We were invited to a recent convert's house for her mother´s birthday. When we got there everyone was drunk except Nice (recent convert) and it was an all out mess. Honestly people are just super retarded when they drink. We didn´t stay there very long thank goodness, but it was long enough for a guy to try and kiss my hand. I don´t know why, but brazilians get more romantic when they are drink. very strange. Anyway later that night a man drove by us on a motorcycle and fell over all of a sudden. As soon as he stood up it was easy to tell he was extremely drunk. He couldn´t even stand up straight and here he was trying to drive a motorcyle. Unfortunately this happens so much. The drunk driving laws don´t seem to exist down here, because on the weekend everyone seems to be wasted. I definitely know the Lord protects us, because with the amount of drunks on the road we should have been run over a long time ago.
Well this week they put in the garden at the new chapel. It is getting to be so pretty. It should be completed in a few weeks, but we won´t be able to meet there until we have 4 consecutive sundays of 120+ attendence. This week was 110, better than last week but getting closer to our goal. I hope to see the chapel dedicated before I go home!
Well since I´m getting closer to finishing my mission I´ve started to look at all the goals I had when I started the mission. One of those goals was to have a very close relationship with the Savior. I definitely feel closer to him than ever, but I decided there is much room for improvement. I decided until the end of my mission that I would study all the references in the topical guide about Christ. I started this week studying the titles: Advocate, Antemortal Existence, Antemortal Appearances, and Postmortal Appearances. Even after studying these 4 titles I have felt like I´ve made leaps and bounds towards getting to know the Savior better. I´ve been writing all my thoughts in a separate notebook and am excited to see how close I´ll get to the Savior in these next 10 weeks before I come home. The level of the spirit I feel now that I´m studying the Savior and His life has tripled and I feel like I am well on my way to having a stronger relationship with him. I felt extremely touched while reading the references about how Christ is our advocate with the Father. It is amazing that someone who never sinned or hurt anyone, took upon himself the sins and iniquities of every human being and on judgement day He is at our side pleading our cause. How many people would do that?One scripture under this topic touched me profoundly and I felt that one day he will plead my cause in the same way. In D&C 45 it says::
``Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him---saying, Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified. Wherefore, Father, spare those my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.``
When reading those words I felt and still feel the intense love and mercy that Christ has for us. He died because of our sins....because of the stupid things we do everyday...and yet he still loves us so much that he will stand by our side, pleading our cause. Now that is pure charity.
While studying about the postmortal appearances of Christ I remembered a joke someone told me on the mission. Why did Christ appear first to Mary, a woman? Because if he had appeared to a man the world still wouldn´t know he resurrected. Yeah, by word of plane, phone, etc still isn´t as fast as word by woman. Well I hope you all are doing great. I´m doing well, so no need to worry about me! I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the cold weather. Thanks for the prayers!
Love you all!
Sister Wood
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