ONE YEARRRRR!!!! (Mar. 18)

 

The cake my Sister Moraes made to take to English Class on my one year mark!!! If you look closely, you´ll see that she put a little candle and a paper to say "one year". =] Then we learned the birthday song in English and everyone sang "happy one year" hahahaha. They loved it.

 

That´s right folks. One year has come and gone since I have seen you all.............. do y'all miss me???!?!?

Sure miss all you guys! and cant believe how fast the time is flying!! AH!

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD I burned a shirt. hehe. =] missionary tradition folks..... burn a shirt on your one-year mark.....DONT WORRY MOM, we didn't catch anything on fire.

Sadly, our apartment doesn't have much of an area outside to burn things.... so this tiny closet space that is outside is all we had to work with.... and since it is the door to our kitchen, our apartment started to fill up with smoke pretty fast..... and my comp. (who is way smarter and more intelligent than me) decided we better not burn the shirt all the way or all the neighbors would start complaining and banging on our door..... hehe. Notice how my eyes are already dying from the smoke in this picture.....

 

This week was good--- we worked hard, not everything went how we wanted..... but still had some miracles.

With Robson--- He said he got an answer to his "promise" with God...... I explained to him how that means that he needs to keep his part of the promise now and get baptized.... buttttt... Didn't help much. He met with the Elders to be interviewed for baptism and everything, but seems like he just doesnt want to get baptized right now....  I think he must have some other doubts, but he didn't want to share much with us. Just said that he´ll keep visiting the church and let us know when he feels ready to be baptized...... HMM. GUESS WHAT... that´s not how promises work!! God can't bless you if you don't do what you promised to do!

 

Big miracle from the week..........

Last week, Késia and family didnt come to church..... for the FIRST time since they started coming every week since January..... We called to find out what happened, but never got ahold of them.... We got pretty discouraged about it. We didnt know if maybe they were running away from us/trying to avoid us, or if they just skipped because of Késia´s crazy schedule with her boss from the states visiting....

This Sunday, we waited at the door of the chapel to greet everyone, and also hoping and waiting for Késia and Michael to show up....... We waited until about 9:20...... And then we figured they probably weren´t gonna come. Again. BUT, one of the counselors in the stake presidency took us aside to talk to us for a little bit... Irmão Ronaldo... He has met and talked to Késia several times and is always concerned about her and Michael and trying to help us out.... He is AWESOME. You all have no idea. So we talked to him and told him how we thought she had got scared or felt pressured to get baptized and wasnt coming anymore because of this. He was just like "Sisters, the Lord has a huge purpose for Kesia in the church..... and Satan knows that and doesnt want her to get baptized.... he is winning this battle right now, but he cant win!!! We cant let him win!" Then he asked to say a prayer with us. He prayed for all our investigators that have come to church by name, and asked the Lord to touch their hearts and bless them and help them to come to church. Wow. It was a really cool experience.... Just when we had given up all hope, he was full of faith and telling us not to give up! He has sooo much faith that it will work out! That they would come to church yesterday, and that they will get baptized.... It was a little bit of a slap in the face as well.... haha. "Why are you giving up??!!!" But it was a much needed slap in the face.... =]

I´m so grateful for his faith, encouragement and support.

After he said that prayer, we parted ways and Sister Moraes went into the bathroom before heading down to the Relief Society room. When we came out of the bathroom about 5 minutes later, Késia, Michael, Caio and Cristian were in the hall. ALL of them came!!! It was the FIRST time that all of the boys have come to church with her! And they were so happy and doing so well!!! AH! MIRACLES!!! 

 

Michael, me, Késia and Caio.... (Cristian had already gone to bed before we remembered to take a picture....).

After church, Irmão Ronaldo asked to say another prayer with us and we thanked Heavenly Father for His help.... I know it was an answer to our prayers that they ALL came to church yesterday, and let us go to their house to teach them last night and everything.... And little 9 year old Cristian told his mom during church that he wants to be baptized!! She was all like "sisters, looks like you are going to have to start teaching Cristian as well.... he said he wants to get baptized cause he thinks he has a lot of sins.... " hahah. So cute. Hopefully we can help him to be brave enough to actually go to primary instead of staying with his mom or older brothers through all the meetings.... haha.

Did I mention that Kesia is studying the institute manual for the Pearl of Great Price????! yeah! And she keeps having all these crazy questions about stuff I´ve never really thought about before... man. This lady is incredible. So ready to be baptized. She just doesnt know it yet.

 

ANDDDDD big transfer news!!!

We have transfers TOMORROW and I´m staying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOO!

Sister Moraes is leaving, and I´m going to be training a new sister!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont know who it will be yet, but I´ll be going to the chapel in Castelo to pick her up tomorrow afternoon! AH! How crazy is this??!!

 

We went to the temple this week!! YEAH! Me and my companion--- Sister Moraes.... Gonna miss her so much!

Making pastels with Késia and Michael.... a going away party for Sister Moraes!! ahhhhhh

Alright.

Need to head out already.

 

I love you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the emails and support!!

Sorry I dont have more time to respond to everyone...... But I love hearing from you guys!!

 

Have the best week everyone!!

and wish me luck picking up my newbie tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love,

Sister Ward

 

My trainer Sister Pedersen is GOING HOME TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH! i cant believe it! Got to say goodbye to her when her and her companion came and slept in our house this week to be here in Campinas for her last interview with President.... Soo good.

Hey There My Lovely Family! (Mar. 11)

Well, about my week really quick....

This week was good, but really hard, and really hot. I´m learning a lot......... because of all of our difficulties really.... Yep. I had the realization this week that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me that I can't always get what I want just cause I put in the effort..... Maybe trying to teach me that I can't have success in everything. Maybe trying to teach me humility.

Not exactly sure yet, but there is a big lesson here that I apparently haven´t learned yet.... Hopefully I learn it quick so we can have some success here.

 

Well. This week was hard with our investigators. They all pretty much stopped progressing this week...........

Kesia and Michael are super busy and we haven´t even been able to get a hold of them, and they didnt come to church......... hopefully it is just cause of some crazyness in Kesia´s job this weekend, but we know nothing.

We marked baptism with Robson this week for saturday March 16th, but then on Thursday he told us that he doesnt want to get baptized anymore cause he feels like he is getting baptized for the wrong reasons.... Feels like he hasnt been "touched by the spirit" yet with the desire to be baptized.... HMMM.

We found a lot of really cool people.... A girl named Sarah in particular, when we went back to her house after teaching the first lesson and leaving a Book of Mormon, we asked if she read and prayed and SHE HAD. And she had a really special, personal, spiritual experience and said that she felt that it is all true. AH! It was really cool, because these type of answers is what we have been praying for, praying for this to happen with our investigators.... BUT, the next time that we went to teach her, she was waiting at the bus stop as we were coming down her street, then before we could get there, we had to watch her get on the bus and leave! AH. Turns out, her grandma decided that she doesnt have time to see us, and since we were teaching sarah with her grandma at her grandma´s house, Sarah just went home..... And we´ve tried to call her, but no one answers. COOL.

We taught another mom and daughter that are really special..... But they canceled our appointments with them twice, and bailed on going to church at the last second...... ahhhh. so frustrating!!! hopefully, we can help them and figure out the problem this week so they can come with us to church next week.....

 

BEST thing of the week,

Rodrigo, a less-active member we have been visiting since I got here, has been coming back to church for about a month now, and Sunday, he had an interview with the bishop to recieve a calling in the ward. AH!!! I´m SO excited for him!! It is so great to see that we helped someone in our time here!!

 

OTHER GOOD NEWS

We bought ant killer this morning at the store..... YEAH! Now I can spray and kill all those stupid little ants in our house that climb all over my desk and drive me crazy!!!

 

Also, we had an activity with the elders in our chapel today.... we made food and played BASKETBALL out on the court that they have at our church building..... DO YOU ALL KNOW HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN SINCE I´VE PLAYED BASKETBALL???? Yep, that´s right, a lonngggg time. It was fun. We even taught Sister Moraes how to shoot hoops a little bit.... since basketball is pretty rare here, she doesnt have very much experience..... Even less than me guys, and that´s saying something. haha.

 

AND just for you all to remember..... Thursday this week will be my ONE YEAR mark on the mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow, how time is FLYING....... Dont even know how it is happening..... crazy.

 

Well, officially super late and got to go.........

 

I love you all!!!

have the best week!

 

Sister Ward