Hey Everyone!!! (July 25)

Hey everybody!!!

 

Time to write again!!

 

It´s been a good week.... A bit tough at times, but good. It´s been interesting having to know my way around and show Sister Feistner how to get places and fill her in on all of our investegators here. I really HAVE to know this stuff now!!! hahaha. But it is good, and I´m learning a lot.

 

So, I think I told you all that Sister Feistner is from Spokane too..... But she´s from the valley--- Newman Lake, so we havent discovered many connections in common yet... BUT, turns out she took seminary from President Lee!! So let him know that he´s got a past seminary student and a past institute student serving together!!! haha.

 

Some cool stuff from this week....

 

We´ve been working with a young man named Michael for a while now.... He has been coming to church off and on throughout the last year or so, and he already has been taught by some of the sisters who were here last fall. He is 18, plays soccer and is super funny. He is always joking and using a lot of slang that we cant understand.... haha. He is super awesome! He loves meeting with us and walks from his house for about 45 minutes to get to the church and meet with us there. We´ve already taught him basically everything and he knows it is all true. He knows he needs to get baptized and part of him wants to get baptized, but he is still scared of the committment..... So we´ve been working with him and trying to help him a LOT. In the last lesson we had with him before transfers, we made some goals with him and he agreed to prepare to be baptized Aug. 12th. wooo!!

This past week, Sister Feistner and I met with him and talked a lot with him about baptism and what is holding him back. He said that he still doesnt feel prepared.... So we talked with him for a while and Sister Feistner started to question him about things and try to get to know him better. As she was doing that, she started to slip in the baptismal interview questions. He responded so well to everything! and he has such a good testimony already! Afterwards, she showed him the questions and explained to him that maybe he doesnt feel prepared, but the Lord knows he is. At the end of the lesson, he agreed to pray specifically about being baptized on Aug. 12th. !!! ( It may not seem like it, but this is a HUGE deal!!! He has NEVER agreed to pray about baptism before.... he would just always say "why bother praying? I know I need to be baptized, but it´s not gonna happen for a while")

Monday, we were able to meet with him again. Turns out, he had been reading the chapter we marked for him in the book of mormon a LOT. He read through it three times because he liked it so much!!!!! And he also prayed about being baptized the 12th!! He then told us that while he was reading he started to feel so much joy that he just wanted to share it with everyone. He looked out the window of his apartment to find someone to tell about it, but he only found a group of people smoking on the sidewalk outside... haha. But he said that he felt good about the 12th. He still wants more of an answer, but I´m super excited about his progress!!!

 

Also, Sunday both José and Guilherme were able to be confirmed and receive the holy ghost! Super cool!!! Guilherme is still so excited about everything... He has such a desire to learn everything he can about the gospel and loves it so much!! He is already super excited about going to institute and has been reading the institute manuals!! haha. What kind of 21 year old does that???!! He is amazing.

 

Oh, and last week I saw Elder Sands from our stake! I talked to him a bit when we all met in the rodaviária in Campinas for transfers, and then he was at our multi-zone conference last thursday as well. Fun to see someone from home!

 

Well,

 

Hope you all are doing well, have the best week!

 

Sister Ward

 

Sister Pedersen and I at Irmã Katia´s house one p-day, being our mature selves. =]

 

Batismo de LUISA!!!!!!!!! She was SO excited!! holy cow.

Best treinadora in the WORLD. Dont know if it really shows in the pic, but my hair is turning blonde now........

People think we are super cool cause we´re from the states and speak ENGLISH.... here is an example how people love to put english on everything.... whether it makes sense or not. haha

Pastels we made at Irmã Katia´s house!!

Batismo de JOSÉ

Batismo de GUILHERME!!!!!!!!! Such a perfect day!!! =]

Did I mention that basically everyone here has turtles as pets????? big ones, small ones, ones kinda in the middle like this guy.... I´ll have to send you all a photo of the HUGE one that another member family has.... Makes me think of the giant turtle in swiss family robinson, the one that he rides around on. haha

the praça at night!! This is another reason why Araras ROCKS.

 

My new comp. Sister Feistner in a  little tree house we found when out knocking doors with two girls from the ward the other day.

Remember when I said that one of our investigators- Izabel has a bakery and lets us pass and get free food everyday???? This is what the girls that work there loaded up for us last time our lunch appointment fell through.... =]

The girls there are seriously the BEST and love to see us and talk with us everyday. We started out only asking for a little bit of bread every morning, but one of the girls (Jessica) took on the job of loading up a bag or two of goodies for us everyday and making sure we try everything. In exchange for our food, we drop off a little note with a scripture and message for Izabel everyday... She LOVES it and we sure love having food, so I guess it works out. =]