Week One in JUNDIAI (Oct. 15)

Hey family!!!!!!!!!!

 

How is everyone!????!?! It feels like its been a year since I talked to you all last week, so much has happened!!!!

 

First off...... as of a week ago, Sister Feistner and I had already heard the transfer news and we were both going to stay in Araras. Sadly, things dont always work out how you want them too..........

Due to some crazy stuff that happened, President decided to transfer us BOTH and send us both TOGETHER to Jundiaí.

Specifically, our 40 yr old-ish, married with three teenage daughters, neighbor  somehow decided that he was in love with Sister Feistner and left her a note telling all about it and how he would leave his family to follow her ANYWHERE if she happened to feel anything special for him too..... YIKES. We were completely caught off gaurd cause our neighbors are WAY cool, we were good friends with them, they helped us out a lot when I was sick, they always invited us over to eat and stuff, and we were starting to teach their family the gospel.... Apparently HE at least was interested for a different reason.... sister F.´s "intoxicating hair" and "teeth that shine like the moon" maybe.... hahah. OHHHHH GOSH.

Point being, we got transferred and President Perrotti put elders in Araras. We called president and everything got figured out right after I emailed you all last monday and we packed up and left that night..... CRAZY. We didnt really have time to say goodbye to anyone (which I was pretty bummed and sad about...) and Izabel drove us to the Rodaviária (bus station).Then she bought us Mcdonalds so we wouldnt have to starve on the bus ride.... and we all cried our eyes out saying goodbye.  ahhhhh. I miss her so much!!! and everyone in Araras!!!!!!!!! ahggg. I LOVE all those people there!!!

 

Anyways. Moving on.
I am feeling fine now.... not sick anymore... but unfortunately Sister Feistner got pretty sick when we were enroute to Jundiaí..... we spent the night with some sisters in Campinas monday night, and she got way sick in the middle of the night. So we ended up staying there all that day and half the next day. Mostly just sitting inside. But I did get to leave and work a little bit with one of the other sisters.... A brazilian sister!!! hahah. It is WAY strange that I have been out here so long and only had american companions.... I dont know why it has happened this way.... but I have always heard that typically you have a brazilian and an american together.... NOT SO FOR ME!!!! It might be our new mission president too.... Sister Pedersen also has an american companion right now... and there are several other brazilian sisters serving together.... Weird. I dont know why.
Wednesday night, we finally got to our new area.... Jundiaí Centro.

Jundiaí is pronounced JOON-G-EYE-EE (well, something like that.... hahahah)

It is a BIG city, and it is right in between Campinas and São Paulo.... about an hour from either city. Araras was about an hour northwest of Campinas, and now we are about an hour southeast of Campinas.... And it is a totally different WORLD here! We are kind of in the mountains (well, as mountain-ish as it gets here) and it is way cooler here and kind of windy. The city is also FULL of hills. It is all hills actually. And we´re not talking just little bitty hills..... these hills are MONSTERS. We just walked to the Lan House to use the computers and we spent about 40 minutes walking up and down hills to get here.... my calves are burning. hahah.

Jundiaí is also a BIG city..... I think it has about half a million people.... but it seems WAY big.... It is also pretty wealthy. It is the third richest city in the state of São Paulo (after São Paulo and Campinas). Our area is smaller than Araras (cause there we were working the ENTIRE city...) and we are smack in the center. Downtown Jundiaí. SWEET. Everyone here seems to be in a hurry.. to get to work, school, whatever. Apparently a lot of people live here but work in either Campinas or São Paulo.... and there are a TON of big apartment buildings here..... (not so helpful for knocking doors since they have door gaurds and gates and everything.....). Since Sister Feistner and I are both new here, we know NOTHING and are lost all the time. hahah. Usually they try to keep one missionary that knows the area and transfer in one newbie at a time, but since we got put here last minute, we are "opening" the area and get to have oh so much fun trying to figure out EVERYTHING.

The sisters who were here before us didnt leave us much to go off of as far as investigators and everything.... we´ve been trying to find a few of the addresses that they wrote down for us.... but some of them dont even exist. woops. hahah. We arrived to find no progressing investigators and no marked baptisms...... We´ve definitely got some work to do.

So we have been knocking doors a lot. Pretty much ALL day, every day. And the people here are WAY less receptive than in Araras...... We have been working a lot in the area close to our house and south of our house in center, and the people are just NOT interested and sometimes even super rude. Everyone on the street is in a hurry to get somewhere and wont talk to us. Knocking doors, everyone is busy, evangelical or catholic..... and NOT interested. haha. We also found my first atheist while knocking doors..... (well, I guess we taught João Paulo in Araras and he didnt really believe in God.... so that is probably my first atheist technically.... ) but really, I havent found many atheists in Brazil. usually everyone believes in God, possibly doesnt go to a church, and probably grew up catholic. Sister Feistner served in an area that was practically all atheists though, so it does happen. I was pretty surprised though.
Besides our area being all hills..... it also went into a cold rainy spell when we arrived..... It is fairly windy here normally, and cooler than araras, which will be WAY nice as we go into summer time...... but this week has been very cold and very rainy. Knocking doors in the rain is AWESOME. hahaha. Not so much.
We also dont know our area very well at all. The first day we accidently went outside the line of our area and started knocking doors one road into the elders area..... sweet. When we got home and looked at our map we were so bummed!!! haha. THEN, turns out the line on our map is WRONG and we knocked doors for an entire DAY on another road that is just outside our area as well. hahaha. OH YEAH.
But, we have been informed that there are some areas more on the north side of our area where the people are a little more welcoming and more humble and so we are planning to try knocking doors more up there this week....... and maybe we will have some more success!!!
ALSO, knocking doors at night is the WORST!!! We were knocking doors friday night on what looked to be an okay street, when a member couple drove up and told us we should avoid that neighborhood...... GREAT, well what would you recommend we do until we can go home at 9 oclock then??? ahah.We went to another road where almost EVERY person refused to even let us say a prayer for them, and we had one lady that yelled at us and told us off for knocking doors at that time of night!! (it was 7:30 at the time....) Needless to say, it was frustrating and we are trying to find people to plan lessons or family nights with for the nighttimes this coming week.
Saturday, we finally were able to find one correct address of a less active family that the sisters left for us. WOOO!!! Turns out they are a way cool family, and invited us back to have a family night there tonight. MAN. That was so refreshing after our frustrating week. hahah.
Also, yesterday we had church. WAY weird to not know who ANYONE is...... not know who is visiting (nobody was.... ahha), who is recently baptized.... nothing. This is gonna be interesting.....
That afternoon, we were in the chapel for a meeting with the ward mission leader..... He told us how our ward is not doing so well right now.... super un-excited, and a lot of people going in-active. Everyone seems to be way busy with work and school, OR there are also a TON of old people.... Hmmm. So we are taking on the task of trying to visit the members and get to know them better and get them excited again.... which is a little tricky since we dont know where anyone lives yet. hahah.
After our meeting, we ran into the elders that take care of the other ward that meets in our building (our building is a HUGE stake center!!!! so crazy after the tiny little building in Araras!! and our ward is super old and has already been split several times... crazy). Our district leader was asking if we would close our numbers for the week, and we just laughed and were like "elder, we only got ONE lesson with a member this week...... we dont know anyone who wants to leave with us!!!" There just so happened to be some young women in the building waiting for their parents to get out of meetings, so we were able to get some girls to go knock doors with us to close our numbers for the week. hahah. But really, it was such a blessing!!!
The girls are part of the other ward that meets in our building but they were way cool!! 16 and 17 year olds, and it was their first time leaving with missionaries. We found a street to knock with them, and just worked making contacts and saying prayers with everyone for an hour. Turns out, one of the girls plays violin!!!! YEAH!!! and she is gonna let me play/borrow her violin sometime!!! YES!!! ALSO, she must be pretty ridiculously good..... classical of course... But she has a STRADIVARIUS (dont remember how to spell that) violin!!!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?! Apparently, it was delivered to her anonymously in the mail with just a note saying this person had watched her all year and knew she would take good care of it, and pass the charity along to others. WHAT THE CRAZY??!?!?!? Now she is teaching a little boy with dyslexia violin, earned money to buy him a violin by making and selling cookies.... wow. Super cool. ANYWAYS. I am way excited to get to play this stradivarius sometime here in the future!!! hahah.

ALSO, while working that street, Sister Feistner and one of the girls were working one side of the street while me and the two others were working the other side(and talking about violins while waiting for sister F...... haha). Apparently, Sister Feistner and Vitoria found an ELECT!!! They taught him the whole first lesson about the restoration and left him with a book of mormon! He was apparently WAY interested, and when Sister Feistner told him about Joseph Smith and how God and Christ appeared and told him that none of the churches were true, he was like "well, what do we do then??!" =] Then she continued to tell him all about the restoration, and gave him a book of mormon. He said he will read it, and that it will only be the third book he has read in his LIFE.!!! yikes. hahah. BUT SO GREAT!!! I am way excited for us to go back and see how the reading went, and continue teaching him!! His name is Rodolfo. Hopefully you all will be hearing some more about him over the next few weeks. =]

Another little blessing...... last night we were doing our weekly planning... I called the bishop´s wife to ask her a question about a reference she is planning to take us to visit. Afterwards, she called us back real fast and was like "sisters, I just made a chocolate cake, do you want some??" OF COURSE WE DO!!! So then, she was so sweet and packed up a little package with cake, crackers and eggs and bishop drove it over to us. It was just a little thing, but so sweet of them!!! And it was so nice to feel like people actually care about us after our hard week.... And, since we have been missing our little bakery in Araras and the free food every day, it was nice to get some yummies as well. hahaha.

ALSO--- the lady who schedules our lunches here is WAY awesome, and way on top of things..... so I think we will never be lacking in the lunch department.... The ward seems way good about that. And everyone is constantly asking us if we need anything in our house and if we are doing okay. So I think things will just continue to get better as we get to know the area and all the people here. WOOO!!! I´m excited. =]

Well. I was all excited to send home some pictures....... but this lan house doesnt do pictures apparently. GAH. So it will have to wait till next week, and we´ll try to find a different lan house....But I have lots of pictures to show you all!!!

I hope you all have an amazing week!!!!!
Love you all SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
I miss you all everyday.

 

thanks so much for all the emails this week.... wish i could respond individually to all of you, but I dont really have time. But I love reading them soooo much.

 

Until next week

 

Sister Ward

Staying Home is the Worst!!!! (Oct. 8th)

Hey everyone!!!

 

How are you all doing??????!!!!!!!

Hope you all enjoyed general conference!!!! I didnt quite get as much out of it as I would have liked (since it was in portuguese....) but it was still amazing! AND 19 YEAR OLD SISTER MISSIONARIES!!!!!???????? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Lets fill the mission field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was a tough one............

So, like I said before, the weather has been up to tricks here in Brasil......... a few weeks ago, it was baking hot. Then we had a week of freezing cold, then this past week was baking again.......... And that lovely weather has been wreaking havoc amongst us missionaries and Sister Feistner and I have each been battling colds on and off......

This week, apparently it was my turn again and I got a cold from you know where......... Tuesday night I started to feel sick and couldnt sleep very well. When I got up Wednesday morning, I felt terrible and had the WORST pain behind my eyes and in my head.... Turns out I had a fever. I gave up on studying and just retired to the couch for the morning. That afternoon, we called Sister Perrotti (the mission president´s wife) and she told us to head over to the hospital and have them check me out just in case. So we went out to the hospital, and the doctor just listened to my breathing, checked out my throat and was like "congratulations, you have a cold".... almost with a look of "check out these dumb americans coming into the hospital because of a cold....." hahaha.

The doctor just told me to go home and take tylenol and decongestant. So we went home and I took medicine and slept the rest of the afternoon.....

Then that night, I couldnt hardly sleep.... ended up waking up at about 12 and not being able to go back to sleep again till 4ish.... sweet.

Thursday, my fever was worse and I was still feeling terrible so we stayed home again. And I still couldnt sleep.

Friday, woke up with a bad fever AGAIN, and had diarrea..... So we called Sister Perrotti and she told us to go back to the hospital. So, Izabel (the bakery lady who loves to take care of us) took us out to the hospital again. I was like "sweet, we get to go BACK to the hospital so the doctor can laugh at us stupid Americans AGAIN. Yay." hahah. We waited at the hospital for a while, and then went in to see a different doctor. He prescribed a bunch of medicine and then had me go in to get a shot in the butt and be put on an IV for an hour..... I thought they just gave shots in the butt to five year olds!!! hahah. But no, apparently they do that a lot here in Brasil. They also put people on an IV a lot.....

Afterwards, Sister Feistner and I were waiting for Izabel to come pick us up out in the waiting room when I started to feel really, REALLY awful. Then I started to feel like I was gonna pass out..... I was like "Sister Feistner..... I dont feel so good..... I cant see..... I cant hear......." At this point, Sister Feistner got up to go tell one of the receptionists that I was either having an allergic reaction to the medication, or I was gonna pass out..... While she was telling them this, she looked back at me just as I slumped back in the chair and passed out. So she just was like "just kidding, she passed out!"

Apparently, my blood pressure just dropped because of all the medication and because I hadnt eaten much of anything... I was only out for about 6 seconds.... long enough for Sister Feistner to come back over to me, grab my face and be like "sister ward!! sister ward!!! can you hear me??!"

As I was coming back to life, I couldnt really hear cause of the buzzing in my ears.... so when she was like "can you hear me??" I was like "No. I cant hear you." hahaha. And she was just like "yeah you can you idiot, you´re talking to me!!" hahah.

Then they brought over a wheelchair and wheeled me back into the room with all the IVs and the little beds and had me lay down for a bit.... Sister Feistner was just laughing. Apparently it was pretty hilarious when all of a sudden I just slumped back and let my head hang back over the chair when I passed out.........

So they just had me lay down for a bit, then brought me some juice and crackers and had me sit and eat until my blood pressure came back up..... And while I was sitting there eating, all the nurses and the doctor all came and sat down and watched me.... As I´m struggling to open the stupid little cracker wrappers... And they talked about me like I couldnt understand a word they said (just cause I was a little too worn out to answer them... hahah.). They were like "poor girl. she´s so far from home and cant understand anything..... the other one has been here longer but this ones only been here six months..... " hahaha. That type of thing.

Eventually, we got to go back home. Then I slept the rest of the afternoon, and then we went out and bought the list of medicine the doctor prescribed.... SWEET.

 

Saturday, it was all I could do to get down to the chapel to watch General Conference...... We started walking there, and we had to stop every couple blocks so I could rest. hahaha. Then it was baking in the chapel which made me feel even worse.... so we had to go sit in the Bishop´s office with the AC for bit.

We only left the house for General Conference Saturday and Sunday and then stayed home the rest of the day.... I think Sister Feistner is gonna go crazy here pretty soon if we have to stay home anymore......... So I better be all better tomorrow!!! hahah.

 

Saturday night, after conference, we asked some members to give me blessing. Afterwards, I didnt magically feel better or anything like that.... but I was actually able to sleep well that night... All the other nights, I hadnt been able to sleep well at all. The night before I was soooo tired, but I couldnt relax enough to sleep. At one point I was crying in the middle of the night so frustrated that I couldnt sleep. So me sleeping through the night and actually getting some good rest was a miracle. I really hope that after another night of rest tonight, I will be able to work normally again tomorrow!

 

Staying home this week, we had a lot of time on our hands to read/study/watch the district movies/stare at a blank wall for hours..... and so in this time, I read some cool talks and one in particular that I really liked........ It´s titled "all things will work together for good" by Elder James B. Martino in the April 2010 conference.

He talks a lot about trials and difficulties and how our Heavenly Father PERMITS us to have these challenges because He knows that these things are what we need to learn and grow and become more Christ-like. He gives an example of immunizations and asks "would you do something to your child that causes them pain even though they didnt do anything wrong?? Of course you would!!" This is what we do when we get shots... we know that "a small amount of pain now will protect them from possible pain and suffering in the future".

I think that sometimes we have challenges and experiences in our lives to prepare us for the hard things to come....... We can learn now on a small scale, or when the real heart-ache comes..... But if we can learn to accept these things and learn them in the moment, we will be prepared in the future.

 

As for conference...... I´m still waiting for the print version to understand it a little better........ but I noticed a lot about being really converted and having a change of heart....... I know that through prayers, the Lord can help us to "change our hearts". So that we have more desire to serve and do what is right. And we need to strengthen our own testimony every day, through prayer, going to church and studying the scriptures. I know these are things we always say, but they need to be things we always do as well. If we want to actually serve and help others, we have to be strong ourselves.... and this comes through these simple seminary answers. It really does make a difference!!

 

Love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for your support, emails/letters and prayers!

hope you all have a great week!!!!

 

love,

 

Sister Ward

 

Pictures:

When Sister Feistner and I got splashed with lovely gutter water.............

after sister F. got stitches in her chin.............

Crazy motorcycle here in Araras.......... We´ve seen this guy a couple times and we are always trying to get a picture of it!! Finally we found it parked outside a little restaurant and Sister F. had her camera with her!! SCORE. Izabel filled us in on the history of this...... Apparently the guy who owns the motorcycle always rode with his two little girls in the side cars.... then the girls grew up and got married, so he got those giant dolls to keep him from being lonely. hahah. They move and everything while he is driving!!!

Neaopolitan oreos from Sister F.´s mom!!!! Woooooo! (the week that it was SOOO COLD, as you can see from the sweaters we are wearing.........)

 

Luciana and her two youngest kids the day of her baptism!!!! She didnt smile for the picture, but when we go visit her, she is always smiling!

 

Happy OCTOBER!!!!

Can you believe it is october??!!!!
Sister F. and I are getting pretty excited to try to bring a little halloween excitement here to Brazil..... unless I get transferred next week, and then all our plans to carve pumpkins together will have been in vain. Shoot. haha.

Thanks for all the lovely emails this week!!! It was really SOOOOOOOOOOO great to hear from all of you! =]
 
Well--- this week was a good one!!!

 

firstly.... It cooled down a TON this past week..... in fact, a couple days it was WAYYYYYY cold. Cold and windy. We were FREEZING to death!!! haha. The weather is being so crazy lately... a couple of weeks ago we were dying because of the heat, and this last week we were freezing to death..... We´ll see what happens next.

Last monday, we spent our pday in Limeira and had a churrasco with the elders in our district. Wooooo! CHURRASCOOOOOO!
Hopefully some pics to come in the future..... heheh. Still havent resolved my camera predicament....

Best thing about this week was working with Luciana every day to help her be ready for BATISMO!!!!! WOOOOO!
She is really AMAZING. I love talking with her.... she has had a lot of tough experiences, but she has such faith and hope for the future! She also has some amazing thoughts and insights..... One thing she said this week was "I dont regret the things I do, but the things that I dont do" (well..... more or less.... doesnt quite have the same meaning in english... hah)
In her baptismal interview with our district leader she said to him that she is ready to endure to the end and she will never give up or leave the church! That she is really committing her life to follow Christ. Her testimony and faith is really AMAZING.
SATURDAY, we had her baptism!!! The night before, we went by to confirm all the last details and Luciana had a COLD!!! noooo!! And she was like "could we do the baptism sunday night? or next week???" So we had to explain how she can only be confirmed and recieve the holy ghost in sacrament meeting... so if she waited, she would have to wait until the sunday AFTER general conference to receive the holy ghost.... Once we said that, she was like "well, I know this is all just Satan trying to keep me from doing what´s right! So, tomorrow, cold or no cold, I´m gonna get baptized!!  =]
It was SOOO great. Her friends that took her in when she lived in Rio Claro came and the husband performed the baptism. The elders that taught her in Rio Claro also were able to come which was super cool. I´m super grateful that we had the opportunity to work with and get to know Luciana because she really is an amazing person.
I also got to play violin at the baptism..... We had somehow forgotten about me playing the violin, and hadnt planned on it at all, but at the last minute, Sister F. said something and we remembered that the violin was sitting in the Bishop´s office. So while Luciana was changing after the baptism, we ran and grabbed the violin so I could play when they came back in..... I think Heavenly Father blessed my fingers to do what they are supposed to, because my skills have SERIOUSLY been deteriorating lately..... I hardly play and am forgetting all the fiddle music I used to know by heart.... yikes. But in the last second, we got the violin tuned up and I went up to the pulpit and played "i´m trying to be like jesus" as they were coming back in. ALSO, I hadnt even been thinking about playing that song! Some one had requested "count your blessings" and I was thinking of playing "lead kindly light" because I am comfortable playing that one.... But, for some reason, "I´m trying to be like jesus" seemed the most appropriate right as I was putting the violin up to play, so that is what came out! Thank goodness I grew up playing BY EAR, cause I had no idea where I should start that and just went for it!! haha.
That children´s hymn turned out to be the perfect thing.... and Luciana loved it. =] I couldnt look at her face for too long cause she was smiling so much... and I didnt want to you know, get distracted and start CRYING or something.... like some of my relatives are so prone to do...
But, all in all, the baptismal service was great. Sunday she was confirmed in Sacrament meeting and sunday night we were able to go by to see her again. I am soooo excited for her and her family and I hope that they will stay strong. Her sons are having a hard time right now.... didnt even come to her baptism or to church sunday.... so we´re hoping to help them turn around. They are training with the soccer club, and we´re figuring just peer pressure from the other boys is making them not want to come to church anymore... Hopefully, we can find a way to get them excited again so they can stay strong and go serve missions here in a few years!

Other stuff from this week:
We got to work with members TWO DAYS this week.... hahaha. It was GREAT. It really makes such a difference and helps us out a lot. Just to stay upbeat and excited.... besides how much it helps our investigators.

CRAZY story...
So. Sonia-- the lady we taught and baptized in June, who also got run over by a moped about a month ago.... We went by to visit her this week and she was kind of in a bad mood when we got there. So we were visiting and talking to her, and Sister F. was like "what´s the matter?" and she says "I´m mad cause Saul(her husband) doesnt want to marry me!!"
WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT???!!!
My stomach DROPS and Sister F. and I look at eachother and are like "WHAT THE HECK???!"
Turns out, all along while we were teaching her, she and Saul said that they were married..... They have a 27 year old son and a 15 year old daughter and have been together for 30ish years, so it all made sense..... And whenever it comes up, Saul is like "we´re married". BUT, in reality, they are not legally married and are just living together!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH.
Oh gosh. Being "legally married" is one of the requirements to be baptized, so we were both sitting there in shock..... There is also a question in the baptismal interview that specifically says "legally married".... But somehow, she must have not said anything/half lied in the interview.... or I dont know what.
Point being---They arent married. And she is upset because she wants to be legally married on paper, but Saul doesnt want to do it.... We ended up spending about 3 hours at her house talking with her, then Saul got home and we were talking to him as well.... Then Sonia started going CRAZY and yelling and arguing with him, so we decided we better just call it a day and head out..... OH GOSH.
That wasnt the best day of my mission. We started walking to our next appointment and stopped and sat for a while by the lake near her house and I tried to figure out what had happened that Sonia had been taught and baptized and everything while lacking this important part...... I dont know how it happened!!! And I dont know who´s at fault in this... if it was me and Sister Pedersen for not being more direct in asking "are you LEGALLY married???" or if it was the elder that interviewed her, or if it was just Sonia saying that she was legally married when she wasnt....
But, in the end, I still feel like crap for not asking more questions so that it would have come up in normal conversation... asking about when/where they got married for example..... We messed up BIG TIME, and now I feel terrible.
It ended up being a learning experience for me in the end.... While we were sitting by the lake and I was wallowing in despair.... Sister Feistner started explaining to me about Christ´s atonement and about justice and mercy.... Things that I grew up learning about, but didnt make as much sense until that moment. Christ suffered so that we dont have to! WE are not perfect, and are not going to be perfect, but because of the atonement, all these things we do wrong, we forget to do, can be wiped away. In this example, I was so worried about WHO would be judged for this, but because of the atonement, if we choose to REPENT, Christ will wash all of it away..... So none of us---Me, sister P. Sonia, or our district leader that interviewed her, will have to be punished for it. Christ already took on that punishment.
It takes a lot of faith, and repentance is still a process--of confessing, correcting, and trying to change.... but in the end, we will feel the joy of having all of that washed completely away. I like how alma describes it when he was suffering so terribly because of his sins.... he describes the joy of repentance as being "joy as excruciating as was his pain" or something like that. I cant understand exactly how the atonement works and how these things can just be erased completely, but I know that it is true.
 
We also got to go to Campinas friday night and during the day saturday! One of Sister Feistner´s past investigators that was baptized got married saturday and we were able to get permission to go the marriage service. It was so great, because this lady is part of the ward Sister Pedersen is serving in. So we got to go sleep over at their house and spend the day with them at the wedding!! Yeah! SO FUN. And probably more exciting because it´s been about a month and a half since we´ve seen them.... We dont have many opportunities to see anyone besides the elders in our district and the members and investigators here in Araras. ( who are AWESOME, so it makes it okay. =])
 

We got to teach Debora and family again..... She had a really hard week and I hope that we were able to help her a little teaching her..... As she was sharing all the stuff she is going through, I just kept thinking about the atonement. (thinking about it a lot this week!) and kept trying to share with her the scripture in Alma 7:11-13, but somehow the conversation kept getting turned just as I was gonna cut in..... Eventually Sister F, was talking and went to share that exact scripture! Seconds before, I we hadnt been on the same page at all, but then she started bringing it back to the atonement and asked me to flip open to that scripture... little did she know that I already had it open!! haha. So I was able to share that scripture with her and explain how Christ suffered absolutely EVERYTHING that we will feel in this life and understands perfectly how we are feeling in every moment. And He suffered these things in order to help us now. It was cool to see how the spirit was telling us both what to share with her and what she needed to hear.  

Well. I think I´ve written a book already................

hope you all have the best week!!

thanks again for all the emails and love and support!!!
 
Love,

Sister Ward