Happy Birthday Take 2!!! (May 6)

BOM DIA FAMILIA!!!!!!

 Hope you all are doing SUPERB!

 

well.

Here´s a little about this week......

 

It was a very fun week here in Atibaia..........

Once again, we walked a LOT....

Did I tell you all that sometimes we have to take buses/little vans to go on the FREEWAY to get to some of the neighborhoods we are working in????? Yep.

And sometimes, (okay, more like a lot of times.....) we have to wait on the side of before mentioned freeway to wait and catch these buses/vans to go home afterwards! Its great fun guys.

Such a rush to run across the FREEWAY to go catch your bus.... I still think "my mom would kill me if she saw me doing this!!" everytime. hahahaha.

Dont kill me please!

And dont worry, we are very safe about it. =]

 

This week our little family--- Jurací and Cleonice are doing very well! They arent very good at reading the Book of Mormon by themselves yet (have some reading troubles), but we´ve been reading with them a lot. They also went to our activity wednesday night AND a family night saturday night ANDDDD went to church again this sunday!!! WOO!!!

Yep, they are doing well and we are trying to help them understand what we´ve been teaching them a little better..... And trying to plan for them to get married here in the next month or so!

 

Wednesday was a great day, it was a holiday here ... "dia do trabalho" (labor day???) and so we got to do a division with two awesome girls from the ward! Isabella and Isadora are sisters and are both preparing to leave on missions in the near future.... they used to leave with the sisters a LOT, like everyday, but now they are working, so they can only help us out every once in a while... But, it was a very fun day! Sister Menden got a little scared to leave me and have to go teach with Isadora, but it was good for her. hhhahaha. Nobody died, so it was a sucess.

Wednesday night we also had our ACTIVITY!!! It was Noite da sobremesa---AKA DESSERT NIGHT!!! and it was a great success.

There was a good 25ish people there, ANDD our investigators Cleonice and Jurací--who enjoyed it a LOT.

The elders quorum was in charge of bringing desserts, and there was a lot of good food!

We also did an activity before hand that the Isas (Isabella and Isadora) put together... We put little photos of Christ inside little envelopes and gave one to everyone and told them not to open it. Then we gave them each a tack and had them stab holes in the envelope everytime they answered negatively to a series of questions.... like "did you pray every day this week?' Or "did you serve someone today??"

Anyways, it was a funny activity and everyone enjoyed it. Then Isadora brought it back to the spiritual side talking about the Atonement at the end.... It was VERY good.

This ward is so great guys!!!!!

 

Saturday nights, we always have a family night with this AWESOME giant family in our ward..... They have 11 kids, and there are always tons of people in their house.... Its a party all day everyday. =]

But anyways, they are all pretty recent converts and are always spreading the gospel with all of their friends and inviting us to go teach people that they know! Its the best!

Every saturday night, they have family night and invite lots of people, and tell us to bring whoever we want to invite as well. This time, Cleonice and Jurací went (who are referrals from this family as well...) and had a great time.

OH YEAH, and Renata--- (one of the older daughters in this family, who is sooooooooooooooo cool. guys. you have no idea....) went and took us to an area far away to meet some people that the sisters before me and S. Menden were teaching... We ended up not getting to meet them cause they werent home, but we got to teach another investigator that lives out there and it was cool. Its awesome how much everyone is helping us here! 

Renata with her "RENATA" top ramen.... Did I mention that she is awesome?????! She got baptized six months ago and is getting ready to go on a MISSION here in another six months!! AH!

BUT ANYWAYS, back to family night....

We had family night like normal..... a great message given by Renata, hymns, a prayer by Sister Menden (who gets red in the face just like me when she gets nervous BTW....) and then hot dogs brasilian style for the snack. Mmmmmm. Very good.

Afterwards, people started being all weird and made me and Sister Menden LEAVE the kitchen where everyone was eating to go sit in the living room with just the mom of the family--Irmã Leticia... They were all like "go in there cause Irmã Leticia wants to talk to you!" So we did. But when we got there, she just asked some silly questions about nothing and we sat there doing nothing.... hahah. (Little did I know in the moment that this was all planned out....hmmm. Sneaky Sister Menden and Renata...... )

After a while, they called us all to go in the kitchen... Sister Menden VERRRYYY unsuspiciously grabbed my camera OUT of my hands and ran into the kitchen first... haha.

Then when I got into the door way, EVERYBODY was smashed behind the table with this GIANT birthday cake with a  HUGE candle/firework in the middle, and everyone singing "parabens" aka happy birthday.... AHHHHHH. 

THIS was my birthday candle!!!!

MOM, I dont want anymore of those baby candles!!!! hahaha.

Yep. I might not have known anybody very well yet on my actual birthday (last week), but they still wanted to plan a surprise party for me the week after..... How sweet!

So, totally got embarassed standing there in the doorway with everyone singing to me.... and didn't know what to say when they asked me to give a speech... hahaha. But it was great fun. 

The cheering party guests.... ahhhh.

 

They also bought a giant TUB of paçoca!!! (my favorite brasilian candy..... its a lot like peanut butter.... but sooo good!)

And here they have a tradition that the birthday person has to cut the cake and choose someone to give the first peice to.... Usually acompanied by a little speech and a lot of sucking up....hahaha. Oh, and since there wasn't time for me to blow out that GIANT firework candle, they had me make a wish while cutting the first peice of cake with the knife upside down, cutting from the bottom up..... weird..... anyways.

While I was cutting and making my wish they all joked that I was wishing for all of them to get days off of work.... hahaha. Cause everyone that likes to leave and teach with the sisters is working a lot, and so I told them that we would be praying for them to get holidays so they can leave with us everyday..... ahahaha.

Yep. So here´s to holidays for everyone!

Anyways, the surprise party was great fun, and I love this ward SO MUCH!

 

Sunday was also awesome because we found an AWESOME family to teach!! YEAH!! I´m hoping for great things with them.... but I´ll tell more about it next week cause I´m so out of time!

 

Love you all so oooooo much!!!

Have the best week!!

 

Sister Ward

Welcome to ATIBAIA!!!!!!! (Apr. 29)

Hey everyone!!!!!!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY EMAILS!!!!!

You guys are great! =] 

Love you all and hope you all are doing so well!!!!

So, about my life.....

Got transferred last week and now I am in Atibaia! (say it like this...AT----CHEE---BY---- UH). This area is over half of a city and our area is HUGEEEEEE. 

I thought Araras was big, but its like only a puddle in comparison with Lake Coeur d'Alene..... hahaha. 

The bus system here still doesnt make any sense to me....... and we live a good 40 minute walk from the bus station, so we end up having to walk a TON to get anywhere..... 

There are SO MANY HILLS! I think this entire area is hills..... 

Kind of funny how when you look at the map it all looks so close together and easy, but in real life, it is a different story.... hahaha. 

My "daughter"--Sister Bispo and I got seperated at transfers.... She is now serving in a TRIO in another area in Campinas...

My new companion is AWESOME. Sister Menden from Gilbert, Arizona. She got here with Sister Bispo´s group, and so has only been in the mission field for 6 weeks now... I´m finishing her training, but she is a ROCKSTAR. Seriously. 

She´s fairly shy and quiet (not sure if she is like that for reals, or if she is gonna just blow up and start talking more here in a couple weeks... haha) 

She reminds me of Ashley like everyday.... A LOT. It is weirding me out. All those weird Ashley-isms..... Sister Menden does them as well. What the crazy???! 

Sometimes I think she is really just Ashley, prentending to be someone called Sister Menden........ but then I realize that´s crazy and remember that my sister is busy playing in CALIFORNIA at DISNEYLAND..... WITHOUT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hmph. 

Okay, so back to my companion.................. Sister Menden is great. Really. She speaks Portuguese SUPER well already, but she doesn't know it/want to admit it yet.... hahaha. She keeps quiet a lot, but when she starts speaking or reads a scripture its like BOOMMMMM "take that perfect pronunciation!!!" hahaha yep. Kind of like that. 

She is very chill/cool/funny/spiritual/awesome and we are having a lot of fun together already. =]

We´ve had a lot of miracles this week....

1) There is this AWESOME family in this ward who adopts all of the sisters.... they have 11 kids (so there is a ton of people...) haha. And they help out a lot with everything. One of the oldest--- Renata, just got baptized 6 months ago and is preparing to go on a mission when she completes a year of membership.... She is AWESOME and taught our gospel principles class like a rockstar this week. I love them all a LOT already!

2) The ward is big and excited to help with missionary work!!! We have a ward mission leader ANDDDDD ward missionaries!!!! The ward has been doing weekly integration night activities, and we have already got several activities planned for the upcoming week.... SO FUN! 

We have a meeting with the ward missionaries every thursday to plan our activities, and plan to help all our investigators and stuff. It is SO GOOD!

3) Besides the ward here, we are having a second sacrament meeting out in  a poorer neighborhood WAYYYYY far from the chapel... These people don't have money to take the bus into center for church, and the bus hardly ever passes on sundays, so they started a meeting for them in an upstairs room above a member´s house for these people to go to church. 

There was about 20 people there yesterday, but apparently, there are usually more people.... It is way cool, and these members are awesome! 

4) We spent a lot of time this week trying to find all the investigators that the sisters were teaching here..... we got lost a lot, but now we are doing good. 

One couple we are teaching are doing very well!! Jurací and Cleonice....unfortunately, they arent married yet, but they really progressed a lot this week! We read the Book of Mormon a lot with them this week and talked a lot about the gospel of Christ and baptism.... Jurací has a drinking problem, but Thursday, we committed him to stop drinking, and as of yesterday, he hadnt drinken anything!!!! He also read the chapter we marked and actually understood it very well!! Yesterday, they came to church with us.... ANDDDDD, when we went by to pick them up, they were actually awake and waiting for us!!! ah. We couldnt believe it. 

I´m very excited about them and their progress!!! Now they only need to keep it up and get married!!! hahah. 

But miracles are REAL!!! 

5) My birthday was great!!!!

Well, as great as a very-un-birthday type of birthday can be. hahaha. 

We had church in the morning, lunch, and church again in the evening..... over all, a very long busy day, but SO GOOD!!!! 

OH, and I gave a last-minute talk in our second sacrament meeting......... My companion might have known about it before-hand.....but forgot to tell me until the last second.... hahah. Good thing it was only for a room-full of people...... And I was the only talk we had.... hahaha. 

 

Love you all so much!!!

have the best week!!!

be good!

SISTER WARD

Getting TRANSFERED for My Birthday (Apr. 22)

GOOD MORNING AMERICA!

 

Thanks for all the lovely emails this week!!! You guys are the best!

  

WELL, that´s right, we have transfers tomorrow morning and I´m leaving!!

Actually, my companion and I are both leaving!!!! AH!

 

And where we will go, no one knows..... okay, so probably President knows, but we don't find out till tomorrow morning.....EESH!

 

About this week-

 

We had our NOITE FAMILIAR with Kesia and her youngest--- Cristian.

The lesson was kind of a crazy disaster.... but it worked out in the end. We were talking about the  Book of Mormon (because she had told us that she has doubts about it before...) and then she interrupted us to say "But I dont have any doubts that the Book of Mormon is true..."

YEP. I didnt know what to say after that...

Then, the host  of our family night-Presidente Silva said "Well, lets fill up the font then!"

hahahh. We talked about baptism, but something is still holding her back....... It seems like just her fear to change. To change things in her life. But since we were at a family night with a lot of people, it wasnt exactlly a good situation to ask more question to figure out exactly what is holding her back.

Sunday, Kesia and family didnt come to church......... BUT, she sent us a text afterwards explaining that she went to another chapel in center to take a friend of hers who lives there to the church!!!! WHATTTTTT???! SHE IS SO AWESOME!!!! AH!

I hope whichever missionaries that come here can help her to just get baptized already!

 

Sadly, it didnt work out teach Andre and Aparecida this week.... Their little daughter got an ear infection and so Aperecida went to the hospital to take care of her, and just Andre was at home. So we couldnt actually go in to teach him. But, he said that he has been reading the Book of Mormon and is super interested. He said he would make a page of questions for us to answer the next time we went there..... YEAH!

We marked to teach them this week and take a member couple with us to meet them..... BUT, we wont be here anymore! ah.

 

We have been working a lot with Irmã Joanna (She is the mother of Rodrigo, the guy we helped come back to church and who is now ACTIVE and working as the ward ex. secretary!) to help her come back to church.

She told us how she has been reading and praying to know if the BOM is true and that she got her answer! Then she told us that she wanted to come back to church.

Last week, we tried to help her to go, but, she got scared and didnt. THIS week, we tried again, and again, she bailed.........

But, on our way to use the computers just now,we ran into her on the steet...... and had to tell her that we both are leaving. SIDENOTE--- she cried A LOT when Sister Moraes left and told us that she didnt want to know when we were going to leave....

Yep. She started crying talking to us and then told us that wherever we are, they will send us updates and we will hear about her coming back to church. Awwwwww.

I hope she really does.

 

WELL.

 

 Heres a photo for you all!!! WE got a  hold of a VIOLIN this week, and then had a little jam session after our zone meeting. AHHHHHH! So much happiness!!! 

 

I am so excited to get to my new area tomorrow and find out where I will be!!! AH!

Not sure if Sister Bispo and I will stay together or not.........Ah.

 

Hope you all have the best week!!!!!!!!!

 

love,

Sister Ward

 

Lots of Rain, Miracles, and TEACHING! (Apr. 15)

HEY EVERYONE!!

I hope you are all well!

 

This week was a good one! crazy like always, but things are taking a turn for the better here in Campinas 3.....

 

TUESDAY, we had an AWESOME day FULL of teaching appointments!!!

IT WAS SO FUN!!!

I dont know how it happened, but somehow all of our marked appointments DIDNT fall through, and we were able to teach all day long!

it was great, miracles, BLESSINGS, AH. 

When we got to lunch at a member's house, THIS was waiting for us there!! one of their daughters-- Viviane (9 years old??) LOVES us and drew this for us to welcome us!! haha. So cute!

 Our last appointment was the best.....

We went back to teach a family that we had found knocking doors in the new neighborhood that we are working in-- Castelo Branco.

The family is a young couple and their 2 1/2 year old daughter.... André, Aparecida and Marianna.

André and Aparecida are MARRIED (LEGALLY MARRIED GUYS!!!! WOOO!) and they are an adorable little family..... we spent our time there that night just answering a lot of their questions and explaining only a little about about Joseph Smith and the restoration... But they were SUPER interested and we left a pamphlet with them and marked another night to come back!

Friday, we went back to teach them! Unfortunately, André wasnt home, because he works a random schedule and they forgot that he would be working that night......... BUT, we taught Aparecida and it was AWESOME. We taught the first lesson, about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and she was paying so much attention the whole time!! She understood EVERYTHING, actually wanted to know, and listened to us the whole time! MAN. It is so GREAT when people actually WANT you to teach them....

We invited her to be baptized, and she accepted!! We marked a date for April 28th. (yep, my birthday guys.... really hope this works out. =]) She was excited to read and pray about the Book of Mormon as well....... Seems like everything will go very well with them!! Only problem will be André´s weird schedule and working things out to come to church..... They couldnt come this last sunday, but I am HOPING and praying that this Sunday will be the day!

 

The rest of this week was okay......... a lot of our appointments fell through...... it rained a TON on Friday and Saturday and pretty much NOBODY answered when we went by...

It rained SO MUCH!!! We were pretty much drenched all day long on Saturday.... hahah. Got drenched even with my umbrella.... Dont know why, but whenever it rains, my skirt ALWAYS gets wet.... doesnt matter how I try to hold my umbrella... Not sure if I´m just retarded at using umbrellas, or just so tall that my skirt is just too far away from the umbrella... hahaha.

 

We had our multi-zone conference this week and it was AWESOME as well. President had told everyone about a week ahead of time to study up on the doctine of christ (2 Nephi 31) because he would randomly choose ONE person to teach about it for 30 min. - 1hour. YIKES! hahah. So we were all DYING stressing out a little..... Sister Bispo especially was freaking out.... for about... yep, the entire week before hand... the night before she was still writing out what she would say and I had to tell her "Sister Bispo.... GO TO BED." hahaha. then she got up EARLY just to finish..... BUT, like I said all along, President DIDNT choose her to do it.... Instead he picked our District Leader- Elder Sears (who only got here in November, but speaks Portuguese like a professional....) and he did a great job.... but President Perrotti sure enjoyed building up the moment, having us all write out our names on slips of paper to put in a bag and then he picked one out in front of all of us.. hahah. I´m still not sure if Elder Sears was the name he pulled out, or if he just had decided all along that he would choose Elder Sears... haha. 

All the sisters in our zone at the Multi-zone meeting. Sister Moraes is serving in our zone, so I still get to see her every week!

well.

I´m about out of time already....

Let me just say that TONIGHT we are going to have a family night with Kesia, and her boys! WOOOO! We havent been able to teach them since Sister Moraes was transferred...... so I am REALLY excited! Seems like we have figured out a solution to the problem of her crazy schedule and not being able to teach in their house cause her mom hates us..... FAMILY NIGHTS!!! We´ll see how it goes! They all have been coming to church fairly regularly... only missed three Sundays since January, and they are so awesome! we are praying for things to go well tonight.

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!

HAVE A GOOD WEEK!

 

Sister Ward

 

HIS PICTURE IS FOR FEISTNER, PEDERSEN, SEVERO, and anyone else who knows what I´m talking about..... WE GOT NEW MISSION CELL PHONES!!! wooo! and for those of you who remember the terrible red mission cell phones, you can imagine my JOY at getting a new cell phone that actually WORKS. hahaha.

Find the joy in the little things. =]

My Week and CONFERENCIA GENERAL!!!! (Apr. 8)

HEY FOLKS!!

 

Firstly, for any of you who didnt have the opportunity to watch conference you guys MISSED OUT!!!

BUT, thankfully, you can all go and watch it online!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here in Campinas 3, Sister Bispo and I had the awesome luck of getting to watch ALL FOUR sessions of general conference!! woot woot!

My companion, is a rockstar at speaking English btw.... dont know if I already said that.... and we started out watching in ENGLISH. It was probably the happiest 15 minutes of my weekend.... BUT, sadly, after the prophet spoke, Pres. Boyd K. Packer started speaking and since he speaks pretty softly/rasping/hard to understand even for us Americans, my companion couldnt handle it anymore and we watched all the rest of that session and the other sessions in Portuguese... Oh well. I got to hear President Monson try to say RIO DE JANEIRO and then laugh a little when my companion didnt even understand what city he said because he said it "Americanized".... oh brother..

BUT, speaking of temples in RIO DE JANEIRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is one more temple in BRASIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! So exciting!

The people from Rio have been having to travel by BUS to get to the temple in Campinas (or sometimes São Paulo.... ) and now they will have a temple in THEIR CITY!!!  a temple in RIO! one of the poorest, dirtiest, big cities in Brasil! To get an idea about what I´m talking about, look up "favelas" in Rio de Janeiro and read up about Carnaval... This temple is gonna bless that place SO MUCH!! 

 

And a funny story..........

Last night, when Sister Bispo and I were finishing our weekly planning (wooooooo. I LOVE planning............. hahahahah. not. ) and doing our weekly "companionship inventory", I was sitting on my chair, leaning it back and putting my feet up on my desk... YEP, exactly how every parent gets mad at their child about three million times and tells them NOT to do that, or they will end up falling on their butt and/or breaking the chair.....

Well. As you can probably figure out, that was exactly what happened with me as well........... My chair slid backwards out from under me, and I fell on the ground, hitting my back pretty hard on the chair as I crashed down.......... CLEVER MOVE SISTER WARD.... It hurt a lot. And I laughed/started yelling in english for a few minutes lying there on the floor........ Sister Bispo enjoyed the show I think..... And I woke up today with a pretty bruise on my back... Nice one.

SO PARENTS, keep telling your kids to avoid doing that with their chairs.... it is really good advice. =]

 

And what else about this week..........

So, this week was fairly hard......... We are still having a hard time finding people to teach.......... Our investigators are falling away on almost a daily basis, but we´re trying to change what we´re doing to have more success. It is a little hard though, because Sister Bispo is "in training" and we have to practice teaching a lot, but we arent having the REAL experiences teaching during the day, just cause we arent finding good people to teach........ HMM. ah.

The few REALLY GOOD investigators that we found and taught, have kind of fallen off the wagon and are avoiding us a little bit.... BUT, we are praying for them a lot, and maybe this week, they´ll come around when we go to visit them again.....

 

REALLY, conference was EXACTLY what I was needing to keep from giving up and quitting this past week............ GUYS, go and watch it!!! It was soooooooooo good! I promise you, you will NOT regret using a little of your time this week to watch it!!

One of my favorite talks was Elder Holland´s..... YEP. Okay, so maybe his talks are always my favorites... but it was so PERFECTLY what I needed to hear.... Like, when he started speaking, it was like a smack in the face "COME ON sister ward, why arent you BELEIVING in the miracles that can happen in your area??! DONT GIVE UP!!" Yep. Kind of like that.

But, I really like the example he used from the story in Mark 9, about the man that takes his son that is posessed by an evil spirit to the apostles to have them cast the spirit out. The apostles tried, but werent able to cast out the spirit. Then Christ arrived and asked what was going on. They explained to him what was happening and the first thing he said was something like "OH YE FAITHLESS GENERATION..... How much longer do I have to put up with you??"  (okay, not exactly word for word... but you get the point...)

The father then explained the problem to Jesus and asked him DESPERATELY, "can you do ANYTHING???" Christ just answered him with a question "Do you believe???" And the man said "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief...." THEN, Christ cast out the evil spirit and the boy was cured completely.

This story we can apply in our lives..... Do we believe that Christ has the power to cure us?? To help us through whatever challenge we are facing??? If we even believe just a LITTLE bit, and ask for His help, He will help us and cure us with the faith we have, regardless of the faith we lack....

Maybe we only have a DESIRE to believe... but if we use that desire to believe and ACT on it, our faith will grow until we have faith sufficient for the miracles to happen (ALMA 32:27)

We aren't going to have a PERFECT knowledge.... that isn't faith. But if we believe, He will help our "unbelief" or in other words, make up for what we lack.

GUYS, Jesus Christ LIVES. He worked miracles when He was here on this earth, and He can work MIRACLES in our lives today...... We just have to have the FAITH to ask Him.... even if it means we are going to ask Him for help and ask Him to give us the faith we lack for it to happen.

 

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE EMAILS AND SUPPORT.

sorry I always run out of time to write back!! ah.

 

LOVE LOVE LOVE

 

Sister Ward

APRIL FOOLSSSS!!!!

WELL, I don't have any good april fool´s jokes for you all...........

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!

This week has been REALLY busy..... ah.

 Well. okay. 

This is our stake president. Yep. He is THE BOSS.

 

This week we found a LOT of new people.... We started working in a different area and I am SUPER excited to work more there!! The people are WAY nicer and haven't heard much about the church yet. It is gonna be great!

Wednesday this week, Sister Bispo woke up sick.... Well, actually, I think she didn't really sleep well the night before cause she was already getting sick.... And Wednesday, cause she is super dedicated and stubborn, she got up at 6:30 like normal, and got all ready for the day and started studying... It wasn't until I basically FORCED her to go to her bed, that she went and laid down.... and then she kept studying in her bed, until I finally told her she needed to sleep or she wouldn't get better and I wouldn't let us leave the house to work. hahah. 

We bought her medicine, I made her food (believe it if you can folks... haha) and then she slept the ENTIRE day. I almost went crazy in that house by myself  with her sleeping!! AH!

Thankfully, it was only one day. 

Sunday was cool. We have been having a really hard time lately with having investigators to teach...... None of our investigators have been progressing and we don't know what else to do... But Sunday, before we left to go to church, we had NOBODY that was coming to church....which is always pretty depressing.... But, we prayed before we left our house that the Lord would bless us with some MIRACLES of people showing up at church. Turns out, FIVE people just showed up there for the first time!!! Three of them left and didn't stay for sacrament meeting, but I´m still amazed that they even came! And Késia and her three boys came TOGETHER, and two people brought friends to church. AH. That is a LOT of investigators at church!! And two new people for us to teach this week!! Such miracles! 

Maxiny (a girl that I met in the CTM in São Paulo) came to visit her family here on Easter and brought us chocolate eggs! Everyone buys these chocolate eggs here, but they are REALLY expensive, so we didnt even think about buying one... haha. But, Maxiny came and brought me my FIRST chocolate easter egg! Sister Bispo didnt believe me when I told her I had never tried one before... hahah.

I keep forgetting to mention this........ but remember Rodrigo?? I have been visiting him and his mom since I got to this area, and he started coming back to church about a month or two ago... AND a couple weeks ago he got a calling at church! Actually, TWO callings. He is one of the young men´s counselors AND ward executive secretary!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AH! SO COOL. 

BUTTTT

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

I have to go, 

Have the BEST week!!

Sister Ward

Let's Give This WARD a BISHOP! (Mar. 25)

Good morning family!!!!!!!!!!

 I hope you all are doing SO WELL!!!

 

What a crazy week.

Let me tell you about it.............

 

FIRSTLY,

Did I mention last week that I´m training this transfer!!???! Yeah, that´s right. Me, teaching a newbie how the mission works........ Scary thought right??

Alright, so Tuesday, Sister Moraes and I went to meet all the other missionaries at the bus station in downtown Campinas.... And after eating lunch in center with some of the other sisters, I went with the 4 other sisters that are training, and a BUNCH of elders to the chapel in Castelo to pick up our new companions.

Needless to say, I was a little nervous... haha. Freaking out wondering WHO would be my new companion... if she´d be awesome, crazy, american, brazilian, etc....

President Perrotti and the assistants enjoyed extending our pain and nervousness and made us sit through an entire training meeting, watch a video and then FINALLY, start to introduce the new companionships. 

Picking up my new companion!! Sister Sá with her trainer Sister Compton, and Me and my "daughter" Sister Bispo

 

Alright, well I´ll get over the drama of how long they made us wait introducing ALL the trainers and all the newbies one by one, and let you all know about my new companion!

My new companion is Sister Bispo................ THAT`S RIGHT, Sister "Bishop"..... President just couldn´t handle the funnyness of the situation and when he announced the companionships he was like "Sister Bispo.... we decided that this BISHOP really needs a WARD to work in.... So Sister Bispo, you will be with Sister Ward!!"

So, now this WARD has got a Bishop to take care of her.... =]

Sister Bispo´s first Sunday on the mission!!!! Told her beforehand that the bishop probably wouldn´t make her bear her testimony in sacrament meeting (cause he didn't have me OR sister Moraes bear our testimonies...) but then at the last second he announced her and asked her to come up! hehehe. Should´ve seen the look on her face! ah. But she was great of course!! and at least she wasn't stuttering out a few words in really bad Portuguese like me on my first Sunday...... hahaha.

Sister Bispo is from Curitiba, Paraná..... the state below São Paulo (where we are) and her city is about a 50 minute plane ride away. (THINK Spokane to Seattle.....). She is one of the first 19 year old sisters arriving here in the Campinas Mission. I may or may not have joked about the possibility of having a 19 year old companion that had never lived away from home, and didnt know how to do things like wash clothes.... Guess what, I taught my companion how to use the washing machine this morning. Oh boy. BUT DONT WORRY, she knows how to do pretty much everything, and cooks better than I do. =]

My companion made breakfast for us everyday this week.............. Yep. that´s right. She is kind of an angel already guys..... So I decided to repent of my terrible ways and make breakfast for her this morning!! PANCAKES and maple syrup!!! She loved it. I think I ate three and she ate about 7.... hahaha.

Things are going really well with Sister Bispo this week.... She is VERY smart, super diligent, a very very very very very VERY hardworker and really excited about learning and doing EVERYTHING in missionary work. I dont have any worries about her learning how to do everything quickly, she practically knows everything NOW..... My only worry is not being able to keep up to her crazy pace!! hahah.

This transfer is gonna be really good. No doubts about it.

 

Otherwise, our week was really good.

I won't complain about the weather (since LEILA told me that I´m not allowed to complain about it anymore...... ) but let me just say that it got kind of cold this week and it is weirding me out..... =]

We worked a LOT and found a lot of new people, but sadly, none of the people that were going to come to church ended up coming............... ahhhhh.

Késia and family also didn't come to church this week...... Apparently because she is really busy again.

But we´re hoping for some serious miracles this transfer.................. and working hard.............. so, hopefully all will go well.

 

Spiritual thought-

I´ve been reading in Mosiah this past week, and this morning I read chapter 24. I REALLY like Mosiah............ a lot. and I really like this chapter as well.

It is talking about the people of Alma that are being enslaved by the Lamanites and the wicked preists of king Noah.

But the reason I like it is this:

Firstly, the people of Alma were living righteously and in peace when they were enslaved and had to go through this VERY difficult time.... They had repented of their sins, been baptized and were living in peace and serving one another.... Then, BOOM, they get enslaved, the wicked preists are being terrible to them and putting very heavy burdens on them, and put guards around them that will KILL whoever they catch praying to God...... In all this, they dont give up, but they continue being humble, patient and opening their hearts to the Lord in prayer. But still, God didn't just answer their prayers immediately and set them free... Instead, he told them that He would make their "burdens become light" so that they wouldn't even feel them on their backs. And after time, after God had tested their patience and faith, He did set them free.

SO, what I got from reading this again.... When we are going through a difficult time, many times God will not just "take away" our burden. Instead, He will let us grow and test our patience, faith and humility to accept His will. But He WILL make our burdens light enough for US to carry them!! We just have to have faith and always pray and ask for His help.

Many times, we go through times that are difficult, NOT because we did something wrong, but because God has a bigger plan for us.... He wants to "polish us a little more" and prepare us for what is coming ahead. He is molding us and shaping us for bigger things to come. (check out Pres. Eyering´s talk "Mountains to Climb" from conference April 2012)

And finally, every challenge has an end planned out. God will "set us free from bondage" and take away this difficulty in His own time............ But we always have a lesson that we are supposed to learn first.

So, if you are having a challenge right now, DONT GIVE UP!!! God has a bigger plan in all of this and is really just trying to help you! I know that God loves each and every one of us and sees the big picture. And because He knows what we need, He tries to help us giving us the challenges we need to grow. We just need to have the faith, patience and humility to keep going and accept His will.

 

Love you all SO MUCH!!!

have the best week!

 

Sister Ward