November 19, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!!! ha. I didn´t even realize that it was this week!!! That is crazy! :)

Things have been going well here..

 We actually eat lunch with the members, not dinner. Lunch here is the bigger meal. Haha. there´s a lot of times that I´ll eat something and have no idea exactly what it is. Like the other day - Sister Diller ended her mission and her parents came to pick her up and they had a farewell for here in Fonseca. And they served us several snack foods and they asked me what they were and I had no idea! I think it was just chicken or cheese rolled up in a little ball. good though. ha. We were eating a lunch with a member the other day and she decided to serve us because last time we didn´t eat very much - she thought it because we were shy and not because we were full...... And she served us a lot! And then.... when I still had half a plate left, she gave us more!!!! I almost wasn´t able to eat all of it!!! Man I was SO stuffed!!! They tend to do that a lot... come mais!

Today for p-day, we´re getting together with our district, making lunch and playing volleyball, so it should be way fun! :)

And then tonight, we have a family night to go to!! :)

Spaceship Museum November 12, 2012

Spaceship Museum Niteroi

When I asked Mary Ann what she wanted for Christmas she said letters! Please send Mary Ann a card or a letter(If you know her). There is a page with her mission address to the left side of the blog.

One more transference is over..... It passed by incredibly fast! Like the blink of an eye. But thank goodness I´ll get to stay here in Fonseca with Sister C for the next transfer as well!! :) She is the best!

 

As for what to give my companion for Christmas - the next transfer is the week before Christmas, so I´m not at all sure who I will be with - just something general that any sister missionary would like? Some things I´ve found that they like - Brazilian´s at least, I could always have an American companion as well... - but victoria´s secret lotion, basketball shorts, byu t-shirts, and peanut butter.

 Since they don´t celebrate Thanksgiving here, people already have Christmas trees up and stuff and I love it :)  I don´t really think we´ll have a Thanksgiving dinner.

 

To answer your questions - The average p-day... this transference we´ve done several cool things. One p-day we went to the museum in niteroi that looks like a spaceship. But its really hard to send pictures because our stick drives don´t usually work on these computers (and I don´t have the cord to transfer them from my camera..) But it depends on the pday... Sometimes we just stay at home and write letters, but this transference we´ve done a lot with our district because we´re a lot closer to them now distance-wise. What I ate this morning? bread and milk - prophet´s food :) haha. Also, We live on the tenth floor of our apartment, but all we can see out our window is a big hill and other apartments.

Can you email me the pictures that Sister N´s mom sent?? I don´t think I have them. Man. I love Sister N!! :) She´s training this transference in my old area, Cabo Frio! :)

October 29 and November 5, 2012

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November 5, 2012

haha. I guess it doesn´t seem that fast to me. He went to church two weeks and the third week he was baptized, the fourth confirmed. The rule is that they have to go to church two times before they are baptized - so they can go one sunday and be baptized the next after church - like how it was with C  ha. I feel like once people know that our message is true and its thre right path to take, they don´t really want to wait. He and C BOTH asked when was the soonest that they could be baptized. The question that every missionary wants to hear! :)

This week, Sister C and I have been thinking on what we can do more in our area to help the people here. We decided to put up a missionary mural on the wall along with a calendar to have home evening with the members, who will be committed to bringing an investigator. We already introduced this idea to several members and have several family night´s already marked. I´ve learned that the importance of a member in missionary work is, well, THE most important thing! :)

 

October 29, 2012

A was baptized yesterday! His friend brought him to church two Sundays ago and he went the past sunday by himself. He loved the church and how he felt there.

And yes, O and L did go to church on Sunday :) They are THE best :)

Photos courtesy of Sister N's mom

 

 

 

Chocolate Fudge Truffles - Brigadeiros

 

Like so many South American treats, these little fudge truffle balls have a story in Brazil - they were named after a famous 1940's Brigadier General named Eduardo Gomes, who apparently loved chocolate. They have a caramel and chocolate flavor that's unusual and good. Kids will enjoy helping to make these, and it's traditional to serve them in little paper cups. Store these chocolates in the refrigerator.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Chocolate sprinkles for decoration

Preparation:

1. Pour the condensed milk into your heaviest pot. Stir in the cocoa powder and the salt.
   
   
2. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat. Keep the mixture barely at a boil to prevent burning and sticking.
   
   
3. Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring, until mixture becomes very thick and shiny and starts to pull away from the bottom and sides of the pan.
   
   
4. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and the vanilla.
   
   
5. Chill in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes. With buttered hands, roll the mixture into 1 inch balls.
   
   
6. Roll each ball in the chocolate sprinkles, and place in a paper liner.
   
   
7. Chill until ready to serve.

 

October 22, 2012

We had the opportunity to teach D - it was really awesome teaching the plan of salvation to her - her husband passed away last year. It was awesome to let her know that she can be with her family forever :)

We´re also working with another wonderful family - O and L. They are the nicest ever, LOVE the missionaries,. We showed them the movie about John Rowe Moyle and talked about enduring to the end. They really seemed to catch on to the importance of going to church and said that they´d be there on Sunday :)

haha. Halloween isn´t really a holiday celebrated here. Although everyone who knows anything about it is really jealous and wish that they did! It´s hilarious. Although they do celebrate Children´s day and get presents for it, which I´m kind of jealous of :)

 

 

Vitamina de abacate (Avocado smoothie)

In Brazil, avocados are used to make desserts, ice-creams and smoothies.

PORTUGUESE	ENGLISH
Ingredientes:	Ingredients:
1 abacate pequeno	1 small avocado
½ litro de leite	½ liter of milk
açúcar a gosto	sugar to taste
Modo de fazer:	Preparation:
1. Lave o abacate.	1. Wash the avocado.
2. Corte o abacate no meio e tire o caroço.	2. Cut the avocado into two halves and remove the stone.
3. Tire a polpa com uma colher.	3. Scoop out the flesh.
4. Bata a polpa, o açúcar e o leite no liquidificador.	4. Blend the flesh, the sugar and the milk in the blender.
5. Coloque a vitamina num copo e sirva.	5. Put the smoothie in a glass and serve it.

Remarks:

• This recipe makes two glasses of avocado smoothies.
  
• Brazilians eat avocado with sugar, not with salt and pepper.
  
• Brazilian avocados are very big.

October 15, 2012

I can´t believe I´ve already been out for practically six months now, isn´t that crazy? But the work is going really well here. We´re getting to know our ward and we´ve met and taught pretty much all of the investigators the elder´s had been teaching as well as several others.

I love it here! And yes, it is ´springtime´. Although it doesn´t feel like it. It´s a little bit cooler today cause we just had a lot of rain, but the past few days its been REALLY hot. Guess I´ll just have to get used to it though? :) I think the thing we have the most often (well, everyday, really...) Is arroz e feijão - rice and beans. Which I actually really like. And they always have some sort of meat with it. ha. but you know what´s kind of funny? you know what a typical dessert here is? jello. yeah, and don´t worry dad - I´ll get all the recipes for you! ;).

That´s sweet Christian gets to go to sky ranch! And on halloween!! Ha - pretty much everyone here is jealous of us because we have a halloween! They don´t celebrate it here, but everyone who´s heard of it wishes they did. It´s pretty funny. :)

 

Here's another Brazilian recipe that you may want to try. These are different then the empanadas I have had here in the U.S. from other spanish speaking countries.

 

 

Chicken Empadas-                                                                 Chicken mini pies                                                                   (Empanadas)
INGREDIENTS:
Crust: 4 cups all-purpose flour 12 oz margarine 3 eggs 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 teaspoon cold water Salt Filling: 2 boneless chicken breast ½ cup green olives (chopped) ½ cup heart of palms chopped 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour 1 chopped onion 1 tablespoon oil 2 tablespoon tomato paste Salt To baste: 1 egg yolk
PREPARE:
Crust: Save the egg white of just one egg. Combine the yolk and remaining whole eggs with flour, margarine, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix all ingredients vigorously with the fingers for about 10 minutes or until it becomes dough while holding the bowl with the other hand. Add the spoons of cold water to the mixture to reach the dough consistency. Do not knead the dough; just squeeze it with your fingers until mixed. Pat dough into a ball and let it rest while you prepare the filling. Filling: Combine chicken breast, chopped onion, oil, salt, and 1 cup of water in a pressure cooker. Place the pressure cooker in medium-heat. Chicken is ready 10 minutes after the regulator starts to blow steam, or cook for about 30 minutes in a saucepan. Remove cooked chicken and save the broth. Finely chop chicken breast and place it in a saucepan. Add green olives, heart of palms, tomato paste and stir in 2 tablespoon of flour. Place sauce pan over medium heat and cook filling while adding broth slowly to give a paste like consistency. ASSEMBLE: Take small amounts of dough and press against the mold to line it up to a bit over the edge. Fill the mold with chicken. Make a small lid with the dough and cover the mold. Press the lid borders against the mold to seal the line crust with the cover and cut the excess off. Brush top of pies with egg yolk. BAKE: Preheat oven to 375 °F. Bake for about 25 minutes of until top becomes golden brown. Let it cool and release from molds.
SERVE:
Place mini pies in baking cup to serve. SERVING SIZE: 60 mini pies. Note: you need 4 eggs for this recipe. Use small eggs. For the crust, you use 3 yolks and 2 whites. For basting, only the yolk. Therefore, you will have 2 egg whites left over if you do the recipe right. The 3 teaspoon of cold water should be the exact amount to give the right consistency to the crust. But with practice, you can make your own adjustments of water depending on the size of eggs and type of flour available.

October 8, 2012

                                                                  Christo Redentor
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During the general conference of the church in October an announcement was made that the missionary age was changed to 18 from 19 for boys and from 21 to 19 for girls.

WOW!!! What a wonderful conference!!! I loved it so much! I watched the first three in Portuguese and the last in English. But man! I learned so much and there is so much that I can definitely put into practice!! :) About that age change - boys in brazil could already serve at eighteen and I had already heard that they were thinking about changing it, so that wasn´t to much of a surprise, but.... I got SO EXCITED to find out that girls could start serving at nineteen! How exciting is that?!?!?! I am so excited how many more girls we be able to serve missions! I KNOW that this is the will of the Lord and am so excited about the difference it´ll make! And Laura!!! Parabéns!!!! I am so excited for you to serve a mission! Even though it means that I probably won´t get to see you for like three years   And man, Michelle - what are you thinking now? Are you gonna go for sure?!!?! Man. I bet a LOT will change up there at BYU!!! :) coolest thing ever!

And that was SO COOL to see the Walter´s family down here in Rio!!! I got SO excited! :) Never thought that would happen here in Brasil!! Ha. that was funny though - that was after the day we had spent at the federal police doing visa stuff and because our bus broke down, we stayed the night in Rio at the other sister´s house and early that morning we went over to the huge bus stop (yeah. in the same clothes as the day before - gross!) and met them there!!! it was pretty sweet :)

Oh - and the other coolest thing ever - I got a package of all the cards the young women wrote at their Kindergarten Night. I absolutely loved it!!! ha. When they handed it to me, I definitely had to make sure it was actually addressed to me :) Best surprise ever! I loved reading each one of the cards! You girls are wonderful!

I LOVE my new companion - Sister C from Natal, Brasil. Our area is good - since it was just conference this week, we haven´t met a ton of members yet, but I´m excited to work in this area!
And yes, there is definitely a stereotype that Americans are rich. My companions always make comments about it being more dangerous walking with an American. But if anyone ever tried to steal anything from me, they´d probably get about ten reias and a lot of scriptures. haha.

I just want to be able to speak Portuguese SO good! Ha. But even in my first transference, I kind of got like that cause I was so used to talking in portuguese all the time with my companion and stuff, when I talked to someone in english, I got all mixed up and half came out in jumbled portuguese. it was pretty funny. but good :) and yeah, I´m getting a lot better about understanding people now.

Each area I have been in had been different. Comari I liked because it had a lot of mountains in the distance and reminded me of Wyoming. Cabo Frio is a richer area and touristy place - but it is gorgeous! It was really clean too. Fonseca seems to be more big city -like. To me, at least. But yeah, it has a lot of hills that we get to walk up and down everyday. And by hills, I mean HILLS. Or mountains really. We climbed up one the other day to visit a couple of families and you could see Cristo Redentor(see photo above) from it - pretty sweet :) The church buildings here are gorgeous, I think. 

Fonseca, Niteroi October 1, 2012

Fonseca. Niterói

I was transferred.... again!!! Can I tell you just how much I have come to love Cabo Frio and the members/investigators/EVERYONE here!!! Ha. I think that´s the thing about serving a mission, you always have to say goodbye to someone!!! So... It looks like I´ll be serving with Sister C in Fonseca - Niterói. So, like Cabo Frio, it used to be an Elder´s ward and we´ll be transferrred in together - so I figure it´ll probably be similar to this transfer, just somewhere else.... The first couple of weeks its super fun trying to figure out everything all at once....
Well... I love you all!

Yesterday, we had the baptism of C.  I wish that you could all meet her!  We made a contact with her sister a couple of weeks ago and marked to teach her. So we got to their  house, talked to them a little bit and told them about our purpose (which includes baptism). And so the first thing she said to us is that - I already have my church, but I´ll listen. She had been going to the baptist church. So yeah - we taught them, and taught a couple of things to her, invited them to church and she said yeah, I´ll try it out. So the two of them went to church on Sunday and really liked it. During sacrament meeting N (C's sister) turned to her and said that it really brought a peace. So we went back with a member that night, who really helped involve her in the activities in the church. And then we went back later that week - when we got there, she was reading out of the gospel principles book and studying that with the scriptures in the bible/Book of Mormon (she´s almost done already and it´s only been a week since she got it!!!). and so we were just sitting there talking for a few minutes and she brought up the subject of baptism. It was awesome! I´ve never had that happen before! So we told her a little bit about how it worked and set the day for sunday. She has such a big desire to change her life, it is wonderful!  . I am so happy for her that she is receiving the gospel! It will be so good for her! and that the ward received her so well! Her baptism was absolutely wonderful!!! perfect, really. She was presented with home and visiting teachers and everyone made her feel SO welcome! I love it :)
The only problem with being a missionary though, is that you are always gonna be the first one to be put on the spot.... We walked into an activity that they had for the youth for two minutes and the guy who was talking pointed us out and had us come up to the front to share our testimonies about seminary/the scriptures. awesome. Ha. and then in the baptism, our ward mission leader was presenting the program - and the period after the baptism, where they go to change clothes, he just announced (without telling either of us first) that the missionaries would teach the restoration during that time. ha ha, great :)

Yeah, I do get to watch conference :) I am so excited for it!! I´m not sure if it´ll be in Portuguese or English though - I´m kind of thinking Portuguese cause my companion will be Brazilian.

September 24, 2012

On p-day we were able to go to the beach, cause we have that in our area (the closest we can get to it though is on the other side of the street).

The pictures I attached are from Arraial do Cabo. and its gorgeous. Hopefully the pictures attached right :)

This is actually the first lan house I´ve been to that lets you open any sort of pen drive....

Also, the post office is on strike (as is the federal police and all the banks). But that just means I have to wait to send any letters to anyone, which stinks.

I love it when people are willing and ready to keep promises! haha. So we were teaching an investigator about the word of wisdom earlier this week and the only thing he really had a problem with was coffee. It was cool though because after we answered his questions about it, he said ´as of now, I´m done drinking coffee. I´ve given it up´. The best. Ever.

Oh yeah. So Thursday - we had a really awful thunderstorm here. We were walking out of the church, turned and saw pitch black clouds behind us and went back in to ask for the weather forecast and not even two minutes later did it start pouring rain. And I mean POURING. It just kept going and going. But yeah, the lights in the church went off (but there were emergency lights, so we could still see). Anyways, once the rain quieted down to something a little more normal, an irmão walked us home with his flashlight, which was so awesome of him! - we live about forty minutes walking distance from the church on a normal day. Anyways, some of the streets were flooded with water so we got to dodge around all of that, which was fun :). Anyways, we made it home safe and sound. There was still no electricity though in our house, so we got a candle from our neighbor, but then shortly thereafter everything came back on. So we were even able to take a hot shower. But yeah, I loved it all! :)

If you´re even the slightest bit worried about us here, don´t be. Cause. The Lord was definitely with us to not get caught in that storm and was watching out for us the whole day! The next day everything was fine and we just got back to work! :)

  I love Rio. I love serving a mission, being a missionary, and helping people come unto Christ!

And... I love YOU!

 

September 17,2012



Brazil World Cup Soccer Team

Well... I love you all! How are you all doing? Is there anything specific that you want to know about Brasil/ Rio de Janeiro / my area or anything really? Let me know and I´ll try to answer them :)

So this week has been good. Last night we had a fireside with the members about missionary work. We gave about a thirty minute lesson and afterwards the Bishop talked. He did a really good job to get everyone excited and helped them all feel a part of a family home evening that we´re going to do as a ward in two weeks. He got everyone there to help with a game/ the food/ and gave everyone invites (and copies of the book of mormon) to give to all of their friends. It was pretty sweet. Our Bishop here is AWESOME. He has a really big vision for this area and really wants to see the ward grow.

Thanks for all your prayers, I love you all!

 

September 10, 2012

Manaus Temple

So... I´m doing good :) And everything is going well here in Cabo Frio. I love my companion, Sister Di - from Pennsylvania. Haha, I think its so funny that whenever she says where she´s from people automatically think of the vampires from Dracula (which is actually transylvania). Its really funny. Same thing with texas though - I always get asked about the cowboys and farms and such. It´s actually hilarious though, I love it.

But yeah. The work is going well. We´re working with several families right now - two of them are working on their papers to get married (and then they can get baptized! which they are so excited for :). Marriage is a big process here - its super expensive and usually takes a couple of months so its pretty common to find couples that have been together for 28 years or so, but just not legally married.

Oh. and we also taught a lady, T this week. She was a contact we made, but as we were teaching her, she got super interested - she said that she left the church she was attending because the pastor one day decided that he was an apostle, but she didn´t know where he got the authority to call himself an apostle. And so we taught a lot about how the authority has been restored again to the earth with the first lesson and of course invited her the read and pray. Anyways Sister Di was explaing about the commitment, to read and pray, saying that she could know for herself that these things are true if she would do this and that we could lie to her, but God, being perfect, can´t. But her response was that she knew that we weren´t lying to her and ´why have I never heard this before´! It´s true though. I think that if I hadn´t grown up in the church, that would be exactly my response when I found it. I really believe the scripture that says that some people are held from the truth because, like T, they know not where to find it.

I love our church though and that we can know for ourselves (and don´t have to take anyone´s word for it) that the message of the restoration is true, - that we really do have the authority of God again upon the earth, that He is leading the church today through a living prophet, and that we have the authority to perform the ordinances (like baptism e etc.) to return back to our Father in Heaven and live with Him and our families forever!

We have been teaching a couple this week - G and R who are so interested in this, that they can be together forever. And I love that it´s possible!

September 3, 2012

KFC/Brazil

Well... I love you all!! and I love being a missionary! I know that
this is the Lord´s work and everyday as I teach and testify here it
becomes more and more real to me that we have the actual church of
Jesus Christ here on the earth - the church that He is guiding through
living prophets. And I am so grateful for this miracle and blessing
in our lives.

So today was a fun day........ Sister Di had to go to the federal
police station to renew her visa, but guess what? we got down there to
find that they were all on strike... haha. But it was a fun day of
travel - pretty much four hours there and four back - that´s why I am
writing so late... But the KFC definitely made it worth it :)

Cabo Frio, August 27, 2012

Cabo Frio

Well... turns out that I LOVE Cabo Frio. First of all, it is absolutely GORGEOUS. I don´t know if you´ve seen pictures of it yet or not, but it has several beaches and well... its beautiful. I think its more of a touristy town and so everything is expensive. So we got here on Tuesday and were welcomed by our LMA. We have a wonderful ward and they all seem super excited to help with missionary work. We´ve gone out with the members almost everyday and they´re helping us to find all the houses of our investigators (since we´re both new here) and everything. They´re also super great at giving references, which helps a lot :) ha. Sister Di and I had to give a talk in church yesterday....... yeah. That was fun..... :). Sis Di is awesome! She is from Pennsylvania and has two more transfers left on the mission. Her parents are coming to pick her up I think.

ha. but our area actually covers seven cities...... it´s gigantic! I thought my last area was big, but here it takes us forty minutes just to get from our house to the church!! it´s crazy.

Transferred! August 20, 2012

FAMÍLIA!!

Cabo Frio

so... guess what?? I`M BEING TRANSFERRED!! Definitely not at all what I expected - at all - I thought that I would stay here in Comari with a new companion (of course, cause Sister Dis leaving - she already finished her mission....). Sister Di will be my new companion - she is american, not sure where she is from though. We were in the same zone the past two transferences, but I don´t really know her very well yet. And... we´ll be serving in Cabo Frio - a city outside of Rio in the Macaé zone..... So strange!! I love Comari and it will be so weird to switch areas! but... the Lord knows better than I do :) All the missionaries being transferred will meet at the Rodoviario (a huge bus station type thing at the center of Rio) and there, I´ll have to say goodbye to Sister D and leave with Sister Di to our new area. We´ll both be new there... and from then ... trabalhar! :)

Man. I am so sad that Sister D is leaving!!! Her mom is coming to pick her up from the mission and she´ll stay until Saturday here in Comari and her other areas. I´m really glad that we got to be companions these past two transferences. I´ve learned so much from her!!!



August 13,2012

Flavors of Brazil

Oi família!!!

Eu amo vocês!

 Wellll.... Everything is going well here for me in Rio de Janeiro. - It´s amazing the influence that members have in missionary work. When members are involved.... well, everything works out a lot better. They have automatic membership and friendship as well as people to answer their questions when we´re not there.... so yeah - don´t forget the influence that you have as a member of the church of Jesus Christ to help others come to know Him! :)

My companion, Sister D finishes her mission next week!!! Ahh! It makes me so sad that we won´t be companions anymore :( I´ll find out who my next companion will be on Monday, as well as whether or not I´ll be switching areas..... I think that I´ll probably end up staying here though, which would be way awesome - I LOVE the people here!!! :) ha. It´s kind of scary not knowing if I´ll be transfered or not, or where I´ll end up... :/ but... the good thing is - It´s all in the Lord´s hands!!!

Ha. so you asked the other week if I ever had to give a talk in sacrament meeting? well.. I gave my first one yesterday - it only had to be about five minutes though, which was good. And it actually went pretty well - at least people said that they understood what I was saying... haha. But yeah, its kind of cool to see that when the spirit is in a certain situation - it is SO much easier to understand what people are saying and to be understood.

 

.

August 6, 2012

When I think of Rio, I think of the movie.

So this week has been great! The miracle of the week: Sister F was baptized!!!!! I love her :) She was the eternal investigator that I was talking about - and apparently she has been investigating the church for six years!!!! Man! But yeah, all-in-all we actually only met with her four times before her baptism - and one was for the interview!! The first couple of times, she said the same thing - that she would think about a day and talk with her family but didn´t seem too sure about it, but after the third lesson on Jesus Christ, she accepted! Right now she is living with her sister and her sister´s daughter and their family - all who are active members of the church! Her sister cried when she accepted. It was so cool! So. I´m not sure exactly what made the difference this time around, but she said that God answered her and she was super excited for her baptism and confirmation!!! And I am super excited for her! I learned a little more about God´s love for us and how happy he is when we choose to follow Him!! I know that this church is true and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am serving this mission for Him! and I love this work - inviting people to come unto Him! Better than anything :)

July 30, 2012

Mission Photos

We had a really wonderful conference this week with Elder Costa. I learned a lot - but one of my favorite talks was by his wife. She said that her dream was always to tour the missions where her children were serving and proceeded to ´pretend´ to be our mothers asking various questions about how and what we were doing, why we were serving our missions. Anyways, I hope that I am serving a mission that you would be proud of! I´m obviously not perfect, but I am learning. I love you mom. Thank you so much for all of the things that you have taught me.  And thank you for the emphasis that you and dad always put on family - we´ve had some of the best family activities over the years! I love showing that picture of our family to people we took at Lisa´s wedding and people always have to stop and count and then ask which ones are my brothers and sisters. haha. and sometimes they think I´m Laura :) haha. but anyways, I love how you guys always made it important for us to take the time to visit our extended family even when circumstances were difficult.

This week we taught what you would call an ´eternal investigator´. She´s already taken all of the lessons and goes to church all the time, but just never made the decision to be baptized. Anyways she moved in recently with some of her other family members and they made all of the difference. We challenged her to choose a date to be baptized and she´ll be giving her answer tonight! aaahhh!!!

July 23, 2012

Baptism

OI!!!!!!!!
Everything is going great here in Rio!! I love it here. My companion is the best and I love my area. We have a baptism this Saturday for B - a young girl.  This girl will work miracles in her family - and in the ward. They have a good friend in the ward they will help each other out a lot . It will be great! She is the best though! :)
So I think my favorite thing on the mission so far is seeing the Lord work through us - being an instrument in his hands, so to speak. Its amazing sometimes trying to think of a spiritual thought or something to give and a scripture comes to mind. Or while giving a thought and having the spirit bring a question or something else to say come to mind. Or having none of the above, and simply bearing testimony and the spirit bearing witness. Its amazing the times when this happens. I know more than ever that this church is true. I know that God hears and answers prayers. He has answered so many of mine!!! I know God lives and loves us. The church is true!!!!

Mom! I am so sad to hear that Uncle Mike died! I love him! I guess though, one thing that I am learning so well on the mission - is that the plan of salvation is real. That this life is not the end and that we can live with our families forever - para eternidade! Thank goodness. Families can be together forever!

Haha... no, I actually haven´t had to give a talk yet, but I did bear my testimony the last fast sunday and it was alright.... but guess what I do have to do??? Elder Costa is coming on Friday to visit and guess who has to lead the music? Yeah, but also guess what? I have NO idea how to lead music.... I´ve always been bad at keeping time... and so.... this is going to be interesting. I´m not sure either exactly what I´ll have to do - there is a special musical number as well as normal hymns so I´m not sure if I´m just leading the choir, or everybody or both......... ahh! It´s for seven zones too. scary!

I´m doing really good. Scared out of my mind to lead on friday, but besides that, all is well. For our p-day today, with our zone we helped clean and move the other sisters - four of them that all live together - from one house to the other. And are working on painting their new house too. It was pretty fun :) Oh - I don´t think I ever told you, but Sister N is in my zone - I love that girl - she is the one who was also friend´s with the fisher´s that I met before I left. She is awesome!! I´m so glad to have her here and to be able to talk to her!!

haha. So awhile ago we were walking from one appointment to another and passed people doing capoeira in the street - and from the little that I saw, it looks like the coolest thing ever! a type of fighting/dance kind of thing. just look it up on youtube or something...
haha.. I don´t actually take a lot of pictures because my camera is super lame, but I´ll get the ones my companion took and send them on to you... eventually :)
Have a fantastic week!!

Mary Ann's mom here: I did look up capoeira and here is a youtube video of it.          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8xxgFpK-NM