I Guess I Have More Time Than I Thought

Well this week was good because we had a lot of really good lessons with our investigators. 

Italo still doesn´t have a desire to get baptized!!! He believes in EVERYTHING, but he says that he just doesn´t want to get baptized.... We taught him almost everyday this week and he just keeps becoming more and more converted.... 

We are helping a few less active families come back and it´s great to see when they too progress, but sometimes it seems harder than even teaching investigators.

Friday was the leadership meeting. It was a greet meeting. I felt the spirit SOOO strong and it made me want to be BETTER than I have ever been. I also got to bear my farewell testimony and of course I cried!!!!! It made me think back about all the experiences that I have had on my mission and think how grateful I am for each person I have met here!!! All of my investigators, recent converts, companions, members!!! EVERYONE!!!! 

Saturday was an emotional day.. First an investigator, who we have been trying to decide whether or not to cut, CUT US!!!! It was wierd. He called at 7 am and told me that it was better for him to stay far away from us because he said he was starting to ``like`` me and he knew that it was not allowed. UGHHHHHH it made me sad because I never did anything to make him like me.. I think its just because he is so lonely and we actually cared about him and he felt the spirit and confused the feelings. I don´t know..... I just hope that Heavenly Father gives him humbling experiences that will help him accept the gospel ASAP!!!! 

 

Then at night we had an open house at our chapel. It was good because 2 friends of a member came and they really liked learning about the church, but me and my companion tried really hard to get people from the street to come and see what it was like, and NO ONE would... :( But one girl that we talked to came to church the next day so that was AWESOME and we´re going to start teaching her on tuesday!!! Woohoo. 

These Last 4 weeks I just want to TRY my hardest and see MIRACLES!!!!!!

Desi 

Road Rage Kindness

THIS WEEK WAS GREAT!!!!!

On thursday we had mission conference with Elder Costa from the quorum of the seventies!!!!! He is sooooo awesome..... He shared so many awesome stories. My favorite one goes like this. He had just moved back to Brazil from são paulo when he got called to be the presiding seventy of brazil and his wife asked him.... you´re going to have to learn how to have patience in the traffic of São Paulo... andddd he said his first day driving to church office building he entered a lane in front of a little red fiat and the little red fiat gotttt SUPERRR mad and started honking and following close behind him. When he came to a red light she pulled over next to him motioned for him to roll down his window and started cussing him out.... He remember what his wife said about patience... Nodded his head and said have a good day... god bless.... and went his way. He said the very next day the very same thing happened with the exact same lady. and he gave the same response. Then a few days later they just happened to be in the same spot again.... And a few days later again.... And before he knew it she was smiling and waving back at him... The next week he decided he was going to give her an invitation to stake conference and a book of mormon. And that sunday she went to stake conference and then was eventually baptized.... Hahah it was great to hear all of his little stories.. It made me realize that heavenly father really puts us in the right places at the right times. And we have to take the opportunities that he gives us!!!!!!!

On Saturday We taught an awesome lesson to our investigator Italo who has been saying that he knows the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith is a prophet, but doesn´t feel ``vontade`` Wich is like will or desire to be baptized. We taught him the plan of salvation again and taught him about the importance of faith and repentance.... He was super interested in the repentance part and  he committed to repent and be baptized on saturday.... but then he didn´t go to church on sunday so we have to move it to after he goes to church one more time, so maybe sunday.

We also taught 6 new investigators this week, and 2 of them went to church. We were super happy about it!! ANDDDDD big surprise they also have word of wisdom problems: cocaine... dang it. But one of them is SUPER smart. He read almost 40 pages in the book of mormon after we left it with him. And he remembers like almost every detail. 

Alexandro and Sandra are doing A LOT better. This week we went to the place to mark their wedding, but unfortunately their birth certificates were too torn apart... So we have to order new birth certificates and go back this week. BUT they will get married, and I hope I´m here to see it :)

Hope everyone has a great week!!!!

Sister Bruno 

Persistence in the pursuit of righteous desires can help us develop talents, attain our spiritual goals, and serve others.

Tomorrow are transfers!!!! and that means.... just 6 more weeks of me... wearing this name tag.. 6 more weeks of me being this cute sister missionary. 6 more weeks to do my best and help as many people as I can!!!! This week was good. After Elder Evans visit, we worked hard and saw some great results!!!! ANdddd this week Elder Claudio R.M Costa is going to come give us another mission conference. Two members of the 70s in Two weeks... WOOHOOO :) It will probably be my last mission conference. We started teaching a few new investigators. We are helping reactivate a few less actives. The family whose dad is a drug addict didn´t use crack this week. He just used marijuana instead.... Not as bad.... andddddddddd HE WENT TO CHURCH!!!! finally :) :) It was the cutest thing ever to see their family sitting on the church bench all together. It truly was a miracle. They called sunday morning and said they weren´t going... and I kept saying yes you are. YES YOU ARE. Someone will be at your house in 15 minutes to pick you up. AND THEY WENT :) and he loved it. and their going to get married this month and it´s going to be great!!!!! Italo went to church as well, which made us really happy!!!!!!! andd the family that we are helping reactivate...which also made us super happy!!! Sunday we had a weird experience.... We were walking home to do our weekly planning and some ladies from another church stopped us and invited us to go into their church to visit and to talk to their pastors... I´m not sure why I accepted the invitation. But we went in... and just stayed for a few minutes, and prayed with their pastor. It was sad. But I shared some pass along cards with them and invited them to come to our church. Who knows? Maybe they´ll call for the free dvd :) What did I learn this week? Righteous persistence pays off. Alexandro always says that were are persistent and that's why he went to church. When I think of persistence I think of Jesus Christ. He persisted day after day to follow the will of Heavenly Father. And he inspires us to do the right thing in our own lives. To be persistent in our righteous desires and actions. Because one day we will receive a reward for it! I´m pretty sure I will stay in my area with my companion for my last transfer, but If anything happens I´ll let you know tomorrow....

"It's not enough to wish, it's not enough to dream, it's not enough to promise. We must do."

TUDO BEM??? This week was an eye-opener. We are still working with our investigators to help them obey the word of wisdom. Unfortunately we made the decision to cut a few of the investigators that we had that were not interested in changing or even wanting to know more about the gospel :( BUTTT we are going tomorrow to mark the wedding of one of the family we are currently teaching! woohoo. I´m so excited for them. Sandra is SO awesome. She has the biggest desire to change. ANDDDDD she is pregnant. So she will be married before the baby comes. Saturday I had the privilege to go to a meeting that had the zone leaders and sister leaders from the 5 missions in the huge city of São Paulo. We got to hear from Elder Evans from the seventy who works on the missionary executive council. It was an awesome experience. He talked so much about our true purpose as missionaries. A lot of the time missions focus on the one thing that is easiest for them to do. Here it is baptism. In some places is less active work. and we forget that we should be helping in all areas of the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receive the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end. Heavenly Father has great expectations for our generation. He wants us to be obedient so that he can bless us. He wants us to help him with his Purpose: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. He also talked a lot about the importance of families. There is nothing more important than our families. We can only get to the celestial kingdom when we are sealed together and enduring to the end as a family. This morning he came and talked to our whole mission. It was a very humbling experience. He was very inspired and hit the key points that our mission needs to be better at. It was one of the best mission conference I have been to. He also told us that Heavenly Father gives us our desires. If we desire good things and good results he will give them to us. and how do we show our desires? By the things we do. So we have to do GOOD things. I know that this really is the work of salvation. Sister Bruno

And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones; And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

YUP you guessed it : WORD OF WISDOM!!!!!! This week weirdly enough really strengthened my testimony of the word of wisdom. 

It seems like ALL of our investigators have problems with the word of wisdom. Two drug addicts that are FIGHTING their addictions. One family being destroyed by the bad drug habits of the dad. One investigator who wanted to become a professional bartender. One family whose parents are chain smokers. I have never seen so many bad effects of breaking the word of wisdom. 

We had an awesome lesson with Italo (investigator who wanted to become a professional bartender)! We taught him about the plan of salvation and marked his baptism date for the 2nd of March. Then when we taught the word of wisdom he ACCEPTED it so well! And has now stopped drinking alcohol and coffee!!!!! 

We started teaching another drug addict who is truly sincere about changing. He has cut down so much. He went from using drugs almost every day to once a week. And he told us that when his dad told him to have a beer at the bakery (yes here the drink at bakery´s...) He ordered a COKE!!!! 

Shout out to all of you for being such great examples when it comes to the word of wisdom. I have luckily NEVER been tempted to break the word of wisdom. But up until this week I also had never realized how big of a blessing it has been in my life. I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR THE WORD OF WISDOM!!!!! It truly blesses us in all aspects of our lives. Health Wise, Knowledge Wise, Saftey Wise... ALL ASPECTS even money wise if you think about....

If anyone has any good ideas on how to break an addiction let me know!!!

Desi 

"Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward."

Dear Family,

We had a great week!!!! A LOT went on. We stayed pretty busy throughout the whole week. 

We taught a lot of Restoration lessons! It was great! We had 11 new investigators and we have started to teach 2 new families :) 

One of the families we are teaching is really accepting! One problem. The dad of the family is addicted to CRACK. We taught the first lesson with him drugged up. It was an interesting experience because his week is SUCH A GOOD INVESTIGATOR. She had so many good questions, and she is so sincere in her desire to know. She felt the spirit so strongly. The dad wants to stop he told us that he did. He recognizes that its destroying his life... It was really sad to see what he was giving up, and to see the pain that he caused in the life of Sandra, his wife. I know it will be HARD, but I know that he will be able to!!!! 

Saturday was the baptism of Megara!!!! It was SO SWEET. I am so happy for her. She had been waiting for this day for so long, and her mom who isn´t a member went and really liked it as well. She may still be saying that she is not interested, but I KNOW that Meggy is going to help her whole family through her example. 

We taught Italo again this week and he accepted the invitation to be baptized :) He is SOOOOOOOO AWESOME. He works so hard in life, and he really just wants to know peace and wants to know how he can get rid of the guilt that he feels. He read the chapter we left him in the Book of Mormon 2 times, and he said that he felt good when he prayed!!!! 

Happy Valentine´s day this week to everyone!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Desi 

Do You Think God Puts Good Things in Our Path? I Do!!!!

Dear Family this week was a HOTTT one. We were told that this summer has been the hottest ever recorded here in São Paulo.

This week we WORKED hard. A lot of walking in the hot sun, but it wasn´t all in vain. We did a lot of contacts, and now have a lot of not only new but also potential investigators. 

Next Saturday is the baptism of Mégara. She is so awesome, and excited for her baptism. I made her little invitations. She has been waiting for soo long for this. It´s going to be a really special day for her.  I picked a sheep on her invite because she is entering into the flock of Jesus Christ :) 

This week we also had interviews with President Ferrin. It was a GREAT interview. He showed us two pennies a bronze penny and a steel penny, and asked us which coin we would want to be. I of course picked the steel penny because I had never seen a steel penny before and I thought I would want to be the different one. But then he told us that steel rusts a lot faster and other facts about steel that made me want to change my answer. Afterwards he showed us a silver coin and then a gold coin... A pure gold coin... It was SOOO pretty. By this point I definitely had changed my mind. He told us that the truth is that there is very little pure gold in the world. And that we are like the gold coins. There may not be a very high percentage of members in the world and an even smaller percentage of missionaries, but we are UNIQUE and of GREAT WORTH. We need to show the world that our message is worth more than gold :) I have learned so much from President Ferrin, I hope that I can be a light in this world and help many people enjoy the gold that I have (THE GOSPEL :) )

Sunday we had a VERY interesting experience.  We were walking to church and this random guy came up to us and asked if he could ask a question. I of course answered Sure... He proceeded to ask ``Do you think God puts good things in our Path?`` I answered yes.... He then started talking anddddd it didn´t take long to realize that he was a little drunk. He told us that a girl that he had met the night before sent him a message saying that he needed to let Jesus enter into his heart. So what did he do? He walked into the nearest church... A Igreja Universal... The Universal Church... He stayed there for about 5 minutes got uncomfortable and left. That's when he saw us. We invited him to go to church and he did. And he stayed all 3 hours and LOVED it... and I think the alcohol had even worn off by the end... I´m hoping we can help change his life and his families life!!!!! I know that Heavenly Father loves him regardless of his poor choices. I hope that he is willing to give up worldly things and search for the kingdom of God. 

We also found 2 new investigators. Rosangela and Italo. Mother and Son. They are just two really nice people. And Italo had a lot of great questions. After we taught the Restoration he asked us how he could know if Joseph Smith was a real prophet or a False prophet and we explained that he could read the book of Mormon and pray!!!! And he told us that he is looking for PEACE in his life. We promised him that he would find peace through the BOOK OF MORMON and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know the book of Mormon is true and if Italo really reads it he will know for himself as well!!!!!!!! 

I know that God puts good things in our Path!!!!!! He did after all put all of you in my path :) We just need to look for the good things and make sure to share them!!!!!!!

La Cucaracha

Summer is in full bloom here in São Paulo...

This week was CRAZY!!!!! 

I think I got a sunburn 6 of the 7 days this week...

On New Year´s there were SOOOO many fireworks right outside of or window... and while trying to sleep a firework landed on our house... It was pretty intense.. I thought that I was in a war zone. I think Brazil should think about revising their laws about firework use. 

Cockroaches are just having the time of their life... Funny story. We were teaching José this week and he had bug bombed his work office about 2 hours before we got there and there were COCKROACHES EVERYWHERE... I would say I saw at least 100. My companion killed about 20 while we were teaching... Let´s just say it was a hard lesson to get through... and that I may or may not have screamed during the first vision because of a cockroach on my foot.... José is the cutest old man I have ever met in my life.. He just kept laughing and killing them before they got to me.. 

Me and Sister Peart worked HARD this week and though we may have not seen immediate success we are starting to up our pool of investigators :) 

Tomorrow we are going to the Temple as a mission and I am SUPER excited. Me and Sister Peart read a talk by Elder Holland about missionaries and covenants and I loved this quote maybe it will help you Franny and Michael.

It is when an entire mission is united by the strength of every missionary’s integrity, every 
 missionary’s personal covenant keeping,that we move mountains. When there is such unity  
and power, an endowment from heaven, coming to every individual in the mission, nothing can
 “stop the work from progressing.” It is in this way that the“truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, 
 and independent.”

Congratulations Annika and Keith.. I would love to see some pictures ASAP!!!!! Now that Keith is a part of the family someone should tell me his email so I can add him to the list... 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!