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| With Sister Vieira and investigators |
June 2, 2014
Oi familia!!
We had
another great week here in Cidade Vargas. The transfer schedule is
different here in Brazil--when I left Michigan, I lost a week. Thus, this
coming week will possibly be my last week with Sister Vieira! She has
served here for six months and everyone is positive she will be transferred, so
keep me in your prayers!! I don’t know the area too well because I came
halfway through the transfer and I am still muddling my way through Portuguese.
So we will see what ends up happening!
Here were
some highlights of the week:
This week
I learned so much about the importance of an eternal perspective. We had
zone conference and it was really really good. Presidente Tanner talked
about the importance of conversion and retention. Brazil has a huge
problem with people going less-active right after baptism and so the
missionaries are focusing more right now on teaching with a focus on enduring
to the end. I love it so much. We are teaching about the temple in
our lessons and really helping people to achieve a deeper, more profound level
of conversion. We teach about enduring to the end, and President Tanner
said the end is the ENDowment.
We put on
an activity for our ward last night. We pretended we were all on an
airplane and the plane had some difficulties so we landed and fixed the issues.
While we were grounded, the people on the plane could wander around the
island and participate in different activities. After, we boarded the
plane again but the plane crashed and everybody ended up dying . . . kind of
morbid, but it illustrated a point. We then sorted people into different
rooms depending on what activity they did while they were on the island.
The rooms represented the different kingdoms of glory, and each room had
different food. For example, the telestial kingdom had water and
crackers and the celestial kingdom had cake and Guarana. It was really
fun and it made me think about the things we are doing right now with our lives.
This time we have right now is so so so important and we should use every
moment to prepare for eternity!!
We also
visited a less-active couple in the ward. It was an interesting and
saddening experience. They both have strong testimonies of the gospel, but they
just don’t feel like they need to attend church right now. They said
they think Heavenly Father and Christ understand that they don’t want to
attend. As they were saying these things, I found myself thinking of the
spiritual warfare we are in right now and how important it is to be vigorously
righteous. We never know when our time will be up!!
On
another note, here are some things I love about the Portugues language:
When we
greet people we say ´´Tudo Bem?´´ and they say ´´Tudo bem.´´ This phrase
translates to ´´all is well.´´ I love the word ALL. Every time
someone says this, it reminds me with Heavenly Father, Christ, the atonement,
and a positive attitude, ALL things in our lives can be great! Sure, we
might have a few hiccups here and there but when we count our blessings, we see
that all is well.
When
people pray, they always say ´´Nos te-agradecemos por um mais dia.´´ We
are grateful for one more day. I love that people are grateful for every
single day of life they have. We really need to make the most of every
single day. I have thought about that a ton lately because my mission
time is passing so quickly! I need to make the most of every single day!!
Another
common phrase is ´´gracas a Deus.´´ People thank Heavenly Father for
everything here. Are you having a good day? Yes, gracas a Deus.
How is your family? Doing well, gracas a Deus. I love it. We
really should be grateful for every blessing we have and acknowledge the
powerful hand of our Heavenly Father in all things.
Portugues
is going well though. I feel really blessed! Sure, I can’t say or
understand everything but Heavenly Father has helped me never to feel
overwhelmed.
Boa
semana para vocês!! Te-Amo!!
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