2nd Week with Sister Alves - Lição do Dia: NÃO toque em cactos

 When writing essays in high school, I always got 90% or 95%; 5 to 10 docked because my essay hooks were a tad weak. Unfortunately, my weakness in writing story or letter hooks remains weak, so y'all have to deal with this completely unrelated paragraph because I don't know how to make my thoughts connect.

Cats watching over the missionaries from above.

In between some visits after lunch, Sister Alves and I were walking down the street and I saw some beautiful flowers that I wanted to try and pick. The only problem was that they were attached to a cactus. After observing the cactus, Sister Alves determined that trying to pick one would be a problem because there were no large needles. So we tried to pick some. After a few unsuccessful moments, I felt something prick me, so I pulled my hand away, as did Sister Alves. Lo and behold, our fingers were full of teeny tiny needles, which we all know is 1000% worse. Fortunately we were near some members and we sought out their help, and in the end everything was removed from our fingers. I'd upload the video she took, but alas, this phone is trash, so...yup.

Sister Alves made a cartoon of the cactus fiasco. 

We had Zone Conference this past week. President Card had to talk a lot about obedience. Again. And, out of no where, he got up and told everyone that we need to grow up and stop promoting one race over another o_O. I'd like to know who prompted him to bring that up.

Everyone also got the flu shot, and President Card took several unflattering pictures of the missionaries and put them up on a big screen to mock their reactions as they were stuck with a needle. Needless to say that he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Funny (by that I mean interesting) story. A while back, Sister Casperson and I were walking down the street and she was having me pick a house at random. I selected one, and we started teaching the woman who answered. However, she was extremely resistant to the idea that God called prophets in the Americas because reason, reason, reason, that didn't make any sense. In any case, we left that house and didn't take down any information because Sister Casperson was a little ticked off.

This past week, Sister Alves and I were wrapping up the day, and I randomly selected a house. A 15 year old girl named Julia answered us and listened to our message, after which she agreed to meet with us again. So, two days later, we passed by again and she let us in. We began talking with her, getting to know her a little better. After a little, her mom came in to greet us. Then she looked at me and asked, 'Have you guys been here before?'

In that moment I recognized her as the woman Sister Casperson and I had met. I had once again "randomly" selected her house.

I don't know what will happen here, but I do wonder how random it really was for me to pick the same house twice.

When we're doing a first contact on the street, we usually ask 1 or two questions first to try and discover the person's necessity. I though I'd ask you all the same questions and let you think about what you would say:

1 - How is your relationship with God?

2 - If Jesus Christ stood in front of you right now and you could say or ask Him something, what would it be?

I had another story I was debating about putting in, but I think I'll leave it to your imaginations.

Sorrynotsorry#

Elder Leatherwood (the missionary on the right) set up a little lunch treat for the district.

[This is Alicia interjecting... fortunately, we get more info from Miriam while visiting through Messenger and she told us the story she didn't include in her letter. Miriam and Sister Alves had an appointment for lunch with a member family early in the week. When they arrived, their 21 or 22yr old son saw the sisters at the gate and took off running around the corner embarrassed. Miriam and her companion figured it was because he didn't have a shirt on. The mother of the house greeted the sister missionaries apologizing for her messy home and blamed it on her "lazy son" (the young man who ran around the corner).  Miriam noted later that week when they went for there lunch again, the son made sure the entire house was sparkling clean! It was clear he wanted the sisters to have a better impression of him.]