Week 3 with Sis. Santos - Jaú, Brazil

 

On Division (or Splits) with Sis. Hirschi

This past week, we did a division, and our Sister Trainer Leaders - Sister Sousa and Sister Hirschi - came to spend the day with is. I ended up sticking with Sister Hirschi, and we had a really fun time. She's got a lot of energy and love for what she's doing. And she's also always hungry, so she stopped to by snacks often. This activity led her to buy a single banana at a store and the entire staff in the produce to laugh at this decision. ALSO she impulsively purchased a bubble wand and was just dancing in the street with this thing.

We also had the opportunity to speak with way more people than usual because of the power of the Spirit and miracles that, unfortunately, only happen during divisions. I can't explain it, but every time the SLTs do a division, crazy things happen...

Festa de Julina er Junina; I don't know which one it is. But it's a traditional Brazilian party, and they held it at the church (which was way different than the other festa I went to because no one was swearing or drinking alcohol). It was fun to just hang out with the members of the Branch and eat very tasty food. I'm sorry guys, but Brazilian hot dogs kick American hot dog butt. I'll have to try and make them when I get back.

We went to visit an investigator yesterday, and her husband came to the gate. It was quite the interaction because he was extremely drunk. He kept telling us to enter and share our message, but proceeded to not open the gate for us. His wife finally came out and apologized for his drunkenness, and we planned to visit her another day. When Sister Santos reached out to shake his hand, he planned an unfortunately long kiss on her hand. We decided it best to not visit again on a Sunday afternoon.

Sister Santos is hilarious when we're rejected by people. She becomes very aggressive in language and gestures, and her favorite thing to describe them as "futureless" and what not. But in reality, she's a very charitable, loving, person, a skill she said she learned on the mission. She told me that before her mission, she honestly thought humanity was pretty hopeless, and she spent all of her time with little kids and animals because she just hated people. 

She told me a little bit more about her story about deciding to go on a mission during our nearly two hour walk to a certain part of our area, and it's insane.

I won't go into lots of detail, so let's just say that Satan was rather bold in his attempts to discourage her from serving. By that I mean bold to the point that she and her mother had to cast him out of their presence in the name of Jesus Christ more than once.

This topic came up during a conversation about the premortal life, and it got me thinking. Our Heavenly Father knows us perfectly well, and, because he lived with us, so does the Adversary. He knows our potential, and it's because he knows us that he will do everything in his power to destroy us. Like we read in Joseph Smith History, its a real power. But we have to remember that his power is only what we give him. Compared to our divine nature and the power of our Heavenly Father, we can be like Moses, look upon Satan's efforts and be able to say, "Where is thy glory that I should worship thee? Get thee hence, Satan. Deceive me not."

If the influence of the Adversary feels strong, think of it this way: you're on the path to accomplish something great for the Kingdom of God, and Satan knows it, and he's scared.

I think the devil saying, "I hate you" is just about the highest compliment he's capable of.

-Miriam

Looks like the Barbie movie craze is even hitting Brazil.
I'm certain this dog isn't impressed though and is getting ready to leave his mark to emphasize complete and utter distain. 

The following are some videos and stories Miriam shared with us:

[Sis. Santos filming the Sisters exciting night excursion☝ to find a garbage bin for all their garbage.]

[In these two videos, Sis. Santos rants☝ about how annoying the excuses were getting from this one particular contact who kept making up stories as to why he couldn't set up an appointment to meet. After a phone call with this guy and exhausted by his lies and excuses, Sis. Santos stopped him from talking any further and said sternly, "Look!" (there was a pause as he waited for her to say more...but instead she hung up on him.) When he was off the line, she proceeded to give him a piece of her mind, shouting at the empty phone, telling the man he was a flake.]

[In this video, Miriam went on splits with Sis. Hirschi☝ and had a great time. Sis. Hirschi is extremely happy recalling the events of the day because this time for Divisions, everything seemed to be more successful and miraculous than she usually experiences- visiting with more people, and more positive responses. 

She's also laughing about the grocery store workers reaction when they walked in and bought one single banana and bubbles.]

Demonstrating bubble wand skills.☝