Miriam's -Transfer to Pirassununga - Sister Rodriguez

New companion, Sister Rodriguez

This week was an interesting one to say the least. We had transfers, and how that turned into an...adventure.

President Card had made an announcement Sunday, I think, that all transfers would be announced Wednesday night. He made that pretty darn clear.So imagine my surprise when Sister Almeida and I received our transfers Tuesday from our district leader. I thought the phone call was a little weird because he was super secretive about it, telling us that we couldn't tell anyone.

But anyways...

Sister Almeida got transferred to Araras, and I got transferred to Pirassununga 2. It was wild because Sister Almeida was going to be transferred the next day, so we hurried home to get her stuff in order, and Wednesday we bid her and Sister Brown farewell. I spent the rest of the day with Sister Maria working in her area.

Then, that night, President Card sent out two very angry messages to the entire mission...

Soo as it turns out, someone that had already gone home got access to all the transfer information and had sent it out to people, and unauthorized leaders - like my district leader- were passing it out secretly to other missionaries. President Card was pissed off because this act had sent the work reeling because everyone was hurrying prepare for transfers instead of working. After expressing his extreme disappointment in the engagement of secret combinations, he proceeded to release every single one of his leaders - Assistants, Zone Leaders, Sister Trainer Leaders, and District Leaders - informing everyone that he would be calling a new leadership that he could trust.

So that's how this new transfer started.

Waiting at the bus station.

I'm now here in Pirassununga, Hell's attic, I think, because it's so fReAkInG hot here.

Sister Rodriguez is my new companion from Peru. We don't have a single Brazilian in this house because the other two sisters are Sister Harwood and Sister Cruz from Ecuador.

To add to the chaos of this transfer, we were driven from our house Saturday morning by our Carbon Monoxide detector. As it turns out, it was nothing, but still.

There's not much more to write about here, though during my last night in Lago Silvério Sister Maria and I set a baptismal date with that man Valdecir from last week.

I don't know if I wrote about how we found him, so I'll write it here:

Sister Almeida and I had set up a day to visit Joseli in Dois Corrigos. When we arrived in the city, a thick cloud cover decided to join us. Not long after we got there, it started dumping rain, and neither of us had brought an umbrella, so we were forced to stop in a building for a while until it passed. It passed a little, and obviously we couldn't just wait all day, so we continued. We arrived at Joseli's house at the agreed time, but to our dismay, she wasn’t there, and she wouldn't be home for a while, we discovered. 

We went on with our visits for a while until we arrived at one house. We clapped, a lady answered, was quite rude to us, then sent us on our way. We walked about one house away, and stopped next to a wall where the rain was a little more blocked. At that moment, Valdecir came home from work, saw us in the rain, and invited us in for a moment. We had a quick contact, gave him a Book of Mormon, then moved on.

When he came to church last Sunday, he told us that he had felt something so different from the very first time he had met us, and he had the same feeling when he read the Book of Mormon. When Sister Maria and I invited him to be baptized on Thursday, he told us that he didn't have a doubt that the book and church were true, and for this reason he accepted the invitation to be baptized.

I'll keep you guys updated..his date is set for the 26th of November.

But here's my testimony: look how God used every moment we spent to guide us to Valdecir that day. Our plans to be in Dois Corrigos that day, the rain that stalled us, our appointment that didn't work out when we had planned it... All of it put us in the right place at the right time, to be right there, waiting outside Valdecir's house when he came home.

And I thought of this scripture:

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." 1 Nephi 3:7

God knows our thoughts and plans, and all the in between that we don't know, and He uses all of it to bring about the best outcome.

Christmas lights...