Miriam's 11th Week in Pirassununga -Sister Rojas

 Well, this week absolutely flew by.

We had Mission Tour on Wednesday and Thursday with Elder Koch of the Seventy, and he and his wife talked about following the Spirit and using the Book of Mormon as our main tools in the work, because if we're missing one of these two things in our work we'll never convert anyone. 

Then President and Sister Card gave a training on smiling and how it specifically makes the Elders more attractive. They really like to single the Elders out with the most random stuff like that.

This week we visited a very lonely catholic woman. She made us carrot cake and spent the first 15-20 minutes of our visit showing us her plants, explaining the details of how she got them and why she planted them the way that she did, and explaining the process of how she got her house painted and tiled. After we ate cake with her, she wanted to take a picture with her in front of her saint, Nossa Senhora Virgem Maria de Fátima. I'll include a picture.

We had another interesting experience with a very catholic man. We were passing his house and Sister Rojas felt the urge to stop. Ignoring the very large, well lit Saint, Nossa Senhora Maria Conceição Aparecida, we clapped, and an older man came out. We introduced ourselves and asked if he would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ. Immediately, he turned around and, rather aggressively, pointed at his Saint.

"Only her," He said. "I worship only her."

"Oh, that's cool," we responded.

He pointed again, looking at us like we were idiots. "I'm devoted to her."

"That's fine," we said. 

He pointed again.

"Okay, bye," we said. And we left.

We spent the rest of the night mocking him. 

This week we met with a woman named Geissi. She's the mom of one of our recent converts, Iris. Geissi goes to church every Sunday with her three daughters, participates in the classes, is trying to encourage Iris to prepare for the temple, and read the scriptures with her daughters. The only thing that's missing for her to be a full fledged member of the church is baptism. I've been here all this time, and it was only Saturday that we decided to discover exactly why that is. We discovered that she actually has a very strong desire to be baptized, and she was almost ready to be baptized with her daughter, but it didnt happen, and she was devastated about it. The problem is that she isn't married the man she's living with. She wants to get married, at least so she can be baptized, but this guy is completely closed to the idea of marriage and the Church, so Geissi can't take the steps onto the Covenant Path she wants so badly to take.

We're going to do a fast for her and for him so that hopefully he'll open up so that Geissi can progress. I invite all of you to fast and pray for her as well.

Here's my thought for the week. 

I've been thinking about gratitude and how our level of happiness really depends on our level of gratitude. As we learned from Elder Gary B. Sabin last Conference, "You will never be happier than you are grateful."

Gratitude is essential in our lives if we ever wish to be truly happy. If you only look for the negative, you'll only see the negative, and you'll be miserable just like Satan wants. But if you look for the good, you'll see the good, and the adversary will have no power over you.

Here's the talk I was studying:

Grateful in Any Circumstances

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/04/grateful-in-any-circumstances?lang=eng

Oh one last thing: Marcos had the opportunity to baptize a new convert in Lago Silvério!!

Micah's 10th Week in Ciudad Frontera - w/ Elder Avila

I don't really feel like writing an email this week, but I suppose I'll share a little bit.

We've got some promising people in teaching right now, so I've got high hopes for each of them. Carolina and her daughter, and José Francisco (not José Luis).

Overall work has been pretty slow. Very little progress, and very few new people.

We had 2 people attend church, neither of which were people we had invited or were expecting, but it was good to see either way. One, José (but a different José), who's the boyfriend of a member girl, came to church, and by the end of second hour, he was crying. Apparently he's had some problems in his family, and that day we were talking about the blessings of eternal family, so I know he was inspired to come that day, when he had declined so many other times before.

The other guy that came it's a one eyed drunk that we had met in the street a day or two before (he was delighted to see us, and kept kissing our hands. My companion looked uncomfortable. A drunk lady then approached the 3 of us, grabbed my companion's hand, and tried to kiss him. I took a few steps back for safety). Apparently he's had quite the traumatic past, and he says the missionaries are a real light in his life, and he wants to make changes, so who knows.

Not too much more to tell. It's been raining the past few days, so that's been nice. I ate pig liver and pig skin, that wasn't so nice. The next day I had Costco pizza, so that was really nice.

I just know that the Lord is looking out for us. We're all God's children, and He's not going to abandon any of us, even if we turn our backs on Him. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.

Here's some pictures. I've been taking a lot of those recently.

A big ol' spider, a dog with dirty paws, a lamp post, a dead pig, and chicken Joseph. It's long for Joe.

🤮

Miriam's 10th Week in Pirassununga -Sister Rojas

Catching some zzz's on the way to a zone conference.

Stopped at Burger King on the way to another conference.

 

Translation: 24 months of Mission and an Eternity to think about it.

Set high goals and you will never fall into boredom.

Sister Rojas reached 2 months, so I took a picture with her with the 2 month card I got from Sis Casperson when I was in training.

It's lasagna! A lady made this because I was talking about what Dad said about having lasagna on his mission. (Joseph shared: Cheese and meat is very expensive in Brazil and if someone makes you lasagna, they are sacrificing a lot for you.) 

This week was a long search to find new people to teach because our teaching pool was a little weak.

It seemed to work out pretty well because we met Ana Carolina. She had bounced around churches for a while and had even come in contact with LDS missionaries before. She told us a little about her story and how she had been searching her true identity and a place where she could belong. She told us that after a long time, she discovered that she truly is a daughter of God, and we had a powerful lesson with her in which she accepted the invitation to be baptized!

It was going to be on the 28th of this month but she didn't come to church yesterday, but that's fine. We'll have a little chit-chat, and maybe she'll understand the importance of it next week.

But she's super cool. I have complete faith that it'll work out.

We also met Andreisa and Elizabeth, her daughter, while knocking doors near the chapel. They opened to us and decided that they wanted to hear our message. We taught them a little about the Plan of Salvation, and left them a book of mormon to read.

We're still trying to find a time to meet with them again, but I think they've got a lot of potential (especially because they live just on the other side of the road from the church😏. They have no excuse.)

Yesterday we met with Kathleen and Nayara again (I don't know if you guys remember them), and we started off by sharing a mini lesson on the Restoration, which they both were familiar with. But that mini lesson quickly turned into nearly an hour long discussion of explaining the Book of Mormon. Nayara had thought the Joseph Smith had written it and that it was an autobiography or something. Then they both expressed confusion over who Mormon was in the first place, so we had to clear that up. Then Kathleen said, "But in any case, you guys don't study the Bible." So that, too, had to be cleared up. In the end, Sister Rojas showed a video that helped clear things up for everyone involved, and we all left with a mutual understanding. It was actually a little funny this conversation. 

Something a little weird this past week was an encounter with a man named Reinaldo. We stopped to talk to him while he was standing in his doorway. We shared a message and left him a Book of Mormon to read. We tried sending him messages and calling for the next few days, but he didn't respond, so we resolved to visit again. We knocked on the door that night, and a woman answered. We asked her if Reinaldo was home and she said that he had died two years ago. We asked if he had been her husband, but she said he was her dad. We then asked if she knew a younger Reinaldo that was a truck driver, but she said she knew no one else by that description.

Soooooo....that was a weird experience...

But in other news I also got some more fancy pictures of clouds this week thanks to the storms that are rolling through the area, so I'll share those with you.

We got caught in one of these storms,

This looked dangerous... rain water dripping out of the light fixture at the store.

We taught the Relief Society class yesterday, and we talked about this talk from last conference:

We Are His Children

I really liked this talk the first time I heard it, and I wanted to share with everyone. It's a good reminder that we're all equal in the eyes of our creator. 

Micah's 9th Week in Ciudad Frontera - w/ Elder Avila

This was in the area map as a member's house... 

The beauties of La Ciudad Frontera

Otter skin and crocodile wallets.

Crocodile scripture cases and crocodile boots with built in spurs!

 I think I've said this in almost every email, but not too much happened this week.

I don't have any stories to share, and there hasn't been much progress in the people we're trying to teach right now.

If nothing else, I've come to gain a greater testimony of the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon really is the most correct of any other book, and a man really will draw nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book. The Book of Mormon is the keystone of this Church, and without it, all else fails.

If the Book of Mormon isn't true, then Joseph Smith wasn't a Prophet. Without Joseph Smith, there is no restoration of Christ's Church, and without the restoration, we have no keys to the holy Priesthood. If we have none of that, there is no Kingdom of God on earth.

The truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of this Church, which is truly The Church of Jesus Christ, of whom there is no other, the fact that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, called to restore these truths again to the Earth, all of this, is not something I merely believe. It is something I know.

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

(James 1:5)

"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

(Moroni 10:4-5)

These things I know.

In the name of Jesus Christ, The Son of God, my Savior and Redeemer, amen.

Here's some pictures.

Some delicious fish (fried fish has been my favorite dish so far),

a "very naiz" restaurant, 

some cool trees, 

and a sunset.