November 18, 2013

Oi Familia! Our baptisms all fell this week but we´ve still got quite a few possibles for this week. Lais´dad didn´t sign the paperwork because of her ``behavior`` but we´re going to talk to him again this week. It´s funny, for every single parent who has signed the paperwork, their kid backed down in the end. And conversely, all of the teenagers who still want to be baptized have parents who won´t give permission. We´re making slow progress with Oridette, and I´m starting to not think she is such a Bruxa. She actually likes us now, but she still isn´t letting Sandrielle go to church. We offer every day to clean her yard, do her laundry, cut her toenails, ANYTHING. No one ever lets us do service here :( It´s actually really funny sometimes. Asking to help with dishes after lunch is basically a joke now because the answer is always no. Brasilians are funny. They tell you to eat more then right after they tell you you´re getting fat. I love the honesty haha This transfer is FLYING. I can´t even believe it. It seems like Sister De Paula just got here. I am still praying to stay here. Jaqueline is probably the biggest miracle of this area. She deserves a little more written about her. I already talked a little bit about her but she´s a recent convert with two teenage kids, Bia and Hercules, and she´s shorter than I am. She has cancer and some days she can´t even get out of bed, but she is honestly doing more work than us at this point. She brings almost all of our investigators to church, talks to the parents of all the teenagers, calls everyone to remind them of church, even the people who don´t live on her block. We really need to be careful now because she was so upset about the last baptism that fell that she got really sick and didn´t go to church. Most, okay, all of our success right now is because of her. And she keeps insisting that she doesn´t do enough. I think she needs to be an example to our other members who have cars and won´t even pick people up to go to church. Jaqueline is an angel. Absolutely the craziest, feistiest woman I´ve ever met, but she´s an angel. This week has just been about staying animated and happy, even when things are going wrong. Losing energy ALWAYS has to do with one of the Christlike atributes in PMG. If you aren´t sleeping enough or excersizing, that´s obedience. Otherwise it´s faith, hope, patience, diligence, charity or something else that´s missing. Be of good cheer! God´s work can´t be frustrated, His plan has already won. The problem is always yourself. We definitely have some awesome cooks in our ward, especially desserts. Every meal has rice, beans, and spaghetti. EVERY MEAL. My favorite thing here is Lasagna. Before I go home I´m going to buy little metal desert bowls so I can make Mouse and other delicias :) Mouse is the best thing on the planet. Mouse de Maracuja and Mouse de Limão. I love you guys! Keep smiling! When in doubt, just break into song! Com abraçãos, Sister Moore

November 11, 2013

Querida Familia, This was probably the coolest week of my whole mission so far. Just as I thought, Venis was the first to be baptized and it was everything a baptism should be. Well, except for the fact that she didn´t go to sacrament because of a family conflict and we had to get a ride from a member to go to another ward fifteen minutes before the baptism.. but all´s well that ends well. The seminary teacher gave us a ride and she is pretty much my favorite person in the ward. The difference in this baptism really was the help of the ward. Everyone did their part. She was a reference from Jaqueline, who really has gone through a rapid change. What started as manipulative has ended with her really wanting to give references, even to the other Sisters, for the sake of the people being taught, not to make us visit her. Her daughter Bia too, who didn´t know what a prophet was in her baptism interview, is actually helping us teach and find people. She´s only 13. It´s so awesome. The baptism had everyone who needed to be there, investigators, the young women´s president, Jefersone the seminary teacher, just everything was perfect. The spirit was so beautiful. And yes, I sang. Not sure the name of the song but it´s number 65 in the Portuguese Hino so you can probably look it up. After the baptism, Amanda told us she wants to be baptised but her mom won´t let her. This is a huge problem with everyone right now so we´re really praying about parents. The saddest case is Sandrielle, who is literally locked in her house by her Grandma Oridette. Praying for a miracle! I want to be the good fairy who saves her :( She was crying one day when her Grandma didn´t let her go to seminary. I hardly ever her see her now. A MIRACLE happened with Lais. The day after she told us she wanted to wait, she had a dream. A DREAM. This is the kind of thing missionaries joke about happening. An angel literally came to her and said that what those two girls are telling you is true, and you need to follow this path. WOW. We were all crying. God really loves his children and WILL answer in a way that we will understand. Lais is so special. She is only 13 but looks and acts 20. Luckily her parents are cool, but they still want her to wait which is frustrating. Satan is so ready to snatch up the good ones... she already told us she wants to wait until December because she has tests this month but we talked her out of it. Next week!! Prayers please!! Ah, so many cool lessons. Dagna is no longer progressing even though she comes to church. She knows the church is true, but she needs to come follow the savior and stop putting off baptism. The coolest thing about her is her 6 year old son. He loves church more than anyone I´ve ever met and he doesn´t even go to primary. Dagna told us that he never was like that in the catholic church, that he always wanted to leave. He´s even inviting friends, telling them we have a little snack (the sacrament). SO CUTE. They came to the baptism but Dagna didn´t seem too affected. It´s really these little kids that know. We have another, Joao Paulo, who just LOVES me and Sister Seal. We´re teaching his whole family but he´s the coolest. The only thing is that he tries to hug us constantly and we can´t.. ugh worst rule ever. Hopefully soon I´ll have pictures of these two little amiginhos.. at their family´s baptism.. Now to explain the pictures. We had an activity with mostly, okay, only youth about the tree of life. They had to follow the rod and we had some people leading them astray. Almost everyone let go but it was really funny, we gave everyone another chance, or 4 chances, and they all made it to the tree of life :) See the beautiful fruit bowl we made? I cut my own hair this week! Haha The one picture was supposed to be us jumping but it went too early.. I thought it was funnier that way. The other people in the last picture are Jaqueline, Bia and Amanda. OH YEAH! Bia and Amanda, who isn´t even a member, wanted to go contacting with us last night after the baptism and they literally took us to everyone´s house that they knew. I couldn´t even believe it. We didn´t even have to do anything but follow them and mark a day to come teach. SO COOL. Now we just need some cool young men. The men of this world need to step it up a bit ;) Joao Pessoa.. I don´t really know how to describe. It gets more beautiful every day to me. We have two baixos that we work in, Mangabeira and Bancarios. Bancarios has the supermarket and the high end apartments. In general, Brasil is still not as rich as America, but it seems like it in comparison with Mangabeira. We have two principal roads with lots of clothing shops, salons, churches, bars, and other things. Everything is pretty open. The houses are squished together in Mangabeira with walls or gates in front of each one. There are lots of beautiful flowers and trees. It´s poor, but I´ve never seen a dirt floor. A lot of people have tiny houses with a huge TV and everyone, even the poor people have at least 3 cell phones. Not sure why. The mission home is close by, we take a bus. The farthest area I think is an hour away from it. We´re right in Joao Pessoa. I´m literally praying to stay in this area because I love it so much. My name tag says Sister so that people don´t think I´m Catholic haha here it´s pronounced seeshteh. Dad is gonna love my nordestina accent, it´s almost a different language. I got your letter! We really only get mail once a month or if we have to go to the mission office for some other reason. I really want sandals, there are some here that I think will work for R$80 (about 40 dollars), but without my card I´m a little stuck. Wells Fargo does not exist here, Bradesco is all we are allowed to use. Hopefully I can get letters before December, but we´ll see. If you want to still get me Sandals, just compare them with shoes I already have for size. I´m definitely closer to a 7 than a 6. Anything neutral. It´s all better than my other options haha I really am reading the things you say, but I´m already out of time! It´s sounds like everythings great! Praying for you all. I love you so much! Christmas is just around the bend! Beijinhos e abraços, Sister Moore

November 4, 2013

Oh my gosh since when are your Halloween costumes that legit? Jealous. Know what I did for Halloween? Fasted with my zone.. But seriously this week was infinitely better than the last!! The biggest miracle is the group of teenagers that are ALL getting baptized. Now I have some pride issues telling this story, Mom, because it has to do with seminary. So we have a recent convert, Jaqueline, who is completely obsessed with my companion and calls all the time. I haven´t talked much about her because I think we waste way too much time at her house and she is very, VERY manipulative. Even though I think it´s mostly to get us to come visit her, she spends all day calling everyone she knows to see who wants to hear our lessons and come to church. At first I was super irritated because I thought her references were all out of nowhere and that no one was interested and we were just spending all day talking to super noncommittal teenagers. Which was the case for a while. But then we taught this really cool 15-year-old girl Venis, and I was shocked at how much she actually understood and the questions she asked. Because of her, we have now been personally bringing 4 girls to seminary and counting. This really is a miracle situation. Everyone wants to go to seminary, like it´s the cool thing to do now. We participated in one class and it´s just so cool I don´t even understand it. We marked the baptism of Venis, Lais and Paula and I just know the rest are going to follow. Another cool thing is that they are starting to dress modest and no one even told them to. It´s the cutest thing ever. Venis gave me a sticker from her notebook (all notebooks here have stickers) to keep on the back of my name tag to always remember her. She really is something special and I know this is the start of something huge. One girl has already brought her whole family to church. FUTURE MISSIONARIES. Last night we also marked the baptism of a 16 and 18 year old, both boys. Man, the men in this church need to step it up because the girls are sure excelling ;) Also, I have this horrible feeling I´m going to be seminary teacher someday. It´s finally Christmas! Haha not really but it´s always Christmas in our apartment, and our ward apparently too because we´ve been singing Christmas hymns since September. So funny. The power went out at Jaqueline´s house one time and she lit candles and I started singing silent night in Portuguese and everyone joined in, even her crazy dad who sits in the same spot outside all day. It´s so hard to tell funny stories in emails.. I have a few nicknames that I think especially Dad would enjoy; Pequenina, Pequena Sereia, Bebezinha and my favorite, Ovelinha. One of our investigators called me Ovelinha and Sister Seal is Cabritona, which means little lamb and big goat. We were laughing so hard. Sister Seal does have a really intense and forcive way of teaching, which is good most of the time. I think she could breath a little more often haha and I think she knows that. Dad, I appreciated your letter a lot and those pictures. You´re gonna make me cry! I love you lots! You´d be sad to know I haven´t heard Bossa Nova here even once, it´s been replaced by either American or Brazilian pop :( There´s one member, Izaira, who loves classical music and jazz. I wish you could see how cool the members are here and how much the church has grown. It´s just like any other ward, but a little noisier :) Testimony meeting is the best, and everyone always says the most perfect things. I promise I´ll have pictures next time! Pray for the baptism of Leonice, Anderson, Fernando, Eliane, Dagna, Lais, Juliana and Venis this week. I know it´s always a ton of possibles and I think the ones who really are going to be baptized are Leonice, Lais and Venis. Cleonice was finally confirmed and I can breath a little! So much reason for rejoicing this week!! The Lord´s work is amazing, because it´s HIS work. All we really need is to be humble and obiedient! Well I´ve gotta go but I hope you all have an awesome week! I love you so much! Beijinhos, Sister Moore