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