February 26, 2014

Querida família batizadora,

I hope your call comes today!!  I´m so anxious to hear!  I promise I do read your letters even if I run out of time to respond to everything.  Congrats to Ryan and Ali!!!!  

 

It´s so sad to hear about Patriarch Brown.  He is truly a Celestial man, worthy and full of the spirit.  I read my blessing regularly and I believe he saw me here on my mission. Your musical number will be spectacular.  I´ve really learned on the mission how music invites the spirit and touches hearts,as he said in my blessing.  

Another transfer week!  I am just amazed at how the Lord knows us.  I am completely certain that our missions are made exactly for us and what we need to learn, and with obedience and faith we´ll learn all those lessons.  I get to stay here for another transfer with Sister Sciammarella and I am super happy about it.  I was actually in kind of funk when I found out I wasn´t training. My reaction actually surprised me and I realized I was looking at transfers like a cast list even though I knew that was completely the wrong attitude.  But really I just needed to humble myself, ask the Lord again if He was accepting my mission and just come back to earth.  The Lord knows I needed to learn this.  Especially with my companion now, who has been in over 40 shows and outside the mission is someone I´d be jealous of.  You know, it´s just so stupid.  It´s just not important how much someone else did or the things they have that you don´t.  We are all on this journey together and we all still need to be humble, repent and recognize the role of the atonement.  Sometimes the days where you´re just crying because the Lord had to break you down are the best, because He´ll only build you up afterward.

So yesterday, just minutes before the call for transfers (we got a call Monday about who would train) we had a lesson with a super elect couple, Carlos and Irlanda.  They received us so well, and are going to make cake and pudding for Sister Sciamm´s birthday on Saturday.  Yeah, it really is like that here haha.. Missão Celestial!  They are going to get baptized on the 9th, along with Neide and her two kids who called us over on the street afew weeks ago. Pray for themand keep praying for Maria, who couldn´t make it to church and has some family members who don´t like the church. Diomar sadly can´t be baptized yet because of some complicated issues in her life..

So we ALMOST had a miracle baptism, Bella on Sunday. We thought she lived in the Elder´s area but then we found out that she wasn´t and that she was waiting for us on Sunday.  She has already been to church once and said she´d be baptized THAT Sunday.  Sadly, Satan is working really hard on all of our super elect people and she of course has an anti mormon friend and we haven´t been able to talk to her because this friend is basically guarding her from us. Que chato.  Carnaval is this week.  Satan is working so hard on us, our investigators and just everyone right now for some reason. This transfer we really have resolved to be much more obedient with the little things.

Remember how every transfer I have an attribute of Christ?  This month is obedience.  I really love the theme for the youth this year ´Vinde a Cristo´. We really need to deny ourselves of ALL ungodliness, and the atonement will work in our lives to make us feel happy, peaceful and forgiven.  I love John chapters 14 and 15 when the Savior is talking to His disciples, giving them instruction.  A lot of the times we separate obedience and charity, but they are so related.  Particularly in 15:13-18 I love how the Savior calls us His friends if we do what He says.  He will never leave us.He knows, especially in missionary work, how hard it is.  But before the world hated us, they hated Him. The Savior´s love is so powerful in that scripture.  Just obey.  The Lord wants to take care of us.

It´s just another crazy week in Brasil, it´s super hot, we do use buses and it´s awful but not as bad as São Paulo or so I hear.  You just kind of spoon with everyone while the driver goes 70 mph on an unpaved road.  It´s cool.  This week was actually the first time we maxed out the bus where literally no more people could fit. I ate a chicken´s heart yesterday.  Bom de mais. I really don´t get to eat fun stuff like that very often, but one time Ialso ate a cow´s tail.  So random. it´s just all meat. Heart is better than liver.  Gross.

Well it´s time to get off the internet again.  I love you guys so much. I didn´t get my package yet but maybe tomorrow.  The church is still true, even in the week of Carnaval. I don´t even want to talk about Carnaval...

Um abração,

Sister Moore 

February 17, 2014

Querida Família,

This has truly been one of the best weeks of my life, and I hope this letter does it justice.  It comes with pictures!  Baptisms, Mission Tour, and Birthday!

Gilvan´s baptism last Sunday.  Super elect.

Bahaha.. Family night with Valdemir, our ward mission leader.  He really likes to talk about the temple with everyone he meets and yell over the pulpit like an evangelical pastor during testimony meeting.  But that was a quality family night.  He BURNED those neighbors of his for not being members.. oh Valdemir.. him and his always open shirt.  We know you´ve been to the temple.  This picture pretty much explains it. 

 Se algum de vós tem falta de agua, peça a Deus, quem da liberalmente

Rain means a baptism is coming soon..

Rhayanne, Gilvan´s daughter, was baptised Friday after Mission Tour.   She is super shy but she we saw in her Book of Mormon that she was marking EVERYTHING and writing her testimony in it.  The best part of teaching her is her prayers.  After not even being sure she´s getting it, she says in her prayer ´´thank you for sending me my new best friends and for showing me this path.  I know that this is true´´

I LOVE her and she already wants help with personal progress and she´s been reading for the strength of youth.  it feels so good to know we really arecompletely changing her path.  LOVE her 

Yes, this ward loves me.  Janine,  the RS Pres, threw this ´´missionary work meeting´´ yesterday for me!  I´ve never even had a suprise party before haha it was so cute.  She made that Barbie cake and it had sparkles and everything and the inside was this crazy checker thing with strawberry, chocolate and vanilla cake.  So yes, I´m being more than taken care of.  We ate pizza that Janine also made and drank Guarana and sang hymns so I´d say it was a good birthday.  

So the only thing I was really lame about and didn´t take pictures was mission tour, which was AMAZING.  Presidente Fernandes, an area seventy, came and talked to our whole mission and it was all exactly what we needed to hear.  I got to see Sister Seal again and she gave me the sweetest birthday card ever that really made me realize all the miracles we´ve seen, along with horrible and sad things we´ve gotten through together.  She´s an incredible missionary.  I can´t believe how easy the Lord has been on my so far with companions.  I also saw Sister Jones, who I haven´t seen since the CTM because her zone is WAY out there and they never come to anything.  She´s speaking Portuguese so well and it makes me so happy.  

The treinamento that Presidente Fernandes gave totally renewed all my pride in our mission.  It is so cool that we get to be here.  Our mission is amazing.  It´s the first time I´ve seen all of us all together.  At the beginning he asked if anyone knows how to play piano and Sister Sciamm points at me and it was so terrifying but it was super awesome playing for everyone.  I´ve learned how to improvise hymns with broken chords so I made it a little special.  Then I got to play all the hymns we sang at the meeting.  My little moment of fame... the best was playing called to serve for everyone.  If you´re tired of that hymn you´re tired of life.

So another transfer next week.  I can´t even believe it.  When I don´t write next Monday, it doesn´t mean I died haha..  I pretty much know I´m going to stay in this ward, but I doubt I´ll stay with Sister Sciamm because it´s just been too easy haha.  She is going to be a mission presidents wife someday and she is just the cutest person ever.  Her family´s story is super cool.  Her dad was actually born in São Paulo but moved to the US as a little kid.  Her Grandpa was a super drunk, smoking gambler who approached two young men on a crowded São Paulo bus to ask why they were dressed so nicely.  He ended being baptized and moving to the US and later in his life he made suits for THOMAS S MONSON.  YEAH.  I thought that was the coolest story ever.  Sister Sciammarella is going to be my hairdresser forever after the mission and she´s also gonna show me all the secrets of Disneyland cause she´s a pro.  I really scored big time with this companion.  She´s really been what I needed to learn that the mission really is fun and you don´t need to be stressed out to please the Lord.  She is so humble.  It´s been such a good transfer and I can´t wait for what the Lord has planned for me now. 

So for this week we have Diomar´s baptism to pray for.  She´s doing miraculously well with quitting smoking, came to church with her granddaughter and is very excited to be baptized.  We also have another possible baptism, Maria.  She wants to see a baptism before getting baptized but she wants to keep going to church and she definitely felt the spirit.  Well, the Restoration video has a baptism ;)

Well you guys, the church is true.  Keep the commandments and Satan has no power over you.  I have really felt an outpouring of love from my Heavenly Father this week and I´m so honored to be His daughter.  Christ lives and this is His church.  Mom and Dad, I hope you get your mission calls this week!  I love our family so much.  One day we can take a picture with all of us and our nametags :)

Com amor e beijinhos,

Sister Moore

February 10, 2014

Queridíssima Família!

BATISMO!!  So for some reason I can´t post the picture but this week we baptized G.  We found him a few weeks ago and didn´t really think much of it when he didn´t come to church and we couldn´t even find where he lived.  But the next week we talked to his daughter, R, who said she wanted to come to church and she took us to his house, where he was drinking but said that for sure he would come to church and bring his daughter with him.  They came to church the next week and when we talked to them after a few days, G told us that he stopped drinking right after church and used to drink every day.  With just a few lessons he just completely turned into the most elect person EVER, just ready to change his life and obey the commandments.  The plan was to baptize them both together but the day of R was too scared so this week we´re passing every day with members to help her feel more ready.  But she did go into the interview and knows everything is true!  Pray for her!

So we aren´t exactly sure what happened with P´s family and it´s really frustrating and sad. Sister Sciammarella wasn´t even with me because she was doing divisions when we found them, so I just feel like a crazy person.  But I know this family really is elect, we just have a challenge in front of us.  Remember how I said that J´s church has missionaries that come and take disciplinary action for visiting other churches?  Well I guess that happened because we´ve gone to their house with just her at home and she won´t even open the door, has hung up in my face, and is just being sooo weird.  Obviously someone told her to do this and it´s awful because she loved church and was so excited to go and for her family to go.  Pray for that family too..

Basically, we had three families marked to be baptized on my birthday and Saturday all three fell and it was kind of a sad day.  One family, I´s, I am not sure about because they might just want to talk to Americans.  N´s family is legit but she got really sick so she just needs to get better.  They are really cool and she called US on the street last week. 

So I do have a really cool story this week.  We were walking down the street one day, one we always use, and we both just stop and look into this little alleyway leading to a little favela (there´s a lot of those little roads).  Without even saying anything we just turn into that road and head straight for a door at the end of the road.  There we found D, and at first I thought this was just a typical favela family, they were all smoking. But when we told her about the gospel and baptism, she just started crying and told us she wants to be baptized, but she has this addiction that´s killing her (throwing her cigarette on the ground as she said this).  This woman recognized us right away as representatives of Christ and I have never felt like that in a lesson.  She just has this spirit about her that is so humble and just wants and needs help.  We came back to her house and she had gotten sick with a fever and headache and told us the sickness made her lose her desire to smoke, though she still smoked four cigarettes that day. 

She didn´t come to church but we came back yesterday with Marcos.  We talked to her about faith and how her faith in Christ can heal her, then Marcos gave her a blessing.  The blessing ended and she had tears in her eyes,  then, unexpectedly, she ran outside and we could hear her throwing up violently.  My companion and I just looked at eachother at first like, crap, we killed her.  Then Marcos told us he´d seen that before and that she´ll never smoke again, all of the bad was leaving her body.  She came back inside and she just said ``I will be baptized on the 23rd´´

The church is true, guys.  I´m already out of time.  Tonight we have a party at Valdemir´s, so I´m sure we´ll have pictures and stories .  We saw a dinosaur!!  It was a monitor lizard with yellow polka dots and was the coolest thing EVER.  The choir isn´t working out yet but it will... oh yeah I SPOKE IN CHURCH. haha I love this ward so much.  I could stay here the rest of my mission. 

I love you all so much and am so proud of your missionary work.  Remember, when you´re a worthy missionary, all of your thoughts are the spirit, so FOLLOW it.  I love your letters!

Até o proximo!

Sister Moorezinha

February 3, 2014

Família!!

You guys are such rock stars!  I´m so glad you both have so much enthusiasm about the work!  Not very missionaries can have the privilege of a whole family that´s strong in the church, let alone a family that really does understand because their doing it!  Full-time missionaries AND members need to consecrate themselves more.  Just think on what it means to give all of your time, talents and possessions to do the will of the Lord.  He loves you and the more you learn to trust Him, the more freely He will pour out blessings you never even thought were possible!  Your mission will be exactly what you need.

So this week was incredible.  Ask and ye shall receive!!!  Since we moved our focus to families, the Lord answered our prayers and we found the most SUPER elect family that ever lived.  We contacted Helena, the grandma, first, who was sitting outside her son´s house.  I asked her what we does on Sundays and she said ´´I go to the hospital and visit the sick´´, so I shared Mosiah 18 with her and she accepted the invitation to be baptized the 9th.  So we went inside and met her son, Pedro, his wife Marinalva, their 9 and 2 year-old sons Douglas and Jorge Enrique.  THEY ALL ACCEPTED BAPTISM ON THE 9TH.  Except for Jorge Enrique because he´s 2.. Pedro´s sister Joanadarque was also there but she said she couldn´t go to church because she´s already Evangelical.

So we come back the next morning and it´s just Joanadarque taking care of Jorge.  We came in and chatted with her and said she had been hoping for a very long time that her brother´s family would start going to a church.  She then said that she likes to visit other churches but the Evangelical church puts you in a disciplinary chair if they found out you went to another church and the ´missionaries´ there chastise you.  (that explained SOOOOOO MUCH about SO many people) But she told us she still would go to church with her family.  

That night we came back to teach everyone and it was like nothing I´ve ever seen in Brasil.  This may not seem like a big deal, but they all came and participated, turned off the TV, everyone stayed in the room, and they LISTENED.  We talked about the first principles of the gospel and about the atonement and the Spirit was there so strong and every single member of the family was totally getting it, everything they said showed they were prepared.  There was a moment when Pedro was saying how he needed the guide of the spirit to help him raise his family and he was so excited when we told him about the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I just couldn´t believe this family.  Still can´t.  He told us he knew God sent us here to help his family and his wife told us she wanted us to come back to their house if we visit Brasil after the mission.

I KNOW. MISSIONARY WORK SHOULDN´T EVEN BE LIKE THIS BUT IT IS!! So Sunday morning came and unfortunately Pedro and Marinalva had to stay and take care of sick Jorge, but Helena, Joanadarque and Douglas came and LOVED church.  This whole family is getting baptized, guys.  The church is true.

I´ve learned so many things this transfer already, but one is that we need to focus on the people who can be baptized now.  It seems at time a little rigid, but with Marcos´ brother Sandro, he´s just not ready right now.  We know he will get baptized and that this is what he needs, but he needs to take the first steps and go to church and keep his commitments.  Just look at the families who are out there waiting NOW!  That´s how this mission works.  You just have to have faith, follow the spirit, and you will never know what your influence will be on members, companions and just people who watch you pass by.  Even if you don´t see the results now, or even if you never know, the best missionary work you can do is always just being like Christ.  You never know what members you inspired, what investigators you prepared that never progressed but will be found again someday.  I just know I want to love my mission, be remembered by every ward, and just enjoy being a part of the best mission in the world!  

I hope I get to stay in this ward for a long time.  I feel like I just got here and we only have three more weeks.  I noticed that people in this ward are a lot more musical.  I had the idea to start a choir, which received sudden and unexpected support.  One of the counselors announced it at the pulpit while I was sitting up front to play the piano and he was very excited and a few members looked at me and smiled who I know will participate.  I´ll let you know how it goes :)  Apparently they had one in the past but they stopped.  This ward needs to get excited and united!!  And I must say, ward choir director was a calling that really worked out for me :)  

I feel like I have SO much more to tell you, about our crazy ward mission leader Valdemir who´s going to baptize the world (or make everyone afraid of the Mormons) and Gabí, a recent convert who wants to serve a mission and is so excited to have Sisters, but I guess I have eternity to tell you all about it!  Just know I´m super stoked, I´m finally feeling completely better now, our house only doesn´t have water sometimes but taking showers with water bottles or rain is cool, I´m really used to cockroaches now, and my calf muscles are awesome.  

I love you all so much!!  You are such batizadores.  That´s really embarrassing about the Broncos.

Um abração,

Sister Moore