October 20, 2014

Querida Família!

This week was a roller coaster, but all ended really well and we baptized C and her three youngest kids, R, R and R.  Her husband R has some issue with baptism that we still can´t figure out because he won´t really talk to us other than to say ´´I don´t want to be baptized.  That church is different than the other ones´´.  He even agreed to go to the interview and talked to our zone leader for two whole hours.  He still just doesn´t want to, even though he read the Book of Mormon, prayed, got an answer, prayed about the baptism, God told him he was ready.  We´ll just have to figure him out this week and throw him in the water.. But other than that going to the interview with them was a great experience.  While he was in the interview, we stayed outside and kicked around a soccer ball with C and her kids.  When we got tired we just sat talking with her about her interview and I just felt like a part of her family in that moment, just having a calm moment in front of the church.  The baptism was great and the ward is receiving them really well.  

On the way back we ran into A and L AGAIN who had disappeared so we hadn´t even gotten to talk to them that week.  It was a miracle because if we hadn´t run into them they wouldn´t have gone to church the next day.  They loved the meetings and the baptism and payed attention to everything.  Afterwards we went to answer their questions about church and follow up.  They have actually been reading the scriptures and praying and have decided to live the law of chastity!  They still aren´t super decided yet but we marked their baptism for this Sunday.  I seriously love them, I feel like they´re a brother and sister to me and one of the only investigators I´ve had that I just want to stay in their house chatting.  It´s so good to really have trust like that with your investigators and to see that they´ve been changing.  I can see A as an Elder´s Quorum President and Bishop someday.  Pray for them!!

As for I and K, some drama went down with the youth and K´s mad at everyone and says she wants to stay in the church she was in before.  It´s so sad because she really did receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true and was more excited than I to be baptized, but when you´re 13, you forget all that really quickly.  I at least still wants to be baptized but there was also some drama there and in the end she wasn´t baptized yesterday because she was SLEEPING.  Kids these days.  

Pray for these people and for us to find some more of the Lord´s elect this week.  But things are going great which means I´ll probably be transferred.  Transfers are indeed next week.  Time goes by so fast it doesn´t make sense.  

Sounds like you always get to do really cool things on your mission.  I want to hear Elder Holland talk in the Sacred Grove.  I´ve always wanted an apostle to come to this mission.. Have you guys seen the video the church made about missionary work in Brazil that has Elder Anderson and Elder Nelson in it?  They´re in Fortaleza which is really similar to here and I think you can find that video on the church website.

You knew I sang ´´I Come to Him?´´ in the MTC with two other sisters in my district right?  I love that song.  I sang ´´This is the Christ´´ at the baptism yesterday, which I found in portuguese this week in an old Liahona.  

Have a great week!  Make miracles happen!  The church is true!! I love you all so much.

Abraços e beijinhos,

Sister Moore

October 13, 2014

Querida família!

Parabéns for the baptism!  That family looks so happy.  I love that you went to lake Winnepesaukee.. I was actually thinking about that movie this week.  A lot of people need to untie their emotional knots.  Did you strap dad to the boat? haha

The Lord has been answering our prayers.  If we have righteous desires, He will always grant them to us, in His time and His way.  We brought a family to church, a completely crazy but totally elect family.  So C and R are a married (actually married!) couple who look like mother and son and go to different churches to visit almost every day.  Just let me tell you about the first lesson with them.. I finish telling the first vision and I ask them if they believe that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and C responds:  I believe, I saw Jesus once too... then she goes on to explain for 30 minutes (I counted) about her experience when she was completely awake and had this crazy vision being lifted up in the clouds in an elevator and seeing Jesus but his face was invisible and all this other stuff.  Here in Brazil, these kinds of things are pretty normal.  So the story of the first vision lost a little effect.. but hey.. she told us she knows we´re messengers from God and she wants to be baptized.

The miracle was in church.  It was testimony meeting and we had joked about how she was probably going to get up and tell everyone her 30-minute overcome-by-the-holy-ghost story.  Well, she got up, but it was to say that in 41 years of being Evangelical she had never felt so good inside any church.  She said she prayed for God to show her that this was the true church and felt immediately that it was and now knows for certain that this is Christ´s church.  Pray for this family!  She, R and three of their kids can be baptized this Sunday.  She is positive she wants to get baptize, now it´s just helping everyone else be just as secure.  

But it doesn´t stop there; the other miracle this week was I and K, two sisters who are also going to be baptized on Sunday!  I had already gone to church for a long time and almost was baptized, but she felt pressured and didn´t want to anymore.  A member gave the referral to us, and instead of her we found her younger sister, who we taught and afterwards she had a dream about being baptized.  When we finally taught both of them together, I told us she still wanted to be baptized, and she remembers EVERYTHING the elders taught her.  These girls are so cute and are already friends with the youth in the ward.  They are so solid, they already picked out what kind of cake they want at the baptism :)

We just need to have patience, and the Lord will bless us and answer our prayers.  I know this isn´t just an answer to mine and my companion´s prayers, but to everyone´s prayers in this ward and everyone who prays for the missionaries.  Thanks :)  The church is true.  

About A and L, they´re making things a little more complicated than they are, but still want to get married and get baptized. Keep praying for them to make the right decisions and just stay in their own houses at night... sheesh...  But they are still our friends and the spirit is always there so strong when we teach them.  Everything is so much simpler when you just keep the commandments.

I love you all so much!  Have the best week ever!  The church is true!

Com amor e carinho,

Sister Moore

Monday, October 6, 2014

Querida Família,

General Conference was so great.  I´m definitely going to be in the MoTab at some point in my life.  I made another list of things to do better in the next 6 months after conference, but left it at our house... basically we all just need to use the Atonement a little more in our life to help us do the things the Lord expects of us.  It was cool hearing one speaker without a weird voiceover, and I loved his talk and the question if we´re living so that the promises in our patriarchal blessing will be fulfilled.  We don´t have excuses to not know what the Lord expects of us and we need to be prepared to do it.  

The women´s conference, in April and this last one, have just made me cry the whole time and I have no idea why.  The mission just makes you so emotional and things like that just bring an overwhelming spirit.  The temple is one of the things I miss the most.  I´ll never forget the feeling of love I had the last time I went in Campinas, it was literally like a hug from the Lord sending me out on my mission.  His promises are sure.  I´m so grateful for our covenants. When the scriptures tell us to lift up our heads and rejoice, they are usually talking about our covenants.  After this conference I want to make the sacrament more of a concious act of keeping covenants and repenting. 

Our AP´s really want us to focus on our personal study and memorizing scriptures, that went really well with this conference.  We need to become familiar with the scriptures to recognize the shepherd´s voice.  I´ve memorized on my mission all of 2 Nephi 31 and I´m working on all of the scripture mastery verses.  It really is worth it and the Lord helps.  

 The Lord´s been blessing us a lot and helping us find complete families to teach.  Right now our progressing investigators are A, 20, and L,16, a couple who live separate but already have a daughter. A lives with his parents, who are very interested and want to get baptized (like, really badly) but aren´t married.  They need to clear up a few things financially but they´ll get married soon... But man.  THIS FAMILY IS ELECT.  The Lord wants these people in his church. We found A in August and he gave us the wrong address so we dropped him, but ran into him again, then a third time when he talked to the other sisters in another area and they passed his name as a referral.  So we went and taught him and his family the restoration and they understood and accepted everything SO well.  These are people who were waiting specifically for me and Sister Cavalcanti to teach them.  Several other churches have told A he needs to get married but he told us we´re the only people who have actually listened and tried to help them instead of condemning them.  Teaching them has been such a testimony to me of how the gospel blesses families.  They came to conference and said they will continue to pray to see if they will be baptized next week.  They just need to really understand the law of chastity and L needs to really have her own solid testimony to not just get baptized for her boyfriend, but pray for these people!!  

Pray for us to baptize a family this month!  I know God hears our prayers and if our desires are righteous, He´ll grant them to us!

You guys have some amazing stories, especially Andrea.  You are amazing missionaries and I hope you´re cherishing every minute.  Life´s good here in Santa Rita.  We´re gonna go to a members house today and I´m gonna teach them how to make cookies :) I know how to make them by memory, and if I can make them in Brazil with our match-lit ovens, I can cook anything in the US haha..  

I know God is aware of us and knows us by name.  Christ paid for our sins and our sorrows.  I know Joseph Smith saw the father and the son and that Thomas S. Monson is God´s prophet today.  Family is always first in the gospel.

I love you all so much and hope you have an incredible week!  Believe in miracles!

Com amor e carinho,

Sister Moore