November 24, 2014

Querida Família,

That is amazing that your mission is baptizing so much.  We have the same number of missionaries and only 29 baptisms until now.. I think we´ve been adjusting to a new way of working and new rules that make it harder to baptize fast but will have more retention.  But if we baptize families and have faith, we should still be baptizing a lot!  I loved dad as Noah.. I want to hear more about what that training was about!

João is a tough cookie.  He wants to go to the temple, wants to pay tithing, would even be confirmed a member if he could, but he just does not want to get baptized.  There´s something in his head that, every time he agrees with what we´re saying, just takes him back to the same thing: ``but I´ve already been baptized´´..  He even went to the interview and when we got to the chapel, our investigator Vitória was there CLEANING THE CHAPEL with just the branch President and one other young woman.  She wants to be baptized so bad.. and the only investigator who can´t be baptized.  Isn´t that just life?  She awesome though.

We found a lot of really awesome people last week, none of which came to church except for Raul who we´ve been teaching together with his uncle and his friend who know EVERYTHING about the church. He came to one of our lessons and just pulls out the teachings of Brigham Young manual..  what the heck??  It´s a little frustrating because he´s a little misinformed and isn´t as interested or open as Raul, so he´s kind of there just to get the lesson off track talking about random things from the church´s history..  But Raul went to church and didn´t seem to love it.. but he needs to pray about the Book of Mormon still.  Pray for him!  

Also... his uncle, Ronoldo, really really wants me to make pumpkin pie so could you send me a recipe? haha thanks

The biggest miracle for last.. Felipe!!  He lives so close to our house and we found an unfinished... Í don´t remember the english word for ficha.. the paperwork you fill out to baptize someone.... but we found that paper in our house and we went over to his house.  Turns our he´d been taught twice already, once in Natal, found the missionaries here again, but never was baptized.  We talked to him and taught the first lesson and he said he wasn´t ready before but this time his heart is open and he wants to be baptized.. Sunday!!  WOOHOO!!  He is so solid and so great!  

It was a great week and the next will be better!  A lot more happened but I think I covered the most important.. The Book of Mormon is true!  I know the Savior loves me and all of us.  I love you all so much!

Com carinho,

Sister Moore

November 17, 2014

Oi família!!

Everything is going good in Rio Tinto.. we´ve got some good investigators and the Lord will always bless our best efforts.  I´ve been learning a lot about how to trust the spirit to know how to say the right thing at the right time, with investigators and companions.  We have authority from God, but it can only be exersized if we are obedient, if we know the scriptures and if we love the Lord and other people.  I´ve been reading the 12 week training to get ready to teach, and there´s a lot of things I wish I had known when I had started my mission.  I feel like if I can successfully teach my filha these things, everything I´ve learned on my mission is worth it.  

It´s awesome to hear that your mission is doing so well!  Wow. How many companionships are there in your mission? I´ve been praying for your investigators and goals.  Our mission is hitting kind of a low, so you can know that your mission is surpassing what was one of the highest baptizing missions in the world.  Pray for Missão João Pessoa and President Nogueira.  He is a very inspired man that as a temple President really has a vision of bringing every convert to the temple and helping the missionaries stay active.  I know this calling has been incredibly stressful for him as someone who has never served a full time mission, but I know he really cares about us a lot, and his wife too.  

The miracle yesterday was a man, João, who has been to church a few times and came again yesterday by himself.  He was already baptized in his church and his family is really against it, but he loves the church and knows he wants to stay there.  Have you guys ever read ´´Member Missionary Work and Finding the Elect of God´´?  It´s really awesome and talks about helping people who think they don´t need to be baptized again.  It´s all just talking about prayer and not doctrine.  We were miraculously able to teach him without his family spoiling the lesson and marked his baptism for this Sunday and gave him the Book of Mormon, which before his family had rejected, but this time didn´t say anything.  Pray for João!

The other miracle is Vitória, who really wants to get baptized, but the area rule is that she has to wait 3 months because she´s only fourteen.  Or she has to be baptized with her mom, so we´re going to try to teach her but we already know she´s very catholic and doesn´t want to go to church.. But her brother, Reginaldo, is a less active member and is 19, so MAYBE we can reactivate him and get permission from Pres to baptize her before my mission ends.. She´s so cute and wants to bring everyone to church next week and go to the activities.  Isn´t that just life?  She´ll for sure be baptized though. 

Well, the church is still true and the book is blue.  I hope you all have an awesome week.  Does anyone have ideas for simple games to play at a branch family night?  Most of the people who go are the recent converts. We need ideas.  Also, does anyone have any requests of what they want me to bring home from Brazil with me?  Havaianas?  Chocolate? Cuscuzeiro?  Does cuscuz exist in the united states? It´s a staple of life here.  

I love you all so much!  

Beijos,

Sister Moore

November 10, 2014, "It's A Girl"

Querida família,

Let´s start with the crazy news!  So last night we get a random phone call from President, who NEVER calls Sunday night for anything, and he told us that I had been moved to senior companion to prepare me to TRAIN in my last transfer!  Generally you only find that out the day before transfers, but for whatever reason President was inspired to tell me now.  I didn´t really talk about this, but Sister Cavalcanti received the phone call last transfer that she would train and I was happy for her but really heart broken because training is 12 weeks and I thought it was my last chance.  I was really tempted to doubt my abilities and just hang back, but I´ve been praying more than ever for the Lord to help me find my purpose and progress while still being junior.  The phone call from president just came in exactly the right moment and was really a moment of my knowing that the Lord does everything in His timing and He´s aware of our desires and what´s best for us.  I thought of Elder Bednar´s talk on tender mercies, that nothing is coincidence and His timing helps us recognize His tender mercies.  I´m so excited to end my mission with my own little filhinha :)  

We are still in search of the super elect people here in Rio Tinto, but I know they´re out there.  We have one couple, G and G, who want to get married and get baptized so it´s just organizing all the complicated details with that, and helping G gain a stronger testimony.  He used to be a pastor and he was a little drunk in one of our lesson just trying to show how much he knew about the Bible.. but it´s my dream to marry and baptize a family so of course it´s gonna happen :)

I do love your emails, mom, I love emails from EVERYONE (hint) and love hearing how everyone´s doing.  Being a missionary´s the best, our house is really funny and everyone knows how to sing Adele.. Miracles are gonna happen this week, I know it!  Love you all!  The church is true! 

Beijos,

Sister Moore

November 3, 2014

Querida família,

The transfer did start out with a baptism.  I kind of just arrived to baptize but he is a very cool guy named Leandro.  Rio Tinto is a very small branch so it´s awesome to baptize a future priesthood holder, who owns his own business and has a lot of potential to be a leader.  He was a reference from the District President who just had to open his mouth and share his testimony with a man he saw all the time at work.  Leandro already studies conference talks on lds.org and has great questions.  The only problem is his wife, who can´t understand still why he wants to leave the catholic church and they´ve been having some issues, but she´ll come around when she sees the blessings of her husband having the gospel.  

Last night we went to a fireside by President Carbone, who directs the institutes in all northeast Brazil and is one of President Nogueira´s counselors.  He literally knows everything about the scriptures and it was an awesome fireside.  He talked about how there can´t be iniquity in a branch or it won´t grow.  Members who don´t understand the doctrine keep the church from growing.  It was pretty much calling the district to repentance but afterwards he did question and answer.  What I got out of it was really that there exists a big connection between the temple and missionary work.  The key to success is just to keep and honor your covenants.  I read a talk this morning by Elder Nelson called ´´covenants´´ and he say the best compliment you can receive is to be called a covenant keeper.  When the Lord talks about covenants, he is usually reminding his people to lift up their heads and rejoice, because he always remembers his promises.  That´s the source of our strength that binds us to God and no other church has authority to make these covenants.  

My companion is very different from any other I´ve had but she is super dedicated.  She´s from Florianopolis, in the south.  It´s been a little hard finding my niche in our relationship; we´re both ending our missions and have a lot of ideas that are very different.  But she´s a great missionary and I know we need each other and the Lord will help us.  The other Sisters we live with are from Argentina and Australia.  Yep, the first Austalian to serve in Brasil.  We´re trying to teach our companions English, both already know a lot, but it´s always a fight between the two accents.. Speaking English is really hard these days haha.

Our house has horses, cats and monkeys.  It´s everything I´ve ever dreamed.  Someday you´ll see pictures... but it is not this day.

The church is true!  I love you all a lot.  I´m praying for your goals!  Make it rain!!! :)

Com amor e carinho,

Sister Moore

October 29, 2014, Rock n Roll in Rio Tinto!

Família minha!

Well it looks like I´ll be dying in the area with the same name as the stadium where I saw Paul McCartney, Rio Tinto. It was destiny.  It´s beautiful here, out in the middle of the jungle.  People baptize like crazy in this zone, Zona Mamanguape. People call this area the city of Enoch, so I guess it´s gotta be good haha.. My companion is another Brazilian, Sister Marshall, and this is her last transfer.  She´s from Santa Catarina. I´m sad to leave Santa Rita but I feel particularly good about the work I did there and feel the Lord is happy too.

I´m having trouble sending pictures again, but I was baptized!  She was so happy and excited to do personal progress, go to seminary and everything.  She already wants to go on a mission.  All of our recent converts in that area are doing so good, being taken care of and giving referrals and growing their testimonies.  We also planted a lot of seeds there.  Sister Cavalcanti got to stay and is training her new filhinha.  I knew all week I was leaving which was the worst thing ever, President told me at interviews.  

It´s been a great month for the Moore missionaries!  I love Andrea´s story.  She´s so brave to go against everything her family´s taught her to follow the truth.  I wish everyone had that courage.  We just have to teach in a way that we add to the truths they already believe and not take anything away from them.  

A lot happened this week.. but after transfers my mind goes a little blank.  The church is still true.  One of my favorite conference talks that´s helped me on my mission is ´´Accepted by the Lord´´ from April 2013, by a seventy who´s name I never can remember.  Always seek the Lord´s acceptance above everything else.  I have been focusing a lot more lately on really what the Lord expects of me, and I´ve been really grateful to see that a lot of promises in my patriarchal blessing and my setting apart blessing have already happened.  I don´t always understand the Lord´s mind, but every experience I´ve had has helped me to be a better peacemaker, be able to boldly share my testimony, and prepared me for the future things I´ll face in life.  

I love you all so much!  Have an awesome week!

Com amor,

Sister Moore