March 24, 2014

Querida Família!!

Wow, this was a week I definitely had to write everything down to remember all that happened!  We had a baptism yesterday, Antonio (the third Antonio, I´m going for the all-time record).  I really think I´m starting to understand how baptizing every week works.. you have to have at least 3 possible baptisms each week and at least one will :)  But really it is amazing just inviting people to repent and be baptized right when you meet them.  That´s why we´re here!  Next week we´re hoping to baptize Joselha, Antonio´s wife who came to church yesterday.  We know she will eventually but she hasn´t prayed specifically to know yet if the church is true and still thinks all churches are the same.  The gospel really is so simple.  There are only three reasons people won´t be baptized, 1. They haven´t prayed for a testimony 2. The commandments and 3. Family or friends.  When you really think about it it´s all just the commandment.  Just repent and be clean!  Every single person on the earth needs to do this to live with Heavenly Father again!

Our whole mission is doing a whole lot better this week, everyone is baptizing again and I think it was just a change in attitude.  On Tuesday we had a special training with the AP´s where they talked about New Zealand´s undefeatable rugby team, the All-Blacks.  We watched some clips of them playing and also of the Haka, their war dance they do to intimidate the other team.  What does that have to do with anything?  They always win because they know they will win, and will do anything to keep winning.  Jesus Christ already won, so we already know we´re the winning team.  We need the same attitude as the All-Blacks when we teach the gospel.  The people can choose to accept, but we need the certainty that the Spirit will help us and that what we are offering is what they need.  Afterwards our zone learned the Haka, you can YouTube it, and all the zones are making videos as a competition to see who can do it better.  It was super fun and I´m convinced it´s why we´re baptizing haha we´re such Lamanites.  

We also had divisions this week and this time I went to Bella Vista to work with the juniors for two days and Sister Sciammarella worked with the seniors to teach them how we work in our area.  It was pretty cool because I felt like a Sister Leader Trainer, but it´s just always fun working in a different area.  After that our zone did a blitz which also helped everyone a lot.  We all just went to one area and tried to mark as many baptisms as possible, giving all the references to the elders who worked there.  Realizing that we´re all working for the same thing is so important, and we can´t do anything without Christ.  The scripture Elder Wisner read at the end was 1 Corinthians 3:6-8, that says all the workers are equal, the planters and the reapers, but only God makes the seed grow.  It is so true.  I´ve been studying the enabling power of the atonement, and I really like in John 15 the example of the root and the branches.  God needs us to be His hands, but we can´t do anything without Him who first created us.  

So this was also a really funny week.  I got the most horrible haircut of my life that Sister Sciamm had to fix it.  Literally it was like a child was cutting it, I don´t think she really worked there haha but now it´s not that bad, just really short.  Sister Sciamm really wanted a picture with a donkey and it´s baby, and it totally kicked her... yeah it could´ve been really bad but it was just the funniest thing ever.  We also finally got to ride in a horse cart!  One of the members lives SO far out in the middle of nowhere on this little farm and they gave us a lift.  A really bumpy lift but it was awesome.  We´re princesses.  I´m sorry I never have my camera so I don´t have good pictures, but it´ll just get stolen.  My package hasn´t arrived yet but neither has Sister Sciamm´s Christmas package.. who knows. 

This week we are still trying to baptize Janaina, she was really excited to be baptized but then made some bad choices the night before.  Rhayanne´s older sister Ana Paula came to church and wants to be baptized!  She goes to college so she´s only home Saturday and Sunday, but she totally has a desire.  We knew it would be a lot better if we taught her with Rhayanne, but when we stopped by her house she didn´t want to come with us because she was tired.  But then in the middle of the lesson she just pulls up on a motorcycle out of nowhere and joins the lesson.  She´s always been super quiet and serious but when Ana Paula said she wanted to be baptized Rhayanne just screamed and started just testifying of baptism and the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon.  It was SO COOL.  Rhayanne is the best!!! I just wanted to cry I was so proud of her.  This is how missionary work should be, the people are so converted and happy that they bring everyone with them!  YES!

It sounds like you guys are doing great!  Your mission is going to bless you so much and I can´t believe Eric´s coming home!  I hope you have faith to break down prison walls but I also hope you are never in prison during your mission :) 

The church is true!  Joseph Smith is a prophet of God!  General Conference is coming up again.  I can´t believe how time flies.  I love you all so much!  I love your scripture on your plaque, I actually wrote that in my planner this week and I remembered it was your favorite scripture, mom.  

Com muito amor e carinho,

Sister Moore

March 17, 2014

Querida Família,

WOOHOO!!  BOSTON!!  You guys are going to love your mission, and you won´t even believe how fast it goes.  I promise you won´t want to come back if you just give everything to the Lord.  The thing I´ve learned this week is that fear is the opposite of faith.  You will never know what´s going to happen in the future, but you don´t have enough faith in our loving Heavenly Father if you´re afraid of that.  Happiness is guaranteed for the faithful.

The purpose of goals and planning isn´t to decide how and when the Lord will bless you, but how hard you will work and what the Lord knows you can do.  We make our goals thinking of specific families and people, but when those people fall through, which happens A LOT, you have to keep working and having the faith that God has something else in mind.  Still no baptisms this week, but we have two more Sundays and 4 people marked their baptism for this week and it´s going to happen!

Yesterday we saw so many people at church we wanted to see!  Janete finally came and we got to tell Julia her daughter that she was there.  She couldn´t even believe it.  She brought her boyfriend too and we´re going to start teaching them.  It was so awesome that she came, even with her ex-husband there and the whole ward knowing she left. 

We found two people in the area book this week, Allison, 19, and Felipe, 17 (not related) who were both almost baptized and we don´t know why they weren´t.  We were able to contact BOTH and they BOTH still want to get baptized!

Another two investigators were also at church, Janaina and Antonio.  Antonio is an older man and we are helping him quit smoking.  Janaina is about my age and has a daughter and we´re also helping her quit smoking.  Her dad said he would FOR SURE come to church, so sure that he gave us his cell phone and told us to keep it until he came to church.  hahaha... yeah, he didn´t come.  It was hilarious though.

Winter is beginning here, and I´m not sure if the rain is much better than the heat here... we saw two fish in the road.  Physically, sometimes I don´t even think I´ll be able to survive another day on this mission, but if you can get past that it´s just the best thing ever.  At the end of each day I know without a doubt that the Lord was helping me just to be able to walk. 

So we didn´t do much differently, but I´m learning that faith isn´t getting your hopes way up and expecting that God will grant your every whim and make all your investigators be at church and get baptized, but it´s trusting that he will bless you for your work.  It´s just always in His time, and He always has something for us to learn.  Miracles happen every day and if we don´t notice them, why would God send us more?

Carla and Alex love us, they are still reading the scriptures and praying and they are my favorite investigators ever. Carla always cries and she is so sincere with her questions.  They are still trying to get to documents they need to get married,so it´s gonna be a little bit of a wait.  UGH, like a whole month for someone to be baptized?  Is this what it´s like to serve in the united states? ;)

I love you all so much and can´t wait to hear about your own mission adventures.  Boston is going to be so great, even if you don´t get to see monkeys and dinosaurs :) Brasil is the best, the church is true!

Always make sure you´re converted to the Savior and not to anything else!  Feed His sheep!

 Fiquem felizes, Jesus te ama

com amor e carinho,

Sister Moore

March 10, 2014

Querida Famílinha,

Everything works out for good for those who believe in God.  Just have a little more patience with that mission call.  Missions require a LOT of patience.  That´s what I´ve been learning.  Faith is knowing God keeps His promises, so you keep going even when it seems you aren´t seeing the blessings.  I read James 5 where it talks about patience and the footnotes has a small list of examples of when people such as Paul, Alma, Abinadi and Joseph Smith who all had to suffer through great afflictions to bring forth the work of God. I read each one today and also the story of the sons of Mosiah.  The Lord promised them success if they bore their trials with patience.  Just read Alma 26 to how their mission ended!  I want converts like the Anti- Nephi- Lehi´s.  Or the 3000 baptisms of Peter.

But right now it´s not really going like that yet...  Tuesday I went to a leadership meeting with Sister Sciammarella and stayed with the other juniors, where Sister Cameron from my old area told me that not a single one of my converts comes to church.  Even J has stopped coming for a month now.  I wrote her a letter but it really hurt to hear that.  Other than that this week was actually pretty miraculous.  We found such elect people, were going over and beyond the padrões de excelencia, planning every day with the spirit and using our member to help us.  Saturday night 21 people told us they were coming to church, and they all had a way of getting there.  How many people came to church?  Just one, Carla, who has to get married, so we don´t have a baptism for next week again.

So the fruits aren´t quite there yet, but we definitely can´t stop now.  James 5 talks about how the Lord is full of tender mercies, so this week I´m going to start counting them.  Fabio, our investigator who ALMOST made it to sacrament meeting last week wasn´t at home this week each time we went.  He lives way far away and we always talked to his mom but for some reason just assumed she wouldn´t go.  But the third time we saw her, we almost left, but I felt I needed to invite her to be baptized.  She turns out to be really cool and said she had never been baptized by immersion and her son had never been baptized at all and they needed to be!  It was actually really weird, she went into her house and came out again and said God touched her hearts and she was thinking about us and was excited to go to church.  Well, she didn´t go yesterday because Fabio is sick and she wouldn't go on his motorcycle, but we came back and taught her yesterday.  

Then there´s the three miracle menos-ativos of Rua Nossa Senhora do Rosario, a road otherwise known as Salt Lake because everyone there is baptized.  First there´s M, who we´ve been working with for a while now.  She has three kids that will be baptized any day, but with our new rules she needs to go to church with them.  At first we thought there really was no hope, she was just a lazy, noncommittal mom who got baptized at 13 and immediately left.  But it´s really been a little journey.  She gets really happy now when she sees us, wants to go to church even though she hasn´t yet, and even her kids are getting less annoying.  But we´ve taught them to pray and read the scriptures and it´s amazing how just that has transformed their home.  

The second is Janete, who´s ex-husband is in our ward.  We found her on accident looking for another house.  She was very active in the church before, but left when she got divorced and is now living with someone.  She just started crying and we taught her about repentance and forgiveness.  She´s also started praying again, we´ve read the scriptures with her and she wants to come back, but it´s really hard for her. She promised her daughter Julia she would go yesterday and didn´t, which was sad, but she´s coming along and we hope to teach her boyfriend and get them married.  The coolest thing was when she told us that when we found her, she felt as if Christ was knocking on her door and she thought she´d been forgotten.  What a beautiful thing for a missionary to hear!

Carla is not baptized, but her boyfriend Alex is and is VERY inactive.  He smokes, they live together, but she really wants to be baptized.  They say the best prayers, doing exactly what we ask them.  They both prayed to know if the church (they even said the name of the church right) is true and if Joseph Smith (NO ONE gets that name right) was a prophet and they received answers.  Wednesday we´re going to the Cartorio with them to mark a day for their wedding and baptism the same day.  How cool is that??? If we can reactivate Alex and get him to stop smoking, maybe he can baptize her!

So the rest of our investigators I´m just a little annoyed and decepcionada with, but I know our goals are still possible because we´re working with families and rescuing less-actives.  

I love you guys!!  I pray for all of you specifically, to get your call and for Eric to baptize 3 people before he goes home.  Don´t fear, just believe!  The church is so true and God knows us and it is the best joy in life to watch Him mold you into what He knows you can be.  We are so capable of helping others when we carry the light of Christ.  God answers our prayers.  Just remember that Jesus te ama.  

I haven´t gotten my package yet.  Haha maybe tomorrow.  The Brasilian postal service is on strike so that´s probably why.  By next transfer I mean there will be a transfer and before the next will be Mother´s day. Haha sorry if that´s confusing, a transfer is like a measure of time like a month.  Missionary language...

I´m rapidly heading towards the halfway point of the mission, and after that, it´s just over.  You´re always in the middle!  The mission is SO short.  And so full of fun things like screaming donkeys and random people buying you corn on the street.  If you´re a Sister in Brasil you´ve always got at least 3 drunk or very old boyfriends in every area.  The Nordeste is one of a kind.  Always an adventure.  

Um abração,

Sister Moore

March 3, 2014

Querida família,

Wow, I´m getting impatient with your mission call too!  I really do pray for all of you and your specific goals with the mission work, for you guys to find references for the missionaries and for Eric to baptize three people this month.  I will definitely write Sister Brown a letter today, that sounded like a very spiritual experience at Patriarch Brown´s funeral.  I´m sure that musical number touched many hearts.  Right now the frequencia of our ward is very very low, getting worse and people aren´t singing the hymns which is very sad, especially when you can hear the other churches yelling their songs.  They aren´t even true :( Music is so important in the church, it really is the most powerful way to invite the spirit I think.  

I don´t know what´s happened these past couple of weeks, but we really are going through some challenges.  We have had the best investigators I´ve ever had on my mission, people who really went through a little journey with us and we´ve noticed a change in the way they listen to us, in the way they pray and just their countenance.  But something is happening that has never happened to me before in Brasil, people are breaking up with us!! Usually we tell people we can´t pass by anymore until they keep their commitments, but now people are telling us not to come back and they have the exact same line and the same face.  Maria was ready to be baptized and told us she was ready and she knew we weren´t here to lie to her.  The next day she didn´t show up at church and she just told us ´I´m going to go to the closest church to my house, here on the corner.  Every church is true.  I had this revelation and I won´t be going anymore´´.  Diomar did the exact same thing, and Bella, and André.  They say the same thing. The churches in this area preach against us and I just have no idea who is getting to everyone or how... ugh.. the bottom line is that Satan is working very hard.  

It was walking back to church after talking to Maria that I just started to cry when I realized what Christ did for us.  He was the only perfect missionary.  He never did anything wrong.  And the people in their pride still thought they were right and they killed Him and His apostles, distorted the church.  But how did He leave His area?  He suffered for us, left us a path to follow to gain eternal life, and it wasn´t until 1800 years later that the gospel was restored to the earth again never to fall.  He did absolutely  every for us, and even when we mess up He is patient because He knows what it´s like to be us.  I love our Savior, and this week I have felt Him walking side by side with us.  Missions are not easy, and I know my Savior knows that very well and wants to stay at my side. 

Going back to goals, I really believe so strongly in praying for goals specifically.  This month our goal is really high, 8 baptisms with 3 men and 2 families.  This is the first goal we´ve really prayed for and I know God has at least this may elects prepared for us.  We are changing and improving a lot in our work because I and Sister Sciamm both know God is going to help this happen.  So far, we haven´t baptized the first week and we have no one for the second week.  Please pray for us to find these families, and to help our ward.

This wasn´t the happiest letter ever but I really am happy still.  I love my companion and this area really is full of super elect people who are prepared to receive our message.  Valdemir has a car now which is the best news in the world.  He told us it isn´t his car but the Lord´s car and he´s going to use it to bring investigators to church from Colinas.  He really is my favorite member in the world.  Gilvan and Rhayanne are doing awesome and we´re going to start working with more of their family starting with Ana Paula, Gilvan´s other daughter.   Miracles really are going to start happening.  And yeah, I´m still in Brasil and we´re all kind of cry babies about baptisms, but the expectation here simply is to baptize every week.  And that´s exactly what we plan to do.

I love you guys so much.  I love your letters and I always brag about my missionary family :)  Did you know next transfer is Mother´s Day?  I hope your Brasilian dinner is super fun, even though you´re celebrating the devil´s holiday ;) I hate Carnaval.  

The church is true, the atonement is real and Joseph Smith really saw God and Jesus Christ. 

Sister Moore

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