Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Week 8 in Arcoverde!

Olá todo mundo!! 

I hope everyone´s had a good week! 
So I´m currently in Caruaru, a city a couple hours away from Arcoverde. We came here to have a p-day with President and Sister Bigelow where they teach us how to exercise and take care of our bodies! I´m super excited! BUT, they´re going to arrive late and so we hurry and came here to the lan house to email, and so things are a little rushed right now. So sorry if it´s not the best email ever! 

This week was super good and I´m super happy! We did a lot of walking this week and even some of it in rain, without umbrellas haha, but it was still wonderful and I can see God blessing us and helping us everyday! 

Our investigators are doing really well! A woman named Lira that we started teaching a couple weeks ago has already gone to church 3 times in a row and really has a desire to know if the church is true! And so I´m super excited about her. And we finally got Jessé to go to church! I´m pretty sure I already talked about this, but he´s the super religious man that says kneeling prayers sometimes for more than 2 hours haha. He loves the Book of Mórmon and I´m excited to talk to him and see what he thought about church! 

I have an experience that I want to share. It´s simple, but was still really special for me. We´ve been teaching an older couple named Zelia and Jaquim. This Sunday we went to their house to find them and walk with them to church. As we were arriving, we found Zelia on the road limping and walking super slowly because she has problems with her legs. We asked her where Jaquim was and she said that he stayed home. And so we hurry and went to their home and Jaquim was there, all ready to go to church, and said that he didn´t go because he thought that we wouldn´t go to their house to find them because it was raining. And so we all left together and started walking to church, SUPER slowly and they live SUPER far from the chapel. Zelia was having a really hard time walking, but she kept saying to me that she prayed and asked Jesus to give her the strength in her legs that she needs make it to church. I could tell that she was really struggling and in a lot of pain and so I was very touched by her faith. We kept going and Sister Costa turned around a saw a bus coming towards us-- and this honestly was a miracle because buses NEVER pass by on Sundays. And so they were able to get on the bus and ride the bus to church. But the thing that was really touching to me was that FIRST, Zelia showed to God the faith and the desire that she had, and AFTER she did this, God blessed her and sent the bus to her. So many people today want to wait for blessings from God and then afterwards change and do what God wants them to do. But it doesn´t work that way. We have to first show God our faith and our desire to keep the commandments and then afterwards, He is going to bless us and help us. God loves us and is so willing to bless us, but it is so through our obedience that we can recieve these blessings from God!

Love you all!
Sister Anderson