This week honestly FLEW by! I´m not even sure what happened this week haha. But I still really enjoyed it! I love being able to, every monday, look back on my week and see all of the blessings I received and things I learned :)
This week in Arcoverde was pretty exciting! The 7th was a national holiday for Brazil and then the 11th was the birthday of the city. On the 7th the city had a "March for Jesus" where and bunch of people gathered together, walked to the center of the city together, and then ended with a concert/party listening to gopel music and people preach. Brazil is a VERY religious country! And then on the 11th, almost all day, the city had a parade with marching bands, music, and people dressed up as all sorts of interesting things haha.
One of our investigators, Lira, is progressing a ton! This Sunday was her 4th time in a row going to church and she always tells us how important church is for her and how she can´t miss it. This week we were able to teach her the Word of Wisdom with our recent convert, Djanira. Lira drinks a lot of coffee and so at first she was a little hesitant to agree to keep this commandment, but then Djanira bore her testimony about how stopping to drink coffee has blessed her. Djanira has lots of health problems but she said that recently she went to the doctors to have some tests done, and she said that all of the results from the tests were a lot better than they were when she was drinking coffee-- especially with her heart. She said that she knew her health is better because she´s keeping the Word of Wisdom :) After that, Lira was very willing to agree to keep the Word of Wisdom.
Zelia and Jaquim are doing well too! The other day when we went to visit them, they were kneeling together and Zelia was teaching Jaquim how to pray :) They´re an older couple and so it´s really cute to see their efforts and the changes they´re making in their lives.
I hit my 6 months mark this week! Super crazy and a lot of mixed emotions to know I´m already 1/3 of the way done with my mission! It´s already been SUCH a huge blessing in my life. When I think about all of the wonderful things I´ve experienced, my heart just wants to burst with happiness and gratitude! Yesterday in church, I was sitting there, hoping that my investigators were having good experiences and that they wouldn´t have any bad experiences with the imperfections of the people in the church. But then I had to repent a little for thinking that because I remembered that this is the Lord´s Church. It doesn´t matter if there are imperfections in the people, because He´s going to do His part to help them feel the Spirit and to know that the Church is true. We do our part, and the Lord makes up for the rest. I´ve really learned that on my mission. I, alone, am very weak and can´t do very much. But the Lord, He is going to add His power to my efforts. And with that, I know that anything is possible and that we are going to see miracles in our lives. And it applies with anything we´re doing in our lives-- As long as we´re doing our best, and doing the will of the Lord, He is here to bless us and help us along the way :)
Love you all!
Sister Anderson
