Once again at the start of a new transfer, and I´m still here in Arcoverde with Sister Costa! This is Sister Costa´s last transfer and so after that I´ll stay in Arcoverde even longer to teach the area to my new companion! It´s a good thing that I like Arcoverde :)
This week was super awesome though! The highlight was definitely the Zone Conference we were able to have in Caruaru on Wednesday with President Bigelow! Him and Sister Bigelow are SUCH wonderful people. The main thing that we learned about is the importance to learn the "why" of the Gospel. Why parts of the gospel are important, why God gives us certain commandments. Because when we understand WHY we should do the things God wants us to do, and teach our investigators why, we´re going to have a lot more motivation to do these things. Because everything that God has for us, is to bless us and help us. President Bigelow also talked about how a testimony is more than just faith. It´s faith AND knowledge. There´s so much to study and learn about the Gospel and when we have a lot of faith and a lot of knowledge, we´re going to have super strong testimonies.
Sadly, we weren´t able to baptize Dieny this Saturday :( She wasn´t feeling super prepared, and so we´re going to give her a little more time. BUT, we were able to have a ward activity this Saturday to integrate the members and investigators and it was super good! We focussed on the importance of the Book of Mormon :) I´ll be sending pictures! My trainer, Sister Juarez, finished her mission this week, but Saturday night, she was able to call me and talk to me for a little, so that also made my week a lot brighter :)
Sunday, I had to give a talk in church! I´m super grateful for the help that God always gives me with my Portuguese, because I definitely couldn´t do it alone. Sunday night we were able to have a Family Home Evening with Zelia and Joaquim and three other members of the ward, and it was super cool! They´re progressing SO much. We were able to focus on the importance of families in the church and how we can have them for eternity. The Brazilian people have touched me SO much with how much they love and care about family. Whenever we have to choose a hymn to sing, "Families can be Together Forever" is always the first one they choose :) A couple that was there with us shared some stories about sacrifices that they made and another family made to have their families sealed in the temple-- There used to be only one temple in Brazil, in São Paulo, and so they traveled a week on a bus with a bunch of other members to get there. And when they were traveling on Sunday, they were able to have a sacrament meeting and partake of the sacrament on the bus! I thought that part was super interesting. They also shared a story about a family from Manaus, with 13 children, that traveled 12 days in a boat and 5 days on the bus just to make it to the temple. The dedication of this people is so incredible to me! They also LOVE family home evenings. One of the members mom´s is 94 years old and lives alone, but she still, every Sunday night writes an itinerary for family home evening in her notebook, and then every Monday night has a family home evening alone where she says the opening prayer, sings a hymn, shares a message, and then has a closing hymn and prayer. Families truly are SO important in the plan of God and I´m so grateful that the Brazilian people have been able to teach me that :)
Once again, sorry for the long email!
But I hope everyone is excited for General Conference this week! Make sure to write down questions that you have and see how God is able to answer them through His inspired servants!
Love you all!!
Sister Anderson
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| This is Gil. He drove us to Caruaru and then wanted to take a pic with us hahaha |
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| The Elder to the right side, was trained by Jesse Jorgensen! |
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| Zone Conference! |
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| Ward activity |
