August 2019 Zone Conference Photo courtesy of Sister Lori Houseman
Iara is still marked for baptism this Saturday! Yesterday we asked her how she was feeling about baptism, and she said she didn’t know if she wanted to change. I asked her what she was afraid of changing and she said she wasn’t sure she wanted to give up drinking on the weekends. We taught her the Word of Wisdom, and though she was initially unsure (why coffee?) she accepted! I love it when people start out the Word of Wisdom lesson totally taken aback (I love coffee! I will never give it up!) but say at the end that they will start living the Word of Wisdom from then on. She says she hasn’t received an answer yet about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith, but we are hopeful that she will be able to recognize God´s answers this week.
Isabella decided to go to the beach instead of going to church, but she also accepted the Word of Wisdom despite being initially against it, and she hasn’t drunk coffee since, so that was a good sign. The couple who are the parents of a missionary didn’t go to church last week, but we will visit them today. Hopefully we can figure out how to see them more frequently.
Sister Faulconer and Sister Sousa (far right) help clean up at zone conference Photo courtesy of Sister Lori Houseman
Funny language mistake: in Portuguese you have to use intonation when asking questions because the sentence structure doesn’t change, so if you don’t change your voice people will think it is a declaration rather than a question. Yesterday I was trying really hard to put this into practice and consequently wound up putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable — I asked a member if she had put pieces of poop in her cake! I meant to say coconut but it didn’t quite come out right!
It is still raining here. It is going to be a shock when summer comes. The temperature now is awesome.
Thai curry–Made by Sister Faulconer in Brazil
I made Thai curry last week and it was awesome. Not as good as Thai Drift, but it still filled a curry-shaped hole in my heart!
I would like to send photos but now my sd adapter doesn’t want to work. 😦
At the mission office for interviews Photo courtesy of Sister Lori Houseman
This week was pretty crazy. Sister Sousa had headaches and Sister Damaceno was also sick. We found out on Tuesday night that Sister Damaceno was going to fly home the next morning. We had no idea that would happen, so it was a shock. I will definitely miss her but hope she can get better at home! So now it is just Sister Sousa and me again.
We had trouble finding people at home, but we found a lot of new people to teach. Arthur ended up smoking this week — addictions are hard! But he didn’t smoke on Sunday or Monday — definitely a miracle. A member talked to him at church and apparently that helped a lot. Proactive members are a blessing, take note! You cannot go wrong offering to do specific things to help the missionaries.
We have passed a ton of references to other areas. Right now is an especially bad time to do contacts here because there is a huge park next to the church which has been having São João parties all month. Yesterday everything was closed for São João and there were bonfires in the street every few yards to celebrate! We have started doing contacts only far away from our house and that helps. Also making rules like — if someone is on the street exercising or has a dog, stop them, because they probably live here. We have to be detectives — what can we look for to know if someone is from our area or not? School shirts — usually a good clue. Shopping bags — hard to say. It is pretty funny.
We are teaching a couple, Raquel and Leandro*. Leandro went to church last week. We went to see him Sunday morning and convinced him to go — and he went! In the rain! He is blind, so he was really a trooper to go. This week a family member got sick at the last second and they couldn’t go. Sicknesses are on my hit list: Also, family members who visit without telling people, trips to the countryside, and sleepiness. They all cause problems. Raquel and Leandro have to get married in order to progress toward baptism, endure to the end, temple, etc. After much conversation we helped them get to the realization that they want to get married and know that that is what God wants for them. But they had a list of reasons they couldn’t get married soon, didn’t even want to plan the day, etc. Procrastination is a serious evil. Definitely one of the flaxen cords of the devil. But I was praying and praying for their hearts to be touched, and yesterday it happened! Raquel was even happier than usual. Sister Sousa thought about lots of creative solutions to get over the roadblocks and Raquel accepted all of them. Her engagement lunch is planned for the twentieth of next month and she promised to mark a day for her marriage yesterday night. I hope it happened!
Recife Temple with the whole zone–First chance since last December Photo courtesy of Sister Lori Houseman
A story about language difference difficulties, even for native Brazilians: Sister Sousa was webchatting with her parents just now and said one of the other missionaries isn’t from her zone. A lady came over to whisper to tell me that we can’t say “zone” because in the Northeast it is a place where prostitutes go! Apparently we just shocked everyone in the LAN house.
Some scriptures I wanted to share with you: In the CTM I read the last few verses of Romans 8 about God´s love for us which really touched me:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Yesterday I read a different scripture I don’t remember hearing before, Hebrews 4:14-16. Powerful!
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
*All names are changed to protect the privacy of investigators.
Headed to Recife 