Novo Metropole

I am great :)

I´ve been transferred to Novo Metropole with Sister Farthing from Virginia. I learned a lot from Sister Mcquivey. It was so great being companions with her. We spent the transfer teaching a family that became really dear to us, Teresinha and Raimundo, and their son Rubens. Rubens was baptised Saturday and confirmed Sunday :) It was the best way to end the transfer in Aldeota. Ill send more photos in another email. In the attachment is a picture of the whole family :) Fatima and Paulo are thinking about getting married because Fatima wants to be baptized, and AnaPaula and Eduardo and Bruno want to get baptized too. When we visit Brazil later on in life their house is going to be open to us, they feel like family :) I am so grateful to get to know these people here in Brazil. They´re examples of love and charity in a lot of ways because they open up everything to strangers. For example, Irma Teresinha would cook dinner for us every time we went to teach Rubens, and we would thank her and say she really doesnt have to cook, and sometimes we´d tell her we were fasting and that she REALLY didnt have to cook for us, and she wouldnt hear any of it. The first time we told her about fasting she was like àre you kidding`? you mean you wont eat? I think the best way to compare her is to the mom in `My big fat greek wedding`. She´s SO generous! Sis McQuivey and I talked about how we have no idea how we were going to be able to continue to teach them because her portion sizes were so big! The plate full of rice and beans with meat on top. She´d be like, I know you girls walk all day, eat up. But I got out of the area before the zippers on my skirts burst so its all good. But her house will definitely never lack food because of how much she served the missionaries. Her and Raimundo shared testimonies of how things in their house changed after getting to know us. Their son Antonio has mental difficulties because he fell from a ladder when he was young, and they talked about how he´s become a lot calmer. And the Bishop of the ward is going to help Raimundo get a surgery for his eyes because he´s going blind. The gospel is such a blessing in people´s lives. I´m really grateful that I was able to grow up in a home where my parents taught us to go to church. The brother that baptized Rubens is Airton, the ward mission leader :) he´s awesome. A really big example of a servant of God. He´s so excited about his calling, and really strives to fulfill it. I think its so cool that you have a temple in San Antonio :) Here people sometimes go once a year if theyre really well off financially, and the missionaries don´t go lol because its a 4 day trip. But I´m glad to know that you have the blessings of the temple close by, and hope that you can visit this week because the spirit is really strong there. The spirit makes a difference in our lives, if we´re striving to feel the spirit we´ll be protected and find our selves progressing faster than we could tell. I like to read the stories in the Book of Mormon because I can see these things like in Helaman 16 when Samuel is on the wall and can´t be hurt by the arrows or rocks. Nowadays its really rare to have rocks thrown at us, but we get tempted or made fun of or our feelings hurt or put down, and those are like our arrows. If we have the spirit they wont be able to touch us. Because we´ll know who we are and what we´re made of, and we´ll become more concerned with what God thinks of us than what any man thinks of us. 

2 But as many as there were who did not believe in the words ofSamuel were ^aangry with him; and they cast stones at him

 upon the wall, and also many shot arrows at him as he stood  upon the wall; but the Spirit of the Lord was with him, 

insomuch that they could not hit him with their stones neither with their arrows.

I´m working on becoming closer to the spirit so that I can be more sensitive to the guidance that my Heavenly Father is trying to give me. I will let you know how it goes :) I love you! Have a great day