Hi família!! It was a great week. Maybe one of the best of my mission. I guess I say that I lot, but this mission work can be pretty magical! Let me try to give ya a few highlights...
First, a few weeks ago, a member asked for our help with one of the familiy he home teaches. He explained that it would probably be a bit difficult, that the ward had tried to visit for years but was never very welcome. This family owns one of the very fanciest restaurants in our area called Bananeira because of the huge banana trees inside. Actually, they do lots of weddings and super chique parties and I have been mesmerized for quite some time. But anyway, after weeks of trying, the wife, Rédia finally let us in. I think out of pitty. BUT, we talked and laughed and became instant friends. We invited her to visit church again with her husband and children. (Did I mention her three children are not baptized and should be?!) Saturday night we called and reminded her about church and she told us that they would be going and she had already laid out a dress and everything.
The ward was shocked. The jaw-dropped kind of shocked and confirmed that good sisters have a special kind of power.
And last night we planned a super special FHE with them and their home teacher´s family. The husband, Mauricio made an incredible dinner. As you can imagine, he knows his stuff in the food world. We used our handy puzzle to talk about the plan of salvation and left everyone crying. It was wonderful.
Also, this week we decided to visit our investigator, Mayra, basically out of the blue. Mayra is exremely religious.. so much so that last week at church she created a very heated discussion about whether we should honor Saturday or Sunday... yeah awkward. But, She lives a pretty hectic, single-mom life with 4 little kids and when we walked in we felt, instantly, that things weren´t right. She was over her head with kids to feed and a house to clean. Sooo, we got to work. We cleaned and organized. And from the other room I heard her little daughter ask ``mom, why are they helping us?´´ She replied that we were Heavenly Father´s angels who are far away from our mai mai and pai pai to help all the people. After we shared a message about Easter (our round about way of teaching the importance of Sunday without getting into a bible bash with her) and she began to cry. She explained that, she woke up completely overwhelmed, not knowing how she would possibly get through the day. She asked him to send angels to assist her and soon after we showed up. So cool
Carla and Diego are wonderful. Carla will be in New York for the next two weeks taking a professtional make-up class, but as soo as she gets back they will be married and baptized. And we couldn´t be happier. (we being the intentional pronoun. I am walking on cloud nine too.)
Also, one day this week we worked in front of the temple and had a pretty miraculous experience... We ended up teaching 8 different people inside the temple.. We taught a tattood, pierced Athiest, a mom who recently lost her 22-year old daughter, a mysterious girl who seemed exceptionally afraid and appeard to be running from something/someone, and others with similar problems. All came in with all sorts of worries, theories etc. but left feeling a special sort of peace. I left, once again feeling a special sort of gratitude for the opportunity we have to enter the Lord´s house on such a regular basis.
Our die-hard Presbyterian finally accepted a baptismal date after visiting church for the last 6 months!! He said that he is praying daily to ask for a confirmation and is beginning to feel something different in his heart. But, pray for Flauvio. Heaven knows that he needs your prayers
We also visited Rose and her daughters again and had a different, young women sort of lesson. We read about big, strong, brave moroni, the whole time making a list of the qualities we wanted in our future prince charming. They absolutely loved it, and I just couldn´t help but think about my three darling sisters. So as a special shout out to you girlies, here is my quote of the week. ``You don´t need to be chasing after butterflies; if you take care of the garden, they will come.´´ :)
So, Have a wonderful week!! Love you all,
Sister Lauren
Foto da reunião de Sisteres
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