It's a "treat" to be a missionary!! Happy Halloween!

                                                                                                          Oct. 31, 2016

Hi FAMILY!!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Today,
I´ll eat a lot of sweet treats for you all, okay?😉

SOOOOOOOO, yesterday, I had a really sweet experience. Sister Salles and I were walking towards the Church with a less active young woman because the meeting was about to start, and all of a sudden, a car honked, and I heard a man shout out from his car, "Hey!" The car pulled up beside us and guess who it was?? ROBSON and Valmiria from Cotia!!!!!!

I was so caught off guard, and so excited to see them, and I hugged Valmiria super tight.

 

She then explained that Sister Bezerra, my trainer, was going to get married before her and Robson, because they aren´t married yet. (this is true, she´s getting married soon to an Elder that served in this mission haha).

 

She commented that they just moved here to Vargem Grande, but that it was their first time going to church in the area. I couldn´t believe it. INSPIRATION for President Thomas to send me here to Vargem Grande. Unfortunately, we had other investigators to attend to, and after sacrament meeting, they left really quickly before I could get the chance to say goodbye or to mark a time to visit them. 

It has been SO LONG since I´ve seen them, and I hope to see them next Sunday too. Their kids weren´t there with them, but, what was important, was that Robson was there, and he looked like he was practically a member of the church already--he had so much light in his eyes.

Yesterday, at church, two men from Haiti came to our Ward. One of them was a contact that Sister Salles and I had contacted on the street who said he wanted to come to church, but he didn´t know where the church was, or how to get there. He had woken up later than he had intended to, and so we met up with him and his friend f(rom Haiti that apparently, the other set of sisters in our area had talked to on the street another day) in the middle of sacrament meeting (during the second talk), and walked with them to the church. Unfortunately, they weren´t able to take the Sacrament, but they loved all of the other meetings--especially the last meeting with the Priesthood and Relief Society combined that the Bishop taught, because it was about self-sufficiency. They have been looking for jobs lately, and at the end of the meeting, the Bishop pulled them in his office, and I´m sure he talked with them about how they could be self-sufficient in the church. They don´t speak Portuguese very well, but they are able to understand it for the most part, and their names are Ernest and Eder. Sister Salles and I had talked to Ernest on the street, and he´s super sweet. He looks like he could be from a film--he´s tall, African, and has a huge white small on his face all the time. Even if he doesn´t understand you in Portuguese, he´ll say, ´´okay, okay´´ haha. But he speaks Spanish, so Sister Salles and I are going to learn Spanish this week. It will help me get ready to speak with Elder Harris in Spanish on skype as well.

Also, Luis, an investigator who we are working with, also came to church. He´s 18 years old, and was being taught by the Elders here in Vargem Grande, but they discovered that he lives in the area that we work in, so we are teaching him now, and he accepted a date to be baptized for the 13th of November. He has already been to church three times now, and he is super educated and kind whenever we teach him. He came into contact with the church in 2012 by other Elders, but hadn´t really looked much into it until now. His parents are separated, and he just wants to make everything right in his family, and be a good example, and so he has a desire to follow Jesus Christ and become more like him (FUTURE MISSIONARY). This week we are going to follow up with him to see if he received an answer from Heavenly Father that the Book of Mormon is true.

This past week we taught Daiane and her family!! Her husband´s name is José, and they have four children, Laura, Nicholas, Vitor, and David, three of which are able to be baptized. Daiane accepted baptism for the 19th of November, but she is going to pray about the Book of Mormon in order to know that it is true in order to be baptized. She is a bit shy and her husband as well, and they didn´t go to church yet because they are pretty timid, and don´t want to have to go by themselves. This week we are going to have a family night with them in order to help integrate them.

 

Here are a couple of pictures... 

Being silly with this funny little baby doll...

 

A picture of me with Sister Freitas

 

Love you!!

 

Sis. Harris

If we turn to Him, we can rejoice in His love!

                                                                                                         Oct. 24, 2016

Oi Família!!!

 

So, I forgot to tell you all last week that I was released from serving as Sister Training Leader this transfer. The President had confused some decisions he had made, and I didn´t know until later. But, I´m still a mom to a wonderful daughter and enjoy training Sis. Salles.
 

 Sister Salles is incredible! She is super obedient and she is pushing me to work harder. We get along

really well.

 

Fun Fact: Everyone here in Brasil thinks that she´s American hahaha. In the last Sunday meeting, the Relief Society counselor asked her if she was able to read in Portuguese haha. We always laugh about this because she does really look American because she has a whiter skin tone.

 

Lately we have been having a lot of sun here in Brasil, so we´ve been getting tanner, and that´s been fun. She is one of the sweetest people I´ve ever met, and she´s overcoming some of her shyness and timidness by talking with EVERYONE on the street and talking more in lessons.


I love newby missionaries because they come out of the MTC with a desire to work and feel the spirit constantly. 

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to Stake Conference in Cotia.

A Sister who was visiting from Utah took our picture and emailed it to our parents. This Sister had a son out serving a mission and new what a treat it was for parents to receive pictures from their missionary.















This past week, we felt the Spirit teaching a less active member named Elisiane. Normally, the other dupla of Sisters in our house teaches her, but one day, we said hi to her in her shop where she works on the street, and she began to talk with us. She´s been trying to return to Church lately, and turn things around in her life. She and her husband had been fighting, and she had wanted to go back to the Northeast of Brasil to live with her parents, and separate from her husband because he hasn´t been treating her nicely. She began to open her heart up to us and told her that it would be hard to return to her dad because her dad had warned her about not marrying her husband because he didn´t trust him. She was young and oblivious to the consequences, and married him anyway. They had a child together, and now, she told us, the only thing that is good in her life, is her little boy. She lost her opportunity to study and work, and have a financially stable life because she was blinded by love that wasn´t really love.

 

As she was talking, the Spirit helped me remember the story of the Prodigal Son. How he had lost EVERYTHING in his life, and then went back to his dad to ask for forgiveness and start over. How his dad received him really well in his house, and rejoiced that his lost son had been found. After reading the Parable to her, she began to cry. She said, "I understand." The Spirit was so strong as Sister Salles and I testified to her that there was a way out of her misery. That if she asked for forgiveness from her Father--her earthly father, and her Heavenly Father, she could be comforted and be happy once again. We testified that Heavenly Father knows who she is, and could help her return home to Him if she let Him.

 

Sometimes in our lives, we are like the Prodigal son. We become beggars of Heavenly Father´s love and mercy and blessings, and we don´t know where to turn to, but to Him. If we will just kneel in prayer unto Him, and speak with him, He will rejoice with us, and will tell us that He loves us. 

This past week, we weren´t able to visit Daiane and her family because unfortunately, Daiane had to stay at the hospital for several days with her son who became ill. We are praying that this Wednesday we will be able to teach their whole family and invite them to be baptized.

Also, this week we found two elect young women named Emili and Natalia. Emily is 12 years old and Natalia is 16. Their brother is unfortunately in prison, so that was a touchy subject for them, but we taught them of the plan of salvation and invited them to be baptized, and they accepted, if they knew that our message is true. We just have to mark them for a specific date because the are going to travel pretty soon, but Emili wants to invite two of her friends to go to church with her this next Sunday. Hope all four come!!! 

The last picture is of a less active member named Ivone who is 84 years old that we teach. She has a heart of gold, and only can´t come to church because of her health, and she ends up fainting. We´re going to have the sacrament sent to her every Sunday.

Love you!!

Sis. Harris

Feeling so blessed in our new area!!!

                                                                                                           October 17, 2016
OI FAMÍLIA!!!!!

Sooooo, I will just say that I love Vargem Grande!! It is the complete opposite of Ferreira, and a lot like Cotia, but even more of a rural area. The people here are super receptive to the gospel, and they actually stop to listen to you on the streets instead of just saying they´re in a hurry or not even looking at you.

My new companion is Sis. Salles. She is serving here while waiting on her vista to serve in the Salt Lake City Temple Square mission. She is super sweet, and from Bela Horizonte, Brasil.



Sis. Salles and I visited a family that owned baby rabbits.

You can see them here in her lap. They were adorable!!

We live with two other sisters in our house named Sister Nunes and Sister Pereira--all Brasilians.

We made a yummy stroganoff meal for lunch one day.

 We also made an amazing dessert that´s called Palia Italiano.

 

One day we got lost trying to find our lunch appointment. We were practically in a jungle stepping over rivers. haha 

So yesterday, I got to talk in Church AGAIN on the first Sunday haha. This time, I had less time to prepare--2 minutes to think about it before sacrament began. It´s a blessing to talk in sacrament, but because it happened to me AGAIN on the first Sunday in a new area, I feel like I´m cursed haha. I actually should have seen it coming because I had asked the Bishop in the morning if there was anything else that I could do for him, and so I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting.

 

I spoke about personal revelation and the Holy Ghost because next week we´re going to have Stake Conference (in cotia--so I´ll see some members I know!!!!), and he wanted to prepare the members to receive revelation. I felt the Spirit as I spoke, and I shared with the members a few experiences I´ve had in the mission receiving answers to my prayers. 

One of them, was this past Wednesday. Sister Salles and I had prayed to find a family. That day, we were doing contacts on the street, and talking to everyone we saw. We decided to talk to two women who were sitting on the street talking to each other one afternoon. One of them, is the wife of a member, and has already been to the Church. Her name is Wanda. The other woman´s name is Daiane, and she hasn´t ever been to the Church before. We talked to them, and got their addresses, and marked a day to visit Daiane. We marked the following day to visit her, but, unfortunately, it rained, and we weren´t able to visit her because we got lost trying to find a member´s house for lunch one day. The next day, we found her daughter on the street (we didn´t know it was her daughter at first), but we talked to her, and she said we could visit her and her mom the next day. The following day, we went there, and Daiane told us that she had stopped going to her church because she had been offended by some of the people there. She said that she also really wanted to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost because she wanted to find more peace in her life. She told ust that the day we had talked to her on the street, she was talking to Wanda about our church, and wanda, who had already visited the church, had been talking to her about the church, and how she could find so much peace and comfort there. It wasn´t just a coincidence that we found her that day after she was talking to Wanda. 

At the end of the lesson, Sister Salles said the prayer, and asked that Daiane could feel peace in her life. Daiane began to cry during the prayer. Tonight we are going to visit her entire family, and we are going to invite them to be baptized. Miracles are real. She has a wonderful family, and she´s already married to her husband. 

 

Here are a few more pictures I want to share:

There are tons of frogs on the street
when it rains at night. (yuck) 

 

A picture of me with an Irmã in the Ward
named Taiana who is a hairstylist and
will soon cut my hair. I liked her shirt. 

Me with Vinícius and Maria Rita, two cute kids
of a family we are working with.

I´m loving Vargem Grande because it´s SO BEAUTIFUL!! I get to have an adventure every day here in this area. I love working with Sis. Salles! She has such a desire to baptize in this mission. She´s super optimistic, and together, we are seeing so many miracles in this area!!

Opening a new area will bring so many miracles!!

                                                                                             October 10, 2016

Olá Família!! 

Tomara que vocês estejam bem, e felizes!!! 

Eu amo MUITO vocês, e sou muito grata pelo conselho e sabedoria que cada um de vocês me ofereceu esta semana.

 

SOOOOOOOOOOOO, I´ve got some news for you all. 

 

I´m being transferred tomorrow to Vargem Grande (closer to Cotia)--more of a rural/suburb area, and I will be opening an area there with my new companion.....I actually don´t know who she is yet because I was called to be a trainer/mom!! I´ll have another daughter in the mission!! WAHOO!!! Also, I will still be sister training leader there in Vargem Grande, so I´m still going to be responsible for going on splits with other sisters in other areas near my area to help them (caucaia, cotia, vargem grande). I can´t tell you how excited and scared I am at the same time, because, let me tell you, opening an area is really hard, but it´s one of my favorite things in the mission because it brings SO MANY MIRACLES. Heavenly Father definitely answered my prayers because I have been wanting to open another one for such a long time, and I have been wanting to serve again a little bit away from the city. I wasn´t expecting training, but I know my companion will help me feel the Spirit so much at the end of my mission because that is what I prayed for. Tomorrow I´ll find out who she is--brasilian or hispanic! SO EXCITED!!!! Also, Sister Caleira, my first daughter in the mission, was called to be Sister Training Leader, and will serve here in Ferreira in my place with Sister Hall. Sister Hall is ending her mission--this is her last transfer, so Sister Caleira will be perfect for her to help her endure to the end in the mission :)

 

This past week, we took Aline to the temple with Irmã Roberta, the wife of our Ward mission leader here who is super sweet, and has been helping us integrate Aline into the Ward.

 
After teaching Aline in the waiting room inside of the temple about eternal marriage and the blessings of finding peace in the temple, I asked Aline if she could see herself, in the future, in the temple with her family. She said yes, and smiled.

 

That day, I´d never seen Aline so happy before.Afterwards, we gave her a photo of the São Paulo Temple to put up in her house. She was super grateful for the gift. Also, she promised that this next week (Sunday) she will go to church with Leandro :).

 

She´s been preparing things for her wedding on October 22nd. I hope I get permission from the President to come back to see her wedding and Elis´s baptism!!

Another event happened that was a miracle!!! Junior broke up with Natasha!! Crazy right??? Their relationship is over, and when Sister Hall and I found out, we began jumping up and down and dancing in our apartment because of how much joy we had. Elis was glowing because of how happy she was as well. Natasha can now make better friends in the Church and stay away from bad influences because Junior is out of the picture.

 

Natasha and Elis came to church on Sunday, and Natasha received a personal progress from the Young Women´s President. She was so happy, and it was so sweet to see her and Elis holding hands in sacrament meeting.

Elis made us some yummy cake!
She is a wonderful cook!!

As for Elis, she has stopped smoking completely. It´s been about a month since she quit, and she is trying to quit drinking coffee. She told us she wants to finish the Book of Mormon before she gets baptized, so I think in about 2 weeks, she´ll be done. She´s in the book of Alma.



Recently, she gave us advice to raise our kids in the gospel because she said that it´s so hard right now to raise Natasha in the gospel because she´s already 16 years old. It was so crazy to hear that from Elis. She´s incredible!!

 

She said last night, after I told her I would be transferred, that she will go pick me up there in Vargem Grande sometime, or that she would go to church there one Sunday. hahaha, It´s pretty far away from here, but she´s so sweet. I cried when I told them I would have to leave their family. Tonight will be hard to say goodbye. 

 

 

 

Another event that happened that wasn´t such a miracle was another breakup---of Valéria and Fábio. Valéria was super sad and couldn´t stop crying when we taught her about the Atonement with an Irmã of the Church named Raquel. Raquel comforted her and hugged her, and told her that everything would work out if she handed it all to Heavenly Father, and relied on Him for strength. She loved Fábio, and they broke up because he is still living with his mom, and Valéria has a hard time with that. It´s a bit complicated, but I know that everything will work out for the best. With faith, Valéria and Fábio will be married, and then, will both be baptized. 

 

This past week we found another family!! A cute couple and their little daughter. We found the dad while walking on the street one day, and he passed his address, and we marked a day to visit him. We taught them the plan of salvation, and at the end of the lesson, we invited them to pray to know the plan of salvation was heavenly father´s plan for their family. The mom, named Rikaelly, immediately began to pray alone silently because she thought we meant we were asking them to pray in the moment instead of later, in their own personal time. soon after, the dad, named Cícero, started to pray silently as well, and we waited until they finished their prayers. They truly want to do what´s right, and it was incredible to see how much faith they had in that moment. This week, Sister Hall, and Sister Caleira will visit them again, and I hope they´re able to come to church this next week!!

 

I wanted to share a few more pictures:

Sis. Lockheart and me at our Multi-Zone Conference

I love seeing these wonderful Sisters!!

This week we met with a Sister named Isolina.
She is 76 years old and such a sweet lady.
Although she has a hard time hearing, she accepts our invitations
 and is a great woman of faith!  

Sister Hall and I with Paola, a recent convert, her Dad, Marcilio,

(who is less active) and Paola´s daughter named Alice.

Paola is one of the strongest recent converts I´ve met!

She is always so happy, and was recently called to be a Relief Society secretary 

So, that´s about it!! A LOT of news for you all!! I´m excited for a new adventure pretty soon!! I only have three transfers left (yikes), which means, I really have to make this time last. A mission goes by so fast, it feels like it´s a dream. 

 

Also, do you remember Valéria, Robson, Emily, and César, the family I worked with in Cotia?? So, aparently, I heard they moved to Vargem Grande, so I really hope I will be able to see them and teach Robson there. It would be an incredible experience!! 

 

Oh, and fun fact, so, I don´t think I´ve told you all, but Elder Costa, of the seventy, Elder Aidukaitis, of the seventy and Elder Bassett, of the seventy as well who spoke in this last conference all go to my ward here in Ferreira. I´m not sure why I haven´t told you this earlier, but it´s so crazy to see these faithful men on Sunday sitting in the front of the chapel.

 

Sister Aidukaitis, before going to conference in Salt Lake, asked us what we wanted back from the U.S., and I asked for poptarts, so I enjoyed eating those recently!!! 

She brought me POPTARTS!!!

One of my favorites!!!!!



Have a wonderful week fam!! LOVE YOU!!!!



Strengthened and blessed by General Conference

                                                                                                              October 3, 2016

Hi Family,

 

I just want to let you know that I am back to full health. The doctor said that my lungs were clear, but that I had a really bad bug and gave me medicine that has really helped. The Lord has blessed me to heal and I am doing really well.

I want to say how much I love each one of you, and bear my testimony to you all. 

 

This past month has been really hard for me as I have been struggling with my health and learning how to be more patient. Although we have found some wonderful people to teach, we have had some real challenges and our progress toward baptism has been slow. We have also had a hard time finding new investigators. I have been praying to know what I need to do to be a better missionary here in Ferreira. I decided to fast and pray before Conference to know what I could do to be a better missionary, and to be happier in this work. My prayers were really answered!!

 

This past Conference, in almost every single one of the talks, I learned something new by the Spirit that I needed to do to improve. Overall, I realized I needed to pray unto my Heavenly Father more, and that I needed to talk with Him more throughout the day, and really depend on him for strength in every aspect of my life. I realized I needed to look unto him in every thought; doubt not, fear not. I had been doing this at the beginning of my mission, but I had recently been rushing through my morning and night prayers as if He wasn´t a necessary part of my mission, and I was trying to do everything on my own with my own strength. At times, I tried to do everything on my own and my health would get bad, and I would just suffer physically, mentally, and spiritually. I was beginning to lose hope here in Ferreira.

 

This past Conference, the Spirit changed me. I started to put to the test what Sister McConkie said to pray by the Spirit in order to align our will to the Lord´s will, and I have been feeling the Spirit more constantly throughout my prayers. I´ve been spending more time talking with my Father in Heaven, and, to be honest, I´ve never felt so strengthened and carried in my life. 

At times, we try to do things on our own in this life. It´s easy to forget who´s in charge of our future, who has more power to make us stronger, and to carry us through every heavy burden in our lives. We desperately try to reach the next day with a smile on our face, but, if we don´t do as Christ did--rely on Heavenly Father´s strength and power against temptations or mistakes, we won´t have a sure foundation to hold on to the truth that we know to be true. It´s easy to forget who we are as sons and daughters of God in this life because Heavenly Father´s not here with us physically. He can be with us spiritually if we let Him in through just one prayer of faith and humility. 

 

This week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges for one day with Sister Valdera, a missionary from Argentina.

She is one of the happiest missionaries I know. She smiles every second of every day and I love that about her! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, I wanted to share some pictures from our Zone Conference. 

 

How I love these wonderful Sisters that I have had the opportunity to serve with!!

 

I love serving with my current companion Sister Hall! I somehow misplaced my nametag so she let me borrow hers and put my name over it. She is a great Sister and wonderful friend.  

 

 

Look at this super sweet treat I bought the other day with Sister Hall It was too sweet to finish. It actually looks better than it tastes...

 

  

I love you all so much!! I sent a gift with a sister in the Ward, so I hope you all get it soon!!