"I Will Go and Serve the Lord!": 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...