A Wonderful Baptism!!!

                                                                                                                  Nov. 28, 2016

Hello Family!!!

 

So, this past Saturday, Bruna was baptized! It was such a special occasion!

 

The Primary children sang, "I Like to Look for Rainbows," and Bruna´s Primary teacher gave a talk about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 

The best part of the night, was the closing prayer that was meant to be given by Aurea, Bruna´s mom who is returning to church, but was instead given by Rogerio, her dad, who is a little bit less receptive than Aurea, and has been less active because he works on Sundays.

 

Also, Sofia, Bruna´s sassy 4-year-old sister, cried the whole night because she wanted to be baptized too. Tadinha haha. 

 

A sweet picture of Bruna and her mom

Bruna and Irmao Carvalho,
(a member of the bishopric who baptized Bruna)

Sis. Salles and me with Bruna's family



It was a wonderful baptism and we loved having
Bruna's mom and friend there. 

We had a wonderful visit this week from the Covey family. Sister Covey (one of the Sister leaders I have worked with) just completed her mission and her parents are in town picking her up. They visited Vargem Grande (where Sister Covey had also served) and were able to attend Bruna's baptism on Saturday. They were very helpful and sweet. They brought me treats and a card from home and I am very grateful! 

Here is a picture from our visit.

Sis.Covey's mom, Tammy, is at the far left. She and her husband know my mom as they went on the same study abroad program to Israel back in college. Her daughter, Sis. Covey (to the left of me) was a Sister Training leader and we have served in many of the same areas. She is a wonderful Sister and it is such a small world that our parents know each other.

 

So yesterday, was the Primary presentation at church, and I was a bit discouraged because none of our investigators were able to come to church. Something came up, or they made up excuses not to go, and I was pretty sad. During the whole sacrament meeting I was having a really hard time being happy, and I remember trying to pay attention to the children singing and giving talks, but I couldn´t get my mind off of the fact that none of our investigators could come, and that we have a lot of people marked for baptism this month. However, suddenly, the children began to sing about temples and how families can be together forever, and I saw Aurea, bruna´s mom, crying, sitting right next to me, and I realized that that was the miracle of the meeting. Aurea, after not coming to church for who knows how long, was there, supporting Bruna and Rafaella in the meeting. I felt the Spirit and began to cry. 



Funny highlight of my week: for the first time in the mission, I was bit on the leg by a dog, but it was only a little bruised and scratched, and doesn´t hurt anymore. It just shocked me haha because he was already on a chain, but he wasn´t secured by a member. Missions are full of surprises and adventure. But no worries--all is well!

 

Love you!!

 

Sis. Harris 

 

 



Lots to be Grateful for!!!!

                                                                                                                  Nov. 21, 2016

Hi Family,

Sis. Salles and me before church yesterday
 for Ward Conference. 

We have had a great week and I want to share some pictures with you...

Yesterday, we had Ward Conference, but unfortunately, only Luis (that one young man who came to church in the past) came to church. 

 

Bruna had bronchitis, and wasn´t able to come, but all is ready to go for her baptism on Saturday. We´ll have a little party thrown by the primary afterwards, and the primary is going to sing a baptismal song for her.

 

It will be a wonderful baptism, and the parents are excited. Hope they both come, and that they are able to return to church!!

 

 

 

 

 

The family who had wanted to come to church unfortunately didn´t come, but we are going to work with them. The mom´s name is Estella, and her husband passed away, but he was going to church, and receiving the missionary lessons before he passed away. They have never been to church, but we are going to invite them to come this next week again! 

This week we celebrated a birthday of a Sister (a recent convert to the church) named Laura. She turned 19 years old and wants to go on a mission. She is wonderful Sister, and goes with us sometimes on our visits with investigators.  



Fun Birthday celebration with Laura (middle)

Sis. Salles and I wanted to give Laura something special for her birthday.
So we made this picture of Christ and the temple and gave it to her to frame.

 

Also, we were able to attend Young Women of Excellence yesterday where we met a young woman named Lariane, who had come to enjoy the Young Women's program. We found out that her  parents are less active, but when she was young, she went to Primary. This week we are excited to visit her and are going to invite her and Luis to be baptized.

 

 

 One of the sweet young women gave us these beautiful flowers. 



 LOVE YOU ALL!! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

The Sweetness Continues!!

                                                                                                        Nov. 14, 2016

 Oi Family,

 

We had a wonderful mission reunion as we came together to hear Elder Nielsen, one of the seventy  speak to all of us in the mission. I loved seeing a lot of the amazing Sisters that I have had the opportunity to serve with. 

 

Here are some pictures from our reunion:    

 

Me with Sis. Salles and Sis. Caleira, my two daughters,
who I had the opportunity to help train. 



Me with Sis. Salles and Sis.Mariano who are both waiting for their visas
to serve in the Salt Lake Temple Square mission  

 



I loved seeing Sis. Cellurale, one of my past companions!

 

 

 

Sis. Oldroyd, another great companion I served with.

 

Sis. Hunsaker, one of my first companions

 

Me with Sis. Alves de Souza, who I went
on splits with as Sister Training leader

Me with Sis. Lockheart and a Sister from Casa Verde. 

So, this past weekend, we were invited as a mission by our mission president to fast with a specific purpose to know how we could be better missionaries--to recognize what we needed individually to be better missionaries in this work. I went into a bathroom at a member´s house at lunch yesterday to end my fast, and I decided to kneel and pray out loud (silently). As I prayed, I thanked Heavenly Father for several things in my life. I thanked him to be a missionary, and I remember talking to Him in a humble way, telling him I was ending my mission. I told Him I didn´t want it to end, and I immediately felt the Spirit. I told Him that I wanted to give the best of me that I could in order to end my mission the way He wanted me to end it. I don´t think I´ve ever felt so near to Heavenly Father, speaking to him in prayer, as I did yesterday. I began to cry, thinking that my mission was coming to a close. I love this work, and I don´t want it to end. I´m going to give my all EVERY SINGLE DAY to this work because I know that it sure wasn´t easy for Jesus Christ at the end of his mission. He had to rely more and more on His Heavenly Father in prayer for strength to accomplish that which was given him. I know that Heavenly Father is carrying me each and every day. Although my body aches, and this work is hard, it is so worth it. Just like the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, if we sacrifice ourselves and our natural man, because of love, it is all worth it.

 

Last night we had a wonderful family night with Bruna and her family!

 

Bruna is super cute, and she and her sister (who is a member) always write us letters telling us how much they love us. 

 

We made a yummy chocolate cake for the special occasion.

 

Bruna came to church yesterday and we are looking forward to her baptism!!

 

 

This week we found a young woman named Carina whose father had recently passed away. We were able to share the message of the plan of salvation with her. During the lesson, the Spirit was strong, and she cried as she shared with us that someone who she dearly loved had passed away.

 

She felt so much hope after the lesson, that she told us, from that day on, she prayed more fervently to Heavenly Father, and didn´t pray late at night (midnight) anymore, but that her prayers were REAL prayers. Her pastor picks her up to go to the church she is attending (God´s Assembly is the name of the church), but she has a desire to go to ours. this next Sunday hopefully she can visit with her mom.

Also we found another family who will come to church next week!!

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Working toward baptism

                                                                                                        Nov. 7, 2016

Hi Family!!!

 

This past week, we marked a lot of Heavenly Father´s elect for baptism!! Miracles truly happened, and we are going to have a lot of baptisms pretty soon. 

Ernesto came to church by HIMSELF this past Sunday, and he got there right on time, and came in Sunday dress. We called him at about 7:30 in the morning to wake him up because he asked us to, and he almost complained on the phone because it was so early.

Later, he told us, that the Spirit told him on the phone to say that he was going to go to church. The Spirit had touched his heart when we called, and told him that he needed to go to church and wake up.

He has the biggest smile, and is super funny. We finally found out where he lives, and we taught him about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration (with a member who speaks Spanish that is from Peru), and we invited him to be baptized for the 27th of this month. He and Eder accepted baptism, but unfortunately, Eder couldn´t come to church yesterday because he had to work. They have such strong testimonies of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ because of their Haitian roots, and they are some of the happiest people I´ve ever met even though they have so little materially in life. 

 Also, Bruna, a young woman who had a birthday yesterday and turned 10 years old (we bought her a present of a butterfly coloring book) came to church, and this past week we invited her to be baptized in preparation for the 26th of this month. She accepted, and her mom gave her permission as well (her mom and dad aren´t super active in the church, but they really respect and love the church).

We ate a lot of cake because of her birthday, and we taught her and her family about the plan of salvation.


In some of the pictures, her sister, Sofia, is with me, and she is one of the sassiest little girls I´ve ever met. She´s super smart, and she loves spider man, and she loves sister missionaries haha.

 

Also, this past week we taught Neide, a woman who is 68 years old, and her grandson, Mateus, about the plan of salvation on Monday night. Neide was a woman that Sister Salles had talked to on the street who told us we could visit her, and on Monday night we did. On Monday night, my allergies were acting up, so it was kind of difficult to teach Neide and her grandson, and get to know them. However, we ended up sharing with them a little bit of the plan of salvation, and left with them the pamphlet about Heavenly Father´s plan. We didn´t think much of the lesson, but we marked another day to visit them.

 

In the second visit, we realized that Neide was really looking for the truth because she read some parts of the pamphlet, and things about the Plan were beginning to make a lot of sense to her. The Spirit was in our lesson, and we decided to invite her and her grandson to be baptized on the 4th of December. They accepted!!

 

On Sunday, Neide came to church, and she was super ready for the sacrament meeting, coming all dressed up in fancy church clothes--a nice blouse and nice black pants. We were running a little late on Sunday to stop by her house to pick her up before the meeting, and she had been waiting for us about 10 minutes outside, ready to go to church. Unfortunately, she had to leave early because her husband isn´t very well mentally and physically, and so she left after sacrament meeting, however, after each testimony, she said these sweet words "Amen," or "Amen Jesus." Tonight we´ll find out how she liked the meeting when we visit her and Mateus. 

This past week, Daiane didn´t come to church, but we are going to visit her with a member and invite her to come this next Sunday, and we are going to remark her baptism for another day. 

I am so grateful for contacts. They bring miracles in the mission. The mission president received inspiration from the prophet that if our mission did 21 contacts each day, and if we shared at least two principles of the gospel, and did more effective, slow, contacts, we would be able to double the number of baptisms in our mission.

 

A couple more pictures I want to share:

 

Beautiful flowers found here in Brasil. I love this color!!

A silly picture of Sis. Salles and me out visiting.

 

Love you!!

 

Sis. Harris