Singing in the Rain, Running in the Rain, Teaching in the Rain...

Rain... there has been a lot of rain here these past 2 weeks! I think I am going to finally break down and buy a big umbrella... they have ginormous umbrellas aqui, they are like size of a cane... basically half of my height. So they are kind of a pain when it’s not raining, but it has rained almost every day, so I am thinking it will be worth it.

Anyways, this last week flew by... I can’t ever remember a week going faster. It was so awesome though! We will hopefully have 4 baptisms this next week... and included in this will be my first real family (I already completed a family, but not like this) I am sooo, sooo excited! I am seriously so in love with this family too, they are so special.

Their names are Lia and Danilo, and they were a reference of a member in the US, and when we started teaching them, the first time we entered it was like dejavou... soo weird. Like Sister Labadie and I knew we had known them before... it has been like that every time... they are really, really smart- 2 doctors... and they love the church. Danilo already read 1 Nephi... and he wanted to buy Doctrine and Covenants... and Lia was helping us yesterday with our new pesquisadores that came to church with us... she told them "oh you will love the church." How awesome... it seriously gives me goose bumps every time we are with them because the spirit is soo strong. So their baptism will be this Sunday- and I am ecstatic!

We also have 2 other people who will hopefully be baptized... we have 2 pesquisadores, Eduardo and Giseille who have been visited by missionaries for years and years... we are talking like 5 years or so. Both of them already had testimonies of the gospel and were reading the Book of Mormon, but we have really just focused on being friends with them and testifying with the spirit. They have both accepted baptism for this weekend tambem! So we will keep working and fighting, but this next week should be awesome!

We also had interviews with Presidente Condie, I love interviews so much. I am continually amazed at how inspired our leaders are- in every part of the church... I also found out that our Bishop here in Iraja is a member of the 70.... yeah... I am soo glad that I didn’t know that the first week. I would have been so nervous for our meetings... now I have just accepted that’s how it is- and I am actually stoked because He is so inspired and really helps us with the work.

All of the members are so excited to help us- I never seen a ward like this in my life- they actually have gotten upset with us this week when we haven’t called them to go on lessons with us- we haven’t had time! haha... but it has continually amazed me this week at how many blessings the Lord has given me in my life.. I continually am amazed at how he helps me to testify... this past week we have had to testify in English- and now I know that the Lord has really given me the gift of tongues because he had to help me remember English. It was really hard. Who would have ever thought that English would be hard...?

I am so grateful for this gospel; share it with others! This week I have really seen the power of member referencias... We have such a responsibility to share the gospel with others around us. We never know who will accept the gospel- and now I can see that these 4 people who will be baptized this next Sunday ALL came because of members. It wasn’t us who did the work, the Lord allowed us to be here to help, but it was the members who did the work, and the Lord most of all.. How awesome is the mission- that the Lord allows us a chance to learn and grow, to laugh, to love, to cry, to study, to work, and then let us even think that we did something to help others... It is such a miracle!

Anyway, this is getting a little too serious for me, but I promise that I am still laughing and having lots of funny moments each day. We are still cleaning the apartment... Today we finally got off the mold on the shower doors... that would be 3 or 4 containers of bleach that we went through to make that happen... so yeah, looks like maybe we can start on one of the other rooms... haha. And I am so excited because Sister Condie says we can throw out the sofas in our apartment... I don’t know why there are sofas... they look like they went through a war first off, and there are things living in them. haha...

Anyway, its time to be off and get going, I love you all... thank you sooo much for all of the prayers and love I continue to feel from all of you- I am so grateful, sorry that I am really bad about writing back, but I really am so grateful!!!

Com Amor
Sister Monroe

Elders, Elders, Elders.... But lots of Fun anyways!

Ok so this was an awesome past week (I have written that so many times, I know, I know.) But it seriously passed fast then any other week in my life. I have a feeling this transfer will fly by. This week was awesome!! It was so great... first off, I guess I will describe a little bit of where I am, since I apparently forgot that last time.

I am in the city of Ribeirao Preto, in the richest neighborhood, Jardim Iraja. We work in a lot of the neighborhoods here, and there are a ton of skyscrapers here. It seriously is sooo different from my last area. I am living in the city here, I feel like I am living in New York... it is always, always loud, we live in an apartment with a bakery downstairs, and there are always cars, a lot of people, and a lot of excitement.

And the ward here is FANTASTIC. I don’t know what to do with myself. Yesterday was the first Sunday I haven’t had to teach a class on the spot or give a talk or play the organ or conduct the music... or all of the above. Ha-ha. And, its a little bit crazy in this ward- the Bishop is the old mission president of Manaus. And the stake president lives in our ward. And nearly all of the members here are judges or very important business men... so wow, its a little crazy. And, the Leaders of the Zone use to work here, and so its a little bit of a pressure point here because we have all of this... but... the Lord really had sisters in mind here because lets just face it- they needed us... ha-ha, no I really am not being cocky, but the Lord has just poured out his blessings on us, because the thing is, Sisters and Elders teach differently, and so we have the capacity to touch different people differently. It has been an awesome week because the Lord has guided us sooo clearly in every moment. I have never felt so on fire, and so guided- ok so here are some of the things that happened this week-

- First some of the funny. Our apartment is still a wreck. We cleaned all Pday last week, and it still looks like we haven’t cleaned in years. I can’t even begin to talk about the mold. But we keep cleaning a bit everyday, so maybe by the end of the transfer it will be clean.

-Also, one night we arrived home to find out that our power had been cut. Yes, our beloved Elders had forgotten to pay, not one, but two bills the past transfer! And they didn’t leave any bills for us to even know who to call. So we ended up having to travel to the center of Ribeirao Preto, which was an adventure because we didn’t know where that was... then I had to call the energy department and explain to them the situation- which was funny because who knows these energy words in English, let alone in Portuguese? And then we had try and find how to find the bus to get back to our area, and then try to find out if the men had already come... really this story is too long, too funny, too complicated to do it justice... but it didn’t resolve itself quickly. Luckily, we again have power- so we can plan at night and eat.

- We have been lost a lot this past week, we didn’t have a map for a good while, and we also didn’t have any member numbers or addresses... finally yesterday at church we got these- Yay! But, the Lord certainly works in his own way, because even those these thing would have helped- the Lord guided us and we found people to teach! The ward here helped us soo much, to say that they are excited to have sisters is an understatement! We were helped sooo much, and felt so much love from the members as they have been patient with our blunders and mistakes. (Did I mention that they have a member here like Julie Warcup... it’s the weirdest thing! She does exactly the same things!)

-I know that I am supposed to be here right now. We had so, so, many experiences, where when people opened the door, I knew that I had seen this house, or this family, before in my life. I have never felt so guided by the Lord. There was one time where we had an address, which we knew was right. But when we went there, a family opened the door, and even though it was the wrong family, Sister Labadie and I could barely speak, I knew that I had seen that family before. I knew that we had to find that family.

- We also found another family that is gold!! They have been waiting for us for so long- Lia and Danielo. Lia’s aunt is a member in the US, and we received the reference, and called and went there. They are a really, really young couple, they were married a year ago, and when we taught them- it was the same thing- I knew that I had known them before. I knew we were supposed to be there in that exact moment.

-We also accidentally found a menos ativo family this week, and the mother was smoking. She said she had never been able to quit, and as we taught her, Sister Labadie did the most amazing thing- she got up, grabbed the cigarettes, walked to the bathroom, got them wet, and threw them away. She was teaching so strongly to this woman that she didn’t need them- and the spirit was so strong. It was a really courageous thing of Sister Labadie to do- and just an awesome moment.

- We also are teaching an American, Bobby, whose wife is just like Julie Warcup and is a member. He has gone through many, many, missionaries... but we feel really different with him. We know we are called here to help him too... He is really old, and like the most eccentric old man ever… you know like the old men on Return to Me? Yeah, like that! He’s a riot, and lived in Italy 20 years, America 29 years, and now Brazil. It was really hard teaching him because we had to teach him in English... I was stumbling over all my words.

- I really haven’t even begun to do this week justice, and this email is already so long. But I just have to testify that this has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest past week of my life. I have decided to focus on the restoration and the first vision, and I have seen how this has made a turning point in how I can testify with the spirit. I cannot believe how the Lord has poured out his blessings to help us understand and speak Portuguese, to help us find our way through the area, how he has put people directly in our paths. We decided our goal in our companionship was to be more like the Savior- and this has been so powerful... we have prayed so much more, and really pleaded that we could be instruments in his hands here.

I know that this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and restored all of the truths that we need to truly be happy. I have been happier then I can ever remember these past 7 and half months, and this past week was maravilhosa. I am so grateful for this chance to be here- thank you soo much for all of your prayers, they have helped me soo much.

I love you all!!
Com Amor
Sister Melanie Monroe

No Words...where on the earth am I?

OK, so I am just going to warn all of you now- this is going to be a long, long email because I haven’t written a decent email in more then 3 weeks. And I have a ton of news. First off, I have been transferred- to oh wait I have to find the paper- Jardim Irajá... it’s an area in Ribeirao Preto that is-- gasp new! That is right- I am opening up a new area, well new area for sisters. There were Elders there, and they were Ld’s (That would be the district leaders) and I have a new American companion Sister Labadie, who only has 2 months less then me... wow, can I just say that it will truly be the Lord that leads us this week, because I don’t even know our address... we don’t know any ward members... we kind of wondered around until we found an internet place.. I hope we can find our way home. haha!

And wow, this area is soooo different from my last area. This area is really, really rich- it’s like America. I don’t even feel like I am in Brasil… I am currently on a mac computer- I almost fell over with happiness when I saw it... and they had an escalator in this shopping mall... and a drinking fountain.... and we used a bathroom with automatic sinks… seriously all of these things are so strange to me now. It was so weird. And it is so weird talking a bit of English now... soo weird.

Anyways, I am super, super stoked for my new companion, Sister Labadie. She is awesome!!!! It feels more like a long lost friend, we have already laughed so much as we have made blunders and also when we saw our apartment, which is more then horrendous. To say that it is messy would be an understatement. It is sujia demais... like there is trash everywhere, they left food, and old shoes, a horrible stench everywhere... it is awful. I don’t think they ever cleaned it. So that will be our number one thing to do today, so although this will be a long email, I can’t write letters today because honestly a full days clean on this apartment wouldn’t do it justice. I already made videos of it... but we will make some videos of us cleaning. Wow… seriously its horrible.

But anyways, just to fill you guys in on my last 3 weeks in Porto Ferreira... there is so much to say. This last transfer for me was truly the hardest- there were soo many good people prepared for us, it just so happened that all of them chose not to be baptized and progress... and I couldn’t really do more than that. It is the hard part of missionary work, is seeing where these people could be, but having to let them make their own decisions. Free Agency is after all, one of our greatest gifts.

But I can truly say that I worked my hardest in my last 5 months in Porto Ferreira. It was interesting because in the last few days there, I felt that I was going to be transferred. I just knew it- and I felt so satisfied with my work. I was able to see the ward grow here- and see what families returned to church, what people joined the church, how the members grew... it truly was a blessing to see and look at each member- and know that I loved each and everyone, and that I tried to help each and everyone. Perhaps the hardest part was saying goodbye to Milena, and her family... She was my second baptism there, and it was a huge, huge fight to have her baptized... Her mom didn’t want her to be baptized. But the contrast- now her mom wants to be baptized (she is just waiting for a divorce… good luck here in Brasil) and her mom also wants both of her daughters to serve missions. Wow... huge difference.

And, as far as miracles go- I never had time to write about my Christmas miracle- its quite a funny story, but I think my time is almost up- so I will save that story for next week… my family already knows the story because I shared it with them on Christmas day. But it was an awesome thing that happened, we helped a lost dog return home to its family, which happened to be a menos ativo (less active) family, and the best part of all is that this family has returned to the church. Wow, the way the Lord works truly amazes me.

Anyways, this letter is kind of scattered brained, but it is time to go now, we have to go wander around and find a supermarket, and a bank, and our house again. haha... it really is so funny... it would be funnier if I wasn’t senior, and didn’t feel the responsibility quite so strongly. The good thing is that I have had really, really good companions who have trained me well, and trained me that there really isn’t a senior or junior- its a group thing! I think what scares me a little bit more is that my Portuguese will have to save us- good thing we have the spirit on our side!

Ok, I am off- but I love you all... thank you soo much for all of the love I feel from you guys- sorry I have been a slacker in the writing department, but I promise I have an excuse- and I will make up for it now!

com muito amor-
Sister Melanie Monroe

Loiro and Doida

Ok, so that line means blond and crazy. Yes that’s me. And I have exactly 3 minutes to write about the last 3 weeks. ahhh... so I don’t even know where to begin. My last 2 pdays have fallen on Holidays, and so everything was closed. And when I say everything was closed... everything. We didn't even see dogs in the streets. So there was no chance to email. And this week we had a SuperPday...now these pday things are fun, but secretly I would rather just have some time to recuperate, organize, and write people... this makes the 3rd week in a row that I can't really write an email. Sorry folks, but I hope next week we will have more luck... we shall see.

But as far as some miracles that have happened- it’s been an incredibly challenging but testimony growing last few weeks. It has rained almost every day the last week... we are continuing to see miracles in the way the Lord puts people in our paths, but sadly everyone has their choice and their free agency to choose whether or not to accept our message. But the Lord has blessed me to see that I can only invite, and then choose to be happy and excited no matter what...it’s definitely been a growing time for me.

OK time is up, I promise that I am happy and well...sorry this is so short but I love you all. Happy New Year!!!

Love Sister Monroe