Por favor, eu não quero mais (Please, I want more cake)
Wow, another week has flown by and it was incredible. Here were some of the highlights-
-We had Zone Conference, and this time Sister Labadie had to give a talk. haha. She did awesome, and it was cool because we got special permission to bring Douglas with us. He was in heaven, because he will be serving a mission in 1 year.
-speaking of Douglas, I have never seen a person more passionate about the gospel then him. When anyone says the name "Joseph Smith" he just jumps with excitement... he said once, wow, the name Joseph Smith just has power!! He wants to go out on visits with us everyday... and then when he goes on visits, he gets so excited to bear his testimony- it is so simple, but so powerful. He has some incredible gifts of the spirit too, he can read people so well... he visited some pesquisadores with us and he knew exactly their problems and doubts, even though we had never told him. And he is so excited to serve a mission, he just gets crazy thinking about it. So he loved conference.
-Our new house is great. I feel clean for the first time in 3 months, its just way more exciting!
-our members here keep giving us chocolate cake. I don’t know why. I find it ironic that the dessert that everyone loves the most is chocolate cake, exactly the same! I know I shouldn’t complain, Michael is there in the north starving, meanwhile I am here with a ridiculous amount of bolo (or cake)..... pois é.
-We had all three of our baptisms fall through, but we are still pushing forward. We have some incredible people that are still progressing; it is all about using our time and doing our part. Friday during the day was a bit discouraging, because most of our efforts were falling through, but then in a matter of 2 hours, everything changed. We met first one amazing woman, Marcia, because we had to use the bathroom. She loved everything, read a lot of the Book of Mormon, and came to church! Then Friday night, as we were heading home, we made one last contact as we were waiting for the elders to call the payphone. She burst into tears, and so we sang a hymn for her, and asked her when we could come back to visit her. She was excited and accepted the visit.
She lives like on our corner- and we visited her the next day. Her mother Teresa, (Her name is Merina) and her grandmother loved it all. It was an incredible lesson... as we were bearing our testimony and talking about the first vision, Teresa asked us with tears in her eyes, how to pray. She said that no one had ever taught her, and so she had never taught her daughter. We told them we would all pray at the end of the lesson together. And then as we were winding up the lesson, she asked us if she could be baptized after she knew it was true.... she beat us to the baptismal question!! It was incredible... and then at the end, we all knelt in prayer and each of us took turns saying a simple, sincere prayer. Teresa and Merina were crying as they said the first prayers of their life. They went to church with us the next day, and Teresa just cried and cried through the first meeting. It was so powerful to me at how much I take for granted, the power of prayer! I great up knowing how to pray, and knowing the Pae Celestial was always there to listen to us... can you imagine learning to pray when you are 53?
Really, I am just so grateful for all the blessings that I have in my life. This week I reflected in a little about all that I have learned during my mission. My love has grown for every principle of the gospel. I have been so blessed to be raised by goodly parents, and I am even luckier to be living right now in Brasil, learning so much everyday. I am so grateful for the power of prayer, and for the power of the scriptures, and for the blessings the Lord gives us when we make the right choices- mainly our families!!
Here is a Brazilian quote that I heard this week that I liked-
"Quando tem pedras que caim em sua caminha, usam elas para fazer sua mansão." More or less it means that when you have rocks in your path; use them to build your mansion. It is so true, when we overcome our trials, even when we think we can’t give more; there is always a blessing and better way right around the corner!
Anyways, I love you all, happy May almost... Que loca rapaz!!!
Tchau, Sister Melanie Felony Monroe
-We had Zone Conference, and this time Sister Labadie had to give a talk. haha. She did awesome, and it was cool because we got special permission to bring Douglas with us. He was in heaven, because he will be serving a mission in 1 year.
-speaking of Douglas, I have never seen a person more passionate about the gospel then him. When anyone says the name "Joseph Smith" he just jumps with excitement... he said once, wow, the name Joseph Smith just has power!! He wants to go out on visits with us everyday... and then when he goes on visits, he gets so excited to bear his testimony- it is so simple, but so powerful. He has some incredible gifts of the spirit too, he can read people so well... he visited some pesquisadores with us and he knew exactly their problems and doubts, even though we had never told him. And he is so excited to serve a mission, he just gets crazy thinking about it. So he loved conference.
-Our new house is great. I feel clean for the first time in 3 months, its just way more exciting!
-our members here keep giving us chocolate cake. I don’t know why. I find it ironic that the dessert that everyone loves the most is chocolate cake, exactly the same! I know I shouldn’t complain, Michael is there in the north starving, meanwhile I am here with a ridiculous amount of bolo (or cake)..... pois é.
-We had all three of our baptisms fall through, but we are still pushing forward. We have some incredible people that are still progressing; it is all about using our time and doing our part. Friday during the day was a bit discouraging, because most of our efforts were falling through, but then in a matter of 2 hours, everything changed. We met first one amazing woman, Marcia, because we had to use the bathroom. She loved everything, read a lot of the Book of Mormon, and came to church! Then Friday night, as we were heading home, we made one last contact as we were waiting for the elders to call the payphone. She burst into tears, and so we sang a hymn for her, and asked her when we could come back to visit her. She was excited and accepted the visit.
She lives like on our corner- and we visited her the next day. Her mother Teresa, (Her name is Merina) and her grandmother loved it all. It was an incredible lesson... as we were bearing our testimony and talking about the first vision, Teresa asked us with tears in her eyes, how to pray. She said that no one had ever taught her, and so she had never taught her daughter. We told them we would all pray at the end of the lesson together. And then as we were winding up the lesson, she asked us if she could be baptized after she knew it was true.... she beat us to the baptismal question!! It was incredible... and then at the end, we all knelt in prayer and each of us took turns saying a simple, sincere prayer. Teresa and Merina were crying as they said the first prayers of their life. They went to church with us the next day, and Teresa just cried and cried through the first meeting. It was so powerful to me at how much I take for granted, the power of prayer! I great up knowing how to pray, and knowing the Pae Celestial was always there to listen to us... can you imagine learning to pray when you are 53?
Really, I am just so grateful for all the blessings that I have in my life. This week I reflected in a little about all that I have learned during my mission. My love has grown for every principle of the gospel. I have been so blessed to be raised by goodly parents, and I am even luckier to be living right now in Brasil, learning so much everyday. I am so grateful for the power of prayer, and for the power of the scriptures, and for the blessings the Lord gives us when we make the right choices- mainly our families!!
Here is a Brazilian quote that I heard this week that I liked-
"Quando tem pedras que caim em sua caminha, usam elas para fazer sua mansão." More or less it means that when you have rocks in your path; use them to build your mansion. It is so true, when we overcome our trials, even when we think we can’t give more; there is always a blessing and better way right around the corner!
Anyways, I love you all, happy May almost... Que loca rapaz!!!
Tchau, Sister Melanie Felony Monroe
posted by Bev at 5:17 PM
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