November 26, 2012

HELLO!! HELLO!!

We had another baptism on Saturday!! Seriously Heavenly Father is blessing us with miracles here. The man who was baptized has a sister who is a member of the church and she gave the message at the baptism about how she has been inviting him to church for years and he never accepts and he met with the missionaries before, but didn't want to change his life bla bla bla and NOW he was being baptized. Everyone was crying, it was so beautiful. So never give up on anyone because after years of prayers he finally accepted the gospel. He has had a really hard life, his wife died a couple of months ago and he attempted suicide twice, but now he has the chance to start his life over. Really, I am so grateful I got to meet him and teach him the gospel and see him get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. He is going to be such a strong member of the church. It's all in God's timing, right? And his kids are so adorable. His oldest daughter was baptized a few years ago and used to go to church with her aunt, but then her aunt moved so she stopped, but we reactivated her and she is so grateful to be able to go to church with her whole family. She has such a strong testimony too. I am positive that her testimony is what touched her dad's heart and she is only 13. At the baptism one of our other investigators played the guitar while my comp. and I sang, in Portuguese. We sang a primary song... I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain... In the waters of baptism... something something. I only remember how it goes in Portuguese. It was beautiful though. 

I tried some new foods this week. A fruit called pinha. I attached a photo. It was fun to try, but not my new favorite by any means. You know what I am loving though, coconut milk or as they call it here aguá de coco. Last night we were visiting a man for the first time and after he offered some to us and Sis. Ferreira doesn't like it but I hadn't ever tried it so of course the galega had to try. He brings out some coconuts and a HUGE knife/sword and starts hacking away then pours it into a cup for me. It was delicious and apparently much better than in other parts of Brazil. Next time I am going to drink it straight out of the coconut, but I am a beginner for now, you know? Other food I am loving: doce de leite w/strawberry jam and crackers. YUM. Not healthy, but delicious and quick when I get home and am starving at night. I forgot Thanksgiving, but the elders in our district kindly informed me that they made themselves an apple pie. So sweet of them to share. 

My comp. and I had a great companionship inventory this week. We really hashed some things out. Not that we ever had a moment that we didn't love each other, but being with someone 24/7 for 10 weeks you need to talk about things sometimes. I am now going to try to be more humble and accept my weaknesses and try to not to take offense to things, but rather look for the good. It is weird because it is things I already knew about myself, but am seeing in a different way. Like how I don't like to be vulnerable or talk about my feelings very much. I never thought that I took offense easily, but lately I have been way sensitive. It's good to be able to develop some new communication skills though. I think that being a sister missionary is way different than elders. Seriously, my comp. and I cry a lot. Tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of fear, tears of basically every emotion. I can't believe she is going to be gone in 2 weeks!!! Seriously things will be so different. It's like starting my mission over again almost. I am excited to see who my next comp. will be though. Transfers are 12 December. 

It's still hot here, as in I haven't stopped sweating for probably 2 weeks straight. I wake up sweating, I go to bed sweating, during the day I don't stop sweating, but my comp. and I met the mission standards of excellence again this week with 3 baptisms scheduled, 3 investigators at church, 10 lessons with members, and more than 15 others. Hopefully we keep seeing the fruits of the promise our mission president made that if we meet these standards we will have baptisms!! Wahoo!!

Love you all! 

Sister Udy