Strange Things are Happening...(To My Companion)

1/27/14

What a week... I don´t even know where to begin.

First, I think my companion is dying. Literally! She has had about everything imaginable happen to her this past week, I swear! Right now, she´s wearing a neck brace... No, we didn´t fight, and no, her neck isn´t seriously injured. She´s just in a lot of pain. She had some sort of freak, out of nowhere, in the middle of her shower, stiff neck... STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING AROUND HERE! She left the bathroom yesterday morning, holding her neck, crying and calling my name. She couldn´t even lift her head. We called a member and got a ride to the hospital(after talking to Sister Wright of course), spent 3 hours there, and I left with a weepy companion in a neck brace... (she was on drugs). Earlier this week, she had a broken blood vessel in her eye... It´s still there, but I don´t think you can see it in the picture... Let´s just say, it looks like I´m walking around with a zombie every day. My poor companion!

Other than all the crazy things that are going on, we've had some really great experiences this week as well. We were blessed to have another baptism. He´s a 9 year old named Eduardo. His mother was baptised when she was about 8 or 9 years old, and we´ve been blessed with the opportunity to help bring her back to the gospel by teaching her son. She went to our baptism last week(she´s the neighbor of the girl we baptized) and she cried when she walked into the chapel. It was a really spiritual experience. I´ve never had such a testimony of `the spirit of the chapel` until now. She remembered how much the gospel meant to her and her family while she was growing up. It was amazing.

 

I was sweating so bad at this baptism... Don´t judge! It´s like 112 degrees, with humidity! It´s hot!

Sister Rodrigues and I have one more week together for sure, and then I think that she´s going to be transferred. She´s been in this area for a long time. It´s been a crazy transfer, but it´s been great. I´m looking forward to seeing all the great things that are still to come here in Fernandes.

I love you all and miss you like crazy! I hope all is well, and that everyone´s happy and healthy.

I know that the gospel is true and that it brings happiness to families and happiness to our lives. I´m so grateful for our Heavenly Father´s love for his children, and for my opportunity to share that love with the world. Or actually just Brazil, but still!


Tchau tchau for now now!


Sister Stevens

Random Pictures

1/20/14

The weeping angels found me in Brazil... I´m writing you from 1998.  It´s awful.  No one uses cell phones, and I´m sending this with crappy dial up... 

I found Howl´s moving castle here on the mission.  Right now it´s resting on the street Onze de Junho... We´re teaching people that live here.  I´ve never been inside.  

Batismo

1/20/14

Hello Family! This was another Semana de Excelencia! Woohoo a week of excellence! Sister Rodrigues and I sweated our butts off and managed to complete all of our goals this week. It was a lot of hard work, but it always feels so good to say that we did it! This is our second week of excellence in the transfer, and we´re gonna try for another this week!

This past week was fantastic. Sister Rodrigues and I went to the Porto Alegre temple. It was beautiful, and we were also able to meet up with some of our missionary friends that happened to be up there at the same time. It was a perfect day! And like every perfect day on the mission, the temple trip ended with a crazy down pour on the streets of Porto Alegre! Just imagine 20 missionaries running for cover at the bus stop... 

  

    

On Wednesday Sister Rodrigues and I had another miracle! A baptism! Her name is Alexandra Silva da Silva. She´s 8 years old, and the third member of her family to be baptized. Her two older siblings were baptized before I got here. She´s usually a little fireball, but on the day of her baptism, she was surprisingly well behaved. I think it´s because she knew it was her special day. Like always, I made brownies to celebrate. By the way, people here think I´m the coolest thing on the planet because I make brownies... They just don´t realize that I make them from a package! haha But I have to say, brownie mix in the U.S. is better...

It was a week of awesome, and things are going well here in Fernandes. We have another baptism this week too! His name is Eduardo, and he´s 9 years old. Like I said last week, we seem to only baptize children here in Fernandes. I think it´s our calling or something. But that´s ok, because they´re a lot more fun to teach then the adults.

Oh, and Sister Rodrigues and I found a family of eleitas! A mom and two children(the dad was on vacation somewhere). We just happened to knock on their door, and they let us in. The 8 year old daughter was just about the cutest thing that I´ve ever seen, and she was answering all of our questions. They agreed to pray about our message, and we plan to visit them again this week. The lesson was so fantastic and so full of the spirit!

Anyway, the work is progressing here, and we´re working hard to help the people here in Porto Alegre North. It´s hotter than heck, but the work is sweet.

I hope that you are all happy and well, and doing better than last week! I´ve been praying a lot for you. Have an awesome week, and don´t forget that the gospel is true!

Love,

Sister Stevens

Santa Finally Came!

1/14/14

A Christmas Miracle!

12/30/13

This week was full of Christmas miracles! I don´t even know where to begin. First off, Feliz Natal and um prospero Ano Novo to all of you.



Snowflakes!


This week was Christmas, obviously, so my first Christmas miracle was spending time talking with the family! It was only 40 minutes, and it passed so fast, but it was great!


The day after Christmas, Sister Rodrigues and I had our second Christmas miracle.

My new companion Sister Rodrigues

Our first baptism of the transfer! His name is Caio Balhego and he´s 9 years old. He´s so stinking cute! The baptism day was full of crazyness... Sister Rodrigues and I accidently filled the font to the point where it started to Overflow... But wait, there´s more. Sister Rodrigues and I spent the next hour afterwards filling buckets and dumping water down the bathroom sink... But wait, there´s more! Then, when we finally got the water down to a normal level, we realized that there was something wrong with the font, and that the water was slowly draining! What. The, HECK?! So, all of our hard work was for nothing. So many things went wrong that day. We didn´t have many lessons, Sister Rodrigues left the baptismal record at the house of an investigator, the baptism started about 45 minutes late, etc, etc, etc, but the baptism happened and it turned out great none the less. It´s amazing how many things can go wrong on the day of a baptism, but that´s because the adversary is trying to do anything he can to stop it from happening.




oops ... we overfilled the font!



                                                        Baptism of Caio

Our third Christmas miracle happened yesterday. Here on the mission, we have this perpetual weekly goal that we´re always trying to achieve. It´s called A Semana de Excelência a.k.a- A Week of Excellence. To achive this week of excellence, you have to have 1 baptism, 3 investigators with baptismal dates, 3 investigators in church on Sunday, 10 new investigators, 120 contacts, 12 lessons taught with members, and at least 13 other lessons. Well, it was a difficult week, but Sister Rodrigues and I did it! We had our first Week of Excellence here on the mission! It was so cool. I know, I know, It really dosn´t sound all that cool, but when you realize how much work goes into a week of excellence, it´s pretty much the greatest thing that could´ve happened. Especially during the week of Christmas. What a miracle! Hardly anyone answers the door for you, and if they do they tell you they´re about to go on vacation... It doen´t make any sense how we managed to have a week of excellence as I look back on the days, but with certainty, I know that miracles happen with the help of the Lord. When we do our best to reach a righteous goal, the Lord makes up the rest.

This week was so fantastic. I´m so grateful for the help of the Lord in my life. I know that we can all accomplish wonderful things when we put in our best efforts and rely on the Lord.

I miss you all and I pray that you will all have a successful new year!


Love,

 Sister Stevens