Oh How Lovely Was the Morning...

4/14/14

What a wonderful week! I can´t believe how fast the time is passing by, and that it´s p-day, AGAIN!

I´m still loving my area, and i´m loving the new change of weather. It´s cooling down just in time for Pascoa (Easter). All of the stores have these huge chocolate eggs hanging from the ceiling. And hopefully i´ll avoid eating fish this week... There are a lot of Catholic traditions here, so I know for sure that I won´t be eating much meat.

Sister M. Silva and I had the most amazing miracle this week! We had 4 baptisms on Saturday morning.

The day was perfect. It was rainy, but by the time everyone had to go to church for the baptism, it cleared up. We had 8 people dressed in white, it was amazing. I felt so happy, I couldn't stop smiling! 

   

Here´s a scripture that describes perfectly what I´m feeling:

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

I´m so happy here! The Lord is placing people in our path every day. Just today the boy at the McDonald´s counter (yes, we ate McDonald´s), asked us if we were from the church, and he said that he would love to receive a visit. So many times the Lord´s elects look for us, we don´t even have to search for them.

I want you all to know that I love you and miss you. But mostly I want to encourage you to seek for missionary opportunities. Pray for someone to visit. Invite a friend to church. Be a good example in all times. Just open your mouth! The Lord is preparing people to except the gospel.

Feliz Pascoa! Happy Easter! Don´t forget the importance of this wonderful holiday!


Love, Sister Emily Stevens

  

:)

4/07/14

General Conference was AWESOME, wasn't it?! What a great week, and weekend. Sister M. Silva and I have been trying our best and working our tails off here in São Luiz. We´re seeing success, and we have various baptism marked for this Saturday.

We've been trying various things to help strengthen our ward here. We've been having weekly ward activities, and English class, and working a lot with the young women and ward members. It´s been great to work along side the members and actually feel like they´re willing and ready to help.

I love this area, and I love the people! And finally, i´m starting to feel like a real missionary. I can speak and explain and teach without many problems. It´s amazing to see how much has changed in just 7 months on the mission. You know what? It´s actually hard for me to speak in English... I´m teaching an English class every week, but you should hear how slow I speak! Not because I´m trying, but because it´s actually hard to formulate sentences! Even now when I´m writing to you, I´m thinking in Portuguese.

I loved Conference! There were so many great talks, and it´s amazing to hear the words of the prophets. I had the chance to watch conference in English with several of the other English speaking missionaries, so I loved it even more!

I hope that all is well with everyone back home! I love you all and miss you!

Don´t forget that we are part of the true church of Jesus Christ. We have the power to change the world, but only through Christ like love. Love your neighbor, love your friends, love your family members and love God. If we have this love in our hearts we will truly have the ability to change the world.

Have a perfect week!


Sister Stevens

Here are some pics from this last week. President and Sister Wright, my zone with our title of liberty, conference, cake and reunions with old companions.

 

Oh and I cut my hair...or rather my companion cut my hair

Another Day, Another 100 People to Talk to

3/31/14

Hellllllloooo People!

What a week! It was awesome, it was hard, it was full of miracles!

First I had a beautiful day at the temple with my new companion. It was fantastic!

 We had lunch at Outback with the Elders from our District. It was crazy expensive, just so you all know. Definitely not the kind of place for missionaries! Especially when the waiter thinks that it´s appropriate to call you "baby..." Oh my... The adventures that we live on the mission.

The week was hot again, but we tried our best to teach. Sister M. Silva was starting to get sick, so I felt bad for her. But she´s an amazingly hard worker. She´s awesome!

We had a baptism planned for Saturday for a 15 year old girl named Sarah Diogo! She´s so amazing!

We met her the week before, and she had already been going to church, she was reading The Book of Mormon, and she had already received an answer and decided that she wanted to be baptized before we ever met her. Talk about golden! I love Sarah, So this Saturday we had a fantastic baptism for her. With a special musical presentation, brownies and all! And according to all the Brazilians that ate my brownies, I have been told that "I can marry!" Woohoo! It´s just a saying here. If you can cook something good, they say, "Pode casar," You can marry.


 

By the time Sunday came around, Sister M. Silva and I were trying to reach the goals that we had made for the week. We were behind by a landslide... Everything was against us. None of our investigators were at church, it was starting to rain (I didn't have my umbrella), and we had almost a hundred contacts to make, and a bunch of lessons with members that we needed to teach. AND we only had 3 hours to do it. Why 3 hours? Because we were stuck at lunch for hours(please remember missionaries only have an hour for lunch/dinner), and we had to go to the stake center for the women´s conference that night. We were swamped, and only a miracle would help us. Let me just tell you, about 5000000000 miracles happened. It was amazing! First of all, the last hour of church (when we have sacrament meeting) 7 investigators showed up (2 of which said they wanted to be baptized), the rain stopped, we had two sisters that wanted to go on splits with us, and we found a park with an incredible amount of people. That´s only a part of everything. But it was miraculous! I love how much the Lord helps us. I had already given up on our goals, when the Lord said, "NOPE! Here´s 7 people at church, oh, and I made the rain stop so you can make your contacts, oh, and I touched the hearts of two of the sisters at church, and they really want to help you reach your goals this afternoon..." It was amazing! I love life on the mission.

Anyway, things are great! I love this area! I feel like the Lord is literally throwing people in our path. It´s amazing! I know that the gospel is true! And I love all of you! Don´t forget to help the missionaries! They love all the help they can get! Be concious of their schedule. They have a lot of plans, and a lot of the Lord´s children to help. Oh, and don´t be afraid to help them teach. All they need is support and your testimony!


Have a perfect week!


Love, Sister Stevens