Easter Miracles

4/21/14

Hello family and friends! I hope that you all had an amazing week and an amazing Easter.

I know that I did! I loved this Easter. It was a fantastic day! Sister M. Silva and I experienced more milagres here in São Luiz. Yesterday depois Sacrament meeting, we had a special Easter baptism! The mother of Sarah (our first baptism here in São Luiz) called us on Wednesday morning just to tell us that she wanted to be baptized. What?! This was an amazing event, because she had just decided the night before that she wanted more time. She knew that this was the true church, but she didn´t feel ready for baptism. When she called, she told us that she hadn't slept the whole night... She said that she had been thinking and praying about all the things that we said to her the night before, and she said that she was ready and she wanted to be baptized. What a miracle! I´ve never had one of those experiences on the mission where someone calls you because they felt that they needed to be baptized. I love the mission! I love this area! 

 

 

It´s so fantastic to witness these families coming together and receiving the blessings of baptism.

I hope that you all have a fantastic week. Remember the importance of baptism. It really is a covenant that we make with the Lord to keep his commandments and help one another. When we make this promise with the Lord, we can receive all the glories that he has, and we can be blessed to live with our families for ever. Remember the covenants you made at baptism, and continue diligently to do your best.

I love you all!


Sister Emily Stevens

  

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

I'm a Stepmom!

3/25/14

So, I only have about 30 minutes to write. I´m going to the temple today with my new companion.

A lot has happened since last week. First we had transfers. Right now, I´m serving in area São Luiz with Sister M. Silva. She´s super cute and she´s from São Paulo. She has 2 months on the mission, and right now I´m finishing the last 6 weeks of training with her. Or actually, 5 weeks, because this transfers a little shorter than normal.

I like my new area, a lot! I've already gotten to know a lot of the members, and they´re really great.

Sister M. Silva and I have a baptism this Saturday. Her name is Sara and she´s incredible! She´s 15 years old, and she learned about the church through a friend. We taught her for the first time last week. She already had a Book of Mormon, and had been going to church for a while. So, when we asked her if she had received an answer that the church was true, her eyes filled with tears, and she quietly said yes. It was the most amazing experience! She´s the sweetest and she wants more than anything to be baptized.

This area has a lot of amazing people. I feel like this is where I´m supposed to be. Which makes me a bit nervous! Haha, because it´s always when I feel comfortable that I get transferred!

I started an English class on Saturday, and the people here are really excited. I´m really trying my hardest to be a good missionary, a good example for my companion, and also bless and strengthen this ward.

I´m running out of time, but I love you all and miss you! I´m working hard, and I´m really happy here in my new area!

Tchau, 

Sister Stevens


ps - I got my first cuia! The cup that you use for chimarrão!

It's That Time Again

3/17/14

Guess what?! It´s time once again for transfers. WHAT?! I can´t even believe that this transfer is already over. And guess what? I´m gonna be transfered. AGAIN! Tchau Tchau Cachoierinha, e heeellllloooo to a new area.

It´s a little bit bitter sweet to be leaving Cachoierinha right now. It´s a great area and I had so much fun living with the other 3 sisters. But I had a feeling that this could happen. It´s also really sad, because Sister Mariz is being transferred too. So, we´re closing our area, and putting it into the hands of two new people. This makes me so sad!!! Why? Because Sister Mariz and I have come across 3 amazing families within the past week! I just don´t want them to be forgotten about... We also have the world´s most amazing less active members that we've been bringing back to church. Shaela and João... I´m gonna miss them like crazy! But I know that this is in the Lord´s hands. He´s going to bring in 2 missionaries that will help this area to grow. We had a lot of difficulties finding members to help us, and we also had a lot of difficulties actually finding people to teach.

But like I said, this was a great week. We didn´t teach a lot of people, but the lessons that we did have were golden! One of the families said that they´ve been praying for a month that they could find out the will of Godfor their family, because they´re sick of all the deception of the other churchs they´ve been going to.

We had the most hilarious and amazing investigator in church yesterday too. He´s planning to be baptized this Sunday. His name is Everton, and he has a nephew named Elder... There are tons of stories that could be told, but like always so little time to tell them.

So, here I am knowing that I have to leave, but half of me doesn't want to.

Eh, I guess I´ve gotta suck it up! I need to learn something new in another area... Maybe they´ll send me to the beach!

Anyway, I love you all. I miss you, but I´m happy and well. I´m trying my best, which is all the Lord asks for. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ exists and that our Heavenly Father has one perfect plan for everyone in the world.

Have a perfect week!

Love, 

Sister Stevens

Last p-day Sister Stratton and I experimented with oreos and cake batter... We made the greasiest fried oreos on the face of the planet... Yuuuuummmmmm

Tchau tchau Cachoeirinho... I´ll miss all of your wonders:  The corner of luck (esquina da sorte),

Tapuru (maggot) the dog,

and the painting of a chicken eating chicken.  

Shenanigans.  And a pic with Silvio, the eternal investigator.  He's been helping missionaries since 1994.  He's amazing, and he gave us parting gifts!  I got a Gremio soccer jersey.  Woot woot.  And an MP3 player.  Random, yes.  But awesome!  

Gimme pizzzzaaaaa.  P I Z Z A

Last monday night we made pizza with the Souza family!  It was a blast!  

Que Manha Marvilhosa

3/10/14

What a week full of adventures... Let me start off by telling you about our biggest adventure of the week. It happened on Friday morning... I woke up to a comotion going on in the front room. It was around 6:30 and I was a little confused about what was happening. I asked my companion what was going on and all she said was "temos tapuru na sala..." "We have tapuru in the room" O Que??? I was super confused. One, because it was 6:30 in the morning and two

because I thought she was talking about a dog that lives down the street that they call tapuru...

So here I was confusedly thinking that a dog named tapuru was in the main room of our apartment... How the heck could he have gotten in there?

But then when I finally got out to the main room I was able to see what they were talking about(oh, and I finally realized what the word tapuru means...) There were hundreds, and when I say hundreds I mean hundreds, of maggots crawling their way across the floor of our apartment! It was horrifying! It was disgusting! One of the Sisters had left some raw chicken skin in the garbage for a couple of days, and before we knew it hundreds of maggots were crawling their way across our floor! I can´t believe I didn't take a picture...

It took us 4 hours to rid the apartment of tapuru. We had to rearrange furniture, sweep and mop over and over again, and run down to the dumpster a million times because the tapuru kept escaping from the bags of trash! But overall, it was an experience of a lifetime. And one of those things that only happens on a mission!

Since I don´t have much time left, this´ll have to do for my experience of the week. But just so you know, I did have a lot of great spiritual experiences too!

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I´m so grateful for my chance to share it with the world!

Love you all,

Sister Emily Stevens

Random:

I got a gift this week from a member of the ward. She made me a doll! It's supposed to be me! Oh, and by the way, everyone in the world here in Brazil thinks that I'm a blonde...

    

I found a friend on the street. Her name is Vaca (cow). I've run into her a few times on the street and she always runs up to meet me. What can I say, animals and babies LOVE me!

I got a package full of letters from the young women at church! It was awesome!

We had Conferencia de Zonas. A bunch of zones got together and had a conference. I ran into another sister that I met before the mission through facebook.

At lunch yesterday