STELLAR SOULS

STELLAR SOULS

This week was pretty loco! The people here are either very poor or super rich. We are teaching most of our investigators in the poor area.  They are stellar and progressing well, but it is difficult with the danger in some areas. My comp is Brazilian so she knows how people are and if they are armed and what they are saying/planning. She checks my clothing every day to make sure its not too American/rich looking. We have the spirit and God is with us and so we need not fear. 

Some things I loved about this week:

-Our Relief society presidentes name is Lisania (sounds like lasagna) hahaha like the food....kinda funny

-I LOVE Brazilian culture. We needed to go to the bathroom one night and stopped by a members home. She was so sweet, let us in, fed us dinner and gave us a snack for our walk home. A complete meal! Crazy sweet. All we needed was the bathroom and she did so much more. Also, we asked a man if we could have an orange from his tree.....he picked about 20 for us and put it in a bag.....people are so giving.  

-We have a member who gives us so many references. It's amazing! His name is I. G. and he literally is the perfect example of member missionary. I feel so blessed to know him.

-I had melon juice at a members house....like cantelope....it was weird haha but cool!

-There was a huge hot air balloon event here that everyone talked about all day every day. It was way cool looking in the sky and seeing tons of air balloons!

-My comp is amazing and so sweet. She has the strongest testimony. I seriously am the luckiest missionary to have her as my trainer

-I loved reading G. letters and mom and dad, they made me emotional. Thank you for your love and support!!!

-We taught P. this week. Miracle!!! We talked about the restoration & when it came my turn to speak, the words literally just came. It was amazing. The spirit is so wonderful when it speaks through you! He bore testimony that even though my Portuguese isn't perfect, he can understand me because of the spirit. It was an amazing feeling hearing a man testify of the spirit when he has only been investigating for a couple weeks. And an amazing feeling for me to feel like the language will come haha

-I had the opportunity to teach a man Family history!!! Way cool to use what I learned from my calling in the US. But so hard doing familysearch in Portuguese hahaha

-All in one day: I was sick, my bed broke, the shower broke, and the water didnt work. awesome, huh? 

-M.B. is the cutest old lady ever! She is getting so excited for her baptism and it is so sweet visiting with her every day. She has a love of the church that bursts out of her eyes when we teach her something knew. It is so sweet to experience and we are so excited. It will be a special day for sure. She calls us her "little shepherds"

I continue to absolutely LOVE Brazil. I love everything about this country and people. There is no other place in the world I would rather be right now than here serving them and my Savior. This church and gospel are so perfect and true! I feel my Saviors love constantly. The languge is super hard, but I know I can do all things through Christ. He is my strength. Eu sou muito grato por esta experiência eu tenho para ensinar e encontrar pessoas aqui em Brasil. Deus é real e é nosso pai. Ele nos ama muito. Através Cristo, tudo é possível. Continua acreditando em Ele!! Eu amo vocês com tudo meu coração!!!

Sister Porter