This Week‏

Hey everyone!


How are you all doing? I can´t believe it´s so summery there - here winter´s finally starting to arrive (maybe). I´m pretty sure it´s not going to be anything like people say it is! I believed the hype, but if these people spent the winter in Utah they would all freeze to death.


So it was another good week! The highlight was the family of Eva and Gilberto. We visited with the stake counselor who´s taking care of our ward right now (we have no bishop) and talked about the priesthood. Gilberto, who´s always kind of been lagging behind, really clicked with him. When Presidente Lupe asked what feelings they were having during the lesson, Gilberto said, "I´m believing your words." Then, best of all, when we got to church on Sunday all four of them were sitting in a pew together! Them and their two daughters, 14 and 21. They had a great time, loved everything, didn´t stay with us (a good thing) and...it was great to see them all there. I´m so excited for their family. We found out a bit ago, I don´t know if I told you, but that we started visiting them right at a time when their family was going through a huge problem. So I´m so glad we were put in their life to help them:)


The sad part of Sunday was Cinthia and Wagner - we were there at 8:40 like we said to walk with them, but they just simply didn´t answer. Their uncle who lives in...a different house but the same building (brasilian thing) answered and said he didn´t think they were there, and that he called and no answer. So that was really sad. We didn´t get there to see what happened yet, but I know they´ll be members, it´s just a matter of when!


We made a really interesting contact this week. We were knocking a street before coming home, and there was a lady standing out on her porch, so we walked up and said hi. People get really suspicious when you come up to talk to them at night, so I didn´t know how she´d respond, but she said hi so happily it surprised us and almost started laughing, that happy. So we talked for a bit, she said she was really needing God in her life and knew she should go to church, that she was going through all kinds of problems in her family, and had even lost her son two years ago...she started crying while telling us about it. Then she asked what church we were from - when we answered, she said "You´re kidding!" (actually in portuguese, "lie!") I thought she was going to say, "I heard that church was a cult" or something (lots of people do), but she said, "I´ve always wanted to go inside that church! I pass it all the time, and I told my daughter one day I didn´t want to die before I got to know that church". We told her God sent us to help her with her problems and help her fulfill her dream of knowing the church. She said we couldn´t come in right then, but she´d wait for us on Saturday. So it was amazing, but when we got to our appointment on Saturday, no one answered:( It´s always like that, there´s always a ton of opposition getting to the people who really need it, but we´ll get there!


So....the week is going well. Our ward is getting better - when we got here, it was super low in attendance and everyone was gossiping and backbiting about each other.....the bishop was doing the best he could, but it was kind of out of control. So they released him and now a stake counselor is in charge of our ward, who´s kind of snapping everything back to order. It´s been good - I was so tired of listening to people gossip! It can really kill people´s tender testimonies. But everything´s getting better.


So that´s about all the stories from this week I think. Everything´s going great! I can´t believe how fast the time is passing - I realize more every day how much I need to make every minute count. I´m so grateful to be here, getting a chance to represent the Savior and help feed His sheep. I learn more every day than I ever thought possible - looking back, it seems like I really didn´t know anything before I started. There´s kind of a theme of what I´m learning - it´s summed up by something Ann M. Dibb said in her Conference talk from October about holding to the iron rod. She said she was talking to her dad (Pres. Monson) about everything, how the blessings of the gospel are so important in our lives, and that he said, "Ann, they are everything." That´s what I´m learning more every day here. The blessings of the gospel - to be sealed to our families for all eternity, to have peace in this world and the promise of eternal life in the world to come....they´re everything. I´m so grateful to know that, and that I´m here having that knowledge reinforced every day. I love you all so much, and pray for you always!


Love always,
Heather