doce é o trabalho

heyyyyyyyyyy-ooooo

so this marks the last week of the transfer and now it's for real, either sister silveira or i will be transferred from caicó. i almost cried a little as i was sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday looking at all of the members that i love so much and our sweet investigators that came to church with us. Gloria came to church again. She has made enormous improvement in her faith in God. I loved something that she said this week, that at first she was praying for oblligation, because she had to, but now she's praying because she wants to and she wants an answer from God. It's been such  a pleasure to see her grow and believe and strengthens my testimony even more that Heavenly Father knows us and answers our prayers. 

A couple of fun and less than fun things that have happened recently:

-It's raining like crazy here in Caicó!! That awkward moment when you're in a skirt and have to cross a river of rain/sewer water. The bright side is that everyone else on the street is dancing in the rain too and we invite them to church:) The elders from the other ward saw a refridgerator passing in front of them. #normal

-(Less than fun) It's raining so hard that the gutter pipes above our apartment broke and a bunch of water entered our apartment. Only destroyed our dvd player and flooded our living room, but all our books are safe and dry. #blessed

-An investigator that we are visiting gave us a dessert that looks like a blackish paste. We tried a little and Sister Silveira asked what the name of the dessert was, but i didn't hear. It was kind of good and she gave us more. It was only when we were walking back home that we bumped into a couple members and described this dessert that we just ate. What was it? CHOURICO!! It's made from pig's blood with a bunch of other spices and stuff!!! I ate pig's blood! I just about threw up in the moment. But it's safe to say that I'm stilll alive and well, so I think everything's okay:)

I love you all. Sempre. Shout out to my parents who finished the Book of Mormon together this week! And i hope you all continue reading the Book of Mormon too. If you haven't had the opportunity to pick one up, this is your challenge for the week:)

Also, shout out to everyone who send me cards and letters:) Opening letters is seriously 10x better than birthdays.

com muito amor e gratidão,

sister pace

Vinde a Cristo

This week it rained here in Caicó!!!!!! MILAGRES SÃO REAIS. It's just that now its super hot and super humid. Bleh... but other than that Sister Silveira and i had a good week. We have been teaching a couple that were references from a family in our ward. They are marvelous. They are reading the Book of Mormon and praying and loving it. There's nothing more beautiful to a missionary than progressing investigators:) They aren't married legally so hopefully we'll be planning a baptism and a wedding;) 

I pray for all of you and hope that you're all doing well and giving references to the missionaries too! 

-sister pace

fotos: my area. a dried up river. it's beautiful.

walking in the sun every day for 14 months gives you tan lines. (yes, don't worry, i use sunscreen..)

novo ano!

happy new year! feliz ano novo!

this week was great, and even greater because we were able to bring a family to church yesterday! josé and his son mateus and a few other of our investigators came to church and liked it a lot. i love the first sunday of month because miracles happen. it's ridiculously hot here and we had proof of this when a woman who is from campina grande visited our ward and said that she and her husband were praying for the missionaries on saturday because it was EXTREMELY HOT. its always over 100 degrees and i'm living because of a miracle haha.

i've been studying lately, well it's been a while now, about grace. it's after everything that we can so that grace will save us because who really dideverything was Christ. don't give up. keep trying. you're doing better than you think you are:) 

Trying to understand God’s gift of grace with all ourheart and mind gives us all the more reasons to loveand obey our Heavenly Father with meekness andgratitude. As we walk the path of discipleship, it refinesus, it improves us, it helps us to become more like Him,and it leads us back to His presence. “The Spirit of theLord [our God]” brings about such “a mighty change inus, … that we have no more disposition to do evil, but todo good continually.”

 -pres uchtdorf

love you all a whole lot. thanks for all your love.

-sister pace

my comp and i and the view from our apartment

joy to the world

Olá Família e Amigos!

This week was one of the most special weeks of the year! First of all, because I'm serving in NATAL and next week we'll be celebrating NATAL...

Also, because we had our conferência de Natal which was the whole mission together and it was amazing. I saw friends, companions, leaders that made a huge impact on my life and on my mission. It was really special remembering the experiences that I've had looking back on this past year.

And the best part of this week was the baptism of Bruna:) she's 11 years old (almost 12) and told us that she'd never been so sure about something like she was when deciding to be baptized. It was through Juliana (another recent convert) that we got to know her. What I've loved in this time that we've been preparing Bruna to be baptised is really the pure and righteous desire that she has to be better. She really is so special, to me and of course to Heavenly Father:)

I really do love you all so much. And I'm thankful for this gospel and every perfect aspect of it. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ came to this earth with the most special mission and even with our many imperfections He's by our side. Amo vocês hein! FELIZ NATAL! 

-Sistem Pace

fotos: 

sister silveira (amada companheira) and i

baptism of bruna-sister silveira, bispo, bruna's stepdad, bruna, me, sueliton (LMA)

lá na judeia onde cristo nasceu

i dont have much time to write you all this week. sorry. but there's always the phrase that a picture speaks a thousand words. i'll send you a couple thousand words:)

and next week i'll write more:)

but what i do want to tell you is that i love you all a lot. remember this time of year not for the presents, but for it's real significance which is the birth of Christ. it's a privilege to testify of Him and this privilege is for everyone.

https://www.mormon.org/por/natal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_TEOyhy7Bg

beijos,

sister pace

deixa a luz do sol entrar

meus amados,

saturday was sister silveira's birthday!!!

these last two weeks have been really special. sister silveira and i have been able to work more and more with the members here in caicó and it's bringing good fruits. one thing that our mission is focusing on is the retention of new members. we have a list of who joined the church in the last year and work hard to make sure they are being well integrated with the ward. when we work with this list of new members we also are able to teach the families of those who were baptized recently and this is how we met Deborah. She is the cousin of a recent convert and i already mentioned her, but now i'm here to say that she was baptized!! She is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! it has been so cool teaching her because she applies all of what we have taught to her life and understands how much God loves her. it just goes to show that Heavenly Father REALLY REALLY REALLY puts us in the right place at the right time when we listen to Him! I am extremely grateful to know Deborah

Funny story, we have two new investigators (a couple) that we sitting in front of their house the other night. As we were walking by we gave the usual "boa noite" and kept walking to get to a member's house. After we passed by I heard the man say "she's not brazilian.." and i turned around and returned and explained how i'm not, but i'm getting there;) we ended up talking to them and we had a great conversation, they gave us cake (obrigada nordestinos que recebem tudo mundo!!;)!!) and invited them to church. THEY CAME TO CHURCH. And realized that they have a bunch of friends that are members! and so it goes that we visited them yesterday and now they have a date set for their baptisms!! it all happens so fast and so perfectly. everything fits. i'm excited to see how everything turns out:)

i love you all sempre. i hope you all have a spectacular week and spread the gospel!

p.s. it's extremely hot here. 104 degrees farenheit every.single.day. sometimes 107. and caicó is in a serious drought. pleease pray for rain here! we missionaries are needing it especially to be able to continue walking in the heat every day!!

com amor,

sistem pace

abençoadas

Meus amados irmaõs,

This week was a week of miracles, alegria, and blessings. First of all, last week we went teaching with our relief society president and she brought us to the house of her sister who is less active and has a step daughter that wasn't a member, but had visited the church a bunch of times. She came to church with us last week as well as a devotional at night. Long story short, we invited her to be baptized, the pathway was paved with gold and we taught her this week.  Juliana was baptized!!  The baptismal service was so perfect too:) it's moments like this that make every single thing worth it. But it doesn't end here, also during this week, we went to visit another less active and  when we got there we learned that they had a cousin that would be moving in with them. her name is Deborah and when we returned to talk with her, we invited her to be baptized. People, I'm talking about the Lord's elected. D&C 29:7 <--------- She´s been reading the Book of Mormon and when we prayed with her she thanked Heavenly Father for sending her cousins and us to help her know that she's loved and important to Him. She had the opportunity to watch the baptism of Juliana and loved it. 

We've been soooo incredibly blessed these lst couple of weeks. It's true that God knows what we need and what we are capable of. 

Love you all.

a little email

this week is transfers....again. time passes really fast.

also, this week i'll reach one year on the mission ahhhhhhhhhh. it's all gonna pass even faster from here on out.

i just want you all to know that i love you. and that my week was normal and good. we were able to continue working with some more members here in caicó and find some new great investigators.

also, today i cut my hair and the 13 year old daughter of the hair stylist was giving us a concert of all the music she knows on the recorder... she plays really well.

i hope you all have good, normal weeks this week too:)

-sister pace

fotos:

agua de coco mmmmmmm

bishop and his wife

Doce é o Trabalho

Meus Queridos,

These last two weeks have been really good for Sister Silveira and I. We've been able to reach our padrão de excelência (mission goals for the week) for the last three weeks so that's cool. But it's been rough at the same time to find investigators who are really progressing. That's life. What i love is that even in the middle of trials and challenges, 

we always manage to find a small miracle. For example, last week we had invited a ton of people to church, but it wasn't certain for any of them to come. We were fasting that sunday and prayed together that we'd see at least 3 of our investigators there and when we arrived we saw that one member brought her sister who's interested in the church and then we saw that another member brought his parents to see a baby blessing. It was perfect<3 It's lovely to see how the Lord works in our lives and how much He truly calls us to help families join together in the gospel.

By small and simple things... Alma 37:6-7

so much love to all of you. thanks for thinking of me:)

abraços,

sister pace

luz espalhai

Bom Dia Família!!

Transfers last weeeeeeekkk!! I left my dear Pombal and now I'm here in CAICÓ! Ahhhhhh não acredito! Not only that, but I'm finishing the training of Sister Silveira and we are opening the area! hahahaha #mylife! No, but it's all good. It's the kind of fresh start I was really needing. We already have 2 baptisms marked for next week which will be the best thing ever because we'll baptize in between sessions of General Conference! In our area we have member who recently returned from her mission in Campinas. Like 3 weeks ago. And so she's helping us a lot. Another good thing is that now there's 4 sisters living in our apartment and so long to that solitary life lol. 2 americanas e 2 brasileiras:) It's gonna be a great transfer I can feel it. This week will also be zone conference and we'll see Presidente e Sister Soares which is always a good thing too:)

A big shout out to all of you that bless my life. I consider myself so lucky to have such great family and friends. I'm so happy to be a missionary even though sometimes it's extremely hard. And if there's one thing I've learned in these 11 months it's that our Heavenly Father puts us in the right place at the right time with the right people to learn the right things. Eu amo vocês com todo meu coração<3

beijos,

sister pace

photo:

elderes e sisteres de Caicó (elder Andrade, sister Silveira, me, elder Carvalho)

a colheita

Hey friends.

This week was weird and good, but every week is weird and good, so...

Anyway, this week Sister Guimarãres, the elders in our branch, and I were able to work with some members to find less active members that live here in Pombal. And then Saturday we had a multirão (don't know how to say it in English), or an activity were a bunch of members meet in the chapel and we divide to go make a bunch of visits and have dinner afterward;) It was a great success! We had branch conference yesterday and 4 investigators came, 3 of them came by themselves!! One of them being a woman that we invited to church one time a long, long time ago. And so this was a little confirmation of the parable that I mentioned last week. 

The Seed Of The Gospel Grows Secretly Folks.

I love you all soooooooo much. Sorry my emails are kind of lame sometimes.

Com amor,

sister pace

photo: with some recent converts Leticia and Leandro:)

paz, não temais

Oi.

This week we were able to see a few ups and downs, but that's how life is right? The week started out good and we watched almost every inhabitant in Pombal march in front of our apartment for the September 7th parade (Brasil's independence day) which was cool. We also started to teach a woman, Graça and her 11 year old daughter Geane this week. As we were teaching she said that for a few years now she had been waiting for God to send her a sign to help her go back to church and then the missionaries arrived;) that's the up, and the down is that she wants to return to the Assembleia de Deus now. Chorei um pouco... but we're not giving up. When someone is so prepared like they are, the adversary works just as hard as we do! Good thing we're on the winning team;)

This week I've been studying more of Jesus the Christ and reading about the parables, and being someone who is easily fascinated with nature, I love every comparison in the bible with seeds, trees, the sea, etc.... so i liked reading this week about the parable of the seed growing secretly (Mark 4:26-29) it's comforting to know that every effort we make to share the gospel is never in vain. We just won't always be the ones that collect the fruits.

I love you all. Spread the gospel.

-sister pace

só alegria

I LOVE YOU GUYS!

SO MUCH!

Ai minha nossa! I finally received my birthday package and it was better than anything I was expecting! Muito Obrigada!!!!!!

This week was interesting too... I was in divisions again with sister Lopes, and everything weird that could happen did. But that's how it always is with her haha! Including the fact that as we were trying to find the house of an investigator, we ended up being invited to speak at a spiritualist meeting!! hahahaha! It was a cool opportunity to share our beliefs and I think that at least 5 people will go look at the church website!! And what's even better is that we found Sister Lopes' investigator there and he came to church the day after:) He'll be baptized next week!

Something that I've been able to notice being a missionary is the care that Heavenly Father has for each of His children. Really, thank you all so much for the birthday wishes you sent and even more, thank you for the motivation. Heavenly Father really does answer prayers. And He answers them mainly through other people. There's a talk that President Eyring gave at the last conference that he talked about the Comforter, being the Holy Ghost, and that as members of the church we have duty to care for the people in our lives (Mosiah 18:8-9). I'm so glad that I can be here on a mission to do this work, and I'm so grateful for those who help me too. My ward is the best ward.

dont worry, be happy

This week was gooooooooood!

Sister Guimarães and I have been able to find some really great new investigators and less active families. It's been a little hard here in Pombal because people just aren't progressing...But!! Just keep pressing on!! Where I am right now, Pombal, the church has only been here in for 5 years and so being a small branch it has some really persistent members:) And sometimes in a small branch you end up teaching Sunday School for the youth, leading the hymns during Sacrament meeting and giving a talk all in one day hahaha. It was fun:)

I love this gospel. Missionary work is really the happiest thing on earth and I like how James E Talmage says it, "Supreme happiness is not an earthly attainment." 

Read your scriptures and also Jesus the Christ;)

Invite a friend to church too!

love,

sister pace

One more thing!! Thank you Cris Patten, Addie and Elise for the letters! and in response to your questions: my favorite food is mango and yes, there are bugs here in Brasil!! :D