Larissa

Larissa was baptized yesterday (January 25, 2015)

Salvação and Stuff

So this week was transfers and drum-roll........the obvious. I'm staying here in Mossoró with Sister Cunha, which I am eternally grateful for! I think I'm kinda getting the hang of things here finally.

This last week we worked super hard and we had 3 BAPTISMS!! Myllenna, Paulinho, and Max Emiliano. Paulinho is best friends with Mateus that we baptized a couple weeks ago and now both go to church together, go to mutual together, everything! Be still my heart!! Myllenna is hands down the cutest human being on the face of the earth and she was so nervous, but everything went so well. And we found Max´s family this week and a couple of his siblings were already baptized and we are helping his parents and sister and her boyfriend become legally married! It's so amazing how everything just falls into place and I've never felt so much joy for people I only just met! Because I was so happy I was  b e a m i n g  last Sunday being with all of them:) Sundays are seriously the most stressful/rewarding/happy/crazy days of the week and I love them. I love the people here.

And like always in other news, it's still 100+ degrees every.single.day. here and it's great...yep.

Also, since Mossoró is having a drought or something, some days we have water, some days we don't. So I'm really good at showering with a bucket and cup now:)

Love you still. And love the gospel:)

1. Us, Myllenna, all the Young Women in our ward, and a couple of our investigators!!

2. Sister Cunha, Paulinho, Max, Myllenna, and I.

Bom Dia

This week was great. Really and totally just great.

So I have a story. My first week here Sister Cunha and I kept trying to visit this guy Sansão that I'd never met and had received all the lessons, but he was never home when we stopped by. We eventually stopped going over there. BUT Friday we were walking in the favela tracting and Sister Cunha, really excited, starts talking to this man and I finally ask his name. SANSÂO! Then right there on the spot we go over the baptismal questions, tell him that he has an interview the next day and, bam. We had a baptism yesterday. It was so great. And during the baptismal service I was thinking about how fast this all had happened and how I was having a hard time adjusting to the rate of the work that we do here, but I think I've finally figured  out a good comparison. So you know how in the Book of Mormon it talks about Alma preaching the gospel and how all these people accepted and like 3,000 people are baptized in one day? It's like that exactly here. All these people are so prepared for the gospel and more than that, they are ready to act on their faith. I love it.

In other news it's been raining in Mossoró which...doesn't happen. So make sure you close your doors so no frogs come in!

Well I want you to know again this week that love each and every one of you. I hope you have lovely week:)

te amo

-sis pace

this photo is me, Sansão, Leomar (ward member), and sister Cunha

Sansão is hilarious. He knows basically everyone in our area and he was so happy to meet the ward.

Felicidades!

OI GENTE!

Como vocês estão? This week was-hallelujah-more normal than the weeks previous. That's not saying much because we had zone conference and new years and this and that....

Anyway, we finally had the baptism of Ivete this week along with Mateus who is 14 and crazy tall! It was the best day of this week:) Imagine the Spirit that was there as a 95 year old woman was baptized by her grandson and then the non member family of Mateus waited there afterward to hug her. I can't even describe just how happy the whole thing was! 

I've been studying about charity lately. Charity is the pure love of Christ and it's seriously one of the only things that gets me through the days here because now matter how little of the language you know (I've come a long way with port. though..) everyone understands charity and love. And my companion, the members in our ward, and investigators show it. So I'm grateful for that.

-sister Pace

Love you all and I'm sending more photos today!

It's a Wonderful Life

So this week was really fun and unique because of Christmas. We had Christmas Eve dinner with our zone and the stake president which was really fun. I still can't understand everything well, but I could definitely feel the joy that was there with all the missionaries:) The next day we celebrated Natal! And let's be real here for a minute everybody...we were all way trunky (trunky is a mission term that means you're thinking of home i.e. you've got your trunk all packed) Anyway, we had a happy/trunky day of eating peanut butter and chocolate that my parents sent. THANK YOU. And talked to our families later that day:) Glad to be getting back to work though.

In other news, we've been teaching the cutest 95 year old woman that I mentioned before and her baptism keeps getting pushed back because of her health, but she's still so excited:) I seriously love her. I'll send a picture soon.

Other than all that jazz we just work hard everyday. I've been studying more about the atonement and really I don't think I can express it enough, but I am so grateful for my Savior and how he was the only one that could die for us. If you can, go read the talk named "The Atonement" by Cleon Skousken. It's great. You're great.

Eu amo vocês mais do que vocês sabem.

I love you more than you know.

-sister pace

Feliz Natal from Missão Brasil Natal!!

This week has been crazy também! I think that I probably just need to get used to that. Anyway, so much has happened and I still absolutely adore my companion. She has so much patience listening to me talk because I know I sound like a child when I try to speak Portuguese.

This week I want to make a list of some of the fun things that happened...

• there is a herd of like 20 stray dogs that hang out with each other in one part of our area. (btw all the dogs here are ugly ugly ugly)
• it's mango season and I'm pretty sure I've eaten mango every single day since being here. I'm not upset...
• it's craaaaazy hot. I'm melting. and because it's so hot my ankles were way swollen last week. That wasn't fun.
• a couple days ago we started talking to this old couple that live next door to our investigator and the woman was preaching to US about how Jesus helped her quit smoking, OH GLORIA, how we need charity, ALELUIA, we need humility, JESUS É BOM! Things like this, and then we asked if we could offer a prayer before we left and as I start to pray this couple stand up and, yelling, start praising the heavens!! I prayed for patience, reverence and love for others, but they definitely didn´t hear that... Once I finished they stood there chanting praises for seriously 5 more minutes.. then we left. Seriously the weirdest experience of my life.
• açai is amazing.
• tan lines are real. My chaco tan and farmers tan will last through the eternities.
• We have a baptism next week for the cutest 95 year old woman. Mom, she said to let you know that she is my other grandma;) her family are members and I guess now she's finally ready to accept the gospel. She's really excited for her baptism:)
• when we were teaching in the street the other day, a guys asked where I was from and I said the US and in the middle of our lesson he proceeds to take a photo of me with his phone... okay.
• so with all the crazy animals that are always in the streets it only makes sense that I had to herd a frog out of our ghetto kitchen last week. That was actually really fun.

Well I miss you all like crazy. It's been pretty rough this week too because i can't communicate with anyone really well, but I'm really grateful for my Savior. I'm so grateful to know that no matter how hard and lonely I'm feeling right now, there's someone that understands it all. I'm also really happy to be able to share that with other people too.

Feliz Natal familia e amigos!

I want you all to remember why Christmas is important and there's a lovely video about it. I don't know the exact name of the video in English, but here it is in Portuguese:

Ele é o Presente natal.mormon.org

GO WATCH!

love you

-sis pace

Mossoró é abençoada

What a crazy couple weeks it's been!! Sorry everyone for not writing, but it's been insane 

So I left the CTM last week and it was weird. I'd been in the CTM for so long that it almost started to feel like that was my mission. But seriously, I left at 2 in the morning for Natal with one other Elder from my district. All of us arrived in Natal and oh my gosh it's hot. We met our mission president and his wife and got paired with our new companions. My companion, Sister Cunha is from São Paulo and she is the greatest. We had dinner with Presidente Soares in their apartment and then stayed the night in the sister’s casa in Natal. The next morning we rode to Mossoró. I thought Natal was hot... Mossoró is seriously in the middle of nowhere hotter than anything. This last week has been so crazy because being here is unlike anything I've ever experienced. The area I'm in is one of the poorest too. We teach everyday in the favelas by our house and our house is one step up from being a favela. The amazing thing though is the people. EVERYONE has faith in Christ. Everyone is really kind as well, even the drunk guys. Everyone wants to follow Christ and so we invite basically everyone we talk to be baptized. And almost everyone says yes. They are so ready to follow Him and it's so obvious how the Spirit works in touching their hearts. Another way the Spirit works is the fact that I'm speaking Portuguese with everyone!!! I've even had a couple people ask me if I'm from the south of Brasil. SCORE. Anyway, Mossoró é abençoada. Mossoró is blessed. The people here are the kindest, friendliest, and most willing people I've ever met. They have nothing, but they'll give you anything. Especially the members in our ward that feed us everyday and seriously just LOVE the sisters so much. I love them so much. Anyway, I'm out of time, but I love you all so much. I hope most of you are enjoying the snow because I miss it so much right now in the middle of this burning heat!

Tchau meu queridos!!