here comes the sun

So this week everyone was a little under the weather. And when i say everyone I mean the entire zone got sick this week...

"I got better!"

Other than that everything's all good here. One of our investigators, Reneide, will be getting married soon and her only dream is to be married and baptized on the same day! She left the hospital a couple weeks ago after 2 heart attacks and yesterday insisted on walking to church. Haha I love her!

This week we have transfers and so I'll let you know next week if I've moved areas. I hope not though, because I love Gramoré. I won't lie, this area has been a little difficult, but I feel like I've learned a lot in trusting Heavenly Father. So with that, everything will always turn out okay:)

Love you all a whole lot.

-Sister Pace

Galatians 6:11 sorry my emails are short.

1 Thessalonians 5:25 por favor.

p.s. the thumb thing in some of my photos means BATISMO. :D

photos: me and me cute companion;) and the festa junina that our neighbors threw until 5am. Whoo. Hoo.

são joão e salvação

Ahhhhhh this week was craaazy!

1) Sister Cieslak came from Potengi and was on a division with us and so we were in trio this week. Which was really fun. I like being in trio. 2) As we were looking through the area book we found Karol who is 14 years old who was already marked for baptism,but she moved and the sisters that were teaching her before were transferred. The crazy part is that as we were looking for an address of another person we ran into Karol. It was more like she found us. We taught her and said that she wanted to be baptized! And after a bunch of running around this week everything fell into place and we had the baptism of Karol yesterday:)

3) It was the stake Festa Junina esta semana! We ate churrasco, listened to a forro in the street, and ate more macaxeira:) It was really fun:)

This week was seriously insane, but in the midst of everything looking like its going wrong, it was obvious that Heavenly Father had His plan. Just have hope, do what's right, and look for the blessings because they're always there.

so much love,

sister pace

um email rapidão

I'll just give a quick update.

This week started well, got really rough, and then ended well. We had a mini division and so Sister Cieslak stayed with me in Gramoré for 2 days and it was super great. We were able to mark 4 baptisms and so now it's just running around doing whatever we can to help these people stay on track. Sister G Silva and I are doing really well too. She helps me in the areas where I'm lacking and I help her too. 

I love you a whole lot.

Só batiza.

-sister pace

photo: because my family is great and they send my things

just keep swimming...

bom diaaa!

So these past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Seriously. We had transfers again and Sister J Silva was transferred and Sister G Silva arrived! She has about 2 months in the mission and so yep I'm senior companion and finishing her training. I feel like I barely finished my 12 weeks of training and here I am! AHHH. But it's all good. My companion is great:) She's from Rio de Janeiro and proud of it haha and we're way excited to see some major success here in Gramoré! We already are, now that we are working more with families of some recent converts and less actives in our ward.

But, sometimes in life you're cruisin' thinking all is good and Heavenly Father knows that you're needing a wake up call so everything turns upside down all at once, but what I'm learning is that at the same time he turns everything upside down, He always provides the way to make things right again.

Cool things that happened this week:

-I (kind of) learned how to play a berimbau. The instrument that people play in capoeira. Muito legal;)

-We had a zone conference with Elder Mazzagardi from the quorum of the seventy. It was super powerful!!

-It was stake conference this weekend too! Our stake president spoke directly to the youth in our stake about using cellphones during sacrament meeting. LOL #burn

love you all!

-sister pace

photo: eu e sister G Silva na conferência

eita gloria;)

Hi everyone!

This week was really good. and last week was too haha, but now I'm finally writing...

Mother's Day was wonderful! I loved talking to my family because man oh man I love my family! This week was really good too because Sister J Silva and I have been working really hard on being super diligent!! I feels so good to really work with a purpose. Also, it was Sis J Silva's birthday this week so maybe we ate a loooot of açai and had a party!! Some super amazing members from the ala Boa Esperança made a cake and dinner for everyone in our zone;) It was super great.

Also this week we went on splits with some young women from a different ward. We left to go visit Kenya, a neighbor of Carlos, one of our eternal investigators, and when we got there everyone came inside to listen (Score!) We taught a powerful lesson on the Restoration. Kenya, who had a thousand doubts about the church, started to cry as we taught about Joseph's first vision and it was one of those moments that I could feel that it wasn't really my words. This transfer has been a little rough without any baptisms, or really people that are keeping their promises to come to church, pray, etc., especially when we're trying to be so diligent, but I feel really grateful for the moments that I am just so sure of the truth we are teaching.

Much love and açai,

Sister Pace

minha querida companheira

a part of my zone and our birthday party for sister J Silva

aonde mandares irei

iii aaaiiii iiiiii meus queridos!!

This week was crazy and seriously by the time I leave this area i'll have legs of steel because yeah we walk. A lot. 

But really, because we are opening the area we have to get to know all the members, and start fresh with all new investigators. It takes some serious work, but I totally believe that we're going to see some miracles soon:) Our investigator Carlos wasn't baptized this week because his wife is a member of the Assembleia de Deus and he's worried about causing problems in his home, but he's so faithful about coming to church, family home evenings, and marking times to meet with us, so we're feeling that it's only a matter of time now:) Also, this week we met Marcus who has had a lot of problems with drugs and drinking, but when he started to talk to us he started to cry. He began to ask for our help to leave this life, and start over so he could see his family again. It was a really interesting experience because at times we talk to people who are "all talk and game", but it feels different now. I don't know how to describe it really, but I'm grateful for the experiences we have as missionaries to meet people and see them a little how the Savior does. 

I love this work. I love my Redeemer. I love you all.

-Sister Pace

Photos:

-Sister J Silva and I

-Carambola tree (Starfruit) we are going to be making a lot of starfruit juice this week!

love at first sight

It happened!

I was transferred this week!! Now I am here in Zona Pajuçara, which is like 20 minutes from Natal in the Gramoré ward. My companion is Sister J Silva:) I already heard loads about her from Sister Cunha because they are from the same ward in São Paulo:) And oh my gosh I love her! We are opening the area which means we are both new to the area, and we are both just in love with how gorgeous it is here, the beautiful capela, our ward, our district and zone, and seriously our investigators who are soooooo prepared for the gospel!! Haha we can't find anything bad!! It's just us two in a really big area, but we are so excited to work here:)

We already have an investigator that has made some visits to church and he watched general conference. We taught the restauração with him and really invited him to read and pray about the Livro de Mórmon for him to really receive and answer. When we visited with him the next day he told us that he wants to join the true church and he's feeling something special when he reads and prays, but his family doesn't support him and he's worried about how he'll have to continue alone. He had a million questions about our families and how we knew the church is true. We are really so excited and a little worried at the same time for him because we know how hard the adversary works on people trying to find the path and stay on it. But I'm confident that he'll receive the help he needs:) Só ora!! 

Some other funny things that happened this week:

Here in Pajuçara the buses and cars move a lot faster that Mossoró. When we were walking with our district to get açai and elder in my district started to cross the street and didn't see the bus turning and technically he got hit by the bus, but it was more like he bumped shoulders with a bus. He's completely fine, but my heart stopped. haha sister J Silva and I laugh every time we see a bus now. Beware of buses in big cities...

Also, I received a kiss on the cheek from a 30 something year old man that we contacted in the street. Yeah I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time...But his parents visited the church yesterday, so there's the plus side!!

amo vocês!

-sister pace

the view from our apartment (you can see the point of the capela!)

our capela

I'll send more pictures next week!!!