Another week

Family & Friends,

Well we had a pretty great week. Way better than the week before. 🙂

We met some great new people. We started teaching a few people we’d met talking in the streets. And on Wed we went to visit [Redacted] a teenage girl that was baptised about four months ago. Well she had a friend over, [Redacted] and we ended up teaching her all this week. She’s really great 🙂

We’re also teaching [Redacted], the younger sister of a recente convert. She’s gone to church a lot, but can’t make up her mind about anything. We’re like “Do you want to get baptised?” and she just shrugs. She doesn’t know what she wants from life. Probably it’s because she’s 12. Sincerly 12 – 15 year olds are the worst.

Yesterday at church lots of people went. It was really surprising. People were there that we haven’t even taught for a week or two. Really it was a miricle 🙂

But the best part about church was [Redacted]. He’s [Redacted]’s son, he’s only 8 and would already be baptised if it weren’t for his dad. Well yesterday at church he went up and bore testimony. It was so great, everyone was crying.

Well next monday i wont be able to write, so this is the last email of my mission. I guess I should try to say something profound….

But honestly my mind is blank… p-day brain.

But really my mission was amazing. I loved it so much, and I’m sad that it’s over. More than anything I learned what the attonement of Jesus Christ really means.

I’m so thnkful for the time I was given here.

~Sister Pew

Another week

Family & Friends,

Well this week sincerely wasn’t all that great for work. It started off by killing Sister Dias.

i think I didn’t explain in the earlier emails, but Sis Dias had extended her mission one month and was set to go home the 3rd of April. So the beginning of the week was helping her get every thing packed and ready and going with her to say goodbye to people here in Penedo. Then thursday morning she left early to go to Maceió. So now it’s just Sister Bento and I.

Thursday we had district meeting, and since we’re the only missionaries here we had to take an hour and a half bus drive to another city Arapiraca for the meeting. Yeah the ride is really annoying, and we pretty much loose the whole day.

But the meeting itself was pretty fun (see pictures).

The rest of the week was absolutely awful for work. Because of Easter everyone went on vacation. Seriously the city was deserted. It’s probably because there’s not much to do in Penedo so every one left. Every one except for a few people drinking in the streets with thier loud music.

/ugh it’s so annoying.

But thankfully there was General Conference so for two days we stayed seperate from the world.

I absolutely loved conference. It was two days of much inspiration. And I was really happy to hear three new temple announced.

Hope everyone has a great week

~sister pew

Another week

[March 30]

Family & Friends,

Well to start off last p-day after emailing we went to visit the city cnter of Penedo. It’s really pretty there, I’ll try attaching fotos. Penedo doesn’t have much, but it has a lot of old and historical buildings. And the river here, São Francisco, is beutiful.

We visited a muesem, and this really cool theater that was built 130 years ago. There are also a LOT of really old catholic churches. They’re cool too.. in a creepy sort of way.

We had a really fun time exploring 🙂

The rest of the week I got pretty sick. Every one says that Penedo is the hotest área in the mission, and I believe it. Every day this week I had a really big headache. So we only went out to work later in the afternoon when the sun is a lot weaker.

But despite that we actually got to work a lot.

We’re still visiting [Redacted]… I think I mentioned him last week. We’ve been teaching him and he’s progressing a lot.

We’re also visiting [Redacted]. We had an awesome lesson with him about the plan of salvation. He had a lot of great comments, and in the end gave na amazing prayer asking for guidance in his life. I think one of the best things about a mission is getting to hear the prayers of investigators and recent converts. They’re so much more sincere and beutiful.

As for [Redacted]’s husband [Redacted] we visited him the other day and he said that he’d actually prayed about the message we’d given the day before. He said that he felt a lot of Peace.

But despite this he still wont allow his kids to be baptised.

Ugh…

But some people just need more time I suppose.

Thanks for all your love and support,

~Sister Pew

Another week

[March 23]

Family & Friends,

Well we had another great week here in Penedo. Seriously I’m loving the trio I’m in. We’re having a really fun time working together.

And this week some miricles happened.

I mentioned last week that [Redacted]’s husband never wanted her to be baptised. He’s really catholic and doesn’t want to know anything about other churches. But we’re trying to help [Redacted]’s kids be baptised too, and we need his permission. So this week for the first time we taught him.

He made it really clear that he’s Catholic, but for the first time he actually let us teach him. We taught him the Restoration, and he had some great questions. He agreed to pray about our message, but said that he wont change. So… yeah.

But he’s progressing in a weird microscopic way.

And this week we met and started teaching a lot of really great new people. Unfortunetly most of them said that they wouldn’t be able to go to church this Sunday.

So at church we were pretty much expecting no one to show up.

But the Lord is so good to us. [Redacted] brought one of her friends to church, [Redacted]. And her daughter [Redacted] brought a friend too. And on top of that another member brought her friend [Redacted]. So now we have even more new people to teach 🙂

And yeah, that about does it.

~Sister Pew

Another week

Family & Friends,

Well the week started out very stressful. In my mission they call up the Sunday night before the transfer to say if you were transfered, and they didn’t call so I thought that my comp and I would be staying…. Só que não.

Tue morning I was peacfully and innocently reading my scripture when they cell rang. The informed me that I would be transfred after all. That I’d be transfered to Penedo and I’d have to get ready to leave wed morning. A little stressed but I started to pack up a few things. About 30 minutes later they called again to say there was a change of plans, that I’d actually have to go the same day, I had to be at the bus station in two hours. Probably doesn’t mean much to you Americans, but I’d just put my clothes in the washer, and here we don’t have a dryer…

So yeah I had to pack up all my things including all my wet clothes.

Then I had to take the three hour bus drive to Penedo. Penedo is a town at the very bottom of Alagoas. It’s what they call “interior”. Basically it’s smaller and a bit less… civilized. But it’s really, really pretty here. Just that everything closes early and the streets are completely deserted after 8 p.m.

The city of Penedo only has one branch, but the chapel is surprisingly big. Our área is literally half of the city. Yeah… And I thought my other áreas were big. They don’t even compare. But I’m liking it a lot here 🙂

As for my companion, well for the first time I’m in trio 🙂 Yeah I have two comps. I never really wanted to be in trio, but surprisingly it’s going great. One of my comps is Sister Dias that was already my comp about a year ago. And we were like best friends so I was really happy to be with her again. And my other comp is Sister Bento. I lived with her in the very start of my mission, we went through training together and were friends. So I’m pretty happy with our trio 🙂

And our first week of work together was awesome.

Sis Dias had been working with na investigatir here named [Redacted]. She’s been wanting to be baptised for months and was taught by lots of Elders and Sisters. But was never able to be baptised because her husband is against the church. Well finally her husband let her. She wasn’t even scheduled to be baptised this week. But we visited her Friday, and invited her to be baptised the nexy day. And she accepted 🙂

It was weird and unreal, but her baptism was awesome. Sis Bento and I came in at the last minute, but were able to participate in this long awaited day.

And that about does it.

~Sister Pew

Another week

Family and Friends,

Well we had another great week here in Feitosa.

I don’t have much time so I’ll just say the biggest things that happened.

We’re still working with [Redacted] and wow she’s made so much progress. She’s reading the Book of Mormon, and is already in 2 Nephi. We had a great lesson with her Friday. We watched the video The Restoration, and when it finished she said that she feels that everything we’re teaching her is true. She said that she loved going to church, and felt really comfortable there. To finish the lesson we sang one of the young women’s songs with her, I think that in English it’s called “I’m changed” or something like that. Basically it’s a story of a girl saying that the gospel changed her. When we sang [Redacted] started crying, in that moment the spirit was amazing.

Another great progress is [Redacted]. The other night when we visited him he thanked us for visiting him. He talked about how rare it is to meet people in the world today that really want to help. He thanked us for helping him come to know more about God. He and [Redacted] said that we bring lots of peace to thier home. Wow I felt so great when they said that. It was like… mission acomplished 🙂

Lastly  [Redacted] was at church again yesterday. It’s a great sacrifice for him to go because he works so much, but this whole week he was saying that he wouldn’t miss going to church for anything. It was so great to see him there in the chapel. It reminded me that anyone who really tries can make it to church 🙂

And that about does it. Thanks for all your love and support,

~Sister Pew

Another week

[March 2]

Family and friends,

Was another great week here in Feitosa 🙂

Our biggest focus this week was trying to follow up in the families that were at church last sunday.

We’re still visiting [Redacted] and [Redacted]. They really like the church and have a great desire to get married. The problems is that they’re both unemployed, and some other problems with laws and stuff. It’s complicated, but possible. It’ll just take time 🙂 But they’re awesome.

Also we’re visiting [Redacted] and his family. [Redacted] loved the church. He liked the members, liked all the stuff he learned there. he has a really great knowledge of the scriptures, and is really happy to be learning more. But he also needs to marry [Redacted]… Ugh there are so many people not married…

Another treat this week was visiting a special part of our area called the Reginaldo. It’s the largest grota in all of Maceió. For those of you wondering what is a grota, go ahead and look it up on the internet. Basically it’s a flavella.

We visited a lot of people there. One of the bests was [Redacted].

In our ward there’s a teenage boy named [Redacted], he’s about 15 years old. Only he and his little sister [Redacted] are members in the family, and only he goes to church. We went to visit [Redacted], but ended up talking with thier mom [Redacted] too. She’s super nice, and when we invited her to church she said that she’d like to. Sunday [Redacted], [Redacted], and [Redacted] were there. It was so wonderful. And [Redacted] cried because it was the first time his mom ever went to church. He was so happy to see her there. He bore his testimony in the sacremebt meeting saying how much he wants to serve a mission. It was really awesome.

Another surprise at church was [Redacted]. I don’t remember if I wrote about her before, but we were teaching her about a month or so ago. She never went to church so we had stopped visiting her. But out of nowhere, yesterday she went. It was so great to finally see her there.

So that was my great week,

~Sister Pew

Another week

[February 23]

Family and Friends,

So this last Tuesday was the official day of Mardi gras and for our own safety we stayed indoors and tried to ignore the obnoxiously loud music in the street.

The rest of the week was a little better. Less people drinking, but there are still a lot of people on vacation. So finding people to teah was tough.

And on top of that it looks like the raining season has started here in Maceió. It rained every day this week. This also makes our work a bit harder.

But despite all that the week was awesome. Lots of people went to church yesterday.

[Redacted] was home all this week, so we were able to visit her. She’s reading the Book of Mormon, and the other day said that she’s really starting to grow to love it. Yesterday she was at church, and liked it a lot 🙂

But the rest of the investigators we hardly had time contacting during the week. And the other problem is that our area is really big. It’s hard to find time to visit every one, and walk ar to visit another. So Saturday we did a comp exchange with two members so that we’d be able to visit every one. It worked relly well 🙂

We’re stil visitig [Redacted], and that’s going really well. She’s the grandma of recent convert here. She wasn’t able to go to church last Sunday because she has lots of health problems. So wed we asked the Elders to come and give her a priesthood blessing. When we arrived there it was plain to see the pain she was feeling. But after the blessing her whole contenance lit up. She started smiling again and said how much she felt better. Really the priesthood is awesome 🙂

We’re still visiting [Redacted] and now his wife is willing to talk with us too 🙂

Sat when we visited them thier neighbor [Redacted] asked if she could participate. She liked the message a lot, and wanted to visit the church. And yesterday she went 🙂

She and six other people. Relly it was a blessing. So many people were at church, and they all seemed to like it.

I’m hoping this week will be even better and that we can help these people 🙂

have a great week.

~Sister Pew

Another week

[February 16]

Family and Friends,

This week my email is a bit late because of the craziness going on here in Brazil.

You Americans might not have even notieed, but right now it’s the time of Mardi Grau (I think that’s how i’s spelt, I really don’t even know any more) You know those videos and movies you see sometimes showig mardi grau in Brazil? Well it’s not like that. It’s just a lot of drunks and loud music, and stupidness.

Last year I was in Aracaju and mardi grau there wasn’t too bad, but here in Maceió it’s a lot worse.

It was pretty hard to work this week. But all the same we actually managed to teach a lot, and meet lots of new people to teach. Just that pretty much all the people we taught went on trips for the weekend, so almost no one went to church yesterday.

But [Redacted] went to church and he loved it, so it was all worth it 🙂

Today everything is closed, including the lanhouses so we had a lot of trouble finding a place to email. In the end we had to go to a member’s house. But finding a member’s house to go to was also hard because almost all of them are on vacation.

The music in the streets is driving me crazy, and there  are a lot of boys in the streets throwing eggs at people

But don’t worry we’re staying safe 🙂

This week will be better. By thursday every one will be back from thier trips, and will feel the sadness that comes from sin and want to go to church 😉

Have a great week

~Sister Pew

Another week

[February 9]

Family and Friends,

Well this week started off with pretty much no one to teach. So we just started talking with lots of people in the streets, and before we knew it there were tons of people to teach 🙂

Pretty soon we had three or four people to teach in one street. It was awesome. And people really great and receptive.

All of the sudden we had lots of appointments and things to do. We were really excited to be working. But then I got really sick.

I think I got a virus or something. I’m not sure exactly, but I had a huge head ache, and lost all energy. I almost fainted, and had to go back to our apartment to rest. I slept the whole morning and afternoon, don’t even know how. I’ve never felt so tired and lifeless before.

But don’t worry I’m already a lot better.

Despite loosing about three days, people went to church 🙂

A guy that we met, [Redacted] went to church with his son [Redacted]. And another lady we met the other night [Redacted] went too 🙂

This week we have lots to do, and thankfully I’m a lot better.

Another annoying thing is that the memmory card for my camera isn’t working. Looks like I wont be able to take pictures any more. ugh…..

Thanks for all your love and support,

^Sister Pew