July 29, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey ya'll!

 My Week has been great! Yes, we have gotten more contacts, and we're teaching two people right now. One is wanting to get baptized, the other one is slowly but surely on her way. Either way, we're planting the seed for both of them! Opening up a new area takes a LOT of patience! We have people written down from like 2005 or 2007! We are literally starting from scratch. New apt, no investigators, no advice...EVERYTHING is new. Including getting lost because we don't know where ANYTHING or ANYONE is. haha! But we have come a long ways and are doing great I think! 

  We do only get about three hours of Portuguese a week if we're lucky. It's SO busy here since we are opening, but we do have a guy here that served his mission in Portugal and is helping us once a week. Man...I feel like I've digressed a lot, because I could barely understand anything he said! I can talk better than I can understand! 

The weather here is AWESOME! It's hot a lot, but there's usually a nice breeze to go with it! And it's stormy a LOT!!! I LOVE it! It rains ALL the time! I LOVE it! I wish I could just go out and play in it! There was an AWESOME lightning storm. And there was one time that thunder hit, and it sounded like it was RIGHT on top of our apt! It felt like it shook the house! 

 I have to say I LOVE the Relief Society talk about charity and trusting God; but I also loved the Sacrament Meeting talk about loving each other, including members, less active, and investigators, and door approaching lessons (tracting lessons need to include a prayer, a principal taught and a commitment), we taught 19 lessons this past week! Which is our highest amount yet!  

 I FINISHED THE Book of Mormon!!!! It was exactly 2 months! May 24th - July 24th!!! How awesome is that? I'm mainly studying the bible now (with some BOM) and I started the 25th and I'm in Genesis 32 or 36 now...idr (I don't remember). Either way, their lives are SO interesting! We have an hour of personal study, then an hour of comp study where we read from the White Bible, then talk about what we studied during personal study, then do some other studies. It's very nice. We're usually at the apt doing planning and studies until 1pm.  I'm loving it out here in the field...AND I ONLY HAVE 16 MONTHS LEFT!!!! AHHH! I've already been on a mission for 2 months! how crazy is that?!

I got a Greenie package from home for all of us! We loved it!

 I started coming up with a cool version of We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet on the piano! During FHE we watched On Sacred Ground - about Joseph Smith...was SUPER interesting! The wind was so strong that night that it turned my umbrella inside-out. Luckily though, it came back to normal without any damage.

Well, Nykemia is out of the picture. I cried a lot. I have learned how to handle potential and progressing.

We went on splits with the Sister training leaders on Friday. Was cool. Saturday we fasted to find people. Here's what I wrote in my dairy later Saturday evening,

"Dear Diary,

OH MY GOSH! I just got out of a lesson with Amber!" (Amber is one of the investigators in the Airforce) "When we first went in, we got her perspective about the BOM. She didn't understand why she needed another book added to the bible. After a prayer and lots of talking and praying in our hearts, sis McElderry came up wit ha great explanation and had Sis Keyes do her dot analogy. THEN........ SHE GOT IT! She even came up with her own analogy! She then admitted the light bulb came on! The spirit was really strong there! She had to keep answering phone  calls. In the end, I extended the baptismal invite and she said she wasn't ale to answer us right then; but she did say she would pray about the BOM and the church! I cannot express how strong the spirit was! I was shaking! She has a busy week next week, but she said she would give us a call when she's free. I'm truly grateful for the opportunity we had to teach her; and I know she is very smart and very closer to the spirit!"

We taught another girl named Lily. Her boyfriend / baby's daddy and her are living together, and he has been baptized and has been wanting her to come into the church. They've been together since they were 16, and their little boy is 2. They are such a cute family! Anyway, we taught them a lesson last night...and she kept asking questions to help us transition into the next subject! she was on the BALL!!! Was great! The spirit was def there! It's amazing to see how the Lord has prepared people and how they are placed in our path!

 

I'm truly grateful for this opportunity to serve, and can't wait to get back out there and do some more!!! I lovin' the thunderstorms!!!! N LIGHTNING!! LOVE YA'LLS!!! Can't wait to hear from you all!

Love,

From down under in Mississsippi,

Sister Thomas