Thanksgiving dinner-ish sort of meal; An answer to prayer for Rose; Igor taught *us* the lesson

Hello everyone!!  :)  First of all, THANK YOU to everyone for the birthday messages!!!  It was a pleasant surprise to log on to my email today and find it FULL of Happy Birthdays from all of you.  :)  It means a lot to know that there are people thinking about me and sending their support and love.  I'm super excited for my birthday - it definitely will be different than usual, but good.  We've actually been planning a branch activity for that day, so it will for sure be busy, getting everything organized and put together, and hopefully still squeezing in a little time for a piece of cake.  ;)  Our plan is to have a Karaoke Night, which should be LOTS of fun, especially since the other sisters have told me that the branch here is really enthusiastic about activities and always has a pretty good turnout.

It's been a gooood crazy busy awesome week.  Sister Bullen and I somehow managed to pull off an almost Thanksgiving dinner-ish sort of meal, with a real live apple pie with vanilla ice cream, mashed potatoes, and gravy.  :)  The most important parts, right?  But it ended up being a lot of fun, and we were both really excited to be able to at least SORT of celebrate Thanksgiving.  Our Brasilian companions weren't quite as enthusiastic as we were, but they humored us and went along with it... and of course we went around the table and each one of us said what we were grateful for.  It was fun to be able to bring a little bit of our American culture here to Brasil.  

The next day, Friday, was the 9 month mark of Sister Gomes, so we threw ANOTHER party to celebrate.  Cake, cachorro quente, balloons and the other crazy sister missionary traditions to celebrate the half-way point!   So yeah, it's been a week fuuuullll of things to celebrate.  :)  Don't worry though, we've been working hard too!  We've had some amazing lessons this week, taught some great people, and it's been awesome.  Remember last week I told you about Rose and her two daughters?  We've visited them a few more times this week (it's hard to go very often since it's sooo far away - bummer :P), and had an AMAZING lesson on Saturday.  We stopped by to see how things were going, if they'd prayed about our message, read the Book of Mormon, etc.  Eduarda had some more questions about how she would get an answer to her prayers, so we shared a message about the Holy Ghost - it's purpose, how it works, and how we can recognize it.  During the lesson, Rose shared a story with us that had happened earlier that week.  Her other daughter, Heloise, got reeeally sick all of a sudden and they took her to the hospital to do some tests and figure out what was happening.  Rose said that she was verrry very worried while waiting for the results to come back, when she suddenly remembered us and the things we'd taught her.  She said that she prayed there in the hospital, asking that if our message really was true, Heloise would be fine.  She told us that she immediately felt a calm assurance that everything was going to be fine, that there would be nothing wrong with her daughter and that she didn't need to worry.  Sure enough, the tests came back and everything was normal.  She told us that she knew this was an answer to her prayers, and that she knows that our message is true.  It was SO soo so amazing to hear her share that...the Spirit was definitely present, and Sister Marques and I were both filled with this amazing happiness and excitement for her - and gratitude for that answer to her prayers.  :)

We've also been teaching a young man named Igor.  He is 16 years old, and heard about the Church through his cousin, who is serving a mission now.  He has been coming to church for the past 3 weeks or so, and really enjoying it.  The problem is that he lives in a little city outside of Ibiporã, so it's REALLY hard to find time to teach him.  We FINALLY were able to take a bus out to where he lives on Sunday after church to visit him.  He is the MOST amazing investigator I've ever had.  I've never seen anything like it....We started to teach the Plan of Salvation, right?  Sister Marques - "So, Igor, where do you think we came from before this life?"  Igor - "Well, we were spirits, and we lived with God, and He created this plan for us .... " etc.  And he basically taught the lesson to US.  It was incredible...afterwards I asked him how he knew so much without ever having been taught by the missionaries, and he told us that he's been studying the scriptures on his own, and has almost finished reading the entire Book of Mormon.  His mother-in-law was there during the lesson, and when she asked a question about the Holy Ghost, how to receive an answer about the Church, HE opened up to Moroni 10, taught the scripture to her, and bore his testimony.  Seriously, blew my mind.  He is so prepared to receive the gospel, it's crazy.   The only thing that's keeping him from being baptized a few problems that he needs help to resolve...it's SUPER complicated, but I'm praying that Sister Marques and I will know what to do to be able to help him be baptized.  

Okay, super long email today.  :)  Probably should run and write President Tavares before my hour's up...  Hope you all are doing well!  CONGRATULATIONS to Kyle on the Eagle!  And to Megan for her fancy hoop skirt!  ;)  I love you all so much, and pray for you every day.  I'm sooo glad the house situation got resolved - an answer to prayers!

Well, thanks for everything again!  

Love, 

Sister Gee