Monday, December 10, 2012

Christmas conference in Londrina; Christmas tree!; Investigators not progressing

Querida Família,
Oí once again from IBIPORÃ!  It's been another great week here.
The highlight of the week was CONFERENCIA DE NATAL in Londrina!  All of the missionaries in our zone met together to celebrate Christmas and learn together.  It was a WONDERFUL conference, and I loved being able to spend time with some of the other missionaries here.  President and Sister Tavares both spoke to us, as well as a member from Londrina.  The Spirit was AMAZINGly strong, and I learned so much that I'm going to be applying every day.  We practiced teaching a few lessons together, had some musical numbers, a delicious lunch, cake for all of the missionaries who celebrated birthdays from July to December, and of course Christmas presents!  The conference lasted the whole day, but it seriously passed so quickly.  I felt so grateful to be able to be there, receiving the spiritual reinforcements that I need to do this work every day!  Mission conferences are amaaazing.  :)
Oh, and I got your Christmas package!  It was sooo funny, everyone was surprised that I had actually received a Christmas tree in the mail, and that I was actually going to carry it all the way home on the bus.  I lugged it all the way from Londrina to Ibiporã, opened it up, and the sisters and I spent the evening decorating the house for Christmas.  It's BEAUTIFUL, thank you so much!  The other sisters are convinced that Mom and Sister Bullen's mom were planning everything together - Mom sent the Christmas tree, and Sister Bullen's mom sent presents for everyone to put underneath it!  :)  It's so exciting to be decorated for Christmas - I love this time of year!  
Unfortunately João wasn't able to be baptized this week... We went to his house on Thursday to set up the baptismal interview and everything, only to discover that he had two ulcers that had opened up on his leg... big, nasty, painful ulcers.  He said that they're causing a lot of pain, and he hasn't been able to walk too much because of them.  We had the elders come to give him a priesthood blessing, but it looks like he's going to have to wait for them to heal before he'll be able to be baptized.  
Our other investigators haven't been progressing too well so far either.  We haven't been able to get people to commit to come to church, and that's been causing a lot of problems. We haven't been able to teach Igor in a while either, and he didn't show up to church yesterday...I'm pretty worried about him, and REALLY frustrated that we can't get out to teach him more often.  I know that he needs our support and help to make some changes, but he's not getting that because we live SO far away and really can't afford to take the bus out there very often.  I don't know what to do, and am kind of feeling like it's out of my control at the moment.  I'm just praying that everything will turn out alright, and that we'll somehow be able to find a solution to the problems that are keeping us from being able to help him progress.
Well, I think that's it for the week.  Things are going really well here in Ibiporã!  I hope you're all happy and getting ready for Christmas - and THE HOBBIT, jealous!!!   Haha, but I love you all so much!  I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful, supportive family.  :)  You guys are amazing!

Love,

Sister Gee

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