September almost over?!? Can't wait for General Conference; New investigator - Ronaldo

Dear Family,

Another week has flown by!!!  Can you believe that September is almost over???  I'm super excited because it's almost October and that meansss....GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!  Best week of the year, I LOVE it!  Sister Rojas and I have been counting down the weeks for a while now, and turning on MoTab whenever we feel like it's still too far away.  :)  

This was not planned, just coincidence that we all wore light blue

This week was good...we are still hunting down new investigators, and found a few great people this week!  

We met a young man while contacting referrals.  His name is Ronaldo, and he lives in the house in front of the one that we were looking for.  So really, we met him by accident, but I know that the Lord was guiding us!  He is...well, not your typical investigator.  He told us that his mom died a few years ago, and right now he's living completely alone in his house.  He doesn't have a job, isn't going to school, and just stays at home all day.  I just feel so sad to see how much he's struggling, and I pray that he will accept the gospel and be able to turn his life around.  He went to church with us on Sunday, and I think he enjoyed it....it's hard to know, because he isn't very talkative. :P Afterwards we visited him with a ward missionary couple, and taught him the Restoration.  When we invited him to pray about our message, he refused at first, saying that he never prays.  We testified of the power of prayer, how our Heavenly Father really loves us so much and wants us to talk with Him through prayer...I think it's still a little bit new for him, and he's slowly strengthening his faith, but at the end of the lesson he said the closing prayer (with a little help and encouragement)!  :)  Anyways, it's going to be interesting to see how he progresses.  I just hope he can feel how much God loves him, even through all the challenges he is facing in his life.  I hope we can help him to realize that!

But that was our week...not a lot of news.  Next week will be transfers.  :(  I don't know what's going to happen!  Aaaahhh!!!  Stay tuned.

Love you guys!  Have a greeeeeeeeaaattt week!

Love, 

Sister Gee

Spectacular Sunday - visit from Pres. Genaro and baptism of Julia! Contacting, contacting, contacting; Not trunky :-)

Hi everyone!

This Sunday we had a special visit in our ward - President Genaro and his family!  Our ward mission leader had invited them to come give talks in Sacrament Meeting, so they drove in from Londrina to visit.  It was great!  President Genaro interviewed a few people from our ward, gave an amazing talk along with Sister Genaro, and stayed to watch the BAPTISM afterwards!!!  It was awesome - Julia, one of the other sisters' investigators was baptized, and Monica as well!  I don't know if I ever talked about Monica in my emails.  She is a friend of our ward mission leader, and we taught her a few times.  Unfortunately she was living in a different ward, so she wasn't ever baptized... but apparently she moved this week to our ward mission leader's house, and she was able to be baptized on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day!  Afterwards we had a huuuuge delicious lunch at our ward mission leader's house, with the four sisters, President Genaro and his family, our ward mission leader's family, and a few other guests.  All in all, a spectacular Sunday.

The rest of the week was just contacting contacting contacting contacting.  We're kind of low on investigators right now, which is a bummer, but we're praying and searching and talking with EVERYONE we see, and trusting that the Lord will guide us to the people who are ready to hear about the gospel!  

I got to do a division with Sister Bullen this week - she is one of the Sister Training Leaders ( I always mess up the title of that calling, but it's something like that).  She is AMAZING!  For those who don't remember, she was my roommate in the CTM, and we lived together for one transfer in Ibiporã.  I love her - she has a radiant and bubbly personality, a strong testimony, and a desire to share the gospel with everyone!  I learned A LOT in the short space of time that I got to work with her.  It was fun.  :)

And that's my life.  It's going pretty good so far.

Oh, and I got the "trunky phone call" this week!!!!!!!!!!  AHHHH.  :P  You know, that phone call where they ask you which airport you want to fly to?  But I remained surprisingly calm, and I promise, I'm not trunky.  I'm not.  I'm not.  :)  SERIOUSLY!  I'm going to keep working my hardest until the very last minute here.  As Sister Bullen said to me this week "I want to arrive in the airport with absolutely nothing more to give to the Lord!"  I thought about that a lot afterwards, and I want that too.  :)

But that's it from me!  Love you guys!!!  Have an amazing week.  I will for sure be keeping Uncle Blaine in my prayers, and I know that the Lord will be close to our family during these weeks.   

Keep the emails coming!  :)

Love, 

Sister Gee

Good week, but not much to tell; Studying the New Testament, it is so wonderful

Querida Familia!!!

It was a goooooood week!  There isn't much to tell today, so I'm afraid this will be a short email.  We've just been contacting references like crazy, trying to find new investigators....it's been kinda rough, but these last few days were a lot better, and we found a few really cool people!  One day knocking on doors, we came to one house, knocked at the gate, and were surprised when the man came running out smiling and holding a Book of Mormon in his hands!  He was really excited to meet us, and told us that he had a few really good friends who are members of the church, who had given him a copy.  Unfortunately we haven't been able to teach him yet, but I'm excited to be able to visit more with him and help him to learn more about the gospel.  :)  

This Sunday, Presidente Genaro will be coming to our ward to give a talk!  Everyone is super excited, especially our ward mission leader.  He wants to have a LOT of baptisms when the president comes, so we're going to be working like crazy this week with all the investigators who have been coming regularly to church but haven't ever committed to baptism.  We're going to see miracles this week, I know it!  

I started studying the New Testament a few weeks ago, and it is soooo wonderful - I love reading the words and teachings and miracles of the Savior.  I can really feel the Spirit testify as I read these chapters, just like Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!"   I know He lives, and He loves us!  I know that the most important thing we can do is follow His example, every day!  

Anyways, I'm out of time, and out of news too, so that's it for this week.  :)  Hope you guys are all doing great!  I love you so much!  

Another crazy transfer - splitting our area, two new sisters; Miracle of the week - surprise baptism of Gilberto

Hello family!

Good week...Big news!  Last Tuesday, as Sister Rojas and I were getting ready to start companionship study, our phone rang....

It was Sister De Moura, one of our Sister Lideres Trenadoras.  She asked me  "Sister Gee, did you know that another companionship of sisters will be working in your area??"  Me: "....what??"   Sister De Moura:  "...and that they're arriving in the bus station today?"  Me:  "WHAT????"  

Haha, so once again, this transfer was CRAZY.  And nobody knew what was going on.  As usual! And nobody had told me ANYTHING about dividing our area!

BUT thanks to Sister De Moura (she only found out because she was going to the bus station to pick up her new companion and saw that there were two other sisters on the list), we were able to get things ready for the two new sisters and pick them up from the bus station on time.  And we are SO EXCITED that there will be two companionships in our ward now!!!  It was a BIG area for just me and Sister Rojas.  We were having a hard time accompanying all of our investigators, and it is going to be such a relief to have the help of two more sisters.  

Our new companheiras de casa are named Sister Sedgwick and Sister Edwards!  Yep, two Americans.  It has been sooooooo looooong (almost a year, I think) since I lived in a house with Americans, and...it's pretty awesome.  It's nice to have people who understand my culture and everything, you know?  :)  Sister Edwards is BRAND NEW here in Brasil, Tuesday was her very first day!  She had been serving in Oklahoma while waiting for her visa to arrive, and finally got here this week.  now we are having fun teaching her Portuguese.  :)  It makes me think of a year or so ago when I was a brand new missionary, not understanding anything that people were saying to me, not being able to communicate very well... ahh, I just feel like I remember so well what she's feeling right now.  It makes me feel, firstly, VERY VERY grateful for how much I've learned and progressed and adapted to the mission in this time that I've been here, and secondly, love for her and a desire to help her learn!    She is so sweet, and her trainer, Sister Sedgwick is a lot of fun too.  It's going to be a lot more exciting in our house now.  :)

This week, we were able to get Dayane to a baptismal interview!  She still had a ton of doubts and questions, and I wasn't really feeling very sure that she was ready, but I was hoping that our district leader would be able to help her feel the Spirit and recognize the answer that she's been waiting for.  I was hoping for a miracle.  I think the interview did help respond to some of the bigger doubts she had, but she still doesn't feel like she's gotten an answer about baptism, and wants to keep waiting.  :(  But, we're going to keep visiting her and hope that with time she really comes to gain a testimony of the Restoration and the church and the gospel!

So Dayane wasn't our miracle this week.

But.

The Lord had another one planned for us.  :)

Gilberto is the boyfriend of one of the members of our ward.  He's been coming to church every week for the last...3 months or so.  Unfortunately he doesn't live in our area, and though we passed his address to the elders in his area, they hadn't visited him.  We finally taught him the Restoration and invited him to be baptized, but I think he got a little nervous and we weren't able to mark any other visits with him....

Finally this last week, Irmão Marcello (the stake mission leader) had the prompting to talk with him.  He interviewed him last Sunday, challenged him to pray about whether he should be baptized or not, and told him that he would be waiting the next Sunday with the baptismal font filled.  :P :)  I guess the bold, direct invitation was what he needed, and I guess he felt the Spirit pretty strongly...he went home, prayed during that week...and when he got to church yesterday, he had decided to be baptized.  It was SUPER out of the blue and unexpected, but we were able to get him an interview, and prepare everything for his baptism Sunday afternoon!  It was BEAUTIFUL.  Everyone very emotional and the Spirit was so strong.  :)  We sang a musical number (okay, I played the piano, but the other sisters sang) of The Lord Is My Shepherd, and everyone was in tears at the end.  It was an AMAZING experience.  :)  

Anyways, that was our week.

Good stuff.

We're doing good here.

We're EXCITED to be missionaries!  

I looooove what we do.

and I looooooooove YOU GUYS!! 

Have a great week!!!  

Love,

Sister Gee

Six more weeks in Cidade Nova; 16 investigators in church; Golden investigator Faniella

HELLO FAMILY!!!

One more week, one more transfer has passed.  wow.  

I was feeling like we would both be staying here in Maringá this next transfer, and looks like I was right... not one email from the secretaries.  *whew*.  That means 6 more weeks to work with all of our amazing investigators here in Cidade Nova!!  6 more weeks and LOTS OF BAPTISMS!!  :D

This week was SUPER.  Yesterday was ward conference, and we had been asking all of the members here to invite their friends.  Thanks to everyone who did that, we had 16 INVESTIGATORS in church on Sunday!!!!  I had to count over and over and over again, because I just couldn't believe it.  The Gospel Principles class was so full, we had to switch to a bigger classroom.  :D  :P  

On Sunday we had another baptism that wasn't really ours at all!  The elders wanted to use our font again, so we got to stick around to watch the baptismal service.  I was starting to feel sort of popular with everyone wanting to have their baptisms in our chapel, but I know they're really only interested in our hot water.  ;)  :P  But it was the sweetest baptism ever - a 75-year old man who has lung cancer... his daughter and granddaughter were baptized two months ago, and he took a while, but finally made it into the baptismal font too!  

This week Sister Rojas and I are super excited becaauuuuse...Dayane is getting back from her trip today!!  We'll be going to visit her later tonight.  :)  We are SO happy because we found out that she had found a ward in São Paulo where she was visiting, and she attended the church meetings there on Sunday!  That means that (1) she is AMAZING! (2) her faith and testimony are really growing, and (3) she could be baptized this Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday.  That would be the most amazing thing EVER!  Now we just have to get her feeling good and confident and ready to take that step... wooohoo!

We have another super golden investigator that we've been working with this last week - Daniella and her 10 year old daughter, Bruna.  They have been coming to church every week for the last 3 weeks now, and it looks like they are really loving it.  We have been visiting them and teaching them and invited them to be baptized, but Daniella feels like she needs to wait a little bit longer... She said she's waiting for the Lord to send her a dream or some kind of sign that it's really what she should do.  We tried to explain that the Spirit doesn't always work that way, that usually the answers to our prayers come through feelings of peace and happiness...but it hasn't sunken in yet.  She's always talking about that dream she wants.  :)  But she is super strong and Bruna is already memorizing the Articles of Faith... They're going to be baptized any day now, I know it!

Anyways, that's it for now!  I am excited for this week and all the amazing things that we have to do - we are busy and happy and working hard, and the Lord is blessing us!  It's going to be a GOOD WEEK!  SEMANA CELESTIAL!!!  :D

I hope you are all doing well, enjoying the last little bit of summer vacation!  :)  Next year I'll be there at Bear Lake with y'all!  Woohoo!  I love you all so much, thank you for your prayers and support and love.  I have the best family in the whole wide world.  :)  

Love always!

Sister Gee

FINALLY MOVING!! YESSS!

Hello!!  This week Sister Rojas and I are super excited becaaaaaauuuuseee....we're FINALLY MOVING!!  YESSS.  After almost...3 months of stressfulness, our new apartment is FINALLY ready for us to move in.  This week we called to turn on the electricity, yesterday we had a member of our ward help us bring all our mattresses there, today we spend the morning cleaning and sweeping and mopping...and now our apartment is clean and beautiful and fully furnished - completely ready for two sister missionaries to move in.  That's us.   It will make such a huge difference for us, we have been losing so much time travelling to and from our area, valuable time that we could be using to visit our investigators and find new people to teach.  So yes, it's a big relief to know that the wait is almost over.  And as we've been living in an apartment with 5 other sisters (yes, that makes a total of 7) with just ONE bathroom (yes, that means 7 sisters sharing ONE bathroom) .... it's going to be nice to have an apartment all to ourselves.  :)  We're planning on making a cake to celebrate the day we move in.  It's going to be fun.  :)

This week...wow, every time I sit down to write an email to you guys I realize HOW MUCH has happened since I last wrote, and it's so crazy to me that it all happened in just one week....

Anyways, this week was a roller coaster of emotions.  I think I talked a little bit about one of our investigators a few weeks ago, a girl named Barbara.  This week we visited her and asked her how she was feeling about all she had been learning in our lessons and in the church.  She said she has already seen how her life is changing for the better, ever since she started going to church.  We invited her to be baptized and she said that she really wanted to, that she felt it would be a way for her to be closer with God.  We taught her the commandments, and she is already living all of them - in fact, she said she had always felt that these things were important and had been looking for a church that taught the same things.  It was an AMAZING lesson, and Sister Rojas and I were so excited - we marked her baptism for this Sunday... and then, on Wednesday we got a text ... telling us that her parents wouldn't let her be baptized.  We passed by to talk with them and sure enough, they weren't very happy that she wanted to be baptized and decided that she needed to keep going to their church for now - until she was mature enough to make the decision.  We were devastated, and I'm pretty sure that Barbara was too.  :(  It was so sad...she is SO ready to receive the gospel and is so accepting of everything we taught.  But I'm confident that some day she'll find her way back...I'm praying that she'll never forget the things she felt in our visits, and that some day she'll be able to find the missionaries again and be baptized!!!

Good part of the week - Junior and Kawana came to church yesterday!  Their friends that had passed the referral to the missionaries live in another ward, but they visited our ward to be able to accompany Junior and Kawana for their first time going to church.  And they discovered that another good friend of theirs is a member of our ward!  It was testimony meeting, so both of Junior's friends went up to the front to bear their testimonies... I didn't see it (I was sitting in front of him), but somebody told me afterwards that Junior even cried a little.  :)  We were so excited that they were able to come, and that they had a good experience  - they are an amazing family, amazing people, and it is so good to see the happiness and joy that everyone is feeling, both Junior and Kawana as they learn of this wonderful gospel, and their friends who are reaching out to share it with them!

Anyways, that's what's happening here.  It's a good life, a good mission!  I'm so happy to be here.  We're seeing miracles and Heavenly Father is blessing us so much.  I hope you are all having a wonderful week, and a wonderful summer!  

I love you!

Sister Gee

"cara de pau" - be bold; Dayane is reading the Book of Mormon and praying

Olá família!  This week was....good.  wow, it passed really fast.  It seems like just two or three days ago that I was sitting at this exact spot in the LAN house trying to think of what to write to you guys....and here I am once again.  haha :)  The weeks are passing so fast!  Do I say that every week?  I think so.  

But anyways, this week was exciting because we had interviews on Wednesday with President Genaro!  My first interview with the new pres!  It was REALLY good, short and to the point, but good.  I found out that he lived for a few months in Stadium Terrace, and did an English course at Provo High!!!  Crazy, right?  It was really good to talk with him a little bit about the mission, about our area and the difficulties we're having here.  One of the things he told me really impacted me... he talked about how sometimes missionaries need to be "cara de pau", which, being translated, means that you're not afraid or embarrassed to say ANYTHING - you can look an investigator in the eye and testify and invite them to be baptized and they will feel the Spirit confirm what you say.  Basically, being direct, bold, and having the courage to say it like it is.  :)  It's something that is NOT easy for me, but I know that it's something I need to learn!  

Later that day, we were prompted to visit one of our newer investigators that had gone to church the past Sunday.  Her name is Dayane.  The first time we visited her she basically shot a lot of crazy questions at us and wanted to debate about doctrine...she had told us that if she went to visit our church and nobody kneeled to pray, she wouldn't ever go back, haha.  I remember leaving her house after that first visit and just feeling kind of shocked, you know?  But after the interview with Pres. Genaro, I was really wanting to be bolder and more direct, and with Dayane I had the perfect opportunity to start.  We taught her the Restoration, and once again she had a ton of questions.  At the end, I invited her to be baptized...that same Sunday.  She was really surprised, but she accepted!  It felt so good...to be bold and trust in the Spirit and see how it really works!  Unfortunately some situations came up and she ended up having to travel to São Paulo this weekend...but she is a lot more open and it has been amazing to see how much she has changed since that first visit.  She is visibly happier and she is reading the Book of Mormon every day...she is praying and searching for an answer to know if everything we've taught is true.  I am so grateful to have met her and to have been able to teach her this last week.  :)  Now we just have to wait for her to get back from her trip to mark a new baptismal date... woohoo!  Pray for her this week, that everything goes okay and that she can receive that answer she's looking for!

In other news, our new apartment is amazing!  It's sooooo nice to have the mess of just TWO sisters, and not seven.  It adds up fast.  :P  :)   And I'm sleeping on a bed for the first time in 3 months, which is also amazing.    I put up my "happy wall" today, so it's feeling more and more like home all the time.  :)  I think I'm gonna like it here.

Yesterday we had a baptism in our chapel!  The elders from a neighboring city wanted to use our font because it's the only one in the area that heats up the water, and their investigator has a problem with her leg and wouldn't be able to be baptized in the cold water there.  So we got to help them out, and it was amazing!  A beautiful baptismal service, it had been a while since I watched one, and I was starting to miss it!  The lady that was baptized is SO brave, she had been in a motorcycle accident and had a ton of metal on and in and around her leg to help the bone go back in place.  It looked so painful, and she needed a lot of help to get in and out of the font, but it was so touching to see her faith and determination to be baptized.  :)

Oh, and Happy Father's Day to the best Dad ever!!!!!  I love you so much!!  I was listening to the Father's Day talks in sacrament meeting and I thought about last year...Father's Day (in Brasil) was my last Sunday in the CTM!  Crazy how fast that year has flown.

Well, my time is up here, so I'd better run.  Love you guys!  Have a GREAT WEEK!  :D

Love,

Sister Gee

Getting dropped; New referrals from members; Michelle and Jonas

Querida Família, 

Tudo bem??  Como vai?

Another good week here...the days are flying by!

Lots of ups and downs this week.... getting dropped by some of our best investigators.... and then turning the corner and finding AMAZING new ones.  I find that's how it is in the mission... you for sure have the rough days, but you just keep on working and soon enough you're back on top again.  :)  The Lord has blessed us SO MUCH this week, and it's been incredible to see how the Spirit has been guiding us, in a VERY real way.  It's very humbling, and I just hope that I can always listen and obey the promptings He sends me.  

The BEST part this week... :  We've been receiving quite a few referrals from members, and because they're usually in the neighborhoods that are SUPER far away and hard to get to, we took a while to get around to contacting them...which was a mistake.  I've learned this week that there is NOTHING better in the world than a referral from members!  It's so good to teach people who are prepared and interested and ready to receive our visit.  So different than the people we generally meet knocking doors.  :P  We contacted two amazing families this week, and they are both really sincerely searching to know the truth.  It's so good.  We taught the Restoration for Junior and Kawana (they are a young couple with a 1 year old daughter), and they accepted all of our invitations - to read the Book of Mormon, to pray, to go to church, and to be baptized!  They asked questions about how to pray, how to feel the Holy Ghost, how they could receive an answer that our message is true... after the lesson both Sister Rojas and I left their house just beaming. :)   

The other family we contacted was just as wonderful - Michelle and Jonas, and their two kids, a 6 year old daughter and a 2 year old son.  We introduced the Book of Mormon and invited them to read, and Jonas told us that he had always wondered why Christ wouldn't have visited other parts of the world -  he was so excited to read about Christ's visit to the Americas in the Book of Mormon!  They both told us that we couldn't have arrived at a better moment to visit them and share our message.  The Spirit was strong and once again, we both just felt so happy and excited to have found such a wonderful family to teach.

So the moral of the story is, missionary work is SO much more effective, SO much easier, when the members get involved!  When we live the gospel, serve our neighbors and friends, LOVE others, opportunities to share the gospel will open up all around us.  I know that's true!  I'm so grateful for the members who have sought to be that example and have trusted us enough to invite us to teach their friends.  It's made such a big difference in our work here.

Anyways, that's about it from me.  Hope you are all doing well!    I love you guys so much!!!!  Have an amazing week!  

Love,

Sister Gee  

Festa Julina! Importance of faith, and TRUST in God's promises

Hello
This week was fun...
Our ward had a party on Friday, Festa Julina!  Apparently you guys have already seen photos.  It was super fun, exciting to participate in a completely Brazilian tradition.  There was a LOT OF FOOD, traditional clothing, dancing, and I even got my hair and makeup done.  :)  It was great - and the BEST part is how many people brought friends!  I think there were almost more investigators there than members... We didn't even have enough time to talk to all of the visitors!  But it was a really good opportunity to help people visit the chapel, get to know the members, and prepare them to come visit on a Sunday some day! 
Sister Rojas and I are doing great!  During the 12 weeks of training, we get to study one extra hour every day.  It's surprising how fast the day flies by when you study the whole morning...8 am - 12 pm, 4 hours of study!  but we've been working a lot, trying to find new investigators!   We had 7 investigators in church on Sunday.  That's more than I'm used to.  :)  Thanks to all the members who have been bringing their friends!
We have been teaching a young woman named Monica, who is a good friend of a lady in our ward.  She has been coming to church for a few weeks now, and has been asking to receive the missionary lessons.  Unfortunately she doesn't live in our area, but we got to go to the member's house to teach her the Restoration yesterday, and it was an AMAZING lesson!  She is so prepared to receive the gospel...the Spirit was strong as we shared the message, and she got a little teary-eyed...she knows that what we're teaching is true, but told us she isn't ready to make a change, mostly because of pressure from her family, all of which are Catholic.  But she is an amazing lady, so humble and accepting of everything we taught. I just felt so grateful to be able to share the wonderful message of the Restoration with her and bear my testimony of its truthfulness.  It's the best part of being a missionary - when they really open their hearts and believe! 
As Jared mentioned in his email this week....it's getting COLD!  I heard that the cold is coming up to us from Rio Grande do Sul, where it's supposedly going to be -10 Celsius!  Good luck with that, Elder Gee! :)  Someone also mentioned that it could possibly snow here, but I don't think I believe it.  It's not THAT cold yet. :)
Today in my personal study I read Hebrews 11 - an AMAZING chapter about the importance of faith, and TRUST in God's promises.  It's powerful!  I know I'd read the chapter before, but today I think I understood a little bit better... all the wonderful examples we have of faithful men and women in the scriptures made me want to strengthen (and put into practice) my OWN faith.   Anyways, read it and tell me what you guys think!  
But that's about it from me.  Hope you are all doing well.  I love hearing from you guys!  Keep sending emails!  I know I haven't been very good at responding...but I'll do better.  :)  
Happy Pioneer Day on Wednesday!  :D 
Love you!
Sister Gee

New companion is Sister Rojas from CHILE! Training is hard

HIIIII!  
Another CRAZY week!
I got to travel to Londrina on Monday, like I told you guys last week.  I actually stayed the night in Ibiporã, and it was super weird but cool to go back there and relive some memories from the time I served there.  There were three trainers staying there, me, Sister Butler, and Sister Bispo.  Two Americans and a Brazilian.  So since we had managed to find out that the three new sisters would be one American, one Chilean, and one Brazilian, we had no idea who was going to get which one...but we all passed that night trying to guess.  :) 
The next day we got all dressed and chique to go to the mission house...the first time since I arrived in the field for me!  Crazy.  All three of us had butterflies.  And when we arrived there, they didn't even relieve the tension and tell us who our companion was...we had to wait until the very end, after the lunch and training and everything to find out.  BUT.  It was definitely a surprise, becauuuussse.....
....
My new companion is Sister Rojas!  She is from CHILE and is awesome and beautiful.  :)  She speaks Portuguese VERY well for the little time that she's been here (Spanish-speakers stay just 6 weeks in the CTM), and with a beautiful Spanish accent.  It's super cool.  She has been teaching me a few words here and there in Spanish.  (Like yesterday, when she told me that I am cabeça de pollo. ...which means that I forget things a lot. :P)
Training is hard.  I knew it would be, and it is.  It's stressful.  And the language barrier doesn't help, haha.  Like I said, she speaks Portugese super well, but there are still those moments when she asks me "How do you say ...?"  and I have to respond "....I don't know either!"  haha :)  It's been interesting.  but so good!  I know I'm going to learn SO MUCH this transfer.  :)
We had a zone conference this week too, the day after we arrived from Londrina.  Our first conference with Presidente Genaro!  He is AWESOME, and the conference was amazing.  Sister Genaro is bubbly and sweet, and Presidente Genaro is dedicated and spiritual.  (I was going to send photos, but...I forgot my camera.  ah, cabeça de pollo.)  They have two kids, one son who is 16 (preparing to go on a mission soon!) and a daughter who is 12.  They are a beautiful family!  Our mission has been blessed to receive such a great president.  :)  I felt bad for Sister Rojas, the first week of the mission is always hectic, and with all the excitement and craziness of a zone conference to top it all off...!  But I think she handled it all okay.  :)
But I don't have much more time to write, so I'll end here.  :)  But I'm doing well, loving being a missionary and bringing the blessings of the gospel to God's children in Brasil!  It's such a wonderful experience, and I'm so grateful for all I've learned, and all I'm still learning.  :)  
I love you all!  Keep writing!  Hope all is well at home, sounds like you guys are as busy as ever!  Always doing fun stuff, right?  I looooveee yooooou!
Love,
Sister Gee

I will be a trainer! Barbara is awesome; Fourth of July in Maringá

Dear Family,
Another week has passed....and with it, one more transfer!   I can't believe how quickly the last six weeks have flown by, I have loved being here in Maringá with Sister Saldanha...we've had a lot of fun and had some amazing experiences together.  I'm always so sad when I leave a companion, especially because it seems like we had such little time together!  But yep, Sister Saldanha is being transferred.  We found out last night when I got a surprise phone call from the assistants....telling me that I'll be TRAINING this transfer!!!!  aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh....  Right now my head is too full of all the things I have to do and all the craziness of the transfer to feel VERY nervous, but I'm pretty sure this time tomorrow the nerves will be setting in.  :P  Training is such a huge responsibility...I'm excited to be able to help a new sister and I'm grateful to know that the Lord trusts me with this calling, but ... I know it's not going to be easy.  I'm praying a LOT that the Lord will bless me with the guidance of the Spirit and all the abilities that I'll need to be a good trainer.  And any prayers that you guys want to send my way are welcome too.  :)
So I'll be catching a bus in about two hours to travel to Londrina...and tomorrow morning I'll be headed to the mission house to pick up my new companion!  I still don't know what her name is or where she's from...I heard that this transfer there will be one American sister and one Chilean sister arriving, so we'll have to wait and see which one I get.  :)
Other than the transfer news, the most interesting thing that happened this week was when we received all of the furniture for our new house!  A man stopped by the apartment to put together all the beds and tables and dressers...and by the time he was done, the apartment was COMPLETELY full of boxes and plastic wrapping and styrofoam.  So we got to spend a few hours that day cleaning up the mess and throwing it all away.  I think we cleared out one large cardboard box and two bags (the size of mattresses) full of garbage... haha, but it was a LOT OF GARBAGE!  :)  Thankfully, that's one step closer to being able to move in to our new house!  Now we're just waiting for someone to buy/install a shower and kitchen sink for our house to be all ready!  :)  
It's been surprisingly hot this week, just when I thought that winter was finally starting.  Looks like it won't be getting TOO cold here, at least not any time soon.  whew*.   On the 4th of July I made a little flag to put up in our apartment, I and the other sisters (yep, even the Brasilians) wore red white and blue, and I sang the national anthem...I'm the only American in the house, so I got to sing a solo, but it was good!  It seems like being far from home is making me more patriotic than ever.  :)
The work has been going a little slowly, partly because of the extra time we've been putting in to all the house stuff.  We have a few solid investigators, and they've been progressing, hopefully that means we'll have a baptism next week!  We taught a girl named Barbara this week, she is a friend of a member of our ward.  She is 13 years old, and is AWESOME.  We taught her the message of the Restoration and she accepted to be baptized once she knows it's true.  I was amazed and so happy to see how easily she accepted our invitations, and how open she is to pray and seek an answer from God.  We are also teaching a 12 year old girl named Milena, along with her mother and her older sister.  They are a wonderful family, very humble and receptive to our messages.  It was so good to meet them and teach them...the older sister, Bruna, has already prayed about our message and told us that she really feels that it's all true.  :)  The only problem now is getting them to church!  Waking up early on Sunday morning has been a challenge for them, which is frustrating since it seems like such a LITTLE thing is preventing them from progressing.  :/
Anyways, that's it from me!  One more transfer...sheesh.  It goes so fast!
I'm glad you liked the video!  Haha, I was embarrassed and didn't know what to say.  But it was fun to be able to send a little message for you guys.  :)  How's my English? :P :)
I love you guys so much!  Don't worry, I know you didn't forget about me.  I just like to give you a bad time.  ;)
Have a greeeeeeeeeeat week!!!
Love,
Sister Gee

Missionary fireside; Irmã Eliza finally came to church!

Hello dear family
It has been a good week
It is still rainy and chilly here in Maringá, but they say winter is still yet to arrive
I FINALLY received the box you sent!  Thanks to a little confusion in the mission office, it took a while...but finally made it to Maringá.  I was soooo happy to get it!  You guys are amazing!  FULL of wonderful goodness, and lots of it.  I will be enjoying this for a long, long time.
This week I got to travel to Londrina again, this time to revew my visa.
I travelled there with Sister Bullen (my old roommate from the CTM) and stayed in the house in Aeroporto with 
Sister Cardoso!  
It was a wonderful trip...divertido.  :)  They took my picture, and my fingerprints, and I am officially all set to stay in Brasil 6 more months.  woohoo!
We had our missionary fireside on Saturday...it went well, but not many members showed up.   Maybe 10.  I hope that if the missionaries there decide to do a fireside one day, you ALL will be there.  
But it was good, and there was food afterwards...yum.  :)
Sunday was good, Irmã Eliza finally came to church!  I don't think I've mentioned her yet - we've been teaching her for a while.  She is the SWEETEST little old lady and she is happy ALL the time.  She smiles and laughs at whatever we say...seriously.  I love her, and we were so happy that she came to church.  :)
But yeah, the week was a little bit crazy, but good, and we are happy here...ooh!  Update on our house!  We officially have a house...we have the keys and everything.  It is officially ours, but as we don't have any furniture or anything, I guess we're going to have to wait for the pres. to figure that out.  And with the new president arriving and everything, I have a feeling that our furniture shopping might get put off for a while.  So we probably won't be moving until the next transfer...but still, it's a relief to know that we're at least getting closer.
Aaaanyways, that's all the news from here.  It's great to be on a mission!
I love you guys!
Hope all is well at home.
Don't forget about me.
Please!
:)
Love,
Sister Gee

Chuch-wide missionary fireside; Wet and cold, winter has arrived; Pres. Tavares' last week

Wasn't the fireside last night AMAZING???  I LOVED the MUSIC, the VIDEOS, the TALKS, the SPIRIT!  The choir of missionaries from the MTC was so inspiring to see!  A SEA of missionaries...and you're right, it's looking more and more like a colorful flower bed all the time.  :)  I just love seeing how much missionary work is expanding, all throughout the world.  It really is an incredible work and it is changing and growing and it is so exciting to be a part of it!  Now I'm just wondering if I'll stick around long enough to do proselyting via Facebook!  ;)  And I loved how much the emphasis was on the role of the MEMBERS...it makes such a huge difference when the members are working alongside the full-time missionaries, and it is the BEST way to do missionary work.  Sister Saldanha and I have been planning to give a fireside on missionary work this Saturday, so all of the talks and videos from last night were definitely inspiration for us.  Not too many of the members from our ward were able to make it yesterday, so we're going to pass on the excitement and enthusiasm in our own fireside on Saturday! It's going to be good.  

Well, this week was pretty great!  It has been super cold, wet and rainy this week - I think winter has officially arrived.  I never thought that it could get this cold in Brazil!  We've had to bundle up quite a bit to make it through the week, especially Sister Saldanha - she's from Manaus, one of the hottest parts of Brazil.  I don't think she'd ever felt this kind of cold in her life!  :)  One of my companions said that as the weather gets colder, the people do too....and I'm thinking that just might be true.  It's getting hard to get people to listen to us on the streets - they're all rushing home to get out of the rain!  And bringing people to church at 9 am... well, with the Lord EVERYTHING is possible, but that doesn't mean it's easy.  :)  We had a "multirão" in our area on Wednesday, so all the missionaries in our district worked in our area for a day, helping us contact references and find new investigators.  That was exciting, and it has helped a lot.  Our district leader found one awesome couple, Rosilda and Tiago.  We haven't had the chance to teach them yet, but they accepted our invitation to come to church on Sunday, and while all of our other investigators chickened out because of the cold and rain, they got up and got dressed and CAME TO CHURCH!  I love it when that happens. :)   They are married, LEGALLY, and have an adorable three year old daughter.  :)  We're hoping that they felt the Spirit during the church meetings enough to want to come back next week...and the next and the next and the next (etc.)  :)

Oh, and have you guys heard about all the crazy stuff going on here in Brazil?  This week has been FULL of protests in just about every corner of the country.  There hasn't been too much going on here in Maringá, but on Friday night we were on our way home after a day of work, and the main road was completely packed with cars...a group of protesters were stopping traffic.  Fortunately they were only blocking the other direction, so we managed to make it home without any problems.  :)  But the protests are pretty much all that people are talking about here ... and I was just wondering, what have you guys heard about all that? 

Anyways, that's about all the news from me!  This is President Tavares' last week....crazy!  Hope you guys are enjoying the summer weather there!  Love you ALL so much!  I hope the fireside yesterday left you all as excited about missionary work as I am...I know that it isn't always easy to find missionary opportunities, but I know that everybody has a role to play in this work, regardless of location, position, age, or whatever else.  "Our greatest responsibility, independent of our position or calling, is TO PREACH THE GOSPEL!"  "EVERY ONE is called and commissioned to invite others to come unto Christ!"  It's something we've ALL been called to do!  "THIS IS THE GREAT WORK OF THE LATTER DAYS!"  :D

Love you all oh so much,

Sister Gee

Surprise zone conference in Londrina;

Dear Family,

This week was CRAZY.

It all started in district meeting on Tuesday.  We arrived in the chapel, and everything was normal.  We sang a hymn, said a prayer, recited "Our purpose as missionaries", and everything was normal.  
And then our district leader casually mentioned "Oh yeah, and tomorrow are interviews with President Tavares."
WHAT???
"Oh yeah, and the next day is zone conference ..."
HUH????
"...in Londrina."
WAAAHH?!  

We were all SUPER surprised and SUPER excited...it was all so last second, and nobody saw it coming.

But it was a week FULL of goodness!

It was exciting, not only because interviews and zone conferences are ALWAYS exciting, but because it's the last we'll have with President Tavares....so we knew it was going to be special.  And it was AMAZING!  We woke up at 3:30 am on Thursday, got all ready, and left the house at 4:30 to catch our bus that left Maringá at 5:00.  We arrived in Londrina about 7-ish...half-asleep, but excitedly greeting all of the other sisters and elders there. They grouped FIVE zones together for this conference, so we got to see a lot of people.  Unfortunately the conference was only 1/2 day instead of a whole day as usual, as President Tavares is super busy trying to interview everyone before his mission ends... but they were somehow able to cram a whole day's worth of spiritual goodness into the few hours we had.  There was such an incredible spirit the whole conference...amazing talks and music and training...my favorite was an amazing talk Pres. Tavares gave about the Atonement.  He talked about how Christ was COMPLETELY obedient to our Heavenly Father...He put God's will above His own, and that's what we have to do as well.  We can be just a LITTLE bit better, do just a LITTLE bit more every day, even if we don't feel like it or think we can.  If we remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us, it's easier to have that desire to be better.  ...and everybody was in tears when President and Sister Tavares bore their testimonies at the end.  The mission is going to be so different without them, and we will all miss them so much.  I keep thinking about what an impact they have had on my mission and my life, and I'm so grateful for the time that I got to serve with them.  :) 

Let's see, what else.... we're still trying to figure out the whole house thing.  I think it'll still be another few weeks before we get to move in, but it's getting closer!

The whole mission is on fire right now, and everyone is super pumped up for the rest of this month. President Tavares has been fighting to achieve a monthly goal of 200 baptisms for a loooooong time, so we're giving it everything we can, this is the last month of his mission and we want to send him off well.  :)  Sister Saldanha and I are hunting down people to teach, and though we haven't had too much success this week, we've found a few people that we'll be working with.  Milagres são reais!!!  :)

Well, that's it for now.  I love you guys!  Sounds like you sure are keeping busy.  Hope everything goes well with everything you guys are doing.   You are amazing!!!

Love,

Sister Gee

Big goal: 10 investigators in church on Sunday

HELLLO from Maringá!  It's been a great week here, I'm really learning to love the area and the members and the sisters and everything.  
This week was a little bit crazy with the house hunt going on here.  The secretaries have been calling us, sending us on errands for them...printing contracts, hunting down signatures from the landlord, mailing documents to the mission office in Londrina...stuff like that.  It's been interesting.  Probably good practice for some day when I buy my OWN house.  :)  I think the process here is slowly coming to a close, and hopefully we'll be in our own house in our own area pretty soon!    It will definitely be a good thing - though we'll miss living in an apartment full of crazy awesome sisters, it will be good to be in our own area.  The apartment here is verrrrrrry far away from our area...we have to catch two buses to arrive in our area every day, and two buses to go back home at the end of the day.  It takes about an hour both ways, and it gets kind of old after a while.  The most frustrating part is the affect it has on our work, as we lose two hours of lesson time every day.  But, we're being patient and making it work.  :)
This week Sister Saldanha and I made some awesome goals and are really working on finding people to teach.  We've been street contacting like crazy, and are meeting so many amazing people!  It's amazing how talking to everyone you meet about the gospel makes a difference in your entire day... It not only helps us stay focused on our purpose as missionaries, but we feel so much more excited and motivated in the other aspects of our work too!  It's been so good!  Sister Saldanha is so much fun, and I have been loving having her as a companion!  
This week our zone leaders challenged every companionship of missionaries in our zone to bring 10 investigators to church on Sunday.  As we usually have a hard time bringing even one or two people, it was a pretty big goal.  But Sister Saldanha and I were determined to do our best, and we spent the whole week inviting everyone we saw to go to church.  :)   On Saturday we called all of our investigators to confirm that they would be able to go, and almost every one of them cancelled on us... :P  We were pretty bummed about it, but decided to keep working with our last possibility - Mary.  Mary is a friend of a recent convert.  She had a motorcycle accident recently and broke her foot pretty badly.  We invited her to church Saturday afternoon and she just laughed and looked at the heavy cast on her foot... but said that she was willing to go if we were able to find a member that could bring both her and her wheelchair to church.   So we spent the night and Sunday morning calling members and praying that somebody had a car big enough for that.  We finally found one irmã that was willing to give Mary a ride, but didn't have room for the wheelchair.... Long story short, Mary ended up going to church on crutches.  We were so happy that she was willing to make the sacrifice to go to church, even despite the inconvenience it caused for her.  That was so good to see, especially since so many other people we invited weren't even willing to wake up early for church... Her humility and faith and desire to put the Lord first was an example to me. 
And in the end, we had THREE investigators at church!  After all our work and stress and prayers, the Lord blessed us....and even though it wasnt the 10 investigators we were hoping for, I still was so grateful for the three that came.  :)
And it was a good week.
Love,
Sister Gee

CIDADE NOVA (whoops.); Sister Saldanha, is wonderful!!

Hello everyone!!!  First of all, I have an correction to make.  I guess I got a little excited with all of the transfer news....and I confused Cia Norte, a different area close to Maringá, with my REAL new area, Cidade Nova.  whoops.  :)  But the rest of the stuff I told you was all true - I'm back here in my "birthplace", Maringá, living in the same apartment and everything.  It's SO WEIRD to be here.  It almost feels like I'm arriving in the mission field all over again...super deja vu!  But it's awesome, and I am LOVING the new area so far!  The ward is amazing.  AMAZING.  Everyone is very friendly and excited and united.  On Sunday, our lunch appointment was scheduled in the house of an irmã who just happened to be throwing a family birthday party for her father-in-law that day, so we got to crash the party - CHURRASCO!!!!  Chique demais, it was amazing.  Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and a TON of little kids running around...Made me feel like I was in one of our crazy-wonderful Smith Family get togethers.  :)  I've also heard that the ward here throws a LEGENDARY party every year for Festa de Juninha, a traditional Brazilian holiday - I'm praying that I'll stay in the area long enough to catch that too.  :)
My companion, Sister Saldanha, is wonderful!!!  She is 19 years old, and just barely finished her training, but you wouldn't guess it - she is already so good in all of the aspects of missionary work, and is such a huge blessing to me.  Arriving in a new area, learning all the investigators and neighborhoods and bus schedules and streets is rough...but Sister Saldanha has got it all down, and she guides me through every day.  I would be so lost without her.  :)  She is from Manaus and can be super goofy and crazy, but has an amazing spirit and such a pure faith that really is an inspiration to me.  It's going to be a good transfer!
We are living in the same apartment with the sisters from Parque dos Pioneiros (my original Maringá ward, remember?), while the mission secretaries hunt down a house in our area...apparently it's been quite the process, but I think we'll hopefully have our own house in about a week or two.  In the meantime, that makes 6 sisters living in the same little apartment - it's an adventure, and always fun.  The sisters here are craaazy!  Sister Marques, Sister De Moura, Sister Rocha, and Sister Moraes.  I wish I had a picture to send...next week for sure.  :)  
We're focusing a lot on finding new investigators...we haven't had too much luck this week.  BUT we found a few pretty cool people - a man named Marcello, whose brother is a member of the church!  He had already received the Book of Mormon from his brother and kept talking about how much he admired his faith and dedication to his religion.  It was exciting to find him, teach him the Restoration, and invite him to be baptized - and he accepted!  It looks like it might be a tough decision to make, as his 19-year old son wasn't very happy with the idea...but we're going to try to keep visiting him and helping him progress.   
But yep, that's about all that's been going on.  :)  I'll keep sending updates and pictures as they come...  Hope you all are well and happy and excited for summer.  I can't believe it's June already!!!
Love love love,
Sister Gee

Ether 12:12-19  -  FAITH AND MIRACLES!!

TRANSFERÊNCIAS!;

TRANSFERÊNCIAS.  AAAAHHH.  Transfers are always kinda stressful, but it's SO MUCH CRAZIER being here in Aeroporto.  It's here in Londrina, the center of the mission, so there are allllways a billion people coming and going through here as they travel to their new areas.  The sisters that have to travel almost always stay in the house here in Aeroporto, so we always have a lot to do around transfer-time - sisters to pick up from the bus station, finding rides from the members for all the missionaries, suitcases and spare mattresses and and and....etc. Anyways, so I was expecting this week to be a little crazy.  Our phone has been ringing nonstop since yesterday.  :P  Last night we got a phone call from the secretaries telling us that a sister would be arriving Monday afternoon to stay in our house, and that we would have to pick her up from the bus station.  Tudo bem.  Tranquilo.  ...and then a few minutes later, the zone leaders called and asked "Are you on your way to the bus station to pick up Sister Ramos?"  Us: "...Now??!"  Haha, so it was a surprise and we had to scramble to find a member last second that could pick up Sister Ramos with her suitcases, but fortunately our ward mission leader is AMAZING and always willing to drop everything to help us out.   Remember Sister Ramos?  She lived with me in Maringá.  :)  Now she's finishing her mission and will be headed for home early Thursday morning!  Crazy!  But it has been sooo much fun to have her in our house last night and this morning.  :)  We'll be headed to the bus station shortly after finishing with the internet here to pick up Sister Ramirez, and I think several other sisters will be arriving today and tomorrow.

And now, the big news.  Yep, I've been transferred.  I was definitely not expecting that.  I arrived here in Aeroporto 5 WEEKS ago and just when I started to settle in, I'm leaving again!  I'm going to be so sad to leave all the members and investigators and recent converts here.... they've been so much fun.  :)  But I am SO so grateful for all that I've learned and all the experiences I had here, in just 5 short weeks.  It's been so amazing!  And I'm going to miss Sister Cardoso!  She was called as Lider Treinadora Sister (I think I explained about that in a past email...), and is super stressed about the new calling, but I know she's going to be amazing!  She's a wonderful missionary and it's been so much fun to be her companion.  :)

My new area will be........ CIA NORTE!!!  It's a ward in Maringá, so I'll be going back to the city where it all started. :D  I'm so HAPPY and nervous and excited and I am so grateful that I at least am a little familiar with the city.  I'll even be living in the same apartment...it's going to be so weird going back.  :)  But good.

My new companion is Sister Saldanha....and I literally know nothing about her.  haha :)  She's one of the newer sisters in the mission so I haven't had the chance to meet her yet.  BUT I'm sure it's going to be an adventure.  AAH.  So much happening.  My brain is still adjusting to it all.  :)

Anyways, that's the most exciting part of my week.  The rest of the week was just walking and contacting references and knocking on doors in the rain.  :)  It's super rainy here, and has been verrryy chilly.  Hello, Winter.  But whenever the sun comes out, it heats right back up again!  We met some very interesting people, but nobody that really seemed very interested.  :/  Just gotta keep going until the Lord helps us to find the people He's prepared for us.  

Oh, and we had a ward activity on Saturday, SUPER fun - Noite Italiana!  I made Mom's famous lasagna and everybody loved it!  (The lasagna here in Brasil is very different, so they were excited to try "American" lasagna)  :)  It didn't turn out nearly as good as Mom makes it, but it was sooo good to eat it and feel a little bit at home. :)  The Relief Society decorated the church in red and green and white, played opera music, and we all ate pasta até o pó!  (translation=A LOT)  :)

Well, this has become a long email, so I'll end here.  I hope you guys are having an awesome Memorial Day!  I have really felt a deeper appreciation for our ancestors here on the mission and I love learning about their lives and experiences... Family history is definitely going to be a new hobby of mine once I get back from the mission and have more time for it again.  :)  

Love you all so much!  Keep sending emails and letters and let me know how you are all doing!  I'm sure you guys are keeping plenty busy, sounds like a lot is happening back home. :)  

Until next week...

Love,

Sister Gee