Cleonice; Special fireside; Pioneers here in the branch of Ibiporã

Hello Family!  

It has been another great week in Ibiporã!  We had a zone meeting last week and this week will be our zone conference!  I'm so excited.  :D  I love every chance we get to spend time with and learn from the other missionaries in our zone.  We have awesome leaders, Elder Ramos and Elder Hutchings, and they help us not only to see where we need to improve, but to learn HOW to do it!  It was a really motivational meeting and we learned a lot of things that have been helping us to work more effectively and more with the Spirit.

This week we've been finding and working with a bunch of new investigators, and a few super old ones.  Remember João?  From...November?  Haha, we stopped visiting him a LONG time ago when we realized that he wasn't going to progress, but somehow he keeps popping back up every now and then.  We were finally able to mark a baptismal interview with the zone leaders on Saturday, but he didn't show up...it seems like he always has one excuse or another.  This week we're going to have to find out what he really needs and if he actually has the desire to be baptized or not.

While contacting references, we met an awesome lady named Cleonice.  She has 5 kids, including a daughter who is deaf  - she is 6 years old and adorable, and I really wished that I knew at least a little bit of sign language to communicate with her... Anyways, they are an awesome family, and Cleonice had already been taught by the sisters and is reading the Book of Mormon!  She started at the beginning and is already reading in Alma.  :)  She is really curious, has a huge desire to learn, and had a TON of questions for us to answer.  It is so much fun to teach people who are actually interested in our message and really seek to understand what we teach them.  :)

This Sunday we had marked a special fireside with President Tavares, but when we called to confirm everything Sunday morning, it turned out that he was headed for a zone conference in Foz do Iguaçu, 10 hours or so from Ibiporã.  So he wasn't able to make it...  :(  We were disappointed and worried that everything would fall apart, but President Tavares sent his first counselor, President Frois, to give the fireside instead, and it turned out to be a GREAT meeting.  He did a great job of getting the members excited about missionary work, and even I found myself planning out how I would give a pass along card to a friend...and then I remembered that I'm a missionary, and talking to people about the gospel is what I do every day.  haha.  :)  But it was such a good fireside!  He talked about SACRIFICE, and how it is not only a commandment, but a way to help us become more Christ-like and more prepared to return to our Heavenly Father's presence.  He talked about pioneers - the pioneers who sacrificed in the early days of the Church, as well as the pioneers here in the branch of Ibiporã, pioneers who were the first members of their families to accept the gospel.  And then he challenged us to think about the people we know who aren't members of the Church - THEY could be the pioneers of THEIR family, if we just have the courage to open our mouths and share our testimonies.  

Anyways, that's about all the news for now.  We're just working on finding and teaching and bringing people to Christ!  It's such an amazing, rewarding and fulfilling work!  Oh, and Happy Easter this week!  :D  Sister Passos and I are thinking about planning an egg-spinning contest for the branch activity next week....a good family tradition that I think the members here would love.  :)  Anyways, I love you guys!  I hope all is well back there in the U.S.  I think of you and pray for you every day!  Keep being amazing and looking for the tender mercies of the Lord in your lives always!   

Love,

Sister Gee 

9 months already!?! Our area doubled in size!; Working with less active members; "I want to come back!"

Hello once again to everyone back there in the US.  :)  Things here in Brazil are as awesome as ever!  As you probably know, the week of transfers is always CRAZY, lots of exciting changes and news.  As I told you last week, Sister Passos and I are both going to be staying in Ibiporã for one more transfer....but this time there's a twist - Sister Marques and Sister Ramirez were both transferred to different cities, and no new sisters were transferred to Ibiporã to take their place.  So yep, Sister Passos and I are taking care of all the investigators and members in TWO areas, which cover the entire city of Ibiporã, as well as Jataizinho, the neighboring city where Igor and his family live.  It is a BIG area.  Last week we had three sisters staying in our house while waiting for the house in their new area to get ready, and they helped us visit our investigators and take care of the area a little bit, so it hasn't been TOO bad so far.  But then their house opened up and they left Ibiporã early Saturday morning... so now it's just me and Sister Passos.  :)  It's definitely different - the first time in my mission that I've been living in a house without another companionship - but there are definitely some positive aspects to it.  More space in the closet.  Less competition for the washing machine.  A shorter line for the bathroom.  Stuff like that.  :)  It will take some getting used to, but I think that Sister Passos and I will have fun together here.

This week we spent a lot of time teaching Iago, the young man that I mentioned last week.  He is a good friend of Lucas', and has been coming to church the last few weeks.  We met his mom and taught the whole family the message of the Restoration, and they both accepted to be baptized!  Iago was baptized yesterday and his mom, Angelica, will be baptized two weeks from now.  It was a really great lesson, and Sister Passos and I are both excited to continue teaching the family.  

Another focus of the week has been working with less-active members.  I don't remember if I've mentioned this already, but there are a LOT of less active members here in Ibiporã.  I think the membership list has something like 400-ish members, and only 70 of them come to church regularly.  The hard part is finding them, as many of them have moved or passed away or lost contact with the church in some other way.  And that's why it was so crazy this week...it seemed like less-active members were popping up all over the place!  We had people stopping us in the street (which does not happen every day), saying "Oh hey!  I'm a member of your church, and I want to come back!"  And it happened not once, not twice, but SEVERAL times this week!  It was a little startling, but exciting, and we have been trying our best to help them make and keep goals that will help them return to full activity in the church.  

 

This week there was a special priesthood meeting in Londrina for our stake, and President Tavares had asked us all to make goals for how many recent converts and less active members we would bring to the meeting.  He promised us that if we got a less-active member to attend, they would be reactivated.  Sister Passos and I definitely didn't want to pass up such a powerful promise, so we got to work visiting and calling all of the people that we had been finding over the last few weeks.  It was amazing how the timing was so perfect, and even though I don't think we had as many attend as we invited, it was really great to see how the Lord is guiding us to the people who need us in the exact moment when we can help them the most.  It was such a special testimony to me that we're here for a reason, and that we're not doing this work alone!  He is with us, and He is leading us every day.  :)

Well, I love you all so much!  Sounds like St. Patrick's Day was great - I actually forgot about it until the day of, and didn't even think to wear green.  Fortunately the people of Brazil don't know about the pinching tradition, so I got off easy.  :P  :)  

OH YEAH, and can you believe that it's already been 9 MONTHS????!  I can't.  :P

OH YEAH, and more good news - President Tavares emailed us this morning to let us know that the email rules have been changed, and we can now email non-family members!!!  Woohoo!!  :)  So if there's anybody out there reading this email who has neglected to write me because of laziness or the cost of postage stamps, I am pleased to announce that you no longer have an excuse.  haha.  Send me an email!  It's faster.  It's easier.  It's cheaper.  And I love it just as much.  :D

I hope everyone is happy and awesome and enjoying the gorgeous spring weather there in Utah.  I hope you are all doing the small things that make a big difference - prayer and studying the scriptures and going to the temple, etc.  And I'm sure that you are, because I have the best family in the whole world.  :)  I am so so so so grateful for you guys and the love and support that you send me every week.  I realized this week that not every missionary in the world has it as good as I do, so I just wanted to send a super big thank you to you guys for all you do for me.  I love you!!!  :)

Com muito amor,

Sister Gee   

Physical therapy; International Women's Day; Lucas' Baptism!!

Hello family!  I'm here in Londrina with Sister Passos, anxiously awaiting the news of the transfers....we're here early today, so the emails haven't arrived yet.  As you know, I've been in Ibiporã for 3 transfers now, so there's a pretty good chance that I'll be leaving.  But then again, Ibiporã is one of those places where you get to stay for a loooong time... so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.  :)

It's been a crazy week.  A crazy, crazy week.  Physical therapy 3-4 times a week, and besides all that, we got to help the Relief Society plan and prepare an activity for International Woman's Day on March 8th.  That was something that I don't think anybody really celebrates in the US, but it was fun to have a special day just to celebrate how great women are.  :)  The activity was AWESOME.  Lots of chocolate and decorations, and the men of the branch put together a little tribute to the women.  They sang songs, gave little speeches, and afterwards served us all refreshments.  Our contribution was a poster board with a picture of every sister in the branch - we spent the whole week hunting down the photos to put it together, and it turned out really well.  :)  (see picture attached!!)

Adventure of the Week - One day, Sister Passos and I were in a neighborhood cleeeeear on one end of the city, and realized that we had to get back to the OTHER end of the city to teach a lesson for Lucas.   We caught a bus (which we usually avoid doing since the bus fare adds up fast) and headed back to the city center.  I'm pretty sure the bus driver was in a hurry too - he drove SUPER fast over the bumps and turns, and I nearly flew out of my seat several times.  We finally arrived in the bus station, got off, and started to walk towards Lucas' house - when Sister Passos realized that our cell phone was missing.  Yep, it had flown out of her backpack going over one of those crazy bumps...and by that point our bus had already pulled out again.  We asked all of the bus drivers in the station what we could do, but nobody really knew.  They all kind of just laughed and wished us luck....eventually we ended up IN THE BUS GARAGE searching empty buses in the hope that we would be able to find our phone.  haha... And miracle - we found it.  :)  So while we lost an hour or so of time searching for our phone, we saved ourselves the R$200 that it costs to replace a cell phone.  Phew*.

We stopped by the chapel Saturday night for Lucas' baptismal interview and to fill up the font (don't worry, we didn't flood it this time), and Natalino was there with Lucas and 3 or 4 other young men, cleaning the chapel.  The funny thing is that all the young men who were there cleaning aren't even members, but they stayed after the weekly soccer game to help clean anyways.  :)  They all helped Sister Passos and I clean and fill the font, and get everything ready for the baptism.  And two of them, Iago and José Henrique came to church yesterday and stayed to watch Lucas' baptism afterwards!  They both expressed interest in being baptized as well, so Sister Passos and I have two more young men to teach this week.  :)  Irmão Natalino is really becoming an awesome member missionary.  

Sunday was Lucas' baptism.  It was such a special day!  He is an amazing kid, and understands SO quickly everything we teach him.  He wanted to be baptized ever since he came to Jean's baptism two weeks ago.  He has been coming to church and spends a lot of time with Natalino, the Young Men's president.  He has been through some rough stuff already in his life, but he doesn't want to follow the same path as his parents and other family members who he's seen make some pretty serious mistakes - he wants to be different, and he's already becoming such a great young man.  We were really nervous that his grandma wouldn't let him be baptized - she's a stern, kind of intimidating lady, and thinks that 2 weeks is WAY too fast to baptize someone.  We talked with her and explained that baptism ISN'T an end point - it's the beginning of a life of learning and growing as a member of the church.  Finally she softened up, and eventually even started to talk about going to church with him as soon as she can get a job with a better work schedule.   

Anyways, I've got to run.  Still no email about transfers, so it looks like I'll be staying in Ibiporã a bit longer!  Woohoo!

Love you all so much

Sister Gee

"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving:  To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, --but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Awesome investigators, Nilton and Lucas; 35 new missionaries coming in!

Hello Family :)

It was so exciting to get the pictures of the baby blessing today!!!  You all look great, and Celecta Rose is adorable as ever.  It´s so crazy to see how much she is growing every week you send pictures.  She´s going to be so big by the time I get home.  :) :) :)

Exciting news this week  - 30-something new missionaries will be arriving in Londrina this transfer, 5 of them sisters!  That´s an incoming group quite a bit bigger than average - the group when I arrived had 7 missionaries, and me, the only sister.  :)  So yeah, it´s going to be a crazy transfer.  And that´s just the beginning of the surge of missionaries that will be arriving here over the next few months.  So cool!  :D

This week has been different than usual, as Sister Passos and I have been going in to Londrina 3 times a week for my physical therapy.  It´s nothing too crazy - exercises and stretches and stuff - but it sure takes up a lot of our time and we´ve both been feeling less productive as a result.  But I have to keep reminding myself that if I don´t take the time to take care of my feet NOW, missionary work could get a lot more difficult for me in the future... So I´m following the doctor´s orders, and I´m sure it will make a big difference.  :)

 

The time we´ve been able to spend working this week has been focused on our most promising investigator at the moment - a 9-year old boy named Lucas.  He is a reference from the Young Men´s president in the branch, Irmão Natalino.  He is a great president and you can almost always find him in the lot behind the church playing soccer with the young men.  He´s not exactly young, but he sure acts like it.  :)  He has been a big help to us as many of our recent investigators have been young men, and it is so great to have members who are so good at helping people feel welcome and excited to come to church.  That can be especially hard to do with teenagers, so we´re for sure grateful for Irmão Natalino.  :)  Anyways, Lucas is a neighbor of his who he has been bringing to church the last few weeks.  He is excited about the church and already wants to be baptized, but Irmão Natalino told him that he had to receive the missionary lessons first, haha.  :)  So we´ve been visiting him and trying to help him be able to be baptized.  The only problem is his grandma, who he lives with...she is not too open to the gospel, but has been softening up a little bit because of a lot of things that have been happening to her son, Lucas´ dad.  Apparently he´s gotten in to a lot of problems and she doesn´t want Lucas to follow the same path as his dad, so she´s a little bit more willing to let him be baptized.  We´re still going to have to talk with her and help her to see how much it will bless his life!

We have another awesome investigator that we taught yesterday, Nilton.  He is the husband of a lady who was taught by the elders a loooong time ago, and though she still isn´t too interested in the church, Nilton has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy.  He loves to read and learn, and he really wants to understand the gospel of Christ.  However, he is a very, VERY devoted Catholic.... We taught him the Restoration yesterday, and it was a great lesson.  I´m not sure he completely understood everything, but we did our best to teach very clearly so he could recognize the truth of our message.  He gave the prayer at the end of the lesson, and it was so sincere...it´s always so amazing to hear your investigators pray for the first time, before they get into the mechanical routine of prayers that we all end up in sometimes.  The first few prayers are completely from the heart.  :)

Anyways, times up again.  I love you all so much and pray for you every day.  I´m always amazed by how fast the time flies here in the mission.  March already!  Is it going as fast for you guys??  :) :P  

Oh, and thank you for the Valentines cards and candy!!!  It was soooo good to get everything, and I felt so loved.  <3  :)   And yes, I already finished all of the chocolate. hahaha.  :D

Until next week!

Love,

Sister Gee

Citação da Semana!  - This is from the monthly email I got from the Edgemont stake presidency, a SUPER awesome quote from last General Conference :)

"'If ye love me, keep my commandments,’ Jesus said.  So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend.  We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do.  In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord.  We can’t quit, and we can’t go back.  After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before ... To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?”  And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.”  And having set our ‘hand to the plough,’ we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world.”   - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland