natal who wander are lost: week 37 . transfer week

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TRANSFERS. Sister Ríos got transferred. tears. As did our ZL [mom note: ZL = Zone Leader, a missionary assigned to oversee and work with a group of missionaries in a geographical area] Elder Clark. more tears. [mom note: and Sister Moraes went home as was mentioned in last weeks letter]

Elder Sousa, Elder W. Silva, Elder Clark, Sister Hernandez, Sister Moraes, Sister Baker, Sister Rios, Elder Evans

Sister Rios, Sister Moraes, Sister Baker and Sister Hernandez

But Elder W. Silva and I stayed and we got two new missionaries in our ward. Our new ZL, Elder Monteza (from Lima Peru!). He was Elder Zundel's trainer! [mom note: Elder Zundel is from our home Stake in Mission Viejo] Small world. He's great and super funny. And Sister Hernandez' new companion is Sister Porter!!! We're living together again and I'm pumped beyond belief. And I'm still living with Sister Herndandez so I'm even more pumped. And my new companion:

Drumroll please . . .

Sister Morais!

about Sister Morais ::

+ from São Paulo (no surprise there, like all of my comps are Paulistas)

+ has 4 months on the mission! So she's super excited about this work and is basically on fire. I love it!

+ was baptized at age 15! and now she's 22 and on a mission. I have so much respect for her for making the decision to serve a mission as a convert. I think it'd be a hard decision, but she rocks it.

+ is so sweet. And serves others with all her heart. I have never seen our house so clean, ever. And one day without me knowing she washed all my clothes and then hung them up on the line to dry. What? Am I living with an actual angel? I think so.

+ teaches with the spirit! We're going to see (and already are seeing) miracles this transfer!

Transfer week is always insane. And it is rough going to hit the standard of excellence [mom note: goals that the missionaries try to meet each week], but we did it! And it was a straight up miracle because it just happened. We did everything we could but not once did I have to over-stress about the standard. Heavenly Father just blessed us so much for putting in our all this week. Which we did. Sister Morais and I are exhausted. I don't know that I've ever been so physically (and emotionally) tired on my mission. But I feel so satisfied and happy and like I am doing what Heavenly Father wants me to and there's not a better feeling in the world.

Also all of our hard work is paying off! MIRACLES THIS WEEK.

(1) Rosa read the Book of Mormon, prayed, and had a dream as an answer to her prayer. She knows what she needs to do to help herself and her family! It was such an amazing experience to help her understand her dream and how God is answering her prayers! (And to make it even more amazing: I have been praying like crazy this week that God could give her an extremely clear answer! One that she couldn't ignore. God answered my prayers)

(2) Rosa went to church for the first time yesterday! We got there just in time for the sacrament. But she loved it! When it ended she was like, "already?" And her 10 year old niece went with her and said she wants to go next week too! So happy for her!

(3) We were trying to contact a less-active member and we ran into a dream investigator, Pedro. He and his daughter were so receptive and gave us popcorn and loved learning more about Jesus Christ and accepted baptism! All within the first lesson! We just have to work out a way for him to go to church because he's usually at a farm on Sundays. But more miracles will happen!

(4) Another prayer answered yesterday. Yesterday night we were all exhausted and HUNGRY. I might have been praying to have dinner at a members house (because dinner is more like a snack here) and out of nowhere a woman, Franscisca, in our ward called us and the elders and invited us over for cous cous and lasagna. YES. It was perfect. [mom note: I was curious about lasagna in Brazil so I googled it and included a link to a recipe for Brazilian lasagna]

I'm super pumped for this next week now that Sister Morais and I are getting into the groove of things. It's going to be another week of miracles, I have no doubt about it.

Heavenly Father loves us and knows us and He hears our prayers!

I LOVE YOU ALL

Tchau

Sister Baker