week 57 . an ex[CHANGE] of pace

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Last week seems like ages ago. So much happened this week and it went by so fast and so slow at the same time. It started out with a council meeting on Tuesday. I got to see some old friends who are serving in other parts of the mission and hear some wonderful counsel from mission leaders and President and Sister Soares. We woke up bright and early (4 am!) on Tuesday morning and a sweet member of the ward gave us a ride to the mission office. There I got to see . . . Sister Carvalho, Sister Rios, Sister Gonçalves, Elder W. Silva, Elder Monteza, Elder Pimentel, Elder Phillips, Elder Collier, Elder Z. Clark, Elder Tavares, etc. It was great to hear how everyone is doing in their zones and reconnect. Sister Soares talked with us about our focus here as missionaries, that we need to teach with the end in mind. (aka the temple). It was inspiring and Sister J. Silva and I are working to apply what she said in our area. President spoke about our goals as a mission and also asked for us to focus on the family. It was a wonderful council and I am really excited to apply what we learned.

Sister J Silva and Megan

Elder Pimentel, Elder W Silva, Megan and Sister Rios

Sister Concalves, Sister Lopes, Sister  Carvalho, Sister Abreu, Sister Castilho, Megan and Sister Rios

Elder Phillips, Megan, Elder Collier and Elder Andrade (friends from the MTC/CTM)

Sister J Silva and Megan

Megan and Elder Monteza

Megan and Sister Lencini

I spent a good part of this week in exchanges with Sister Weatherford in my area. Sister J. Silva went to Gramoré and stayed with Sister Weatherford's companion. I missed Sister J. Silva, but I loved working with Sister Weatherford. She has been on the mission for 6 months, but she is already a fabulous missionary (and got a hang of the language super fast!). I was blown away by how willing she was to do contacts, something that was rough for me in the beginning of the mission. We worked hard together and we saw a lot of miracles.

Sister Weatherford and Megan

We were walking down the street and there was nobody else on this road. Out of nowhere a woman turned the corner and called us over and asked us to pray for her. We sat down on the curb with her and she started telling us about how she had just left her husband, and that she had nowhere to sleep. All she had was a plastic bag with a denim jacket inside because her ex had thrown all of her things in the street. She sat with us and cried. She said that she had been walking with the idea to end her life, but then we passed by and almost without thinking she had called us over. We talked for a long time. Cried with her. Hugged her. She called us her angels. I don't know if we will ever see her again because she is sleeping in a different house every night and didn't have an address or phone number to give us. We tried to mark with her to meet up this week, I just hope she remembers. But whatever happens, I felt so grateful to truly be a tool in God's hands to protect His daughter. He knew what she was going through and He sent us there to help her, to comfort her. I thought of our baptismal covenant, "to comfort those that stand in need of comfort." It was such a powerful experience to be able to truly live this promise that I made when I was baptized. 

Brendon is full of the missionary spirit and has been inviting everyone to church! We are teaching one of his neighbors, Reginaldo, and he has truly been prepared by the spirit. He is willing to turn his life around for the gospel and he is soaking it all in! We left a pamphlet with him and the next day he had read the entire thing. We asked if he had any questions, and he gave an emphatic no. Saying that the pamphlet explained everything so well that there was no way to have questions haha. He is preparing to be baptized and I'm so excited to work with him. 

Katia is a girl who has been going to church for a while now. She spent some time hesitant to be baptized because she was going to multiple churches and wasn't sure which one she wanted to stay in. But we have been challenging her to pray and ask God. She did and got her answer. She said she wants to be a member of the "mormon church." When we asked her why she said that she felt good about the way we teach the Plan of Salvation, that it makes perfect sense to her and that it all matches up with what the Bible says. She's a very intelligent little girl haha. We are planning her baptism for Sunday. 

#minhavida

+ The other day I fell and hit my knee on the ground. The next day I hit my ankle on a church bench. The next day I hit my foot on a coconut (hurts more than you'd think). The next day I dropped a perfume bottle on my foot. Bruise count: 4 (plus some mystery bruises that came out of nowhere). Gotta eat more bananas. 

I'm so grateful for the time that I passed with Sister Weatherford this week (everyone here just calls her Sister Ford because they can't pronounce her name haha). It was a marvelous experience and I learned so much. I'm also excited to be back with Sister J. Silva. I love my companion! This week is going to be a great one!

AMO VOCÊS DEMAIS. 

xoxo

Sister M. Baker