This week started out with a party. 6 sisters all sleeping in one house. Mattresses on the ground, girl talk, and freshly baked cake (courtesy of Sister Castilho). Sisters V. Lopes, Antunes, Weatherford, and Nunes are all wonderful and it was great to catch up (with Sisters Antunes and Weatherford) and get to know Sisters V. Lopez and Nunes better. We all woke up bright and early (4 am) and managed to all get ready with one bathroom and two broken mirrors. Mission miracles.
Tuesday was the Mission Zone Conference and it was the first time that I have been in Natal for the conference. But some friends from the interior are here in the capital now so I got to see some of my homies. Sister Porter, Sister Rios, Sister Morais, Sister Hernandez! (it was like a Caicó reunion). I love these people too much. I also learned that an elder who was in my zone in Mossoró has taken to doing imitations of me. He refused to show me, but I hear he's pretty good. (probably involves falling over a lot).
Speaking of which. . . #minhavida
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| Sister Weatherford and Megan |
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| Sister Mulberry, SIster Hernandez, Megan, Sister Rios, Sister Porter, Sister Nunes |
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| Sister Mulberry, Sister Hernandez, Sister Porter, Sister Rios, Megan and Elder Evans |
+ At mission conferences, sweet Sister Soares always makes sure that there's breakfast for us. Bread with butter, fruit, juice, chocolate milk, etc. Well I was walking by the breakfast table and I stepped right into a splotch of butter on the ground. You can probably imagine what happened next. . . My foot slipped out behind me and I went down, just barely catching myself before my face hit the ground. Then I stood up, pulled a "nobody saw" pose and cleaned up the butter to save the other good citizens of the Brazil Natal Mission.
+ Related to the above story: my companion asked me the other day if I have ever watched That's So Raven. When I said yes she laughed and said I fall the exact same way as Raven, like I fall and then jump up and keep walking to pretend I didn't fall. (thought of you momma "you little nasty")
Aside from the socializing and the falling, the Zone Conference was an amazing meeting. I felt spiritually uplifted and really motivated to work with the members. This work has to be done together.
Sister Castilho and I were talking this week about how Satan's most powerful tool truly is to stop us from opening our mouths. It's so easy to think,"I won't talk to this person, but I'll talk to the next." or think that the person doesn't look like they want to talk to us, etc. But we worked hard to ignore these temptations and talk to everyone this week. We did a contact with a family and the woman snubbed us big time. She wouldn't even tell us her name. (I think she thinks that mormons have some name voodoo that we do haha). And then in the next contact we did, the woman walked away asap, refusing to talk to us. At the next house over I saw a woman sitting on the curb. Part of me was tired of being rejected and just wanted to get to our next commitment, but the spirit told me to talk to her. So we did. Her name is Joanna and she is so elect. She is (legally) married! woo hoo! And lives with her husband and three kids. A family! She is religious, but accepted the invite to visit church, we are hoping and praying the family will go with us this next Sunday!
General Conference was perfect people. [mom note: Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide gather twice yearly for what they call “general conference.” This is in addition to their weekly services each Sunday. General conferences are conducted each April and October and comprise five two-hour meetings held over two days. The April meetings are called annual conferences and those in October, semiannual.] I love hearing from the living prophet and apostles. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is in fact the true church of Jesus Christ. It is all too perfect. There were so many amazing talks. . .
+ President Uchtdorf talking about our potential and progress was much needed and so powerful.
+ Sister Marriott with her sweet southern accent telling us that "it will all work out."
+ Elder Holland giving a perfect talk as always. And reminding me how much I love my mom. (shout out to my mama and all the other mothers out there. You rock)
+ Elder Durrant inviting us to "ponderize" the scriptures. I'll be ponderizing 2 Nephi 25: 23, 26 this week!
+ And our beloved prophet, President Thomas S Monson, inviting us to be examples of the believers and showing us how.
[mom note: If you are interested in hearing any of the other messages shared at general conference you can find video, audio and print links to the talks here. All the talks are not yet available in print but will be by the end of the week]
I testify that Heavenly Father knows us and hears our prayers because He truly heard and answered mine through this conference.
And speaking of answered prayers. . Sister Castilho and I were sitting waiting for the Sunday afternoon session to start and Sister Castilho says to me, half-joking. "Why doesn't anybody bring snacks for us missionaries?" And almost as the sentence left her mouth an irmã [mom note: sister] came out of nowhere sat in the chair in front of us and asked if we wanted homemade bread and juice. It was funny but also such a sweet testimony of Heavenly Father's love for us and the Christlike love of this woman. (and her baking skills. the bread was delicious). I love the members of this church.
LOVE the Mormon Faces post. Nate's a babe. hahaha I love that someone commented that they want to date him.
Why is Pie SO GORGEOUS. Seriously, I can't deal. Did she dye her hair? She's a babe. And I love that there is now a print of the Shawn T quote. Best day ever. [mom note: this was in response to her sister, Emily, being featured on the Let Them Be Gold instagram account.
She's going to be the best missionary. You raised some good kids (if you don't count me...I'm sort of a troubemaker ;))
Nate and Izzie are total QTs. Since when are they old enough to go to Homecoming? What's happening in the world? And I can't believe Walter is still running. Miracle car. Loved the Waffle idea and pun. [mom note: her response to the pictures we sent her of her brother inviting his friend to Homecoming]
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| Walter |
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| Nate and Izzie |
I hope you all had a wonderful week and took advantage of General Conference. Take advantage of the fact that you can re-watch or listen to the talks (because I can't haha).
com muito amor
Sister Baker
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