Tell Me the Stories of Jesus

I´m alive! I didn´t have the chance to email yesterday on pday because we had our last mission conference with President Fusco, and it was so sad! BUT, I´m grateful for the chance to learn from two mission presidents, and for all of the things I learned from President and Sister Fusco that I can keep in my heart forever. Yesterday, Sister Fusco talked about the stories of Jesus in the Bible, and especially OUR stories of Jesus in our missions. She had everyone think about the times in the last week when Jesus touched our hearts, or helped us with something, and lots of us shared our experiences. I loved this activity because I was able to reflect on how present he is! I want to share three of these “stories” with yáll.

#1 Sister Bispo and I are working in an area that had 4 missionaries and now only 2 of us are here and we have been really challenged lately with how big our area is/how many people need our visits/getting kind of lost/people not opening their hearts/etc. While I was feeling kind of discouraged with all of the responsibilities that we have, I looked at the sky and it was the prettiest pink that I´ve ever seen. I felt at that moment that Jesus was trying to tell me that it will all work out. I felt the strongest peace in my heart to know that the Savior of the entire world wanted to comfort me.

#2 Right now we are teaching a cute girl named Evila, and she is hilarious and bright and awesome! She is passing through a lot of difficulties in her life, but on Sunday she told me casually - “I´ve been praying every day since last week to know if the church is true” and I then asked “Did you  receive an answer yet?” and she said “Ya, I received answer on Tuesday, but I keep asking because I love the joy I feel in my heart every time I ask.” How wonderful is our Savior for creating this joy in our lives!

#3 On Thursday, Sister Bispo and I went to the Center of Fortaleza (the other mission lol) for the second time to try to help a couple document the day of their wedding. We lost a lot of time because it´s far away, and there were problems with different documents, so we returned to our area really late! All of our plans fell through, and we decided to say a prayer and ask where we should go. When we opened our eyes we saw a man sitting in front of his house almost like he was waiting for us. We started talking to him, and he offered to introduce us to his family. I felt the spirit so strongly while teaching them in their house! They were SO nice, and it felt like we had known them for years. I know that Jesus, through the Holy Ghost, guides all of our paths, and that when we are following him and trying to help others follow him, we can´t go wrong.

Next week, President Leite will arrive, and it will be so awesome to get to know him and his family! I´m loving my companheira & my new area & everything is all good.

Xoxo,

Sister Moon

 Alexia's Baptism

 Alexia's dad couldn't be there, but soon it will be his baptism and Nilda's

 Sister Freitas (in the middle) and all of her "filhas" (sisters that she trained)

 We're still the two best friends that anyone could have!!!

 I love Sister Beihl (she is a married missionary from South BR that works in the mission home)

 we chillin

My last district

Spotted eating dinner on a facebook post 

encontrei meu castelo VIU

I said my tchau tchau´s to Horizonte on Thursday, and arrived in my new area! I´m in Messejana and in Ala Castelo! My companion is Sister Bispo and she is SO GABOLICE! I always wanted to be her companion, and here we are. 

We arrived in a really busy end of the week because it was Stake Conference, and also President Fusco had a devotional for all the recent converts in the stake. It was insanely busy arriving in an area that is new for both me and Sister Bispo, and finding/bringing everyone to church! I felt like Gossip Girl with a map/list of addresses #spotted #youknowyouloveme. We prayed A LOT for guidance, and for help not getting lost, and we both really felt like we were being guided by Heavenly Father where to go. We even found a cute girl with part of my Mom´s name (Ana Kelly), who had been taught by the missionaries a year ago, and was never baptized. She agreed to be baptized yesterday, and it was amazing! Ana Kelly is our miracle!

                Something interesting I was asked yesterday was, “Do you like cinquenta centavos?” Cinquenta Centavos means 50 cents, and I thought this guy was asking me if I needed money, but he really just wanted to know if I like the rapper, DUH! HAHA

                Love you all!!!                                                                                                 

I honestly don´t know if it´s Father´s Day yet, because Brazil celebrates in August, but if it already passed, HAPPY FATHER´S DAY DAD, Papa, and Grandad!!!

 Ana Kelly

 

spotted:  Mateus & Perla.  Sister C. Silva and I were more than missionaries, but also match makers

tchau tchau horizonte

BOM DIA!

Today I´m super happy and super sad all at the same time. I was transferred, and I can´t believe that I´m leaving Horizonte. I thought I would stay here FOREVER when I arrived. It was my  most difficult area, but I´ve seen the most miracles and grew the most spiritually here. I never told yáll the story of Messias! He is awesome. Messias is 42 years old, and he suffered a lot in his life with drugs, alcohol, and depression. He was baptized three weeks ago, and yesterday he received the Melchezideck Preisthood. His strength in abandoning these addictions is almost unbelievable! But he told Sister C. Silva and I that “the gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect. Every time I have an urge to drink or to do drugs I read a page of the Book of Mormon, and I feel hope. I don´t need drugs or alcohol to help me because the Book of Mormon is true”. Amazing enough this is exactly what Elder Christensen talked about in a mission conference this week. If we know the Book of Mormon is true, and we are actually reading it every day, our difficulties will become smaller, and we will be able to feel hopeful.

                Yesterday when I found out that I was transferred, I told everyone the same three things to never forget, and it applies for yáll too!

1)      I Love you

2)      Jesus Christ loves you

3)      The Book of Mormon is true, and it will be your guide.

I love you all!!

Sister Moon 

 Everyone going to stake conference

 This is Messias

 Lucas' baptism

sei não viu (May 23rd letter)

BOM DIA & Happy day late birthday, Mom! 

Everyday this week was lit!

 

Sister C. Silva and I were talking today about all of the miracles that we have been seeing, and I feel so lucky and happy to be serving in this area. Our area is GIANT. It is an entire city with lots of different neighborhoods & we don´t have the option to ride buses here, so we have to be smart & really rely on the spirit when we make decisions about where to go/who to visit. On Sunday we needed to stop at lots of houses before church to bring people church & we ended up not having enough time to stop for 4 more really important people. We ended up finding one of them riding his bike on the street of the church, and a member offered to search for the others. Everything fell in to place in the last minute, and it was a reminder for me that I need to trust more in Heavenly Father that he will take care of everything for me. 

 

I don´t want to waste one second of my time here being stressed out about things that are out of my control, and I think the solution to this is to have A LOT of faith in Christ!

 

I love this quote from Thomas S. Monson 

"May we choose to build up within ourselves a great and powerful faith which will be our most effective defense against the designs of the adversary- a real faith. The kind of faith which will sustain us and will bolster our desire to choose the right. Without such faith, we go nowhere. With that, we can accomplish our goals."

 

HAHA I just remembered another example of Heavenly Father really working everything out for us. Sister C. Silva and I planned an activity for the youth & for all of their friends last week, and LOTS of youth came! We planned on playing volleyball/soccer at this place that is kind of like a rec center & it´s usually always open. We showed up with everyone, and it was closed! The closest soccer field was really far away, and it was really hot, and we had cocacola & food & lots of things to carry. A drivers ed bus appeared out of no where & Sister C. Silva and I are crazy so we flagged down this bus & asked him if we could pay him to drop us off at the soccer field, and  The drivers ed teacher was like "no it´s for free, it´s this guy´s first time driving", and so we yelled at everyone to get in the bus & it was perfect! haha we even had air conditioning for 15 minutes & nobody died. #thelittlethings

 

Love you all!! Have a fab week.

Sista Moon

 

 

que sorte é nossa

This week my sister sent me an email that said, “If you ain´t prayin, you ain´t slayin”.. is that what the kids are saying these days?? Haha I love it.

This week was MAGICAL. Particularly, Sunday because the frequency of our little branch DOUBLED. There weren´t enough spots for everyone, and Sister C. Silva and I were playing musical chairs all of sacrament meeting. Everyone was so happy! I think everyone caught a glimpse of what can happen in Horizonte when everyone helps and does their part.

Sister C. Silva and I are still loving being companions and happy as ever. One of our favorite members told us, “You´re both the craziest sisters I´ve ever met!! Do you ever get tired of dancing?!” Sometimes we just communicate with single words and facial expressions, and it´s better than speaking English because nobody gets it!

GABRIEL was baptized this week, and he is an AWESOME young man! Seriously he is the most smiley adolescent, and before his baptism he called us over and said, “I need to talk to yáll”… I thought he was nervous or something, but he just wanted to recite the articles of faith he memorized… WHAT!! HAHA we hadn´t even shown him the articles of faith yet. GOLD STARS for real.

I´m loving every day in Horizonte even though I know it´s a party in the USA!!!

Miss you all!!!

XOXO

Sista Moon

A police office took this pic on the low - Horizonte's pro soccer team facility

 Gabriel's Baptism

This is a fruit that is super good!

PARABENS PAI!!!! - (this is last week's blog/email that she didn't have time to send until this week)

Happy birthday to the coolest dad in the world!

I love this quote from Gen Conf about families:

Every family has moments of awkwardness.  Like when your parents ask you to take a “selfie” of them, or when your greataunt insists that you are still single because you are just too picky, or when your opinionated brother-in-law thinks his political view is the gospel view, or when your dad arranges a family portrait with everyone dressed like characters in his favorite movie.  And you get the Chewbacca costume. 

Families are like that.  We may share the same gene pool, but we are not the same. We have unique spirits. We are influenced in different ways by our experiences. And each of us ends up different as a result.  Rather than attempting to force everyone into a mold of our own making, we can choose to celebrate these differences and appreciate them for adding richness and constant surprises to our lives.”

I know that when we accept and even learn to love the things that make us different we will have more peace and we can start to walk the path that Jesus showed us. He loves us ALL. Even the people we can´t stand, he loves perfectly! It´s amazing.. and we can show our love for him by loving our families. Lucky for me, this isn´t hard!! I miss and love my family so much!

P.S.

My dad would never ask me to take a selfie of him because Keith Moon´s selfie game is strong!!! HBD

This is Anderson and he is awesome!  He wakes up all of our investigators for church and they don't get mad!