Monday, January 30, 2017

valeu moral

BOM DIA!!!!!
I want to share with yáll a story from Henry B. Erying about his father.
Let me encourage you by telling you a story. It was told to me by my father. He told it with the intent to chuckle at himself. It was a story about his trying to do his duty, just the way you try to do your duty.
Now you have to know a little bit about my father. His name was Henry Eyring, like mine. He had done some of the things students of this university are preparing to be able to do. His work in chemistry was substantial enough to bring the honors some of you will someday have, but he was still a member of a ward of the Church with his duty to do. To appreciate this story, you have to realize that it occurred when he was nearly eighty and had bone cancer. He had bone cancer so badly in his hips that he could hardly move. The pain was great.
Dad was the senior high councilor in his stake with the responsibility for the welfare farm. An assignment was given to weed a field of onions, so Dad assigned himself to go work on the farm.
Dad never told me how hard it was, but I have met several people who were with him that day. I talked to one of them on the phone the other night to check the story. The one I talked to said that he was weeding in the row next to Dad through much of the day. He told me the same thing that others who were there that day have told me. He said that the pain was so great that Dad was pulling himself along on his stomach with his elbows. He couldn’t kneel. The pain was too great for him to kneel. Everyone who has talked to me has remarked how Dad smiled, and laughed, and talked happily with them as they worked in that field of onions.
Now, this is the joke Dad told me on himself, afterward. He said he was there at the end of the day. After all the work was finished and the onions were all weeded, someone asked him, “Henry, good heavens! You didn’t pull those weeds, did you? Those weeds were sprayed two days ago, and they were going to die anyway.”
Dad just roared. He thought that was the funniest thing. He thought it was a great joke on himself. He had worked through the day in the wrong weeds. They had been sprayed and would have died anyway.
When Dad told me this story, I knew how tough it was. So I said to him, “Dad, how could you make a joke out of that? How could you take it so pleasantly?”
He said something to me that I will never forget, and I hope you won’t. He said, “Hal, I wasn’t there for the weeds.”
Now, you’ll be in an onion patch much of your life. So will I. It will be hard to see the powers of heaven magnifying us or our efforts. It may even be hard to see our work being of any value at all. And sometimes our work won’t go well.
But you didn’t come for the weeds. You came for the Savior. And if you pray, and if you choose to be clean, and if you choose to follow God’s servants, you will be able to work and wait long enough to bring down the powers of heaven.
What optimism he had! And faith! And love for his Savior!
This week was a giant onion patch! Haha. Our little street was invaded with gossipers and every other kind of temptation. It was devastating. We love our friends there, and we wanted to see them happier, but everything has a purpose. I´m grateful for opportunities to learn and grow from our difficulties because we learned to not give up!
We received sooo many blessings on blessings this week AFTER all of the bad things happened. A guy that we´ve been teaching for a long time FINALLY went to church this Sunday and he loved it! We are finding so many good people to teach, but actually they are finding us, like calling us in the street to come and talk to them. #ble$$ed
Also, we went to Caldas (a park with hot springs/waterfalls/sports/neature) last Monday and it was so pretty! It looks like Sundance in springtime from the pictures.
Ta ta por now (is that like three languages or what??)
SISTA MOON





Ciele!!! #bff
Monday, January 23, 2017

céu rosa

OLÁAAAAA!

Bom dia pessoal!!!! 

So this week was amazing. We went to Fortaleza for a leadership meeting and it was so fun to see Sister Nevin and Sister Nicoli and Sister C. SILVA and all of my friends that I never see anymore because I live 14 hours inland haha. 

Presidente Leite said during our meeting that the strength of the church is in the converted heart of every member, and he told us that we will see more miracles if we work with more members!

So this week we invited lots of members to visit people with us, and we had a really cool experience with Vicencia. She is one of the first members here in Juazeiro and she has a LOT of faith. Every Sunday she and her children walk to church for one hour because they don´t have conditions to pay for the bus. We visited her this week, and we noticed for the first time behind her house a little street with lots of houses!! We asked her if she knew anyone that lived there and she said, “Filha! (daughter lol), almost everyone that lives here is my cousin, brother, or in-law”. So we visited everyone and invited them to church, and on Sunday guess who arrived at church with Vicencia?? The little street!!! It´s so true that members make a huge difference.

I woke up today full of gratitude to be here in Brazil! I never want to forget the hot sun and the dirt roads, and the pebbles in my sandals that I try to ignore but have to stop every 20 minutes to shake out! I´m so thankful for Christ, and for all that he´s done for me and for all of us. It amazes me that he suffered so much, and gave his life so freely, but he keeps rescuing us and helping us!

I hope you all have an incredible week!!!
XOXO
Sista Moon

Monday, January 16, 2017

Rainhas do Reisado

Week of 1/9/17 email - her dad posted it a week late

Happy New Year!!!! 

I´m so excited to start 2017.. our New Year consisted of running from crazy guys with whips and masks (google “Reisado” for the full effect), but it was pretty good! Our room is in the very back of our house so I even got to sleep!!!  

This week was full of MIRACLES. We found our Amulek!!!! I loved the talk from #genconf about Alma and Amulek from Deiter F. Uchtdorf, because it´s true that we really can´t do everything by ourselves. And if we don´t ask for help, we aren´t giving other people the opportunity to learn! So there´s this guy in our ward who is really nice, but idk not tons of people are BFF with him. We always pass by his house and ask him for water, and this week we asked him if there´s anybody that he knows that he would like to see in the temple with him one day. He gave us 50 names of friends and family that have never been taught by missionaries! Like what?! He is the best!

When we were on his street talking to his neighbors and family that he pointed out to us, a boy came running up behind us and shouted “ELDERS ELDERS” and we turned around and he was so out of breath and he said “I want to go to church! I want to be baptized!” His name is Isreal and he got his wish!! He went to church and he was baptized! We found out that last year he was going to church every Sunday with the Elders, but he was never baptized because his mom didn´t let him. We started teaching his mom and dad, and she thought it was a great idea for him to be baptized.

Other great news! Our ward is going to have another set of sisters! So today we are moving into another house that´s bigger (and that was also an Elder´s house that nobody has lived in for months #prayforus), and tomorrow the other sisters will arrive from Fortaleza!

TCHAUZÃO!!!!
Sister Moon


 This is what she was referring to as the guys running around the street with masks and whips during the "Reisado"

glow up

Week of 1/16/17 email

Olá família!!

So many things happened this week, but I can´t remember anything!! Que isso!!!

So first of all, we moved! 4 girls and Irmão Luciano.. haha we made a great team!! Luciano deserves a million gold stars for making 50+ trips up our staircase with heavy things. #goat #MVP During our move we stopped to drink “Caldo de Cana”, and it was cool because the guy that makes the juice puts a bamboo looking thing in a machine & juice comes out. I didn´t see him addition any sugar, just lemon and ginger like we asked, and it was sooo good! I never tasted a juice so sweet without any sugar. I was thinking this is the next big thing! Someone call Mend Juicery, and then it dawned on me that cana isn´t a fruit.. it´s cane.. it´s sugar juice!!! Haha dream crushed!

But anyways, more important things happened as well! Like Daniel being baptized. He bore his testimony after his baptism, and I don´t remember exactly what he said, but it was something like this,

“I know that all of my sins have been washed away. I´m never going to do anything wrong again (don´t worry we explained after that everyone messes up J). I know that Christ is happy with me.”

He is awesome! And he bore a powerful testimony. All of his friends came to watch his baptism as well, so I hope that his example will help many other people make the same decision to live the gospel.

Tonight we are traveling to Fortaleza for our leadership meeting tomorrow and I´m way excited. I think I´m the only person that likes sleeping on the bus, but it´s the best!! Air conditioning + I can sleep until 7:30 = heaven.

PAZ E AMOR,
Sister Moon




 Daniel's Baptism