Week 14💌 - A good week and I saw monkeys!

 Hi everybody!

This week has been a good week! I think I am officially past that nasty stomach bug, I feel great! 

I have felt the Lord's hand in my life so much this week, it is incredible.  

Segunda: transfer day! My comp and I went to a Churrasco with our adopted district to say goodbye to Sis Centeno. Then we went to the casa de apoio to meet other sisters. It was fun! Sis Centeno received her new comp, her name is Sis R Smith. She is from Arizona and is on her last transfer. She is super nice

Terça: We had lasagna with a member and then went and worked in Santa Barbara. Our fidst appointment was with a media reference,  and he used the time to tell us his entire life story.  5 kids with wife one before she left him, and then 5 MORE kids with wife 2 before she cheated. Nossa. It was hard for us to get a gospel messge in, but we tried! We also met with Thonny Black and taught the Plan of Salvation. I got to use the images that my mom gave me. He was super interested and was taking notes. Then we went to the church so that Maciel could practice the piano before Sunday. I decided to sing the national anthem at the pulpit (no one else was around).  

Quarta: my Dr Pepper arrived!! It caused quite the stir in the mission office. I gave up 2 cans, one to Elder Pinheiro to share with Pres, and one to Elder Coehlo as a thank you for always dropping off my packages. Thank you mom!! We got pizza that night. No chocolate border, but still delicious

Quinta: Quinta was hard. My comp and I got wrapped up in some drama that we don't want to be involved in. It was a super emotionally taxing day.  If we weren't in a lesson we were choking back tears. And of course thats the night our LD(district leader) wants to call! It was kind of funny actually. He sent a text asking if we could do an acompanhamento. We are supposed to have one a few times a week, and he just goes over our goals and numbers and gives us advice on how to meet our goals.

Maciel told him we could call. We had both been crying so we looked HORRIBLE. And instead of calling via voice call... he FaceTimed us. Maciel and I spent the entire meeting in tears. Red faces, mascara running kind of crying. I'm pretty sure that he thinks that we are nuts. But he said that he would bring us chocolate at Zone Conference tmr. So tudo bem! We are also going to try and resolve the drama at ZC as well. So please pray for us!

Sexta: Sexta was awesome. I felt God with me so much. We woke up to a message from our LD that we could have chocolate on a condition. He looked at our new people taught goal for the week which was 8. We were at 4. He told us if we could find 3 people by Domingo (7/8) that we could have our chocolate. If we could find 4 (8/8), that we could have chocolate AND another surprise thing. We found FIVE new people on Sexta. And then another on Sabado. So we met our goal, and then some! 

I also saw monkeys!! We had stopped near a park because Sis Maciel and Sarah wanted to get milkshakes, and that's when we saw them. They were tiny and adorableee! I had never seen a wild monkey before Sexta.

We also got called haunted! We were walking down a street, it was kind of dark. This guy passed us on a motorcyle and said "Gah, assombrosas!" Which means "Gah, haunting!" I thought it was so funny. I was wearing pink! I don't think I look like a ghost but okay!

Sabado was a busy day. We finally got ahold of Fransisco and Evelyn. They are the dad and daughter that we invited to be baptized my first week. But we hadn't seen them in close to 5 weeks because they're always busy.  Maciel decided Sab that if we couldn't get ahold of them,  we would have to mark them as parar de ensinar (stop teaching). But we were able to teach them! However I am not sure if it is going to go anywhere, Francisco messaged us this morning that he is too angry with God right now to attend church. But at least we were able to teach him. Miracle!

Anyways, that was my week! Tomorrow is Zone Conference which is crazy. It's gone by so fast!

Spiritual Thought: 

Alma 32:41-But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.

I have been thinking a lot this week about my testimony and how I have acquired it. I can't think of one singular A-Ha! event. My testimony is something that I have been building line upon line my entire life. It is a seed that I have been nourishing through study, prayer and church/temple attendance.

 I don't know everything.  I have a lot of questions,  but I choose to have faith and to try and learn as much as I can. As I study D&C, I have started reading the Saints books alonside my scripture study. It has honestly helped answer a lot of questions that I have had about the early days of the church.  Because let's be real, some of the stuff that happened is hard to understand, like polygamy or the mountain medows massacre. But as I have studied and prayed, I have received answers that I am okay with. I have felt my testimony grow stronger as I nourish my seed with love and study.

I invite you all to evaluate your testimonies.  Sometimes it can be hard to know if you even have one, so start small. One thing that I did this week was read each article of faith as a question. Do I believe in this? I invite you all to do that. If the answer is yes, think about why? What have you experienced that gave you that testimony? If the answer is no, what can you do to learn more about it and gain a testimony? What scriptures or conference talks might have information? Pray for guidance. 

I know that when we give our seeds of faith the attention that they deserve,  miracles will be worked on our testimonies.  Nothing grows a testimony faster than study, prayer and worship in houses of the Lord. 

I love you all so much!! I hope that you all have a great week. Thank you to everyone who reached out, you guys are angels and the answers to my prayers. 

Here are some pictures to end!

Picture Descriptions - 

1. Last pday our adopted district went to a Churrasco, so good! 

2. Dr Pepperrrrr

3. My mom made these images while she was on her mission. They are in spanish, but they have still been a huge help with helping investigators understand.  It illustrates how big the plan of salvation really is, and how small our time on Earth is as well.

4. Monkeys!!

5. Guys. THEY ARE SO CUTE AND TINY

6. Pretty Sunset

7. After church selfie!