Sisteeeer Miracles happen!!!

April 27, 2015

Sisteeeer Miracles happen!!!

Look at This:
Só alegria!!! (Only Joy)

D. was so ready! She is awesome! I love her!

And N. bore her testimony and it was so powerful!

 - 

Sister S.

AHHHH! So exciting! My babies are being baptized!! I am so happy to have taught D.!! and now next week J. and A. will be baptized too!! Oh the miracles! I am so happy to see this happen!!

Sister Post

April 27, 2015

Oi Mãe!  (Hi Mother!)

I´m glad to hear all is well with you! 

This week has been great! We´ve been teaching an 18 year old girl named Adr... and her mom. They are so awesome!! Eli... needs to be married before being baptized but man, i have something sweet to tell you. Anyways, Adr... was    baptized last night it was amazing! Oh and at her interview one of the Elders ask to Eli..., and what about you, have   you been baptized? and she responded, `´Não Ainda não.`` (no not yet) nossa!!!! estava muito animado!!  ´oh opps and (gosh!!! i was so excited!)

 But man she is so ready! So amazing! and we need to talk to her husband. 

Adr... niece said the cutest thing! i asked her if she like the baptism and she said, ``sim, quero minha mãe e pai e todo de minha familia ser batizado tambem.`` (yes and i want my mom and dad and all of my family to be baptized too.)  

Anyways Sister G. and Sister R. are visiting doing splits with us! They are awesome! It is nice to see Sister G. again! And I absolutely love Sister R.!! ahh she is so cute! and i love how her name in English is Sister Rock :) yeah she ´´rocks`` hahaha  she also speaks English and she has been helping me a lot! And also today is two weeks of all Portuguese, thought you~d like to know that haha  Anyways so they are up helping us out and it helps out a lot that Sister G. served here already so she is going to go with Sister V. and talk to all her old contacts tomorrow and Sister R. and i will visit our investigators together. It will be good :) 

 Life is full of love and joy! But it is necessary for us to know hardship and pain before we can truly enjoy the good times! It is amazing to know that there is a specific plan for each of us, not just a general plan for everyone, but we each have a path, one grander and more joyous than we can imagine! Planned for us, if we but look for the Lord for his guidance! 

Eu sei que vive meu Senhor! Sei que Ele nós ama, e nós conhece. Vida nunca era fácil para neguem. mas, com o perspectivo do eternidade, nosso fardos estão pequeno comparado para o tempo depois esta vida. como o Senhor falou para Joseph Smith que esta por um pouco tempo. Nosso Irmão Jesus Cristo nós conhece! E ele vai nós ajuda! com todas as coisas em nosso vidas! Eu amo você! Eu sou muito obrigada por nosso família! E por o conhecimento de famílias eternas!

(I know that my Redeemer lives! I know that He loves u, and we know Life was never easy to deny, but with the perspective of eternity, our burdens are small compared to the time after this life. As the Lord told Joseph Smith, “Our brother Jesus Christ knows! And He will help us! With all things in our lives!” I love you! I am thank you for our family! And the knowledge of eternal families!)

com todo de minha coração,

with all of my heart,

Sister Post 

My Zone; just want you to know I have been 2 weeks now of total Portuguese... not one of them speak English.

Itacoatiara is pronouned eeta-kua-chi-ara.

April 20, 2015

Oi momma,

hahaha when i first heard and saw the name of where is was being transferred to i called it itaco (like iphone but itaco.. the food haha) and then chuwawa haha but Itacoatiara is pronounced eeta-kua-chi-ara. haha  My companion is Sister V. and she doesn~t know a lick of English and neither does anyone in my Zone :) yay! One whole week of only Portuguese! haha it has been good :) it was funny, so one time i said a quick phrase in English and Sister V. looked at me and i was like what..? and then i realized i~d talked in English haha because with Sister S. we~d say quick little phrases in English that were funny but i will have to learn how to be funny in Portuguese too ;) my area of proselyting is on the Rio Amazons, 

We have a church building, we are in a branch and 97 were at church Sunday :) they are sweet! I have grown and learned a lot this last week! My comp and i are starting to understand each other so that is good. haha

The spirit is strong here. I am searching for the humble and open hearted. We have had a rough start, but i feel that this week will be better. i~m learning how to take lead and make the decisions, deciding where we need to go here, what we need to do and having to look up where people live. i~ve been a lot better at talking with people on the street and asking where roads are. oh and there are no road names and signs here haha funny that in Manaus the numbers didn~t make sense at all but they had the names of the streets. Here they have perfectly good numbers on the house, just no names for the streets ahaha it is an adventure full of love and learning!

Sounds like everyone is keeping busy! That is good! We are keepin busy here too :) we pretty much have nothing to work off from because of the Elders who were taken out didn~t keep the area book. So we are still trying to learn about all the people they were teaching and in the meantime contacting and making a new teaching pool :) so lots of walking! Actually we have like no hills, that is really nice haha but the area is pretty big.. My legs are pretty dang tired everyday haha 

So there have been miracles and the more i realize that more often the not, the miracles are happening in me. For instance, every time my heart grows for another person here, when i hadn~t said more than 5 words to them; when i hear a recent convert~s testimony and conversion, everything thing i hear and do, it changes me and that is really where the biggest miracle happens on a mission i believe, because if you don~t change here, wow you really didn~t want to become a missionary because anyone who wants to be the best they can will change.

I can honestly attest to the fact that the Atonement is real. It in itself is a miracle! and we need to let it take ahold in our lives! Every chance we get to thank Heavenly Father for this Blessed Plan of Salvation thank Him! So like every day, all day have a heart full of thanks! It is amazing the difference it makes.

I have sat in the home of a family of converts, it started with Lesli and her fiancé Fabio Jr. they were baptized a year and two months ago. wow are they such a good example to me! Their testimony is as strong as anyone who grew up in the church! If not stronger than the average ``Mormon`` ahha and when i heard the love and thanks she poured out in testimony that Heavenly Father would allow her to see her parents and rest of her family be baptized and active in the church, it burned to my soul! Her parents were married and baptized four months ago. Wow and man are they such an example to me! I want more than anything in the world to bring this to every family here! I just want everyone to put down their judgments of the ``Mormons`` to just look at the fruits of Christ~s church. why are people so judgmental and fast to listen to the lies of the world about us and not just talk to us, see what we do, and learn of Christ. My heart acts when people assume what we are like and what we do because they close their heart to the possibility of this great and everlasting joy!

I know that this is the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth. That Christ stands at the head of this, His church! I know that he talks with President Monson face to face, just like all the other Prophets of old. The Apostles know Him! and we can to! I know that the Atonement is real! That the biggest and smallest miracles happen within our own hearts! I am so grateful, every day for this knowledge! That I know I am a Child of God, and that He loves Me! I know he will always listen to my prayers, whether said in my heart or when i pour my soul out to him. He cares about every single one of us! And he knows us better than we know ourselves and most importantly he knows who we can become. We are to be Heirs in the Kingdom of Heaven, even joint heirs with Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer! What an amazing blessing! IF we but choose it. Choose to follow Christ, Choose to Live His teachings, and Choose to Share His Gospel. It is our responsibility. We have this knowledge, and how selfish i was for not sharing it as much as i should have. I know my Savior lives, I know that he directs His church even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is the same in every country, language and people. Why? Because it is His! I love Him! And i love you!

I love you momma! Keep being awesome and taking care of dad, and everyone!

Love,

Sister Post

Photos:

Rio Amazons

hahaha saw this sign when we were leaving on the bus.. They have a truck named Montana too down here. It is funny when i see it :)

 here is more pictures. It is three flights of stairs haha it is rough at night ;) but good for my bum :) and in the picture the building with the white pillar, yeah that~s the church :) bem perto!! (pretty close) yay! haha :)

Me and Sister V.

Tomorrow marks three months of being here!

April 12, 2015

Momma!!

 It is crazy to think that tomorrow marks three months of being here! Wow so crazy! I have grown so much here is Cachoeirinha! and will be staying to train a new missionary named Sister M.! Crazy eh! She will be coming in from São Paulo tomorrow. aya! haha    JK :) that is Sister S., on that note i am actually being transferred! and it is really sad to leave. Wow my first one. Kind of crazy. haha and i will be going 4 hours away by bus to a smaller city of Itacoatiara. From what I’ve heard it is pretty much paradise. So yay! My new companion is Sister V.! Actually you already know what she looks like. She is in the picture of us with the water balloons also she was Sister S.´s companion for a day before i popped in :) anyways we will be opening the area and starting fresh so yay! It will be lots of good work! :) Luckily Sister S. and i pretty much did that here haha so i kind of got an idea of what to do. So yay.

The Lord works in mysterious ways! That is for sure! but ``it is given to us to know the secrets of the kingdom!`` I know there will never be an experience in any of our lives where we don’t grow from it. Because either we don’t grow in the moment, then regret it and then grow from the experience afterwards or we take the challenge head on and grow in the experience! I think i like the second one better haha :) so it is time to start growing again! yay ahha

Here is Jul... and Alc.... they were really sad our last visit. Jul.. said, ``you can’t go, the president can’t send you. He doesn~t have my permission.`` haha it was really cute! I got a sweet confirmation that they will receive the blessings of Baptism one day, and better then that the blessings of the Temple! They are so cute!

Here is Grac....! She is the one who studied all those religions and had the Book of Mormon already.  She is working very hard! I am also excited for her to keep progressing! She cried when we said bye. It was really sad. Saying bye is really hard. 

Here is a family i love! The girl in the purple and white dress is Kel.... We reactivated her and man is she glowing! I love her so much! It was really hard to say bye to her and her family! They remind me a lot of our family! Only a lot crazier! haha i love it :)

Everyone here is so full of love! and i can just love everyone here! It is like really easy to do! haha so that is nice, but saying bye is hard, we all cry together. haha anyways i love you! i hope you keep watching out for dad and don’t let him eat to many fries ;) he needs to get healthy :) I love you! Very, very much!

Love,

Sister Post

ps. i won’t get the package. i leave tonight. so i will get it in a few weeks when we have Zone interviews with President Castro probably. It will be a very exciting day when i get it though! Thanks for everything!

D&C 128:22-23

April 6, 2015

Momma!! 

Wow!!! YAY!!! Tell Zach i am so so so so excited for him!! Tell him to start reading PMG in Portuguese even though he won’t pronounce it right or just read talks in Portuguese any little bit will help! Man that is so awesome!! Tell him to email me! haha and Conference was very good! From what i understood hahah :) oh and by the way mother~s day is May 10th here so we will be skyping then, just thought i would let ya know :)

It is so crazy to think that transfers are next week. We have no idea what will happen since we both have been here for the same time. I am pretty sure i will get a new companion that doesn~t speak English. It will be a good thing as always. The Lord already knows who my companions will be. I just have to have patience and wait, oh how nerve racking and exciting! haha i tease Sister S. that she will become a sister training leader because she is awesome haha we have a bet of two kit-kats they are the best snack down here haha 

Wow was conference awesome!! I am excited to read them all again next month!! It is slowly getting hotter and hotter down here. haha i am sweating more and more haha it is fun.. :) 

I watched two sessions in English and the other two in Portuguese. It was rough listening to it in Portuguese because all i wanted more than anything was to hear the voices i know and love! And of course to  understand what they are saying haha

I bought snickers bars for us and i thought of you and had to take a picture :)

I threw a surprise birthday party for Sister S.!! She glowed it was so cute!!

The Work moves forward! And will continue until the Lord comes to reign again! It is amazing to be a part of this great and marvelous work!! Even though it is destroying my English haha but that is okay :) i am so grateful to have an opportunity to learn of the spirit and to study 24 hours a day 7 days a week! And what a need there is for senior couples!  It is the Work of The Lord! He will gladly prepare a way for all to serve in this great cause! In D&C 128:22-23 my favorite is the first part ``Irmãos, não prosseguiremos em tão grade causa? Ide avante e não para trás. Coragem.., avante para a vitória!`` 

22  “Brethern, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them our od their prison; for the Prisoners shall go free.

23  Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say, how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!”

Momma, keep being awesome and such a good example! Keep loving everyone and taking care of all in your path! When we serve others we are only in the service of our God and he is a gracious ``employer``. Keep up the good work! 

ohhhh! here is a fruit here, it is so strong! the flavor hahaha and very strange haha
but my taste buds are starting to change :P

I love you all!

Love, Sister Post

``because of thy faith....`

March 30, 2015

Momma!

haha haven´t called you that for a while :)

All things are possible when we have Faith in our Lord and Savior!! How many times in the scriptures do we read about ``because of thy faith....`` all things are predicated upon our faith in Jesus Christ! He is the life and light of the world!

I am so excited for General Conference!! How amazing this weekend will be! Yes i watched the General Women’s Conference! It was good! It was kind of a wakeup call to realize that there are white people in the world... just not here! hahaha it was interesting to not hear the voices i know them by but it was still really good! 

So we were walking home from a meeting at the church when i felt someone touch my left shoulder. I jumped and stepped away. It was a homeless man with white dread-locks, dark skin with old cloths. He held out a single pink flower towards me and after a second, i took it. He then continued on the say a whole bunch of blessings. Then said something like, i gave you a gift and now you give me the book and so we gave him our Book of Mormon with the restoration and plan of salvation pamphlets in it. I still have the flower and actually i will send you a picture of it haha. 

Nu.... stepped into the waters of Baptism Saturday!! It was so amazing!! She has such a strong testimony and will continue on the road to conversion!! We surprised her with singing the primary baptism song for her! ``i look to look for rainbows..`` i forgot what it is called haha; anyways Sis. S. sang the first verse in Português and i sang the 1st verse again in English and then we sang the second verse together in Português. She had tears in her eyes and it was such a sweet spirit!! I love Primary songs!!!! They are the sweetest thing in the world!! On a side note: i am trying to memorize “If the Savior Stood Beside Me” in Portugues! It is coming along! I can sing it when i read it, and know the first and last lines...  haha but it is good! I love this song! and ways. Da.... didn´t feel prepared and so we will continue helping her grow her testimony!!

 

So we finally got a ward mission leader this Sunday! and Wow! what a difference, in one meeting with him! There is something special about having someone to connect the ward to the missionaries! Straight off the bat he was like by our fourth meeting together we will have 2 or more ward missionaries. Bam! haha and he is so excited to help us kick start this ward! it is going to be great!! His name is Carlos and i think of Papa :) he is a good man and will help this ward and us grow!

 Also he said something that was really strong in my heart. He had asked about our lunches, if people were feeding us and we explained that the usual people feed us and then there is a certain few who always give us money. Then he went on to say that it is SO important to have the missionaries for a meal because it is the same as having our Savior, Jesus Christ have a meal with us. Then he went to say it is because we are Representatives of Him, and therefore it is as if He were there and we share what He would share and we lift and share a message that is to strengthen them and lift them. It was like whoah, so continue to feed your missionaries! Enjoy their company! We are trying to do and say exactly what our Lord would do and say. 

All is good! There is something different that happens when i think of the fact that i am representing our Savior. It is such a sweet feeling!

Anyways! i love you! Very, very much!!

Love,

Sister Post

Sister S. and i make our first lasagna! it was good :)

Eu Amo Conferencia de Estaca!

March 23, 2015

Mãe! 

So this weekend we had stake conference too! and my goodness! it was like MISSIONARY WORK! you think the Lord was trying to tell us all something... you know... hahaha but like at the adult session on Saturday it was about Synergy! hahaha it was awesome! i thought of Clint :) some things i got out of it were Christ understood his calling, do I? and that is a question we all need to ask ourselves. then you would think, well how do i know my calling in life? i have the perfect solution! well i don~t  have it, you all have it. It is called..... your Patriarchal Blessing! That is how the Lord lets us know Our Calling in this life, and How we understand it as ``He understood his`` is through reading it often, and studying things in it. It is no wonder that General Authorities always say read your Patriarchal Blessings. 

Another thing I learned is that a Follower of Christ knows his teachings, but a Disciple of Christ teaches them. it made me remember what David A. Bednar said at the Eureka Stake conference in October when i was at home. He said ``Are you acting participators in the Lord`s Work, or merely members of his church.`` Wow! What a sentence! Are we actively involved?? 

Lastly at the Adult session i remembered a talk given in the MTC that Elder Ballard gave. He told us to WAKE UP! and when we wake up in the morning tell ourselves this. ``This is the work of the Lord!`` then i though of the talk Elder Utchdorf gave to the mission presidents three years ago. the talk President Harding gave Justin when ``Elder Green`` said to his companion ``I am a Disciple of Christ, and I fear No One.`` 

Then at the Sunday conference it was really good also! but the main thing is that Christ will never open Our doors, but He will ALWAYS knock! Whether we hear it, or choose to ignore it, it is all up to us.
Lastly, Ele Vive! I know that my Redeemer lives! He knows us, each of us better then we know ourselves! because he went through all our lives already. He knows with Exactness what we feel and go through. and His victory is complete. Will we complete our missions here on earth? I don~t know what all your missions are, but i am very blessed to know mine. I love my Patriarchal Blessing! I read it almost every night! We can become the people that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know we can become! Light upon light, we all start at the bottom of the Ladder! All He asks is that we Follow him! start up the ladder! If there is a rung missing, he will lift us above it! We just need to keep moving!

So Saturday we took Jul.. and Alc... to visit the Temple! and they loved it! The Spirit was so strong! We sang I am a Child of God and Families can be Together Forever to them and I am so excited for them to one day go to the temple and be sealed! Both said they want to! Yay for Eternal Families!! 

Nub... and Day.... will be baptized this Saturday!! Yay! Nub.. is so amazing! She studies the Scriptures and understands everything! and She had a dream that confirmed it! The faith of the people down here! Wow! i am so excited for her! from the first time we taught her is see her in white going to the temple, but of course she needs to go in white to step into the waters first haha but the Temple is our goal! Baptism is the Gate on which we begin our journey! Day... is a daughter to Glad...s, a sweet lady from Columbia,

i sent a picture with her last week, and sister to Liz. She is so cute and i am so excited for her! She has been studying with her mom and sister! it is awesome!

Todo mundo missionários! (Everyone missionaries!) the Prophets from Joseph Smith down have all said that. Every member a missionary. It is true! and Like in David A. Bednar`s talk last General Conference that Christ`s church has always been a missionary church. (something close to that. you can look it up for a reminder ) haha to end i will leave you with my testimony in my awesome broken Português! haha

Eu sei que todos nós podemos ser feliz. Que ele é só por meio a expiação que nós podemos mudar. Podemos tentar, mas se nós queremos fazer uma mudança em nossos coração,  Precisamos ter fé. Fé que podemos mudar, que Cristo vai nós ajuda, que Ele é nosso Salvador. Depois você vai sentir o desejo arrepender-se. quando nós fazemos um ação isso esta onde nós começar mudar. Fé é e sempre ser uma palavra de ação. Eu sei que nosso Pai Celestial nós ama! Ele nós quer ter alegria em nossas vidas! Que nós desfrutamos todas coisas em nossas vidas! Eu sei que Ele nós Conhece. Nós temos dois pessoas celestial que nós conhecem e querem nós voltar para Eles. Nós conseguimos! Quando usamos fé, arrependimento, tomar a sacramento, orar por o Espírito Santo, e continua fazer estas coais e perseverar ate o fim. Eu vocês amo! Em o nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.

 another reason for the subject line, the members gave us food! yay!
and stuff to make lasanha! yay! haha :)

(I know we can all be happy. It is only through the atonement that we can change. We can try, but if we want to make a change in our heart, must have faith. Faith that we can change, that Christ will help us, that He is our Savior. Then you will feel the desire to repent. When we do an action so this where we start changing . Faith is and always be an action word. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us! He wants us to have joy in our lives! We enjoy all things in our lives! I know that He knows us. We have two heavenly people we know and we want to return to them. We did it! When we use faith, repentance, take the sacrament, pray for the Holy Spirit and continue to do this and persevere to the end. I love you! In the name of Jesus Chris , Amen.)

Amo você! ( I love You!)

Com total amor em meu coração,

(With total love in my heart;)

Sister Post

"His Grace"

 

                                                                                                                                                                                    March 16, 2015

OI!!!

Vida é bem! Eu sou uma representante de Jesus Cristo! Meu proposito é compartilhar um mensagem que vai trazer alegria verdadeiro para os pessoas! Eu sou grata por esse oportunidade que eu posso mudar, e também que eu posso ajudar outros mudar! Quando nós pensamos sobre o que fazer agora, vamos falar com amigos sobre a falsidade que temos quando nós usamos a Expiação de Jesus Cristo!

(Life is good! I am a representative of Jesus Christ! My purpose is to share a message that will bring true happiness to people! I am grateful for this opportunity that i can change, and also that i can help other to change! When we think about what to do now, let’s talk with friends about the happiness we have when we use the Atonement of Jesus Christ!)

-I probably spelt a lot things wrong in English.. haha and i probably didn’t write perfectly in Portuguese but the point is there.

-Oh how lucky we are! That i am! That i grew up knowing these truths! God is our Heavenly Father! and not only that but He wants Us To Be Like Him!! How do we do that?? Through his son, Jesus Christ! How simple of an answer, yet it is a concept that is actually really deep and grand! The way to be like our Heavenly Father is through Grace and i am not talking about ``oh yeah i am so totally saved by grace that i don~t need to do anything now.`` but i am talking about “The Grace.” The Grace that Christ has paid, FOR US! As an INVESTMENT. it is Not a debt we can pay back, nor does he want us to, all he asks is that we USE what he has given us. What was that again, oh right- His Atonement.  We are to use the atonement, to be changed. Through grace we are not only saved, but we are to be CHANGED by it. We are here to learn, grow, and follow the teachings of our Heavenly Father. We are to do our best, and Christ is the difference yes he makes up the difference, but he is our difference! When we feel that we aren~t good enough, Christ is there. When our good is not good enough, it is to Christ. Why? Because Christ paid our debt IN FULL. He didn~t pay it all except a few coins, he paid it in full and why would he do such a thing? Christ the right hand of God, the one who created the earth under the direction of our Heavenly Father, He had all power, yet He did the only thing that can save me and you. For a moment my face was before his in the Garden of gethsemanes: my infirmities, pains, afflictions, (which are nothing compared to what he went through after the Atonement.) and the same with you.

If you want to feel love, joy happiness. I invite all to learn of Christ. I am nothing more than a missionary.. yet i know this truth, through the Holy Ghost we can know all truth and that is what shapes me and guess what, i get to share this with as many people that will open their hearts and you can to. Through this, you will change. I know i have is it worth it? YES! if you pray for the strength of faith over fear, it is yours. Heavenly Father will willingly bless you with it.

And this is my testimony, my rock and we are so blessed! So blessed to be among the few who have this foundation. Thank you mom. and dad. Thank you so much for all the lessons, gospel principals, and teaching me that i am a child of God. I guess i have been listening to ``His Grace is Sufficient`` by Brad Wilcox a lot and i just wanted to share my feelings about Grace.

-This week has been good! There is so much to learn every day! I cannot even write half of the things i have learned! I have so much love and gratitude for my companion, district, zone, and President and Sister Castro. The people we are with are no accident.

-We found Nub.... last Sunday, well she found us haha. All the credit goes to her. She came to church and man does she want to learn! it has been so fun to teach her and see her understanding grow! I am so excited for the next week to teach and help her grow more! she wants to be baptized and man is she ready!

Lessons I am learning:

-lesson 1 i am learning a lot. BE PATIENT. haha you know how i have a hard time with it. but i also learned that it is okay when people don’t want our message. (of course i am really sad) but we are on a search right now. We don’t have time to waste. We are looking for the Elect. Those prepared and ready. We can’t waste time with those with closed hearts. This lesson has only begun. Sometimes it is hard hearing about all these missionaries around us baptizing, baptizing and having people to spare. But there is a plan for all people. Heavenly Father loves all of us more than we can comprehend.

-lesson 2 i am so stinking lucky to have this knowledge. i shared my heart earlier about it. and it still blows my mind thinking about how much we are loved by Christ and Heavenly Father.

-Lesson 3 we are here to guide people to the tree of life. The Love of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. The only thing in this world that can save people. give them true happiness, and peace.

-lesson 4 God will place people in your lives to love and care for u. another picture. me and Gladys. she is from Colombia and man is she awesome! I love her to death! and i love everyone down here! it is amazing how much a heart can grow for people you don~t know for a long time. or even after talking to them for 5 minutes on the street.

-lesson 5 think of the positives. There is no use in thinking of negatives. it does no good. haha Por examplo ``é muito calor :(`` haha no i am so grateful for the rain we have right now haha love life and thank Heavenly Father for all the things we have!

I love you!  Sister Post

 

My drawing of the "Tree of Life"

Mother Mary

Feeling the Saviors Love

Build up the Ward!

March 9, 2015

Oi!

Oh can you send me the recipes for like tuna noodle casserole, funeral potatoes, and big recipes, we are going to hold an activity called Noite Americana. haha see if we can get the members to bring friends and build up our teaching pool. oh and pumpkin roll i want to see if we have the stuff to make that down here :)

This week has been good. We decided that we are going to build up the ward then the baptisms would come. Because there are over 600 members here only 65-90 attend each Sunday.  So we have been asking members for references of less active members that we could visit. We started visiting them and a lot came to church yesterday so i think this is our plan. Build up the ward, make it strong again and then we can bring in others to a strong ward where they will stay active. So our Lider de missao da ala (ward mission leader) was called as second councilor in the bishopric which will be a huge blessing for the ward because he is so good! Irmão Gestal is awesome. It made us sad so after church i went up to him and ask what was going to happen now and he told me he was never set apart as the WML but he did it anyway, it blew me away. He has been so helpful and meets with us all the time! and comes to our Inglês class on Tuesdays. oh i don~t know if i ever told you that but we teach English on Tuesdays. We have a consistent group they are fun. I don’t remember if i told you that Sis. Sunaga learned English for 7 years and then taught it for a year before her mission. haha so she usually teaches and i help with the pronunciation but lately i am finally teaching more because i am getting better at Portuguese, ummm anyways lost my train of thought. umm.

Oh so we have this deal, (Sis S. e eu) that every week we progressingly have days of all Portuguese. This week i will have three days. By the end of this transfer, all Portuguese. haha it is good. When talking to people here they ask how many months i~ve been here and then they find out almost two they are like what? you speak really good for that short of time. So it is such a blessing! There is no way i could learn this crazy language without help from the other side. No way, on like the scale of hardness a lot of people are saying Portuguese is up by Chinese ahah because everyone speaks differently here in Brazil sometimes i don~t understand people at all haha because of the accent and almost all words are irregular, which means they don’t conjugate like all the others haha.

We have baptismal dates but the more i learn about the people here the more i realize that Manaus is a hard mission in the city, out in the country areas it isn’t hard but here in the city it is very difficult. The more i realize the world has no idea a lot of the things i was taught growing up. Thank you so much for teaching me these things in our home! Sometimes it is easy to forget that these are not common placed ideas, but they are precious. We are very blessed to have the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! Because a lot of people teach some very interesting things.. both Sister S. and i have been working hard.

 oh i don~t think i told you, but Sister S. was in the MTC the same time i was the first time. So she has been in the field for almost 6 months now. It is interesting to see that if i had not had surgery or any of that we would never have been companions, because we would have been greenies together but she reminds me a lot of you; patient does~t like contention, holds her tongue instead of causing an argument. She is very good, and a good example to me we work well together :)

We are finding families but everyone here is available at the same time. So it is crazy scheduling, but we found this guy named Jul... e he has a familie of three i think, but crazy story. He talked with sister missionaries in like 1994 ish and they gave him a Book of Mormon, but it had an error in it, so the sisters took it back promising to return but they didn~t. so it was crazy to hear that. oh and it was a sister from Sao Pãolo and an American. haha Sister S. is from São Paulo and I am American :P so we are teaching his family.

This time in the temple was much better than last time! Presidente Castro and Sister Castro were our couple there it was way cool! They are so sweet! Sister Castro would lean over to me (i was sitting by here) and just say “Linda”. haha which is like beautiful, but more. haha she is cute!

oh also i remembered, Elder Cook said that if you say that drinking coca cola is a sin, that is apostasy... because the caffeine is not the same as in coffee because of the processing. haha anyways it was a random though but cool.

Anyways, all is good! i love you! Hope all continues to be good with you!

Love,

 Sister Post

Pictures: Cool Building we see in our walking all the time.

This is our church

Out the back door of one of our investigators!

Visit of Elder and Sister Cook

March 2, 2015

Oi!

 Lydia is so beautiful!!! I love seeing all the pictures of her! i was the first to know Tana was going into labor, had i been on last week haha but i am glad to have a new baby niece one week old!!

My shoulder is doing great! It has its range of motion still the nerves down my arm still have problems haha and it feels like there are more bugs on me then really there are haha jk it is really humbling to see that ants, spiders, and cockroaches are normal to the people here and are a part of their living. When i first got here I was really grossed out haha but as i watch the people pay no attention to it, i am trying to do the same. The blasted ants here are tiny but hurt so bad when they bite haha but besides that i am accustomed to their presence. I hope all is well for you! Keep being awesome! and a great example! oh so i thought of you this week (a specific time, i think of you guys more than just once throughout the week.) and thought of you telling me, ``slow down, take it easy`` and laughed as i watched crazy Brazilians at a four way stop that no one stops at. haha

This week has been good! It is crazy to think it is March!! Like wow! Where did January go... let alone February haha This week has been very good! I can see and feel when i am not speaking, and when the Lord is through me. It will be a good day when i figure out how to do that always haha but it is so powerful! and I feel so charged, it is crazy haha but we were teaching a recent convert named Mia... the plan of salvation and i just went at it haha it was the longest i have ever spoke, and Sister S. said that i had said everything right. It was amazing! and i want to be able to do that with someone  i just met and always do that. It is still a little difficult not being shy with someone i just met. (Weird right, me being shy ahha) but in Portuguese i am a little bit I am working on it and getting better. 

So yesterday a member came up to us and said he had a referral, i asked later how he knew them and i still don’t understand because he said he didn’t know them. So we walked really far, up and down a lot of really bad stairs that could hardly be called stairs haha and in between houses on stilts to find a little wooden house on stilts with a mint colored door. A cute woman opened the door and she looked pregnant. The member asked if her husband was home, but he was at work. Sis. S. and i introduced us and she asked if we could come in and teach a lesson.  She said yes and we went in. She had a sweet little girl sleeping on a bed. We sat on the edge of the bed because it was a one room house. It was no bigger than your bedroom in Montana. We talked to her and found out she is 21, five months pregnant, Sofia was 1 yr. and she had been married for four years. She is very sweet and we taught the plan of salvation. When she looked confused we asked her what she didn’t understand and we would explain it in a different way until she understood. We taught her to pray and then made an appointment to be back when her husband was home but what are to odds that we would have found her or her little family? We had never been in that part, or knew it even existed but oh how i love her cute family! I can’t wait to teach them with her husband there! What a difference knowing about this gospel would make in their lives!

Elder Cook was awesome! His wife was able to be with him and she is so stinking adorable!! It was nice to hear him talk in English haha then he had someone translate for him. He told us when he was on a mission and companions with Elder Holland that their mission president challenged them to read the whole Book of Mormon really fast with a cheap copy marking all of Christ’s name in read, then read it again slower and mark all the principles to the gospel of Christ in green. Then he challenged us to do the same. I am going to try and do it with O Livro de Mormon. He also told us to study chapter 9 of 2 Nephi as a companionship and wow, we are what 6 verses in, two a day, and it is loaded!! How amazing is it that the last thing to be fulfilled with the Abrahamic Covenant is the gathering of Israel and i looked up Israel and it also means ``true believers of Christ`` and that is exactly what we are doing as missionaries. It was crazy to realize that all of us in the church have a responsibility to fulfill this covenant! Read this chapter, look up the foot notes! It is loaded!

I Love you!! I hope you have a wonderful week! The Lord works in his own due time, and we are to learn what we can until we need to use it!!

Love,

Sister Post

pics

Sister M. and i before the devotional

My mom(Sister S.), grandma, and great grandma... dont remember their names hahaha

All missionaries in the Brazil, Manaus Mission :) I am in standing row of Sisters 5th from the right side.