Hurrah for Israel!

June 29, 2015

oi pai! (Hi Dad)

Funny stories! haha so I think it was Saturday. We went to this all you can eat pizza buffet, where they bring pizzas around and if you want it you lift your plate and they will slap a piece of pizza on it so after we started eating they told me it was like 26 reis (Brazilian money) to eat there haha and I don’t have that much money and so I asked Elder W. (the elder with blue eyes) how much he would make me eat if he paid the bill. He told me 16 pieces of pizzas so we ate and ate and ate. He ate 30 pieces and then puked afterwards I ate 16 pieces and am still dying haha it was really bad but really funny. Another elder ate 25 and he and I were like dying together haha it was really funny and so Elder W. paid for both of us haha it was funny. 

Today I got the package! yay! I am so excited to eat real candy! Also I got to know the parents of Elder O! They are so cool! So I was talking with Elder O´s dad and I told him how I couldn’t play volleyball with the elders and he laughed and said well they didn’t say you couldn’t play with a dad haha and so we played volleyball together for a little bit, it was fun :) he is cool! They have 7 kids! and 4 already served missions and one will go on one next month! They are really cool! I like them :) keep working hard!

I love you!!

Love,

Sister Post 

oi mãe! (Hi Mom)

Yeah it is weird what men are doing but it is making a clear and definite line between man and God. We cannot change the way of God, but we can stray from Him. We need to stand more firm now than ever. Live what we believe, and show the world our light!

Wow I can’t believe Syd will be getting married! Crazy! Tell her congrats for me! 

Eli. and Luc. were married and baptized last Tuesday!! With the daughter of Luc.! We did it Tuesday because we came here to Manaus Wednesday. I don't have my camera card with the photos of them because I gave it to Elder O´s mom for her to take to the states to send to you! It will be much safer and you can see all the photos of the last nine months! haha starting with the MTC the first time! So yay!

I met the parents of Elder O! They are really cool! I like them! They also brought me root beer and salt and vinegar chips and peanut butter! Yay I am so excited to eat all of the candy you sent! I will share it with my new companion!! Yay! And boas novas!! (good news!!) I will stay in Itacoatiara!! and I will...... HAVE A DAUGHTER! haha I know I joked about this like the last two transfers but this time I am not calling wolf... haha there is a picture to prove it :) her name is Sister B. from São Paulo. She looks really cute! And I am so excited! Wow crazy!! I have only been here for six months and I will train! The Lord is showing a lot of faith in me, and now I will solely rely on him for guidance haha. I am excited to just work ,work, work and help this sister have the best time while serving our Lord and Savior!

So I have been here in Manaus since Wednesday. I have been reading lots of the Book of Mormon and now trying to prepare for this big leap haha. We went to the temple! So we have another sister with Sister V. and I her name is Sister M. and she will go home too but we went to the temple and they were waiting for a sealing and I thought hey let’s do a session before the sealing so I thought it would start at nine, no it started at 8:30 and it was 8:20 so I was like we can make it. So we went in and changed really fast and made it to the session. I watched the door waiting for Sister V. to walk in and they shut the door. I was like oh, so I went through a session without my companion.

 It was so cool! I understood everything in Portuguese! Mind blowing! It was so spiritual! And then I asked if I could wait in the celestial room for my companion and I stayed there for an hour and half reading the Book of Mormon. It was so peaceful and was the spiritual strength I needed! Now I am pumped and so ready just to return back to Itacoatiara because it seriously is the worst feeling being here and not in my area working. But tomorrow Sister B. will arrive and we will return home to Itacoatiara! Yay!! I am so, so excited to get to know her and to work with her and to help her grow! So excited!

Also crazy story in the area we stayed in with sisters we went to church with them yesterday and this girl walked up to me and said, do you know Sister B.?  I was like uhhh yeah and she was like yeah I was her companion before I came home and I was like no way! And she showed me pictures and talked to me about Sister B. and I was like owwwwww hole in the heart.. haha but it is cool to talk to a companion of hers :) anyways that pretty much sums up everything.  Remember Sister B. was my companion in MTC when I dislocated my shoulder and was there caring for me after my surgery?

I am so excited to return to Itacoatiara! I just have to wait two more days and then I can work again. I am having like withdrawls from working. Like antsy and stuff ahaha but this transfer will be the best! I am excited! 

Hurrah for Israel! I know this is the Work of the Lord! That if we let him, he will shape and mold us to be better and the person he needs. That person he can change us into is way better then what ever person we can be by ourselves. We need the Lord! And through him we can change! We can be strong! And we can lift up others! We are here to help others return to our Heavenly Father with their families! So doing the covenants for ourselves isn~t enough for us to return. The Lord depicted this with the story I talked about last week. We need to more or less leave everything and follow him. In this process to lead others in his pathway also the Lord is shaping us to return to his presence through trials, callings, work, people, school, and whatever else we have in our lives. If we rely on the Lord, we will see that our lives are starting to reflect the perfect life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 His work is true, and so is his gospel. This is the way back to him. There is no other way under heaven that we can be saved. 2 nephi 32:21. He is the way, the light and the life of each one of us, if we choose to let him have a part in our lives. If we choose to let him shape us, we will change. This life here on earth is TO CHANGE, progress, be better, learn but most of all to change and to become LIKE Christ. It is possible through the saving atonement of the Lord. So choose today :) choose tomorrow and every day when we wake up choose again to let him in your life!

He is the Prince of Peace, and can give that to us. Who doesn’t want peace in this crazy world we live in? In reality it is only through our Savior and Redeemer that we can feel real peace, lasting peace, peace and love that comes with the knowledge that we are children of a LOVING Heavenly Father, who prepared the way for us if we but choose.

I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are waiting for us to let them walk with us. They are not waiting for us at the finish line, but will walk with us every step of the way but we need to make that choice. They love us enough not to force us to do anything and so they continue to call for us to go to them. And in that action of our first step, they will walk on our left and our right sides. I know this is true! I have felt it! It is a peace beyond comparison. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that through him we CAN return to our Heavenly Father WITH our families. I also know that it is only through making and keeping covenants with our Father in Heaven that the door is opened for us to walk back to his presence. Covenants made through the proper authority and power of God, the holy Priesthood. I know that through the Prophet Joseph Smith that God established the Priesthood again on the earth. We have a living Prophet of God! President Thomas S. Monson! I know that it is Christ who guides this, His church today through the Prophet! I know that God is the same yesterday, today and always and he has always worked through prophets.

I leave this my testimony with you guys in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

I love you mom!

Love,

Sister Post

Great times, great times.

June 22, 2015

Mom!

Wow sounds like you did have a very busy week!! I can't believe how time is seriously flying by!! Boy do I have some stories for you this week haha great times, great times. 

So this week I like had the coolest and spiritual experience ever!  So a friend of mine sent me the seminar from the mission presidents of last year, and I read it and man is it so good! It talks about when Jesus talked to the rich teen and the teen asked what do I need to do to enter heaven and Christ said, “keep my commandments” and then guy was happy because he already did that and then Christ said something else that was harder for him to hear. He said that he needed to sale all he had and give it to the poor, then follow him, but the guy couldn’t give up his possessions and went on his way sad. What Christ was teaching him was of the law of Consecration and then the talk continued on about how a mission really has success on how well the missionaries learn to live this law. Then I was reading the other day in 2 Nephi 2 which pretty much explains why we are here and having free agency and such.

Anyways to the next part of the story. 

So we went to the house of an investigator and he had his brother there. So we sat down and his brother is dang smart in the Bible and researched lots of stuff. So we started to teach him about the Restoration when I felt that he was holding on to something and I was like you can ask questions haha we are here for you. So then he went on and was talking really fast and was talking about so many things in the Bible and I was responding to everything. (not that I am smart but really the spirit was teaching me what to say, pulling things to my memory and like it was really a moment were I was a part of something much bigger than just him and I talking.) and like he would stand up and talk and sit back down and I was smiling lots and we just like talked about so many things and like there is pretty much no way I should have understood half of what he said, but I understood it all. Then in a way I don’t know, I pulled it back to the Restoration and finished explaining things and then like wow. We talked about that story of Christ with the rich man and about Adam and Eve and gosh he was going all over the place, but for an hour and half I just watched the spirit talk through me. It wasn't me. Heck no haha I don't even remember half the things I said or what he said, only that in the moment everything made perfect sense.

He was confused, and didn’t know how to find the truth and I gave him the Book of Mormon and said read, it will clarify everything and he was like nothing in this will deny the Bible and I was like no. It will be in perfect harmony with the Bible and clarify what you don’t understand. It was quite the night and still now I feel amazed that I witnessed that, haha. Anyways it was good :) we will be visiting him again haha I like them, they are really searching for the truth and not just going to church because everyone does that here.

Anyways miracles! Eli. and Luc. will be married tomorrow! yay! And Eli. will finally be able to be baptized!! She is so excited! Luc.´s daughter wants to be baptized with Eli.! So pretty much this week has been full of action, and love, and testimony growing and Miracles! 

 Just want to say, when stress is around always, always we can find peace in reading the Book of Mormon. Really! It has a power that I can’t even express, because within every verse we will find the words of Our Heavenly Father, who knows how we are feeling and who wants to comfort us. He can’t force us to feel love or calm, but will continually wait for us to go to him, read his words and through that action of reading he will speak to us though the words, and to our hearts through the Holy Ghost! We need to make the decision first! But really it is the best place to start!

1-pray :) 2- read the Book of Mormon J 3-feel the love of your Heavenly Father :) three easy steps to do :)

 And of course if you have a snickers or twix ;)

So this week I will probably go to Manaus with Sister V. Wednesday and will return next Monday or Tuesday because she has to go to do training to go home or something like that and it would be really hard to keep a member with me for a week so I will probably go to the area of Sister J. and work with her. So that will be fun :) but really I am excited for the next step, get a new companion and learn some other things

I like this area so it is nice. I like the members. There is a family that is exactly like Kayleen and Ben. We visit them and eat with them lots and it makes me miss them. Then it makes me feel at home because he jokes like Ben and she is like Kayleen and I just feel at home even when I don’t understand half of the jokes that he makes. haha anyways I love you :)

 I am just trying to see how fast I can still type in English.  Just thought I would say, I love you :) and I am really excited to get your package :) and I am just really happy just wanted you to know I love you :) and miss you, but love you more haha and just am waiting a little bit for my companion to finish up emailing and then we can go visit Eli. and Luc. for their wedding tomorrow.. yay exciting

We went fishing today haha  it was fun, thought of you  Dad :) an elder caught a Paraná. I held it. Yeah kinda crazy.

Haha I love you! Hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Post 

The Lord works for our good.

June 15, 2015

OI!

Glad to hear you guys are doing well! Funny story, so before Sister M. returned to the states she left me two boxes of Mac and Cheese haha and this week we ate the last box, I was missing home so I made potatoes :) with eggs :) it reminded me of Grandma Post with the Mac and Cheese and then you (Dad) with the potatoes. So I had a little taste of home this week :)

It is crazy to see the weeks pass by. Already we are on our last week together, Sister V. and I. It is possible that she will leave next Monday or Wednesday. I will probably stay here and work, and have members stay with me and work with me. It will be interesting haha but I am excited for a little change :)  and to shake it up a bit and get to know some other sister missionaries ;) haha

I still talk with Sister S. when I get the chance. She is still cute and fluffy as ever. The work is going on, and it is amazing to watch the hand of the Lord direct His work!

Here is a cool story for ya, so this last week the Elders of Itacoatiara, they use the same church building as us, we serve in different branches, were walking when a woman walked up to them and said, my daughter needs to be baptized, and so does her cousin. The elders said great lets baptize them this Saturday. haha turned out that the mom was a menus activo so we had a baptism of a nine and eight year old girls :) it was cute :) 

Anyways this week I realized a lot of things. One thing that is really big that I realized is how the Lord works for our good. Everything that is in and happens in the church is for our good. To help us change and internalize the changes that they become a part of us. Seriously the callings we have, church each Sunday all of it is to help us! It is amazing to watch my testimony grow in the small things that make such a huge impact! Sorry this email is small this week.

But I love you! Please keep praying for our investigators, they need them. I know the Lord has already touched their hearts; they just need the courage to take the steps. Pray that they can be strong and take the first step! And not let fear keep them from this huge blessing of the gospel! I love you!

Love,

Sister Post

oi mãe!

The heat has started to kick it up a few knots.

June 8, 2015

Oi Mom and Everyone!!!

eh... This month will mark six months here in Brazil in like one week.. so yeah crazy haha I don’t think I remember how things work in the states because the things that I thought were weird when I arrived are now normal haha funny how that works :P

This week: wow! This week has been amazing!! We had splits with Sister R. e Sister J., something really cool. So Sister J. is my ``grandma`` because she was Sister S.´s (trainer) trainadora! Wow I love Sister J. so, so much! It was such a good two days with her! It was like I was back with Sister S. it was so good! haha we taught so well together! Anyways I learned so much from her! She is so cute! 

Week of miracles! So guess what happened last Tuesday? I seriously think that it was a huge miracle haha so we went to the house of Eli and Luc. Clapped; clapped; clapped; waited, waited, waited, clapped; clapped; clapped…. waited, more and more. The whole time I am just praying right, please, please let them be here and ready to go to the (court house) cartorio. After like five minutes I was really sad, then we were like, one last time and we clapped and waited again. When we were about to walk away we paused and heard someone walking towards the door! They were there! So we went in and talked with them and they were like, we will wait two more weeks for the check from work to pay for it, and i was like so happy because I had a really good feeling about it getting done and then we asked if they found witnesses and she was like yeah you two, and I was like no, we aren’t Brazilians we can’t be your witnesses and then they were stressed but then I was like but you have your daughter and I will call an elder. (we only have one elder who is Brazilian the rest of us in our district are from other countries) and we got him to go to the place, we went to the place, and it all got put together and on the 27th of June they will be married, baptized, and have a reception! yay! What a process! Going from working with them all last transfer to having it all come together is amazing!  Luc liked church Sunday! Lots of people talked with them and Eme and Wes told me the things they learned in primary. It was a good week :) when i asked Wes what he learned he said ``coisas de Deus`` like things of God haha it was funny.

Another miracle. So a teenager that was a referral opened our way to talk to his mom. So last Sunday he came to church, and this week we went looking for him. I was with Sister J., and Aida, his mom, was in the house and we asked if we could share a small message with her and she accepted it really openly. Then Saturday when I returned with Sister V. we taught the plan of salvation and she had a problem with being baptized again, and i explained what is needed and then it like clicked and she accepted! Sunday she came to church and really like it! So I am really excited to help her family be baptized!

The work is picking up and I feel like I have like no time! Well I always felt like I didn't have enough time in the day to do things but right now it is really busy. haha it is fun :) also we have a cute couple, Sab and Iza that we are teaching. She is this crazy bubbly girl, and he is like quiet and doesn't talk to us and it is funny to see them together because she is crazy haha but they are cute and progressing. 

The heat has started to kick it up a few knots.... like yeah, I can’t even lay down and not sweat, standstill, or literally if I do nothing, I am still sweating buckets.. haha

My body is doing better! yay haha I have allergies pretty good down here, It is funny because I have a smokers cough that is really loud and strong and people look at me weird all the time haha it is funny. 

haha photos:  

Oh and I cut my hair.. haha boa sorte. ;P

us four in our apartment 

 I think the last photo was of an area of water.?

So the water rises up and we have to walk on what is called a ponte (bridge), which is just a wooden walkway, to visit people in certain areas.  My companion has like a hard core fear of walking of them, so I have to hold her hand and walk her across and it is really funny when people try to pass because she doesn’t move from the middle board, and usually it only has three.. haha 

Anyways keep working hard :) I love you!

Love,

Sister Post

Milagre!

June 2, 2015

Mom and Everyone!

 Well this week was a little crazy!  We saw miracles! First off; Eliane and Lucio:  here is a story for you; so last transfer we set dates for them to be married and to have a baptismal service, and Lucio had a back slide and didn~t talk to us at all and we keep talking and teaching Eliane and she started to look for another house so that she could be baptized! (she is so amazing! she has so much faith! that she has seen angels and had so many amazing dreams and had a dream of the temple, though she thought it was another chapel but when she said they were all in white Sister Vega and i looked at each other knowing she had just described being in the temple with her mom one day! anyways) so,  we went to their house, this last week because Lucia called from upstairs to where we were in the kitchen and talked with Eliane then she handed me the phone and said he wanted to talk. So i talked with him and he said he wanted us to come over the next day at 7 so that we could talk and i agreed and then we hung up. When we returned the next day they weren't there and i was thinking no, please, no. (like i have so much love for this family, i want nothing more than them to come unto Christ and save their family) and so we talked with Adriele, after like 20 minutes they walk in together and sat down at the table everyone else leaves so it is just us four. We share small talk for a little bit and then i just let it go. I talked so straight forward and was like look if you want to protect your family from what is going on, you need Christ. If you want to stay with Eliane, you need Christ and i have no idea what all i said, but like for an hour i talked to them about lots of things. Then Eliane said if he wanted her to stay in their house he was to marry her, and then we set a date (tomorrow) to go to the marriage place and get them started and then i marked the 20th of June for their baptism! It was a huge (miracle) milagre! and now i need muito, muitos (many, many) prayers for them! Please, please pray for them!! Please! 

Another miracle, so this week was like the first time since being here that members have given us referrals and we contacted them and like half of them are already golden! I don~t know if i said this before but i love teaching gospel principles!! So this week we had a lot of progression! And i am so excited for this week! Keep praying! I feel the strength of your prayers! Keep being awesome and a good example! I love you so much! I love the quote and i am so excited to read the talk! 

I heard about Elder Perry, it is sad, i will miss him but how amazing were his last words in General Conference!

MISSIONARY WORK! It is so crucial that the members help! Missionaries can’t do anything without their help! It is so, so, so very hard! I understand that now!! So if you have a fear (this is for anyone that reads) of talking or sharing the gospel, have the missionaries teach you the restoration!! Receive this lesson! and you will feel the power needed, you will remember why this is so important! This message has the same importance as the Angels who announced Christ´s Birth!! The Gospel of Christ is again on the earth! I know this is true! I know that we have a Prophet who speaks with Jesus Christ, who knows Him! I know we have Apostles who also speak and Know Him!! This is Huge!"!! So many people don’t know this! Revelation is back! and we need to walk towards our salvation, we can’t sit back and think all we have to do is believe; no, the gospel Christ taught was not one of ``convenience`` (The Convenient Messiah-Elder Holland) no, we need to ``learn heaven`` and `practice` for it. We will all receive immortal bodies. what is to be determined is how long we plan on staying is God`s presence, and how comfortable we plan on being by him. (Brad Wilcox-His Grace is Sufficient.) 

Keep being awesome! I love you!!!

photos:

I miss frozen yogurt so I bought some yogurt and stuck it in the freezer and made my own haha :)

Love,

Sister Post